#just thought like this can be a few shots with basic coloring and it still counts huh 🤔

[penkura]

Our Angel

Summary: Sanji can't believe how lucky he is to have you and this little baby you brought into the world.

Warning: Mentions of giving birth, pregnancy discussion, loving husband Sanji :3

Note: Ahh the final one-shot I have done from the 'knowing' universe! :') I wrote this after the last one, and it's long but also one of my favorites. I love writing Sanji, please let me write more for him.

How much longer? How much longer??

Sanji's anxiety was through the roof as he paced back and forth in front of the infirmary door. You were finally in labor and Chopper and Robin had kicked him out of the room, thinking he was making you more stressed than your contractions were. He could hear them guiding you through the next contraction and telling you to start pushing, and he really, really wanted a cigarette for the first time in months.

He desperately wanted to be in there with you, but didn't want you more stressed than you already were. Sanji believed it couldn't be too much longer, but also wasn't entirely sure. Labor could last hours or even multiple days, yours was progressing quickly though, and it wouldn't be long before you met your baby face to face. Sanji leaned against the door, holding his breath without realizing it, just waiting and listening.

And a few moments later, he finally released his breath when he heard a baby's cries, standing up straight and facing the door, his anxiety finally being taken off his shoulders. He could hear Robin and Chopper congratulating you and telling you that you did amazingly, but he couldn't hear if they said whether you had a boy or girl, or how the baby was doing. The cries though told him that your newborn was doing just well, they were very upset to be in the world now, but it would be all right over time.

After several more minutes of waiting and his anxiety picking up again, Sanji was beyond glad to see the infirmary door open and Robin giving him a smile.

"You can come back in now."

He didn't need to be told twice, quickly entering the room and hurrying to your side, making you laugh when he got to you, dropping to his knees beside your bed and taking your hand before hugging you as close as possible.

"Sanji~"

"I'm so glad you're okay! Both of you!"

Sanji started kissing you all over your face, making you laugh lightly until you both heard a small cry, which made him freeze a bit before looking at your little baby resting comfortably on your chest. Seeing the tears start to well up in his eyes made you smile softly before you looked back at your newborn child.

"What do you think?"

"They're…perfect."

"Isn't she?"

"She?!"

Laughing again you nodded. Through the later months of your pregnancy, Sanji made it clear how badly he wanted and hoped you were having a girl. When your baby first kicked, there was so much excitement between the two of you that he inadvertently called them she, surprising you until you questioned him about it.

"She?"

"...I said they."

"No, Sanji, you said she." You giggled a bit seeing how embarrassed he was at letting his wish for a daughter out like that. "You think we're having a girl?"

"I…hope we are."

You definitely had realized, even before then, that Sanji would be a great girl dad, and now he could prove that to you with your newborn daughter. Just the fact he seemed hesitant to even touch her tiny hand for a second told you he was going to be the most protective dad you'd ever met.

"She looks exactly like you, Sanji."

"She…she really does." Sanji finally reached out and barely brushed your daughter's cheek with his knuckle, which made her move just a bit. She looked like she was his clone almost. The same blonde hair, same curled eyebrows. She basically got nothing from you and everything from your husband, but you didn't really mind it. You might get lucky and she'd get your eye color, but even then it would be all right if not.

She was still your perfect little daughter.

"Can I," Sanji pulled you from your thoughts, nervously biting his lip a bit while looking from your daughter to you, "can I hold her…?"

"Of course!"

Nerves started bubbling up, but Sanji let you show him the best way to hold your daughter. He held her close, keeping one of his hands under her head to give her more support, while she started to whine when she was moved from you to him. You weren't at all surprised when Sanji started to gently hush her, kissing her forehead and softly telling her that she was all right.

"Yeah, it's ok, sweetheart. Daddy's got you, angel."

Your daughter calmed down almost immediately, opening her eyes to try and focus on Sanji, and it nearly took his breath away to see her looking up at him. This was what you two had waited the last nine months for. To finally see and meet your daughter face to face, and here she was! A precious, beautiful little angel that fit perfectly in his arms and looked at him like he was the most amazing thing she'd ever seen (which, granted, she'd really only seen you and Sanji, but it still meant everything to him). You just watched as Sanji stared at her and she stared back at him, before she yawned and snuggled herself more comfortably in his arms, you noticing how his bottom lip was trembling while he watched her fall asleep, kissing her forehead again and whispering how much he loved your sweet little girl.

"[Y/N]...thank you so much for her."

Hearing how strained Sanji's voice was made you smile softly, knowing he was fighting to not start crying. Not right now, he didn't want to wake your daughter or cause her any distress.

"What do you think we should name her?"

"I…I'm not sure, love."

"Well, I have an idea."

+!+

When you had gone into labor, the rest of your crewmates were off the ship. You'd docked at an island the day before and they'd all gone to explore a bit, pick up a few things, and let the log pose reset. You had hoped to go later in the day but obviously things had changed and you wouldn't be joining anyone on this island this time. Robin and Chopper had stayed behind just in case, since you were near your due date anyway and it was a good thing they did.

Once Luffy and the others got back, they were surprised Robin was the only one on the deck of the Sunny waiting for them. Luffy of course was the one to ask, running up to Robin and asking if you were sleeping or something. You'd normally be on the deck waiting for everyone, so it was weird they didn't see you this time.

Robin smiled a bit, "Well I assume she is by now. She gave birth to a beautiful baby girl while you all were gone."

Everyone was completely silent, expecting Robin to say she was just kidding to get a rise out of them.

"I'm not joking by the way."

With that statement there were shouts from Usopp, Luffy, and Nami, the latter of the three running for the infirmary right away saying she needed to see her niece. Not even having seen your daughter yet but being happy for you, Franky and Brook were in tears, while Zoro smiled a bit and Jimbei gave a smile and a nod.

"Sounds like the crew has expanded by one then."

Luffy and Usopp were quick to follow after Nami, nearly breaking down the infirmary door asking to see your daughter.

You were actually wide awake, holding your daughter and showing her off to Nami who was cooing softly towards her.

"What a little cutie, yes you are! Aunt Nami is going to buy you lots of cute dresses!"

You laughed a bit while your daughter stared up at Nami, seeming to be completely amazed by her. "You wanna hold her?"

Nami was about to respond when Luffy pushed past her, getting up close to see your daughter. "She's so small!"

"Luffy!" Sanji grabbed your captain by the back of his shirt and started pulling him away. "Get out of her face! You're going to scare her and make her cry!"

"No I'm not!"

"Hey guys."

"Yes you are!" Honestly Sanji trusted Luffy a lot, but he needed to learn boundaries, especially with a newborn baby.

"Nuh-uh! She's gonna think I'm funny!"

"Boys."

"And if she doesn't?!"

"Then…then…I don't know?"

"Idiots!" Nami was close to bashing both their heads in, but her outburst got their attention. "You're both about to make her cry!"

Sanji looked over and saw you gently hushing your daughter who was starting to whine and whimper like she was about to cry, him rushing over by your side to help with quiet, sweet words that he was sorry and didn't mean to be loud.

"My apologies, Angel. I didn't mean to startle you."

Once she calmed back down, you let Usopp and Luffy come over and see her, both of them looking amazed by how small she was. Luffy kept begging to hold her, Nami telling him she had first dibs, and Usopp asking how you both were. Your other crewmates joined you all after a bit, Brook offering to start playing a lullaby to keep your baby girl calm while Franky was crying about how super it was to meet her finally. Robin returned to make sure you weren't getting overwhelmed, and Chopper wanted to do another check on your daughter to be certain she was doing all right. Jimbei gave you his congratulations and said you'd had a beautiful baby, while Zoro mostly stayed to the side, but he did smile just a bit, glad for you to have safely delivered your baby.

You were doing well with everyone there, answering questions and letting each of your crewmates see your daughter up close, they all took turns briefly holding her since they knew that, obviously, they'd have plenty of chances to do so in the future. Once Nami got a hold of her a second time, she refused to let her go to anyone that wasn't you or Sanji. She was going to absolutely spoil your daughter and everyone could see that.

"Hey hey," Luffy latched onto your arm, giving you a big grin, "what'd you guys name her??"

The small bits of chatter quieted hearing Luffy's question, most of your friends looking at you or Sanji for an answer. Nami still had your daughter in her arms, very gently bouncing the sleeping newborn.

You smiled at Sanji with a slight nod, him returning the gesture to speak up.

"We've decided to call her Angel. After calling her that while [Y/N] was pregnant, it…it felt right."

Truthfully you had offered to name her after Sanji's mother, whether you'd had a boy or girl, and he almost took you up on it, but felt that for now, he'd wanted to give your child their own, unique name. He really did greatly appreciate you wanting to honor his mother, but didn't feel ready for that yet. And like he'd said, you two had called your daughter an angel the whole time you were pregnant, actually naming her Angel felt like the right thing to do and you both thought it sounded wonderful when you decided.

"What a sweet name." Robin smiled and nodded, the rest of your crewmates agreeing with her.

After some time Chopper said you needed rest and it was close to dinner time, making Sanji nod.

"I'll go get something started for–"

"Nope!" Shaking her head, Nami handed Angel back to Sanji to stop him. "We'll take care of dinner and bring you guys some; you stay with your wife and daughter, Sanji!"

With a grin she left the infirmary and headed straight for the kitchen, everyone else following shortly after her, once they'd given you another congratulations and said goodnight to their niece. Seeing the shocked look on Sanji’s face made you laugh once everyone else had left.

“...did I just get banned from my own kitchen?”

+!+

The rest of the evening went by smoothly and quietly for your little family. Nami had sent Zoro to bring you and Sanji dinner once it was done, and you were grateful for having so many people to take care of your family while you recovered. Chopper came in a few times to check up on you and Angel, making sure both of you were doing well before he headed off to bed, telling Sanji to come get him if anything happened. After you had dinner and nursed Angel again, you went and took a quick shower, leaving Sanji with your daughter which made him terribly nervous even though he knew it was only going to take you a few minutes to shower. All he did the whole time you were gone was watch her sleep. You'd given her a pacifier to hopefully keep her calm and sleeping, and it did work. Sanji was just so enthralled with her, gently hushing her and stroking her chubby cheek whenever she started to fuss a little.

"Hey it's alright, don't cry. Mommy will be back soon, daddy's got you for now."

When you did get back, you held back a laugh seeing Sanji was nearly asleep while holding Angel. Quietly, you went over and took her from him, waking your sleepy husband and telling him it was just you, you were going to get Angel to bed so you both could sleep. While Sanji followed your lead and went to take a shower himself, you got Angel ready for bed and comfortable in a bassinet near you, she was sleeping soundly and you knew she'd wake at some point in the night, but until then, you'd watch her sleep and hold her little hand, making sure she knew you weren't going anywhere.

"I love you so much, Angel," leaning over, you placed a soft kiss on her forehead, "I'm so glad you're ours."

Once he came back from his own shower, Sanji wasn't even the slightest bit surprised to find you already asleep, still holding your daughter's hand. You'd had quite a day, having pushed a whole new person out into the world, nursing her multiple times, and having to deal with your anxious crewmates for several hours after they got back. It was a wonder you'd stayed awake as long as you had! Sanji knew he was staying with you in the infirmary as long as Chopper made you and Angel stay there, so he did the same as you and kissed your daughter's forehead, before slipping into your bed beside you, bringing you close to him and kissing your cheek once he did.

"I'm so proud of you, [Y/N]. You've been amazing today."

You shifted a bit, making Sanji smile when you told him you loved him before falling back fast asleep.

"I love you too…both of you."

+!+

Your sweet little Angel had grown so much in the last three years. She had ended up with your eye color, which made you beyond happy that she'd gotten something from you. She'd learned to walk, talk, and had the brightest smile and giggles on the Sunny, apart from Luffy that is. She really was an angel to everyone, but especially you and Sanji.

Her first steps weren't really because of you or Sanji, it was Luffy and Usopp trying to get her to start taking a few on her own. She'd been able to walk a slight bit at the time with someone holding her hands, but not on her own yet. You absolutely trusted Usopp and Luffy with her (despite how many times Luffy tossed her into the air and caught her, the fear you felt the first time made you consider leaving), they were helping Angel learn to walk under your watch, you were sitting nearby on a lounger with Sanji, who was slightly nervous watching them. Honestly Sanji was the more nervous parent at times, but you knew he just wanted Angel to be as safe as possible while you all traveled the seas.

"Come onnnnn, you can do it, Angel!" Luffy grinned at her with his arms wide open, while Usopp had a hold of her hands, keeping her standing up. Angel frowned a bit, tears welling up in her eyes when she tried to reach for Luffy but couldn't grab him. He was only a few feet away, he'd easily be able to hurry over and lift her up, but your captain also really wanted to see her take her steps on her own.

"You wanna try, Angel?" Usopp smiled and let go of one of her hands to ruffle her hair a bit, which made her whine slightly. Luffy took two very small steps forward, arms still wide open and grinning.

"You can do it!"

Angel kept reaching her free hand towards Luffy, before she looked at her feet and took a step, looking back at him while she started to walk on her own once Usopp let go of her hand.

Watching your then nine-month-old daughter take her first solo steps caused you to tear up while Sanji was beaming with pride. Angel made it over to Luffy on her own, and once she did, he scooped her up in his arms with loud laughter.

"Yahoo, you did it, Angel!!"

"Good job! Next you'll be running around the ship!"

Angel giggled loudly while Luffy tossed her gently into the air. After the one time he threw her too high up causing you and Sanji to threaten him he'd been more careful, especially seeing how much she enjoyed being tossed up and caught. After that, she started following you and Sanji like a duckling, eventually getting to where she was running around the Sunny, either chasing someone or being chased with loud laughter.

When she said her first word, you weren't even on the ship. You had gone into town with Franky and Jimbei when you landed on an island, checking the place out to see what stores they had and how long it would take the log pose to reset. You'd left Angel on the ship with Sanji, and while he was grateful for the time with your daughter, he was also trying to figure out what groceries he needed to go shopping for the next day. Nami offered to entertain Angel while he checked the pantry and fridge, taking her out to the deck for some sun and to play with her.

"You are just so cuuuuuute! You got your daddy's hair and eyebrows but your mommy's face!"

Angel smiled and giggled a bit at Nami, covering her mouth with her little hands. At this point she was already 18-months-old, but hadn't said her first word just yet. You weren't very concerned, knowing it would happen when it happened, but every evening when the three of you went to your room, Sanji would sit with Angel on your bed and try to get her to say something more than her toddler babbling.

"Come on, sweetheart. Can you say dada?"

Angel babbled, no discernable words coming from her mouth while she smiled and reached at Sanji.

"Then…mama?"

"Mmmm….mmmm…." She pressed her lips together before sticking her tongue out.

You laughed, shaking your head. "I don't think she's ready yet, Sanji."

Nami had given Angel a coloring book and some crayons to entertain herself, especially once she started talking with Zoro about the money he owed her.

"I'm just saying, if you leave me with a little of your allowance every time we dock, you'll be paid off in no time!"

"How much is a little?"

"Mmm," Nami thought for a second, patting Angel on the head when she smiled at her, "about 300 berries."

"That's a tenth of what you give me!"

"Yeah, and?"

Zoro's eye twitched slightly, obviously annoyed by this. It wasn't his fault all the stuff he normally bought was expensive, or that he spent a decent bit of it on booze!

The two argued a bit more while Angel watched them, giggling a bit when Zoro lifted her up.

"Wait, where are you taking her?!"

"Nap time. Right, tiny cook?"

"Nap!"

Nami and Zoro both stared at Angel in surprise, your daughter yawning a little and sticking her thumb in her mouth.

"Did she just…?"

"She did! Sanji!!"

Hearing Nami yell for him, Sanji dropped what he was doing and ran out to the deck instantly. "What's wrong?!"

"Listen, listen!!" Nami turned back to Angel and Zoro, telling him to say what he did before.

"Hey, it's nap time, right?"

Angel nodded. "Nap!"

Hearing her say an actual word, not toddler babbling, made Sanji's jaw drop and he started to tear up a bit. "Y-Yeah! It's nap time, Angel!"

Honestly it was an odd first word, but when you heard her say it, it made you smile and hug her close, kissing her chubby cheeks and telling her how proud you were. After that, the words came more easily and she quickly realized she knew who mama and dada were, and started calling you and Sanji whenever she needed you. She eventually had nicknames for everyone so she could call them easily, and your crewmates accepted them instantly.

As she got older, turning three more recently, you'd become even more amazed with your daughter and how she was becoming her own person. She was a giggly mess most days, loved fruit over every other food, and took naps almost as often as Zoro. They had become napping buddies much to Sanji's chagrin, but he eventually accepted since Zoro would bring Angel to one of you once she was awake.

Nami made good on her promise to buy Angel lots of cute dresses, your daughter's wardrobe was better than yours. Robin would sit and read with her until she fell asleep most nap times, if Zoro wasn't around at the moment. Usopp and Luffy would play games like tag or hide and seek with her, one of them always having Angel on their shoulders in a team up against the other. Chopper would join them most of the time, or he and Angel would play on the swing or in the kiddy pool together. Franky made Angel new toys constantly, only with your approval did he give them to her. Brook would play whatever song or lullaby Angel wanted to hear, or do his infamous 45 Degrees to make her burst out laughing. Jimbei would tell her (along with Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper) various stories he had from before he joined you all, and she loved every one of them.

Despite your love for your crewmates, you had more enjoyed introducing Angel to the Baratie crew over everyone else. After your pregnancy was confirmed, Sanji had given them a call, speaking to Zeff before anyone else and letting him know he was going to, basically, be a grandfather. It became so quiet that you and Sanji both wondered if the connection got severed, before hearing Patty yell asking why Zeff was crying over the transponder snail receiver. It made Sanji tear up worse than when you told him you were definitely pregnant, and he had to give you the receiver to tell the rest of the Baratie crew. When they all heard, they cheered and gave congratulations to you and Sanji, a few of them saying you absolutely had to stop by once the baby had been born. Once Angel was born, you sent over all the pictures you took of her so everyone at Baratie could see her as she grew up. Eventually your ship made it back to the East Blue and the Baratie, around the time of Angel's second birthday, which Zeff demanded you to celebrate there once you arrived. You dressed her in a cute little, frilly pink dress that Nami had gotten her, and knew Sanji was anxious for everyone to meet the both of you properly. Of course, you'd been with the Straw Hats already when you'd been by and recruited Sanji, but things had moved so fast back then that formal introductions were an afterthought. Now that Sanji was back with you as his wife and with his little daughter, it was definitely nerve-wracking for him.

Well, it was until the three of you stepped inside and all the chefs quickly rushed to see Angel, all of them fawning over and doting on her. Almost all his nerves went away as Patty, Carne, and the others tearfully loved on your daughter and introduced themselves to both of you properly. Angel became shy with so many new faces, reaching for Sanji to take her from you which he did, and she hid her face in his shoulder.

"Aww come on little one, what's wrong?"

"She's just overwhelmed. It's too many people at once."

Hearing that, most of the Baratie chefs dissipated in order to let Angel relax again, the only one coming up to the three of you was Zeff himself, bringing back Sanji's nerves.

"Well, the baby eggplant has his own baby eggplant now."

"Watch your mouth with my daughter, crap geezer." The smiles on both their faces told you all was well, this was the norm between Sanji and Chef Zeff. Sanji got Angel's attention to get her to lift her face from his shoulder, pointing her view to Zeff. "This is your grandad, Angel."

Angel blinked a little, not the slightest bit scared and reached for Zeff, knowing it was safe because Sanji said so. Once Zeff had a hold of her, Angel just smiled and giggled, giving him a loose hug. It made him turn away from both of you, confusing you the most, until you heard Carne shout that Zeff was crying again and got to be the first to hold Angel. You laughed when you noticed Sanji had turned away as well, fighting his own tears. The rest of your visit was less tearful, filled more with laughter while everyone entertained Angel and you told all the stories you had of her up until then. You did also learn that Zeff kept every picture you sent of her in his room, a fact that made Sanji happier than you could have imagined.

After your visit back to Baratie, you kept in touch by sending more pictures, even a few letters telling stories of what Angel was learning and how well she was growing.

The last three years had changed so much, you and Sanji couldn't imagine life without your little angel.

"[Y/N], mon amour! Angel, my dearest!!"

"Daddy!!" Angel's bright [e/c] eyes lit up, squealing when Sanji came over to the both of you, providing you with a drink and snack, and Angel with her favorite snack of apple juice and carrots.

"I've got your drinks and snacks for the day!" He gave you both the most loving smile, making you return it and Angel giggled.

"Say thank you daddy!"

"Thank youuu!"

Clutching his heart, Sanji still couldn't believe his luck, even after all this time. Seven years married to you, three years of life as a father. The amount of love he had for you two made it feel like his heart was going to burst out of his chest most days.

"Oh, my beautiful girls!! What gods did I please to deserve you?! I love you both so much!!"

You laughed a bit, taking a sip of your fruity water and rubbing your slightly swollen stomach. "What're you gonna do if this one's a boy?"

"Oh, that's easy," Sanji gave you a loving smile while he picked Angel up as she requested, "I'll love him as much as I love you both."

"Have you thought about what I said? For a name?"

Nodding, Sanji sat beside you on the lounger with Angel still in his arms, her grabbing her sippy cup and a baby carrot.

"I have, and I think…I'll take you up on it this time."

Smiling, you gave a slight nod, before kissing his cheek with a hand still on your stomach.

"Sora it is then."

A few months later, you ended up having a little boy with your hair and Sanji's eyes, and Angel was absolutely in love with her baby brother once Sanji introduced him to her. Your crewmates once again were beyond happy for you, and you just couldn't imagine your life turning out any other way.

[chaos0pikachu]

4 Minutes and the Cinematography of Nipples

I said before that I thought 4 Minutes was pretty instantaneously the best looking BL on the market for 2024 after one episode. Which, not gonna lie, is a pretty big fucking claim. There’s been a lot of BL that’s come out that’s looked good, and I do think there’s been a steady improvement overall in the market in the last few years. Personally I think Japanese and Korean BL have a stronger production quality over a majority of Thai BL but like, if that’s a hot take I guess I prefer my food spicy. 

The point being~ if I’m gonna make such a hyperbolic statement, well I better back it up right? 

So I’m gonna break down a few scenes from the first episode, what I liked about them, why they worked for me, and why on a technical level I think 4 Minutes has just got it going on.

For better readability you can also check out this essay here.

Sidenote: my google docs kept trying to autocorrect “Bible” to “the Bible” and idk how to teach google I mean the hot Thai actor and not the book of Jesus. 

To start, I’m going to break down this scene featuring Great and his nepo baby cat: 

I thought starting with this scene would be good because it’s such a low-key scene and honestly making these simplistic scenes visually interesting is very difficult! But if you have the basics down, the foundations of cinematography and film making, these simpler scenes can be really memorable. 

Like yeah we’re all gonna remember this scene because shirtless Bible and oh my god Akira!? - I have only recently learned who Akira is; why is this cat getting a bigger bag than me? - but beyond that, what makes it cool to watch? What makes it interesting? What information does it showcase to the audience? 

One thing I added to the video was a grid for the rule of thirds. 

Rule of thirds is a shot composition technique applied to both film and photography. It’s the grid you see if you film a homevideo and helps a Director and Cinematographer figure out where to place the subject or subjects of the shot. The idea is the gridlines show you where you “should” place the subject(s) of said shot. 

Like everything, the rule of thirds is a guideline in filmmaking, not a hard and fast unbreakable rule. Filmmakers like Wes Anderson like to play more with central composition shots, rather than ROT. 

Anyway on to the opening shot, right after our credits and we’re moving into the shot. 

To start, the first thing I notice is the scene’s color grading. Color grading in film is the manipulation of raw film footage to create specific color tones throughout a project. Sometimes this grading is more pointed and obvious, think The Matrix, while in other films it’s not as obvious but still very prominent, think Killers of the Flower Moon. 

It’s not that the before credits scene looks entirely, jarringly different from the opening scene, but the hospital scene is surrounded by whites and blue tones, it’s darker, and only a single source of light exists. It gives the entire scene a much more frantic, uneasy aesthetic but it’s not so far off from the darker muted tones of the next scene that it feels jarring or out of place. 

The second big thing I noticed in the episode is the use of aspect ratio. I’m not 100% sure what aspect ratio the production used exactly, but the use of widescreen as opposed to full screen in my opinion, gives the episode a more cinematic feel to it in comparison to other Thai BLs. 

Example, if you look at Century of Love (2024) it appears to be filmed in the standard full screen - which I believe is 16:9? - while 4 Minutes is widescreen (thus the black bars at the top and bottom). Widescreen can give a show a more “movie like” quality to it which is part of the vibes I get from 4 Minutes. 

(source)

Onto Great’s actual introduction scene.

We’re not starting the shot with static movement, but with a camera panning right. I’ve talked about camera panning and such in BL before and it’s something I’ve found doesn’t happen as often as it should. Which is a shame! It’s such a simple technique but it adds so much. 

Imagine if we entered the frame with a static center shot, and then a cut to Great sleeping and turning off his alarm clock, and then another cut to above the bed. Think about how much more boring that could be visually. 

Instead, we enter the scene with movement, panning over and creating some interesting visual framing. 

So here’s our opening shot, do you notice anything interesting? To start, what I like about this shot other than the panning movement in, is that we don’t see Great’s face yet. In fact we don’t see his face in full until about 30 seconds into the scene. This builds anticipation, yeah we all know what Bible looks like, but for the audience who doesn’t this helps build anticipation. 

Who is this character? What does he look like? What’s his deal? 

It also engages the audience more, if you notice part of the composition of the shot has Great in the mid-ground slightly blurred out, while the foreground emphasizes the things on his desk. He’s distant from us, the audience, sleeping off his hangover not yet ready to “join” the world yet. 

Here’s another two more things I like about this shot:

Lines. 

Using lines and shapes can make a scene more visually interesting and invoke different feelings to the viewer. In this shot, I get a sense of symmetry, the camera panning right, lightly drags across the screen alongside the lines below and above Great, almost creating a frame within a frame effect. As if Great is boxed into a clock in and of itself. 

You can also see the use of balance in the scene as well, connecting back to that visual theme of symmetry as well as blocking our view of Great’s face. The lava lamb and champagne bottle are almost the same height, which helps create balance in the shot. The champagne bottle informs us Great has been drinking or does drink since it’s positioned so close to his bed, whilst also continuing to hide his face away from the viewer. 

I also like that the lava lamp is a bright spot of color. The tone of the scene is mostly muted greens, and gray, but the bright orange lava lamp and even the pink champagne bottle draw our attention but don’t overwhelm us either. It provides the scene with some warmth but doesn’t offset the overall tone of the color grading. 

And then, the last bit of this shot:

We have Great knocking over the champagne bottom, and turning off his alarm clock. Notice that the alarm clock and the champagne bottle hit those ROT dots almost exactly. There’s also the use of lines by the length of Great’s arm - I just forgot to add a line I’m a failure, a fake, fml - we see him knock over the bottle, and then we follow the line of his arm directly to the alarm clock which is also a shape, a circle. 

I like that they used a clock with a specific notable shape, since by the end of this scene the clock is relevant to the story as a whole. Using a shape makes the clock more visually noticeable and memorable to the audience. 

So in the next cut we’re above Great - just like Great’s gonna be above Tyme, fuckin hell I’m corny - in a medium-full shot and there’s a couple things I really like here. 

I really like the use of lines here with the bed going in one direction but Great’s body going another. It’s disconcerting, and off kilter a bit. 

The use of patterns plus the opposing symmetry, whereas in the previous shot the lava lamp and champagne bottle were providing balance, here one side of the bed is patterned, while the other isn’t. This creates a sense of imbalance and makes the shot more visually interesting.

This medium-full shot at a high angle makes Great smaller, and continues to showcase his dishevelment, keeping him distant from the world itself. Also notice the lack of color here as well. 

What could this say about Great as a character? Or his story? 

So this next cut is the one that actually inspired me to write this essay to begin with and know what I’ma eat some crow here. I originally said it was a great ROT shot but I was wrooooooong. It’s definitely a center composition shot. 

Notice as well, the bed itself is its own shape - rectangle - center in the frame, and yet the shot almost looks unbalanced again because of that singular patterned rug. It’s the only pattern in the entire shot, not even Great’s pillows have noticeable patterns on them. 

The above view camera angle in a full shot creates almost an omnipresent feel, as if the audience - or something else? - were looking down upon Great. Whose face we still haven’t seen! It makes him smaller, less powerful, and almost vulnerable. Shots like this are often used in horror films like James Wan’s Malignant (2021) where the horror spector will be looking down above the would-be victim. 

Another thing I like about this scene though is we have Great moving. It would be simpler and easier to have his phone just by his alarm clock, or under his pillow, but think about how much more visually interesting it is that he has to move down the bed and reach for his phone. It creates action in an actionless low stakes scene. 

And now, 30 whole seconds in and we’ve finally seen Great’s face! 

Fun fact, with the ROT grid the gridlines fall right across Bible’s nipples. That’s not a film analysis, just something I noticed entirely intentionally. Thanks Madam Director Ning Bhanbhassa Dhubthien.

The actual shot is in center composition again, as Great rolls over and reveals his face the camera begins to zoom in. 

This creates movement in the scene instead of leaving the camera to statically observe it’s now, finally, inviting the audience to meet Great. Pulling us in towards him whereas before we were kept at a distance. Great’s awake and, well as ready to meet the world as somebody with a raging hangover can be. 

I also like how Bible is moving constantly in this scene; he rubs his eyes and nose, he twitches his fingers, titles his head back and forth, etc it’s nothing revolutionary but it’s appreciated. 

When the scene cuts, we get this shot: 

I didn’t put the red dot on his nipple, it just landed there. This is all Madam Director Ning chepie. 

But you can see how Great’s body is landing on all those gridlines pretty solidly. Also in the background we see his alarm clock again, a bright blurred circle in the distance. I also like the angle of this shot, as it creates depth in the frame, with Great’s head being in the foreground his lower body in the mid-ground and the background blurred out. 

What follows is Akira appearing in frame. Which was really difficult to capture so I don’t have a screenshot. But what I really like is Akira entering the frame out of focus. They could have just cut to Akira, but instead they opted for Akira to enter the frame which is more interesting. 

When we do cut, Akira is firmly on one of those dots so we don’t miss them in the frame. I think it’s also interesting that we’ve pulled out again, into a mid-full shot, hanging above Great, and we see that clear symmetry line again between the patterned rug and the regular carpet. 

I also really love that when we got to Great sweet-talking Akira and feeding them we’re not just doing a cut, we’re panning downwards which continues to add movement to the scene. And we get that moneyed sponsor shot! 

Durex can’t pay for everything okay?

So in the final bit of this scene we get focus on Great, who’s in focus, before he gets up and leaves the frame where the camera then focuses on the clock behind him. 

See how in the first frame the background is all blurred out, but once Great walks out of the frame - again, great that he walks out, movement!! Y’all don’t understand how boring 1000 Stars was for me to watch because of the lack of this stuff okay? - and then the focus shifts to the clock. Which is round. 

God I know that sounds so dumb, but imagine the clock without that ring light bit on it, it’s just a tiny little rectangle. Not as fun or interesting to look at right? Or as noticeable especially from a distance? 

This shift in focus also tells us “this is important” whatever “this” is. The subject of the shot goes from Great to the alarm clock but they are positioned as equally important. We’re meant to pay attention to this seemingly innocuous item, which we learn later in the episode is time. We’re meant to remember and note that time will be important to the story - I know with a title like 4 Minutes you’d fucking hope time would be important but have y’all ever read Youtube comments? It’s rough out there for visual comprehension okay? 

So all in all this scene is only 1 minute and 40 seconds give or take. It’s very short, but I don’t think it was boring at all. I think it’s a really solid introduction to a main character. Think, Korn didn’t get this much time to showcase his introduction, his scene is shorter - though also well done - which showcases which character is more of a story priority. 

This scene eases the audience into the story, inviting us to wake up into the world like Great is. It uses techniques like lines, shapes, symmetry, color and focus to make what could be a very boring scene into an interesting one. 

There’s so so much I probably and certainly missed, I’m far from an expert, but I hope I was able to articulate what I liked about this scene, and why I think it looks good. 

Stay tuned for more if I can manage to focus long enough to breakdown more scenes lol

Also red dots on Bible’s nipples are just funny to me it be what it be. 

Further Reading: 

Composition in Cinematography / THE LAST OF US

Center-Framing vs Chaos-Cinema: Mad Max vs Transformers

Camera Framing: Shot Composition & Cinematography Techniques Explained [The Shot List, Ep 2]

The Ultimate Guide to Camera Shots (50+ Types of Shots and Angles in Film)

Color Grading 101 - Everything You Need to Know

Mixing Film And Digital Footage: Killers Of The Flower Moon

In Praise of Subtle Cinematography

[donelywell]

October 5 2023

I changed things up because it's got Frontiers Final Horizons Spoilers. I know the updates been out for like 2 months now but I'm being really cautious.

Super Sonic was really fun to play in the base game, having the auto combo thing on and just seeing so much bombastic energy and over the top moves being thrown at giant titans was so much fun.

I did however, not read the instructions where they tell you to hold the parry, I thought it was a perfect timing thing like a normal parry. So fighting Giganto and Wyvern for the first time was a nightmare for me until I actually read the instructions. =v='

For the design, I didn't change much, Super Sonic is really cool. I basically just changed the green parts of his shoes to red to reflect his new eye color.

Super Sonic² was so cool! The casual backhand slap, the sass, the move where he basically does the idw move, the finger point when he gets back in the game!

The only issue I had is that I didn't understand at all how to fight the final boss. I didn't 100% complete the map so I didn't get the hints. (I am still stuck on the stupid ball hoop map puzzle thing, I swear there is no way to do it) So unfortunately, I had to look up a guide. That kinda dampened the experience, but there was no way I was fighting Supreme over again, getting to the same glitch because I killed him too fast, and then fail the final boss fight again because I didn't know I was supposed to press r2.

I made his quills seem like they are turning into flames at the tips, I made his torso kinda have a sun symbol on it, I made his secondary fur white and his base fur/ quills bright yellow to kinda give it more sun imagery. His arm patterns are a little more detailed, his gloves have kinda formed into the body, making the cuffs look like they're on fire too. His socks turned into bandages and blue rings floating on him with the soles of his shoes kinda smoking on the back. It was a lot of fun interpreting this design differently, giving it a more ancient vibe with a modern twist. The original design is still really cool too!

Cyber Super Sonic... one of the coolest forms in my opinion and yet we see him for less than a minute in only a cutscene. I'm not complaining, the cutscene was so cool! Me and my sibling were star struck when we saw it!

I love the Fleetway elements! The sharp teeth, the crazy eyes, the chaotic behavior that almost made it seem like if Cyber Super Sonic wasn't being literally shot out to his enemy, he'd not be able to tell between friend or foe! God, it was so cool!! Even if it was just limited to a cutscene where you can barely see the entire design in a single image!

I did actually have a static version of this image too, but I'm not including it because it gave me eye strain, and I don't want to hurt you.

For the form I actually decreased the amount of polygons on Sonic. If you look, he's more angular & simplistic and his legs and arms are rectangles! I thought it'd help give him more of a Cyber Computer vibe. I used the blue static and made it kinda an accent color so you can see where things are. I don't really know why, but I also made some parts of him detached? The inside parts have the white spirals that Cyber Super Sonic's eyes were.

The update was a lot of fun to play when it came out, even if it was EXTREMELY challenging for a casual player like myself. Almost made me quit a few times and a couple guides were begrudgingly looked up. Playing as Tails and Amy were definitely the highlights of the update for me though. I hope it was as much fun for you as it was for me. :)

[predestinatos]

making a mess | CL16 𓍯

pairing: charles leclerc x fem!reader

tags: one shot, fluff, very cheesy, soft!charles, facemask stuff, honeymoon phase

warnings: -

words: 783

note: tysm for the request @champagneholland!! i really needed tome inspo... it's a short-ish one but i hope u & everyone enjoy!

“Charlie” you said, laughing at your own use of the nickname, still getting familiar with its more playfully romantic connotation. “Stay still and close your eyes,” the simple request seemed impossible for him to fulfill, as the green clay of the facemask reached your hands, his hands and some hair.

“I can barely do one of those things when I’m with you, don’t ask for both” Charles laughed along with you, his dimples showing as he looked down at your face. “You’ll be forced to do one of those forever if I accidentally put it on your eye,” you kept giggling as he tried his best to remain still and occasionally open one eye to look at you.

Sitting in your bathroom, using the toilet as a chair, Charles let you apply the facemask carefully on your face, feeling your soft hands on his skin warming his whole body. When you were done, he got up excitedly, knowing it was his turn to do it.

You washed your hands and placed yourself on where he was previously sitting, looking up at him with glowing eyes and a smile – for a few seconds he just stared at you, completely bewitched by how lucky he was to have you. And then his hands here on your cheeks, squeezing them while he continuously kissed your lips – soft, cute pecks that then moved to your nose and forehead. “You’re so pretty” he said, giddiness written all over his expression, ���and now half of your face is already covered with the mask. Much more effective this way.”

You jokingly rolled your eyes at him, his cheesiness and childlike way of loving you filling your heart immensely. Being loved as a best friend and partner was not something you were used to – previous relationships resulting in your feeling used – but as Charles stood in front of you with pajama pants and a green-ish facemask that almost matched the color of his eyes, you knew you were at home.

“Okay, Yoda, finish your work, please” you replied, pulling his hand towards you and allowing him to continue. Time went on, and he seemed to be nowhere near done, even though the package was basically empty at that point. Charles kept saying “there’s an empty spot here” when you complained about how long he was taking, enthusiastically applying the mask with such care you sometimes barely felt it.

But he could feel it – he touched every inch of your face with a gentleness that contrasted greatly with his strong hands and body, his toned chest bared before you. To him, every inch of you was precious and delicate, and he wanted to take care of it, kiss it, caress it, simply feel it.

So when he knelt down in front of you, claiming there was an “empty spot on your chin” you were surprised to feel his sudden touch on your thighs, not in a lustful way, but in a nurturing one. Leaving evidence of his touch all over your body, now looking like a canvas filled with loving strokes, he got up, pulling you softly, urging you to do the same.

As you did so, he lowered his head to your neck, kissing it and giggling as he kept painting you. You decided to pay him back for that, taking as much of the remaining product out of the package as you could and drawing silly doodles on his chest. His skin shivered at your touch, and he looked down at you, appreciating the contact he had craved for so long and now was lucky to have all for himself.

“You look like Shrek” you said, laughing and feigning pride at the masterpiece you created. He ran a hand through his hair, now completely messy, placing green highlights in it as well, cursing playfully at the movement. “I thought I was Yoda” he replied, to which you shrugged, “it’s whatever you prefer.”

“I think Shrek. He has Fiona” he replied, grabbing your hand and raising it, as you twirled under the bathroom lights cheerfully, holding him and being held in a waltzing stance as you finished. For a moment, you remained there, looking at each other’s ridiculous mess, how cozy it felt to be there, sharing breaths, memories and kisses.

After a while, Charles’ voice interrupted the silent moment, “is this supposed to burn?” he asked, suddenly concerned. “Shit, the time!” you remembered, realizing it had been longer than the amount suggested in the package instructions. “We should just take a bath” you both said, almost at the same time, laughing as he rushed to turn the shower on, not before leaving another kiss on the top of your head.

[quirkwizard]

I'm in the middle of writing about the ending of MHA. I wanted to include a bit where I talk about the updates the characters have had to their looks and costumes, but felt that it was too long of a diatribe. Instead, I'm throwing it out here. That may be difficult considering how crowded the final shot is and how there is no official colored version out, but I can do my best.

Mineta: Also barely changed barring the little grape vine on his head and a similar design around his writs and he does his waist. It's more cohesive, I guess, but it's still whatever.

Sato: I honestly thought that Sato only had a pair of gloves as his new costume. Still though, I miss the mask as a part of his look. I would say more, but Sato's design has never been interesting, so I'm not disappointed.

Hagkaure: She has the biggest downgrade. Poor girl lost half of her costume during the time skip. She doesn't even have access to shoes anymore. That or she secretly has the best costume and the lighting was wrong.

Sero: Barely anything changed here. His helmet is sharper, which I could take or leave but do prefer the older one, and he's our first example of characters getting wrist bands. Not the more prominent trend, but one I noticed.

Mina: There isn't any notable changes to her costume, except more wrist bands which you think would just be melted by her acid, but I like the longer hair and horns. Even if the fact that her horns seemingly changed positions and shapes bugs the life out of me.

Kirishima: I don't even think there is anything different about Kirishina's costume. Maybe more pronounced teeth on the mask and making his gears more jagged, but that's about it. At least he has the best hair designs out of the new looks.

Ojiro: I like the changes. He got rid of the silly one sided fur on his neck in favor of a full one. He traded out the white gi for a black one, showing he evolved further in his martial prowess. And again, he has the headpiece like a few of the other characters.

Jiro: She exchanged the leather jacket for the vest. It's a fine trade, giver her more of a proper punk rocker look. Once again though, she is the part of the odd trend of giving characters wrist bands, seemingly loosing her arm speakers.

Koda: The character done the most dirty for design. In both panels he's in, his entire costume is covered by text boxes. At least his lost the mask, both showing him being more open and because it was basically useless now.

Shoji: Odd how one of the few students with their own panels has pretty much nothing changed about their look. And his may be a hot take, but I don't like Shoji with longer hair. I just think it looks really weird on him.

Tsuyu: A very minor change to how her headpiece looks, but I like it. It looks like a cute little summer cap instead of hulking headpiece she had before. The lenses looking like frog eyes were certainly a nice touch and adds to the "cute and friendly" look.

Tokoyami: The only change seems to be that Tokoyami now has a scarf on top of his cloak. I don't really get it. It doesn't look good and doesn't have any particular benefits. Was he really taking tips from Square Enix with wanting more cloaks?

Shinso: Shinso grew out his hair. That's about it. I'm mixed on this. It's not a bad design, but it can make Shinso feel more and more like a clone of Aizawa. So much of his design is already based on Aizawa. Could we maybe do something a bit diffident?

Iida: More of a sidegrade with this one. The extra muffles around his head look silly. I like the more cap shaped helmet, more resembling his brother's costume and looking similar to the cap the Greek god Hermes would wear for neat little visual reference.

Aoyama: I'm conflicted. One the one hand, Aoyama's costume does look a more practical with the removal of things like the cape and sliming down the design, but it loses a lot of the personality. Plus his pants are really dumb. I don't care how they are colored, they just look silly.

Denki: He may just have the most improved costume. His disk launcher has been broken down into a smaller version of it, seemingly with darts instead. The lightning patterns on his pants are nice as well to give his look more flavor. And the headphones work with his design.

Uraraka: I miss the space visor. It really brought the whole them of the costume together. Instead we get another pair of headphones. I do like the little bits of Izuku's costume in the look, such as the metal around her neck and the launchers around her arm looking like his gloves.

Momo: Momo has a proper shirt now. I do wish it has some more design to it. Maybe some white accidents around it reminiscent of her old look to make more like an evolution. Maybe she could have taken some visual ques from Midnight's or Magic's costume to show respect to her former mentors.

Shoto. Not a lot changed here, surprisingly. The most there is Shoto having designs similar to Enji on his chest. Which I do hope has more of the red and white as part of it. It'd be a neat way to represent how Shoto is still Enji's kid who incorporated everything he learned from him, but is more then his own person at this point that can be free of the shadow that Endeavor cast over his life.

Bakugou: I don't much care for this new design. While I like how they intergrade more of his winter costume into his standard look, it loses on a lot of personality that the old costume had. Things like the blast shaped mask and grenade bracers were great additions and it really needs more of that orange and green to break up all the black. The little fuse tassels are nice though.

Izuku: Out of the all the characters here, I find myself the most reserved about Izuku's new look. Because it depends so much on the coloring. The look itself I think is fine. A natural final conclusion to his costume. But the colors have always been an issue for me. I'm just hoping the cape and highlights are plain white as opposed to the clashing orange and yellow of his last look.

[iloveaustinelvisandmannymore]

Mafia life

Pairing: Elvis Presley x reader.

Warning:INCEST, Gore, Murder, Attempt Murder, death of a parent, smut, Breeding kink, Daddy kink, Bipolar Elvis, Voyeurism kink, Gun kink, Creampie, Dirty talk, Rough sex, Stockholm syndrome, Degrading kink, Planned and Unplanned Pregnancy, Breeding, Reader didn't know what a period is, Cockwarm, Choking and Squirting, Hair pulling, angry sex, Men jerking off, Cum shots, Virginity loss, Period sex, Dark humor. (Elvis is 40, and the reader's 18)

Summary: You were obsessed with singer Elvis Presley but your mother forbid it for some reason and after your mom died you finally got to see your birth certificate so you were shocked when you saw his name underneath the word father and you find out lots of stuff that you never knew and realize your mother made you live in a lie.

A/n: if you don't like to read this sort of thing, please move on or block. Do Not hate.

Elvis could recall the time he first met your mother; Sofia Longo. He was but starting the way of mafia life and he was making a deal with her father. He was smitten with her the moment see her, he remembers trying to talk to her and always ending up stuttering like a fool, a pretty giggle always leaving her pretty full lips. He remembers their first kiss, she was renting to him about her father and how he treat her like a delicate doll. It was a beautiful starry night in Memphis and they were on the balcony of her mansion from her room.

"Ì wás bórn intó this kìnd of wórld, hè shóuld knów ì'm nót á dóll" she walked back and forth, talking with her hands. Elvis smiled watching her, he was sure he had puppy dog eyes at her, she was beautiful and that accent surely didn't help "yóu lístening to mé?" she had stopped and glared at him with playful hate "I-I-I-i'm sorry darlin', just-well..you're just beautiful I couldn't. Oh, can I kiss ya?" He asked, nerves biting him like angry snakes "í thought you'd névér ask" Elvis's hand wrapped around Sofia's neck and pulled her into a deep kiss.

That was also the first night they made love. After that he got her father to agree to let Elvis date her which wasn't that hard, her father liked him like a son. A few years later he asked her to marry him, she was so happy that she basically tackled him into a hug as she said "YÉS".

He and she became the king and queen of the Memphis Mafia, and life was wonderful, not only did he have a beautiful wife and was a kingpin to a strong mafia, his singing career was taking off but it all seemed pointless when Sofia left without a trace, not even her father didn't know where she was. That was when he was 22 then, he's been searching for her ever since.

After 18 years, 18 years he finally found her but not in way he'd like..

The first thing that he saw as he busted open the door to her apartment, was her laying in her blood and still gushing from the stab wounds littering her body, the butcher knife standing strong within her throat, and..a girl kneeling beside her corpse, blood on her hands as she stares at the body of his love, her hair covering her face.

Elvis saw red and he rushed to the girl, her back hits the floor as Elvis pinned to it, his hands wrapped around her neck and squeezing. The girl claws at his arms, panic in her pretty eyes..Elvis had seen those eyes before and that nose and hair color..Elvis widened at the realization, he quickly let her go, and as she takes a deep breath in, he takes his pistol and knocks her out with it. He gets off and picks her up bridal Style, "Men," the men surrounding him perk up "I want to know this girl's relation with your queen. Check everything, no spot unchecked, and be quick. Understand?" Elvis looked around the room "Yes sir!" they immediately start looking.

Elvis nodded, satisfied. He walked to the door and looked at jerry, a silent message shared between them before he head to the car waiting for him, Jerry following not far behind. He placed the girl into the seat beside him as he sits, he gestured for the driver to leave.

"ugh," you groan, your head pounding. You went to rub your head but something stopped you from doing so, your eyes snapped open as you tried to move. You were bound to a bed and ropes tied you into a starfish position. You looked around the room, the walls black with gold. It was a big room, larger than your living room and at the foot of the bed, a few feet away, was a couch and a fireplace. Finally looking closer at the couch you saw a man with jet-black hair with his back to you, smoking.

You gasped, everything came rushing to you. Your mother's brutality murdered body. Elvis Presley! Him choking you and he knocked you out with a gun.

"I see ya up now," Elvis said calmly as he walked towards the bed with cold eyes "Who are you to Sofia?" He glared at you, a shiver makes it up your spine, and your breath got caught in your throat "EP! We have something you might want to see...privately" Jerry tailed off, holding the door open. Elvis looked back at him, hummed, and walked out the door with Jerry.

"What is it?" Elvis questioned but Jerry didn't answer instead he hands out a folded paper and Elvis takes the paper with a raised brow and unfolds it, what was in it made time stop for him.

It was a birth certificate.

'Y/n Longo.

Mother: Sofia Presley.

Father: Elvis Presley.'

"Goddamn." Elvis whispered "Here," He cleared his throat, handing the certificate to Jerry "Take this to my office, and lock the door" "What about her?" Jerry nodded his head to Elvis's bedroom door "I'll deal with it." that was the last thing Elvis said before he walked back into the room.

You watch Elvis walk back in and headed straight to you, He takes out a pocket knife. He was gonna kill you. you closed your eyes 'at least it's by the hottest man alive' you waited for the painful pierce but all you heard was a rope being cut, your head turned to the sound and you open your eyes. Elvis was sawing through the thick light brown rope holding your right hand. "I'm sorry I attacked ya..I just thought you killed her. She was a dear friend of mine. If ya wonderin' who I was to her." He finished cutting it and moved to another "The person who killed your mother will most like come after you, So you will live here with me." Snap "I know yar mother would want me to protect you." Snap "You will be sleeping here. With me understand?" He looked at you as he cut the rope that held your left foot "Y-Yes." you said in shock. "Good, ya see that closet over there" He looked at the doorframe beside The tv and fireplace, and you follow his gaze. "You can borrow some of my PJs until we get ya some clothes." Elvis gave you one last glance and then made his way to his luxury bathroom.

Elvis closed the door and lays his hands against the counter as he stares at himself in the mirror. 'Sofia is she the reason ya left me? S-she's all I have of you now. I won't ever let her go'. Elvis's train of thought ended when a knock reaches his ears, he quickly washes and dries his face, he opens the door. "Excuse me, Mr. Presl-" "Elvis" "R-right I um need to wash my hands" You held up your blood-covered hands to empathize your point.

Elvis just takes your wrist, he pulls you into the bathroom without a response. He turns the water on and puts your hands underwater, rubbing away the dried crimson liquid. Seeing the blood of your mother rush down the drain finally clicks in your brain and tears slowly fall as you can hear your past voice in your mind.

'MOM!!' 'PLEASE!!!' 'Y-YOU'RE NOT DEAD. YOU CAN'T BE!!'

"Ya take a shower, it will help and 'm gonna lay out some clothes ok?" Elvis stated after he dried your hands, you nodded refusing to look at him. You didn't start taking off your clothes into you heard him leave and shut the door.

You walked out of the bathroom with a towel around you and there on the edge of Elvis's bed were purple color pajamas, He was already fast asleep, his lips slightly open and he lets out a silent snore. 'He looks so peaceful...' you thought while you picked up the PJs and changed into them, you slowly crawled into bed, and despite everything that happened you fall asleep, his warmth surrounding you.

....

you sat in bed, reading a book, still in your babydoll nightgown when Elvis strolls into your shared bedroom, enraged, he didn't spare a glance at you when you call his name. He plops down on the couch, pours himself some whiskey that sat on the beautiful glass table and he downed it within seconds.

"Elvis?" you tried again this time laying the book down on your bedside table and shifted to sit on the edge of your side of the large white-sheeted mattress. Elvis started to mumble and poured another shot "Elv-" "Will ya shut up?!" Elvis glared cutting you off, you glared back at him "How dare you-" you gasped as Elvis takes out his gun and slammed it again the glass table, shattering it before pointing the pistol at you, breathing heavily. You put up your hands as you stare at the barrel.

"Here's what ya gon' do. You gon' take off that skimpy little thing you call a nightgown and walk yar ass to bed" He growled, his blue eyes now black as he watches you take your babydoll with the panties off in a haste and walked to the bed backward slowly with Elvis following. You walked to the bed, eyes still on the gun aimed between your eyes, a bit of the large rug tripped you onto the bed, and you gasped fearfully as you scoot up, the gun now pointed at your head. Elvis's eyes traveled from your face to your fully-grown body, your bare pussy glistening between your parted legs. He clicked his tongue at the sight " I didn't know I had a slut in my bed" Elvis climbed into the bed and spread your legs wider as he lay within them. He trances the gun through your soaked folds, around your clit.

You inhale sharply, scared and aroused from the danger the firearm brought, you squirm "Stop movin'." He demanded, sucking and flicking your clit with vigor, throwing the pistol away, he shoved a thick long finger inside while sucking and pulling at your lips like a wild man, groaning at the taste of you, sending vibrations throughout your quaking pussy. You let out a stuttering moan and threw your head against the black silk pillow. He sat back and flung his suit jack off then his pants, underwear, and shoes. His hooded eyes locked with yours, and he licked his lips as he unbutton his dress shirt.

You swallow your nerves, confidently grabbed his heavy, thick cock, and give it a few pumps, twisting your wrist as you do so. "Goddamn." Elvis hissed, face twisting in pleasure. He hasty took your hand off of him and kissed you hard, nibbling, biting your lips as he slammed himself inside your tight pussy, F-fuck' Elvis pants, his hips colliding against your own, your velvety walls pulsing around his dick. You whimpered in pain into his mouth, bucking your hips.

"So fuckin' tight," he growled pinning your wandering hands above your head with one hand, choking you with the other "Ya gonna take want your daddy gives ya." he kisses your shoulder, his hash-hammering jolted your body up like a ragdoll "You're a damn vixen, wormin' ya self in my mind." Elvis hissed, squeezing your throat, "Never goin' leave me, that's why I'm goin' to get you nice and big with my baby" he groaned, rolling his hips in circles as he lets go of your hands and instead use your knees as leverage to drive his dick deeper.

You moaned and wailed while Elvis used you as his personal little sex toy, his cock drilling into you like a beast untamed, grants and huffs left his pouty lips, his hair on his cheat sticks to his skin from the sweat moving down his tan body and his blue eyes blown out of proportion, barely able to focus on one thing from the pleasure that you grieving him. "FUCK!" you wailed louder as his thrusting sped up so much you could see stars, you gripped and tear at the white sheets. it was getting too much! "So goddamn beautiful. I'll keep ya nice and pregnant, gonna fill ya over and over." Elvis moaned turned on by his own words, his fingers found your clit, rubbing it without mercy. The coil inside snaps and you squirted, covering Elvis's abdomen and thighs.

Elvis thrusted one last time into your beat-up cunt, spelling and filling your womb with his hot thick cum with eyes rolling back, and a deep groan, he collapsed on you breathing heavily. Closing your eyes in exhaustion, and without meaning to you slipped into unconsciousness, Elvis's cock nestled deep within you.

You stirred awake, eyes fluttering as all different sensations washed over you. You felt full? It was something you never felt before, and the feeling of an arm laying across your waist, your back against something firm and hairy. "wha-" your eyes snapped open as you quickly look behind you there laid your host for a week now, The man you're the biggest fan for, Elvis Presley snoring soundly. 'Oh my god! I got fucked by THE Elvis Presley and...and I'm so stick, ew' you cringed as you slowly move away from him. You let out a pained whimper as his dick slides out of your poor core. Getting out of bed, you quietly limp to the bathroom to take a shower.

you turned on the light without a single glance at the mirror and towards the wide-headed shower, you winced when you bend down to turn the temperatures just right. Finally, you stepped under the much relaxing water, you looked down for a second, and screamed.

Elvis jerked awake from a high-pitched scream coming out of his bathroom, he throw the covers off, and his heart dropped, the once-white sheet was crimson red, he quickly jumped out of bed, grabbed his pistol from the ground, and busted into the bathroom "Darlin'?" Elvis called, walking to the shower with the gun aimed point blank, when you didn't answer, he yanked the shower curtain to see you sitting on the tiles, staring at your bloodied hands in terror "Darlin'?" Elvis repeated setting the weapon on the counter, "I am dying too..?" you trailed off finally looking up at him while he knees down beside you. "No, That's yar period," Elvis responded calmly, putting your hands under the water "Period?" you tilted your head, Elvis hummed, step into the shower, and pulled you up and in front of him.

"A period is when—"

.......

You rubbed your cramping stomach while you lay in the now-changed black-sheeted bed, luckily Elvis had some of your mother's old pads. You couldn't believe you had to go through this every month and you felt so..thirsty but not for water, you wanted Elvis, wanted to feel him inside like before, wanted to feel his cum in you, you mean you couldn't get pregnant right?

Getting out of bed, with a made-up mind, you didn't care if he was in a meeting, you needed him. So you left the room, not bothering to put a rope over your underwear-clad form. humming a tune you finally found his office, a big wooden oak door stood between you and Elvis, and you stop mid-way from opening the door, you knew he would be mad because he didn't want you to know more about his other world but you needed him so bad, you didn't care. "I want to find who killed Sofia, I don't care what it tak-" Elvis stopped mid-sentence, mouth gaping a little as you walked in, wearing nothing but a bra and underwear, Elvis closed his mouth when he noticed his men turned to you, eyes filled with want, lust for you, his daughter, his woman. His jaw clenched and his eyes narrowed as he watched them check out your ass when you walked by them to him, the only one who wasn't looking at you was his right-hand man; Jerry.

"What in God's name are ya doin', comin' in here looking like a goddamn whore." Elvis hissed, you just smiled and walked behind his large work desk, sitting on it with your legs crossed, leaning forward"I need you, daddy, my pussy needs you. Please fuck me, I don't care if they watch im yours only" you leaned back and uncrossed your legs, putting your feet on the arms rests on either side of Elvis. A staring contest happens between you and Elvis, challenging him to say no. Elvis pushed your feet from his chair and stood up, one hand shooting out to grasp your neck, he pushes his hard erection against your crotch "Fine, Since ya want to be a slut, I'll use you like one" he growled, swapping away the items on his desk, and laid you down. He pulled down his pants, having gone without underwear he pushes inside, using your blood as lube, his men and Jerry watch on with bated breath as their kingpin takes a girl in front of them, some of the men couldn't help but touch themselves through their strained pants.

Elvis let out a deep, long moan, you were still so tight like he hadn't pounded you just last night. The feeling of your warm pussy, soft walls, and blood got, he couldn't lie the sight of the glistening blood covering his cock each time he thrusted, made him crazy with lust. "F-fuck! yes, daddy!" you panted out as his precise thrusts hit that special spot inside, the force of his pounding rocked the heavy desk like it was nothing and his hands held your hips, pushing them down with each rough thrust he gave.

Multiple groans and moans reached your ears, looking up, the view that graced your orbs, making another rush of arousal flow out of your pussy. Everyone besides Jerry of Elvis's Memphis Mafia was jerking off. Elvis smirked, a mischievous glint in his otherwise ocean eyes "Jerry. Come here" said the man's shoulders tensed up at his boss's voice "Isn't she a beauty?" Elvis asked Jerry when he stood in front of him, Jerry looked at you for barely a second, his dick hardening, you jolted each time Elvis slammed into you, and oh, your beautiful sounds were like music, how Jerry wanted you but no, he wouldn't ever betray Elvis, his best friend, and boss.

"She's gorgeous EP." Jerry agreed, looking anywhere but y'all. Elvis's smirk grew wider "Think she'd look good in white?" "What?" "Think she'd be pretty in your white?" "b-boss?!" you cried out as Elvis sped up his brutal pounding "Take off yar pants and paint her white." with a hard gulp Jerry did what he was told, and pulled his pants down as well as his boxers, he let out a small whimper the moment he touched his already sensitive, hard as a rock dick. Jerry slowly started to jerk off to Elvis's thrusts. Suddenly Elvis ripped his thick cock from your pussy, and manhandled you to bend over the desk, his cock slammed back into you. "Oh!" you scream, eyes closed shut from the pleasure. Elvis's hand wrapped around your jaw, and his chest lay upon your back, his hips smacking your ass "Look at him, Princess" his southern drawl whispers as he kissed the back of your ear, you open your eyes, you let out a choked moan from seeing Jerry pumping his dick to Elvis's thrusts.

"You like that baby?" Elvis's hand moved to your throat "You like seein' the effect ya got on man," a harsh thrust hits your cervix "huh?" Elvis questioned again, squeezing your throat, all you could do was nod as another harsh thrust meets your cervix. Your eyes rolled back with the feeling of reaching your climax and juices rained down on your lover's cock, onto the floor, your pussy clamped around Elvis, triggering his release, his cum painted your womb with a snowy white while jerry's showered onto your face and hitting your cheeks, the corner of your lips and even your breasts. With a pleased sigh, you slouched across the dark wooden desk.

....

You smiled as you rubbed your swollen belly with your left hand, while 8 months pregnant. It wasn't planned but you were happy regardless and the widows in the hall you walked down shined bright upon your diamond ring. You stopped when you notice Elvis's office door cracked open, you pulled the wooden oak and went inside despite knowing to not enter, Elvis seems to hate the thought of you in there, even after you had sex.

You strolled behind the beautiful desk, your head titled as you look at the open drawer, and sat down on the fit-for-a-king office chair to get a closer peek, a huge amount of folds filled it, what piqued your interest though was a folder with your name on it and the date you met Elvis. Like the cat that was killed by curiosity, you picked up the folder and looked inside, baby pictures, high school grades, vacations, and holidays pictures, and your birth certificate sat inside. You quickly pulled out your certificate and tossed the rest on the desk. Your eyes wided

'Y/n Longo.

Mother: Sofia Presley.

Father: Elvis Presley.'

"Ya gon' leave me too?" his beautiful southern called out, your head snapped up, Elvis leaned against the open doorway, his normal ocean blues were now an icky blue, and a blank look rested on his face. You got up without saying a word and sauntered to him, a brief look of panic, and fear showed in his orbs before returning to a cold stare. Once you reached him, you grabbed his face and pulled him into a passionate kiss, stunning Elvis, stunning him so much he didn't kiss back, you slowly pulled back and grinned at his shocked look. "No, never. If anything this makes our love stronger" you said, Elvis's glaze was filled with love for you before he kissed you and pulled you into his arms.

"I love you."

Taglist; @ash-omalley @flwersgarden @godlypresley @plasticfantasticl0ver @galaxygirl453.

A/N: Sorry that it took so long my doves, that waited eagerly for Mafia life I hope it was up to your hopes. I decided to add a bonus scene, my babes ( @galaxygirl453 ) and I were talking about it, and this joke came up. She wrote this part and the mood board coming up.

*The Presley family and Jerry at Tia's school for family at school day*

*Tia presenting in front of the class while the Presley family and Jerry are sitting next to each other Vernon on Elvis's right side and Jerry on Elvis's left side with you sitting on Elvis's left leg*

Tia: My name is Tia Jesse Presley an I'm 5 years old,today 'm gonna introduce ya to my family!

*Tia runs to you and Elvis along with the rest*

Tia: *points to you* This is my mama and sister!

*you smile at her sitting on Elvis's lap*

Tia: *points to Elvis* This is my daddy and Grandpa!

*Elvis tries not to laugh at the other family's faces and scoots you closer to him*

Tia: *points to Vernon* This is my great grandpa and grandpa!

Vernon: *mouths* you're doing a good job hun!

Tia: *points to Jerry* And lastly this is my uncle and great uncle he's my daddy's right hand man and he does everything with ma daddy!...Well somethings depends what it is but anyway this is my family!

[reigningqueenofwords]

Tales

Pairing: Gabriel x Reader Word count: 1,881 Warnings: Character death, angst Request: @lovetusk gabe dies before reader can tell him she’s pregnant. uncles sam, dean, and cass visit often to tell the child stories of dad (gabe) and teach lore of creatures.

Read on AO3

“No.” You shook your head. “You’re wrong.” Despite what you were saying, you felt that lump in your throat, the tears fighting their way out to betray your words. “He can’t be dead! He just can’t!” Looking into Sam’s face, the damn broke. You couldn’t hold back the pain. Sam had broke the news to you a few minutes ago that Gabriel had been killed.

He took you in his arms, your fists grabbing his shirt, that was now soaked with your tears. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Y/N.” He whispered, his hand cradling the back of your head gently. His eyes went up to Dean, who simply watched. His heart breaking for you. You’d been with Gabe since before they ever met him. You and him were perfect for each other.

You shook your head again. “No. H-he can’t!” Your voice was muffled in Sam’s chest. “How do we know it’s not one of his tricks? That he won’t show up in a few days?” You looked up to your friend with puffy red eyes.

Dean decided to come over, seeing the look on Sam’s face. “I’m sorry, he’s gone.” He said gently. Your eyes moved to gaze at him. His normally bright green eyes were dim with sorrow. “Lucifer stabbed him with an angel blade.” He swallowed. It was hard for him to say those words to you. Gabe had left you behind to help them, not wanting you in the room with all those Gods. And it cost him his life. The Winchesters had become like your brothers since you’d met them. They thought of you as their baby sister.

Your chest felt like it was caving in on itself, like it was being crushed. Sitting down, your put your head in your hands. Sam sat next to you, pulling you into his side. “He can’t be gone. He has to be here for the baby.” Your voice was quiet, so they weren’t even sure that they heard you right.

“Did you say baby?” Dean asked, wanting to clarify.

Looking up, you nodded. “Yeah. I found out this morning that I’m pregnant. I never got the chance to tell him.” That brought another round of sobbing on. Sam and Dean locked eyes, their hearts breaking even more.

You shot up in bed, breathing heavy. Despite that night being nine years ago, it still felt like it was just yesterday. Every day you were reminded when you looked in your son’s eyes. His father’s honey-colored eyes. While you were pregnant, you’d stayed at the bunker. It was the safest place for you. After your son, Gabriel, was born, the guys helped you find an apartment not too far from them. This way they could check in with you, and you were able to get to safety if needed. No one knew who would come after you when news spread of him being born.

Wiping your cheeks, you slid out of bed. You’d moved into a house a year ago, one with four bedrooms. This way, the guys had one when they came to visit. Which was whenever they could. Cas was the most frequent visitor, as he didn’t  have to be near by. They would tell Gabriel, who they called by his middle name, Elliot, all about his father. They were his favorite bedtime stories, especially when Cas would tell him about his father in heaven. All those fantastic stories would light up those beautiful eyes, which was so bittersweet. Every night you prayed for him to return to you. It was all you ever prayed for. Dean had told you about God. About how he’s basically a ‘dead beat dad’, but you couldn’t stop. You’d pray until the day you died for the love of your life to come back.

As you sat at the island in the kitchen with your coffee, you glanced at the clock. It was five in the morning, so there was no use going back to bed. Gabriel had school that morning, so you would have to wake him up in an hour or so. Hearing footsteps down the stairs, you hurriedly wiped your eyes. “Can’t sleep?” You heard the gruff voice of Dean join you.

“No.” You whispered. “There’s fresh coffee made. Your have your creamer in the fridge.” Whenever they came, you made sure to have things they like stocked up. Hell, you had a chest freezer in the garage half full of frozen pies.

As he poured himself, he glanced at you, seeing the redness in your cheeks. “You dream about that night again?” He asked softly. You’d told him all about it one night while crying into his shirt. Ever since, he just knew. You nodded, holding on to the coffee mug with both hands and looking into it it. A tear slipped down your cheek. “I know it’s hard, looking into Elliot’s eyes every day and seeing Gabriel.” He sighed. “But, you’ve got to move on. You deserve it.” Dean wasn’t saying it to be mean, and you knew it. He wanted you happy.

You gave a half-hearted chuckle. “How the hell can anyone measure up to an archangel? And how do you tell someone that your son’s father is the Gabriel? An archangel. Meaning your son is half angel. A Nephilim. That’s not exactly a topic that most sane people have.” Glancing at him, he nodded. “And I can’t be with a hunter, Dean.” That was out of the question. He joined you at the table, both of you sitting in silence. It was oddly comforting. Just to know that you understood each other. “I’m gonna go take a shower. If he gets up, can you just make him a bowl of cereal?” You asked, putting your empty cup off to the side to have more later.

“Sure thing.” He gave you a small smile.

The rest of the morning seemed to drag on and on. You showered, got Gabriel ready for school, and Dean brought him to school for you. Once he got back, he hung out in the garage, tuning up your car. His Impala sat in the drive way. Sam was on his way back from a ghost hunt that had come up a day after they showed up. They played rock, paper, scissors to see who went. You had rolled your eyes and said that it was like having three kids in the house.

You were wiping down the furniture in the living room when the doorbell rang. The only people that ever stopped by unannounced were the boys, and Sam was still six hours away. Setting down the rag and furniture polish, you blew the strand of hair from your face. You wiped your hands on your pants and moved to the door.

Opening it, you froze. “Hey, sugar. Miss me?” He smirked. You didn’t move, were barely breathing. “Y/N?” He asked.

“Hey, Y/N? When’s the last time you had your oil changed?” Dean asked from the kitchen. When you didn’t answer, he came to where you were, all covered in grease and oil. “Gabriel?” He stared, wide eyed. “You really did fake it, didn’t you?” He asked, angry. “It’s been nine years.” Dean snapped, stepping forward. All he could think about were the sleepless nights, the tears, and watching your heart break every day.

Turning, you put your hands on his chest and looked up at him. “Dean.” You warned. “I will deal with this.” He knew that tone. Glancing back to Gabriel, Dean saw how pissed he looked.

He nodded. “Fine. I’m gonna go back to the garage. Call me if you need me.” Dean kissed the top of your head before walking out.

You swallowed, turning to Gabriel. “You’re with Dean?” He asked, his voice dangerously low.

“Get in here, you ass.” You ordered him, not wanting your neighbors to see this. Once he was in and the door was closed, you punched him as hard as you could. “NINE YEARS!” You yelled. “You’ve been gone nine years, Gabriel.” He stared at you, surprised at how much power you had in your smaller frame. “You have no right to walk back in my life after nine years and question who I allow in my home!” You shoved him. Not hard enough to make him move, but you had so much anger at the moment. “And no, Gabriel. I’m not with Dean!” How the hell did you even begin to tell him how angry you were?

He was angry, too. “You think I stayed away on purpose? I DIED, Y/N.” He yelled back, that fire in his eyes. The one that you’d longed to see. “I don’t know how or why I’m back. I’ve been back two years. You know how hard it is to find someone with when you come back as a human?” That shocked you. He came back…human? “I followed every lead I could.” His was losing that anger, and it was turning to sorrow. “You disappeared without a word from the hunting world. There were only whispers of you. All anyone could tell me was to find Sam and Dean. Every time I caught wind of a hunt they were on, they were in the wind again.”

“So, how did you find me? And why didn’t you ask Cas?” You asked, your eyes watering.

He sighed. “I couldn’t find him, either. I don’t know why.” Gabriel told you, rubbing your cheek.

Your eyes locked with his again. “And…you’re human?” You whispered. He nodded. “I prayed, Gabriel. Every night. For you to come back.”

“And I’m back, and I get to spend the rest of my very human, very normal, very mortal life…with you.” He smiled, kissing you gently. You returned it, tears falling.

You pulled away and hugged him for a minute. “We have a lot to catch up on.” You told him.

Gabriel’s eyes shifted to the wall to your right. There were pictures of you, Gabriel, the boys, and Cas. From pictures of Christmas, his birthdays, his first trip to the fair, and candid shots. Your eyes followed his. Would he ask if he was Dean’s, too? You chewed your lip.

“His name…is Gabriel.” You said quietly. “Gabriel Elliot. He’s at school right now.” He looked at you questioningly. “I found out I was pregnant the day that you died.”

He moved to look at the pictures better. “I have a son?” His voice was sad. “Does he know who I am?”

You smiled. “He does. Cas tells him stories about your time in heaven. His eyes light up. Dean and Sam, well, they tell the fun trickster stories. Of course they edit them to make them child friendly. But, he knows exactly who you are. You’re his favorite bedtime story. By the time he could talk he’d ask for ‘Daddy bedtime stories’.” You hugged him from behind. “He’s going to be happy to see you, Gabriel.” You said, resting your forehead on his back as his fingers laced with yours.

“I think my father brought me back for you.” He whispered. “That’s the only thing I can think of.” Why God has answered your prayers, you didn’t know. Nor did you care. Gabriel was back.

[yenqa]

MORE TIME WITH YOU!

chapter 20

too sweet coffee

warnings : swearing, angst, being overwhelmed, shitty writing

ignore timestamps!

not proofread!

niki didn’t expect you to say yes, well he should’ve because he felt almost disbelief when you agreed.

he didn’t even plan anything out, other than meeting at the cafe. he had procrastinated it so much that he only left a few hours to plan.

maybe i don’t need a plan, and i can just go with the flow?

he settled on that option, as he anxiously picked out an outfit.

these might look bad together, does this color look good on me? does y/n like my style? should i get jay hyung to style me?

niki had too big of an ego to ask jay, but he had to build his courage somehow.

jay had always helped niki pick outfits, but some teasing was always included. jay was the only one who knew he was meeting up with y/n, and he knew jay would keep it that way.

when he was being driven to the secluded cafe, he couldn’t stay still. whether it was fidgeting with his hands, moving his hair, or shakily doing anything on his phone.

every time the entry bell chimed his head was whipped up, searching for your familiar face.

on the third chime was when you came in, quickly spotting niki and sitting down.

“hi niki! did you order anything yet?” you ask, adjusting your hat.

“n-no i haven’t yet, do you want me to get you anything?”

fuck why was he so nervous? it had barely been a week since he last saw you.

“oh yes please! i’ll get a latte!”

niki nods, standing up to order.

he had sat back down when the order was placed, “so, did you have something you want to tell me or this is just a spontaneous meeting?” you ask, leaning on the table.

“uh actually yeah- i have something to tell you,”

you smile at him, “what is it then?”

“uh- basically i-“

“order number sixteen!”

niki’s head is shot up, informing you it was your order and going to get it, his hands shakily hand the cup to you before sitting down.

“woah they made the drinks pretty quick, but sorry, what were you saying?”

niki coughs, “oh yeah, um- ilikeyou.” niki rushes his words out. so fast, you could barely catch it.

“sorry, what?”

“i like you, y/n.”

your throat goes dry as niki’s face turns into a look of disappointment.

“i’m sorry i just-“ his voice was suddenly blocked out by your thoughts. they all seemed to be swirling around your mind, too much was going on. he liked you. the coffee had suddenly became too sweet. dispatch was probably on the way. your company will be mad at you for sneaking out. everything is wrong.

you didn’t notice when your legs had taken you out of the cafe, without your too sweet coffee niki had ordered for you.

niki was in shock, as you had left the cafe without saying a word, he knew this would happen. he should’ve never been hopeful. he should’ve never believed his members. he should’ve never met you.

but now, all was left was to come back home, to a sympathetic jay.

back masterlist next

sypnosis - a new idol variety show makes 4th generation maknaes take care of a kid for a month! what happens when niki gets paired with a random girl who he maybe had one interaction with a few months ago? and when the reality show ends, why does he want to spend more time with you?

a/n : did yall see this coming 😂😂🤞(i Dont care this is overdone!)

taglist : @hanniluvi @aki1e @bookishcalls @imhuh @millksea @nejisputa @asunova @gojosimpp @mitsukifilms @sstarrysshit @kalliyen @inlovewsimjaeyun @invusblog @astrowonomical @luvdokja @trsrina @kittyeij @niktwazny303 @voidbeomgyu @jeongintwt @szvirm @zi-ever @luveuly @ilovewonyo @blossomnct @ineedaherosavemeenow @ahnneyong @anti-romanitc-blues @flower-lise @hafsa-hoofsa-heefs @strwberrydinosaur @luviehyuk @pw00kkat @lomzy5 @i-yeseo @7myoi @seesaweun @captain-satan @kyanmeai @gfksn @xiaoderrrr @softiegukk @soov @bougiesunoo @wonwonieeee @nomniki @flwrsforriki @meiiiwa @2tothee2 @mavlogist @judeduartewannabe @homohoons @nnniika

bold can’t be tagged!

[narrators-journal]

Months of tolerance v. 2.0

Decided to feed some of my more neglected fandoms again while I’m just vibing. So! Decided to rewrite one of my first scenarios for bsd! Hope ya enjoy this little update.

The orphanage Atsushi Nakajima had grown up in didn’t do many holidays. At least, not that he knew of.

The best Atsushi got in ways of celebration, was when the director would get him new clothes for Christmas every few years. So, the candy-colored, lovey-dovey time that was Valentines day or White day held no real significance to him, even when Osamu Dazai drug him out on his day off to ‘learn the basics’, as the bandage-clad brunette had said. Though, that lack of significance still wasn’t enough to spare the weretiger the pain that came from all of the teddy bears, candies, and cards that filled the shelves of the store for lovers, friends, and family to buy.

“Dazai, I...don’t think Valentines is a holiday I’m very...fitting for.” He sighed as he studied one of the plushies on the shelf in front of him. Even as the rail that he called a mentor shot him a pathetic pout. “Come on, ‘sushi. Valentines is for everybody! It’s not like the american tradition, you don’t need a romantic partner to partake! You can just get a gift for everyone in the ADA until you find yourself someone!” He reasoned, suddenly at Atsushi’s side to throw an arm around his shoulders and give him a too-bright smile. “Plus! Just think of how a knowledge of romance, even basic, can give you a one up on Akutagawa! If all else fails, this is, like, a tactical mission.” Which, got the weretiger to grimace, “What does he have to do with this? I don’t even like him as a friend.” He pointed out, but all Dazai did was pat his shoulder and give him a more sympathetic smile. As if the white-haired man was stupid for that. “Atsushi, it’s called ‘killing them with kindness’. Get Akutagawa a gift, confuse him and soften him up to you. At a minimum, it’ll chase him off and save you money on shirts.”

And, while the brunette’s point earned a deep scowl from the choppy-haired man, he didhave a good point. Even if Atsushi didn’t have much fondness for Akutagawa, the goth was probably the closest thing he had to a friend that he didn’t work with. And, if he got him to chill with the murderous jealousy over Dazai, he wouldbe able to keep a shirt for longer than a week.

So, he bought a cheap, glass-eyed black cat plushy as a gift for the dark-haired mafioso. However, that opened up another question to glare at the man. How to get the stuffed toy tothe wheezy man?

Which, was a predicament that haunted Atsushi through out the three days that led up to Valentines day. Damn it, is this really worth it? I don’t like Dazai’s cranky fanboy on the best of days, so why risk being killed over a toy? He thought bitterly as he glared down at the floppy feline laid crumpled on his cheap coffee table. Those plastic amber eyes allowed to stare up at the predatory cat emptily as he sat on the cheap, creaky goodwill couch the evening before the big day. The annoyance of the work day, paired with the disgusting knot of warmth, embarrassment, and vengeful anger enough to warm his cheeks the more he glared at the cat. I think I’d rather drink my own fucking piss.

With a low, feral growl, Atsushi got to his feet to pluck the cheap toy up from the coffee table and throw it out of his living room window hard enough to hear its soft body hit the lid of the dumpster across the street from his apartment building before he slammed his window shut once more with a decisive ‘humph’.

Atsushi could admit that Dazai was a very smart man with far more people skills than he had. But, the weretiger also refused to be plagued by confused, conflicted emotions just to placate a stab-happy psycho with a hate boner for him. So, he was happy to lay in bed and let the cheap cat rot in the dumpster.

But, regardless of that fact, he still found himself out in the chilly evening shadows to dig the plush cat out of the dumpster to be washed. Not due to an actual desire to give it to Akutagawa, though, simply because he’d spent money on it, and if he was truly going to ‘kill him with kindness’, it’d be easier if the plush toy didn’t reek of three-day-old take-out and dog vomit. And, when the next day came, he made sure to take the toy to work with him. That way, he could throw it at the goth when they inevitably ran into one another on the job and be rid of the dumb task.

Only for not even a single hair of the goth’s gradiented hair to be seen while Atsushi was out and about that day. Forced to deal with petty couple squabbles and emotional blow-ups with the toy cat in his pocket for no reason.

This is just proof I should’ve left this wretched thing in the dumpster. He fumed to himself as he walked home in the slowly dimming light of the setting sun. His sunset-colored eyes glued to the sidewalk to avoid the sight of even more reminders of his own loneliness. If I had tried to do what Dazai said, I’d be dead. This was an entire waste of my money, time, and mental space. The only thing giving Akutagawa this toy would’ve done is off-His thoughts were forced to a stop when he knocked someone on their ass thanks to, y’know, not actually looking where he was going. “O-oh my god! I’m so sorry, miss, are you hurt?!” He squawked, quick to offer his hand to the ravenette woman.

And, while she took his hand with little more than a shake of her head, Atsushi still raked his eyed over her familiar white dress, long, dark hair, and sickly familiar light steel-colored eyes- “Oh!...You’re Gin, right? Akutagawa’s sister.” He noted as he pulled her back to her feet, his words all it took to bring a tint of pink to her fair cheeks. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to run you over.” She said, her voice as light as a spring breeze. Which, the white-haired man couldn’t help but briefly compare to the rasp and snarl of her brother’s voice before he shoved those thoughts away to instead awkwardly laugh, “Oh, no no no, it was all my fault. I-I wasn’t looking where I was going, you see.” He stammered, initially tempted to try and help dust the woman off, but quick to decide against it in the realization of how inappropriate that might come off as.

“Is that yours?” She asked, her sudden question quick to replace his awkward shame with a brief flicker of confusion. At least, until he realized, much to his horror, that his floppy toy cat had been thrown to the sidewalk in his panic to help her up. “Uh, well...actually, I-I kinda...not really? I-it’s intended for...Akutagawa, actually?”

Understandably, the assassin gave him a distrustful eyebrow raise at that admission. Her soft voice hardened as she questioned, “No offense, but why did you buy my brother a toy? Is it intended as a gift for Valentines?” Which was a very fair question that left Atsushi to flounder like a hapless fish on a ship deck. The weretiger only able to manage a weak, “I...D-Dazai suggested it…” while his eyes flicked around the swiftly-darkened street to find anything but Gin to look at. All the while, the woman said nothing about how he fidgetted with the too-long tail that swayed behind him at all times like a tail and cooked in his own embarrassment.

Until, finally, she hummed with amusement laced into her words, “Well, how about I deliver it to him for you? Save you getting stabbed for something Dazai put you up to.” Which, got her a brief glance, but Atsushi knew better than to argue such a simple delivery method. So, he instead simply thanked her before he scrambled off towards his home with no other words to exchange.

Yet, despite how helpful and easy Gin’s offer made Valentines day, Atsushi’s anxiety was still high for the next few days. Each trip to or from work done with his senses on high alert for any sign of wheezing, coughing, or malicious aura. Only for the attacks to never come. Hell, the choppy-haired man didn’t even meet Akutagawa in a work context in the entire month or so that ticked by, let alone met a confrontation over the Valentines gift.

Maybe Aku really likes the gift? Or maybe Gin didn’t tell him who it was from. He mused as he walked home from the ADA in the dark evening hours. The street quiet and somewhat empty, air thick with anxiety over the mafiosos that liked to linger in the shadows and thin alleyways. Though, if Tachihara or Higuchi really had been around, they left Atsushi to his thoughts and the warmth that bubbled up in his ribcage.

Yet, before the weretiger could begin to poke at the mess of emotions that sat like a rock in his belly, something hard slammed into his head. Was I just shot? Was his initial thought after his body crumpled onto the pavement of the quiet sidewalk. Though, that idea was quickly squashed since if he’d been shot in the head, he wouldn’t have been able to think that thought, let alone watch the world spin and blur with the pain that throbbed in his skull. And, while the world did stabilize once more after what felt like an hour, the ache in his skull remained as he pushed himself back to his feet. And, while he tried to focus his eyes enough to try to find the culprit, all he ended up seeing in the darkness was a deformed, swollen can of his favorite soda

Which, was probably more confusing than a sudden attack on the weretiger since, well, soda cans don’t randomly fly at people’s heads, especially not when they haven’t even popped open. After all, they didn’t work like cartoon bubbly bottles, you couldn’t just pop a can of soda and launch it at someone like a torpedo. So, he was forced to think that someone had purposely hit him with it while he looked around the empty street as if he’d simply missed the culprit on his first scan. Kunikida? He throws stuff at Dazai, but I don’t know why he’d throw a soda at ME on- The date suddenly registered through the throb of pain in his head. And, a burning heat was quick to follow that realization to crawl up Atsushi’s neck and over his face. “Um?? T-thanks I guess?” He called into the shadows. Before swiftly booking it for home so that Akutagawa didn’t get a chance to maul him in person.

[rubykgrant]

I've been slowly re-doing/adjusting my RVB face designs, and also working on more characters! It will eventually be a LOT, but for now; here are the main Reds, Blues, Freelancers, Doc, plus a bonus of Locus, Flowers, and my OC Poppy (just for the fun of it~). I love designing characters, and playing around with features so everybody has different noses, mouths, chins/jaw-lines, etc. For everybody, I have two versions. The first being their signature armor color, and then their actual people colors. I also wanted to include things like facial hair, glasses, scars, freckles and what-not (like Donut's hearing aide and Carolina's eye shadow, because she can't NOT be edgey haha).

(below is some design descriptions and notes on my thought process for everybody. it is a LOT, don't feel obligated to read it~)

Grif and Simmons both clash and compliment each other not only in personality, but in physical features as well (Simmons is sharp, and Grif is soft). I wanted to show that Simmons actually isn't as scrawny and gawky as he used to be, but he hasn't totally registered that he's finally "grown into himself", or that some muscles have happened (once he does, this unlocks "Confident Simmons", and nobody is safe. for now, he's just too used to feeling awkward). Simmons has a fairly strong jawline, an aquiline nose, and hair the color of red clay. He's had his hair very short and properly styled for many years, but after Chorus it started to grow out, and when he pulled it back to see how much he needed to trim, he realized he liked being a ponytail guy! (also, it isn't visually shown here, but trans Simmons is real~) Grif is a big guy, fat and pretty darn strong with thick limbs, and rough around the edges. He's also handsome and beautiful (not "in spite" of those features, but BECAUSE of them). His features are like a combination of rebellious and charming, with his default expression being chill. He has warm copper brown skin, and hair that reaches his shoulders, dark brown, very thick and wavy (it also magically never gets tangled). You can see where Simmons' cyborg prosthetics match the same area where Grif got his skin grafts, but over the years Grif has sort of "absorbed" the organic material, and the skin is a shade darker than when the surgery was fresh (Simmons himself isn't too terribly pale, but still lighter than Grif). Grif occasionally shaves or lets his beard grow in more full, but usually likes to keep just a little bit of face-fuzz around his chin

Sarge is very boxy and built like a brick. I enjoy the irony of a character who has a very BIG personality being somewhat short in stature, and Sarge is certainly a little bundle of dynamite. Despite his claims of only being 29, he somewhere in his 50s (possibly getting into 60s), but still going strong. I wanted to show the age lines around his mouth and his eyes, so he doesn't just look weirdly "smooth" (this man is basically leather, and proud of it. he also has larger earlobes, and bushy eyebrows). His hair has gone white and gray, kept in a perpetual buzz-cut, and he has some scruffy facial hair. He's broken both his nose and his jaw several times in his life, resulting in some unique shapes. Most of his scars happened years ago when he was younger, but the scar on the side of his head is from getting shot during Blood Gulch. He's rather pale thanks to wearing the armor every day for a few decades. His "solution" was to try and sun burnt on purpose so he'll be RED again, but Donut, Simmons, and Doc stopped him before it got too bad. He typically looks very grumpy and stern, but we all know Sarge is EXPRESSIVE with his emotions

My thought process with Donut was to combine Barbie with GI Joe; very pretty, but also pretty darn strong! He has sort of a "soft diamond" shape to his face and jawline. He looks very sweet, but has the potential to be INTIMIDATING. In the past, his hair was light blonde, but turned a strawberry-brown as he got older. During Blood Gulch, when he got EXPLODED, Donut got some scars on the right side of his face, and the hair in that area never entirely grew back. After finally accepting that he is PINK, Donut has also embraced other aspects of himself, both loving who he already is and enjoying what he wants to be. He doesn't hid his scars, but he styles his hair with a side under-cut and dyes the longer lengths a lighter blonde. He also wears a hearing-aid for his right ear, and his eyebrow on that side is a bit thin too. Donut's mouth naturally makes the "cute kitty shape", and he usually has some shiny chapstick/lip-balm on as well. He likes to get some sun on his skin, but is careful not to tan too much, and always uses lots of lotion

Doc is very "in the middle", not too tall or too short, he's not skinny but not chubby either... however, he's got sort of a sturdy build, very athletic without being too buff. A rounded jawline that ends in a small point with his chin. He has a very high bridge to his nose, making a refined line from his forehead down in profile, with sharper edges at the sides of the nostrils. His skin is a deep brown, and his hair is very dark, kept short, with the curls swept up out of his face. Doc isn't "vain" exactly, but he likes to feel comfortable with himself, and to a certain degree, this involves being satisfied with his appearance. O'Malley also enjoys feeling sort of "cozy" with the hair and what-not, so it is a shared reassurance. Doc wears glasses, and O'Malley absolutely knows how to do the "intense anime glasses thing" when he wants to look DRAMATIC. Something I wanted to show with both of them; Doc has very welcoming and kind vibes, but he is perfectly capable of being a sarcastic little smart-mouth, with a fierce sense of resolve. O'Malley likes to be very over-the-top and appear threatening, but there's potential for him to protective, and even joyful. Again, he looks very in the middle, applying to Doc and O'Malley's attitudes

Kai resembles her brother in many ways, but I wanted to make sure she's still unique to herself. Things they have in common; warm copper skin, thick and wavy hair, and they're both chubby. There is a subtle heart-shape to her face (above around her forehead and hair, and also lower with her jaw). Kai has had fun with lots of different hairstyles through the years, but she's decided to just let it grow out. She's dyed it some crazy colors in the past, without really knowing what she was using, but now Donut helps her coordinate, so she has a gradient going on (darker golden-brown at the roots, lighter shades of brown in the middle, and finally yellow at the ends). To keep it from getting tangles, she usually has her hair tied back, or wrapped up while she sleeps. Kai is somebody who is very aware of what she's physically capable of, in terms of both strength and flexibility. Sometimes she shows off with some interesting party tricks, but also just has a graceful way of moving when she wants to dance (or kick somebody's butt). Everything about Kai is LOUD and PROUD, but that doesn't mean she can't calm down and share quiet moments with the people she cares about. She also has two double sets of earrings; two studs up on her right ear, and two small hoops lower on her left ear

The first rule when drawing Tucker; he is the prettiest. He has fairly long and noticeable eyelashes. His nose has a defined smooth and broad curve to it, giving him a profile that is a bit regal, even heroic. He's one of those people who always looks younger than he actually is (not exactly a "baby face", but naturally youthful, until one day he's just gonna suddenly become a silver fox). He has dark brown skin, and thick black hair (4c), kept a little long at the top, but styled as a fade. He has pierced ears, usually just two studs (but can be more elaborate if he wants to dress up). Tucker is an interesting character; visually, he can very easily be a pretty boy, or a prince charming... but then he starts talking, and you realize how obnoxious and annoying he is. Underneath the flirty attitude and sarcastic jokes, he has genuine concern for others, and a fear that he won't be strong enough to protect people. Underneath THAT, he's a determined and clever person that is capable of doing amazing things. All that is wrapped-up within Tucker. I wanted to see a hint of the charm and smug attitude in his face, but the noble look is in there too. Physically, he's a short-king (manlet), but after training with Wash, Tucker has impressive muscles that combine with some quick reflexes

I imagine Caboose as one of the BIGGER characters. He also has the strongest "huggable vibes" (he's literally friend-shaped, no matter how much Church used to argue this fact). Caboose has a naturally sweet smile, which makes it all the more serious when he's upset (a sad Caboose will break your heart... a mad Caboose might break your arms). As Sarge once said- "He's like an ox!". His skin is a shade of sandy brown. His hair is a deeper brown, very soft and a little bit fluffy (I'm especially happy with how his bangs turned out~). I really wanted to make it clear that while Caboose might be all kinds of adorable, he is indeed a grown man, able to take care of himself, and others as well (he understands things some of them never notice). The curve of his jaw is low and subtle, but also shows how "solid" he is built. Caboose is a hopeful person, and has the will power to MAKE things turn out OK one way or another. No matter how unusual his ideas might be, Caboose is dependable, and intuitively has the strength to be kind on purpose

Wash has kept the beard despite the teasing, which has finally transformed him from looking like a very tired lost teenager into a dad who works at a library (the beardo-fication of Wash~). His hair is mostly a light blonde, more golden brown at the roots and through his facial hair (during Project Freelancer, he had a shock of gray after the Epsilon incident, but it has faded). His skin is a light tan color, covered with MANY freckles, and a few scars on his face (the most recent neck injury isn't visible. the scar above his eye is actually from a skateboarding accident as a kid, but the one across his nose was sometime after Project Freelancer started to fall apart). Although he fusses over other people a lot, Wash is bad at taking his own advice, and tends to not eat or sleep enough. It also didn't help that he had a bad habit of ignoring his own emotional breaking points until he was in the middle of losing control... he's finally learned to recognize certain things, and accept every part of himself (a little punk kid, a dork, Mr Serious, a guy who had a Villain Moment, and somebody who really found where he belongs). Under the beard, he has an angular chin, his nose has a curved swoop shape to it, and he has a defined lower lip

Carolina is one of the few characters we see without armor in the series, so I knew what I was working with, but I also wanted to show how she has changed. Carolina is a naturally intense person with somewhat slender features, and she's worked hard to be VERY strong. Now that she's spent time with this group of goobers, and had some chill lessons from Grif, Carolina is rediscovering how to enjoy herself and be less harsh (remember, she is the BEST. this means she's gonna be the Best Red, the Best Blue, the Best at Being Annoying~). She cut her hair during Iris, a little bit choppy at the time, but later decided to keep it short and give it a cleaner trim. She's dyed it a darker, less vibrant shade of red (I imagine her natural red is a bit more carrot). She still uses heavy eye shadow though! (at this point, it is out of spite toward anybody who everybody who ever said it looked silly; not so silly when she's kicking your but, is it?). She's a bit pale, but with a warm tone to her skin. Most of Carolina's scars came from incidents when she didn't have armor, or was so determined to finish a mission, she didn't care if she got hurt. It isn't visible here, but she doesn't bother with shaving her legs (not to get all deep about it, but Carolina sort of has her own balance with embracing certain aspects of femininity, and also ignoring expectations of "beauty". she knows what she's about, and does what she wants)

These designs for Tex and Church exist within my story-line where they get to return in synthetic human bodies (originally intended for the Director to use for himself and Allison, once he could properly "resurrect" her... which didn't work). DNA samples were used as the basic building blocks, the genetic information was allowed to "randomize" itself. As a result, Tex isn't an identical clone of Allison (just like parents can have more than one child; related, but physically different). Ironically, Tex takes after Allison's maternal grandmother, and so does Carolina. Tex has light skin and blonde hair, which she keeps tied back in a ponytail, with two lengths that frame the sides of her face. Carolina and Tex have the same nose shape, a long bridge that curves up at the end. She considered cutting her hair different, or dying it another color... but she didn't want to constantly worry about "changing" herself to avoid any similarities with Allison. Instead, Tex wants to find out what it means to be HERSELF; which is BIG and BUFF. She's pretty tall with a thick body-type already, so she just had to work on the muscles (also, even with long hair, she still has a "warrior dude" vibe, and she's very proud of it). Tex naturally has a lot of confidence and a rebellious attitude, but she really isn't "mean"... at least, not all the time

Church definitely has some traits that came from the Director... but Church was always a contrary little so-and-so, and even though he had no control over how his body formed, it seemed he was destined to be the "opposite" of what somebody else intended. Church is much shorter than the Director, with a thicker more "chunky" body-type (he puts on some healthy weight later, getting a bit more chubby. he also works on being strong enough to pick Tex up. that was his whole motivation). He has a broader nose, and more squared jaw. He has light skin, but a bit more of a sandy color. The most obvious resemblance is his black hair, which sticks up like a soft hedgehog. He asked Carolina and Tex if he should avoid having facial hair (since they have to look at him, and he doesn't want them to be reminded of any unpleasant memories). They assure him that it's fine, and the hair on his chin kind of suits him (it fact, even through the similarities, they can look at him and just see CHURCH, as he is). Church can be a smug, loud-mouth jerk... but though all his rants full of curse words and insults, he cares very deeply about people. Even though he had some ego-trips, he mostly just thought of himself as "some guy". Now he knows how important he is, not because he's a special and highly advanced AI, but because a lot of people missed him. Now he can actually be with them all again, and just like Epsilon, he has the chance to find out what he's truly capable of (they can still project holographic avatars of themselves, but all of the AI Fragments are back too, and happily spend time in Church's head~). Although they make different expression, Church and Carolina have the same "neutral" shape to their mouths

Poppy was originally sent to a different group of Red and Blue Flag Zealots, meant to identify needed supplies and order more ammunition. She was designated "neutral", and had white armor with tan accents. When the teams ran out of bullets, they kept fighting in non-lethal ways, which Poppy thought was preferable to a clearly pointless war, so she just never put in the order for more. Both teams considered her a friend, playfully fighting over who's side she was on, but never getting mad at her for getting along with them all. After a dangerous incident left her knocked-out and recovering, Temple's group arrived to recruit more Sim Troopers. Poppy's group refused to join. When she woke up, they were all gone. She misses them dearly. Because she's still considered part of the Flag Zealots, the UNSC decided to throw her back into a new training program (which was actually pretty shady and insidious), and that's where she meets Sarge. Poppy has a calm yet sarcastic personality, with a raging inferno of a temper once somebody ticks her off. Perfect for Red Team! Poppy is medium-short, about the same as Doc. She has broad shoulders and strong arms, very sure-footed and versatile when it comes to fighting. A very go-with-the-flow attitude, somebody who can be comforting and encouraging, but isn't shy about showing her emotions. She has a somewhat rounded fact with a short, sturdy chin. Her skin is a light shade of brown, and her long hair is a dark earthy brown. Not pictures is her own prosthetic arm (she's meant to be a "mirror" for Simmons, clever like him, but not a know-it-all. she was the one in the accident, and woke up with cyborg parts. Sarge decides to just adopt her, and this SHOULD immediately make him hater her, but Simmons finds himself feeling pretty fond and protective of Poppy. accidental sibling! also, they're both trans in opposite directions~)

We've seen Locus without armor in a flash-back before Chorus, so I tried to translate that into my style I use here. I imagine that he actually wasn't doing to great Chorus, not eating or sleeping enough, what with the whole crisis involved; thinking of himself as a murder-machine unable to see the worth of kindness or mercy, and THEN recovering enough humanity to be horrified by his actions thus considering himself a monster without a purpose... y'know, that whole song and dance. Anyway, the Reds and Blues force him to be a person again, so he gained some weight back. While he has a very strong jaw, it's kind of low where the angle is (so he doesn't have a "long" chin, but a wide one). He also has pretty defined cheek bones, and other features as well (he wasn't smiling much for a LONG time, but he does indeed have lines on his face that deepen when it happens). He's BIG, burly, and buff... but hopefully looks less harsh than before

I like to imagine that Flowers keeps faking his own death, and has a set of plans outside of what Project Freelancer was trying to do... nothing ever worked out properly. Flowers mainly doesn’t like the idea of people being “thrown away” or treated like they’re worthless, and at his worst, that meant using people for some goal they didn’t choose for themselves. He wouldn’t like to admit it, but… “daddy doesn’t always know best”, and he’s trying to include people on the decisions of these goals now (while the Director and Councilor might have just thrown together Red and Blue teams to mimic the other group who had a nearly endless stalemate going, Flowers picked out the Reds and Blues for Blood Gulch because he LIKED them, and he genuinely thought Alpha would too… in a very twisted way, Flowers founded this family). Nobody entirely trusts him at first, what with all the lying. Plus he keeps talking like a overly cheerful serial killer. He’s an older and distinguished gentleman. Some gray streaks in his hair, which he keeps wrapped up in several small braids that make a flower-shaped bun. Some scars on his body from many missions and fights (including the ax to the shoulder). He has a warm, brown skin, and back tattoo that is just barely visible; orange blossoms. He has a tall and lanky body-type, but even past middle-age he still has thick muscles

[onceuponalegendbg-rwby]

RWBY Retrospective - Volume 2

With Volume 1's success, the team now had proof that there was an audience for this show. They just had to see if they could keep the momentum going.

Volume 2 is in an interesting position because it basically works as a middle chapter of a prologue, meaning it's meant as a connection point for V1 and 3. Not to say nothing happens, quite the contrary, but that it feels even more open ended than V1's finale. Our team even mentions that there's still so many questions and things to solve. However, V2 is a step forward for the series regardless.

From the first shot the show is letting us know that things have improved. The textures for the buildings look better, no longer just flat images. The first real shot we see of Beacon is grand and a far cry from episode 2 of V1's. Same can be said for the NPCs. Gone are the Shadow People and their comedic potential, now we have actual models. The coloring is also so much better, saturation levels seeming to have evened out enough to where characters like Weiss with her mostly white color scheme no longer hurt your eyes to look at.

This volume also does a better job at expanding on characters that didn't get much focus previously - characters like Yang and Pyrrha. It's not flawless in this department but there's an attempt made to give these characters depth past their initial impressions and I'd say that they succeed.

The show still carries over some of it's pacing issues from before, but they don't feel nearly as distracting as V1, most likely due to the episodes all being a more consistent and longer length than V1's four-six minute two parters. There's also just the lingering problem of not having the time to properly explain some mechanics of the world, which is no doubt why the World of Remnant videos that started up in this volume felt necessary to the crew.

Some General and Unfiltered Thoughts

While I know people have some issue with the whole Neptune - Weiss - Jaune part of the season, it doesn't really bother me, personally. It's just kind of there. I mostly just end up feeling bad for Pyrrha the whole time until Jaune gets his head on straight.

I find that the season's humor has improved. There's a few jokes that don't work for me, but over all I found myself laughing more. It feels like they're finding their footing a little better in that department here.

The foreshadowing is through the roof this volume, and given what happens in V3... Well. Let's just say it was warranted. Our trio of baddies take the stage and set us up for the inevitable fall.

While I love the Food Fight and the RWBY vs Roman fight I think the fights during the Mountain Glen arc (before and after the train) are kind of meh? A lot of it is split screen shots, and while CFVY's entrance is cool the rest feels... anticlimatic. Which I understand is a little bit of the point in regards to episode 12 but when viewed in a vacuum it's... not my favorite.

Genuinely the Burning the Candle Bee scene still remains one of my favorite scenes in the entire show. The lighting is gorgeous for early RWBY, Barb and Arryn do a great job, and the music is on point. There's just something so warm (heh) about that entire interaction and I will fight anyone who says this wasn't some of the best stuff in the first three volumes.

Music, as always, fantastic. Though I still cannot stand the rap in Caffeine.

[sketch-guardian]

RAD classmates with an S/O who secretly grew up in a lab sounds so fun to me, like the random lore drop they could possibly do, like “oh yeah, they used to inject me all the time!” When one of them complains about having to get a shot.

This ask is heavily inspired by a Gacha lab series I watched everyday when I was like 7 and sobbed when the creator quit 😞

I don't know which series you are referring to exactly🤔having never watched Gacha stuff in general🙈however I'll do my best💜✨also I assumed you meant all OCs, so I hope that's okay🤞🏻sometimes it's better to specify RAD classmates+New exchange students to make sure I'll definitely understand😥(moreover I apologize for not replying to the ask immediately, but I'm trying to draw the New exchange students' true celestial forms and it's a nightmare😭):

"RAD CLASSMATES+NEW EXCHANGE STUDENTS WITH A MC WHO SECRETLY GREW UP IN A LAB"

DEMYA

Although Demya spent part of her childhood in a circus as a freakshow attraction, having nevertheless suffered mistreatment such as being chained up, forced to wear muzzles, restraints and skipping meals, the context in which she lived as a young demon for a few months wouldn't be too different from MC's one, besides some obvious differences. Demya would for once be worryingly quiet, asking MC, if they feel up to it, to confess the details of the laboratory where they were raised and experimented on, listening intently to the horrible things MC was subjected to. Demya would then hug MC tightly, rocking them from side to side and promising that as their mate, she would never let anything like that happen to MC again. When Demya was freed, the first thing she did was going on a rampage, maiming all the circus workers, the ringmaster in particular, leaving no survivors, so she would ask MC if the scientists or the laboratory were still there, because if so, Demya would accompany them to destroy everything, having the right to take revenge

DOMNRA/MOBIM

MC's story would remind Domnra of when he freed Demya from her cage, a stranger at the time, leaving her to sow chaos immediately afterwards, even if it would be different circumstances than MC's. Domnra wouldn't be surprised at learning something that awful actually happened, considering that human beings can be just as cruel as demons and would tell MC that if they wanted to share their past, he, as their partner, would stay at their side to listen. If MC still had scars from the experiments on their body, Domnra would trace their outline with a caring and cautious touch, letting then MC return the gesture, with caresses on the scars on his chest and the one on his now blind eye, wounds suffered during the Celestial War. Mobim, being a little curse and therefore not being born conventionally, would not know how a human being should be raised, however the idea of ​​so many injections would make it nervous and sensing MC's trauma, even if hidden behind humor, Mobim would try to stay next to them as much as possible, in order to comfort and distract them

AZUL

Again, such story would remind Azul of Demya's tormented past, especially the first days in which he welcomed her into his home, the signs of beatings, bruises and other contusions were evident, it was clear that the demon hadn't been treated well, therefore at first Azul was very condescending and not intrusive, leaving Demya her space. Due to old habits, Azul would likely replicate the same behavior with MC, basically he would first observe them in search of scars, while pretending of doing nothing suspicious and then only as some time passed Azul would begin to ask more questions about MC's past in the lab, also curious to know if they had developed some skill or what exactly the scientists were aiming for. Obviously Azul's blood would boil at the thought of MC having such childhood, clear by his color change from light blue to red, however MC would be able to calm him down, especially since they seem to use humor to deflect trauma, a method Azul would be familiar with, as well as using cuddles. Azul would ask if the lab was still standing, just to make sure no one would come looking for MC anymore, even if he doubts they would get to Devildom

ZURI

MC's story would vaguely remind Zuri's about Demya's issue, about which she was among the last to find out, as Domnra and Azul had done their own thing at the time, without even consulting her on whether or not it was a good idea to welcome into their house a potentially cannibal demon, luckily in the end things went better than expected. Zuri would be slightly surprised and even a little disconcerted by the fact that MC would be able to joke about their situation, but she would then reflect that it's probably their way of dealing with trauma and managing the negative feelings inherent to it. Zuri would tactfully ask MC to tell her about their past in the lab and would stroke their hand in the process, squeezing it every now and then to be reassuring. The fact that someone could carry out experiments on a child would disgust Zuri, who would do some research on the laboratory and make sure that every scientist member was either dead or in any case unwilling to repeat such actions, however they wouldn't escape a punishment for the crimes commited against her beloved, after all just killing them would be too merciful

ODON

And to think that Odon thought they were cruel as a young demon, when a mere gaze was enough to end a lot of innocent lives, at least with Odon deaths were mostly quick, they didn't spend their time torturing others despite being an eldritch horror, as some human scientists apparently did instead on MC in a laboratory. Odon, always with a smile, even if fainter, would allow MC to confide in them and they would ask if the experiments had any repercussions on their physical or mental health, thinking of possible ways to remedy that, probably within the limits of their reality bending magic. Odon wouldn't be worried about some scientist looking for MC if they were still alive, because no one would be able to get close enough and stay alive to do so, thanks to their eye-like creatures. Some habits die hard, especially for Odon's familiars, decidedly more aggressive than them, despite being less dangerous

REMIEL

Remiel lived her childhood practically in isolation, for various safety reasons, in the company only of her mother Azrael and occasionally her father Death when he managed to visit, therefore the angel of death wouldn't be sure about what can be defined as growing up normally, however from MC's stories, Remiel would deduce that a child shouldn't undergo experiments, it would be amoral and against balance, a sin in short, not approved by any angel. Remiel, accostumed to listening to souls' stories and comforting them before they say their final goodbye, would be used to dealing with heavy topics, so MC would feel free to confide in the angel of death without fear of judgement, along some soft embraces with wings used as fluffy blankets to cover themselves in a feathery cocoon. Remiel, believing in redemption if genuine, would give the scientists a second chance if they were still alive and repentant, however if they lied, which she would notice, then the Archangel of Hope would have no glimmer of forgiveness to spare and would await their inevitable end, in order to restore balance

NATHANIEL

Nathaniel, as probably Remiel and Uriel as well, wouldn't know what a laboratory or syringes consist of, having nothing similar in the Celestial Realm, however he would be perceptive enough to understand from MC's tone that they aren't good, especially if associated with MC's growth path. Nathaniel would be disappointed by the way some members of humanity act to further progress and would gently scoff, shaking his head and thinking how lucky he's to have MC by his side, despite everything they've been through. Nathaniel would help MC open up about their time in the lab and whether the scientists were still alive or not, he would still leave MC with a blessing from him as a form of protection, accompanied by a soft kiss on their forehead for emphasis. If possible, Nathaniel would try to keep MC away from places that would remind them of the trauma they suffered or in any case to stay near as a figure to cling to or hide behind

URIEL

Uriel would need MC to explain to her in detail about their childhood in the laboratory and how human children normally grow up, to be certain of how to distinguish between normality and abomination, since she had never been that interested in the matter, after all Uriel spent her youth fighting and training and for some humans that might be abnormal, but for her it was routine, as a warrior angel. After MC's explanation, Uriel would be reasonably contradicted, indeed mad that such human behavior wasn't only allowed, but also probably went unpunished, which would be unacceptable for Uriel, who if MC didn't stop her and the scientists were still alive, would immediately remedy the situation, to prevent similar sins from happening again. If MC had scars, Uriel would grit her teeth, but at the time she would tell MC that those are proof that they survived and that they should be proud. With Uriel as a guardian at their side, MC would have nothing to fear anymore

[separatist-apologist]

Of course you can assign meaning to any of Taylor's songs however you like. However, I keep seeing people put The Alchemy in the Tayvis timeline because of the sports references and I'd just like to offer a different analysis of the lyrics.

The Alchemy is about calling up that one person you know is always waiting on you. The one who got away, the ex you never quite got over. The Alchemy is Taylors Version of Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored.

For your consideration (in this essay, I will-):

This happens once every few lifetimes-

Like the phrase, "that was a lifetime ago,"- if you subscribe to the theory that Taylor and MH were together back in 2014, you could consider that a lifetime ago.

I circled you on a map/ I haven't come around in so long/ but I'm coming back so strong

She's calling him up, he's back on her mind and she's ready to give this a shot again. She's saying, I'm single (finally) and you're the first person I thought of, the first phone call/text I'm making now that it's over. I'm in it, now.

So when I touch down call the amateurs and cut them from the team. Ditch the clowns/get the crown/ baby I'm the one to beat

I get why people think this is about Travis but consider touch down in terms of an airplane landing on a runway. She's coming to him and telling him, break up with your girlfriend if you have one or cut your roster. Ditch the clowns LMAO because baby its ME. The one you've wanted for YEARS.

Cause the sign on your heart says it's still reserved for me

This implies they've been together before. It's STILL reserved for me- we didn't work out before but you've been holding the same candle I have. You can be done with all those others (they're never gonna work out anyway) because we both know you and I belong together.

Honestly, who are we to fight the alchemy?

I love this line because alchemy is a pseudoscience. In medieval times, alchemy is basically proto-chemistry. It's looking at taking metals and turning them into elixirs, most famously turning lead into gold. Taylor isn't saying, who are we to fight fate? She's saying who are we to fight the ALCHEMY- it's not real, but she wants it to be. And I love this song because its a doomed love song. Lets turn these feelings we have into true love- but its alchemy. She can't, even if she wants to.

I'm taking this interpretation from Taylor's insistence that while Travis knows ball, she knows Aristotle. She'd be familiar with Neoplatonism and its relation to alchemy. Only she knows for sure, of course- I'm not stating any of this as fact.

Anyway back to the lyrics:

Hey you, what if I told you we're cool? That child's play back in school/Is forgiven under my rule

What happened in the past doesn't matter anymore. The things we messed up back then don't matter to me now. It's a fresh start for us

I haven't come around in so long/But I'm making a comeback to where I belong...

I haven't seen you in a long time- for whatever reason (her long term relationship imo), but I'm coming back to you now. I belong WITH you and I've always known it.

These blokes warm the benches/We been on a winning streak

All these other guys were just place holders for you, but they can't touch you. They'll never be US, they were never as important to me as you were.

He jokes that its heroin but this time with an "E"

I think this is the biggest indicator this song is not about Travis. I'm not a 1975 scholar, I don't know their music well, but I did listen to Halsey's Colors, she mentions similar themes with the drugs. A quick google search confirms that MH did have an addiction to heroin and honestly, this seems like the kind of joke he might make. He feels high again but this time it's her, the Heroine. She's his new drug.

Cheers chanted 'cause they said/There was no chance trying to be the greatest in the league/Where's the trophy?/He just comes running over to me

I struggle to make meaning of the bridge, but to me, I interpret this as HER saying he's the prize, where's her trophy, well he's running over to her right now. He's on his way to her. Everyone is telling her this isn't going to work, this isn't the kind of love she was writing about in Enchanted but she's not listening. It SHOULD be that kind of love, she wants it to be, and he's on his way to her. This time they're gonna get it right and this time it's going to work the way they both want it to.

[the-lonelyshepherd]

Okauy I have a few questions about your cowboy story (that you don't have to answer if you dont want to) Also sorry if the answers to some of these are obvious or if anything is mixed up i just skimmed through the tag

What are the scars on Shays back from?

When Catalinas (?) Sister got shot, how did that impact the story/what happened after to lead to where they are now?

Who is running the drug cartel and why?

What do the 2 gods have to do with the story?

who did shay kill as self defense and why?

That'll be all for now :]

hiii!!! no worries at ALL i’m so happy you took the time to go through the tag 🙏🙏🙏 these are such thoughtful questions i really liked answering them :)

What are the scars on Shays back from?

omg i’m redesigning them soon they’re gonna look. a little more WAUGH bc i don’t think i made them nearly weird cool or fucked up enough. but basically? wings. i’ll let yall interpret what you will from that :)

2. When Catalinas (?) Sister got shot, how did that impact the story/what happened after to lead to where they are now?

i do think im gonna have to clarify this whole little story more bc a lot of people got confused on it 😭 i don’t think i have enough info out yet. the whole impetus/sister getting shot thing happens like 10/15 years before the main story, and is kinda the catalyst for the wholeeeee thing. 

it’s basically this pair of sisters who are horse thieves. they immigrated from poland, found themselves very very far west with like zero money (or parents. and they’re i think 18 and 16 tentatively) so they start stealing horses. it all goes really well at first because this is at a point in time where the american west is not very populated at all besides indigenous people and the occasional settler. however, things go wrong (like they always do) and someone comes after them to get revenge leading to the sister getting shot.

the weird shit that happens has to do with the fact that they cross into the first threshold during the chase, and post literally  everyone involved dying but the older sister (tbnnnn kinda have a name but not sure yet) and błyskawica (younger sister’s horse, the white one covered in blood). then there’s this whole thing where a coyote comes to investigate the dead, she can tell it’s something distinctly powerful, she begs it to bring back her sister and it tells her it’s not that it can’t but it won’t. this pisses a bitch off BADDD and leads into the next question.

3. Who is running the drug cartel and why?

older sister from the last story!! it started bc she was stuck in the first threshold for a whileeee and had to come up w a way to survive, eventually formed a ragtag group of other people who were stranded, they figured out a bunch of shit about the first threshold world including making some fire drugs (called indigo for its bold blue color). once they crack interthreshold transport (for distribution) she still stays in the first threshold bc of her other motives (bring back her sister because now she knows it’s possible). 

she has this whole thing going on with starling (coyotes incomprehensible other half who ALSO hates its ass). starlings goal is to end its suffering and get revenge on coyote, older sisters goal is so warped and distorted over time that it’s hard to even pull apart anymore but it’s basically get back her sister and make coyote fucking suffer. and then shay shows up and it’s a whole thing. just a giant mess of a situation with years long feuds.

4. What do the 2 gods have to do with the story? 

they’re the center of the story in a lot of ways both for their symbolic purposes and the way they get their hands dirty. a lot.

you get a little bit of the situation with my prior answer but basically they’re one thing split in two so the main part (coyote) doesn’t have to live in constant agony from just knowing too much. but this means starling, the split half, has it even WORSE because it’s just a concentrated mass of the incomprehensible divine.

storywise starling fucks up shay really bad and later catalina a little bit. it has to do with the whole drug running thing, starling needs something to ground itself to at least the first threshold and uses shay for that which is. not fun for poor shay. coyote has like 72273 people who hate its ass (it kinda deserves it sometimes) and is also just very much the embodiment of the first threshold . when i think about them i tend to associate coyote with catalina and starling with shay, but the lines do blur especially later on. that’s kinda the point tho.

5. who did shay kill as self defense and why?

currently the plan is for it to be the first other person they encounter on the first threshold, kinda a rando just to introduce the fact that there are other people here but they’re usually very. not doing well at all.

she shoots him because he’s fucking creepyyyy. they were alone for a while and all of the sudden there’s this guy pulling up and he keeps coming towards them and he says he just wants water but the gleam of iron at his hip is a little too familiar and he just KEEPS coming towards them even though they keep telling him to stay back and when he starts to reach for his gun shay just kinda does it on impulse.

TYYYY FOR ALL THES QUESTIONS I HAD SM FUN ANSWERINGGFF :)))) TYTYTY 

[tnc-n3cl]

More Rito Headcanons!

Something of an expansion of my "Rito Biology 101" post, but I'm not going to bother with the in-universe POV and talking about a couple different things here so...

Here's the original. Now that TotK is out, we got some new info so I'm going to go over things. (Namely a new Tribe for Penn and some thoughts on the aged up kiddos.) There my be some minor spoilers in the images, so I'm going to put them below the read more line.

Minor edit: 7/30/23, realized that one of the new NPC's mentioned something I forgot to talk about!

New Rito Guy! Penn is a reporter who you team up with for a few sidequests. Clearly he's some kind of pelican, so a quick search on Wikipedia and... Pelca Tribe (from Pelecanus the genus that contains all living pelicans)

So a couple things here. One: the triangles on his little sash reminds me of Kass' scarf. (What did you do to Kass Nintendo?!) Two: his outfit appears to be made of some kind of blue leather. I'm assuming that all Rito wear leather armor basically (except Saki and the little ones). Interestingly, I had drawn an axe that had talon grip handles in the axe head that are sometimes made out of leather sourced from blue monster hides. Doubt that's the case here since he's not a warrior but still...

His catchphrase... You can see they did the little hook on his beak! Is that yellow on his chest part of his clothes? Hm...

Including this because, A: this is quite possibly my favorite quote from him and B: you can see he has webbed feets! (Still say they should have given the Rito four toes but whatever...)

Look at his tiny pen and notebook! (The dangles on his hood are shaped like pens!)

Okay, that's enough Penn for now... In other news, new color morphs just dropped ya'll!

So the first guy looks like he might be a shade or two lighter than Huck, but the second guy is a new color altogether. We gots purple Orni Tribe Ritos now! Really don't have much to say about these two, but more variety is nice.

EDIT: Actually I do have something to say about Ornest. He mentions that all Rito have the ability to manipulate the wind, something I was theorizing to be the case. So, headcanon confirmed!

Moving on to the kiddos!

Kotts! Again her headband makes me think of her father's scarf and I miss him so much!

Here's BotW Kotts for comparison. As you can see, the white on her face is starting to fade, and she's lost her "bangs", and her head is starting to be more bird shaped. Rough estimation is that TotK is around 5 years after BotW and I'm assuming that she's 5 during BotW so that would make her 10 in TotK. (I'm going with Rito living around 80 years on average BTW).

She's almost as tall as Link! Also that dialog speaks to me on like, a molecular level. (She gets up at 10AM BTW) Also note her Saki-like clothing.

BotW Molli

TotK Molli

I, uh, don't think she grew at all...

She wants to make cool arrows so her dad will use them with his bows... (Why's there no emoji/emoticon button?! I need a big eyed sad face here!)

Speaking of her dad... Here enjoy this totally unrelated to anything I'm talking about shot of Harth actually standing! He gets to do stuff in this game guys! (Can you believe I almost forgot he existed when I went from BotW to Age of Calamity? How could I forget this unique bird?!)

Last but not least, Bird Son himself...

Tulin!!!! Look at this adorable little guy! LOOK AT HIM!!!!

I like to think he admires the hell out of Link and so he's mimicking Link's pose as much as he can. Speaking of which... Get that guy a cowboy outfit and a giant belt buckle!

Look at him some more!

So I don't know if that's eyeliner or just natural markings but he's doing his mom's thing and I can't even you guys!

I am SO normal about these birds...

*regains composure*

Okay, so what have we learned from this? Rito start off with blue sclera (the whites of the eye) when they're little. Around 10 or so the sclera becomes white and the irises are blue. Given that neither Kass nor Amali have blue eyes, I'm going to assume at some point their daughters will develop yellow eyes like them. Tulin... Let's just say his eyes stay blue.

Fluffy white baby feathers on the face slowly fade over the years until they their faces are solid colors (Orni Tribe at least). Tulin's little bun, is this like his mom's "hair" or more like his dad's floof? His he tying it back? You can make out something around the base of it in that second image of him so I think so... What if he ends up with a braid like the Ancient Wind Sage? (Why couldn't you just name them Nintendo? You could have just used the Divine Beasts' names and it would have been fine!)

None of the kids have proper tail feathers yet, so I hesitate to call them juveniles... Give them a few more years and they'll probably start growing them.

I like Penn, and pelican/waterfowl Rito fit in with ideas I was having for my fanfic so... Just gotta find a way to fit him in...

I made it so that different Rito settlements have different symbols. Normally these would be found on the cloth around their waist. However, Penn has this unique symbol on his chestpiece... Granted there's some similar symbols around the village but...

[keryth-fr]

started playing a minecraft pokémon mod with friends and i CANNOT recommend it highly enough. Cobblemon is still early in development and lacks key features (trading, nicknames, 90% of the dex) but has some big QoL things i’m a massive fan of

some of the things that makes cobblemon feel good to interact with:

- all starters start at level 10, putting you at a pretty even playing field w wild pokemon

- a PC is 4 iron ingots and 2 glass. a healer is 5 iron and 2 copper. it’s SO easy to get your initial set up going if you want to get right into pokemon training

- basic pokeballs are 4 apricorns and a copper ingot. no other steps. there’s recoloured versions of the normal pokeball to allow for you to use blue/green/pink/yellow apricorns if that’s all you have (or you like those colors)

- ALL held items are craftable. most evolution items are craftable. some are locked to late game (EXP share requires chorus fruit) but you don’t have to rely on RNG for most things

- you can change movesets from the menu at anytime

- if you’re at a bad camera angle during battle, you can move around (or do things like open chests and mine!!) extension of this means running away means sprinting away not just clicking a button (pokeballs are also thrown manually)

- the models are just GOOD. they’re all blocky and chunky and feel like they belong in minecraft. slugma looks more like slugma than the 3D game models

- the more completed pokémon have SLEEPING animations that play when they’re asleep during battle or when they get sleepy outside of battle (the zubat line sleeps face down. we thought they were dead at first)

- in addition to the above some pokémon have custom fainting animations and they’re so good (kakuna slowly tipping over, haunter flying straight up into the air before dissipating, etc)

tl;dr if you like pokémon and minecraft, try to give cobblemon a shot. i’ve been playing the last few days with a group of friends and we’re all deeply enamoured