#just showing my process since I feel a bit accomplished with the shape already

[l0ganberry]

So this is what they mean by "Trust the process".......

[spooky-pop]

Hi!!! I absolutely love your art style so much, it’s what I aspire to be able to do someday. I want to eat it.

On a side note, I find it fascinating how neat and cleaned up all your characters are. The character designs stay very proportional even with all the angles. I wanted to ask how you manage that? What methods do you use?

I’m not sure if you’ve already been asked this, as I’m fairly new to your blog. But I’m just so curious! I’d love to be able to use different methods

Thank you so much, that means a lot to me!! I'm happy to hear you enjoy my drawings! <3

So my background is in character design, and that plays a huge part into how I tackle drawing characters or even designing new ones. I was thinking about making image examples for this ask, but since I get asked about trolls and my drawing style quite a bit, I'm working on making a post eventually tackling all these questions! But, I can gladly explain my thought process/journey to getting to this point.

When I start sketching, it usually starts as a very rough page of various poses and figures until I can get to the sketch I want to work with. I think a common issue I notice is some artists will get caught up in the details too early, and the most important thing is to get that structure down! I will loosely scribble and sketch until I get to something I can work with. Then I start refining, fixing anatomy, scale. Be messy with it! Who cares if it's ugly and imperfect, it feels good to just let yourself sketch. It's in this process where I can determine if an idea is working, or just not working at all. Also when refining, I use guidelines/a grid to help make proportions and height more accurate.

I will always say this but when I started drawing trolls, I had no idea what I was doing. Drawing consistently has absolutely helped me improve, and it took a lot of bad and good drawings to get there. Personally, I went back to the movies and shows to gather so much ref material, I would screenshot these characters from every and any angle to study and practice. I even screencapped directly from the video game too by rotating the camera around to see the angles I wanted to try lol! Don't be afraid to trace screencaps too. Because tracing will help your brain really retain the angles and shapes you're trying to accomplish! I did that a LOT with Branch because I struggled with drawing him so so much.

I'm at a point where after relying so heavily on refs and practicing so much, I can confidently draw trolls from memory. But I always use references to polish and correct, to really tie it together. That's what really helps keep the consistency from drawing to drawing!

This is not the best explanation but, I DO have a post with images coming eventually to fully explain and demo how I draw characters. :) So I will absolutely be breaking this down better with a visual guide.

[natsbaby]

I have a request:) for Natasha x Reader. So basically Nats a very composed person never one to stutter or show a soft side, first time she sees you she’s immediately zoning out when you try to greet her she doesn’t say anything first because she’s so caught by you’re beauty when she finally greets back she just ends up stuttering over her words and starts flushing trying to hide her embarrassment. The avengers immediately take notice of this and starts teasing her like every hour of the day because every time she’s around you she keeps getting flustered and keeps stuttering when you talk to her, she will be so embarrassed sometimes by the teasing that she just ends up threatening everyone with a red face and because of that they will just keep going. Yeah basically just a bunch of fluff in the end you kiss her because you like her too obviously.

Angel

Pairing: Natasha Romanoff x Angel!Reader

Summary: Nat has a crush on you but she has no idea how to deal with it, would you do something about it?

Requested: yes! Thank you for being my first request!

Warnings: none

A/N: well technically I can do requests if people ask and since this is my first request, I really hope you like it!! I wanted to create a small storyline just to keep things interesting but I hope I didnt stray too far from your original idea HAHA! Thank you so much and I hope you enjoy!!

“Ah perfect everyone’s here!” Tony notices as he enters the living room area, smiling at the team.

“What’s up Stark?” Steve asks as he sits up a little from his position on the couch where he was playing a bit of chess with Bucky.

“I’m glad you asked” Tony started as he grins, scaring everyone in the room.

“Stark I swear to God if this is one of those-“ Nat warns Tony, getting cut off by his reassurance that it’s gonna be fine.

“Trust me! I feel like you’d like this” he chuckles as he heads to the kitchen and grabbing an apple.

“My best friend’s coming to visit from London, I offered the Avengers Compound for her stay and she’d only agree if everyone’s okay with it” he explains and takes a bite from his apple, showing your profile using a hologram. “You might wanna see her profile before you decide”

Everyone walks up to the hologram and notices your long line of accomplishments despite only being in your early 20s. Nat especially notices your picture, staring at how absolutely gorgeous you are. She notices how you’re currently in med school but on the way to residency already at the age of 23. Impressed, she reads further into your file and gasps a little at what she read.

“Ah, you noticed Romanoff?” Tony chuckles slightly at the ex assassin’s reaction making everyone look at her.

“She’s not human?” She looks at Tony curiously making everyones eyes widen in shock.

“Well according to her, she’s an angel who was kicked out by her father but I always tell her that she’s a fallen angel… you get it?” Tony grins mischievously as everyone groans from his joke.

“Wow” Nat mutters quietly to herself, very curious on who this person is.

It’s finally the day you’re supposed to arrive when Nat arrives to the compound on her motorcycle, turning the engine off and removing the helmet off her head. She shakes her head to loosen up the curls of her hair as she looks up at the tower. She sighs slightly, not sure on how today will go but she knows that you should be here already.

“Uhm.. excuse me? Sorry to bother” a sweet and angelic voice brings her out of her thoughts as she faces the voice, jaw dropping while accidentally dropping her helmet in the process.

An angel doesn’t even begin to explain to describe who you are. You’re wearing a little sundress that has a sweetheart neckline with a pale yellow and white design of daisies and little straps, and is slightly above your knee. You’re wearing a little black hat thats in the shape of a fedora and matching kitten heels and light makeup to bring the look together while enhancing your already natural beauty.

“You okay?” You look at her curiously, cocking your head to the side slightly. She blinks in response, attempting to put her helmet down to her bike but realizes she dropped it instead. She flushes in embarrassment making you chuckle slightly, bending down to pick it up to help Nat a little and putting it on her bike. “Here, you dropped it.”

Nat flushes even more if possible, clearing her throat slightly. “T-thank you” she winces at her stuttering. “I-i’m sorry what did you say?”

“I was wondering if you know Tony” you smile sweetly at the red head, making the red head’s heart skip a beat. “You’re Y/N?”

Your eyes light up a little, grinning as you nod. “Yea! I’m supposed to be staying here while I’m finding a place on my own” you hear your phone ring, making you look down at your phone and narrowing your eyes a little to read the dark phone due to the sunlight as you answer.

“Y/N/N! Where are you?” You both hear Tony’s voice yell through the phone. You both chuckle slightly, putting Tony on loudspeaker.

“I’m outside Tones, I’m with..” you trail off as you look at Nat, who responds by saying her name to you. “I’m with Natasha” you both love the sound you made while saying Natasha’s name, knowing this is definitely a start of something.

“Alright have Romanoff bring you up ill see you in a bit” Tony ends the call, allowing you to put your phone in your pocket and facing the red head with a smile.

“So you’re the famous Black Widow, Ms. Natasha Romanoff” you tease slightly as Nat chuckles.

“Nat, please. It’s nice to meet you” she smiles shyly making you grin. “You better go ahead though, I have to park my bike anyway”

You nod your ahead, giving Nat a soft kiss on the cheek as a thank you. You smile and wave at her, going inside of the building to meet Tony. Nat’s face turns completely red at the kiss.

She groans a little as she leans back onto her bike, melting into a pile of mush. Nat jolts in shock as she hears a chuckle from behind her, turning to see the witch making her roll her eyes. “What do you want, wicked witch of the west?”

“Hey don’t diss the musical” Wanda teases the ex-assassin as she walks up to Nat, crossing her arms with a smirk gracing her lips. “Who knew the great black widow, known for her skills and seduction, to be horrible at flirting”

“Shut up!!”

It’s been a few days since you’ve arrived to the compound and Nat hasn’t heard the end of the other Avengers’ teasing. No matter where she is or what she’s doing, you’re always there to make her blush and an Avenger to witness and tease her. It has gone to the point that Nat considered bringing a gun or a knife with her wherever she goes in case one of the Avengers decided to tease her one last time.

Nat sighs as she shoves her hands into the front pocket of her hoodie while walking to the living room to see everyone else playing a game with you. She walks up to you as she sits besides you.

“Whatcha playin’?” She asks as she looks over to see a deck of cards.

“UNO” you say with a grin. “Whenever someone loses, they have to do a dare”

Nat hums in thought as Tony shuffles the cards. “You in?” He asks for only to receive a suspicious look from the ex-assassin making him smirk.

“Scared to lose and do a dare?” He taunts the red head and as competitive as she is, agrees to his challenge making everyone else cheer.

He deals the cards to everyone and everyone starts to play. Eventually, it boils down to you, Nat, and Tony. With the three of you being competitive by nature, it was agreed that the next few rounds would be lightning rounds where you’d have to play with speed and accuracy. It surprisingly goes on for some time until eventually you play the wrong card, leading to your lose by the end making you groan at Tony’s cheeky grin.

“Okay Y/N/N, dare time!” Tony smirks while the other Avengers anticipate what he’d give. “Kiss who you think is the most attractive person in the room”

You flush a deep red as everyone cheers at his dare, knowing fully well who you’d kiss. Nat looks at you curiously, anticipating who you’d kiss thinking you’re straight so you might kiss one of the guys. What she didn’t expect is to feel your soft lips pecked gently but quickly against hers, making her gasp with wide eyes as the other Avengers wolf whistles and cheers for you two.

You sit back down embarrassingly, not knowing what she’d do. As you try to cover your face with your sweater, you feel Nat straddle your lap to face you. She gently lifts your chin to meet your eyes with hers as she leans in, and gives you a proper kiss. The other Avengers cheers loudly for the two of you with a mix of ‘took you long enough!’ and ‘pay up!’ with groans mixing in the air as you both pull back.

Nat grins shyly at you, gently cupping your cheek as she rubs the pad of her thumb against your cheek.

“Took us long enough, Angel”

[redrobin-detective]

The late Daniel Fenton

It was shaping up to be a beautiful if chilly December day and Casper High, as always, was bustling. It was 7:49 and class was about to start. The teacher watched the last few kids stumbling in at various levels of wakefulness. He already knew who would be the ones to rush in after the bell but that was alright. Life was too short to stress about being a few minutes late to class, especially in Amity Park of all places.

He looked up to see Madison, one of his shyer students walk in before making a beeline for his desk. She was biting her lip and nervously rubbing her hand down her skirt. “Hey,” she began quietly.

“Good morning. What’s up, Mads?” He asked casually. She looked upset, he could probably put on a video for the class if she needed to talk. They really needed a permanent counselor but the constant ghost attacks ran off most of them so he’d taken up the unofficial mantle. It felt good to help his students like that, make up for past wrongs.

“Are we um, expecting any new students?” She asked, her eyes darting over to the door she’d just come through. “Any transfers, exchange students or anything like that?”

“No,” the teacher frowned. “Amity isn’t the kind of place people transfer into. Why?”

“There’s a kid in the hallway,” she mumbled. “I don’t recognize him, he’s got a backpack and everything but he’s... I don’t know he doesn’t feel right.”

“Oh you’re talking about that weird dark haired kid,” Kyle said as he entered and sat down with a slouch. But even the class slacker looked unusually tense. “Dude’s creepy, can’t put my finger on why but he definitely doesn’t belong.”

“Oh,” was all the teacher had to say. Suddenly he realized how cold the classroom had become, the uncomfortable feeling that was pressing ever so slightly down on them. “I suppose it makes sense, the ghosts have been quiet lately with the Truce and all. He probably got bored.”

“Sir?” Madison said.

“Shannon,” he said instead, looking over at the frizzy haired girl hunched over her sketchbook furiously at work. “Would you do me a favor and move to the vacant seat in the second row? Just for today.”

“What? Why?” the girl whined even as she gathered up her various arts supplies and got ready to move.

“That’s Mr. Fenton’s seat,” he said taking in a deep breath and closing his eyes in preparation for what he was about to see. Danny would come here, of course he would. This was Lancer’s old classroom and Danny had him for first period English Lit. He and Dash both did.

“Mr. Baxter? What’s going on, is it a ghost?” Malik asked from the back row while Shannon shuffled to her new temporary seat.

“Yes but you don’t need to be scared,” he said softly, evenly. “He won’t hurt you.” The bell rang but Dash didn’t start the lesson. Instead, he waited. Danny had never been on time to class the entire time Dash had known him, of course death wouldn’t change that.

“Sorry, I’m late Mr. Lancer,” Dash gripped his desk so he didn’t jump when Danny Fenton simply appeared in front of his desk instead of walking through the door like any other student. “My folks couldn’t drive me, they’re still working on their stupid ghost portal.” A quick glance over at this class showed varying levels of fear, shock and curiosity but they were Amity kids through and through. The cold, powerful energy radiating off Fenton told them it was best to play along with whatever the ghost wanted.

“Perfectly alright Mr. Fenton,” Dash said softly, searching the 14 year old’s perpetually young face. He hadn’t changed a bit since Dash last saw him their second week of freshman year. It seemed unreal seeing how the years had taken their toll on Casper’s favorite son, Dash Baxter. God had they really been that young once? “Take a seat and we’ll get started.”

Danny shrugged and walked over to the seat Shannon had just vacated. He sat just the same, one leg stretched out and the other propped up against the leg of the desk. As soon as he took off the backpack and put it around the chair, it disappeared. He didn’t say anything else, just sat as stared at Dash with piercing blue eyes like he could see right through him.

“We had been talking about the lead up to the Civil War but let’s table that for today,” Dash said, proud his voice only wavered a little. He knew other people had seen Fenton around town. Lina saw him standing outside the Nasty Burger maybe five or so years ago. Dale, who used to live near Fenton Works swore he sometimes saw someone moving through the windows of the long abandoned house. He’d always secretly dreaded the thought of seeing Danny Fenton again, afraid he’d finally get was coming to him.

“Instead, we’re going to talk about local history,” he continued, not daring to take his eyes off the undead teen. Every other living student was tense, afraid. He wished he could assure them that the ghost wouldn’t lay a hand on them. In the event Fenton decided to ditch the hero schtick, it would be Dash and Dash alone he’d come after. “Amity Park has long had rumors of being haunted dating all the way back to the 1600s. It wasn’t until the last century that scientists determined that Amity Park is located on top of a thin spot between our world and the ghost realm. Natural portals form here all the time allowing spirits to pass through.”

No one spoke and barely anyone breathed except for Danny would wasn’t breathing at all. He just sat and stared at Dash with steady, unblinking eyes.

“Jack and Maddie Fenton were the scientists who discovered the weak point in reality in Amity. They devoted their entire life to the study of ghosts and made remarkable advancements in our knowledge of ectobiology and culture, the first being,” he paused as Danny cocked his head in confusion, squinting his eyes suspiciously at Dash. “The first being their manmade portal to the ghost zone. The portal remained active for almost two decades for research purposes but was shut down following their deaths.”

“You’re not Mr. Lancer,” Danny said suddenly, his eyes shifting from baby blue to an ectoplasmic green. Marty, who was sitting to the left of Danny, swallowed a squeak of fear and squeezed his eyes shut.

“No,” Dash sighed, “Lancer died almost thirty years ago now. Best teacher I ever had, he gave me his blessing when he passed on the job to me.”

“I,” the ghost ran his hand through his hair which was starting to lose its color. Seeing Fenton looking so scared and confused made him ache. It reminded him of old times. Dash had spent most of his life making sure he helped hurt kids if only to make up for the one he’d never been able to make it up to. “I don’t understand.”

“It’s okay, Danny,” he soothed. “I know it’s a lot to take in.”

“The portal, it wasn’t working at first,” Danny justified, his aura glowing a little more. “Sam and Tuck, they were curious. They wanted to look but I told them it wasn’t allowed, Sam, Sam she dared me to go in. I put on the hazmat suit and went inside and found the on button inside. I accidentally hit it and-” he paused midsentence and looked down at his hands. They weren’t pale flesh anymore but covered in white gloves. The black was completely bleached from his hair. A few of the students gasped as they saw the strange would be student melt into Phantom, the ghostly hero who’d been protecting their town since their parents were young. “I died.”

So much time had gone by. People were born and people were buried and the truth became distorted until it was just a legend passed jokingly around cafeteria lunch tables. Amity’s youth had forgotten their town’s history until it was sitting in a desk, trying once more to be one of them.

“You did,” Dash said sadly. He remembered hearing the news of Fenton's death. An assembly had been called the morning after the accident. Lancer had cried at the podium, Manson and Foley hadn’t returned to school for a week and had never been the same again. Dash hadn’t known what to think at the time, only that the kid he’d beat up for the crime of being different would never show up to school again. Or so he’d thought. “It was a tragedy, you were mourned by a lot of people.”

“I know you, don’t I?” Danny said quietly before he sat up straighter. “Dash?”

“In the flesh,” Dash grinned shakily.

“But you’re so old,” Danny said, once more distressed. “Your hair is grey and there’s wrinkles on your face and-and you’re a teacher now?” The last line was said with incredulity, his eyes flaring again. “You used to push me down the stone steps of the school and shove me into my locker and call me names.”

“Yeah, I did,” he sighed, feeling every one of his years. He was pushing 70 but he didn’t think he’d ever stop feeling like a stupid 14 year old who took out his frustrations on the ones who didn’t deserve it. “But you were the last; I never touched another kid again. I’m married now, four kids. I’m vice principal now, teach History and coach the school’s football team. It’s,” his voice caught again, still unable to process how young and stupid Fenton looked sitting there like no time had passed at all. It made Dash feel like all his accomplishments and attempts to be better would never amount to anything so long as his last victim roamed the earth unable to find peace. “It doesn’t fix what I did back then but I make damn sure that there won’t be any bullying at Casper so long as I’m here.”

“Huh,” Danny said, slouching once more in his seat but it looked less like his earlier teenage laziness and more weary. He and Dash were the same age after all, just because only one of them got old doesn’t mean time didn’t still affect them. “You did change, a lot of things did.” Danny looked down at the desk, “how long has it been?”

“Almost 50 years,” Dash sighed. “My wife wants me to retire but I guess I always find more things to do.” He paused then decided it was now or never. “I’m sorry Danny, for hurting you back then. I wish I'd gotten to know you better.”

For just a moment, Danny was perfectly clear. Even half floating out of his chair and looking like the local celebrity, his eyes were so painfully human. A boy killed before he ever got a chance to get started. Who’s will to protect was so strong it lasted half a century. It haunted him late at night to think of the glory and power of Phantom overshadowing just how incredible Danny Fenton had been. Not that anyone had seen it at the time. Soon there wouldn’t be anyone left to remember that quiet, kind teenager and then Danny Fenton really would be dead. Kill him just as thoroughly as that portal had.

The moment was broken by a breath of cold leaking out of the ghost’s lips and, just like that, his highschool classmate was gone and Phantom was left in his stead. He looked curiously around the classroom as if he didn’t know how he’d gotten there.

“There’s a ghost, stay here and don’t leave unless the fighting gets too close. I’ll get it though, don’t worry. No kids are dying today.” Maybe it was Dash’s imagination but he thought he saw Phantom’s eyes linger on him for an extra moment, trying to place where he knew the teacher from. Dash just smiled.

“Our lives are in your hands. Good luck, Phantom,” the ghost teen saluted before fading away entirely. Dash let out the breath he didn’t know he’d been holding, suddenly exhausted but also lighter at the same time. It wasn’t every day you got to look your mistakes in the face and apologize. “Shannon, you can move back now.”

“No, I’m okay here,” Shannon said as she flipped to a new page in her sketchbook and looked intently at the spot where Fenton had once sat. “It’s like you said, that’s Danny’s seat.”

“I had no idea, Phantom’s been around for like, ever,” Freddie mumbled, pushing up his glasses. “But he used to be just like us.” And still was, Dash thought sadly. Danny would never grow old, never go to space like he’d always dreamed or marry Manson like he’d probably intended to. He was stuck, in more ways than one for who knows how long.

“Yes, that’s why it’s important to know your history. The Civil War and my other lessons are important but we can’t forget these smaller, more intimate histories. If we lose these lessons to time then we risk repeating the same mistakes over again.” He looked his students in the eyes, holding their attention.

“So we’ll continue today with the local history. Before he was ghost butt kicking superhero, Phantom was Danny Fenton, son of the local ghost hunters and a bit of an outcast in town. The Daniel Fenton Foundation was founded about a year after his death and was-”

[tooweirdforyou]

OP Boys & Surprise Kisses

A/N : I’m not taking requests but give me some ideas for like reactions that I can do in headcannons and such. This is kind of fun! I was mostly inspired by a Haikyuu writer here, @ haikyuuphilia I think was their user.

Their headcannons for stuff is really adorable!! And then ones by other writers that were like tiktok based? AMAZING! 😂

It’s the Strawhats :p if you want the others, let me know who- USOPP’s IS A LITTLE— all of them are rushed.

Summary : ONLY FOUR of the one piece boys receiving or giving surprise kisses.

-

LUFFY gives a wide grin as he jumps down from standing on Sunny’s head and onto the main deck, where you stood. “[Name]!”

“Captain! What’s up?” The soft smile you gave and the brushing of your hair behind your ear sent the smallest amount of butterflies into his stomach as Luffy smiles wider.

“You wanna eat a snack with me?” He eagerly asks, a gleam of excitement running in his eyes.

You glance at the sky for a moment before chuckling at Luffy. “Dinner’s almost done, do you think Sanji will let you eat a snack before dinner?”

Luffy began to pout at your question. “He doesn’t have to know.. please! Captain’s orders!” He suddenly gave a smug look in victory.

Rolling your eyes a bit at his childish antics, you couldn’t suppress the smile that came. “Fine.. if I must. What snack would you like to eat together, Captain?”

“Pocky!”

“Ah. Sure.”

~

“Where’d you get this anyway?”

Luffy hums as he chews the stick, chomping away until he reaches the end and went to grab another piece.

“The cabinet. It had a sticky note, saying Nami’s name but I’m sure she won’t mind!~” he sang, making you sweatdrop, just thinking of the red-head’s fury if she found out her precious snack was taken.

Sighing softly, you only chewed your piece quietly, letting it stick out as your lips brought it into your mouth more, each bite you took.

While Luffy ate chocolate, yours was [ flavor ]. “It’s almost time for dinner. Are you going to have the appetite to finish everything Sanji made?”

“Look who you’re talking to, [ Name ]! Have a little more faith in me.” Luffy laughs and you chuckle, relaxing at his comment. “You’re right.”

“Hey, is that any good?” Pointing to the stick hanging from your lips that quickly disappeared at the last bite, you shrug. “It’s pretty good.”

Grabbing another stick, you put it into your mouth and then showed him the box to offer him some.

Luffy blinks as he glances at the box and then at you, continuing to eat the new piece and up until it was halfway into your mouth, he smiled widely.

Leaning forward, Luffy opens his mouth to bite off the end sticking out from your lips and went further enough until your lips just grazed, but enough that it touched.

Your eyes widened in shock as Luffy quickly bites off the end and pulls away, chewing happily and awed at the taste. “It’s delicious! Let me have another one!”

Luffy didn’t seem to realize what he just did, practically having kissed you, or perhaps he didn’t care. His cheeks were pink, so obviously he knew what he did, but he just grinned.

“Uh.. sure, here.”

Unsure of how to react, you only blush lightly at the action as you held up the box, looking away as Sanji calls everyone for dinner, Luffy’s cheeky laughter filling the air.

-

ZORO, sitting in his training room, sat casually. One hand with a manga opened and the other lifting up some heavy weights with ease.

“Zoro.” Knocking on the door twice before letting yourself in, you see him training once again in his room and sighed.

“[Name].” He grunts a bit as he sets the weights down and looks at you towards the door. “How’d you get in?”

Instead of responding, you simply held up your own key to his apartment and Zoro narrows his eyes before closing them. “Right.. what’s up?”

“Nothing much. Went to the movies but it was boring, so I’m crashing here.”

Making your way over towards his bed, you drop your bag on the ground and plop yourself on the soft sheet-covered mattress.

Zoro’s brow visibly twitched at your actions as he sighed once more. “Whatever.” He knew he couldn’t stop you anyways so he didn’t bother to argue. “I’m going to keep training.”

“Sure.” Reaching over to the drawer table and grabbing a magazine, you lazily opened one up and skimmed it.

Meanwhile, Zoro began to do sit-ups, moving his weights and manga aside and placed his arms behind his head.

With ease, Zoro began to do sit-ups, counting inside his head silently.

Finding no particular interest in the magazine, you groan inaudibly in boredom and sigh, turning to face Zoro working out.

You swing your legs back in forth in the air, watching him before slowly getting up off the bed.

Finding a bag of chips on the ground, you pick it up and unravel it open, waddling over to Zoro before kneeling by his feet, watching him sit up and give you a look as he did so.

“What are you doing?” He mutters as he continues his sit-ups.

You simply shrug as you pop a chip into your mouth, chewing it quietly and sat cross legged in front of him. “Eating. Want one?”

Zoro furrows his brows, ignoring you. You didn’t say anything as you sat and ate peacefully, examining the bag to see the flavor. “These are pretty good, where’d you get these?” You hum.

“Did you only come over to annoy me and eat my food?”

You puff your cheeks and swallow your bite. “Of course not. I’m trying to find myself some entertainment. You working out isn’t too entertaining but it’s better than nothing.”

Zoro scowls for a moment, stopping as he sat up to narrow his eyes at you. “You’re distracting me. Get out.”

“No.”

Irritated, Zoro pulls the bag of chips away from you and tosses it behind him, not caring if it spilled everywhere, his eyes fixated and glaring a bit at you.

“You’re a pain.”

“Thank you.”

You smile at his annoyed expression as he began to proceed his session, as you watch him.

Then, as he went back down onto the ground, you lean forward and position yourself between his legs.

As Zoro sat up, accomplishing another sit-up, he met face to face with you, inches apart.

“What?”

You smile innocently and tilt your head, pressing your lips against his in a swift movement.

After the quick peck, you pull away and gave him a cute grin.

“Hi.”

Zoro pauses for a brief moment, and in that moment, heat began rising to his cheeks, reaching the tips of his ears. He sat stiff, processing your action.

“Want another one?”

-

USOPP, working away at his desk as he played around to tweak at one of his newest creations, suddenly stopped when he saw the classroom door open.

“Oh, hey [Name]! Did you finish your lunch?” His cheery smile was contagious enough to bring one onto your lips, giggling at the sight of him.

“I did. I was wondering where you were. You usually don’t miss lunch, it’s one of your favorite times of day, since it’s a break from classes.”

Usopp chuckles at your response, not really offended since it was true. “Well I wanted to use this time to work on this.”

Gesturing to his hand-made work in his hands, you awe at it. “Impressive, as always.” You hum and Usopp gave a bashful grin, shutting his eyes.

“It’s nothing really, just another piece of work using my amateur skills, is all. I’m no professional or anything~”

“Still, it’s pretty incredible regardless.” You compliment and Usopp felt his heart skip a beat.

Clearing his throat, Usopp didn’t say anything else as he watched you pull up a chair beside him.

“By the way, do you want a kiss?”

Usopp, distracted, barely registered what you had just asked him. “H-Huh?”

“A kiss?” You repeated, reaching into your pocket as Usopp continued to misinterpret your words. “H-H-Hey, now! What’s gotten into you? I—“

“What are you freaking out about, Usopp? Here.”

Feeling the familiar shape in your pocket, you pull it out and held it in front of him, quickly shutting him up as he stared at it in shock and disbelief.

It was a Hershey kiss.

Usopp’s eyes widened in realization as a dark blush began to take over his cheeks. “...Oh..”

“You want one?” You hum, beginning to unwrap it and placed it into your mouth, reaching for another one in your pocket. “I brought some to lunch but since you didn’t come, I thought I’d give it to you here.”

Stuttering since he was obviously embarrassed, Usopp turns down to his creation and cleared his throat. “S-Sure.. I thought you meant..” he trailed off, biting his tongue to keep from saying more.

Though, part of him was just a bit disappointed. He didn’t say anything though.

You heard him and chuckled a bit. “You thought I meant a real kiss?”

Usopp didn’t say anything and somehow, his face only became darker in response.

Continuing to search your pockets, only to become empty handed, you sigh, frowning a bit, which your long-nosed friend noticed. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m out of chocolate.”

Usopp blinks before smiling lightly. “It’s okay, I didn’t want one that badly anyways.” He assures, seeing you continuing to look.

You only frown more as you kept the chocolate in your mouth, making sure you didn’t bite it before widening your eyes and humming. An idea came to your head.

“Hey, Usopp?”

“Yeah?”

Turning to you, Usopp didn’t even blink before seeing you grab his chin and tilt your head, leaning close.

And then lips connected.

Since you gripped his chin, you pulled it down a bit to let his lips part and using the best of your ability of your tongue skills, you tried to maneuver the chocolate in your mouth over towards Usopp’s.

Usopp didn’t know what was going on. His heart was beating a million beats a second, he was ready to die, his heart ready to burst.

It wasn’t until he felt the sweet chocolate in his mouth, melting on his tongue, did he snap back to reality and realize what was happening.

And by then, you had already pulled away and was now smirking at him cheekily, leaning on your palm, elbow on his desk.

“Tasty?”

-

SANJI added the finishing touches to his dish before giving a heavy sigh of satisfaction at the sight.

“Another day, another successful new dish prepared.”

Wiping his hands against his apron, Sanji gave a proud smile as he set it on the counter, just as the door opened, ringing the bell that hung.

“Hello! Welcome to the Baratie Diner.” His eyes widens when he sees you before his lips curves into a warm smile.

“Welcome back, [Name]-dear! It’s always a pleasure to see you~” Sanji sang and you chuckle, waving to him as you place the bag in your hands on top of the countertop in front of him.

“Glad to be back, Sanji. I’m surprised no one’s here.” You say and Sanji chuckles. “It’s usually slow on these days, but it’s a nice change of pace. What do you got here?”

“Latest bakes from my bakery. Thought I’d give you a piece to try. Do you mind?”

“Of course not, anything for you.” He assures, unwrapping the bag and seeing the small box.

Delicately pulling off the ribbon that tied it, he watch the box unfold itself to reveal the cupcake you baked earlier today.

“It’s just a little something I made, but everything is from scratch! From the wrapper, to the cream and sweets on top.” You hum and Sanji vividly awes.

“This looks stunning, [Name].” He mumbles and you gave a bashful smile, chuckling. “Thanks.”

You then notice the plate beside the box and hum. “What’s this?” You curiously peek at it and bit your lip at how delicious the aroma was.

“My latest dish. Would you like to try it?” He laughs heartily, noticing your action and temptation. “Go ahead!” He grins, grabbing a fork for you to use which you gratefully took.

“Don’t mind if I do.” You giggle and scooped up a piece of the dish and brought it to your lips, eating it hungrily. “Oh, wow. Incredible as always!”

Sanji, flattered, just grins widely and childishly at your compliment. He then turns to the cupcake and smiles softer, picking it up carefully.

“And I’m sure this one will be just as tasty.”

Gently, Sanji brought the cupcake closer to his lips and bit down on it.

Now usually, he’d put it on a plate and eat with a fork, but he was pretty impatient to try it.

Sanji widens his eyes as he began to chew, pulling the cupcake away. “[Name], this tastes amazing!” Pure amazement and stars filled his eyes, not realizing the frosting stuck to his upper lip.

“Really? I’m glad!” You smile cheerfully, looking to him before laughing lightly. “Sanji, you have a little something there.”

Gesturing to his lip, Sanji instinctively licked his lower lip, which made you laugh further.

“Here.” Reaching over, you pull him closer and used your finger to wipe it off.

Seeing it gone, you nod approvingly and sat back as you brought your finger to your lip and licked the frosting off.

Sanji’s cheeks warms at the action, inducting a shy smile from him as he set the cupcake down. “[Name], you have a little something too.”

“Yeah?” Bringing your hand up to wipe it off, Sanji grabbed your wrist to stop you. “Let me, my dear.”

And so, he leaned in and softly pressed his lips against yours, eyes shutting and a soft smile present.

Seconds later, he pulls away and smiles warmly.

“I got it.”

You were definitely flustered and surprised to say the least, his amused smile widening at the sight of your pink cheeks.

-

A/N : Yahooo~ hope this was okay! Particularly proud of Zoro’s idk why. I definitely rushed this though.

If you want more or reactions or tiktok couple stuff, let me know!

I’m a little upset because I might have to cancel the lunar year event thing :/ I only did one day, which is Law.. which isn’t even that good lol.

[fandom-blackhole]

Hello, I didn't go through your whole blog so I'm sorry, but have you ever done asks about the Armorer? Specifically, if the Armorer found out you were in love with her? Sorry if it was already asked or anything

Thank you ✨

Omg darling I haven't gotten any asks about my lovely wife and honestly that is a crime. Welcome to my messy blog, and thank you for letting me gush about my wife who I love very much lmao......

You only see the golden mandalorian ever few months, but her and your father had a deal where she could come in and get things she needed and to pay you back she would send another mandalorian to help with chores that your older father nor you could accomplish. Usually, she came in and took water, food, and medical items. She had been coming around since you were still in school and you have been infatuated with her for just as long. You were always civil with her and she was always so kind to you. As the years progressed you always felt like her gazes would linger as would her small brushes against you, but you chalked it up to your feelings for her. But then she disappeared, and months went by without her showing up in your store. Your father watched you fall into a small depression and had told you, "Im sorry, hun. Mandalorians are like that, they appear and disappear just as quickly, good people, but it's sad that they are forced to be on the run so often." More time passed and you still watched the door occasionally and mourned the relationship that would never be. Then, a year and a half later, she walked through the door again and you could feel your heart pounding in your chest and your breathing pick up. The Mandalorian, who had told you to call her the Armorer, walked to the small desk you were behind. Neither of you spoke for a few minutes and then she asked, "Your father?" You bit your lip and looked to the side where in the last few months he had resided, before he passes away. You swallowed thickly and looked to where you believed her eyes to be and gave her a small smile saying, "The town medic said that the illness he caught was untreatable here on our small planet, that we could go to a bigger planet, but with how much it had taken over his body it wasn't a guarantee...he, um, he past about three weeks ago..." The two of you stood in silence again for awhile but the silence, the longer it went on the heavier it felt in the shop. Eventually you spoke up with a forced smile and said, "Anyway, how have you been? And do you want the usu-" but you were interrupted by the Armorer grabbing your hand that lay on the desk and placing it over the long diamond shape in her chest plate before saying, "Come with me. Come live in the covert, I- we will take care of you. You shouldn't be forced to be alone." You could only stare at her, trying to process everything she had just said with a deep blush on your cheeks. "You want me to come live with you?" She only nodded, pressing your hand tighter to her chest, though you knew if you tried she would let your hand go. The longer you didn't say anything, the more you could feel her tense up, but then she spoke up again, "Cyare, I have watched you for so long, but never allowed myself to feel, even though I could tell you felt the same for me. I thought that I needed to focus on my tribe, and care for them. But now most of them are gone, and I realize that I need to stop waiting around or you might be take from me as well." Flabbergasted, you only choke out, "feelings?" Then she leans forward over the counter and presses her helm to your forehead and says, "Ni kar'tayl gar darasuum, I love you.... I have for awhile, and i....I know you have felt the same. Please come with me, let me care for you the way you have about me and my tribe for so long." You could only smile and nod your head against hers as you whispered out, "Okay.... I will go with you...."

I know this probably isn't exactly what you wanted, but honestly this is where my brain took me. I hope you enjoy it irregardless...

(SEND ME THOTS)

[myimaginarywonderland]

Okay, so this post will talk about Lance but I will also give my opinion on the Lando situation since I think it is important.

First off, I think it says a lot about Lando that he made an apology. Now, be it because of the backlash he faced, because he actually saw the harm he was causing or because he genuinely regrets it, that is something I don't know. What I do know is that by apologising for it, he acknowledges that his behaviour was wrong and that is really important because it shows that he reflected on himself.

While I do still feel irked by something about the message, be it that he isn't naming Lance or Lewis who he both targeted with his actions in different ways and apologise to them directly which he might have done in person, so I am not able to judge it or be it the weird sorry at the end, I can put aside my feelings and say that this was the right thing to do and is also setting an example for his fans who were one of my main issues with all of this. They then know that saying that was not right and might learn from it themselves.

But this post isn't about Lando. This post is about Lance.

As most of you might have heard, Lance was really affected by what happened on track. He can clearly see that he is anxious and uncomfortable in his post race interview and what happened afterwards tells the story (I don't really want to talk about it because this is something private that he did not share and it is like with the story on Twitter something that was shared by other people who he didn't give the right to share it too so I don't want to spread it any further.)

This is who Lance is.

Someone who is sensitive and takes a lot of things personally.

You want to know why? Because he has, as a person, always been blamed for his dad's wealth. As if he choose to grow up with a billionaire dad. As if he is somehow responsible for it.

And he has always been painted out as someone undeserving, someone that doesn't have talent and totally owns his position to the money of his dad.

Now, let me just give you some data because I want to totally discredit this made up stuff with no roots.

In 2015, he won the Toyota Racing Series. He won by a bit over 100 points. The second finisher was his teammate. You might now some of the other drivers who competed in this series for example one Callum Iliot or Artjom Markelow.

Or in 2016,his first season in Formula 3, he finished fifth. The winner of that year was Felix Rosenquvist (a great driver) who was also Lance teammate and had only one DNF in comparison to Lance 5 and a DSQ. Now, there are two other drivers, one that was the runner up in Antonio Giovinazzi and a fourth who was Charles Leclerc. Pretty competitive field if you ask me and to finish 5th as a rookie,is impressive.

Now, fast forward a year to when he won the F3 championship. He won over his teammate by a margin of over 150 points which is so impressive, even with the two more DNFs his teammate, Maximilian Günther (another great driver) had that is quiet a lot.

Now, if you really want to use the argument that he skipped F2 against him, there is another driver you should be discrediting just as much. You guessed it, M*x V*rstappen. He also went straight into F1 which was a definite mistake but nobody ever likes to say that. I would also like you to remember that Lance did not drive for F1 as a regular driver immediately after he won the championship, no in 2016 he was a test driver, so he could slowly get used to F1. (This is not official but I would guess it's the thought process behind him being a test driver.)

Now, in 2017, his first F1 season, he was teammates of Felipe Massa. Might have heard of him, lost his championship to Lewis by one point, was teammate of Micheal Schumacher and a generally way more experienced driver. Yeah, you wanna know what the difference between him and Lance was in Lance first season? 3 points. And Lance had 2 more DNFs. You know what else he got in his first season? His first podium. In his first season, he became one of the youngest people to ever achieve a podium. With just 7 rounds into his first F1 season, in an okay midfield car with a way more experienced and older driver he was up against, he achieved a podium. And during the entire course of the season, that would remain the only podium for the Williams team that year.

Now, onto 2018. Williams was not as bad as in 2019 but they were still nowhere in terms of pace and he still didn't finish last in the championship (but I don't think we can count this season.)

In 2019, Checo became his teammate. And Checo in my opinion is one of the best midfield drivers, so there was already a lot he had to go up against and he was still so young and had less experience. There is a 30 point difference between them. Make of that what you want but for me, sure it was not Lance greatest season but now you have to think if Racing Point where really that good go be the fifth best car or if maybe, Checo just got more out of the car with his experience and talent. And than, you have to consider that he was still young and only had one season where he was truly competitive (that 2018 Williams was not something you could truly challenge anyone with.) And to then be up to one of the best midfield drivers who is widely appreciated and adored by the paddock, is a lot. Maybe for some of you it was too big of a gap which is alright.

However, don't dismiss his talent. He has had a good junior career and was up to some of the drivers you love and call talented, he even beat some of your faves. Maybe you don't see him as the next great driver but he is not a bad one and truly deserves a seat if you consider his achievements. Maybe he could have proven himself more if he had a season in F2 which is fair but that doesn't take away from anything he has achieved.

And even if you don't see him as talented, that gives you no right to bully him online. He can't change who his dad is.

Now,onto the money. I see a lot of people saying that he is only in F1 because of the money (which I hope you have by now realized is not the case.) But really, let's talk about the money.

Money is something that sadly plays a big role in F1. F1 is above all still a business. And businesses want money. So, why not take someone who has money and talent like Lance? Where are you all saying Michael only got his seat because of money (he is a pay-driver after all or at least he was one when he came to F1.) And now let's talk about his move to Racing Point. Can you truly blame Lawrence for wanting to make his sons dream come true? Wouldn't any father if they had the resources do this? Wouldn't any father want to fufill his son's dream, even if it might be seen as unethical by some or criticized? Would you really care if you saw how happy your kid was? Would you really care if you saw the glow you kid had? I don't think so.

I already said it but he was at Williams before he was at RP. His dad doesn't own that team or have any chairs in it.

Let's forget his profession for a second. Let's say you don't find him talented as a driver or just don't like him, fine. You are entitled to your opinion and sometimes we just don't like people, it happens.

What else would you have against him?

He doesn't post on social media often because people already bully him enough for his family. There is basically nothing you can dislike about him there.

And as a person? He is quiet and basically does nothing to anger people. He is literally just a normal dude. He goes on trips with his friends, he does sports to stay in shape and watches sports. He is not even posting personal stuff because he doesn't want to give people more room to bully him.

If you saw him on the street, would you think he is from a rich family? He does not look like it at all, he looks like that guy from your local sport who is literally just a college student trying to get through life.

And not only was he discredited for all his accomplishments because of something he had no control over but he also saw another driver proudly display a symbol that has been used by people who killed people who belonged to his religion. He saw a driver weat that symbol in cooperation with a company whose boos seems to be a Neo Nazi.

Lance has had to go through to so much shit just because his dad was rich (which Nicky's and Lando's also are, yes I know it's less but it's still more than any of us will probably ever have.)

This boy does nothing wrong.

Did he make a mistake with the maneuvers on Lando? Yes. But he is still so young and also new to F1, he can still learn and is growing as a person and driver. He is expected to perform more just so he proves his worth which he already has because people discredit him for having a rich dad.

Have you seen what he has done this season? He would be in the top 5 had it not been for the last races where none of the DNFs where his fault. Neither was getting Covid or being ill but people literally made fun of him for being in pain, saying stuff like "Did Daddies boy have a little stomach ache?" Yeah, because F1 drivers aren't trainex to perform no matter what, aren't putting their health last when it comes to these things and might have to be really bad if they can't drive and are not even going out of their room.

He has improved so much, he is not blaming other drivers even if they clearly hit him (see Charles) and he stays calm. Because he can't afford to be to emotional since some people would hate him for rightfully calling out others mistakes and just maybe saying that their faves are not flawless and make mistakes (like Charles.)

He has to act a certain way or be a certain way because what would happen if he just showed more of his personality? You call him dull, boring but you don't even try to get to know him. You don't even look up videos where he is more open and comfortable.

He is awkward infront of the press because he has to fear to be discredited or to be questioned about his worth every second.

And all of this pressure, this mask and this pretend eventhough he is just as human as the rest of us. And you see how hard it is, how much he questions himself, how his self-doubt increases and ultimately what happened has happened.

Because while it is just an easy insult for you that you can post anonymously online, it is one of thousands for him.

And you know, he didn't grew up in Europe. Sure he competed with some of the European drivers later one but he didn't have any of them when he started racing and he might already have been an outcast because people would already have seen him as different since his family didn't need to make sacrifices to get him to wear he is now. At least not financially ones. And then, when he came to Europe there were these already formed friend groups and it wasn't easy to get into them. The only friend he had was Esteban and I am so glad. This seems like such an unlikely friendship because they are from totally different backgrounds but that might have been what connected them in the first place. So, with basically only Esteban who liked him from the competitive times, it must have been pretty bad (not to say that the others hated him but I don't think they really cared for him.) I am so glad to see that he now also has Checo and that they get along and I hope that stays this way eventhough all of what has happened (which is also not his fault and I am sure that if he had any say in it, it would have been done differently.) Maybe we can even see their friendship when Checo stays on the grid. And with the potential of Seb next year, that might be the only other friendship or friendly connection he might form.

He is so strong for having to endure the dislike of so many people and he is still so kind and so sweet.

This has been a long post but one that I have wanted to make for a long time. If you got this far, I applaude you.

[sorryimanon]

A Bit Stir Crazy: Pt 1

Summary: You’re bit of a hot head, so is Bakugou. So what happens when the two of you have to quarantine together for 30 days?

Warnings: cursing, mentions of sex, sexual tension, inevitable smut, slow burn.

Pairing: Katsuki Bakugou x fem!Reader

Spring finally makes it way to the city of Musutafu, which also means spring break is about to commence. There was only two days left of school before the students endure a week break of relaxation and the possibility of illegal drinking. However, the sudden outbreak of a deadly virus isolates you and your best friend of five years , Katsuki Bakugou, to quarantine together. Tensions are high, and so are both of your sex drive.

<<<

It was your second semester here at Hero University, and so far everything was smooth sailing. You’ve been on top of each of your classes, and most of your classmates are pretty much family by now. Of course, no one can replace Kirishima and Katsuki. Those two have been in your life since the second you stepped into Aziwa’s classroom. 5 years of friendship gave them the role of being your protective brothers. Every guy you’ve dated over the past 3 years had to face the wrath of both Kirishima and Katsuki. In most cases, some would find this possessiveness tedious, but you found it quite comforting knowing they are looking out for you. They were also hard on you and your studies, but only because they care for you. Both of them know about your dream of being a combat medic for pro-heroes, considering your energy restoration quirk, so they were extra tough on you.

However, everything came to a halt the day before spring break. You were currently in Advanced Hero History class when the announcement happened. The teacher, mid lecture, put her textbook down and glanced at the speaker above the door.

“Testing...1 2 3... this thing is working right? AHEM, attention students of Hero University, we’ve been told there’s recently been a sudden outbreak of a virus that’s described as deadly as the plaque!” The speakers voice reverberated across the whole academy. He continued,” We want to make sure that everyone is safe and sound and takes precaution of this virus. The board of admissions at HU have decided to cancel classes and all events at the university tomorrow-”

You didn’t get to hear the rest of the announcement. Everyone in the classroom was busy celebrating and screaming at the top of their lungs. Seems like the issue with the deadly virus evaporated immediately. The thought of getting out early for spring break was more important apparently.

Ms.Leech informed the class to still read the assigned chapters and be ready for a test the first day after break.

You quickly shoved everything your messenger bag and made a beeline to the door. The hallways were far from deserted. Usually classes don’t get out at the same time, but today every student occupied the cramped halls in the building.

“Y/N!” Someone yelled amidst the crowd of loud students. You overtly looked around and spotted the all too familiar spiky red hair and angry looking blonde by the exit. You giggled and maneuvered your way over to them.

“Did you hear the announcement! We get an early spring break!” Kirishima giddily said as you guys all walked side by side on the strip to the apartment complex.

“No shit Sherlock, the announcement was broadcasted across the whole school.” Bakugou responded while rolling his eyes.

“I’m so excited though! That means I have more time to study for my exams!” You jumped with excitement.

“Exams? That’s not for awhile you fucking nerd-” Bakugou was cut off when you grabbed a handful of his hair and aggressively pulled it. “YOU SHITTY WOMAN DON’T TOUCH MY HAIR!”

-

Spring break flashed by quickly, leaving only a day left before classes begin again. Thankfully, you seem to have checked everything off your list of things  needed to be accomplished during break. The only thing you had left to do was finish your reading for adv.hero history. 

After an endless hour of reading, you decided to make a hot pot of coffee. When you walked into the kitchen of your shared apartment with Kirishima and Katsuki, you noticed a sticky note hanging from the fridge.

It read, 

Went to go pick up Kirishima from the airport. Get take out plz. The usual

-B.

You smiled and immediately dialed the noodle shop to go. Kirishima used his spring break wisely and went to visit an exotic island with his family. He would FaceTime you and Bakugo occasionally telling funny stories about his time on the island. Although the thought never occurred at the time, you now felt like you wasted your spring break doing boring mundane things. Yes you had Katsuki to accompany you, but he was gone most of the time hanging out with his other friends. Which hurt, granted, but you understand that he has other friends besides you. Needless to say, you didn’t do that much “relaxation” during spring break.

Suddenly, your phone started going off on the countertop. Katsuki’s name flashing on the screen. Confused, you answered his call anyway, not thinking much of it.

“Y/N turn on the news now,” His said with urgency.

You didn’t argue back, knowing something is off, and raced to the living room. The tv was already on, so you just changed the channels till it reached the local news station. With the volume at its maximum, you sat still and listened to the news anchor.

“This just in, Japan has issued a nationwide lockdown due to the spread of the deadly virus. We’ve been told to report for all citizens to please stay in your homes till further notice. And as for anyone who has left the country, you’ll be permitted to stay within the country you’ve flown to and wait till further instructions...”

Oh shit

-

“Hey hey guys don’t worry I’ll be fine. I mean, isn’t this great news! We don’t have to go to our scheduled classes till further notice! Plus, I think I can score my shot with the maid here at my hotel for the time being,” Kirishima gloated with pure positivity.

“Baka. You do realize there’s a fucking virus going around right? Not to mention there’s a possibility you could die from it.” Bakugou said, trying to throw some common sense at Kiri.

“Right right right. Yes I do know...but that’s not going to stop me from getting laid bro.”

That was one of the few FaceTime calls you got from Kiri. After the third, he stopped calling all together. You grew worrisome for your best friend. Even though he doesn’t show it, Bakugou was worried sick not hearing from Kiri either.

It’s been 5 days since the initial lockdown. So far, you and Bakugou have been doing each of your usual routines at home. First thing in the morning you always prepared breakfast and read a few chapters from your current book. Bakugo did laundry duty and did the dishes after breakfast. Afternoon was just recreational duties. Both you and Bakugou would reside in your rooms doing whatever to ease off the bordem. Evenings were mainly for eating dinner and watching movies.

However, after 10 days, you couldn’t keep up with the routine anymore. You skipped breakfast and didn’t dare to open up another book. Your bedroom became a reminder on how much you’ve spent cooped up in there. Not to mention how easily angered you’ve become.

One day you got angry at how Bakugou was chewing his food. Usually it never irritated you, but now the sight just made your blood boil.

“Who the fuck taught you how to eat?” You spat abruptly.

“Says the person who forgets to clean the tub after they shave their whole entire jungle of a body,” he retored back.

A faint gasp left your mouth, uaware that you completely forgot to clean the tub last night after your feminine duties.

“Don’t know who you’re trying to look presentable for. It’s not like you got a boyfriend, not with all that hair, tch.” he hit you with one last punch to the gut.

You got up from where you were sitting at and begrudgingly walked to your bedroom, locking it in the process. Not daring to leave your room, you open your laptop and started a movie without Bakugou.

-

Out of all days, day 15 by far was the worst. The air conditioner unit stopped working, causing y’all to wake up with drenched bodies. Your room especially was humid, since you had no access to a window. The colored coordinated folders from your book bag had to suffice, using them as makeshift fans. Eventually your arms grew tired of constantly doing the same motion repeatedly, so you finally left your room in hopes for the living room to be much cooler.

You stopped immediately when you caught a glimpse of Bakugou slumped on the L-shaped couch. Not to mention, he was shirtless as well. Heat flushed to your cheeks, making you glow a crimson red. You couldn’t stop staring at the view in front of you. Yes you’ve seen Bakugou shirtless before. Countless of times in fact. The boys would practically walk naked around the apartment, not caring about how you’d react. You were deemed as one of the guys.

But this time it triggered something within you. Something you haven’t quite felt in a long time. Maybe it was the quarantine getting to your head, but you couldn’t help but to wonder how it would feel to be flushed against his naked chest right now. Or if he was the type to snake his hands around your waist and pull you even closer. The thought excited you for a second, but quickly realized this was Katsuki you were thinking about.

Katsuki shifted uncomfortably in his spot, eliciting a whimper during the process. The noise alone made your lower stomach tense with a warm sensation. This was creepy. Watching Bakugou shirtless while sleeping would surly make him go ballistic, but the sight of sweat glistening on his abdomen made his abs more prominent. An image of you being underneath him kept flashing in your head like picture show. A crude and undeniably satisfying picture show. More explicit thoughts kept trying to barge into your brain. So, you ran back into your room and planted yourself headfirst on the floor. Hopefully these thoughts will go away by tomorrow

The thoughts never went away. In fact, they were the reason you didn’t get any sleep last night. A half naked Bakugou Katsuki kept interrupting your innocent dreams, filling them in with dirty scenarios involving the both of you. You knew you were fucked once you heard the faint sound of Katsukis footsteps in the kitchen. You’ve been up all night, with no pure dream in mind. There’s no saving your sleep schedule now. Maybe if you apologize to Katsuki for acting irrational the other day, the thoughts would go away.

Defeated, you got up from your comfortable bed and treaded into unsafe territory. There sat Bakugo, criss cross on the kitchen island eating cereal. It wasn’t an unusual sight, he was the embodiment of a fucking cat.

“Morning shit head,” you playfully teased.

Bakugou raised his head and looked expectingly at you.

Even just looking him dead in the eye raised the temperature throughout your body. This is going to be a nightmare.

“You alright Y/N? Your whole face is flushed...” He paused, eyeing you suspiciously. “You’re not sick are you? If so, I’m kicking you out. I don’t wanna fucking die because of you”.

How charming.

You scratched the back of your neck. “Uh no Katsuki, I just wanted to apologize for the other day. My behavior towards you was unacceptable. This whole quarantine thing has really made me-”

“Shut up. No need to apologize for some stupid quarrel we got into. Besides, we’ve gotten into worse arguments right?” 

You nodded your head, agreeing to how truthful his statement was. It was true. 5 years of friendship and not one time have you guys stopped being friends because of a heated argument. 

“Exactly, don’t sweat about it. I’m just glad you finally came out of your hole. I missed my movie buddy.” He gave you a lopsided grin, to which on cue, your stomach tied itself into a knot.

“Great, because I found a movie last night on my queue that I think you’d like” You beamed as you started making yourself a bowl cereal. Katsuki grunted as a response and leaped off from the island. 

You were too busy focusing on making the cereal that you didn’t hear the faint thump of footsteps behind you. Then, almost as some sort of harsh punishment, Katsuki rested his head between your right shoulder blade. He hummed once he felt your body tense up. His lips were merely inches away from your outer ear. Any other movement from him and you wouldn’t hesitate to throw the gallon of milk at his head. But what he said next caused your whole face to turn pallid. 

“Also, its kind of rude to watch someone sleeping don't cha think?” he whispered before throwing his bowl into the sink beside you. 

At that moment you knew, you were completely fucked. 

[sylenth-l]

*internally prays to hopefully one day see your design take on Rezyl Azzir/Dredgen Yor since I still struggle drawing armor*

(pushing aside that how long you've been drawing? I would count myself drawing for 10 years but legit kinda have stopped due to life is getting too much on myself and seeing my 15 year old sibling doing better within only months does not do well on my already crippling self esteem)

Ooh, I really should, Yor is super badass! I really like the design fried gold has for him, btw. Those scars though...

2nd question - uhh, idk, I pretty much was drawing more or less as long as I can remember, but if you mean like ~seriously~, reading books, practicing boring stuff just to get better, etc, then maybe ~12 years or so.

Also, if you want to get back to drawing, you can probably start small. Draw some simple things, even lines and circles will be fine, just to take back the control of your hand. I once had a ~2 years break in drawing and getting back to it was awful, my brain was far ahead of my hand back then and everything I drew seemed horrendous to me. So to get your hand do exactly what you want is the most important step, imo. Not much can be done here tbh, you just have to suffer through it, until your hands catch up to your brain 😅 I think it's a bit similar to sports? After taking a long break, you have to get your muscles back in shape, same thing here.

And the thing that helped a lot me personally - try switching to something completely different from what/how you used to draw before. It may be a subject of your art or a media you use - e.g., if you drew people a lot, draw animals now, if you drew digitally, try traditional medias, etc, whaterever works for you. In your case it'll probably be a good idea to draw something drastically different from what your sibling draws. The trick is to get rid of that destroying need to compare yourself - either to what you used to be or to people around you. It has 3 cool pros:

1. You don't have anything to compare to, since you never did this before, thus you can't blame yourself for getting worse;

2. You can reason with yourself if the results don't satisfy you immediately - like, of course I suck, I'm doing this for the first time in my life;

3. When learning something completely new, you tend to learn fast at first. Basically, you don't know anything, so every time you learn something, no matter how small, it makes you feel a bit better. Then this process slows down of course, since the need of practice steps in, but these first steps of accomplishing something new help you build up some confidence and self-esteem - hey, look, I'm not hopeless, I'm still capable of learning & progressing!

Hopefully, this'll give you some moral strength to get back to how/what you used to draw before the break. Or maybe you'll like this new field even more than the old one, who knows!

And... Try to be a friend to yourself. When you start roasting everything you do, imagine that this work is something your friend shows you. Would you be such a bitch to them too? Probably not. So why should you be one to yourself?

[oursustainablefuture]

What A Year As A Small Business Owner Taught Me About Sustainability, Upcycling, Thrifting, and Running a Brand

Written By Campbell Fauber for Our Sustainable Future 

In Summer 2019, I launched the first collection of my sustainable clothing brand, Dauntless Denim,  curious to see how people would respond. While I did not focus on creating an array of clothes, I decided to focus on thrifting and upcycling denim jackets, which was something I had never tried before. In short, thrifting and upcycling are two specific ways we, as consumers, can keep our planet cleaner. This process was exciting but challenging, and I definitely learned a lot. Here are some important things I learned along the way. 

1. If You Can Upcycle, Do It! 

Upcycling is a way consumers can reuse something they own by transforming it into something new and unique. In my own life, I began thinking of ways I could practice sustainability, which involved trying on a more personal level to keep myself from getting rid of clothes I didn’t wear anymore. I decided to upcycle thrifted denim jackets that I found at a local secondhand shop. I gave the jackets a new life by sewing on colorful fabrics that were bold and eye-catching. Upcycling is a great way to make something new out of what you already own and encourages creativity and self-expression. Upcycling is also environmentally-friendly because it helps reduce what goes into a landfill, such as clothes. With all of this in mind, I encourage you to find a piece of old clothing in your closet (or even something laying around your house) and consider upcycling it or, rather, transforming it into something completely new and reimagined. 

2. When In Doubt, Thrift. 

Before I started Dauntless Denim, I had gone to Goodwill a few times to look for some old clothes I could wear again. However, it wasn’t until I officially started my business that I had truly learned how great thrifting was for the environment. I found a local secondhand shop near my house and decided to stop in and see what it was like inside. There were organized racks of clothes of all kinds (e.g. sizes, colors, brands). It was incredible to see so many items ranging from men’s to women’s to kids that were for sale. Immediately, I headed to the denim section and soon discovered a rack of old denim jackets that I could use for my first denim jacket launch. I picked out a few pieces, which were way cheaper than the original price (a perk of thrifting!), and left the store feeling happy and accomplished. All in all, I encourage you to thrift whenever possible. Not only does thrifting help reduce clothing waste, it also helps support your community and establishes your new sense of style. You can also (often) find high-quality clothes for extremely low prices, which is a win-win! Lastly, thrifting is a better option than shopping at fast fashion brands. Consider thrifting at your local secondhand shop for some fresh clothing finds. 

3. You Can’t Be 100% Sustainable, But You Can Try And Do Your Part

Another thing I learned about owning a sustainable small business is that not everything you do is going to be 100% sustainable. Like many other companies and brands, there is never going to be a way to be fully eco-friendly, whether it be in supply chain or production practices. In other words, there is still going to be waste of some kind and the environment will still be impacted in some way, shape, or form. However, what helped me in the early stages of planning my business was that if I can try and do my part for the environment (in my case, it was upcycling denim jackets in order to keep them out of landfills), I could feel lile I am doing what I can to help keep the environment a little bit cleaner. I also realized that even if I do my part in trying to help the planet, I am not capable of impacting the environment in such a large way that the climate change crisis is magically solved. Knowing this, though, I still feel like I need to do my part, even in a small way, to keep my community cleaner and more educated about sustainable practices, including upcycling and thrifting.

4. Cultivating Your Own Ideas & A Brand Takes A Lot of Brainstorming

Something else that I had to take into consideration when I pondered whether or not I wanted to start my own business was what my brand was going to be centered around and what types of ideas I had that would help distinguish me from other brands. I began brainstorming what I envisioned my brand to look like. What was I passionate about? What was feasible and within my skill set? What did I want to potentially sell? All of these questions were top of mind when I first started to wonder what I was going to do with my business. Then, I began trying to think of ways I could create a unique brand that was unlike others I had seen before. That’s when I decided to take the route of sustainability and upcpcycling, which was honestly something that I had been thinking on and off about earlier. Upcycling was also something that had crossed my mind a few times, but I had never really sat down and thought about how I would implement it into my business model. The moral of the story is to not be afraid of starting your own business! The entire process is exciting and motivating. However, it is important to keep in mind that it does take a lot of time and effort to create a brand that is equally unique and feasible. Make sure you are passionate about what you’re doing and don’t be afraid to think outside the box and get outside your comfort zone a little bit. 

5. Social Media Marketing Taught Me More Than Just Marketing!

For me, creating a sustainable brand, and a business in general, meant that I had to spend a lot of time brainstorming and researching the different ways I could effectively create products and also engage with consumers and my community. For example, I had to practically teach myself how to do social media marketing and use Etsy as a platform to sell my products. While this was indeed time consuming, I learned a lot about myself throughout the process. First, I learned that I have to always stay on top of trends in order to sell products (mainly denim jackets and later on, masks) that would catch the eye of the consumer and be relevant enough to do well among similar products. Secondly, I learned that when using platforms such as Instagram to show off my designs, I have to be deliberate in terms of what I post, when I do it, and what I choose to write about in my captions. The more time I spent on social media, the more I learned the ins and outs of digital marketing and the ways I could target consumers. Thirdly, I learned that I have to be patient during this process. Many times since I started my brand, I got too frustrated with myself when something didn’t go right. I immediately wanted to give up and I began questioning what I was doing and if being a business owner was even the right path for me. However, once I took a step back and learned to not put so much pressure on myself for things that didn’t necessarily go right the first time, I could approach each and every situation with more understanding and more clarity. As a result, this helped me market my products better on social media and reach a larger audience that really felt connected to my brand and what I was selling. Looking back on my experiences, I wouldn’t trade being a small business owner for the world.

Interested in learning more about Campbell’s brand? Follow her Instagram @dauntlessdenim to stay updated on her newest releases & her Etsy @shopdauntlessdenim. Also, check out her most recent mask releases as well as the one-of-a-kind upcycled jackets and skirts that are still available for purchase on her Etsy Shop. 

[tomsrebeleyebrow]

No Judgement | peter parker x chubby!fem!reader

@juliebean247​ asked: Hii! I’m pretty new to tumblr but I’ve read most of your work and I’m in love with it all!! I dunno if you do peter x reader (if you don’t that’s ok, just ignore lmao) but maybe where we have chubby!reader who jokingly puts herself down all the time and peter just kinda snaps at her for doing it because he can’t stand the comments she makes- because he’s crushing on her...? Again- you don’t have to do this one or you can change it up!

requests are now closed

Summary: You are you, and damn you love it. Everyone knows it too, and they love you. Joking about yourself is common. But as soon as you feel down, you can’t stop but put yourself down. Sometimes harshly. And Peter can’t take it anymore.

Pairing: Peter Parker x Chubby!Fem!Reader

Warnings: angsty (mention of fat shaming, insecurities), a tiny bit of language (nothing too bad) but fluff at then end 

Word Count: 1945

A/N: first time (really) writing about our Spidey boy! 🎉🕷 also I kinda take my time with writing so sorry it took me a bit 😅 but I only feel accomplished when Like what I write sooooo bare with me please? 🙄🙊 anyway! thank you for your request sweetheart, I hope you will all like this little angsty fluffy as much as I do~ 💞 AND LOVE YOURSELF BECAUSE YOU’RE ALL BEAUTIFUL!!! 💖💜💖💜

masterlist

To hell with all beauty standards and perfection stereotypes!

You love your body as it is, from the smallest imperfection on your face to your curves and extra skin. And needless to say you are proud to show it. But sometimes other people’s look can be harsh on you, full of judgements as they don’t even know you but any opportunity is an open door to criticism.

So you got use to it like you didn’t care, and even made fun of it. More like made fun of yourself, actually.

“Man, her legs put together are the size of one thigh of mine!” you chuckle as you eat in the cafeteria next to MJ, Peter and Ned. All the table look at who you are talking about.

MJ playfully elbows you in the waist as she drinks her glass of water. “Shush (Y/N), everyone compares Bethany as a walking chopstick anyway.”

“I knoooow” you reply with a playful tone, munching on your pasta.

“You also look like chopsticks MJ, like from head to toes. Damn girl, you could just fly away with the wind!” you giggle while trying to steal in MJ’s plate. “And I will just stick to the ground like a pole!”

Even if you are laughing at yourself, you are actually the only one. You don’t catch MJ rolling her eyes with an exasperated sigh, Ned being kind of confused and Peter... well, clearly being annoyed.

“Alriiiiiight you little brat, stop talking crap ‘cause you still have to explain the last lesson to me before next class starts” grumbles MJ as she stands, her now empty tray in hand before taking it away.

“Yup girl, coming!” you announce, wiping your mouth with a paper napkin.

Peter follows each of your moves. All done eating you too stand, put your bag on your back and take your tray ready to follow MJ, who is already waiting for you near the exit of the cafeteria.

“Alright guys, see you in chemistry!” you happily sing while showing your biggest smile to the boys before leaving the table to join MJ.

The constant chattering of the students in the background hides the silent at the table. Ned finishes his yogurt before talking to Peter, but he stops himself when he notices his friend’s face. Tensed. Annoyed. And sad maybe? Ned has actually an idea of what is bothering his friend so much but knowing Peter’s personality, it would be a waste of time. Better to skirt the issue.

“(Y/N) is acting a bit weird recently, don’t you think?”

Peter only hums, more focus on mixing what is left of his yogurt than anything else right now. Head low and furrowed eyebrows, he keeps staring at actually nothing, just being lost in his thought and thinking. 

Thinking a lot, yes. About you. About how much you put yourself down way too much recently.

He can’t laugh at your cheeky comments anymore. He just can’t.

* * * *

Chemistry is your last class of the day, thanks the lords. You are finally reunited with all your three best friends so, hopefully the hours will pass by faster.

MJ writes (more like scribbles) lazily the answers for the report your duo has to give back at the end of the lesson, while you are the one having fun mixing whatever there is in the test tubes. Then you take an empty one and look through it.

“MJ, look” you whisper to your friend, trying to catch her attention. At first she doesn’t even care to turn her head towards you, until you insist by calling-whispering her name until she finally deigns to glance at you. Not really understanding what you want to show her, MJ brings her lab stool closer to you and frowns as she looks through your test tube. You brings the tube closer to both your faces.

“Look, Lara’s ass is as big as mine now” you kind of try to whisper, as well as not laughing out loud to not get reprimanded by the teacher.

In fact the glass tube deforms everything you look at when watching through it. And in that case, it is changing the shapes of your comrade’s bottom. MJ seems unimpressed and with her well-known bitch resting face, the girl simply goes back to her writings but not without sending you “are you serious?” glances.

Little did you know Peter could hear all your conversation, even three desks behind. The displeased look on his face is immediately showing and he almost breaks the pen he is using to write on the due paper. The slight crack of the plastic draws Ned’s attention.

“Dude, that’s my favourite pen!”

“Sorry, mate” grumbles Peter, putting the pen down and he sighs, leaning his elbows on the lab desk. He exhales loudly while ruffling at his hair. 

“You should talk to (Y/N), don’t you think so?” declares Ned as he takes two test tubes in his hands to deal with their contents. “You know, just to tell her how you feel and stuff like that.”

“I don’t know, man” retorts Peter with a low voice, his head now hidden in his arms. “I just- I can’t just say “hey (Y/N), stop running yourself down all the time because you are gorgeous in every way and I had a crush on you since high school and-”

“Peter stop, you’re mumbling like a freak” exclaims Ned, hoping to end his friend’s suffering. “Seriously, I noticed the face you do when she jokes about herself. I mean, maybe she’s not feeling great so you talking to her might sort things out somehow?”

Peter processes Ned’s words as his eyes follows you when you go ask something to the teacher. There is something about the kindness that emanates from your pretty eyes, the pink outline of your lips, the unique way your hair curves perfectly around your round face, but mostly your hourglass figure. Sometimes the boy finds hard to keep his eyes up. But you look so beautiful to him. That is mainly the reason why Peter can’t accept hearing you badmouthing about your appearance anymore.  

* * * *

The ringing bell announces the end of today’s lessons. Students are now filling every corridors, some going to their locker and other already leaving the building.

“I need to take some books in my locker, you coming with me MJ?” you ask your friend.

“Sorry, my mum’s picking me up ‘cause we’re going to my grandma this evening so I have to hurry” explains MJ, not too excited about the thought of it.

“I need to go to my locker too” Peter jumps into the conversation. He directly stares at you, a determined look on his face.

“Oh, uhm- alright then!” you cheer blushing a bit, still taken aback by Peter’s serious tone.

You wave goodbye at MJ and Ned as you start walking to your locker, Peter following close to you and receiving two discrete thumbs up from Ned. 

The main school corridor is now more empty, the steps of the last students resonating and almost fading little by little. You and Peter stop in front of your lockers, them being next to each other and just do your own things by taking and putting down what you need or not. Peter is more like fiddling with stuff, pretending to do something while his goal was obviously talking to you.

When he ears you zipper your backpack shut and close your locker, he violently - but not intentionally - slams his close a bit too harsh, making the loud metallic slap resonate in the empty corridor. You jump at that too and Peter just wants to facepalm himself at his own stupidity. 

“Err (Y/N), can- can we talk?” the boy mutters, now shy because of his sudden loose of confidence.

“Sure Pete, about what?”

Peter gulps as you stare at him, waiting for what he has to say. He is nervous now. How will you react? Good or bad? Will you ignore him after that talk because he offended you or misunderstood the situation? Will you-

“Peter? You’re alright?”

Your soft and worried voice suddenly takes him out of his mixed up thoughts.

“You’re gorgeous (Y/N).”

That is indeed straight to the point. Totally. First you blink a few times, not sure if you heard it right but seeing Peter’s serious face says it all. Your whole face is now blushing at his sudden compliment.

“P-PETER WHY DO YOU-”

“(Y/N), you are the most beautiful girl I know. Like in every way possible. You’re kind, smart, funny, a bit nerdy, outgoing, sometimes eccentric too but it’s part of your personality. But you’re also gorgeous in the way you dress because it shows your beautiful shapes off. You have nothing to be ashamed of in comparison to any other girl. You’re unique and I love everything about you, starting with your cheeks because they’re so round and full, but also your waist because its highlights your defined hips and I could go on and on for hours. It’s everything a boring, shy, awful and introvert guy like me loves. So please, stop putting yourself down all the time. You don’t deserve it and never you will. I don’t like that and I just want you to know that I loved you since high school and that I-”

You cut Peter off in his mumbling by putting both your hands on his mouth. When he finally stops - also remembering to breath again -, he finally notices how much your face and ears are red. You avoid looking at him, still not fully processing all the compliments and obvious declaration of love. Your heartbeats could almost break through your ribcage and your mind is a mess.

Seeing you conflicting with yourself, Peter takes your hands off his mouth and gently keep them in his. His look tries to search for yours.

“(Y/N), I’m serious about what I said. You know I’m awful with words but... Trust me when I say I love everything about you, a lot, so please love yourself as much as I do.”

After calming down a bit, you dare to look at Peter again, his eyes soft and reassuring. You are still at a loose of words because nobody said any of the beautiful things Peter just did to you. Nobody. And it warms your heart knowing that someone loves you how you are. You love it even more because you know it is Peter.

Peter squeezes your hands and with a impulse out of nowhere, he lightly pecks the corner of your mouth. He then moves his face back, smiling warmly at you.

“When you’re with me, there is no judgement (Y/N).”

“J-Jeez, Peter...” you stutter, you face still red of shyness.

“I’m walking you back home, come on” Peter mans himself up, noticing the school is completely empty with not a sound around. Detaching his hands from you, he picks your backpack up to give it to you. You take it with wobbling  hands, muttering a shy “thanks” before putting it on your back. Now ready to go, Peter extends one hand for you to take and this time, you don't have to be told twice. 

Hand in hands, fingers intertwine, you both walk through the long corridor, only you two remaining here. Peter’s warm hand reassures you in a strange way. But you like it. 

And you can’t stop the content smile growing on your face as you sneak a look at the boy who just proved you are worth it. Inside out. From head to toes.

And boy do you love this feeling.

🏷 Permanent tag list & mutuals 💖 (get notified)

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[ot3]

My approach to flat colors + limited palette drawings

This is a follow up to this post  i made about how i go about figuring out a color palette for my limited palette drawings. an anon asked me about my actual technique of finishing them so this is gonna be an explanation of how I work in a limited palette with flat colors. I ended up with these thumbnails for a sketch last time so we’re gonna work from here and I’m gonna sort of walk through how i got to the finished version

first things first: every part of this process is just developed as a result of me messing around. take my advice with a grain of salt and if you think you know a way to do something better/that makes you more comfortable. go with that over what I say.

I’m honestly a little surprised when people express confusion about how i draw like this because it’s SUPER simple - literally all you’re doing is just stacking solid color blocks of shape. its very imprecise despite how sharp everything ends up looking. 

First things first is that you want to decide how you will be handling your edges throughout the duration. Do you want your shapes to be ultra-sharp and precise, or do you want a little bit of a wobblier, grainier edge? Both can look good but it’s VERY much a matter of situational basis. i’ve been favoring looser and grainier shapes so that’s how i’m going to be working on this. 

on the left here, you can see the shapes made with precise rectangular selections and an untextured pen, on the right, freehand drawn shapes and a grittier pen. There’s something immediately pretty different feeling about them. So play around with that first - its not something that’s fun to change halfway through! But lets step back a minute. It helps to work large to small. The two biggest shapes here are these orange chunks and everything gets stacked on top of them so i’m gonna do that first. 

Now, a key feature of what i do: clipping masks. almost all digital art programs have them. What a clipping mask does is it constrains the pixels of a layer to the transparency of the layer below it. Here I have the light orange layer, and then on top of it the buildings and billboard are clipped to the orange. Most of you probably already know this and I’m overexplaining a bit, but there was a time when i didnt know how clipping layers worked and someone had to explain it to me.

now you’ll notice the shapes of the buildings are rough, and sloppy. here’s the fun part: since this is all about stacking shapes, only your exterior edges matter. this all gets filled in. be as sloppy as you want when you’re making your shapes. in fact, the outside edges get trimmed out a bunch to when i do this - i go in and erase them clean. Don’t be too finnicky about drawing perfect and precise! its a waste of time. As long as the silhouette is what you want, the interior can be a nightmare.

Working this way, it’s important to keep your layers stacked in a way you can make sense of. Right now there are four layers here: the background dark orange, the two main orange rectangle shapes, and then the buildings on one layer and a billboard on the other. I rack up a LOT of layers doing this and it makes it annoying in some aspects, but being able to freely recolor any one chunk without losing my detail is a key aspect of this.

So, I block those out

Next, I do the same for the smaller chunks that are still main shapes. There are once again, a lot of layers here. The top layer is the hair - you can see the head showing through it. The head and arm underneath the hair, same layer. Then the cup. Then the light green pieces of paper. Then the dark green ones.

The cup is technically farther forward than the head and arm so you would think it’d go on top, but the point isnt to recreate the foreground and background hierarchy with layers so much as it is to group things in a way i can work with. The cup goes underneath so it can be grouped with all the other objects on the table. 

now, i just go and fill in all the shapes. i forgot to do the blinds but i get them later. you might notice a lot of these shapes are pretty rough, which was harder to notice before they were filled in. Now that I can see better, I go in with an eraser and clean up the edges until they’re the shape I want 

sometimes erasing leaves little bits of ‘noise’ around objects like on this napkin here. i like to keep a little bit of this noise for texture, but if you dont like it make sure to get rid of it! if you’re working very crisp this will stand out a LOT

Next up is to add some detail onto the objects

I flipped the canvas here because the head shape was wrong - the ears were uneven and i wanted to fix it. I want to go about adding detail onto the billboard and buildings. i do all detail with clipping masks - but the objects are clipped to another layer and so nothing can be clipped to them. instead, i unclip them and just erase by selection for the same effect

all of the text on the papers is clipped to the papers below it. the buttons are clipped to the phone. the yellow photos and card are actually another independent layer on top, in case i want to recolor them separately. im indecisive and end up recoloring things a lot. For the most part these objects are starting to become recognizable as more than just shapes

i go in an add the details on the background and character now. theres some more stuff on the table. the lines of the face and ears are on one layer, and the flats of the eyes below that. Here’s what each group of layers is, and what they look like on their own

The background/bottom chunk. Just the table, window, and shirt.

The middle bit. All the stuff on the table and the blinds.

Finally, the top, which is just his head and arm. 

now this stage is the bare bones of the drawing. you can more or less tell everything that’s happening. it reads. but its very much lacking in something - it doesnt have a ton of depth or interest. and adding that additional detailing, the dept and interest, is where stuff starts getting REALLY tricky and subjective. 

im gonna take you to a much simpler scenario to show the sort of options i go through at this stage

ahh its our dear friend, sphere casting shadow. this is, more or less, the kind of image we have. you can tell whats happening but it’s lackluster. there are TONSSS of ways frm here that you can go add interior detail to a shape once it has been established. here are some quick and SUPER rough examples

from top left to bottom right: flat cel shading, softer airbrushed/gradient shading, halftone, and a textured brush. Each of these has their strengths and weaknesses. They can also be combined.

for example, here’s the solid cel shading being used to contain a gradient/airbrushed detail. This image - probably the single oldest piece of my art i still willingly show people - is entirely colored with gradients being contained in cel-shaded chunks. It has a sort of soft, luminous quality but without losing its crispness.

here’s a super quick bust with some variations of stuff going on. obviously this is no masterpiece but you see how different types of detailing can interact with each other and be used to distinguish materials too. 

With the mob psycho comic I did, the detailing that wasnt line was done using a variety of halftones of different shapes layered on top of each other

by contrast parts of my ace attorney comic use a textured brush and have a sort of blended, papery feel

any of them can work for pretty much anything as long as you are using it with intent. practice around. mix styles of finishing together. find a comfort zone. the more you do it the more intuitive it becomes and at the heart of it this process is a very intuitive way of drawing because of how far removed it is from realism.

Now here is the trick - light and shadow.

Everything up to this point has been very flat and adding detail helps but there’s only so much that can accomplish. To get HEAVY light and shadow you need to think about things differently. I think if there’s any part of this process that’s complicated, its this one. 

To truly get the most out of your palette, you need to pick chunks of an image to be in higher/lower light and then either ‘step up’ or ‘step down’ the colors in that chunk. here’s what I mean.

Here’s our ball with a beam of light on it. Everything Within the beam of light is one step in our limited palette lighter than anything outside of it. Here’s how I go about doing this: the shape of the beam of light is below everything else. Then, once I have the shape blocked out, i select it. With that selection in place, i go to EVERY SINGLE LAYER that’s effected, lock the opacity, and recolor that chunk. So what’s going on here is that there is only one more layer - the beam of light, below everything but the background, and the rest of this effect is just caused by every layer above it now being two-toned following the exact same silhouette. THIS is why it’s so important to keep your layers separate - if the shadow and highlight had been painted onto the base directly, i would not be able to do this without significant effort. 

This works with all of the finishing techniques I talked about above

A combination of cel shading and half toning, all stepped up to give the appearance of heavier light on one area.This is also how I go about rendering transparency in this style. All of my layers are fully opaque and I allow the colors to do the work of conveying transparent material

Here’s our ball with the patterned/textured brush  shading, being viewed partially through a window

it’s obviously not a very representational way of working, but as long as your audience UNDERSTANDS what you’re trying to convey, then you’re executing it successfully.

So with that, now we’re gonna go and finish this drawing.

For this one, I decide a big central shadow is necessary. In the original thumbnail, he was backlit, which I still plan on doing, and that wouldn’t make sense without casting a shadow.

I’ve had to change the colors of some objects entirely in order to get this to work right. This is what I mean when I call this an intuitive process - some stuff felt weird, so I changed it. This also involves a bit of problem solving. The newspaper is now unable to be separated from his hand. Sometimes changing the color of an object makes that object look better, but ruins its relationship with the objects around it. It’s up to you to learn how to adjust and finagle things until you get it where you want.The paper he has and the napkin underneath it also all blend together now.

The next few parts of this process are REALLY just trial and error, where I toss a bunch of spaghetti at it until it works. It’s hard to decide what to screenshot, because I don’t know what will or will not be part of the finished drawing. To that end, you can watch the recording of this drawing here. This video isn’t edited at all so it contains a couple of minutes of really shitty sketching, and then all of the color thumbnailing work i did in the last post. Actually getting started on these final colors begins around the two minute mark. It is also sideways, I am sorry I don’t know why. 

Now, here you can see where I’ve more or less worked things out. His hand’s not on the cup anymore because my friend pointed out it didnt have an arm attached to it. I added some halftoning to make a gradiating effect in the sky and on the table to give the impression of a sunrise. His eyes are different but as of posting this, I don’t like them and am probably about to go back and change them again. The Cup now has a shadow and some rim lighting. His hand is in shadow. The stain on the napkin is big enough to define the edge of the paper on top of it.

Little things like that. 

The more you draw like this the more the way you need to think about your space becomes natural. I hope this helps and I wish you all the best of luck!

[egg-emperor]

∇ -. old age/aging headcanon

I've been writing quite a bit about this as I'm considering writing a full fic at some point. But I've really been wanting to talk about it for a while, so I'll take this as an opportunity to share a bunch of the ideas for now!

Eggman will never retire from his goal of taking over the world, that's why he's only ever joked about it before. Despite the rough patches and rare moments of lost hope, his dreams will never truly die unless he does too. He'll never give up, he'll keep going until he gets what he wants or dies trying. He'll only become even more determined than ever in case his time is running out.

He'll become fixated on the idea of prolonging his lifespan/immortalizing himself so he can be certain that he gets to accomplish his lifelong goals. But as he works on that, he won't be able to stop himself from aging for quite some time. So he'll have to go through the process and accept any changes he goes through all the same, even though he doesn't really want to accept it at first.

He's not too far off from his stache going gray, or it's already started to show a bit and he's hiding it to keep the beautiful mahogany color for as long as possible. It takes time for him to accept the changes and having people draw attention to it certainly won’t help him feel any better about it. He eventually allows his stache to be gray and thinks it still looks just as great. But then he has to prepare himself to face the teasing that he’ll likely get for it.

The power of his mind will last longer than his physical but his strength will always be impressively above average. He'll insist on working as much as he can and will still operate mechs and machinery, despite the energy and strength it takes. But he'll acknowledge his limit and will rely on robots depending on the objective. He’ll need more help with other tasks and activities in general that he still won’t want to admit, though.

But he'll stop denying the need for support and will receive it more often from assistant robots. The robots have to learn to behave by not complaining about the increase. And they must avoid mentioning touchy subjects at all costs, as he'll lose his temper and patience even faster with age as he gets more grumpy. One example being how worn out he can get after chasing Sonic in his Egg Mobile, or after battles with him in mechs. 

He needs breaks as even watching Sonic zoom around will make him feel tired. Sonic discovers this and uses it to his advantage. It’s also difficult for Eggman to keep track as his eyesight further worsens and so does his hearing after years of loud construction and machinery. He hates when Orbot and Cubot point all of this out, so they have to let him sleep whenever he needs without disturbances and avoid mentioning it when he wakes up.

In the present, he tends to stay up far too late and also pushes through sleepless nights to get work done, such as scheming/creating or carrying out plans. There are many times he's left feeling totally overworked. It already takes quite a toll on him now but he can hide it well. In the future it will be too much for him though and anyone will be able to see that it's not so easy anymore.

Fortunately, he doesn't deny it forever and will eventually accept it and start to let himself get more comfortable. He embraces his age and accepts his needs as time goes on. It kind of starts with him dropping his exercise routine altogether, but that isn’t a conscious consideration of his age at the time. He just sees it as losing interest and it's too draining for him to bother.

But he’ll become more aware and considerate of his health and need for rest when he realizes it’s difficult to stay awake for as long as he used to and that overworking his body and mind isn't good for him. His sleep schedule will start to actually exist to an extent and nap times will be planned more often than just happening at random times like they usually do in the present.

There are some things about his aging process that he’ll keep trying to keep a secret from others for a while. It starts with his stache but he learns to embrace the gray and lets everyone see. But even after accepting and revealing that, he still tries to hide other things like his slightly lower energy, trouble his osteoarthritis continues to bring him and his problems with incontinence.

Also working hard, controlling his mechs, and rough defeats will leave him feeling more soreness than before. Certain everyday activities end up having the same effect, including walking, so he'll use a walking stick. And when indoors, he has his floating chairs ready to help him get around easier. But all of that is part of why he won't decide to get back to his exercise routine.

He can't hide the weight gained from ditching it and the way he still likes more than three meals a day, though he tries to make it less common. He’ll still be egg shaped but noticeably larger. It offends him when he’s teased for it but learns to expect it to be mentioned. When seeing people for the first time in a while, he’ll say “I know what you’re thinking” so they don’t state the obvious of how he’s changed since they last saw him.

Unfortunately, there are other secrets that aren't very well kept as more of them will be discovered as he slips up or Orbot and Cubot start telling them. People will poke fun at him for those too, which he's also rather sensitive about at first. But like all the other ways he's been mocked in the past, he gets used to it and even embraces a lot of things to take away the power of insults. That’s always something he's been very good at.

My favorite thing about these headcanons is that there were lines in the Sonic Tokyo 2020 app that can contribute. It was cool to see it in any official media, even something as small as an app!

[jet-playin-around]

Harry Potter and the Mysterious Puzzle Boxes

Balancing a take away coffee on top of the stack of files he'd taken home the night before and already lost in his thoughts, Auror Potter let himself into his office. A brief flick of his eyes set the little lamp on his desk glowing in the early morning gloom, and he paused before dropping his load on the usually clear surface of his desk.

In the spot he kept clear of paperwork, quills, and general office debris sat an ornate wooden cube, at least twice the size of his first Muggle Rubik’s Cube. He glanced round to the little procession of eleven similar boxes to confirm this was not one of those. He knew it wasn't. Each was different; the first was the size of a matchbox and each progressively bigger, but none were the same size and shape as any other.

This one was new.

Keeping one eye trained on the object, he moved around the desk and slapped the files down, barely managing to save the coffee he'd nearly forgotten was there.

Twelve. Twelve puzzle boxes. One a month, which made this nearly a year since the first. He glared at it, mentally scoffing at its innocent facade. The seventh box - a lovely, decagon shape with marble walls and brass top and bottom plates that opened like a flower when solved - proved they could be malicious when, as he slid the last catch free, a migrating swamp sprang free to wreak havoc on the DMLE. As if Robards hadn't been angry enough with Harry, that day.

Shaking his head to clear it, Harry levitated the offensive cube to join its brethren and steadfastly focused his attention on his actual caseload. Whatever the box contained would have to wait.

-

For the umpteenth time in the past hour, Harry found his attention wandering to the little box. Focus evaded him. As each before it had been, this box was flawless. The biggest and most intricately designed of them all; the wood was sanded and finished, the grooves carved with precision and care. They seemed to suggest a pattern of some sort, but he couldn't begin to imagine what it might be.

Last month's box had taken three days to solve and he just knew this would be more difficult. Whoever sent them was upping their game. Each box was a different type of puzzle, from pin catches to magnetic clasps. That first had been a simple matter of finding the right spot and pressing to release the latch holding the top closed. Something told him this masterpiece would present more of a challenge.

A smart rap on his open door yanked Harry's attention back to his office and the visitor in his doorway. A clench in his gut reminded him of the only real purpose the boxes seemed to serve: they were a welcome distraction from the invasive thoughts of blond hair and razor sharp cheekbones that insisted Draco Malfoy would look a great deal better with fewer clothes and considerably more heat in those cool eyes.

“Draco,” Harry greeted him, satisfied his voice didn't betray the images swirling through his distracted mind. “Is it lunch, already?”

“Half past, actually,” Draco drawled, sauntering into the office. He placed a neatly folded paper bag before Harry, then perched himself on the edge of the desk. “I assumed you were caught up with work. Had I known you were sitting here staring into space, I wouldn't have bothered accommodating you.”

There was a teasing glint in Draco's eyes as he sipped delicately from a steaming take-away cup and Harry snorted, the tension of moments before erased by the ease he felt in the man's presence. Ever since George had taken him on at the shop, Draco had proved himself to be decent company. It certainly helped that he still managed to treat Harry like a person, rather than “The Saviour,” like the rest of the wizarding world.

“Fuck off, Malfoy,” he retorted, digging into the bag to find a sandwich wrapped in deli paper and a plastic case of treacle tart.

He didn't need to unwrap the sandwich to know it was roast beef. Draco always seemed to know what to bring and Harry had long since stopped questioning it. Flipping open the case, he dug out a fork to start lunch with the tart.

“I wasn't staring into space, I was thinking.” Draco rolled his eyes. Harry gestured with his fork. “Got a new puzzle box yesterday morning.”

“Oh?” Draco asked, tipping forward to propel himself across the room. Before Harry could stop him, he reached forward and lifted it to examine the etchings.

“For fuck’s sake, Malfoy,” Harry cried, levitating it out of his hands and dropping it on his desk as he rushed to Draco's side. “It could be cursed, you idiot!” 

“Don't be ridiculous, none of the others were.” His voice was tight, but it didn't matter. Harry could deal with an annoyed Draco, but not a dead one.

“There's a first time for everything.” He snatched up his hands, searching for any hint of curse damage, then lifted his head to check his face, as if he'd find some outward sign of injury. Draco was staring at him, a curious warmth in his eyes, darkening the grey and stilling Harry's heart for a beat.

“Potter?” Draco asked hesitantly, his eyelashes fluttering slightly and he drew a shaky breath.

Before Harry knew what was happening, strong, pale hands darted out, one hooking behind his neck and the other clenching in the fabric of his shirt collar as he was dragged forward. By the time he realised Draco was indeed kissing him - the warm lips on his, the slick tongue tracing the seam of his own lips, were indeed Draco's - he was whirling away.

“Fuck,” Draco muttered. “Shit, I'm sorry Harry, I don't-”

But Harry couldn't hear him, not really. Not when the taste of him was lingering on his lips and the scent of him was circling, adding a dreamlike quality to the entire moment. The sound of his office door banging closed startled him out of his trance and back into his empty office.

Draco was gone. The only tangible evidence he'd been there at all was the bag and Harry's lunch on his desk.

Well. That certainly changed a few things. Settling back into his work, Harry barely gave the box another thought for the rest of the day.

-

On Wednesday morning, Harry let himself into his office and threw himself into his chair, glowering at the box still sitting on the corner of his desk.

He was in a dark mood, frustrated and confused, and dead certain the box was to blame. No, none of the others had been cursed, but this one clearly was. It was the only answer as to why Draco would kiss him - right after touching the blasted thing! - and then run off and avoid him.

“‘Isn't working today,’ my arse,” he grumbled.

Drawing his wand, he aimed every detection spell he knew at it, searching for dark magic or love spells. Anything that would explain Draco's behaviour.

Nothing.

With a growl of frustration, he lunged across the desk and dragged it closer. He didn't feel any different… Peering intently, he began to notice the hairline seams in the panels of wood. An experimental tap had the small bubble of hope in his chest sinking.

Sucking in a breath, he lifted the box again, turning it, tapping various panels. On one turn, he nudged a corner to find the segment shifted, swiveling, so he began to twist other segments, looking for some rhyme or reason to the writhing images on the face of the box.

Before long, he was completely absorbed. Which wasn't to say he was making any sort of progress, he simply couldn't bring himself to put the damned thing down. By the end of the day, he'd accomplished fuck all, hadn't taken his lunch break, hadn't even logged it into evidence - as he'd done with every other box - in favour of cracking the puzzle.

There was nothing for it, he had to take it home for the night.

Thursday came and went in much the same way, with the added bonus of a heated argument with Robards. During which Harry insisted, again, that the boxes were clues to some evil mastermind, clearly intended to attack him with something he couldn't resist: a mystery. And, as he had since the swamp incident, Robards demanded he “give the bloody boxes a rest, Auror Potter!”

But Harry knew he was onto something. The sixth box - a small pyramid of rosewood that was solved when all four corners were successfully flipped upside down - had contained a note with a location, date, and time. He was certain that was where he'd bust this arrogant bastard, but his team had come away empty handed. There wasn't even a skirmish to show for their trouble.

That was when Robards shut him down, furious he'd wasted the time and resources for a wild goose chase. Never mind that the swamp in the next box was clearly retaliation. And what did it matter that the box after that held a contrite apology? The sender was a madman, nothing they did made the least bit of sense.

Harry had considered, of course, that they might be gifts from a fan, but that seemed unlikely. His home and office were heavily warded against fan mail of any kind. Of course, Draco's reaction to touching it seemed to confirm that possibility.

And that was the crux, wasn't it? They missed him and got to Draco, instead. They fucked with the friendship in a way Harry himself refused to. And he wouldn't tolerate it. He was going to solve the puzzle and find out who was sending them.

Then he'd fix things with Draco.

-

Friday was difficult. Draco was avoiding him and Harry couldn't dedicate as much time as he'd like to solving the box. He was called away on case after case, loaded down with paperwork, but skipped lunch to give it some time.

Toward the end of the day, the chaos slowed to a trickle and Harry was back at it, more determined than ever. There was only one of the six sides yet to be solved and he could almost taste the triumph. Just a bit more fiddling…

The sun sank in the window behind him, magically reflecting the sky the offices were too far underground to actually see, but Harry switched on his lamp and kept fiddling.

There! The click he'd been waiting for finally sounded. Followed by… Nothing.

Lifting the box carefully, he turned it to and fro, looking for something, anything, out of the ordinary. A clasp, a lever, anything.

Still nothing.

Groaning, he dropped the box to the desk, then his head to the box. What was he missing? All of the grooves aligned perfectly. They still didn't form a recognisable image, but that wasn't necessary. They aligned.

A soft chuckle drifted through the room and Harry's head snapped up. After a beat, his body followed suit, raising from his chair awkwardly, but making no move toward where Draco stood in his doorway, as he had earlier in the week.

He looked… Well, bloody amazing. It would seem he was on his way out for the night, dressed in a sleekly tailored suit, his hair brushed back but left loose, the way he generally wore it since the war ended. A small smirk curled his lips and his eyes twinkled with amusement.

“Struggling, I take it?” he asked, gliding into Harry's office and draping his winter cloak over one of the chairs set opposite the desk. He gestured to the box, nodding slightly. “May I?”

The request snapped Harry out of his stupor and he shook his head vehemently. “It's not safe,” he said, avoiding Draco's eyes. “What happened before-”

“Don't be ridiculous, Potter. It's perfectly safe. I am quite good at what I do, you know.”

In spite of Harry's warning, and his best efforts to block the box from his reach, Draco plucked it up and examined it again, holding it mere inches from his face.

“Ha!” he cried. “I knew I'd stump you, eventually.”

With a wicked grin, he set to work, long, nimble fingers twisting and shifting the pieces of the puzzle until a recognizable image began to emerge in the grooves. Very simple, but clearly a rosebud just beginning to open. Harry stared in awe, every protest lodged in his throat as Draco gnawed at his bottom lip in concentration.

“Here we are,” he said at last, placing the box gently back on the desk.

Harry swallowed, curiosity roiling in his stomach, butterflies rising in his chest. The boxes were from Draco? But, that didn't make any sense. The notes inside, the little baubles - toys and flowers… Gifts.

If they weren't from a criminal or a crazed fan, the whole thing could be quite… Romantic.

He swallowed again, determined to maintain an even tone of voice as he asked the most important of the questions circling his mind. Feeling daring, he caught Draco's gaze and held it. “Don't puzzle boxes generally open?”

One pale brow shot up and Draco leaned over the desk, carefully placing the palm of each hand flat on either side of the box. An odd mix of challenge, hesitation, and actual fear crossed his features, but he drew in a breath, lifted one hand, and pushed down on the centre of the rosebud, never taking his eyes from Harry.

The top of the box melted away, revealing a miniscule bundle of cloth nestled at the heart of the puzzle. As he reached in to retrieve it, Draco spoke, startling him.

“Merlin, Potter, but you're dense!”

Harry looked to Draco, a retort on the tip of his tongue, only to find the man seated, watching him cautiously, in spite of his relaxed pose.

“Twelve months, you wanker, and that's just with the boxes!”

It was Draco's voice, in all its heated annoyance, but Draco was not speaking. His voice was resonating from the open box.

“If this doesn't work, I give up. Inside, as I'm sure even you've noticed by now, is your outfit. I had to shrink it in order to make it fit. If you don't think I'm off my rocker by the end of this message, please meet me at La Roux Château at eight p.m. Friday night. Wear the outfit.”

The voice ended abruptly, followed by the sounds of the puzzle closing and resetting itself. At some point, Harry had sunk into his chair, his eyes still trained on Draco.

“It's fine, Potter. You can decline. I just thought you should know they were from me.” Carefully, Draco rose, collecting his cloak and shaking in loose of its folds before folding it over his arm. “I do hope we can remain friends, of course,” he said, striding to the door.

Harry panicked at the sight of him walking away, for the second time that week no less, and lurched into action. He cast a tempus, cursed, then raced after Draco.

“Wait!” he called through the DMLE, thankfully empty at such a late hour. “Damn it Draco, wait!”

Draco stilled, but didn't turn. When Harry reached his side, he paused, unsure how welcome his response would be. Apparently, he was hopeless. Squaring his shoulders, along with his resolve, he stepped forward and took Draco's free hand in his.

Questioning eyes met his and Harry smiled tentatively. “Let's go, then. We still have ten minutes and I'm not dressed.”

Before Draco could do more than open his mouth to protest, Harry drew him along as he made his way out of the DMLE, his mind whirling with ideas of how to display his puzzle boxes.

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

This is the most offensivly ignorant comment I’ve ever had the misfortunte of reading

Unsurprisingly it comes from the King of ‘What you just said is so aggressively idiotic I feel like you just insulted everyone’: RDMacQ. 

For context you need to read this statement from someone else. Whilst I do not agree with this statement I’m not addressing it’s merits or demerits.

“Let me say that I don't like Evil Superman as a concept, but when written well, like Tom Taylor's Injustice comics, where the guy who wrote it clearly has love for the traditional version of Superman and tries to humanize him even at his worst so you can relate and feel for the guy, I accept it, I enjoy it. By that same token, I was always open to Peter/MJ not working out if it was done well, and not done as in the case of OMD/OMIT with the demonstrable intent of slandering MJ's character and making Peter young hip and open to dating younger girls without him coming off as a creep and sleazebag. I am not okay with it happening to preserving Peter's sainthood. I mean the reason I accepted Peter B. in ITSV is that it did that take on the direction the character went into very well. In the case of Life Story #3, you are meant to agree with MJ and she's shown as a moral force, someone who condemns Venom Peter when he is about to kill Kraven-in-Cloth Suit. And of course people need to keep in mind that in Life Story, Reed and Sue didn't work out either, Vision suffers more guilt than even Peter can fathom, Captain America made a bigger and more difficult choice and faces more consequences for his actions than Peter does. So I feel that whatever Zdarsky is doing he's playing fair in the way that other writers don't when they do the story this way. And also tonally, the story is set in the '80s, the age of Watchmen. I think in terms of decade-specific mood and trend, having a story where Spider-man becomes a deadbeat dad worried about not being in prime physical shape and so on...is quite apposite.”

Then we get to RDMacQ’s bullshit

 “Yeah, I find it weird that the main complaint is "This isn't what happened in the original comics" and I'm like "Yeah.... kind of the point!"”

Here is the problem.

Life Story is intended and promoted as a WHAT IF.

 The way a WHAT IF works is that it takes what DID happen and changes variables to explore how that’d impact the outcome.

With Variables A+B you get outcome 1 (the main universe).

 But what if you had Variables C+D? You would get outcome 2.

 Gwen Stacy died so Spider-Man tried (and ultimately refrained) from murdering the Green Goblin.

 But what If Spider-Man saved Gwen Stacy? Then she’d accept him, he’d stop the Goblin, but the Goblin would expose his identity in the interim and thus ruin Peter’s life.

 Kingpin’s assassin injured Aunt May so Peter beat him up.

 But what If the Kingpin’s assassin didn’t injure Aunt May but simply outright killed Mary Jane? Then Peter would directly murder the Kingpin.

 Life Story doesn’t play fair as a What if in the slightest.

 A what if done properly is confined by the parameters of the original story. Everyone still needs to act in character within the context of the new situation as defined by the older stories.

 That isn’t he case in Life Story

 To begin with it isn’t changing just one variable it’s changing multiple. Spider-Man is aging in real time. The events of his life are happening in roughly the same time period they would’ve been published, but not in the same order. The level of realism is drastically higher since Marvel heroes are going to the Vietnam War.

 Characters act arbitrarily differently in ways they wouldn’t do in the context of the new variables. Case in point, why exactly would Norman Osborn pull the scheme he di in issue #2 just because he’s in prison? His plan never made sense. And in issue #4 his plan was even more asinine. He wanted to destroy Spider-Man and due to being too old to do it himself he pulled the Clone Saga and got Doc Ock to attack Spidey on his behalf. But he knew who Peter was, why not just reveal the truth. Doing so couldn’t harm him as he’d already paid for his crimes as the Goblin and his identity was public knowledge.

 That doesn’t make sense. That’s not an opinion that’s just self-evident by the story. The cause and effect of it doesn’t add up.

 But RDMacQ doesn’t believe in that. According to him Norman’s actions are justified because ‘ a crazy person did something that didn’t make sense’. That’s the laziest most pathetic attempt at analysis. And yet this cum bubble of a human being has the audiactity to claim I  don’t analyse.

 To him authorial intent is everything unless he doesn’t like it.

 Because the point is that it’s supposed to be different from canon that means that characters can act in ANY way that’s different. ANY thing that is different is a viable option. Which obviously defeats the entire object of the project. If you are going to do that what is the point of rooting it in 616 canon in the first place? Why rely upon familiarity with the canon universe if you are going to randomly change anything on a whim as opposed to in logical response to a changed variable?

 In doing that all you have accomplished is a weird and unfocussed Ultimate Universe, not a What if.

 But then ol’ Big Mac starts to step up the game.

 “I think probably my issue arises due to certain recent fan outrages, and a lot of the rationalizations and justifications that came from them. The latest episode of Game of Thrones, for example, had a lot of people- and I mean a LOT of people- decrying a character's "Heel" turn and their "Out of character" moments- while at the same time showing a bit of a misreading of the material or the subject matter.”

 Bear in mind when he wrote this the latest episode of HBO’s Game of Thrones was the penultimate episode of it’s eighth and final season. In it, key protagonist, Daenerys slaughtered a whole city full of civilians with a fire breathing dragon and her army. Throughout the show she’d previously been defined as being unwilling to kill innocents on principle, once claiming that each enslaved person in a city was a reason to conquer the city and liberate it’s people. She was so horrified that one of her dragons inadvertently killed a child that she locked them up. She once affirmed that she did not want to be ‘Queen of the Ashes’ amidst her campaign to retake her homeland.

 It’s fair to say the overwhelming majority of viewers AND professional critics took major issue with this and declared it a travesty and out of character.

 Behind-the-scenes stories also heavily point to Emilia Clarke (the actress portraying the character) being upset and disenchanted with her character’s direction.

For my money these two videos are the best examinations of the disaster that was Daenerys heel turn in this episode of Game of Thrones.*

Also please bear in mind the ‘man’ saying people are misreading things is the same man who has continually insisted that Norman Osborn merely wants to kill Spider-Man in spite of me citing examples to the contrary, including this page.

So you know, not exactly demonstrating great analytical skills there. 

“I think it's far too easy to cry "Out of character" when a character does something different, or simply questionable, because it's an easy catch all phrase that sounds like you know something, but in reality it's just a cover for a lack of understanding of things like characterization or plot development.”

Says the ‘man’ who genuinely once said Norman Osborn doing something nonsensical is justified because ‘he’s crazy’.

 Says the ‘man’ who leaned incredibly hard on the idea that Miles Warren in Life Story would not have intervened in Gwen’s marriage to Peter Parker even though his entire character revolves around his jealous obsession over her.

 Says the guy who once said a writer can randomly decide all of Mary Jane’s character development since the 1980s didn’t matter.

 Says the ‘man’ who once claimed Doc Ock at the end of Gage’s Superior run was he real Doc Ock even though he was literally a clone of his mind in a clone of his body…and then he refused to listen to me when I repeatedly spelled that fact out for him. His rationale was ‘Marvel are treating him as the real guy so he is’.

 Says the ‘man’ that in his ‘interpretation’ Spider-Man regarded Ned Leeds as a ‘viper’ after he was revealed as the Hobgoblin, in spite of literally no evidence supporting that interpretation and you know Spider-Man literally saying otherwise multiple times; including in the issue he learned Ned was a villain. In fact when I pointed this out to ol’ big Mac he referred to such things as ‘arbitrary’.

 Says the guy who once said it’s better for stories to be in multi-parters because before the rise of decompression al stories had rushed endings. Remember how Amazing Fantasy #15, The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man, Sensational Annual 2007, The Conversation and When Commeth the Commuter all had ‘rushed’ endings?

 Says the poor excuse for a ‘man’ who once claimed there was nothing wrong with the JMS run having magic but who also lambasted Peter David’s Spider-Man work for involving magic and time travel, even though JMS wrote ASM #500 which is literally about magic time travel.

 What I am trying to say is this ‘man’ has systemically demonstrated immense hypocrisy and stupidity but a staggering deficiency when it comes to literary analytical skills.

 “The movie reviewer Bob Chipman mentioned this in one of his videos where he talked about the problems that a lot of "Modern" viewers have is that they believe because they watch a lot of movies in a year, that somehow makes them film buffs or gives them insight into the storytelling process, when in reality what they are doing is watching all the Marvel movies or all the big releases, and assuming that gives them the same sort of insight that people who go to school to learn this sort of thing do. And I kind of think that's also true of comics as well.”

 Oh boy, is there a lot to unpack here.

 Keeper of the Gate

For starters let’s call this out for what it is. As much as he might be softening the statement by saying ‘kind of’, what he is actually doing right here is GATEKEEPING.**

 He is saying unless you have ‘gone to school to learn this sort of thing’ you don’t COUNT as a critic.***

 Okay let’s dive into that one.

 Schooling ain’t everything

Gone to school to do what exactly? How to make movies? That’s what film school is for right? So you can learn how to write, produce, direct, etc movies. Correct me if I am wrong but film school does not teach you how to CRITIQUE movies.

 So by this logic going to film school wouldn’t qualify you to critique a movie, just how to make them. Except no one argues that. Bob Chipman himself studied film at school and it is from that point of view that his analyses come from.

 So by RDMacQ’s own logic Bob himself isn’t qualified for his own job, let alone RD himself. At which point why does Bob’s words carry any weight at all?

 But wait, we can go yet deeper.

 What if we aren’t talking about film school specifically? What if someone just studied film as their major in college but not strictly film school? Is that good enough to be a film critic or not? If it is are you a lower echelon of film critic?

 What if you minored in film/media studies instead of majored in it? Are you yet lower on the totem pole?

 What if you went to film school but dropped out?

 What if you studied from home and didn’t actually GO to the school itself?

 What if you studied it at A school but pre-college?

 What if you studied it privately outside of an educational institution? In other words a self-taught film student?

 Shit, what about the first ever film critics or the first ever film makers who pioneered techniques and the art form? If they were going through the trial and error of formulating the art form and medium there obviously couldn’t have BEEN film schools back then?

 Do they not count?

 Not to mention the cultural implications of this. If you are an American who attended a French film school are you unqualified to critique American films and only French ones, even if you grew up predominantly with American cinema?

 Let’s change things up a little and look to TV in Britain. One of the most acclaimed British TV writers of all time was a man named John Sullivan. Sullivan created multiple beloved and acclaimed sitcoms, the most famous of which is called Only Fools and Horses. So successful was this show that it was the most viewed TV show in Britain in both the 90s and the 2000s. The latte in particular is an achievement since the show existed purely as reruns in the 2000s sans literally 3 episodes.

 The show had a total of 64 episodes and ran between 1981-2003. Do you know how many of those 64 episodes Sullivan wrote?

 ALL of them.

 And do you know how many of them have predominantly negative reviews? Arguably  just four.

 Not only has the show been positively received it’s been regarded as the singular greatest British comedy of all time, a title it still holds to this day.

 Amidst the praise that the show has received is it’s great characterization, it’s emotional moments and in particular it’s utter command of narrative structure. Not only do the jokes land they land with grace and make the feat seem easy when it’s all over. The cherry on his record was his OBE, an official government recognition of his positive contributions to the arts.

 So you know, this guy clearly knew how to tell a good story. He did like 60 times in a row single handily.

 So when and where did he study film? The answer is, he didn’t.

 He never studied film. His formal education stopped at age 15 when he dropped out of school with no qualifications. Even if he had completed his secondary high school education he’d have not studied film. Film was not on the British curriculum at the time and to my knowledge still isn’t. At best you can study ‘media studies’ starting at age 16-18 before you go on to university. But up until age 16 it’s just not an available option.

 He did go to evening classes for English and read teach yourself books but that was it.

 By Big Mac’s standards this writer who’s been recognized by the government themselves wasn’t qualified to write anything, let alone critique it.

 Additionally let’s consider one teeny weeny little fact. If you’ve lived through the formal education system in pretty much any Western country you have almost certainly been educated on how to gain an insight into the storytelling process. Because that’s a big part of what fucking ENGLISH class is for!****

 MovieBob

I’d say I’m shocked and appalled at RD’s audacity and lack of self-awareness in citing MovieBob Chipman. But I’m not. It actually makes far too much sense.

MovieBob is a broken clock that’s often not even right twice a day. His credibility as a critic and as a human being is also woefully lacking.

For starters RD is a big Spider-Marriage proponent (though he’s recently turned traitor and says he doesn’t really mid if it doesn’t come back). To his credit he has often called out and deconstructed unfair and disingenuous arguments against the Spider-Marriage.

Bob however is staunchly on the other side of that debate.

He’s even said the marriage was never good, came from an illegitimate place, that Spider-Mans imply should never be married and in fact argued that a late Slott era Spider-Man and MJ were more interesting than they were before.

Thus I find RD’s citing of Bob to back up his claims about who is ‘qualified’ to be a critic the height of irony.

But you know, that doesn’t necessarily hurt RD’s argument. Hell, Bob un-ironically believing in eugenics or intelligence testing for voters doesn’t necessarily hurt RD’s argument.

Nor does MovieBob’s weird, weird views on how society apparently punishes the Big Brains like himself of course. Although it’s so telling that an arrogant prick like RD would invoke the words of a ‘brother-in-arms’ like Bob.

 No, what hurts RD’s argument is where Bob was probably coming from with his initial statement.

 See I heavily suspect that RD’s claims about Bob are kind of stem from his interpretations of this video Bob made called ‘BIG PICTURE: PLOTHOLE SURFERS’. Noticeably that video cites this video by another Youtube film critic named Patrick Willems. Called ‘SHUT UP ABOUT PLOT HOLES’.

The sentiments of both videos explicitly or implicitly echo Big MacQuack’s. Everyone is wrong in how they are critiquing movies except them and people like them because they are ‘professionals’ because they went to school.

None of these arguments hold up to scrutiny both due to stuff I have mentioned above but also for various other reasons I’m not going to bother unpacking here. If you want a detailed look at why Chipman and Willems (and by extension RD) are full of shit there are several Youtube videos dissecting their points, particularly Willems’.

However, I’ve found the most detailed to be this video. 

There is also this video where they more directly address Bob’s video.

Fair warning they are long and get less than PC, and yet they do address why the videos don’t hold up to scrutiny.

Self-taught critic

Here is a crazy thought, if you’ve watched all the Marvel movies and big releases every year, why SHOULDN’T that give you a potential insight when critiquing OTHER Marvel movies or big releases? Those things are competing against one another, they are broadly going for the same audience. If you familiarise yourself with them then it is not beyond impossibility that you could mentally play spot the difference in the storytelling and critically evaluate them. It’s almost like in consuming that media you have formulated a CRITERIA which you are then CRITICALLY judging similar such media against.

Hypocrisy

The best part about RD’s statements? He himself has never gone to film school. Nor has he gone to a school specifically teaching him how to analyse comic books nor write them.

By his own logic he has disqualified himself from partaking in critiquing any story, as he did with Life Story or Game of Thrones earlier on.

But the best part?

If you check out the thread this is from and observe the poster called Chase the Blues Away they often disagree. CTBA  points out holes in RD’s arguments and subtly questions his reading comprehension. Entirely separately they also implied they felt GoT’s writing was illogical towards the end of season 8 as well.

Why is CTBA relevant.

Because they actually HAVE gone to film school!

Furthermore, on both Life Story and most other matters related to Spider-Man CTBA and myself have been on the same page, whether this entails agreeing with one another’s statements or by coincidence having similar positions.

Now me?

I NEVER went to film school nor did I study English literature formally beyond age 18. Oh, I’ve read bits and bobs about writing (my favourite being Russell T Davies’ book ‘A Writer’s Tale’). But I have no college level formal education on the craft of writing. My analytical skills were cultivated from my school experiences and a whole load of osmosis and practice.

I have also found myself often on the same page as another person who at least studied English at a college level. They are another poster on the same forum called MacGoblin, perhaps better known as the creator of the (now defunct) SpideyKicksButt website. For many people the site was THE best source of Spider-Man analysis on the web for over a decade.

MadGoblin still participates regularly on a podcast covering new Spider-Man issues and whether or not I agree with all his assessments the manner in which he analyses (with an eye upon continuity) is similar to myself and indeed all the other panellists on the podcast.

One of the former panellists on the podcast (who I have also been on the same page with more often than not) was called Donomark and he too studied English at a college level.

So that’s three people who meet RD’s arbitrary rules for who is a ‘real’ critic. And yet I (someone who doesn’t meet RD’s criteria) have come to mostly the exact same conclusions as they have through entirely independent analysis.

As have other people I know who didn’t study film or English Lit in college.

So, either I’m just an absolute prodigy, or RDMacQ, Willems and MovieBob’s criteria for who can and can’t grasp plot and characters is full of shit.

“A lot of the complaints I've seen is that Peter wouldn't or didn't do this in the original comics. But arguing "Peter wouldn't do this because in ASM #225, on page 11..." isn't pointing out the flaw in the story.”

As always RD is devoid of nuance or appreciating the complexities of things.

If in Life Story or any Spider-Man story in canon Peter acts in a way at odds with his established characterization  which is DEFINED by ASM #225 then absolutely  that’s pointing out a flaw in a story.

Case in point, here is this poorly drawn satire of Superior Spider-Man RDMacQ himself made:

Most of the gags at the expense of Superior Spider-Man in this page was made through the lens of knowing the characters’ past, of knowing what they did and how they acted in older stories.

The confusion over Crazy Town Banana Pants derives from Superior claiming Peter routinely said this when he in fact never did.

Carlie’s suspicions over Superior’s behaviour stems from he fact that the older stories have established how Peter acts and established that Carlie knows how he acts. Therefore Carlie not realizing the truth when she’s been told is illogical. That’s the gag from someone who’s stamped his foot on the ground and angrily refuted that human beings are capable of being logical.

The same is true of this next page too.

Captain America refers to ‘usual’ people involved with the Avengers (super scientists, etc.). Usual means there is a precedent and a precedent can only be defined via a pattern. A pattern of what? A pattern of older stories!

The second panel is bringing up the OLDER STORY ‘Ends of the Earth’ to prove the hypocrisy of Doc Ock

The final panel references SEVERAL past events. The Clone Saga. The Alien Costume Saga. Every time the Chameleon or another shape shifter has impersonated him. Kraven’s Last Hunt.

It’s also referencing the fact that MJ would KNOW about them and even goes really specific by referencing the events of a few pages of one specific issue of Kraven’s Last Hunt. Not the gist of the story, not the climax or the most famous moments. This one scene in the middle of everything else.

RD is using that very specific moment to draw a comparison between it and the events of Superior in order to point out how MJ is not acting consistently.

Almost like she’s, I dunno, OUT OF CHARACTER or something?

Oh, and or the record declaring Peter would or wouldn’t act this way because of ASm #225 p11 is bullshit because Peter isn’t even on that page.

“That's just spouting comic book trivia, which isn't the same thing.”

But referencing events in the middle of KLH which are hardly iconic and immediately memorable and pointing out how MJ didn’t act consistently with them in Superior Spider-Man?

 Oh no, that’s NOT ‘spouting comic book trivia’.

 Can you see the hypocrisy of this creature now?

 Can you see how BROKEN it is to argue a character being established as acting a certain way by an older story DOESN’T mean it matters thereafter?

 And he says I am bad at analysis, Jesus Christ.

 “Knowledge of trivia isn't the same as understanding plot structure, foreshadowing, character development, or knowing or accepting that just because something happens in issue 1 doesn't mean it will stay that way throughout the entire book.”

 First of all the sheer audacity of someone with such non-existent analytical skills to DARE fucking throw shade like this is astounding. That’s like Michael Bay trying to explain how you make a movie with substance.

 Second of all he’s right and wrong here.

 Knowing the history of the characters is not the same as knowing those things.

 But that doesn’t render it trivia because it’s the fucking histories of the characters that define who they goddam are!

 Everyone agrees Spider-Man would not have acted the way he did in One More Day right? And that MJ wouldn’t have acted the way she did in OMIT right?

 Why? Why do people feel the characters would not behave that way?

 Because they read older stories that depicted them acting in certain ways in certain situations that were then contradicted by OMD and OMIT.

 You know like MJ not realising Superior Spidey wasn’t really Peter even though the situation was incredibly similar to Kraven’s Last Hunt and both entailed imposters pretending to be Spider-Man.

 No, knowing the history isn’t the same as knowing all that other stuff.

 But it is undeniably an integral PART of being able to analyse something because if the prior events don’t matter, if they are merely trivia (or worse trivia when he wants it to be but not when he doesn’t) then NOTHING matters.

 Why the fuck should issue #1 matter when reading issue #2? Or issue #3 when reading issue #5?

 What does it matter if chapter 1 established our protagonist as an adult black man with a wife but by chapter 10, with no explanation they are a teenaged white woman claiming they’ve never been married?

 Hey, chapter 1 is just trivia right. Why should that matter?

 By the way, go ask Harry Potter fans if those little details are irrelevant and see how that goes.

 He’s also (unsurprisingly) disgustingly disingenuous in his final point. Yes, things between issue #1 and issue #25 will change. But there is a world of difference between something changing via development vs. lazy contradictive writing.

 Case in point, in ASM #1 Peter Parker doesn’t have a job, is a pariah at school and runs away crying from a failed adventure. In issue #25 he has a freelance job, isn’t running away crying and 2 ladies are interested in him.

 WHAT? Isn’t this a contradiction? Doesn’t accepting this change mean you accept that issue #1 was mere trivia?

 No, because between issue #1 and #25 we saw how and when Peter got a job, those two ladies became interested in him and we saw his skills, experience and confidence grow. The end result is that issue #25 was different to issue #1 because we’d been on a JOURNEY to get us there.

 In contrast in ASM #700 Doc Ock is seemingly turned into a good guy because all of Spider-Man’s memories were beamed into his head, teaching him Uncle Ben’s famous mantra. But in Superior Spider-Man #1 he’s randomly reverted to what he was doing back in ASM #698.

 So that stuff was just trivia? But that stuff was the resolution of ASM #700 and therefore the set up for Superior #1. The latter couldn’t exist without the former and yet it doesn’t make sense.

 And you see that? You see how that cause and effect problem exists? Yeah, that’s PART of critiquing plot structure and foreshadowing. It’s ALMOST like the older stories aren’t merely trivia but actually very important and play a factor  in the other forms of analysis RD listed off.

 Not to mention, the idiocy of saying knowing the trivia doesn’t mean you understand foreshadowing. Motherfucker, the entire concept of foreshadowing is that you establish details in the present because you want to hint at readers about where the story is going to go later. It practically HINGES upon readers remembering that ‘trivia’.

 If ASM #225 p11 had Spider-Man pass by a black cat and say ‘Boy that reminds me of Felicia Hardy.’ THAT would be foreshadowing for the next issue, but you couldn’t appreciate that UNLESS you remembered what happened in ASM #225 p11.

 And the imbecility of bringing this shit up whilst referencing Game of Thrones too? As if Daenerys heel turn was actually foreshadowed and not just created from splicing old voice overs together in the previously segment of the show.

The next bit is in reference to Life Story again by the way.

“I mean, one of the best bits of subtle foreshadowing here is what happens with Peter and Reed's relationship. In issue 2, Peter reflects on how Reed pushed Sue away with his actions, and how he doesn't want to end up like that. But come issue 3, Peter ends up doing just that, despite his best efforts to the contrary and knowing what happened to Reed beforehand. That shows smart plot structure, which doesn't come out and yell at you "THIS IS IMPORTANT!" or hold your hand in any way. That shows that this story is pretty smart with the narrative choices that are being made.”

No it doesn’t.

Because the way in which Peter pushed MJ away contradicted his character and made no fucking sense. He had a mid-life crisis in spite of being well under 40 years old.

Also, you can have, by skill or by fluke, a dash of GOOD writing amidst your shitty writing.

A LOT of people would argue the podrace or Duel of the Fates fight in Phantom Menace were legitimately good sequences in an otherwise bad movie.

People broadbrush 90s Marvel as wall to wall trash but equally everyone praises Spider-Man 2099, Joe Kelly’s Deadpool run, Ron Marz’s Green Lantern run, etc.

Goddammit, 99% of all Doctor Who is fans celebrating the bits that were great amidst the bits that were bad. There are no end of Dr. Who stories were fans will praise the set design or costumes whilst shitting on the over all writing.

Shockingly a piece of media can have good AND bad elements!

Whenever someone says a story is good or bad they are almost always speaking OVERALL. A New Hope is OVERALL good. It’s not claiming there aren’t flaws to it.

Dan Slott’s Spider-Man run was OVERALL bad. Even I have said there are good elements to it.

But the mere existence of good elements doesn’t prove that something is overall one thing or another.

In Life Story’s case, let’s pretend RD is right. Then Zdarsky executed a good bit of foreshadowing.

Key word there: ‘bit’.

It doesn’t PROVE the over all story is smart with its narrative choices.

That’s such an utterly childish  manner of analysis. ‘Well this bit is good that means everything else has to be good’.

Like how the fuck does doing a good bit of foreshadowing prove that Life Story wasn’t mischaracterizing anyone or knew how to tell a good alternate history story?

Shit, DAN SLOTT had foreshadowing, sometimes it was even competently executed. Didn’t mean it wasn’t happening within the context of mischaracterization. 

Trust Bobby Mac to have no grasp  of nuance.

 “But rather than acknowledging that, instead we get stuff like being concerned with that because Gwen finds out Peter's secret identity at the end of issue 1, that therefore means that Peter is going to be hooking up with Gwen throughout the rest of the story, that this is going to be one big Peter/ Gwen book, that Chip Zdarsky is somehow a Gwen shipper because he wanted to just have her as a best friend in Spectacular, that MJ only having two lines in the first issue means her importance will be diminished overall, and that the whole series is going to try and be a rewrite to push that ship.”

None of the allegedly great foreshadowing RD spoke of above was in issue #1

Even if it was nobody could possibly have talked about that as a point of praise because the nature of foreshadowing is we wouldn’t have realised it was goddam foreshadowing until we finally GOT to the bit it was setting up in later issues

RD has been one of the most involved people in discussions about the Spider-Marriage, frequently clashing with a fell named Mister Mets on CBR and on the linked message board. He knows that Marvel from OMD onwards used to spite fans over OMD and the Spider-Marriage and that circa 2019 when Life Story was being released the latest of such instances had occurred maybe just 1 year earlier in Slott’s Red Goblin storyline. He also knows Zdarsky pissed in the well of the Spider-Marriage fans with his FCBD 2017 Spidey story which involved Mary Jane. So for a heavily burned and abused fanbase to suddenly be concerned that Zdarksy would be pushing an agenda was a totally natural and justified reaction to have at the time even if it was proven incorrect in the long run.

RD is being a shithead again. ‘Ugh, look at these overwrought FaNz. wHy CaNt dey celebrate the GUD stuff and not focus on the WRONG stuff’.The wrong stuff being Zdarsky shitting on the Spider-Man marriage, which he clearly did by breaking up Peter and Mj in the 80s when they didn’t break up then but he needed to ship Peter with Jessica Jones I guess

 “Yet here we, two issues later, and Gwen is dead, Peter married MJ and now they have kids.”

And in LF #3 their marriage was in a toxic place and they split up. In issue #4 they get back together but only by Peter giving up being Spider-Man. Almost like the story was saying having a family and being Spidey are incompatible or something.

Shit issue #3 BEGINS with MJ griping about Peter.

 “All the reactionary nonsense turned out to be for naught, since the story was going in a different direction, and just because Gwen was prominent early on didn't mean MJ wasn't going to play an important role later.”

 It wasn’t reactionary nonsense it was entirely justified  reactionary concern. People weren’t concerned that MJ wouldn’t be important but that Zdarsky would be pushing a pro-Gwen/anti-Mj agenda which he at least debatably did and certainly seemed to be doing in the first 3 issues.

 “And yet we still continue to see that reactionary nonsense continue with decrying because Peter and MJ leave off on a bad note here, it therefore means the rest of the series will be an unending slide into misery.”

Which was proven partially true.

Issue #4 Harry dies, Peter quits like a coward.

Issue #5 Peter’s child is crippled, his identity is outted, ben Reilly dies and he becomes a fugitive as a super human civil war breaks out.

Issue #6 the world has turned to shit because of that civil war and the only way to fix it is for Spider-Man to die.

But again, he’s missing the point like the fool that he is.

People were concerned and upset BECAUSE the series split Peter and MJ up in the first place. Both because that defied the mission statement of the series but also because they know Peter and MJ WOULDN’T split up and the circumstances engineering it were fucking contrived shit.

“Which then unfortunately leads into bashing the creator himself, which I find incredibly unreasonable given the tremendous job Zdarsky is doing.”

He didn’t do a tremendous job.

Chase the Blues Away, the film school student, had been saying so and continued to say so after RD made this comment. So I guess by his own metric he was full of shit.

This is one of RD’s fundamental and fatal flaws. He’s a hypocrite. Everything is subjective unless it’s the shit HE likes or hates. Then it’s objectively good or bad.

Not to mention no one had been bashing the creator personally. He can’t grasp this either. He doesn’t grasp the distinction between bashing the work of a writer vs. bashing the writer personally.

E.g. he falsely claims I’ve sworn at him. I have sworn at him…here. On my own blog here I don’t feel the need to play nice.

On a public forum? Never. I’ve sworn in the course of conversations with him. I’ve sworn in regards to his argument but never sworn to attack him personally.

“Decrying Zdarsky as some form of hack because halfway through a six part story he's had the protagonist go through a rough time and that he is just putting out "Fan fiction," or- as I saw someone else argue- that the reason Zdarsky did this was because he himself went through marital troubles at one time in his life is just silly.”

It’s really not. He admitted that he wrote MJ in FCBD 2017 as his ex wife.

Fanfiction is exactly what LF was. Peter hooks up with Jessica Jones because…no given reason. It’d make infinitely more sense for that to have been Felicia but it was Jessica Jones. Zdarsky invents his own personal new spin on the Goblin who’s wearing kewl black because why not. He has characters randomly act in any way he wants for the story to happen regardless of how little sense it makes. That’s bad fanfiction 101. He has logic holes you can drive a truck through. FFS Russia launched nukes on America in issue #3 and this DIDN”T result in all out nuclear Armageddon. That’s amateuris

 “Just like it's silly to say that D&B from GoT are purposefully destroying the show because they hate it and they hate women and they just want to move onto Star Wars,”

This is at worst a strawman.

At best an utterly myopic oversimplification.

The MAJORITY of people crying out against GoT season 8 weren’t claiming D&B were engaging in deliberate sabotage but rather they were ruining the series via their incompetence and RUSHING to get to the end.

Additionally the idea that they are misogynists is REALLY not a ‘silly’ argument. MANY people throughout the show’s history have made that argument, long before the popular opinion was that the show was bad,

A  season 4 subplot that was heavily embellished (to the point of being called practically original) from the books entailed rogue Night’s Watchmen raping a household of women beyond the Wall. The most infamous line from the subplot was ‘Fuck them all to death.’

In that same season Jamie Lannister makes sexual advances on his sister Cersei even though she was saying no.

Sansa Stark, in a scene not in the books, was raped by Ramsey Bolton with the focus being upon Theon Greyjoy’s horror at the situation.

And of course there is ever so slightly a dash of gratuitous nudity involving women in the show.

Look, I’m not even saying for sure that D&B hate women or that that was at the root of how they fucked up Daenerys’ character in season 8.

But it’s idiotic to just dismiss the idea as wholesale silly as Smac a Mac is doing above.

 “when in reality D&B were the reason the show got made in the first place and all those great female characters were brought to television for a wider audience to experience.”

Hollywood had been wanting to adapt George R. R. Martin’s books for years before he let D&B do it

Their first pilot was so bad they had to reshoot it.

They weren’t the reason we got those great female characters. Martin’s writing was why we got those characters and those good stories and why anyone wanted to make his books into a live action property at all.

Again, RD FAILING at nuance. A female character can have good writing AND bad writing. They can be good over all but drop the ball in certain moments. They can be great for 7 seasons but then fumble disastrously at the finish line. An opinion shared by all those critics that went to film school

Writers can be capable of doing good female characters even if they are misogynists. Writers who are not misogynists are capable of still being sexist at times. Friggin Stan Lee had sexist female characters in spite of also inventing Mary Jane who is lauded as a great female character even in the 1960s. Again, nuance. Mac Attac ain’t good at it.

“We can dislike or criticize a work without having to demonize the creators,”

It’s not demonizing D&B or Zdarsky to call them incompetent writers.

“and I think it's just become far too easy nowadays for people to rationalize their statements by making the creators themselves into remorseless villains, since that justifies them acting however they please in response.”

And it’s become far too difficult for me to stomach any more of this piece of shit.

*For what it is worth, these events are also listed on TV Tropes under the Face Heel Turn page:

Daenerys herself falls victim to this in the final seasons. Her actions in Essos had the purest of intentions: fighting against the Dothraki's misogyny and ending slavery in western Essos. Even her morally questionable acts still had these goals in mind. But when she set her sights on conquering Westeros, which is more or less a standard medieval European setting, her only goal was conquest. Even her claim that the Iron Throne is her birthright falls short since her father was killed due to his madness and love of burning things. Dany really doesn't help her case by burning alive any captive soldiers who don't side with her. This culminates with her slaughtering most of King's Landing's civilian population in the penultimate episode. Had the show started with the sixth season, there'd be no question that she is Daddy's Little Villain, her tragic backstory and past heroic deeds being a footnote at best.

**This is especially ironic as he’s accused me of doing the same.

Me, I’ve called people out or corrected them when they have gotten facts wrong. I’ve even said they don’t know what they are talking about. The difference is I’m not doing it just on principal as he is here.

I’ve never said someone doesn’t belong in the fandom or is not a real fan. Yet here RDMacQ is outright disqualifying people from having the legitimacy to critique comic books unless they’ve gone through what he deems the ‘appropriate steps’.

If I have told someone they are wrong or don’t know what they are talking about or don’t understand the material I have corroborative EVIDENCE to back it up. Their own statements prove that point.

E.g. RDMacQ doesn’t understand Norman Osborn’s character. Why? Because his statements contradicts the clear cut TEXT (not the subtext) of the source material. See? The source material is the EVIDENCE that supports my accusation. But RDMacQ doesn’t believe in analysis that way and has told me so himself.

***This laughable in he modern day and age where film criticism is so transparently ideologically driven as opposed to sincerely critiquing the merits of a film.

Hence why Bob Chipman and most other professional critics laud works like the Last Jedi which a fifth grader can see has little internal consistency.

[illfoandillfie]

Future Management

Pairing: Roger x Reader

Summery: Roger rewires your mind

Warnings: Smut!, Bimbofication/intelligence play, Hypnosis/trance state, drinking, tickling, oral (m and f receiving), protected sex (yes you read that correctly there’s actually a condom in this one wtf), mentions of spanking/restraints/blindfolds/degradation/public sex but not explicitly, a bit of dom!rog sub!reader, thigh riding.

Words: 6969 (N I C E !!)

Inspired by: Future Management by Roger Taylor (oh my god that video im hhhhHHHhh this song really makes me feel some kinda way)

A/N: So Bimbofication has a bunch of different connotations for different people. For some the emphasis is on the physical shape of a stereotypical bimbo – think big boobs and blonde hair and a valley girl accent - which can lead into body modification stuff. For some it goes hand in hand with hypnosis and mind control. For some it’s about intelligence play - turning a smart person dumb. There are a bunch of different ways to play with this kink and different things to get out of it, especially when you start mixing the different aspects together or connecting it to a dom/sub dynamic. I’ve gone with an interpretation that aligns with what I personally find hot about bimbofication, mostly focusing on the turning a smart girl into a dumb slut/sex object aspect (though I’ve also included a little hint of the physical appearance) using some light hypnosis stuff as gateway to the “bimbo state”. I am by no means an expert in hypnosis (or anything), I just have a passing interest and think it’s kinda hot. A lot of the hypnosis part of the script was inspired by THIS podcast episode which discusses bimbofication/intelligence play and ends with one of the hosts hypnotising the other to make her dumber (it’s a really interesting discussion and FUCK that hypno scene at the end oof its hot). 

Also big thanks to @somekindof-cheese @idontbelievethiss and @dtftomholland for being my betas and giving me some great feedback!!

Taglist: @ezmina98  @vee-ndetta @atomic-watermelon​ @kellypenac​ @labessieisallama​ (i hope none of you mind being tagged in this, couldn’t remember if you’d asked to be tagged in all my fics or just the RRL ones lmao, let me know if you wanna be removed from the list!)

To the world at large you are a well-respected, intelligent, and accomplished woman. You graduated university top of your class and head of multiple extracurricular groups. After uni you’d found a job that you loved, working in a law firm, gaining attention as you rose through the ranks and became a prominent attorney. Two years ago you’d thrown it all in to start your own non-profit organisation that aimed to reduce the growing rate of homelessness. It was challenging work but rewarding and you loved it. You’d appeared as a guest on news panels and talk radio programs to discuss the issue and campaign for support which had made you, if not a household name, certainly a recognisable figure in the community. Which is how Roger knew you when you first met. Of course, you’d known him too – how could you not?  

You’d run into him at bar, most of your friends having ditched you for the dancefloor or whoever they were hoping to take home. That wasn’t really your scene though so you’d intended to finish your drink and then head home. Before you could leave, he was in front of you, introducing himself and apologising for the interruption. “I wanted to congratulate you on your work, what you’re doing is incredible,” he said earnestly, “the world needs more women like you. More people like you.”   “Thank you, that’s very kind of you to say,”   “I’ll leave you to your drink now, have a good evening,”   “Wait,” you said, surprising yourself, “this seat’s free if you want to join me,”  

That introduction sparked a conversation which lasted hours. For the rest of the night you were wrapped up in each other entirely, the flow of conversation never stopping as you covered every topic under the sun – politics and music and food and literature and everything in between – without any awkward pauses or uncomfortable silences. You found yourself hanging on his every word, blown away by his quick wit and intelligence, and that cheekiness that permeated his very being. He kept both your glasses topped up as you talked, well beyond the point where all your friends had left, until eventually he invited you back to his place. You hesitated, the first hitch in your conversation all night.   “You okay?” Roger asked after you were silent for a little too long.   “Yeah. I just, don’t...know...”   “Don’t know if you want to come home with me?”   “Yeah.” You nervously chewed on your bottom lip. “That’s okay, you don’t have to. Just figured, we’re having such an amazing night, why should it end now?” he said with a slight shrug, “It does kinda surprise me that you’re unsure about it though.”   “What d’you mean by that?” “Nothing bad I promise.” he chuckled, “Just that you’re so sure about everything else. Don’t really seem like the type to not know your own mind.”   You exhaled a single breathy ‘ha’, “About everything else you are correct. Not so much with this sort of thing.”   “Well, at least let me drop you home.”   “That would be nice, thank you.”   “You’re welcome.” He stood to call a car since neither of you were in any state to drive, “The offer still stands by the way, if you do decide you want to. You’ve got nothing to lose.”   You laughed as he threw you a wink but his words stuck with you, looping through your head as you waited for him to return.  

Roger led you out into the street to wait for the car, placing his jacket over your shoulders when he noticed you shiver slightly. He leaned against the brick wall of the bar as you chatted in soft voices until the car arrived. Once you were both tucked away in the back seat, safely hidden from prying eyes and cameras, Roger leaned towards you. His hand came up to cup your jaw, thumb sliding softly over your cheek. Your eyes darted to his lips and then back up to his eyes.  “At the risk of ruining an otherwise great night, I’d really like to kiss you.” You nodded, the closeness of your bodies already releasing a colony of butterflies in your stomach, their fluttering only getting faster as he moved closer still. His lips were softer than you’d been expecting, his hands rougher as the one remained on your face and the other rested gently against your arm, though you should probably have realised so many years of drumming would leave their mark. You rested your hands against his shoulders, gradually slipping one up into his hair as he deepened the kiss.   Well, shit, if this is how he kisses...   You blinked your eyes open as he broke away from you. No one had ever kissed you like that before and there was only one thought running through your head. Roger’s voice. You’ve got nothing to lose.   “Take me home with you,” you said softly but decidedly, throwing caution to the wind. Roger grinned and indicated the change of plans to the driver before pulling you into another kiss.  

Neither of you even contemplated stopping the whole way to his house, only breaking apart briefly to fall out of the car and hastily climb the steps up to his front door. Even then, his hands remained on you – lightly tracing over the small patch of exposed skin on your back where your shirt had come untucked from your pants. Clutching Roger’s arm, you leaned in to kiss along his neck as he fumbled with his keys. You felt very unlike yourself but it wasn’t an unwelcome difference. You’d never felt such a connection with anyone before. Never found anyone quite as irresistible as you found him. You were glad you’d agreed to this, vaguely recalling the rumours you’d heard about how capable Roger was with women and deciding you could use a little capable. When he finally figured out the keys he ushered you inside and lunged for your lips again, pressing you against the wall as he found them.   You’ve got nothing to lose.   It was the only thought you had time for as his hands slid down to cup your arse, pulling you tightly against him, and he began kissing down your neck, making your breath quicken. He pushed his jacket from your shoulders, letting it fall to the floor in the middle of the hallway as he found his way back to your mouth, and began walking you through the dark house towards his bedroom. You hit the edge of the bed faster than you’d been prepared for, falling backwards with a giggle and a soft thud. Roger laughed as you scooted backwards towards the centre of the bed, and followed you, slightly more gracefully than you managed. Moonlight streamed through the partially open curtains, bathing you both in a soft light that made him look somehow more gorgeous, and you couldn’t quite believe this was happening. Hovering over you he began unbuttoning your blouse, his lips wandering over your sternum and down towards your chest. You moved to unfasten the buttons and zip on your pants, trying to speed up the process.   “Someone’s in a hurry,”   “Want you so bad Roger. Been a while since I did this and god I need it.”   “How long’s a while?” he paused midway through pushing your shirt down your arms.   “Umm... Months, not sure how many.”   “Christ. If you wanna slow down...”   “Don’t slow down.” You leaned up to kiss him again, to show him how eager you were, “Just don’t try anything too crazy, I’m a little out of practice.” You pulled your shirt off and throw it to the floor. “Noted,” Roger said as he began tugging your pants off and dropped them to the floor as well, “I’m gonna make sure the wait was worth it though.” He lowered his head towards your thigh and you couldn’t stop the giggle that bubbled up in your throat.   “Oh, you’re ticklish!” his face lit up in cheeky delight as he brought his hands up to your sides, making you squeal and writhe as you tried to escape the sensation. Every twitch of his fingers pulled more laughter from you until you were panting and struggling to say his name, begging him to stop. “You’ve got such a cute laugh,” he said as he removed his hands from you, dropping a small kiss just below your bellybutton as you tried to catch your breath, “can’t wait to hear what you sound like moaning.” You could feel him smirking as he left another kiss, lower than the first, on your skin and you let out a breathy whine. He kissed lower still, leading down to your still clothed pussy and the small wet spot that had appeared over the course of the night, as you pushed yourself up on your forearms to watch. When a kiss landed over the top of your clit your hips bucked and when he wrapped his lips round the wet spot, sucking the soaked material into his mouth you whined again. He was clearly enjoying teasing you, the tent in his pants more obvious with every passing moment.  “You want some help with that?” you indicated his noticeable bulge but Roger told you to hush. “I’m not the one that’s gone without for months. Just lie back and let me take care of you.” With that he finally tugged your underwear down your legs, and you let your head fall back against the pillow.  

Roger didn’t hesitate, pushing your legs further open as he dived in to lick your pussy. He took his time, covering almost every inch of you with his mouth, listening to your whines and whimpers so he could find where you were most sensitive, but steadily avoiding your clit. When he sucked one of your lips into his mouth you moaned and he made sure to repeat the action, sending a jolt through you each time. You were already babbling about how good it felt, breathless words rolling off your tongue with no rhyme or reason, bleeding into each other and the moans that followed, when he began to tease your entrance, pushing his finger tip in and letting it slip back out as you tried to clench around it.   “Aren’t you just so needy,” he said as he sunk his finger into you, deeper this time, and let it slip out again, “haven’t even touched your clit and you’re already close to cumming for me,” he continued to finger you slowly, pushing deeper each time until it was buried knuckle deep in your core. Then he began again, adding a second finger, as he returned his mouth to your wet folds. You whined his name as the pit in your stomach began to ache with the need for release, and put your hand on the back of his head trying to press him closer. Roger scissored his fingers inside you for a moment before he brought them to a complete halt. You whimpered at the sudden change but didn’t have time to reprimand him as he finally brought his mouth to your clit, flicking his tongue back and forth over it. It felt fucking incredible but the pressure wasn’t consistent enough to push you over the edge.   “Oh fuck. Roger I’m so close,” “I know, can feel you clenching round my fingers.”   You bucked your hips again, trying to get the friction you needed and felt Roger laugh, his breath ghosting over your pussy.   “Want to hear you scream my name when you cum. Let everyone know who makes you feel this good.” He pressed his tongue against your clit before sucking it between his lips, at the same time he made a come-hither motion with his two fingers. Within seconds you were coming undone, moaning his name loudly, as per his request. He held you there, blissed out beyond belief, eyes closed as you rode out the orgasm, quivering slightly as his fingers twitched inside you.   “So was that worth waiting for?”    You blinked as you came back to reality and found Roger looking up at you, his head resting against your thigh as he drew random patterns over your stomach.   “You realise It’s been months since I last had sex not since I last had an orgasm, right? Like, I do know how to masturbate,” a pause, “But yes, well worth it,” you conceded with a smile.   Roger flashed you the cockiest grin you’d ever seen, “told you so.” He crawled back over you and you could taste yourself on his lips as he kissed you hungrily, “and by the way,” he said breaking the kiss, “you masturbating is something I would be very interested in watching. But right now, all I want is to be buried in your gorgeous cunt. The way you felt around my fingers, fuck, want you on my cock so bad.”   You hummed as you kissed him, “Think I can make that happen,” you said before rolling the both of you over so you were leaning over him.   “Condoms are in the top draw” he pointed at his bedside table as you hurried to undo his fly and pull his pants and underwear down his legs.   “I’ll get it, you get those clothes off.”   “Yes ma’am,” he said, already ripping his shirt over his head. You saw it fall to the floor as you dug around the draw, followed by the sound of him kicking his pants off his feet. His cock was already standing at attention when you got back to the bed, tearing open the condom wrapper with your teeth.   “Might have to take this a bit slow,” you said as you rolled the condom down his shaft. Roger nodded as you took hold of his cock to line him up with your entrance. His breath caught in his throat as you slowly sunk down on him, taking your time as you adjusted to the unfamiliar and complete fullness.    “Christ, fuck,” you swore under your breath as you took him a little deeper and paused again.   “Stole the words right outta my mouth,” he grunted, squeezing your hips, “fuck, you okay?”   “Told you I was out of practice,” your laugh turned into a moan as you lowered yourself the last inch or so, sheathing him fully inside you. Roger moved his hands to squeeze your breasts as your breaths turned to pants. You slowly began rocking your hips, the room filing with your gasps and whines as you picked up speed.    “Fuck, want to be buried in your cunt forever.” he gasped out as you began raising and lowering yourself on your knees, needing more more more.  “Roger, ohh god, rub my clit, please,”   He didn’t need to be told twice, letting one hand drop down where you needed it. His touch sent a shiver down your spine and your back arched as his name dripped from your lips again. This only encouraged Roger who sped up the furious circles he was making on your clit. You felt yourself hurtling towards another orgasm as your pussy clenched.   “Gonna cum soon,” Roger’s hips jerked up as he grunted his warning.  “Same,” you said as you leaned forward to suck a hickey onto his collarbone. It wasn’t much longer before he was calling out your name as he hit his climax, and pulling you into yours with his fingers still on your clit.  

You collapsed on your side next to him, still breathing heavily. Roger left the bed long enough to dispose of the used condom before he was back, pulling you against him and throwing the covers over the two of you.   “I’ll call a cab in a moment,” you said, voice thick with exhaustion.   “Don’t be daft.”   “Not gonna kick me out?”   “Course not. Jesus, what d’you take me for.”   “Good. I’m too comfy to move anyway.”   “Good. I like having you in my bed.”   You hummed as his arms tightened around you and you felt him drop a kiss to the back of your neck. You could feel your eyes drooping but fought off sleep for as long as you could, not wanting the moment to end. Letting your fingers trail softly over Roger’s hand which was flung over your stomach, you listened as his breathing slowed and became deeper. Smiling into the pillow you finally let yourself succumb to sleep.  

When you woke up you were alone and slightly confused by your unfamiliar surroundings.   Oh, fuck...  Things started coming back to you as you took in the clothing still littering the floor. You hurried to dress yourself in yesterday’s clothes and then made your way out of the room, wanting to find a phone to call a cab from. You found Roger first, following the sound of the kettle through the house to the kitchen. He was standing over the stove, back to the doorway and you allowed yourself a moment to look him over in the daylight before you caught his attention.   “Morning,”   He whipped around at the sound of your voice, “Morning. I was gonna bring breakfast up to you.” He held up the spatula he was clutching as proof of his intentions.   “Thanks, but I should probably get going.”   “Already?” You were surprised by the note of disappointment in his voice.   “That’s how this sort of thing normally works, isn’t it?”   “Told you last night I’m not gonna kick you out.”   You hesitated.   “It’s a free meal, love, might as well stay. Nothing to lose.”   There were those words again. They reverberated through your head and you found yourself sitting down. Roger smiled as he turned back around to the stove, shuffling fry pans and plates around as he served the breakfast.   “I hope bacon and eggs are okay,” he said as he placed your plate in front of you.   “Brilliant,” you suddenly realised just how hungry you were, not having eaten properly since lunch yesterday.   “Dig in, don’t wait for me. Tea?”   “Yes please. No milk, two sugars.”   “Can I ask you something? About last night?”   “Yeah,” you said, a forkful of food halfway to your mouth as your stomach began to twist with nerves.   “What made you change your mind?” He put the tea down in front of you, “You were going to go home and then you changed your mind. What was it that convinced you to stay?”   “You’ve got nothing to lose. You said that to me and I realised you were right.” You shrugged as you brought the fork to your mouth, “Plus, no one had ever kissed me like that before.”   “I was giving you my A game, had to impress you.”   “I was worth A game?”   “Course, couldn’t give such an incredible woman less than that”   “You flatterer,” you laughed, “It had been a while though, I probably would have been happy with C game.”   “Well I didn’t find that out till later did I.” He took a sip of his tea, staring at you over the top of his cup. “Out of curiosity, why had it been so long? Something to do with the lack of A game kissing?” he teased.   “I mean, it was a factor.” You could hear the indignation creeping into your voice and willed it away, “Not everyone has mountains of groupies after them.” So much for no indignation.   “No need to get defensive,” Roger held both his hands up, palms towards you, “wasn’t judging.”   “Sorry. It’s a bit of a sore spot is all.”   “No, you’re fine. I shouldn’t pry.”   “Truth is I haven’t dated much. And none of the guys I did date were any good. Recently it’s just been easier to put work first.”   “Does that mean I’m the best you’ve ever had,” his cocky grin from the previous night was back and you couldn’t help but laugh.   “Yes, but it was a very very low bar.”   “I’ll take what I can get.” He looked you over, seeming like he wanted to say something else but wasn’t sure how, “I had the best time with you last night and I was thinking y’know...maybe this doesn’t have to end here. Let me take you out tomorrow night on a proper date.” “Let me guess… I’ve got nothing to lose?” you laughed.   “That a yes?”   “Yes.”  

You left Roger’s place a little while later, heading home to sink into a hot bath and relax, and barely thought about anything besides him until he picked you up the next night. Your first official date went well – dinner, drinks, making out in the car before he dropped you home. You invited him inside but he wanted to prove he was interested in you for reasons besides that, instead leaving you with lips tingling from a long deep kiss as he departed, and the immediate need to masturbate. He took you out again the next night and again two days after that. Before you knew it, you were three months into your relationship, spending more and more time with him. You introduced him to your friends and family and met his in return. To the outside world you were still the same intelligent and accomplished woman, but now you also had an enviable relationship which seemed to get you more attention than your work did, though Roger was always the first to brag about it. He loved showing you off, telling anyone who’d listen about your work, pulling you into conversations so people could see you were just as bright and self-assured and brilliant as he’d told them you were. More than once you found yourself in a deep discussion with someone he’d been talking to, and caught him staring at you like he’d never seen anything more beautiful. It made your chest burst every time. The way he celebrated every aspect of you, cared enough to ask about your day and pressed for details about your job. Even when you disagreed about something, he’d hear you out, maybe with an eye roll, but he genuinely cared about your thoughts and opinions.  

Which made it easier to take yourself less seriously and loosen up a little. Your work was still incredibly important and something you cared deeply about, but now that you had Roger it was easier to admit you’d been spending too much time at the office. Using it as an excuse to avoid the terrifying unknowns of life and the impending future you hadn’t been able to imagine. Where before the question ‘where do you see yourself in five years’ would have caused anxiety that led to a week’s worth of overtime and insomnia, now you were able to confidently say, “I might not know but I hope it’s with Roger.” You smiled more around him, laughed more. He could turn you into a silly giggling fool with one look, and that was the most freeing feeling you’d ever experienced. You had nothing to prove to Roger. You didn’t have to make him see you how you wanted to be seen, like you’d had to do within your studies and work, because he already saw you as wonderful. And frankly you liked the person you were with him more than you’d liked the person you were alone.  

And then there was the sex. You’d never believed people when they talked about the incredible sex they were regularly having. Never understood why everyone made such a big deal about it. In your experience it wasn’t worth it. Roger had quickly changed your mind. On your third official date he agreed to go back to your place but you’d spent most of the night talking about sex rather than actually having any. The topic of your limited experience had come up again and Roger was trying to gauge what you'd already tried.   “Yes, I’ve sucked dick before,” you rolled your eyes as you stood to fill your empty wine glass, waving it round as you spoke, “not my favourite thing ever if I’m being honest but no one ever complained about my techniques.”   “Hand job?”   “Is that a request?” You raised your eyebrows and took a sip of your wine.   “Stop trying to get my pants off, love,” he laughed, “You’re the one who keeps saying you’ve never had good sex, ‘m just trying to find out what you have had, so I can decide how to blow your mind next.”   “If you really must know, all the guys I’ve been with were fairly bad at it. Only two of them made me cum regularly and even then it was a one and done situation. You did more to blow my mind on our not-quite-a-one-night-stand than anyone else has.”   “Keep talking like that and you’ll give me a big head.”   “As if you don’t already have one.” You dropped yourself into his lap, giggling at the small ‘oof’ of surprise he let out, and wrapped your arms around his neck.   “Alright, alright. So, what’s the kinkiest you’ve done then?”   “Does being eaten out count as kinky?” “God, are you serious?”   “No, I did convince one of them to spank me once which was fun. Hinted that I might want to try more, being tied up and stuff, but he wasn’t into it.”   “Christ, no wonder you gave up on dating,”   “I wouldn’t say gave up, just put it on the back burner.”   “Well it’s a good thing you met me then.” he said, looking up into your eyes, “I’d be very happy to tie you up, and stuff.”   A shiver ran down your spine at the suggestion, “Really? You’re into it?”   “Oh, love, we are going to have some fun. You’ve got -”   “Nothing to lose,” you finished before leaning down to kiss him.”

The longer you were together the more you found yourself thinking about sex. It was like meeting Roger had flipped a switch inside your brain, set off some sort of chemical reaction that made your blood run hot and your skin tingle with the need to be touched. Suddenly you cared about sex, wanted it, even dreamt about it. You had years of bad sex and dry spells to erase and Roger was only too happy to help. To his credit he never rushed you or pushed you to try things you weren’t comfortable with and he always made sure you were safe as he slowly opened your eyes to new things. It started out small, a light spanking one night, since you already had experience with it and liked it. He used it as an excuse to question you more about what else you’d be interested in trying, promising to reward you with another hit for every answer you gave him. At first you’d felt self-conscious, especially when asked to describe what you’d fantasised about. But soon enough he’d had you admitting to everything you’d ever wanted to try, desperately trying to earn another spank as you slowly dripped onto his knee. And then he’d praised you for answering so well and god you could have cum from that alone, the three fingers he'd pressed into you were just a bonus.  

Your answers gave him ideas for what to try next. Adding handcuffs or blindfolds when he fucked you, calling you degrading names while you tried out words like Sir or Master for him, testing how they felt on your tongue and deciding which you liked. Pulling you into public restrooms and other secluded spaces because you admitted that the danger of being caught was a turn on. He’d use your own ideas against you until you were begging, often times for more. He was particularly fond of bringing up the fantasy you’d had of being turned into a silly, giggly, dumb slut – empty headed and eager to please. It was something you’d developed a penchant for back at uni, a fantasy you turned to when the pressure to be smarter than everyone else got too much, though you’d never actually told anyone about it before. The idea of him knowing – of anyone knowing – your desire to be a brainless bimbo was terrifying and exciting and every time he mentioned it you got goosebumps and butterflies. He’d lean in close to your ear, running his hands through your hair, and tell you that a good slut had no use for her brain. That you should just let it go. What could you possibly have to think about besides being pretty and filling your holes however he wanted? It was so easy to sit and listen, let his words fill your head until there wasn’t room for anything else, just the need to please him. It was your favourite release when work was stressful and tough, and for the last week that’s all work had been. Between the land deal you were trying to organise taking longer than you’d planned and the constant juggling of calls to contractors for quotes and calls to estate agents to renegotiate terms, everything was getting to be too much. You just needed to forget about everything for a little while.  

So, when Roger got home that evening, he found you waiting, wearing the tightest, skimpiest clothes you owned – a skirt that only just covered your lace panty clad arse, and a low-cut singlet over a bra that pushed your tits together, plus the tallest heels you owned. It was the sort of outfit you only wore when you wanted to be his brainless toy. It helped you drop into your new role faster, helped your brain melt away.   “Everything okay?” He asked as he pulled you into a hug. “Yeah, just need a break. If you’re up for it?”   “Course, love. You know I love playing with my bimbo doll.”   You hugged him tighter, trying to convey how much you loved him with one gesture, already feeling slightly tingly. He led you to the couch, sitting you down to face him.

“Just need a break from all that noise in your pretty head, don’t you?” His voice sounded different to when he’d first come in, softer and calmer but more authoritative, “all that stress from work. Just need to listen to my voice and slowly sink deeper down, away from your brain, away from everything bad and stressful. And the more stressful things are, the more worries and noise in that silly brain, the faster you sink down down down until you can’t remember anything anymore. Down deeper, where there’s nothing to lose. Where there’s no need for big words. Where the only thing that matters is being a good doll for Sir. Pleasing Sir. Because pleasing Sir makes you happy and horny, doesn’t it?   “Yes,” you sighed softly, a wet spot already beginning to form as you stared into his eyes. “It’s so simple, so easy, isn’t it my pretty, silly, slut. So simple and easy to leave your mind behind.”   You breathed deep as Roger’s hands glided through your hair, gently smoothing it back, his fingernails running over your scalp and down down down to push it behind your ear.   “That’s right, just relax. You’ve got nothing to lose by listening and relaxing. Thinking about how fun it is to be simple and easy.”   Your eyes were shut, though you didn’t remember closing them. You felt Roger’s hand move further down your hair, splitting it into sections, running his fingers through it to smooth it out.   “You like being simple and easy, don’t you? Simple and easy and fun and dumb. My pretty, silly, bimbo.”   He was winding your hair round his fingers, moving slowly and gently, sending tingles down your spine as you took another deep breath. A whimper dropped from your lips and you could almost feel your mind emptying with every word he spoke, letting go of the day, the meetings, the harried phone calls, the forms you had to sign. All of it was so unimportant compared to his voice.   “And d’you wanna know the best part about you being like this?”   “Yes.” If you’d been able to think properly you would have said your voice had changed too. Higher pitched than normal. Brighter and bubblier.   “The best part about you being simple and easy and fun and dumb, is how hot it is. How wet you get. Isn’t that right?”   “Yes,” you giggled, “hot and wet.”   “Good girl,”   You giggled again, his praise making what was left of your brain feel mushy and happy. Roger chuckled at your giggly, giddy response, letting his fingers slip out the bottom of your hair and onto your arms. You shivered at his touch, face breaking into a smile.   “Feels good being touched when you’re like this. Simple and easy and fun and dumb. You want me to keep touching you?”   You whimpered, “yes,” breath coming out in pants as his hands slipped down your arms, setting your skin aflame.   “Yeah, you like that. Got nothing to lose by being touched. Just feels good.”   “Yeah, feels so good,” you giggled and you heard Roger chuckle in response.   “Open your eyes for me, wanna see your pretty eyes,”   Your eyes shot open and you beamed at Roger.   “You like when I compliment you, don’t you?”   “Yeah,” you giggled again, feeling bubblier and lighter now that you could see his reactions. His hands had slipped down to your own, tracing patterns softly over your skin, between your fingers, tapping over your nails.   “Like, when I tell you how cute you sound right now, all giggly. A silly, giggly slut.”   Your response was so predictable, Roger was smiling even before you started to giggle again.   “How do you feel, love?”   “Ummmm, fuzzy. Happy.”   His hands slipped further, landing on your thighs and slipping over your knees, making a wave of arousal roll through your body and a soft whine roll off your tongue.   “Yeah? Do you remember those four words I used to describe you earlier?”   You thought for a moment, furrowing your brow as you searched for the right words, “dumb?”   “Yes, that was one of them, do you remember the other three?”   “Umm,” you stared at Roger, mouth slightly open, “horny?”   Roger laughed again.   “Dumb and horny.... and... easy?”   “That’s right, but horny wasn’t one of the four words.”   “Oh,”   “But that’s okay, you feel horny, don’t you? D’you want me to tell you the four words?”   You nodded fast. “Simple and easy and fun and …?”   “Dumb!”   “Good girl.” He leaned in, brushing his nose against yours as you laughed again, “And now that my pretty bimbo doll has nothing left to lose, all dumb and mindless, what does she want to do?”   "Ummmm,”   “What is it?”   “I want to suck your cock, Sir,”   “Is that so? Thought you said you didn’t like sucking cock.”   “Noooooo, I love sucking your cock Sir.”   Roger looked so amused by your answer you couldn’t help but giggle, even though you didn’t quite understand why. All you knew was you wanted to please him, that pleasing him made you feel good.

As soon as you heard the jangle of Roger unbuckling his belt your mouth fell open and your tongue stuck out. He moved around so his leg was stretched out down the length of the couch, his other hanging over the edge, with you kneeling in between. Slowly, his eyes glued on you, he unzipped his fly and pushed his pants down his hips enough to let his cock spring free. You waited patiently for his word, watching as he grasped his shaft and lazily stroked along it. Your mouth was almost watering as your desire to lick and suck grew, drowning out everything else.   “God you’re cute. Practically drooling. Ready to show me what a desperate cockslut you are?”   You hummed, replacing Roger’s hand with your own, wrapping it around his base as you kitten licked at his tip. He sighed softly as you took him into your mouth, relaxing further into the couch, and you felt a small burst of pleasure pulse through you. It spurred you on and you sunk lower, taking more of him, before rising back up to swirl your tongue around his tip. He groaned and you were hit by another jolt between your legs. Every noise you pulled from him set you on fire, the pit in your stomach tightening, your cunt dripping, only encouraging you to suck harder and take him deeper. His fist tangled in your hair, holding you down as you gagged around him. Looking up with watering eyes you could see Roger had dropped his head back, his lips silently forming words he couldn’t get out, lost in the sensation of being in your throat. It was enough to make you moan and redouble your efforts, bobbing up and down faster, working him as deep as he could go.   “Fuck, Y/N” Roger choked out, “gonna make me cum soon,”   You released him with a pop, unable to stop the grin the crept onto your face.   “You like the idea of me cumming down your throat?”   “So much, Sir!”   “What about the idea of you cumming?”   “If that pleases Sir, yes”   “You’ve been such a good doll, think you deserve the reward. But only after you’ve swallowed all my cum okay?”   “Promise, Sir,” “That’s enough talking now, wanna hear you gagging instead,” he tapped your head and you leaned down, letting him slip all the way back down your throat. His grip returned to your hair, pulling you up and then pushing you down again, showing you the speed at which you should be moving. You fell into rhythm, breaking the pattern every now and then to hollow your cheeks around his tip or lick along the underside of his cock or gulp for air, before finding the rhythm again.   “So close, fuck, so so close,”   Your movement was suddenly halted as he pressed down on the back of your head, making you choke. You tried to move, needing another gasp of air but he held you down as he came, coating your throat with hot spurts of cum. You swallowed every drop he gave you, your body surging with the electric knowledge you’d pleased him so much, tingling from head to toe.  

“Did you enjoy yourself?” He sat up, brushing his fingertips over your cheek.   “So much, Sir! I love your cock,” you giggled, leaning forward to drop a quick peck to the head, “love drinking your cum.”   “And you’re so good at it. My pretty, cocksucking doll. Do you still wanna cum?”   “ummm, yes?” You didn’t really care if you got to cum, you just wanted to make your Sir happy.   “I’d like to watch you cum,”   “Then yes!” another giggle.   “Then why don’t you sit that cute cunt right here,” he patted his thigh, “and show me what a good slut you are.” You settled yourself over him, hitching your skirt up in the process, so you could grind against him, still wearing the skimpy panties you’d picked out. A moan escaped you as you rolled your hips and Roger placed his hands on them, to keep you pressed firmly against him as you rocked yourself closer to your release. You were already so worked up it didn’t take long for you to reach the edge, whimpering as Roger’s grip tightened. “That’s right, cum for me,” His permission was all you needed to let yourself fall over the edge with a gasp. You felt so light and happy, buzzing with pride and the knowledge that your Sir wanted to see you fall apart. You shuddered and fell forward as the orgasm washed over you, leaning your forehead against Roger’s chest. He wrapped his arms around you, pressing his lips to the top of your head as you shivered through the orgasm.   “So beautiful,” he was playing with your hair again and you hummed at how good it felt. “That’s right, just relax, listen and relax and come back. Nothing to lose by coming back. Back to who you were before. Who you are. So simple, so easy to come back. Relax into it. Relax back into yourself. Letting go of the bimbo. So easy to come back to your mind.”   You took a deep breath as you returned to yourself. More aware of everything around you. The salty taste of Roger’s cum on your tongue. The warm, wet feeling between your legs. The scent of Roger’s cologne as you breathed deeply. You sighed contentedly as the giddy, giggly lightness you’d felt slowly faded and the real world came back to you. Roger’s eyes found yours as he tilted your head up, searching them for anything amiss.   “Hey,” he said softly rubbing your arm soothingly, “how was that, you okay?” “That was exactly what I needed. Thank you.” You pecked him on the lips. “You’re very welcome. You wanna talk about work?”   “I’ll tell you about it later. Right now I’m,” you shifted slightly, still straddling his thigh, “still a little worked up actually. Race you to the bedroom?” Roger’s lips slammed against yours as he held you tightly, the kiss heated and hungry, “who need’s a bedroom when there’s a perfectly fine couch here. Time I repaid you for the fucking fantastic blow job.” You squealed as you found yourself on your back, Roger pulling your soaked underwear off hurriedly.  

To the world at large you were a well-respected, intelligent, and accomplished woman with an enviable relationship. And you were. All that and more. But you knew, and Roger knew, that deep down you were just a silly, giggly, dumb slut, who loved sex and craved cock and lived to please. Just a pretty bimbo who had no use for anything besides her Sir. And really, what more could you possibly want.