#so like did we all decide to use it or did the font maker just release it for free

[polarisbear]

i have to ask did editors all collectively get access to this one pretty title font bc i swear to god i’ve seen this one really thick serif font with pretty swirlies Everywhere

[browneyes-issac]

Memphis pt 3: The first date

Warnings: None I believe, just cuteness and cooking.

Summary: Its finally time to have your date with Frankie. 🤗

AN: Ok so this for real got out of hand quicklyyyy!! 🤣🙈 But hey when ideas strike ya just have to role with it, lol. So in other words, this part is really long..🙈💞

The recipe isn't really a family recipe, I just said that for the cuteness effect, lol. 🙈😆 The special idea in it is using bacon grease instead of veggie oil or other oil products. I am trying out writing this kinda in the third person mostly when it comes to talking about reader, I will try to when it's Frankie and reader too.. Also there are some parts while they are texting that I am leaving up to you to decide their reply. 💞

I'm declaring this as my birthday writing post in case I don't decide or finish a one shot by my birthday on Saturday, lol.. 🤣 Also not getting this read through because it's my gift to you all for my birthday week, and I want all of to be a surprise to everyone since it's finally their first official date and I'm hoping it'll be as sweet as I think it is to you guys. 💞🥰

AN I'm gonna start putting before each part for new readers:

Some keynotes/translations: When there is words in this font and have (") it is internal thoughts. When it is the font by itself it's me describing what the setting looks like, more in depth of what's going in their head, stuff like that. 😊 Text messages will be in the front and will be red for reader and blue for Frankie. I tried to not use emojis with Frankie's, because I feel like he knows how to use them but doesn't because he likes the simpleness of using symbols. 😆💞

All translation is from Spanish. I just went to Google and asked what it was in Spanish, lol. If I got it wrong shot me an ask or a DM. 🤗

cariño - sweetheart

hermosa flor - beautiful flower

Choosing this gif cause we all know Frankie has already been looking at reader like this. 💞🤭

Memphis Masterlist

Main masterlist

Frankie decided to text Y/N that night before he went to sleep.

Hey, I just wanted to text you and tell you that I had a really amazing time today and I can't wait until Friday. Also I hope getting settled in goes well and isn't too much of a headache for you.

Lastly, I hope your sleep tonight will be amazing, sweet dreams.

Xo

He is a little nervous to send it but he pushes it away because he really likes her and wanted to send a sweet message. After he sends it he puts the phone on the charger and goes to sleep.

The next morning Y/N wakes up surprisingly not sore from sleeping on the couch. Which is surprising, since most couches are evil and give soreness away as a present if you sleep on them. Maybe the furniture makers in Tennessee have some magical powers to make them super comfy.. 🤔

Once she was fully awake she recalls her dream she had and starts smiling because she can't believe she's already dreaming about him. But then again he's an absolute dream of a man, so who wouldn't dream about him.

She check your phone and there is a message from Frankie. She gets the most school girl smile on her face before she even opens it because she's already falling for him.

As she is reading it she gets butterflies in the best possible way and gets the cry thing in her throat because it's the sweetest thing anyone has ever texted her or even thought to do for her like that.

I am so sorry I am just now answering, I passed out on the couch as soon as i got done getting my boxes in the house from the car last night.

You are the sweetest ever. 🥺 I actually did sleep pretty good last night, didn't even wake up sore. I think there is something magical about the couches here, lol. 🤔

And I hope you slept well too. I did too, didn't ever expect to have such an amazing first day here and definitely didn't expect to meet such an amazing person. 🤭💞 I can't wait neither.

Oh and, I hope your day goes awesome.

💕😘

She sends it and puts the phone on the charger and goes and hops in the shower. Well first puts some music on ( in a country music mood so she puts on country station on Amazon music) and looks through her clothes box to get an outfit for today. She is definitely dancing while doing the task, there is no denying that and proceeds to keep doing so and singing in the shower like a complete goofball. Thank goodness she didn't get an apartment, they probably would have complained about her being loud so early in the day.

A tie dye Pink Floyd shirt that she's had forever and is one of the most comfy shirts ever, and a pair of thin jeans since its still pretty warm out.

Frankie is up at 4:45 am, he is still holding on hope that one day his military internal clock will decide to stop working so he can sleep in more. But in the mean time he makes the most of being up so darn early. Gets his shower done, makes breakfast on some days, after he's dressed and ready for the day he usually does laundry cause there is always a load to be done. Which always surprises him because he lives alone, after he thinks about it each time he reminds himself he is always doing projects and needs towels/rags and takes two showers a day since he ends up working so hard each day he needs that therapeutic shower at the end of the day to relax his muscles.

The old school in him makes him forget to check his phone shortly after he gets up most of the time, so he doesn't see that Y/N text back until around 9ish am. Which she got up around 8ish so him replying now won't be that bad.

He gets that adorable smile on his face while his cheeks heat up from reading her text, while he gets butterflies.

It's totally ok, I didn't expect a quick response in case you were busy with unpacking or sleeping. :) I'm sorry you had to sleep on the couch though.

It's nothing really, I just wanted to send you a sweet message. Well I'm glad you did sleep well. Haha, maybe there is. I think you got a better one then me, probably because I brought mine with me when I moved here. So I didn't get a magical one. :p

I did thank you. Well I'm really glad we ran into each other and I helped make your first day memorable. :) You're too kind, hermosa flor.

Same to you, cariño.

Xo

Frankie second guesses himself for second because he used sweet nicknames and in spanish. But he shakes it off because he really really likes her and hopes she doesn't mind.

She gets done in the shower. Still dancing like a goof, but there's a good reason this time.. " like i love country music " by Kane Brown is on, which is a must to dance to no matter what. After she's done drying off and is dressed, she dances to her phone in the bedroom.

She giggles and lays back on the bed. " good Lord is everything here so comfortable?? " she thinks to herself while marveling in how dang comfortable the bed is. Her checks cherry and she gets those dang butterflies again but more intense because he called her sweet nicknames.

She replys and gets up and rounds her keys, shoes, and purse to leave to get breakfast.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Frankie decides that he is going to text her a good night and a morning text everyday, just to brighten her day a little bit. Which makes Y/N get all 🥰 because he's an absolute sweetheart. They end up texting everyday. Weather it's just to check in, to send cute messages, just all around cuteness and getting to know each other.

Frankie has become Y/N's personal guide through the city. " he probably is getting annoyed with me asking so many dang questions. But he's so sweet and helpful, and it's another excuse to talk to him more. " she thinks to herself while scrunching up her face but then having a blushing smile on her face as she talks it through with herself.

Little did she know, it's Frankie's favorite part of his day when he gets to talk to her and even more when he gets to help her out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It's finally date dayyyyy!!!

Frankie wakes up at 5:20am today. He has to take a double take at the clock. " How in the hell did I manage to sleep in some?? " he says out loud as he's getting out of bed and rubbing his eyes. He's in his pj shorts, nothing else on. ( not even undies, cause who needs them while you're sleeping? ) once he's in the kitchen he smiles because he remembers what today is.

He text Y/N her morning text :

Good morning, hermosa. I hope your sleep was good. And that your day will be amazing. Oh and that you're excited and ready to learn some recipes tonight. I can't wait to see you. <3 :)

Xo

After he sends that he thinks to himself while nervously rubbing the back of his neck and pacing the room.. " Oh god, I hope she doesn't think I'm crazy for the last part.. "

By the way I don't mean for the last part to come off weird, I'm just excited to see you again because I had such an amazing time when we met.

He sends it and starts getting his breakfast made, so he can get in the shower and start getting the house cleaned up, and get some of the ingredients out for tonight.

Y/N is up at 7:30. " I don't think I'll ever get used to this darn bed. " she says out loud while shaking her head and getting out of bed.

" Goodness he is the sweetest most precious person ever. I'm so glad I ran into him. " she thinks to herself while texting Frankie back.

I swear I'm never going to get used to you sending morning messages. 🙈🥰 Always makes my day, even if it's just starting out lol.

I can't wait neither! I'm so excited to learn the recipes and to see you again! 💗

Oh my goodness Frankie, you dont have to apologize for that, I promise.. We've had this planned all week and have been talking about it, so full on acceptable that we are excited to see each other. 💞

Do I need to stop and get anything from the store before I come over later?

Frankie walks back into the kitchen and sees she messaged back. He smiles like a little kid getting their favorite ice cream. That weight of being nervous about saying he is excited to see her is lifted of his shoulders as he reads her text. " what did I do to deserve such a sweet amazing person in my life? " he says to himself while thinking of a reply.

Well get used to it, cariño. I'm gonna always be here as long as you'll allow me to, to send the messages. ;) And I'm glad it makes you're day. <3

Mi hermosa flor, you're too sweet to me. I just get nervous when I blurt things out like that without thinking.. My past relationships, they have gotten weirded out about me saying stuff like that and being too clingy....

Nope I got everything here. Just bring yourself. ;)

Y/N smiles and chews on her lip and smiling, while reading the first paragraph of his text. Then her heart breaks for him, "who would be weirded out by that, that is the sweetest thing ever" she thinks.

Oh you big flirt! 🤭 But for real youre the sweetest ever.

Oh Frankie... 🥺 I'm so sorry that they were, they just didn't see how amazing and sweet you are, it's their loss. 💗 And with me, you're always safe to be like that and however you want. 💞😘

Frankie's heart skips a beat and he gets the cry thing in his throat when he reads the second part of her message. " This woman is too good for me, what did I do right to get her to be in my life? " he says to himself.

He replys and gets to working on getting the ingredient out for tonight.

~~~~~~~~~~~

It's about two hours before she needs to be at Frankie's house and she's freaking out with what to wear.

" Do I wear something casual since we are cooking or do I wear something cute and sexy, and just ask him for an apron??? " she asks Ashlyn, because she video called her freaking out about what to wear and everything.

" Well I definitely think the second option is the best option. She says while smirking. And besides he won't be able keep his eyes off of you if you wear that. "

" You are such a brat you know that? But I love you and you're right even if I am so damn nervous for this. I really like him and want tonight to go well. "

" Yes I do know, you remind me all time. Ashlyn sticks her tongue out at her. They both start laughing. Now hurry up and get ready so you can go to your sexy cooking date!! It's going to amazing, I know it, babes. "

She picks out this gorgeous but simple and comfortable purple dress that hugs all her curves in the best way. It has sleeves down to the elbows and a v neck that accents her cleavage just right. She smirks at that once she realizes it. The shoes she decides on are simple slipons that are comfortable to be in. She doesn't put any makeup on because she's never really liked it. Puts her hair up and a simple but cute ponytail.

Frankie put on his favorite button up shirt, comfortable pants. He still looks really nice and that he's ready for a date.

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

Y/N is nervous walking up to Frankie's door, it all goes away once she sees him.

" well you clean up pretty good mister. " she says with the most beautiful but sly smile.

Frankie just about passes out from how gorgeous she looks. He goes to talk but nothing comes out.. He's just standing there with his month open.

" Are you ok Frankie? " she ask because he hasn't said anything..

" Uhhh yeah yes, I'm sorry.. You just.. You look gorgeous. Kinda took my breath away. " he says while rubbing the back of his neck and smiling.

She starts blushing and swats him on the chest playfully.

" would you like to come in? " he says while offering his hand

" Yes of course, such a gentleman.

Oh my goodness, your place is so breathtakingly beautiful Frankie! "

Frankie is smiling all cute and embarrassed like. " Oh it's nothing. It's the perfect size for me and I fell in love with the coziness when I first saw it. " " No you are breathtakingly beautiful. " he thinks after he answers her compliment and smiling all adorable.

" Do you want anything to drink before we get started? "

" hmmm, I'll take some water for now. "

While Frankie is getting her water, he asks; " Do you want an apron to keep your dress clean while we cook? "

" yes that would be fantastic, thank you. " she says with the slyest smile on her face and blushing.

" Ok so we are going to do the tomatoes first, then I'll start the chicken fries while we are getting the tomatoes done, then we'll get the pie made and put in the oven while we are eating. "

" That sounds like an awesome plan to me. What do you want to do first? "

" I got all the bowls and ingredients out so your job is to get the bowls filled while I prepare the pan. "

" Wait, what are you using for the cooking oil? "

He chuckles and shows her the jar of bacon grease. " This. It's bacon grease. My family has always used it for cooking anything fried, especially tomatoes. "

She is absolutely in shock.. " I have never thought of that, that is an awesome and delicious idea. I can't wait to try them. " she does a little happy dance and smiles while she is getting the eggs in the bowl.

Frankie chuckles again and shakes his head while he's looking at her with so much adoration and love.

" You ready to start, hermosa ? "

" Yes! " she says all excited.

" Ok go through the line of dipping and then come over here and gently put it in the pan. " he says with a smile and his voice so sweet, but deep because he is already in love with seeing her cook.

When she gets to the pan she slides right in front of Frankie and slightly leans into him. He let's out a little groan but covers it up with a cough. Y/N catches the groan and smiles to herself.

She looks up at him and asks how's that? before waking back to the other side of the counter. And she makes sure to sway her hips cause she knows he's looking.

" You did amazing, cariño. " he says while trying to focus on cooking to take his mind off of how much she just tuned him on and caused his cock to wake up even more after she leaned on him. She is not playing nice tonight, first with that dress, now with that little stunt.. She is going to be the death of him he swears.. And his cock twitches at the thought of seeing her when he first opened the door. "Oh dear Lord, calm yourself Morales. At least get through dinner first." He thinks to himself to calm down more.

She's smiling all sly and mischievous because she knows she made me flustered.

They get done with the tomatoes. Half way through Frankie got the other pan ready for the chicken fires. When they are done getting those cooked... Y/N decides she's gonna do something...

She throws flour at Frankie with the most mischievous but cutest smile.

" oh you're in trouble now! " Frankie says as he turns the fire off and chases her into the little dinning room.

He catches her. Wraps his big strong arms around her and picks her up and swings her around a few times. They both are giggling up a storm.

He sits her down slowly and she turns around. He still has his hands on her hips while she's turning around. She runs her hands up his chest and around his neck with one hand going to his hair to run her fingers through those gorgeous curls. He pulls her closer to himself while running his hands up her back, up and down..

" you know that when you ran your hand through your hair when we were at breakfast, I just about passed out because I wanted to be the one running my hands through your gorgeous curls. " she smiles shyly at him while doing what she said..

Frankie hums but manly moans at her while she massages his scalp heavenly and tips his head back into her touch. Then he laughs while he burrys his head in the crook of her neck.

" I actually did see you looking at me all lovingly while I did that, that's why I decided to still wear my hat tonight so I could do it, and see you be all cute while I do it. " he says while bringing his eyes back up to look into her eyes while he talks.

She is awestruck and gets all cherry red. Then buries her face in his chest out of embarrassment and then says; " You saw that?? I bet I looked like a complete dork cause I was in such a trance. "

He moves his hand to her chin and guides her to look at him while he says; " You looked beautiful and really adorable. That was one of the many times that day that I knew that I wanted to get to know you more because you are so amazing. "

She moves her hand to his cheek. Slowly moves it from where she had it around his neck.

They both look into each other's eyes before they smirk at each other and have that twinkle in their eyes. Frankie leans down and Y/N gets on her tip toes a little, and then....

To be continued.... 💞🤗🤭

AN after reading: Ok so you probably are mad at me for the cliffhanger.. But I wanted to do it because I made this such a long part and who doesn't love cliffhangers!! 🤭

Also I hope I did ok with the spicy talk I did, I was nervous to do so.. 🙈 But I wanted it to happen because I feel like they would definitely be acting like that around each other, lol. 💞

But I hope you liked this part as much as I loved writing it!! 💞🤗

Taglist: @stxrrylunatic @heythere-mel @prolix-yuy @supernaturalgirl20

If you would like to be added to the taglist for future parts just shoot me an ask or a DM. 💞🤗

[ace-malarky]

ok! nano project time! are we still doing comic sans powerpoints and do I actually care

it's mostly words like. I don't really do pictures and you should know this by now.

... did I mention anywhere that Selene and Solaris are dual viewpoints or did I just say "hey here are two protags"

smooth

I'm not editing it again

Anyhow yeah Soul of the Party! I'm slightly hype for this thing! If you want on some sort of taglist for updates which I am fully planning on doing through the month. Let me know. There are bits and pieces under either "The Soul of the Party" or "Dichotomy" tags because I haven't fully swapped them over yet.

I may also be doing some writing streams on twitch over the weekends if you wanna hang out there? idk. We'll see how it goes.

I am also SCMalarky over on the Nano site if we aren't already following each other over there <3

oh wait. picrews used; baydew's, androgynous, poicon, character maker, and kahuna929, and of course Elise was drawn by @loopyhoopywrites bc that's rad af and also from this wip hehe

image description for all of them under the cut! (it got long I am so sorry there are so many words on this thing)

a series of powerpoint slides, all white backgrounds with comic sans font.

slide one; The Soul of the Party (formerly known as Dichotomy) [line break, smaller font] (I just thought it was a rad word. It sort of fit) [line break, smaller font] Sir is that a pun in the title [line break] Yes? Maybe what of it [line break] Goddammit Ace I thought you were better than this [line break] No you didn't <3

slide two; Can I get a Uhhhh fucken plot? [line break, smaller font] God you and me both buddy

crime [in all caps]

Theft. Theft is happening

It looks as though people are stealing from their own houses, but they have no memory of the act

It's been going on for a while. Local authorities have no clue

Dedicated task force are brought in to look into it because of the annual summer tournament going on

Solaris was coming to stay so he could enter the tournament, but Selene's parents decide that isn't safe

He and Selene decide to investigate instead, because that's perfectly safe

Most of everyone gets dragged along in their wake

The Magic Thieves are here for their own Crimes, but UHOH they're the target for these ones

slide three; So basically [in all caps]

The Soul Mages would like their fucked up experiment back, thanks

Elise has a Green Witch's soul stuck in her body as well. It's a time-share thing

The Soul Mages were the ones to stabilies it, but they weren't too happy when said Green Witch broke them free

The Soul Mages know she's with the Magic Thieves bc. Well. Someone had to work it out? Elise's soul buddy has a Very Distinctive MO

It's called destroying the fuck out of everything

Elise's Soul Buddy is not very nice

So they go on a magical crime spree

enact a lot of crime that looks like the Magic Thieves.

Count on them coming in to see who's stepping on their toes

Take Elise back

(for the record, Elise saw this coming)

What could possibly go wrong?

one nosey motherfucker and her friends, that's what

Slide four: The Protagonists

image one; a digital image of a white girl with brown shoulder length hair, gold hooped earrings, and a flower tucked behind her left ear. She's wearing a pink top with white edging, and a sheer gold shawl, and a red pendant. She's smiling.

Selene Taskeral

She/her

The young lady of the house

Curious to a fault

Investigating amongst the nobles

Knows her way around a sword

Image two; a digital image of a white boy with brown hair tied up in a bun, with thick strands falling over either side of his face. He's wearing a green poloneck under a black coat with a heavy fur collar. He's smiling slightly.

Solaris Taskeral

He/him

The out-of-town cousin

Investigating in the streets

Doesn't always think decisions through

A distinct lack of self-preservation

They share a secret!! The family is in on it! It's a surprise for later :3

Slide five; The Noble Team

image one; a digital image of a white girl with blonde hair tied back in a plait. She has a gold wreath of leaves placed on her head and is wearing a blue tunic with a gold collar and a gold cloak clasped over her shoulder, with gold droplet earrings. There are sparkles in the space about her. She has an open, almost innocent expression.

Abigail Gaulivant

She/her

Selene's best friend

Local gossip

butter wouldn't melt in her mouth

Has a crush on Saro

image two; a digital image of a white boy with short, slightly scruffy brown hair. He has round glasses and is wearing a red tshirt under a black jacket. He looks despairing.

Saro Taskeral

He/him

Selene's older brother

Tired

The sensible one

Protective of Selene

Image three; a digital image of a white girl with long red hair tied back in a ponytail that is swept to the left. She has freckles scattered across her face. She is wearing a black and dark grey tanktop and a gold pendant. She is grinning and has one eyebrow raised, and there is a small speech bubble leading to her with an exclamation mark in it, against a green background with a lighter green circle.

Llinos ferch Rhydderch

She/her

Feral mage; unbonded

Hired to keep an eye on Selene

Archer, handy with a dagger

Tumbled to Selene's secret within minutes of meeting her

Slide six; The Street Team

Image one; a Heroforge figurine of a cat person with light yellow fur and black spots, with black tips to his ears. He's wearing red-brown leather armour and a dark brown cloak flowing back over his shoulders. He has a sword at his side and is stepping forward with one hand outstretched in a welcoming gesture.

Jasper sa Adrassa

He/him

Feral mage; lynx (fire)

Was looking for some peace and quiet gdi now he has to babysit some kids

Image two; a Heroforge figurine of a fox person with black fur and white tips to his ears and eyebrows. He's wearing a warm yellow and orange shirt and trousers under a green waistcoat. In one hand he holds a slingshot, and his other is held across his waist.

Tadg ap Saril

He/him

Feral mage; fox

Tamhas' twin

A Gentleman(tm)

Plagues Jasper

Image three; a Heroforge figurine of a fox person with pale sandy fur, though his throat, hands, legs and ears are all black. He's wearing an open dark green shirt with yellow cuffs, a low brown corset with blue string over dark green trousers with a yellow sash. He stands at the ready with a pouch in one hand.

Tamhas ap Liram

He/him

Feral mage; fox

Llinos' brother

A Menace(tm)

Plagues Jasper

Image four; a heroforge figurine of a bird person with black feathers and red scaling on her feet. She's wearing a green gilet over a red shirt and yellow trousers that only reach her knees. She has a large sword attached to her back and holds a ukulele ready to play

Kaua

She/her

Feral mage; raven (speech)

Local bardcore lesbian

Dating Llinos

Pintsize badass

[in smaller font] Also plagues Jasper

Slide seven; The Magic Thieves

(... not the actual thieves this time)

Image one; a digital drawing of a white woman in a purple edwardian dress that has large puffs for sleeves over her upper arms. She has blonde hair tied up behind her head, with some strands trailing past her face. She's resting one hand on her hip and looks disbelieving.

Elise Teekeros

She/her

Thief/con artist

Really doesn't want to be on this world

Ready to throw hands

Image two; a digital image of a light brown skinned man. He has close cropped brown hair and wears glasses, and looks unamused. He's wearing a dark purple suit & tie with a white shirt.

Skir Aracel

He/him

Arch Mage

The money

What he says goes

Too much pride for one man

Image three; a digital image of a white woman. She has blonde hair tied in a low bun and a frint that covers her forehead. She wears round glasses and has a slight smile. She's wearing a grey polo neck under a brown cardigan, and a necklace of pearls.

Millicent

She/her

Skir's family servant

Costuming department

Image four; a digital image of a brown skinned boy. He has floppy dark brown hair that ties into a small ponytail at the base of his head. He has small antlers with three tines protruding from his head and looks worried. He's wearing a loose dark brown shirt.

Skren

He/they

Faun

Older than he looks

Soft

Scared of most things

Slide eight; Featuring Brief Appearances From;

Image one; a digital image of a dark brown skinned person with short light brown hair that's combed back. They have a slight smile and a beauty mark on their cheek. They're wearing a white shirt under a tan waistcoat.

Carlin Everglade

They/them

Saro's best friend

A flirt

Entered the tournament

Image two; a digital image of a white skinned boy with fluffy blonde hair. He looks worried. He's wearing a high collared green shirt and a gold waistcoat.

Abban Gaulivant

He/they

Abigail's twin brother

Likes to party

Little bit naive

Image three; a digital image of a brown skinned woman with almost shoulder length brown hair. She has white stud earrings and is wearing a grey kimono patterned with cherry blossoms and thin branches. She's smiling in a way that suggests she knows more than you

Drassa sa Enser

She/her

Jasper's mother

Mysterious(tm) but well thought of

Slide nine; I'm sorry you said tournament?

Local generic tournament! Sword fights! Jousting! Group battles

Jasper entered on a whim

He was looking for something simple to do on his break from Llinos and Kaua

Physical skills only, magic isn't allowed

In the main events. There's a magic part now I [in all caps] have decided

... not that I know how that's going to work yet.

It's mostly a backdrop

Sometimes you just wanna write flashy low risk fights alright

There are some less flashy higher risk fights involved. That's how Selene meets Kaua

It comes with parties and Events for all the family! People travel to take part and see this thing! Whole lotta strangers in town if you catch my drift hmmm

Slide ten;

Hey what even is your world building

... yeah, sorry about that

Welcome to...

[in bigger, orange print] The Mist Worlds!

image description; the spongebob imagination meme

19(ish) interlinked worlds, most have their own magic type, people can travel via the Mist Gates

[at an angle, leading from "19(ish)"] Some have been destroyed, One is split in two

[In increasingly smaller font] The Gates are grouped in a couple of places in each world these days, anyone travelling by them needs the correct papers before a guide will take them. Originally they were unstable and dangerous and under the whim of the Fair Folk. Anyone walking through couldn't control where - or when - they'd come out. That's how Skren got lost! A couple thousand years ago the Arch Mages sealed the gates in place at the expense of locking a couple of worlds [The text cuts off]

This story is set on Tatariel! Magic type is Soul Magic

It's not one of the nicer ones

They can control people. Mostly it's about using the "power of their soul"/energy of their life to enact change

Other magic types mentioned;

Feral Mages - have animal companions! Can bond and become furries! [in increasingly smaller font with each parenthesis] (they were probably furries anyway (don't tell Jasper that))

Green Witches - destruction. Death by water.

Arch Mages - OP af at the expense of their sanity

Slide eleven; [in all caps] anyhow

... actually that's it

Investigations!

At least one masquerade ball!

Sword fights!

[in all caps] crime

A fair amount of nonsense I'm gonna make up on the spot!

Should be fun, you should come with

[cinnaminsvga]

Hug-o-gram | Yoongi

→ summary: 

“This is probably the dumbest idea you’ve ever had,” Yoongi hisses, but it’s kind of hard for Seokjin to take him seriously when he’s wearing a cardboard sign around his neck that says ‘Huggie Wuggie Machine!’ in bubble font. 

“Like, even worse than when we DIY’d your car into a convertible by sawing the top off?” Seokjin asks, genuinely curious. 

“Worse,” Yoongi admits, trying his best to stay out of your line of sight. His cheeks redden, matching the gaudy pink kitten ears he was forced into wearing.

{or alternatively: Seokjin is a terrible wingman. He also runs a profitable business by sending hugs to people’s crushes for a fee. Mix them together and you have a recipe for Min Yoongi’s worst nightmare.}

→ genre: college!au, hugging booth!au, fluff, humor → warnings: yoongi is so smitten that he’s a walking disaster, so much shy!yoongi to the point where you’ll want to scream, seokjin just tryna get his homie some y/n love coochie bro ;o; → words: 13.3K → a/n: another commission by the lovely @jincherie​ because she’s epic like that!! she literally just told me to write whatever the hell i wanted and well... yoobie got me Good... anyway here’s more yoongi fluff bc apparently i’m a fluff writer now and sometimes i just want my boy to be happy... appa yip yip

Kim Seokjin makes a lot of good decisions. He also makes plenty of bad ones, but he likes to think the score is lying heavily towards the positives. Min Yoongi will be the first one to quickly disagree, but Seokjin doesn’t let it get to him. He doesn’t make it his business to listen to opinions that don’t immediately align with his, anyway; he likes to call it “selective hearing.” Yoongi calls it stupidity. Either way, the point still stands: Seokjin knows a good idea when he sees one. Case in point:

“This automatic popcorn machine is absolutely divine,” Seokjin moans, his mouth agape as he waits for the Mister Popcorn Robot to bestow him with another morsel of goodness.

“Yeah,” is Yoongi’s verbose reply. He also has his mouth agape, his prone body lying side by side with his roommate of four years in their small living room. Their roomba (another one of Seokjin’s good ideas) cleans all around them, its steady whirring serving as their only source of background music. “Lowkey though, I think our position isn’t quite… as optimized as it could be.”

“What do you mean?” Seokjin asks, as he drapes his leg over Yoongi’s. His movement jostles the surrounding popcorn halo around them, as most of the food had missed their mouths by a couple of centimeters. At this point, the roomba has probably eaten more of the popcorn than the two of them combined.

“Nothing,” Yoongi shrugs, or whatever might be the lying down equivalent of a shrug. Some of the popcorn on his chest falls down, only to be quickly devoured by roomba-chi. Yoongi stares at the ceiling, tracing shapes out of the cracks that Seokjin had accidentally made when he tried using a pogo stick indoors. He points up, catching Seokjin’s attention. “Hey, hyung. Doesn’t that look a bit like Y/N?”

Seokjin squints. “You mean the mysterious brown stain near the lights? I think the toilet from the elderly couple upstairs might have leaked that.”

“No, you dipshit. The squiggly curve over there. It reminds me of her smile.” Yoongi says. There’s a stupid dopey grin on his face and Seokjin wants nothing more than to wipe it off.

“Jesus fucking Christ.” Seokjin groans, turning over to envelop Yoongi in a sweaty half-armed hug. The buttery residue on his arms and stomach leaves something to be desired, but Yoongi doesn’t scoot away. He only continues to sigh dreamily, staring mindlessly at the image of you that only his lovelorn brain can imagine.

Seokjin slaps Yoongi in the face. “Dude, get a fucking grip,” he grouses, giving Yoongi a serious look. The younger doesn’t break out of his trance, further irritating him. “Will you stop pining in front of my popcorn? It’s seriously making roomba-chi lose her appetite!”

To his credit, roomba-chi did seem to be slowing down, though that could also be because it had overloaded with popcorn and was seconds away from exploding. Wouldn’t be the first time, but Seokjin always managed to find a way to save roomba-chi from imminent death. She was like a daughter to him.

“Hyung, you know I can’t. I just… God, I really like her, you know?”

“That’s the third time you said that within the last hour. Believe me, I know.” Seokjin groans, shoving Yoongi away. He sits up, reaching over to the popcorn machine and switching it off. He grabs a fistful of fallen popcorn from the ground and shoves it inside Yoongi’s mouth. “There. That should shut you up.”

“Aw weawwy wike hew, hwung.”

“And yet, you still haven’t done anything after four years,” Seokjin tuts, finally standing up. He stretches his limbs, his joints creaking youthfully. He grabs his phone from the coffee table, nearly dropping it from the butteriness of his fingers. The clock reads 4:32 PM, which means–

“Yoongi, it’s time for me to head to work. You want to come with me today?” Seokjin asks, though he knows what answer he’s going to get. You see, Seokjin’s new booming business is another one of his fantastic ideas, but it is a little... inventive. Sure, Yoongi had scoffed when he had originally suggested the idea, but Seokjin knew that it was going to be a money-maker. Sure, it had taken a few years for the business to really take off, but once it finally did…

Enter Kim Seokjin’s Hug-o-gram Service! Students from his university are able to send anonymous payments directly to him, with little notes attached for their crushes. Each love letter delivery comes with a hug from Seokjin himself, delivered straight to the person without them ever knowing who the hug came from. It was ingenious! It was lucrative! But most of all…

It allowed Seokjin to cause drama and have an excuse for it! Nothing could have been more perfect for a man like him.

“No thanks,” Yoongi snorts, rolling over to face him. He watches from the floor as Seokjin changes into a butter-less shirt, which also happens to have his own face printed on the front and back. His trusty cardboard sign that reads “I’m Gonna Glomp Ya!” also joins his attire for the afternoon, a long piece of string tied to its edges so that he can wear it around his neck. Throwing on a pair of white sneakers with the tags still attached, Seokjin is ready to tackle today’s list of would-be hug-ees.

“How do I look?” Seokjin asks, combing his hair with his fingers. It leaves an oily sheen, which he somehow makes it work.

“Ugly,” Yoongi says, like a liar.

“It’s okay, I understand. I can speak tsundere, so you don’t need to explain,” Seokjin snickers, nearly getting hit with a TV remote by Yoongi. He opens his phone again, swiping to his e-mail to see his list of hug deliveries for the day.

Seokjin gets around 10 requests a day, with around half of them coming from regular clients. He’s especially fond of this boy who has been sending hugs to his TA named Namjoon for almost a month now. He has no idea why this kid has so much disposable income, though seeing the blush on Namjoon’s face everyday makes Seokjin think that he would spend every last penny for him too. Namjoon had begged Seokjin for his secret admirer’s identity, but snitchin’ isn’t a part of his service, unfortunately.

As much as Seokjin wants to know who is crushing on who, his little business wouldn’t work as well as it did if anonymity wasn’t included in his package deal. It allows people to thirst in public without facing the repercussions, like getting a knee to the groin or a slap to the face. Not that Seokjin has ever been at the receiving end of that; everyone loves him! Like, have you seen him? He must have saved a civilization in the past with how devastatingly beautiful his forehead is.

“Why am I suddenly filled with the relentless urge to deck you right now?” Yoongi says, getting up to change into clean clothes as well. His black t-shirt unfortunately does not have Seokjin’s face on it, but that can quickly be amended if the elder of the two decides to follow his every intrusive whim.

Seokjin laughs, completely unaware of the murderous capabilities of his friend. Due to his smaller body size, his percentage of evil is unusually concentrated. “Maybe it’s because you know that I’m into pain pla–” but Seokjin’s retort suddenly grinds to a halt. He chokes mid-sentence, coughing wildly as he pounds his chest with a balled-up fist. When Yoongi looks up at him, he finds his hyung staring slack-jawed at his phone, seemingly flabbergasted by what he finds on his screen.

“What’s the matter? Accidentally sent a dick pic to your prof again?” Yoongi snorts.

“That was one time! And no, it’s…” Seokjin trails off, uncharacteristically hesitant. He shifts his gaze from his phone to Yoongi, a drop of sweat quickly forming on the back of his neck. Yoongi raises a brow, silently urging him to continue.

Instead of replying, Seokjin hands him his phone. Yoongi finds a copy of one of Seokjin’s newest hug requests, only having just received it five minutes ago. As he scrolls down, he finds that this secret admirer is a new client, but that isn’t what made Seokjin stop in his tracks. Instead, it’s the recipient of the hug that catches his attention–

“Y/N has a secret admirer?” Yoongi says, voice cracking at the end. He clears his throat, trying his best to school his face into something less… jealous. He swivels away from Seokjin, forcing himself to breathe slowly through his nose. He convinces himself that he is the very epitome of calmness.

“You okay there, Yoongi? You look like you’re about to vomit,” Seokjin says, immediately breaking his inner peace. Yoongi groans loudly, shucking the phone over his shoulder, uncaring of where it lands. Seokjin, with his superhuman and God-given reflexes… doesn’t catch it. But he did dive to the floor like a seasoned Olympian, and his ass cushioned his phone so he supposes that’s a win.

Back to the matter at hand––

“I am fine,” Yoongi says, as he continues to not be fine.

From the floor, Seokjin shoots him a disbelieving look. He lies down more comfortably, propping his head on his elbows. Screw his hug-o-gram appointments for now; nothing brings him more joy than seeing Yoongi absolutely losing it. “Really? So you wouldn’t mind if I marched up to Y/N right now and give her the warmest, coziest, most tender hug of her fucking life?”

“Y… Yes,” Yoongi squeaks, neck glowing a furious red. He has his fists clenched (adorably) by his sides, head bowed as he faces the wall of their apartment. Seokjin’s brain makes the unhelpful comparison of Yoongi with that cat meme who says “no talk me angy” in Impact font.

Seokjin grins, his wickedness from within coiling and yearning to burst from his seams. This is it! Maybe if he pushes a little more, then maybe Yoongi will stop pining like a pathetic loser! Also, it didn’t hurt that he got to push Yoongi’s buttons while he’s at it, but hey! Not all heroes go to heaven or whatever.

He grabs his phone from his ass, scrolling back to the e-mail. “So… You wouldn’t mind if I walk up to Y/N right now and tell her ‘Hey! I’ve had an embarrassingly long crush on you and when I heard about this hugging service… I couldn’t miss the chance to shoot my shot! If you’re single and ready to #mingle, then please meet me at the Corner Cafe at 2 PM tomorrow.’” Seokjin sing-songs, snickering loudly when he sees the absolute pain etched onto Yoongi’s face.

There is a pause, and Seokjin waits as Yoongi uses his tiny kitty brain to think of what to do. He can only imagine what’s going inside his head, but he has a guess. Yoongi could either: 1) finally admit his feelings for you and come clean before Seokjin has to deliver your hug, or 2) do something stupid and counterproductive.

It comes as no surprise when Yoongi goes with option number––

“Hyung, let me come with you to work today,” Yoongi decides, walking over Seokjin’s prone body to their shoe rack. He slides into a pair of sneakers, his harried movements unusual for his customary lethargicness. He grabs a coat from its hanger, stomping his feet to get Seokjin to move faster. “C’mon! We have hugs to deliver.”

“Woah woah woah! Slow down there, Simpimus Prime.” Seokjin gets back up to his feet, skipping over to him. An absolutely feral grin is stretched upon his face. “Am I hearing what you’re saying? Are you offering… to deliver hugs with yours truly? Are you finally going to take up my offer to be an employee at Kim Seokjin’s Hug-o-gram Service?”

“Of course not,” Yoongi scoffs, but his shifting eyes betray him. He fidgets in place, refusing to return Seokjin’s eager gaze. “I just… wanted to go out for once. Yeah.”

“Yoongi.”

“What?”

“You haven’t left this apartment other than to go to class in over a month. You never go out. You’re an indoor cat!”

“I’m not a fucking cat,” Yoongi hisses, like a cat. “And of course I go out! There was that one time I went outside to pick up our food delivery last week.”

Judging from Seokjin’s unimpressed stare, Yoongi’s excuse doesn’t cut it. Yoongi flaps his arms around, defeated. “Okay, fine! I rarely go out! Screw me and the bounteous crapload of assignments I have due! It’s not my fault I don’t have the time to socialize and have fun. What do you want from me?”

What Seokjin wants is to push a confession out of Yoongi, not because he needs the confirmation, but mostly because he just wants to annoy Yoongi and say “I told you so!” He’s also pretty cute when he’s all blushy and tsundere whenever he talks about you. Should he film him and sell the footage on eboys.bb? He’s certain that goth boy over here would make a pretty penny.

“You like krabby patties, don’t you Squidward?”

“I have no idea what you mean,” Yoongi sniffs, nose upturned. He opens the door, not looking behind him to see Seokjin’s triumphant expression. “C’mon. Y/N’s last class of the day ends in a few minutes and we might catch her before she leaves the Science Building.”

Seokjin snorts. He is quick to slip his own coat on and he follows soon after. He locks their door shut, hopping over to Yoongi and matching his shorter-legged pace. “Yeah. Because you totally just know her schedule at the top of your head. You know, like a normal person.”

Yoongi ignores him. He trudges on, each step filled with determination as they make their way to Seokjin’s beat-up truck. Seokjin skips alongside him, observing the younger boy and placing bets inside his mind. The drive to campus isn’t that long as it only takes around 10 minutes to get there, but Seokjin guesses that Yoongi’s defenses will begin to chip away only 3 minutes into the drive.

He’ll start to realize the gravity of the situation, the cogs in his smooth and slushy excuse of a brain slowly comprehend what he’s about to witness. He’ll first think about how 1) he’s going to see you and that never helps his poor dainty grandpa heart and 2) he’s going to see you hugging Seokjin as he reads to you the short love confession from your anonymous Romeo. Seokjin bets that after 8 minutes, Yoongi will start to break out into a sweat, leaving gross perspiration marks on his good car seat leather.

After exactly 7 minutes and 34 seconds (Seokjin was keeping track of the time on his dashboard), Yoongi’s face turns an unflattering shade of green. “Dude. I don’t think this is a good idea.”

Yoongi had originally offered to drive the two of them to campus, but Seokjin had the good foresight to refuse. Had Yoongi been the one on the wheel, he would’ve brought them back home in an instant due to nerves. So instead, Seokjin speeds up, ignoring Yoongi’s soft whimpers of defeat.

“Too bad, but there is no turning back now. I have six deliveries today and I am not putting my livelihood on the line just because your balls have magically shrunk in size,” Seokjin snickers. He glances at Yoongi from the corner of his eye and feels the slightest touch of pity for the pathetic fool beside him. “But if it really makes you want to shit yourself from anxiety, we could save Y/N for last. Though, on second thought… That could also prolong your misery, which I will always be up for.”

“God, shut up,” Yoongi groans, slamming his head on the dashboard. Seokjin continues undeterred as he pulls into the campus parking lot, waiting for his friend to make up his damn mind for once in his life. He supposes that he is being a little harsh on Yoongi, but there are only so many sad love songs he can listen to without going completely insane.

Aren’t you tired of being nice? The demon on his shoulder cajoles, shoving the corpse of his angel counterpart somewhere down a ditch. Don’t you just want to go apeshit?

And who is Seokjin to deny his impulsive needs anyway?

“No, let’s… just get this over with,” Yoongi decides, head still smushed against his dashboard. He doesn’t make any move to get out of the car, not even when Seokjin shuts off the engine and makes a show of “leaving” Yoongi behind.

“Okay, lover boy. You have ten seconds to get your butt into high gear before I’m leaving you behind. And you should know that I’m not above playing dirty and giving Y/N the sweetest fucking hug of her life that will make her forget anyone else exists in this world, so you better start moving before I–”

Like lightning, Yoongi scrambles out of the car faster than if it had caught on fire (and Seokjin’s car has exploded before and Yoongi certainly did not seem as bothered to escape than he does right now.) He nearly trips over himself in his haste, getting caught by the car door and nearly receiving a concrete facial to boot. He straightens up with as much dignity as he can muster (which he doesn’t have very much of, if at all.) Seokjin is kind enough not to mention anything, but the shit-eating grin on his face is enough to make Yoongi bristle.

They exit the parking lot, looking to the world like the sun and moon had turned human for the day. Min Yoongi, with his all-black attire and gaunt appearance, is heavily juxtaposed with the man who appears to have been vomited on by a rainbow. They walk side-by-side together, accustomed to the stares that often come their way when they go out in public.

“I just can’t believe we’re doing this,” Yoongi moans for the umpteenth time, his movements stilted like a robot. His footsteps look heavily disjointed like his knees were beginning to rust. His arms swing like a pendulum, adding to the unnaturalness of his motions. Basically, he looks like a fucking idiot.

“Who are you calling an idiot?” Yoongi snaps. Seokjin startles a bit, realizing belatedly that he’d said that out loud. Not that he cares. Yoongi continues, “I’m not the one wearing a fucking cardboard sign that looks like a toddler made it with macaroni and glitter!”

“Hey, Taehyung told me it looked good,” Seokjin sniffs, fingering the macaroni pieces dejectedly. “I don’t need to hear an opinion from a Music major.”

“Shut up, Business major. No one likes you fucking snakes,” Yoongi retorts, crossing his arms. “Your definition of fun is going on LinkedIn and using Excel sheets.”

Distracted by their own quarrel, neither of them notice the sound of the large clock in the middle of campus that chimes every hour, signaling that it was already 5 PM. A few minutes later, hoards of students begin to leave university for the day, the walkways beginning to fill with people as they head home. Amidst the chattering and bustling of everyone trying to get out of the crowd, it is hard to notice that you are also one of the hundreds of people finishing your last class of the day.

But Yoongi notices, as he always does. Call it Y/N intuition, or whatever. “There,” Yoongi points you out over dozens of heads. Seokjin can hardly spot you, but he trusts Yoongi’s weird Y/N-dar to find you without fail. People have begun to notice the two of them, most of whom were whispering excitedly when they notice that Seokjin is in his work attire.

“Oh my god, someone’s getting a hug-o-gram! I wonder who…”

“Have you ever ordered one? I got one for my current girlfriend last month and that’s how we got together.”

“I’ve always wanted to send one, but the prices are insane! Fuck them business students and their capitalist ways.”

“Screw sending a hug to someone else! I wanna order a hug for me. Kim Seokjin is a hot piece of ass.”

(Yoongi swears the last comment had sounded eerily like Seokjin himself, but the older boy’s mouth hadn’t moved in the last minute.)

“Alright, Yoongi. Here’s the plan,” Seokjin leans closer to Yoongi, stage whispering into his ear. Everyone within a six-foot radius is eagerly eavesdropping, not even bothering to pretend that they aren’t. It’s common knowledge that Seokjin basks in their attention, anyway. Yoongi rolls his eyes, urging him to get it over with.

“Y/N is over there, right? Well, I have to send a hug to this guy named Mark Lee too, who just so happens to be over there,” Seokjin points behind them, in the opposite direction of where Y/N was heading, “so here’s my proposition. You go over to Y/N and deliver the hug for me, while I go catch up to Mark so that we can kill one bird with two stones!”

“Excuse me?” Yoongi wheezes, pushing Seokjin away from him. His eyes bug out. “Are you insane? I am not doing that. And the phrase is ‘killing two birds with one stone,’ you fucking idiot.”

“Same shit, Shakespeare! Who cares about numbers!” Seokjin exclaims, exasperated. “Listen, would you rather you hug Mark and I hug Y/N?”

“I would much rather prefer that I stick my whole fist up your anus,” Yoongi seethes.

“Interesting proposition, but maybe for a later time,” Seokjin says, not missing a beat. “Listen, dude. The longer we prolong this little bitchfest you have going on, the farther away Y/N is gonna get. You know I will stop at nothing to deliver her hug anyway, so would you rather you miss your chance right now when I am so magnanimously offering you a shot at getting closer to your crush?”

Even though Yoongi feels like his insides were slowly turning into mashed potatoes, he knows that he had already made a decision long before they left the house. Seokjin is right; this is a good opportunity for him, whether he is willing to admit it out loud. Perhaps it is just because it is Seokjin of all people who is egging him on that preprogrammed him into thinking that this was a bad idea. In all seriousness, it was just a hug, nothing fancy. It isn’t like Yoongi was going to have to kiss you––

(His heart contracts and Yoongi wonders if he’s having a stroke. The thought of your soft lips connecting with his is enough to cause the wind to knock out of his chest. God, Yoongi is so screwed.)

“Why must I always feel as though I am a snail and God is personally salting me,” Yoongi groans, stepping away from Seokjin and heading your way. Behind him, Seokjin hollers in what he assumes is friendly support, but it only further antagonizes Yoongi. The absolute buffoon waves enthusiastically from behind him, a beaming grin almost ready to split his face in two. Yoongi flips him off without looking back.

God fucking dammit. The closer that Yoongi is to approaching you, the stronger the urge to just evaporate like ice cream on hot concrete becomes. He can feel himself perspiring from every corner of his body and he just hopes that his black attire will do well to mask the slimy creature that he is underneath his clothing.

This is all Seokjin’s fault, Yoongi reminds himself. If he hadn’t started this stupid hugging service in the first place, then no one would have ordered a hug for you in the first place. Then Yoongi wouldn’t have to be in this stupid predicament either!

But you could’ve ordered a hug for her if you wanted to, says the annoying part of his brain – the same part that’s always been a little bit too hopeful for Yoongi’s liking. The whispers continue, And she wouldn’t even know it would be you! But more importantly…

“Seokjin wouldn’t know either,” Yoongi huffs irritably because he knows it’s true. The biggest thing stopping him from ever making a move on you, other than his debilitating fear of rejection and heartbreak, is the fact that he’d rather explode into spores than for Seokjin to find out that he’d used his “genius” business idea to get the girl of his dreams.

He’s afraid that one day, Seokjin would magically develop telepathic powers (a fear that Yoongi feels that the majority of the human population should also share) and find out that Yoongi doesn’t actually think his hug-o-gram service is dumb. It’s actually really cute, and Yoongi hates to admit that the success rate of his service is nearly perfect in terms of getting couples together.

But Yoongi is a strong (read: stubborn) man; he’d rather drop dead than allow Seokjin the satisfaction of seeing his business work out for his seemingly hopeless case. Which brings him to the present–

You’re standing by the entrance of the Sciences building. You are dressed nicely as always; Yoongi doesn’t think he’s ever seen you in anything remotely slobby, not even a pair of sweats like any regular uni student. You always look a little bit business proper: the epitome of someone who should be on the student council.

You’re speaking to someone, a younger male student by the looks of it. The hairs on Yoongi’s neck stand at attention and, God forbid, did he just fucking growl? Did he make that sound? By the looks of the students carefully navigating their way around him, Yoongi surmises that he did make that sound. Geez, is he some sort of animal? Is he going to turn into those feral stan accounts on Twitter that salivate over their K-pop boys like it’s their job? He hopes not.

But what if that’s the kid who sent the hug–

Yoongi shuts up his brain before he can let it finish. No, he can’t let himself go down that path. It’ll only cause him to self-combust right then and there, and he isn’t exactly keen on letting you see his entrails anytime soon. That would be the least cool thing to do, he decides. And so, with his brain turned off, he walks over to you, arms swinging robotically by his sides as he forces himself closer.

“Oh thank you so much, Y/N! You’ve been a real help to our club, you know?” The boy (Yoongi can’t believe they’re letting toddlers into university these days!) says, his eyes glittering with an ambition that still hasn’t been killed by the all-consuming dread that comes with university.

You laugh lightly, the sound causing butterflies to flutter excitedly in Yoongi’s chest. “No worries, Soobin. I’m glad I could be of help. If the editorial board needs any more help, don’t be shy to shoot me a message, alright?”

Soobin nods enthusiastically, his head bobbing up and down so quickly that Yoongi was afraid his neck would snap. “No worries, Y/N! Have a good rest of your week!” He waves a cheery goodbye, springing away with his numerous anime keychains on his backpack jingling softly in his wake.

“What a cute kid,” you sigh. You look incredibly fond, and Yoongi hates the bitter coil swimming in the pit of his stomach. That feeling soon fizzles out when you finally turn to face Yoongi. Your eyebrows shoot up, but your expression quickly morphs into one of pleasant surprise. Yoongi’s heart stops for just a moment, feet turning cold. “Yoongi! Oh my goodness, it’s been a hot minute since I’ve seen you! How’s it going?”

Let’s play a game, shall we? How many of Yoongi’s nervous ticks can you spot within the next five minutes? Think of this as the easiest game of Where’s Waldo ever!

“Hnng,” Yoongi stammers, his hand immediately going to scratch the back of his neck. His cheeks pinken, pupils shaking in every different direction as they try to focus on anything but you. It always feels like he’s standing way too close to the sun when he’s around you, hardly able to keep his gaze focused on you. He chooses to stare resolutely at your chin, but even your fucking chin was impossibly cute.

Seriously? Yoongi is a walking shitshow! His inner voice comes back, but this time it sounds uncannily like his roommate. Come on, buddy. Just say hi… You know, like a normal person. “H… Hey, Y/N.”

Success count: 1 point for the Yogurt Machine!

Even though Yoongi felt like he was living his worst nightmare, you still looked every bit like his favorite daydream. You are all smiles, seemingly unperturbed by Yoongi’s slow, embarrassing demise. “It’s so good to see you! Midterms haven’t been too hard on you, I hope?”

“I’ve been better,” he says. Better now that you’re here, he leaves unsaid. God, can you imagine if he said that out loud?

Your mouth drops open, soft cherry blossoms blooming across your cheeks. “Um, what did you say?” you squeak, embarrassed. But certainly not as embarrassed as the boy in front of you.

Yoongi stops breathing. He did not say that aloud, had he? Judging by the awkward silence stretching between the two of you, the signs are pointing to: yes. Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygo–– “Er, what I mean to say is,” Yoongi stutters through his sentence, his entire body flushing fire engine red like it’s nobody’s business. He must look like Satan’s spanked ass right now. “I… I’m here to deliver a hug!”

Confusion quickly replaces the shock on your face. You tilt your head, brows scrunching up cutely. “A hug?” you ask.

“R-right,” Yoongi says, waving his arms around because he has nothing else better to do. He gestures vaguely in the opposite direction, where Seokjin had left to find his other clients. “I’m, uhh… Helping my roommate. Have you heard of Seokjin’s hug-o-gram service?”

“Oh, yeah!” You hop excitedly in place, looking to all the world like the cutest thing in the universe. Yoongi thinks you should be classified as a public hazard, what with how you’re somehow able to give him diabetes just from standing next to him. “I totally heard about that! I’ve always wanted to send a hug, but I’ve always been a little shy.”

That piques Yoongi’s interest immediately. You wanted to send a hug? But to who? He unconsciously clenches his jaw, and he can feel a vein pop up near his neck. He forces himself to smile, but he knows it probably looks more like a grimace. “Oh really? That’s… I didn’t know you had a crush on somebody.”

Yoongi is too busy wallowing in his own self-pity puddle that he misses the way you gaze shyly up at him through your eyelashes, your hands clasped behind your back. “Y-yea… I don’t really go around telling it to just anybody,” you shrug as nonchalantly as you can. You clear your throat. “So, are you here to deliver a hug or something?”

Nothing gets past you, huh? Yoongi swallows thickly as he twiddles his thumbs. He still can’t bear to look at you head-on, afraid that his emotions would be too obvious if he did. (Who is he kidding… He knows he’s fucking obvious, and yet you never seem to get the picture!) “Yea, I am. I’m here to deliver one to you, actually.”

He doesn’t get to see your reaction, but he does notice the way your entire body stiffens. His mind immediately starts to run a minute, trying to guess why you’d suddenly gone stock still.

Did you know who your secret admirer was already? Or perhaps, were you just thoroughly shocked to receive one at all? That can’t be it… You’re the campus sweetheart! Surely it’s much weirder that it has taken eons for you to get your first hug… Or perhaps, are you so disgusted by the thought of him delivering the hug? Oh my god, what if you didn’t want him to hug you? Shit, this entire thing is a terrible idea! How did Seokjin ever convince him to do this stupid shit and get his heartbroken in the process? He swears he’s going to shove ten firecrackers up his ass the next time he sees him––

“Um, Yoongi?” You’re staring worriedly at him, your hand semi-raised as if you were about to wave in front of him. Did you say something? He must look like a fucking prick to you! He shakes his head, trying desperately to get his mind back into his body. Why must he be cursed with inner monologue disease? What is he, some sort of shoujo manga male protagonist?

“Sorry about that. I’ve been a little spacey these days,” he laughs, but even he can hear the panic laced in his voice. He sounds just on the edge of being hysterical. “Ahaha… What were you saying?”

“I was just… shocked?” You giggle softly, making Yoongi cry internally. You smirk, mischief glittering in your eyes. “I just never imagined you’d be the type to… I don’t know…”

“Willingly hug people for the sake of capitalism? I feel you,” Yoongi snorts, forgetting for a moment who he’s talking to. “Believe me, I’d rather drop dead than allow Seokjin to use me for his stupid business venture.”

“Then why are you delivering a hug to me now?” you ask, still smiling.

“Hnng,” Yoongi’s tongue feels like it’s grown two sizes all of a sudden. He wheezes, choking on his own spit as he’s caught off guard by your question. “W-well, I––”

“Just being a good friend, I’m guessing?” You’re full-on giggling now, barely trying to hide your mirth behind your hands. Yoongi understands now; you’re teasing him. He hates how amused you are by his awkwardness, but he loves the way your entire expression lights up, like you’re enjoying yourself by being with him.

“Let’s go with that,” Yoongi mumbles, scratching the back of his neck in embarrassment. He has his head bowed, hoping that his unruly fringe can finally come in handy and hide the disastrous blush encompassing his face. “Right… I’ll just, umm…”

“Am I getting my hug today, or am I gonna have to take a rain check?” You laugh, slapping his shoulder in an attempt to help him shake off the awkward tension. It has the opposite intended effect, as Yoongi’s breath hitches imperceptibly at your proximity. You had taken a step closer, and Yoongi could smell the sweet perfume you always seemed to be wearing. Please don’t pop a boner right now. That would be super fucking creepy.

“You’re…” Yoongi hesitates, arms uselessly immobile by his sides. He doesn’t know if he can even get them to move at this point, as he has lost all motor skills the moment you had focused all your attention on him. It’s a miracle that his heart remembers to beat every so often. “I’m just… I’m just gonna go for it, okay?”

You nod, hands tucked neatly behind your back. “No need to be scared, Yoongi. I don’t bite,” you joke.

God, if you only knew about the dreams I’ve had of you. Yoongi hopes to all the deities from up above that he had not said that aloud, but you don’t seem to be disgusted, so he can only assume that his traitorous brain had disconnected with his mouth for the time being.

He shuffles closer to you, the warmth of your body closing in as he makes the grueling effort to lift his arms up to gently wrap themselves around you, but before he can even fully hug you––

You’re quick to reciprocate. With a small laugh, you wrap your own arms around his torso, nuzzling into his chest with more force than Yoongi was expecting. He lets out a soft wheeze, mouth dropping open when he is assaulted by the smell of your fruity shampoo. His hands hover awkwardly above you, still unsure of where it’s okay to touch you without weirding you out.

You tilt your face up, eyes crinkling cutely by the sheer force of your grin. Both of your faces are only centimeters away from each other, and Yoongi could probably count your eyelashes if he so desired. His breathing stills as he becomes positively mesmerized by the beautiful sight in front of him. He doesn’t even hear the sound of phone camera shutters around him, as he is much too deeply focused on nothing but you, you, you.

“Hey, don’t half-ass your hug! Gimme a good ol’ bear hug!” you whine, nudging his elbows gently to get them to move. Snapped out of his reverie, Yoongi mechanically does as you say, his head completely empty of thoughts. He wraps his arms tightly around your shoulders, his wrist knocking slightly against the back of your head until you’re back to snuggling deep into his chest.

“Your laundry detergent smells nice,” you say, slightly muffled by his shirt. Yoongi lets out a breathy laugh, mostly out of disbelief more than anything. He can’t even begin to process anything right now; he feels like he’s reverted back into a single-celled organism.

“Thanks?” Yoongi squeaks, but you don’t seem to mind his awkward attempts at being a Normal Person™️. You crane your neck upwards so that you’re looking him directly in the eye. There’s a twinkle of mischief there, like you’re enjoying Yoongi’s flushed face a little too much. He honestly feels like he’s seconds away from exploding into tiny bite-sized pieces, and he fears that if you snuggle deeper into his chest, he might just do exactly that.

“So… Are we just supposed to hug for another ten minutes, or am I allowed to let go?”

Yoongi doesn’t even realize how long it’s been. You could’ve been hugging him for ten hours and he wouldn’t have known. Yoongi jerks away from you, nearly vaulting himself across campus by how quickly he lets you go. Thankfully, you don’t appear offended––you were more amused than anything. Yoongi has no idea how red he is right now; he feels like he could be blowing steam out of his ears, astounding anatomists everywhere by his peculiar talent.

“I just have to–” Yoongi pats his back pockets for his phone, clumsily pulling it out and looking for his text messages, “–read this message from your, um, secret admirer and then we’ll be good to go.”

“Great.” You nod at him enthusiastically. “Whenever you’re ready, Yoonie.”

Yoongi’s breath hitches right then, caught off guard by the nickname. Only you ever called him that, and it never fails to make Yoongi’s insides feel like molten lava every time you say it. “I… Yeah, here goes,” Yoongi mutters, trying his best to remember how to speak.

He recites the message with as much enthusiasm as he can manage, which is to say, not very much. He could probably read the phonebook with more zeal, but it’s hard to give it his all when the words feel like acid in his throat. He’s unconsciously clenching his jaw as he speaks, looking like a constipated gorilla. “...so, if you’re single and ready to #mingle, then––” Yoongi stops mid-sentence, staring resolutely at his phone screen with a grimace.

You blink confusedly. “Then?”

“Then nothing,” Yoongi finishes, pocketing his phone without an inch of remorse. “I don’t know what was up with that message, but somehow the letter got cut short. Sorry about that.”

“Huh, strange.” You shrug your shoulders, not bothering to question him.

Yoongi fist bumps himself mentally, though other people might disagree and say that he doesn’t deserve any type of congratulations, to which Yoongi says a big “fuck you!” to those imaginary haters. In the wise words of Kim Seokjin himself, “not everyone is worthy to receive your fucks, so it’s time to stop giving them.” (Kim, 2020)

“Well, that was fun! Thanks for delivering the hug to me, Yoonie,” you pinch Yoongi’s cheek, giggling when they turn even redder. “I’ll see you around, I guess? Don’t let those midterms kill ya!” You wave cheerily at him, walking past him and heading towards the bus stops. Yoongi stands frozen in place, the events of the last few minutes finally catching up to him and frying his brain beyond repair.

Oh my god, he fucking hugged you! Like, a good and genuine hug! You felt so warm and so soft and you smelled really good and it was more than he could ever imagine and just––

Yoongi’s brain is trying (and failing) to desperately parse the delayed barrage of information as it comes, but it’s hard for the little hamster running circles in his head when it has never had to run a day in its life. Yoongi’s body feels like it’s overheating even though the weather is nearing the start of winter, but that’s all thanks to you and the devastating effect you have on him.

In short, Yoongi machine has broken, and any sort of maintenance is going to be hard to come by at the moment.

Yoongi could have been standing in front of the Science building for an entire year and he wouldn’t have budged until a tornado in the form of Kim Seokjin arrived to knock him out of his brain dead state. Whistling lowly, the elder stops in front of the rigid mass of meat, an eyebrow quirked in exasperation. “Dude, nice rigor mortis cosplay. Like, yes girl, give us nothing!” he exclaims, slapping Yoongi back to consciousness.

Yoongi blinks rapidly, dazed like he’s woken up from a dream. “What? What’s happening?” he replies dumbly.

Seokjin rolls his eyes. “Yoongi. Did you finish delivering Y/N’s hug or what? I finished all my deliveries in the same time you had with Y/N, so I better hope to God you aren’t planning on applying to be an employee of mine, because you certainly have a long way to go before––”

“I hugged her,” Yoongi interrupts, eyes going glassy once more. His mouth is agape, and Seokjin can see a pool of saliva forming, ready to runneth over. He could see the rusted gears turning inside his dongsaeng’s head. “Oh my god, hyung. I fucking hugged her.”

“Yeah, and I hugged Taehyung Kim and felt his gigantic dick press into my stomach. You aren’t special,” Seokjin snorts, clasping Yoongi by the bicep. He drags him away, leading them to their parked car. “C’mon, Dampé. I’m tired and I wanna eat popcorn again.”

As they walk back to the parking lot, the campus roads are a lot less populated now that most students have gone home. Yoongi only then realizes how late it truly is and he vaguely wonders how long he had been stuck standing there before Seokjin had come to drag him back home. The sun has begun its daily descent, filling the courtyard with a warm glow and causing their shadows to grow longer as they trudge quietly to their car.

The campus is quiet enough that both of them hear the quiet buzz of Seokjin’s phone, despite him putting it on silent mode before he had gone on his hugging deliveries. He stops mid-step, causing Yoongi to bump his nose into his wide back. He yelps, shoving Seokjin forward in irritation.

“Why’d you fucking stop, you asshole?” Yoongi whines, his normal annoying personality resurfacing now that he’s begun to recover from your hug. He peers over Seokjin’s behemoth shoulders, squinting at his phone screen. “What? Another hug delivery?”

“Yeah. I’ll do it tomorrow since I think she’s gone home for the day,” Seokjin says, his tone sounding slightly too delighted for comfort. “In fact, I know she’s gone home already.”

Yoongi stills, changing his focus onto the elder’s expression. He looks… too eager to receive a simple hug-o-gram request. A shiver shoots through Yoongi’s spine when he realizes how nefariously bastardous Seokjin’s smile has grown, the tips of his smirk curling upwards like a villain from a classic Disney animation.

“What?” Yoongi glares acidly at Seokjin, but the elder is unaffected. In fact, he seems to grow more pleased the more aggravated Yoongi becomes. “Spit it out! What’s got your prostate tickled?”

“Oh, nothing,” Seokjin singsongs, shoving his phone down the front of his pants, exactly where he knows Yoongi would never touch. “Just got an interesting new regular customer, is all.”

“A new regular?” Yoongi’s pitch heightens, the hairs on the back of his neck bristling in alarm (like a cat.) “Is it… Another request for… You know who?”

“I wasn’t aware Voldemort went to our university,” Seokjin teases, thoroughly enjoying Yoongi’s distress. “Though, if you’re talking about Y/N, then the answer is not not not no.”

“Two double negatives.” Anyone could hear the audible soft rattling of his two brain cells exerting themselves as Yoongi deciphers his answer. “That means…”

Yoongi stares pointedly at Seokjin’s crotch, where the outline of his phone is glaringly obvious. “Show me,” Yoongi growls, not making a move to actually touch Seokjin’s nether regions.

Seokjin shrugs his shoulders. “No one’s stopping you from taking my phone though?”

“Hyung!”

“Buy me bubble tea first, then we’ll talk.”

“Fine,” Yoongi acquiesces, folding his arms in annoyance. “Just tell me. Is it really the same guy who requested the hug for Y/N today as well?”

Seokjin fiddles around for his phone, digging deeper when it nearly drops down the leg of his pants. When he pulls it out and swipes to his e-mails, he confirms Yoongi’s fear. “Yep. And it seems like he saw you deliver the hug today. Says that he’d prefer that I deliver the hug next time,” Seokjin smirks, enjoying the deep-set frown on Yoongi’s face.

When Seokjin takes a closer look at the order, however, he notices something a little off. “Hold on a sec,” he scrolls to the receipt, scowling when he sees the incorrect amount. “Well, you might be in luck, Yoongi-chi. Looks like loverboy sent the wrong payment. He’s a few dollars short.”

“What?” Yoongi says, for what feels like the tenth time in this entire fic. He grabs Seokjin’s phone, no longer repulsed by where it had been only a few minutes prior. Like Seokjin said, the customer had given the wrong amount, much to both their confusion.

“That’s weird, considering he just ordered a hug today,” Seokjin murmurs, shaking his head. “Oh well. Happens to the best of us. Guess I’ll just have to refund the poor sap.”

“Wait,” Yoongi presses the phone to his chest, preventing Seokjin from taking it. His hyung raises a brow.

“What is it?”

“What if I just… pay you the remaining amount? Then I can also deliver the hug to her and, uhh...” Yoongi mumbles the remaining part, but Seokjin has trained his ears to catch every whisper and mutter for moments just like this. He wouldn’t be where he is today if he didn’t perfect his eavesdropping skills to a spy’s degree. That’s right––Seokjin is a sloppy and nosey bitch and he’s not afraid to admit it!

“Oh? Do my ears deceive me?” Seokjin guffaws, pinching Yoongi’s cheeks for good measure. He hisses in response, but Seokjin isn’t afraid of some little kitten. Seokjin is a bigger bitch with a meaner bite. “Is my little Yoongi Woongi seriously offering to deliver another hug to Miss Y/N? How magnanimous of you.”

Yoongi stares at him, stunned for a moment. A few seconds pass before he shakes his head, faux disdain coloring his expression. “That’s right,” Yoongi huffs, detaching himself from Seokjin’s meaty claws. He keeps his gaze averted, like the big stupid tsundere that he is. “I’m doing this out of the goodness of my heart! I care about your profits, and I want to make your workload a little lighter! Isn’t that what you want?”

“Sure, let’s go with that,” Seokjin snickers, poking Yoongi in the tit. He swivels away, skipping merrily away to their parked car. “I’m expecting that cash in my Paypal by the time I get to the car, or else the deal is off. Make it snappy, loverboy!”

Yoongi had never transferred cash to someone so quickly in his life.

(Yes, not even when the food court on campus was doing a BOGO promo for churros. That’s the extent of how whipped his ass is, period.)

x x x x x

“This is probably the dumbest idea you’ve ever had,” Yoongi hisses, but it’s kind of hard for Seokjin to take him seriously when he’s wearing a cardboard sign around his neck that says ‘Huggie Wuggie Machine!’ in bubble font.

“Like, even worse than when we DIY’d your car into a convertible by sawing the top off?” Seokjin asks, genuinely curious.

“Worse,” Yoongi admits, trying his best to stay out of your line of sight. His cheeks redden, matching the gaudy pink kitten ears he was forced into wearing.

“Listen, I’m seriously not forcing you to do this,” Seokjin starts, even though he’s giving his utmost effort to further embarrass Yoongi by handing out flyers about Hug-o-gram’s newest employee. “Please, take one!” he cajoles, offering a flyer to a gaggle of giggling freshmen. “Make sure to reserve a hug within the week! Yoongi-chi over here is on his way to becoming employee of the month if he gets ten requests by Friday!” They all point and whisper at Yoongi, and he swears he hears one of them wolf whistle in admiration.

“That’s what makes this entire thing terrible. I’m doing this on my own volition, and I absolutely abhor myself for it,” Yoongi moans, grabbing Seokjin’s stack of flyers and smacking himself in the head with them. It probably would’ve hurt more when Seokjin still had a full-stack, but people had swarmed them the moment they entered the heart of the campus, everyone curious to see Yoongi in his interesting attire.

Seokjin might have been famous for creating the Hug-o-gram Service, but Yoongi was famous for hating the business idea, so it’s easy to understand why everyone was interested. (For good reason, he thinks darkly to himself.)

“Damn, Yoongi-chi. Looks like you’re trending on the campus Reddit page,” Seokjin laughs, wheezing even harder when Yoongi points him with a murderous glare. “What? Like you said, this was all your idea.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t ask to wear… whatever this is!” Yoongi whines, tugging on the string around his neck. The cardboard sign had been ready and prepared the moment they arrived home the other day, arousing Yoongi’s suspicions on Seokjin’s actual involvement in his current predicament. Those suspicions are put in the backburner for now, however, as Yoongi actually feels like he might die of embarrassment instead of the packets of MSG coursing through his veins from the ten ramen packs he ate this morning. Maybe both will kill him, if he’s lucky.

“Well, I would love to lend you my uniform, but I haven’t gotten a t-shirt printed with your face on it yet, so you’ll have to deal with the kitten ears and cardboard sign for now,” Seokjin says, patting him on the back. “Or, would you rather I have you wear a shirt with my face on it? I’m open to suggestions.”

“I’d rather swallow a Tide pod, thanks,” Yoongi says through gritted teeth. “C’mon, let’s move. We’ve been standing in the middle of campus like street clowns for long enough. We need to find Y/N because her class is about to end.”

“Street clowns, huh? I guess you are only missing the make-up to complete the look, especially since you seem adamant to keep honking your way through that sickening crush of yours.” Seokjin nearly catches a punch to the head, but his superior reaction time saves him from Yoongi’s sorely lacking physicality. He snatches Yoongi by the hand, dragging them towards your lecture hall. “C’mon, clown! Let’s honk this bread!”

As the two of them get closer to where you are, Yoongi’s heartbeat begins to accelerate. He wonders idly if he should see a doctor after all this, hoping that he hadn’t actually contracted heart disease due to all this stress. Lord forbid that he meet his end before he even gets to ask you out or something!

Even though he’s already hugged you once (and it was, by far, the most euphoric experience of his sad, miserable life), he still finds himself getting clammy hands at the thought of seeing you again. Nevermind the fact that he looked like a walking circus with his get-up… No, Yoongi refuses to think about it anymore, lest his last remaining brain wrinkle irreversibly smoothens.

The campus clock rings loudly, signaling the end of another block of classes. Students rush out of the buildings, with you being one of the first ones out for a change. When Yoongi spots your head of hair among the crowd, he doesn’t immediately notice what you’re wearing at first. In fact, it’s Seokjin who stops in his tracks for a moment, surprised by how you look.

“Woah, Y/N! Looking good,” Seokjin greets, rushing past Yoongi to envelop you in a hug. (A platonic hug, Yoongi reminds himself. Because unlike Yoongi, Seokjin is a normal human being who can give hugs to anyone he wants because he’s… fucking Seokjin! Lucky bastard that he is.)

“Woah!” You laugh, surprised by the sudden hug. You pat him on the back giddily, allowing him to swing you around a little. “What’s this all about? Am I getting a hug-o-gram again?”

“Yes, you are. But not from me,” Seokjin detaches himself from you, scooting away to point at Yoongi. When Seokjin moves away, Yoongi finally understands why his hyung had said you looked good. No, that was an understatement––you looked [redacted].

(For the sake of the author’s fragile ash-coated heart, she has chosen to redact Yoongi’s exact words to protect herself from slamming her head against a keyboard from how cheesy this fic is becoming. Let’s just say the word starts with a B and ends with an L. Make of that as you will.)

You must have come out of an interview or presentation of sorts because you were dressed more nicely than you usually do, which is a pretty big deal considering how put together you always looked. Your hair is styled nicely, obviously given much more care and effort than your regular appearance. You’re wearing a cute little black dress, long enough to be professional but short enough to give Yoongi breathing problems.

If Yoongi’s brain had a playlist, it would be nothing but the sound of him going HNNNNNNNNNG on repeat.

“Oh geez.” Yoongi curses lowly, smiling through the pain. This is fine, he thinks, even though it is clearly not fine. Yoongi has always been a terrible liar.

“Yoongi?” You sound incredulous, though that’s honestly a win in Yoongi’s book considering everything. You didn’t look disgusted, so that’s great. “You look…” You stop yourself, covering your mouth to hide your grin but your amusement is palpable. At least he made you laugh, he supposes.

“Like a fucking idiot? You said it,” Yoongi snorts, arms crossed defiantly. He’s trying to look intimidating, but with his cheeks puffed up and these abominable kitten ears on his head, he looks more like a grumpy cat throwing a tantrum. He juts a thumb at Seokjin, “Thank this himbo for the outfit. I definitely would have chosen something more… inconspicuous.”

“But where’s the fun in that?” You quip, still trying to mask your giggles. On the other hand, Seokjin was wheezing like a hyena, his phone pulled out and presumably filming Yoongi to add to his cringe compilation.

“Exactly what I said!” Seokjin says through his laughter, tears of mirth streaming down his face. He walks back to Yoongi, pushing him forward until he’s face to face with you. “Go on, then! We haven’t got all day!”

“I’m assuming you’re officially part of Seokjin’s hug-o-gram business now?” you ask, opening your arms wide to accept his hug. Like the beta male that he is, Yoongi has to be the one to follow in your footsteps, meekly coming closer to wrap you in an embrace.

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Yoongi mutters, tucking his chin onto your shoulder. He feels you vibrate with laughter, bringing a small smile on his own face. He likes making you laugh, always has.

With the cardboard sign serving as a barrier between the two of you, he isn’t as fearful of you feeling the erratic beat of his heart, though it wouldn’t be hard to guess if you looked at him. He closes his eyes, allowing himself to enjoy your hug rather than just panic through the entire ordeal like yesterday.

Soon enough, you’re detaching yourself from him, still standing close. Your arm is just a hair’s breadth away, and if not for Seokjin enthusiastically videotaping this entire experience, Yoongi might have closed in for another hug if he could manage.

“It’s always nice to get a hug from someone you like, huh?” You say, cheeks tinted a rosy color. The true meaning of your words flies over Yoongi’s head, as his feeble mind chooses to focus on your comment a little differently.

“I––Of course I like you! We’re friends, aren’t we?” Yoongi laughs nervously, unaware that he’s slowly digging himself into a ditch. To the side, Seokjin audibly slaps a hand to his face, body shivering with secondhand embarrassment from being blasted by the full force of how idiotic his friend actually is.

Yoongi sees you deflate a little, further confusing him. “Yeah, you’re right I guess…” You sigh, taking a step backward dejectedly. Yoongi flounders a little, unsure how he managed to fuck up in just a few seconds when you had just hugged him like your life depended on it.

Choosing now to interfere before the going gets rough, Seokjin steps in between and slings an arm around both of you. Yoongi groans under the weight of his arm, glaring when he notices that Seokjin had done it on purpose, but only to him. You don’t look too bothered by his rude gesture, albeit you were more befuddled than before.

“Hey, Y/N! I don’t know if you’ve ever ordered a hug-o-gram before, but I’m doing a special this week! Now that Yoongi-chi has so kindly joined the team,” Seokjin gives him a pointed look, to which the black-haired music major sticks his tongue out petulantly, “we’re doing a little promotion for first-time customers! Would you be interested in ordering one?”

Your eyes widen, looking like a deer caught in headlights. “M-me? Ordering a hug-o-gram? Well, I…” you hesitate, sending a small glance at Yoongi before looking away in embarrassment. “I would like to, but I don’t know if it’ll be well received, you see…”

Seokjin grumbles, silently cursing the stupid shithead who caused his own demise in the first place. The worst part is that he had no idea that he totally just friendzoned you! YOU! Someone who was literally leagues ahead of him. He sincerely has no idea what you see in this bumbling idiot, but everyone with a brain knows that you have been crushing on him for as long as he’s been crushing on you, so perhaps you’re a little bit of an idiot yourself for liking him back.

Being friends with the two of you makes him feel like he’s constantly wearing a sloppy wet diaper, and he hates it. He wants to wipe his ass as soon as possible!

Seokjin shoves Yoongi away roughly, ignoring his indignant squawks as he pulls you aside. He takes you by the hand, taking you a few steps away from Yoongi, far enough that he can whisper into your ear without the other boy hearing.

Yoongi fumes from the sidelines, trying to keep his emotions in check even though he’s bursting at the seams with jealousy. Not for the first time, Yoongi irritably realizes that he does act like a cat, especially in moments like this. He might make fun of Seokjin for being an attention whore, but Yoongi is the same, if only at a smaller scale. He just wants you to look at him, as selfish as that sounds.

Can someone give him a break? He’s been holding in his crush for four years now… Imagine having to take a massive shit after drinking two gallons of milk while being lactose intolerant, except every time you line up for the washroom, the line gets increasingly long no matter how long you wait. That is the extent of his suffering, he tells himself. So please, excuse his dramatics for this one instance.

(Seokjin’s Note: This fucking jackass is SO stupid. If he only knew how easy it is to ask you out, he would know that his emotional constipation could be solved if he just fucking ASKED where the next washroom is. He could have relieved himself ages ago, but NO! And he calls me the idiot! Me! The utter betrayal! I’m never agreeing to become the second lead to a rom-com ever again!)

When Seokjin finishes whispering in your ears, you appear amused by what he had said. Yoongi sweats when you turn to face him, grinning slyly at him. “Is that so…” you wonder aloud. Yoongi feels like the world has shifted on its axis somewhat, though he still doesn’t know exactly how. He has a hunch that he’s going to find out soon enough.

“Would I ever lie to you?” Seokjin laughs that annoying laugh of his, slapping his thigh in the process. He straightens up almost immediately, his expression turning deadpan in an instant. “Send me the details by tonight, and I’ll make sure to deliver it, okay?”

“Promise?” You ask, holding a pinky up towards him. Yoongi might have let out a high pitched sob when he sees the gesture, wanting nothing more than to cup your hands in his. God, if he already nearly died from hugging you, who is to say Yoongi won’t immediately disintegrate if you were ever to hold his hand?

“Promise,” Seokjin replies, linking his pinky with yours. He doesn’t forget to point a shit-eating grin at Yoongi, for good measure.

You pull away, looking happier than you did moments prior. You were absolutely glowing, filling Yoongi with a warmth that only you ever knew how to provide. He wants to make you smile like that all the time, wants nothing more than for you to live beside him, filling his walls with the sound of your tinkling laughter. You wave cheerily at the both of them, stepping away to head home. “I guess I’ll see you, then? I’ll make sure to e-mail you my request, Seokjin!” you say, winking teasingly. “Bye to you too, Yoongi! Thanks for the hug!”

Yoongi watches as you walk further and further away as the usual melancholy that follows whenever you leave soon takes its place in his soul. It might be his imagination, but Yoongi thinks the cat ears on his head might have started to droop to match his mood.

The only way he knows how to replace the sadness, however, is by redirecting those emotions on an unsuspecting victim. Lucky for him, a willing volunteer is already within punching distance.

“Ow! Stop punching me, you gremlin!” Seokjin whines, blocking Yoongi’s series of punches like a pro. He might as well put ‘professional punching bag’ on his resume at this point. “I’m trying to help you, you useless beta male!”

“How is this helping! You made me wear cat ears and whispered blasphemies into Y/N’s ears! Now she’s going to order a hug-o-gram for her crush and it’ll be the end of my chances with her! How could you!”

“I was not whispering blasphemies, you twittering tit! I was giving her advice,” Seokjin sniffs, annoyed. “Don’t say I never help you, by the way. I’ve been trying to help you for years now.”

Yoongi hits him with a steely glare. “Really? So replacing all my clothes in my closet with clown attire is your version of help? I had to wear those stupid clown shoes for a week before you told me where you hid my clothes, jackass!”

“I was only trying to help you physically express yourself! You’re already a clown on paper, might as well help you achieve your final form!” Seokjin huffs, infuriatingly haughty. “Listen, believe me. I only told Y/N something that everyone already knows anyway, so just shut your trap and let Daddy handle the rest. You’re not going to lose her, I promise.”

“Please never refer to yourself as Daddy ever again,” Yoongi seethes, stalking off towards their car. “Don’t ever talk to me again.”

“No talk, Yoobie angy…” Seokjin snickers to himself, following Yoongi with a spring in his step. This bastard is going to grovel at his feet by tomorrow evening, he’s sure of it. If he doesn’t, then Seokjin will bite his own dick in half––that’s how sure he is of his plan! (Not that biting his dick in half will do anything to his length; he’d still be left with eight inches, let’s be real.) All in good time.

x x x x x

Seokjin gets an e-mail the next morning, much earlier than any sane person would choose to be awake at. He groans lowly, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes as he tries to read the contents of the letter. When he’s satisfied by what he has read, he forwards the e-mail to Yoongi before allowing sleep to take him once more.

Sleep evades him, however, when the sound of Yoongi’s big feet pounds noisily outside his bedroom. He hits his knee loudly against the coffee table, causing their beloved popcorn machine to tumble to the floor, but that is of little consequence to Yoongi right now. No, he needs to get into Seokjin’s room right now and scream––

“WHAT THE FUCK?” Yoongi hollers, slamming Seokjin’s door open. The hinges creak, desperately hanging on despite the impact. Yoongi proceeds to slam a fist upon Seokjin’s ass, who barely flinches due to the fatness of his ass cushioning most of the damage. He blinks blearily at Yoongi, but the smirk on his face is clear as day.

“Came to claim your hug so early in the morning? Well, I usually don’t entertain clients until after I’ve taken a shower, but for you… I’ll make an exception,” he yawns, peeling back his blanket and patting the empty spot on his bed. “Come on in, Yoobie Boobie… Let’s hug like it’s the last day on earth.”

Seokjin fails to realize that once he removed his blanket, he had inadvertently left himself vulnerable. Yoongi slams the heel of his foot against Seokjin’s groin, causing him to shriek bloody murder at 7 AM. He wonders, amidst his pain, whether this might be the last straw and that their landlord will finally kick them out after years of their stupid shenanigans.

“WHAT DID THAT E-MAIL MEAN? IF IT’S WHAT I THINK IT IS…” Yoongi threatens, but it’s as empty as Seokjin’s butthole. They both know the implications of that e-mail, even a toddler can put two and two together and make sense out of it. Anonymous e-mail or not, Seokjin wouldn’t just forward any hug-o-gram request to Yoongi, unless…

What did the e-mail say? It goes something like:

Dear Mr. Kim,

Thank you for offering your special promotion for new time customers of your Hug-o-gram Service! I’ve always been a quiet fan of your business idea, but I’ve always been a little shy to submit a request of my own. Thank you so much for giving me the little push that I needed to send my first (and hopefully last) hug.

I’d like to send a hug to Mr. Min Yoongi from the Music Department. I understand that he has recently been appointed an employee at your business, but seeing as how it’d be difficult for him to hug himself (while not entirely impossible), I’d like to request that you be the one to send the hug to him.

I don’t really have a message for him, per se… I’m still a little shy, even though you already told me that there is no reason to be. I want to believe what you said was true, so I’m pushing my fear aside and putting my fate into your hands. So, to Mr. Min Yoongi… “When I told you it was nice to hug someone you like, I don’t think you understood what I meant. A hug, after all, is a two-way street. They’re often served the best when it is reciprocated, if you catch my drift. :)”

Peace! :3

Regards,

[Redacted] [Redacted]

“Have your brain synapses finished connecting? Because if even this flies over your head, I’m sorry to say buddy but… You might have smooth brain syndrome,” Seokjin pipes up. He observes Yoongi’s brow crumpling, the first signal of his impending mental breakdown. If Seokjin remembers correctly, the next signal should be when––

Yoongi drops down to his knees, his phone clattering to the floor as he stares absently at the ceiling. Seokjin cringes, worried for the state of his friend’s frail kneecaps. The poor sap has bad heart health already; surely, it isn’t too early to get him a life alert button?

Seokjin scooches over his bed, dangling half his body over the edge to appraise his friend. “So. What do you plan to do now?”

For a moment, Yoongi remains silent. Eventually, he shuffles closer to him, perching his hands around Seokjin. The business student raises a brow, confused, until Yoongi pushes Seokjin back onto the middle of the bed so that he can cram himself beside Seokjin on his small double bed. He huffs amusedly, allowing the smaller boy to snuggle into his chest, though he still refuses to wrap his arms around him. Close enough, Seokjin snorts.

“I need your help, hyung.” Yoongi’s voice is small, shy. It’s so uncharacteristic of him that Seokjin immediately softens. They might act like toddlers together the majority of the time, but Seokjin truly does care about Yoongi more than anything. During early mornings like this, when the sun’s soft rays are filtering through his sheer curtains and filling the room with a gentle warmth, it’s nice to cuddle up with one another and enjoy the silence. In fact, Seokjin would never admit it to Yoongi, but he got the idea for his Hug-o-gram service from Yoongi himself, back when the younger boy would be more prone to sneaking into his bed during his bouts of loneliness and homesickness.

Above all else, Yoongi is just a boy with a lot of love to give, so who is Seokjin to say no to his pleas for help?

“You know I always got your back, Yoongi-chi. Whenever you’re ready, we can do whatever you want. Ask and you’ll receive,” he replies, caressing his soft black tresses. Yoongi hums, smiling softly into his chest.

“Thanks, dude. For being… you know.”

Seokjin’s heart pangs a little, but he ignores it. Instead, he continues combing through his hair, humming gently. “I know.”

x x x x x

It’s been a few days since you sent the e-mail to Seokjin and you haven’t heard back from him. You aren’t sure if he sends confirmation e-mails to his clients as you’d never asked for a hug-o-gram before, nor did you know anyone who has. You are forced to continue on with your days like normal, trying to ignore the unsettling anxiety from creeping up your throat and spewing all over the sidewalk.

If Seokjin hadn’t been lying to you, then there shouldn’t be anything to worry about. You’ve been harboring this crush on Yoongi for years now, and you never thought in your life that it would ever be reciprocated. He always seemed a little bit detached, a little too cool for you. Never mind the fact that he always seemed so jittery around you, like it was hard to talk to you or something!

Your answer comes on the last day of the week, after an especially rough day at class. Your back is bent, having finished a grueling four hour lab period where you did nothing but stand and stare at your reaction vessel spinning without any signal of change. You are just a little bit hangry from all the stress piling up on your plate, especially since you hadn’t eaten a decent meal since breakfast at 8 AM.

In short, life isn’t going as smoothly as you’d hoped for your senior year, but you can’t let the blues get to you too soon. After all, there are leftover chicken wings in your fridge with your name on it, and nothing beats your meat more than greasy poultry to end a terrible week.

You’re only inches away from sliding your keycard to open your shared dorm room when the door opens without prompting. You flinch backward, yelping loudly when your roommate Park Jimin grins slyly from the doorway––never a good sign, if you knew anything.

“Fancy seeing you here,” Jimin says, leaning casually against the door like he hadn’t just scared the living shit out of you. He takes one glance at your disheveled hair and lightly sweaty clothes before grimacing in disgust. “Girl, I can’t let you meet the love your life while you’re looking like that. Come on, we have a few minutes before he arrives. Let’s get you freshened up.”

“I’m sorry?” You squeak, allowing your roommate to manhandle you into your own home. He pushes you into your room, depositing you roughly onto your unmade bed. You try to make eye contact with him, but he’s too busy raiding your closet to pay you much attention. “Excuse me? What did you say just now?”

“No time, princess! Your Prince Charming is on the way, and I’ve been ordered by Seokjin to prepare you for this life-changing moment, so get your ass into gear and change into this!” He shoves a clean pair of jeans and a nicer-looking blouse at you before proceeding to grab your hairbrush and comb your tresses with the gentleness of a mother tigress. You shriek when the brush gets tangled in an especially stubborn knot, but Jimin is relentless. He nearly tears your hair by the roots, ignoring your pained whines.

“Will you fucking stop! I have literally no idea why you’re acting like a psycho all of a sudden–” You shout when Jimin begins to undress you, having to kick him in the chest to get him away from completely eradicating your remaining traces of dignity. “Okay, fine! I’ll dress myself! Just get out of my room and fucking stay away!”

Jimin looks at you dubiously for a split second, before eventually acquiescing. “You have two minutes to get changed. You wouldn’t want to keep him waiting, do you?” he says, smirking knowingly. He better dread the day that you finally wipe that annoying twinkle in his eye; it’s been a long time coming.

Left alone to your own devices, you do as Jimin says even though you’re still wildly confused by everything. To think you had been so excited to feast on your chicken wings, and instead, you went through a decade’s worth of torture within the last few minutes. Patting your hands on the butt of your jeans, you meekly take a step out of your bedroom, where Jimin is already tapping his foot impatiently by the door.

He motions for you to hurry up. “Let’s go! Seokjin says they’re rounding up the corner. Hold on,” he steps closer to you, raising your arm up to take a shameless sniff of your pits. “Sorry, had to make a pit stop. You can never be too sure,” he shrugs, disregarding your squawks of indignation.

“I smell fine! Now what are we–” Your sentence is cut short as Jimin all but carries you to the elevator, your shrieks of terror causing one or two of your neighbors to peek their heads out of their doors. When they see it’s just the two of you, they simply shrug their shoulders, returning to their lives like it was normal to see Jimin carry you in a fireman’s hold.

He doesn’t put you down until you reach the lobby of your dorm complex, barely out of breath despite having held you the entire way down. Stupid buff baby, you groan internally to yourself, straightening down your clothes in a desperate attempt to look decent. “Okay, we’re here. Who am I supposed to be meeting?”

In lieu of an answer, Jimin points wordlessly outside your building. A black car is parked on the other side of the road, and you can barely see a familiar head of hair poking out from the driver’s seat. “Seokjin? What the…” you trail off, before your eyes finally land on their target.

Yoongi stands outside the glass doorway, not dressed in his usual all-black attire. He’s wearing an outrageously cute pink shirt today, matching the color of his natural flush. He always looks effortlessly good, with his hair a little windswept in that boyishly cute way. Your mouth goes a little dry when you realize he’s wearing his famous leather jacket, the one that always got the girls and boys swooning when he walked past in them. You hated how whipped for him you were, not wanting to be like the weird kids in his secret fan club, but who can blame you? He’s just so…

You rip open the door, nearly tripping and falling over the short steps leading to the entrance. You grind to a halt in front of him and you’re acutely aware of how rabid you must look. Your chest is pounding, like your heart is begging you to step closer, just like when you had hugged him all those days ago. God, you were going to kill Park Jimin for this.

“Yoongi? What are you…” You take one look at him before your gaze drops to his hands folded carefully behind his back. It doesn’t hide the fact that there is an obvious bouquet of flowers behind him, though. Your face lights on fire when you notice they were your favorite flowers too.

“I’m here to deliver a hug?” Yoongi says it like he’s unsure of himself, but there’s a little coyness laced in his tone. His cheeks are painted a soft pink, and not for the first time, they remind you of freshly baked bread pulled out from the oven. Soft enough to kiss, you wonder idly to yourself.

“I mean… I did order a hug a few days ago, but I do recall not ordering one for myself?” you laugh a little hysterically, your breath cutting short when Yoongi grins softly in response. “I… Who is this hug from?”

Yoongi takes a glance back towards Seokjin. “Hey, boss. Am I allowed to reveal who the secret admirers are, or will that get me fired?”

Seokjin, despite being a few meters away, laughs loud enough for the whole street to hear. “Well, Yoongi-chi. Something tells me your resignation letter was coming in the mail eventually. Who cares about the rules at this point?”

“He’s right,” you quip, pulling Yoongi’s attention back. You’re smiling wide now, your hopes and dreams skyrocketing in your chest and blooming a garden in your heart. “Who cares, right?”

“Right,” Yoongi agrees, taking the last two steps he needs to get closer to you. He drops the bouquet somewhere behind you before finally, finally, embracing you once more. He kisses you gently on the forehead, the contact short and sweet.

You feel like you’re dying, but it’s all good because Yoongi looks just as embarrassed as you. But none of it matters, not when both your happiness is palpable in the air.

“Y/N…”

“Yes?”

“This hug-o-gram is from me to you. Will you go out with me?”

You’ve always been a firm believer that actions speak louder than words. So when you lean in to plant your first kiss of many many more, he knows your answer well enough.

[justanotherblonde23]

I Want You - A Din Djarin Story

Author’s Note: Hey there, internet friends. So I had an ask from my friend @hdlynnslibrary that I can’ find to save my life. Luckily, I wrote it down! “Hi Kat! My darling! I must admit to feeling #horny okay? Soooo what about a prompt for my fav space man Din? Like maybe with an #inexperienced reader?” Oh Heather, my love, ask and you shall receive! What started out as a little somethin became 14 pages, double spaced, 12 point Times New Roman font. So my darling, I hope you enjoy this Din x reader fic, it was made with LOTS of love <3

Warnings: SMUT, there is definately sexy times going on over here, all aboard the horny train, leaving the station as we speak. Choo-fuckin-choo! Also, language because I am me and since I was born and raised in Boston and I have been swearing like a goddamn sailor since, well, ever lol. Oh, and there’s a slight breeding kink, just an FYI. I’m sorry, it just all came out and I couldn’t help it and Din Djarin wants his clan to expand, okay? 

Thank you to all who read, like, comment, reblog, etc. It warms my heart that you all are enjoying my work. Please let me know what you think of this one :-)

You had been traveling with Din on the Razor Crest for the past year or so. He found you on Arvala-7, working alongside Kuiil. You were good with your hands, fast with a blaster, and most importantly, you connected with the Child. From the second that kid saw you, he decided that you were his. He was the largest reason that you were here right now. How anyone could resist those big eyes, his floppy ears, and that cute baby smile. He turned your heart to putty. 

Your days were spent mostly on the Crest, keeping an eye on the little one and tending to the ship the best you could. The baby required a fair bit of effort, but you didn’t mind; he had become like your own child without you even realizing it. 

Somewhere along the way, you had become closer with the Mandalorian that you traveled with. Clipped sentences became more extended conversations as you gently urged him out of his shell. Soon, he became curious about you, asking all sorts of unimportant questions, ranging from where you grew up to what your favorite color was. Dinners alone with the kid turned into Mando joining you, lifting his helmet ever so slightly so that he could take a sip of the broth you made or a bite of the ration pack you heated up. Every time he did this, you made sure to keep your eyes on your plate, never wanting to disrespect his Creed in any way. 

As the months progressed, your feelings for one stoic Mandalorian grew. You caught yourself lingering in the cockpit more when after you put the little one down at night. You also caught yourself staring on more than one occasion, and you knew for a fact that Mando saw you, too. How could you not stare at that imposing figure that you shared a home with? The duality of the man was awe-inspiring, to be sure. He was a fearsome warrior, and you had witnessed his prowess first hand many a time. He brought bounties in nonstop, always jetting off to the next one before the last quarry had been frozen away in carbonite for a day. And then there was the gentleness that he had with the baby. You could tell that this was his first time taking care of another person by himself. Sometimes he was a bit rough around the edges, but he did try his best. He was learning how to be the best parent he could for the kid, and watching that play out warmed your heart. 

Often times, when he took the kid up to the cockpit so that you could use the refresher and wash the day away, you could hear him up there talking to the kid gently. Sometimes he speaks in Basic; other times, he speaks in what you assume is Mando’a. Every once in a while, you hear him sing the baby a lullaby on those restless nights where nothing seems to calm that sweet baby down. The first time you heard him sing softly to the kid, you knew that you loved him. 

You never felt right acting on your feelings; you didn’t know how he thought about you. Also, you were terrified of making a fool of yourself. Truth be told, you have never been in a man’s bed before. The life of a refugee of the Empire didn’t leave much time for amorous encounters. By the time you found Kuiil, all you wanted was to keep your head down and do your work. If you happened to meet someone along the way, fantastic, but you had more pressing matters to attend to, like surviving in the desert. 

That all changed one night when you least expected it. Mando had taken the kid to soothe him and put him to sleep, so you took the opportunity to use the fresher. You had been working hard that day, repairing areas of the Crest that needed maintenance while juggling an inquisitive little one. You took your time, relishing the way that the water felt against your bare skin, the warmth seeping into your muscles and soothing your bones. You wouldn’t tell anyone, but you viewed water as a gift from the Maker itself. For the first time in your life, you didn’t have to scrounge and save every last drop. You’d never had the luxury of using actual water the bathe daily; you’d never been in the financial position to have such a thing. For the Galaxy working class, a sonic was the best you could hope for most of the time. It cleansed the body of dirt and grime just fine, but it wasn’t pleasant like water was. 

In all honesty, your idea of a luxuriously long shower was well under ten minutes, but it was a dream come true for you. After you were clean and smelling of the fresh soap that you used, it was time for you to get out. You grabbed the small towel, drying your body, and then reached for your clothes. Your hands floundered around a bit until you realized that you had inadvertently forgotten to bring a new pair of clothes or your sleep shirt in with you. You had been in too much of a rush to hand off the baby and get just a few moments to yourself. 

You groaned at your flightiness. Kriff, that only left you with two options: you could either put your dirty clothes back on, or you could try to make your way back to your sleeping quarters wrapped in this tiny ass towel. Neither option particularly appealed to you, but your desire for cleanliness finally won out. 

You gathered up your belongings and quietly opened the refresher door, careful not to be too loud. It usually took a bit of time to calm the baby down enough for him to go to sleep, and you didn’t want to interrupt that process. The lights in the hold were dimmed, leaving you with the ability only to see a few steps in front of you. 

Unfortunately, your quest to be stealthy was in vain. You had forgotten that you had moved a particular toolbox during your work project this morning. Said toolbox ended up being placed right where you could smack your little toe on it. You yelped in pain, dropping everything in your arms in favor of hopping up and down on one foot and clutching the other in your hands. This caused the towel to also fall to the ground, leaving you bare. A noise drew your attention up, and your eyes met a helmet, staring right back. Mando was standing right in front of you, apparently drawn by the noise. 

You dropped your foot, standing up straight, eyes wide in shock. You didn’t move; you barely breathed. Your mind was short-circuiting, and you didn’t even have the sense to pick up your towel off the ground. Your body was overflowing with embarrassment, horror, and- was that arousal? Stars, you were standing here, completely bare, across from the Mandalorian who has every inch of himself covered. 

Ever so slowly, he reached down and grabbed the towel you had dropped, carefully wrapping it back around you. His hand accidentally brushed your breast, causing you to suck in a breath of surprise. He murmured his apologies, beginning to withdraw his hands, but you were faster. You reached out, stilling his retreating hands and placing them back on your body. You wanted this, you wanted him, and you wanted to make sure that he knew it. 

He tilted his helmet curiously, waiting for you to give him a prompt. He took in your labored breathing, your increased heart rate, the way you bit your lip. Your eyes met his visor, and he could barely even see your eye color because your pupils were so blown with lust and desire. He groaned a deep, low sound in his chest at your obvious reaction to his presence. 

“What do you want, sweet girl?” he ground out, trying to keep himself in check. 

You moved your hands, gently cradling his helmet where his cheeks would be, breathing in his scent swirling so close to you. You could smell the blaster residue, the leather, the metal of his beskar, the soap you both used in the shower, and that smell that was uniquely his. You’d never get tired of it, not in this life or the next. 

“I want you,” was your reply. “Touch me, Mando, please.”

“Din,” came his reply, almost in a whisper, as if it was something sacred. 

You frowned, your nose scrunched up in confusion. You studied this helmet, eyes searching for answers. 

“My name, it’s Din. Din Djarin.”

Your mouth dropped open in shock, eyes wide with confusion. You knew the sacredness of a name in this Galaxy. Stars, you hadn’t even told him your own name for a solid three months. The only reason he had found out was because he overheard you talking to the kid one day. A name was even more sacred to a Mandalorian. It was precious, something to be guarded with the utmost care. You’d never even wagered that he’d give it to you, ever. 

“You can use it, but with just me and the kid around. No one else gets to know it, no one but you.” 

You nodded, understanding just how much it had taken for him to tell you. His name was a gift, something that you would keep close and cherish. 

“Din,” you spoke the Mandalorian’s name for the first time, testing it on your tongue, relishing the taste of it in your mouth. It was a good name, a solid name, a name fitting for the warrior before you. “Din Djarin, a beautiful name.” 

Hearing his name in your mouth set Din’s soul on fire. The way you spoke it, the way you had considered it and acknowledged the importance of what he had just given you, it made him want to hear it again and again. He wanted to listen to you moan his name in ecstasy, begging him for more, begging him for pleasure. He wanted to hear you yell it, mutter it, say it in everyday conversation. He wanted to hear his name drip from your lips for the rest of his life. 

That night was the first time he took you and gave you pleasure. You had come on his tongue and fingers three times before you were strung out and exhausted. You fell asleep in his bunk wrapped tightly in his arms. That was two months ago. 

You still had yet to take him fully, to allow him to be inside of you. You had admitted that you were nervous, that you had no experience to work off of. Din had been nothing but patient and kind, never pressuring you into anything that you weren’t comfortable with. He had told you that, “We have all the time in the world, sweet girl. There’s no need to rush.” You believed him wholeheartedly, but in the past weeks, you had found yourself wanting more. Sure, you were still frightened, you didn’t know what you were doing, but that burn and ache inside of you kept getting more intense as the days went by. You know that Din would take care of you. 

It’s been a rough day, and that’s an understatement. You helped with the bounty this time because the information you were given indicated that this quarry was heavily guarded. Mando couldn’t say no to an extra blaster covering his ass. Thankfully, this mission was on Tatooine, meaning that you could leave the little one with Peli. Maker knows that woman loves your little green bean; how could she not? Green bean loves her right back and seems to be particularly fond of the pit droids. You think it has something to do with the fact that he can bonk their noses to make them spring to life, but you can’t be sure. 

Unfortunately, it turns out that this asshole was much more protected than you had been led to believe. You would have some choice words for Greef Karga to pass along to whoever had commissioned this kriffing bounty. You both had more or less emerged unscathed, but there would most certainly be bruises covering you two from head to toe. 

Once the bounty was frozen away in carbonite, you could breathe a little better. He wouldn’t be giving you any trouble now. When Peli saw that state you were in, she insisted that she keep the little one for the night, which was a relief. As much as you loved that sweet little boy, you needed a breather. Hopefully, you’d be able to spend some much needed time with just you and your Mandalorian. 

You found yourself on Din’s lap with a blindfold covering your eyes so he could kiss you. You would rather not see anything at all and have his lips on yours than have your sight with his helmet on. You both were in your underclothes, your legs straddling him. 

That’s when the kisses began. There was something about kissing Din Djarin that was otherworldly. The way he poured all his love and care into a kiss never ceases to blow you away. He always started so gently, building you up and setting you on fire. How could anything be that good, that pleasurable? He licked into your mouth, moaning at your taste. Your Mandalorian loved to kiss you. He nipped at your bottom lip, causing you to gasp, pleasure shooting straight down to your core. 

He moved his kisses to your jaw and down the column of your neck, leaving bruising in his wake. Din whispered in your ear, telling you how beautiful you were, how good you tasted, how you were just for him. The thought that you were his, that this fearsome warrior had opened himself up enough to let you in, it urged you forward. 

You began to rock back and forth on his thigh, chasing that feeling of bliss. He stopped you for a moment, helping you wiggle out of your panties, before urging you to start once more. This felt even better, your slick dripping out onto his thigh, helping you create beautiful friction. By the sounds he was making, Din was enjoying it, too. The feeling of his muscles hard beneath you, your clit rubbing deliciously against him, was heavenly. You could feel the sparks in your tummy, the clench of your cunt around nothing; you were so close. 

Din urged you on, his hands at your hips, moving you. He muttered about how gorgeous you were as you took your pleasure on his thigh, how he wanted to see you cum on him, how he wanted to taste your sweet pussy after you came. His words were what finally did you in, the dam bursting and your orgasm hitting you full force. Your hips began to stutter, but your Mandalorian kept you moving, riding the waves of pleasure, extending your bliss. Finally, your whines led him to stop; you were far too sensitive to continue. You panted, trying to catch your breath. 

As you sat there, your head on Din’s shoulder, centering yourself once more, you realized what exactly was pressing against your thigh. You could feel his rock hard, dripping cock, just within reach. The thought of it made your pussy clench and your mouth water. You wanted Din Djarin, all of him, in every way possible. You wanted to feel him inside of you, wrecking you and making you see stars. 

“Din,” you murmured, “I want you.” 

He nuzzled his nose into your hair, breathing you in. “You have me, Mesh’la, any way you want me.”

You sat up straight on his lap, facing him. If you didn’t have a blindfold on, you’re sure you’d be looking him directly in the eye. “No, I want you. I want you inside of me; I want your cock, Din.” 

Your Mandalorian groaned at your admission. There was nothing he wanted more. He took in the earnest expression on your face, looking for any sign of hesitance or anxiety. He never wanted you to feel pressured into doing anything that you didn’t want to do. He didn’t want you to feel as if you needed to do something to please him. He wanted you to explore sex at your own pace, never another’s. 

“Cyare, are you sure? There is no rush for us. My satisfaction comes from the fact that I can satisfy you and that you trust me enough to allow me to be the first to touch you in this way. There is no timetable besides your wants, needs, and desires, mesh’la. I don’t want you to pressure yourself.” 

You smiled at his words, his voice so soft and sweet for you. He was always so considerate, never rushing you or telling you that you were going too slowly. The kindness and care this great warrior continuously showed you reminded you of this complicated man’s duality. You felt safe with him, and you wanted all of him. 

“Din, baby, no, I don’t feel pressured. I’ve been thinking about it for weeks now. I want to feel you inside of me; I want you to make love to me, please.” 

He cradled your face in his palms for a moment, his thumbs gliding over your cheeks. Then, he kissed you. It wasn’t a gentle kiss; it was full of passion, sinking you deeper into arousal. He kissed you like you were the only thing in the world that he loved, and maybe he did. Perhaps you and the kid were his whole heart. His tongue expertly explored your mouth, causing you to mewl and moan. He knew just what would get you going. 

He pulled away, sucking in precious oxygen as you did the same. Carefully, he turned the both of you around and laid you down on his cot. It wasn’t the most comfortable thing in the galaxy, not by a long shot. It was designed more for efficiency than comfort. The thing was, though, you didn’t care. It was Din’s, and he was willing to share it with you. You could feel him hovering over you, his breath warm against your face. 

“Let me taste you, sweet girl. Let me get you ready to take my cock.”

You gasped, feeling his cock rock back and forth, covering himself in your slick. You were at a loss for words, so many sensations happening all at once. All you could manage was a nod, and a whimpered, “Please, Din.” 

Your Mandalorian kissed his way down your body, leaving behind bite marks and bruises where he wanted to cause heightened sensations. Before he even made it to your pussy, you were already painfully wet for him. You could feel his breath ghosting over the place where you wanted him the most. You lifted your hips in an attempt to spur him on, but all it got you was a muscular arm forcing your hips back down to the cot. 

“Patience, cyar’ika, I want you to feel every ounce of pleasure that I can wring out of you. Enjoy the moment, feel the suspense, don’t simply rush to the finish line, little one.” 

You yelped as you felt him bite into the juncture of your hip and thigh, sucking in hard to leave a mark. He soothed the skin with his tongue, so close to where you needed him, but not close enough. He repeated the process on the other side, marking you in a place only the two of you would ever see, like a secret that you both would share. 

Unexpectedly, his tongue licked a broad stripe from the bottom of your slit to your clit. You sighed; that was the feeling you so desperately wanted. He lapped at your cunt like a man starved, and you were the best thing on the menu. He knew how to work you into a frenzy, and quickly, he played your body like an instrument that he had been practicing on for a lifetime. You quaked and shook as your second orgasm of the night took hold, bursting and pulling you ever forward into the bliss you so desperately craved. 

Even after you had ridden out your orgasm, Din didn’t stop. He worked you over, inserting one finger and then another inside of you, hitting that one spot inside you that made you see stars over and over. His mouth never stopped, his tongue lazily drawing loose circles around your clit, never slowing down, but keeping a steady pace. Your hips fought to lift off the cot, simultaneously fighting and chasing that feeling of ecstasy. When he scissored his fingers inside of you and twisted his wrist just so, you lost it once more. A scream that sounded something like his name tore out of your throat as the stars exploded behind your eyes. 

You felt like you were floating in space, freely and without a care in the world. You reached a new height of pleasure that you’d never even imagined before. You could touch the sky and would never ever come down. You thought every encounter with your Mandalorian was pure rapture, but this was beyond anything you had ever felt before. You were panting, gasping for the oxygen your body so desperately needed, and you felt better than you ever had before. As your head left the clouds, you realized you had a dopey smile on your face, and your lover was covering you with kisses everywhere he could reach. 

Vaguely, you heard his whispers in the dark. You were so good for me, mesh’la. You looked so beautiful cumming on my fingers and tongue. You taste divine, starshine. Those words went straight to your heart and to your pussy, flooding you with more arousal than you had ever thought possible. A deep kiss on your lips finally brought you back to the present, the warm body on top of you centering your mind. 

“Are you ready for my cock, sweet girl? Do you still want to feel me inside of you? I promise I’ll go slow.”

You nodded in response, your words failing you. 

“I need to hear you say it, cyare. I need to hear you tell me that you want this, that you’re sure.” 

Your head lolled a bit as you processed his words, still feeling slightly hazy. 

“Din Djarin, I want you inside of me. Please, please, I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anything before.”

He chuckled at your pleas, a smile pressed into the crook of your neck. 

“I’ll be most delighted to give you what you want, sweet girl. Whatever you want, it’s yours. Are you ready for me?”

You breathed out a yes as you felt him coat himself in your slick, making sure he could ease into you. You knew he was quite large. You had curiously wondered aloud one day if all men were built like that. Even though his size intimidated you, you wanted everything he could give you. The excitement fizzled in your belly; you were getting wetter by the second. 

Ever so slowly, your Mandalorian lined himself up with you and began to press in. You gasped at the feeling of just the head of his cock inside of you, the blunt tip spearing into you. He paused before he began to move again. Slowly, inch by inch, he pressed himself into you, stopping ever so often to make sure that you had time to adjust to him. It didn’t hurt nearly as much as the girls in your hometown had made it seem. Maybe they hadn’t been with the proper lovers, or perhaps the boys they were sleeping with were just inexperienced and too young. All you knew was that there was a pinch of pain, yes, but the pleasure outweighed any discomfort you may have felt. 

You could feel every delicious inch of him inside you, splitting you open and filling you up like nothing ever had before. You could feel every ridge and vein as he inched his way into you. You couldn’t even put a name to this feeling, but you wanted more. Eventually, he was fully seated inside of you; your hips flush against his own. You felt so full, stuffed to the brim, and Maker, you loved it. He waited for a minute or two, allowing you to adjust to him and have a chance to take in all these new sensations. You had thought his fingers were terrific, but they were nothing compared to the feel of his cock deep inside of you. 

He kissed you. It was all teeth, tongue, and lips, and stars; it was perfect. He devoured your mouth, taking what was his. You couldn’t help the little sounds that sprung up from your throat when he did that. He answered you with guttural groans of his own. You could feel the way those sounds made his chest rumble; you could feel it in your chest pressed against him. 

He grabbed your leg, propping it up on his hip, and he began to move. He never went too fast for you or too hard, keeping a steady pace that kept you comfortable but still dragged you forward to a fourth orgasm. You didn’t even know you had it in you until Din used two of his fingers to assault your clit, encouraging that bundle of nerves to give you one more burst of pleasure. The combination of his cock deep inside you and his fingers on your clit was enough to send you toppling over the edge once more. This orgasm was more intense than the others, blazing white-hot through your veins and setting your soul on fire. If you thought you had been screaming before, you were mistaken. You writhed and squirmed under your lover, your pleasure causing your body to shake like a leaf. You sobbed his name over and over, tears spilling out of your eyes from sheer ecstasy. 

Your Mandalorian groaned deeply at the feel of your pussy clamping down on him like a vice. You were so tight, to begin with, and your orgasm grabbed him and shoved him into his orgasm. As he emptied himself deep within you, he couldn’t help but mumble praises. “Oh Mesh’la, you’re so tight for me, so beautiful laid bare just for me. You’re such a good girl, a sweet girl, my girl. I’ll give you whatever you want, baby. Adventure, new experiences, my love- fuck if you want it, I’ll give you warriors, children of our own.” 

You both laid there for a while afterward, basking in the glow of post-sex haze. You carded your fingers through his curls, gently scratching his scalp as he pressed sweet kisses into your skin. He was still inside you; neither of you could bear the thought of being parted just yet. You could stay like this forever, caught in this in-between time, not yet floating back into reality. 

“I would like that,” you murmured, never stopping your movements in his hair. 

“Like what, cyare?” 

“For you to give me warriors of our own, Din.”

You could feel him twitch inside you, clearly interested. His head shot up, studying yours closely, looking for any falsehood or hesitance in your blindfolded face. 

“You mean it?” He breathed out. 

You grinned, feeling around for his face. You traced his sharp jawline, the proud cure of his nose, the pout of his plump lips. This was the face of the man you loved, the man you wanted to spend the rest of your life with. Wherever he was in the Galaxy, that was home. 

“Yes, my love, I mean it. We have our little green bean, and eventually, he’s going to need some friends to play with. We wouldn’t want him to be lonely. And besides, there’s no one I’d rather raise warriors with than you.”

You heard a faint sniffle before his lips were on yours once more. You had a family, but there was always room to add more to this clan of three. 

Please let me know if you want to be added/removed from the tags list xo

Tags: @hdlynnslibrary @autumnleaves1991-blog @steeeeeeeviebb @cinewhore @f0rever15elf @pascalispunkie-deactivated20210 @frannyzooey @jollyrancher87 @mrschiltoncat @cyaredindjarin @randomness501 @twomoonstwosuns @rosiesimone819 @hillarymurray4 @qhbr2013 @phoenixhalliwell @ahopelessromanticwritersworld @theoutsidelandhere @maharani-radha @maybege @revolution-starter @paniclana @flightlessangelwings @bisexual-space-slut @thewayofthemandalorian @stressed-the-fudge-out @evans-dejong @supernaturalcat7 @salty-sith-bitch @poguesvixen @cheesehead0622-blog @impala1967666 @the-purity-pen @lydiascottage @themarcusmoreno @inodorosalchicha @sarahjkl82-blog @general-latino @rae-gar-targaryen @agirllovespancakes​ @plants-are-better-than-humans @omggiannarosa @theocatkov @roseuchiha69

[fu-yao]

#showyourprocess

From planning to posting, share your process for making creative content!

To continue supporting content makers, this tag game is meant to show the entire process of making creative content: this can be for any creation.

RULES — When your work is tagged, show the process of its creation from planning to posting, then tag 5 people with a specific link to one of their creative works you’d like to see the process of. Use the tag #showyourprocess so we can find yours!

Thank you so much for tagging me @lan-xichens​, I’ll try my best to explain how I made this set from start to finish hehe ♡ and also a big thank you to @suibianjie​ @highwarlockkareena​ @nyx4​ @aheartfullofjolllly​ and you as well Kris for putting this all together! Content creators get a lot less recognition than they deserve for all the time they put into their content, so getting everyone to see the (sometimes excessive) process we all go through to put our content in our blog, I hope it creates a positive change!! 💖

1. Planning

The set in question was actually requested by someone so they could celebrate their friend’s birthday! At first I wasn’t entirely sure if I was going to be able to finish it on time (college is very hectic right now) but I was able to finish it three days before the deadline which was may 1st! ^-^

The first thing I did was decide what characters I wanted to use in the set, I first reached out to the person who requested the set if there were certain characters they wanted me to use but they said they didn’t know enough to really give me any directives outside of the quote. I decided, since the quote is applicable to the entirety of the show, that I would try to put in as many characters as possible.

Thus, of course, came the hunting for scenes. Those of you in the net discord surely know I came into the content help channel a few times to ask for certain scenes here and there, and eventually I had to download an additional 10 episodes to the back then 20 or so episodes I had in my CQL episodes folder.

As you can see I have 30 random episodes of CQL downloaded (slowly but surely getting to the point where I have all 50 episodes downloaded) and I think I ended up using scenes out of at least 20 of those episodes.

I planned out beforehand what characters I would use per gif. I knew obviously I would start out with Wangxian, them being the main characters of the show, and then would work my way down the list. The second gif consists of Nie Huaisang, Nie Mingjue, Jin Zixuan, Jiang Yanli, Wen Qing, and Wen Ning. They’re all family pairings, two being siblings and one being a married couple. The next gifset consists of the Yi City characters, then the fourth gif consists of the juniors, and the final gif has Jin Guangyao, Mianmian, Jiang Cheng, and Lan Xichen in it.

I have to admit though that when I had made the first four gifs I’d forgotten who I would put in the last gif and the when I thought about it the first time around I could only think of Lan Qiren and the very cursed Yaoyang ship 😭 it was only at dinner time that same day that I remembered I hadn’t put Jiang Cheng in my gifset yet and that’s when I thought of the other characters as well.

I had already made my first two gifs when I went to check Hanyi’s blog for layout inspo and eventually I decided I wanted to try a triangle-ish layout, which I doodled below. I eventually ended up changing the layout of the last gif in the final design. It was also the first time I would work with a triangle-ish layout so I was a bit nervous as I was scared it wasn’t going to work out...

2. Creating

I use Avisynth 2.5 and Adobe Photoshop 2021 (the paid version, unfortunately, I need it for school except I didn’t need it this year but I wanted it so I paid for it with my own money ouch) to make my gifsets! I always start out with trimming down all the scenes I’m going to use into three to five second videos and putting them through Avisynth. This time around I did it separately for each gif I made, simply because I needed so many scenes. I would include a screenshot of my “gif vids” and “temp” folders but I’ve already deleted all the videos, which is what I usually do immediately after a set is posted.

I’ll try my best explaining this gif by gif since each one had a different layout!

2.1 Wangxian

I think I had up to five different designs of this gif 😭 it started out with the gif on the left originally being more centered and the quote right smack in the center but somehow it felt a bit too... empty? I changed up the design and pulled the gif over to the right and put the two closeups on the left, the exact opposite of the gif I eventually ended up with. I switched things around one more time and saved the gif as you can see it right now, except I didn’t include the lines yet. It was only as I finished up my fourth gif that I decided this gif needed lines as well so I added them ^-^

2.2 Nie Huaisang, Nie Mingjue, Jin Zixuan, Jiang Yanli, Wen Qing, and Wen Ning

I got the inspiration for the font layout on this gif from this Wenzhou post! I hadn’t tried it before and when I did for this gif I was very happy with the way it turned out :D I wanted to portray that life is a pile of good and bad things, as the quote says, in CQL by mirroring these happy scenes side by side with the sad scenes

2.3 Yi CIty

My first time working with the triangle layout!! Putting in the lines and making sure they would line up with the second gif took me the longest of all actually  😭 I think once I got the line on the left in I just copy pasted it and flipped it horizontally so I didn’t have to fiddle around with angling it anymore :’) my original idea was to get a happy Song Lan scene and a sad A-Qing scene, but when I stumbled upon this A-Qing scene in ep38 I just had to put it in there because her smile is so precious 🥺 Xue Yang and Xiao Xingchen in the center are also supposed to be mirrored, with Xue Yang embodying the “bad things” and Xiao Xingchen the “good things” ! I also think the Yi City characters fit this part of the quote very well!!

2.4 The Juniors

Ah yes, the junior quartet!! :D I had this planned out from the very beginning, that I would include happy versus sad juniors in the “vice versa” part of the quote, and I think it worked out quite well! My first idea was to put the “vice versa” completely in the special font and have it typed out over the gifs like I did with the “vice” but as I typed out the “versa” I realized it had one letter too much to be able to do that 😭😭 it took me a while to come up with how I would position the “but” and “versa” and after some moving around I decided to just place them the way I did in the final gif! For the font, I duplicated the “vice” and added a stroke to the duplicate, then I changed the fill setting to 0% so I could slightly drag the duplicate away from the original layer to create the effect that’s in the gif — also, finding a scene in which Jin Ling smiles is really difficult.... he barely even smiles in the scene I ended up using :(

2.5 Jin Guangyao, Mianmian, Jiang Cheng, and Lan Xichen

The final gif!! I feel like this might come a little across as “I promise I didn’t forget these characters” because they’re a very odd quadruplet to put together, but they were the most important characters left to put in the set! I was thinking of putting Nie Mingjue in here together with Jin Guangyao and Lan Xichen, but I did feel he fit more with his brother up in the second gif. Mei @mylastbraincql​ cheered me on making this gif for which I was very grateful :D <3 the layout came to be after I googled “how to evenly split a rectangle in four” because I didn’t want a repeat layout in the set  (*/∇＼*)

2.6 Coloring

For the coloring I pretty much did all of the tweaking on the first gif and then copy pasted all of it onto the second, third, fourth, and fifth gif. This is usually the way I go about my coloring, I will always edit certain gifs if necessary but I don’t think I had to change the coloring much on any of these gifs? Maybe I added in a curve layer here and there, but nothing major! This is really one of my preferred coloring styles, even though I try to step outside of my comfort zones with other sets ^-^

3. Posting

I will always upload sets into my drafts and edit the caption in there as well, clicking on “preview post” a couple times to check everything looks good on my blog as well, before I post a set. However, this time, since there was a deadline and I finished before the deadline, I put this set in the queue so it would automatically post on the 1st of may! Knowing myself, I would’ve forgotten to do so </3

Whew that was... a lot 😭 did it make any sense? Probably not, but it was fun to ramble （ ´∀｀）

I’ll tag

@blinkplnk​ with this set !

@wuxien​ with this set !

@wendashanren​ with this set !

@wanyinxichen​ with this set !

@yibobibo​ with this set !

@mylastbraincql​ with this set !

@sugarbabywenkexing​ with this set !

@yiling-recesses​ with this set !

@jiancheng​ with this set !

Please feel totally free to ignore this if you’ve already been tagged and don’t want to do it again!! <3

[merrybandofmurderers]

[id: a banner with Work in Progress Wednesday written in white font on a background of light blue watercolor texture /end id]

y'all are in luck becuz ive gotten a lot done on the tranquil oc fic!! here's gwythren's convo with leliana

Gwythren finds the Nightingale in the command tent, kneeling, her hands clasped. She speaks a recitation that Gwythren recognizes from the Canticle of Benedictions.

“Blessed are the righteous, the lights in the shadow. In their blood the Maker’s will is written.” She pauses. “Is that what you want from us?” she muses, almost conversationally. “Blood? To die so that Your will is done?” She straightens, hands falling to her knees. “Is death Your only blessing?”

She turns sharply to Gwythren; she sensed their approach. It’s remarkable enough to take note of.

“You speak for Andraste, no? What does the Maker’s prophet have to say about all of this?” Sister Leliana demands. “What’s His game?”

“I do not speak for Andraste,” Gwythren says. “Nor for anyone save myself.”

She hesitates. “Do you—” her eyes flick to their forehead “—do you even worship the Maker?”

“I follow the Chant.” Although not lately, not without the Circle’s enforcement of it.

Her lips purse. “That isn’t the same thing.”

Probably no danger in admitting it, they decide. “I do not find value in worshipping Him.”

She snorts, stands. “I can’t blame you. He certainly asks a lot.” The Nightingale comes to stand beside Gwythren, looking up at the sky; the misty white is quickly being dyed blue. “You know what the Chantry teaches—that the Maker abandoned us, demands repentance for our sins.” Her hands clench into fists. “He demands it all. Our lives. Our deaths. Justinia gave Him everything she had, and He let her die!”

Gwythren shifts their weight, glances around. There are some agents nearby, but none seem eager to approach. “My condolences,” Gwythren says at last. If the Knight-Lieutenant were here, he would know better what comfort to offer.

“You know, I used to believe I was chosen, just as some say you are.” She chuckles darkly. “I thought I was fulfilling His purpose for me, working with the Divine, helping people. But now she’s dead. It was for nothing,” she spits. “Serving the Maker meant nothing.”

Gwythren ponders this, ponders her grief, her anger. Choosing their words carefully, they say, “You did what you believed to be right. That the Maker did not acknowledge it does not now make it wrong.”

She looks at them, eyes glossy but burning. “But if the Maker won’t intervene even to save the best of his servants, what good is He?”

“If He does not do you good, then don’t believe in Him.”

The Left Hand laughs, startled and high-pitched. The nearby agents glance nervously in her direction. “You do not mince words, do you?” She shakes her head. “Forgive me, I—this is my burden. I shouldn’t have troubled you with it.”

Gwythren nods. “It would serve you better to find someone more competent at dealing with these matters.”

“Like a priest, you mean?” She scoffs. “No, this… I appreciate what you said. But this was a moment of weakness. It won’t happen again.” She gestures at a table covered in papers. “I’ve prepared your maps for the journey. Are you ready?”

“I will be.”

“To work then,” she says brusquely, summoning a passing agent. “We will speak later.”

tagging @mrs-theirin, @gaysolavellan, @cciarants, @midnightprelude

[ironmandeficiency]

laying low

pairing: fennec shand / reader

word count: 3019

summary: she didn’t want you to retire because you were the only one she trusts to have her six. you retired because you couldn’t let yourself fail and get her killed.

a/n: i want her to step on me but also i wanna be the one (1) person the stoic badass is soft for. also i’m posting from mobile again so ✨hooray✨

warnings: angry fennec, parting on maybe-bad terms, canon typical violence, being kidnapped, toro calican himself is a warning (undid his death for the sake of plot)

“is this really what you want? to sit here and let yourself rot?” fennec was bitter. you hated seeing her like this and nearly every muscle in your body ached as she spoke. the two of you worked together like a finely-tuned machine and she clearly thought that you retiring was a waste of potential. but when you slipped up and nearly cost fennec her life, you refused to endanger her with your presence. she was far too valuable to you and you would do anything, even retire in this skughole, if it meant keeping her safe.

after a speeder crash you endured during a fight against stormtroopers, it severely impacted your ability to fight. fennec knew that you wouldn’t be the same, but that didn’t bother her. there were only one or two more bounties picked up afterwards because you realized you had become a liability. fennec was having to cover your ass more often than not and even though she insisted that it wasn’t a problem, you had to do something different.

picking up a little slack would be miniscule if you were with her but you didn’t see it like she did. you had been her longest companion and the only one that she’d ever let see her weak. life came with trauma, and with trauma came nightmares — she remembers the first one she had early into your partnership, the way you held her close and anchored her to reality. from then on it was decided: you were it for her. not that she’d ever tell you, but it was true nonetheless.

you sighed at her words; the very same thoughts went through your head at the beginning of this plan but it was the only viable option for you. “it’s all i have left. maybe i can find some peace before hunters come looking for me.” you pour two mugs of caf, setting one on the table in font of an empty chair as an invitation for her to sit. she doesn’t.

the anger in the air around her nearly chokes you with its intensity, rising in the air like heavy plumes of smoke from a raging fire. you’re unsure what you can say to tame the blaze, if you even can at all. normally you would know the exact words to say to bring her down when she’s this upset, but now you were the root of the problem and there was nothing short of foregoing retirement that would make her happy.

fennec continues talking about the brave fighter she fought alongside turning into someone she didn’t know, how you’re showing your belly to the world like the damn tooka sunbathing in the windowsill. the venom she’s spitting doesn’t bother you. she’s angry and hurt, probably feeling abandoned by you and your decision to stay and make a home.

“if you ever need somewhere to lay low, i’ll always welcome you. we’re partners fennec, whether fighting side by side or not.” you wanted to give her that much. even if she wasn’t ready now, you would always welcome her into your new home, into your arms the way you’ve yearned to for years.

nothing is said to acknowledge your words. you didn’t think she would say anything anyway but it hurts regardless, another reminder that she doesn’t like this the same way you don’t. all she does before leaving you is grabbing the mug from the table and pouring its contents down the drain, letting the mug clatter in the sink once it’s empty.

maybe one day she could see that you were doing this for her. maybe one day, probably long away from now, she would walk into these doors with the weight of the galaxy being dropped on your doorstep. with a soft smile and open arms you would greet her and show her what it was like to live the quiet life.

for now, you would just have to settle for the warm embrace of the memories you shared, hoping that more could be made in your new little hut.

it’s been close to six months since you retired. you hadn’t seen or heard fennec since she walked out of your front door wearing her signature scowl. it still stung, after all this time, that after everything she wouldn’t even comm. you’d tried that the first couple weeks after she left but there was never a reply, only a dwindling hope and the worry of not knowing if she was okay.

that was one of the biggest benefits of traveling with fennec; you would never have to worry where she was because she was always right beside you. there was never a nagging worry that ate at you, no nightmares allowed to linger since her touch would ward them away. life without her was a new normal

there would be days where you would see something and want to tell her about it, throwing her name over your shoulder only to remember that she was never there to hear what you had to say. the comms you sent grew further apart as time went on, eventually stopping altogether. she would never reply anyway, there was no reason to waste both your time and yours on something seemingly broken beyond repair.

she may not have been dead, but you still lost her.

several more weeks went by and you had grown accustomed to the solitude. sure you would socialize when going to the market for food and supplies, but it was never anything of substance, only mere pleasantries and remarks on the quality of the items you bought. somehow you were far more weary during retirement than you had been before it.

your mind would drift to her still, wondering whether she had found someone else to watch her back or if she was vagabonding all by her lonesome. how you yearned to see her again, hear her voice or feel her hands gently help you when you fall like you have lately. it’s like your body doesn’t see the reason to keep up. you exercise to the best of your ability and try to stay fit as possible, but you’re still losing your footing more and more often, even at home.

it comes to a head when you’re making breakfast. everything had been okay prior, but one little nudge of your bad leg against a table corner and you’re sprawling. laying on the floor covered in your breakfast, it takes you thirty minutes to muster the strength needed to stand on your own.

the next day, you get a cane. you loathe having to buy it at all, hearing her voice calling you old and jokingly asking where your grandchildren are. it’s either a cane or losing what little mobility you have left, so you go with the former. you despised the visible display of your weakness, grated on what pride you had left. if fennec could see you now, what would she say?

the man had beat his way into your home with every intention to rob you and take what little supplies you had. he had been traveling for days in the desert and was tired. but then he saw exactly whose house he was robbing and he had an even better idea: take you to what used to be jabba’s palace, now ruled by bib fortuna.

see, the paths you used to tread alongside fennec provided ample opportunities to make an enemy here and there. jabba was one of them simply because you refused to work for him, and with his death, you had a little bit of peace. fortuna never attempted to seek you out but anyone who knew of jabba’s grudge against you would be wise to the reward your capture would produce.

this young hotshot was foolhardy and far too cocksure compared to his abilities. if you were in the body you used to have, this buffoon (who made his name very known to you in some sort of dominance attempt?) would be dead thrice over. but time wasnt kind to you and you still have a near-lame leg, so at his mercy you were.

you just wished he would shut his damn mouth for longer than it took him to suck in another breath. he must not realize that silence is far louder than jabbering when it comes to someone holding your life in their hands. maker forbid you have peace in your final moments, apparently. figures.

jabba’s former palace was soon in your line of sight and if you weren’t positive that you were being led to your death, you’d have been grateful to be freed of the nuisance that was toro calican. all the assurance you could find as he hauled you out of his speeder was that his arrogance would soon get him killed if he continued the way he was going.

toro dragged you to the throne room with a hand roughly dripping your bicep, trying to hurry you along as if you still had two normally functioning legs. you knew he knew about your predicament, your lack of fully independent mobility a frequent topic of his. “ease up, wank stain! you know i have a lame leg!” his answer was an aggravated huff and his blaster pressed harder into your lower back.

the lower you descended, the deeper the dread sank into your gut. this was actually real, you were about to die. peace had been made long ago with the knowledge of someone possibly wanting to find you, but now that it was happening… completely different.

you wondered if fennec would ever find out about your death. or if she did find out, your brain would questioned if she would even care. of course she would, your heart consoled, think of how long you traveled together! the trust! the bond you two share transcends time!

but you cut your journeys with her short, there was no telling. there were so many things you wish you could have told her, not just about the feelings that only grew in their intensity during her absence from your side. you wanted to tell her about the stray tooka that you took in when you first settled down; she had a litter of kittens and one of them had a glare that rivaled your dear assassin’s. there was an action holonovel you read once that had you cackling, imagining your fennec cutting off all the frivolous villain monologues with a blaster to the face.

she was never told these things and now that you were becoming rancor chow, she’d never even know them. the idea of dying before telling fennec everything that you’ve been stewing over for so long, not telling her you loved her, fuck was it heartbreaking.

a mumbled curse fell from your lips when you felt saltwater make a descent down your cheeks. you didn’t want your harbinger to see you this weak, this vulnerable, but you had no choice in the matter. your hands are bound by a pair of shockingly sturdy binders and there was no way for you to wipe the tears away. all you could do was blink them away, then meet death with your chin up and your love in your heart.

“now what do we have here?” that was most certainly not the voice of bib fortuna. you opened your eyes to find a broad man clad in green beskar occupying the throne. your common sense identified him as boba fett, which you should have thought was impossible. then again, you didn’t think it was possible for someone to be as annoying as toro calican. it was a day of being proved wrong, it seemed.

anyone could see that toro wasn’t prepared to see someone that wasn’t bib on the throne. his eyes had grown to the size of the twin suns and even through your wet eyes, you could see his facial expression morph from his fake swagger to a dog of uncertainty. nevertheless, he persisted, throwing you down at the foot of the throne. “there’s a bounty on their head and i’ve come to collect the reward.”

boba fett, even through the beskar, doesn’t seem pleased. he doesn’t move his helmet’s line of sight from toro as he speaks, something you’re grateful for. “there’s been a, how do you say, recent transfer of power. and with that change came a new way of doing things, you understand.” he scoffed at the man, your proximity to the throne enlightening you to just how annoyed he was becoming in such a short period. it seemed that toro had that effect on everybody.

“how do i know this is actually someone with a price on their head? what evidence do you have that proves their identity?”

it was clear that your captor didn’t expect to have to prove a damned thing. what a fool, not even bothering to prepare for a single unexpected event. you were almost ashamed of having been overpowered by him at this point. “anyone who’s anyone knows, this is the former partner of the late fennec shand! i’m sure you heard abour her demise — that was me by the way — and now i’ve brought her partner to you, to be taken out of commission…”

all the hair on your body stood on end. fennec was dead? killed by the very man that brought you in? no, not your fennec. she wouldn’t be overpowered by this arrogant bastard in her sleep with a hand tied behind her back, there was no way. but boba said nothing to negate the rumors and that told you everything you need to know. “if you have even a morsel of mercy, by the stars make this quick. if she’s really gone, then i’ve kept her waiting for far too long.”

those were the first words you’ve spoken since toro bound you and dragged you like a ragdoll from your home. there was no reason to entertain the man, but there was the tiniest sliver of a chance that you could implore the mandalorian in front of you to end your life with the efficiency he was known for.

he asked the man his name and merely hummed in acknowledgment when it was boastfully given, like his name meant something to a battle hardened mandalorian such as boba fett.

if you had paid attention to boba’s demeanor since your arrival, you would have noticed that something in his air changed when toro spoke about being the one to kill fennec. some would have mistook it for disbelief but it was much more than that. boba knew that toro was indeed the man who shot fennec shand, but he was not the man who killed fennec shand because she simply wasn’t dead.

she was, in fact, just in the next room scavenging for another bottle of fluorescent blue spotchka when her curiosity was piqued by the conversation occurring in the throne room. at the way the voices seemed to be familiar, she abandoned the search and decided to see for herself what the commotion was.

what she found sent liquid fire through her veins. you, on your knees and head bowed just enough to show resignation and grief, binders shackling your arms and fennec knew that you wouldn’t be able to get up on your own because of it. toro calican, the man who nearly killed her all those sunsets ago in the middle of tusken territory standing above you with a wicked sneer on his lips. this would simply not do.

“word of advice, calican,” she made her presence known with her voice, walking around to boba’s right hand side and leaning a hip against the throne. “always make sure your kills are dead before you leave them. leaving them for dead? that’s how you make enemies.” her blaster was out of her holster and firing before toro could reply, and boba was impressed with the speed she fired with. he had a feeling that it had to do with the figure at the foot of his throne.

your eyes had to be deceiving you. there was no way, toro killed fennec… right? so how in the stars was she here now? the feeling of her hands on your cheeks, warm brown eyes giving you much needed comfort after what you’ve been through. you didn’t even register boba leaving his throne until he’s on the ground in front of you, unclasping your binders with the gentleness one would treat an injured animal. maybe that’s what you were to him, a pitiful tooka missing a leg that was dropped on his doorstep.

before you can venture deeper into this rabbit hole, your body is pulled off the questionable floor and into fennec’s embrace. the way she felt against you, the calluses of her hands as she held you, it was home. you didn’t know when the tears had come back but she was quick to wipe them away with the pads of her thumbs.

“seems you found trouble. what happened to laying low, huh?” her comment brought a ready chuckle from your throat and a small smile to her lips. sweet maker how you’ve missed that smile. “maybe you’ll be safer here, what do you think?”

any and all words elude you. nothing on this planet or any other in the galaxy could drag you away from her now, not when she’s as beautiful now as the day you met her, when she gives you the smile you knew was only saved for you. “i’m always safer with you, fennec.”

she hums, her lips pressing to your forehead to ground you both in the reality of being together again. “i’ll have to say the same about you, desert rose. nearly died only a week after i left your hut.”

“only a week? i thought you’d last longer than that.”

“it was because i didn’t have you. but we don’t have to worry about that anymore, do we?”

she was right, you wouldn’t have to worry about losing her for the rest of your life.

fennec shand taglist: @cryptidcody @sacred-things @clownocoruscant @steel-phoenix @aerolanya @felucians @bookbandobssessed @senator-nahberries @obirain @themarcusmoreno @jedi-mando @flightlessangelwings @whovianwar @hornystarwarsbisexual @kaermorons (i love this handle bye ohmygod)

[lordbelacqua]

show your process

To continue supporting content makers, this tag game is meant to show the entire process of making creative content: this can be for any creation.

RULES - When your work is tagged, show the process of its creation from planning to posting, then tag up to 5 people with a specific link to one of their creative works you'd like to see the process of. Use the tag #showyourprocess so we can find yours.

I have been tagged by @zavens​ (thank you, I know you know how much I love ranting) to chat a little about this gifset <3

you know the drill - everything is under the cut because I talk too much!

planning: my gif-making process is overall a pain, mostly because I never really “plan” it out, I just mess around until I make something I like. sometimes I do have a vision in my head but when I take it to PS and it doesn’t look as good, I get frustrated and close PS for like a week (lol I’m kidding, I actually spend five more hours until it’s turned into something I like).

this gifset wasn’t really planned but when zahraa sent a request for favorite season, I knew I didn’t want to do my typical rainbow set, so I wanted to experiment.

giffing: I won’t go much into detail about the gif-making and sharpening steps (if you are curious about that let me know, and i’ll discuss it individually) so i’ll only talk about the coloring and blending. the idea behind the blending is simple - gifs are supposed to represent the episode title, so I tried to take care of that as much as possible. I won’t analyze gifs individually because then we would be here all day.

the coloring insp behind the first draft of this gifset is this gifset here. in my head, I wanted to do a black and gold gradient over it. but, because I’m so unorganized and chaotic and because I almost never plan things out as I should, I realized, only at my last gif, that this gifset would look 10 times better if it was properly colored. so I re-did it.

if you are curious, this is the comparison of the first and last draft (you are free to tell me if you think I made a mistake re-coloring this):

one thing I love so much about this gifset is that I so deliberately worked on it. I have never before combined so many fonts in any of my gifsets, and I have never before used my own custom made shapes (like in 1x02 and 1x04). I really just sat down and said I’m going to make the messiest gifset this fandom has ever seen and i’ll have no regrets! lol.

arranging: something I absolutely hate about myself is that I’m so indecisive sometimes. I didn’t know whether I wanted this gifset to be an all 540x540 because I feared it would have been too long but again, I wanted everyone to see the gifs in full size and quality because I really liked it. I ended up taking the size insp from this gifset, and I don’t regret it. I also liked the idea of having b&w-only gifs to break up the monotony of the gifset and overall I like the look of it.

posting: honestly I was close to posting this 5 times before actually posting it because as you now know, I had 5 different versions of this gifset. the first draft of it was supposed to be posted weeks before the final draft and I only decided to color the gifset a few hours before finally posting it (I’m such a mess). This was posted at 9:01pm (central european time) because that’s when I usually post. I feel like this gifset resonated well with people; @zavens​ gave me such a detailed rant in the tags that remains one of my favorite comments on my content ever and other tags are just so lovely, it overall makes me like the gifset even more!

I’m tagging a few people but don’t feel pressured to do this, it’s all for fun (sorry if you have been tagged or already discussed the process behind these)!!! <3

@lmillers for this gifset | @mxrisacoulter for this gifset | @burningblake for this gifset | @lanternslides for this fic |

[burningblake]

show your process

To continue supporting content makers, this tag game is meant to show the entire process of making creative content: this can be for any creation.

RULES - When your work is tagged, show the process of its creation from planning to posting, then tag up to 5 people with a specific link to one of their creative works you'd like to see the process of. Use the tag #showyourprocess so we can find yours.

I have been tagged by @lordbelacqua to talk about this gifset (thank you sm, I always wanted to make my own sort of gif tutorial hehe). Also, shout-out to lordbelacqua’s gifset here.

Since this is going to be long, I put everything under the cut.

planning: so since this is an inspired gifset, obviously the idea came from another post, this one here and as you will see this post has an insp credit on its own, but the user changed their url so I had to do some search to find their gifset. anyway, it’s here. the first gifset includes the greek words ‘eros’, ‘philautia’, ‘storge’, ‘philia’ but you will notice in my gifset I have an extra word which is ‘agape’ (my personal favorite as a greek person), this extra word I saw from the second gifset. 

At first, I wanted to do this with #alina starkov from #shadow and bone, but I realized that the word ‘eros’, i.e. romantic love would go for #darklina, whilst ‘storge’, i.e. familial love, would go for alina and mal, and becaure of the ship wars in the fandom, I didn’t want to potentially attract haters from doing this. btw, someone else did this after I posted the yennefer gifset and I was really happy to see it, especially because they used many moments/relationships I had in mind, so shout-out to @darkstarkova for the gifset. 

anyway, I also ended up choosing yennefer because for me it just felt much more meaningful to do such a gifset for her, since she has so much love to give and so few chances to do so. I also wanted to do right by it and use quality frames, so I went the extra mile and downloaded higher quality episodes. then I had to choose the shots that would work. some of the words, like “eros” and “storge” and “agape” I already had an idea what they would be, but for the words “philautia” and “philia” I had to fast-rewatch some episodes again. long story short, I first planned to blend this gifset for “philautia”, i.e. self love:

but then I rewatched the scene at the end where yennefer burns it all and as she was remembering all the times she’d been abused and maltreated, I teared up (I always do) and that scene just felt much more powerful to me, because it was then that she truly accepted herself and “let her chaos” be unleashed. 

giffing: to sharpen my gifs, I used the light sharpening action from this post. for the coloring and blending I’ll use the first gif as an example, but more or less, I didn’t follow any specific color palette, but went with what looked nice and what didn’t. so at first I had this gif: 

after I finished staring at this (took me a few minutes), I actually focused on the coloring. so first I used a curves layer and chose the light and dark areas (left pic below). Basically you choose the marker in the yellow circle to choose the lightest spot on yor gif, and the marker in the dark circle to choose the darkest spot respectively. I also play individually with the greens, blues and reds (right pic below) until I get a lighting base that I like:

Now at this part I usually just add a levels and brightness layer to further enhance the light and dark spots. At this point the gifset looks like this: 

personally I didn’t like the red tint on their faces and the cyan tint on geralt’s hair, so I used a selective color layer and turned up the cyans in the reds and turned down the cyans in the cyans like below. I also turned down the yellows in the cyans but I see that this didn’t change much, so it’s something I simply forgot to turn back to normal. 

I also added a color balance layer. With this I usually increase the blues, the magentas and cyans for midtones, shadows and highlights. So now: 

At this point, I add a gradient map layer in b&w, right-click on it, select ‘blending options’ and turn it to soft light, then play with the opacity if necessary:

Usually this is where my coloring ends, but I still didn’t like the result so I played around some more and ended up adding a second gradient map layer in b&w, left it at normal blend mode and turned the opacity down to 47%. So this is what I have finally:

So then I colored the second gif similarly and blended it in. For blending gifs, I follow this tutorial here. So now I had this:

As you can see, the coloring and light of the blended gif doesn’t match the base gif. Adding a similar second gradient to the blended gif didn’t really work nice. Then I decided to turn it b&w with a simple black and white layer and voila, the result just clicked. 

For the text I downloaded various fonts from here. So the title line “eros” is in the Bellerose font and the rest are in the Avenir font from here. I used the gradient text effect described here for the title line. And as for the second subtitle text, I simply opened “blending options” again, set the fill opacity to 0 and used a white stroke of size 1 px. Final result:

For the rest of the gifs I did similar coloring and blending.

arranging: To arrange, I simply play around with what looks good. The size I used is 540 x 450, because in the first gif I needed yennefer’s dark hair to take quite a large proportion of the gif, so that I could place the blended gif on (it does not show on light areas), so this determined the dimensions for the gifset. 

posting: I always “save as draft” before I post any gifset because I want to make sure all gifs play out correctly and also I want to see if the mobile app shows them correctly as well. So after I verify this, I add the caption and I search the necessary blogs to tag to spread awareness. 

I’d say it is my most quality gifset yet and I am kind of proud of it :) 

I’m tagging: 

@starkkov​ for this gifset | @captainheroism​ for this gifset | @swanthief​ for this gifset | @aleksander-alina​ for this gifset | @the-darkling​​ for this gifset

of course you can just ignore this or choose another creation of yours to show the process for <3

[luna-lina]

#showyourprocess

From planning to posting, share your process for making creative content!

To continue supporting content makers, this tag game is meant to show the entire process of making creative content: this can be for any creation.

RULES — When your work is tagged, show the process of its creation from planning to posting, then tag 5 people with a specific link to one of their creative works you’d like to see the process of. Use the tag #showyourprocess so we can find yours!

Tagged by @leonzhng​ and @baoshan-sanren​. Thank you for tagging me! ♡ I’ll do both of them in the same post. In the order I was tagged

PART 1 (the TLTR set)

0. Software

KMPlayer - to take screenshots

Photoshop 2020 - to upload, crop, resize, sharpen, frame delay, add text, etc.

Topaz DeNoise 6 - to reduce noise

1. Planning

I don’t remember what planning I did for this one lol. I just thought to myself: Hey what if I gif that sad scene from TLTR and add that quote from the book to make it even sadder? Yep that sounds cool!

Then it took me a while to find the quote in Chinese bc I only had the English translation and I wanted to write both. I got inspired by Hanyi on this. She has the most beautiful sets, with quotes written in such creative ways. All those pretty fonts!!

Then I took the screenshots of the scenes I wanted to use and I imported them in Photoshop

2. Creation

When the screenshots were done importing, I cropped the gifs and resized them, then I selected all the layers, converted to timeline and converted them to smart object

After doing that I used Topaz DeNoise to remove the noise from the gifs and then I sharpened them

At the end I added the coloring over them and done! I used lot of Selective Color and Curves layers for this coloring. Like 20 layers in total

Actually I always do the coloring at the beginning, after I crop the gif, before I do the sharpening and using Topaz bc if the coloring doesn’t turn out nice then I give up and don’t make the gif anymore

After that it took me a while to figure out what font to use for the text, in what position to put it, what effect to give it. I ended up just using overlay

Then I also thought to add something else bc it was too simple. I added the flowers on the middle gif. And I used the pen tool to connect the flowers with lines connecting the other gifs

Then I also put a falling snow gif over them

And last, I added my watermark

3. Posting

I always post my gifsets in the drafts first to see how they look. If I don’t like something I go back and change it

I also added the quote in the caption and used fiddle to color the text with colors found in the gifs

And that’s it!

PART 2 (the Vincenzo set)

0. Software

KMPlayer - to take screenshots

Photoshop 2020 - to upload, crop, resize, sharpen, frame delay, add text, etc.

Topaz DeNoise 6 - to reduce noise

1. Planning

I thought about making this edit after watching the episode and seeing a post with both of them near their parents’ bodies at the morgue

I thought about using those scenes and then also the scenes where they both saw what happened bc they had the same expressions there

2. Creation

I did the same as with the gifs above. I imported the screenshots, cropped and resized them

I don’t have the psds with the gifs anymore so I took some screenshots rn to show you

So I had these 2 separate gifs with Vincenzo and I copied the frames and pasted them over the other gif like this

I moved the gif on top on the left side. Then applied a layer mask. With the brush tool I erased the background behind Vincenzo

Then I converted to timeline and smart object. I sharpened and used Topaz. But then I thought it’ll look better with noise so I added a little

Then I colored it. Again I used a lot of Selective Color and Curves layers

I decided to make it black and white and only leave Vincenzo’s face colored. So I added a layer mask and used the brush tool again to paint over the layer removing the black and white

Then I added the text and I used the brush tool to leave some red drops over it bc they kinda look like blood

I also added my watermark

3. Posting

Once again I posted it first in drafts to see how it looks

Then I wrote the caption and tags and done!

If you want me to explain something better just let me know and I will. I forgot to talk about some things.

[crowdedimagines]

Happy Ending - Harry Styles

friends to lovers 3.1K 🤩

The long line doesn’t turn me away from my favorite coffee shop. I know it’s worth the wait, I’m sure the warm weather is what’s bringing everyone in so suddenly. I’m in no rush, I just got out of class and all I have waiting for me at home is homework and some vinyls demanding to be played.

I can feel a presence behind me as the line continues to grow behind me.

“Would it make me a complete narcissist if I ask you if that tattoo is related to me?” A voice calls in my ear softly. I turn to meet the face of the man who created the idea behind the tattoo himself. Harry Styles. I follow his eyes as he looks down to the small T P W K printed on the back of my arm in a minimalistic font.

“Yes it would, but that doesn’t mean you would be wrong.” I grin, turning back away from him. Partially so he doesn’t see my blush and so I can try to somewhat maintain my cool. I never thought Harry Styles would actually see my tattoo.

His grin reaches all the way across his face.

“Well in that case I’m flattered.” He hums his eyes drifting to the menu board on the wall.

“You should be, it was my first.” We both laugh.

“Have you ever come here before?” He asks, continuing the conversation.

“Yes, it’s my favorite little spot in L.A.”

“Got any recommendations for a drink?”

I go over a few different drinks with him explaining why I like them. I give him a few options because I honestly don’t know what he likes. Does he want something hot? Iced? Blended? I’m definitely overthinking this, but at least I’m giving him a variety of things to try if he ever comes back.

“Which are you getting?”

I respond with the first drink I started telling him about. He takes a sidestep around me, bypassing me to the register. I didn’t even realize I was next. He orders two of my drinks and pays for them.

“It’s the least I can do for a fan.” He says after I thank him. We both move over to the other end of the counter to wait for our drinks. It looks like the rush might be slowing down.

“So what brought you here? I’m guessing it’s because there’s no way you could ever step foot in Beachwood Cafe ever again.” I tease.

“Yeah, I can’t go there. Not like I used to at least, but I have to say depending on the coffee this place might become my new spot.”

“It’s not usually this busy either. I think it’s the spring fever bringing everyone out today.”

Once we get our drinks he follows me to a table by the window.

“You don’t mind, right?” He pulls out his chair.

“Not at all, I am a bit confused though.”

He nods for me to continue while he takes a sip of his coffee.

“I don’t think you hangout with every fan you meet. Especially not in a public place like this. So what gives.”

He snorts softly at my blunt question, but I had to know. It was secretly eating away at me, why would he choose me to spend his time with?

“Since we’re speaking bluntly,” He pauses to lean forward on his arms on the table, “I feel drawn to you. You seem like someone I would enjoy spending time with. I don’t typically pass that sort of thing up.”

“You want to spend time with me? What if I’m some crazed fan?” I grin. It’s weird how comfortable I feel around him. I feel like I already know him, but somehow he’s welcomed me in. Our conversation comes with ease.

“Trust me, if that were the case I would’ve known by now. I wouldn’t have engaged any further.” He laughs.

“Wow, so that’s how it is. You decided I’m probably not delusional?”

“You can never be too careful.” He shrugs, “Plus I needed to get to know the girl who got a tattoo after one of my songs.”

“Actually I got it before the song.” I correct with a laugh, “I liked the message when you came out with it as part of your brand. Treat people with kindness is a good thing to remember. The fact that you created a song for it is just a bonus.”

We sit and talk for nearly a half an hour. I never thought I would be able to keep myself focused and composed, but after the first minute you realize he’s just a human. The conversation flows easily, never an awkward lull.

“Well, I actually have to go. I have so much work I need to do and I wasn’t planning on staying when I ran in here.”

What am I doing? How often do you get to sit and talk with Harry Styles? Homework can wait!

“Yeah, I should probably be going too.” He gets up and we walk slowly towards the door, he holds it open for me and we’re greeted with a warm breeze.

“Well it was really nice to talk to you. Get to know the man behind the music a little better.” I smile, his cheeks tint pink.

“You too. It was nice to get to know the girl behind the tattoo a little better as well.”

“Have a nice day, Harry.” I smile and turn to walk away.

“Y/n, wait.” His voice calls, saying my name out loud for the first time. I turn around to see he’s taken a few large steps to catch up. “Can I ask for your phone number? I don’t want this to be the end of our story.”

My heart starts racing at his words.

“And what exactly do you want to be the end of our story?”

“I’ll let you know once we’re there.”

~

It’s been nearly four months since I first met Harry. After I gave him my number that day it’s been nonstop communication. Him calling while he travels far away, texts between my classes and his meetings, but my favorite are when I actually get to see him.

“Harry!” I yell, letting myself into the unlocked house.

Still no answer.

“Harry!” I call again as I kick off my shoes and set down my bag, “You know as a big time celebrity you really shouldn’t leave your front door unlocked.”

Still no answer.

I let myself wander around trying to find the boy I’ve grown so close with. His large Malibu home leaves plenty of places for him to be. I check the kitchen, living room, dining room, and his office before I go upstairs. In hindsight, his bedroom should’ve been the first place I looked once he wasn’t answering.

“Hey.” He calls from inside his walk in closet.

“Hi.” I groan, letting myself fall back on his bed.

“Long day?” He asks, coming out as he pulls a shirt on over his head.  

“Yeah, just a presentation I need to do next week was assigned today. It’s going to suck, I’m already dreading it.”

He walks over and throws himself down on the bed next to me, laying parallel while we both stare at the ceiling.

“I’m sure you’ll smash it. What has you dreading it?”

“It’s just with the worst professor, he’s known for making students cry on the spot. He literally has the worst reputation on campus. He interrupts you and corrects you, announcing your points off as you go. He’s insane.”

“That sounds awful. Can he really do that?”

“I don’t know, I think so. I’ve only ever heard horror stories.”

“Well since you’re in such a shit mood, I’ll let you pick the movie.” He holds out a hand to pull me up off the bed.

“Hey, I’m not in a shit mood!” I grumble.

“You came in all mopey.” Harry teases.

“I’m not mopey.” I roll my eyes, “You asked me what was wrong, so I told you.”

“I know, now let's go make dinner.”

He presses a fast kiss to my cheek before he places a hand on each shoulder with a squeeze, leading me out of his room and down the stairs. It’s brief moments like these where I question our friendship. If that's what you can call it. He is by far the touchiest and most cuddly friend I’ve ever had. Not that I mind, I just wish there was the tiniest bit more clarity to the situation.

“Pasta?” He asks, opening his cupboard and looking around.

“Yes!” I cheer.

It’s been a tradition of ours for two months now that if he’s in town we have a movie night which consists of us making a meal from scratch beforehand.

“Have you ever made homemade pasta before?” I ask, reaching for the flour and other ingredients I know we’ll need.

“Twice. Both times I think I made Gem do all the work.”

I roll my eyes muttering a ‘sounds about right’.

“What was that missy?” he asks, bumping his hip into mine.

“Nothing.” I grin.

“Hmm sounds like you said something, love.” His voice just a whisper in my ear. His breath is warm against my face, raising goosebumps everywhere else on my body. Before I can even move a muscle, he’s gone to grab something on the other side of the kitchen. Unfazed by his actions.

Harry puts on some music and we both get to work. The dough is setting up in the fridge while we cut vegetables and prepare other things we’ll need.

“So you’re telling me that you’ve never really made pasta before, but you have a pasta maker?”

“Yeah, so what?” I roll my eyes.

I throw some flour on the counter so I can roll out the dough so cut into strips to run through the machine. Harry grabs his phone, busy finding a new playlist to listen to. I grab a small pinch of flour and throw it at him. The front of him is now powdered white.

“You did not just do that.” He mutters quietly as he looks down to his now white shirt.

“Hmm, sounds like you’ve said something, love?” I echo his words back to him. He tries to cover up his grin, but fails.

“What happened to treating people with kindness?” He asks, “You like it enough to get it tattooed on ya, but ya can’t even be nice to me.”

I let out a laugh, my tattoo has been something he enjoys teasing me about. He likes to hold it over my head that before we became friends I was a fan.

“You’ve just started a war.” He sets down his phone and takes a few steps closer, I take steps back until I meet the kitchen island. Harry reaches behind me and takes a handful off the counter.

“Now Harry, that’s way more than I did.” I remind, seeing his fistful of flour hanging over me.

“Who said I’m trying to get even?”

Without another second he opens his hand, letting flour rain down on me. I duck and try to avoid as much as I can, which is a failure. I can tell I must look ridiculous by the way Harry starts laughing.

I brush it off my face with as much grace as I can.

“That was a mistake.”

“Oh was it now? Because to me it seems to me you are the one coated in flour right now.”

“That’s about to change.”

We both tear off chasing after each other. Mainly me chasing Harry because I have the flour bag in hand. Miscellaneous vegetables fly through the air as we target each other. We both manage to douse the other a few more times in flour before he finally catches me by my waist. I let out a scream as he picks me up off the ground.

“Truce?” He asks.

“Truce.”

He puts me back down and I can finally get a good look at the damage. His cabinets and the floor are splattered with flour. Each step we take, more falls off of us. Bits of carrots, broccoli, and tomatoes all over the floor.

“Okay, you call for pizza and I’ll start cleaning this up.”

“Sounds like a great idea.” Harry agrees, he grabs his phone.

I grab the broom and start cleaning everything up. I wipe down the counter and the other spots that were hit.

“Alright pizza will be here in thirty minutes.” Harry announces coming back in.

“That’s perfect because we both need a shower.”

I pull my shirt off over my head and fold it in on itself to avoid sprinkling it anywhere else.

“So you plan on doing that right here?” He asks teasingly?

“No.” I roll my eyes, “We are literally dripping flour, I just cleaned this up. I’m not tracking this all over the house again.”

I walk to his laundry room and take off the rest of my clothes, leaving me in my bra and underwear, Harry follows me in realizing I was right. I catch his eyes on me a few times which makes me realize he’s never seen me in this little clothing. We’ve been close for months, but never without clothes.

“You can take the shower in the guest room, that one should have some towels and shampoo and whatnot.” Harry informs as I follow him upstairs.

“Thanks.”

The shower was nice, and much needed. I could get used to showering here. The water was truly hot and the water pressure was insane. Even his guest bathroom shower could fit at least two of the one in my apartment. I’m drying myself off when there’s a soft knock at my door. I wrap the towel around me tightly before opening it.

“Here. I thought you might need something else to wear.” Harry hands me a stack of clothes that I know belong to him.

“Thanks.” I smile.

He pushes wet curls back, running a hand through them.

“The pizza just got here.”

“I’ll be right down.”

I look over the sweatshirt and a pair of boxers that he gave me. I’ve worn an outfit similar a few times here when I’ve slept over when I wasn’t planning on it. It’s all so soft and it smells like him.

“So what’s your pick?” He asks, going over the movie selection. I decide on a rom-com that we surprisingly haven’t watched together yet.

We both eat our pizza before wanting to shift. Harry lays down the length of the couch and I tuck myself next to him. His arm resting on my waist as we share a pillow.

“I can’t believe it’s been how long and we haven’t watched Sweet Home Alabama.” I grin, “It’s a classic.”

“I didn’t know it was one of your favorites.” He comments, looking down at me. It takes me a second to not get lost in his green eyes.

“Yeah, I just love a happy ending.”

“Me too.”

We continue to watch the rest of the movie for a while in comfortable silence. I think for some reason Harry’s nervous. Two minutes ago he moves his hand to my hip, I don’t think he knows that he’s tapping on it.

“Har, are you okay?” I look over my shoulder.

“Hmm?” He looks down.

“Are you alright?” I ask, “You’re tapping.”

He follows my gaze down to his hand and he stops immediately.

“Sorry.” He sighs.

“It’s alright, are you okay? Do you need to talk about something?”

I can’t figure out where this is coming from. I have only seen him look this anxious a few times.

“Yeah, I do actually.” He sits up, pulling me up with him. I turn to face him, he reaches for the remote to turn down the volume of the movie.

“I’m all ears, H.” I reach out my hand to him.

He smiles looking at our connected hands and takes a deep breath.

“I’m in love with you, Y/n. I know we’ve been friends for months, but I would be lying if I said that that’s all I want for us. I have never felt this way about someone before, since I met you. I knew that you were someone I needed to know. And now that I know you, I want to know all of you, Y/n. I understand if you don’t feel the same way, I just needed to tell you. I think that you’re worth how scary this is right now. I really love you, Y/n.”

He lets out a long sigh once he’s done. A visible weight lifted off his shoulders.

“I love you too, Harry.” I grin. “I have loved you since before I even knew you, and now that I do I love you even more. It’s hard to believe there was ever a time where you weren’t in my life.”

I pull him down on top of me in a bone crushing hug as we fall back on the couch.

“Thank god.” He mutters into my hair.

I let out a laugh and rub up and down his back.

“Will you please be my girlfriend?” He sits up, pulling away slightly to get a good look at me.

“Only if you’ll be my boyfriend.”

“Deal.”

He litters my face with kisses, all except the one place they’ve never been.

“Hey.” I grab his attention, pulling it from the kiss he was planting on my forehead, “If I’m your girlfriend now, I want a real kiss.”

“I think I can manage.”

He brings his head down, I bring my hand up to his jawline. I run it up until I hit his hair, giving it a good tug. I guide his face towards mine until our lips finally meet. I can feel we’re both smiling right now, until we deepen it. Just enough to last a few seconds and get a taste of what we’ve both been craving for months. I would have to say it’s a  perfect first kiss.

We both snuggle back in the way we were laying previously. The only difference is we both have goofy grins now that are impossible to wipe off.

“So, is this the ending you wanted for our story?” I ask after a few minutes of watching the movie, turning over my shoulder to look at him. I could never forget what he said the first time we met.

“You want to know what our ending will be?” I nod eagerly, he reaches out to brush a piece of hair away from my face.

“Our ending will be us, old and wrinkled on the beach somewhere. Kids. Grandkids. That’s what I want to be our ending.”

“I think I like our ending.” I peck my lips against his.

“Me too.”

please let me know what you thought below! love feedback xoxo

[wanderingstormjen]

Little piece about my Quiz and her favorite (and only) Tevinter brother.

******

Dorian woke to a dull, throbbing headache. His body felt tingly and weak and faint nausea rolled across his stomach. His mouth was dry and felt gritty, as though he’d inhaled sand, and he was assaulted by a bitter, acrid taste and smell that did nothing to help his nausea. He couldn’t quite recall how he’d come into this sorry state and, after a moment of trying to remember that only succeeded in making his headache worse, he decided the best course of action was to see if there was someone around who could tell him.

He was relieved at least to see he was laid out on his bedroll in an Inquisition tent, a warm blanket half tossed over him. He could hear the usual sounds that accompanied the camp, the footsteps and low voices of the guards, the crackle of the fire, and the soft nickering of the horses. Beyond it, he could hear the sounds of the world around them, the Exalted Plains if he remembered correctly.

“Well its about time, Sparkler.”

Dorian looked over to find Varric sitting on his own bedroll, tinkering with his crossbow. The dwarf pushed the weapon off his lap and picked up a water flask. Dorian took it and drank a few swallows, clearing the dryness from his throat so he could speak. “What happened?”

“You don’t remember? Figures. Happened so fast I’m not surprised. We were headed out to see if we could find that Templar Cassandra’s been trying to track down. Pretty sure we were on their trail when we were attacked. Couple guys with swords and one fast little prick who popped up out of nowhere and tossed this at you.” Varric picked up a small leather pouch with a strange mechanism attached. “Poison bomb near as I can tell but it’s not a design I’ve seen before. Hit you in the chest and you caught a load of powder to the face. You were down before we could make a move.”

“Poison?”

“Yeah. Nothing deadly at least. I think they were trying to take you alive. Well...not you actually. Her. They messed up. Someone hired them but we’re not sure who yet. We found a note that said to watch out for us and that the Inquisitor was a mage. They must have seen you and figured you to be the one they wanted.”

“Lucky me,” Dorian huffed, “Is the Inquisitor okay?”

“She’s fine. Worried about you.” Varric chuckled. “Damn if Sunshine doesn’t have one hell of a right hook since she learned that Rift Punch spell or whatever it is. She’s quick too. I think the guy would have flown twice as far if he hadn’t slammed into those rocks. Anyway, he’s dead. She doesn’t mess around when she’s pissed off. I think the Seeker’s rubbing off on her.”

“Where is she?”

“Outside. She watched over you until about an hour ago. Finally convinced her I’d keep an eye on you so she could get some rest but you know her. She’s not going to relax until she knows you’re okay.”

The sun was nearly touching the horizon as Dorian stepped from the tent. It meant that, based on the last thing he could remember, he’d been out most of the day. Cassandra stood with one of the camp guards by the makeshift table, discussing something on the map. The Seeker inspected him silently, nodded, then motioned with her chin.

“Quite the view,” he said a moment later as he joined the Inquisitor under a tree at the edge camp. The Plains stretched out before them, bathed in the golden light of the setting sun.

Solana turned from where she’d been watching several wild halla as they grazed along the riverbank. “How are you feeling?”

“Perfectly fine, thank you.” He decided that as the headache and lingering weakness would be likely gone by morning, he could let her think it was true. “Are you all right?”

“Fine.” She sounded anything but. She turned back to the halla.

“Now, now. Enough of that. You keep frowning like that and Varric’s going to have to come up with a new nickname for you.”

It managed a half-smile, for a moment at least. “I was...worried. It all happened so fast. You...I thought you were...”

A surprising surge of affection coursed through Dorian. She really had been worried about him. It was still an unfamiliar feeling to him.

“It’s going to take a lot more than some half-rate bandit with bad aim to take me out, I can assure you.” He caught a flash of green from her palm as her mark sparked to life for a second. “It does that a lot, does it?”

“A little. It’s all right. It doesn’t hurt.” She closed her hand. “The guards said they got word there’s a rift not too far away. I suppose it’s reacting to that. We’ll have to take care of it tomorrow.”

“Delightful.”

She finally turned to him again. “You’re sure you’ll be up to it? If you’re not-”

“Solana, I’m fine. Certainly well enough to go traipsing off after a few demons. Must earn my keep, after all. Besides, I’d rather think a certain former Templar would be rather cross with me if I let anything happen to you. Especially now when he’s finally managed to do more than stutter any time he’s in your presence.” He grinned. “You really are adorable when you blush, you know. Your cheeks almost match your hair.”

It finally earned him a laugh. He stiffened as she leaned up against him and laid her head against his shoulder. He glanced back at the camp, sure he’d be on the receiving end of a few disapproving glares for daring to allow or encourage the Inquisitor to be so relaxed and at ease around him. A second later, he decided he didn’t care. He shifted and draped his arm around her shoulders.

He’d never had friends. Not really. He supposed he could count Felix as one, but he was gone now. He’d had few others. Just like everything else in Tevinter, Dorian had always seen friends come with a price. Friendship was a commodity you used to get what you wanted, to get ahead, or to see someone else take a fall. Friendships lasted only as long as it took to outmaneuver or outgrow someone and then you moved on to the next. Maker forbid you embraced pariahhood as Dorian had for much of his adult life.

He’d never expected to find friendship here of all places. He’d expected to be treated with distrust and suspicion. A lot of people did, of course, though he was surprised at the number of people who didn’t seem to care. About any of the things that had made him an outcast in Tevinter. He’d expected to be used as a resource, a tool, a font of knowledge, an extra staff when needed but nothing more. And when whatever this was was over, he’d be sent off with a thank you at best.

Yet, here he was. Sitting on a hillside watching a sunset with the last thing he’d expected: a friend. This impossibly sweet and kind, charming, and brave woman, thrust into role she hadn’t asked for but had somehow managed to embrace wholly without losing any of her grace and compassion. Who asked for and expected nothing from him save perhaps his friendship in return. And what was more? He found himself wanting to return it. He just hoped he could remember how.

“Dorian? Are you all right?”

“Quite all right. Sorry. I was just...thinking.”

“About anything in particular?”

“Nothing of consequence. Shall we enjoy this sunset? Who knows when we may get another chance.”

[lunlvns]

#showyourprocess

From planning to posting, share your process for making creative content!

To continue supporting content makers, this tag game is meant to show the entire process of making creative content: this can be for any creation.

RULES — When your work is tagged, show the process of its creation from planning to posting, then tag 5 people with a specific link to one of their creative works you’d like to see the process of. Use the tag #showyourprocess so we can find yours!

Tagged by @leonzhng​ and @yiling-recesses thank you sm for tagging me!!! 🥰 i did the yibo gfx one, sorry mimi i lost all photoshop files for the genshin edit you mentioned, like i literally can;t find them lmao 😅 but the process is pretty much the same as this!

tagging:

@theghostvalley for this set - i love your colouring, your gifs always look so quality!!

@claudiablack for this set - your colouring is always stunningly gorgeous and i'm just blown away how well the colours work together in this set??

@runqings for this set - i love the scene choices and the colouring is beautiful as well!

0. Software

photoshop (cc 2015 when making the yibo edit but currently 2021)

topaz clean + denoise

after effects cc 2020

1. Planning

whenever i do an animation gfx i usually always write a notepad for what i plan to do - ideas, the animations, aesthetic etc

also cos i have no idea about web design i subscribed to some webdesigner websites and checked sites like awwwards for popular/trending website design features + i've gotten quite into the aesthetics and animations of websites now!

after i have a basic plan for what all the panels are gonna include, i find and download all the images i need, so for the yibo website that was all his magazine covers, pics of his albums + drama posters, other pics of him + pics of the cast and their characters for legend of fei

then i trawl through color schemes trying to find one i like, tho with website gfx the predominant colour has to be white otherwise the gifs will end up being too large/super grainy/photoshop will mess with the colours so they aren't the same anymore 😩

2. Creation

i design all the panels in photoshop first which is the longest step in all this cos i'm super indecisive and don't usually have a clear idea in mind for what it should look like 😅

i'll only focus on the actor panel cos otherwise this would be wayyy too long - i resized, coloured, denoised + sharpened the yibo pics so they matched more then added a mask to make the corners more round, chose a font for the txt and added it to the bottom

then i decided the layout for the rest of the elements + just like the yibo pics, i edited + resized + masked the drama posters, character + actor pics, then added the name txt + a low opacity bg for the txt so it's easier to read

finally i individually save all the elements (either alone if it's gonna move alone or with other elements if they'll move together) as a png with no background so i can load them into after affects ready to animate

after that i import all the pngs to after effects (i lost all the yibo website after effects saves cos of a hard drive reformat 😢 so i'll use my recent zzh website saves to illustrate instead)

the first thing i animated was the circle pics - just a scale animation with overshoot at the end

then the rotating circle txt - first i made the txt layer follow a circle path then i placed it where i wanted it to end up, added a keyframe for all the properties i'm going to animate, backtrack on the timeline however long i want the animation to be, add a new keyframe to all the chosen properties, reduced the scale + changed the position so it was hidden behind the picture, then changed the rotation so it would rotate continually for as long as it would appear

then i made the kinda wobbly circle animation?? on mouse over - the zzh pics are actually larger than shown, they just have a circle shape layer above them which i set as an alpha matte so only what's within that circle is shown

first i increase the scale of the shape layer alpha matte so more of the zzh pic is revealed + change the position slightly so the txt circle isn't completely covered, for these keyframes i also adjust the easing on them to make the speed of the animation slower at the beginning + end and faster in the middle

then i added a wiggle paths + wave warp effect, made a keyframe with the settings i wanted to change on zero then went forward in the timeline for the duration, added a new keyframe and adjusted the settings on the effects till i was happy with how the wobbly animation looked

after that pretty much just copied + reversed the keyframes for the animation to go back to normal then animated the same thing for the next zzh pic

i'll stop there cos i feel like this is already super long 😅 but if anybody is looking into using after effects + wants to know more?? you can just message me if you want, if you have any questions or anything!

when i've finished all the animations i'll check how the whole thing looks and make any final adjustments, then render it to make it a video

final step i import the video into photoshop, check it through there, change any of the frame timings if necessary and save it as a gif

3. Posting

i save the gfx set in drafts first to check how all the panels look together then add the gradient txt caption using jsfiddle

then i add the tags and schedule it to be posted at 10pm the same day

[cinnaminsvga]

Hug-o-gram Preview | Yoongi

→ summary:

“This is probably the dumbest idea you’ve ever had,” Yoongi hisses, but it’s kind of hard for Seokjin to take him seriously when he’s wearing a cardboard sign around his neck that says ‘Huggie Wuggie Machine!’ in bubble font. 

“Like, even worse than when we DIY’d your car into a convertible by sawing the top off?” Seokjin asks, genuinely curious. 

“Worse,” Yoongi admits, trying his best to stay out of your line of sight. His cheeks redden, matching the gaudy pink kitten ears he was forced into wearing.

{or alternatively: Seokjin is a terrible wingman. He also runs a profitable business by sending “hugs” to people’s crushes for a fee. Mix them together and you have a recipe for Min Yoongi’s worst nightmare.}

→ genre: college!au, hugging booth!au, fluff, humor → warnings: yoongi is so smitten that he’s a walking disaster, so much shy!yoongi to the point where you’ll want to *o*e him, seokjin just tryna get his homie some y/n love coochie bro ;o; → words: anticipated 10-12K  → a/n: who the fuck am i... why am i writing so much??? let’s all thank miss kwaranteen for that, my friends. but what’s with the fluff, you ask? thank miss @jincherie​ for that because her weak heart can’t handle angst so i have to use my limited fluff muscles to write this for her... anyway idk when this is coming out but its probs soon,, enjoy this lil snippet i guess LMAO 

“Yoongi, it’s time for me to head to work. You want to come with me today?” Seokjin asks, though he knows what answer he’s going to get. You see, Seokjin’s new booming business is another one of his fantastic ideas, but it is a little... inventive. Sure, Yoongi had scoffed when he had originally suggested the idea, but Seokjin knew that it was going to be a money-maker. Sure, it had taken a few years for the business to really take off, but once it finally did…

Enter Kim Seokjin’s Hug-o-gram Service! Students from his university are able to send anonymous payments directly to him, with little notes attached for their crushes. Each love letter delivery comes with a hug from Seokjin himself, delivered straight to the person without them ever knowing who the hug came from. It was ingenious! It was lucrative! But most of all…

It allowed Seokjin to cause drama and have an excuse for it! Nothing could have been more perfect for a man like him.

“No thanks,” Yoongi snorts, rolling over to face him. He watches from the floor as Seokjin changes into a butter-less shirt, which also happens to have his own face printed on the front and back. His trusty cardboard sign that reads “I’m Gonna Glomp Ya!” also joins his attire for the afternoon, a long piece of string tied to its edges so that he can wear it around his neck. Throwing on a pair of white sneakers with the tags still attached, Seokjin is ready to tackle today’s list of would-be hug-ees.

“How do I look?” Seokjin asks, combing his hair with his fingers. It leaves an oily sheen, which he somehow makes it work.

“Ugly,” Yoongi says, like a liar.

“It’s okay, I understand. I can speak tsundere, so you don’t need to explain,” Seokjin snickers, nearly getting hit with a TV remote by Yoongi. He opens his phone again, swiping to his e-mail to see his list of hug deliveries for the day.

Seokjin gets around 10 requests a day, with around half of them coming from regular clients. He’s especially fond of this boy who has been sending hugs to his TA named Namjoon for almost a month now. He has no idea why this kid has so much disposable income, though seeing the blush on Namjoon’s face everyday makes Seokjin think that he would spend every last penny for him too. Namjoon had begged Seokjin for his secret admirer’s identity, but snitchin’ isn’t a part of his service, unfortunately.

As much as Seokjin wants to know who is crushing on who, his little business wouldn’t work as well as it did if anonymity wasn’t included in his package deal. It allows people to thirst in public without facing the repercussions, like getting a knee to the groin or a slap to the face. Not that Seokjin has ever been at the receiving end of that; everyone loves him! Like, have you seen him? He must have saved a civilization in the past with how devastatingly beautiful his forehead is.

“Why am I suddenly filled with the relentless urge to deck you right now?” Yoongi says, getting up to change into clean clothes as well. His black t-shirt unfortunately does not have Seokjin’s face on it, but that can quickly be amended if the elder of the two decides to follow his every intrusive whim.

Seokjin laughs, completely unaware of the murderous capabilities of his friend. Due to his smaller body size, his percentage of evil is unusually concentrated. “Maybe it’s because you know that I’m into pain pla–” but Seokjin’s retort suddenly grinds to a halt. He chokes mid-sentence, coughing wildly as he pounds his chest with a balled-up fist. When Yoongi looks up at him, he finds his hyung staring slack-jawed at his phone, seemingly flabbergasted by what he finds on his screen.

“What’s the matter? Accidentally sent a dick pic to your prof again?” Yoongi snorts.

“That was one time! And no, it’s…” Seokjin trails off, uncharacteristically hesitant. He shifts his gaze from his phone to Yoongi, a drop of sweat quickly forming on the back of his neck. Yoongi raises a brow, silently urging him to continue.

Instead of replying, Seokjin hands him his phone. Yoongi finds a copy of one of Seokjin’s newest hug requests, only having just received it five minutes ago. As he scrolls down, he finds that this secret admirer is a new client, but that isn’t what made Seokjin stop in his tracks. Instead, it’s the recipient of the hug that catches his attention–

“Y/N has a secret admirer?” Yoongi says, voice cracking at the end. He clears his throat, trying his best to school his face into something less… jealous. He swivels away from Seokjin, forcing himself to breathe slowly through his nose. He convinces himself that he is the very epitome of calmness.

“You okay there, Yoongi? You look like you’re about to vomit,” Seokjin says, immediately breaking his inner peace. Yoongi groans loudly, shucking the phone over his shoulder, uncaring of where it lands. Seokjin, with his superhuman and God-given reflexes… doesn’t catch it. But he did dive to the floor like a seasoned Olympian, and his ass cushioned his phone so he supposes that’s a win.

Back to the matter at hand––

“I am fine,” Yoongi says, as he continues to not be fine.

From the floor, Seokjin shoots him a disbelieving look. He lies down more comfortably, propping his head on his elbow. Screw his hug-o-gram appointments for now; nothing brings him more joy than seeing Yoongi absolutely losing it. “Really? So you wouldn’t mind if I marched up to Y/N right now and give her the warmest, coziest, most tender hug of her fucking life?”

“Y… Yes,” Yoongi squeaks, neck glowing a furious red. He has his fists clenched (adorably) by his sides, head bowed as he faces the wall of their apartment. Seokjin’s brain makes the unhelpful comparison of Yoongi with that cat meme who says “no talk me angy” in Impact font.

Seokjin grins, his wickedness from within coiling and yearning to burst from his seams. This is it! Maybe if he pushes a little more, then maybe Yoongi will stop pining like a pathetic loser! Also, it didn’t hurt that he got to push Yoongi’s buttons while he’s at it, but hey! Not all heroes go to heaven or whatever.

He grabs his phone from his ass, scrolling back to the e-mail. “So… You wouldn’t mind if I walk up to Y/N right now and tell her ‘Hey! I’ve had an embarrassingly long crush on you and when I heard about this hugging service… I couldn’t miss the chance to shoot my shot! If you’re single and ready to #mingle, then please meet me at the Corner Cafe at 2 PM tomorrow.’” Seokjin sing-songs, snickering loudly when he sees the absolute pain etched onto Yoongi’s face.

There is a pause, and Seokjin waits as Yoongi uses his tiny kitty brain to think of what to do. He can only imagine what’s going inside his head, but he has a guess. Yoongi could either: 1) finally admit his feelings for you and come clean before Seokjin has to deliver your hug, or 2) do something stupid and counterproductive.

It comes as no surprise when Yoongi goes with option number––

[killmygoldenn]

#showyourprocess

To continue supporting content makers, this tag game is meant to show the entire process of making creative content: this can be for any creation.

From planning to posting, share your process for making creative content!

RULES - When your work is tagged, show the process of its creation from planning to posting, then tag up to 5 people with a specific link to one of their creative works you’d like to see the process of. Use the tag #showyourprocess so we can find yours.

I was tagged by @thosefookinavacados to show the process behind this Megan Harry edit. I had lots of fun reading yours!

1. Coming up with the Idea

So remember when Harry followed Megan so many people I saw where like waprry so true bestie 🙏🏽 so since then I was like him should do a Harry Megan edit.

So then few days back I saw this picture of Harry and I was listening to Body and I'm like damn okay 👀 so I put it in my list of edits to make and then later decided to do it.

2. The Editing

Lol so I wasn't planning on doing this on PicsArt I had my Photoshop open and stuff but then when I started in PicsArt it got over there itself lmao. So uhm basically I started with like a red background and edited it a bit? After that I went ahead and got my fonts which I had saved and added that. This font is Lemon Milk.

After this I like slowly started adding rest of the stuff? First I like tried to picture all of it in and see what I wanted and then made them separate so I can fix things if I didn't like them. So I first did cut out that picture of Harry and Megan (it was a struggle to find a Harry picture which I thought would fit) and edited it a bit. Then did all the separate fonts. The 'body' font is Fairfax Station and the Artist names font is Michaello.

After this I just put them all together? I did make more like adjustments and stuff with size and colour.

And the I just added like some finishing stiff like extra and was pretty much done! It came out better than I thought so I was like lol no need to use Photoshop.

And yup! That was it!

I really liked how this came out. Thanks again for tagging me these are so much fun!

I'll tag:

@zi-shu for the harry icons you made for me!

@gayndrew for this walls edit! (I also love the wmi one! love your brain)

@cloudslou for this miss you edit (I love the idea so much)

@stormyhale for this poster edit of Louis (everything you make is so amazing thank you so much for your edits I love them so much)

@badreputatiom for this edit you literally just posted dhdjdk I love it so much!!!!

@lanwangiji for this zayn edit which is still one of my all time favourites!

@essercipertuttienonperse for these louis ticket edits!! (so pretty!)