#hmm... think I should add a tag for polls

[rotisseries]

inspired by elli's poll lol cause this seems fun actually but if you guys have bad answers I'll kill myself on your doorstep or smth

[appleofthemoon]

that’s true, that’s true :)) i still love both names though, they’re very cute. would you have any nicknames? like...app? kuro? wen? i don’t know!

oh geez, i know how you feel, balancing studies with other things...i’m commending you for looking out for your brother and cheering for things to get better for you personally as well too (and for things to get less stressful and all, and for you to get more rest). i also have bags under my eyes too...also, again, one liners with the designer bag thing! amazing. extraordinary.

oopsies, my bad ;))

yeah, me too. just like...oh well, no point in emailing staff about it cuz they’ll fix it whenever. tags, or i just wrote something most of my reader demographic doesn’t prefer (like my angst piece).

i think a lot of my drafts can count as very short blurbs and then i flesh them out. like i have a bullet list or i write a long sentence about the plot. hhhh you make my heart go dudududu cuz i love interacting and chatting with you! you make me feel so validated and seen on this platform. i love your ideas, so it’s a win win when we make a big story together. thank you though. i love reading your reblogs of my fics :,) my heart warms.

mmm, i see...i relate with the skin thing. really, only vaseline can help and i swear by how much of it i’ve used in my entire life, i think it’s safe to say my skin is made up of vaseline by now (it’s petroleum jelly). maybe you can try it, i hope it’ll help (unless by beauty products, you mean makeup, which i have no expertise in).

you should go next time (if you want) cuz it’s like a once-in-a-lifetime experience. i would totally want to go even if i was just a statue in front of them. just to say i did it and also to see them in person. but i understand your worries, i hope you can get the courage to meet up with them soon (and you’ll get the chance to and money too if those are needed).

omggggg, i’m ;_; thank you so much, it’s the biggest compliment to hear that kind of thing about my works. i’m on mobile so it’d be annoying to link stuff (i might go on a reblogging spree soon if i get the chance for my favorite blurbs of yours), but my faves that i can think of off the top of my head are shapeshifter! mingi, boxer! soobin, vampire! jaemin, and artist! niki.

hmm, i consider all my monikers as nicknames so i don't really seek one, if that even makes sense—

ajfgndjgn i didn't even mean to make that a memorable one-liner, it just came from the top of my head 🥴🥴 with him in face to face and me still stuck at home, i sometimes get worried about him but at the same time, i guess this can help him learn to stand up for himself

one day, one day we'll make this platform shake by having a collab—ofc it'll happen after i kick finals and school for being so hard on you. i always have plenty of fun when we interact so that's probably why i reply so quickly. istg i might break my keyboard one day from how hard i press the keys...

i think it's makeup that you have to buy in order to gain a ticket? idk, i was paying more attention to the stands they had on display rather than the products that the brand was selling sjsjejsjn

ooh we should go together so if one of us freezes, the other can gently guide them off the stage before security can get their hands on us—it's just annoying me a little because next month, skz is coming here for a fanmeet too, then in feb: enha concert, march: skz concert, so i'm yelling "SLOW DOWN WE'RE NOT AS RICH AS WE MAKE OURSELVES LOOK LIKE"

yay, yumi's not able to add links ~~ /j

actually... i'm thinking of doing a poll to see which concept(s) would readers like me to expand upon, but it feels like a risky move...

[charlicpace]

GIF PACK POLL RESULTS !

so, as you’ve probably seen over the last few days if you follow me, i posted a survey a few days ago about gif packs and people’s relationships with reblogging them. i mostly posted it out of curiosity, as i’d noticed a few patterns over the years and wanted to see what some actual, physical data would look like, and the lovely @stevienick pointed out that the results would be useful for fellow gif makers, so here we are ! i wasn’t sure if anybody would respond, so thank you to everybody who did & a very big thank you to everybody who boosted the post ! i’m very grateful ♡

quick note:

it might be easier to view the results if you add /mobile to the end of the url, as i know a contained theme can squish things sometimes ! i’m gonna talk about the results of each question a little, but of course you are more than free to ignore my ramblings and just observe for yourself, and you can ctrl +f to the questions if you’re looking for results for a specific one !

the results: 

DO YOU REBLOG GIF PACKS?

i looked at how the results were doing whenever i had a free moment when the survey was up, and i think i ended up checking on it about eight or so times in that time, and in the first twelve hours or so, ‘i will like but not reblog’ had no votes, so it’s very interesting to me that as time went on and more people responded, this changed ! while the other questions are helped by the poll only being taken by people that do interact with gif packs in terms of notes, i do wish maybe a couple of people who won’t like, reblog, etc no matter what, had responded, but i’m glad they didn’t as that means that people ( or at least those people who filled out the survey ) are following gif makers’ rules, and that’s fantastic. 

WHY WOULD YOU REBLOG A GIF PACK?

i feel like i want to start everything with ‘this was really interesting, because...’ but it all was ! i found everything really interesting, especially watching the majorities change over time, but something specifically that i found myself thinking Hmm,,, Inch Resting™ while observing, was the most popular responses shifting and changing over time. admittedly, for some reason, i wasn’t expecting so many people to admit to reblogging a gif pack of a person they’ve never seen before just because they’re attractive, and i don’t know why, as there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that ! it just surprised me ! but, unsurprisingly, the results show that the vast majority of people are more likely to reblog a gif pack of a fc they like, and that makes nothing but sense to me. i do love, though, that the vast majority of people just want to show appreciation for the work put into gif packs. 

the ‘other’ responses:

the ‘i wouldn’t’ confused me for half a second, but i’m assuming it came from one of the people who said they like the gif packs but don’t reblog them -- in hindsight, i definitely should’ve included an ‘n/a’ option ! to find later is a very valid answer, and i think i should’ve included that in ‘because i want to use the gifs’ -- i think those responses are similar enough to be included in the same umbrella, so i’d just image the yellow bar being a little bit longer, and the percentages going up a smidgen, if you’re wanting to use this data to your advantage. to spread awareness of more fc’s is definitely an option i should’ve included in hindsight ! lots of gif makers make wonderful gifs of people the rpc may not know all that much about, so signal boosting them and letting the world know they have resources is a great reason to reblog a pack, and works nicely as a ‘hey there’s no excuse for not having diversity in your rp, look at this cute person with nice gifs’ and i definitely hadn’t thought of that when typing up the questions !

WHERE DO YOU FIND THE GIF PACKS YOU REBLOG?

i should’ve worded this better, by acknowledging that ‘likes’ also count here, but it seems as though those who said they like but don’t reblog got the gist of what i was going for, and answered that way for me anyway. basically, what i meant by this one was ‘if you’re interacting with a gif pack, where did you find it?’ 

anyway, unsurprisingly, the vast majority of people find gif packs either on their dash, or in the tags, and i feel like a lot of us take this into consideration when posting our packs. more people are going to see the post if it’s posted on a friday or saturday evening, than 11am on a tuesday, even with timzeones taken into consideration, and we use that knowledge to our advantage already.  

the ‘other’ responses:

makes sense, but it does make me wonder where the original posts were found in the first place !

the end result was nothing surprising, i don’t think. i think the limit of having five functioning tags is a little limiting when trying to get packs out there. i usually tag ‘#fc name gif hunt #fc name gif pack #gif pack #rph’ and then a wildcard. sometimes it’s the fc’s name, and i try and make an educated-guess-type-of-judgement on whether that one’s a good idea. sometimes it’s another one of the rpc tags. this question is one of the ones that i was really glad i included an ‘other’ option, as i think they’re very useful for the most part. 

the ‘other’ responses:

tags like gmcentral and gifpackshq are great because they can be used by anybody, and after seeing the results, i’m wondering if i personally might swap out some of my usual tags in favour of them ! tags such as tasksweekly and gifpacknetwork are wonderful, and we know to use them when applicable. i do love that all four of those tags are being used even by the people who aren’t running those blogs associated with them, in favour of finding more resources. i didn’t know that people still actively searched for faces and gif packs in tags like ‘underused fc’ -- and any tags like that -- so that one was super interesting, and definitely something i’m going to think about ! and while i like that people are using icons ( i love me a good rp icon, don’t get me wrong ) this poll is specifically about gif packs, so do with that data what you will. 

WHAT INFORMATION TO FIND YOU FIND HELPFUL WHEN INCLUDED IN THE POST?

i know i said i’d practically be saying this for every one, but this was really interesting. it’s also another time when i think that hindsight is wonderful, because i think now i should’ve included a question asking how often someone will click the link to view the gifs, and if it’s only if they plan on using them, or they might click the link to see what the others look like beyond the preview before reblogging, but close the page after a few have loaded and they can see that everything looks fine, etc. the reason i say this now, is because i know that some people include this information on the page the gifs are stored on, but not in the post, and i’m wondering if it makes a difference. however, the question did ask what information is helpful in the post, so i’m going to keep that in mind when looking at the results. i think this is one of the questions hat i found most helpful to me personally, as i don’t include the the three most popular results in the post. the second and third most popular, i include on the gif page, but i don’t put any of the top three in the post, and i should think about changing that. 

the ‘other’ responses:

it was when the ‘others’ started rolling in that i realised that i should’ve worded the question better. it should’ve been ‘what extra information do you find helpful...’ and i’m glad some folks pointed it out, as i deem trigger/content warnings to be a necessity. to me, the basic information would be name of the fc, how any gifs are in the pack, the source material, and then any content warnings, and anything else is just extra information, but i didn’t say that, so i’m very glad people mentioned trigger warnings and the number of gifs in a pack - thank you ! 

WHAT’S YOUR PREFERRED METHOD OF ACCESSING THE GIFS IN A PACK?

for quite a while, a download link had absolutely no votes -- in the end, it only got four, but it’s nice to know that people do still use them ! other than that, i don’t think this one was at all surprising, but still helpful to see it written down.

PLEASE SELECT ALL STATEMENTS YOU AGREE WITH... 

this one was fascinating. nearly half of people only reblog gif packs of fcs they like, lots of people care more about bumping faces of colour and nb and/or trans fcs than plus sizes or disabled ones, lots more people admitted to being more inclined to reblog a gif pack if they find the fc attractive than i thought would, and the number of people saying that they’re not more likely to reblog younger fcs than older was a lot less than i thought --- i’m sure i’m not the only one who’s noticed that gif packs of younger faces tend to get more notes than those of older, even if you take out any other variables that could skew that number. all very interesting results, and results i think we’ll all find useful. it’s also nice to see that people tend to care more about accessibility than about aesthetics, with more people having an ‘upper size limit’ for gifs than having a lower one, and it’s nice that 93% of people are fine with reblogging gifs of people they’ve never heard of and opening themselves up to new faces !

DO YOU MAKE GIF PACKS?

so i added this one on the end to see if the results would differ based on whether the person responding makes gifs ( in my head, i was wondering if gif makers are more likely to seek out other people’s gifs to reblog to support other gif makers, and things like that ! ) so it’s very interesting and helpful to know that, while not equal, there’s a good chunk on both ends of the spectrum, and some folks in the middle who make gifs but not packs, or edit gifs into gif icons. 

end of results ! if anybody wants to talk about anything to do with the above info, or has any questions, i’m more than happy to chat ! i think i’m going to use some of this information in the future, and hopefully it’s helpful to fellow gif makers out there ! i don’t want to be too ‘in conclusion...’ about all of this, but i do just want to say that it’s very interesting to see written down, with actual evidence, that there are a lot of factors into why someone may or may not reblog a gif pack, and why some packs do better than others ( obviously, a gif pack posted by someone with 1000 followers will do better than someone with 100, even if it’s of the same quality and posted at the same time; more people are going to see it. but i mean more stripping it back to the things we can control like tags used and the layout of the post etc ) and i think if i were to do this again, there are things i’d add ( maybe preference for number of gifs previewed on the post, size/dimensions preference, and things like that ? ) and things i’d clarify, but in general i’m really pleased with how insightful this has been, and if i say interesting one more time i think i may combust, but it legitimately has all been very interesting. again, thank you very much to everyone who responded, and i hope others find this helpful or at least interesting !

[kindofchaoticgood]

Walk on Water

A celebration story for my surprise four day weekend, wherein Uma and Harry are music stars on tour together who do the relationship tag. Enjoy! (Lyrics from Beyoncé and Eminem’s new song ‘Walk on Water’ and Eminem’s song, ‘Hi, My Name Is’)

There are snatches of music dancing around in Uma’s head, but every time she tries to play them out, they sound wrong. She tries another simple phrase on the keyboard, but a note clanks too sharp.

“Motherfucker!” She growls, slamming her hands down on the keys, which make a dismally discordant noise.

“Leave poor Artemis alone,” Harry chides, stepping into the room. His hair is fluffing all over the place, a result of towel-drying after his shower. “It’s not her fault you can’t do it right.”

Uma shoots a glare at him that makes grown men cower but only makes him laugh. “Shut up.”

“No,” Harry grins and sits down next to her on the bench. “What’s wrong?”

She gives him a suspicious look to assess the seriousness of his question and then says grudgingly, “I can’t get this phrase down. It’s playing out perfectly in my head, but every time I try to play it out on here it sounds wrong.”

“Play it for me,”

Uma places her hands on the keyboard and starts playing, adding her voice to the piano chords. “I walk on water, but I ain’t no Jesus. I walk on water, but only when it freezes.”

She tries to play the next phrase, but she only manages to get through two notes before another damn false note rings out that makes even Harry wince. “Goddamn it!” she shouts, resisting the urge to bang her head on the keyboard. What is it with this fucking phrase?

“Hey,” Harry wraps his arm around her shoulder and draws her closer to him. “You’ll get it, okay?”

Uma just sighs and places her head on his shoulder. He smells like sandalwood, detergent, and something that’s purely Harry, and she curls further into his neck, lured in by his warmth.

“Come on darling,” Harry pulls back slightly from her to look her in the eye, a hint of a grin on his face. “Say it,”

“I’m not saying it.”

“Say it.”

Uma looks at him sternly, trying to maintain her stance. There’s a full-out grin on Harry’s face now, but seriousness in his eyes. It’s one of these things that he does with her, the constant encouragement and praise. She has always been self-deprecating to the point of putting herself down, and it’s a habit that Harry is slowly trying to train her out of. Uma doubts that she will ever be fully rid of the habit, but she loves Harry for trying.

“I’ll get it,” she says, and he smiles at her, not the usual smirk that’s always present around his mouth, not the rakish grin that makes his fans weak at the knees, but a real smile, the kind that makes his blue eyes sparkle like the ocean in the morning and makes his face softer. She loves that smile, and seeing it always makes something warm come to life in her chest.

“See, was that so hard?” Harry leans in and kisses her cheek, and she smiles despite herself and places her head back on his shoulder. She can work on the song another time. For now, she needs to take a nap. 

“Love?” Harry murmurs into her hair.

“Hmm?”

“You aren’t falling asleep, are you?”

“I was planning to,” she mumbles back, burrowing into his neck. God, he’s always so much warmer than me. How is this fair?

“Well, you can’t.”

“And why not?”

“Do you remember when you were really tired after doing a concert and an interview right afterwards and I asked you to do a live video with me next week? And you said ‘I’ll do anything you want as long as you let me sleep’ so that live video is today,”

Uma’s eyes snap open and she pushes her head off of Harry. “WHAT?”

“Love you, bye!” Harry launches himself off of the piano bench as Uma tries to grab him and runs away.

“Harry James! Get back here right now, or I’m never having sex with you again!”

*****

“I don’t even remember agreeing to this,” Uma complains as Gil sets up the tripod in front of the sofa. Harry is already lounging on top of it, looking unfairly good-looking, as usual. “Why can’t you do this on your own?”

“Because we polled the fans on Twitter, and they said they wanted us to do the relationship tag for our next video,” Harry says, glancing up at her from his phone.

Uma frowns. “What the fuck is a relationship tag?”

“No idea,” Harry admits, running a hand through his hair. “But they’re going to be the ones sending us questions, so we’ll figure it out.”

Gil gives her a reassuring grin. “It’ll be okay Uma. Desiree and Harriet are gonna be going through the questions as they come, and you know they won’t let anything too bad slip through.”

That much was true. Harriet loved embarrassing Harry, but she was protective as fuck over her brother and Desiree was more like Uma’s mother than her cousin.

“I still have my performance makeup on,” Uma protests in a last-ditch effort to save herself.

Harry casts a glance over her hot-pink lipstick, turquoise eyeliner, and gold contour and smirks at her. “You look hot,” he says simply, moving over on the sofa so that there’s room for Uma.

She groans and stalks over to the sofa, throwing herself down on it and fiddling with a stray black and turquoise curl sulkily as Gil and Harry begin arguing about the position of the tripod.

Harry is the one who uses social media. He constantly posts on Instagram, updates his Snapchat story religiously, and uses Twitter like a lifeline, whereas Uma usually only posts on her Instagram once in a blue moon and only uses her Twitter to post sarcastic comments.

It was only after she started collaborating with Harry that she even got an Instagram; before that, all she had was the Twitter account and a secret Tumblr. To be fair though, there were a lot of things she hadn’t had before Harry.

She still remembers the first time they met; her verse in Khushal Nanzari’s (or, as his fans knew him, Gonzo) new song and the new single she had just released were taking off, and Harry and his band were invited to a celebration party Gonzo was hosting to celebrate the release of his third album. She had been sipping Cristal in a ridiculously tiny glass in an expensive metallic dress when Harry Hook, lead singer in Skullduggery Road, had walked up to her and said, “Your verse in Gonzo’s song was the most lyrically complicated thing I’ve ever heard, and you made my dragon of a big sister tear up with your voice in ‘Rise Up’. In short, you’re bloody amazing and can we collab on something?”

Uma had agreed before she even fully processed what she was agreeing to, because this was the lead singer of one of her favorite bands, how could she say no? They had exchanged numbers and Uma had completely forgotten that she had his number until he texted her the next day I’m also pretty okay at dancing if you need more reasons to work with me ;) and Uma had laughed out loud and set to work writing a song. Within a week, she had the song written and before she knew it, ‘What’s My Name’ featuring Harry Hook had been on Billboards Top 100 for four weeks straight and Harry was asking her out.

And now, they were going on their second tour together and had been together for two years. (Damn, has she really been stuck with him for that long?)

As if sensing her thoughts, Harry leans over and gently bites her shoulder through her oversized hoodie. She ruffles his hair absently, and gives him a small smirk to show him she’s already gotten over her complaints.

“And we’re going live in three … two … one,” Gil calls out, and then starts recording.

“Hey, I’m Uma Triskelion,” Harry says immediately.

“And I’m Harry Hook,” Uma adds, leaning against the sofa.

“We’re live in our tour bus, and we just finished off a performance in the Rabbit Hole – hence Uma’s unique makeup look.”

“Thanks love,” Uma mutters and Gil snickers. Harry just grins before continuing.

“So you lot have been begging us to do the relationship tag, whatever that is, so if you want to ask us a question, tweet us at #AskHumaLive –”

Uma makes a face. “What the hell is Huma?”

“That’s our ship name,”

“What? Since when?”

“Since forever, since we started dating, remember that?” Harry teases. “Or is your memory fading?”

“Who came up with that?” Uma demands, slightly creeped out. From behind the tripod, Gil is silently laughing, and she discreetly flips him off.

“The fans, baby, always the fans,” Harry replies distractedly, scrolling through his phone. “Ah, we already have our first question! AaliahWitch says ‘Uma, when is Harry’s birthday?’”

“June 14th,” Uma replies easily, and then studies her phone. “ChanceDaring12 says ‘What’s Uma’s middle name?’”

“Astraea,” Harry says immediately. “BurrShotFirst176 says ‘Where does Harry’s family come from?’” “England, but you grew up in Scotland.” Uma smirks at the disappointed look on his face. “HarrysHook – nice name, by the way – wants to know if you can name all of my cousins.” “Jonas,” Harry was starting to count off on his fingers. “Desiree. Harmonia. Piper. Poppy—” His face went blank. “Shit.” Gil snickers and Uma grins at the camera. “Second question, and he’s already choking,” she says smugly. “I’m not choking!” Harry protests. “I know that I’m missing four of them – wait, one of them is Madrigal!”

“She hates that name,”

“Madi, then!” “Three more to go,” Uma mocks him. “My cousins are going to be so sad when they realize you don’t know their names; they love you, you know.” “Jesus Christ,” Harry groans, and throws himself dramatically into her lap. Her phone vibrates with a message from Desiree and she laughs evilly as she reads it. “Desiree says that the girls are watching right now, and that they’re really sad that you don’t know their names,” Uma informs him gleefully, then turns to the camera. “It’s okay babies, I still know all your names,” she says with a sweet smile and a wave. “I’m sorry, okay?” Harry says, his voice muffled from under his hands. “I’m an absolute monster but I really need help.” “Hmm,” Uma grins. “What does the Internet think? Do you think I should give him a hint?” Harry turns over to the camera and gives it his best pout. “Please help me, Interwebs, you have no idea how many cousins she has.”

When she glances down at her phone, most of the tweets are in favor of her giving him a hint, and the conversation thread is full of people wondering why she has so many cousins. “Their names start with L, A, and T,” she says, smoothing out his hair.

Harry considers this. “That actually doesn't help at all. D’you have any idea how many girls names start with those letters?”

“They’re all related to music,” she points out offhandedly, snickering when Desiree sends her a picture of the girls making sad faces at the camera.

“I think that made things more confusing, to be honest,” Harry confesses. “I give up,”

“Lyrica, Allegra, and Talea,” Uma smirks down at him.

“Bloody hell!” Harry complains, then addresses the camera as he sits up. “Lyrica, Allegra, Talea, I’m dreadfully sorry I forgot your names darlings. I’ll take you out for ice cream the next time I see you, alright?”

Just then his phone buzzes and Harry stares down at it for a second before saying out loud, “Screw you, Harriet!”

“What did she say?”

“Something about how you need to spray whipped cream on my face. Utter nonsense.”

“Actually,” Gil pipes up, a shit-eating grin on his face, “it’s common custom in the relationship tag that if the person gets a question wrong, then whipped cream gets sprayed on to a plate and then the plate is smashed on their face at the very end.”

“How the hell do you know this?” Harry demands as Uma laughs. “I like this game,” she says smugly.

“We don't have any whipped cream though,” Harry protests, looking desperate.

Gil reaches behind him and pulls out a can of whipped cream. “Actually . . .”

“You bitch,” Harry growls as Uma bursts out laughing.

“Language, baby, what kind of message will this send to the Internet?”

“That he's a backstabbing traitor,” Harry declares as Gil and Uma laugh at him. “Gil Charbonneau cancelled, Marya Rasputin is my new best friend.”

“You wish,” Uma retorts. “Gil, hand me the whipped cream.”

“Sweet Jesus,” Harry groans as Gil hands her the whipped cream and a paper plate and she gleefully makes three large mountains on the plate. “I can't get any of the other ones wrong now.”

She grins. “It's my turn, isn't it?”

“Yeah . . . LittleSeaWitch wants to know where our first date was?”

“The aquarium. You kept on making up weird backstories for all the animals, and we nearly had to leave because you kept on interrupting the tour guide and telling the little kids that the nurse sharks had clinical depression.”

Harry grins smugly at the memory. “That was a good day.”

“Can't take him anywhere,” Uma tells the camera. “HumaLives wants to know what my eye color is.” She averts her eyes from him and then covers them for extra measure.

“Brown,” Harry says instantly.

“How do you even know that?” Gil demands. “Most people get that wrong,”

Harry shrugs. “She has beautiful eyes.”

Uma is intensely grateful that no one can see her blush as Gil lets out a sappy 'Awww’ and Harry kisses her cheek.

“Next question,” she says quickly, before she can start giggling hysterically, like she always does when she's nervous or embarrassed.

“Atlantic_Melody asks, 'What is Harry's favorite book?’”

“Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. QueenAudreyTheFirst wants to know what movie makes me cry every single time,” she glances up from her phone. “None of them. I don't cry during movies.”

“Bullshit,” Harry says smugly, then does a terrible job of cupping his mouth and whispering, “The Book Thief.”

Uma jabs an elbow into his side and Harry laughs. “Come on darling, don't hate me because it's true,”

“Get out,” she tells him, but he and Gil just smirk at each other over the camera.

“Leader_of_Marching_Band_Nerds asks ‘What does Harry eat for breakfast?’”

“The souls of the innocent,” Uma deadpans. “No, this one doesn't eat breakfast.”

“All my life I was very deprived,” Harry starts rapping. “I ain't had a woman in years, my palms are too hairy to hide-”

“His sister dropped him on his head as a baby,” Uma tells the camera. “WarriorPrincessLonnie wants to know who the dominant one in our relationship is.”

“Oh, me, obviously,” Harry flexes and winks at the camera.

“Funny, that's not what you said last night,” Uma says without thinking, and then starts laughing at the look of utter disbelief and incredulity that Harry's giving her.

Meanwhile, Gil has dropped to the floor, laughing so hard that his face is turning red. “Yes, Uma, drag him,” he chokes out, before dissolving into laughter again.

“I cannot believe you just said that,” Harry says slowly, a smile starting to come over his face as well. “Do you realize what you’ve just unleashed?”

“I ain't afraid of no ghosts,” Uma quips. Her phone is blowing up with messages from her friends; Ashe, Sierra, and Marya are making dirty jokes and Claudine is begging them to stop.

“Plain-Jane-the-Queen wants to know what my shoe size is.”

Uma freezes. Shit. “Well, wizards and witches, that's all the time we have for today-”

“Now hold on just one damn second!” Harry protests as Gil cracks up again.

*****

Later on, after all of the whipped cream has been washed off, and they're curled together on the couch, Uma gently pokes Harry in the shoulder. “Hey.”

“What?” Harry mumbles sleepily into her hair, the sound reverberating through her chest. It's completely dark outside, and the moon is streaming through the windows of the trailer, leaving white light trailing on the carpet.

“I think I figured out the song,” she tells him, lacing their fingers together.

“Really?” His other hand is underneath her hoodie, lazily stroking her hip.

“It's going to be a rap song,” Uma says, and feels Harry shift to a more seated position to look her in the eye. “I was thinking we could collab on it?” She glances up at him. “Is that alright with you?”

Harry is giving her the most awestruck look she's ever seen, the same one he gives her every time she sings for him. “Of course, it's alright love,” he reassures, leaning in to kiss her. “I always want to collab with you.”

[gothxmsirxns-blog]

And All That Jazz [Burlesque AU Part 4.0]

[ masterlist ] [ part one ] [ part two ] [ part three ] 

paring: Batfam x Reader, Jason Todd x Reader

plot: Burlesque AU : After graduating college, [Y/N] becomes a dancer at The Dark Knight, a prestigious Burlesque club located in Gotham City as a way to stay on her feet while trying to find a ‘proper job’

warnings: sexual implications, cursing

tags: @cutiedaij , @4evahevah @dc-hoe @freethecagedeggs

words: 3257

a/n: Okay, this was getting really wrong so I split it into two parts and this is the first part.  Also, please take this poll to have a vote what my next series should be. 

When [Y/N] walked into the almost empty club the following day, her eyes were drawn to where Jason now stood on the stage stretching with Dick, instead of his usual place of at the front door.  She followed as the muscles on his arms swelled as he stretched them out and how his abs seemed more defined as he bent backwards in an attempt to stretch out his spine, she could feel herself gazing longer than necessary at his shirtless form, especially as he looked back up and smirked at her, noticing her lingering stare.

Jason hopped down from the stage and sauntered towards the smaller woman, his smirk growing as he noticed her eyes running over his body slowly and with conviction as she took in the features of his muscles and his appearance generally, stopping in front of her he crossed his arms over his chest and rose an eyebrow at the girl, “You like what you see?”  

 As [Y/N]'s eyes travelled up to meet with Jason's, a blush rose across her cheeks and she bit down on her lip as pushed a stray strand of hair behind her ears. "I...."  Before a full reply could even form in [Y/N]’s mind, the pair were interrupted as Dick jogged over to join them.

 “Hey [Y/N], have you chosen a solo song?” [Y/N]’s eyes drifted over to Dick and she nodded her head, her hand tightening around the strap of her bag as the view of a shirtless Jason took over her peripheral vision, “Yeah. Um… All That Jazz if no one’s chosen it yet.”

Nodding along to what the girl was saying, Dick crossed his arms over his chest before replying. “No, no one’s chosen it yet. It’s perfect for you and your style, it will take some work to perfect it as a solo dance and to add a little more than is in the original, but we’ll get it. I’ll go tell the others so we can get stage, costume and music sorted.”   [Y/N] nodded to what he was saying, only taking in small bits and pieces as he spoke, but she got the general idea.

 “While I do that, Jason help her stretch out because when I’m back we’re going to be going over your part of Cell Block Tango.” As Dick turned away, [Y/N] looked back to Jason with a small smile before she followed him to the stage, watching his back closely and taking in the muscles she had felt the night before and how well defined they were.

 When they reached the stage, [Y/N] threw her bag on the floor and lifted her shirt over her head so that she was only in her sports bra and athleisure bottoms and now it was time for Jason to stare. His eyes scanned down her body, taking in how toned her stomach was from her years of training as a dancer and how her arms have were toned with a little muscle that was obvious to see but wasn't really protruding, buy they looked nice on her. As [Y/N] placed one foot forward with her toes pointing upward and she sat in a mini squat to stretch out her legs, Jason's eyes moved to take in the appearance of her legs. They weren’t overly skinny and her thighs touched, like her arms there seemed to be some tone and muscle definition in them and wow, did Jason think she looked good as she stood up once again and looked at him with a raised eyebrow, noticing that he had been staring the same way she had been staring at him earlier.

 “Like what you see?” [Y/N]’s tone of voice was teasing, mocking him from merely ten minutes earlier.  Jason let out a chuckle and shook his head, the chuckle evolving into a grin as rolled his eyes at the girl, “Yeah. It’s a pretty good thing to look at.”

 [Y/N] rolled her eyes, but a blush still rose onto her cheeks. Bending backwards, [Y/N] extended her arms behind her and lay her hands flat against the ground, stretching out her back and stomach, as she took a variation of the ‘bridge’ pose, next she moved her hands so that she was now using her forearms and she lifted her feet off the ground so that she was now solely relying on her forearms for stability. After spending 8 counts in this pose she brought her feet down to the ground again before bringing her knees down and lifting her upper body up from its position of leaning on her forearms so that she was sitting up on her knees. She let out a deep breath and as she looked to Jason, she rose an eyebrow at his shocked face.

 “How do you bend like that?” With a chuckle, [Y/N] looked back out to in front of her as he moved from her position on her knees to a stretching one leg out behind her and one out in front of her, in the splits position. “Practice.” Bending forward, [Y/N] touched her toes with her arms extending forward and took a deep breath in, releasing it as she came back up from her position, “It’s not that impressive, I’m sure you’ve seen Dick do something more impressive. Wasn’t he an acrobat before he was a dancer?”

 Jason, still mesmerised by the way [Y/N] moved as she stretched out her body in various ways, was slow to answer her question. “He was...um….but I…” Gulping down the lump that was beginning to gather in her throat, “I don’t usually watch them warming up...I go over the security footage when they're warming up…” Jason's tongue quickly ran over his lips, giving them some moisture as they were rapidly starting to dry, “And even when their dancing, I’m usually at the door, so...I never really see them.”

 [Y/N] nodded along to his voice and let out an ‘hmm’, as she was not bending backwards and touching her toes. As she lifted herself back up into an upright position, Dick returned and gave her a smile which she returned as she lifted herself up from the floor so that she was now standing beside Jason.

 “Okay, so for the Cell Block Tango we will be following the movie choreography as closely as we can and since you guys are the first pair here, we’ll go over your part a few times and then onto the whole piece tomorrow because it will take all day to go through the partner dances and we won’t have time before opening tonight.” He moved to the back and pulled out a fake prison cell gate, “These are on loan from the local theatre, they did a production of Chicago a year or so back and so we are using them until Bruce can get some in, which will only be a few days.” He moved the gate to the middle of the stage and stood behind it, “For the start of it Jason, you’re waiting in the wings.” while [Y/N] is behind the bars, with one hand wrapped around it and your chest crossing over the arm with your back arched slightly so your ass is sticking out a little.”  [Y/N] moved to stand in Dick’s place, copying the way he stood and he nodded at her form, “Yeah, like that.”

 Jason, who had not moved to the side, watched on the two as they went through the various movements for the first two and a half minutes of the song and how she moved with the music the few times they tried that,  after that, however, Dick walked over to Jason and moved him to the centre of the stage, where he face [Y/N] who was now walking out from behind the bars and towards him, “Okay, so [Y/N] now you stand slightly in front of Jason and slightly to the side and Jason you reach your hand to hold her waist while [Y/N] you rest your elbow on his shoulder and prop your opposite hand on your waist, above his hand.”  

 Following instructions, the two found themselves rather close together. “Next, Jason you’re going to lift [Y/N] so that her legs can wrap around your waist and your arms stay on her waist while she strings her hands into your hair and looks out at the audience.” They tried it and failed the first time because they couldn’t find a way that was quick and graceful for Jason to lift her, but they tried again and this was slightly better, it was on the third try that they go it right. However, they still did the movement a few times to guarantee that they could move fluidly from one position to another in sequence and then they did it with the music to make sure they could match the beat. They two of them spent around fifteen minutes making sure they could get the movements to match up with the beat while Dick watched and gave pointers where he saw necessary.

 “Onto the next step.” Dick stepped forward and joined the two of them at centre stage once again, “Go back to the last position.” They did as told, Jason holding [Y/N] close as he was the only support she had for that position and [Y/N] though the urge to look down at Jason, instead she strung her hand into the ends of his hair and looked out into the empty club.  “This is the dangerous step, so you have to be careful.”  

 “[Y/N], you are going to bring your body around and force Jason to the ground so you are sitting on top of him with one leg lying by his side and the other so your knee is facing the ceiling.” [Y/N] looked to Jason, worry evident on her face but Jason gave her a soft smile as he spoke, “I’ll be fine. Just try.”

 So she did, she twisted her body so it was now fully facing the rest of the club and pushed Jason down, though she was sure he simply feel, and she got into the position that Dick had told her, but at the sound of a small groan falling from Jason's lips she quickly got off him to make sure he was okay. “Oh my god. Are you okay? Did it hurt?”

 Jason sat himself up slight, and rubbed his hand across the back of his head, “I’m fine. Just hit my head a little harder than I intended too.”  Dick looked at him with his arms across his chest and a raised eyebrow, “You sure you're okay? We can cut that bit out and change it if you want.” At this suggestion, Jason shook his head, “I’ll be fine, I just need to be a little easier coming down and mindful of my head.”

 Dick nodded to what his brother was telling him and stood back, “Again then. From the same position.” So, Jason and [Y/N] got into position and repeated the move, with Jason coming down easier and not groaning at the impact of the fall, which made [Y/N] sigh with relief. “Okay, so next after a few counts in that position. [Y/N], you will push up of Jason's chest, moving your chest forward so you are face to face with Jason, and you will spread your legs out at either side”

 To help get a grip for how far up she would have to move, [Y/N] followed Dicks instructions as he spoke to her, “Then you will slowly lower yourself down until you are chest to chest with Jason.” So she did, and a blush rose to her cheeks as she realised just how close their faces were going to get. “Then you will push yourself back up into a sitting position.”

 As she sat up, she looked to Dick from the corner of her eyes before turning her gaze back to Jason, whose face was plastered with a smirk as he noticed the blush that was growing on [Y/N]’s face.  “Okay, so Jason will have a red cloth in his mouth which is important for the next part.” Dick stepped back further slightly, so he could see better the movements that would be happening around Jason’s head before continuing, “[Y/N], you will go chest to chest with Jason again and bring your legs up onto his while moving your arms so that they cradled behind Jason’s head, it is here you will take the red cloth from Jason’s mouth and sit back up, arching your back before taking the cloth out of your mouth and throwing it away.”

 [Y/N] followed instructions, her face turning a bright red as she got close enough to Jason's lips that she was almost kissing him before moving up and arching her back and bringing her legs back to Jason’s sides.  “That was good. Let’s run through it a few more times without music and then a few with music before taking it from the top.”

 So they did just that, they ran through that sequence of moves for around fifteen more minutes without the music and then they spent around twenty more minutes getting it right with the music, but they only did the whole thing from the start three times because Dick felt like they had the gist of it. “Okay, we have just the end of it to do now and it’s the most complicated part. So take a fifteen-minute break and then we’ll get stuck back into it.”

 Walking over to her bag, [Y/N] pulled out her water bottle and downed half of it in one go as the sweat slowly dripped down her skin and as she placed the bottle back she pulled out her phone and opened up a text from her mother that read ‘Hope everything is going well at Martel! Lots of love Mom xx’, letting out a sigh guilt built up inside [Y/N] as she text back ‘Everything going good. Having lots of fun. Love you’. She wasn’t exactly lying, she was having fun and everything was going well for her at the club, she just withheld the fact she wasn't actually working with Bryce Martel, but she still felt guilty as she hit send. The next text she opened was from an unknown number and the contents made her roll her eyes, ‘Didn’t you know stealings a crime? And you’ve taken everything from me. Watch your back bitch’, she didn’t know who sent it so she just deleted it and moved on to see a picture from Ivy on snapchat of her and Harley at a café surrounded by flowers with the caption ‘three favourite things, herbal tea, flowers, and my lady love <3’ and she sent back a picture of her in her sweaty form with the caption ‘nothing but work’.

 As [Y/N] was about to hit send on her picture, she noticed a shirtless Jason in the background and her eyes widened slightly before she hit send, despite the unexpected photobomber.  Putting her phone back into her bag, [Y/N] walked to the edge of the stage and sat down with her legs hanging over and she lay down so she could stare up at the ceiling.  She was soon joined by Jason, who laid down beside her and stared up to the ceiling as well.

 The two lay in silence for a few moments, before Jason broke it and filled the void with the sound of his voice, “You need a ride home tonight?” Glancing over to Jason from the side of her eyes an ‘ummmm…’ left her lips as she thought about it. She had enjoyed the ride home on his bike the night before and she knew she would be the last one to leave once again, “Yeah, if you’re offering.”  Jason nodded slowly as he moved his hands under his head to give it some support.  “I’m offering.”

 The silence returned as they sat in peace, allowing their breathing to sync up with one another as their bodies relaxed. To anyone who might see them, it would look like they were moulding into the stage or that they were inanimate objects as they almost completely still, with the movement of their chests as the breathed being the only obvious signs they were alive.

 When Dick returned, they were right back at it and Jason and [Y/N] were put into the position they had left off on with [Y/N] straddling Jason. “Okay, so [Y/N] you’re going to slide of Jason and Jason you’re going to roll out as she slides off and then you’re both going to stand up.” They followed Dicks words with the actions so he could show them how they would move from being on the floor to standing in a fluid way, “Jason, you’re going to stand with one leg out front and bent while the other is behind you providing supports and [Y/N], you’re going to jump and gently place your hands on Jason’s neck before moving around him. Once [Y/N] reached your front Jason you wrap your arms around her waist and tip her to the side before bringing her back up again.” With this, Dick took Jason’s spot and showed the jim exactly how he should dip and bring [Y/N] back up, “And then it’s a tango sequence like so.” He took his time in showing them the tango steps, making sure that they knew exactly what they had to do before handling [Y/N] back over to Jason so they could do it together.

 The next hour was spent with the two of them running through the routine, with and without music to make sure they could do the dance to the right beat and follow the music exactly. By the end of it, they were winded and tired as they had been going non-stop since the fifteen-minute break they had been given.

 “Okay. I think you’ve had enough for today. Tomorrow, after doing the group number I’ll start with your solo choreography.” [Y/N] nodded along to what Dick was saying to her as she tried to regain her breath with one hand on her hip and the other hand holding her water bottle.  “I’ll see you two later tonight.”

 Dick then walked away, leaving Jason and [Y/N] alone on the stage. [Y/N] walked over to her bag and pulled her shirt out, putting it back on over her sweaty form, and took out her phone to see another snap from Ivy with her sunglasses pulled down, showing her accusing eyes, and her eyebrows raised with the caption ‘all work and no play?’ and this caused [Y/N] to roll her eyes and put her phone back into her bag. [Y/N]was so distracted by her phone, that she didn’t notice Jason coming up behind her and so she jumped when she heard his voice directly behind her.

 “Wanna go grab a bite to eat? I can leave you home after so you can get ready for tonight.” [Y/N] nodded and lifted her bag from the ground, placing it on her shoulder before looking up to Jason with a smile, “Yeah, that sounds good.”