#i'm taking a break from my larger projects so yeah

[lincolnlogsnfrogs]

i'm incapable of making coherent content have some hades bullshit

[threepandas]

Sun Burnt: Part 3

When a legendary hitman Eye Threatens to break both your fucking legs?

They Are Not Joking.

FUCKING OW.

Still! Jokes on HIM! I'm in to that sh-! Wait, no, not the time for memes! Or is it jokes? Irrelevant! I can still fuckin RUN, is the thing. Sucks to SUCK, Sun boy! Us Lightnings are BUILT DIFFERENT!

And I BETTER not hear any snide "yeah I BET they are" from the peanut gallery!

My Flame type ROCKS! I am a TAZER who can put my fist through WALLS. Stand dead center of a road and just? Fuckin TANK a speeding car! Can YOU? Didn't THINK so! Lightning supremacy! One of you fuckers gimme a highfive! HELL YEAH!

But also? Like... I take back EVERYTHING I ever said about the Carcassa.

ALL OF IT.

They are the GEMS of the Mafia. The SHINING HEARTS of raw compassion! Skull-sama's willingness to PERSONALLY piss off The "I AM The Dread God Lesser Deity's Fear" Reborn? An inspiration to us all. I... I would steal for this man. Like? For FREE. Not DIE for him or anything, God no, but? I would steal really REALLY expensive shit for him!

The man's an absolute mad lad. A LEGEND.

I will NEVER forget this... assuming I survive.

Because somehow HE already has my name, face, and multiple alias plastered OUT FOR THE WORLD TO SEE. Ha ha... oh god. Thaaaaat is a bounty. BIG bounty. Lots of zeros. G...gonna die.

My phone chimes.

"You know exactly who this is. Pick up." The screen reads, right before it rings.

HA HA, NOPE!

I stand, well more like shoot to my feet, from my seat on the ground. Quuuuick steps too the blimp windows. Wrench those open. Sim card out! Crush the phone. AND YEET!!! BeGONE DEMOOOON!

We shall NOT be engaging with The Devil today! No Sir!

.....Skull's phone starts ringing.

I whine like a cornered animal. So... this is what a real life horror movie feels like. NEAT. I hate it! I watch, probably shaking, as Skull-sama casually drags out his phone. Glances down at it. Then over his shoulder at me. He doesn't even fully turn his head. Just one Cloud flame purple eye that seems to light up from within.

He's a happy go lucky guy. Cool dude. But like all Clouds? Fucking HATES cages. Being or SEEING other imprisoned. Trapped. Cornered and forced to do something against their will. And as the planet's STRONGEST Cloud?

He's always had exactly zero problems telling Reborn to fuck off to his face. Even when it gets him shot at. Everyone knew that.

"Sempai! Calling the GREAT Skull De Mort just to CHAT~♡? I KNEW you loved me BESTEST!" He PROJECTS into the phone, his speaking cadence shifting.

He'd been gregarious, bombastic even, the whole time I'd been on board. The sort of guy you can't help but want to buy street food with and check out some weird local sight you heard about. The guy that turns an event into a PARTY. A get together into a memory you TREASURE. Larger then life and unashamedly so.

But this? THIS was the SHOWMAN.

And this was the Showman being Obnoxious and MEAN.

Loud, intentionally grating voice. No break in the endless flood of mind numbing chatter that went no where. Bellowing cackling that even the best of speakers would be hard pressed to handle. Standing near machines and windows so the background noise garbled EVERYTHING.

Let no one say Clouds are not PETTY.

"Hmmmmm~? Your WHAT? Sempai! Don't be SILLY! You can't OWN people! That's SLAVERY! It's against~...!" He turned, leaning like a rock star of old against some navigation compartment. Casually examining his nails with a MEAN and wolfish smile on his face. "Waaaaa! Don't be maaad~ Don't be MAAAAAD~!! You know I'd NEVER lie to YOU, Sempai! I'd never DARE! I promise I'll keep a look out, m'kay? What? Don't hang up? Sorry! Can-KRRRRSHK! n't quite KKKKKRRRRRSK! Heeeeear yoooouuuuu~☆!"

Click.

He casually tossed his phone to one of his men. Ignored it even as it rang and rang. With an excited clap of his hand, he hopped up, out of his loose legged splay to stride over. According to him? We should eat! Have I had Burmese food? It's delicious! One of his guys just got "into" the whole cooking thing! So everyone is being supportive!

I can't help but laugh. Everyone politely ignores how wet it is, as Skull-sama throws an arm over my shoulders and drags me from the cockpit.

I know I'm not safe. But for now? Fuck it. Good enough. Maybe Skull-sama knows someplace Reborn might not IMMEDIATELY find me. And who knows? When this all blows over? Maybe I should join up with his crew. Reborn can't be THAT obsessed. Right? It was just the initial harmony high. With no Sky to actually bind us, he'll lose interest.

Behind me... the phone rings.

And rings.

And RINGS.

[goron-king-darunia]

Funguary #1 Mycena Subcyanocephala

Very casually dropping in an entry I did as a warm up. My brain is all fuzzy lately and I took a break from a bigger project for a week to take care of my sack of meat body IRL because my hormones are shit and I fell off the face of the earth for, like, a week, and then I couldn't get started on my larger project again. So I smashed my brain with a stick until art fell out so I could prove to myself that I still have art muscles. Coincidentally enough, I also pulverized the part of my brain that forgot how to draw humanoids until it remembered how to do that again. Percussive maintenance, if you will. (I am not actually injuring myself IRL, this is hyperbole, I promise.) So yeah, I'm probably going to be doing this super casually and probably outside of February since I have more IRL meatspace obligations that I am juggling. I may try to do one entry for each of the 4 themes to start or I may take it extra slow and do all of them at some point or other as warmups and do all the different mushrooms with their themes as I feel like it. Not officially back online yet, but I am browsing around Tumblr when I have time, so... Yeah! Cherub-inspired character to fit the theme of celestial for the mushroom Mycena Subcyanocephala. All the references I looked at showed this TINY mushroom with a singe fruiting body in the frame so I drew a cherubic sort of cyclops fairy/angel/cherub creature. Selected the mushroom because it was the first on the list so why not? The colors in the reference photos were nice enough so I figured why not? Might just draw the mushroom itself at some other time! Speedpaint here, so I can remember how I did it if I ever have to stop making art again for another 10 years. XD

I drew some concepts on notebook paper, and honestly the lips/lipstick I doodled out was a big main design element from the start, which is unfortunate because they're small in the grand scheme of the piece. The sort of digitigrade, faun-like legs were a whim, and I had my heart set on puffy pants to match that fat stem body on the mushroom, so I think a different pose might have been better because once the actual color and rendering goes down, you don't see much, if any, of the initial shape I set down. Maybe slightly more distinct colors between the skin and clothes too since that hand disappears into the pants a bit. But for something I smacked out in a couple hours, it's not bad. Especially for my first real attempt at drawing humanoids from imagination in a good, long while. (Clip Studio Paint, Gouache Brush, Airbrush, Gouache Blender, and Pencil Brush. 2 ish hours.)

[alexagirlie]

Messy Hair, Messy Life

A/N: continuing my project of cross postjng all my dune works over from AO3. Have a lil fluff drabble. Header by me, divider by @zaldritzosrose

Fandom: Dune

Pairing: Duncan x Paul

Rating: T

Wordcount: 612

Summary: modern au. Makeup artist Paul, action star Duncan.

Warnings: Fluff. Confessions. Kissing.

Taglist(pls let me know if you want to added/removed): @softhecreator @gatoenlaciudad @almostg

It started with an exchange they had made many times over the last few months of working together.

"Stop moving Idaho"

"I'm not" He was: restless and fidgeting in his seat.

A sigh "You are, you're fidgeting. Now hold still" Slender fingers framed one side of the larger mans face, the other smeared fake blood and dirt over his hairline.

"Paul"

"Duncan"

"Paul" Something in his voice, a change in tone made Paul look up his work and meet warm brown eyes. Their gaze locked and Paul was mesmerized. Then Duncan surged forward and pressed his lips against Paul's.

Soft and chaste pulling a groan from Paul who rushed to kiss back. The makeup brush clattered to tge floor and his hand joined the other grabbing onto the sides of Duncan's face. He could feel big arms wrapping around him, one around his waist pulling his body flush against the bigger man and the other up his chest, a big broad fingered hand curving around his jaw, angling his head to deepen the kiss.

His lips part on a gasp and Duncan tongue finds its way into Paul's mouth. It plays against his own, against the back of his teeth before retreating back into Duncan's mouth and Duncan breaks the kiss. Leaning his forehead against Paul's and letting out a breakless laugh, breath minty and fresh in Paul's face.

"I've wanted to do that for months" The big man confessed, the hand on the side of Paul's face moving to cup the back of his head.

Paul couldn't help the twitch of his lips into a half smile at Duncan's confession. "So why didn't you?"

He could feel more than see Duncan's shoulders rise and fall in a shrug "Professionalism? Didn't want to make things awkward while on set".

"What changed?" Paul leaned back a little so he could lock eyes with Duncan again.

Another shrug "Shooting is almost over, figured now was a good time to make my interest known. You seemed receptive….?" Duncan didn't seem so sure of himself and Paul thought it was adorable. The man was built like a house and was the most caring and considerate person Paul had ever met. You would have to be dead to not be interested.

"Yeah I've been flirting for weeks, honestly thought you were oblivious" Paul knew how he looked but the older man had only ever been just friendly towards him. He had never so much as responded to Paul's flirting, even when he was being super whoreish about it.

"No just dumb" Duncan leans forward to kiss Paul again. Things quickly heat up, tongue against tongue, hands roaming over clothes and into hair. They get lost for several minutes before a noise outside Duncan's trailer makes them pull apart.

Paul gets a good look at Duncan and lets out a laugh.

"What?" The confused look on Duncan's face just made Paul laugh harder and he had to take several deep gasping breaths before he could answer.

"Hair is going to be so pissed at us" Duncan hair had been braided up away from his face for this role and Paul's fingers had managed to make an absolute mess of it. "They will have to redo your hair before the next take. We have to get them in here asap".

They share one last kiss and Duncan promises to call Paul when he's done for the day before Paul sticks his head out the door and sends a runner to grab hair. (He was right they were pissed but also couldn't stop teasing Duncan about finally making a move on Paul. The man had been insufferable with his crush)

[amorficzna]

user experience research in (large) games

Ok I saw user testing catching strays in the tags of another post so I figured, since I've worked as a user experience researcher in larger game studios that I'd give a bit more context on what we actually do - since we seem to catch strays both from random people and from the studios themselves.

1. UXR does not inherently change ideas or parts of a game.

That is not our job. We're not designers! There is, in fact, huge debate about whether UXR should be giving designers any suggestions at all because we're not as close to the project as they are. But I've found it really comes down to the UXR's familiarity with the project as well as their relationship with the development team on if they will take or want suggestions to begin with. Many times, we're showing off results to them where players are finding snags in their play experience, and it's really up to them to find better solutions for how to make the experience smoother.

Additionally, UXR is a mediator between the game development team and players. It's important to capture player experience and insights, but it is also very important to stay in line with the game's vision. You have a weird and fucked up game? UXR is not meant to bring any feedback about how the game is too weird or fucked up to the game team. Because that aligns with the game's visions and goals.

2. UXR is there to make niche parts of the game approachable to all players.

Everyone always talks about making more gritty, edgy, or weird games. Which I 100% agree with. But the rub comes from if players can even access these parts of your game at all. Then you get a bunch of questions. Why can't players use this ability? Is it because it's not useful? Is it because they don't know they have it? Is it because they know they have it but they don't know when they can use or how to use it?

These are generally the kind of questions we're asking players as they work through a game. Without a lot of this work, a lot of this would go under the radar because, unsurprisingly, when you work on a game for a long time, you tend to forget that new players may not know to press U in order to access their character ability sheet, which may also not be properly explained in the tutorial, which may lead to them never being able to access it.

This is especially important for accessibility. Great, you chose a brand new random control scheme. Can you change that control scheme? If you can, can you adapt it enough to be accessible for all players that may need aids to play videogames? If yes, can they access the control options easily to even get to them in the first place?

3. UXR is not there to gather the opinions of players.

At least in my experience (and I'm talking about big studios here) UXR is not, in fact, there to capture the opinions of players and make sure characters are more likeable, etc. We can do that kind of research if the team specifically asks it of us, but generally, if it is not literally breaking the player's experience when they work through the game, it is not important enough for us to bring to the team because they have enough other shit to deal with.

If you're seeing that kind of reaction from collected data, either UXR is not filtering the results and thus production or leadership is looking at it going "yeah ok let's change that" putting the work on the developers/teams, or its from the consumer insights side of things who is looking at general user trends, user reactions, market reactions, etc.

So yes, while we look at trends in data, a lot of the time I was tasked to ask questions like "what was confusing for you" and then I would aggregate that to see where players were struggling with understanding a game.

If there are specific attributes of a game being tested, such as a new champion in Apex for example, then you'd probably want players experienced with the game coming in and testing it to make sure it 'feels right' and balanced, and that they especially don't have issues with it to make sure players can actually play around with all the cool, new, weird, fun stuff you wanted to put in the game in the first place.

There are other parts of UXR like expert reviews (ask me why I don't like them and think they're not useful!) but that's a whole nother pack of worms.

Anyway, that's a little rundown of how UXR can help with games. There's so many issues with it and politics within the industry - for example, if a UXR does a study and finds that players are really not having a good time with a game set to release soon, the development team is going to have consequences. So how high up can those results go? Additionally, if a study finds that players are doing well with a game, and it releases and it bombs, that leads to a whole other mess of shit. Which is why I hate strategic work tbh - it becomes so corporatized and more about future sales output and less about the game itself.

However, that is a cog in a much larger machine of issues within the games industry. And UXR itself is trying to get our work down to make games accessible to all.

[davidmariottecomics]

Ask Me (Almost) Anything 2023, Part 2!

Hey all! Welcome back! 

Two weeks ago, I solicited a bunch of questions for an ask me (almost) anything feature on the blog and folks really delivered! I had so many questions that I had to break it up over two weeks! You can read the first half here and let's get into the second! 

@ultimanggo asks: "Hallu David! Ty for the opportunity! Say that there are artists who are fresh grad artists or first timers seeking to apply in IDW as a comic artist, do you look into their works or pitches and consider of hiring them?"

Sure! I have worked with folks who were still doing their undergrad and making comics in their spare time. A lot of comics places are not terribly particular about formal education. They are more concerned with execution--can the artist tell the story clearly and to the standards set by editorial, including meeting deadlines, making requested revisions, not deviating from model, etc. I, and other editors, also sometimes work with colleges to do events and do portfolio reviews for students and recent graduates, and sometimes people get work from that. 

I am often very happy to work with new talent. I like seeing people at the start of their careers and watching them grow and being a part of that. 

@lurkingsupport asks: "Thank you for the opportunity! For someone's first indie comic, what's the best strategy for publishing? Should an artist consider keeping the comic online at first?"

The best strategy for publishing is going to depend heavily on your comic and there isn't a clean one-size-fits-all answer, I'm afraid. If it's a 4 page pastiche of another popular comic, yeah, you're probably fine having it mostly exist digitally. Or printing it as like a little zine that you can take around. If it's a standard 20-24 page one-shot, or series of 20-24 page issues, maybe look into getting it printed. I've heard good things about both RA Comics Direct and Comix Well Spring for indie comics, particularly if you're looking for a smaller print run. All the comics I've made have either gone through larger printers we work with at IDW or are things that I've printed at home (we have a nice printer for stuff my fiance Becca makes), so I can't speak to their services firsthand, but I've heard good things. The biggest factor is ultimately what do you want out of publishing? If it's supposed to be a portfolio piece that you'd want to give out at conventions, or you're interested in having a comic to table events with, I'd say get it printed! If you just want to have a comic done and out in the world, maybe it is better for it to just exist digitally and save the expense of printing for down the line. 

There are other variations--this is not getting into the differences between posting a comic on socials vs. posting it on a subscription site vs. posting it on a webcomic service vs. hosting your website for it or seeking a publisher vs. self-publishing or looking into crowdfunding. And a lot of that comes down to the quality of the work, your comfort with exploring these avenues, your time and finances, and what your starting support base looks like. 

@CalamityCons asks: "How does an editor usually keep track of things like timelines and character rules? Do you have a spreadsheet? I would make a spreadsheet." It only just clicked for me that you're probably asking about "timelines" in a continuity sense, more than a deadlines sense. But I'm going to answer for both! 

In the deadlines sense, I have a whole suite of programs that I'm using to keep track of things. I do use spreadsheets. I have multiple business software sites that I use--from project tracking sites to file transfer sites to internal product databases to external product databases to collaborative sites for art and reference sharing. I mark stuff on my digital calendar and keep track of my daily projects in a notebook (see next question). I have licensor submission sites that help keep track of things. I work with a team of very talented people who help build and watch schedules and readjust when needed. All sorts of stuff! 

In the continuity sense, it varies by editor and property. I tend to work more with documents and decks. So, sometimes I'll be adding new rules to a Google Doc that I share with anyone else working the property including other editors, proofreaders, sometimes talent, etc. Or I'll be reviewing a PDF or Powerpoint from a licensor outlining certain guidelines for us to adhere by. A lot of it is repetition and practice and learning as you go. When I was working on Transformers, I always kinda had a loose timeline written down in a doc for how stories fit together and what happened when, but it was also loose enough that we could make adjustments if a new story needed it. 

@rileysauruss asks: "How do you keep track of everything in that one notebook that seems to have no system? (respectfully) What’s it like working with me? Do you like doing balloon guides?"

The notebook has a system. It's organized chronologically. Every day, I go in, write down my to-do list for the day and as I accomplish things, I cross them out. Generally it's high level information, but I will drill down into something if I know I have multiple tasks to do with it. If I have a meeting that day, my meeting notes go under the day's to-do list. Most things are kept track of by the daily to-do. It's easy to track "finish this issue because it isn't printed yet and it was on the list yesterday." New items are added as I go, so they get incorporated too. Bigger notes that don't fit the "to-do" style--say licensor update type stuff--often has some level of follow-up sent via email or is otherwise added to one of our other tracking mechanisms so it isn't lost in the shuffle. And sure, sometimes I'll be like... figuring out page turns on a Best of and making sure it all works or whatever and will want to eventually go back to that, but then I just sorta flip through and look for it because I usually give those things their own page rather than squeezing them between the daily stuff. 

Pretty great. I like working with you, Riley. You remember stuff because you don't just write it like a mad man in a chaos notebook. You give good feedback. You tell good jokes. It's a really great experience and other people are also lucky to work with you. 

Yeah, actually, kinda? I am very glad that I don't have to do them all the time because they can be kind of a timesuck, but I do like having the extra chance to go through the script and look for typos and adjustments as I'm reviewing the art and I like thinking about balloon placement. It can be almost relaxing. But don't think this means you're getting out of balloon guides. 

@GigiDutreix asks: "Can Luna be a comic?" 

Ask Riley. Luna's her cat. I would say yes, but in this case, it is Riley's decision. 

(This weirdly is a very basic example of how licensing works. Swap "Luna" for "Sonic" and "Riley" for "SEGA".) 

@KWalthersArt asks: "How does one go about working for companies like IDW and what difficulties that might entail especially for people with chronic health issues and/or introverted and anxious?"

Let me begin by saying comic companies employ people in two ways. You have people like me who are staff and you have freelancers who work on contract for certain projects. The necessary requirements of each are pretty different and so the difficulties can be very different too. 

As a staff person, comic companies are ultimately creative office jobs. You start by applying when there's a job posting and take it from there. Most companies have at least one in-person office still and may ask you to regularly show up. Some have gotten a lot better about working remotely over the last couple of years, which I know is a boon to a lot of folks who do have chronic health issues. It is also a job where, besides if there is an in person expectation, a lot of business can be conducted via email. There are often calls--both on the phone and on Zoom and other video calling platforms, but I usually have at least a day a week where I am allowed to work from home and the only people I speak to are my fiance and my cats. Again, that is not necessarily uniform, but sometimes a possibility.

And, like many office jobs, there are also other major drawbacks to all of that. I know a little about how office jobs can be very unfriendly to people on disability and to disabled folks who may not be on disability specifically because of the limitations the American disability program forces upon them. 

From a freelance perspective, a lot of getting work early on is some level of networking, which is tougher when you're introverted or anxious (though TBH, I think a lot of comics people are, which sometimes makes it easier). The whole of the con circuit is different now in many ways, but like... I don't think "bar con" is as much of a thing, which is probably a relief to a lot of folks. I don't drink very much either and do a lot of my social time at shows with people I know, so that pressure is very different. But when it comes to doing the work, I think you just have to be as upfront as you are comfortable with. Like, you don't have to explain everything, but know your limitations and be willing to take on work that matches. Comics often moves quickly and has hard deadlines and needs you to make them, so figure out what is reasonable within your life and schedule and keep to it so that you don't burn out or make yourself sick.  

@Rechi_C asks: "Very important question, do your cats like to read the comics you work on or do they prefer to sleep on them?" My cats can't read. They too dumb. Real cute though. Honestly, more or less sleep? Credit where it is due, they largely leave my comics and books alone. They don't claw at them or chew them or lay on them very much. Sometimes they'll sit on a few, but fairly space-dependent. They are however monsters in basically every other way. 

@RikDraws asks: "Where did you bury the diamonds?"  This is not the real Rik Mack, this is obviously Rouge the Bat posing as Rik and you're never going to find out! 

@spacecolonie asks: "I'd love to hear your thoughts on specific things an editor may look for for when hiring cover artists! any big green flags in portfolios, ways of networking etc. thank you so much for the opportunity to ask! 😄♥"  Yay! It's fun to talk green flags and things I like! 

This may sound a little strange, but I don't look for cover artists very often. A lot of the artists I work with--not all, but a lot of the artists I work with on covers--also are interested in sequentials. I think that practicing staging moments in panels and taking the time to consider what information is key to communicate what you want in a smaller space, as well as how that moment connects to the next in a flow of action, often strengthens people's cover compositions.

Like think about a movie. When you're watching it, all the film is running at a pace that creates consistent moving images and carries you through the story. But if you were to break it into the film strip (or the storyboards), you'll see only key frames are really needed to convey the information when it is still. And one of those key frames might be stronger than the rest and make for a compelling single image. That's kinda what making a cover often is--figuring out what your one compelling image is from all the images that could create the story and that may encompass a story unto itself as a microcosm. And being able to sort through those with a stronger eye makes your work better. 

Rarely are the covers to books I work on character portraits. There are some amazing cover artists who do primarily do portraits, but I often gravitate toward covers with strong action, backgrounds, and/or contrast. Solicits went live this week and we announced a new Godzilla book with some killer covers! And while only one of them is mid-battle, all of them convey really strong action and story, right? Even if they are non-literal to the story inside (which I also kinda like for covers a lot of the time and find compelling), they convey a sense of what the book is about from first glance. And, of course, being able to draw licensed characters on-model while still maintaining your unique style is really important, too!

I'll also say, huge green flag in portfolios: knowing what you want to do and who you are presenting your portfolio to! This is probably the thing I harp on the most, but there are a lot of jobs in comics. Some people feel really comfortable doing a lot of them, some people feel comfortable with just one or two. Don't try to force yourself to do/present things you don't feel comfortable doing professionally. Obviously, feel free to work on things and grow your skills, but a portfolio should be the best representation of who you are as an artist at that moment. The other part of that, knowing who you're presenting to, is not to say you should always (or will always be able to) tailor your portfolio to the hiring person you're showing it to, but it is to say it helps to know who you are showing it to and to have a reason to have them review it. Like... I love superhero comics! No doubt! But I don't edit a lot of superhero comics, so I'm not always the best at providing feedback to superhero heavy portfolios, nor do I necessarily have a lot of openings that fit with the work I'm being presented. And someone who edits horror comics primarily might not have a lot of good feedback for a Disney heavy portfolio. Or a person who excels in character design like for animation might not always work with a comics person because we don't hire a lot of folks just for character design, and most of the ones we do are people who are already in our wheelhouse. 

Finally, networking green flags! Honestly, the big ones there are just being like... a cool person. Pleasant professional interactions go a long way. In this day and age, it's really easy to build a parasocial relationship with someone via social media or whatever and remembering when you're communicating with someone that for as fun as comics are, it is a job is really important. Business cards are good. Respect people's time and learn to recognize when the interaction is over. And if someone says something along the lines of now is not the time to shoot your shot, respect that and wait. 

@DaveScheidt asks: "What was the most unconventional way you have found an artist/writer to work with?" Unconventional? Uhh... I brought a stack of comics to a zine making night for the feminist group I interned for in college and a person really lit up when they saw them and was like "who brought the comics" and then we flirted and went on a date later that week and now we're engaged and also make comics together sometimes, so I guess falling in love. (Hi Becca!)

@tintinpantoja asks: "What's the best way to learn story structure for graphic novels? Do you rely on a certain system, similar to screenwriting?" I find the best way to learn most things about comics storytelling is reading other comics and experimentation. I don't know that every graphic novel has to follow your traditional three or five act structure. And I find a lot of ones I love actively defy it! Not to be a total cop-out, but I think that the structure is highly dependent on the outline. Answers to questions like to what extent is each "chapter" (regardless of whether your book is formally separated in to chapters or not) it's own smaller narrative or what is the intended narrative density of each spread are going to really change things. 

Story structure for a periodical is different, right? Like... you want every 20-ish pages to end in a cliffhanger or some sort of resolution (even if it remains somewhat open-ended). You want your story structure to work across however many issues you're telling the story in, while leaving each hunk as satisfying. But with a GN, sometimes the rhythm of those peaks is going to be different. 

All of which is to say, I think it's something beyond just winging it, but I find it so unique to the work that I don't personally have a systemic version of what I'm looking for/writing to. 

@AndrewCramer78 asks: "How does one get more editors eyes on a colourist portfolio if one is unable to attend US based conventions? Are there preferred online platforms that editors browse for new/undiscovered talent? Thanks!!"

That's a good one! I tend to browse Twitter the most, TBH. The real advantage to Twitter over everything else still at this point is the sharing ability. I'm now on Instagram and some of the other sites, and I check in, but I find the discoverability can really wildly vary there and when it comes to coloring (and lettering) other sites tend to drown out their portfolios. I am curious about Cara and InkBlot, but they are not yet regular haunts for me. 

My other recommendations are collaborate with folks, of course, and have people who can advocate for you to color their work. Check to see if publishers have submission pages or emails because if they do, they do check those, though they might not always be able to quickly reply or be able to use you at that time. Depending on where you are set up, look for bigger international shows you can attend because those do often bring in US based editors. My last big recommendation is getting an agent/manager. I get emails daily or weekly from agents who want to put their people forward for projects and, yeah, have hired folks from those. 

@genderdestroyer asks: "What are the best parts about your job as an Editor? What kind of challenges do you come across in that position, especially with overseeing more than one IP/series? I’d also love to know more about your editorial process and how you work with the artists on these comics! ✍🏻✨" Not to sound too sappy, but I like seeing people succeed. It's really satisfying knowing that like, Riley has become such a strong editor in her own right. Or seeing folks who I gave their first jobs pop up on other books/sometimes be too busy to do stuff for me. I also like getting to reach out to people whose work I admire and get to collaborate with them in my way. Also, I dunno. I like getting to talk to people about comics--including sometimes doing stuff like this. I like helping people figure out what ideas will work best--both on a creator side and a licensor/company side. And sometimes my job pays for stuff. That's nice. 

To the point of collaborating, my editorial style is, I think, guiding more than defining most of the time. I want to hand my artists the reference they need--scripts, other art, whatever--and give them the space to infuse themselves into a project and sort of pull on the reins when needed, give notes when needed, but let them figure it out because that makes a lot of great work. And then in-between that, I play middleman with licensors and approvals type people and work with them and the artist to make sure everyone's expectations and needs are being met. I put a lot of faith into the people I work with and am often rewarded by that. 

In terms of challenges, there are more than a few. Because things are happening so quickly, often the things that are prioritized are the most urgent/the most behind and sometimes having to make the call to fix that means the next thing is going to have less time and that will continue to happen. A huge reason why you see consistent creators--or a consistent pool of creators--on a book is because like I said earlier, I put a lot of faith into the people I work with, and sometimes that is a matter of necessity. I need people I know I can leave be and who will meet the expectation so I can fix the things that need it--especially because not every book gets the same amount of time. Scheduling is always tough too, and tougher when you're working with people who do crossover from one series to another. And problems always seem to come in sets, so if something is going wrong on one property's book, you can almost be assured something's going to go wrong on another. It is a stressful job and I wouldn't be doing it if I didn't love the parts of it that I do absolutely love. 

@Astramyths asks: "Would absolutely love to know what you might look for in cover/concept artists outside of a person's portfolio? Like through their social media, etc. Do you mind if artists have side accounts for fandom stuff? Since I already saw a lot of questions Abt portfolios proper :)"

This is really interesting. Because I do find a lot of artists on social, yes, I do often check people's socials. It often is kind of a vibe check, for lack of a better term. I want my interactions to be pleasant ones and professional ones for both our sake, and sometimes you can tell you would not work well with a person for one reason. I'm not like... searching for a gotcha reason not to work with someone or only interested in working with people with certain follower counts or whatever, but when I do look, I am often interested in whether I think we'll be a good collaborative fit. 

I don't mind fandom side accounts or (as long as the artist in question is an adult and is depicting adults) NSFW side accounts or whatever. I think it's nice to be engaged with the community in different ways. However, to that end, it can be complicated to interact with a fandom once you've worked on it professionally, or it can be complicated to just be in a fandom because communities are complicated, and so that can also sometimes be part of the vibe check too. 

@JustOwenE asks: "Hi, if someone is ever thinking of writing but has had no prior experience, what is the best approach; would you just go at it & hope for the best?"

Kind of? To the earlier question about story structure, I think it's worth it to read other works and get a feel for how they are written. I think outlining can be really helpful to develop a narrative skeleton for yourself to follow. And there are a TONNNNNN of good books about writing because--and I say this as a writer as well as an editor--if there's one thing writers like more than actually writing, it's writing about writing. But, yeah, at some point, it's good to just go for it and hope for the best. Start small and build. Not every work needs to be published or widely read and you can harness your craft slowly and build toward bigger projects. But really, yeah, the only way to start is to do it and to do it for yourself, get a feel of how you write, and then keep really doing it for yourself, but being willing to share it and see if it resonates with other people more and more. 

What I enjoyed this week: Blank Check (Podcast), Honkai Impact (Video game), Mass Effect (Video game), Rise of the TMNT (Cartoon), Craig of the Creek (Cartoon), Devil House by John Darnielle (Book), Trainspotting (Movie), Genshin Impact (Video game), Nadja's birthday, finishing this AMA! 

New Releases this week (4/19/2023): Sonic the Hedgehog #59 (Editor)

New Releases next week (4/26/2023): Off week! 

Announcements:

FREE COMIC BOOK DAY! Reminder that Becca and I are going to be at Geoffrey's Comics (4068 Redondo Beach Blvd, Torrance, CA) for Free Comic Book Day this year. As always, it's the first Saturday in May (the 6th). I'll have whatever stock I have left of all my comics after all our other recent shows, so still a pretty decent amount of TF/Terminator, some Hanazuki singles, and some Wreckers, plus a selection of titles I've edited like Sonic, Godzilla, and more! 

Fangaea! I will be there as Becca's booth babe next Saturday, 4/29! Which also means next week's blog might be Sunday or we might be very short the next couple of weeks! This also means Becca's only doing Wednesday streams on Twitch the next two weeks, but you should definitely subscribe! They just hit their 50 follower goal and are on their way to affiliate, which is cool! Also they have a lot of rad art streams and game streams and stuff! 

I was on this week's episode of The Comic Chronicle Podcast! Talking comics, conventions, good advice from Paul Levitz, and more! Give it a listen if you haven't somehow gotten enough of me talking about comics after this! 

Pic of the Week: Podcast promo and another good Nadja pic for her birthday! 

[dzpenumbra]

6/25/23

It got late again, but here I am. I was pulled into streams today, there were very compelling storylines playing out. It was most of the day, actually.

My whole rhythm was just off today, I don't even really know why. I didn't start my day with yoga. I guess it was the RP that did it. I usually do yoga, then maybe put headphones in and listen to a stream while working out, or listen to music, either or. But today... I just didn't. I think I just fired up a game instead, but none of the games I've been playing have been scratching that itch.

After a little bit, I got back to work on my Zen Garden project. As planned, I tried to use wind to separate the sand from the gravel. I brought my box fan down and tried that, but... somehow it wasn't really strong enough. I'm sure if I left it for a few hours it might've had an effect... but it just wasn't really doing it for me. Then I used a handheld air compressor thing that I got to clean my PC, held about 4 feet away, and that thing fucking worked... but it worked too well.

It separated the gravel and the sand very effectively, but it brought a lot of the sand airborne and out of the cardboard box setup that I made. I tried setting up the box vertically, with the dish in the bottom, so the sand would blow out around the sides, but it still sent big puffs of sand out into the air. So... I really don't know how else to do that, I'd really need to basically encase the whole thing in a plastic bag so the sand doesn't escape... but then I can't damn see. It's a shame because what I was doing was very effective, it was separating the sand from the micro gravel really well. There was just a lot of loss and it was making a mess. So... I started going back to water separation.

Basically, I'm taking the sand/microgravel mixture and putting it in a glass cooking dish, adding a small amount of water and just working it until the water is very muddy looking; full of particles. Then carefully dumping the water into a separate container, then repeating the process until the water is as clean as possible. Then, I wait for the muddy water to settle, and separate the clean water from the sand so it can dry. This produces super-fine sand. And, unfortunately... the process isn't perfect. There's still a lot of fine sand left behind with the gravel that just... isn't being picked up for whatever reason. It takes longer and it's more work, but it's a zero-waste solution.

Later in the night, I realized... my sieves are getting here tomorrow. XD At least they're supposed to be. Those are going to be a godsend for sorting gravel by size. I'm just... not sure what sizes I got. I'm afraid they may be more focused on larger sizes. I don't know if any of them are going to be any smaller than a normal kitchen sifter, which is what I've been using. I'm just not sure where else I can find a finer mesh that still lets shit through. I was debating using coffee filters before, but... I think those are going to be too tight a mesh to even let sand particles through. I wanted to get a flour sifter when I got my groceries delivered, I feel like those have to be finer than normal kitchen sifters... but they didn't have any. So yeah, the sieves are going to be great for sorting the gravel in general, but I might have to keep doing this water separation method too. Idk. But I feel like having super-fine sand creates a very different aesthetic, and I like the whole transformative process of getting from cheap all-purpose sand mix to super-fine sand. I like the problem-solving, the troubleshooting, it's very rewarding.

I did end up doing yoga and working out around midnight, right before cooking dinner. Yoga... I kinda just did a few stretches, honestly. The workout was super intense. It was 3 sets of this circuit - 10 sit-ups, 10 sit-up punches, 10 sit-ups, 10 crunch kicks, 10 sit-up punches, 10 crunch kicks. With a 2 minute break between. It was pretty rough. But I made it through it. I can actually feel myself losing weight, like I can feel it in my skin. And more than that, my muscles are getting much stronger. It's a nice feeling. It's only been a bit over 2 weeks. It's been a lot of work, that's no lie, but I'm surprised how much of a difference so little time has made.

And... that was pretty much my day. Troubleshooting sand stuff, watching really good RP, working out, making fried rice.

Oh, and my bean plants are fucking huge. I woke up and all three were fully sprouted in one container, two in the other. And they're all like 4-6" tall. I'm really gonna have to stay ahead of staking them, I don't wanna get caught off guard with this. Gonna have to go gather some big sticks. The tomato seems to be doing okay, it and the pepper plant have flowers which are starting to bloom. :) That tomato plant is so damn big, it's like... at least 3 feet tall now. It just dwarfs every other plant in the apartment. The baby succulents are coming along very nicely, and more and more little buds are starting to pop up and I'm starting to go "oh shit, what did I get myself into..." But I'll figure it out, they can grow in pretty much anything. My Pothos starters though... They're healthy and all, they look fine, they're just... not really growing. I expected them to grow super fast, considering they're very vine-like. But some don't even really seem to be doing anything but moving their leaves around. The ones that have sprouted are just kinda... going slow. I don't really know what else I can do for them, maybe give them some more light? I don't know, maybe I just had the wrong expectations, maybe they aren't a fast-growing plant. It's not the end of the world either way, I just wanna make sure they're doing okay. The Night-Blooming Jasmine is done with its bloom, it shed all its flowers and is now sprouting new branches like fucking crazy. I'm probably going to have to prune it already just to corral the growth a bit, keep it contained. The orchid seems to just be kinda... hibernating, I guess. It's very healthy; the leaves are in great shape, stems are trimmed and fine, roots are healthy. I've just gotta figure out what to do about this distilled water thing, its roots have a kinda chemical burn look to them on the top and I read that's because of using tap water instead of distilled water. So... I have a plan and setup for distilling water, I just haven't really gotten around to it yet. So... all-in-all... the indoor garden is doing great.

Re-telling my nightmare in my journal last night got me really jumpy and anxious. It was tough to get to sleep for a bit because of it. I got there but it was definitely a bit of a battle. It's always really really tough when you're physically exhausted but your mind really doesn't want to go to bed for fear of the dreams you might have. But I'm pretty sure it was totally okay, and I don't remember having bad dreams, so it worked out.

Okay, enough rambling, I want to do tarot. I actually want to get a tiny bit of ice cream too. It's been super hot today, for some reason, and I just had a craving. I'm just gonna do one scoop instead of the 3 I used to do every night. I'm gonna actually put it in writing that this is not going to be a habit, just a "getting through a tough time on a hot day" thing. Then tarot right after.

Past - Ten of Cups, inverted (Settling down, well-being, a happy family, simple pleasures.  Harmony and joy shared with loved ones.) Present - Knight of Swords, inverted (Clarity from confusion. Rugged, fierce, determined, logical. Deliverer of answers, but frank to a fault.) Future - IV: The Emperor, inverted (A powerful, dominant, strategic and protective figure of great influence and reach.  Symbolically, important changes, a shift in power, new responsibilities or authority. Adjacently symbolizes stability.)

Aww. -_- Inverted Ten of Cups is such a sad card. And it's where we're starting. Ten of Cups is the happy ending, the wife and the kid and the house with the picket fence, running off into the sunset. Inversion here being... I don't know. A missed opportunity? Or something that got (or is getting) in the way?

This is connected to inverted Knight of Swords. I'm honestly not entirely sure. I know I've gotten this before... I know Queen and King of Swords, but for some reason I'm struggling with Page and Knight of Swords. Okay, I looked it up to clarify for myself, which... ironically... is the answer. Knight of Swords is clarity. I want to sorta come up with simple associations to get the gist, but I fear simplifying the symbols too much. As a start, let's try... Page = epiphany, encountering the truth, Knight = clarity, delivering the truth, Queen = facing truth (on both sides), King = living with the truth, leading by example. Again, these symbols are not that simple - as personalities are not as simple as one word - but it's a start to remember them. This Knight is also inverted, so... same deal, something preventing this symbol from manifesting.

And to round out the trio, we have inverted Emperor. A symbol of planning, structure, expansion. Or it can represent a man of great power and reach. I don't often consider cards representing other people much, which I really need to change a bit. Very few people are as isolated as me and can just assume that the cards represent aspects of themselves rather than people around them. With Emperor inverted, we can see the dark sides of conquest, or a bad influence of rulers.

Yeah, so... about that whole "cards representing other people in your life" thing. That can apply to a lot. Some cards are pretty clearly representing... events or moments... or forces of nature... but others are pretty clearly representing personalities. Like... The Tower is clearly not a person; Wheel of Fortune, Three of Wands and Ace of Cups are clearly not people. But the face cards can very clearly represent personality types. The Emperor and Knight of Swords I would definitely include in that.

So, on to connecting the dots here. What got in the way of my happy ending? Was there ever one in the works, honestly? I've had like 2 real relationships... and one was about 6 whole months and she really wasn't that into me and abandoned me twice when I had a fucking blood clot in my shit. The other took my savings, lived in my house without paying rent for 2 years, rented another apartment in the same town while living with me, put us on a "break" to sleep with someone and still to this day never admitted it, and started hooking up with a coworker less than 2 weeks after our 3 year relationship ended. So... if there really was potential for a happy ending with either of those two people? I'm just not seeing it. So... what is getting in-between me and my happy ending? The cards say... --- Oh, before I go further, Ten of Cups isn't just about a romantic ending. It's also just... harmony with loved ones in general. Just putting that in there. --- A blockage between me and this Knight of Swords character. Having clarity, seeing the truth of it all, and being able to act on it all. Which, admittedly is absolutely a problem for me. I often feel naïve, and I let my desire to "be a good guy" overpower my awareness of what's going on around me, and prevent me from getting out of difficult social situations. Now... I don't trust myself enough to be able to discern whether a relationship is toxic or not. I mean... my last "date" was a very recently divorced mother of two who told me she had herpes and recently got out of the psych ward of a hospital (she said for drinking and fighting with her then husband and he didn't feel safe? So he got her sent up?) and she thought a nice first "date" would be to come over to my house and bring 2 full goat skeletons worth of bones for me, because I said on my profile that I was "interested in getting into stone, wood and bone carving". And I didn't screen out any of that. I'd say... the Knight of Swords would be able to see the red flags there, yeah? That's the best I can figure out there. And this somehow results in... what... having a strong domineering presence in my life that's super controlling, possessive and unstable? I mean... that checks out, right?

I'm super tired. This is the best I have for right now. Oooo the bonus placeholder card is a new one, so I wanna do that real quick.

Bonus - Seven of Cups (Wishful thinking, fantasy.  Letting imagination run wild, disregarding key facts.)

I kinda feel like I'm kinda there right now. Like I'm not reading this spread accurately, like it's kinda forced and it's getting super late. So... fuck it. Learning the cards is the most important part of this process right now.

(Rare post-proofreading add-on) Huh. I was really tired and just kinda... dipped out at the end there. And was feeling kinda trauma-reliving self-sabotage-y... And I completely overlooked how the Seven of Cups was... well it's kinda... exactly what I was saying, isn't it? XD Just... disregarding warning signs and idealizing. Which is what I was saying was the exact problem in past relationships, and what my connection with the Knight of Swords would ideally prevent? I just thought that was interesting, I was nodding off so I completely missed it. Alright, off to bed.

[thestarsarecool]

No offense but I think you're projecting things onto me based on other people's comments. I never said Paul was cold or that this was the reason for the break-up. Maybe I'm not articulating myself well. What I'm trying to explain is that the emotional closeness wasn't the only issue here. There was a lot going on between Paul and George. When you say Paul not letting George in was a lack of respect, that's what I'm talking about. Not emotionally but literally not trusting him enough to have the responsibility of a seat at the table. I just think it was one factor and that for George the rejection was as hurtful on a friendship level as it was as a band member. Music was an important part of bonding with his friends but with Paul it became a source of tension. Mix this in what their increasing lack of common ground as people and it makes the cracks worse.

You say there isn't evidence of Paul lacking an emotional connection compared to the others but do you have examples from the 60s showing the contrary? Paul and George's bond came from knowing each other the longest. I haven't seen any proof they found something new to deepen their relationship beyond that. By contrast John got into spirituality with George, took a bunch of acid with him, and worked closely with him on projects like Revolver.

Their relationship had problems too and I'm not saying Paul should've pretended to have these same interests when he didn't or that it was only on him to put the effort in. However, John doing these things meant he got to know George for who he was in that moment and you can tell this made a difference. George spoke at length about John understanding him on another level while he never mentioned spending meaningful time with Paul outside work.

Mainly what I'm getting at is that people are missing the real problem by treating the bad trip story as if it happened in a vacuum.

Yeah, there's nothing I really disagree with here so I'm a little confused. Yes, George was closer to John than he was to Paul in the late 60s. I didn't mean to suggest that George and Paul were just as close during this era; I only meant that he wasn't, like, not close to them at all because of his emotional invulnerability. Sorry if that was "projection," but it seemed relevant and my goal here is to write generally on the points you are bringing up, not to debate you point by point. I also agree that Paul was hurting George on a friend level by not respecting him musically.

I guess I was only viewing the bad trip story in terms of emotional closeness because that's how you put it initially and, additionally, I don't think it tells us anything about Paul not respecting George and treating him as lesser. I don't think Paul not taking George's hand really ties into that at all. But I guess you're saying that maybe George viewed it that way? Like, he saw Paul not taking his hand as a metaphor for Paul wanting to stay in control. I can see that.

But anyway, in your first ask, it seemed to me that you were saying "Paul must have hurt George by not being truly vulnerable with him" and that THAT encapsulated their relationship problems. That was how I read it and that was what I was disagreeing with because I think Paul's controlling and belittling attitudes toward George are separate from his problems with emotional intimacy. But, keep in mind, I'm viewing emotional intimacy here to mean "Paul opening up to George." That is what I think people generally are talking about regarding the bad trip story, and that's what I'm saying wasn't the main source of tension between them.

But regarding your "treating the bad trip story as if it happened in a vacuum" point, yeah, I think George is using that one story to describe a larger problem. I just don't give that much weight to the story itself since it's from someone else 50 years later. And since I haven't really seen other quotes that talk about Paul refusing emotional connection that George was offering, I don't think we should base our view of their relationship in the late 60s around it.

Side note, wow, I get why anon conversations are so weird on tumblr now. I've never really had anons before; I've only been the person sending them. And it's super strange because you are viewing this as a dialogue, as a conversation between two people. But you're just like, a robot to me, like a prompt generator. So I took greater liberties in diverging from your original point because my brain can't conceptualize this as a fluid dialogue. Very interesting.

[bluskye-27]

Sorry

Summary: Kid paid more attention to his projects than to you. Wanting to have his attention back, you decided to do a risky move: make him jealous.

"Kid! Are you done now?" You whined, probably the tenth time that day. But who can blame you when your fiery boyfriend was more engrossed with his project than on you?

"No. Now shut up, squirt." The redhead gruffed, getting irritated with the complex parts he's working on. You pouted at him.

"Don't you want to take a break first?" You batted your eyelashes at him but he's clearly not paying attention.

"Later. Now shoo! I have to get this shit done before tonight. Go bother Killer or something, Doll."

Huffing angrily, you stomped away from Kid, going to your best friend/brother figure instead.

"Let me guess: 'Killer! Kid's not paying attention to me again!' Is that what you're gonna say, sis?" Killer said, currently fixing something under a car.

You sighed, nodding. "You guessed it, bro. Heck, I'm starting to think he's gonna marry his projects instead of me someday!" You grumbled, sitting on a bench nearby.

Wire and Heat snorted, they were carrying some heavy tires when they heard you said that.

Killer sighed, dragging himself out of the car before looking at you, seeing how upset you are with your boyfriend.

"Have you tried dragging him out?" The blond suggested.

"Yes. But he didn't even budged!"

"Tried hiding his tools?"

"Yeah, but apparently, some people snitched on me!" You exclaimed loudly, watching from the corner of your eyes as Wire and Heat whistled innocently, putting away car parts on the shelves.

"How about telling him?"

"I did and it didn't work either! Killer, what am I supposed to do?!" You sniffled, getting upset by Kid's constant neglect on you.

Killer stayed silent for a moment, getting up from his position and stood in front of you.

"I've got a plan, sis. It'll surely work since you know how possessive Kid can get."

Intrigued, you and Killer talked quietly about his plan. He even threatened Wire and Heat about not telling about it to Kid, which they got scared of, agreeing with him.

........

You invited Law to have a hangout with you. At first, he's reluctant when you told him about your plan but you reassured him that he won't get hurt. Probably.

You guys went to the café across your boyfriend's workshop. You purposely went to sit by the window, knowing how Kid would see you two clearly from the shop.

"Are you sure I won't get punched, Y/n-ya?" Law grumbled, crossing his arms. "Yep! I'll make sure he won't punch you." You smiled, although you doubt that Kid won't get violent once he saw you with his rival.

He sighed, looking at you with those panda eyes. "If he did punched me, you're gonna pay for my lunch for a week." Huffing, you agreed with his condition.

"Fine! Let's just act all touchy and mushy..?" You said unsurely, knowing you and Law are just friends.

The surgeon sighed once again before reluctantly holds your hand, bringing it up.

You unconsciously blushed at how larger his hand compared to yours, before looking up at him.

"So, how's your job going? Good?" You asked, trying to fight the blush from spreading actoss your face. But Law being a little shit, he smirked at how you're affected by his hold on you. He intentionally caress your hand gently before speaking.

"About my job, well..."

Meanwhile....

"Oi, Killer. Have you seen my damn wrench? Can't find that shit anywhere." Finally emerging from his private workshop, Kid asked his cousin/best friend.

"Yeah, I think it's on the table on the front?" The blond murmured, fixing a car's hood. The redhead grunted in gratitude before going to the front to grab his beloved wrench, just to see you holding hands with Law in the café across the street. His veins popped, gritting his teeth angrily.

"WHAT THE FUCK!?" Livid, Kid threw the tool from his grasp and proceeded to stomped his way to the café, ready to beat someone up.

Killer, Heat and Wire saw how their short-tempered boss made his way to you, not giving a damn about the cars passing by on the road.

"I'll leave it up to you, sis." Killer shrugged before going back to work.

Heat and Wire looked at each other before shrugging as well.

........

"OI, TRAFALGAR FUCKING LAW! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING??" Kid bursted through the café doors, angered eyes trained on the pair by the window. He made his way to your table, grabbing poor Law's collar.

"YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST SNATCH MY LOVER BEHIND MY BACK, HUH? WELL, NEWS FLASH BITCH! YOU CAN'T!" About to throw a punch, you grabbed your boyfriend's hand, glaring at him.

"Eustass Kid! Stop this bullshit immediately!" You yelled, now irritated that he only paid to you attention when he's being possessive. "Don't hurt him!"

Snarling, Kid turned to look at you. "Then why the fuck you're with this bastard, huh?!" Glaring back, you sized him up.

"Well, I did all of this just to make you pay attention to me! You only give a damn about your stupid projects but not to me!" Admitting it loudly, your voice started to shake in anger and sadness. "Fuck you, Eustass!"

You slapped him. Hard. So hard he had a handprint on his pale face. The café patrons (who were watching the whole drama) winced, "Ooh"-ing at the harsh sound.

Not wanting to break down in public, you stormed out, leaving Kid stunned by your actions.

"Heh. Serves you right," Law can't help but chuckle at his rival's misfortune. Irritated, Kid hit his face before running after you.

"Y/n! Wait!"

As for Law, well....

"They definitely owe me now." He winced, touching his reddish cheek. "Stupid, crazy couple."

........

"Y/n, wait!" Kid hollered after you, grabbing your wrist and pinned you down in a nearby alleyway. He was mad, frustrated, sad, and guilty all the same time when he looked at you.

"I'm sorry." He whispered, stroking your cheek. "I'm really sorry, Doll."

Knowing how much it would take a blow to the redhead's ego to make him apologize, you immediately whipped up your head to look at him, just to see some tears starting to form in his eyes. You were, of course, taken aback by this.

"I didn't mean to neglect you. I'm so sorry. You can yell at me, punch me, kick me, slap me all you want but please forgive me, Y/n." Kid whispered softly, his face saddened by the thought of you leaving him. He loves you so much after all.

Sighing, you wrapped your arms around his neck while he hugged you back reluctantly.

"Fine. I'll forgive you BUT! You will take a break from your projects and oay more attention to me, okay?" He nodded, hiding his face on the crook of your neck.

"Okay."

Sometimes, it makes you wonder how a scary and fiery man like Kid would act like a kicked puppy whenever you're mad at him. Nevertheless, you still love him all the same.

This is for @kotaro16 ! Hope you like this, bestie! ;)

[lucifer-is-a-bag-of-dicks]

submission by @cj-productions

Hi! It's the video diary anon, I'm not sure if sending an Ao3 link would work so I'm submitting the fic along with the link-

In the past ten hours, Danny could confidently say that his life had gone to shit.

To think it was all because he was stupid enough to trust his parents not to look through his stuff.

 Danny had been having a pretty okay day, all things considered. Him, Sam, Tuck, Jazz, Elle and Val had all gone out for the day to take his mind off it being his second death day. 

The constant company since after breakfast had been a little exhausting, but appreciated since it kept his mind off things. Now that he was on his own at the moment (Jazz had to get back to campus, his parents didn't know about Elle so she was staying with Val, who was still getting used to finding out about,Tucker had a family reunion tomorrow afternoon and Sam was technically grounded.) (her Grandma could only cover for so long.)

His thoughts were getting darker,  like they had his first death day. He should probably make a video diary about it, it was a little late so his mom and dad should be in the lab by now. That gave him pretty much free reign to say what he wanted, just had to be a little quieter than usual since their newest project involved less hunting and more actual scientific studies.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, he walked up the steps to his front door and opened it.

"Mom, Dad, I'm home!" He called out, just in case they hadn't gotten to work yet.

He paused at the sight of the lab door wide open. His parents may not be the best at lab safety, but they had always had the common sense to shut the door when working on projects. 

Now that he was thinking about it, it was unusually silent. 

"Mom! Dad? Where are you?" he dashed into the house, instantly worried that something had happened.

"Mo-" Danny's heart stopped as he rounded the corner into the living room, "shit."

They had found them, his video diaries from the last two years all in a folder he had made were open on his laptop. The newest one from last week looking like it had just been watched.

"Shit."

"Spook! Get out of my boy!" 

Oh Shit.

Danny whipped around to see the barrel of the bazooka pointed right at him and his Dad behind it. His Mom holding the weapon they had built last week in her hand beside Dad.

"Danny sweetie! It's going to be alright,  your just being overshadowed," Mom said in the voice she used when she would tell him in Jazz that ghost were things and not people. That the dead felt no pain. 

"What? No! Mom, Dad please let me explain"- He backed up a little to not look them both in the eyes, only to be met with goggles -" I am Phantom, I'm a halfa like my video diaries said!"

"Oh hun, that's not true, Phantom was just trying to get you on it's side so it could get more control over you." She sounded like she was talking to a fucking five year old.

"Yeah, no," Danny said, regretting coming home the more his parents spoke, "I am Phantom, so please stop calling me an it. You know I hate that." 

"Danny boy, just stay still and we'll blast that dastardly Spook out you in no time! Then you'll see what's actually happening." His dad chimed in, acting like he wasn't pointing a weapon at him.

"No! Didn't you two watch all the videos? Which, now that I'm thinking about it, why did you do that? You promised you wouldn't go through my stuff," Danny questioned, desperately hoping they would say no, that they had only watched a few and it was a misunderstanding.

"We did, it's honestly terrifying how much Phantom influenced has had on you," his mom said, "we're so sorry we didn't notice sooner, but we're not sorry about the looking through them. You've been being manipulated!"

"So, you watch all of them and you still think I'm getting overshadowed?!" Danny yelled, "Are you kidding me? I may not remember everything I've said but I sure as hell know it's proof that I'm not getting overshadow-"

He got cut off by the feeling of the bazooka's ecto blast hitting him square in the chest. 

He stumbled back, hitting the wall as he looked up at his parents, only to be meet with smiles. 

"Sorry Danno, your eyes started glowing green! We had to get rid of the spook as soon as possible," Jack said. Like he hadn't just shot him, like he hadn't betrayed what little trust he had left for his parents and then fucking shot him. On purpose. 

"Why don't we take you down to the lab and give you a little check up, okay?" Maddie said with that fucking tone, again, as she went to grab his arm.

Yeah, fuck no. 

Danny grabbed his laptop, went intangible and shot up the stairs to his room. He got his emergency bag from in the floor boards and his overnight bag from his closet. He zipped open the overnight one and stuffed it with all of his things that he could, adrenaline keeping him from shutting down.

He hesitated when he was done, deciding whether or not he should go to the hideout him, Sam and Tuck had claimed for themselves or if he should go to the Zone. 

"YOU DAMN SPOOK! GET BACK HERE AND GIVE US BACK OUR SON" was shouted, followed by the sound of the bazooka powering back up.

Zone it is then, he wasn't risking the hideout getting found.

Shifting into his ghost form, he grabbed his bags, took one last look at his now barren room and flew straight down to the basement, ignoring the sounds of his door bursting open behind him.

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

Danny had been flying for what felt like hours before he got  to the Far Frozen. He had considered going to Clockwork but had decided against it cause of his undoubtedly horrible ecto burn on his chest. Clockwork's lair was further and it had probably needed treatment desperately an hour ago. 

Now he was sitting in the village medical center numb, most likely disassociating, while Clockwork and Frostbite talk about what they're going to do about Jack and Maddie over in the next room.

It was only then it really hit him, that they had heard him poor his heart out, seen him break down and cry, learned about almost all of the shit he's been through, and still decided to shoot him. 

It felt like his core was screaming in pain as he curled up and cried from the betrayal he felt. Something he had bracing himself for back when had come out to them four years ago. Something he had been promised they would never do. 

Then again, he always kind of knew this reveal wouldn't end well. He just had hoped they wouldn't shot.

He guess he should have hoped it wouldn't be one of the larger weapons instead. 

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

bruh 😭

thank you for sharing ❤️

[harold231]

It wasn't real

Pairing: Bucky x reader

Posted: 04/30/2021

Word count: 2.5k

Warnings: None? Maybe a lil angst just a lel bet.

A/N: I think it might be good? Idk You let me know. But like frfr, don't just give me feedback in your mind, put it into words. Also I apparently have a thing for Bucky in a dotted apron soooo yeah.

FYI: time zone/era is open for interpretation. Bucky never became an avenger/soldat and steve isn't part of this one.

The wind that blew around you was warm and sweet with the scent of freshly bloomed flowers. Perhaps it was an act of kindness from some God trying to distract you from the cold bitterness settling into your bones. Closing your eyes you conjure the very memory that left you so desolate.

The sun snuck it's way through the curtains to illuminate the room, effectively disturbing the sleep that you always seemed to be craving. Waking up is always hassle but whenever you remember that you get to spend your day with the only person who tolerates you and you him, getting out of bed is the easiest thing. Bucky is crazy and the damn boy is never in one spot for to long and he always has something to say, but you can't imagine how boring your days would be if you guys had never met. well technically if your parents had never met.

When you were a child you parents had to move to new york for business and they decided that Brooklyn was the place to be. You had been Bucky's neighbor and the first day you guys moved in his mom had dragged him over with the most delicious angel food cake that he so proudly claimed to have made mostly on his own. He just loved cooking and baking since forever, he would tell you that he just liked experimenting with foods but you knew the truth was that the boy liked to eat and didn't have the patience to wait for his mother to come home.

Only a few years after your family had moved to Brooklyn you and Bucky had already built an unbreakable bond. You guys had found a beautiful cherry tree one day when playing tag and had deemed it to be your's and Bucky's spot. Whenever you had a bad day or needed time away from the world you guys would go to the tree and just pick cherries, in the winter time you and Bucky would lay under the tree and kick the trunk so that the snow would fall from the leaves. It was the place where at only 15 years old bucky swore he would open his own Bakery and to quote him "I'm serving my ma's food my way doll, It's gonna be the next best thing to hit New York."

You were laying on the ground with your hands crossed behind your head looking up at Bucky swinging upside down from a branch when he told you all this. You felt something you had never felt before at that moment, looking up at the wild haired boy who loved to eat, loved his family, and had the most ambition you had ever heard from kids your age. Your heart felt full and your cheeks grew warm as you looked up at the same blue eyes you had know for years now, only this time you notice the way they twinkle in the sunlight and how rosy his lips are. Now 7 years laters you and Bucky were preparing to open the very bakery he promised you he'd open. Banners were beautifully strung along the walls and cute retro china was set out, ready to be filled for opening day. There was no hesitation from you when Bucky had asked you to run the bakery with him, you were excited to spend your days with the person you hoped you would spend the rest of your life with.

At around 6:30 in the morning you had arrived at the bakery but it seemed that Bucky had beat you to it. The smell of fresh angel food cake and cocoa danced up your nose as soon as you opened the door. Closing your eyes you smiled at the memories that it brought back. Moving to the back you grabbed your Disney themed apron and placed your bag and coat in its place before scurrying over to the kitchen while trying (and failing) to tie your apron. There in all his dorkiness was Bucky wiggling around to the chordettes. He knew that you loved the 50's aesthetic so he found a way to incorporate it without going overboard, by adding little trinkets, a jukebox, and even those cute little dining tables. In fact at the moment he was wearing a ruffly red polka dotted apron as he frosted some cupcakes.

Apron tied, you were finally ready to get to work. You walked up to Bucky bumping his hip as you reached for some cupcake pans, "Whatcha doin here so early Buck, we don't open until 12" he looks at you with squinted eyes, "The hell are you doing here so early." "Woah,woah,woah completely unprovoked. I'm just saying cuz' you were the one complaining about the opening time being set at 8. Like damn." Breathing out a huff of air he wipes his forehead with a towel "I'm sorry doll, I'm just super nervous and I couldn't sleep so I came to start baking things. I already frosted the ice cream cakes and I just finished the pies, but I was thinking that maybe we needed some cupcakes too, even though we already baked so many pastries and stuff last night I'm worried it won't be enough."

Setting down the trays you move to hug Bucky from behind holding him close to you. "Buck I know we'll do great your food is too good to pass up on especially when it's free." You place a soft kiss to his shoulder " I promise you'll do great, everything you do is amazing you try your hardest at everything Buck, You've worked your butt off and made mine considerably larger to get here, don't start losing your mind on me now." A cute little laugh from Bucky lets you know that he's hearing you and he isn't so stressed anymore. "I just want this to be perfect ya know?" with your head still against his back you nod, "I just want it to be a special day for my special girl."

You couldn't stop the slight blush that rose to your cheeks or the way that your heart suddenly started beating three times faster. You had also wanted to make him something special which is why you had got here so early. Finally releasing your hold on Bucky you straighten your apron out before gathering everything you need for some red velvet cupcakes. Bucky loved your red velvet cake so you loved making it for him. After hours of mixing, baking, and frosting had passed, you guys were rewarded with a bakery that looked as great as it smelled. "Alright doll, I'm heading out, I gotta go get ready. Meet you back here at 12 , Love ya." He didn't even give you a chance to answer as he ran right out the door. "Love you too."

You had stayed behind just a little while longer as you perfected your secret project. Carefully you added snowflakes to some of the cupcakes because you knew how much he loved snow even if he hated winter, some cats, flowers that reminded you of bucky, and one extra special cupcake. When you finish you decide to clean up a bit more and prepare some drinks for later before heading home to get ready. As soon as you got home you took a shower and did the simplest of make up with a light pink lip. You had decided to wear a dress to match the blossoming flowers that spring had brought. Pink with a yellow lace trim and flowers embroided all over the dress, matching it with some yellow flats.

You had decided that it was a perfect day for a walk so you grabbed a light scarf and slung it over your shoulders, grabbed Bucky's cupcakes, and headed over to the bakery. You felt as if a Hundred pounds had been lifted from your shoulders knowing that Bucky had felt the same way about you. You had decided that you would tell him today with your special cupcakes. As you rounded the corner you felt giddy and you couldn't wipe the smile from your face no matter how hard you tried. As you reached the bakery you saw that a majority of the people had already arrived and you knew that it would put Bucky at ease to see all the people enjoying his food. You stopped at the window, closing your eyes to take a deep breath to prepare yourself to join the celebration.

Opening your eyes you reached for the handle only to stop at the sight on the other side of the door. Bucky stood there arms wrapped around a woman eyes locked on hers as he leaned in for a kiss. It must have all happened in about 30 seconds but it felt as if time himself had slowed it down for you to watch the way he tilted her head and ran his tongue along her bottom lip before finally uniting their lips. Your heart dropped as quickly as your smile did and suddenly you felt so stupid for thinking this could be real. You willed yourself not to cry as you allowed your legs to carry you anywhere but there.

That's how you found yourself sitting underneath a blossoming cherry tree. A tree that held only happy memories because it wasn't a place you could be sad... back then. With your back against the tree and box of cupcakes full of unrequited love in your lap you realize how much you over romanticized Bucky. Opening the box you decide it would be a shame to let them go to waste. The first one you grab has a big red heart frosted in the middle, you let out a deep sigh before breaking the cupcake right down the middle. You shove half of the cupcake into your mouth and only then do you allow the tears to fall. You sat there for hours crying eating cupcakes, watching the sunset, and thinking about everything that Bucky did for you, as a friend. You realize you had no right to be angry at Bucky, after all you never told him how you felt you just assumed that he would feel the same way after so many years. With every broken memory another cupcake vanished.

He was always there for you, when no one wanted to come to your slumber party Bucky did and he even did all the girly things with you. Painting your nails, doing your hair, watching chick flicks, and pillow fights. once he even asserted that no one could protect you as well as he could, when you had decided to go camping with your friend from class so he insisted on taking you himself. Your friend was most noticeably gay so you had assumed he wanted to spend time alone with you. But now that you think back on those memories these are things that anyone would do for their bestfriend. And that's what you realized 8 hours and 11 cupcakes later.

The moon floated above you and as it's white rays settled upon the lake you decided it might be time to go home now. You get up and dust your dress off before leaning down to grab the mostly empty box. Turning around you are stopped again by what's in front of you. Bucky stands there brows furrowed as his eyes flash from you to the box in your hands. "Where the hell have you been, I've been calling you all day." swallowing the lump in your throat you go to answer but are interrupted. " everyone's been asking me about you all night and I had no damn idea what to tell them, but apparently you were just out here being inconsiderate. You go and tell me I can do great tonight, that you'd be there for me, but you weren't." You try to answer him but are again interrupted. "You could have told me something earlier instead of leaving me there like a dumb-" "SHUT UP!" this time it was your turn to interrupt him.

Taking a deep breath you look into his eyes before explaining. "Of course I was ready to be there today, you think I wore this dress to sit under a damn tree? Well I didn't. When I left my apartment I was ready and I was excited, so excited. I couldn't even stop smiling on my way over, but then I got to the shop and I saw-" Immediately you stopped as you realized what you were about to say. He cocked an eyebrow and shook his head slightly as if to say 'Hello?' "You saw what? What did you see that would make you abandon ship just like that?" Shame flushed through your being and you could no longer keep eye contact. "Nothing, you know what, it doesn't even matter. I'm sorry I was being dramatic I should have been an adult and dealt with it on my own time. And I'm sorry I abandoned you all, but the night was about you anyways."

"The night was supposed to be about the both of us so it does matter if you saw something that made you want to leave. Just tell me doll, what did you see?" his voice is soft as he pleads with you. "I saw... well I saw you kissing that lady and I just wanted get away and ended up here okay!?" You said it all in a jumble hoping that he wouldn't be able to understand what you had said. But luck wasn't your friend so of course he did. "So seeing me kiss another person was so gross to you that you had to run away, what the hell? are you 13 again?" You hadn't admitted it outloud yet and it seemed that the dumbass in front of you was going to force it out of you.

Stepping around Bucky you pull your scarf tight around your body as you focus on not crying anymore until you get home. You distract yourself by thinking of all the love you saw in all the little things Bucky did for you. Dancing around the newly furnished bakery body against body as frank sinatra brought you heart to heart, watching rom-coms and ugly crying together, but by the time you get home you force yourself to face the ugly truth. The Love was always in your head. It wasn't real.

A new wave of tears blurred your vision as teardrops fell perfectly to the ground. "It's because I have feelings for you Bucky, and I now know you don't feel the same way." Sniffling you don't bother looking up because your heart is to broken for that right now. "I'm Just gonna need a little bit of time and I'll be back good as new like nothing even happened." Still unable to lift your gaze from the ground you decide to focus on the last cupcake left in the box. 'I Love You' is written in tiny light blue frosting letters. "I uhm, uhh." That brought your attention to Bucky, as embarrassment pulsed as strong as ever through your veins. " You don't have to say anything Buck, It's fine, I'll see you next week, on monday" you hand him the box as you go to pass him "I think you would have a better use for this than me I ate 11 others already so."

Divider credits: @firefly-graphics

[catzula]

Focus (on me)

Request (by anon): Congratulations on 400 followers! Can I get Oikawa with 34 from your prompt list? As fluffly as possibe and maybe lil suggestive please :)) THANK YOU!

A/N: Of course, and thank you sm for participating in the event! This was so much fun to write ngl since I’m in love with this dude, like I can’t even explain. I hope you like this!

Warnings: one curse word, is it suggestive? jelaous Oikawa beware / first time I wrote something this short, it’s 1.3k

Synopsis: Your boyfriend isn’t very happy about you spending so much time on a school project with this guy, and he is determined to get your attention somehow

( [F/N] stands for friend/name! )

You didn't know why your teachers were suddenly obsessed with making break-out rooms or group projects, but it was getting frustrating at this point. 

You had at least two projects from almost every subject, and you never even found the idea amusing or rational. Group projects were time-consuming, annoying, and especially hard for socially anxious people. 

You were at least glad that you were paired with someone you knew this time, unlike your past two experiences of being paired with people you only knew by name and nothing else. So it might've been true that you were a little more enthusiastic about working with [F/N] since you always liked him a bit more than you did others.

You both got along perfectly, had much in common, and you often found yourself bursting into laughter at something he said, laughing till your stomach ached. 

Of course, none of this went missing from your boyfriend, Oikawa. 

At first, he was also glad you finally got to do a project with someone you liked. He laughed when you laughed, watching you with a warm gaze as he sat in the corner of the room till you finished the project or said it was enough for the day so you could go cuddle watch a movie with your boyfriend after.

But then he noticed your meetings started to get longer and longer, well aware of how you often swayed from work and had a conversation instead. And when you weren't on a zoom meeting with him, Oikawa found you texting each other. Of course, it was nothing serious, harmless, friendly texts and memes (he had to admit the guy had taste... the memes were hilarious), and it was mostly about school or how you were doing. And even though knowing all that couldn't stop him from getting jealous, he couldn't simply go and tell you he was jealous, could he? 

So he decided to solve this his way.

"Hey babe," Oikawa entered your room, his voice loud and the word 'babe'  emphasized so the guy could hear clearly. "Oh, hey, Tooru." You answered back. You were sitting on your bed as you took notes to the notebook next to you. The guy was also doing the same on the other side of the screen.

Even though you didn't greet him back with 'babe' like he hoped you would, he was still grateful for the smile you offered him. "Are you still working on the project? The one about that book you read? What was its name again... Brother's something?"

"Brother's Karamazov." The guy corrected Oikawa, causing him to make a face as he wrinkled his nose in distaste. "Yeah, that." Oikawa muttered as he settled beside you on the bed.

"Tooru? Did something happen?" You couldn't help but finally ask when he stood quiet and watched you and your friend work, pouting or huffing whenever he talked. 

"No? Does something needs to happen when I visit my girlfriend?" Your boyfriend protested (once again emphasizing the girlfriend part), taking your free hand between his larger ones as he played with your fingers. "Well, no, but I've never seen you so interested in my projects." You told him with a giggle, smiling softly when he started to draw hearts on your hand with his fingers.

"Well, maybe not your projects, but I'm interested in you." He muttered to you with that look that sent shivers down your spine. "Tooru!" You told him with widened eyes, your gaze flicking to your screen in embarrassment. 

"What are you doing?" You hissed between your teeth when he leaned even more towards you, causing your friend to fake a cough in awkwardness. "I'm just showing what's mine." Your boyfriend growled back, only then making you realize what this sudden possessive behavior was.

"Tooru?" You snickered, not able to suppress your mischievous smile, "are you, perhaps, jelaous?"

"Do I look jealous?" He asked, but the angry look in his eyes had already answered for him. "I'm sure he got it." You whispered, "Just let us do the project, 'kay?"

Even though a pout formed on your boyfriend's lips to your answer, he still shook his head and retracted a bit further away from you, not, however, dropping your hand.

"Um, where were we again?" You asked embarrassedly, since, even though you acted like it didn't, your boyfriend had affected you a lot. "We were talking about (...)"

"Oh, yeah. So as an argument to that, we could say-" You hitched a breath in when you felt something soft and warm on the tip of your fingers, something that oddly reminded you of Tooru's lips. You sent a glance at him, only to meet with his dark brown eyes, looking at you sneakily despite the innocent smile on his lips your fingers were tracing, and knowing damn well what he was doing.

"What?" He asked innocently. "You should concentrate, baby."

You cleared your throat, "Y-yeah, um, as I said, we can argue about how in Dimitri's trial, Foyodor... Um, I- I mean-" You gritted your teeth at the soft lips tracing your fingers, leaving trails of kisses on your palm and wrist, climbing it's way up.

This was torture. Pure torture, how you didn't know where the next kiss was going to be, how slow and soft he was kissing you, how you needed to focus but couldn't, and that was exactly what Tooru wanted.

"Tooru!" You whined, turning your microphone off, when his lips climbed up your arm, getting closer and closer to your neck. "What? I'm not doing anything!" He protested. "And you should be focusing." He emphasized the word focus. 

Yes, focus. Focus on me. Oikawa thought as he smiled slyly and kept climbing your arm with kisses that drew you mad. 

"Hey, Y/N- are you okay? You sound a little... flustered. We can do this later, too." Your friend told you, of course, Oikawa purposefully stood out of the frame, so your friend only saw you.

"Yeah, Y/N, are you okay?" Oikawa asked, looking at you from underneath his lashes, his lips now almost on your shoulder. 

"I'm- I'm okay, let's continue." You gritted your teeth as you turned your microphone on, hoping Oikawa would stop before he moved even further since if he even moved an inch, your friend would be able to see him and his mischievous smile, something Oikawa had wanted from the start.

You held your breath when Oikawa's lips traced your shoulder, making you shudder under his touch, his now a few shades darker eyes locked on your computer screen, at your friend who was watching him with widened eyes and a red face.

"I- um, this is probably not a right time, so maybe we should postpone..." your friend muttered, making the lips that were now on your neck thug upwards.

"I'm- you're right, I'm sorry about this- hey!" You warned your boyfriend when he bit the soft skin of your neck, but you heard him giggle in answer. 

"I'm gonna get back at you for this, asshole." You told him just before his lips closed on yours and made you gasp under his touch. Eyes automatically closing and arms wrapping his neck as you pulled him closer, you had already forgotten your friend's presence, melting into the kiss. But Oikawa was more than aware of him watching you with widened eyes, and even though he loved to see the defeated look in his eyes, this cute, flustered face of yours was only for him to see. 

So without breaking your lips apart, Oikawa averted his eyes to the screen, a snicker making him smile into the kiss as he clicked the red button, finally able to give you his full attention.

[sillytaetime]

Died Out; K.YY ff

Desc:// Maybe things would have worked out... as long as the flame hadn't died out.

Warnings:// none, really. This one isn't suggestive even a little bit. It'd just a cute lil fluffy relationship until the end with the break up and all, that's angsty and kinda triggering so you have been warned!

Pairings:// bf!Yugyeom x reader

WC://569

97 liners

Navigation

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There was only one thing that could heal a broken heart. Time, right? No. Sex.

I'm kidding. Time really does make a difference. I spent time figuring out who I was since the break up.

It was kinda nice this way. I'd gotten so used to having someone with me all the time I forgot how it felt to have company in myself. Did I miss Jungkook? Initially, yes. But I'm happy now.

I've found myself and along the way, I made myself a best friend. But that didn't last long til we were trying to suck each other's face off.

--

*Buzz buzz*

"Mm- oh, yug, I gotta take this. I'll be right back!" I gave him a quick peck on the lips.

Yugyeom and I were quite quick into this relationship... but I think there's good reason for that. We have great chemistry. We never fight and we make time for each other.

"Ok, im back. Sorry about that." "It's alright baby. Was is work again?" "Yeah. They want me to come in." "You should go. I know you want to." "But I wanted this day with you.." "We have tomorrow babe. I'm not going anywhere." "You're right. I'll text you later. Love you." "I love you too."

--

Ok so I guess I need to fill you in. I was 13 when Jungkook and I broke up. I'm 18, almost 19 now. Yugeyom and I have been together for 3 of those years.

I'm so blessed to have Yug in my life. He's the sweetest, cutest, sexiest guy I've ever met.

[3 months later]

It's August 13, my birthday!

I woke up to a text from yugyeom. "Hey, wake up sleepy head. Be ready by 8, we have a big day ahead of us!" I smile at his text. "Happy birthday btw!"

It's currently 7:42am so I just throw my haur in a messy bun and put on a pair of leggings and a crop top. At 8 sharp, I hear Yugyeoms horn outside my house. I slip on my shoes and head out the door.

--

"Wow, yug. This is beautiful!" "I knew you'd like it." He smiled down at me. The rest of the day we walked around town, watched a movie, got coffee and cake at the cafe... it was perfect. Except for one thing... My heart wasn't fluttering at all. Not even when we held hands... he smiled at me.. when we kissed... nothing.

I figured sleeping on it would be best. I let yugyeom stay over that night and he woke me up with breakfast in bed. "It's your favorite!" "Oh, thank you baby!" I smile so he doesn't think anything wrong. It's weird still no butterflies.

[2 months later]

I'm going to break up with Yugyeom. It's been 2 months and I no longer feel the flame between us. I texted yugyeom about 5 minutes ago to meet me at the park. I've just arrived and I see yugyeom on a bench.

"Hey... yug." "Hey babe, whats wrong? You look sad." "Yeah. I am.. We need to talk." "What about?" "Ok, im just going to cut to the chase. We need to break up." "What? Babe why?" "I've fallen out of love." I didn't even want to hear what he had to say it hurt too much for me to confess this.

For a week, I received texts from yugyeom. And then they stopped.

Maybe we were temporary. It's time to move on. With time, I guess our flame... died out

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Ik this seems rushed, but that how I wanted it to seem and I wanted to keep it short. That probably makes it a really bad fan fic but I hope you liked it regardless. I'm working on a larger project about JK (aside from 97 line) and it's taking up a lot of time to even come up with a plot. I hope you guys look forward to my other works new reactions coming soon!

Requests are always open!

[helloquotemyfoot]

QUOTE!!! 😍 12, 17, 21 for the weird writing asks. Any or all if you want. <3

Sorry this is a bit late!!

12. If a genie offered you three writing wishes, what would they be? Btw if you wish for more wishes the genie turns all your current WIPs into Lorem Ipsum, I don’t make the rules

Okay wow this is mean, I can only have three? Ughhh okay I think my wishes would be 1) better focus because I'm always flicking between different WIPs and struggle to get anything done! 2) ability to write more in one go, I'm often frustrated by not being able to write more than a paragraph or two in one sitting! >.< I know it could always be worse, but a slightly larger consistent output would be nice! And I think wish 3) would be a better ability to chop enormous fic ideas down to a respectable size. I'm not even asking to not get the absurd epic-length ideas that would take most people a lifetime to write, just to be better to rationing them down to bare essentials so they're completeable in a reasonable time!

Any genies out there bored? Please? 🥺🙏

17. Talk to me about the minutiae of your current WIP. Tell me about the lore, the history, the detail, the things that won’t make it in the text.

Haha sorry this one is going to be a disappointing answer because I'm not really good at these sorts of questions! There's always too much and too little to talk about at the same time... way too much to squeeze into one tumblr post but I'm also simultaneously like "uh. I made up a book in one chapter. and someone who wrote a response to the book" lol.

I guess my favourite bit of lore is Brigid transitioning out of a tanistry system similar to medieval Ireland, which is simultaneously how Petra is the heir apparent and her position isn't secure. But whilst that didn't make it into the WIP, I already did a lore dump author's note about that XDDD

21. Could you ever quit writing? Do you ever wish you could? Why or why not?

Honestly yeah there are absolutley times I've wished to quit writing. Last year (or was it 2020? I think it was 2020 actually. Time is a lie), I really genuinely did try to quit for good. I stopped writing, and I think told a few people to tell me to stop if I mentioned starting again. By that point I was just absolutely sick of getting into cycles of feeling awful about my writing, feeling it was stupid and useless and I was doing it all wrong and so on, which was something that happened several times a year at that point, and sometimes it felt like that feeling went on for months. I stopped wanting to feel that way, so I tried to cut out the main thing that was making me feel that way, which was writing.

Obviously, that didn't really stick, even though it hasn't been smooth sailing from then either. To be honest, I think I'm still affected from a period of bad burnout back in early 2019 and I'm not fully recovered yet, and maybe I never will be. Most of those genie wishes? Are basically just wishing to go back to my pre-2019 self when I could write a lot more, a lot more consistently, and because my output was greater, it wasn't such a chore to stay focused on one project long enough to finish it (oneshots to short multi chapter works), which increased motivation, because I was finishing more things, etc. I went from thinking of 20k fics as "short" things that could be completed in a little over a month if I knuckled down, to having to drop to a schedule for my main WIP (this is just within the past year) of only being able to write one 4-6k chapter per month on average, whilst still feeling like I had no energy to work on other things and I didn't get a break from it. And even that after a while became too much and I just had to take a hiatus from that fic, which could still be a permanent hiatus even though I hope it won't be. The difference in my abilities is staggering even years later and I constantly find myself frustrated and sometimes really disheartened by how little I can do compared to what I used to be able to do, never mind when I think of other people who write even more than that. (Before anyone says anything, no, it's not outside responsibilities, if anything I have way more free time and fewer stressors than I did back in 2019.) Burn out is not a joke.

But I don't want this to just be negative so I'll also talk about what's helped me move past the burn out to an extent as well. Part of feeling better about coming back to writing over the past year and a half or so has been coming to terms with why I am writing and no longer letting people impose expectations on why I should be writing from the outside. Trying to "write for myself", a phrase that has never made any sense to me, just led to me becoming increasingly frantic and self-loathing as I tried to find the recipe to Write The Correct Way. I did not and have never had the internal id or voice that other people seem to have which tells me what I "want" to write, so I do not instinctively "know" how to write for myself, even though this is the expectation created by that phrase. Nor do I get any pleasure out of writing what I want to read, another thing people say they mean by "writing for yourself". Sure, I sometimes enjoy reading back things I've already written, but it's not WHY I put myself through all that hard work and annoyance, there are plenty of stories that I don't write and will never write because I enjoy playing them over in my head well enough - I don't need to have a story on paper to enjoy it.

Actually just admitting and saying with my whole chest "yeah, I write for engagement. Deal with it" has been a lot healthier for me. I write because it's the way I engage with fandom as I'm not very good at doing other things to engage with fandom (I struggle with essays and putting down character analysis, can't make art or gifs, and I'm bad at just having conversations with people) and it's a good way to hear what people think of my ideas and characterisations, things I don't really have other ways of talking about. So just saying this is my reason for writing, being self-aware about it, has given me confidence to push back against the universal idea that you should "write for yourself" and I no longer feel like I'm broken or wrong for not writing fanfic the way that other people write it. Because I'm not trying to fit a square peg mindset into a round motivation hole (that metaphor works, right? Right???) I just feel a lot happier in general and I can actually maintain more self-awareness about how I'm feeling about writing, such as realising I'm getting a bit overwhelmed by my main WIP and deciding to take a break, when I'm not taking these things as signals I have not yet found The Perfect Way I Should Be Writing and so I should keep going.

To bring this back to the original question, whilst I have tried to quit/want to quit writing many times, I've never actually been able to and I don't really think that I actually can. I've been writing for about 15 years now if not a bit longer, and I think when the writing bug grabs you, it really grabs you. I don't know if this is the case for anybody else, but I genuinely feel that writing and writing fanfiction in particular has changed the way I look at the world and other media. I approach everything with a more analytical mindset, which I suppose to some people sounds un-fun, but to me it's not un-fun at all, it only makes every piece of media more fun to experience and re-experience because I can see how all the parts of it fit together...... or don't fit together in the place of plot holes or similar, but honestly, there's usually joy even in that, in noticing a plot hole but realising that in the context of the moment, in the emotions and the characters, the plot hole doesn't actually matter, it doesn't take away from the culmination of the character arc (or whatever) at all. It makes every new piece of media a chance to experience new inspiration and get new ideas, which are fun to play with even if I never end up writing them. And not just stories, but all kinds of aspects of real life can provide this inspiration. It's joyful, and it's something that's so intricately linked to my writing, that it's not something I can turn off, and equally, it's something that keeps bringing me back to writing and storytelling. So I might regret saying this, but no, I don't think I could ever quit writing any more.

All asks from THIS post.

[driversmutbucket]

Just read the "knowing other people can hear" with Charlie prompt. OH. MY. LORT. So thank you for that, and for ruining my ovaries with "she'll just be hoping that I'm knocking you up..." *Pant* 🥵 That being said, I would LOVE your take on Charlie's reaction to a pregnancy. Is he nervous? Over the moon? Does the thought of reader carrying his baby get him riled up? Thank you for sharing this wealth of smut. You are a gift ❤️

Thoughts-

Ummmm I feel like we would be great friends. RIP ovaries.

Thanks for the lovely words about my pornnnn

Ohmygodddd sweet Charlie would be absolutely FIZZING.

I though I was gonna reply to this real quick, but alas a few days later- an entire fic.

Let me indulge you.

Warnings: pregnancy, pregnancy sex, oral sex, daddy kink/DDLG (I’m so fucking predictable), NSFW

Charlie never thought he would have the opportunity to be a father again. When you had met each other he was 35, Henry was starting school, he mournfully thought that chapter of his life was over.

Meeting you had been unexpected, in the best way. It started as nothing serious- both having recently come out of messy break ups, but flourished into a committed relationship over the space of a year.

After two years together it happened, by accident. It was a few weeks after Charlie’s 37th birthday. You had felt odd. After a week of persistent symptoms, that google told you could be pregnancy, you had picked up a pregnancy test, heart hammering in your ears.

You has sat in the bathroom dazed for a solid half an hour, the positive test held in your hand.

You scrolled through your contacts and called Nicole.

Charlie and his ex-wife Nicole, despite a stressful and emotional divorce, were on good terms. The first blended family Christmas you had shared, you had clicked. Which, frankly was very helpful, considering your involvement in Henry’s life. Now you talked regularly, and shared in the marvel that was Henry.

The moment she had answered you had burst into tears. They weren’t particularly sad tears, more- overwhelmed tears. She had calmed you, soothed you, her own voice wavered when she processed that Henry would have a sibling.

“Charlie is the best pregnancy and birth partner you could hope for y/n, oh my god, he is going to be so excited.” She had breathed wistfully, perhaps remembering back to her own experience.

That night, you had told Charlie to close his eyes and hold out his hand. He had done so with a questioning smile. You had placed the positive test in his hand, heart pounding, and told him to open his eyes.

He looked at it, then to you, then back at it before letting a laugh of disbelief, “Babe?!”

“I’m pregnant.” You had smiled, anxiety easing.

“Fuck!” He had shouted, grinning, throwing his hands up in the air, before engulfing you in the tightest hug.

His eyes had been filled with tears when he let you go. “Henry is going to be a big brother, I-...you-! This is amazing, i fucking love you so much.”

By this point you had your own tears running down your face, laughing at the state of you both.

—

The last 6 months had flown by. You had found out the gender at the earliest possible point. Both far too excited to wait until the birth. At 15 weeks you had gone in for a scan, breath held as the ultrasound technician inspected the baby.

Tears were threatening to spill even before the technician announced that you were expecting a boy.

Charlie had cupped your face and kissed your lips softly, his own eyes glassy. “Another boy” he had murmured, face glowing with pride.

Henry was almost beside himself with excitement. He had stayed with you over some of the summer break. Every other sentence began with, “When my baby brother....”

Even now he rang almost every night from his mom’s house, asking how the baby was.

Your body had changed rapidly over the last 6 months to accommodate the new life growing inside. Everything was fuller, curvier.

Charlie thought you looked sexier than ever. You kind of didn’t get it, but you happily took it and reaped the rewards.

Rewards being his hands all over you, all the time. His sex drive doubling, if not tripling. Then there were the words he would whisper in your ear, anywhere, anytime that never failed to fluster you.

“You look so fucking sexy, round with our baby.” He would growl, hands roaming up over your hips, grazing the underside of your full breasts before splaying over your large belly.

—

Tonight you were going out for dinner. Henry had not long returned to Nicole’s, the house now to yourself, you had devilish plans to seduction.

You had ordered pregnancy lingere online, and you had to admit, it was hot. The completely sheer baby pink bodysuit had a deep v neckline, your breasts which were large and swollen only just contained by the thin fabric. It was a thong bodysuit, showing your ample bottom in a way that had you saying silent thanks to the pregnancy weight you had gained.

You made sure to pull on your dress and stockings before Charlie could see.

The dress was a recent purchase, having finally given into maternity clothing, everything in your closet far too small to accommodate the bump.

Your OBGYN had told you at your last appointment that your little boy was 99th percentile in size. You had shot Charlie a look of horror.

“I’m not that surprised considering how tall his father is.” the doctor had smiled, “he will certainly be a big boy, I would say at this rate, 9lbs or more.”

“Oh course you would knock me up with a mini version of yourself.” You had huffed on the way home, “this kid is gonna wreck me.”

Consistent with his projected size, your bump was larger than most, people often mistaking you for further along. “Nope he is just huge.” You would sigh, giving Charlie the side eye, he would grin in return.

The dress was navy blue, and stretched, ruching nicely over your belly before ending mid calf.

“Is that new?” Charlie asked as he walked into the bedroom.

“Mmm yeah, because unfortunately wearing your clothing isn’t an option in this instance.” You shot him a sly smile.

Have exhausted your own wardrobe of options a few weeks ago you had moved to Charlie’s, which he had no complaint about. In fact it was added to the mile-long list of current turn-on’s.

“As much as love seeing that belly fill out my clothes, this is very nice.” He chuckled, coming in behind you as you stood at the full length mirror, kissing the top of your head and patting your bottom.

-

You dozed in the uber on the way home. Charlie had had a few wines and was having an enthusiastic conversation with the driver.

He led you through the door close to midnight, when you got to the bedroom you kicked your shoes off.

“Can you undress me?” You asked innocently.

Bless him, he was none the wiser as he reached for the hem of your dress and began peeling it off and over your head.

His eyes widened as he tossed the dress aside and took in the lingere.

“Fuck— what is this?” His voice was an octave lower, fingers tracing the neckline.

You bit your lip. “A little something for you.”

“Can you take off my stockings baby?” You asked as you turned around and bent yourself over, planting your hands on the bed.

The position gave him a view of the back of the bodysuit, the thong, beneath the stocking.

“Fuck.” he groaned, finding the waistband and rolling them off you slowly, until he was knelt down, helping you step out of them.

“Stay like that.” He murmured, running his hands up your legs, until then got to your ass, where he smacked both cheeks at the same time with splayed hands.

You let out a throaty moan.

His lips grazed the red marks that lingered, your breathing growing erratic as his mouth got closer to your sex.

“Always so wet.” He hummed. Pushing aside the thin strip of fabric.

You gasped as his tongue began to circle your entrance.

“Hhnnnghh Charrrrrrlie.” You pushed your hips back, into his face, spurring him on as he licked through your folds to your aching nub. His nose providing additional stimulation as it dragged.

His mouth, that magic mouth, had you gripping the sheets and whimpering.

He paused and stood you up from where he knelt, making adjusting your legs so they were hip width apart.

He sat on his feet and went back to work, your hips automatically began rocking against his mouth.

When you looked down you couldn’t see much, your belly obscuring what was probably an orgasm inducing view.

Your hand found his hair and gripped a handful as your moans became louder.

“Charlie— holy hell— I—” you babbled, before orgasming on his face, hips stuttering.

“Oh my god.” You breathed, stepping back and finding the edge of the bed before your legs gave out.

You gazed at him, kneeling there, hair touseled, face wet with your slick.

He stood and began stripping wordlessly, trousers bulging with evidence of his arousal.

You stood up, as he stepped towards you, and pulled him in for a hungry kiss. His hands roamed, teasing your nipples through the sheer fabric.

He broke the kiss. “As much as I love this little number, I need to take it off.” He said with a smirk.

“And then what?” You asked innocently, looking up at him through your lashes.

“You know very well what, little girl.” He rumbled, sliding into his role seemlessly.

“I don’t Daddy, you have to tell me.” You pouted.

He chuckled, as he began to peel off the lingere, your heavy breasts finally free from the constructing garment.

He made a primal rumbling sounds in his chest as his hand took your tits and kneaded them.

“Well little one, Daddy is going to undress you, and then you are going to be a good girl and sit on Daddies cock, ok?”

You nodded eagerly, “that’s my good girl” he hummed, pulling the lingere the rest of the way off so it fell to your feet, kicking it aside.

He got onto the bed and knelt, sitting on his feet, eyes fiery with desire as he looked at you.

“Look at you, so beautiful carrying Daddies baby. Come here.” He patted his thigh.

You got onto the bed and crawled over to him before shimmying back onto his thighs, your back to his chest.

He guided your hips up, teasing your entrance with the head of his cock.

“Please.” You whimpered.

“Please, what? He growled in your ear.

“Please Daddy.”

“Good girl.”

He pulled your hips down onto his cock, filling you to the hilt with a loud moan.

You cried out in pleasure, this angle had quickly become a favorite in pregnancy.

He helped you move, one hand under your bottom, the other cradling your tummy lovingly.

“Oh fuck Charlie.” You murmured, roleplay forgetten as you lost yourself in the dragging of his cock.

He moaned into your neck, you reached behind your head, gripping his hair, your back arching slightly.

“Y/n” He breathed, nibbling your ear, “you gonna cum for me babe?”

You whimpered, nodding, his hand cradling your belly moving down to seek out your needy clit.

He circled it slowly, relishing the sound of your long, low moans.“OhOh— right there.”

You arched your back, pushing down against him with your hips, driving his cock as deep inside you as you could. He responded by firmly and quickly rubbing your clit, sending you over the edge in a matter of seconds.

He came with a groan as your inner walls strangled his cock, milking every last drop of cum.

You relaxed against him, panting and grinning, his cock still snuggly inside you. He rolled you both, carefully so you were laying, spooning as he stretched his legs.

His hands rubbed your belly, soon after your son began to kick enthusiastically.

“Little tyrant.” You muttered, eyelids getting heavy.

“Him or me?” Charlie joked, hand moving in circulation motions over his little kicks.

—

[bluerosewritings]

Cat Naps | Leona Kingscholar x Reader

[Happy birthday Leona! 🥳]

—

This week was not your week. On top of the usual headache caused by Grimm and Ace's constant fights, both Professor Crewel and Professor Trein decided it would be a great time to set a giant project each, both due in two weeks. This would've been fine if you were able to actually concentrate on your work but some certain dorm ghosts had decided you were getting off a little lightly from their usual antics and had made your home life a prank-filled hell. You'd hoped it was only for last weekend, however they'd continued on into this week, causing you to have to stay in the library until late to get any sort of progress in your work before inevitably returning to an onslaught of pranks that had messed your sleep schedule up pretty much beyond repair.

Was it really only halfway through the week? You couldn't tell anymore. Desperately trying to rub the sleep out of your eyes, you clutched your books to your chest (this morning’s prank had been to fill your bag with all your textbooks, which you hadn’t realised until the bag’s now-broken strap had hit you in the face) and tried not to bump into any walls on your way to Mr. Vargas' class.

The reason you were alone right now was due to Grimm and Ace having another fight that escalated - under normal circumstances, you would've been the one to stop things getting as far as they did, but since you were too preoccupied with trying not to face-plant into your lunch Deuce had tried to break them up, only to get dragged into the fight as well. One thing led to another and soon the whole cafeteria was involved in a food fight (excluding Pomefiore, who were screeching about food stains). The fight was eventually broken up by Professor Crewel, who dragged off your friends to explain the whole thing to Crowley.

While you felt bad for your friends, you were at least glad for a moment of silence. So hearing your name being called immediately switched your neutral mood to a bad one.

"(y/n)!" You recognised a certain hyena's voice as you turned around to glare at him. "Ah... you okay?"

You sighed, pushing some hair out of your face. "Tired. Is there something you need, Ruggie?"

"Er, yeah," Ruggie said, somewhat surprised at your short answer, "your next class is Mr. Vargas, right?"

You nodded.

"Savanaclaw's Magift team was meant to be doing a demonstration-" you nodded, remembering Jack mentioning that earlier today, "-but Leona's bunked. I was on my way to get him, but it'd be a lot better if you could. I'll explain to Mr. Vargas why you're running late, so please?"

You weighed up your options. Vargas could always ignore what Ruggie had told him and give you a detention anyways... But if you did fetch Leona and Vargas didn’t want to make your life such even more, you'd have some more silence to calm down your headache and you wouldn't have to wear yourself out as much during PE. Plus, even if Vargas did decide to screw you over, being in detention would be a good opportunity to catch up on work with no distractions...

"Sure." You agreed.

"Ah, thanks! He's-"

"-botanical gardens, I know." You waved a hand dismissively. "No promises he'll actually come, though."

Those last words were mostly spoken to yourself as the hyena had sprinted off the second he knew you knew where to go. Taking a moment to massage your temple, you turned on your heels and walked towards Leona's napping spot.

—

The humidity of the gardens was not helping your need to pass out. Pushing down the urge to find your own spot to nap in, you made your way to his spot.

"Leona?" You called out, looking around. "Leona? You've got the Magift demonstration-"

You froze, feeling something under your foot. Looking down in dread, you saw it was the one thing you hoped it wouldn't be - Leona's tail.

You watched as it flinched and curled upwards, towards the rest of the man of the hour. A low growl reached your ears. Turning to your head up to look past his waist, you watched as Leona pushed himself up, glaring at you with a predator’s glint in his eyes.

"Magift demonstration," was the only thing you could say, "with Mr. Vargas - Ruggie sent me..."

Your words trailed off as you felt Leona's murderous intent grow larger. Fighting the urge to take a step back, you tried to keep eye contact.

Leona clicked his tounge. "The hell kind of wake up is this? You step on my tail, then try to make me do something? You've got some nerve, herbivore."

As he spoke, he rose of the ground and slowly approached you. His large frame cast a shadow over you, continuing to glare with his emerald eyes seemingly glowing. His tail, now seemingly recovered, lightly swatted your leg as if in warning.

Despite every muscle in your body screaming at you to run, you matched his glare with one of your own. "Look, it's not my fault you're too lazy to remember your own schedule. Just hurry up already."

Leona raised an eyebrow. "Whatever. At least I'm not about to fall over."

"What?"

"You look half-dead, idiot."

"I'm fine," you snap, "let's go."

You turn around, ready to walk away (with or without Leona at this point - detention be damned) when a hand grabbed you by the elbow. A yelp escapes your lips as you get dragged backwards, falling against the ground. Momentarily distracted by the sight of your books scattered on the ground in front of you, you didn’t notice Leona’s arms wrap around your waist until they were pulling you into his chest.

"Wha- let me go!" You say, trying to twist out of Leona's arms. At first glance they seemed to be loose but the more you fought, the tighter they seemed to become. Soon you’d turned around to face the Savanaclaw dorm head but his hold had gotten so tight you couldn’t move anymore. It didn’t stop you from trying though, as you used your hands to try to push his chest away.

"Stop moving." Leona growled in your ear, the warm air making you flinch.

You tried to turn your head to look better at him, ignoring the feeling of his lips brushing against your cheek. "Leona, we've got class!"

"So what?" Did his hold just get even tighter?

"Even if you want to bunk, I don't! I can't stay here! Let me go!"

"Shut up. You need sleep more than I do."

"I don't care! Let me-"

Leona placed one hand to the back of your head, pushing yours closer to his. "Be quiet, or I'll make you be quiet."

Before you could ask what he meant, his lips ghosted across yours, followed by a feeling of what was definitely a tongue dart across them. A blush spread across your cheeks. Leona smirked at your expression, pulling you closer and dug his head into the nape of your neck.

"Good herbivore."

Heart thudding, you opened your mouth to say something - anything - in retaliation, only to realise he'd already fallen asleep.

Seriously!? You yelled in your head. Fighting against the temptation to wake him up, you sighed, trying to figure out a way to get out of his grasp without waking him up. Judging by how tight his grip was, even in sleep he was determined to keep you as his body pillow. Why was he interfering anyway? It’s not his job to watch over your health! He should’ve kept his nose out!

Then again, you did need sleep, desperately... No! You'd get a week's worth of detentions if you skipped Mr. Vargas' class - or worse, he'd make you help out on the fields! ...But then again, the botanical gardens were just the right temperature... and the sound of Leona's breathing was oddly soothing... and Leona's chest was surprisingly comfortable to lay your head on...

—

"Leonaaaa? (y/n)?" Ruggie called out. "Where are- oh."

Ruggie wasn't surprised to see Leona still napping on the floor. What he was surprised to see was you snuggled up against him, Leona’s tail curling around your legs, arms around one another and your foreheads resting on the other’s. Your faces were so peaceful, he couldn't help but smirk.

The smart thing for him to do would be to walk away and pretend he never saw anything. Then again... a little blackmail never hurt anybody, did it?