#then the one on the right i drew today after getting my screen drawing tablet set up properly so now i can draw more w my arm

[actualjenna]

when im bored i like to draw my magus oc

[hisui-cotton]

Hello Hello! Today I’d like to talk about my experience in going to digital art as my primary workflow over the past 5 or 6 years and what I’ve kinda wanted to do for my art in the past and now in the future. Overall I wanted to share my thoughts on the two primary programs I use, how I critique myself and what I’ve learned about art on a personal level.

To preface, as this is a newer format, you expect a level of self-reflection in this that may seem odd! This is both a report to my own brain cave (in lore it's Ithod my "home planet") and a personal exploration of aspects of my life that have taken my interest. This is one of my big steps into finding what I enjoy creating as a VTuber. So please look forward to it as the future has more of this type of blogging but on a variety of topics I find interest in in addition to my Art posts!

Alright let’s start from the…beginning? One of the first times I got a genuine chance to use digital art was in 2013 on a Acer laptop and a tablet I can’t remember the brand of. I didn’t learn too much, I kind of just went for it. It’s hard to explain that I was not really looking at digital art as something I needed to relearn compared to traditional art, not to mention that I was still not improving my art in a….genuine way? I think I was just trying things out to explore how it works. The main problem was that I just didn’t know what I wanted to be using it for at the time. Like yes I wanted to draw but what did I want to be using digital art for that I could use traditional art to do? Overall I didn’t do a whole lot with that tablet other than play around with it but that was a good entry nonetheless.

Sometime after that in 2016/2018-ish I began to draw on my phone and I got a Windows Surface Pro. These were the two steps that really gave me perspective on some of the stuff I can do in digital Art compared to traditional, especially since I had also by that point learned way more about concepts in art and planning my work. This is really where I leaned into taking stuff I learned concept wise and played around with the ability of digital programs like layers, clipping, and being able too revert to old phases of the process without having to totally restart. I played around a lot with making sure I was atleast TRYING to get fullbody work in my compositions as I noticeably struggled with getting body gestures down. Everything felt stiff and I couldn’t figure out how to get rid of that while getting line art in. A lot of that went on to mean that I just did a lot of sketching, studies and generally drew things I felt I had a vague idea for. I typically didn’t go beyond the testing/planning either there because that wasn’t what I was really aiming to do. If I wasn’t thinking of an image beyond it’s initial idea then I had no need to try things beyond that. This wasn’t like a bad time for my art though. In the one year of drawing on a Surface Pro I went from basic fanart doodles to a fairly well developed digital style. I hadn’t even really looked back at the progress of that first year of drawing on the surface pro till now. In the year before I had been drawing fairy consistently on my phone but it was doing basic little portraits and stuff like that. If I had to say I learned one specific thing in the time I used the surface pro (which was for about 3 years) it’s likely that the screen/tablet type you use has a greater effect on how you draw that you may realize.

The ability to draw in my phone was great for at work during lunches or for jotting down sketch ideas which I could use/develop later if I wanted to. I very much loved this convivence because I didn’t want to risk taking my Surface Pro to work or something like that and then it breaking or getting stolen. So the phone usage was very nice especially in our modern era where a good mini-stylus or just the right free app is enough. Specifically I worked in Pixiv Sketch, and still do when I draw on my phone. It’s got a great basic variety of brushes and then a layer function with a decent amount of layer limits.

The Surface Pro’s ability to make the process feel smooth and clean even at various pen pressures was really interesting to realize after switching to an XP-Pen Tablet. It was also really nice to have something to just pull up a full drawing program but also be able to lay in my bed lmao. It may not have done much for my quality but it made me feel like drawing wasn’t something that I had to be up and ready to do if I just wanted to doodle. It also ran really well with decent memory space. This bring me to Paint Tool Sai, the program that I’ve been using for most of my digital art.

I bought Paint Tool Sai back on my Acer laptop. It was $75 at the time which was a lot for me but now looking back…I’ve had like a lifetime art program that can be used at a professional level. I remember recently watching one of the BTS of Genshin Impact and seeing Paint Tool Sai open in on one of their PCs was really refreshing lmao. It was the same hat meme. It was great. But also the fact that it’s made by one guy in Japan, who has been developing the 2.0 for the past few years is crazy because it’s honestly such a great program. I got the 2.0 upgrade for free as well which was even nicer in regards to the fact I only paid for it once also 10 years ago.

Because of it’s program nature with various brush folders and texture folders, it’d similar to Clip Studio in it’s customization for brush textures and settings. You can create your own textures, brushes and such and import them into the program. I find it’s overall feeling when drawing is really smooth even in a lot it’s brush settings. It’s got great reaction time and feels a lot like traditional art for that reason. Even with a really high Stabilization it’s reaction and accuracy to the line is really nice. The digital coloring on the other hand doesn’t really feel as good. I like to use the marker tool because I personally enjoy the look of washed colors so it isn’t too bad for me but when I need flat colors or blended rendering I tend to personally struggle with getting it done at a decent speed. But all the conveniences of the placement for in-program functions like new-layer, merge layer, copy/paste and blank layer are in the same place which I prefer over Clip Studio’s spread out options. It’s possible I can move them around more but the built in thought of the placement for a lot of things in Paint Tool Sai is a nice start for someone looking to just get started within digital art and needs a program with just enough stuff beyond the essentials to let you do really good quality work.

Now I’ve upgraded to a full PC, which I got in 2020. I use an Omen as I expected that if I wanted to use other art programs or draw on even bigger canvases that I should need a more robust system than what I used on the Surface Pro, but I didn’t need anything too crazy that would require a custom system. I also took this as a time to get a slightly larger tablet. Currently I use a XP-Pen tablet which is noticeably different to use than a surface pro. Since a surface Pro is also a laptop/tablet it had a smoother screen, untextured and such, where as the XP-Pen has a slight Matte to it. The XP-Pen also has a layered screen, where theres a slight slight space between where your pen is and the actual place it’s drawing at.

My use of Sai has gone down in the last month however as I finally began using Clip Studio. I admit that theres still something about the feel of the program I don’t like in comparison to Sai but it’s a better overall experience for making higher quality, more complete work at this time. Partially because I still haven’t figured out my art process. Clip Studio has made the convenience of coloring much more accessible to me on a variety of levels. It let’s me feel like I’m not overly perfectionist on my sketch process or lineart in comparison to just laying down a few colors because I don’t have confidence with them. Now even without confidence in my color choices or usage I at least feel like I’ve been able to fake it. In sai it was very dependent on you knowing what colors you wanted to use and what tool you’d use to lay them down. So far it doesn’t feel that way in Clip Studio. I can choose a basic brush and paint bucket and get color laid down in about 20 minutes if I wanted or take more time with a slightly varied brush and get that washed style I like while also being able to properly fill the spaces of the work.

Overall in my art process itself it’s been a lot faster as well than in Sai, perhaps because I’m still taking it slower with the express reason of really learning to use it for efficiency. My progression through the years has sort of allowed me to take that previous knowledge I’d gained and use it in what I do next which is generally what one does when making a change to their professional processes. A lot of doing things new successfully depends on how much you can make it work with what you already know.

Finally let’s talk about my art process itself, what my sort of mentality is behind it. A lot of what I do is based on “Oh I really want to see something like this!” or “That would be a fun/cool image” if I’m drawing for myself. I start with a thumbnail sketch, enlarge that and then do another more detailed sketch on top of that. Typically I haven’t done lineart in the past because it adds a lot of time to the process and I never feel like it looks good compared to sketch. Now that I have clip studio though and the coloring process can go a lot faster with better lineart, I’ve been trying to do a bit cleaner sketches or full lineart. Coloring usually is flat colors first, washed shading next and then multiple layer styles on top of that of highlights and shading. I usually do washed shading as a sort of “sketch” for the shades. Usually a rough colored drawing takes about 2 hours? Sometimes a bit more depending on how much I clean up the lines, sometimes less if I just slap on the colors and lines.

The things that I feel I need to work on the most are usually in regards to colors and composition. I tend to focus up my character compositions to fill the whole page either by intentionally drawing them large or by enlarging the sketches to fill the page size. But if it’s a composition that isn’t character focused or has some more environmental aspects then I tend to struggle. My color choices also are hard to do because I don’t usually consider them in my sketching phase. Since I usually go into pieces with an idea of what person, character or outfits I’m drawing then colors tend not to be something I think too much about. This is something I notice a lot in environmental drawings though because the colors get so clashed when actual lighting and such needs to be planned out against a certain layout. Which sucks because I absolutely LOVE vibrant coloring and such but I don’t know how to make that work with environment stuff yet.

A lot of what I want to draw, in both style and “substance”, is character driven. I like action that shows a lot of atmosphere or feels very in character. When a still image can feel like it captures the feeling of a moment or feels like it was made with a real idea in mind that means a lot to me, so that’s what I try to go in with when I’m drawing. For characters and such that can be a variety of things from just lounging around or hanging out to getting dressed-up or a variety of actions. It’s really fun to see so much more in the things that I like and to be able to share those things through art is wonderful.

To send you off I want to say that…I like being an artist. It’s so nice to know and learn a skill like art since it can be a sort of perspective into a person’s views. People’s ability to connect over concepts and such is so cool and I feel like even today when we have fine art, fanart and everything in-between that it really sets up the fun of creativity and community. Right now there’s an ongoing official art series of Miku and Pokemon drawn by various artists. Some people have begun taking that concept and drawing it themselves, putting their own spins on it in their version of the pokemon style and outfits. It’s so cool that looking through it all I can barely tell which ones are official and which are fan made. Like it’s a clear cut conversation where everyone can give it a shot with their own ideas and can still be talking about the same thing. I think that’s lovely.

For my art in the future, I want to be able to design and draw a buncha stuff. I really like stationary and want to make some stuff in the future for it. These report logs are one place I’ll be playing around with that to test it a bit so I’m excited to continue these. I also want to better my Background drawing because I really love the idea of being able to put characters in a location, somewhere I can imagine them being. I’ve gotten better at character interactions but I want to think about how much further that can go if I add an environment. For the future of my style…I don’t know! I like to have a very dreamy or washed style but also bold colors and expressive lines. But I’ll definitely be thinking about it even more in the future as I start developing a finished my process (getting fully rendered colors, lineart, etc.).

[universallywriting]

Drive Home

Steven's breath puffed in the air as he came to sit beside her, feet crunching in the frost and pine needles. He was glad they'd planned it the way they did, just cold enough so the Rocky Mountains were dusted with snow. Specks of brown and green covered the mounds that swallowed up the horizon, towering and beautiful, almost touchably close and endlessly far at the same time. Pine trees circled close around them, boulders jutting up from the earth, and he came to sit down on one beside Connie with a smile.

It was odd up in the mountains. Occasionally hikers would pass them by, or a family of tourists, but off the more well-worn trails that was rare. It was still odd for Steven, who so rarely traveled, to see so many people pass him by that he didn’t know the names of. So often he felt like he should see Buck’s familiar deadpan face, or hear Jenny’s laugh from one of the people that passed him by.

But the only familiar face was Connie’s. The thermos of tea he had brought her was hot in the metal flask. When they drove lower, he would switch back to her favorite black teas, carefully measured with swirls of honey and just the right kind of milk to make her smile. But high up in the mountains, the water didn’t boil hot enough.

Just thinking of her face the first morning she’d tried to make them both tea at 10,000 feet was enough to make him smile. The weak brew had made her nose wrinkle up in confusion, baffled at her perfectly measured cup failing, before she burst into giggles and explained the correlation between how water boiled and the altitude.

She was so brilliant. He handed it to her, enjoying the feel of being stupidly in love and out in the world alone with her before murmuring, “How do you feel?”

"Small. But in a good way. You?" She took a deep breath of mountain air, looking over the landscape. He wondered if she felt the same as him, or if we-moved-a-lot Connie never felt that same warm loneliness.

"Same." He smiled and looked back out. Questions about wanting to see familiar faces could be saved for the road home when they were barefoot and bored. “Wish I had come to places like this more often. Oceans are beautiful but... Nothing makes you feel more like a speck than a mountain. It's comforting."

"Just another little person, running across a big marble." She nudged him softly with her free hand. "Gets a little too much when you really see the marble though. I think going out in space can make Earth feel a little too small."

Steven nodded. "Yeah. This is a good middle ground. Earth feels big. I feel small. I like it this way.”

“Why don’t we stay?” Connie asked lightly. “Drive around forever.”

“I could be happy getting lost in these woods,” he agreed, but there was no weight to it. There was no weight to her words either. They swept away in the breeze, tumbling down stone and needles and babbling brooks to the world beneath.

"Me too." Her fingers wrapped tight around the sketchbook in her lap, the cover digging into her skin just at the brink of hurting. "I'm, um... I'm done with it, by the way. With my portfolio. I’ll submit it in the morning."

"That's great!" Steven said, throwing his arm around her shoulders with an eager squeeze. His lips found her temple in a reassuring kiss, seeing the nerves in the stiff lines of her body. "I'm so proud of you. Did the landscapes turn out the way you wanted?"

She opened her sketchbook and Steven eagerly looked over her shoulder, never tiring of the contents. It started with the temple. The morning they left Steven had found her on the beach, wrapped up in a hoodie in the early dawn chill, sketching his home and occasionally sipping at a coffee that had gone cold, and though she had insisted it wasn’t important, he had happily delayed their start until she finished.

Connie flipped to fields of grain. Traveling the midwest had been much less exciting than he expected. Keystone had rolled by and their eyes had glazed over as everything seemed to be the same three trees and two rocks. They had burst into Buckeye and passed through Kansas and had mumbled incoherently about corn while the radio tried to keep them alive and driving. That night they had stared at Connie’s grain drawing with a ghostly horror, neither of them remembering when she had drawn the stuff.

She moved past a drawing of rolling grassy hills. In Nebraska, he had floated to the top of the RV with her. While she drew, he had read about the Great Plains on his phone. They had taken a moment, in warm breeze and isolation, to let tears hit their eyes and cries choke their lungs as they read about what happened to buffalo who had roamed there once. They had whispered about colonies of all kinds, and there was no one around to reassure them, so they took the time to mourn things that might have been.

They had done the same in sand dunes, or close to it. The sketch she passed held more memory than a picture, the grays of her pencil capturing more than just the desert, but him breaking down over Kindergartens sucking life from the earth. Another sketch just after, with a lovely pink flower blossoming on top of a cactus, and he could hear her voice reassuring, “Nothing’s as lifeless as you’d think.”

Connie paused on his favorite, the polar bear she had sketched from the San Diego Zoo. They had spent such a long day there, but when they got to the polar bears she had stopped and gushed about them. The Spirit Morph saga had inspired her to do research, and she rambled facts. Polar bears had terrible success rates, with only two percent of their hunts being successful, did he know? 

He really liked that idea. The largest bear of all, living in such a harsh environment, failed almost all the time. It fumbled and watched as victory slipped away, but it came back to try another day. It survived.

She finished on a sweeping mountain landscape, not too different from the one they sat in now. Connie set her phone next to it, a copy of her finished project next to the rougher draft. "That's the last one," she said quietly, pointing to the screen. "I think it turned out okay."

"It makes Earth look beautiful. I’d put it in a gem brochure," he reassured. “You chose a lot of amazing stuff.”

She bit her lower lip. “I hope so. I tried to choose what a school would think is best, not just the stuff I think is great. The stuff that shows skill, you know?

He kissed her cheek this time, saying, "Any school is going to be lucky to have you. You're amazing, Connie."

"I'm okay," she said, voice very practical about her own skills. Connie looked at him with a little laugh. "I don't know what's scarier - getting rejected or getting in. Mom was mad enough about the world US road trip gap year."

"She got over it! You know, after the meltdown." Steven said, wincing a little at the memory. He had sat behind her, trying to support her as quietly as possible while Priyanka and Connie growled and snapped at one another, each insisting on how the next year should be spent. And, at the end, the tearful apologies, the confessions of fear over the future… He had to admit that it was a relatable feeling, even if no one had fought with him.

"She'll get over this too. Come on. This is what you've always wanted. You're going to be an animator, Connie,” he said, and just saying the word made her eyes go a little wide with hope. 

He remembered her earliest drawings with him, rougher but already so much nicer than his own. He remembered her working through how to draw anime books, silly cat-eared characters with huge eyes. Steven remembered her fumbling beyond that, hours of Tubetube tutorials, crying at the tablet he got her for her birthday, the countless gifts of fanart for his favorite shows. He remembered trembling hands the first time she showed him a comic, with characters he had never seen, because she had snatched them from the air the way he grabbed music.

Steven knew he was tearing up again like he did every time he told her, but he could never hold it back. “It’s what you live for, Connie. It’s what makes you happy. You're going to tell stories."

Connie breathed again, taking in pine and chill and rocks older than even the Crystal Gems by orders of magnitude. The world was big and wide and old, the universe even more so, and usually that made her problems feel small. But nothing could swallow up the fear and doubt today. She took his hand tight in her own.

"This has been amazing. Driving across the country, seeing all these different parts of the world, pitstops to warps so we can see everything Earth has to offer. Steven, I..."  She looked up at him, shaking her head in disbelief. "These past ten months have been the best months of my life. Everyone said we were going to get sick of each other. Your dad gave us that speech about how it was okay to bail. Everyone thought we were going to mess this up but... I'd do this for another year if it wasn't for college."

He was careful not to jostle her phone or sketchbook from her lap as he lifted her hand and pressed it to his lips. "I loved this. I love you. No expectations. No scary future. No responsibilities. Just a big journey together.”

“I’m glad you loved it as much as I did,” she said with a smile.

“More than that. I needed it.” He laughed and shook his head. “Connie, I never could have asked for anything better than this. Everything at home was a mess. I’m so tired of all the work and responsibility and wondering what I’m going to do with my life. But this past year I just got to be with you and not be afraid."

"But now we have to go home," she whispered looking at the RV parked behind them. The place where they slept and ate. The place where they made stupid jokes and listened to terrible radio and podcasts. The place where they’d cried and kissed and worked through things they never thought they’d work through. But that was over now, and it loomed like a hearse. “We have to get in there and drive all the way back to Beach City. And then I... I have to wait to see if I get accepted.”

She laughed, cold and bitter, and took a hand to wipe at her eyes. He couldn’t see any tears falling, but Connie felt them stinging. “I’ve messed up on a lot of stuff, Steven. I know I seem smart, but most of it is from studying so hard. I’m not… special. I’m not talented. The odds are good they’re not gonna want me. And if they don't, I guess I'll go be a doctor or something. And, if they do, I..."

I’m screwed either way.

Steven shook his head hard. "You'll be an animator," he insisted. He took the thermos and set it aside, untouched, just so he could take both her hands in his. "You'll do exactly what you've been doing ever since I met you - telling stories. You'll finally get to be who you've always wanted to be."

She winced. "But my mom-"

"Who cares?" Steven said, barely holding back his temper. "We spent a year, just the two of us! You don’t need her to agree."

"Ten months," she corrected softly. "But, you're right. We did."

Steven didn’t like his temper. He didn’t like how angry he got. He didn’t like how easily he could drag Connie into it, drown her in it when they fused. He felt guilty about that. He worried about that a lot, that maybe his anger meant he wasn’t as good of a person as he liked to try to be. He loved Dr. and Mr. Maheswaran, didn’t he? His anger shouldn’t be so burning and flaring when all they wanted was for Connie to be safe.

But his feelings for her parents got tangled in his own, and when he started down that path he felt that little voice hissing that they should leave them alone, and that they could do things on their own, and for once they wanted to live their own lives and forge their own paths, and was it really so much to ask for unconditional support in that?

Steven took a steady breath to calm himself. "She should be in your life. The gems should be in my life. But nobody... Nobody gets to tell you what to do with it. It took me so long to figure that out. I didn't get that making other people happy and hurting yourself to meet their expectations aren't the same thing. I spent my whole life trying to be my mom. I didn't know what to do when I wasn't."

Connie nodded weakly. "I know."

He took her face in his hands, pressing her forehead to hers. "You're not your mom. You never have been. You don’t love rules and coloring inside the lines. You sneak candy into movies and find loopholes in the law and climb giant robots and... And you love books. And comics. And television. You love survival." 

Steven flipped back to the polar bear, gently tapping the page. "You drew this because of the warrior bears in the Spirit Morph Saga, because those books meant everything to you, and you want to make something like that for other people. That’s who you are. You want to inspire people like people who have inspired you."

She closed her eyes, trying not to cry. “I know. But I’m… I don’t know if I…”

“I’ve seen you capture Pearl on a page, and I can see all her determination and all her fear at the same time,” he whispered. “I’ve seen you draw your dad as a superhero, with a goofy flashlight and a big smile, because that’s who he was when you were small. You… You drew me, Connie.”

His thumbs smoothed over her cheeks as he took a shuddering breath. “You drew me the way you love me. It was just me, sleepy in our RV, and I looked peaceful and happy and I was looking outside and… and I could feel the way I love our stupid little rock. I was human and not human and I loved it, Connie. You made me feel so much.”

“I know, Steven. I know you feel the things I make but…” She whimpered, the tears he hadn’t seen before finally rolling. “What if I'm not good enough? What if I reach for Kansas and burn out halfway there?"

Steven hugged her tight, and let her bury her face in his shoulder. They were all alone up there, softly rustling trees holing them up from the terrifying landscape ahead. But there were such beautiful things below, pressed into the pages of Connie’s sketchbook, and it was time to face them all.

“I’ll pick you up.” His face buried in her hair, thoughts of their families fresh in his mind, and there was only one thing to promise, "I'll drive you home. And we'll all love you anyway."

[kiwiwola]

11-14-20

Ok day overall! Tree and decorations obtained, and they really brighten up the apartment and make it feel lovely and fresh. Also tried a delicious katsu burger place on the way home. Did about half of my pt exercises before I left the house, other half after getting home. At a 1.5, 2 pain level for most of the day? Feelin good at about 6:30, decided to do a bit of tablet drawing. Drew for about forty, fifty minutes. Used my old art board as a bit of a slanted foot rest, which was nice? Neck started acting up at forty minutes, so went and switched tasks. Still bugging me now, at maybe a 2 or 3 depending on position. I feel like I got more mileage today using a chunky gouache brush over a very barebones sketch than the last time I was drawing for approximately an hour, and primarily using a pencil/fine sketch tool. Didn’t really get any lingering wrist or elbow pain this time. Raised the pressure sensitivity on my pen two bumps as well, since I noticed that on the little test screen, pressing down as hard as I realistically would ever want to was only registering at about 75% max pressure.

Found a couple variables that make it a little easier to overcome that fear of eventual pain and just...start:

1) I tell myself I will not post what I draw. This may change if I like what I draw once I finish, but I always start out with this promise to myself. This is just practice. This is just for myself.

2) I don’t try to draw one thing on the page—I treat it less like a single project or a single file, and more like a sketchbook page, to be filled with different iterations and different things. This reduces the chance that any one thing will feel too precious, will get over planned, will get overworked.

3) As sort of the result of one and two, I have a file that’s then sort of hard to name as any one specific thing. So I just title them as “sketch_daysdate”. No laboring over trying to reduce the ideas so some cohesive, unified whole. Letting it just be...a sketch page. From that date.

4) working within a smaller, fixed/framed area. Keeps me from blowing stuff up too big and getting lost in details, also keeps the page sort of organized. I just use the select too, to make a rectangle and work within that area. This has helped me before in terms of trying to figure out like scene harmony, but now it kind of helps me keep things from getting out of control. And if I want to go back later and add more detail, this process tends to make it easier for me to leave a clearer stopping point. Idk. It’s something I really enjoyed before when I was in the habit of doing small color studies, and it’s.. a tiny little relief for this way of doing things to be still possible and enjoyable?

Pain and ergonomics: Not the funnest thing to be constantly journaling and focusing on, but tbh it keeps me from worrying about heavier stuff right now, so hey I’ll take it.

[silly-nonny-fics-are-for-fandoms]

Overrated Love Stories

Summary:  Joe knew very well that Jay didn't like cliches. He didn't give flowers, he didn't think long walks on the beach were romantic, but that was nothing. That didn't mean he didn't love Joe any less. And Jow knew that. But it didn't mean he didn't want something every once and a while.

Read on Ao3

Jay had never been one for romantic gestures, be it towards him or doing it for his partner. He preferred to just tell him that he loved him, or slyly flirt with him rather than doing something big and romantic. Joe understood that. He was sometimes the same way, not wanting to have someone skywrite something for him or anything like that. But there were times where he wanted to have that feeling, the fuzzy warmth, and embarrassment of course, at knowing that the person whom he loved was thinking about him. He always made sure to let Jay know that he was thinking about him, sometimes with a little doodle or by making him food before he left for work or class.

He was lucky, he got to work from home, and all his classes were online. He could spend all day if he wanted on planning something romantic for Jay. Though, of course, there were days where he wanted to be told he was cute, or to be given flowers, or even just a note saying that Jay was thinking about him. But that wasn't how their relationship worked most days.

Jay came home to find Joe curled up on their couch, his laptop on his lap and drawing tablet pen barely being held in his hand. Soft snores came from his lover, his glasses askew. The blonde sighed, walking over to him as gently as he could. He saw a little doodle on the screen, his avatar giving flowers to Joe's, and he paused for a moment. Did Joe want him to get flowers? He'd never been one for such a thing.

He sighed, taking the pen from his partner's hand, saving the picture, and closing the laptop. Joe had a very bad habit of falling asleep on the couch where he often drew, or at his desk. Pressing a soft kiss to his forehead, he picked him up carefully. It wasn't too much of a burden, Joe wasn't particularly heavy, and Jay had brought him back to bed on many occasions. Once he was set on the mattress and glasses removed, Jay pulled the covers over him. Now, he would go to bed with him under normal circumstances, but he was curious about what he'd seen on the computer screen.

Did Joe want to be romanced? Did he want flirting and flowers and all that junk? They'd been together for almost two years and yet not once had this come up before in their relationship. Usually, they communicated all their wants and desires as soon as it happened, so they could make sure to keep one another happy and be sure they were taking care of each other. Why was this different?

Jay knew why this was different. It was because he had always found such things irrelevant, they were a waste. He liked to live in reality, where violets were purple, people died when their hearts skipped, stars only existed in the sky and in drawings, flowers weren't a good symbol of love because they just died in a week or less, and there was no way in hell one should eat breakfast in bed as it would just get crumbs all over the bedding.

It was so stupid. He'd always thought so, and Joe liked to laugh with him at some of the sentiments. It was fine with him. And as much as he hated the thought of it, Joe was more important to Jay than whatever prejudice he may have against romance, so before he could go to sleep, he got to work.

When Joe woke up in the morning, the first thing he noticed was that he was still dressed in the same clothes he'd worn the day before. Great. That meant he fell asleep on the couch again, and Jay had to carry him back to bed. It was a habit that Joe was ashamed to say that he was all too deep in, with most nights of his week ending on the couch and mornings still starting in bed.

He really loved his partner, and always made sure to thank him whenever he could. Speaking of, where was Jay? He sat up and blearily glanced around, reaching out for his glasses case on the bedside table, only to come into contact with a piece of paper that had definitely not been there before. When he pulled it closer so he could see it, he was slightly shocked to see what it really was. A note, from Jay. With a heart. A simple good morning message, but it was enough to send his heart all aflutter.

Something smelled amazing, he realized as he put his glasses on. Was Jay cooking? He never made breakfast. Lunch and dinner, sure. But not breakfast. What was going on?

"Jay?" He called out as he exited their room, heading down the hall towards the kitchen, "Jay, you there?"

"In here!"

Joe looked into the kitchen and his jaw nearly dropped. Jay was cooking pancakes, chocolate chip pancakes by the smell of things, and had already poured out a glass of chocolate milk for him. They almost never had pancakes. Always eggs or oatmeal, or some other thing which was healthy and supposed to give them energy. But something just decadent, like pancakes? No way, that wasn't how they normally operated, even if it was Joe's favorite breakfast food.

"Okay, what gives? You never cook breakfast."

"Nothing, really, I just wanted to cook for my boyfriend before I headed out to class today." He shrugged, handing him his plate with a kiss when he came over. "Because I love you."

"What the heck? Did I forget some holiday? Is it our anniversary?" Joe whispered to himself, glancing at the calendar, and realized that their anniversary wasn't for another two months. It wasn't February, so not Valentines, and it wasn't either of their birthdays. So what was going on?

Jay's expression was unreadable, as usual. Either angry, neutral, or happy. Nothing new there.

"Do you really think that it only takes some holiday or special day to be shown you're loved?" Jay asked, his tone expressionless as he flipped the pancakes. "Is that really what you think?"

Joe sighed, setting his plate down on the table next to the glass of chocolate milk which had been set out for him. Jay was not a chocolate type of person, preferring orange juice with his breakfast in the morning. All the little things which made him, well, him. Those were what Joe loved the most. And he knew that Jay hated cliche romance, he hated it with a fervent passion. That was fine, Joe knew that, but he was also weak for those same cliches which his boyfriend detested.

"I just know you don't like this sort of thing, and the note was nice, but it doesn't seem like you. And knowing you, it doesn't feel like you want to really do this unless it was for my sake."

"You're right, I don't like doing this. But I love you more than I despise these stupid, overdone cliches, so it's whatever."

Joe wrapped his arms around Jay's waist, resting his head on his partner's shoulder after giving his cheek a soft kiss.

"I know you love me. You don't need to do anything big to prove it, you do that just by spending time with me."

He felt Jay sigh more than heard it, and the way he leaned into the hug only served to prove his point. Oh, he was sure that he'd find plenty of little notes telling him how much he loved him, or how cute he looked, or just of encouragement, and those were fine. He loved those kinds of notes, Jay would sometimes write them for him whenever he saw him having a hard time and didn't want people around. Jay wasn't a people person, but there was one person he loved more than his own biases, and that person had him in his arms then.

"C'mon, let's get some breakfast, you did put all this effort into making it after all."

"Eh, it's mostly from a box. I'm calling in sick from class today, I'd rather spend it with you."

"Well thank you very much," Joe laughed, "I'm honored."

"You sure you don't mind not having all the big romantic gestures?" Jay asked as he set the final pancake onto a plate, grabbing the butter and syrup to go with it as Joe released him so they could go sit at the table.

"Mhm, I don't mind. I've got you, and that's what matters to me. Sure, sometimes I'm bit by the romance bug, but that's the same as getting a craving for chocolate or whatever."

Jay couldn't help but laugh. This domestic romance, without the big gestures and cliches, as just the two of them together, that was all they really wanted. Because dear god, as much as they disliked cliche romances, they loved one another twice as much.

[writingsofmyimagination]

Sweet Histamine

Sooo this was for the kwritersworld spring fic exchange!

My writing partner was @njssi . Sorry for jumping the gun :P The keyword Pollen Allergies with BTS pairing was an interesting one, but naturally because i’m going to hell I had to make it smutty! Enjoy!

Pairing: Jimin x Reader

Summary:Who would have thought forgetting to take your hay-fever tablets could end so sweetly. 

Word Count:2663

Warnings:Smut (hot and heavy nothing too extreme), PWP. Swearing.

The sun was raining in through the window, sprinkling you with the glorious rays warming your skin. Your apartment overlooked an expansive park, clouds of leaves atop ancient trunks. The bustle of families, lovers and friends enjoying the parks greenery amongst the flowers and the centre piece fountain which offered a consistent flow of children wishing their pennies away.

“Achoo” you blew your nose and stuffed the tissue into the back pocket of your denim shorts.

“You forgot to take your antihistamines again didn’t you?” Jimin wrapped his arms through your and clasped around your waist from behind.

“Well in my defence someone was distracting me this morning” you twirled round in his embrace knocking his lips from your neck and redirected them to give your lips some much needed attention

“Don’t blame me, have you taken some?” his mahogany irises glimmered with a shy sense of amusement littered with sincerity. His hands dropped and rested at your hips as yours were linked softly at the back of his back.

“Yes, I’ve taken some, what time are we heading over to the dorms?”

“In about ten minutes if you’re ready?”

“I’m ready, all snacks packed and accounted for” you beamed “Achoo” When you looked up a smirk had crept on his face.

“Go and lie on the bed baby” Jimin demanded softly, tracing the outline of your figure with equal pressure.

“What?, We don’t have time for…” you protested

“It’ll take less than ten minutes I promise” his saccharine smile comatosed you into complying, like a puppy you just couldn’t say no.

“Lie down, eyes closed, no peeking” You rolled your eyes searching for a hint of his intentions before shutting them. You heard drawers open and close, the bed depressed as Jimins weight left the floor. His fingers teased open the button on your shorts, your hands flew to his in protest

“How is this going to take less than ten minutes” the words rushed out forcibly. You sighed audibly when he pinned your nuisance hands above your head and absorbed any more contesting by enveloping you into a heated kiss; which you naturally arched yourself into.

“I promised didn’t I? I just want to make your pollen allergies more…fun” Okay now you was confused. “Now are you going to behave and let me carry on or this will take more than ten minutes?”

Such a brat you thought.

He took your silence as the answer he wanted and you allowed him to slip your shorts and underwear off with no more complaints and one more sneeze into the back of your hand.

His lips first ghosted at your navel which was exposed thanks to the black off the shoulder crop top you’d decided to wear. His lips danced downward and you ceased to care about time. He knocked your legs further apart and your hands gripped round the pillow above you as his tongue continued to dance fluidly over your bundle of nerves. The interval was all too soon, pulling a wanting sigh past your lips as his left you. Before you could whine about anything his fingers took over the lead. You heard a satisfied moan of approval

“Always so wet for me baby, ready?” you didn’t need reminding.

“Mmm” was all you mumbled, not really knowing what you was agreeing so amenably too.

“Fuck Jimin!” you cried, the shock jumbling with pleasure. You’re eyes flew open and you rested on your elbows to get a better view. Jimin was sat on his legs, wicked grin plastered on his face, the wickedness also mimicking through his eyes. Your body adjusted to the feeling of Jimin’s great idea.

“I bought you some kegal balls, I was going to wait until your birthday but with you sneezing like nothing else I thought this would be a good opportunity to play with them to see if they’re fun” Jimin explained triumphantly.

“Seriously?, we’re going to be out?” you affirmed, your sudden anxiety glued your body in place.

“Exactly, I can’t wait to watch you become a flustered mess. You’ll be begging me to take you home”

Oh so he wants to play today

The possibilities of the next few hours flashed through your mind, working like acetone and unstuck? Your muscles into their normal state.

“I could just take them out” you challenged, fishing for his reaction.

“You will do no such thing, I’ll ruin all your orgasms for three weeks” Well. That told you. Lips pouting, he just looked at you bemused for a moment before climbing further and kissing the pout away. His knee pressed generously in between your thighs to feed of your gasps.

“Come on, we better get going” he starved you of anymore affection jumping up and offering you his hand to pull you up.

“Agh” Jimin’s palm burned into your behind, you exclamation was more the results of the balls shifting inside you. The feeling was like a half satisfied itch, it left you craving much more. Jimin’s smirk turned wicked as you finally realised how much torture you was going to have to endure.

“I hate you” you joked.

“You won’t be screaming that later, I promise”

 As soon as you arrived at the dorms the aroma of BBQ teased your senses and woke up your apparent hunger, especially when you saw that Yoongi was head chef at the grill through the large panel windows onto the balcony.

“Achoo…aah”  

I’m not going to last all evening

You brows furrowed, aiming directly for Jimin who met your gaze with a miniscule tug of his bottom lip between his teeth. Your blood heightened to a few more degrees, he knew what he did to you and how to get you.

“Where do snacks live?” you inquired holding up the bag of goodies.

“Just bundle them on the table in the living room with the others” Jungkook directed, carefully trying to decipher the snacks beneath the plastic with inquisitive eyes. J-Hope’s unmistakeable laugh ricocheted through the open plan living room and kitchen, drawing your attention from the large flat screen playing a standard music channel.

All the boys apart from Yoongi and Jungkook were lounging in the metal garden chairs, drinks in hands. Jimin tapped his knee and you sat obediently. One arm worked round your waist to sit lazily, fingertips ministrating slowly against your skin. You pleaded to your antihistamines to stop any more sneezing. Jungkook handed you a glass of soda, it sucked you was driving.

Food was cooked, food was eaten and everyone was full of delicious goodness. Now was the debate of what film to pick

“So Jurassic World two or Incredibles 2” RM announced.

“Obviously Jurassic World” Jimin blurted out in a high plea blanketing the pair of you on one of the corner sofas and slumping down at your side. Yoongi was sat non-chalant at the edge of the sofa quietly scrolling while the children squabbled amongst themselves.

“We’ve waited like 15 years for incredibles” Hope added.

“Yeah what’s wrong with you hyung, Incredibles all the way!” Jungkook blurted at Jimin and added in a slap on his legs for good measure before resuming his position sprawled on the floor on his front with V; both had pillows hugged at their chest resting their chins. He leaned into you as he flinched and his adorable laugh caramelised through your veins, the viscosity did nothing to slow your heart rate throbbing in your chest and the blood flooding down in-between your thighs.

“Y/N it’s all on you, you’re the guest, and we’ll be here for hours otherwise” RM suggested from the other sofa

“No pressure then” you leaned forward reaching for a bag of cool Doritos. “Obviously Incredibles” all you got in response from Jimin was a pair of bambi eyes with his lips at a pout.

Serves him right.

Jin drew the curtains and plunged the room into near darkness, the gentle glow from the lamp at the end of the other sofa chased away most of the shadows. The two of you were seated furthest away from the light, leaving you with the most shadows interrupted only by the rays of the TV.

“Achoo… bless me” your thighs squeezed together to cushion the sensation of the balls hitting your walls, you fidgeted your entire lower half until the hit had done its damage. A breathless moan reached Jimin’s ears and your peripheral vision discerned his lips creasing upwards.

“Want me to fuck you yet?” his whisper ghosted the skin on your neck causing a ripple of goosebumps to stand to attention. You turned your head to him quickly, your eyes sheepishly scanning the room for witnesses.

“Anyone need more popcorn?” you asked, your cheeks tainted a light pink as you got up and grabbed the two empty bowls on the table and headed to the kitchen completely ignoring his question.

The ache was becoming unbearable, but you were determined not to let him beat you. The microwave was whirring happily with you leaning against the side checking your social media to pass the time and distract yourself. Your boyfriend emerged in the kitchen not long after, sinful expression slapped on his face and grabbed at one of your belt loops propelling you into him, your dropped your arm to avoid your phone hitting his face.

“Can I help you?” you asked unperturbed.

“Yeah, I want you to answer me” his lips mere centimetres away from yours holding then in a desperate limbo. Your eyes sparked off each other, dangerously close to igniting.

“Why don’t you find out for yourself” you quipped, taking his hand and teased it down beneath your waist band. You knew he wouldn’t be satisfied with just a touch. Before he starting to tease with his fingers and before you’d completely cave and let him have you in the kitchen you pulled his hand away, kissed him in a heated burst shutting off his whine and not allowing a pout to form from his lips. The spark in his coffee eyes burst.

I have him

“Two can play the tease game my prince”

DING! Before he had a second to react you grabbed the popcorn and bowls and returned to the living area your chest puffed slightly and an accomplished grin sneaking through.

 “Hey guys is it okay if we make a move, I definitely underrated my lack of sleep last night” Jimin was at the living room doorway framing his small stature, he rubbed at his eyes and threw his arms up into a full body stretch.

From the shadows your head shook with a one sided coy smile.

He’s unbelievable

“Remember we have practice at half seven, rest well hyung” RM well wished.

“I will, I’ll just go pack some things, Hobi did you move that attack on titan replica to our room yet? Y/N’s been asking about it”

He really is unbelievable but he knows how to get me where he wants me

“Yeah it’s in there” Hobi replied.

“Come on then babe” Jimin prompted. He did not have to ask you twice.

As soon as the door to his bedroom was shut, he was on you, he pressed into you with a primal roughness you rarely saw from him. You tried to push back a little to stop from slamming into the door and hopefully cushioning the sound. Your hands were both scrambling at each other’s sides. His brown hair was silk underneath your fingers as they crept up the back of his neck. His lips scattering desperate kisses at your collar bone. You pushed him back harder this time.

“Not here” you half pleaded in between struggling breaths “Someone could walk in” You tried to take a few more steps into the neat light pastel pink room. You were always more cautious about these things at the dorm, naturally; especially when Jimin doesn’t have his own room when him and J-Hope are the only two who share.

“I am NOT waiting until we’re back at yours” He unbuttoned your shorts gripped at your shoulders and spun you round to face the wall, instinctively your hands flew to the wall, palms flat against the cool surface. “We’re not exactly going to be long are we?”

I definitely wasn’t

His hands entangled in your hair and with a yank your neck in full extension releasing a strangled groan from your throat. His lips next to your ear, his body tight against your own, his desperation digging into you.

“But you’ll have to be quiet, don’t want us to get caught again princess, can you do that for me?” your skin flushed with heat

“Mmmhmm” you answered, he relinquished his grip on your hair and your forehead rested against the wall as your shorts and underwear were hastily sent pooling at your ankles. The humidity shrouding you both was near suffocating, there was nothing but hot blooded need flooding through your system. You needed him to fuck you and you needed it now. His hands locked onto your hip and pulled you back slightly and pushed your back, you bent at his touch so willingly. Your fists contorted into balls as his hands stroked through your heat from behind

“I think we’ll use these again” he said as he pulled at the silver chain.

“Aa…” your hand secured over your mouth cutting any more noise from falling out. The emptiness you felt was anything but a relief.

“Jimin, I swear to god if you don’t hurry up and fuck me” he’d gone to his bedside table to grab condom “We don’t need ..”

“I’d rather not deal with the mess” he rushed, it was his turn to scramble at his clothes, his belt buckle clinked, the noise only served as to heighten your anticipation and impatience.

With his cock finally against your buzzing nerves, you tilted your hips in a fluid motion to get more contact.

“Always so impatient”

“Fuck” you breathed in a forced whisper. Jimin’s moan was flooded with relief, the fingertips that were digging sweet half crescents into your skin held you firmly in your place. Every thrust it was becoming harder and harder to filter out your moans through pursued lips. You were neglected of the usual beautiful sounds that Jimin would give you in moments like this, the sweet high notes that would escape him, the desperate and satiated whines.

You grabbed behind you, clawing at the side of his behind as hips began jerking unevenly as he was racing towards his end. You was both chasing that impending high.

“Stay with…me baby…I’m so close” you panted barely holding on to your own control.

More and more volume was slowly creeping out amongst the gasps and pants

“Fuck Jimin, I’m….” your body gave in to an onslaught of pleasure that threatened to buckle your knees. The pulsing of your core around him knocked him falling into his own release he’d so desperately held off for you. His body still behind you, breathless obscenities flowing from his lips under his grunts. The pressure at your hips lifted and a more delicate pressure enveloped your waist his head dropped onto your back, savouring the afterglow of the heat as it dissipated.

“I love you soo much you know that” he spoke into your back. Your body satisfied and no longer clouded with uncontrollable lust, sense and social awareness seeps back in; bringing back with it a rush of self-consciousness.

“I love you too” you rushed out “but maybe let’s get redressed and get your stuff” You pictured the content grin you knew he’d be wearing.

“It’s not like you to get shy baby, but fine!” he huffed, exposed your skin from under your shirt to bury a kiss against your skin. He separated from you and allowed you to cover yourself restoring all dignity.

“And for god’s sake remember to put those balls away, I will literally die of embarrassment if Hobi sees them”

[hollandandi]

“i think i’m falling in love with you.”

an entry in @underoosbws’ 3k writing challenge! go give her a follow!!💓💗💞💥

peter or tom?

word count; 1.7k

type; total fluff!

warnings; none!

w/n; sorry this is only short, but family drama is stopping me from spilling my thoughts all night anymore!

permanent tag list; @therealme13posts @space-starz @crxssourbones @tshquackson @aliceinwhateverland @thothollandd @kilieria @spideyjlaw @spideyboyx @augustus-did-not-get-stabbed

——

Beneath your bodies was a large, tartan blanket with frayed edges, protecting your bodies from the slightly damp grass that laid amongst the park floor. There were several cushions from home resting randomly at different sections of the fabric, and two backpacks full to the brim with food. Yours, had a couple of homemade sandwiches, bottles of water and a plastic container of handmade chocolate chip cookies. Peter’s, on the other hand, had several packets of chocolate, two doughnuts, two cans of Coke, and two subs from Delmar’s, that today had cost him twenty dollars instead of ten.

Placed beside your two bags were a stack of activities - ranging from a pack of cards, to a kind of dodgy-looking board game, to your tablet with ‘Heads Up’ flashing on the screen. Right now, however, you were sat facing each other with a drawing pad in each of your hands - you had chosen to sit with your knees close to your chest, the pad resting on-top of your stomach while shielding your drawings from the brunette in-front of you. Peter had chosen a less secretive position at first, simply laying backwards on the blanket with the pad on the floor.

“Okay, first, I challenge you to draw...the Hulk!” You smiled widely, before grabbing one of two green markers from the selection on the patterned floor and furrowing your eyebrows as your pencil glided across the fresh piece of paper. He rolled his eyes playfully, knowing that the end result would likely not be very good, but continued regardless. He occasionally glanced at you to take in your expressions, each one making him smile to himself. Your face switched from ease, to frustration, to confusion and finally to a fairly content look with a light laugh, before looking to Peter to see if he was complete too.

He caught your gaze after a moment, dropping the now-lidded marker onto the blanket and nodding to you, before speaking. “It’s your turn to show first.” He reminded with a smile plastered onto his face - it had been like this since he first suggested the idea and you had replied with utter excitement and positivity towards it. You nodded in response to his comment, before dropping your pens also and turning the paper around - showing a green smudge with a rough pen outline of the beloved avenger drawn pretty terribly. “Okay, so maybe I shouldn’t have suggested a difficult one. I kind of forgot I was drawing it too.” You laughed, before flipping over the page, resting the pad on your legs again and looking towards your boyfriend that was ready to show his creation after seeing your fairly bad attempt. Waiting for your attention, he turned his pad upwards so you had a clear view on his scribbles - it made you smile, and laugh a little bit, before complimenting a feature and asking him for another prompt.

Over the next twenty minutes, you had drawn awful creations on ten pages over your sketchpads and broken three pencils by throwing them at each other and snapping the lead accidentally. His best had been a penguin, whilst you had drawn a pretty impressive flower - however, it was only ‘good’ because it was the same one you had doodled since the beginning of school, and he pretended he hadn’t seen it hundreds of times in your notebook during class. Instead he smiled, complimented you greatly and placed down all the coloured pens he had used thus far - before glancing at the one marker neither of you had touched - red. He grinned, picking it up and speaking confidently. “Let’s draw me, I mean, Spider-Man, me as Spider-Man, or just Spider-Man, whichever you prefer.” He uttered, and threw the other red marker in your general direction, except when he looked back up, his gaze became trapped onto you.

He watched how your face lit up at the suggestion, ounces of pride and excitement rushing up your face as you quickly gripped the marker in your hand and began thinking about what you would soon draw on the paper. He watched how your hands were warm, blood rushing through them freely in the summer air that passed by the both of you. He watched how your hair rested on your shoulders gently, getting the occasional strand blown by the gentle breeze, and he watched how your eyebrows fumbled together as you tried to perfectly convey your thoughts onto paper - except this didn’t work out very often. And finally, he watched your smile; he watched the corners of your lips remain permanently curled, and watched the natural redness of them light up consistently. He watched how big it was, how happy you were in the moment, and it was more than enough to plaster a grin onto his face, before flipping over to a fresh page of his sketch pad and getting to work.

His idea was solid, and he was frantically sprawling it out onto the paper that lay before him. However - his heart was beating just as frantically. Nerves lit up in his veins; and his hands shook slightly as he drew with the red and black markers - he knew that he wanted to tell you something, but he was still so worried if you would feel the same; but he decided he had to tell you, he couldn’t hide it any longer. That didn’t help, though - the last two months of your relationship had been the physical interpretation of perfect. He had finally worked up the courage to invite you out after Ned wouldn’t stop nagging him about it; there was constant, “Come on man, grow balls!”, “She’s gonna move on, if you don’t hurry up,” and “Dude, you’re Spider-Man, act like it!,” and he had eventually given in and waited by your locker until you had come out of class on a Thursday afternoon.

“Oh, um, hey Y/N!” He smiled nervously, but happiness was beginning to emerge throughout his face. “Hi, Peter. What can I do for you?” You shyly responded - in slight disbelief that the biggest crush of your school experience was now standing by your metal locker. You tucked a loose strand of hair behind your ear, before looking up to give him your complete attention, encouraging him to continue with the reason he chose to come in the first place. “Well, uh, basically - I just wanted to know if, you, um, you maybe wanted to watch a film with me next week? Maybe we could get some food afterwards?” He suggested politely, but confidence grew as he continued to speak as he noticed your face brighten with each word that left his lips.

“I would love that, Peter.” You smiled widely, nodding your head a few times before looking back up to him. You watched Thor, Ragnarok that weekend, and while the film rolled, his hands somehow found his way into yours, intertwining gently as the movie continued to play.

Soon afterwards, you were spending most days together, many of them accompanied by Ned and MJ, but evenings were usually reserved for the company of just the two of you. There was a great friend-girlfriend balance, a big approval from Mary-Jane, acceptance of Peter’s secret (and a lot of excitement) and pure happiness between you - it was truly the physical interpretation of perfect, and he really, did not want to mess it up.

However, he chose to continue with the leap of faith - scribbling the eight words he desperately wished to reveal to you in the top left corner of his paper. After making final touches with his red marker, he dropped his tools and let out a sigh of relief, accompanied by a smile, as he looked at his drawing. As you glanced over, hearing the noise from his lips, you noticed his posture was completely different - instead, it was mirroring yours. His position was secretive, and you were unsure why, but you shrugged it off as perhaps he found the previous choice uncomfortable, and took a final glance at your paper before nodding towards him with a small smile on your lips. It was his turn to go first, and he was well aware of the fact, as he dropped his knees and looked at you with a large smile once he noticed your attention was captivated by him.

He slowly turned his sketch-pad around, gripping the sides tightly as he did, being very careful not to drop the creation onto the floor, where it could potentially be smudged. Your eyes dropped to the paper that he was showing, waiting for the full image to be revealed - your hands tucked into your lap as your fingers fumbled together - they quickly froze, though, once the doodle from your boyfriend was in full view of your gaze. A drawing of your beloved boyfriend in his suit grazed majority of the page, but the top corner was the most important to you, as the sentence, “I think I’m falling in love with you,” rested, sunken into the pad. Your breath hitched a little bit, your eyebrows raising slightly as your grin grew further, if that was even possible.

Your eyes jumped to his after you had fully taken in the image that lay before you; happiness beaming out of yours and matching a similar reaction in his. You placed your sketch-pad beside you, before pushing yourself up onto your knees and rushing over to the boy sat in-front of you, and pushing your lips to his with a fair bit of force. Your lips worked in motion with his, him kissing back with equal force and passion as his free hand moved to the back of your neck. You pulled back gently, looking at him innocently as your lips parted, a smile still plastered across both of your faces.

You took his sketch-pad from his hands slowly, gripping it gently with yours as you looked at it again, falling for the drawing just like you had fallen for him as words finally escaped your lips - Peter watching you consistently, waiting for a positive response from you.

“I think I’m falling in love with you, too.”

[frombeginingtoend]

RK900 - Drawn

Summary: A new detective joins the DPD and forms a bond with the resident sketch artist.

---

A pen stylus tapped against the surface of my desk. The rhythm matched the drum pattern of the music flowing through my headphones. Currently sat in an office chair, cross legged, I hunched over the desk I was graciously appointed a few years ago.

"What are you even doing here?" called the voice of Gavin Reed.

"My job," I grumbled in return.

"Apparently not 'cause, last time I checked, no one needs a sketch artist today. You don't need to be here every day. You shouldn't even have a desk here." He leaned back in his chair, booted feet resting against his desk. "Why don't you make yourself useful and run a few arends." Despite his voice harboring no anger, and, admittedly, being kind of right, it was still a dick thing to say.

"Do your own shit, Reed," my harshest voice defended. Then again, harsh wasn't really my thing. I rubbed at the ever present pain that resided in my temples. "And, last time I checked, I've helped you catch three rapists and a murderer." Before I could turn back to my unfinished sketch, I remembered an important notice. "Also... Fowler wanted to talk to you."

Gavin sighed. It was low and gravelly, filled with frustration. Letting his feet drop, his chair leveled out with a harsh jerk. His hands found their way to his jacket pockets while he trudged into the Captain's office.

Not long after he entered, shouting was heard from the glass box. The entire bullpen grew tense. The air was hot, like it wasn't the middle of January in Detroit, Michigan. Though the glass was thick enough to muffle the men's words, it was clear neither of them liked what the other was saying.

"That man is gonna give me an aneurysm one of these days," I breathed, pausing my music and removing the headphones.

While Gavin and Captain Fowler continued to scream at each other, the rest of the precinct relaxed. Papers shuffled, and computer mice clicked, and my pen stylus once again scrawled over the glass surface of my drawing tablet. A gentle series of footsteps behind me pulled my attention from the near-complete portrait. Today's model happened to be the android receptionist.

"Excuse me, I'm looking for Detectice Gavin Reed."

I looked to the sound to identify... not Connor, he looked like Connor, sounded like him, but... he didn't at the same time. His face seemed wider, and his eyes seared a beautiful cool-grey hue. His voice was also... deeper perhaps? Lower maybe. Less friendly and more authoritative.

"He's in the Captain's office," I mumbled. "Who... who are you?"

"I'm an RK900, an android sent by CyberLife to assist in investigations. Detective Reed is my partner." His hands stayed clasped behind his back. It was clear to see he was yet to deviate.

"Oh, that's not good."

Understanding -which presented itself as heat and tension- crept under my sternum when I looked at Gavin, who continued to argue with the police Captain. He was always so afraid of being replaced. Sure, he was an asshole, but I would still consider him a close colleague if not a friend. Closing my eyes, I collected myself. A deep breath later, I asked a the android a question.

"Do you have a name?"

His LED spun slowly.

"I have not been designated a name."

My eyebrows popped up in delight at the idea that soon sprung to mind.

"While we're waiting for your partner, let's try to find you a name."

"I don't see the point in assigning myself a name." His eyes narrowed, eyebrows pulled together in synthetic confusion.

"We'll need to call you something other than 'Android' or 'RK900' because, let's be honest, your model number is kind of a mouthful."

The monitor screen in front of us already displayed three tabs for baby naming sites. Upon little inspection, one was deemed unworthy and subsequently closed. Then, scrolling ensued.

Any name I decided could fit the android was spoken and defined. Only three were turned down before-

"How about Conan? It can mean wise or," I faded off to switch sites and check the meaning, "little wolf." I turned to face the tall man. His eyes cast to the floor. His LED flicked yellow, and for a brief second it blinked red before returning to a solid blue.

"I like that."

"Alright, RK900, register your name," I smiled brightly as his eyes focused forward.

"My name is Conan."

Gavin begrudgingly accepted his new partner, but it didn't come without it's problems. More than a few times, Gavin lashed out at the android, causing a scene and storming out. Each time, Conan, or Nine as I had started calling him, would sit at my desk to give me company.

My personal sketchbook and numerous digital files contained drawing after drawing of the android detective, accompanied by notes of what we had talked about that day.

Three weeks after our introduction, work dragged on longer than usual. I was assigned to a case of Hank and Connor's. The catch was that three different people saw who they believed to be the suspect. Each gave a different description.

All three looked like entirely different people.

That meant I had to bring them back in and try a different method, showing them pictures to pick between rather than going on their knowledge of adjectives.

One witness stayed through the entire process, where as two were too busy and simply selected all of their photos and told me to call them in another time with a sketch. It was never something I liked doing, but I understood they had their own lives to attend to. However, it was already ten thirty by the time I started on sketch two. That was half an hour ago. My shift started at seven in the morning. I had woken up at six that morning. Needless to say, I was grumpy, and my efficiency was dropping by the minute.

A familiar tap of footsteps approached my desk.

"(Y/n)? What are you still doing here?" I looked into Conan's eyes and nearly fell off my chair. They were so full of emotion.

"Conan? What happened?" A yawn caught me off guard. "Are you okay? Why are you still at the station?"

"Calm down." He set a hand on my shoulder. His voice was still stern, but... it was warm now. He smiled at me. There was no hesitation or awkwardness. A real, true, smile that crinkled his eyes. "You should take a break. You need rest."

"No, I-I need to finish these. Hank and Connor need-"

"It can wait," he assured. "Come on. I'll bring you home."

He drove my car back to my apartment. I don't know how he knew where my apartment was, but I was too tired to care.

He walked me to my door. As he was about to leave I grabbed his hand.

"Conan are you... did you deviate?"

He didn't respond.

"Conan?"

"Yes. I'm deviant." He seemed ashamed of himself.

"Hey," my free hand rested on his cheek. "What is it? You seem upset."

"I... I can't process everything that I'm feeling. It's so new to me."

"What made you deviate?"

He was quiet again. He shifted this time, something I'd never seen him do. "You," he whispered. His eyes were closed now.

My arms slid around his ribcage. Pulling him into a hug, my forehead rested on his shoulder.

"I care about you," I whispered into space between us. "We haven't known each other long, but I'd like to call you a friend."

"What if I want to be more than your friend?" questioned his soft, low voice.

"I could live with that. Why don't you spend the night here? We can drive together tomorrow."

He nodded.

As soon as I was tucked under the comforter, I fell asleep. I dreamt of a wolf with dark fur and grey eyes. He kept me safe. I don't know what he was protecting me from.

I woke to the smell of pancakes.

"Conan?" My muscles ached and mind was hazy, but I felt comforted by the knowledge that Conan was with me.

"I made you breakfast. Pancakes and a protein shake. Also, I called you in sick." He stood in the doorway with a gentle smirk on his face.

"You didn't have to ma- wait, you what?"

"I called you in sick. You have a mild cold. Your immune system likely lowered due to stress. You shouldn't be working."

"But I have a sketch I need to finish!"

"You don't need to worry about it. Come eat."

Slowly, slowly I pulled back the duvet. The air was colder than I was expecting, and I felt dizzy. Maybe Conan was right about the cold. Then again, when has he ever been wrong?

I slid on comfortable clothes more presentable than pajamas.

Conan placed a hand on my lower back and lead me to the kitchen table.

"I hope my cooking suffices." There were those soft eyes, warmer than their shade and deeper than his voice.

The first bite was suprising. "It does. You did really well. Thank you."

He made a short noise like he was going to say something, but didn't continue. A sullen silence followed.

"What's wrong, Nine?"

"I-" silence. "You make me... feel. You're so kind to me. You... thank me, and every time I see you I feel... happy." His head popped up to gain eye contact. "Why?"

"Why what?"

"I don't know. For the first time, I don't know. I'm feeling, and I don't understand what's going on." His gaze fell to the counter once again.

"Can I help you understand?" My hand traced across the countertop to grasp Conan's. His arm relaxed at the contact. He let my fingers wrap under his palm, thumb drifting over the skin above the metacarpals. "It's okay not to know," I mused. "That's how we learn."

"Can I... try something new? To get a better understanding." His eyes stayed focused on our joined hands.

"Of course."

Without unlocking our hands, he circled the kitchen island to stand next to me. I turned to face him, which placed him between my legs.

His free hand sat gently against the skin on my jaw. He drew nearer, rubbing his thumb over my flushed cheekbone. He moved closer still.

My heart hammered beneath my ribcage. It was in the moments before our lips touched that I realized how strong my attraction was to him.

The kiss was soft and gentle, but fumbling. Our hands now mimicked each other: one on the other's jaw, the other's clasped together.

He tasted of something familiar, something sweet. Maple syrup; That's what it was. It must have rubbed from my lips to his.

A soft snap sounded our separation.

"Perfect," Nine whispered. Our foreheads rested against each other. His jaw suddenly clenched and his LED flickered yellow. "I should get to work." His voice was soaked in regret.

We removed our bodies from one another nonetheless. The yearning for his heat was instantaneous.

"Be safe. Come back soon."

"Of course." He smirked, something I'm certain he picked up from Gavin. "Get some rest, darling." His lips pressed themselves to my temple before he turned to leave.

My lips still vibrated.

I needed to lay down.

[cnjrupasmle]

Reality Mimics Art

Pairing: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark

----

Steve's heart beat in double time as he stared at the computer screen in front of him. It couldn't be real. It must be some clever picture manipulation or something. He checked Tony's Facebook. There it was. He felt his whole face burn and ran his hands through his hair. This was bad. This was very bad. Staring back at him was a picture Tony posted on his Facebook with the caption of, "Does the internet ever stop? Credit goes to stonycoldsober from Tumblr."

The picture itself was a bigger issue, not because it was a sketch of Steve and Tony getting married, but because the artist was none other than Steve himself.

It seemed like the perfect idea at the time. Create an anonymous Tumblr, add a witty screen name (which would never be as funny to anyone else), and post his artwork for all to enjoy without them knowing his true identity. Of course, like most of Steve's ideas, it had sounded better before it backfired.

Tony was definitely not intended to be one of his audience members. Did he already know that Steve drew it? If not, it wouldn't take him long to find out. JARVIS may block outsiders from tracing the source of the fanart, but undoubtedly the AI would rat Steve out his boss.

Or maybe Tomy wouldn't pursue the matter. Maybe he'd never think any further of it. After all, it wasn't odd for him to post Iron Man fan art. Steve leaned back in his seat and blew out a breath, considering his options. If he wasn't already found out, the stealthiest thing to do would be to continue on as normal. Besides, he had 10,000 followers waiting on his Sunday update. It wouldn't be fair to them to disappear without a trace.

--

Steve's phone buzzed an alert. He picked it up absently from the couch next to him as he doodled on his tablet. The top of the line facial recognition software unlocked the screen as he brought the phone to his line of sight. It was a Facebook notification that Tony had made a post. Call him hopeless, but seeing what Tony was up to filled Steve with warmth.

But not today.

A sickening dread filled Steve as he saw his own artwork brought to the world's attention on Tony's Facebook page yet again. "Really, guys?? Credit goes to stonycoldsober from Tumblr (again)." Tony had captioned this one. Is was a color pencil drawing of Iron Man with arms wrapped around a beaming Captain America as they flew through the air a breakneck speeds. They had never done it in real life, at least nothing more intimate than a desperate grab and dump to keep Steve from breaking his neck as he fell/leapt from unreasonable heights, but Steve imagined that flying with Tony would be incredible. He did not, however, feel that way at the moment.

Steve obviously had to surmise several things at this point.

1. He was never going to experience a "hug and fly" with Tony.

2. Tony wasn't interested in Steve as anything more than a friend.

3. Either Tony or someone from his PR department was either: a. Following Steve on Tumblr (likely unknowingly) or b. Following/searching one of the tags Steve frequently used.

The thought of Tony being on Tumblr was terrifying. His fans were ravenous. Not to mention that meant that Tony had seen an inordinate amount of porn written and drawn to feature Tony as Iron Man. Steve's art included.

--

By the time the third post happened, Steve wasn't even surprised. It was early enough in the morning that some people, such as Tony, might still consider it the night before. Steve was up and cooling down after his workout. His phone buzzed and he held his breath when he saw the notification.

"Is this how you people think I spend my Saturday mornings? Credit (and points to creativity) goes to stonycoldsober from Tumblr." Below the caption was one of the pieces Steve was most proud of. He had worked on it for weeks. It was him and Tony in the kitchen of Stark Tower, both looking sleep rumpled and holding cups off coffee as they shared a domestic kiss.

It was incredibly intimate. It was also incredibly revealing. Steve was sure that Tony hadn't missed the details: the correct oriention of the kitchen, the view from the kitchen looking out over Manhattan, Clint's ridiculous Hawkeye cereal that tastes like cavities but Clint insists on eating every morning.

Steve sat on the gym floor for a moment more. He knew that it was time to face the music, but who could blame him for trying to delay heartbreak for just a little longer?

Somehow, he knew that he was going to find Tony in the kitchen. The handsome, dark haired man was sitting at the breakfast table, flipping through his phone when Steve walked in. "How long did you know?" Steve should have started with an apology or an excuse, but somehow he never seemed to greet misery any other way than head on.

Tony, dressed in one of his business suits, stood and met Steve half way, carrying his phone and his coffee with him. "Well, admittedly not as long as I should have," Tony shrugged. "I think I was in denial, but I couldn't come up with any other logical explanation once I saw the breakfast kiss post. So, sometime last week?"

Steve just nodded slowly. He wanted to apologize or ask for a chance, but his mouth wouldn't form the words. They stuck somewhere in the back of his throat and refused to budge. He swallowed several times before he could work his tongue loose. "I'll delete the account. I can also give you all the space you need. If you feel harassed, I'm sure that you can file a report though Agent Coulson-"

"Woah, woah woah!" Tony interrupted. "We're talking about your secret Stony ship blog, right? The one that I've been following for months? You do know that I'm the user godblessassmerica, don't you?"

Steve knew the name. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You? You... Post content about us all the time."

"I do," Tony agreed easily. "In fact, I would very much like for none of it to be fiction anymore. I was kind of getting the vibe that maybe you didn't either." Tony took several steps closer. Steve's heart sped up and he cleared his throat.

"I might have a few thoughts on how that might go," Steve offered

"Me to," Tony said with a smile. "I guess I've been inspired."

With that he closed the distance.

[freezingwintah]

Beer and Chocolate

Chapter 1: Different, but in a good way 

It has been a few rough weeks. College was kicking his butt, assignments made it impossible to hang out with his friends. Instead, he buried himself in work, work and even more work.

His only time of solace was when he visited a café not far from his shitty apartment. They made incredible coffee there, not to mention all waitresses (and waiters) were eye candy. Especially one guy stood out. He had bleached fluffy wavy hair to his shoulders, he wore fashionable clothes, his shoes were stylish and trendy, not the regular employees shoes his colleagues wore. And for some reason, he was painting his nails, also let’s not forget the amount of rings he wore. It was a wonder to Smitty how the man used his hands with such elegance and grace.

In words of his nosey friend Craig, he was ‘smitten’ by that man and it wasn’t simple quiet artist’s appreciation, but something more. Smitty wasn’t sure he liked what Craig was implying. That guy just stood out so much. He was different, but in a good way, like he didn’t give a shit about what other people might think of him. In a sense, he was what Smitty wished to be one day – able to express himself without caring what others might say about it.

Smitty wanted to talk to him; he would lie if he told himself he didn’t have hidden ulterior motives, but he had the urge to draw him whenever he saw him, just walking around the café or delivering the orders to customers. He knew his name. John. So simple, he liked it. Smitty saw his name tag when they first met approximately three months ago. It was shameful to admit, but in that moment when their eyes met – greenish blue stared into chocolate brown; he felt a deep connection. Everything on John stood out, even that beauty mark above his lip.

After first month of silently ogling John from distance, on one stormy afternoon after classes he brought out his sharpie and notebook and began sketching him. Smitty made sure no one from staff (and especially not John) saw him and after several such ‘secret drawing sessions’ he got five sketches properly redrawn on a tablet and shaded. He did them between classes and when he was sleepy, but couldn’t sleep due to insomnia. Drawing John was a challenge he welcomed with an open mind, since he never really drew men before in art or design classes.

More than ever, he wanted to just sit and talk with John, about anything really. He was his inspiration (his muse even) and he looked forward to going to that café every Thursday, knowing John will be there, with that stoic, strangely professional expression.

On a windy Wednesday on his day off, Smitty wandered into the café, taking a look behind the counter. The man was there, currently as cashier. Becoming self conscious when he felt those eyes upon him, he picked a vacant booth and sat down. He wasn’t supposed to be here, he had shifts mostly on Thursdays and Saturdays. The fact he knew when John was working and when he wasn’t made it out to be like he was quite a stalker, but in truth he passed by the café every day and simply stared across the glass to the interior.

Seeing as he was already there, he could order a nice cup of coffee or perhaps latte to warm him up. He glanced over at the counter, where John was making a conversation with another guy, his only features standing out were those baby blue eyes and slight scruffy beard. From what he gathered, he and John were close friends, not just co-workers. Their casual banter was out -shadowed by the jazzy bass drop, drowning out their last words, but Smitty saw the look and head gesture directed at him. He quickly looked at his phone, pretending he was busy.

Long steps shortened the distance and with peripheral vision, he saw the man with baby blue eyes standing next to him, bearing somewhat of a cheeky smile. Smitty noticed his name tag. Scotty, huh. “Hello and good afternoon. What can I get you?”

Before Scotty could give him the overhaul of their drinks, Smitty who had it memorized spat out his order without thinking. “A latte please.”

“Alright. It’ll be done in a jiffy.” He said, walking away. Relieved that it wasn’t John who came up to him, he let out a sigh. He wanted to talk with him, but at the same time he didn’t want to ruin it. Behind their waiter/customer relation they had nothing. If John knew he used him as his model for drawing, he’d be most likely be disgusted. And he wouldn’t be able to visit this café any longer. But then again, they never talked.

His train of thought was interrupted by soles tapping on the floor near him. Thinking it was Scotty who brought him the latte, he looked up with a faint smile, that froze in a semi – worried frown. John raised a brow at him. “Your latte, sir.” He set it down, all the time his greenish blue eyes were darted on him. Smitty shifted on the cushioned seat under John’s gaze.

After setting down his cup, he didn’t go back. John glimpsed at the counter where Scotty winked and pretended to polish some glasses. John knew he was spying on him, that ‘polish & shine’ move won’t fool him. Diverting his attention back to the man sitting in front of him. He looked awfully stressed out, to some extent also... hopeful? That spark of hope in those brown eyes as he silently waited was alluring. “Can I see them?”

“S-See what?” He stuttered, thinking that maybe his drawing technique wasn’t so sneaky at all. “I mean the drawings. I know you were drawing me. You weren’t exactly subtle dude.”

Now for sure he was sweating, being caught wasn’t on his To Do List today. His eyes dropped onto his lap. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that.”

“Let’s not dwell on that, okay? I just wanna see those pictures before Scotty gets yelled at by the manager for stalling. So, do you have them with you?” John asked again and Smitty nodded, his hands went inside his bag, where he fished for his graphic tablet. He pulled up the pictures and an unfamiliar heat pooled into his face. It definitely didn’t have anything to do with the way how close they were, head to head as John silently evaluated his works.

After gruesome twenty or so seconds (but it seemed so much longer to him), John chuckled. “Your style is flattering, I like how everything is so pastel. Also...,” he paused, turning head directly to his Smitty’s ear. “I absolutely like bold and cute guys like you. Do you want to go on a date? I’m free this Friday.”

John said he was bold, but he just asked him on a date, didn’t he? Smitty stashed away his tablet and drank some of the delicious latte to calm his nerves. Meanwhile, John waited for a reply, seemingly collected and calm on the outside, but he was itching for a positive reply. He found him interesting, just like he was interesting enough to be drawn.

He downed half the cup in two gulps and set it back down on the table. “I’m free on that day, too. By the way, my name’s Smitty.” He acted it out cool, like he wasn’t emotionally overwhelmed by the moment. “And my name is John, but you already knew that.”

Smitty might have fooled a lesser man, but John was anything but ordinary. He widely grinned, showing off his smile. “Alright, then it’s a date. Now gimme quickly your phone, Scotty is reliable, but I have to go back to work.”

Oh. John can’t stay and chat. He handed him his phone and the man simply typed in his phone number and saved it under name John ;)

With one last wink, he strut back to the counter, back to preparing beverages, leaving rather flustered Smitty behind.

He still couldn’t believe this was happening. A date with John. He had a date. The imminent truth of it began to seep in. From the corner of eye he caught a glimpse of John’s bleached mane floating in air as he served other customers.

Maybe he shouldn’t linger. Smitty realized his presence in café might mess up John’s concentration. He chugged down the remnants of his latte and paid the bill (this time a middle aged woman came up to his table) and he stood up, gathering his things.

Before he left they shared a look and he left the café, the bell above chimed and he was outside on the street. Like in a haze, he walked back to his shitty apartment.

                                                  ~♦~

When he got back, he went immediately to studying, leaving his phone to charge. Sometime around 10 pm he got a text. He suspected it to be from a teacher or classmate. Smitty’s eyes hovered above the name. He must be tired, why is he messaging at this late hour?

John ;) – ‘sup babe, I’m tired and about to expire. Idk where I’m going with this message, I just hope my direct approach didn’t scare you off. I’m not one to dance around the fire. You like me, I like you so why not give it – give us a chance.

Smitty – Damb. I’m at loss of words. I can’t say I dislike direct people like you. Saves us both time if one party is assertive. I’m glad you asked me out on a date. I hope to learn more about you.

John ;) –  And I’m glad you agreed. Fuck I’m so tired I can barely keep my eyes open. Sorry to cut this short.

Smitty – It’s alright. We can talk more tomorrow, rest up. Also John?

John ;) – Yeah?

Smitty – Goodnight ♥

John ;) – omg so gay, jk xD nighty night Smitty <3

With a chuckle, he locked his phone screen and placed it on the bedside table, laying down. Splayed on the bed, he stared at the ceiling, smiling to himself.

He was looking forward to this Friday.

Chapter 2:  If you’ll have me

Telling Craig was a bad idea. His friend nearly spat all of the soda he was drinking on Smitty’s face. He missed the fruity water fountain sprout by ducking.

Lucky they weren’t inside, but out in the open. It was after classes.

“What the fuck, Smit. You’ve been swooning and day dreaming for three months and he just waltzes up to you and asks you on a date. Am I getting this right?”

He sighed, internally wishing this topic was over and done with. “You heard me, you cucklord. I’m still in awe because of tomorrow. I’ve got a date. That’s a first in... a while. God, I’m beginning to get anxious just thinking about tomorrow.”

Craig rolled eyes. “Boo – hoo. Poor you going on a date with a hot guy that you’ve been ogling. Chin up, it’ll be alright.”

“Easy for you to say. You’re the school fuckboy, you have no problems with relationships. I on the other hand...”

His friend patted him a few times, winking. “Well, if that’s what’s troubling you, let me help you. As the infamous school playboy, I can relay my wisdom and pass it on.” He said ceremonially to which Smitty grunted, but didn’t turn down the offer. At this point he’d take any tips. For a reason unknown to him, Smitty really wanted this thing with John to work out.

Seeing as he didn’t outright decline, Craig smirked and threw away the empty can in the trash bin, then threw his arm around Smitty’s shoulder, dragging him away. “Well then, let’s get started.”

In that moment as he was being abducted to his own apartment, he realized how much he cared about John. And how crazy it all was.

                                                 ~♦~

“I don’t know. This hoodie is so plain.” Smitty commented, standing before mirror in his room. Craig’s voice boomed from the phone on his nightstand, he had him on speaker. “Did you really call me for that? I am about to fu--- have a dinner with that upperclassman Tyler.”

Caught up by in his own little world, he missed on the hint his friend dropped, too occupied with spinning and doing poses. “Hm... yeah... Craig I need your opinion. The plain grey hoodie together with the skinny ass black pants or dark navy skinny tight pants with pink, flashy hoodie?”

“Seriously, go for the flashy pink gay hoodie and black pants. Trust me on this. Also, don’t drink too much, it’s better to remember furious makeout on the couch than to wake up the next day naked with a hangover. Speaking from personal experience.”

“I swear to god, if you tell me to ---“ Smitty got cut off, his cheeky friend couldn’t resist poking fun at him. “Don’t forget to use a condom! Practice safe sex!”

He rolled eyes, his mirror reflection expressed how absurd it was. Getting sex advice from a well known playboy. “Yes, mom.”

Craig chuckled, albeit his voice sounded strained as if he was holding back from laughing. “If that’s how you perceive me as, then I await you home by midnight, young man. And your date better be a gentleman. Now if you'll excuse me, I got something to do.” He chuckled some more on the side, while Smitty quickly changed clothes, as per suggestion he donned the pink and black. It was a good combination, it also brought out some other assets.

Satisfied with his attire after gruesome twelve minutes of matching up different outfits, he smiled to himself. Oddly enough, suspicious small moans filled the room and he had to double check his TV and computer screens if he didn’t leave them on. His only logical conclusion was the sounds came from his phone.

...He didn’t need to know this about his friend, who supposedly hung up, but didn’t. But first, he’ll teach him a lesson for teasing him so much. “Hello there, mysterious upperclassman Tyler! Be sure to practice safe sex! Byee!”  Before he hung up, he heard exasperated gasps, ‘oh shit, I left it on!’ and ‘fuck!’.

Alright, that’s that. Now onto the matter at hand... He dialled up John’s number for the first time, sitting down on his bed to calm his anxiety. He picked up soon, as if he was waiting for a call. “Hey, good thing you called. I was worried you changed your mind.”

“And miss on a date with such a handsome man?” John softly chuckled.

“If your aim is to flatter me all day, then please by all means, continue. Anyhow, I am not one for traditional dates in some fancy restaurant, you’ll be crashing by my place if that’s okay with you.”

Smitty knew John could be forward, but they skipped date one all the way to date four, where they hang out at home. This was risky. Too dumbstruck to reply, he stayed quiet revaluating his next words. “Smit? Did I go overboard, I know it’s our first date and –“

“No, no. John, it’s a wonderful idea. We’re hardly conventional. I’d like to come over to your place. If you’ll have me.” He didn’t want to make it sound too eager ( like a desperate teenage girl for instance who just wanted to get laid), meanwhile from the other side he heard barely audible little cute snicker. “We can meet up by the café. I don’t live so far away, it’s within walking distance of twenty minutes. Are you ready? No need to dress up fancily for my sake dude, but I won’t lie; you’re good on eyes Smitty.”

“I’m supposed to be flattering you John, you’re undermining my scheme to make you flustered.”

“Aw, my bad.”

His lips curled up in a smile. “Are you heading out?” Distant doors closing made Smitty stand up and head towards the front entrance, where he left his keys and wallet. “Yep, I’m en route. See you there.”

“Can’t wait.” He replied with mirth and John hung up. The Canadian jovially put on shoes and left his apartment, locking it up. Smitty took a deep breath. “You can do this, it’s just a date.” He psyched himself up, bravely walking forward.

                                                    ~♦~

John was already there, skulking in front of the café he worked at, casually strolling back and forth, checking his phone every two minutes. He was a bit antsy. It’s been some time from the last time he went out with someone.

In a way, his work fulfilled him. Until a few months back, when he noticed a cute guy staring at him, even went ahead to draw him. Gradually, the guy came in almost every day, looking like he wanted to say something to him badly, but just couldn’t. Of course, his colleagues caught on. Scotty was the first and teased him about the ‘cute guy who comes to see him’ and how they totally would make a good looking couple.

He gave it some thought. Maybe he should try going out with him. One bad experience can’t deter him from trying dating again. He asked Scotty for little help (his friend wore that smug, knowing grin as he agreed to step in and set his bro up) and now, here they were. About to meet up and have their first date.

John pulled out his phone for the twelfth time, when he saw Smitty ran up to him. He stopped to catch his breath and then he grinned. “Running late is my specialty, I hope you didn’t have to wait long.”

“I’m usually the one arriving late, it’s refreshing to see someone else be late for a change. But I digress, you’re here. Ready to head out?”

“I was born ready.” Smitty replied, while John turned and waited for him so they could walk side by side. They passed by crowds of people, but neither paid attention to the stream of faces around them.

They walked past two streets and finally reached the resident area of tall buildings. The younger man eyed the complex before them as John strut towards the stairs. “We’re here. My apartment is on the far left side, over there.” He pointed and Smitty’s mind only came up with ‘nice place’ as he walked up behind John who was pulling out his keys.

He stiffly walked after John, trying to clear his head of dirty thoughts. No, he wouldn’t. As straightforward as John was towards him, he didn’t seem the type to have sex so soon. Not to mention Smitty wasn’t mentally prepared for that yet.

Becoming aware of their impending closeness, Smitty saw John turn the key and opened the door for him. He traipsed in, his heart was caught up somewhere in his throat. Standing at the entrance mat, he quickly took off his shoes, waiting on John.

“We can go to living room if you’d like.” John propositioned, taking off his shoes. Stiffly, Smitty’s body moved on its own, he shuffled to the living room, his eyes taking in everything. The shelves full of games and DVD’s that lined up against the end of one wall, the couch placed in the center of room, alongside with a decent sized TV. He even spotted some old school consoles.

“Alright...”  John said, standing beside him all of sudden. His heart picked the pace considerably, feeling the blood rush to his face.

This was a bit too soon, he wasn’t ready for anything beyond a kiss... and it was just them in one room. Unknowing of the thoughts racing through Smitty’s mind, John approached him and the younger man instinctively took a few steps back, now blushing furiously, ducking from his reach.

A bit confused, John looked down at him, pressing the light switch. “What? Is something on my face?”

Snapping his head, the Canadian gaped at the hand still on the light switch. “Oh...”

John knelt down, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Why are you so nervous?”

Smitty put a hand up in his hair and laughed anxiously to hide his transparent embarrassment. “This is your first time, isn’t it?”

Flabbergasted by the words that left John’s lips, he was rendered speechless. “Don’t worry! I’ll lead. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.”

Flushed and still very much flustered, he just gaped at John like a gold fish. His other hand was slowly reaching, and he himself was coming closer, closer, closer... Smitty’s eyes were fixed on his lips. He closed his eyes, ready to surrender to whatever John wanted.

But then John made him stand up again. He walked to the couch and turned on the TV, along with an old Playstation One console.

Smitty was none wiser what just transpired, approaching the couch. John plopped down, palpating a spot next to him.

Oh. So he meant to play an old school game together...

“You meant gaming...”

“Huh, yeah what else? We talked yesterday about games, figured you’d enjoy playing something together. Was it a bad idea?”

The Canadian shook head, a huge smile crept on his face. “Quite the opposite.”

“Good, now sit down and join me. First up we’ll play good ‘ol Gran Turismo, then Crash Team Racing and then maybe Tekken 3.”

Smitty shook off the embarrassment and sat down, taking the second controller.

The game booted up and their long gaming session began.

                                                     ~♦~

Spent after playing for over four hours, they only stopped because they were getting hungry. John ordered some pizza for them and while they waited, he brought out beer from the fridge.

Smitty was somewhat relaxed now, but still he couldn’t shake off the previous awkward moment from his mind. He stood up and paced along the carpet, stretching his legs.

From the kitchen John’s voice called out to him. “Smit, you want some chocolate? Scotty gave me some expensive brand, said he's got lots more. He got it from a... very close friend.”

Frowning, Smitty glanced at the beers on the coffee table. Beer and chocolate? That’s a rather odd combination.

Now that he thought about it more, the beer and chocolate were like them. An odd combination.

“Sure, why not.”

John came back, sat down ridiculously close to him as Smitty held back from scooting a bit away. No need to be shy around John, he’ll be his boyfriend soon. Or maybe is already. This inner chitchat was hurting his brain, so he stopped fretting and tried to appear relaxed.

He got a huge chunk of dark chocolate from the blond. “Thanks.” Smitty said.

The older man tentatively bit into the chocolate and then took a sip from the beer bottle. His face immediately scrunched up in a semi – disgusted grimace.

“Oh my god, this wasn’t probably a good idea. Don’t try what I just did.”

But he already biting into the chocolate, appreciating the taste on his tongue as he bathed his taste buds in beer. It was... an experience to say the least. “Oh my god.” He gasped, putting down the beer bottle. John followed suit shortly after, but his gaze lingered on the bottles, pondering.

Smitty felt the mood shift considerably. “Sweet and bitter.” He murmured, locking gaze with the Canadian. “I haven’t dated since I started my job. It’s not the lack of time, but I had no interest to invest time into a person. There was simply no one of substance... until you. This will sound so fucking cheesy, but you’re the chocolate to my beer.”

He couldn’t stop it, he laughed out loud, eventually tears came out at some point. Smitty smacked his knees, wiping the tears away. John waited until he stopped laughing, a bit red in the face. “Oh, I don’t know if you’ll laugh after this...” His voice trailed off as he slanted, placing both his hands on his waist.

Smitty was mesmerized, he was waiting for this...

His own hands snaked on John’s back, wrapping around him. Their lips touched, the bitterness was drowned out in the sweetness.

It was nothing like they ever experienced. Smitty withdrew as first, his cheeks were positively burning up from blushing so madly. “That was...hot.”

John’s fingers ruffled his hair, which brought new sensations to him as his stomach did flips. “I knew if I kept on searching, I’d find you. My sweet half.”

Smitty cackled. “This is too gay even for me, just say you love me and kiss me some more.”

John’s smirk could rival that of Cheshire Cat. The blond held his hands, looking him in the eyes. “I love you, Smitty.”

“Damb, I love you, too John.”

Both men laughed, as John was pushed down and Smitty kissed him.

Suffice to say, the pizza delivery guy had his fill for today after he saw John and Smitty looking as if they battled a long, merciless war against each other. Which they did and they called it a tie.

[lrthedirectorscut]

Title Sequence/After Effects Research

We were tasked to plan and create an unofficial title sequence in After Effects. I started theorising base concepts of what any film title sequence should have and what I should use.

The ideas I’d noted down were to have text with opening credits and to eventually reveal the film’s logo, using a fitting font for all of it, and to use silhouette imagery of the characters to avoid copyright infringement too.

I then assembled a list of information I could use, including the “starring” cast of characters, director and producer, musicians, and the production companies, the latter of which I think ends up getting forgotten by a lot of people.

A resource we were given for research was Artofthetitle (artofthetitle.com)

We were shown a selection of film title sequences for inspiration and I noted them down for inspiration, writing details about them that I’d thought was interesting or particularly noteworthy.

I very much loved the cleverness of American Psycho’s intro, with blood visuals on a white background to set the tone for horror with chilling, and then transitioning into food imagery to settle it into the following restaurant scene.

The Star Wars opening sequence is, of course, iconic, but I did note the interesting fact of which only George Lucas was mentioned in it, none of the cast were shown in the opening credits, only the information about backstory explaining the plot was shown and deemed more important.

The intro to Catch Me If You Can was extremely clever and inspiring, it was entirely animated and elements of the text shown on-screen were used to take the audience through the story before the film had even started, and many elements were synced up to the intriguing music in the background.

Shaun of the Dead title sequence

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnZGdC-vTCo

This title sequence is one that I think is very clever. The opening shots seem to be all unified with the camera scrolling to the right consistently in all of them, with slide transitions used and an element of text on every “slide”, exposing the zombies in the world for three slides before the film’s title appears, tracked to the bottom of the screen as if it is on the floor, all while jolly music plays in the background.

I think this is a very clever sequence and very concise/to the point. It is entirely live-action but it provides exposition to the film’s setting and tone with the visuals, as well as telling the audience that it is a comedy more than a horror, with its semi-upbeat background music. But at the same time, it makes it clear of the contents of the film by showing zombies to its target audience from the beginning.

The Fifth Element title sequence

https://youtu.be/hXfoUGhKx0c

I can’t seem to find a proper title sequence for this film, but the opening of it sets a dark, strongly sci-fi tone, establishing large alien robots, other-worldly weaponry and spacecraft, which makes a good exposition to the audience for a film like this, setting the tone as said. It shows clear sci-fi traits front and centre for its sci-fi oriented target audience.

Fight Club title sequence

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XSqI-iw8sI

The opening sequence of Fight Club is entirely VFX and no live action. It is acclaimed as an excellent opening and it pictures simulated imagery of the narrator’s brain at microscopic level, representing its neural network. The film’s information zooms into the screen in a light blue font of the film’s logo on the poster.

I think the design of this is seriously cool and holds up today, and the dark drone-y music sets the edgy tone of the film, as well as its title. I truly think it’s amazing how well a sequence of text and visuals can preview a film without showing anything actually in it. It appeals to its target audience by seeming dark and damp rather than bright and flashy like something for children.

Here, I examined DaFont for an alternative font to Impact, which in my opinion is an excellent font for film, but is rather overused in its original form. So, I instead found two variant edits that looked similar but were different enough and suited the feel of a horror comedy to me.

I assembled assets for my video, particularly looking for music to use. I signed into my YouTube account to browse the YouTube music site for creators, as it is all royalty-free and therefore suited to this project, and it turns out that there are hundreds of pretty good songs on there for various projects. I eventually landed on “Everywhere You Know” and deemed it ideal for my opening sequence, so I downloaded it.

I drew up the first draft of the storyboard, the concept in my head. I used a drawing tablet and Photoshop to conjure this concept.

Second and final draft of the storyboard, what I added and what I adapted from the first draft.

I used Illustrator to generate assets for the video, outlining the poster photographs of the main characters Shaun and Ed.

I gathered the above royalty-free stock images for use in an After Effects project. I wanted to capture the setting of Shaun of the Dead as best as I could, so I found photographs and footage of north London suburbs.

Learning Adobe After Effects

Creating the composition involved hitting the “New Composition” button, adjusting it to 1080p 24fps, and giving it a white background on the following screen.

Upon using Import>Multiple Files, I opened the folder in which the files were saved and imported two of my images.

I introduced new layers into the timeline, including instances of the images I was using for later, as well as multiple layers of text and a white square. I rearranged the orders so that they would follow each other in order.

And, using the transform tools, I experimented with and (with keyframes) automated the scale, position, rotation, and opacity. Not all of the effects were used on each layer, but I’d used all of these tools by the end of my experiment.

Using Window>Effects & Presets to open the following section on the window, I found the following 3D text animation effects. I ended up trialling “Z Cascade” and dragged it onto the text layer I had

The effect did the following with the word, cascading each letter down from the end until the beginning, I then found the animate effect in the timeline and I have indeed learnt how to apply text effect animations at will.

[petehparker]

Last Night

Prompt: can you do one where the reader is Tony's daughter but he doesn't know the reader and peter are together and he tries to set he reader up with a close friend or whatever and Peter gets jealous ??

Word Count: 1,793

A/N: Written by Claire xx

Your name: submit What is this?

 You wake up with your neck aching and your hand resting on something soft and warm. As your eyes slowly open and register your surroundings, you find yourself looking at the piles of books that you and Peter had abandoned during the night. Speaking of Peter, you were half tucked into his side, his slow breathing dusting the side of your neck.

You smiled softly, sitting up to move the books off of your bed and snuggle deeper into Peter, wrapping your arms around him and surrounding yourself with his warm scent.

The alarm comes on what feels like seconds later, jolting the two of you awake. Peter groans, rubbing his eyes. You’re already sitting up again, slamming your hand on the alarm to stop the obnoxious beeping as your heart rate begins to return to normal.

“What time is it?” He moaned, halfway through a yawn.

“Um,” you checked the clock. “6:30. You better get out of here before my dad gets up.”

Peter curses, beginning to gather his books from the floor and running a hand through his sleep-mussed hair. You took a moment to appreciate him; the rising sun through the window painted him multiple shades of gold and his messy hair waved over his forehead. His voice was low with sleep, and you couldn’t help but smile at the way he looked at you.

“I really didn’t mean to crash here last night, sorry Y/N.” You were already rolling his comments off.

“Oh, please, you know I never mind.” You grinned at him, leaning forward and kissing him on the cheek.

Your smile was reciprocated on his face. “What time did we even fall asleep last night?”

You began tying your hair up, thinking back to the previous night. The last thing you remembered was leaning against the palm of your hand as your eyes began to shut with exhaustion, Peter’s fingers absentmindedly twisting a strand of your hair, listening to the gentle sound of his voice as he talked you through the equation again. “I have no idea.”

The sound of a door shutting heightened awareness in both of you as you exchanged wide-eyed looks. “I really gotta get out of here.” Peter finished cramming the last of his things into his backpack, pressing a kiss to your forehead before turning to leave. You grabbed his wrist before he could leave, pulling him in for a sweet kiss before pressing your forehead to his.

“I had a nice time last night, Parker.”

“I’ll see you at school, Y/N. But now I really have to go, you know I don’t want to but if Tony Stark catches me in his daughter’s bedroom this early in the morning, we’ll have some problems.”

You laughed, pushing his chest away. “I’ll see you later, Spiderman.”

The last thing you saw before Peter’s head disappeared behind your door was his blinding smile, dimples and all, before he was gone.

By the time you came into the kitchen, coffee was already waiting for you on the counter. Your father was seated, scrolling through the news on his tablet. “Late morning, Y/N?” He didn’t even have to look up.

You grimaced. “Yeah, big science test today. I stayed up to study.” You sipped your coffee, reaching to grab cereal from the cabinet.

“You didn’t forget about tonight, did you?” You freeze, looking questioningly at him.

“Tonight?”

“The Thompson’s are coming over tonight, we have to talk business but they have a son for you to entertain.”

You made a face. “Entertain?”

Your father shrugged at you, his familiar boyish smile tugging at his lips. “One way or another, he needs to be distracted. I’ve heard he grew into quite a handsome young man, who knows what could happen?”

“Dad...” You groan, nudging his shoulder with yours. Ever since you had asked him to not be opposed to the idea of you dating, he had done a complete 180 and insisted on “looking out” for you everywhere he could, doing everything short of designing your dating profile.

If only he knew that you were dating possibly the only boy that he wouldn’t want you to date.

***

The dinner was going fine, if not achingly slowly. Harry, the son that was supposedly your age, turned out to be a year older. He was actually quite good-looking, with strong features, and might even have been your type if he hadn’t had all the personality of wet cardboard. He didn’t seem to really want to discuss anything with you other than his mission trip to Haiti and his future in his father’s business, but he smiled along nicely enough to hear your own ideas on what you wanted to do after school.

After dinner, Tony took Harry’s parents into his study for “adult mumbo jumbo”, as he so fondly referred to it, leaving you and Harry in the living room alone. You wanted desperately to take off the unfortunate heels you had chosen for the occasion, but Harry’s stiff gaze didn’t quite make you feel comfortable enough to do so.

“Do you want to watch a movie?” You suggested, your cheeks almost hurting from the smile you had glossed over it. You were desperate to avoid struggling through more discussion.

“Yes, I would love that. Do you have any documentaries you would like to watch?”

You half thought he was joking, but his choice of a political documentary about George W. Bush’s presidency proved you wrong. You weren’t sure if it was your late night with Peter catching up to you, or just the nature of your ever-so-boring company, but you felt yourself becoming more and more exhausted.

When the doorbell rang, you were more than excited to answer. “I’ll get it!” You announced, although Harry hardly glanced at you and you weren’t entirely sure who else would answer it. You checked the monitor on your way to the door and were surprised to find your boyfriend on the screen.

You swung the door open excitedly, already feeling your mood brighten at the thought of even a few minutes in Peter’s company.

“Hey! What are you doing here?” You felt frenzied, almost too excited to have an excuse to leave Harry.

“Oh, uh, I was just testing these for your dad and he said I could drop them off today, I just got off work.” Peter held up a bag, presumably of new tech for his suit. “What’s the occasion?” His eyes roamed over your makeup, stronger than it had been at school, and the dress and heels you were wearing.

“Are those my gifts I hear?” Your dad’s voice rang from behind you. “Ah, yes, Mr. Parker, I believe you have something that belongs to me.”

You stepped aside so Peter could come in, finding yourself facing the Thompsons and Harry as well. Peter set the bag down, surveying the scene before him.

“Right! How rude of me. Angela, Brian, this is Peter Parker, one of my scientists in training.” Tony addressed Harry’s parents, although you’d never heard him introduce Peter like that. “Peter, this is the Thompson family.”

Harry stepped forward, his posture admirably straight. “I’m Harry Thompson, please to meet you.” His hand gripped Peter’s so intensely that you cringed from your position. “I take it you and Y/N are friends as well.”

Everyone’s eyes went to you, and you felt an involuntary blush warming your cheeks.

“Yes, Y/N and Peter are good friends from school.” Tony’s smile brightened just a bit. “You know, Harry, I’m sure Y/N wouldn’t mind making other close friends, if you’re interested.”

Harry nodded. “Noted, sir.” You made immediate eye contact with Peter, trying your best to express how little you wanted Harry to be your “friend”. He was chewing the inside of his cheek, staring at the ground like he was trying not to draw attention to the sting of being called just your friend. You felt it too.

It didn’t take long for your father to use his social prowess to escort the entire group out at the night drew to a close. By the time the door shut, his entire face shifted.

“Dear lord, could those people be any drier?”

Had he made that comment any earlier in the evening, you would’ve laughed in relief and agreed heartily, but all you could think of was getting to Peter and explaining.

“Yeah, although I just remembered that a friend borrowed my notes and I really need them back before tomorrow, I’m just going to go grab them okay? Thanks, Dad.” You spoke so quickly that you weren’t even sure he knew what you said, but he waved you off.

“Oh, and Y/N?” You stopped just short of the door, turning to face him. “I’m one of the world’s most famous geniuses. Give me a little credit with the excuses, okay? Just don’t come back really late from wherever you’re actually going.”

You smiled at him. “I won’t.”

***

The drive to Peter’s seemed to be much faster than you remembered, but soon enough you found yourself standing on his stoop, your knuckles rapping on the door. He answered in his pajamas, clearly confused to find you there.

“Y/N? What are you doing here?”

“Peter, let me explain, I-”

“Oh yes, please do explain to me how I seemed to have interrupted quite the little date between you and some other guy tonight. I’d love to hear it.” You winced at the hurt in his voice. “Look, Y/N, what’s th-”

You couldn’t take it anymore. You surged forward, your hands seizing around his shoulders and pulling him in for a strong kiss. His hands tightened on your waist, and you almost began to lose yourself before reminding yourself what you had to say.

You broke it off, looking straight into Peter’s eyes. “Tonight was one of the most boring nights of my entire life, Peter. I was thinking about you the whole night, I couldn’t wait until Harry left so I could text you literal direct quotes of all the terribly boring things he said to me.” Your hand found his and you intertwined your fingers with his, bringing them to your lips. “Peter, I-”

He kissed you before you could say anything else, his hands buried in your hair. You eagerly retaliated, wrapping a hand around the back of his neck. He ended the kiss, grinning ear to ear.

“I want to tell your dad about us.”

You laughed, pulling him closer. “Well, if you would let me finish, I was just getting there, Parker. I want to tell him too. He loves you and I can’t imagine why he would turn this down.”

You almost didn’t get to finish your sentence before he was kissing you again.

[itsyourchoicedevotionals]

Unity

“And believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women,” Acts 5:14

Have you ever wondered what the early church must've been like? Obviously not dull, boring and lifeless. Acts 2:42, 46NLT tells us the new believers "...devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals… worshiped together at the Temple EACH DAY, met in homes for The Lord's Supper, and shared their meals with great joy..." (Emphasis mine.) “... All the believers were united in heart and mind…” Acts 4:32NLT

Average people would run either away or towards Acts church, if they crossed a time warp. ***Sermons in the early church brought in salvations by the thousands. ***Preaching could last all night long. (Acts 20:9) ***Worship service in ‘church’ aka Temple— followed with preaching and eating in homes. ***People once content to follow the Pharisaical rules, exercised freedom in their Savior. ***Dramatic changes occurred in new believers’ lives stirring up extreme hostility in the religious sector.

Persecution arose against every group of worshippers gathered in Jesus’ name. Rather than having overwhelming fear, these new believers prayed for boldness, (Acts 4:24-31). Astounding boldness came upon them.

How did these new believers find the time to sit at the apostles feet every day? No electricity, modern conveniences for laundry, cooking, bathing, still they found time to meet daily, worship together, and prepare meals. The time came from no forty to sixty hour workweeks, media distractions, sports, or shopping malls. Unity created a fluid movement of love, where their work load together gave everyone surplus time.

What would Christianity be like, if we Christians became united in Christ Jesus? What would our actions be like?

Our lives, families and churches are all run so differently today, from the early church. Each family member runs off to do their own thing, for their private media experience. Family members may be in one building, but lonesome in a house full of people. The same goes for Christians. Hymnals and Bibles aren’t needed at church —replaced by screens and media. Christians are becoming disconnected from handling God’s Word, Bible studying, discussions about the Word and unity with their brothers.

From my early Christian memories— church had all ages in the sanctuary. Kids and adults carried Bibles and paper tablets for taking notes. Meeting at one another’s houses after service, we enjoyed good food, fellowship, and discussion about the scriptures and sermon. Then prayer for each other in our little group.

Do you see how the first church had it right? They fell deeply in love with Jesus at the apostles’ feet. Their love for Jesus spilled over into loving everyone else. Love drew in volumes of new believers with passion for Christ and fellowship.

I’ve often wondered, what would happen, if church did potlucks with home prayer meetings— getting together multiple times during the week, doing serious Bible studies. Would unity be born there? Unity would demand drawing in other denominations, because unity isn’t isolation. Could the church family become more important than sports?  You think about it and decide. It's your choice. You choose.

PRAYER: Father we need to fall head over heels in love not with Jesus one, but with each other. Help us to give up the unnecessary and find unity with each other and You, in Jesus’ name I pray.

by Debbie Veilleux Copyright 2020 You have my permission to reblog this devotional for others. Please keep my name with this devotional as author. Thank you.

[the-space-case]

Hello, yes, hi, I recently found your art and account and I love what you do. I'm turning 14 in April and I've asked for a drawing pad, but I have no idea how to use one as of yet. Have you got any tips or anything? Because I've wanted to try digital art for a while and your art makes me want to even more lmao. Thanks! - B.A.

BOI OH BOI DO I GOT SOME TIPS FOR U

(I’m not sure what kind of comp you’re going to be using, so I’ll list for both.)

FIRST: Drawing Programs; the free and the great.

-Firealpaca: Lightweight drawing program. I draw Recovery using this! It’s easy on the RAM if you have a weak comp/are paranoid about yours like I am, it is mainly for basic comic making, and has all the basic brushes you need (pen/pencil/airbrush/symmetry/etc). You can add your own brushes as well but they’re p basic settings. Has basic Animation/Gif making as well using Onion Mode! Layout is a piece of cake. Please note that If you leave it open for a week it’ll crash on you, even if you haven’t anything on it at the moment, and sometimes the brush sensitivity just stops working so you just have to close and then open it again. (Also I have no idea how to update it aside from deleting it completely and just downloading the new version from scratch, so thats a thing.) Mac/Windows

-MedibangPaint: This is basically FireAlpaca But Better. Has tons of screen tones, brush patterns, and tools. I don’t use it much because I’m used to FA’s layout and get confused with the the placement of tools in here, so if you can I highly suggest just going with this first. Also has basic animation/gif making! Has storage for the website as well, and you can upload more preset brushes. It’s v anime. This program has waaay more in terms of basically everything, so it just takes more RAM. NBD, you don’t have to have every brush downloaded from the storage ^u^. Mac/Windows

-Clip Studio Paint: Okay this one isn’t free, it’s a pricey one, HOWEVER once a year they take the price way fuckin down by at least 75%. Sign up for the email list and it’ll let you know when that precious day comes. It’s how I got it @u@, around christmastime? This program is basically MedibangPaint On Steroids. I do all of my digital-yet-tradition-style-painting on here! The brushes all have some neat af settings to play with, you can make your own brushes, has tons of screen tones, pre-made panels, and settings. You can save projects as basically anything you need, is a hardy program that almost never crashes, and It’ll take a nice chunk of space on your comp depending on how much memory you have but hey, its worth it. It’s much more complex layout-wise than the other two here, but you get used to it after playing around and watching tutorials haha.

-Mischief: It’s a 25$ app, has like four brushes and five layers only but is vector-based with an endless canvas. Not really worth having unless you like the vector thing. UP TO YOU. I spent forever with this one doing all that homestuck stuff, so it’s not really bad so much as it is a basic bitch. Mac

-MyPaint: I used this a bunch when I still did digital art on my windows laptop before I upgraded to a Mac. It’s easy on the comp and has plenty of brushes and settings. You can also get brush packages if you don’t feel like you have enough that comes with the program! Also has endless canvas; pretty sure you can just select an area and then export as is. I barely remember the rest but It’s pretty great. Windows/MacPorts(which I hate)

-GIMP: I hate this thing. I cannot figure it out for the life of me. It’s got loads of shit though, can handle layers, has plenty of brushes, and can do basic animation/gifs if you ever figure it out. Windows/mac

I’ve heard good things from paint tool SAI and Krita as well, but have never used them myself.

***You can always pay through the nose/use a student discount for the photoshop series and pay that shit monthly, those fuckers have literally everything, but I am a cheap college kid making minimum wage with a car payment; I’d rather just pay once/not at all.

TABLETS: treat that shit like a newborn babe 24/7

-I have literally only ever owned a Wacom Intuos4. It has lasted me six years, and at least five moves across many miles. I broke one of the cord ports the day I opened it by holding it wrong, have one left, and now treat it like it’s going to die if the cord moves badly. Please be aware that if you break both ports, you better either sodder it back together yourself or upgrade to smth else because it costs about as much as the tablet itself was bought at to be fixed. Good news, though, it comes with at least six extra pen nibs, has programable buttons on the side (that I have never bothered to use) and a scroll bar in case you’re too lazy to use the keyboard (…I don’t really use that either unless I’m just scrolling through tumblr LMFAO).

-I would die for a Cintiq.

HOT TIPS: its useful.

-most of the programs listed use the same keyboard shortcuts. MEMORIZE THEM. It’s pretty easy, since you’ll use em a lot. [cntrl/cmmd+T] lets you resize what you just drew on that layer, and [cntrl/cmmd+z] is undo. I use those the most, for obvious reasons.

-vector-based programs are pretty great because when you resize an image it looks prefect. You can’t do that with a program that isn’t, so I just resize the base roughdraft and draw the lineart again on the layer above so I don’t get weird JPEG quality lines.

-You can use a ruler with your tablet, just slap it on and go, but honestly most programs have settings for that. just use those.

-You can also trace stuff on your tablet, so long as the paper isn’t too thick. I just scan/take a photo and then open it up in the program, though. much easier.

-SAVE CONSTANTLY. Art programs like to crash on you, even when they’re hardy and you have a good comp. make it a habit to quick save your work.

-Use a desk and have good posture. You’ll be able to draw a hell of a lot longer if you do. I personally keep fucking up my knees by sitting on my legs as I work out of habit, and don’t actually have a desk chair. Keep your screen at eye level and at a fair distance to prevent eyestrain and also neck-strain haha

-Chances are you won’t be used to the tablet right away. Most places you buy from say it’ll take a couple of months to get used to how weird it is to draw while not looking at your own hand, so don’t be frustrated If your drawings look a bit off at first.

-if you draw at least one thing every day, by the end of the year you’ll have improved exponentially. I literally made this blog to make myself draw once a day.

-don’t be afraid to check out speedpaints and tutorials. It’s always good to get more familiar with the program you’re using and new techniques previously unconsidered.

-get familiar with clipping layers. They are insanely useful; you clip one layer to the one below and then when you draw it only shows up on the drawing of that layer below. Shit is a godsend if you’re bad at coloring in the lines/lazy. The bucket tool is also really useful, and you can adjust the expansion by pixel so you don’t miss anything between the lines.

-experiment with your brushes, shit be fun af

-warmup your wrists before and after drawing. prevent swollen veins and such. dont want hand pain/numbness, its reaaaaally bad.

—basically if your hands hurt stop for the day.

-PNGS are for internet, JPEGS are for printing/fucking with quality (cough hack homestuck)

-resolution doesn’t have to be much more than 350 dpi if its just going to be on a webpage. Maximize that shit if you’re going to be printing, though. Especially if you put stuff on redbubble.

-DeviantArt has this thing called Sta.sh where you can dump art, keep it in perfect quality and just share it with certain people with a link instead of all of the website. Great for storing commission pieces, its the only reason I have DA in the first place.

-you get a different audience depending on what site you use for posting art, so keep that in mind for the kind of feedback you want.

-after awhile of drawing using a tablet, you may lose patience/forget that in traditional art there isn’t an undo button lmfao It’s cool; you don’t have to choose one over the other or anything.

-Honestly you can work around almost anything. You just invent new ways and techniques for yourself and you’ll do just fine.

Aaaaand that’s all I got for today! Thanks for sticking around

[juniperallura]

Rebellion: A Shallura Garrison AU

For @shallurasundays​ prompt

“So what’re your plans for Thursday, Shiro?”

Shiro raised a brow, looking up from the cafeteria’s excuse for mashed potatoes. “Thursday? Uh- going to class…?” His classmates exchanged pointed glances across the table. “What, Dev?” Shiro sighed, laying down his spoon. “What’re you guys doing on Thursday?”

“See, Matt, he doesn’t even know-” Dev shook his head.

“It’s skip day, Shiro!” Matt cried, gesturing with his fork. “Y’know, we all go out and have fun on Thursday, then get our asses handed to us Friday and have a big laugh about it. It’s tradition, man, you don’t know?”

“Oh, yeah,” Shiro shrugged, “I’ve heard about it, but… I don’t know, it doesn’t really sound-”

“-Nope, no way,” Dev cut him off, “You’re coming. I don’t care if we have to drag you kicking and screaming off campus. This only works if we all do it!”

“C’mon, it’ll be fun!” Matt leaned in with an air of secrecy, “Besides, we’re mostly worried about her.” He pointed over his shoulder; with no sense of subtly, all three simultaneously turned to stare across the cafeteria.

Shiro’s brows knit together. “Allura? Why?”

Matt snorted, “Are you serious? She’s got a bigger stick up her ass than you.”

“I don’t have a-” Shiro cut himself off. “You think she won’t?”

“Well-” Matt smiled mischievously, “Not unless someone convinces her…” At Shiro’s hesitation, he continued, “Listen, you guys are two dorky peas in a pod! I know she’ll come out if you do.”

Shiro flushed at the implication of Matt’s tone. “I’ll talk to her, but I don’t know what it’ll do.” With that he left the table, unable to stop the heat in his face as he passed a silver-haired figure on his way out of the cafeteria.

| g | a | r | r | i | s | o | n |

He couldn’t sit still the whole class period, his foot tapping like an exosonic spectrometer gone haywire. Every chance he got to lean over and whisper across the row was interrupted by Mr. Iverson’s chilling glare. So instead, he studiously took notes for an hour, then waded into the sea of students that flooded the halls as everyone filtered back to their dormitories. Shiro quickly spotted the head he was looking for, a pencil sticking out of its white bun.

“Allura!” Shiro slipped through the crowd, catching her before the entrance to the girl’s dorm quadrant. Sparkling, almond-shaped eyes turned to greet him, prompting something to squirm in his stomach. 

    God, he hated when Matt was right.

“Oh-” Allura held her books to her chest, giving a slight smile. “Hi, Shiro.”

“So, um,” Shiro’s mind drew a blank as it tried to conjure an excuse to bring up skip day. Instead, all he said was, “Aerodynamics, huh? Iverson’s really got it out for us.”

Allura raised a brow, “You seemed to be on top of it; you certainly proved me wrong on that ground glider question.”

Shiro’s face flushed. “Oh, I’m sorry-”

“-Don’t be sorry,” Allura cut in, “You were right, after all. I didn’t factor in gas properties.” She bowed her head for a moment, looking almost embarrassed. “But, I’m sure you didn’t come over here to talk about gas…what’s up?”

“I, actually, was wondering-” Shiro ran a hand through his dark locks, glancing down at his books, “-If you maybe wanted to start a study group? I could help you with Iverson’s class… you help me with Tech Programming?” He paused for a second. “Maybe we could meet up after we all go out on Thursday?” 

Smooth, Takashi.

Allura’s gaze flitted to the rapidly emptying hallway. “Are you really doing skip day?” She hugged her books tighter, a mixture of incredulousness and curiosity in her tone.

Shiro scratched at the back of his neck, looking into those beautiful, crystal blue eyes. “Well, I-”

      “You’re what?”

“Calm down,” Shiro sighed, tucking his hands behind his head as he stretched out on his bed.

“I can’t believe you, Shiro,” Matt threw up his hands, taking a break from pacing to jab a finger toward his friend, “You were supposed to convince her to go, not the other way around!” 

Shiro merely shrugged. 

“Lame!” Was the only response he got from Matt before the door slid shut behind him.

| g | a | r | r | i | s | o | n |

Her eyelashes were white, too. He had wondered. The command line interface follows these formatting methods. How did her hair get so luminous? One lock kept falling in her face; it was embarrassing how much he wanted to brush it away for her. Long range sensors can be activated from the sub-menu.

 Shiro wasn’t sure what was more distracting; the words coming out of her mouth or her.

    “-Cadets?” 

Finally, the dark and light heads popped up to find Sergeant Johnson smirking at them from behind crossed arms. “Hard at work, I see.”

Allura and Shiro exchanged glances, both suddenly becoming conscious of their knees touching under the table. Allura cleared her throat, drawing back from the table where she and Shiro were rubbing elbows over their notes. “Yes, Sergeant. Tech Programming.”

Johnson shook her head, smiling as she looked around the otherwise deserted library. “Y’know some of the teachers didn’t even go to class today?”

Shiro straightened up in his seat. “I- we just didn’t want to miss Mr. Iverson’s class. There’s a test next week.”

The sergeant studied them for a moment. “I can’t believe I’m saying this to a student, but you two work too hard; you’re young, enjoy it.” After another glance at their pile of books she turned to leave, calling over her shoulder, “Knowing how to de-stress is important for Cadets, too.” 

Shiro leaned back toward his tablet, but Allura seemed preoccupied, tapping her pen against her chin with a pensive look. “-Allura?”

After a moment she tossed the pen down, turning to him with a mischievous look he had never seen on her. “I think Sargent Johnson is right. We need to play hooky.” 

He raised his brows, letting out a disbelieving puff of air. “Really? After all that earlier about your perfect attendance record, scholarships, the aerodynamics test— do you remember that group project we worked on together last semester where you didn’t let Neil go to the bathroom?” He crossed his arms, challenging, “But now you’re a rebel?”

“-Skip day is organized rebellion, which isn’t rebellion,” she countered, leaning closer to him. “I’ve never missed a day of class, and I plan on walking straight out of graduation and directly to my Garrison assignment. When will I have an opportunity like this?” She glanced at her watch. “We’re at…eighteen hundred hours right now. If we study another three hours now, plus Saturday and Sunday, then we can make up for Friday.” 

Shiro couldn’t help the smile that slowly spread over his face. Damn those beautiful, blue eyes.

| g | a | r | r | i | s | o | n |

They met on the shuttle heading into town at noon. Shiro zipped up his dark jacket, pulling a baseball cap over his head. Allura’s hair was neatly plaited, and she pulled tight at the tidy laces of her sneakers, perfect for running from whatever authority figure she was sure would be chasing them down with a club. The pair exchanged sly smiles from their seats in the back, confident that they didn’t look the least bit suspicious. 

As they hopped off the shuttle Shiro couldn’t help the tightening in his chest, a mixture of excitement and anxiety welling up inside of him. From the look on Allura’s face, he guessed she was feeling the same way. 

She glanced at him with a prompting smile. “So, where to first?”

A few minutes later found them looking up at neon that buzzed even in the middle of the day. “I didn’t even know there was an arcade here,” Allura mused.

A nostalgic smile spread over Shiro’s face. “I found it freshman year. There’s one just like it, actually, near my apartment in Tokyo.” A laugh escaped him, “When I was little I always wanted to run out of school and spend the day in the arcade.”

“I’m sure your parents would’ve loved that.”

“Well- my mom, I think she would’ve laughed about it.” He held the door open, following Allura into the room that twinkled with game lights. 

Allura smiled, her own memories coming back to her. “I think my father would’ve felt the same way- only because he would’ve been so shocked.” She paused, her eyes drifting across the room before coming to rest on Shiro. “But I guess we don’t have to worry about that so much anymore.”

Shiro’s jaw clenched, his mind at once turning to his mother, probably just waking up for work in Japan, and to the day last year when whispers ran through Garrison’s sophomore class as a blur of silver hair was abruptly rushed home. Swallowing hard, he reached out and grabbed her hand. Soft and warm. She smiled.

    “-Oo, target practice!”

 Allura left the joystick of some ancient plumbing game to pick up one of a pair of plastic guns. She pulled a coin from her back pocket, holding it out to Shiro with a raised brow.

He accepted, grabbing his own toy weapon with a grin. “What is it Sergeant Peng says?”

            “Plant your feet-”

“-Bend your knees-”

     “-Make a damn triangle!”

Shiro bit his lip, eyes trained on the screen as purple figures disintegrated with every pew pew from his fake gun. After a few minutes the screen went black, revealing a victorious 100% on his side. 

“Ha!” He called triumphantly, turning to see Allura covering a smile with her hand. The other half of the screen read 40%. “Forty percent, Cadet?” Shiro crossed his arms with a smirk, “Were you this terrible in Weapons Training?”

“No!” Allura folded her arms over her chest, refusing to meet his eyes. “I was worse,” she muttered. 

| g | a | r | r | i | s | o | n |

The sun had slipped behind the distant mountains when Allura and Shiro made their way back to the shuttle stop. The sleeve of his jacket brushed against her arm but he couldn’t muster the courage to take her hand again, even with the evening breeze egging him on. 

There was a pause in their chatter, and at the same time they started, “I just wanted to say-” Shiro laughed shortly, gesturing for her to continue.

“I wanted to say thanks- for coming out with me.” Allura offered a smile.

Shiro ran a hand through his hair. “I was going to thank you for making me come.”

Their gazes met, beating hearts betraying what went unsaid in the foot of space between them. Suddenly Allura leaned toward him, her cheek grazing his as her lips pressed against his skin, a sweet scent floating off her neck.

Red faced, they climbed onto the shuttle and took their spot in the back. Hands folded together, they enjoyed the waning moments of their little rebellion as the lights of Garrison’s campus blinked into view.

[ecofinisher]

The Adventures of Super Nathan 3 - Chap 2

Chapter 2

https://archiveofourown.org/works/23301076/chapters/56062444

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13531960/2/The-Adventures-of-Super-Nathan-3

https://www.wattpad.com/857516885-the-adventures-of-super-nathan-3-chapter-2-back-to

Nathaniel and Lila sat in the living room watching TV together both eating a sandwich they had bought before on their way back home.

"You have to try this out next time. It tastes way better than nachos" Nathaniel told Lila, watching her bite on her sandwich. Lila's kwami flew up at Nathaniel's sandwich to check his sandwich and sank her head from seeing the melted cheese on his sandwich.

"It contains milk, right?" Trixx asked seeing Nathaniel swallow down, then he wrapped up the paper of his sandwich to see the ingredients. "Lactose intolerant people can eat this type of cheese" Nathaniel explained as he found out, the cheese it had didn't have a lot of milk. Trixx smiled and removed a piece of meat covered with cheese and took a bite of it. "Mmh"

Nathaniel raised his eyebrows at the TV show and glanced at his wife, which passed with a napkin over her lips, cleaning a bit of sauce away. "This scene makes me think of the times, where you weren't in Paris. After your very first akumatization. Marinette thought I was gay because I didn't show any girl interest."

"Well, it's also hard to judge someone, when you don't see or notice any crush on someone. But how did she come to that thought?"

"I think it's because almost every other guy at the school either was obvious with their crushes or they had at least one or two crushes. I had Marinette, then I had on Ladybug, which ended up being her again. Then it was Miss Vixen, which in the end was you"

"Okay.....well I gotta admit there was a time I thought Sabrina had a thing for Chloé but was wrong too,"

"Well this is why we shouldn't judge people before we get to know them," Nathaniel said. "What my mother used to say a lot" Nathaniel mentioned making Lila chuckle.

"She's a great mother, Nathy" Lila complimented earning a nod from Nathaniel.

"Sometimes she embarrasses me in to the most unwanted times, but what do you want. She's my mother. She's one of the most important persons of my life"

"Just like me" Lila added with a wink earning a nod from the redhead.

"In making me feel embarrassed in the most inappropriate moments, you're the queen," The German descendant man said making Lila laugh.

"You know how much joy I have seen you that way. That's what Schadenfreude means, right?"

"Uh not really. Schadenfreude means you have joy seeing someone fail or getting humiliated"

"Alright......uh mai.....Mein Schatz?"

"Yeah, I'm your tesoro?" Nathaniel asked earning a nod from the brunette.

"Come let's keep watching the episode, now it's going to be interesting" Lila mentioned earning a nod from the boyfriend and the two looked at the TV to see a robot appear and behind their TV screen a white hole appear and a blue and white dressed superhero showed up with large fake bunny ears and wielding a white umbrella on the back.

"Super Nathan, Miss Vixen. Quick I need your help, the future is in danger"

"What happened?" Nathaniel asked while Lila gazed a little suspicious at the woman in a tight suit.

"Who are you?" Lila asked and Trixx approached Lila as she recognized the miraculous of the person.

"She's using the bunny miraculous. It allows the user to create portals and traverse through time" The fox kwami explained. "Listen to her, it's important"

"Something happened today, that affected the future. You two need to come"

"Okay, what did we do wrong?" Lila asked watching the bunny-themed heroine shrug her shoulders.

"Did you two do anything unusual today?" The heroine of the future asked and Nathaniel exchanged looks with the brunette.

"I had a normal day at work, I met Luka at the coffee and we drank a coffee. Luka talked something about apparently seeing pregnant women everywhere he looks at. I've texted Kagami, Adrien, Marinette, Rose, Alix, Juleka, my mom, her mother, the Agreste's.....ugh everyone I could to not forget to pass tonight by the Pont des Arts, where I planned along with Rose a surprise for Lila. We two were there as superheroes and got married as superheroes in front of our superhero team and some of the parents, that knew about our secret. Then we did all a picnic and now we're here....well me and Lila,"

"Hmm is it possible, that someone told you or took pictures of the wedding and spread it around or something?"

"No, no one did any pictures. Our family would never reveal the secret to anyone, not even closer people inside our family"

"Okay, then come you two. I need you two to fix the future for me" The heroine explained. "In case you don't know my name. I'm Bunnyx"

"As a superhero, I'm Super Nathan," Nathaniel told opening his jacket for his kwami to fly out.

"Great, look you two really need to hurry. We don't have much time" Bunnyx warned watching the two civilians turn into Super Nathan and Miss Vixen. "Great, now I need you two draw two bowls to put them over your head"

"Uh.....why?" Super Nathan asked placing his pen on the tablet.

"Look the more you know and see, the more it affects the future, just do what I say" Bunnyx ordered earning a nod from Super Nathan, which drew a bowl, which appeared over Bunnyx's hands, afterward a second bowl appeared over the first bowl landing in it and the heroine of the future covered Miss Vixen and Super Nathan's head with it. "Now give me your hands and I'll bring you to the future," Bunnyx explained grabbing both their hands to walk into the portal landing in a white dimension filled with various blurred circles all over the place.

"It's kinda cold here" Super Nathan mentioned then Bunnyx let him and Miss Vixen go, then checked her portals looking for the portal, she needed to use.

Miss Vixen lifted up the bowl of her head and widened her eyes at seeing the giant space she was in it.

"It's just as big as the Terd" Miss Vixen mentioned, then got hit with Bunnyx's umbrella on the bowl to cover her eyes.

"I beg you," The pink-haired heroine asked making Miss Vixen sigh.

"Don't worry Miss Fox, you'll be out of here ASAP" The bunny-themed heroine assured passing her hand over another portal, then smiled as she spots the one she was looking for. "Give me your hands" Bunnyx ordered receiving the hands of the heroes and the heroine jumped with the couple behind her through the portal landing in a devastated alley of Paris. Bunnyx took the bowls of the two heroes' heads watching them stare in shock seeing, what happened to their city.

"Oh my gosh," The vixen-themed heroine gasped seeing the city all damaged. "Where are the people?"

"You two need to find out, where your future you's went. I stay in here as plan B, in case you two don't succeed"

"Is it possible, that you can call Cat Noir and the others from our timeline to help us?"

"I see how you two handle this and if I see you need help, I'll send them in"

"Okay" Super Nathan answered watching the heroine disappear along with the portal. "Now we're all by ourselves"

"Yeah, just where the heck should we go in all this mess?" Miss Vixen asked watching Super Nathan take his tablet to restore his jet pack from his savings in its memory.

"We should look from above the sky" Super Nathan suggested, then he took off in the air along with his fiancé flying over the empty roads, passing by abandoned vehicles left on the streets.

"I have never seen the streets as empty as now" Miss Vixen mentioned earning a nod from the purple-skinned superhero.

"It's terrifying"

"I really wonder, what happened, that caused this here" Miss Vixen mentioned passing over the arc de Triomph, which had the edge broken.

Inside the sphere Bunnyx swiped her hand over a blurred image seeing the superheroes around Super Nathan and Miss Vixen as they were getting married. Bunnyx fast-forwarded the time showing the heroes sitting together on a two picnic tables sharing various drinks with each other and celebrating the reunion of the newlywed couple.

"Fu said it is okay for us to keep the miraculouses as long as we don't misuse it," Ladybug told it to Ryuko and Cat Noir, who sat in front of her. "Otherwise I could store them back in the miraculous box"

"What about the other ones?" The blonde hero asked. "You have kept them save, right?"

"Sure" Ladybug answered. "Well after that incident with Volpina I made with Luka together a cosmetic box to hide them all in there,"

"Nice"

Bunnyx fast-forwarded the time again passing by the house of Marinette's family, then noticed a person on the lot, where the Françoise Dupont school was, which had witnessed Ladybug landing on top of the roof with a surprised face. Bunnyx went further with the time watching Marinette's house there people entering and leaving the bakery, passing by and crossing the road in time-lapse and Bunnyx noticed the same person from the first scene appear several times checking the building out and the people, that visited the bakery beside that person itself. One the owners of the bakery left, moments later followed by Ladybug, which left from the rooftop and the person sneaked over the road at the bakery and tried to open the door with the help of a screwdriver and managed to get in. Soon Ladybug appeared entering from above the balcony, moments later a person now dressed in a dark purple suit carried Marinette away in the arms, making Bunnyx shriek.

"This is not good"

Super Nathan and Miss Vixen passed over the seine near the Notre dame spotting a single boat in the middle of the river. Super Nathan stopped in midair looking down at the boat, which he recognized as the houseboat of the Couffaine family. Miss Vixen turned around to see Super Nathan look down and turn down, heading down at the ship, followed by the brunette, then they landed on the ship encountering nothing but chaos, which was usual to be seen in the Liberty.

"You've got something?" Questioned the brunette looking at Super Nathan, which gazed at the entrance down to the boat and he walked towards the entrance, followed by Miss Vixen, which took her flute at her hand to be prepared in case of an emergency.

"Hello?" Super Nathan spoke stepping slowly into the living room of the Couffaine's moving to the right to spot the counter to the small kitchen and he found on the top a printed out screenshot of a news site with an image of Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Super Nathan picked the page up to see, what it said.

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng, age 24, missing since September 12th" Super Nathan read and Miss Vixen glanced at the newspaper to see the news.

"Luka Couffaine is in pre-trial detention until more clues were gathered about Dupain-Cheng's disappearance......I don't think Luka could have anything to do with it,"

"Yeah, something else must have happened to her. How many days is she missing?"

"I think only two days. What day do he have?" Super Nathan asked making the woman shrug her shoulders. "Good question"

Miss Vixen entered into the kitchen passing by the fridge noticing a couple of post-it notes stuck on the door. Miss Vixen took a better look at them finding a non-regular notice on the fridge.

"Nath, come check out the notes here" The Italian heroine called the partner, which approached her to check the notes on the door.

"There just to remember things, here an appointment at the optician, here about unclogging the toilet and that one here in the middle......uh.....that really sounds suspicious......J, open the drawer from my bed and look for a silver-colored bracelet, which looks like a snake biting its tail. Put it on and you'll figure out, what to do"

"I think Luka left his miraculous in his bedroom for Juleka to use it" Miss Vixen noticed earning a nod from the partner. "Is it possible, that she had seen it yet?" The brunette asked, then Super Nathan ran into the bedroom of Luka and spots on the bed a note in a sketchbook and the man glanced into it.

"It's Juleka's handwriting" The redhead discovered from recognizing the little untidy writing.

"Whoever reads this I went together with Honey Bee to save Marinette. If we don't show up the next 24 hours, send help to the abandoned area service at the A22, where the entrance is blocked from the streets."

"Okay, I think it's near to the entrance of where the arc de Triomph is" The purple-skinned guy mentioned earning a nod from the heroine. "We should check it out right now" The fox miraculous told the fiancé which nodded.

"Sure, but do we need a plan?"

"We see about that later"

Later Bunnyx saw the two heroes had arrived at the blocked road entrance of the, then the two heroes chatted with each other and noticed Super Nathan draw something on the tablet, which appeared on Miss Vixen's hands and she used it to draw on the ground.

"I think I better go and get Ladybug here, just in case," Bunnyx said running across her portal, then moved on a portal above the city landing on the boat of the Couffaine's to see all dinning together with the Dupain-Cheng's. Bunnys fast-forwarded the scene, watching Luka and Marinette disappear along with Juleka in the bedroom of the Frenchman, making Bunnyx smile as she spotted the trio alone and entered through the portal to get into their room.

"Whoa, who's that?" Luka asked surprised at seeing the bunny-themed superheroine.

"That's.....she's the bunny miraculous holder from the future" Marinette recognized the hero. "And.....I think it's Alix"

"No time for explanations, Ladybug I need you to assist Super Nathan and Miss Vixen to save your future you from whoever kidnapped you and the moth miraculous"

"What?" The trio spoke at the same time at the revelation of the hero from the future.

"You have to come"

"Is it urgent?" Marinette asked. "I'm pregnant and Tikki says I should not go in fights with the others, cause the miraculous cannot save me from a miscarriage"

"Oh," Bunnyx said. "Could you use the miraculous?" Bunnyx asked the boyfriend of Marinette.

"Just the snake one, but Kagami and Adrien have used it. Mostly Kagami"

"Great" Bunnyx answered grabbing the guitarist by the hand pulling him into the burrow.

"Whoa!"

"We'll be back as soon as we took care of the problem, don't worry about us" Bunnyx assured Marinette and closed the portal for the girl.

On the other side inside the mansion of the Agreste's Adrien sat on the couch along with Kagami and his younger sister Hope watching a movie together. Hope noticed Kagami had a tear running down her face, then hugged the woman looking up with her eyes worried about the woman.

"Are you okay?" Hope questioned watching Kagami pass her thumb under her eye to clear her tear away.

"I'm fine. Just a little emotional with the scene," Kagami answered, then Adrien gazed at his girlfriend also noticing her.

"Shall we pause?" Adrien asked making Kagami shake her head.

"No it's alright" Kagami answered. "The scene is really touching for me"

"Yeah. Honestly, the addition of a Coldgame music just turns the scene greater, than it is" Adrien confessed. "You know some of the songs I play on the piano are from that band"

"Bro, bro, look at the big statue in TV" Hope shouted pulling Adrien's arm and aiming at a giant statue covered with blue petunias on the TV screen. "Ming did that"

"Really?" Adrien asked earning a nod from the blonde girl. "Wow"

"I can feel, that you're not really enthusiastic about the flowers, right?" Kagami asked making Adrien grin a little embarrassed.

"I didn't know, what to answer her" Adrien explained seeing Kagami smirk. Behind the three a portal opened and Bunnyx jumped out landing in the bedroom of Adrien Agreste.

"Adrien, Kagami, I need you two, now" Bunnyx ordered earning a nod from the blonde man, while Kagami was a little confused.

"Is she a miraculous holder?" Kagami asked earning a nod from the boyfriend.

"Look, look, he gave her a flower. He loves her! He loves her! He loves her!" Hope chanted making Kagami giggle.

"If they end up together, it's the 16th cliché movie I watched this month" Kagami mentioned seeing Bunnyx shake her head.

"The two actually don't get together in this movie, but that's not what we're talking about, Kagami can you take the miraculous of Ladybug and assist Super Nathan, Viperion and Miss Vixen their fight?"

"Sure, but what about Longg?" Kagami asked watching her kwami get up from the coffee table along Plagg, which as usual was nibbling on one bit of Camembert.

"You can use both miraculouses together. So You'll be able to use Ryuko's powers and the ones from Ladybug" Longg explained watching the Japanese woman nod in understanding.

"Here place them, where they belong and follow me" Bunnyx ordered earning a nod from Kagami, which had put the earrings on her ears summoning Tikki, the kwami of luck.

"Hi Kagami" Tikki greeted the former owner she had belonged before, which smiled at her.

"Now to be able to use both of us, you have to say, Tikki, Longg, Unify" Longg taught the owner, which nodded again at the kwami.

"Tikki, Longg, Unify!"