#just some quick doodles it’s fun to take pictures and draw on top of them uhhh

[starriva]

Some pictures of ideas of what it would be like to grow up in the Kirkland house

[mauesartetc]

A while back I got a comment that demonstrated a misconception as to what the character design process actually entails, and I thought it had real "teachable moment" potential. So let me make this perfectly clear:

Drawing a character is NOT the same as designing one.

Let's say I wanted to draw a guy. No backstory, no defined personality traits or preferences, no details about his current life, just doodling some random, generic guy who popped into my head.

That's just a drawing.

But what if I decided to flesh him out more? What if I wanted his appearance to reflect his lifestyle and inner life as well? Here's where the note-taking comes in.

And now for the visual research:

I thought the bodybuilding angle would provide a fun contrast with this guy's profession. The mental image of a huge, burly dude working on a clock or watch with tiny, precise movements just makes me smile. Perhaps I could give him small, nimble hands that would suit his line of work.

Now that I have a better idea of how Mikhail's face and body will look, it's time to establish a pose.

Of course, I never expected to employ all the personality traits I started out with inside this single pose; those were just a jumping-off point. No one drawing will ever be able to encapsulate every single facet of a character, unless they're extraordinarily flat and generic (see also: random guy I doodled at the start of this post). If I wanted to write a story with this guy, I'd have to figure out how all the traits play off each other and how they'd cause him to react to different situations. There would be a lot more note-taking and development involved, but for the sake of keeping this post (somewhat) brief, let's just focus on visuals for now.

On to color!

I decided to give Mikhail a carnation in his pocket (for its round shape), specifically a red one, which represents deep love and an aching heart. Thus, the flower needed to maintain its red color for the symbolism to come through.

For some reason I initially pictured this guy wearing a pink shirt (perhaps as an offshoot of the "romantic" angle), but I wanted to try some different colors inspired by the 70s catalog pages I found. I ended up really liking the contrast of the cool blue shirt with the warm red pants, and that option made it into my top three as a result. I lined them up next to each other to compare them, and in the end, blue won out over pink. I think it also reflects the "colder", more cerebral, less-emotional parts of his personality well (namely "systematic", "stern", and "callous"- one from each column!). Just goes to show that you shouldn't get too attached to your first draft, as better ideas are just around the corner.

I then lightened the blue of the shirt so it wouldn't compete so much with the rest of the outfit, and wouldn't be quite as loud and "in your face". Mikhail strikes me as a bit of an introvert, so the calmer, quieter blue is a better fit. I added a darker belt and watchband and de-saturated the flower just a bit to make the values feel more balanced, and I think we've got it!

Let's see the final result!

Y'all, I was not expecting this process to make me emotional, but there's something special about fully realizing a little guy you've spent hours working on. All of a sudden you look at him and go, "Oh my god, there he is. That's him." This man wasn't even a twinkle in my eye a couple weeks ago and now I'd protect him with my life.

And the thing is, the only reason I'm calling this design "done" for now is that I basically just brought it into existence to make a point. But if this dude were attached to a larger story, he'd be nowhere near finished. I'd have to make a ton more iterations and go a lot more in depth with my research than I did (especially with the Armenian cultural stuff). Overall, though, I hope this quick project properly highlighted the difference between a single drawing and a more fleshed-out character.

Later!

[bingusfound]

January 14th, Sunday

I've been studying most of my day because I am anticipating a lot of memorizing this college semester. I am a naturally forgetful person, so last semester for my German class, I developed a memorization strategy that was pretty up to par. It involved me doodling pictures to help me memorize how it is spelled and what it means in English. I often broke down the words into parts that were similar to English words and drew them together in some sort of crossover, as well as referencing their translated meaning. For instance, siblings in German is "geschwister", and to memorize it, I broke it down to the English words "guest" and "wisteria". I drew the guest profile pic you see on social media sites on top of a shoddy-looking plant. It was a decent strategy, but it had some pitfalls.

First off, I rarely incorporated the gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter) and their plural forms, which was dumb on my part, and second, it took a long while to memorize them since there were a bunch of words. Remembering what I drew most of the time eventually became a hassle. Near the end of the semester, I developed a better method where they weren't just random sketches but rather told a short story similar to that of a storyboard. I used a character that was originally a one-off throwaway, I guess because I found him charming, who I named Unfug (mischief in German), and drew his “comedic” escapades in elementary school. They were kinda raunchy and poorly written, but it got the job done.

It was a better tactic, and I enjoyed making them, but it just had one problem: it took even longer than the previous strategy. That second one I think took an hour just to think of a story and brainstorm how to incorporate the German vocab with its translation. The drawing took a while too despite them being crappy three-minute atrocities.

Today I experimented with a new strategy for my science class. I made up a new character, Moe Inquiry, and wrote a plot synopsis involving him instead of drawing it. The thing I changed was that I wrote the story instead of drawing it. I implemented the terms I needed to memorize into the writing, and funnily enough it worked perfectly. The issue I ran into was that I still found it to be taking too long; coming up with a story while shoehorning in specific words drained any sort of fun I originally had.

I managed to come up with what I think is the definitive strategy. I studied ten German terms (I am taking a second-level German class), including their genders and plural forms. I brought back Unfug, but instead of drawing stories, I wrote them again. This time, however, I wanted to make the stories like something out of a comic strip: random situations that he got into in the span of 24 hours, with emphasis on character traits and humor in the writing.

I think I might have found the holy grail. I managed to remember all the jokes and situations while spending a short amount of time creating the scenarios. I even drew quick sketches correlating to the comic-strip synopses (even quicker than my previous quick sketches), where I focused on memorization over creating the perfect story or perfect drawing or whatever. I don't want to celebrate too early, but I think I finally found my perfect memorization strategy.

[ohlookanotherwritingblog]

Look it’s my first original post wow. This was a topic discussed in a Discord server I’m in, Hello there if you are from that server. Also thanks if you helped when i got stuck. I decided to share it here because I had a bit of fun with it.

Slashers/Horror Characters and their hobbies (when they’re not on a killing spree)

Michael (1978) would probably read. I like to think they would at least give him some books to read in the asylum. If his victim has a collection of books and he’s got time he’ll browse through the selections and take some that intrigue him. His favourite genre would probably be mystery or psychological horror. Think SAW if it was a book. 2007 remake Michael, as we already know likes to make masks. I don’t really think that would stop after escaping.

Bubba would enjoy cooking and baking I think. He’d get all prettied up in his pretty woman mask and a nice non-bloodied apron and get to work. He doesn’t get to cook that often because Drayton thinks he’ll burn the house down because of one (1) incident where Bubba accidentally started an oil fire and in a panic threw water on it. (Do not do that btw it makes the fire so much worse) But when he does cook or bake it is delicious. He enjoys trying and making new recipes too.

Nubbins does taxidermy. But he makes really weird scenes with the dead animals. He once took the ballerina off an old wind up music box he found and placed a rat in a tutu doing a pirouette on it instead and gave it to Bubba. (Bubba adores that thing and it helps him sleep at night).He likes to take random parts from animals and make his own new creatures and try to convince Bubba they’re real. (Poor guy actually fell for one once and was scared of “flying rabid raccoons” for almost a whole month) He’s also partial to photography. Although he doesn’t have much of a muse and some of the pictures are blurry.

Chop Top likes to listen to music and has tried his hand at making it (much to Drayton’s dismay but he doesn’t have any rights so that doesn’t matter). He likes Rock music but his guilty pleasure would be smooth jazz.

Thomas would enjoy sewing. He once tried making a dress for Luda Mae but it wasn’t sized properly. The sleeves were much too small and the dress itself was too big it would be a hassle to do any house work in it. Luda Mae still praised Thomas for it and she still has it even if she can’t wear it and shes very proud of him for it.

Billy Loomis just watches different movies and makes up theories around them and likes to discuss plot holes. He’s like one of those Disney fans that makes up long and elaborate theories. (no disrespect to those people i actually enjoy them) Except it’s mostly on horror or thriller movies instead.

Stu has a little artistic side in him. He can’t do photo realistic drawings but he doodles quick little things of people, objects, animals, etc. When he;s bored in class he’ll look around and doodle his classmates on his notes. Some of his teachers have had to tell him to stop drawing on assignments and tests while others look forward to seeing his little doodles. He’s dabbled in sculpture quite a bit too. He’s not the best but he likes doing it. He once made Billy a little cup that Billy still has in his room holding some pencils and pens. He prefers drawing over painting and he’s got his own unique style.

Brahms will sit and play with his toys or colour in a colouring book. He actually prefers colouring over playing with toys. It’s a quick way to get him to calm down by having him sit at the dinner table and colour in a page with crayons (he’s not allowed pencil crayons, for obvious reasons) and a cup of tea. He also likes putting things back together (which might be the reason why he breaks his toys so often). He’s good at figuring out which piece fits with another much like a puzzle (however he doesn’t like real puzzles much). That’s why he was able to put his doll back together.

Jason also likes to read. Before he drowned he was at a higher reading level than the other kids. His mom made sure to teach him from an early age. She wanted a bright and respectable son. Sometimes he’ll go raid the cabins after slaughtering all the new campers to see if any have brought books. He enjoys poems and a bit of romance. If it has a scene his mother would frown upon her boy reading, he’ll skip it. He would also enjoy bird watching and observing all the other animals that roam the area.

Freddy...to be quite honest I have no idea what Freddy would do other than enter peoples dreams. He might like metalwork considering he made that little glove of his. If he’s not murdering people he’s probably just fucking with their dreams to entertain himself.

Chucky i’m also not sure of. I would like to say he’d play videos games but at the same time it doesn’t seem very fitting. (I’ve never watched a Chucky movie so I don’t really know his personality well enough)

Tiffany however would enjoy cooking and baking, like Bubba. I think she would prefer baking a little bit more than cooking.

Other than disturbing the sorority with his calls and *ahem* doing what he does best, Billy Lenz likes making collages. Either using material from old magazines or pictures of the girls. He likes getting a little surreal and cryptic with them. He likes putting animal heads on people. If you were to look at some of them you would have no clue as to what is happening or what it means. Billy knows. But he won’t tell you.

Cujo (as one of my fellow server mates said since i’ve never seen Cujo) likes to play fetch. What dog doesn’t? He’s also very partial to tug of war too. But don’t think you’ll win. That dog can dent a car door with his head.

1990 Pennywise would sit on his ass and read the newspaper or watch a shitty little broken TV on his shitty, dirty, springs-showing, torn up, recliner and smoke. He mostly smokes cigarettes but he doesn’t mind a good cigar if he can get his hands on one. Even though he sleeps for 27 years, he’ll still take naps on said recliner. Changing his form and chasing kids is hard work for an old being like him.

2017 Pennywise however is younger than 1990 Penny and so he has more energy. Pennywise genuinely likes clowns and what they do, that’s why the clown form is his favourite. (1990 Pennywise finds it easier to attract kids and make them feel safe if he looks like a clown). So he tries to make balloon animals. He’s not very good at it and they keep popping but he’s trying his best. And yes, he does get pretty angry if he keeps messing up.

Vincent as we already know, likes to make wax sculptures. He’s tried clay before but he doesn’t like how it feels dried on his hands. He’s much more comfortable with wax. Plus, if he ever runs out of wax he can re-melt a sculpture that is old or isn’t his favourite and start anew. Once clay dries it can’t go back to clay.

Bo likes to work on cars. The older the better. He prefers trucks but cars are just as good. He can tell whats wrong with it just by turning the engine on. He’s one of the best (and only) mechanics in town.

Lester likes to collect bones, mostly skulls, from roadkill he’s found. He waits for his little pile to rot then he’ll go in looking for skulls and bones.He’s got a whole wall of shelves filled with different animal skulls and skeletons. He also tried taxidermy once. Emphasis on tried. They came out looking terrible and messed up. He still likes doing it from time to time though.

Sweeney Todd actually enjoys being a barber. He finds it relaxing cutting peoples hair and making people look and feel good. He finds shaving men’s faces really satisfying and finds it quite humorous to see a gentleman with a beard come in and leave with a smooth baby face. They tend not to look so intimidating anymore.

[maraudererasmut]

what kinds of things did you do when you were first practicing digital drawing? did you use reference images? where did you find them? anything you would recommend to a baby drawer with a short attention span for instructions?

Well, first and foremost, I’m gonna take a moment to do a little fangirl wiggle, because I’m a huge fan of your work! Thank you for messaging me! 

I’m gonna include a lot of info here, so bear with me! I’ll try to break it down so that it’s easy to understand, but if anyone ha any questions, feel free to ask!

The absolute most important thing for starting out drawing is practice. 

You’re going to hear it from everyone, everywhere, but it’s so very true. When I first started digital drawing, I made sure to use my tablet every single day. Now, that doesn’t mean I spend three hours each day trying to do something amazing; some days I only had a few minutes here and there, but I’d try to sketch something rough, something loose, maybe just a doodle. Maybe it’s a face one day, maybe it’s just a bunch of swirls and stars the next. It doesn’t matter what you draw, as long as you are developing the habit of drawing! No matter what it is you are doing, you’re learning! Playing with brushes to see how they feel on your new drawing program? Learning! Trying to see if one way of colouring is better than another? Learning! Drawing the same nose over and over and over again until you like what you see? Also learning!

Another key step to learning to draw is to identify what you like!

What does that mean? Well, look at other artists who inspire you! Why does their work appeal to you? What is it about their drawings that you LOVE? Once you realize what it is that makes something beautiful to you, you know what to practice and how to learn to adopt that into your own style!

@burdge is an excellent example for illustrating this. They are a fandom artist that has been around for so long, nearly every fandom artist I know has been inspired by them in one way or another!

So what is it about Burdge’s art that I love? I love the closeness that’s portrayed, and the softness. But those are very arbitrary things that are difficult to identify and even more challenging to implement. I love the noses. I love the proportions. I love the hairlines! I love the body movement! Those are things that are a bit easier to pick out and start practicing!

This leads so well into my next point:

It is okay to copy someone else’s work if it’s for practice!

Let’s break this one down, just to ensure that nobody accidentally misinterprets what I’m saying: It is okay to copy someone else’s work if it’s for practice. It is NOT okay to copy someone else’s work and post it, claiming it as your own! If you use a reference picture, generally speaking, most artists will post which reference they use, but I know that I often forget to do that as well! But using a reference picture is different than copying. 

When you copy someone’s work, what you’re really doing is working on identifying what you love about it. You’re practicing drawing in their style! And that’s totally fine! When you’re first starting out, it’s actually really helpful to be able to use someone else’ expertise and practice to guide you to draw something you love! A lot of people have it in their heads that copying = bad. And sometimes it does. But I think it’s important for new artists to get rid of that notion in their heads. Practice is practice. When you practice cooking, you copy other people’s recipes! You’re not going to post those recipes online and say you created them, but you CAN feed them to your friends and you CAN eat them yourself! And if you do post pictures of your food? You can say whose recipe you used and thank them for a great meal! 

We were all starting at one point, and every artist I know started by copying something. 

Use reference pictures! Use them liberally! References are helpful!

Yes, some artists are so good that they do not need reference pictures. That’s fine. Good for them! I’m very proud of them!

When you’re first starting out, you don’t have to worry about that! Don’t get into your own head and tell yourself “Real artists do XYZ, blah blah blah, etc.” None of that is helpful. Use whatever is available to help you improve!

Now the question is what actually makes good reference pictures? Well, everyone uses something a little different. Some people use faces of famous actors, some people use stock photos, some people use other people’s drawings that are specifically made for references! 

What do I do? I save every single photo I come across that inspires me into a folder. I have tons of folders labeled “Reference: Pose” or “Reference: Remus” or “Reference: Gay”. (That one is smut references. :3 )

I use blogs like @posereference and @fantasyartistreference, which I follow on here! I’ve gone through their content and saved photos that I think will inspire me in the future. Sometimes I don’t do anything with them. Sometimes I use them! 

I also take advantage of stock photos. That includes ones that adobe puts onto the internet as well as ones that other artists put! Senshi Stock on Deviant art is an excellent resource that has made a TON of photos available to artists to use for FREE! 

Google is also my friend! I like to google terms like “Couple Pose Reference” or “Couple Kissing”. If you include search terms like “pose reference” you often find that you get things specifically created for artists to use to help with poses!

Look at all the helpful poses! 

Now, this leads us to my next point:

How to use reference images

Everyone does this part differently, too! I’m going to show a few different examples. Let’s use this amazing reference sheet by @kibbi as our example!

Some people like to have their reference photo beside their drawing space, to use for them to look at, simply as a guide:

Some people like to have their pose reference in a layer beneath their actual drawing on a lower opacity so that they can trace right over it:

Often times, what you end up doing is using your traced sketch as your base for your drawing, with your actual drawing over top of it. Essentially, you’re using this time to identify what you DO like about the reference pose and what you DON’T like about it, and changing it!

See how different it’s looking already? I put my own style over top of it, but I used the pose as a reference because I really liked it!

((EDIT: I JUST REALIZED THAT I GAVE SIRIUS THREE ARMS. I AM SO SORRY, GUYS!!!!))

Side by side comparison for the curious:

Eventually, a time will come where you can do simple poses like this without the use of a reference. That’s amazing! You will be so proud of yourself! But if you still need to use references for complicated poses or foreshortening, remember not to beat yourself up about it. It is OKAY to use reference poses, and it is OKAY to take advantage of resources that are available to you! Just try to remember to cite your sources, just like we all did in school! :P

Practice Anatomy

Try doing things like figure drawing! Use sites like Quick Poses to give yourself a timed figure drawing session, if you’re up for it! The more you practice bodies and anatomy, the better you will get at drawing them! Don’t focus too much on anything being perfect; remember to say loose and just aim for general shapes and general proportions.

This isn’t the greatest example, because I didn’t do any dynamic poses, but here are some rough figure sketches:

See how loose I was? See how little I cared about it looking nice? That’s the best way to start a sketch! Just with loose scribbles!

The same thing can apply to faces:

Learn the rules, and then learn when to break them!

Just like writing, where you have “rules” for writing an essay, in drawing, you have rules for anatomy! But… I don’t always love to follow those rules. It’s important to understand human anatomy (if you plan to draw humans), and then figure out where you want things to be exaggerated in order to create your own style! Here’s an example:

The same rules apply to musculature! It’s important to understand what muscles go where and how they move in order to properly draw them consistently! However! That is something a bit more complicated that we can go into another time! I don’t think that would be included in my simple break-down of drawing!

And… last but not least…

Have fun!

You’d think this one would go without saying, but I’m going to specify it anyway. If you are NO LONGER enjoying drawing what you’re drawing, STOP. Don’t just draw humans because I told you to practice anatomy! If you’re not having fun, you’re going to grow to resent it, and we don’t want that! Draw whatever it is that you want! If you want to draw the same two men hugging over and over and over and over and over (Case in point: my entire blog), you do that! Ignore everything I said about knowing anatomy and about reference pictures and about anything! Just do exactly what makes you happy, nothing more and nothing less. Practicing should be fun, and the moment it’s no longer fun, you’ll begin to lose your passion. So… move on to something else that’s fun! Tired of drawing Wolfstar? (Pfff, that’s impossible, but okay). Move on to Drarry! Or to Linny! Or to a different fandom! Or to flowers! Or to still life! Or to whatever you think will bring back that spark!

Because that’s what drawing is all about. It’s just another form of expression and another way to have fun!

ANYWAY! I know this was SUPER long! I hope it was at least somewhat helpful! I’m not an expert, not by any means, but I enjoy doing this, and I am still working on improving! If anyone has any more questions, shoot me a message!

[kumeko]

A/N: I’m having fun writing this. Part 3 of the  @marveltrumpshate fic I wrote for @wombatking

Summary: There was something luxurious about waking up at 7:30am, to an empty room, with an empty bathroom, and the kitchen all to herself. Kitty hit the jackpot.

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There was something luxurious about waking up at 7:30am. Absolutely luxurious. Kitty wanted nothing more than to sprawl over her bed, languidly stretching before she finally rolled off. Unfortunately, her right leg was a dead weight to all of this, so she had to settle for lazily yawning and spreading her arms above her. The birds had been awake for hours, her dormmates equally so, and she had the most glorious sleep. She hadn’t even noticed when Rogue had left for training, her roommate for once not waking her up with her extensive morning prep.

 For a girl who claimed that she didn’t care what others thought of her, she spent an awfully long time in front of the mirror. Kitty chuckled at the thought. Rogue was full of strange contradictions and the more she learned, the more she liked. It was strange to think that at one point they’d fought like cats and dogs.

 Well, if Kitty were honest, they still fought sometimes now, but they always made up after.

It was harder than she expected, to get off the bed. Her leg felt weird, her movements even more so—her legs didn’t feel in sync, her left far too light and quick, her right too slow and heavy. Walking was a strange hop and dance. Dressing even more so. She half-wished she had Velcro pants, like the ones Spike used for his stupid “my pants ripped off!” joke. The only problem was that they were ugly. On the bright side, she was more than used to putting a little pain in for her fashion.

 As she passed by a window, she caught sight of Jean and Amara running through the obstacle course, sweaty and tired. “Glad that’s not me,” she murmured, grinning as she stepped into the for-once-empty bathroom.

 She’d been wrong. The best part of her broken leg wasn’t sleeping in, it was the fact that there was no rush. No one knocked on the door, asking her to get out. Kitty didn’t have to bounce impatiently on her feet, waiting for the door to open so she could rush in. Nope, the bathroom was all hers, for however long she wanted.

 So was the kitchen, so was the tv—if she’d realized how good it was, she’d have broken her leg ages ago. Maybe in six weeks she could break the other one. Chewing on a piece of toast, she idly flipped through the channels. News, weather, Say Yes to the Dress, Psycho—

 “Ready to go?” Scott said, suddenly appearing behind her.

 Kitty almost dropped her toast, surprised.  Instinctively, she turned off the TV, flushing a bright red. “I, that—” She wasn’t even sure why she was feeling flustered. This was fine! Technically allowed! No one expected otherwise!

 Yet it was one thing to relax when no one was around, and another to do it in front of her slightly sweaty housemate. Scott’s hair might be carefully combed, but his skin still had a light sheen to it from all the exercise. Noticing her stare, he cocked his head. “What’s wrong?”

 He’d always been a slightly dense brick. Fighting back her embarrassment, Kitty scarfed down her toast and stood up. “N-nothing. Let’s go.”

 “Alright then. I pulled my car up front, so just slip in.” Scott picked up her backpack and slung it over his shoulder. “You know, instead of a reality show, you should try watching the news.”

 If Kitty could have, she would have stomped to the car.

 -x-

 “Hey girl!” Kitty got no other warning before a pair of slightly tanned arms wrapped around her neck, hugging her tight. Tabitha pressed her cheek against Kitty’s, her messy hair tickling her neck. As usual, her perfume was as loud as she was. “Heard you got hurt.”

 “Tabitha!” Kitty laughed, leaning into her friend. She’d been getting lonely anyways, sitting in the playground as she was. Kurt had gone to get lunch and unfortunately the track team wasn’t practicing, so she couldn’t even stare at them. “Did Amara tell you?”

 “Didn’t have to, I have eyes.” Tabitha let go and rested her hands on her hips. “I hear Blue is now two for two for training accidents?”

 “It was my fault this time, not his.” Kitty rubbed her neck sheepishly. To be honest, the other time hadn’t been entirely his fault either—Tabitha had a little to do with it. Gesturing at her leg, she explained, “I broke my leg, so now I’ve got that ugly thing.”

 “I know training sucks, but I didn’t think you’d go that far to get out.” Tabitha whistled as she saw the cast. “Damn, that’s clunky.”

 “I know, right! It’s like I have snowpants or something.” Kitty rapped on the top of her cast. “It’s so thick! I don’t want to know what’ll smell like after all of this heat.”

 “You’re lucky it isn’t summer, or you’d be roasting in it.” Tabitha scrunched her nose, her lips curling with disgust. “Broke my arm once, on a job, and not only was I utterly useless after, I reeked like Toad.”

 “Seriously?” Kitty didn’t have to ask to know what sort of ‘job’ she was referring to. Wincing, she looked at her cast again. Tabitha had to be exaggerating, right? “It’s not that bad, right? I can’t get it off for six weeks. I don’t want to deal with smell on top of everything.”

 “Just spray some perfume on it.” Tabitha winked. She mimed spraying it on. “Works like a charm.”

 “Eww.” Kitty glared at the offending cast, her heart sinking. Just how stinky could the thing get? She groaned. “So either I smell like Toad or a flowershop.”

 “Hey, the choice is yours.” Tabitha grinned, shrugging. “I bet Logan won’t like either smell.”

 “I don’t think Rogue or Kurt will like it either.”  Resigning herself to her fate, she hoped they’d still hang around her after six weeks were up.

 “Cheer up, it’s not that bad. You get a lot of sympathy goodies.” Tabitha crouched next to the cast, a marker in hand. She started doodling something, just out of Kitty’s sight. “People open doors for you, give you seats, sometimes even food—”

 “You shouldn’t eat things strangers give you,” Kitty warned, worried about that last one. Sometimes, she was amazed Tabitha made it to high school. More often, though, she was impressed the school hadn’t burned to the ground multiple times, considering her short temper. “And what’re you drawing?”

 “You’ll see!” Tabitha replied cheekily, her brow furrowed as she finished her masterpiece.

 Kitty rolled her eyes. “Fine, keep your secrets.”

 “I’m pretty good at that, ask anyone.” Tabitha smirked up at her. “How’re the geeks taking this? Bet Logan ain’t happy.”

 “They’re like, the only bad part.” Kitty grimaced, remembering Scott’s lectures. And she had to get a ride from him for the next six weeks—her mornings were going to be so ruined. “I swear, Scott and Jean won’t shut up about it, and Logan’s just counting down the days till he can make me suffer again.”

 Tabitha stood up now, laughing. “Sounds like ‘em.” Hand on her hip, she gave her a wry look. “Honestly, you should just ditch that whole scene and join me. It might not be the best place to stay, but it’s the funnest.”

 There was absolutely no way Kitty was staying in that rundown house the brotherhood claimed was ‘livable’. She’d been there a handful of times, and each time she wasn’t sure how the place hadn’t been torn down. At the very least, it had to be filled with lice or something. “I’m not that desperate.”

 “Yet.” Tabitha pocketed her marker and waved before waltzing away. “Lemme know if you change your mind.”

 “Not happening!” Kitty laughed, watching as a garbage bin exploded.

 -x-

 Kitty lay on her bed, examining her cast by her tablelamp light. It was, perhaps, the first time she’d gotten to use that thing without having to cram for a test or something. Today was actually full of firsts—she finished her homework without having to rush, she had dinner on time, and hey, she saw an episode of her favourite drama on time instead of catching a rerun.

 Even now, she was lying in her bed, at 11pm, and not bone-tired for once. Across the room, Rogue snored lightly as she slept, too tired from training to complain about the light. The house was utterly silent at that this time and if it weren’t for the lights-out rules, she’d have snuck around to see just how different the house was at night.

 For now, she bent over her cast, running her fingers along the different signatures she’d collected. After Tabitha had signed it, the rest of her friends popped in, one after another, all ready to make a mark. The once white cast was now a collage of signatures and messages. Rogue had written her name in purple ink, with nothing else added to it, and Kitty couldn’t figure out if it was because she didn’t have anything she wanted to write, or if it was because she was too embarrassed to put anything.

 Feel better soon, Honey, Kurt had written in blue ink, and Kitty smiled as she pressed her fingers on the pink heart he’d drawn beside his name. It was utterly cheesy, but she liked that about Kurt.

 There was a picture of a grumpy Logan next to Spike’s name, and Kitty covered her mouth to muffle her laughter. He was a terrible artist, and that only made it funnier. Logan was either a furious hedgehog or he was some new evolution of a bear. Definitely not human, at the very least.

 Finally finished with all the easy to read signatures, Kitty leaned forward and strained her neck to see what was on the back of her cast. More importantly, to see what Tabitha had spent so long drawing. Biting her tongue and squinting, she could just make out the picture.

 It was a dick.

 Of course it was. She flopped back on her bed, and silently swore revenge.

[virgilsinferno]

meet me in the middle || logince

chapter 2 — leave the window open for me

summary: the twins try to set up patton & virgil by hosting a sleepover. remus makes questionable life decisions. 

pairings: high key moxiety, dukeceit (if you squint) 

tw: mentions of hospitals & injuries

word count: 2987

[logan is not in this chapter but he is mentioned like once]

taglist: @dragonwithproblems​ @b0mblebee​

ao3 || 1 

♡

At the back of the shop, there’s a tiny storage room filled with boxes and a wall of post-it notes. It’s a cramped space, but the twins figured out a way to make it bearable. There’s a bookshelf, some fake plants, a few pictures, and of course, the whiteboard. The whiteboard was previously used for reminders, but bit by bit, they started filling it up with random doodles. 

They constantly tried to one-up each other with every new addition to the whiteboard. Who could draw the most accurate anatomy? Who was better at dynamic poses? There was always an unspoken competition between the two siblings. It was practically in their nature to be competitive. 

So far, Remus was winning but only because Roman’s usually the one at the counter while Remus took care of packages and inventory. Or at least that’s what Roman liked to tell himself. 

Working at his dad’s flower shop wasn’t too bad, in fact, Roman loved working there. During his first few months at the shop, he was obsessed with flower meanings. And making bouquets. What he didn’t expect though, was cleaning. He had somehow forgotten that he was working with plants, and working with plants got messy. Petals and leaves kept falling off, dirt got all over the floor, and children loved messing with everything they could touch. 

It’s been a busy day. Roman sat behind the counter, thinking that he’ll finally be able to relax after he finished trimming flowers and sweeping the floor. He was thankful that he only worked on Saturdays, otherwise, he’d have to stress about strangers’ wedding preparations as well. 

Speaking of weddings, he had to attend one in about 3 weeks. They weren’t in charge of the flowers so he didn’t have to stress about that, but he strongly disliked a certain cousin of his. He was not looking forward to it. He’s probably ranted about how much he hated this particular cousin to all his internet friends. 

“Boys, you two go on ahead, I’ll close up the shop!” their dad yelled from the storage room. The twins shared a look.

“Race ya!” Remus said as he dashed out of the shop. Roman quickly ran out after him, chasing him down the street. 

It was part of their post-work ritual. The racing, that is. After work, they would run to Espresso Feelings and whoever arrived last was paying. Sometimes Patton would be there and they’d talk about the latest gossip they’ve heard at school. 

The sky was getting dark and droplets of rain began to fall. It was only a matter of seconds before it would start pouring. Neither of the two brought an umbrella, but the coffee shop wasn’t too far away. A group of kids passed by, running and giggling with their arms stretched to the side, enjoying the breeze that came with the drizzle. They reminded Roman of him and his brother when they were much younger. They still do that sort of shit as teenagers.

Remus was winning, but only because Roman was waiting for the rain to lash down. Or at least that was his excuse for not running faster. It was getting chilly though, which only gave him more reason to buy coffee at this hour. 

“You’re paying, slowpoke!” Remus said as he dramatically opened the door to the shop. He immediately went to the counter to order their usual. 

Roman sat down at their usual spot, the table near the corkboard. He spotted Patton speaking to some guy in a purple hoodie on the other side of the shop. The guy looked familiar, so Roman assumed he had seen him around at school before. He called out Patton’s name and waved, and he waved back as well.  The guy left with a brown paper bag in hand and Patton walked over to the twins’ table. The rain was already pouring, so it was a good thing that the guy had an umbrella with him. 

“Ro, you’ll never guess what just happened!” Patton said with a huge grin on his face. He was practically bouncing with excitement.

“You won the lottery?” Roman asked, eyes wide, with the same level of excitement Patton had.

“No, even better! I got Virgil’s number!” Patton squealed with delight as he sat down next to Roman, flaunting Virgil’s contact on his phone.

“Oh, great,” Roman said with fake enthusiasm. Who the fuck?

Remus sat down opposite to Roman and placed a tray down on their table. “I didn’t know Emo was your type.”

 “Wait, are we talking about the guy with the purple hoodie?” Roman asked as he pointed to the front door. 

“Yeah, him!” Patton said, stealing a forkful of Roman’s chocolate cake. “I assumed you would know him since, you know, he’s Logan’s best friend? And you hate-read his social m-”

“I do not!” Roman interjected, taking his fork back from Patton in a playful manner. 

“You do,” Remus said in a sing-songy voice. “Sometimes he barges into my room in the middle of the night just to tell me what atrocity Logan posted on Instagram.”

“It was one time!” Roman finally admitted. “Why are we talking about me, we’re supposed to be talking about Patton’s love life!”

“Oh, right! I do have to get back to work though, but I could come over later and we could talk about boys?” Patton suggested. They often had sleepovers especially during finals week, but as much as they’d try to focus on studying, they always ended up goofing off and doing typical sleepover activities. 

“Fuck yes, sleepover middle-school-style!” Remus said, high-fiving Patton.

Patton patted the top of their heads before returning to the counter. Since Roman had already finished his chocolate cake, he stole a piece of Remus’s blueberry muffin. It quickly escalated into a competition between the two of them to see who could finish their coffee first. That was the fun part of having siblings. Everything was a competition. 

Roman slammed down his cup, grinning from ear to ear. He basked in his moment of victory as Remus scowled. By that time, the rain had already stopped, which meant that it was probably time for them to go home. The twins waved goodbye to the baristas before walking out the door and heading home. The pavement was wet, and knowing Remus, he was going to run, slip, and end up with an injury. Roman kept a close eye on his brother just in case. Remus had already been in and out of the hospital 4 times in the past two months and frankly, Roman was getting tired of his constant injuries and poor decisions.

Their house wasn’t too far away, so they walked home most of the time. They learned not to trust Remus with a car after the whole driving-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-road incident. No one liked to talk about it. Well, except for Remus, who mentioned it several times to everyone he had ever sat next to in class. 

Once they arrived in front of their house, Roman got momentarily distracted by the sound of soft meows. An adorable little kitten was playing in their garden, and as much as Roman wanted to pick it up, he was highly allergic. 

“Ree, look! It’s a-” Roman paused and looked around, noticing that his brother was no longer beside him. “Oh no.”

He frantically ran to the backyard and spotted Remus already on a tree branch, attempting to get to his room from the tree. He saw his brother and waved at him. 

“Ro, could you open the window from my room?” He yelled, gesturing to the closed window. He momentarily lost his balance, but caught the tree branch above him before he could plummet down to the ground. 

“Absolutely not, you incorrigible buffoon!” Roman yelled back. He sighed, tugging at his hair. On one hand, it would be funny. On the other, they would get in trouble and that won’t be funny at all. 

“Aren’t you even the slightest bit curious? I know you are!” 

So maybe he was a little bit curious. But that didn’t mean it was safe to do. Then again, he wasn’t the most reasonable person either. As long as Remus knows what he’s doing, he should be fine, right? Then again, Remus never knew what he was doing and he turned out okay. 

“Okay, I’m convinced,” Roman said after much thought. Remus cheered and did a victory dance, careful enough to not fall off of the tree. 

Roman ran inside the house, greeting his parents a quick “hello” as he passed by the kitchen. He dashed straight to Remus’s room, opened the window, then gestured for him to get in.

“Wait, get this on video,” Remus said as he tossed his phone through the window. Thankfully, Roman had good reflexes and caught it, otherwise, it might have shattered.

Roman gave him the signal. Remus pounced off of the tree and caught the windowsill. Using his upper body strength, he pushed himself upwards and rolled right into his room. 

“Holy shit,” Remus panted, clearly out of breath. “Give me my phone, I wanna see!”

“I am never letting you do that again,” Roman said as Remus replayed the video.

“Oh you will. I can tell.” Remus said, forwarding the video to multiple group chats. Several people were typing. He watched in amusement as people freaked out over his little stunt. The twins could tell that it would be the talk of the school on Monday. Not that they didn’t like the attention, in fact, they loved receiving attention.

After the excitement and adrenaline died down, Roman lied down on the bed, listening to Remus rant about his plans for the upcoming auditions for the Battle of the Bands. They held the auditions as early as 3 months before the event, which would give enough time for the contestants to practice. 

“So far, there’s me on the bass, Virge on the drums, and you as lead vocalist. You think Jay would wanna be lead guitar?” Remus said as he tuned his electric bass. 

“I don’t know, ask him.” Roman replied. “Hold on a sec, Virgil? As in Patton’s crush?”

“Of fucking course, how many damn Virgils are there at school?” Remus rolled his eyes, chucking a pencil at his brother. 

Roman sat up. He had a brilliant idea. “So, Patton’s coming over. Why don’t you invite Virgil and we do a little bit of matchmaking?”

Remus’s eyes widened. “Fuck, shit, you’re a motherfucking genius!” He scrambled to get his phone and sent a quick text to Virgil. It only took Remus mentioning that Patton would be there for Virgil to agree. Patton usually arrived around 10-ish, so Remus told him to come around 9. It would give them enough time to pull some strings.

Roman returned his attention to his phone, which apparently had dozens of notifications from Twitter. As always, he checked his dms first before the mentions. He was sure that several people had already posted Remus’s stunt and tagged both him and his brother. 

Vi, his internet friend, was at the very top of his dms. It could only mean one thing. Or two things, rather. Boy problems or life problems. Or both at the same time. Ironically, they started out as enemies on the internet. A misunderstanding, of sorts. 

personification of anxiety

@vergeofdeath

vi: yo princey

vi: fuck

vi: i’m spending the night with my crush

vi: holy shit

vi: i just gave him my number like a few hours ago??

princey: 👀

princey: don’t be too loud

vi: BITCH

vi: NOT LIKE THAT

vi: we’re staying over at my friend’s house

princey: that’s funny ‘cause my bro & i are hosting a mini sleepover too

princey: he invited over a friend bc our other friend has a crush on him

vi: dude 

vi: coincidence???

vi: i’ve never spoken to my friend’s bro before but he’s gonna be there ofc

vi: he’s like enemies with my best bud

princey: omg that’s so weird

princey: my twin’s bff is my enemy

princey: but like,, you know that,, i tell you that all the time

vi: woah hold on u have a twin??? u never mentioned a twin??? 

vi: i just assumed ur bro was near ur age??

vi: bitch my friend has a twin

vi: the fucking coincidences,, they’re everywhere

princey: don’t tell me ur a drummer too jhksdgfks

vi: BITCH

vi: I AM A DRUMMER

princey: holy fucking shit

vi: holy fucking shit indeed

“Boys, dinner!” Their mom called out from the kitchen. The twins immediately dashed out of the door, pushing each other as they tried to get to the dining table first. 

Since it was a Saturday, they were having seafood. Dinners were always eventful. Roman and Remus told their parents about the sleepover and Remus jumping off of the tree, which should’ve gotten them in trouble but their mom found it hilarious and let it slide. Their dad talked about his clients that were planning on a halloween-themed wedding, and their mom talked about the new tv show she was in. 

Overall, dinner went well. It was Remus’s turn to wash the dishes, so Roman returned to his room. His room was bigger so they would be using that one for the sleepover. He noticed that his nail polish was starting to chip off, so he brought out his pouch of nail polish from under the bed. There was a lot of clutter there, things such as old textbooks from freshman year, Remus’s broken drumsticks, some guitar picks, and expired makeup. He should get around to cleaning that, though he’s been meaning to do that for months now. 

By the time Remus finished washing dishes, there were several post-it notes stuck to the wall with various reminders such as to clean the space under the bed, buy new shoes, upgrade to a loft bed, buy oil paints, and water the plants. Roman already started on the pillow fort, so Remus lounged on the bed and looked up what good horror movies are on Netflix. 

Another reason why they often used Roman’s room for sleepovers was that he had a tv. It was originally supposed to be in Remus’s room, but he had a habit of breaking everything he could touch. It was a wonder they could trust him with dishes. On the other hand, Remus’s room was good for band practices or jamming out in general. He had instruments all over the place and they had it soundproofed so that the neighbors would stop complaining about the loud drumming at 2 a.m. 

Once Virgil arrived, their plan was set into motion. 

“So, I know we don’t talk at all, but just pretend that we’ve been good friends for a long time. I have a plan.” Roman said as he led the way to his room.

Virgil looked at him skeptically. “You know, Logan’s told me a lot about you.”

“All good things, I hope?” Roman asked. 

“Quite the opposite actually,” Virgil smirked. He notices a few posters put up of Fall Out Boy and Waterparks. “But since you do have a good taste in music, so I’ll let it slide.”

During the short period of time that he left his brother alone in his room, Remus managed to trash his vanity. He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. 

Roman took this opportunity to strike a conversation. “Ree mentioned you play drums?” 

“Yeah, we’re planning on auditioning for the Battle of the Bands.” Virgil said, sending a quick message to one of his internet friends. “Has he asked you to join our band yet?”

Roman’s phone buzzed.

“Well, yeah. He sort of asked? I agreed, of course. Then he was like, ‘Oh good, I was going to poison you if you didn’t’. I’m used to it by now.”

Virgil chuckled. “He tried to poison me once ‘cause I stomped on his foot with my combat boots.”

“That was you? Oh my god, I owe you for that one!” Roman said, laughing at the memory of his brother crying in the school clinic. Turns out, they got along quite well. 

Their conversation was cut short when they heard knocks at the door. It was Patton and he arrived way earlier than expected. Remus pushed Virgil towards the door and mouthed “open it”. The twins high-fived each other and hid inside the pillow fort.  

“Hey Pat-”

As soon as Virgil opened the door, Patton’s face turned pink. He took a deep breath, puffed his cheeks, and closed the door. Virgil was too confused to move and the twins were slightly worried. 

Patton reopened the door and held out a container of cookies. “Hi Virge! I uh, didn’t expect to see you here… haha… what a coincidence?” He said awkwardly. 

Virgil took the cookies, but Remus bolted out of the fort and took it from Virgil’s hands. 

“You fucking gremlin!” Roman yelled, chasing Remus out of the room, who had started devouring cookies. Remus laughed maniacally, shoving past Virgil and Patton in order to get away from his brother. 

“Are they always like this?” Virgil asked, pointing at the twins who were now wrestling in the hallway. 

Patton hummed. “Yeah, most of the time.” 

The twins fought over the cookies for a while until realization hit them. 

Roman paused. He whispered something to Remus, and he stopped as well. The two began cursing and muttering something about “the plan” whilst pointing in Virgil and Patton’s direction. 

Right, the plan.

“Music!” Remus shouted, dragging Virgil and Patton to his room.

“What he meant to say was that we should play something together,” Roman informed the two. They nodded awkwardly. 

“Is Janus coming too?” Patton asked.

Shit. Roman forgot to invite him. 

“Oh um, I don’t know? I’ll have to ask.” Roman said. 

He took out his phone and sent a text that read “COME OVER ASAP”. Janus replied immediately, saying to leave the window open and that he’ll get in the room in a Remus fashion.

Great, he was going to be the fifth wheel tonight. 

[marbledaesthetics]

Only on Principal | afi | part ii

masterlist part i

pairing: ashton irwin x ofc

warnings: angst, hurt/comfort, slow burn, mutual pining, fake (semi-coerced?) relationships, injuries, implications of anxiety

word count: 4.4k

a/n: sorry this took so long, I just recently restarted classes and I never have the time to write. I wish I could say the next one will be sooner, but I haven’t even started it (oops). I do have an idea of where this will go moving forward, so hopefully, once I can get around to writing, it will go quickly. 

~~~

It’s nearing 10 o’clock when Ashton pulls up to the building Hylla described, a brick building with tall windows, two stories high. The sign above the front door reads The Ink Pot, but he passes it by in favor of following the small alley to his left, as per her directions, where he found a small side door.

He hesitates before knocking, knowing he’s a few minutes early. He’d spent the past week kicking himself over the way he had treated her, and he was anxious to see if she would still be upset by it.

The door swings open, snapping him from his thoughts, to reveal Hylla, holding a mascara wand and small, squirming dog. “Hi, you can come on up, I’m not quite ready, yet.” She motions for him to follow him up the stairs just inside the door. “You can chill wherever while I finish up.”

Hylla disappears after setting down the small pup, who immediately scuttles over to Ashton, at the top of the stairs. He crouches down and scratches its ears lightly, giggling when it attempts to climb into his lap. “Well, hello there.” He moves to sit on the end of her couch, leaning back down to continue petting it.

Hylla comes back a minute later, shaking her head in amusement at her dog, who is now lying on Ashton’s foot while he scratches her stomach. “Are you being needy, Karma? Worst guard dog I’ve ever seen,” she teases, laughing as the dog gets up and barrels into her shins.

“What breed is she?” Ashton asks, brushing a bit of dog fur from the bottom of his jeans.

“A mini Australian shepherd. She’s super smart, but she’s also a total brat.”

Ashon giggles, and she immediately yearns to hear the sound again. She mentally scolds herself, reminding herself that she needed to keep their relationship amicable for the next eight months.

“Are you ready, then?” Ashton asks, breaking the slightly awkward silence. He stands and slides his hands into his pockets.

“Yeah, I just need to put this little one somewhere she won’t cause trouble.” She herds Karma into a corner of the kitchen full of dog things, closing a baby gate to keep her there. Upon watching this, Ashton notices that most things he could see are baby proofed.

Gesturing to the nearest baby lock, he asks, “Do you have a kid?” then quickly backtracks. “Wow, that was really blunt, sorry.”

Hylla just laughs, brushing it off as she pulls on her shoes. “No, like I said, Karma is super smart, but she loves causing trouble. She knows how to flip light switches, open cabinets, doors, the fridge, so: baby locks.”

Ashton laughs, a full sound from deep in his chest. “That’s amazing. In theory, that would be great, but I could see how she could make a mess, though.”

Hylla makes a small noise of affirmation, and they head out. They make small talk on their way, allowing the radio to fill stretches of comfortable silence.

Ashton parks a few blocks from the coffee shop, giving them a chance to be spotted before they enter. He gives Hylla a small, reassuring smile before hopping out of the car, opening her door. He helps her out of the car, lacing their fingers together as they make their way to the shop.

A handful of fans recognize Ashton, but none make a fuss about Hylla’s presence, being kind without prying.

They choose to sit at a bar along the front windows, keeping an eye out for the paps that were bound to arrive. They continue to keep their conversation light, occasionally speaking to fans that approach.

After some time, they notice the herd of paps outside had grown to a size plenty more than sufficient for their purposes. They meet each other’s eyes before rising from their seats in unison. 

Ashton takes Hyllas free hand in his, squeezing lightly. “You ready?”

She smiles back and nods, using her drink to gesture for them to leave.

As soon as the door opens, they’re overwhelmed by flashes. Ashton makes a point of ignoring the cameras, leading Hylla toward the pier, where it would be more difficult for the paps to follow.

Hylla tries to keep her head down, knowing there are already enough pictures of her face for Twitter to find her. The noise was overwhelming, with questions being shouted over each other, and Hylla is forced to press closer to Ashton to keep her balance as they fight their way through the crowded sidewalk.

One man pouches forward, gripping her arm tightly and asking a question she doesn’t quite hear. She freezes, eyes going wide as the man’s grip grows tighter. Immediately, Ashton puts himself between the two, dropping her hand in favor of pulling the man’s off of her and pushing him back. As soon as she’s freed, she stumbles back, heart still racing, and watches Ashton shoo away everyone who hasn’t already taken their cue to leave.

Once they are gone, he turns back to her, concern pinching his features. “Are you alright?” he asks softly, lightly brushing his fingertips over the bright red marks left on her elbow. 

“I’m okay,” she says quickly, “just a little shaken up— I wasn’t expecting that.” Her reply comes almost too fast for Ashton to believe her, but he just nods, drawing her closer to him, pressing a quick kiss to her forehead before continuing toward the pier. 

Their silence is comfortable as they walk, filling the long stretches between bits of small talk.

Occasionally, a fan will ask Ashton for a picture, and Hylla happily takes the photos, opting to stay behind the camera, despite several invitations to join them.

They eventually find themselves at a picnic table, their gazes drifting between each other and the water.

“I’m actually kind of surprised we didn’t get more questions today,” she mentions, absentmindedly running her nails through the groves in the worn wood.

Ashton shrugs, drumming his own fingers on his thigh. “They usually aren’t the type to pry, but those pictures are probably trending by now.”

“I suppose it’s nice how they don’t track you everywhere. I imagine that would get old.”

“It can when it happens a lot, like when we’re on tour. Usually, it screws up plans more than anything.” He pauses for a second, taking in the sounds of the boardwalk before looking back to her. “So, I still don’t know much about you. Where are you from?”

“I grew up in Long Beach. My mom grew up in the LA area, but my dad is actually from Puerto Rico.”

“Puerto Rico, I think you might have mentioned that last week.”

She raises her eyebrows a bit, shocked he remembered. “Yeah, I did.”

“Does that mean you speak Spanish?”

His voice is genuinely curious, but Hylla can’t help but tease, “How original, no one has ever asked me that before. But, yes, I speak Spanish.”

“Well, I’m sorry I asked,” he says, holding up his hands in mock surrender. “I feel like you mentioned your mom, too. Are you a family-oriented person?”

“Yeah, my entire family is pretty close.”

“Mine, too. Do you have any siblings?”

“Two brothers and a sister, plus a few cousins I’m super close with.”

Ashton gave a quick glance around, making sure everyone was out of earshot before speaking. “This whole thing must be hard then, not being able to talk about this.”

“A little, but I’m honestly so busy I don’t get to see them half as often as I’d like to even have to avoid talking about it. I assume it’s gonna get even harder with this being public now.” Hylla spoke quietly, also concerned about potential eavesdroppers. “This probably isn’t the place for this conversation.”

“You’re probably right,” He said, standing up from the table. “Should we move this somewhere more private?”

He held out a hand, which she took, lacing her fingers in his as they made their way back up the pier. “What other things should you know about me?”

“Well, apparently you speak Spanish. Any other fun talents you’ve been hiding from me?”

“You already know I do art. That takes up most of my time.”

“Other than tattoos, what kind of art do you like to do?”

“Uh, a little bit of everything, I guess? I do a lot of digital things because they’re the easiest to get to clients that commission me, and I can print them into stencils. I paint, sometimes. As long as I have a pen and something to write on, I’ll doodle. How about you? Any random talents you’re holding out on?”

“Nothing spectacular. I can whistle really well, but I suppose that goes with the music thing.”

They spend the rest of the walk back to the car chatting, talking just enough to fill the silence. They had almost made it back to the car when they saw a few more paps; though, they appeared to be less pushy than the ones they encountered earlier.

Hylla’s first reaction was to ignore them, avoiding direct eye contact, but Ashton smiled at them, politely telling them he would answer any of their questions. She was honestly surprised they left graciously, allowing the pair to go about their business.

Ashton opened her door for her, allowing her to climb into the passenger seat before getting in the car himself. Neither of them spoke until Ashton pulled into traffic. “Are you doing okay? I know all of this can be overwhelming.”

Hylla shrugged, running her fingertips over the seams of the center council. “I’m fine, I wasn’t really as prepared for dealing with them as I originally thought, but it’s something I’ll just learn with time, I guess. Honestly, the fact that they just left when you asked them to really shocked me.”

“They aren’t all quite as pushy as the ones this morning,” Ashton assured her. He made quick glances at her while he drove, debating whether he could hold her hand without people around. “The shoving and mobbing is something we hardly ever have to deal with around here, and security is usually with us in places where the pushy ones like to show. Speaking of which, how’s your arm?”

Hylla hadn’t really had much time to think over the morning’s events, so she was surprised to see how dark the bruises were when she looked down. “It looks worse than it feels. It’ll probably be pretty sore tomorrow, though.”

“Once we park, I can take a look at it. I might have something at home that could take care of them.” He couldn’t help but feel guilty, partially responsible for what had happened. “We probably should have iced it earlier, stopped it from getting this bad.”

Hylla shook her head, shrugging off his concern. “It really doesn’t hurt, Ash. It’s not a big deal.”

“I know, but I hate that they hurt you. I should have expected something like this.” He speaks quietly, shifting his eyes back to the road.

“This isn’t your fault, Ash,” she said, not even thinking as she put her hand over his on the gearshift. “You know that, right? I signed up for this. This whole thing doesn’t need to make me your responsibility.”

Ashton’s fluttering heart sank at her words, feeling pushed away. “I know that we really aren’t that close, that I don’t necessarily need to, but I’m still worried about you, and I still care that you got hurt.” His face is red as he pulls into a park’n’ride, catching her gaze before quickly averting his eyes. “Is it okay if I take a look at your arm?” His words are cautious, not wanting to overstep any boundaries or make her uncomfortable.

“That’s fine, Ash.” She twists slightly in her seat to face him more and whisks the knuckles of her uninjured arm over his cheek to bring his attention back to her face. “And, thank you for caring, even if you don’t really have to.”

“Of course, Hylla. I’m not about to just ignore you as soon as we aren’t in public, even if I technically can.” He speaks softly, but with a tone of finality that affirms his words. 

Hylla hums softly in response, taking more reassurance from his words than she realized she had needed. 

He takes his time inspecting her bruises, softly grazing them with his fingers. Ashton sighs, his tone softer when he continues. “I know I wasn’t particularly pleasant when we first met, scratch that, I was a total douche, and there isn’t an excuse for that, but I really would like us to be friends, to be able to enjoy each other’s company if we’re going to be spending so much time together.”

“I completely understand why you acted the way you did that first day; I probably would have reacted the same way if our roles were reversed. You didn’t get a choice in the situation, and I was the person they were forcing onto you, so you lashed out. I’m not upset about you having feelings, Ashton, and I also want to be able to enjoy each other’s company throughout this.” She paused in a way that suggested she wasn’t done talking, but couldn’t bring herself to suggest that their relationship could go further than just friends.

Hylla was snapped from her thoughts when Ashton’s gentle hold on her arm trailed, taking her hand in his, drawing her gaze back to his. “I’m glad we both want that.” He wore a light smile on his face, gently stroking her hand with his thumb as he spoke. “Those bruises are getting kind of gnarly. Want to maybe get some food and head back to mine so I can clean them up?”

His tone is meek, bracing himself from the rejection he feared, expecting her to ask him to just bring her home. Despite her reassurance that she understood, he still was worried he had screwed over anything that could have ever possibly happened between them with his behavior.

“That sounds good.” She squeezes his hand, smiling at him. He sighs lightly with relief, taking her acceptance of his offer as a good sign. With a small, mischievous smile, she mutters, “Feels good, too.”

Ashton barks a loud, sudden laugh and throws his head back, completely caught off guard by the change in mood. He continues to giggle as he pulls back into traffic, heading toward his house. “A pun at my expense? Already?” He trails off into a fit of giggles, his smile growing further. “Oh, you are just gonna love the guys.”

Ashton falters, worried he’s jumped too far ahead of himself, despite the fact that they both knew that she would be meeting the guys sooner rather than later, but Hylla's unfazed. “It’ll probably be even harder for you to keep this from them than it will be for me to keep it from my family.”

Her comment throws him— he hadn’t even considered the fact that he couldn’t tell the guys about the nature of their relationship. “I guess we never did finish that conversation, did we?”

She shrugs off the question, hiking one knee to her chest and leaning against the door. “I don’t really know what else to say. I mean, it’s going to suck keeping this from them, but what more is there to dwell on, really?”

Ashton takes a quick glance over at her, sensing that the situation bothered her more than she was letting on, but decides not to push the matter. “Tell me about them.”

Hylla tilts her head just enough to stare, quirking her eyebrow at his request. 

“They’re clearly important to you, so, tell me about them.” She smiles, shaking her head as she thinks.

“Well, Kendall is the oldest, she’s 28. She loves to tease, and is bossy as hell, but her heart is always in the right place. Micah’s 26. He can be a little protective, but lets me get away with everything because he’s a total softy. Kian’s only twenty, but protective to the point of overbearing and likes following the rules. He loves playing tough guy, and hates acknowledging that I can handle myself. Issac and Lydia are my cousins, but we spent so much time together as kids that we’re practically siblings. Lydia is 27, and Issac’s my age— actually, he’s two days younger than me and I will never let him forget it.”

Ashton smiles as she rambles, listening attentively to her stories with the people she cares so much about.

She trails off in the middle of a story from her childhood, blushing when she realizes they’ve stopped in Ashton’s driveway. “Sorry, I got a little carried away.”

“Don’t be. They sound amazing.” They both exit the car, walking up to the house. “I wish I got to see my family more, but the guys are like my brothers, now.” 

Ashton opens the door for Hylla, stepping in behind her and dropping his keys into a bowl by the door. He kicks off his shoes, and Hylla follows suit before continuing to stand awkwardly, unsure of how to proceed.

Ashton shows her to the kitchen, telling her to make herself comfortable before disappearing upstairs to grab some things for her arm. Hylla perches herself on a stool at his counter, pulling out her phone to see the pictures of them starting to trend.

Ashton returns carrying an assortment of first aid supplies. He chuckles lightly when she shows him her screen, mildly impressed that they’ve already seemed to have identified her, along with several of her socials.

“Twitter really is better than the FBI, aren’t they?” He nods, pulling a stack of takeout menus from a drawer.

“What are you feeling for lunch?” he asks, flipping several of the menus to face her.

She glances up from her scrolling, returning her phone to her pocket. “I’m not picky, but I’m always a sucker for Thai.” She pulls a few menus from the stack, allowing Ashton to pick from those.

Once they’d placed their orders, Ashton sits facing her, inspecting her bruises again. He holds her arm gently, careful not to put more pressure than necessary on the sore area. He rubs a balm over it before wrapping it with a soft ice pack, smiling at her gently.

“You really need to stop feeling so guilty about this, Ash.” Her words stun him, and he meets her eyes again. “This is not your fault, and your guilty face is making me sad.” She jokingly pouts at him, earning herself a giggle.

“I know,” he sighs lightly and sits up straighter, twisting to face the counter, “but I can’t help but feel bad that being around me got you hurt.” He has his own small pout, fuming over the incident.

“It’s a bruise, Ashton. It’s not even that bad.” She moves the compress, poking it harshly to prove her point, but the small wince she makes nullifies it. “Okay, maybe it’s a bad bruise, but I’ll be fine. I’ve probably given myself worse bruises running into tables, so you can stop worrying so much.”

Ashton resituates the compress, holding it there to keep her from moving it again. “Was awful to you that first day, and now this happened. I can’t help but think that you're gonna hate me if this sort of thing keeps happening.”

“I’m not a dog, Ash. A few bad days aren’t gonna train me to hate you.” She chuckles a bit, smiling warmly. “I already told you that I’m not mad about you being in a mood that first day and that this isn’t your fault. You don’t need to be so hard on yourself.” She reaches out to cup his face, rubbing her thumb over his cheekbone soothingly.

Her touch feels natural, and Ashton has to restrain himself from leaning into it. “I’ll try to stop worrying so much, but you need to leave your ice pack on so it actually starts healing,” he teases, placing his hand on her knee, brushing the inside of it with his thumb.

“Deal.”

They remain in a comfortable silence for a bit, enjoying each other’s touch within their own little bubble, until the doorbell rings, startling them both. They jump apart guiltily, breaking their worry free bliss, and they both flush. Ashton sighs lightly before moving to answer the door, already missing her touch.

Hylla readjusts in her seat, trying to process the moment they shared. She ached to return to it, to pursue a romance outside of their contract without regard for the consequences, but she chastised herself, unable to push her worries from her mind. No matter what happened between them in private, they would be forced to regularly see each other until their contract expired, and she wasn’t sure she could keep something like that to herself for so long.

Ashton comes back with their takeout a minute later, firmly refusing to allow Hylla to pay him back for her meal. Once they are both settled with their food, he rekindles their conversation for a third time. “Tell me more about your family.”

Hylla thinks for a moment on what she should start with, surprised at how interested he is. “Well, my dad’s family is from Puerto Rico; They moved here when he was eleven. My mom’s family came over from Southern Europe before the first world war. They’re both deeply connected to their cultures, so we have a lot of strong traditions. Between running the shop and now this, I don’t get to see them half as often as I’d like, but we try to make a point of doing big family dinners as often as we can— which you will most definitely be getting dragged to at some point in the near future. There is no way they will let me get away with not bringing you around more than once, now that we’re public.”

Ashton chuckles, heart fluttering at the prospect of meeting the people that were so important to her. “Well, I’ll give it a week at most before the guys start showing up here unannounced to try and meet you, so I guess we’re even there.”

“Speaking of meeting people, we’re going to need a solid story of how we met because my family will pick up on anything that doesn’t quite match up, so our details need to be on point without seeming rehearsed.”

“The guys won’t necessarily need details, but if the situation seems weird, they’re gonna start asking questions we probably won’t be able to answer.”

“So we need details and a vibe.”

They sit quietly, only the sounds of their chewing disturbing the thoughtful silence as they run through scenarios. They occasionally bounce a few ideas off each other, shooting down the ones that would spark too many questions, before settling on meeting at a farmers market they both occasionally shop at.

They discuss the details of the meeting, occasionally jotting down details to remember, until long after their food has been finished. The conversations strayed frequently, and Hylla longed to hear more about the man beside her, who she suspected was holding something back, giving few details of his own life when she tries to reciprocate his curious nature.

Even after the details had been arranged, their conversation flowed easily, but Ashton remained reserved, worried if he shared too many of his own experiences, he’d lose sight of what he has in common with Hylla. He could recognize so much of himself within her— valuing her connections to her family and culture, the strong sense of creativity she pursued— despite the fact that they led completely different lives, and he clung to that connection, terrified she would lose what little interest in him he hopes she has without it. 

What Hylla does learn about him is mundane, but she adores the knowledge, nonetheless, They exchange random favorites— foods, movies, authors— and other small things, keeping their conversation light until Hylla decides she’s stayed her welcome.

Upon arriving home, she immediately takes Karma for a walk, taking some time to think over the predicament Ashton presented. She’s close with her family, and has never been good at hiding things from them. If one of them directly pointed out something was weird about the couple, she isn’t sure she will be able to keep up the act.

Her worries continue to pester her as she sets things up in the shop for the next morning, and while she attempts to sleep. Eventually, after giving into her insomnia, she pulls a sketchbook from the pile on her desk and settles back on top of the comforter to draw.

She doesn’t pay as much mind to what she’s drawing as she does to blending each part into a single piece. She starts with thin line work, dainty lines flowing to the edges of uncompleted figures, but quickly switches to thicker, bolder marks, all but overtaking the delicate start to the piece. When she comes back from her place deep in her thoughts, and takes the time to examine what she’s done, she is shocked at the wholeness of the piece. Even without the detailing of a finished piece, it seems cohesive and clear-cut, as though it told a story.

The upper half of a wolf vaguely encircles the dainty, loopy outline of a girl holding a flor de maga, a Puerto Rican hibiscus flower, as though using it as a pen. The wolf’s teeth are bared, but its expression is soft and curious as it faces the girl, who appeared to be unbothered by the beast’s presence, focused on the image below them. In roughly the shape of a tiara, vague figures of half sketched people struggle toward a man holding a flag, standing firm against strong winds. The piece bleeds with emotion, feelings of passion, admiration, understanding, and inner strength.

Hylla stays up until the wee hours of the morning, shading and adding details to the piece until she feels as though she’s done it justice. It’s raw, and she doesn’t quite understand why the textures and patterns work together, but everything fits together in a way that satisfies her. Finally, she moves the sketchbook to her nightstand, sprawling out on the bed to get some sleep before she has to open the shop.

~~~

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[picturebookmakers]

Axel Scheffler

In this post, Axel takes us on a journey through his art studio and career. As well as sharing wonderful development work from some of his much-loved picturebooks, he shows us unseen sketchbook pages, early illustration commissions, etchings he made as a student, and his recent work to educate children about the coronavirus.

Visit Axel Scheffler’s website

Axel: I’m not really sure how many books I’ve illustrated in the 30+ years that I’ve been working. Over 150. I mostly work for the UK market, but occasionally I do books with German publishers. Not picturebooks though, so nothing that collides with the co-edition market.

Each of the boxes you see here contains one of my books: the sketches, illustrations, dummies, alternate versions of covers, everything.

I organised these boxes with Liz, my assistant, to have all the main books there so we can find things for exhibitions. There’s still lots of drawings in these boxes which aren’t sorted yet. Liz is such a great help, but it’s very difficult for me to keep on top of everything. I think I would probably need two Lizes, or perhaps three.

So yes, I don’t really know where to begin... I’ve got endless sketchbooks and little drawings on paper. I’ve got some really old sketchbooks I could show you.

Shall we start with The Gruffalo?

My early sketches of the Gruffalo were thought by my editor to be too scary for small children. So I had to make him a bit rounder and more ‘cuddly’. Initially, I‘d also thought that all the animals would be wearing clothes, as they often do in picturebooks. But Julia had different ideas, and to be honest I was relieved. How would I have dressed the snake?

Here’s some spreads from the dummy...

I tried a lot of alternate covers for this book; I think there were twelve in total. There’s some where the Gruffalo doesn’t even feature on the cover.

My latest book with Julia is called ‘The Smeds and The Smoos’. It was quite nice to work on because it’s so different from the other books we’ve done together. The text is a bit like a mixture between Dr Seuss and Lewis Carol; it has this nonsense element. But it’s basically Romeo and Juliet in outer space.

It’s an alien story, so I didn’t have to draw any rabbits or squirrels for a change, and I could invent more. I had more freedom. But like always, I got bored with drawing the same characters over and over again. But that’s picturebooks.

There was quite a lot of development work in the case of this book. But when it’s a story about a fox or a squirrel, I don’t do this kind of stuff. Over the years, it’s become much quicker and easier working on my books. I do far less research than I used to. Now I generally just do a quick pencil sketch then go straight to artwork.

Sometimes I have to start again because things go wrong though. This was a finished piece that was abandoned. I think I suddenly thought that the rocket was far too big or something. I do that; I work on something for ages, and then I suddenly look at it from a distance and realise that something needs redoing.

Did you spot the little Gruffalo in this picture? Since ‘The Snail and the Whale’, I’ve hidden a Gruffalo in each of my books with Julia (not ‘The Ugly Five’ though).

For almost all of the books Julia and I have done together, our editor has been Alison Green. We’re an old established team. And I’ve always worked with the publisher Kate Wilson; I followed her from Macmillan to Scholastic, and then to Nosy Crow. Julia moved from Macmillan to Scholastic, and decided to stay there. So Julia and I have some of our joint titles with Macmillan and some with Scholastic. Julia does books with other illustrators for Macmillan, and I illustrate other books for Nosy Crow.

People often ask me which of the books I’ve done with Julia is my favourite. It’s quite hard to choose, but I enjoyed working on ‘The Smartest Giant in Town’. I liked the way I could do a crazy world with animals, giants, fairytale characters, everything mixed together without anyone caring or questioning it. I’ll show you a few things from the box...

For this book, the cover was changed at the last minute. The original design had the title written on a poster stuck on a brick wall, but the sales people said they wanted a landscape, so I did another one. Years later, they used the original design for a new paperback edition, so it wasn’t completely wasted in the end.

I mentioned my endless sketchbooks earlier. I’ll show you a few of them. This was mainly me playing around without thinking about what I was doing; it wasn’t a conscious thing.

I haven’t looked at these sketchbooks for ages. It was such a long time ago. I don’t work in sketchbooks like this anymore, and I no longer doodle. But for fun, I make illustrated envelopes for friends.

I often think about doing a book with just pictures, but I’m always too busy doing other things. Posthumously, perhaps there will be time to do this. I’d also love to experiment and be more spontaneous; it’s been my dream for decades to do something completely different. But when I receive a book project, I always feel under pressure to finish it, and I’m always late with everything, so I end up doing it the way I’ve always done it.

This is my drawing table, which is and always has been too small and too messy. I think I have to accept it will always be this way.

I use Saunders Waterford paper for my illustrations. It’s funny how we all have our special paper. My rough sketches are often quite small, so I have them blown up to the correct size. Then I trace the sketches on a lightbox onto my watercolour paper. After that, I draw the outlines in black ink with a dip pen. I colour everything with Ecoline inks using brushes, and then coloured pencils on top of it (I use Faber Polychromos and Prismacolour crayons). I might then need to redraw some of the black lines, or use some white gouache for highlights.

I studied History of Art in Hamburg, but left before graduating. I realised this wasn’t what I was good at; I’m not an academic.

Then I had to do my alternative service as conscientious objector. Sixteen months. There was still conscription then; that’s how old I am. I worked with mentally ill people in their homes. It was during this time that I had a friend studying ceramics at Bath Academy of Art in England. I went to visit her. I really didn’t know what else to do, so I thought maybe I could move to Bath and go to the art school. So this is what I did. The course was Visual Communications, so it was design, printmaking, photography, all that stuff. But I realised I only wanted to do illustration.

I’d gone to art college hoping to learn something. I don’t think that necessarily happened, but drawing intensively for three years was, I think, what I had needed to do. I don’t remember actually finishing any projects though.

Here’s some drawings from my student sketchbooks. I did lots of observational drawing back then, which I don’t anymore. I did it then because they told us to. I’m an obedient person!

While I was a student, I did an exchange in New York: Cooper Union Art College for three months. These drawings are of Jewish immigrants, meeting for coffee. It was 1984, so many of them were still alive; refugees from Germany or Austria. I heard them speaking German, so that’s how I knew.

Sketchbooks are such a good way of memorising things. Nobody really knows about these sketchbooks; I used to take them to interviews, but they’ve been hidden away for years.

After I graduated, I moved to London and took my portfolio around. My art teacher had suggested I should do this to get work, so that’s what I did. In those days, you had to ring them and ask to come around. I got two commissions straight away, and it’s been busy ever since, really. I’ve always had something to do.

Here’s some of my early commissions. Starting from 1985, I guess. Very pointy noses...

I did so much of this kind of work. It was a good way of earning money quickly. Occasionally, I still do editorial. I did some Brexit drawings for the remain campaign. Sadly, it didn’t help. Maybe I wrecked everything!

I’ll say a few words about the KIND book... 38 wonderful artists donated a picture to illustrate some of the many ways children can be kind. Such as sharing their toys or helping people from other countries to feel welcome.

One pound from each book sold goes to the Three Peas charity, which supports refugees from war-torn countries. It’s been a big success so far, and Three Peas has received a lot of money from sales in the UK and co-editions.

I’d quite like to do the UNKIND book next! I think illustrators would probably enjoy that, but I don’t imagine it would sell very well.

And now for something completely different! Some etchings I made when I was a student.

People often ask me which illustrators I’m inspired by. I don’t seek any direct influence on my work, but I’ve always said that Tomi Ungerer had the greatest influence on my approach to illustration. Although his style is quite different to mine, this humour and wackiness is something that has always appealed to me. And the details.

William Steig is someone I got into later, when I was already illustrating. And Edward Gorey of course. And Saul Steinberg. I think the Czech artist Jiří Šalamoun is wonderful. And I like Eva Lindström from Sweden a lot. She’s so great.

Okay, to finish with I’ll talk about the coronavirus work I’ve been doing...

I asked myself what I could do as a children’s illustrator to inform, as well as entertain, my readers here and abroad about the coronavirus. So I was glad when Nosy Crow asked me to illustrate a book on the subject. I think it’s extremely important for children and families to have access to reliable information in this unprecedented crisis.

You can download the free digital book in English here, and in over 60 other languages here.

I also wanted to do something light-hearted to cheer people up, and I thought, “What if I imagine some of our characters in corona situations?” Julia liked the idea and wrote rhymes for the new scenes. This was really more about entertainment than serious information.

Artwork and verse © Axel Scheffler and Julia Donaldson 2020. Based on characters from ‘The Gruffalo’s Child’ (2004), ‘Charlie Cook’s Favourite Book’ (2005), ‘The Smartest Giant in Town’ (2002), and ‘The Gruffalo’ (1999) — © Macmillan Children’s Books.

And here’s one more thing: my ‘letter from lockdown’. On The Children’s Bookshow website, you’ll find lockdown letters from lots of other wonderful authors and illustrators.

Illustrations © Axel Scheffler. Post edited by dPICTUS.

Buy this picturebook

The Gruffalo

Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler

Macmillan Children’s Books, UK, 1999

‘A mouse took a stroll through the deep dark wood. A fox saw the mouse and the mouse looked good.’

Walk further into the deep dark wood, and discover what happens when a quick-witted mouse comes face to face with an owl, a snake... and a hungry Gruffalo!

‘The Gruffalo’ has become a bestselling phenomenon across the world. This award-winning rhyming story of a mouse and a monster is now a modern classic, and will enchant children for years to come.

PUBLISHED IN THE FOLLOWING LANGUAGES & DIALECTS

Afrikaans

Albanian

Arabic

Australian

Azerbaijani

Basque

Belarusian

Bengali

Breton

Bulgaria

Catalan

Chinese (Simplified)

Chinese (Traditional)

Corsu

Croatian

Czech

Danish

Doric

Dundonian

Dutch

English

Esperanto

Estonian

Faroese

Farsi

Finnish

French

Frisian

Gaelic

Galician

Georgian

German

Glasgow Scots

Greek

Guernésiais

Hebrew

Hindi

Hungarian

Iceland

Indonesian

Irish

Italian

Jèrriais

Kazakh

Kölsch

Korean

Latin

Latvian

Lithuanian

Low German

Lowland Scots

Luxembourgish

Macedonian

Maltese

Manx Gaelic

Maori

Marathi

Mexican Spanish

Mongolian

Norwegian

Orcadian Scots

Polish

Portuguese

Portuguese (Brazil)

Romanian

Russian

Sami

Schwabisch

Serbian

Sesotho

Setswana

Shetland Scots

Slovakian

Slovenian

Spanish

Swedish

Swiss German

Tamil

Thai

Turkish

Ukrainian

US English

Vietnamese

Welsh

Xhosa

Zulu

Buy this picturebook

The Smeds and The Smoos

Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler

Alison Green Books, UK, 2019

The Smeds (who are red) never mix with the Smoos (who are blue). So when a young Smed and Smoo fall in love, their families disapprove.

But peace is restored and love conquers all in this happiest of love stories. There’s even a gorgeous purple baby to celebrate!

PUBLISHED IN THE FOLLOWING LANGUAGES

Afrikaans

Catalan

Croatian

Dutch

English

Finnish

French

German

Hebrew

Hungarian

Italian

Korean

Luxenbourghish

Polish

Russian

Slovenian

Spanish

Swedish

Turkish

Ukrainian

Buy this picturebook

Kind

Alison Green, Axel Scheffler & 38 illustrators

Alison Green Books, UK, 2019

Imagine a world where everyone is kind; how can we make that come true? With gorgeous pictures by a host of top illustrators, KIND is a timely, inspiring picturebook about the many ways children can be kind, from sharing their toys and games, to helping those from other countries feel welcome.

One pound from the sale of each printed copy will go to the Three Peas charity, which gives vital help to refugees from war-torn countries.

PUBLISHED IN THE FOLLOWING LANGUAGES

Bulgarian

Catalan

Chinese (Simplified)

Chinese (Traditional)

English

French

German

Greek

Hebrew

Italian

Korean

Netherlands

Portuguese (Brazil)

Romanian

Spanish

Swedish

Turkish

Vietnamese

[cptsdstudyblr]

How I organize my studies with mental health issues

Hi :) I’m just here trying to survive a computer science degree with CPTSD, depression, anxiety, and some physical health issues. However, I’ve figured out a system that really (!!!) helps me keep organized and actually learn things despite all the challenges I face! So, I want to share it with you in case it helps just one person! This post is pretty long, but I promise it’s got tons and tons of amazingly helpful information in it!

I’m lucky enough to have a tablet to help me with my studies, but anything I show today can easily be done on a laptop or even on a phone, so don’t stress!

Initial Note Taking

I prefer to handwrite my initial notes if possible. Sometimes, my professors just go too fast and I have to type them, but if I have the option, I choose to handwrite them. I find that handwriting my notes helps keep my mind focused on the task at hand. 

First of all, I’m a very tactile learner, so the act of writing helps me learn the material. However, I’ve found that there are tons of other benefits to writing notes by hand. 

If you’re dissociating/anxious/etc., doodling is a good way to center yourself and help yourself calm down.

Handwritten notes are easier (at least in my non-professional opinion) to make neat and pretty, which can be a huge motivator.

Many classes have diagrams, and it’s super helpful to draw these out so that you’re more likely to remember them and so you have easy access to them.

For people who are nonlinear thinkers (NOT me at all, but I know some people are nonlinear thinkers), you can write your notes in any way you see fit - a circle, a mind map, a graph, even a dodecahedron if you so desire.

And there are tons of others I don’t have time to thoroughly explain!

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with typing notes if you feel that that works better for you. I have to do that for some classes (Geology, I’m looking at you), and I don’t prefer to type my notes, but some people find that they prefer it, and that’s totally okay! There are a few quick things to keep in mind if you choose to take typed notes, however:

I find it very helpful to keep a notepad near me so that I can doodle (again for dissociation/anxiety/etc.) and so that I can draw diagrams if necessary. I’m not talented enough to create computer diagrams quickly, so I usually draw them by hand even if I’m typing my actual notes.

Put in the effort to make sure you aren’t distracted by other things on your laptop! Typing notes can be a great thing, but technology is very quick to distract people. One method I find good for me is to make my notes full screen so that it’s harder to find things to get distracted by, but there are many methods for this.

Try to keep your typed notes tidy and organized. For me, this includes having consistent tab distances, changing font colors/styles (by styles I mean bold/italic/etc.) as necessary, and most of all splitting up my notes into documents by days or topics. I use Evernote, so it’s pretty straightforward to split them up, but even if you use another system, it’s wise to figure out a way to do so. Having one long document for the entire semester is not wise because it gets very overwhelming very quickly and is just plain hard to use.

The biggest help for me, however, is after I’ve taken my notes. I use Evernote to digitize my notes. It’s super easy to do (just take a picture in the app and it scans them like a PDF), and I find that having them digital is a huge help. It means a few things for me:

I don’t have to have every notebook with me to study - just the ones I need to take notes in. This is far more related to physical health for me because I just can’t carry that many notebooks without a lot of pain, but it’s also great for people who are forgetful due to mental health issues. All you have to remember is your laptop or tablet (or really, even your phone), so it’s much easier to make sure you have everything.

I can write all over them when I’m studying without ruining the original notes. I am a big fan of scribbling all over notes (writing mnemonics, drawing diagrams, marking what I know and don’t know, etc.), but I dislike damaging my original notes. This allows me to study as messily as I want without ruining anything.

I can make multiple copies of them if I need to - one for the class I took the notes in and one for my exam revision session. This is very helpful for people who aren’t feeling well enough to rewrite or retype everything into another place when revising for an exam.

Here’s what some of my digitized notes from my operating systems class look like (please forgive my very messy drawing - OS is hard to draw sometimes):

General Studying

This section refers to studying, but not for exams. This includes things such as doing assignments, reading for classes, and other such things. The most important thing for my studying is Google Tasks! I keep all my important due dates in there, even down to the time. Here’s an example of what my Google Tasks looks like:

Apologies for the blacked-out spot - that reveals where I go to school! I use this for every single thing that has a hard due date. This makes sure that I never miss a due date no matter how forgetful I am because my list of due dates is on my cell phone! I also find it extremely rewarding to tick the box when I finish an assignment, and even something as simple as that is such a huge motivator for me.

However, this isn’t where I plan how to study for the week. I do that - you guessed it - on paper. I have a journal (which you’ll get to see in another post) where I keep a lot of important stuff - including weekly study plan spreads! That sounds super overwhelming, but they’re incredibly easy to make and very simple to maintain. I’ll show you (artful pen to hide my school name)!

Let me break this down for you really quickly:

I have my pages divided into four (one quadrant per day plus one for notes), which works pretty well for me - I never run out of space. This setup takes me less than five minutes to make each week, and I find it works very well for me.

I like to write what classes I have each day at the top of the day just so I don’t get too confused (and I highlight it if I have an exam), then underneath that, I list everything I have to do study-wise. 

I make sure to break each big task (e.g. “Study for Geology Exam) into smaller, more manageable chunks (e.g. “Make Geology flashcards,” “Revise Ch. 6 Notes,” etc.) all on different days of the week. This helps make each task seem way less overwhelming and makes me feel better about starting each task.

As you can see, my due dates are NOT on this sheet - this is more of a Study To-Do List than a list of my due dates. I do make sure to keep this updated so that I don’t miss any due dates, however.

You’ll also notice that I don’t have all that much listed for each day. It’s incredibly hard to stay ahead of things with mental health issues (I get that - I really do), but I find that staying ahead genuinely helps my mental health. If I have something to do every day, I feel productive and thus more motivated. It also gives me more leeway if I have a day where I can’t do any more than the bare minimum - I’m already ahead of schedule so I don’t need to panic. My best method for staying ahead is just to buckle down and do it. It’s not a great tip, but it’s all I’ve got (I’m allowed to struggle too - I don’t have everything together perfectly!).

Now, let’s talk about how to tackle each thing on this list.

Readings! When I have to do readings, my preferred method of note-taking is simply writing down definitions of keywords. Most of what I cover in the reading will be covered in the lecture, so I’m not too worried about jotting down every detail. However, making sure to note key words helps keep my brain engaged so I am less likely to zone out/dissociate/etc. Additionally, I can go back to those keywords to make flashcards later on.

Assignments! There’s not a whole lot to say about this one - every assignment is so different that I can’t say much beyond “do your assignments thoroughly.” However, a tip I find helps me a lot is to fully read the assignment and create a game plan before I dive in. This makes the assignment way less overwhelming and gives you concrete stopping points if you need a break.

Studying! will have its own section right below this, do not fear.

Studying

Watch this quick video (which is at the bottom of the text for some unknown reason?) of me scrolling through a study session, then I’ll explain how I study and why it works for me!

Let me just list my Studying Steps (TM) for you and break them down:

About a week before: Write all the information in a clear, consistent way.

By this I mean: Go through your notes/the slides/the textbook/anything with information and write it down freshly. I prefer (like usual) to handwrite this, but it can certainly be typed.

This is good because it requires you to reread and rewrite every piece of information, so you’re that much more likely to remember it. It also gives you all the information consolidated in one place. I like to split this up by topic (for me, each topic takes about 30 minutes to do) so that it’s more manageable. 

This seems like a lot, and it is. But, you have to study and there’s no way around that, unfortunately. Try motivating yourself with small rewards (like food, stickers, or something fun) when you finish a topic.

When you finish that: Make charts and graphs for anything that requires charts and graphs.

The diagrams part is pretty self-explanatory. If you have diagrams, redraw them on their own sheet. This makes them less cluttered and you can write things like mnemonics on them without messing up anything else. Redrawing them is also great for muscle memory!

I also like to make charts of things that I need to memorize (this is a good tool, but isn’t always right for every subject). For example, if I need to know a lot of types of rocks, I’ll make charts listing each rock and its characteristics. This way it’s easier to find the information and (once again) muscle memory will help you out.

This can be done pretty quickly, and it’s a pretty brainless activity. It’s not hard to do, so you can do it while watching Netflix if you want to. I honestly enjoy this part, though, because I find drawing charts and graphs very satisfying. 

About 3 days before: Make flashcards and study them consistently.

This is very important!

I like to use paper flashcards (just so I have to write the information once again), but digital ones work fairly well too.

Memorization is actually a fantastic tool to help with studying with mental health issues. Sometimes brain fogginess makes it hard to think of things that you know, but couldn’t recite. However, if you have it fully memorized, it’s generally much easier to pull out of the depths of your mind.

Once again, this is pretty easy to do (not quick though, sorry), and can be done while you’re doing something else more fun.

The day before: Go through your notes, annotate what you don’t know, and rewrite it until you know it.

This is the most important part of studying for me. 

The evening before the exam, I go through every bit of my notes, charts, graphs, etc. and highlight what I 100% know.

Then, I take more paper (or often a digital piece of paper) and write out what I know, trying to focus my energy on finding ways to remember the information such as mnemonics, word associations, or the like.

I do this as many times as I need to until I feel good about how much information I have highlighted - I try to get to 85-90%, but that can vary by subject.

This is kind of tedious, but I find it easier to motivate myself since it is the final stretch. I’m also usually kind of stressed out about the exam by this point, so that works as a good motivator too.

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[fjohnson0275-blog]

Doodle Maker REVIEW BONUS WALKTHROUGH OTO

64 substantial master bonuses, one-on-one 30-minute, zoom training, console you get my brand-new youtube ranking publication and also a comprehensive walk-through of all the spaces and crannies in this product. Hey. This is sid divar below. We'Re very excited about this launch, and here is just a sneak. Peek of some of the amazing features loaded into doodle maker, now have the ability to make outstanding blackboard, whiteboard as well as glassboard video clips utilizing the built-in 300 plus video clip templates or design videos from scratch, or transform existing as well as tiring videos into effective doodle presentations in any kind of language. Within mins with the integrated text-to-speech in 60 plus languages, with 150 male and female voices ability to make shade or black and white doodle video clips, language, translation, built-in collection of numerous doodle photos, whiteboard design video shifts hand starts - are simply a few of the powerful features built Into doodle maker review.

As well as if you believed that was a lot for the first time ever before, we are offering market an amazing, expert system technology that will make doodle video clip development much faster, less complicated and effortless as well as get. This will be able to paste a straightforward text into the app as well as the software will immediately scan the text as well as locate relevant pictures and produce text-to-speech voices and produce attractive doodle style slides to create amazing doodle videos with expert system customers can customize anything change.

Colors include their very own pictures: songs, create gorgeous chalkboard, white boards and also glassboard videos within minutes and also to make video clip development a lot more much easier individuals can submit their very own video or paste in a youtube. Link. The ai modern technology will automatically transcribe the video convert into an additional language and create show quiting doodle video clips easily. It can get simpler than this. We contend least 50 more attributes that will just blow you away to make this an alluring offer. We are offering all this away at the low one-time cost you don't want to miss out on this hi there. This is paul pogna, welcome to doodle maker. Currently in this video, i'm going to reveal you all the wonderful facets of doodle maker. In a short summary style, so you can quickly stand up and also running with it and have a great deal of fun utilizing it. The three components with doodle maker first, as you can see below, is ready-made templates that you can use that we have over 300 plus with male and women voiceovers in hundreds of various specific niches as well as sectors. Doodle Maker Bonus.

Once more, click them use them and also quickly customize them as well as create powerful video clips. The 2nd component is starting from scratch, using our artificial intelligence, cutting edge technology. What this will certainly do, it will certainly allow you to just paste a bunch of script and immediately it will certainly pull in all the doodle properties as well as create your entire storyboard as well as the video itself as well as the elegance is. This is fully adjustable as well, and also i'm going to reveal you exactly how to do that. And also finally, we have the ai video translation engine where you can actually bring in any type of youtube video and afterwards not only convert all boring video clips right into effective doodle videos. You can actually go an action further and do something actually cool which is transform it into another language. Envision you can now reach global audiences too, and so let's enter and also most likely to the extremely primary step, and also let me reveal you the kind of videos that you can develop with doodle maker. That'S really vital because the type of flexibility that we've brought in the unbelievable deepness that we brought right into the amount of functions that are included it's going to take me all day.

I'm just going to give you a quick review of some of the attributes. When you're jumping in and utilizing it, it's going to be a lot of enjoyable. The first thing that we have readily available is a color doodle, video clip, fine, that you can create for the very first time ever. You can do that and view this if you're. Trying to find a high quality bakery for your following event, you possibly have a great deal of inquiries such as beautiful, looking shade doodle videos. You can likewise create white and also chalkboard videos, similar to this coming solution as well as we're devoted to producing pleased, customers and handling every one of your plumbing requires. It'S one more example of an attractive looking chalkboard video. We can do glassboard, whiteboard plan, video clips or even your very own custom history also, that you can bring in as well as also that had not been enough. You can generate a ton of other sorts of characters, properties and so forth, utilizing our collection that you have right here so, as an example, let's state i want to make use of a few of the possessions right here, like shapes personalities and more etc like to see to My bottom right, you can do that along with an instance, let me show you this right here. You can see that you can develop these personality, illustration really thorough, doodle video clips too. We have thousands as well as countless assets like these also.

So actually, if you want to take it a step better, let's claim currently: we created among these and we wished to include something else. On top, we can really most likely to the collection drop and discover anything that we want to do so, as an example, i intend to do a store right because this person - let's claim they - want to establish their own business. I click search in the collection and all these are sketchable. So, as an example, let's claim i such as this one right here, due to the fact that this looks like a nice shop right. I wish to build an organisation right and now this element, which is a doodle color aspect, will certainly be hand attracted once more.

This originates from over a million assets that you can draw from, which is the only application incidentally that does it, that makes rulemaker truly phenomenal in what it can achieve. So that suggests not only and also hear me out right here. Can you create one more time, personality, design, little videos make and alter every little thing you wish to do? You can add shifts like what you see right here, which is fade in slide from bases light from the left slide from the right-hand man, drawing and so forth and in cases where, for instance, there uh is mosting likely to be a picture that you wish to bring over As well as convert into doodle video, you can additionally create it as a hand, paint kind design which allows you to sort of make any type of picture or video right into a doodle video clip, really, really effective element on what you can accomplish with doodle maker. Not only have we've done every little thing for you in a sense that you can go in below today as well as click ready-made templates and have all these hundreds and also hundreds upon whiteboard video clips, glassboard videos thus with bunch of design templates as well as voiceovers, and whatever done chalkboard, videos And so forth, you can tailor them too. Incidentally you got male and also female voiceovers for these, so it's really, very powerful, so you can reach different markets. We went a step even more and we permit modification in addition to it also. For instance, any one of these templates that i have let's say a bakery. I select a bakeshop theme here when you pack the layout. There are two points you can do, one, which is the simple one which is you simply lots in below and then you transform the logo as well as you can begin rendering it because the voice over as well as whatever else is done. And if you see right here all the other, slides as well as videos are currently done and also you can customize it as well by the way, also additionally, if you so need which's one choice, therefore allow's say you wish to personalize also further.

Let me reveal you just how to do that. There are 2 options: one you can simply remove the actual element below. Okay, so let's remove this component and also we want to bring in something which is extra like a doodle design component and more. You have quite a few choices right here. One is you can go into one of our pre-made assets, as you can see here, which are a bunch of them, and there are thousands and thousands of these uh a color, doodle, black and white, and so on as well assets here that you can use, which Could be relevant to a bakery so, for instance, let's say i wanted to add this here: okay, that's because you know, maybe you want to bake a cake uh in this case for wedding or engagement or birthday or whatever. That could be one and can draw this and sketch this out or let's say i can even go a step further and i can add multiple elements. What do i mean by it? Because this can be moved around? I can put this right here as well as i can additionally put an additional element below: could be a doodle element and so on. So, as an example, let's claim i wanted to include a cake.

Okay, i can come in right here and also we can obtain all these assets for a cake. As you can see below so which one do we like here well, we might do this one and also we can add this shade doodle below and then have that transition as handwriting, and then you can change the speed elements right here. You see that i can make it attract slowly, faster and more etc. I can do that as well and then once i've set it to a speed that i like and then i can even go to the. As you can see here, you see this timeline settings, i can just click on this lock button and then i can unlock it and i could start. Let me click on it. You claim: are you certain you want to reset the timeline? Okay, of course and then currently i can move points about. Where do i desire, as well as what do i want to draw initially?

For example, let's say i want to draw uh this one: first, a quality bakery right, good quality, bakeries first, but i don't want this uh, for example, this one to come. Second, i desired this cupcake to find. Second right so well, i can do that too by actually putting that cupcake to the top. You see here, as you can see below, so i can put every element. I can adjust it uh to turn up first, 2nd and so forth, and the various other thing is, if you see send out in reverse and all the various other components that are readily available here. All the other modifications are likewise readily available for you to tweak as well as do other things and so on. So, for example, let me secure this again and when you lock the timeline like what i've done here, you can actually change more elements.

For example, i can say keep display or hide after displaying, or i can have it, for instance, where it can display for a few seconds like four seconds, five seconds or whatever time, and then it hides after that. I can even do it where it will certainly show up for simply a couple of seconds and afterwards conceal, and in addition to that i can place things on top of each other as well in this manner. For instance, let's say i wanted the cake to appear first and this one on top, i can do that as well, so that one will get hidden and then the other one will appear on top of it and get sketched out. You can do different transitions. Now i want to discuss some of the features that are within the application.

Okay, so first thing the easiest one is, you can include message and also it has a whole bunch of typefaces that you can utilize and also you can preview, the fonts and so forth etc. So in this case, obtain an unique price cut. Today, okay, let's state, as well as you can alter this font style size as well, whatever you want as well as click insert to scene, you see that right there i can personalize it. I can transform the color of it. I can do all kinds of great things. So, allow's remove this element now and i can change these things over make it.

You recognize hand creating discolor in slide from leading strike from left and so on and so forth, as well as the amazing thing is so. If i wanted to glide from left base and more etc, it would have various hand shifts that would certainly make that possible. Okay, so, as an example, this certain cupcake. Let me simply delete this element in the meantime, so i can show you exactly how that would certainly appear. So, let's say this cupcake today. If i want this to uh basically slide from the. Okay, i simply have to do that and afterwards i simply click on the sneak peek switch on the leading and also i'll reveal you exactly how that appears like if you're looking for a high quality bake you'll see that to ensure that could be a shift right now. You can change each and every single element, you can do hand drawing fade in slide from bottom and so forth, and then, if you scroll down, you can also alter the text to speech script for this in this aspect that you see right here, which is extremely effective because After that you can enter here as well as if you intended to remodel that text-to-speech aspect, you can do that as well. You can additionally, if you go back and click on the canvas below, you can place your very own text-to-speech voice.

We have an entire lot of text-to-speech voices below in various languages and so forth, which is really powerful, especially when you're attempting to select that language previously on in the video clip itself. And then you can also do upload your own voice here, which is an mp3 file and so on or record your voice from within the application. To make sure that's another powerful means for you to do it as well as, as you can see below, the seconds are displayed below in this situation it's 6 secs, so i would certainly make certain that i document my voice to match that 6 seconds and more. Alright. To ensure that is straightforward now the next thing that you can do is you can change the language. You see that speech language and also we have all these languages that you can do so. If i intended to transform it into one more language right away, i can simply click. Spanish as well as click on that automobile translation, switch as well as click upgrade and all these words as well as even the message to speech will convert into spanish.

You see that and if you see that procedure right here, you have these uh, you recognize change. You can also change that spanish voices and more in the future okay, to make sure that's quite actually actually trendy things, and here, if i intend to go an action better, i can even personalize the hands again as well as alter the hands right here. Many alternatives offered. I can place my very own background music here. If you have an entire bunch offered right here for you to go as well as choose - as well as you know add your own background music, you can even alter as you can see here, the history itself. So you can see a white black glass board customized shade, it's mosting likely to resemble a plan, color like in engineers and so on, or you can also do, for example, an environment-friendly board or perhaps put your own picture and have that as a background also. Very powerful resource to do that.

A great deal of personalization and flexibility for you to do, and afterwards we have the watermark feature, as you can see below, where you can actually place any kind of logo design as well as have that as a watermark to show up throughout the video clip. This has two elements here which is really useful, and the first element that is very useful is, as you can see here, is when you do the watermark. You have 2 alternatives. Clearly, you can put it to the leading to the bottom here like so whatever you want, you can also do something amazing, which is you can change the opacity of this to ensure that you know in case certain times.

Possibly you intend to put as a true watermark. Nobody's going to do your content and that sort of thing you can do that as well, so that you know the client actually pays or you can remove this watermark again and then you can basically give them the non-watermark based video. This is likewise beneficial. If you want this to appear throughout this logo design throughout the complete video clip as well, it's very beneficial in that sense, as well as if it lets me just erase the watermark below once more, if you want to change the standard job name, you can go back to settings and transform That too so in this situation service solutions, i can change it to a bakery service, video right as well as i click update, and afterwards it automatically saves the settings and more. Let me show you the library choice. Today.

Our possession collection is the greatest doodle asset collection anywhere on the internet. I particularly went in spent a lot of money to obtain all these assets and so forth to bring in and so for example, you can obtain all number of icons. Like you see below, you can use this to search for different sorts of icons that you wanted to make use of. For example, i want to put a search for a doctor and it's going to find all kinds of doodle assets right here and then we also have an assets tab, which is you have all these cool assets that i was showing you earlier. So very, really powerful. For instance, if i want to put this guy right here and i wanted that to be sketched all i have to do - let's eliminate this element for the time being, and let me put him in the center and let's say we want him to be.

So, allow's do that right now, allow's put it out simply to reveal you exactly how this would look like right and currently you can sneak peek it and also i'll show you exactly how great this will look since i had the language of spanish, as you can see below, it instantly Made that video clip into spanish as well as if you go back to the library again we also have assets with pixabay, as an example. This could be delighted and also i intended to obtain somebody who is actually pleased. So, allow's say her right, she's actually delighted jumping in delight. For example, what i can do is, i can add her in here like so i can remove the background like what you see right now and it's gon na take a couple of minutes, but there you go so we could have something like this and we Can put that anywhere into this and also make that into a transition like a hand, painting reveal fade in fade out and all that stuff for that asset to come in and what's even cooler than that is. If i delete this and also return to library, do the same thing right as well as i can find somebody else. So let's say i discover this this pair right here. It looks truly wonderful. What i can do is, i can click on this little symbol, which states the magic wand. It automatically converts it into a nice little sketch, painting kind of style, so i click use and now again i can go a step further and remove this background. So it's pretty great and also what it can attain. It functions actually well with human style, uh video clip.

So again, i can make this a hand expose. For instance, i could do that and i can do the transition, for example, either a hand painting or a reveal or fade in slide from the left and so on and so forth. If i want to put a slide from the left, for instance, and put that into the first, so i'll show you how this looks like real quick. So you can obtain an idea of how very easy it is to do this aspect today as well as develop a whole storyboard around it, and so let's preview siesta quite rather powerful right which it means that literally you'll never ever run short of doodle possessions or white boards assets. Ever and in addition to that, we additionally have picture bin right here, and also we have this truly great combination, where you can go a step further as well as find all the doodle videos you'll ever before require.  Doodle Maker Review Info.

For example, if i wanted to do something to do with baking as it's a bakery well, i have your lessons on that. Let'S state i intended to do something on a service right, so allow's claim i wanted to grow an organisation and so on and so forth. Well, you have all these doodle properties specifically for that, for instance, so let's state i intended to produce something along these lines that you see below. Let's say i want to draw this. If i wanted to drag this and this one into the timeline, i can do that right away. So, for example, allow's claim i intended to put this right here. I can adjust different components below, as you can envision, so i might also make the transitions various for each of them.

So in this situation this set is handwriting. So allow's slow it down a little bit. This is, as an example, another thing so i'll reduce. This down slightly as well, and then now you can test out this right away. Once more, you can alter the language again if in case you just wanted to keep it english. You can do that. Simple basic means: again: i'm going to put the english uh. You recognize accent here and more, and after that we can do that also. So, for example, so currently, let's click on the preview button, rather powerful right and you can always enter as well as you can add a brand-new slide also.

[softmakoharus]

makoharu story - leaving notes

when makoto was a kid, he started using sticky notes for various things. he liked that they came in fun colors and designs, and he could put them anywhere. he'd write little reminders like "haru-chan is coming over this weekend" so he could feel excited every time he saw it. one day when haru was over and makoto left the room, haru doodled a couple fish and wrote "makoto's fish" in the middle of his notepad. makoto didn't find it until a week later, and a huge smile spread across his face. it felt like a very special gift haru left for him. correctly assuming haru would be embarrassed to know that makoto saved it, makoto grabbed a blank notebook and stuck it on the first page without telling him. after that, the messages came more frequently, usually little drawings that became more detailed as they got older. sometimes haru wrote things, like "water" inside of a thought bubble, or makoto's name if he couldn't think of anything else. before entrance exams, haru gave makoto a new pack of sticky notes. the first was blank, but the second said "do your best" next to a picture of iwatobi-chan.

makoto never cheated and flipped through the stack to find the notes; that would ruin the surprise. and neither of them ever brought up the messages that haru left, like they were each keeping a secret that the other already knew. but makoto continued to save them. in tokyo, makoto wrote reminders for himself like "don't forget your umbrella" or "turn off the stove" and stuck them to his front door so he'd see them before he left. and luckily, he and haru still hung out all the time, so the little gifts didn't become any less frequent. one night while makoto was in the bath, haru drew a quick portrait of him. it wasn't found until almost two weeks later, and makoto was elated when he saw it. haru drew him smiling, surrounded by sparkles. and makoto's heart leapt when he thought "this is how haru sees me." not much longer after that, they started dating. haru's notes stayed pretty much the same, though he'd occasionally write date suggestions like "ask haru to the aquarium," and one time during a particularly busy period for both of them, he wrote "i miss you." a few weeks after they started dating, they were lying together in haru's bed. the moment just felt right, so makoto looked haru in the eye and said those words: "i love you." haru pressed himself against makoto's chest, happy to hear it, though unable to say it back. now, a week later, makoto peels off the last paper from the pad to make some study notes. and there, written in the tiniest handwriting he's ever seen, as though maybe haru were hoping makoto wouldn't notice, were the words "i love you." and then he realizes... haru hasn't been over since before the last week. which means... he wrote that before makoto had even said it. he wonders when it was, not that it really matters, but... he just wants to know. he invites haru over immediately, heart racing. m: i want to show you something. h: ok. makoto grabs the notebook, its cover only slightly worn even after all those years. he lies down on the bed facing haru and puts the notebook between them. haru lets out a small gasp when he opens the first page and sees that fish doodle. h: you kept them? all of them? m: of course! they were gifts from you. did you think i'd just throw them away? h: i don't know... i thought you might keep some, i guess. m: look at all the fish you drew. h: it was hard coming up with ideas, especially ones i could draw quickly. makoto laughs and flips to the end. and haru sees it, the small scribbled words he had left hastily though not carelessly. h: *blushes* you finally found it. m: when did you write it? h: after our first kiss. you left to get some food from the convenience store. m: i thought you might write something then. but i wasn't expecting this. h: it was easier than saying it... m: *smiles* i understand. i love you. and it's ok if you can't say it-- h: i... also. makoto... love. m: *laughs* i think it was somewhere in there. h: shut up. haru smiles and kisses him, putting all the love he has for makoto into it. writing it may be easier than saying it, but showing makoto is the way that feels most natural. every fish he drew, and every random phrase left in a note was always haru showing how deeply he cares. m: just promise me you won't propose in a sticky note. h: aren't you getting ahead of yourself? m: we both know it's going to happen. h: then i guess you'll have to beat me to it. m: haru, will you-- h: *laughs* not yet. m: fine. haru suddenly gets up and walks over to the desk.

m: what are you doing? he returns and hands makoto a notepad. the note on top says "do not use." h: it's in here. my answer. for when you ask. m: really? h: you have to wait to look. m: i never cheat! h: *smiles* good. you can read this one now. he gives makoto another note. m: "ask haru out to dinner." *laughs* how about that place asahi mentioned? h: ok. as they leave the apartment, haru takes makoto's hand, giving it a gentle squeeze as if to say i love you. makoto squeezes back -- an acknowledgment, a reply, an assurance that he always knows.

[niccoxgiraffe]

Hello! This Elu fic is the English version of the one I posted a couple of days ago in Italian. Shout out to my friends Alex, who picked the prompts for me, and Marla, who proof read the English version. Hope you like it! <3

Prompts:

5. “I can't sleep, can I sleep here?”

13. “Are you cold?”

93. “You make me feel safe”

.

Lucas’ head was still spinning from the party at Emma’s. Not that he had drunk that much, but - at some point of the night - the house got so crowded that the boy could barely breathe. The air smelled like smoke and sweat, which didn’t help at all. And then there were some chicks of the first year who kept staring at him with lust in their eyes, making him feel even more uncomfortable. For the entire time, Lucas had wished for anything but his boyfriend to be there with him, but instead Eliott stayed home with a possible depressive episode incoming. So he had kept drinking, dancing, laughing with his friends and just not caring in general until he couldn’t take it any longer.

The bus ride back home, luckily, was long enough to let him collect himself. So at least the feeling of suffocation vanished by the time he arrived at his stop.

Once he got there, Lucas dragged himself to the door of his shared flat and looked for the keys in the pocket of his blue jacket. As soon as he managed to unlock it with a creak, he saw the living room and the kitchen sunk into total darkness. Lisa was surely sleeping, while Mika... Who knows. Mika could’ve been to bed as well, as much as he could’ve been at some party or he could’ve been having fun at someone else’s place. Anyway, Lucas put his jacket and his scarf in the closet at the entrance, trying to make as little noise as possible. Last time he woke Lisa up in the middle of the night by accident, he found a giant penis drawn on his cheek with a permanent marker. The girl could become highly vengeful if anyone dared to deprive her of her precious hours of sleep. He didn’t want to bother her again, thank you very much.

He went through the flat on his tiptoes, and as he got in front of his room, he noticed a dim light coming from inside. Weird: he didn’t remember leaving a lamp on unless one of his flatmates didn’t stick their nose in his bedroom and forgot to turn it off. He slowly opened the door and his heart started racing at the sight of the person occupying the room. He didn’t expect a visit at all. Not at such an hour, at least. However, he was so glad that he was there.

On his bed, Eliott was sitting with his legs crossed. He held a pencil in his right hand and a notebook was lying in his lap. Lucas knew pretty well what that meant: Eliott used his doodles as a way to communicate or express his emotions, especially when his head was too messed up to understand his own feelings. And judging by the way he drew hectic strokes on the paper, too many thoughts were clouding his mind in that moment. He seemed so lost in his work (and in himself) that it took him a while to realize he wasn’t alone anymore. From that distance, Eliott’s eyes looked like black pools, the shadows were sharpening his features so much that he appeared scrawnier than he actually is. It wasn’t the first time that Lucas saw him so dull, run down and lifeless. Nonetheless, he knew he would never get used to seeing him like that, neither to the feeling of powerlessness facing similar situations. Like it or not, he preferred having him around way more than not being with him at all and not knowing how he was doing.

The older one forced a tired little smile and broke the silence. “I can’t sleep, can I sleep here?”

Lucas felt a wave of heat spreading in his chest. Maybe this time his illness would’ve been mild to him. Maybe he was just sad and he was looking for support. Maybe this state of mind of his wouldn’t last long. Maybe, maybe, maybe... Enough. Did that really matter? For one reason or another, his boyfriend wasn’t feeling well and it was his job to make him smile again. He sat on the bed next to him, taking his free hand. The rings he wore on his long fingers created a sharp contrast with his soft and warm skin.

“Of course you can,” he answered in a whisper and kissed him on the forehead. “I’m gonna take a quick shower and I’ll be right back, okay?”

.

Five minutes later, when he got back in his room, Lucas found Eliott lying under the covers. The notebook and the pencil were forgotten at the foot of the bed, so the blonde boy gathered them and placed them on his desk. He glanced at the drawing for a couple of seconds: it was a raccoon (Eliott’s “spirit animal”) running from a dark cloud. Lucas felt a lump forming in his throat, so he swallowed and dismissed any bad thought that was taking form in his head. He had to be strong for Eliott, at that moment. He couldn’t afford to show how worried he actually was, otherwise the situation could get worse. Maybe if he told him about how Basile embarrassed himself earlier, he could’ve distracted him for a while. Or he could show him the video of Arthur and Alexia that he posted on Instagram. And what if he proposed to watch a movie together? Maybe he didn’t want to listen to his stories about the party. Lucas shook his head and decided to simply lay down next to his boyfriend. He lifted the covers as much as he needed to slide under, face to face with the older one. Eliott’s gaze was lost into the empty but, as soon as Lucas’ hand reached his face, he slowly managed to focus on him.

“Is there anything I can do?” Lucas asked cautiously, stroking his cheek with his thumb. Eliott didn’t say a word, but the boy noticed him slightly shivering under his touch. “Are you cold?”

This time he didn’t even dare to speak, but nodded. Lucas felt the hem of his shirt being pulled and it made him smile, because he understood what his boyfriend needed. So he adjusted himself better on the pillows to wrap Eliott in a hug. He was aware of the fact that his body wasn’t big enough to entirely shield him, but it didn’t matter. Lucas let one of his hands slide into the other’s messy hair and he sensed Eliott’s mouth curving a little onto his neck in a tiny smile. They stayed like that in silence for a long time, just listening to each other’s breaths. Lucas loved contemplating his boyfriend while he was asleep: if angels were real, Eliott would be one of them, he was sure of it. He had the hood of his sweater lowered on his head, which made him look even smaller and cuter, the skin on his face was relaxed, the lips slightly parted and his hands were still weakly clenching his clothes. He knew it was scientifically proved that human hearts couldn’t get bigger, yet he still felt like that, like his love for that boy kept growing to the point that his heart had to expand just to make room for that emotion. Every now and then, he left some kisses on his head or forehead, while Eliott kept snuggling even further against Lucas. The exhaustion that was weighing on him a couple of hours earlier had been replaced with the urge to stay awake to cuddle his boyfriend, to kiss him, protect him, reassure him. He would’ve kept an eye on him even if he were about to die. It would’ve been worth it just to see one of those beautiful smiles of his that he loved so dearly or to hear once again that laugh that turned his entire body into pure jelly.

“Lucas?” Eliott’s hoarse voice came out in a whisper, which became even less audible because of his face buried in the crook of the younger boy’s neck. Lucas, in return, kissed him on his temple. “Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

And, little by little, the two of them slipped into a quiet slumber.

.

“How is he doing?” Lucas huffed at Yann’s question. It’s been two days since Eliott crashed at his place without a warning, in the middle of the night. The boy seemed to have no interest in going back home, so he had to call his parents to tell them he was at the coloc and that he'd taken care of him. He never met Eliott’s parents but since they got together and Lucille decided to move on, he’s been the only one they could count on to keep an eye on their son. “Not good. But he’s been worse. He’s gonna be okay.”

“Of course he’s gonna be okay!” Basile chimed in, waving around his fork full of pasta with tomato sauce. “We’re talking about Eliott, guys. Also, you said he just looked tired, didn’t you? It’s gonna be over soon, trust me.”

Arthur, who was sitting next to him, moved some inches away from his friend. “We got it, but try not to throw pasta around the canteen, alright?”

Yann and Lucas burst into a loud laugh as the latter felt his phone vibrating into the pocket of his jacket. When he reached for it, his fingers caught also a piece of paper he didn’t remember to have. Luckily, the boys were too busy talking about the way Basile ate to notice the foolish smile that was blooming on his lips while reading the note.

It was a notebook page. At the top, there was the same doodle he saw Eliott drawing the night he surprised him in his room, but under it there were two new sketches. The first one represented a brave hedgehog who was standing in front of the cloud, attempting to protect the poor scared raccoon with fierceness. In the other one, there were simply pictured the two little animals hugging tight, along with a sentence that brought Lucas to wipe his teary eyes.

“You make me feel safe.”

[destinywillowleaf]

SWN-002 Wing Man

“That's the power of love!”

Wingman was created by Dr. Wily in an attempt to beat Mega Man in a field outside of battle by harnessing the power of love. Wing Man has flight capability and wields a piercing arrow called his "Cupid Crossbow". Being designed to defeat Mega Man through love, Wing Man has a large board dedicated to unravelling his love life. Similar boards exist for Proto Man and Bass, forming the "Tiny Trio". He'd call them the Big Three, but they're short.

Wing Man likes cheesy romcoms and dislikes Proto Man (for being hard to read). His strong point is his dedication to his task, though he can become blinded by the task at hand and not remember the other couples he's trying to get together.

This took longer than I expected to actually write and get out to share.

With this year’s Valentine’s contest over(courtesy of rockmiyabideusexmachina), I can finally talk about this boy! He was so much fun to make and I’m definitely gonna be using him more in the future. I’ve got a lot of thoughts on him, the stages of his design, and a lot of pictures, so it’s gonna be under the cut.

Now that that’s outta the way, let’s get into the process of Wing!

...I thought we were talking about Wing Man, who’s this?

Meet “Playboy Bunny”, this duality of a Maverick and the first draft of a character for this contest. Usually she’s the sweet Playboy Bunny, a majorly human-like Reploid acting as a performer. However, once you’ve provoked her, she throws off the sweet guise and becomes Magnet Hare, the quick and fast-attacking Maverick with attractive properties. 

To be honest, I’m half wondering if I would’ve done better if I had done more with her design and actually gone with her instead. The main reason I didn’t go with her in the end was cause I thought someone else was gonna go with it and then there would’ve been repeats.

I might come back and do more doodles of her someday, refining her design to be less human with bunny accessories and more rabbit/bunny with human-like proportions. 

The very first drawings of Wing Man. The only thing I really had down at this point were the general heart-shapes, his name, and his weapon’s name. The one on the left was the first draft, and the right one was a case of “should he actually have wings or nah?”. The name actually came to me when I was sitting in class and I think that’s part of the reason I got attached. The pun name is probably the biggest holdover from Bunny, though another element did come by later…

This is where the magic happened. The front-facing sketch was the first real attempt and trying to figure out what I wanted from him. I knew that he should have a general heart-shape for his chest armor, and maybe his helmet could follow the same idea with one in the center. It took a bit to look through the other Robot Master helmet designs, but I feel like Wing’s looks like it could fit with everyone else’s. At one point I was considering giving him a heart braid kinda like Tundra’s, but I wound up scrapping it. I think it was because I was sick of braids after doing so many for Nahyuta…

Then some arrows! I couldn’t decide whether to have actual arrows or energy arrows, but I feel like the energy arrows make it look more unique. And the first appearance of the bowtie! I didn’t even know if I was gonna give him one at first but once I made the doodle I knew it was gonna stay. Bunny has a bow, too, but hers was just a regular ribbon one. 

The collapsible crossbow was something I knew I wanted from the start, because Wing’s not a huge fighter. He will fight to achieve his goals, and sometimes it’s more necessary than at other times, but it’s easier to have it folded outta the way. The “string” of the crossbow forms when it is expanded out, and then he can start firing his weapon.

Also, his boot. Simple enough design. Not much to be said. Same goes for the side profile, I was just trying to get a better feel for his design.

I was debating for a while about whether or not to actually give Wing Man wings. On the one hand, it’d help for the joke of him being a wingman and a wing(ed) man, but on the other hand I don’t like drawing wings because I still don’t really understand them all too well.

The bottom center image was a pretty defining part of making Wing, to be honest. It’s probably one of my favorite drawings/doodles of him just because of the causal nature of suggesting a relationship with someone(and it’s up to you to decide who it is) and Rock’s immediate reaction of fear/concern. I don’t screw around with expressions enough anymore…

I don’t have any versions of this page without color on it, but that’s because this was a color testing page. I wanted to test out my physical colors first before spending too much time digitally experimenting, and I had two main ideas: either red-pen red in varying pressures or coral Sharpie highlighter. By the final design, you can tell which one I went with. I wanted to compare them side-by-side, and the half-and-half wasn’t really cutting it for me. I did a second comparison on the other page(which is gonna be further down this post).

I was trying to get a better grasp on the wings, too, since I eventually decided just to go for it and make it more of a pun.I couldn’t decide if I wanted the wings like on top of the jetpacks or off to the sides, but I went with on top of the jets in the end. The off to the side wings were taken from how Tengu Man’s “wings” are positioned. As for the wings themselves… I was honestly mostly taking reference from Pit’s emotion portraits from Kid Icarus Uprising. I had the image with all of his different emotions and it wasn’t like Wily would be going for complete accuracy how big wings would need to be since, y’know, jetpack.

The color scheme of the wings also changed over time, and I think probably for the better. Layering the colors instead of just making a weird gradient overtop looks nicer(even if those colors could probably use some refinement all things considered). I was also deciding on the weapon “type” for the crossbow, since Megaman’s weapon get picture is on this page. Piercer seemed like it would fit the best, going through multiple enemies in a straight shot.

Designing the ability get was actually pretty simple, which I’m glad about. I wanted to go more off of the Megaman 11 style of weapon get, altering the helmet, arm, and color only, and I wanted to stick to that. I also wanted to keep two of Wing’s more defining elements - his bow and wings - on the ability get, so I moved them from Wing’s torso to Rock’s helmet.

Alongside the ability get, an unfinished battle scene. Nothing too special here.

I tried the color testing thing again, and it was here, I believe, that I first settled on the idea of “hey what if he looked like he was wearing a suit or something” and colored it accordingly. The color on the feet honestly sold me on the left one, because the cherry-red was beautiful and it was just red pen under the highlighter. I was happy with the pieces I had and started to put it all together into the final product…

Every Robot Master needs a pose for their artwork, and Wing was gonna be no different. I could’ve gone for something more dramatic, I know, but I was really really happy how the posing turned out for the one on the left. The smaller one on the right was more for fun and was messing around with some line thickness. There’s also less feathers because I was kinda lazy.

The main reason I have him sitting is because I think his boss entrance, were he to be fought in a typical arena, would have him pulling a Meta Knight and coming down from a high ledge to attack. Saying his pre-battle line, sliding/jumping down from on-high, and with a flourish, the battle begins.

Also I just wanted to draw my boy looking cute. Sue me.

The physical version of Wing sitting(on the left) is what I had initially been going for in color scheme, with a lot less coral-ish colors in the mix. Trying to recreate those colors, however, was a problem, so for all intents and purposes this is what I hold as why he's really supposed to look like. But with a complete physical form, what's next?

...hoo boy.

Trying to make the leap from physical to digital was a pain. I realized after I had essentially finalized the physical sketch of Wing posing that the helmet and face kind of made no sense. I spent a while trying to make it right and nothing worked how I wanted it to so I eventually just moved on from that. 

One thing to know is that I basically only work in MS Paint. I don’t have any other digital drawing software on my computer and the tablet available to me doesn’t respond to styluses as far as I can gather. So taking the widely-varying-in-color picture and making it not like that was something I had to remember how to do because otherwise I was gonna suffer the consequences. I knew it had to do with outlines but apparently Paint didn’t want to accept my drawn outlines and would only take ones made in the software. And jpgs were pixel-y, which I forgot since the last time I was extensively using the software.

Once I had my system back, I made the silhouette and digitalized “I’m just sayin” as a practice round of sorts. But with the simple pieces out of the way… the time came for making the whole reference sheet. The pose, the front and side views, the shipping board to serve as a back view, the wings, the Weapon Get, the weapon, and the little character-defining details.

Save states fill most of this folder for a reason. Working with what I had and going over and through everything to make sure I had all the pieces ready, making saves before the background deletion so I would just have outlines, and just hoping that this was all gonna be worth the work.

One of the more… challenging, I guess, parts of the design process for Wing: trying to give him a unique silhouette. Including the wings was, in part, because of this. Most, if not every Robot Master has a unique silhouette that you can look at and say “Oh that’s [name here]” or at least be able to tell them apart. Whether it’s fire, a boomerang, a snake tail, a lightbulb, a weird body shape, or their arms, there’s something to set each one apart. And I wanted Wing to have that same feeling, so if you were to see a blacked-out version of him you could still tell that it was Wing and not someone else.

Without the wings, he’d probably resemble a downgraded Quick Man - which makes sense, considering I was using Quick’s body shape as a base for Wing’s for a more subtle top of a heart. But I didn’t want Wing just to look like Worse Quick Man, so the wings had to stay. The crossbow helps in that regard too, but the wings really set him apart.

This is what I’m talking about. He looks like a generic character without the wings.

Trying to keep Wing in the same vein of design as other Robot Masters was also, I guess, the reason I used the colors I did. Robot Masters typically don’t have too many colors, and didn’t want Wing to be a colorful mess. Maybe I could’ve had another more striking color in his design, but I’m happy with the colors I have. Reds and pinks and white with a skin tone taken from the physical doodles that I tried to have be a brownish-cherry if that makes any sense. Like it was supposed to still be in the red(kinda orange) family of colors but still be distinct enough as a skin tone. I didn’t want to have too many variations on colors, but I do think I could’ve done better on some of the distributions(and holding onto the idea of “stop using so many colors”).

Like I said, I consider the physical drawing to be the true colors of Wing, and the digital can’t quite capture the physical.

...Okay, I think that’s everything I wanted to say. If you actually read through this entire monstrosity of a post, thank you. I do have a full colored version of the "I'm just sayin'" that'll go up eventually because it was fun.

[untildawnremus]

The Art of Falling in Love

Pairing: Young!Sirius x Reader

Requests: Hello, can I please request sirius black imagine where gryffindor reader meets big black dog and has no idea it's sirius, and she pets him and sees him everyday and she paints this dog and marauders (including siris) see the painting in her sketchbook, reader tells them about this dog and they smirk knowingly. after some time she finds out who the dog is by accident, you decide the ending, sorry if it's too specific ❤ - Anonymous

: Can you please write an imagine with the gryffindor reader being close to all the Marauders boys? not a lot of writers really make enough friendship instances with the marauders and can it be heavy on Sirius tho? - Anonymous

A/N: I personally love Art so this was a lot of fun to write. Also THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO OFFERED ME THEIR FRIENDSHIP. I LOVE YOU ALL.

Word Count: 3.6k (I had too much fun)

Art has many forms. There wasn’t a time in your life that didn’t involve art and your love for it. The art of music plays like the melodies coming from your muggle father’s guitar or the myriad of photographs hung around the walls and kept in albums by your mother. You were exposed to almost all forms of art as you grew up and they never faded from you.

“What about this one (Y/n)? What’s it called?” Peter asked, holding one of your smaller canvases in his hand. It had your repainted version of the ‘Birth of Venus’ by  Sandro Botticelli.

“I believe it’s called ‘Naked and Afraid’, Wormtail.” James commented, patting the smaller boy on the back and shared a smirk with his other friend, Sirius.

They had begun calling each other some odd nicknames just a few weeks ago. Neither you or your other companions could understand the meaning behind them and the four refused to give you an explanation. In the end, you figured it was all some inside joke.

“Ha. Ha. Very funny.” You rolled your eyes, taking the painting and placing it back on it’s stand. “You have no respect for the art of painting and the renaissance.”

“I think your work is beautiful.” Sirius said, picking up one of your collections of sketchbooks from the top of your dresser.

“Do you now?” You took a step towards him, leaning over his shoulder. He was busy admiring your doodles of the castle you’d often drawn when you were bored. As an artist, you’d never really considered your art picture perfect. There were always some flaws.

“Exquisite masterpiece, darling.” He laughed, pointing at the drawing of himself. A smirk made it’s way on the boy’s face at his portrait.

The day you decided to draw him was the day he realized how much he fell for you, with your sharp eyes attempting to study his feature as you furrowed your brows trying to sketch his face. You’d bite your lip as you carefully made the curve of his own. He did the best he could to show you of his feelings—with humorous and flirtatious comments layered over one of love.

“Figured you would say that, you narcissist.” You laughed, ruffling his shaggy black hair.

“Is this a repainting of the ‘School of Athens’ but in Hogwarts?” Remus asked from the other side of the room to which you were quick to answer as you sauntered over to him, leaving Sirius to browse through your sketch books alone.

Not long before his grey eyes that were scanning the strokes of charcoal but now of you as you shared a smile with Remus from across the room. He watched as you pointed something in disgust that he would guess is another “flaw” you had made. Sirius smiled to himself before James slid his way next to him.

“If I were you, I’d go for it before she slips away.” The Potter boy said, giving his friend an encouraging nudge.

“Yeah, because you’d have a better chance of not being rejected.” Sirius remarked, sarcastically.

“You know there are a million other girls, Padfoot.” James looks back at you as you laughed at something Remus had said. Your eyes crinkling in the cutest way possible that mad Sirius’ stomach flip.

“But there’s only one girl like her.” He finished, eyes never leaving the sight of your happy state.

~

Sirius couldn’t understand why he did what he did. He knew it was wrong. Yet he did it anyway. A few days after you had given your four mischievous friends permission to look through your “gallery” as they would say (which was basically just your dorm room that your roommates were kind enough to let you decorate with your art work). You found yourself outside the castle, resting against the wood of a large tree that on the softest bed of grass. Your leg was crossed over the other, your leather bound sketchbook laying down on your lap. One of the reasons why you loved the time of Spring were the changes of nature. The blooming of flowers in their iridescent manner.

“Hogwarts...Hogwarts...Hoggy Watty Hogwarts....” Humming the tune of the school hymn for no reason at all, you began to outline the small patch of lilies that fully grown just a few fee away from where you sat.

From afar, Sirius’ gray eyes had been focused on you for over fifteen minutes. He had told his friends he had some unfinished business with his little brother, Regulus but that was all a lie just to be alone with you...or alone by himself while observing you that is. He didn’t consider his action as stalking you, more of protecting you if there was anything to happen, at least that’s what he told himself over and over.

The calm atmosphere had prompted you ponder over the current events of your life. Your younger sibling would be attending Hogwarts next year and your parents were ever so subtly debating whether or not they’d end up in Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. Friends like the four boys you’d grown to love were slowly becoming your family, brothers you’d never expect to have. However, you always thought that one over the other three would hopefully be something more than just a friend.

Sirius was without a doubt one of the most attractive boys in your year alone. Other girls tried to catch his attention but none of them seemed to stand out to him—as he had told you countless times before. It did give you a small pint of hope over the collumn of a little school girl crush.

Just as you had magically twisted your pencil into a self-inking quill, a thick wooden stick had been dropped to your side. Curiously, you turned from the stick to the sky, assuming a squirrel might have caused it to fall. But then a shaggy black furred canine made it’s way over to you in a pounce like manner.

“Hi there...” You smiled, eyes still squinted in confusion but your hand made it’s way to the dog’s head. There wasn’t any sign of the animal being the dangerous, he was calm if not happy so to say, his black tail wagging in excitement.  

“You’re a good dog, aren’t you?” You cooed, scratching the back of his ear then moving to rub his belly once he rolled over. “I don’t remember Hagrid having another dog.”

You were certain Hagrid only had Fang (Who is currently no larger than a quaffle at the moment) and you knew that pup was Boarhound and not a German shepherd. The dog didn’t have a collar of any sort that would aid you in finding his owner of even know the canine’s name. He must’ve been a stray.

“Must be hard not having a name.” You told him. if he wasn’t do adorable, you’d call yourself insane for talking to it. The hound bumped his nose onto your still opened sketchpad, his face clumsily moving the pages until he decided to stop on a certain page that the famous four boys sketched in black ink.

“Those are my friends.” Pointing you each boy, you stated their names. “That’s Peter, he’s kind of the shy type of guy unless he’s told to do something bad then he shows his wild side.”

You pointed to the one with a faint scars, smiling. “This one’s Remus. He’s insanely sweet and charming. Although, i do wonder where he gets the scars from. He said he’d tell me one day.”

When you turned to the dog, his mouth had twitched, almost as if it were smirking.

“The one next to him is James. Bit of an oddball that one, Leader of this little foursome, head over heels for my friend Lily but I know she’s starting to like him too.”

James would be jumping for joy if Sirius told him this, but he knew he couldn’t in case you’d both get suspicious on how he knew.

“This one right here though is Sirius Black.” You grinned, eyeing your own work at the pretty boy. “He’s kinda the second-hand man as I’d say. Causes havoc too many times for me to count. Kinda reckless too and irresponsible no doubt.”

Sirius began to bow his head in shame at your words, until his small head shot up at the sound of you giggling softly.

“But he makes me laugh nonetheless.” You lifted your hand to pet the hound’s fur once more, smiling in content. “I just wish...”

The boy—well dog held on to your words only to watch you sigh and shake your head. You couldn’t admit to yourself that you liked the guy as much as any other girl but even telling a dog that probably couldn’t understand what you were saying seemed to difficult to pursue.

“Never mind.” Sirius slumped his body, pushing his face more onto your hand to urge you one but you only shook your head once more. You turned the page of your drawing of a random girl with a parasol.

“This one is inspired by one of my favorite artists.” You said with enthusiasm. “Claude Monet’s style has always been my favorite. I actually never told anyone that. I even have an unfinished portrait in my dorm of one of his paintings.”

The dog stared at you only to glance back at the drawing before him. You continued to go through the pages until the sky turned dark causing you to frown. “I’m sorry, furball but I best be heading back to my dorm. Wouldn’t want to get into any trouble.”

Closing your book shut, you dusted off the dirt from beneath your skirt and bent down to be in the same level as the black German shepherd. “You should head home now, if you have one. I’d take you in but Hogwarts doesn’t allow dogs in the castle and I wouldn’t want to force Hagrid to watch over you.”

“Just try to find some place safe, okay?”  You rubbed the dog’s head one last time before you stood up but he was quick to give your cheek a quick lick before you did. A laugh escaped your lips as you turned back to head inside the castle. “Bye now...”

Sirius sat on the grass, still an animagus, watching you walk towards the steps of the castle and your (Y/h/c) hair disappearing into the cobbled building. He had a weird feeling in his stomach. He kissed your cheek, as a dog but still, it was a kiss. It felt wrong to deceive you like that. Truth is, he didn’t mean to but something just came over him. A side of him told him it was okay as long as you’d never know, continue to make you smile like he did moments before. But another told him he shouldn’t do it again.

He promised he wouldn’t

And that was the biggest lie he ever told himself.

The week that followed consisted of the same routine from you. After classes you’d go outside and draw while the sun was still shining upon the spring landscape. Everyday, you’d draw something new for everyday you had a different muse. And everyday, that black dog just came back to the same spot you were always on. It didn’t bother you one bit that he found comfort in your presence and company but you knew you couldn’t keep him or anything. When the time comes, you’d have to leave Hogwarts and never see him for a while and your parents wouldn’t let you own a dog. Your father was allergic to dog fur.

Sirius hated himself for sticking around but at the same time he loved himself for doing so.

There’d be a time when you’d play fetch all afternoon and start chasing each other around the area but today you both seemed to be after relaxation. Your was almost finished with only a single page left before you’d have to purchase another. It was a motivation to draw more in the day plus James made a bet to get you a new one if you filled it up by the end of the month.

-

“I bet you can’t even finish a whole hundred pages sketchbook in less than three weeks.” James said, crossing his arms with a boyish smile.

“Is that a challenge?” You rose your brow, mischievously.

“Don’t do it.” Remus advised the Potter boy but to no avail. James held out his hand, confidently smiling your way as you set your deal in stone.

-

You had no clue what to draw of next, the flowers around you were beautiful but none were brand new or stood out. Snuffles, as you secretly called the canine in your head was sleeping soundly on top of your lap. You held your sketch book in one hand and a paintbrush on the other. Remus had aided you in bewitching the brush to spurt out any color you wished, however there wasn’t anything you could paint at the moment.

Your eyes dropped to the black furball that was in deep slumber on your lap, his body curled ever so slightly close to your body. With lips tugged into a shy smirk, your switch to using your quill and began your next masterpiece.

~

“James!” You called in a sing-song voice entering his dorm room shared with his three other companions. Their fifth roommate always stayed away from the room which was one of the smartest decisions ever made in your opinion.

“To what do we owe the pleasure, (Y/n)?” James grinned, placing an arm over your shoulders, catching the attention of the other three boys. Sirius watched from his bed with the same grin.

“You, Mr. Potter owe me a new sketchbook.” You beamed proudly, watching his sly face turn into confusion.

“That’s a whole lot of crap.” He said before grabbing your sketchbook from your hands. He flipped through them, eyes widened in shock. “That has to be a record. It’s only been what? A week since you got this one”

“I love art, Potter.” You placed one hand on your hip and the other outstretched before him. “Now pay up.”

“Do I have to?” He groaned.

“A deals a deal, Prongs.” Peter sang from his place by the desk.

“I advised you not to challenge her.” Remus quipped not raising his head from his potions book.

“You know you’re just fueling her artistic flames.” Sirius laughed, sliding out of his bed to stand beside you.

“Fine.” The boy caved. “I’ll get you a new one this week.”

Sirius watched your face fill with delight, causing his own to do the same. If only he could just tell you how much he fancied you, but his fear of rejection always dominated his mind one way or another. James tossed your sketchbook over to Peter, knowing full well he’d be the first one to look through it anyway. They both began to scan your new art works, pointing out weird shapes and creating voices for the others.

“Did you draw me recently?” He asked, leaning on the wall beside you. “You can’t expect me to think you’d drawn a hundred pages without my darling face in it.”

“Darling face?” in your opinion, he did have a darling, handsome, beautiful face but he didn’t need to know that. You had a knack for hiding your emotions. “I’m guessing you haven’t looked at the mirror recently?”

“You think so poorly of me.” His boyish grin made you weak at the knees. You heart fluttering at the way his eyes were boring into yours.

“Is there a reason for me not to?”

Remus joined the two other marauders as not to bother you and Sirius. They’ll have enough time to tease the boy about it later on. The three of them shared a smile when they saw the drawing you made of the four of them together but instantly had their eyes wide at the last page of your artwork.

They glanced at the other with knowing looks before calling out to you. “Say (Y/n), didn’t know you had a dog.” This caught both yours and Sirius’ attention, turning away from each other to see the three smirking faces from the other marauders.

“What do you mean?” James turned the book to reveal your portrait of Snuffles sleeping soundly. Sirius inhaled a deep breath at the sight of the black dog. He hadn’t known you’d drawn him. He just assumed you just let him stick around as your company.

“Oh he’s not my dog.” You told them. “I found him- well more of he found me by the field just a top of the hill across the castle. He didn’t have a name tag or anything.”

“Yeah, we know this dog.” Peter stated, earning a glare from Sirius who stood behind you.

“You do?” If you weren’t so interested in the thought of finding the canine a home, you would have seen the playful look in their eyes as they nodded.

“Oh yeah.” James continued. “He’s a real rascal. Seen him causing all sorts of trouble back in Hogsmeade one time.”

“Did he try to bother you? We heard it enjoyed bothering some students once in a while.” Remus said, grinning at his dark haired friend.

“Well, I wouldn’t consider it bothering...”

Sirius shook his head not wishing to be in the same room at the moment.

“He just kinda appeared out of nowhere and kept me company. Although he was a bit playful but he was very entertaining the whole week.”

“You spent an entire week with it?” Peter laughed along with the others.

“You know, (Y/n)...that dog is actually—”

“—alright that’s enough.” Sirius butted in, taking the sketchbook from James’ hands and returning it to its rightful owner. “(Y/n) should be finishing her new Claude Monet painting.”

You smiled at him. “Yeah, I guess I should...” Your voice trailed off, giving him a confused look. “How’d you know that was in progress? I don’t remember telling any of you about it.”

And at that moment, Sirius knew he screwed up. “I um...well...”

“I think it’s best if we leave you two alone, ain’t that right boys?” James and Peter agreed with Remus’ suggestion and swiftly left the two of you alone in their messy dorm room.

“Sirius, how do you know about my painting?” You asked once more. “Have you been spying on me?”

“What? No! Well, not exactly.” He mumbled over his words, eyes glued to the floor refusing to look you in the eyes.

“Just tell me, Padfoot.” You took a step closer, bending down trying to catch his gaze. “We don’t keep secrets from each other.”

With his fist clenched tightly into a fist, Sirius took in a deep breath. He prayed you wouldn’t get mad and end your friendship. God know that’s what hurts even more than rejection.

“I’m an animagus.” He stated monotonously, his eyes checking yours to see if you had understood but only saw confusion painted over your features.

“Okay...what does that have to do with...” You gave him a once-over, taking another step closer at the taller boy. Only now did it make sense and barely above a whisper, you said. “You were that dog, weren’t you?”

“That’s why your named Padfoot.” You continued, your lips tugging into a smile. “Are all of you animagi? Why didn’t you tell me? Is that why you all have weird nicknames I couldn’t understand?”

Sirius was shocked to find your excitement filling the room, he watched your eyes twinkle in delight as you rambled. He shook his head, placing his hand on your shoulders to calm you down. You were definitely different compared to other girls. “You’re not mad?”

“Why would I be mad? This is amazing. How’d you even turn yourselves into an animagus? Isn’t that illegal for our age?”

He scratched the nape of his neck awkwardly. “Moony isn’t really an animagus but it isn’t really my place to tell so...yeah...”

Despite the fact that you’ve been happy over the news, there was still a deep pain deep in his stomach. It may or may not have been the time to tell you but there really wasn’t the right time.

“Also...I’m sorry for interrupting your drawing time as a dog.” He said, staring at you intently. “I uh didn’t know what came over me.”

“Sirius, it’s quite alright.” You placed your sketchbook on their desk before turning back to him. “It was actually a lot of fun hanging out with you as a dog. Although, I don’t know why you did it, I would have joined your company either way.”

“(Y/n)...I like you.” Sirius admitted out of nowhere. His eyes went wide at his own confession checking to see your reaction.

You tilted your head and grinned from ear to ear. “I like you too, Sirius.”

“No, I don’t mean it like that.” He said, taking your hands in his and kept his eyes on them. “I meant I like you as more than friends and I always have. You’re just so beautiful and kind and...”

You used one of your hands to lift his chin up to see him properly. With your heart pounding and stomach churning, you leaned forward. “I never said I did like you back as a friend.”

This made the boy’s own heart do flips at your words. You both stared lovingly at each other switching from your eyes to your lips as his free hand went to caress the side of your cheek. Your lips were millimeters apart until the door burst open to reveal your friends who had been eavesdropping, topple over each other.

“Did you kiss her yet?” Peter lifted his head earning a sigh from both of you but smiling anyway.

The greatest artist spent years upon years of finding their calling and their muse and you certainly didn’t think you’d find yours in a matter of five years.

[blankdblank]

Back Again Pt 3

Pt 1 - Pt 2

Tags –

@himoverflowers​, @theincaprincess, @aspiringtranslator​, @sweeticedtea​, @ggbbhehe4455​, @thegreyberet​, @patanghill17​, @jesgisborne​, @curvestrology​, @alishlieb​, @jogregor, @armitageadoration, @fizzyxcustard, @here2have-fun, @abiwim​, @jotink78, @c-s-stars, @evyiione, @deepestfirefun, @thequeenoferebor

…

Curiously your eyes focused on the large bright green demantoid garnet square stone surrounded by six other square black opals wrapped in lines of diamonds resting on your finger. It sat underneath the simple courting band coated in etchings of ravens and Dwarven runes marking his name and clan markers you’d tearfully removed and dropped onto the floor in his angered shout to ‘just leave then and forget him and his kin’ before your turn to slam the door. The painful loss of that ring linking you to the only family you’d known stabbed greater than you’d ever imagined with the sound of its clink on that shining floor echoing in your mind almost daily since then. Wetting your lips you shifted and slid to the edge of the bed and brushed back the covers to walk through the house at the sounding of the doorbell after the text that had woken you.

Through the main hall you spotted Dis through the glass panes around the front door with a growing smile as you brushed your hair from your face and opened the door. “Dis, morning, did you want some tea?”

She shook her head, “No, sorry to wake you, just wanted to stop by real quick and possibly see if you could look at something for me?”

You nodded as she stepped inside the doorframe showing you the bound manuscript in her hands barely an inch thick and asked, “It’s called Tortimer the ornate wonder. Bit grand of a name but it really is adorable, little girl who finds an imaginary friend that takes her through her dream world after a Kelpie takes her. Really adorable, we got it a few weeks back and our illustrators really can’t find images that live up to the author’s expectations.” She wet her lips as you met her eyes again, “Now he dropped by yesterday and he spotted your picture in my office, simply demanded to work with only you.”

You nodded and claimed the book, “I’ll give it a read through, just the chapter illustrations and front intro pages?”

She nodded as her smile grew in passing you a worn folder containing pages of poor copies of sketches and doodles from the author after catching a glimpse of your rings. “From the author. Said you’d just know what to make of them.”

You smirked at her after flipping through them then met her gaze again, “Shouldn’t take me long too read through it. I’ll draft up what I can for him.”

She claimed a quick hug from you, “Thank you, so much! Let me know when you get a few and I’ll pass on copies to him, he’s scheduled a meeting at the end of the week. Eager, but at least he’s been patient with our team in waiting for a suitable illustrator.”

You smiled at her as she turned to head off to work, “Have a nice day. Go ahead and pass it on to him if he calls. I’ll keep you posted.” As she hopped into her car she gave you a wave as Vili was still hunched over securing the ties on his shoes in the passenger seat before he glanced up giving you a friendly wave. Waving back you slipped inside again and locked the door behind you on your path to start on your breakfast, ignoring the usual ache in your body adjusting to the new weight on your chest focusing on the manuscript.

By the time your plate was cleared you had a flurry of ideas flowing through your head. Quickly you rinsed your dishes and added them to the dishwasher then carried the papers to your bedroom. Against a stack of pillows you lounged with your tablet in your lap leaving your laptop Dis had gifted you, to help you upload your work to the company server aiding your work at home, beside you to save each of the images in order. A growl of your stomach signaled you to the lunch you nearly missed. Your tongue dipped out to wet your lips as you sent the last image to join the others you added to your account with a message you sent to Dis alerting her to the additions on your path to the kitchen.

By you return you read through her glowing review of the images along with the eager drop by the office the author had made leading him to tears nearly at your perfect renditions of the first half of the book. Ones that were soon joined by the second half by nightfall shifting the book to nearly double the size to add in the images the author demanded be included, wishes that the entire company agreed upon when seeing the skills of their new hire. Those images stirred up a race to go through your extensive list of books and company projects you had worked with leaving the entire team, including Dis, baffled at what you had grown capable of bringing to life since the last project you had seen completed before graduation had separated you.

The naming of your place in the company brought on a few of your former coworkers calling you and wishing you well in your new position after asking why you had been forced out of your spot. Unable to share that just yet you simply stated you were unwell and had to return home to be with family, the only response being their irritation at not giving them notice at having to take over your projects that soon cut off as a good number of clients left when they heard you had left the company.

.

With dinner time nearing the front door opened allowing Thorin inside to find you seated on your bed after moving the laptop and tablet to the dresser along the wall, grumbling as you tried to stretch your stiff back. An easy smile spread on his face as he paused in your doorway lowly rumbling, “Need a back rub?”

In a glance at the door you smiled up at him saying, “Yes, please. Spent too long in one position I think.”

Allowing his bag to slide form his shoulder he said, “Brought a few things, hope you don’t mind.” Setting it on the dresser on his way to sit behind you, leaving a gentle kiss on your cheek as his hands gently slid onto your shoulders.

“I don’t mind, thought you might be bringing more than just a bag with the ring you left me.”

Unable to contain his smile catching a glimpse of it when you retwisted your hair into another bun allowing him to see the muscles you had that had lost some of their size in your bed rest and recovery. “I wouldn’t assume I had the right to, no matter what I gifted you. I do hope you don’t mind. I couldn’t think of a better time to hand it over. Besides, by all accounts you should have had it by now if I hadn’t driven you away.”

Dipping lower onto your back you bit your lip at the sore knot his fingers hit, “By that logic I assume each gift giving holiday I’ll have mountains of gifts under that same explanation.”

“If that’s what you wish for.”

In a turn to face him you caught his loving gaze and weak chuckle at your playful glare, “You know I don’t want a mountain of gifts, you know that.” Through his low chuckle stirring from your hand gripping his collar to pull his forehead to rest against yours he nipped at his lip then released it to accept your kiss. Softly your hand eased around the side of his neck through the loving lip lock as his hands eased over your cheeks only to chuckle again at his drawing back.

In a purr he stated, “Your back Love.” A grumble came from you as you rolled your eyes and leaned in to steal another kiss when his hands lowered, gliding your arms around his neck while climbing onto his lap.

After a few minutes of fighting a losing battle against his own wish to hold you in the now heated tangling sprawl across you bed a low muffled growl sounded along your neck at the doorbell pulling him off of you as he said, “That’d be dinner.”

Furrowing your brows you sat up fixing your top asking, “Dinner?”

He smirked back at you, “Ordered it on my way over.”

Following him through the house you eyed the large order he and the delivery boy carried into the living room table before he paid and tipped the boy and showed him back out again. Back at your side he curled his hand around yours setting you on the couch saying, “Back rub Love. Then food and as many kisses as you like.”

Firmly his hands returned to your back and the knots he had yet to ease away, “How long have you had the ring?”

“It,” Weakly chuckling behind you he replied, “it’s the final design after a long line since graduation.”

“So you just kept working on it, after?”

He wet his lips behind you, “Part of my role in courtship is to honor my word to you. I promised you one of the rarest set of stones and designs I could find. I’d already secured the stones from my Uncle, before, and well I spent a decade working them off. Wasn’t till the past year I’d finally understood the design perfect for it. Your notes in psych, they all had that little doodle on them marking which columns you marked things in trying to keep your Dwarvish runes in line.”

In a scoffing chuckle you fired back, “I will have you know switching from Hobbitish to Khuzdul is not easy.”

He chuckled lowly, “I remember our lessons in Uni perfectly and every dent in the walls we made in our frustrating vocab lessons.”

“I’m certain it’s all gone now no doubt.”

Wetting his lips through his smirk he switched to Hobbitish, “I’ll have you know, out of spite Bilbo enforced our lessons on the whole family. Boys are fluent now too. Though names are a bit tricky.”

With a soft giggle you replied, “Figures, he was the best at enforcing studying habits. Except for when Dwalin wore those shorts of his.”

Thorin laughed behind you, “Ah, those, still has them.” Leaning in he lowly added, “Doesn’t think I know about him still having them tucked away.” Making you giggle again.

“They do make his thighs look incredible I bet still.”

You giggled again at Thorin’s chuckling lean in to kiss your cheek, “I am certain he would love to hear he’s still got his ‘honey thighs’ from someone other than his Hubby.”

In a firm pat on his legs beside yours he smirked as you said, “Why didn’t we ever get you a pair again?”

He chuckled replying, “Because you kept giving me that smile and my pants never really stayed on long enough for you to have enjoyed them.”

You nodded as his arms snaked around you when his hands had finally reached your hips, resting against his chest you stole a peck on his cheek, “Can I ask how the acorn’s holding up?”

After a nip at his lip he rumbled back, “Still intact. Dain demanded a touch up last year.”

“Demanded?” you fired back in a giggle.

Chuckling he replied, “Yes. Even my testicles are not free from his demand for his pristine condition on his work. Dwalin made sure I was cooperative.” You giggled again, “Frerin even stated you would want the marker of our shared secret intact when we got back together.”

“You, all planned us getting back together?”

Thorin nodded, “Bilbo even got time off in a few weeks, was going to go out there and find you. Demand you come home. The kids were going to be involved, pouting and crying until you agreed.”

“I don’t think it would have taken all that to get me back…”

“Did you enjoy it at least? Grey Havens?” His arms loosened helping you turn to start on the food.

“Um. I had a nice garden Lovely set of wind chimes. Drew in flocks of humming birds my neighbors hated, but I loved them, so beautiful. Work, was work.” His brow rose when he met your eye curiously, “I love my art, all the projects I have loved it, my boss, utter trash, but work I loved it.”

He smiled at you, “I did get a message from Dis on lunch to ask for a glimpse at what you’d done today for the project she left you.” His eyes scanned over you, “You are able to handle work right now?”

You nodded, “Ya, just got a bit wrapped into it. Habit with the old schedule. Used to get so many projects, had to go through novels in a matter of days.”

“Really? Can’t imagine you got much sleep.”

“I made time.”

He smirked at you, “Juice?” You nodded and watched him walk to the kitchen to fetch your drinks and return eyeing you rotating your shoulders, “Still sore?”

You shook your head, “No, just have to stretch and rotate them or they try to lock up when I sleep since bed rest.”

“I noticed you’re a bit slimmer.”

You nodded accepting the glass from him, “I’ll be happy when I can start exercise again. It’ll help with the new jiggly bits, and I’ll steady out again, not feel so helpless.”

Seated beside you he cupped your cheek stealing another kiss, “You have never been helpless.” Holding his adoring smile even through your eyes filling with tears, “I love you, and I know it doesn’t feel like it, but you’re far from helpless.” Stroking his thumb across your cheek claiming the tears there, “You managed to illustrate for an entire children’s book today. In one day! Dis hasn’t been able to do that in a week most cases!” After a gentle kiss on your cheek he continued, “You are magnificent, and no one in that office could have imagined anyone being able to silence that man and his expectations.”

With a smirk you replied, “Bard really put a lot of work into it.”

“Ooh, do tell?” His smirk eased out as he filled your plate and then his own scooting a bit closer to you, letting you continue your old habit of laying your legs across his.

“It’s a bedtime story he told his daughters and Son after their Mom passed. Apparently Dis says he’s got a whole series he’s wanting to put out, just couldn’t find the right person to illustrate it.”

His smile inched out more through your explanation, “No wonder he’s so certain on wanting you for it. I can’t wait to see what you’ve come up with. Dis mentioned you’ve made quite a leap since uni.”

“Well I’ve had a lot of time to practice since I’m done with all that studying.”

“I bet, and all those hours you used to spend sleeping in your extra jobs, hell of an addition to your free practice time.”

“Exactly.” His smile grew as you gave him a playful smile and soft giggle.

.

When dinner was through you helped him clean up and followed him back to your room where he poured a bath for you as you pulled out a change of clothes. In the bathroom you set your clothes on the counter catching his smile as he stood from adding the oils to your bath in a glance over his layers he couldn’t help but smirk. “I know that look. That look got us nearly naked in that cabin.”

Smirking at him in return, “If I remember correctly I was not the only one giving a look. You did that whole, pouting smirk thing.” He shifted his face to try and remember the look as you giggled pointing at him, “Close.” Drawing his smile back, “Have to furrow the brow too.” Earning a chuckle from him, “And don’t think I didn’t hear the Boom from Frerin and you when we hit all those courting markers. Including when you first sat around me in class.”

He nodded and chuckled softly, “Ya, we haven’t, haven’t said Boom in ages it seems.”

Smiling at him you replied, “I miss the Boom.”

His smile grew moving closer to help you out of your shirt, “We’ll bring it back then.” Leaning in as he tossed the top onto the sink he pressed his lips to yours, “Just for you kurkarukê.”

Rolling your eyes you eased your hands around his neck as he stole another kiss and pressed his forehead to yours, “Would it be strange to ask if you’d join me?”

“Not strange at all.”

Pulling your head back you nipped at your lip before saying, “Cuz I sort of need help with my back and hair.” His smile grew, “You’re a bit broader, I can help with yours too if you like.”

He chuckled softly, claiming another kiss, “Only if you want to.” Leaning down he helped ease you out of your pants and panties while you undid your bra and tossed it onto your discarded tank top, stepping out of your clothes he added to the pile before starting to unbutton his shirt. As he eased it down he caught your lips purse in your inspecting his reflection in the mirror. 

Your curious walk around him stirred a chuckle from him as he tossed his shirt away with yours and reached down to add his socks to the mix joining the pile. His hands paused when your fingers tapped your name across the rim of the anvil between twin ravens across his shoulders forming part of what would begin the family tree for you both under the seven stars, six black and one bright blue for his clan, to be added on with small hammers and axes for each pebble under the anvil.

Your soft sniffle caused him to turn and curl you in a tight hug. Against his shoulder you mumbled, “Dis saw the ring this morning.”

“I’m surprised I haven’t heard of it already.”

“It does look an awful lot like an engagement ring.” He couldn’t help at your slightly leading statement silently requesting a clarification.

“That’s because it is, if you’ll have me?”

“This isn’t just because of the Pebbles question?”

Pulling back he shook his head, “Not at all. I mean it, I want to have a family with you. No matter what, I’m yours.”

“I can keep you?”

He nodded purring back, “You can keep me.” Your smiles fought to grow nearly ending the kiss you pulled him into. In a momentary parting he said, “We should get you in the tub.”

As he let you down he claimed another kiss from you then turned you guiding you into the tub, lowering down behind you after moving the soaps within reach. Each gentle caress over you was thoughtfully given, assuring you were lovingly soaped and rinsed off, leaving it purely as his doting way of ensuring your every inch was cared for before moving to your side to carefully washing your hair for you. Curled against his chest after he braided your hair into a braid he twisted into a bun. You nipped at your lip when he helped you out and to dry off you slid your fingers along his asking, “You wouldn’t happen to have your ring still?”

Reaching up he wove his fingers into his hair in a tucked bun, with a hidden braid he drew out to unhook the ring from and passed it to you stirring your smile wider at the acorn and Hobbitish runes around the simple band marking your name and Mother’s clan markers. Carefully you slid it back into place on his ring finger widening his smile as you peered up at him and giggled softly through his crashing kiss he wrapped and lifted you in his arms carrying you to the sink where he helped you into another pair of pajamas and into the bedroom where he pulled on a new pair of boxer briefs and a pair of sweats over. Then grabbed all your dirty clothes to add to the clothes hamper and joined you on the bed, stealing another kiss from you before nipping his lip as you pulled up the first of the images drawing an audible gasp from him.

By the fourth chapter’s images your front door opened and Dis with a long stream of Durins behind her filled the house as she called out, “I know I promised myself I wouldn’t say anything until the morning, but, well, I lied. We’re here,” her eyes landed on you as she climbed onto the bed curling at your free side pulling you into a tight hug, “It’s long overdue. Officially, welcome to the family.” One by one they all claimed their own hugs and offered their dessert offerings between sharing their own Khuzdul sentiments and well wishes between your happy tears at the sudden family gathering.

Pt 4