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kitconnor · 1 year

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hello and welcome to my little blending + colouring tutorial !! in this tutorial, i will be guiding you through colouring blended gifs and how to blend them. i will be using ps 2023. this tutorial assumes you have prior knowledge of basic colouring and timeline !

please note this is the process that i have received the best results from - it might not work for everyone and it likely doesn’t work for every show. but, with the results i have been having, i feel like it’s something i want to share with others !!

p.s. : i will work this tutorial the best i can to accomodate to the new tumblr gif guidelines and bugs !!

GUIDES:

here’s the initial stuff that guided me with my blending and colouring !

blending tutorial by @ helloinej

colouring tutorial by @ helloinej

blending tutorial by @ disaster-lineage

blending tutorial by @ nelsonnicks

keep in mind each of the above have different styles of blending, each also being different to my own. if your final result isn’t the exact same as any tutorial, don’t beat yourself up over it !

STEP 1 - find your scenes.

this step is more important than you think. certain scenes simply don’t blend well and that’s just reality. here’s my preferences:

similar scenes (eg. similar lighting, colouring, setting) blend well.

one moderately well lit scene (ideally not outdoors) + a moderately dark scene (eg. you can clearly get an outline of a face, you’re not adding curves layer after curves layer) CAN blend well, depending.

scenes on two different ends of the spectrum like one daytime outdoors sunshining type scene + midnight dark, obscured faces scenes do not have potential to blend well.

however, you’ll come to know what works through experience !

also make sure that whatever scenes you pick, ideally, there is little to no movement !! this makes it easier when you actually colour the gif later on.

STEP 2 - organize your two gifs.

to blend your gifs, they need to be the same length. i load them into frames first and then i set the speed and trim them to the same amount of frames and layers and then i will crop. then, go convert to timeline > command + option + a (for mac) to select all on the layers + timeline, then right click on your layers and go ‘convert to smart object’.

do this on both of your gifs and then you can sharpen them (i do, so it gives me a better idea of how my gif is looking) or not, depending on how you like to do things.

STEP 3 - the blend.

with my two seperate gifs now, i will take one gif and duplicate it onto the other.

please note that simply performing ‘duplicate layer’ will not be sufficient if you are working with every frame and layer individually. having two seperate smart objects makes things much easier for me and only really changes one or two things that people would normally do.

now, to blend your gifs, go to the gif you duplicated over and change the blending mode to ‘screen’. some people may choose to use ‘lighten’ - do whatever looks best in your opinion.

right now, the background of my top gif is washing out my bottom gif of inej. no worries - we’re going to fix that now.

STEP 4 - the blend part ii (the harder half)

first off, i’m going to adjust the positions of my gifs. the top gif covers too much of the focal point of the bottom gif (inej’s face) so i’m going to move the top one a little to the right and then the bottom one a little to the left so i can get the best view.

now it looks like this:

to begin fixing it, add a ‘layer mask’ to both of the gifs. make sure your foreground colour on your layer mask is set to black. you need a layer mask on both of the gifs because different aspects of each have something interrupting the other.

now, select the ‘gradient’ tool and make sure you have the same setup:

the black colour lets you blend and the transparent end means it does blend. now, using the gradient tool, do this:

and repeat:

(keep in mind i’m not 100% done here !!)

keep using the gradient (or brush) until you’re getting your desired results. do note that when you’re using the gradient tool and, if you have two layer masks (one per gif) that there is a chance that your gradients overlap and the middle point becomes opaque. in that case, i’ll either delete my layer masks and start again, move my gifs or use a brush with a WHITE colour to redo.

play around with your gradient though ! don’t be afraid of messing something up in this process; you can easily go back and fix it. experimenting allows you to learn.

it took me another five minutes to play around and get exactly what i wanted, but what i’m going to do next will actually assist my final result. here’s what it looks like atm:

there’s still a bit of an overlay from that top gif, but when i colour it, it will disappear.

STEP 5 - basic colouring.

this is your curves, levels, colour balance etc. ! there’s not much to say here as everyone does this bit different, but i do advise that whichever gif you work on, you turn off the visibility of the other, and disable the layer mask while you colour. this allows you to achieve the best results.

make sure to use a clipping mask for your colouring layers, and clip them to the corresponding gif.

now i’ve completed the basic colouring and i’m ready to give it some actual colour !!

STEP 6 - colourful colouring !!

next up - actually making it look cool !! start by adding 2-3 blank layers (make sure they’re clipped to the respective gif). with the first layer, go back to your gradient tool and draw a gradient on the “darker half” of your gif. if there isn’t one, just choose which one will help it blend best. also disable your layer mask while you do the colouring !!

where that little bit of the top gif was overlapping on the bottom one, i’ve added a black gradient to it so it blends better.

rn it looks a bit weird, but once you change the blending mode to ‘soft light’ it evens out a lot.

then with my other blank layer, i’ll change my brush to my desired colour and set the size to 200px. from there, i’ll do one half of her face then i’ll make ANOTHER layer, and do around the other half, as such:

then, set the blending mode to either ‘colour’ or ‘hue’, whichever suits best !

after, make sure to clean up with an eraser so it won’t turn the subjects skin that colour. then, you can repeat the process for the other gif !! feel free to switch your colours up too.

here’s both my gifs, coloured individually:

don’t stress about having the perfect colouring where no skin is obscured by the colouring. it won’t be perfect (eg. there’s a tad bit of cyan on her ear) just as long as it works well with the motion !!

STEP 7 - final clean up and save !

and i’m done ! this process is relatively quick and has been giving consistent and high quality results for me, which has been so good. i’m aware that blending is not a quick thing to learn and wanting to incorporate colour is such a hard thing to start. hopefully this has helped <3

#*tutorial #gif tutorial #ps tutorial #userriel #userraffa #usercim #alielook #userrsun #userv #thingschanged #userzesty #userfaiths

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proffesionalalpaca · 1 year

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So I saw Avatar 2: The Way of Water. 10/10 visuals and 6.5/10 for story. But I’m looking forward to #3 in a few years which is supposedly going to feature a tribe or clan(s) of fire Na’vi/ ‘ash people’. There is next to nothing on these guys in terms of info at the moment besides the fact that they are gonna be the bad guys of the Na’vi.

So everything after this point is basically my head-cannon/speculation/fanfic. Enjoy :)

So I interpreted them as having a nomadic warrior society, not like other Na’vi but far more bloodthirsty in fighting other Na’vi tribes, who live near and around volcanoes.

They have a greyish-purple skin tone with sharp, dark stripes that sometimes form crude spiral shapes with darkened fingertips that end in sharpened claws, filing their nails to needle sharpness with volcanic rock. Their muscular and powerful tails have armoured plates, heavily clustered around the end of the tail and evolved from hair, which can be used as a bludgeoning weapon that can easily crush a human rib cage and femur whilst inflicted deep wounds (picture ancient Aztec obsidian clubs or ankylosaurus). The fire Na’vi tend to have amber to red eyes with dark grey/ black sclera. Compared to other Na’vi sub-species and variants, the fire Na’vi have a larger set of double fangs, a large pair of canines on their upper jaw and a smaller but pronounced set on their lower jaw, they also possess larger pointed ears that are often pierced when they pass the trials of adulthood.

The ash people prefer to keep their hair loose with typically only a few beaded braids and chunky plaits to stylise and manage, each bead has a significance to the person wearing it usually marking a hunt or battle, but sometimes can mark other things like the birth of a child or death of a loved one. When going to battle they will tie their hair into tight styles like braided buns, some even braid their hair around their tswins/queues an extra layer of protection due to inter-clan disputes involving the decapitation of queues as a savage battle tactic or prisoner of war’s punishment. The gesture is more symbolic than practical, even though some swear by the practice. When a person is exiled from the clan their hair is cut short to the scalp as a sign of dishonour, marking them as outcast. (Shorter styles are okay but anything above the ears is an exiles mark).

The fire Na’vi often choose to ride upon large creatures that resemble earth salamanders and some dare to ride upon a rare species of feathered Ikran. Many tribes are almost always accompanied by several large tortoise-like animals, twice the size of the direhorse/ Pa’li, these creatures are much slower but are great beats of burden as the clans often has to pack up their sites to avoid the ever shifting lava flows that litter the region they call home. In times of great hardship ones of these animals will sustain an entire clan for over a week. Moving great distances isn’t common but will happen in the event of larger eruptions which occurs once every few generations so the clans make a habit of moving semi-regularly in order to avoid overusing the lands which would incur Eywa’s wrath.

The ‘ash people’ decorate themselves in fiery colours that reflect the lava that spews from Pandora like blood, using a mixture of glass beads, gems and feathers, an amber like mineral being particularly popular among them.

Due to their warring nature, the warriors of these Na’vi take to wearing the bones of slain enemies as trophies, jewellery and sometimes even fashioned/ incorporated into weapons and tools. Nearly every adult fire Na’vi has scars from hunting or fighting and it is encouraged to have wounds from battle scar over, a member’s first scar from a conflict or life & death struggle is often celebrated by close family and friends as an unofficial first step into adulthood (Their first literal steps being a walk over hot lava rocks).

The ash Na’vi also create their signature red war paint using volcanic ash mixed with blood from a kill, either a great beast they hunted or an enemy Na’vi.

Contrary to popular belief from other Na’vi groups, the ash people do not practice cannibalism though they do use their very sharp double fanged bites to tear out throats should their hands be otherwise occupied.

Their interpretation of Eywa differs greatly from most other Na’vi as they feel that they are subject to her true fury and are thus stronger for it, they believe that all life must be preceded and followed by destruction and death for there to be rebirth or renewal. The fire Na’vi believe that they must always adapt or die, as their way of life requires for them to never be complacent or set too heavily in their ways, though strong cultural traditions have remained for thousands of millennia such as their weaving and culinary techniques.

Hope you enjoyed that little bit of cultural speculation of a fictional alien cat species.

#avatar 2 #avatar the way of water #avatar twow #atwow #avatar 3 #fire Na’vi #Ash people #na’vi oc #Na’vi speculative biology #pandora #Pandoran speculative biology #avatar speculation #Na’vi culture speculation #my art

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brotrustmeicanwrite · 3 months

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How do you balance maintaining a consistent writing routine?

Oh boi if only I could actually do that. Ok here we go~

Writing Creating Consistently

Creating consistently is one of the biggest challenges for any creative out there, not just writers. But despite so many people experiencing the same exact problem there is no universal solution. And the reason for that is simple: every person is different and the reason behind their struggles are just as diverse as humanity itself. For some it’s just difficulty keeping a habit alive, for others it’s circumstances of life and for people like me it can even just be their neuro-type.

But it’s not like there’s nothing you can do. So, here are two ideas to try to write more consistently, for both the organised and the chaotic:

Journaling +

This idea works best for those who don’t struggle too much to keep a habit alive or those who already journal or do something similar regularly anyway. Basically all you do is add a daily writing task to your routine. It can be anything like writing a short paragraph, working on character details or even just researching something. What exactly you do doesn’t matter as long as you’re doing something. But the most important thing to keep in mind is to keep the task tiny.

Once we start doing something, more often than not, much more will follow naturally. But if we make the task too big, we risk ending up dreading it. For that reason, your daily task should be something easy that can be done in no more than 5 minutes. That way you’ll get the satisfaction of doing something almost every day and don’t disappoint and demotivate yourself with piled up days of being unable to fullfill your goals.

Tiny Book

This technique works best for the more chaotic (and/or audhd) type and is the one I personally use for both writing and art. The basic idea of this technique is to simply always have something on you to catch your random bursts of inspiration throughout the day. For most people this will probably be their smartphone and maybe one of those cheap mini pens with the rubber stylus at the end. If you don’t like the notes app or just writing stuff down in a text document (or a hundred separate ones) here’s some apps that I use(d in the past):

Obsidian - very similar to a notes app, except you can link documents and build your own little Wikipedia. Including the clickable links within text and all.

Concepts - gives you an infinite canvas to take notes and draw stuff like mind maps. You’ll need a stylus for this one if you don’t want to write with your fingers. There are in app purchases but you really don’t need them and I’m using the free version with no problems too.

Campfire Blaze - (also as website) is specifically built to plan and share your writing projects. It has a lot of pre built functions to plan characters, maps, lore, magic systems etc.

Story Plotter - very similar to campfire except the focus is on structuring your story. A lot of people swear by it but I personally can’t give much more details because it just isn’t my style of program.

If you’re more of the traditional type though, get yourself a small notebook to always (and I mean always) carry around. Preferably a durable one that fits in your pocket and has a loop for a pencil. Also I recommend using a short technical pencil with an eraser at the end to avoid having to carry that and a sharpener around. Remember, we want the most comfortable quick and easy access so it doesn’t become a hassle to always have access to your materials.

On that note,

Why oh why, IKEA, did you stop making those cute but sturdy notebooks? That’s it, we’re breaking up. Søstrene Grene, you’re my new paper supply girlfriend. You may be more dainty and delicate, less sturdy than Ikea, but at least you’re there for me.

Ok but seriously, tip for the artists: søstrene grene has those teeny tiny blank books with really nice paper (easy 100+ pages) that fit into even a women’s front pocket and are perfect for quick thumbnailing. Just make sure to enforce the binging by putting some washi tape ore sum around the edges and glue it down on the backing bc they fall apart easily.

Anyway

Happy writing creating <3

#writers on tumblr #writing #authors of tumblr #tumblr writers #writer on tumblr #writer problems #as always ignore my grammar #english is my 3rd language #and i do not know how punctuation works here #unhinged #writing advice #art #art advice #artists on tumblr #artist on tumblr

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frogzzai · 11 months

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do you have any headcanons of things the upper moons like to do when they’re not doing demon things? (specific hobbies or secret talents they have?)

I love this ask-

Ofc I do 🤞🤞

Send in requests I have no motivation :'( (I write for MHA, Creepypasta, Slashers, Demon Slayer, JJK, Harry Potter, Rick and Morty, Fantastic Beasts, Winx)

Characters included: Kokushibo, Douma, Akaza, Hantengu, Sekido, Urogi, Karaku, Aizetsu, Gyokko, Gyutaro, Daki

Uppermoon 1- Kokushibo

So we all know Kokushibo has a flute, right? This leads me to think he'd enjoy music in his spare time and also be quite talented at it.

He wouldn't be able to play any of his instruments inside the infinity castle because it has to be silent on Muzan's orders, so instead Kokushibo would ask Nakime to send him to the outskirts of a serene forest with pretty views and clearings where he can sit and recite different tunes on whatever instrument he wants.

I think he'd prefer the flute, pan pipes and the biwa, he took a liking to the biwa after hearing Nakime strum on it day in and day out.

Another hobby/ talent Kokushibo would have it hair styling and hair care. This man has some of the nicest hair in the demon slayer verse and he is well aware of that.

He dons his usual high ponytail when he's out but he's definitely tried different types of braids on his hair.

He enjoys trying new products on his hair to enhance its beauty.

He isn't a fan of curlers or straighteners, you won't find a single sign of heat damage on this mans head.

Uppermoon 2- Douma

Douma is a fashion fan. Fight me.

He enjoys scouting new outfits of different styles and trying them on to see what he likes best.

Probably one of the few demons that actually changes and washes their clothes.

He likes to try and match his outfits to his fans.

Speaking of his fans, he enjoys polishing them and sharpening up their edges.

If the colour gets chipped he'll carefully repaint them.

He doesn't do it often, but, Douma is a very neat painter. He isn't very good at drawing but he's great with all sorts of tone and texture.

Uppermoon 3- Akaza

Pretty self explanatory, he loves all sorts of combat sports. Judo, Kung-Fu, Thai, Taekwondo, Jiu Jitsu, Kendo.. you get the point.

He can't exactly go to a proper teaching place due to, well, he's a demon. However, there's definitely some sort of demon fight club that he attends, it's not exactly training for him because he's incredibly skillful, yet, he doesn't just do it to get better. He does it because it brings a strange sort of comfort to him.

When Akaza isn't training his combat skills he's reading up on different forms and types of fighting to see if there's anything he's missed despite reading the same content multiple times.

He's very selective on who he spars with. In the demon clubs that gather he only chooses those with the biggest and most noticeable fighting spirit, whether that's a good or bad thing is up to the demon he chooses I suppose.

Pretty much his whole personality revolves around forms of combat. He by far prefers hand on hand combat but occasionally takes a small amount of time to learn different weaponry and it's strengths and weaknesses.

Uppermoon 4- Hantengu

He's scared of literally everything.

I'm not really sure what hobby he'd have, nothing really fits his character.

I've been running through different things in my head and nothing clicks, I can't see him reading, drawing, enjoying music or enjoying nature.

He's just sort of, him?

I guess the one thing I can see him enjoying is people watching and day-dreaming about being in another persons shoes. He probably just sits in the shadows observing people and imagining what their individual lives are like.

Sekido

Enjoys rage rooms.

They fit well with his personality, he probably has his own makeshift rage room with things that are harder to break for a normal human.

I can see this man just hurling tables across the room or splitting a tire in half.

He likes to take out his unrelenting anger on inanimate objects in his spare time. It doesn't satisfy that angry itch inside of him but it lessens it.

That's one of the only things he's able to do, any other hobbies he's attempted lead to frustration and annoyance.

Urogi

His wings and abilities bring him great joy, (obviously).

He enjoys flying around, not really caring if he's seen. He likes to find high places out of reach of any ordinary person or demon and just sit there for a while.

As uncharacteristic as it sounds, he's seemingly one for stargazing, he can't observe the clouds so they're the next best things.

He takes great pride in his wings, he spends multiple hours a day preening and fluffing them.

Definitely parades around different forests showing off his wings to any bird or creature with wings he finds as if to say, 'Hah, my wings are way better, read it and weep bitches'. Urogi, honey, I don't think they care.

Likes to annoy his brothers about the fact they don't have wings, Sekido throws the closest object at him, Karaku uses his leaf to give Urogi 'extra flying lessons' and Aizetsu cries.

Karaku

Karaku's a menace.

One of his favourite past times is to sneak up behind his brothers and give them one of his famous 'free flying lessons'. Most of the time they know he's there and are able to evade his attacks but sometimes they pull the short straw and he's able to successfully sneak up on them.

If they do manage to evade him, they all have very different reactions. Sekido will throw something at him and use a very 'colourful' choice of vocabulary, Urogi will flip it back on him and instead give Karaku flying lessons by dropping him from at least a height of 120 feet and Aizetsu will run off to Sekido, most likely crying, for protection. It's impossible to tell if Sekido is more pissed at Aizetsu for bothering him or at Karaku for being the reason Aizetsu is bothering him.

Aside from bothering his brothers I feel like Karaku would enjoy studying different types of leaves and their qualities, not only does he like them for the fact his blood demon art uses one, he loves how they can vary in colour even if they're of the same species.

Aizetsu

We all know he's very sensitive, it's not exactly a secret. That doesn't necessarily mean he's soft though, (he is a bit).

He's a massive pushover when it comes to animals, it doesn't matter what it is, he finds it adorable and wants to keep it. He knows he can't though, Sekido wouldn't be happy having wherever they're residing at that time to turn into a jungle.

Aizetsu's favourtie animals to interact with are either extremely fluffy ones or ones that are a bit shy by nature like himself. One of his favourites are deer, the forests he visits are practically untouched by human so deer are common.

Aizetsu finds animals with defensive abilities fascinating, he's a massive fan of armadillos however he's never actually seen one. They aren't your everyday animal you'd find in a random forest in Japan, he's only seen them in little animal books he's got one of his brothers to steal for him. He's made it a mission of his to see one, however, seeing as they're only found in zoos or South America that might pose as a bit of a challenge.

Gyokko

Pottery.

Ironic huh?

Actually, it's kind of obvious if you think about it, he did it while human, he incorporates it into his demon activities so of course he does it in his free time.

He doesn't just make pots though.

Pots are his all-time favourite but he also enjoys making sculptures.

If he is fond of another demon he'll make a little sculpture of them as a gift. Along with a pot.

Douma has one, he gave Douma a pot with snowflake designs on it and put the little figurine inside as an extra gift.

He's made multiple of Muzan. Muzan doesn't really care for them but seeing as Gyokko's pots bring in such good money he'll take them and stick them on a shelf somewhere.

Another.. hobby? of Gyokko's is being carried around in his pots. He gets one of the other demons (not necessarily an uppermoon), to bring one of his pots with them on their travels so he can come and go from that pot when he pleases, sticking just his head out and enjoying the ride. It's a bit like having an annoying younger sibling really. Or a little dog that won't leave you alone.

Gyutaro

His main interest is looking after his sister and making sure she's content. That doesn't mean he stays inside of her body all the time though.

The times he's out, usually in her room as he'd stick out like a sore thumb anywhere else, he likes to paint his nails, Daki does it most of the time because she's neater than he is and it brings her joy. The only colours he'll do is black or grey.

Occasionally he does Daki's hair, contrary to popular belief he's actually quite skilled at it.

He doesn't go near her makeup though, he leaves that area for Daki to do herself.

If she needs a container holding he'll do that but he'll never help her apply it. He doesn't want to taint her beauty.

Another one of his hobbies is people watching. He'll sit at the window, occasionally accompanied by Daki, and will mutter to himself about the different people walking by and what he thinks of them. Most of the time it's about how they could never even dream of being as gifted in looks as his sister is. He sneers at them from under the cover of darkness where they'll never see him even if they're looking around at the feeling of being watched.

Daki

Fashion.

Makeup.

Hairdos.

Anything like that and she's into it.

Seeing as she can pass off as human, she's often seen buying an average persons yearly salary worth of high-quality makeup and hair accessories. Nail polish and designer clothes. Expensive lotions and perfumes. Hair products and stylers. You name it, she's bought it.

He favourite things things to buy are hairpins. Even if she'll never wear them, she'll buy them just for the pretty jewels and designs.

She's got a glass cabinet specially designed to hold up her hairpins so they're on full display to anybody who enters her room.

Her wardrobe has a glass door to put her best clothes on display but still protect them from moths and other bugs.

She has different vanity cabinets and desks in her room all for designated items, one for perfumes, another for lotions, multiple for nail polish and many more for different makeup bits and bobs.

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arcanegifs · 11 months

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Hi! I was wondering how you get such high quality gifs? Do you have Topaz or maybe sharpen in Premiere/After Effects? I’m new to making gifs; I’ve been exporting 1080p clips from Final Cut and recoloring + turning into gifs in Photoshop at the 540p width for tumblr. The results are passable but nowhere near the quality you’re producing. Even exporting 1080p gifs for Reddit, while lovely, don’t compare. Yours must be 4k or even 8k. If you don’t mind sharing, I’d love to know your process!

Hi! Gosh, really, thank you for the kind words ♡ That means a lot!

I don't do anything special with mine, I just use the same files that are in 1080p. I do have an upscaler but that can only upscale any photo to x4 the size. I think I can probably upscale gifs, but I'd have to manually upscale every frame and then make the gif in Photoshop, but ngl.... I'm a lazy gifmaker hahahaha.

My sharpening process is very simple. I only use Photoshop in making gifs. I've pretty much used this process in all types of media/fandoms (Anime, dramas, tv shows, kpop, etc.) Feel free to experiment on your style as it varies with everyone else. You can find the full tutorial under the cut.

Edit: Maybe I shouldn't have used such a dark gif as an example hahahaha oops

I use the timeline method in Photoshop to make my gifs. Here is a tutorial that's a bit similar to how I make gifs. For Arcane, the frame speed I use is either 0.04 or 0.05.

I've based my sharpening process on a tumblr tutorial years ago by another blogger but I can't seem to find their blog post :(((( if anyone knows it, please let me know!

My sharpening process are as follows:

First, I duplicate the base gif in photoshop

So now, I have 2 copies of the gif. Then, I'll be sharpening the duplicate layer, so go to Filter -> Sharpen -> Smart Sharpen

Here are the settings I use to sharpen gifs:

Click okay, then you will see this under your layers

Some people stop there and then color their gifs, but I prefer to add another layer of Gaussian Blur to make the gif less noisy.

Here are my gaussian blue settings:

Click okay, then your duplicated layer will look like this:

Next, make your layer opacity to 80%.

Then, double click the right adjust icon on the gaussian blur settings

Set the opacity to 20%, but you can adjust as needed.

And you're done sharpening the gif! You can color and add PSDs to it right after. As always, dark scenes are going to be difficult to sharpen and color, so try to experiment and tinker around.

Hope this helps! If you have any questions, feel free to send an ask/message!

#answered #littlewildbouquet #maybe i shouldnt have used such a dark scene sdkfjskfsf oops #ofc im gonna use caitvi as an example tho LMAOOOOOO #tutorial

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apparently-artless · 3 months

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I love all your edits!

Do you have any favorite psds that you are willing to share? Or tips on how to make gif colorings looks as nice as yours? 🥹

Hi, anon! Thank you so much! I am really happy that you love my edits. I really appreciate it! (°◡°♡)

To answer your question, I only use one PSD file nowadays for all the edits I make so sharing this one PSD I got for myself would be a bit uncomfortable. I hope you understand. Hehe. (￣▽￣*)ゞ

But no worries, because I thought of sharing LUT files that you can use as a basis for your color grading. I will only share one LUT file for this post but I might try sharing other LUT files as well in the future. In that way, you can achieve coloring with your own style. I will also be sharing which adjustment layers I use and what are the typical settings I apply.

SOME REMINDERS THOUGH:

I use PS 2021 but all adjustment layers are also available on older versions.

I AM NOT A PS EXPERT. I learned to use PS by reading/watching tutorials. All the things I will include in this post are just my preferences for my coloring. Take anything I said with a grain of salt.

I applied and tested my coloring on anime edits only. You may use it for real-life GIFs/photos but you may want to reduce the opacity or use a different blending mode to make it work.

My coloring deviates a lot from the original coloring most of the time. Some people may find my coloring weird so always keep in mind that this is not the best coloring practice.

ALSO WARNING: BAD ENGLISH AND LENGTHY EXPLANATIONS XD

To start, you may download the LUT file HERE.

This file is basically a compilation of adjustment layers that you may want to apply to other images. So when you use it again on another project, you can simply load this single file instead of the multiple adjustment layers. The disadvantage of using LUT file is that there's no room for further adjustments of the colorings within that file. In my case, I used it as an advantage. You may call it my secret recipe for my coloring. LOL. You can use it but there's a limit to the modifications. Anyways, this LUT file contains multiple layers which is a product of my trials and errors for the past few years since I started editing again.

You may consider using this LUT file as your training wheels. Once you understand further the complexities of the adjustment layers, you may no longer rely on this coloring file. I also did this when I started wanting to develop my own coloring style. And once I understood the basics of the adjustment layers and how to replicate the colors that I had in mind, I got rid of the LUT files and started making my own.

Now, let's use this image for coloring sample:

You can also download the image so you can follow my steps easily. This version is already sharpened.

So when I apply the LUT file for this image, this is how it's going to appear.

This color grading has the teal & orange effect. Of course, this is not the final output. This will be the backbone of our coloring as we add more adjustment layers. In my case, I always start with cyan and orange and then make the necessary changes depending on the series and the atmosphere of the image used.

But before we proceed with the adjustment layers, I want to emphasize two things you can explore when it comes to adding adjustment layers. Being aware of these two features of PS actually expands your coloring options exponentially [don't get fooled, I may sound like an expert but this is just really based on my personal experience. XD] Anyways, below are the two:

Opacity - It doesn't have to be black and white when it comes to coloring. You may choose the grey side. If you think the adjustment layer you are trying to add is causing an unpleasant effect on your image, maybe try to lower the opacity first and see if that will help.

Blend Modes - you may want to explore blend modes other than the Normal mode. If you are not used to changing the blend modes, you can check videos posted by Unmesh Dinda on his YouTube Channel. He explains really well when it comes to Photoshop features. I learned a lot from his tutorials and I am now applying these learnings to my current coloring style. You may check this video for starters. He has other videos about blending modes, too.

ADDING ADJUSTMENT LAYERS:

Levels Adjustment Layer - this is always my first adjustment layer but I also modify this in the last part. There are presets available but I am not utilizing those. Instead, I go to Auto Options. This feature is very helpful in heavily dark or bright scenes. Depending on what color correction you used, you may have extremely varying results.

Once you click Auto Options, another dialogue box will appear:

The default option is Enhance Brightness and Contrast. We will choose that option for now then click OK. [We will go back to this layer once we are done with the other layers.]

Color Lookup Adjustment Layer - this is where the LUT file comes in. Once you add the layer, click Load 3D LUT then click Load 3D LUT again on top.

Select the LUT file I shared.

Selective Color Adjustment Layer - for this layer, I always separate my adjustments for different colors and don't do the adjustments for all colors in one layer.

First Selective Color - I will rename the layer as RED and set the following values: CYAN: -100, MAGENTA: -11, YELLOW: -32, BLACK: 15

You can explore the levels of Magenta and Yellow but ultimately, I always set Cyan to -100 and Black is +15. Of course, you are free to change these two but these are my preferred coloring for shades of red. Setting -100 for Cyan gives this warm coloring.

Second Selective Color - I will rename the layer as YELLOW and set the following values: CYAN: -100, MAGENTA: +40, YELLOW: +30, BLACK: 40

Cyan is also set to -100. This adds more warmth to the tone of the image. Then you may change the remaining sliders to your preferred values.

Third Selective Color - I will rename the layer as CYAN and set the following values: CYAN: -60, MAGENTA: +20, YELLOW: +100, BLACK: +40

I don't have a rule for CYAN. This really depends on the color I want to achieve for the shades of blue. Depending on the values, you can make your color look blue/cyan/purple. In this case, I wanted to tone down the brightness of the cyan.

Fourth Selective Color - I will rename the layer as Black and White and set the following values: BLACK: +5

This is just to slightly darken the black shades of the image. I label it Black and White because I sometimes change the value of Black for White but in this case, adjusting the white doesn't help so no changes were made.

Gradient Map Adjustment Layer - I do not use this layer all the time. It really depends on the image. When I wanted to add another shade of colors to the image, that's the time I would use this. And I use a maximum of 2 gradients only.

The image looks okay now to me but let me add some gradient just to show how I use this layer. I use Gray_10 which is one of the preset gradients available in PS. Then I check the Reverse option to emphasize the contrasts of the colors. Then I set Blend Mode to Soft Light, Opacity at 100%.

Then I add another Gradient Map Layer. I use Purple_17. In this case, I didn't check the Reverse option.

Then I set Blend Mode to Soft Light, Opacity at 35%.

Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer - this one is optional. I use this on my gifs to increase the warm tones of the image.

I only change the values of Red for additional warm tones.

At this point, I also wanted to make the cool colors lose saturation, so I added another Hue/Saturation layer. To have a grayish effect on cool colors and make the reds stand out even more.

Brightness/Contrast Adjustment Layer - you can use the Auto function and then just make the adjustments you want.

In my case, I set the Contrast to -50 most of the time, then the Brightness varies. For this example, I set Brightness to +8.

Then last but not least, I made some slight changes to the Levels Adjustment Layer and then adjusted Brightness to -3.

To compare, I will post the original GIF, with LUT file only, and the final GIF coloring respectively:

I hope this helps, anon!

I might create a specific tag for this kind of post and just include it on my master list pinned post so it's easy to find. Also, if you ever use this coloring style or the LUT file as part of your coloring, there is no need to credit but if possible, please tag me in your creations (#userartless) so I can see how you personalized the file and made it your own. ^^

#art answers #reply #anon #gif coloring #resources #turorial of some sort #super long post #artsresources

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xiaojuun · 2 years

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hello! i want to start making gifs, but i don't really know where to start. what are some programs you use and any tips?

hello hello ! ah amazing we can always use more content creators <3 i'll try to point you in the right direction to get started ! under the cut bc it's long:

⏤ my first app recommendation is 4k video downloader which will let you download videos in their highest quality from youtube. i recommend starting with content like music videos as they are usually available in 1080p (the minimum high quality you want - anything less and it can be really tough to get your gifs looking smooth) and up to 4k (pretty much the best quality you'll get), and it's easy to pick out shots you like to start messing around.

⏤ when i was first learning to gif, the only other app i used was photoshop. i started with a free trial to see if i would get the hang of it and now i pay for a monthly adobe subscription, but there are definitely cracked versions out there for download - you just have to find them (check the links at the bottom of this post) 👀 i honestly don't remember what tutorial specifically i followed to get the steps down, but here is one and here is another i found with a quick search that i think are good for a beginner. if those don't work for you, you can google "how to make gifs in photoshop" and you'll be able to find a ton and choose one that suits your learning style (i prefer written step-by-step, but if videos are easier for you, there are a lot of choices out there).

⏤ as far as coloring goes, it'll take time to figure out using adjustment layers and your own style. i really like this tutorial on how selective color works and remember using it when i was first starting. that same blog has a lot of other giffing resources you can look through, too: all ps tutorials

⏤ once i had the hang of just using ps, i learned how to use vapoursynth which is a python script program that will help you resize your gifs and keep them looping smoothly. it also can denoise and sharpen your gifs if you want. the reason i don't recommend starting with it is because i think it looks overwhelming at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's simple to use and makes a big difference especially when it comes to cropping. ultimately it's totally up to you if you want to try and learn it all up front or not. this guide has all the information you'll need to install it depending on operating system, and also has guides for how to use it. it is MUCH harder to set up on a mac than windows, especially new macs, just fyi. if you are planning to gif ts files (for stage performance sets) you will need vapoursynth imo, but otherwise it's not at all a necessity, just a recommendation. i also used this tutorial to help me learn to use it.

general tumblr tips i wish i knew starting out:

⏤ the appropriate sizing for gifs on tumblr is as follows: your width should be 540px for one gif in a row, 268-268px for 2 gifs in a row, and 177-178-177px for a row of 3 (middle has to be 178 or it'll be blurry. i have no idea why. this site is insane). your length can be whatever you want but certain things just look better & if you aren't resizing in VS, then you're at the mercy of your videos dimensions when it comes to cropping them down.

⏤ the mb limit for gifs is 10 but if you're using beta post editor it's actually 9.5, and tumblr will compress the heck out of your gifs that are larger than 5mb, so just keep that in mind, i recommend only make bigger gifs with SUPER high quality videos.

other helpful resources:

⏤ this awesome post compiled by another wonderful cc friend here has links to programs and specific resources for hq kpop files

⏤ a helpful open network tag list to use for getting your gifs seen

i think that about covers it ... sorry this is a LOT of info but i hope it makes it easier to narrow down where to start. if there's anything else i can help you with, just let me know and i'll do my best !

#erimail #i hope this helps :<< pls let me know if there's anything i can explain better !#it can be overwhelming at first but if you really want to learn it's super fun and worthwhile so don't be discouraged #we're here to support you !#chuuchuutrainnn #gif help #.resource tag

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hotgirlmythology · 1 year

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Mellara the siren, an OC

I habe decided to take a small break from incessantly bombarding people with my lore so that you can all enjoy some slightly less wide reaching and more personable content (also I got bored).

Mellara is a siren of the Equatorial anatomy, who originates from a nation about 20 ish degreees north of the equator, close in longtitude to the fiefdoms of galania though significantly lower in latitude. I have not decided the lore of it yet. I shall also completely ignore this fact as she was escaping from her old life when she implored a passing hunting group to let her run away with them, and I doubt she would allow it to be relevant to her new life.

Skills, hobbies, duties and talents:

Has very dextrous fingers, and so despite her agility in a hunt usually spends her time making crab traps and weaving nets. Ironically because of the amount of usage the inherited magic gets fixing their blisters, her hands are unusually unmarked compared to, for example, a proficient harpoon thrower.

Her fingers also come in handy when playing the flute, which she does extremely well, and the piercing song is excellent for communicating through a storm. In tandem with the only other instrumentalist in her hunting group (all the others prefer singing) they can put on some spectacular performances

Her main hobby is weaving shell jewellery - landbound people might not admit it, but being able to say that your mother-of-pearl shell necklace is not only gorgeous but also siren-made is a brilliant conversation starter. She prefers not to wear it herself, taking a lot more pleasure in seeing others wearing her creations around

She is, as a rule, the forward scout of the hunting group, checking potential migration sites for potential predators and more than able to get out if they do show up

As suggested, she is a talented musician, and though it is mostly other sirens who hear her play or sing, she does work the occasional magical charm over beachgoing landbound people when she plays at the coast

Looks:

Looks kinda twenties, though I challenge you to guess where in that range she falls

Auburn hair, cut in a pixie style (close as you can get with a sharpened seashell)

Was on the shorter side as a human but has a longer torso/tail melding region than most sirens, so her torso looks a bit longer than it used to

Body type a mildly hourglassy slim frame, olive skin tone

Slightly hooded eyes with an almond shape, eyes a lighter shade of brown

Her tail style is that of a conventional mermaid with a pair of extra fins halfway down - she is extra good at taking tight corners, and so is usually sent to test current strengths

Scales are a shade darker than turquoise, and she has a few going further up her stomach than the majority of sirens given the torso/tail melding region

B-cup on the larger side, binds them down with seaweed if she really needs aerodynamicity (a real word)

Enjoys using sea clay to give herself sort of tattoos, especially over her forearms where it is less likely to crack

Lips idk to be honest I've never paid that much attention to lips

Personality:

Common for sirens, she is fiercely independent and dislikes anything that may tie her to a location. However, due to events in the past she takes this to an extreme, often refusing favours if she cannot repay them in a few days

However, to those she travels with or who have proved to her that they truly do not need repayment for every favour they give to her, she is willing to open up more, and will travel miles to visit friends if she is in the area

Ok so contrary to what this description makes you think she's actually pretty sprightly to talk to and in her mannerisms, and is very easy to get along with in the moment

She is content to be left with her crab traps and nets for the majority of the time, but will chat your ears off if you let her

Really pretty resilient to adversity, safe in the knowledge that it will either get fixed or it won't, and if it won't she can either leave or she can't, and if she can't leave she's probably dead, which means she can't worry anyway.

Can't really ignore the fact that she does have a power crazy streak about her, like most sirens, especially the ones who feel emotions more intensely as she does. She contents herself with the aforementioned beach performances most of the time

However has been known to lead the occasional ship on a wild goose chase after non-existent schools of fish

She doesn't get angry easily. Thankfully, given that when she does she is very bad at taking 10 seconds to breathe deep and relax, and instead goes for 10 spears. It is usually justified, in her defence

Dreams:

She has heard about an enchanted artefact of a silver flute, tucked away on an island to the north. Landbound people in the area don't bother trying to get to the island because of the rocks, and she only knows about it from another migratory hunting group. There's a fair bet therefore that it's still there. There is also a fair chance it would work for her, given, well, it's a flute and she knows how to play them

She met an elf from an itinerant religious envoy in the Minashun region, and they got along extremely well, said elf expressing a desire to one day become a siren too. One day she would like to go back to the area and make good on the words they shared on the beach under the stars. And on that note:

Gender and sexuality for sirens:

I thought I'd put a note abt this as it's quite important for making characters.

Sirens don't have a concept of gender as we understand it. They are all built on the same pattern (that is, upper body of a female of their race, lower body of a fish tail, legs, etc depending on the particular subspecies), and the views of their old cultures have a habit of fading rapidly from their subconscious mind, even if they might need to be prodded a little to realise they don't really care anymore. Every siren is referred to as a siren only, without separate "roles" attributed by a gender. They treat, for example, humans of differing presentation much the same across the board. I use she for their pronouns because I haven't written a language for them

Sexuality to sirens is not a matter of words but of actions. If a siren takes a human female as lover (don't ask how it works mechanically), there is a vague understanding she likes human females, and the personality traits associated with this lover in particular. Similar attitudes are provided by her fellows to most any race and creed a siren goes for. It is, after all, none of their business unless her attractions start affecting the cohesion of the hunting group, though the love, or heartbreak, stories of sirens make for great migration tales (longform stories told during particularly distant siren migration)

#siren oc #siren #oc #original character #fantasy race #fantasy #fantasy culture #mermaid #merfolk #worldbuilding

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milksnake-tea · 9 months

Text

━━ interlocks

❀ ˎˊ- prompt: braiding their hair ❀ ˎˊ- characters: nanook, yaoshi, lan, xipe ❀ ˎˊ- warnings: maybe ooc charas, but otherwise, none! just a bunch of fluff :) ❀ ˎˊ- a/n: this is my cooldown fic from the dan feng one HDFSIJK after this (and maybe a jing yuan fic if i feel like it) it's event time baby !! xipes is kinda short tho bc idk how to work w them so far so BHFDS not exactly happy w it but ehhh

Nanook closes their eyes at the feeling of your fingers sifting through their hair. It's rare to see the usually violent Aeon so at ease, especially in a domestic situation like this.

Their hair is soft, but incredibly messy. Even still, it isn't so bad so that you couldn't work with it. Nanook watches you languidly as you braid, not minding if you mess up one or two times.

When one of the Ravagers enters, all Nanook needs is to stare at them from the corner of their eye to drive them off. This is their special time, after all.

You comment on how much they seem to enjoy this. They merely nod before closing their eyes, allowing themself to immerse themself in your ministrations.

Yaoshi only allows you on the basis that they get to decorate you as well. It's only fair, after all. And with their multitude of arms, it won't be an issue.

You end up sitting on their lap, braiding the locks that drape over Yaoshi's shoulders as they hold you with two arms, and style you with the rest.

Yaoshi's hair is incredibly easy to braid - it's almost as though you're working with silk rather than hair. The Aeon hums a little tune from a world unknown to you as they decorate you with ribbons, jewelry, flowers, whatever they could get their hands on.

By the time you're finished, Yaoshi was already cooing at how adorable you look, all dolled up. They praise you for your work, petting your head, but they prefer to pay attention to you rather themself.

Let me just say. Lan's hair is the absolute best to play with. It's just so beautiful, with the way it glows in different colors when you move it. It reminds you of one of the many moons in the universe.

Lan rarely stands still, so you're likely either sitting on their back (horse part ???) while they run throughout the galaxies, or they're sharpening one of their arrows while you work. They love the feeling of you messing with their hair, especially since they have so much of it.

However, your hairstyles usually don't last long, unless you braid them extremely tight. They typically become undone in the next few minutes due to Lan's constant movement. Lan apologizes the best they can, but they're always willing to let you try another hairstyle, now that you have a blank canvas again.

Xipe is... Difficult to work with. They have three (possibly four if they have one in the back) heads, each with their own head of hair. So if you're braiding only one's hair, be prepared for the others to begin complaining. What goes to one head goes to all, remember that.

It's hard work, but don't worry, Xipe rewards you later on. They grant you a kiss from each head, singing you gentle praises for your labor.

They're also quick to show off to their followers, with Family all rejoicing and cooing at the "blessing" given to Xipe by their lover. Braiding and styling becomes part of their customs as a show of affection for one another.

Meanwhile, you're just standing there in confusion, because all you wanted to do was to have a little quality time with your lover.

reblogs w comments are appreciated !!

#honkai star rail #honkai star rail x reader #hsr #hsr x reader #nanook #yaoshi #lan #xipe #nanook x reader #yaoshi x reader #lan x reader #xipe x reader #x reader #reader insert #y/n #archives 🏵️

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clairethecutepup · 1 year

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Writing Practice: On the Run! (Ed Edd n' Eddy)

Writing is always important in media-- whether standard literature or otherwise --and thus it's important I sharpen my writing skills whenever possible, by both doing it and examining feedback.

Today's offered story, whether you plan to critique or simply enjoy, is a tale done in style of 2nd person narration and fanfiction form. Be warned, it has mentions of strong depression and all; but it's nothing overtly dark and gritty-- not even SLIGHTLY. Click "read more" to view, as well as the author's notes.

[*Note: all the characters are aged up and adults now, even if it's a simple 18 years of age. Nothing "inappropriate" for that reason, just a preference.]

Normally, Claire (You) gets along quite well with Sarah and Jimmy; but they won't hesitate to criticize the kid, when warranted-- or give chase, when most certainly warranted!

Claire promised the two she'd ditch the BCAA supplements, after seeming like she'd come close to a heart attack and getting a bit sick. Unfortunately, Claire is too determined to maintain her muscular gains and force her body to find the instant energy to do things. Plus, a third reason... The two have their suspicions, and when they find out... Well, if Claire's fine with harming herself, Sarah's eager to help; and Jimmy doesn't very much enjoy others acting like they're smarter than him, so he'd also like teaching Claire a lesson in being cocky enough to try and play him a fool.

****

You're in your bedroom, and you've secretly popped another BCAA pill for your latest workout. When you finish, your heart is still racing from the caffeinated substance you took. Hopefully, no one notices. Skyler then knocks on your door and tells you that he's going shopping for some more art supplies and groceries. You can go with him, or you can stay in the Cul-De-Sac. Obviously, he's not letting you stay by yourself, as you're not the type of person to be entrusted with their own well-being. You don't feel like walking around, after feeling the BCAA's strong effects on your body, so you ask to be left behind and in someone else's care. Skyler agrees to your demands, but with the question if it's because you don't feel well. You certainly don't look it...

Darn, if only you could do a better job of hiding your BCAA influence... It's a lot harder, when you've lost your tolerance to it, after going cold turkey for so long. Skyler asks Nazz to watch you for a bit, and she agrees. When you're at Nazz's place, you accept the offer to lie on her couch for a bit, after you show clear signs of feeling unwell.

Nazz leaves the room to get something for you, before she comes back into the living room. She sets down a plate of cookies and a glass of milk, before sitting beside you.

"This always helps me feel better, whenever I'm feeling sick myself," she smiles.

Guess that made one of you, as you could only cover your mouth instinctively. This only increases her concern, and she feels your forehead.

"Hmmm... You don't feel warm," she removes her hand, "Do you feel like you caught a bug or something?"

You shake your head, assuring you just feel tired after your workout.

"Dude, that's why they say to take 'rest days,'" she reminds, "Well, you can at least rest NOW. I'll leave the tray for you, okay?"

You watch her leave and internally sigh to yourself. Darn it, the BCAA pills were supposed to INCREASE energy, not make you bed-ridden! ... Or, couch-ridden, instead. You decide to eat the cookies anyway, since they're there. They taste pretty good, and you even manage to finish all of them, without any problems.

You then fall asleep, on the couch, while watching cartoons. You wake up in your own bed, and there's a damp cloth on your forehead. You stand up and leave your room, encountering Skyler in your kitchen.

"Oh, you're up," Skyler immediately takes notice, concern on his face, "Are you alright, Claire? Nazz says you were sleeping the entire time you were there, like you absolutely had no energy left... Plus, you seemed nauseous at the idea of eating."

You shrug, claiming you probably overworked yourself with your strength training. This furrows Skyler's brow.

"Claire," he says, "this isn't the first time that's been happening, lately... So, what exactly are you doing during those exercises? Whatever it is, I think you need to take a break from it, or at least use lighter weights..."

You nod in agreement, hoping he doesn't catch onto the pills being the real reason. You finally have more of an appetite, at least what wasn't ruined by Nazz's cookies, so you eat the dinner Skyler prepared. You lie awake that night, unable to sleep because of the pills' caffeine content and your lengthy daytime nap earlier. It's a tired morning the next day, so time to pop more BCAA pills. There's the energy boost, but with a hint of nausea. Oh well, it's been getting less intense. You greet Skyler for the morning, and he says he'd like to get you some fresh air today. Perhaps that'll help with your newfound and seeming sickness? At the playground, a passing Sarah and Jimmy notice you both. Specifically, Sarah and Jimmy focus on YOU, as they heard from Nazz that you weren't seeming of the best health yesterday. You assure them you're fine, just that you may be working yourself too hard with muscle-building.

Jimmy asks if you're sure, and you reply with a simple "yes." Something about your response doesn't seem acceptable to him. Then again, Jimmy could be manipulative at times, so it wouldn't be surprising if something about your false answer reminded him of his own lies, here and there.

"You seem a bit unwell, still..." he notes, "Did you also work out today?"

You deny it, your only truthful response, thus far. Jimmy is scanning your face. He then asks Skyler if he and Sarah can take you off his hands, and Skyler doesn't see much reason to object. He just asks that they ensure to keep a close eye on you, in case your state worsens. You don't like where this is going, as Jimmy leads you away by the shoulder. Sarah is suspicious, as she walks alongside you. She can tell when Jimmy's planning something, and it's clear you've given him something to plan about. Jimmy leads you both into one of the alleyways, before he stops and leans into your ear.

"You're trying to pull one over me, aren't you~?" he smirks, "I know you all too well, you know."

Wuh oh... You deny it.

"You think you're smarter than me, don't you?" his smile grows and looks a bit annoyed, "Perhaps even egotistical enough to think yourself smarter than ALL of us, since I've a feeling you've been a bit untruthful to Skyler, as well."

You insist you really don't know what he's talking about, you probably just got a bug or something...

"Oh Claire, those adorable blue eyes can betray you so easily~," Jimmy continues, "I'm willing to be forgiving, though, if you tell me what you're actually doing to make yourself so sick lately."

Sarah glances between you two, confusion on her face.

"Jimmy, what are you two talking about...?" she asks.

"Oh, how stupid she thinks we both are," Jimmy confidently responds, "it's why she won't tell us what's REALLY sickening her, as of late."

"... What's THAT supposed to mean?" Sarah fiercely stares you down, "Claire, ARE you hiding something...? Whatever it is, you better tell us RIGHT NOW..."

You back into the fence lining, as Jimmy smugly and calmly approaches you, and Sarah angrily and fiercely does.

"It's nothing, guys!" you protest, "Just some minor stomach problems, that's all! It's not anything bad, okay? Just... a little stomach bug, maybe..."

"'Maybe'?" Jimmy smugly repeats, "You don't sound so sure. I suggest the canary sings, before I have to introduce the cat to it," he motions to Sarah.

Well, they're gonna find out anyway, now. Good thing you carried the pill bottle for any emergency "energy" and the like, so maybe it can distract them long enough...? With a shaky hand and strong gulp, you hand over the bottle and Sarah snatches it from you. She and Jimmy both look at it, and they seem furious.

"WHAT?!" Sarah yells, "You've been taking this stuff again?!"

"Oh, so you truly DO think you're smarter than us, don't you?" Jimmy snarls, "Why else would you have apparently kept your fingers crossed, when you promised us all you'd stop taking these...? Well, I DON'T like being played for a fool..."

"ME NEITHER!" Sarah pushes her sleeve up, as Jimmy takes the bottle, "Claire, I'm gonna--!!"

While they focused on the bottle, you ran off.

"Oh, you ARE a cheeky little cad!" Jimmy grits his teeth, "Acting sneaky a SECOND time..."

"That's it, GET BACK HERE!!" Sarah yells.

You run for your life, as you flee the taller adults. Sarah is probably going to LITERALLY tear you limb from limb, while Jimmy would certainly make you squirm in other manners... You're pretty sure you wouldn't survive either of their wraths. Unfortunately, you couldn't even hide away at home, as Skyler would undoubtedly be told about this. Guess you'd best just run away from the Cul-De-Sac altogether... if that's somehow possible.

You quickly dart around corners, trying to lose the two larger figures chasing after you. They're gaining on you, though...

"YOU'RE NOT GETTING AWAY THAT EASY!" Sarah shouts, "WE'VE CHASED MY BROTHER AND HIS FRIENDS DOWN ALL THESE YEARS, AND YOU WON'T BE ANY DIFFERENT!!"

You'd like to beg to differ. You had shorter legs, but you're pretty quick yourself. A smaller size also meant you can fit into and squeeze through things easier than them. In fact, you could easily slip under the fence... So, you do.

"It'll take more than that, you slippery weasel!" Jimmy calls out.

Sarah and Jimmy's hands follow you under the hole, but their fingers don't even come close to grasping you. You run toward the side of the oncoming house and past it. Now, you need to decide which direction to head in, preferably one the duo won't use to catch up. You don't want to bump into them. You decide to just hide in a nearby bush, for now, just to be safe. You'll see which way they're coming from and, more importantly, which way they'll be going. They eventually reach the spot, but they don't see you in the bush.

"Sarah, let's check the park," Jimmy suggests, "she may have gone running back to her trusted sibling for safety. Well, she'd only be half right, knowing what a foolish simpleton she can be..."

"Fine by me," Sarah agrees, "Let's see her sneak anymore, if Skyler finds out himself!"

The two of them run down the street, but then turn left at the corner.

Oh, thank goodness, they're gone now... Well, if they're telling Skyler-- whether him actually still being at the park, or him being found back home --then that confirms the idea of dismissing your home as a hiding spot. Well, you're officially "on the run"... You're worried how quickly word may spread about the search for you, and your continued use of BCAA supplements. You gotta be careful about encountering the other Cul-De-Sac members. At the very least, you know you can't hide in here forever: bushes are probably among the first things they'd check, and Ed could literally sniff you out. His likelihood of it is only increased, by the bush being near his home. You temporarily humor the idea of hiding in Ed's, and Sarah's, own home. It WOULD be the last place they'd expect to find you. Unfortunately, there's the whole "Ed sniffing you out" thing, and you're too scared to be THAT close to a furious and seeking Sarah. Ugh, where to go now?

Your options are limited. Double D isn't a good choice, because he'd likely tell Skyler about all this, too. If only you had a different problem, then he'd help fix everything, as per usual. The Cul-De-Sac clubhouse is not a good choice either, as Sarah and Jimmy would definitely think to examine an empty, isolated treetop space like that. That leaves... the outskirts of the Cul-De-Sac, you guessed. Great, even if you somehow managed to get out of the neighborhood, you didn't have any real place to hide and survive in. Honestly, you'd have better luck jumping out of the clubhouse and praying it's quick. Okay, a bit TOO dark and dramatic a solution, in THIS case, but you're essentially screwed either way; yet, you'll be even more so, if Sarah and Jimmy manage to get hold of you.

You're just going to have to keep moving. Maybe try heading towards the woods, and hope for the best; or maybe you should just hide somewhere and make everyone THINK you fled elsewhere...? But how long do you wait, before the inevitability of having to run instead? Do you risk being caught and attempt to flee without being seen, in the current moment? And if you do try to escape, what happens when you encounter someone else? How many people do you have to worry about running into on the way out...?

Well, you've got to make a decision soon. Your phone is ringing, and it's Skyler's name on that screen. Sarah and Jimmy must've told him, and he's likely FURIOUS about things. You can already hear him telling you to come to him-- and NOW. You decide to just turn off your phone. Sure, ignoring him isn't going to ease his temper, but it'll be harder to locate you with a quiet phone that can't emit a trackable GPS signal, at least. You decide to find a new place to hide, at least one that'll take them longer to search. You gotta sneak out of the Cul-De-Sac eventually, though.

You slip away from the bush, careful to stay hidden in the shadows. There's no one around, which means you don't have to worry about anyone seeing you leave. You're also pretty small and quiet, so that'll help keep you under everyone's radar.

You glance around, trying to avoid seeming suspicious as you walk. If Sarah, Jimmy or Skyler spot you, they'll chase you down. Still, you should avoid getting spotted by anyone else, as you don't know whom else Sarah and Jimmy told to keep an eye out for you. Your legs start to tire, a sure sign you're experiencing a BCAA-related crash, again. Great, why NOW of all times? As much as you want to keep going, your body feels too heavy; but you prevail, even when Sarah and Jimmy took your only pill bottle of the energy-booster.

Then, the last thing you'd want happens: someone acknowledges you. Fortunately, it's not your brother nor your pursuing duo, but Nazz spots you regardless. Kevin is with her, and he's also eyeing you. It doesn't seem like they've been told anything, as they're not trying to grab you nor telling you to come over to them.

"Claire, are you alright?" Nazz asks, "What are you even doing alone? I thought Skyler didn't like it when you were."

Normally, people would think Skyler abusively possessive when hearing he doesn't like you alone, but Skyler's true motives are pure: only wanting to ensure you're given personal care that you can't be trusted to do for yourself. Hopefully, he believed, that would change, someday. Knowing Skyler's reason for it, Nazz would predictably be concerned to see you all alone. Crap, how do you lie here?

You assure them everything's fine, you just felt a need to give Sarah and Jimmy some space, after a falling-out.

Kevin looks at you with curiosity and concern, "'Wait, YOU storming off from someone, just like that...?" he asks, "Even if it WAS a real doozy, why would they just agree to let you walk off like that? They know how Skyler feels about that better than anyone..."

Nazz also seems upset, "Dude, if they agreed to watch you for him, then they NEED to stick with you," Nazz approaches you and holds her hand out, "Come on, let's go find them and we'll help settle things, o--" she confusedly watches you back away, "--kay...? Dude, you're acting really weird here. Like, there's more than just some fight happening between you guys."

You assure it won't be a good idea to find them right now.

"Um, then we can just wait for them to look for YOU instead...?" Nazz suggests.

Oh no, you can't let anyone hang onto you, you just can't!! You won't get out of here then! You lie about going back to Sarah and Jimmy, and run off. Nazz calls after you, but you ignore her and flee in whatever direction seems likeliest for escape.

As soon as you're out of sight of their sight, your legs start shaking from fear as you realize this plan might have been stupid. Your heart is racing so hard, your breath is short... And you feel like throwing up. Why did you ever think running away was such a great idea?! Those stupid BCAA side effects aren't helping, either... Where ARE you now, anyway? Wait, trailers? You're in the trailer park! You hope you don't run into the Kanker Sisters, as they'll probably ask why you're running around in some sickly panic. It wouldn't be the first time one would ask if a problem needed help being "finished," and you KNOW how easy it is to anger them with something like lying. Actually, maybe Sarah tearing you a new one instead-- even with Jimmy to add something into the mix --isn't all that scary, with competition like THAT.

You don't know if the Kankers would actually tell Skyler, or at least hand you over to Sarah and Jimmy, but you feel it's best not to get caught by them. You hear the sisters and instinctively dive under the nearest trailer: theirs. Yet, you don't see them anywhere, and it sounds a little muffled. You curiously follow it to the slightly opened window. That's the reason you hear them: they're inside, with the Eds, and all seem to be enjoying each other's company. Oh, great... If the Eds are here, that's definitely gonna complicate things, if you're noticed. Double D would especially screw you over, by returning you to Skyler (likely including Sarah and Jimmy), if he and the others managed to get the truth out of you. Time to go, before they spot you and ask any questions... Speaking of "complications": Sarah and Jimmy are prowling through the area, gazing around for you. Luckily, you spot them first and hide under the trailer again. You cover your mouth and hope they don't look under it and spot you. Their feet stop in front of the gap you're hiding in.

"She has to be around here, somewhere, Jimmy..." Sarah growls, "How far can an idiot with shorter legs run, anyway?"

"And, a SMALLER fool, as well, Sarah..." Jimmy adds, "She has many spots and the like she can squeeze into. We need to make sure we're as thorough as possible. We also best keep any noise down, so we don't risk alerting her to our presence."

A bit late for that, you can literally see them, in addition to hearing them. Still, as long as they don't know where exactly you are, maybe they'll lose interest in searching this area, eventually. You hope so. You're watching Jimmy and Sarah search the park's yard... Oh crap, they're looking UNDER trailers now, and they're about to look under the Kankers'!!

Just as they're kneeling down, Lee kicks the trailer door open.

"Okay, just what are you two doing out here?" she demands, pointing inside with a thumb, "We can all see you obsessing over every little detail out here, through the window..." she lowers her thumb, folding her arms, "You lose something, or you just trying to bug the neighbors? Trust me, last thing we need's you two setting off ol' Carl, over there."

"Have you seen Claire?" Sarah demands.

"The little blonde twerp; why, she in trouble or something?"

"You bet she is! She's been lying about not taking that stupid BCAA stuff anymore!"

"So? If it's her body, it's her choice, ain't it? If something happens to her, it's her own fault."

"She better hopes it makes something happen to her, before we find her, 'cause when I get my hands on that lying little...!! Did you see her, or not?!"

"Calm down, we haven't seen the squirt anywhere near here."

You feel a lump in your throat, but you dare not swallow and let the sound give you away to everyone. Too late, Jimmy just peered under the trailer.

"I found the slippery rascal, Sarah!!"

Jimmy dives in under you, but you back out quickly and take off in the direction that the trailer's backside faces. Sarah and Jimmy look past the trailer and toward you.

"You're making it a whole lot worse!!" Sarah snarls.

"Jeez, those three are sometimes crazier than our men..." Lee sighs.

She goes back inside the trailer, likely to relay the insane shenanigans of your own trio, just now. You run as Sarah and Jimmy follow, and continue yelling at you, while they chase you into Rolf's farm yard. You burst through the fence gate, Jimmy pushes the door open next, and Sarah LITERALLY smashes through the darn thing after it recloses.

Rolf instantly snaps his surprised attention toward the three of you, as you all run around his moving tractor. He's yelling at you all to not foolishly stand in front of his moving vehicle; while you're more focused on escaping your pursuers, and Sarah and Jimmy are more focused on catching you.

You're running all throughout Rolf's yard, much to his vocal dismay. Your latest dodge attempt of Sarah and Jimmy lands you onto Rolf's goat, Victor, and the critter carries you to freedom. Forget being on the "lamb" instead... Rolf yells at you to return his goat, but you don't really have much choice: Victor is freaked out and charging forward, with you riding on his back. Jimmy is riding someone else himself, for extra speed: Sarah, and spite/anger is motivating her to run at a very fast rate after you. She's clearly HAD it with chasing you every which way, as if it wasn't bad enough you lied to her and Jimmy.

You plow into a passing Jonny, who only had a few moments to notice Victor charging toward him. You fly off the goat, as the two fall onto the ground, and you suddenly find yourself traveling by the air. Well, that's one way to flee the Cul-De-Sac, even if you have no idea where to. Sarah and Jimmy aren't deterred, though, they're running toward where they believe you'll land. You eventually land in the trees of the nearby forest. You slide through the branches and land onto the ground. You quickly regain yourself and run, having a strong feeling that's not the last you'll be seeing of your pursuers, given how relentless your two friends can get.

The sun sets, and the sky turns dark. You're still running, but now you're lost in the woods, somewhat. You've been running for a while, and you're exhausted. You need to find somewhere to rest, and soon.

*****

It's gotten so dark outside, and you're still alone in the woods. You can barely see anything, and you're worried you'll stumble upon some weird creep or something, all the way out here and so late. You try to keep going, but you're too tired to move any farther.

Jeez, just how long have you been travelling for? Wouldn't Sarah and Jimmy have caught up to you by now? Then again, maybe they made a mistake in predicting your landing location, or these woods proved too vast for even the year-long residents to navigate effectively.

You sit down on a log, and lean against it. Your body is so sore from all the running, and you're starting to feel sick. You should have just stayed off those stupid supplements, then this whole thing would've never happened! Your heart won't stop racing, you've got a headache now-- because stress ALWAYS makes a BCAA-induced crash all the better! --and you're more exhausted than ever. You're also starving, but good luck eating anything with the increased nausea.

Still, your stomach growls, and you realize you haven't eaten since breakfast today. That was a bad decision, and you know it. Now you're paying the price-- paying the price for it ALL. You sigh, and look around. There's nothing here, and you don't think there's anywhere to sleep, either. Maybe you could curl up under a tree and wait until morning? It's a good thing the Summer air isn't all that cold, even during the night.

Suddenly, you hear a rustling sound. Something is moving in the bushes. You freeze, and listen intently.

"CLAIRE, YOU FATHEADED JERK!!!" Sarah's voice roars.

She goes flying from the foliage-- RIGHT TOWARD YOU!! She hits you like a cannon ball. She doesn't just hit you with her body, but her fists. Your tired body can only think to hold up its arms defensively.

"That's it, Sarah!" Jimmy emerges from the bush and hurries over, standing over you, "Give her the ol', 'One-Two' punch!" he then kneels beside you, during your received assault, "If you think THIS is bad, just wait until you see what I have in store for you afterward, you troublesome cad..."

Eventually, Sarah feels satisfied and she's unleashed all of her pent up rage that you caused. You lie on the ground, sobbing. You're not crying because Sarah battered and bruised you, but from the stress of EVERYTHING that happened today and what was to come: Jimmy's brand of retribution, Skyler undoubtedly waiting to ground you, the stress of being chased down by Sarah and Jimmy, the physical distress caused by your supplements, and so forth. Sarah sighs and sits beside you, while Jimmy sits across from her and on your other side. You continue sobbing, and you're not the ONLY saddened one: Sarah actually had teary eyes this entire time, and Jimmy also appears upset.

"Oh, be quiet..." Sarah huffs, "You don't have anyone to blame, but yourself... Just... Why do you do this to us?! Don't we ALREADY have to worry about losing you, when you're not popping some stupid pills that we told you not to?! Just because YOU don't care about yourself, doesn't mean no one else cares whether you're dead or not!"

A tad ironic to give a spiel about your well-being, seeing as she's why you're more bruised than a dropped apple. Then again, you can't exactly bring yourself to blame her, though.

"I'm sorry," you whimper, "I never wanna upset you guys, or the others..."

"Well, you did!" Sarah snaps back, "You do, every time you decide to do something that can or does end up hurting you! For crying out loud, is it so hard to ask that you LISTEN to us, for once?!"

"But I-"

"Enough of your empty words, Missy!" Jimmy shouts, "It's clear you simply can't be trusted with anything, whatsoever! No wonder Skyler asks for help in watching you, like the hapless infant you are!"

"But what good's HIS concern-- or ours, I guess --when you ALWAYS just throw it back in our faces?!" Sarah growls, "And for what: just for some slightly bigger muscles, or because naps are CLEARLY too hard for you to do? It's called, 'protein' and 'coffee,' you idiot!! It's not like those stupid pills are your only option!"

"I-I'm sorry," you sob, "th-they just seemed so faster and more effective..."

"Yes, at inducing cardiac arrest!" Jimmy huffs, "Or, have you forgotten about your gasping and chest-clutching that one time? I can't believe you'd be fine with scaring us a second time, in such a devastating manner!"

"Honestly, Claire," Sarah huffs, "why do we even bother with you, sometimes?! It seems like no matter what we do, you're just intent on doing whatever you can to get some kind of early grave..."

"No, i-it wasn't done for the sake of self-harm," you plead, "I-I really liked the effects BCAA had on my body... You know I like to be masculine, like large muscles..."

"Yeah, but it still counts when you don't care that something IS hurting you!" Sarah snarls.

"Besides," Jimmy adds, "we all know you'd consider a potential, life-ending heart attack as another 'bonus' from your precious BCAA's, wouldn't you?"

You go back to sobbing, as you can't deny the risk of heart failure as another pill "advantage," over the likes of coffee or protein drinks.

"So, why do you keep going back to this nonsense, then?" Jimmy demands, "Why do you think we should waste any further time with you, Claire? Why do you think we should give you ANY consideration, ever again, when it'll apparently be for naught, and everything said completely ignored by you?"

You fall silent, as you have no answer. Why SHOULD anyone be concerned about you or try to dissuade you from self-destruction, if you can't bring about any concern for your own self and life? No matter how good you currently have it, your mind always reminds you why you deserve to die and that it's probably better for you, over all.

You'd just be ticking timebomb for anyone who got invested in you. You likely could only offer someone eventual grief in the end. You sniffle, defeatedly staring at your toes, as you lie on your back.

"... I suppose the answer is that we've gotten too attached, to just let you go NOW." Jimmy finally sighs, "A foolish reason, when we could learn to just cut ties and move on from such madness; but a reason, nonetheless."

"Yeah..." Sarah agrees, resting her chin in a hand, "Besides, you always stick by US, even when I end up falling back into old habits myself..." she overlooks your bruises, hoping she hadn't roughed you up too badly, "We'd be a real set of fatheads, if we expected you to be there for US when we needed it, but we just threw YOU away when YOU'RE the miserable one..." She furrows her brow, "But enough's enough, got it?! It's high time you take your health and everything more seriously, and that starts by not letting this stupid brain of yours--" she presses a finger into your forehead, "--hold you back from enjoying life and convince you to make stupid choices."

"But, I'm not sure I can change," you whimper, "M-Maybe it would be better, if you guys just forg--"

"--I'm afraid of being someone that can't change, either, Claire..." Sarah sighs, "Most of my life, my parents spoiled me and let me turn into a real... Jeez, I don't even know if a 'C-U-Next-Tuesday' is the right word for it. But, you don't see ME welcoming death and thinking the whole place'd be better for it!" She crosses her arms, "Of course, it's something I had to decide on myself, since no one else could make me want to change. It's the same for you, Claire: we can't force you to do anything. We can't make you feel differently about yourself, or stop you from wanting to hurt yourself. Only you can do that, Claire."

"And, if you don't want to change," Jimmy adds, "then there's nothing we can do to help you. If you choose to continue down this path, then we might actually have to find the strength to say goodbye, before we have to say our farewells in a more painful and morbid manner..." He looks at you, "It's obvious you're of regrets, Claire, and you don't want to repeat them. That's enough of a reason for someone to try and change themselves for the better. So, if you have the reason to want change, why not take it then?"

"It doesn't erase what I've done, though..." You sniffle, "It doesn't even fix those problems..."

"So, quit worrying about it, then!" Sarah huffs, "You just said there's nothing you can do about it all anymore, so why worry about it like it's some current problem you have to solve? You just said, you can't actually 'fix' things anymore!"

"Well, yes..." You frown, "But, I still need to face up to my mistakes, somehow..."

"Then, you should do whatever you can and make amends," Jimmy says, "If you can't undo them, then you can at least apologize for them. And, if you can't apologize, then you can at least make peace with them. Maybe, if you can't forgive them, then maybe you can at least forget them."

"That's easier said than done," you sigh, "especially when it's bad to just 'forget,' 'cause then you do it again."

"Clearly, I mean 'forget' in the sense of evading self-torment, than in a literal sense..." Jimmy rolls his eyes, "Then again, you CAN be of a simpler mind, so I suppose I WOULD need to be more specific."

"But how do you remember, without rightfully tormenting yourself?" You ask.

"I'm not sure that's something Sarah and I can explain to you," Jimmy says, "but I think you should just focus on doing what you can, instead of dwelling on what you can't. It's not like you can go back in time and fix anything, just as Sarah said. All you can do is move forward from here, and hope for the best."

"What if I mess up, though?" You ask.

"Then, you'll learn from your mistake, and hopefully, you won't repeat it," Jimmy replies, "Now, let's go back home. Skyler's likely concerned about you. Hopefully, he won't mind the roughness you invited from Sarah... Then again, she likely did you a favor, as perhaps he won't punish you himself, if Sarah already took care of that~," he then slyly smiles, "But, you'll still have MY retribution to face, regardless."

Speaking of her, the redhead carries you back, bridal style, and Jimmy walks beside you both.

"Hey..." Sarah faintly whispers, "Just remember that we love you, okay...? I also need your help, if I'm going to change for the better myself. It's harder to beat the snot out of everything and scream up a storm, if you're there to be scared by it, y'know. I'll help you be better, if you keep helping me."

"O-Okay..." you sniffle.

You're too tired to do much else, and just lay in her arms. They can tell, and smile at your drifting state.

"Good night, Claire," Sarah says softly, "Sleep tight."

You nod and let your head hang afterward.

"Sweet dreams, Claire," Jimmy says.

You feel him pet your head. You don't really recall much else of that night, as you fell fast asleep; but hopefully, things would be better tomorrow-- including your abilities at maintaining promises.

{The End}

-----

Author's notes:

I'll admit, I practiced using Novel AI for this; however, ONLY for the rough draft, not the final version you see before you-- and even then, I only turned to the AI whenever I had no idea what to write next. Let me make something perfectly clear: you are no less of a writer nor creator, if you utilize an AI's help. Now, if you're trying to pass off work COMPLETELY done by an AI as your own, you're definitely worthy of personal shame and indeed a failure then.

I mean, Novel AI is designed to help out writers, like me, right? So, why not see what inspiration I can work off of, or even let it include a sentence or two that actually fits well? Trust me, though, when I say you still gotta worry about characters acting like themselves and talking like themselves, or other things an AI can't replicate as well. So, yeah, don't be afraid to use AI tools, just don't go around claiming the work as entirely your own.

Also, this is NOT the same Claire you may be used to: the small girl that's a wolf-hybrid. No, this is an alternate Claire. This is also the version of Claire that'll be replicated in the "Assassin AU" fan comic series of EEnE I'm planning. Hey, practice goes beyond just the art of making words form a coherent story. So, yeah, hope you enjoyed, those of you simply looking for an EEnE fan fiction. And, hope you found something to speak on, if you felt a need to let your inner critic out instead. Hopefully, this can also encourage others to take a shine to my means of writing, 'cause I AM planning on creating comics, and thus involve a LOT of writing.

----

OTHER writing practices:

Seaside Squabbles! (Digimon)

#ed edd n eddy #fanfiction #sarah #jimmy #nazz #kevin #ocs and cannon #depression #novel ai #writing practice #opinions welcome #literature #short story #fiction

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searidings · 3 years

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hi, i just love you and your writing

can i suggest something - you are in love (taylor swift) and supercorp

i cannot listen to that song without going yeah, that's them

(also on ao3 if you prefer)

Five years from now, Kara is going to reach across the table at Noonan's and take her hand. She's going to look deep into Lena's eyes, biting her lip as her thumb rubs gentle circles into Lena's palm, and her voice will barely rise above a whisper when she asks, “When did you know?”

And when she does, five years from now, Lena will think back to this moment.

This moment, which is as close as Lena's come to happiness since she'd woken up ziptied to a chair in her brother's office. This moment which, despite the fuzzy feeling of her unbrushed teeth and the pungent aroma of burnt toast filling the air, is perfect.

Kara, bed-warm and sleep-heavy, is gazing beseechingly down at the charred remains of a slice of a bread as though if she only pouts hard enough, its edges will un-blacken and its corners will stop smoking.

“I'm so sorry,” she says as Lena rounds the screen separating Kara's bedroom from the rest of the apartment and perches herself on a barstool, tugging her borrowed sleep shorts a little lower down her thighs.

Kara's tone is mournful, her face so forlorn she looks to be one deep breath away from tears. “I wanted breakfast to be perfect, since it's your first time staying over and if it's terrible you might not want to stay again and I, I really want you to stay again, but I don't know why you would since you probably have a private chef waiting for you at home and I can’t even manage toast—”

“Kara,” Lena interrupts, biting at the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing as Kara's bottom lip trembles. “It's fine, really. I once set fire to my dorm kitchen trying to boil an egg. And besides,” she winks as blue eyes meet hers. “I like to give my personal chef the weekends off.”

Kara huffs out a relieved chuckle, her face brightening. “Oh, well, in that case,” she grins, a sparkle returning to her eyes. “I'd better feed you up before you go home. Never let it be said that I don't look after you.”

Lena can't help the smile that pulls at her as the warm bright feeling in her chest grows and grows. She tugs the sleeves of Kara's sweatshirt over her hands, fighting the urge to fidget as the blonde orders a frankly obscene amount of food from the brunch place on the corner.

She feels exposed like this, face bare and hair sleep-mussed, unshowered with unbrushed teeth, huddled inside borrowed clothes after the impromptu invitation to stay over when last night's movie marathon ran late. It's a far cry from the regimented composure she fights so hard every day to project, and something in her chest twists anxiously.

Kara is a reporter, after all, and National City really doesn't need any more reasons to hate Lena right now. The darkest corner of her mind – the one which has been waiting for the other shoe to drop, for everything to come crashing down ever since the whirlwind of Kara's too-good-to-be-true friendship had come blazing into her life – still worries that this may all be an elaborate ruse. A trap, a way to get close to her in order to assess her weaknesses, to bring her down with an inside scoop.

But in their six months of friendship, Kara's never given her any reason to believe she has any kind of ulterior motive. And despite the suspicions and anxieties hammered into her by a lifetime of hurt, Lena knows now that even if this is a trap, she'll take the bait willingly. Especially if it means Kara will keep looking at her like there might just be something in Lena that's worth her time.

"Hey,” the blonde says gently, leaning back against the counter opposite and pinning Lena with a searching look. “You okay? You kind of zoned out on me there.”

Lena jumps, blinking back into herself with a start. “Yes, sorry. I was miles away.”

The blonde only smiles, flicking on the coffee machine at her elbow. “You sleep okay?”

“Very well, thank you,” Lena answers, fighting to lessen the formality of her tone, to soften the edges her harsh childhood had sharpened into a fortress to keep the world at bay. “Your bed is surprisingly comfortable. I had a great night's sleep.”

"Perhaps the company had something to do with it,” Kara winks as she turns to pull two mugs down from the hooks at her shoulder. Lena thinks back to the smell of Kara's sheets and the soft pulls of her breathing, to the warmth of Kara's ankle against her calf and the strong fingers that had wrapped themselves in the sleeve of Lena's sweatshirt in sleep, anchoring them together. She blushes.

Kara only smirks, pouring their drinks and grabbing the milk from the fridge. “Well, the food's all ordered, it should be here soon,” she says over her shoulder, the waterfall of her golden ponytail mesmerising in the bright rays of morning light filtering in through the vaulted windows. “And you don't need to head off in a hurry, unless you have plans—?”

She glances back at Lena, who shakes her head. “Great!” she grins. “’Cause I was thinking, maybe we could check out the botanical gardens, since it's such a nice day? Oh, and there's a new bakery right across the street that I've been dying to try—”

Lena listens to the blonde's excited rambling with an endeared smile plastered to her face, feeling happy and warm and wanted with every fibre of her being. The feeling is new but so welcome she could cry, and Lena wonders – not for the first time – how she ever got so lucky.

Kara's presence in her life is like sugar in her coffee; meant only to sweeten that which has always been bitter.

Lena's always taken her coffee black. Softening the blow was never much her style.

But here, now, perched at Kara's breakfast bar with her hands wrapped around a steaming mug the blonde has brewed to perfection, sunlight streaming in and highlighting the angles and planes of Kara's face, the way she’s smiling at Lena like there's nowhere else in the world she'd rather be, she realises her reasoning is twofold.

Sugar isn't just appetising. It's addictive. And now that Lena's had a taste of sweetness, she's hooked.

In this moment, Lena knows. She's in love.

Four years from now, Kara is going to reach across the table at Noonan's and take her hand. She's going to look deep into Lena's eyes, biting her lip as her thumb rubs gentle circles into Lena's palm, and her voice will barely rise above a whisper when she asks, “When did you know?”

And when she does, four years from now, Lena will also think back to this moment.

This moment, which may well be one of the lowest of Lena's life. And she's had some doozies.

The two bottles of wine she'd managed to mainline between Sam leaving to orchestrate damage control at L-Corp and Kara arriving and attempting to confiscate her glass have well and truly caught up to her now. She sways heavily on her stool, the room spinning. Tears sting her vision and guilt scorches her throat as she presses a hand over her eyes so she won't have to look at Kara's face anymore.

“Please, just— just, stop believing in me, okay?” she slurs, heart full to shattering with the faces of lead-poisoned children. “I am not worth it.”

She hears Kara sigh, and the room falls silent for a long long time. Lena drops her head fully into her hands, fighting the nausea that's taken root in the pit of her stomach. It could be the booze that's causing it, of course, but it could also be the incessant headlines baying for her blood, the bullet James had taken for her that she'd fully deserved, the curse of her family finally fulfilling itself.

The guilt, the worry, the crushing disappointment of the knowledge that despite her very best efforts, she'll never be anything but a monster— it's too much to feel. It's too much to bear.

So, Lena drinks.

She drains her glass. She pours another. Kara watches, silent and disapproving, fingers twitching against the granite countertop between them.

Lena finishes her glass. Splashes the last dregs of the bottle into it, blood on ice. Still Kara watches, motionless and mute. It's only when Lena's swallowed the last of the red and is lurching unsteadily to her feet to source another that she moves, a hand reaching out to encircle her wrist.

Shame ignites beneath her skin and she pushes Kara away. Snaps at her to go home, to learn to recognise a lost cause when she sees one and just give up already. Kara refuses with a stoic shake of her head, and Lena sighs.

They repeat the same routine three times en route to Sam's wine rack, the blonde shadowing her every step. Each time, Lena wobbles, head fuzzy and room spinning. Each time, Kara steadies her, and Lena flinches from her touch like her palm is a brand, snarls at her to leave, to cut her losses, to just fuck off. Each time, Kara refuses.

She eventually retrieves the wine after a number of unsuccessful attempts but overbalances on her toes, bottle slipping from her grip as she sways dangerously. And then Kara is there, glass bottle caught a split second before it can shatter, a firm arm at her waist that will not be rebuffed.

Lena struggles, shoving and protesting, but this time Kara does not give in. “Enough,” she says quietly, firmly, blue eyes burning a mere inch from Lena's own. “Lena, enough.”

Lena's unsteady legs buckle further and Kara’s basically holding her up now, walking her slowly over to the couch and she shouldn't be this strong, surely, shouldn't be lifting Lena onto the cushions quite this easily. But it's such a minor concern when weighted against the fact that Lena is personally responsible for the hospitalisation of children that her mind brushes over it, forgets it immediately.

"Please go home,” she slurs as the blonde arranges her on the couch, as she stashes the unopened wine far out of reach and sets about finding blankets and pillows in various cupboards. “Please, just— leave me alone.”

“No,” Kara says, almost snaps, glancing back over her shoulder. Partially hidden in the linen cupboard, her face is cast deep in shadow, a splinter of half-concealed truth. “I made you a promise, I gave you my word. I'm your friend, and I will protect you. Always.”

She crosses back to the couch, soft blankets and pillows held out in invitation. When Lena refuses the offering Kara sighs, draping a knitted throw over her anyway and perching on the cushions beside Lena's hip. “I'm not going to leave you, so you might as well stop asking,” she hums, softer now, a hand reaching toward her that Lena no longer possesses the strength or coordination to bat away.

Long fingers make contact with her cheek, with the mussed curls tangling in her eyelashes, and Kara sighs. “You are not your brother,” she murmurs, fingertips grazing Lena's cheekbone, sliding back to thread into the fine hair at her temple. “And you never will be. There's too much light in you to allow for that kind of darkness, so put that fear down, Lena. Let it go. Be free of it.”

Tears spring unbidden to her eyes. “I poisoned children.”

Kara tilts forward and Lena wonders if it's just that her vision has upped its spinning, but then warm lips are pressing against her forehead, soft and delicate as gossamer wings. Kara's mouth moves against her skin, breath damp and sweet and unmistakeably her. “You saved the world.”

Neither one of them moves. When Lena speaks again, the words hit the elegant hollow of Kara's throat. “I don't deserve your kindness. I don't deserve you.”

Kara's lips are still on her forehead. “I don't care.”

Lena feels as if her throat is splitting open, every last fear and hatred and worry and insecurity gushing out of her in an unstoppable stream. “I'm scared.”

“I know.” Kara's lips press once more, and then withdraw. They watch each other in the dim light from the kitchen. Lena's vision is beginning to blur at the edges. Kara's hand is still in her hair.

“You will get through this,” the blonde whispers, so earnest Lena almost manages to believe her. “We'll figure it out. Together.”

Heart in her mouth, tongue sticking behind her teeth, Lena's eyes slide closed.

The sweetness of Kara's words, her gentle touches, seep inside her like honey. She doesn't deserve it but God, she wants it. She wants to be worthy of Kara's faith in her more than she's ever wanted anything in her life. She wants Kara more than she's ever wanted anything in her life.

And it's telling, she knows, that she's just lost the trust of all of National City, that she has no way of easing those children's suffering and no way to prove that she isn't the cause of it, that she's finally living up to the Luthor name she's been running from ever since she'd learned what it truly meant and yet in this moment, with Kara's hand in her hair and the ghostly imprint of her lips on Lena's skin, none of it seems to matter.

In this moment, Lena knows. She's in love.

Three years from now, Kara is going to reach across the table at Noonan's and take her hand. She's going to look deep into Lena's eyes, biting her lip as her thumb rubs gentle circles into Lena's palm, and her voice will barely rise above a whisper when she asks, “When did you know?”

And when she does, three years from now, Lena will also think back to this moment.

This moment, which stands alone as an oasis of calm in the turbulent tumult of the past days, weeks, months of chaos. Lex's escape from custody, Eve Teschmacher's betrayal, James’ shooting, the Harun-El serum, the whole shitty totality of it all has been weighing Lena down like an nth metal chain around her neck.

And Kara, Kara hasn't been around. The one person who has always managed to ease Lena's suffering has deserted her when she needs her the most and it feels like she's been sliced open, cracked in two.

She tells her as much, when Kara at last comes to see her. Tells her she's missed her, tells her she needs her, all but begs her to stay. And what does Kara do? She leaves.

And when she leaves, Lena is gripped by a panic so intense she fears she may never breathe freely again. So terrified is she that Kara is gone for good, that she's forced away the best thing that's ever happened to her, that almost before she knows what's happening she finds herself at Catco with apologies dripping from her own tongue.

Anything to get Kara back. Anything to keep her.

Lena apologises. Kara apologises. Lena cries, and Kara holds her, and tells her that the decision to help her brother when he was dying of cancer doesn't make her the monster she now believes herself to be. And standing on her office balcony with Kara's fingers wrapped around her biceps, with her own tears spotting dark on Kara's blazer, Lena manages to believe her.

When she's collected herself, smoothed away the wetness coursing down her cheeks, she speaks. “I really want to help you with your investigation on Lex.”

Kara's face lights up; Lena's whole world along with it.

“I'd love that,” Kara says, voice quiet and still a little tentative in the wake of their new truce. “But first— would you, um. Would you like to have lunch with me?”

Lena blinks. “Don't you want to get started on the exposé?”

“I do. But—” Kara's face is still painted that earnest shade from earlier, when she'd smoothed her hands over Lena's shoulders and whispered you are a brilliant, kind-hearted, beautiful soul against the sensitive skin of her neck. Lena feels her cheeks heat up at the memory, at the intensity in the blue eyes still roving her face.

Kara shuffles her feet but her gaze is clear, unwavering. “But you were right. I've spent too much time recently prioritising the wrong things. So, I want to work on this exposé with you, and I want to bring your brother down. But first, I'd really just like to have lunch with my best friend.”

Lena's heart trips in her chest. “I'd like that too.”

So, that's what they do. Kara asks her to wait, which she does, idly tapping out a few emails on her phone. And then the blonde is back, far quicker than should have been possible, with her arms full of takeout bags from the café on the third floor and she's taking Lena by the hand and leading her to Cat Grant's private elevator. She presses the button for the roof and Lena's gaze jumps to her face but Kara only smiles, and squeezes her fingers. “Trust me, it'll be worth it,” she hums, her excitement infectious. “You'll be safe with me.”

And Lena believes her.

That's how she ends up sitting at the edge of Catco's roof on a clean sheet Kara had borrowed from the builders on the second floor, heels kicked off, Kara's red blazer draped around her shoulders. It is worth it, she'll admit; the view from this high is phenomenal. The sun burns bright in a cloudless sky, glinting off the glass-sided skyscrapers of the business district, the glittering waters of the bay beyond.

Kara had picked up Lena's favourite salad, some flatbreads and dips, and they drink kombucha and eat strawberries in the sunshine. They talk and they laugh and they catch up and there's no more fighting, no animosity, no megalomaniac brothers or backstabbing secretaries or worlds needing to be saved. There's only them, she and Kara, and it feels like all she will ever need.

The blonde's hands are braced behind her on the rooftop and she looks happy and carefree as she regales Lena with stories of her upstairs neighbour's antics, and Lena feels the tight knot of tension that had taken up residence in her chest begin to unfurl.

"Hey,” Kara hums, pushing up straighter as Lena licks strawberry juice from her fingertips. The motion brings them closer, their shoulders brushing. “Look up.”

Lena does. High above them, a huge murmuration of starlings whirls and swoops through the air. Thousands of birds move together as one, a vast wave cresting but never breaking against the blue canvass of sky.

“Wow,” Lena gasps, awed.

Against her side, Kara hums. “Yeah.”

They watch the birds for a long moment, captivated by the ceaseless swirling and diving. When Lena at last tears her gaze away from the sky, Kara's eyes rest intently on her face. "Here,” the blonde murmurs, reaching out. The pad of one finger makes feather-light contact with her cheek. Lena's breath catches in her chest.

Kara holds out her finger, proffering the stray eyelash she'd captured with a smile. "Make a wish,” she whispers, her fingertip an inch from Lena's mouth. Her eyes never leave Lena’s.

Lena looks from Kara's face to the eyelash, and back again. From somewhere deep inside her heart, the truth bubbles its way to the surface. “I don't need to.”

Kara smiles, a brilliant, beautiful smile, and Lena knows. The stresses and anxieties of their current crisis feel far away here, harmless as birdsong. She's meted out forgiveness, received it in return. For the first time in her adult life Lena has communicated an issue with a loved one and been heard, understood. She has admitted her own mistake without having it spell out the end of her relationship.

Lena smiles back. The weight of the world sublimates into nothing beneath the bliss of a simple picnic in the sun.

In this moment, Lena knows. She's in love.

Two years from now, Kara is going to reach across the table at Noonan's and take her hand. She's going to look deep into Lena's eyes, biting her lip as her thumb rubs gentle circles into Lena's palm, and her voice will barely rise above a whisper when she asks, “When did you know?”

And when she does, two years from now, Lena will think back to this moment.

This moment, which has sapped the both of them to the bone. Another fight, another screaming match, another quick-fire back and forth of accusations and recriminations. Another night of cursing and crying and choking on all the things they never said before this, on all the things they can't now that Kara's secret has detonated in the shrinking space between them like a nuclear bomb.

Another round of bloodshed, and for what?

Lena sags against the arm of the couch, exhausted. Her face is hot, scratchy with salt from the tears still drying on her skin. She's dehydrated, probably, and half hoarse from shouting, tongue blistered with the bitter sting of betrayal.

Across the no man's land of her living room, Kara slumps against the floor-length windows, drops her temple to the cool glass. She's breathing heavily, cheeks wet, posture battered and eyes dark-bruised beneath the force of Lena's wrath. As Lena watches, her eyes slide closed.

It's been three months since Lena found out. Three weeks since Kara found out that Lena had found out.

Every night since, they've done this. Every night, Kara has shown up on her balcony and begged, pleaded, apologised, cajoled, defended, rebuffed, and sobbed. Every night, Lena has unleashed the hollow agony of Kara's deception masquerading as anger in her chest, incinerating the both of them in the fires of her desolation.

She would have expected the wounds to have cauterised by now. To feel some kind of release, the relief of catharsis. Or at least, to have expended some of her fury after all this time.

She hasn't.

They've been at this for three hours already this evening, and gotten nowhere. Kara's skin is pale above that fucking supersuit, face drawn and complexion sallow.

Lena knows how she feels. The singular exhaustion that is her rift with Kara has sapped her in every way imaginable. She can't sleep. She barely eats. She's no longer interested in work, research, friends. There's nothing in her life that isn't tainted by the shadow of the lies her best friend told and kept telling, every day for four years. Lena doesn't know how any amount of screaming and crying is ever going to get them past that.

Across the room, Kara sighs. It might be the saddest sound Lena has ever heard.

“Should we keep doing this?” she asks after an interminable silence, voice rough with tears still building. Her eyes are still closed.

Lena manages, with exorbitant effort, to raise her drooping head. “What?”

“Is there a point to all this?” Kara asks quietly, hunched body sliding a little further down the glass. "The explanations, the fighting?”

Blue eyes blink open. The weight of the sadness in them is unbearable. Lena struggles to find it within herself to care.

“Lying to you about who I am is the single biggest mistake I have ever made, and if it will make even one single shred of difference I will apologise to you every day for as long as I live,” Kara says into the aching chasm between them. “But I can't keep doing this. Not if it won't change anything. I can't— I don't want to keep hurting you.”

An hour ago, Lena would have scoffed at a sentiment like that. Would have parried back with some piercingly dry comment about how the blonde should have thought about that before she decided to betray Lena's trust as soundly as she possibly could.

Now, though— now, she's just too tired.

“So, should we keep doing this?” Kara whispers, throat working. “Or— God, Lena. Should we just— should we give up?”

Green eyes meet blue, two shattered hearts haemorrhaging between them. “Is that what you want?”

“No.” Kara's voice is loud, fiercely determined in the face of Lena's hesitant whisper. “God, no. Never. I don't ever want to give up on you, Lena. I don't ever want to give you up.”

Kara straightens then, with a strength Lena cannot imagine mustering herself. Perks of being a superhero, she supposes. Perks of being Kryptonian. The thought stakes another shard of ice through her bleeding heart.

“But I know that I've spent four years calling the shots for both of us by keeping you in the dark,” Kara continues. “I've taken away your agency. I've taken away your choice. I won't do that again.”

She sucks in a deep breath, a little of Supergirl's regality seeping back into the defeated slump of her shoulders. “So, I'm doing what I should have done from the start. I'm being honest with you, and hoping that you'll be honest back. I'm asking what you want.”

Kara's fingers twist anxiously before her, bottom lip bleaching white beneath the nervous pressure of her teeth. “Do you think we should keep doing this? Or do you— fuck.” Her voice cracks, the tears brimming in her eyes once again breaking free. “Do you want to give up?”

Jesus Christ. Lena never knew that the prospect of doing the right thing could hurt so much.

“Fuck,” she mutters as she kneads her knuckles over her closed eyelids, digging in until white lights starburst across her vision. “Fuck, Kara.”

“I know,” the blonde whispers from across the room, brittle and broken. “I know. I'm sorry.”

Lena slows her assault on her own eyelids, pinching thumb and forefinger hard at the bridge of her nose instead. “I want to give up,” she mutters, and in the taut silence between them she hears the blonde gasp, watery and thick.

Lena blinks open her eyes to find Kara's face crumpling, every facet of her seeming to fold in on itself even as she visibly fights to keep herself upright.

Lena sighs, and hates Kara, and hates herself even more. “I want to, but— I can't.” She sucks in a ragged breath, hating the truth that's just fallen from her lips, hating the lies that had necessitated it. Hating everything and everyone and most of all, hating just how much she's hurting. “I can't give this up.”

The tiniest spark of hope flares to life in Kara's eyes. Lena hates that she notices, hates that she cares, hates that the sight eases the tight knot of devastation clawing at her ribcage just the tiniest bit.

She also knows that this was inevitable. She knows that, though she hates Kara, though she's nowhere close to forgiving her, though she has no idea how they can rebuild from here or even if she truly wants to try, a question like Kara's could only ever have one answer.

In this moment, Lena knows. She's in love.

One year from now, Kara is going to reach across the table at Noonan's and take her hand. She's going to look deep into Lena's eyes, biting her lip as her thumb rubs gentle circles into Lena's palm, and her voice will barely rise above a whisper when she asks, “When did you know?”

And when she does, one year from now, Lena will also think back to this moment.

This moment, which is barely even a moment at all. It's more like a dream, warm and faded and fogged in darkness, seconds stolen when sleep should have long since claimed them.

Kara's nightmare had woken them both. In the month since they'd pulled her out of the Phantom Zone, she hadn't slept alone once. Often, she stays with Alex, curling into her sister's side the way she would when they were just kids after one too many late-night horror movies. Once, she stays with Nia, tucked up snug in a borrowed pair of puppy print pyjamas.

Mostly, she stays with Lena. It's natural and unspoken and easy as breathing, the way Kara will show up at her place after a Supergirl save or Lena will let herself into the blonde's apartment after a late night in the lab. They cook dinner and watch Celebrity Masterchef and brush their teeth elbow to elbow at the bathroom sink and when Kara is inevitably tugged screaming and sobbing from her night terrors, the way she presses her face to Lena's neck and her hand over Lena's heart is natural and unspoken and easy as breathing, too.

Kara's racing pulse has calmed a little, her grip on Lena's body beneath her losing some of its urgent desperation. After a long moment of Lena's hand stroking her hair, of gentle reassurances and lips pressed to her temple the blonde pulls back, just enough to rest her head on the pillow facing her.

In the dim light filtering in through the bedroom window Kara's pupils are blown, her face solemn. There's something in her heavy gaze that Lena can't identify; something weighted and potent that prickles goosebumps up the length of her spine.

"Feeling better?” she whispers into the inch of warm air between them, reaching out to tuck a sweat-matted curl reverently behind the blonde's ear.

Kara catches her retreating hand and holds tight, twining their fingers together on the narrow swathe of pillow between them. If either of them were to move so much as a millimetre, their clasped hands would press against their lips.

The blonde nods and sure enough, the soft heat of her mouth brushes the back of Lena's knuckles. She shivers.

Kara is still watching her, the intensity of her gaze causing Lena's heart to thud hard in her throat. She squeezes lightly at the fingers threaded through her own. “What?”

A pause, heavy and sweet as overripe fruit. Kara blinks once, slow. “You're my best friend.”

Lena swallows down a sudden swell of emotion. The blonde nudges closer and when she speaks, the wet seam of her lips catches on the angle of Lena's bent knuckles, painting her skin with the words.

“You're the most important person in the world to me,” Kara whispers, breaths skating fire-flashes across Lena's fingers, voice muffling out past the mouth pressed to her skin. “You know that, right?”

Lena's voice deserts her in the wake of the quiet words. She leans forward instead, presses her lips to Kara's fingertips where they rest against the back of her own hand. It's answer enough.

She hears Kara's breath catch, feels the disruption mirrored in her own chest. Both their mouths are pressed to the joined hands clasped between them. If they were to move their fingers down even just a fraction, there would be nothing separating their lips but a promise, a prayer.

Kara's eyelashes flutter in the semi-darkness. The tip of her nose brushes Lena's own. Neither one of them moves their hands.

They only gaze at one another a long moment, and Lena wonders if the blonde is memorising the planes of her face the way she's memorising Kara's. She could look at her forever, be happy here with her forever, and in this moment, Lena knows. She's in love.

For the first time, she wonders if she might not be the only one.

Right now, Kara is reaching across the table at Noonan's and taking Lena's hand.

It's been three weeks since they'd taken down Lex for the last time. Three weeks since Kara had stormed into the Tower's med bay to cup Lena's bloody, bruised face in her hands; since she'd brushed her thumbs feather-light over Lena's split eyebrow and purpling jaw and growled don't you ever scare me like that again. Three weeks since she'd leaned in and pressed her lips to Lena's.

It's been two weeks and six days since Lena, confined to a gurney but utterly uncaring thanks to the warm Kryptonian curled against her side, had pressed her aching face to Kara's shoulder and first whispered that she loved her. Two weeks and six days since Kara had first said it back.

It's been two weeks and five and a half days since Nia had walked in on Lena in Kara's arms, lips pressed to her neck and hands wandering beneath her sweatshirt, and promptly shrieked the place down. Since their friends had exchanged pointed glances and relieved sighs and congratulated them on finally making it official, their expressions ranging from overjoyed to exasperated to plain exhausted.

It's been two weeks and four days of she and Kara dating; of morning kisses and shared showers and the perfect partner at game night and all of Lena's wildest dreams coming true.

It's been less than a minute since Kara had admitted, hushed and wondering, that she'd known she was in love with Lena ever since she'd found herself suddenly prepared to poison National City's entire water supply rather than let Lena fall. That she hadn't been able to fully it admit it to herself until she'd found herself suddenly prepared to alter the course of all of history in order to get Lena back.

And right now, Kara is reaching across the table at Noonan's and taking her hand. She's looking deep into Lena's eyes, biting her lip as her thumb rubs gentle circles into Lena's palm, and her voice barely rises above a whisper when she asks, “When did you know?”

And now that she has, Lena is sure of her answer.

The highlight reel of her relationship with Kara lays itself at Lena's feet, each precious memory between them stretching out like a roadmap of her growing affection, with every hard-won step leading her right to this moment.

And in this moment, Lena knows. She's in love with Kara. Really, she always has been.

#sorry this took approximately 8932018207402 thousand years to materialise #if you've ever sent me a prompt and thought well fuck she's taking so long with this she's clearly forgotten about it i'm just here to say:#nope!#still here #unsure how inspired by the song this actually was in the end #it's either way too close to the lyrics or not close enough #who can say #but anyway yeah. supercorp song #thank your for the prompt and the lovely message! hope you like it #asks #anonymous #ridings writes #supercorp #supercorp fanfic #supergirl #lena luthor #kara danvers

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goonification · 3 years

Text

san/seonghwa/wooyoung

established!woosan playing with their favourite toy, seonghwa

(this is technically mostly sanhwa bc wooyoung likes to watch but he’s very much ateez present, don’t worry)

“Wow, Sannie look! He’s already hard.”

Seonghwa already was on his knees in front of San when Wooyoung pointed shamelessly at the growing bulge in Seonghwa’s boxers. It was the only article of clothing left to hide just how turned on he was. His thighs tightened and his hands dropped with shame as he tried to hide the obvious outline of hard cock in his underwear.

Wooyoung was casually cross-legged on the sidelines, as if he was merely watching them play video games and waiting his turn for the controller rather than about to witness his boyfriend get head from their mutual friend and occasional plaything. Wooyoung laughed loudly at Seonghwa's efforts. He was doing a terrible job at hiding the obvious.

“Aw, you’re right.” San peered down past Seonghwa’s blushing face and chest to gawk at the tenting folds of Seonghwa’s boxers. “Well, Hyung is just going to have to wait now, isn’t he?”

Cheeks rosy, Seonghwa nodded politely. His body slowly started to decompress as he eased into the feeling of being on display for them.

High off the prospect of getting his dick sucked while his boyfriend watched, a sleazy smirk was glued to San’s face. His t-shirt was only partially off, tucked behind his neck lazily and still attached to him at the sleeves. Seeing as he was otherwise fully dressed, it was obvious he was only trying to show off his abs with the impractical stunt. Wooyoung liked him best when he was cocky and San wasn’t one to deny his boyfriend a worthwhile show.

“It’s okay.” Wooyoung looked equally as cocky as he comforted Seonghwa, “San’s probably hard under there too.”

“Yeah?” Seonghwa spoke in barely a whisper, eyes innocent and wide as he redirected his attention directly in front of him to the in-seam of San’s jeans. The unforgiving fabric was tighter than usual. There was a gap between his body and the waist of his baggy pants that usually wasn’t there as they lifted away from his stomach.

Mindlessly, Seonghwa licked his lips before realizing how obvious he was being.

“Someone’s eager.” Wooyoung quipped through the drawl of his horny daze.

“Whenever you’re ready.” San looked down at Seonghwa’s desperation and threaded a strong hand through his hair for encouragement. “You know how much I like it when you unwrap me all by yourself.”

Shaky hands popped open the button of San’s pants. The sound of his fly being unzipped sent butterflies loose in the depths of Seonghwa’s stomach; the otherwise inconspicuous sound of a zipper was downright filthy given the context.

Next, Seonghwa pulled down on San’s belt loops with enough force for the fabric to clear the resistance of his bulge and leave San in only a loose pair of boxers.

They shared a warm exchange as Seonghwa peered up at San with already-damp eyes, savouring the last moment as himself before he was reduced to nothing but a hole for San to use. San pushed the hair out of Seonghwa’s face, preparing him for what was about to come.

Brain foggy, Seonghwa was thinking hard to decide how he would remove the last layer, trying to ignore the background noise of fabric shifting followed by soft moans. Wooyoung never was keen on patience.

“C’mon Hyung, you know San doesn’t like to be teased.” Wooyoung grunted out a warning, breath already wavering as he pleasured himself beneath his waistband.

“I’m pretty sure you just want to see my cock.” San wasted no time putting Wooyoung in his place, to which he simply groaned with pleasure at the insult.

San was interrupted from reveling in his boyfriend’s crudeness when he felt the chill of cold air across his cock. Seonghwa was carefully lifting the elastic waist of his boxer up and over the member before letting it pool at San’s legs.

All three of their breaths slowed down as they took in their own unique perspective on the scene. Seonghwa was face to head with San’s thick cock, veiny and already sticky at the tip for him. It wasn’t quite unfamiliar but the sight was still fresh and pleasantly shocking enough that it knocked the air right out of his lungs.

San’s ego was stroked to completion as he watched his Hyung’s reaction to his dick, breath hitching and eyes locked on to the head, leaking at the promise of Seonghwa’s soft lips soon to be wrapped around it.

Lastly, Wooyoung accompanied the sight of his boyfriend’s hard cock, inches away from a needy Seonghwa’s parted lips, with a greedy squeeze to his own aching balls, reminding himself of just how much he liked to watch.

His whiny voice impatiently cut through the tension in the room like a dull knife begging to be sharpened. “Go on. Don’t leave him waiting.”

“Shhh, Wooyoung.” San saw Seonghwa’s eyes glaze with panic and scolded his greedy boyfriend. “I want him to think for himself.”

“But you’re dripping.” Wooyoung winced when a weighty drop of San’s precum succumbed to gravity and hit the floor. To him it was a thoughtless waste.

“Hyung knows what he’s doing.” San tsked. He glared daggers at Wooyoung. “Do you want to be blindfolded? Because I’ll do it.”

The threat was plausible and hit him where it hurt. He loved watching almost as much as he loved being in the centre of the action. Wooyoung quickly shook his head no and made a zipping motion across his lips. The thought of having to get off from sounds and smell alone was torture. He would be quiet for now.

Well, as quiet as his body would let him be as he continued pleasuring himself.

Meanwhile, hot breath against San’s dick became hotter with each shallow puff from Seonghwa’s lungs.

“Can I?” Seonghwa looked up longingly at San, waiting for permission he knew he already had. He was stalling. His heart was racing and he wasn’t sure why.

“Of course, baby boy.” San cupped Seonghwa’s face. He softly swiped his thumb over one of his Hyung’s cheekbones, caressing the soft skin there. San couldn’t help imagining how pretty he would look with cheeks hollowed out and taking his dick, however, he kept his filthy thoughts to himself. Seonghwa needed support first. “You can set the pace, okay?”

Seonghwa nodded, happy with the compromise. San’s hand on his cheek was a gentle comfort that he didn’t want to give up quite yet. Easing into the blowjob, Seonghwa went in tongue first instead, sliding it out of his mouth and creeping the wet muscle towards San’s cock. Even though he knew it was coming, when the wetness finally came into contact with San’s cockhole, flicking at the divot, his muscles jumped into a flex and his hands dropped to his side.

Wooyoung was ecstatic. The sight of San’s full body tensing with pleasure was something he was rarely privy to a secondhand view of. It really let him drink in every individual muscle of his boyfriend’s sculpted body. All his favourite memories of skin-on-skin came flooding back, hindsight guiding his hand up and down his own shaft furiously. He wouldn’t last long like this, but needy and pathetic was his style. It suited him.

With Seonghwa’s mouth still free to express emotion, a small smile crept onto his face. Both boys were moaning, music to Seonghwa’s ears and he was the composer. However, he wouldn’t let himself get too cocky. His power trip had a clear expiration date. Not that he minded; he preferred the stress-free alternative to shot calling.

It wasn’t long before Seonghwa finished cleaning all the streaks of San’s precum. He punctuated his methodic lapping at San’s head by sloppily wrapping his tongue around the shaft to assure that he got all the hard to reach places.

“Jesus.” San whispered.

Seonghwa pulled back, leaving San’s damp cock at the mercy of the cold room and Wooyoung’s greedy sightlines. “Good?”

“Very.” San was out of breath, speaking in bursts. He wouldn’t dare beg, but he was clearly desperate. He grabbed his cock at the base and positioned it perpendicular to Seonghwa’s lips. “Need your mouth...”

De-stressed and prepped to be used, Seonghwa was satisfied knowing his fun was over. There was already a fresh bead of precum forming on San’s tip, putting Seonghwa’s previous efforts to waste. To both Seonghwa and Wooyoung’s surprise, instead of taking his mouth as promised, San pressed the creamy head against Seonghwa’s lips. Eyes locked with Seonghwa, San messily dragged thick streaks of white across the puckered lips as Wooyoung watched in awe at the sloppiness of the scene.

Finally, San centered his cock to rest in the small gap between Seonghwa’s slicked up pout. “Open up.”

Wanting to be good, Seonghwa listened. Not giving him time to adjust, each millimeter that Seonghwa opened his jaw was just an invitation for San to push himself further inside the wet hole. He slid in with ease, using his own precum as lube and taking his mouth inch by inch, only pausing when he felt Seonghwa’s throat convulse with a small choke.

Wooyoung, dick still in hand, rolled his eyes. “I could’ve taken you like that easy.” He was clearly enamoured by the sight of tears in Seonghwa’s eyes, an unavoidable physical response to him being filled all at once. Wooyoung continued, adding insult to injury. “Warm up is for pussies.”

San ignored the rude comment from his boyfriend, more worried about Seonghwa. “You okay?” He checked in, hoping he hadn’t damaged his favourite toy.

“Mmhm.” Seonghwa moaned loudly and affirmatively around the cock, shaking it with deep vibrations. San tensed up again at the quick and unexpected feeling, only to damn near collapse when Seonghwa swallowed around him, sucking him several inches deeper into his mouth in the process.

“God, you’re so good at that.” San complimented, forgetting how positively Seonghwa reacts to praise.

His words only inspired the older boy to work even harder, bobbing his head furiously. The pace he was setting would be brutal if San dared to comply to it, and Seonghwa had no signs of slowing down in sight. Each movement of his head brought San’s dick closer to the back of his throat, tongue fighting against the speed of his slippery movements to wrap around the shaft when possible.

“Sannie, please, just fuck him.” Whiny and equally as desperate, Wooyoung had already coated himself in spit, preparing to stroke himself to compilation any minute now. He wanted the show that he was promised if he was going to risk blowing his load. “Look how badly he wants you.”

Seonghwa dragged nails over San’s hips, squeezing the flesh to co-sign what Wooyoung said. He did want San. He wanted San to fuck him stupid. Yet, San merely stood there as he got pleasured, hands on the crown of Seonghwa’s head, body frozen and too worried about Seonghwa to move.

And that’s why Wooyoung was there.

“Hyung, look here.” Wooyoung cooed, voice dripping with theatrics. Seonghwa did as he was told, shimmery eyes glancing over as he slowed his pace on San’s cock to focus up on Wooyoung.

With this new cause now seeming far more important than Wooyoung’s pleasure, the pumps around his cock had slowed as well, intentional squeezes to show off his veins now that he had Seonghwa’s attention. Wooyoung let out a quiet laugh, probably at him. “Now there’s our good boy. So good at listening and following directions, aren’t you?” Seonghwa’s eyes lit up at the praise, excess drool escaping down his chin from the gaps around San’s cock.

San was also quiet, listening politely to Wooyoung and continuing to be pleasured from below. He was eager to hear the pitch.

“Aw, so messy. You’re even dripping through your shorts.” Wooyoung used his free hand to shamelessly point, redirecting everyone’s attention to the damp stain on Seonghwa’s boxers. “Take those off, will you? I bet you’ll feel much more comfortable.”

Whimpering sadly as San’s cock had to pop free from his lip’s grasp, Seonghwa complied, shuffling the boxers off his knees and leaving him comfortably exposed.

“Better?”

“Better.” Seonghwa croaked, his throat sore. His head was spinning, averting his attention between all three of their cocks, before finally focusing on San’s again.

“Wow…” San looked past his own dick to gawk at the newly visible one. It was bright red, sore from neglect. He nearly felt bad before remembering that Seonghwa was enjoying this. It was exactly what he signed up for.

Still, Seonghwa’s puppy dog eyes were too much for San, he folded with sympathy within seconds of the sight. “You can touch yourself if you want.”

“Really?” Seonghwa whimpered.

Whatever soft and gentle treatment San was about to pamper him with was cut off by Wooyoung’s simpler answer. “Just make sure you’ve earned it.”

With determination, Seonghwa nodded. First, he wrapped a hand around his own cock, gasping at the contact of his palm’s soft skin. His pretty moans were quickly muffled though as he willingly suckled on the tip of San’s dick. His tongue slid over every crevice between parted lips but it was clear neither his mouth or hand would be moving until San took control.

“You idiot, don’t just stand there. You told him to set the pace and he did. Don’t disappoint us.” Wooyoung continued to redirect the scene in the direction of his ideal fantasy. “Give our good boy the face fucking he deserves.” Greedy as he was, the interruption was the final push necessary to give San the reassurance that he wouldn’t break their poor toy.

Much like before, he pushed himself inside the cavern between Seonghwa’s swollen lips, filling the hole inch by inch. However, this time, there was no resistance until he bottomed out, sharp breaths from Seonghwa’s nose puffing against his abdomen.

Their toy was finally ready to be thoroughly used.

San’s hips pulled back only to snap forward again, filling Seonghwa’s throat with his shaft and subsequently drowning him with hot precum.

Seonghwa only groaned with pleasure, giving slow strokes to his own hard cock in tandem with San’s hesitant movements.

He fucked him again. And again. And again, before deciding that Seonghwa really could take it. He would take it, regardless of his capabilities. Their Hyung was beyond determined to be used that night. Used until San was fucking him at that relentless speed he was desperately begging for. Seonghwa didn’t want time to catch his breath; he wanted San.

Wooyoung eyed the thick liquid dripping from Seonghwa’s cock as it was thrust into his creamy fist with each of San’s movements. Seonghwa’s pale body was being jerked around to his advantage, not even needing to move his wrist to fuck himself in time with San’s thrusts. Wooyoung’s voice was shaky. “See Sannie, he loves it! He’s getting close already.”

San grunted, appreciative of the description that made his imagination go wild. “Fuck, I am too.” His body ached from repeatedly slamming his cock down Seonghwa’s eager throat, the boy somehow still finding time to swallow around him on the way in and out. San threw his head back, exposing a neck full of fading purple and red. “Won’t be much longer.”

“Oh! On his face, please?” Wooyoung begged, clearly getting close himself as well. “I want to see your load so badly. I want to see you all over that pretty face of his.”

San nodded, more than happy to oblige the request. He redirected his attention to Seonghwa, blissed out and hardly paying attention to the world around him. He needed to come back to reality first. “I’m so fucking close. God.” It took all San’s focus to give the simple task. “Cum with me, baby. You can manage that, can’t you?” It was hardly a question. The three boys had mere seconds left of pride before they’d all have to choose where they wanted to empty their loads.

Seonghwa couldn’t answer with words but his eyes, fluttering up at San with both pride of his journey and need for conclusion, said all he needed to know. Seonghwa allowed his jaw to go slack and his neck to fall limp, head only being held upright by large, gentle hands as San fucked the mouth relentlessly, hips on fire and balls tighter than ever.

Right until they weren’t.

With a flash of white, San’s vision went blank, just enough coherence left to fulfill the request of pulling out of Seonghwa’s mouth with a whine, thick and creamy strands still connected to his lips, and blow the rest of his load all over Seonghwa’s tolerant face.

Just as he was told, Seonghwa came with him, holding himself hostage on the edge right until the first gulp of hot cum hit the back of his throat and the second ended up on his cheek. He shook his cock vigorously, making sure every last drop had been milked as San just kept finishing over and over for what felt like forever, covering Seonghwa with a trophy of his hard work.

Ironically, Wooyoung came last, cock intentionally directed up his own body as he spurted ropes of white all over his chest and stomach for no reason other than giving himself a show. While it was only seconds later than the others, he was stubborn, refusing to let himself go without that visual he wanted so badly of Seonghwa’s face, soft cheeks and puffy lips coated in streaks of his boyfriend’s hot load and stripping him of all dignity. He happily licked his own fingers clean of excess while admiring his boys, both satisfied and happy.

While it would usually be considered a waste to see San’s cum anywhere other than in one of his own holes, Wooyoung figured Seonghwa’s lips were free real-estate for a taste. Breaking the barriers of his fantasy, he crawled over and claimed Seonghwa’s mouth with a kiss, much gentler than usual for Wooyoung. Seonghwa, still not sure exactly what was going on, melted right into the feeling of cold lips notching against his own, wet and salty with yet another familiar flavour mixing in to accompany San’s taste.

Barely recovering from his pleasure, San broke out in a beaming smile when his eyes opened to two pretty boys on their knees, sloppily kissing next to his satisfied cock and sharing his taste.

Wooyoung pulled back first, admiring the deer-in-headlights look on Seonghwa’s face. “C’mon, let’s get you cleaned up so we can ruin you all over again.”

#ateez fic #ateez smut #woosanhwa #woosan #woohwa #sanhwa #atz fic #atz smut #so sorry for making wooyoung a cuck here #it's sexy though so i think it's ok #wooyoung smut #san smut #seonghwa smut

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