#wait i thought there was an option to make an image like filtered or blurred for eyestrain on this website... there isn't?? so sorry

[windupaidoneus]

hey. sorry i didn't draw anything i was supposed to actually draw today. & i made him serve even more cunt than usual. sorry

[katelynn-a-fan]

Somewhere Over the Rainbow: Chapter 6

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Summary: Remus has done as best as he could for the child. Now he has to get back to Patton to show him what happened. And perhaps... he was feeling a guilty for leaving Patton hanging. Perhaps.

Word count: 4.4k (4377)

Warnings: Remus type imagery, mention of throwing up, exhaustion

The smell of hospital cleaner invaded Remus's nose and spread through his senses. The more Remus breathed it in, the more Remus was filled with the stench of cleanliness.

Pretty soon it was as if his very blood was full of cleaner, and Remus grimaced at the sickeningly clean sensation that it reminded him of. He only suffered through being clean when he had to sterilize between treating patients when their lives and his job were potentially on the line. 

He was a bastard, not an idiot.

And that was when he remembered he actually had a face… and a job.

It should’ve been odd that he had forgotten he had a face, but right now his clean senses were telling him to try to create a new mess by evicting the contents of his stomach. Or maybe that was just because of the smell and how it turned his stomach into a tumultuous sea of stomach acid rolling around his gut. 

Remus’s face, what he could feel of it at the moment at least, turned to a very slight smile at the absurdity of how he was disgusted with cleanliness and satisfied with being dirty. To others he might have been absurd for desiring to be unhygienic, but he was Remus, and Remus could do whatever he wanted with his dislike of cleaning products because fuck societal standards of hygiene. 

Hygiene was optional, just like anything else.

With that, Remus’s nose full of cleaner smell finally gave him a different sensation, the sensation of something against his nose. A physical sensation.

That was new… ish…

Remus sniffed, the physical sensation of his nose expanded to (for some reason) bring in more of the scent around Remus. The movement created a tingling sensation down his face, like a thousand bugs were crawling in a wave down Remus’s body. In their wake, Remus was finally able to take stock of his body and where his limbs were where moments before the feeling was distant to him at best.

Having sensation down most of his body, he eventually deduced that he was at least standing, which was a feat considering whatever state he was just in. 

His forehead was resting on something smooth and as he was able to peel his eyes open for the first time since… whenever he had closed them.

Staring at a blank wall, Remus’s eyes threatened to close once again as 10 pound weights felt as if they were strapped to them.

This fogginess and lack of memories was growing old quick. Remus just wanted to remember and get on with it, but it was like he had a worm in his brain sucking out all of his most recent memories.

Except the worm had missed one memory, and Remus latched onto it like a man possessed as a grip on his arm tightened and he slowly registered it was his own grip on his arm.

A crystal clear memory broke through the fog, the image of a child with their front soaked in blood and his own hands pressing down on the wound. It nearly sent him reeling, but the memory led to others in his head. Patton opening the door, him walking up to the child and then panicking and rushing about to get the child to the car and then…

The memories of what happened after that crashed down all at once, everything blurring together until Remus found himself…

There.

Remus blinked away the memories as the direct realization he had left Patton in the waiting room to worry chilled his limbs. Memories of pranks some would say are cruel flitted through his mind only for a moment. This wasn’t one of his jokes; this was one of the scarce times he had unintentionally fucked up and fucked up bad.

He had to get to Patton.

Before he even registered he was doing it, he lurched forwards off of the wall, surprisingly keeping on his feet even as the world swam slightly. It only struck him after a few steps that he had no idea if he was going the right way.

Even when Remus looked up at the overhead signs that told him where he was, the word turned to fuzzy white inchworm-looking shapes in front of his eyes instead. 

The signs were useless inchworm farms, he didn’t need them. He knew the hospital like the back of his hand. It didn’t matter that his hand was slowly turning into a fuzzy blob as well, he could still navigate the hospital. Hand or no hand.

He wasn’t one to be discouraged by a fuzzy hand, so he blinked a couple of times and the hallway he was in resolved just enough so that could tell he had actually been going the right way.

Starting up down the hallway again, he swore someone was talking to him, but that was lost in the fog that still pulled his limbs down. The fog was like physical gravity laid on every inch of his limbs and he wished it wouldn’t hang on him so heavily, but no matter how much he mentally pleaded with it, it just hung on him like a snake who had sunk its fangs into something. 

The voice that might have been talking to him grew quieter and quieter with every step Remus took, so he was confident he could get back to Patton without a hitch now.

Shambling down the hallway, Remus had the presence of mind to wonder what in the heck he looked like walking down the hall. Did he look like a zombie with his body nearly skin and bones, and the skin and flesh starting to peel? Or those zombies that looked human until they noticed you and attacked? 

Whatever he looked like, it was enough to warrant a few passing concerned looks from anyone who caught his glance. And if they said anything, Remus again wasn’t paying enough attention to care about their words.

In any case, he ignored everything else that wasn’t important to continuing forwards and made his way in the twisting and turning halls back to the lobby.

Wonder how Patton had been holding up? Hope I haven’t left him in too dire of a strait. He is never too good about worrying. He’s even gotten me worried about him. Ha! If Roman were here, he’d never-

Remus stopped in his tracks. His thoughts cut off as something became lodged in his throat and his vision grew blurrier once again. Fists clenching tight, he screwed his eyes shut to stop the blurriness once and for all.

He couldn’t do that, not now. Remus didn’t have to think about that if he didn’t want to.

Now, he just had to think about getting to Patton.

Breathing in past the tight lump in his throat, Remus opened his eyes. The world was swimming even more now, like a swimmer who was trying to get away from a ravenous shark that would tear them limb from limb if the shark got them. 

Remus was close, he had to be. But time seemed to stretch into infinity with each step he took, and it was starting to get on Remus’s nerves. He wanted to do something nice for Patton for once and time was being mean and not playing fair! 

A dull throb of pain alerted Remus to the fact that he had been digging his nails into his arms without meaning to. He looked down to see thin crescent moons dug into his arm, and one was even lightly filled in with a bright red moon of blood as well. Amusement teased his face, though for what reason he was amused even Remus was in the dark about it. Perhaps it was just the weight on his limbs talking, making him as delirious as a man in the desert finding an oasis that likely wasn’t there.

His ears suddenly perked up, the sounds of someone familiar filtering through the hallway out of what was a bigger, more echoey space. The lobby was just around the corner.

Taking his cue, he sped up his efforts forwards, ignoring the fact his limbs were dragging more and more heavily the closer he got to the sound. 

The sound changed as he pushed forwards faster and faster, but Remus wasn’t paying attention to that as he gripped the wall that had come up to greet him. Remus wasn’t in the mood for a chat with the wall, so he pushed himself off the wall only to stumble into a gurney that made him cringe at the clatter it made. 

Gurney forgotten the moment he looked away from it, Remus’s vision immediately zeroed in on Patton. There were other vaguely familiar people there, but Remus could only see Patton. 

Patton was tired, bags under his eyes and hair sticking out a bit, but he looked better than Remus had been worried he was doing. Remus’s heart jumped in joy and relief at the sight of him.

He desperately pushed himself away from the other wall that came to say hello to him. The world was angry and swam around him like a speedboat now, and Remus had only one thought in his mind.

“Patton.” Remus croaked, a vague surprise rising in him at how hoarse his voice was.

And then the floor abruptly came up to his face and tried to slap him.

It was very rude of the floor to do that to be frank, that was what ran through Remus’s head in that moment as his body crept closer and closer to the ground.

However, something stopped the floor’s hand in its swing as a pair of warm arms caught him. 

Had he been cold all this time? Remus had no clue, but he had warmth wrapped around him as consciousness began to flee further and further from him.

Words were uttered above him, but just like his trek down the hallway, the words weren’t important. Patton was okay, and that was what was important. 

Remus let go of the last thread of consciousness, content that Patton was okay.

That was until the sounds above him filtered back in, forcing themselves into Remus’s consciousness like a reverse alien chest burster.

“-mus. Remus! Please wake up! You… I can’t…” Remus’s stomach dropped as Patton’s voice entered his ears, on the verge of sobbing.

Fuck. Fucky sloppy fuck.

Remus couldn’t leave Patton like this. He was worrying Patton again, the one thing he didn’t want. He… had to…

A ghost of a groan came from his lips as he forced himself to leap for the thread of consciousness, grabbing it as tight as a boa constrictor ready to devour its prey.

“Remus?” The disbelieving but hopeful sound of Patton above him had his hand squeezing a hand that was already in his. He was still awake damn it.

Putting more oomph in it this time, Remus parted his lips in a groan again. He had no clue what he was trying to say. Sorry? I’m awake? Poopy?

Whatever the case, he was able to part his eyes open as a surge of energy, probably from some good old adrenaline, swept through him. The shot of adrenaline even gave him enough strength to right himself a little, before that swimming world was back and forced him back on the ground again.

“Woah, hey Remus, you don’t have to get up just yet. You collapsed from what’s likely exhaustion. You feel really tired, right?”

Remus pursed his lips a little, his face scrunching up automatically as his ‘thinking face.’ 

Exhaustion? Was he exhausted? He… yeah, maybe? In any case, he was too tired to think too hard about it, so he nodded.

“Well before anything, we need to get you somewhere out of the way. Oh…” Patton’s voice grew quiet as Remus watched through cracked eyelids when he turned to someone he couldn’t see. “Can… we use this vacant stretcher? He’s just exhausted from everything this morning, from what I can tell, so he just needs it until he can get up again.”

A voice Remus recognized as Ava’s came from even further away, and though Remus couldn’t hear what exactly she said, Patton nodded and responded to her.

“Okay,” Patton looked down at Remus with a patient smile as he wrapped his arms more securely around Remus, the distant knowledge that Patton would’ve been the one who caught him finally registering in his brain. “Hey Remus, we’re going to get you on the stretcher okay? You’re not hurt from what we can tell, so we’re putting you on the stretcher because you don’t look like you’re in any state to walk.”

Remus would beg to disagree, but the feeling of multiple hands lifting him up prevented him from giving a proper rebuttal. He drifted a little as his body was lifted, the strange feeling of rising doing odd things to his sense of balance. Part of him found the addition of other hands odd, but that part of him was being smothered under the exhausted part of him.

He picked up a few words spoken around him here and there as the feeling of Patton’s hands gripping his returns. But the feeling that something was missing slowly spread through his gut as his mind drifted softly, he was oh so heavy and he just couldn’t keep his eyes open and something was probably wrong…

“What happened? I- we- We thought you-” A voice Remus knew he should know exactly who was speaking said, but it slid off of his groggy mind. He fought a little to stay awake, fighting the feeling pulling him down once again. Why couldn’t he decide whether he wanted to be awake or asleep? It was infuriating to say the least.

Whatever, it was just how it was at that moment.

Remus craned his ears to absently listen to what was said.

“Well, first things first, I’m fine. Please don’t worry. Second, try not to freak out or worry more about what I’m going to say.” Patton’s voice slowly edged into near panic, but a small squeeze from Remus on their clasped hands gave him pause. 

Managing to peel his eyes open a crack, Remus quirked the corner of his mouth at Patton. Patton, who had been looking at something out of Remus’s eyesight, smiled down at Remus gently. It was like Remus was sick and had woken up to someone caring for him when he thought he would deal with it alone. Except of course, he wasn’t sick, not with any ailment other than sleepiness, he hadn’t just woke up, unless he had slipped under and hadn’t noticed and… the last one was… technically true. Sort of.

Still, the sight was… comforting.

His body reacted without him, a sigh escaping his lips as Patton pushed back a single strand hair that had fallen into his face. Eyes slipping closed, Remus hummed softly as Patton’s hand retreated.

“It’s alright Remus, you can sleep if you want. You need it after working so hard, right?”

Had he worked hard? He didn’t remember, but with what he did remember he had to have worked hard, right?

Even though he didn’t completely believe it, Remus let his head bob up and down a few millimeters each way as his tongue was leagues heavier than it should’ve been. Patton was a lot smarter than him at the moment, so Remus took his judgement as what had likely happened instead.

Patton continued, thumb running over Remus’s distant knuckles. 

“Getting back to what happened, I had settled down on the couch with some hot chocolate as well as some cookies I had made,” Patton sounded apologetic about the cookies for some reason Remus couldn’t fathom. Cookies were cookies. What was wrong with that? “And that was when I heard a sound outside the front door. I thought at first it was someone trying to get in to rob the house and/or hurt me, so… I wasn’t prepared to see what was actually behind the door.”

Patton paused, and by his constricting grasp on Remus’s hand, he was likely trying not to cry. Remus hoped Patton had received Remus’s own squeeze in response, but if he did, he didn’t comment on it.

“I uh… had that vase that was in the living room as a weapon even though one of my crutches would’ve been a more solid thing to hit an intruder with, now that I think about it. In any case I uh, opened the door to face the ‘intruder’ only to find… a child on my front door step.”

Above Remus there were a couple of muted exhalations, like someone had been holding their breath for a long time. Patton didn’t slow down, though in fact he only just sped up.

“They had no coat, no gloves, and no shoes. Their limbs were nearly purple and blue from hypothermia and they were just so small-”

Patton's voice broke, jaggedly cutting off as Patton drew in a shuddering breath. Remus forced another hum, trying to sound as comforting as possible as he squeezed Patton’s hand as hard he dared. He hoped Patton got the message that he was trying to comfort him through the simple gesture.

In any case, Patton’s breathing slowly evened out again, his hand settling.

“I’m sorry… they… looked so young, like kindergarten or preschool at most and nearly a toddler at the least. I had to bring them inside, and I think I dropped the vase when I saw them? I… it’s still a bit of a blur.” Patton paused and gulped a little. “I… didn’t know exactly what to do at first, because I had no idea if I could just keep them at home because for all I knew the child could be okay without a hospital. So I uh… panicked a bit, I got my afghan cause they had likely been outside for long enough that they would need something incredibly thick and insulating to warm them up before. I didn’t even think to call Remus ‘cause he was a nurse until I don’t know how after and-”

Patton’s voice cuts off, and Remus was too out of it to do more than wonder why he had stopped and wait patiently for him to continue. He wasn’t crying, as Patton’s voice was relatively steady. After an amount of time that nearly bordered on concerning, Patton shifted slightly away from Remus, his hand nearly leaving Remus’s limp grasp.

Fluttering slightly, Remus’s hand nearly clawed at Patton’s arm before it hit Remus that Patton wasn’t fully pulling away, stopping just before Patton’s hand was out of Remus’s grasp. 

What’s… going on? Is… who…

“Thank you. It’s just… hard…”

This time another voice that was much less familiar to Remus soothingly comforted Patton.

“Hey, no pressure, you can just give us a brief overview of what happened after that. I don’t want you to make yourself panic, okay? We don’t need to know everything right now. Tell us at your own pace alright?”

Patton’s hand bobbed in Remus’s grip, giving the impression Patton was nodding against something, whatever it actually was was beyond Remus.

 As a tiny droplet of something fell onto Remus’s hand, Patton continued, his voice a bit more steady, if but a little smaller and quieter than before.

“Okay… uh… I....called Remus to come over and he of course came over. Together we found blood on the front of their shirt that I didn’t notice before and then we rushed the child to the hospital. I got stuck in the waiting room because I wasn’t a medical professional and I tried to stay awake for a bit in case Remus came back but I fell asleep at some point.”

“So Remus helped you?” The more familiar voice asked.

“Yeah, he is my friend, and he’s owed me a ton of favors by now and this for me expends all of them.”

A strange mix of emotion flows through Remus. His chest tightened, but there was a tiny spark of indignation in his gut as well and it all flowed together into a weird mire of confusion. 

At that point, Remus didn’t know why he was still awake. Patton had everything under control, even if there was something that didn’t completely add up, it was probably fine...

After that, everything got fuzzier and fuzzier, just as Remus was temptingly on the cusp of sleep that he had been so desperate for for the last… who knows how long. That was the moment when somehow every little thing he had missed fell into place like a giant thousand piece puzzle assembling itself and what was once a scattered mess in his head before finally came to make sense.

The collapsing in exhaustion, the hands of other people, the concerned tones of Patton’s voice, and the overwhelming feeling he was missing something super obvious and important. 

But the most important thing was… he recognized the voice that was talking to Patton. 

With that, he suddenly pounced on Patton, shifting his weight as fast he could to grip onto Patton, his slightly wrinkled shirt kneading under his grasp.

“Woah, Remus!” 

Remus held on for dear life to Patton as Patton also clung tightly back. Patton seemed afraid Remus would keel over again out of exhaustion, which could have been a possibility if not for Remus’s gaze searching his surroundings.

Looking through slitted eyes lids, Remus searched hard for who he had heard and quickly found him by his bright red coat.

Roman.

Roman was here.

He… Roman shouldn’t be there in the same room, not with him. With Patton, sure, Patton was his own person and could be in the same room with Roman, but not with Remus. 

Remus anticipated the same glare that always met him when he and Roman met face to face, but strangely there was none. Sure, Roman definitely didn’t look happy to see him as always, but he wasn’t scowling or anything like he usually did. In fact, Remus could dare say Roman looked… concerned?

“Wh- Wh-” Remus could barely speak, his words failing him as he looked back to Patton in confusion, but Patton was only looking at Remus in concern. Out of the corner of Remus’s eye, he saw that Janus was there as well, but that was merely a passing thought that quickly gave way to more confusion

“Hey, Remus. You don’t have to get up or talk, everything’s going to be taken care of. Alright?. Ava said she called for a doctor to talk about going to see the child as long as everyone followed the rules. But you look exhausted and I don’t want you to overexert yourself more than you have.”

And with that, the last key on Remus’s memories turned in the lock of his mind. What his exhausted mind had kept failing to remember and realize hit him at full force as the words soaked into him.

The child.

They were…

He had to show Patton. And fuck anyone if they tried to stop him.

Leaning forwards, Remus jumped haltingly off the bed, holding onto Patton for dear life as they both dangerously came close to falling over, but miraculously both of them managed to hold themselves so that neither fell.

Patton blinked in surprise, mouth opened to likely ask Remus what he was doing. But Remus wasted no time, he pulled on Patton’s arms firmly, leading Patton down the hall.

“Whoa Remus, did you hear what I said? I said a doctor was coming to escort us. I… Do you have the authority to even bring us? ‘Cause we are not their family and…”

If Patton said anything after that, Remus didn’t hear it as now he was intentionally tuning Patton’s words out because they were irrelevant. Patton had to see the child was okay so they had to go see the child now. It was only logical. Not that Remus was an expert in logic, mind you.

All Remus was focused on was tugging Patton down the hall. A slow smile grew on Remus’s face as it became easier and easier to bring Patton along. 

Patton gets to see them. He needs to see the child. Patton gets to see them. He needs to see the child. Patton gets to see them. He needs to see the child. 

The words went in circles in Remus’s head. One morphed into the next in an endless loop with each step Remus took.

Now in reverse, Remus brought Patton down the same path he had stumbled down minutes before, his memories complete, though he didn’t have to think about those now.

Remus only slowed when the room the child was in was in his sights. 

Patton had fallen silent by then. He wasn’t even trying to pull out of Remus’s grasp anymore. Patton wanted to check on the child as much as Remus did.

Remus grasped the doorway tightly as he swayed slightly, but he half-pulled Patton into the doorway to let him see.

The child was on a hospital bed, and somehow they looked even smaller than before. Remus hadn’t noticed that. But they had all the standard workup; an IV, a heartbeat monitor. Under the swanky hospital gown they had on, Remus knew there were bandages over the wound in the child’s stomach that he knew had been from… something that Remus couldn’t think of. They were so pale.

Snapshots of the others’ expressions caught Remus’s eye, even as the fuzziness was closing in again. Patton covering his mouth as tears pricked at his eyes at the sight of the child. Roman’s expression flipping immediately from confused and concerned to concerned and some emotion Remus couldn’t place. And lastly, Janus’s curious expression becoming one of horror.

Remus had no clue what he looked like. His face was probably mostly blank, but happy. That’s what he was right then. 

Happy.

Now that Patton was here with the child, exhaustion swooped over Remus faster than ever before. He had done his job. He… had done a good job. Like Patton said, he… did… good….jo….

And like that, Remus’s world went finally, blissfully black.

[neverneverlouisland]

summer love [l.t]

fandom one direction/louis tomlinson

pairing louis x reader

word count 2811

summary reader is a teacher in Australia is also a mentor and counselor at the school’s summer camp. her second summer there, a new teacher is hired and the two are drawn to each other. the seasonal months roll by and at the annual end-of-camp party, they realize their time is running out.

warning(s) none

a/n any extra characters mentioned by name will play a bigger role in future fics

-

If there was one thing they were sure of, it was that their lives changed after meeting.

For the past three years, she’d been a teacher at a school down in Australia. While it was thousands of miles from home, it was an opportunity that both allowed her to see more of the world and gave her hands on experience handling kids in a high activity location. She wanted to be a traveling teacher. It sounded a bit unusual, and she had instances of needing to prove that it was a legitimate career choice, but if she could bring knowledge and joy to such small kids while being able to see the international sights, that was all that mattered. After graduating college with a bachelor’s degree, she decided to take a couple of years off to get experience doing what she wanted to do for her long term job.

With the amount of money saved up, she managed to get temporary substitute and teaching assistant positions on other parts of the globe. After some hopping around that first year, she found that the city of Melbourne was where she needed to be. The sights from the plane’s view her first time flying over captured and ensnared her, so much so that all she wanted to do was explore instead of going to the meeting about the teaching job.

When that first summer in the Southern Hemisphere came to, she was offered a summer job as a counselor at the camp the school hosted every year. It was a program that cost families money when it came to transportation; all the kids and their chaperones would fly over to Cairns, Queensland in order for everyone to stage their tents and settle themselves in the camping grounds of Daintree National Park. She remembered being awestruck by the stretch of winding rivers, long, sandy beaches and forestry that went on for miles. Going along the trails that lead to the tops of the rainforest with her group was one of her favorite activities, and the admiration for it only grew when a man from England made his way over just a few months later.

Having just graduated from his own degree program, he fished for the perfect place where he could both enjoy his surroundings and be able to educate children in the best way he knew how. Being accepted into the program was a sight for sore eyes - all he could do the day he received the email was stare blankly at the worded screen in surprise. He was fresh out of university, so he was sure someone more qualified would have been given the job over him. Still, nothing was able to beat the excitement he felt about working abroad, and he was ecstatic to what the future there would hold.

What he didn’t expect was to meet an American who was so passionate about her work and ensuring the happiness of others that she ended up pulling him in.

When he first arrived, she was set as the tour guide. It was a whole week of showing him around the site, leading the hikes and co-planning the lessons and activities they would be doing with the children each day. There was zero judgement on her end when she learned that he didn’t have much experience in the field prior to the work that was done during his years of schooling. “If you love what you do and you’re good at it, that’s all that matters,” she said, and those words stuck with him for the rest of that night.

The time flew quickly, and he found himself falling for her more each day.

He lived for the hour-long sessions where both of their groups would be sharing a class or going down the trails towards the waterfalls buried within Daintree Rainforest. The heartfelt talks, encouraging compliments and bonding over their goals and love for the children they watched over would play in his mind like a movie each night following the one he realized his feelings.

Summer nights passed by in a blur of smiles and laughter, each moment spent with everyone was only leading up to the bittersweet moment of the end. For most of the kids and faculty, they attended or worked at the very elementary school that hosted the camp. This year, however, the addition of himself never came with a warning label. He was only hired for the summer position. It was a seasonal position that - while he thoroughly enjoyed to his heart’s content - was only meant to be a learning experience. He never expected to become so endeared by her. To become attached and obtain something so pure it would take months or years to be rid of.

Every second counted today, and each one flipped through his thoughts as he made his way to the program director’s cabin after being called down. The sky was getting darker by the minute, the crescent moon already a faded image in the changing atmosphere and the rolling clouds blending in with time.

He passed by the one she shared with the girls of her faction. The door was ajar and music could be heard from inside, along with small, extra voices belting out lyrics to a song by an American band he didn’t know the name of. The curtains of the two front windows were drawn back to have a light filter into the room, and with that he could see her almost perfectly. Seeing her dance around the confined space with the little ones was a sight for his bright eyes. It didn’t even occur that he hadn’t moved from his place until she spotted him a moment later, brows furrowed as she moved went to poke her head out of the open door. “Did you want to join us?”

“What?” He blinked, the realization hitting him once he took a look around and saw no one else in his vicinity. “Oh- no, thank you. I mean, I’d love to but I’ve been called to see the director.”

She smiled at him, suppressing a giggle at the dumbfounded expression on his face. “Alright, well-”

“Louis- there you are!” A raspy voice called out. The younger man turned his head to find said teacher walking out of the main cabin of the grounds, walking over to him as soon as their attention was on one another. Louis stayed as much in his spot as possible, wanting to continue the conversation with her even if it was only a distraction to what he actually had to do. The elder of the two counselors reached them in two minutes, a light smile on his face as he greeted the girl before addressing the one he was looking for. “Are you ready to talk about what we discussed?”

“Yeah, I am.” He responded, nodding his head to return the smile with his own.

“Great! Let’s be off, then. We don’t want to linger and miss the start of the closing campfire.”

“Right. That would just be tragic, wouldn’t it?” He questioned sarcastically, issuing a form of a laugh out of not only his superior but her, as well.

When he went to excuse himself, she was already shaking her head. “It’s fine. I was kind of keeping you from your meeting,” she laughed out, making his heart sing.

He gave her a sheepish smile and went on his way, calling behind his back to ensure that they would just see each other later in the evening. She waited until the men were out of earshot to show any hidden emotion, letting out a sigh as she sat on the tiny porch attached to the set of three steps. She folded her arms over her legs, letting the music from inside fill her with joyous warmth as the children continued to sing along as loudly as they could.

There was plenty to say when it came to the British addition to the mentors, and yet she could never say them when she was in his presence. It felt straight out of a romantic comedy - the way she found heart tumbling and stomach fluttering when he was mentioned or near. Even with all the time they spent together once she was assigned his tour guide, she never once thought the first person she would truly fall for would be someone she wouldn’t be seeing nine months out of the year. Though long distance was an option if it all worked the way she wished, those were always hard to maintain. She could only imagine how tough it would be to keep one between countries afloat. The head counselor calling him down for a talk made her even more nerve racked. He was originally hired for a seasonal position, meaning he would only be in Australia from the first day of camp to the last. What if that offer was being revoked? Or he changed his mind and decided this location wasn’t for him, so he went to look for one that suited him better? He was amazing with the kids here and they all loved him to pieces. 

“Miss Y/N? Are you done dancing?”

The counselor turned her attention to the small girl exiting the cabin, a smile on her face. “For now, yeah. I’m just thinking. You can go back and play with the others if you want.”

Now, while she always insisted that she didn’t have any favorites in the sizable group that dragged her around, she most certainly had a soft spot for this one. Evelyn was part of a newer academic program at the school - one that gave foster parents the opportunity to send the less fortunate children towards the best education that was offered in Queensland. It was a random selection each year for the past three years but she was one of the kids that got accepted, and deserving of it.

The attention she paid to what went on around her and others always left the twenty-six year old astounded, even more so once the eleven year old took a seat beside her. “Are you sad that Mister Louis is leaving?”

“What? How did you know he was leaving?” She glanced over to find wide, green eyes looking up at her innocently. The way someone so young could ask such a question without knowing what meaning could lay behind it was beyond her.

She shrugged her small shoulders, “I heard you talking last night.” She began wiggling her feet around on the wooden step, looking down upon them with a tilted head. There was a pregnant pause between the two of them as they watched the rest of the campers and mentors walk around with plentiful arms to decorate the area for the night. The notes and competitive singing were still finding their way out the jarred doorway and into the open air of the camp. “I don’t want him to go. He’s really fun to play with, and he always finds extra snacks when we go to the beach.”

“I think those are actually meant for him,” Y/N chided, making the little girl giggle. A large smile graced both their features, although hers was more loose. They enjoyed all the time the groups had together throughout the twenty one weeks, yet she never fully took the kids into consideration. She wasn’t the only who would think about him or recall all the silly moments they’d had visiting the sandy shores, rainforest or waterfall sanctuaries. The more she thought about it, the more she reached the epiphany that life had a way of doing things. “I don’t want him to go, either.”

-

It was lively.

Since there were so many new recruits who joined the program this year, it was decided that the ending event would be done down on the beach. The volleyball nets were set up on opposite sides of where everything was set up, fairy lights decorating them both in erratic fashion. The sun was already set, showcasing a few dozen stars and the moon that finished its game of hide and seek to display itself for the night. There was one table farthest from the beach that held all the food, snacks and gift bags put together by the team for the young ones to enjoy on the way home.

They stood a distance away from each other while Louis talked to some of the higher ups and she hosted a game for anyone that was primary age by the edge of the moving sea. He watched from his peripheral as the large band of small members spun and danced circles around the other counselor with sparklers in their hands, the joy on her face making a mark in his memory.

“I’m sorry, will you excuse me?” He pardoned himself with a quick nod and wave, making a beeline for the only person he really wanted to speak with before his departure. His speed could only increase so much while crossing to the other side in the uneven sand, his arms nearly brushing the sparks from the thin sticks being waved in the air.

“Louis!!” She spotted him when he was a mere three feet away, the grin on her face growing even wider if it was possible. Right when he reached the edge of the wide circle of little dancers, a hand grabbed his wrist and pulled him through an opening.

“I’m not that good of a dancer.”

“That’s okay - neither am I.” She gave him a close-eyed smile, her dark/light eyes meeting his baby blue ones. “I’ve actually been wanting to talk to you,” She went on, placing a hand on the back of her neck sheepishly, “but for the moment I’m kind of stuck here.”

His head tilted as he gazed upon the soft expression on her face and twinkle in her gaze every time she made eye contact with one of the many children surrounding them. He gave her a gesture that reassured her he was going to listen to what she had to say, however his thoughts on the fact were delayed. Should he ask her what she wanted to discuss or should he tell her his news first? He wasn’t sure what the priority should have been if he did the latter, a debate in his head making an appearance. There wasn’t much to lose no matter how he chose to approach everything; there were only a thin multitude of ways this night could end. He only hoped that he made a choice that impacted both their lives in a positive light.

Her lips parted before closing, the anxiety of the situation beginning to get to her. How much was there to lose on her end if this didn’t go the way she hoped? Would they stay friends or would it become too much or too awkward for either of them and they would gradually stop communicating? There was only one way to find out, yet it was also the only thing holding her back from actually telling him.

The pair examined the other’s features closely and as discreetly as possible while being so close. Neither knew how to act or bring it up - it started to look as if the only option was direct with a bit of faith and confidence on the side. With the children around and the other counselors lost in their own worlds of conversation, he almost hesitated to do what he decided upon. Still, being able to analyze and take a guess on the way she was acting made him believe there was a good chance. As she opened her mouth once more and took in an anxious breath, he took the open opportunity to lean in for a quick peck, wanting to express everything without displaying too much in front of the kids.

Her eyes widened. Silence ensnared the shared bubble.

He looked on in worry, the event processing in her mind. After what felt like an hour passed by, she looked up at him with a grateful smile. The confidence that was temporarily slipping away made a reappearance, relishing in what had just occurred. “It’s only been three months, but is it too early to say I love you?”

He was able to put on an act almost instantly, stroking his chin in pretend thought, “I’d say give it another year or two and come back to me.” She nudged his arm with her elbow, giving him a small grin that eased his fretfulness immediately. The gentle laugh that resonated from him made the butterflies in her stomach rampage; her heart feeling as if it was beating miles a minute.

“I love you, too.” He finally countered, giving her a more lingering kiss, earning them hues of youthful disgust that only caused more laughter to ensue.

[mirage-05]

Operation Lovebirds - Stingyu

Okay people, so here is another little piece me and @eleanor-devil worked on ^^ The main topic is Stingyu, and you will see once again my OC Rin (the youngest mage of Sabertooth currently), her OC Eleanor and a dear friend’s OC, Glacé as well, although they obviously don’t have a big part in it. Metra, who is also mentioned, is a canon Sabertooth character from the manga that we decided to name. Quick notes on Rin; her full name is Trinity, she came to Magnolia after a dark mage who killed her father in front of her eyes when she was just four, she is mostly known by her nickname Rin but because she gets on his nerves a lot Rogue also calls her nitwit XD Please remember that feedback is very important and it fuels us to share more of what we have about this beautiful couple, and write more!

---

"I need to talk to you." Rin's voice startled her at first and it nearly made the girl drop the glass she was drying up at the moment, looking at her teammate with a sweatdrop on her face, Eleanor spoke up.

"W-What is it Rin? You really need to stop sneaking up on me like that..." Needless to say that it wasn't the first time the blonde did that to her, although she knew Gash was gone for good, Eleanor still held some trauma from the time she had been with him.

"Operation Lovebirds!" the young girl said while a big grin made it's way to her face.

The magnetic mage blinked her blue eyes for a moment. "Operation... Lovebirds...?"

The girl took a (supposedly) surreptitious glance around, making sure that no one was eavesdropping on them. Which didn't really seem necessary to Eleanor because the next thing she said was, "Meet me in my room in fifteen minutes? This is emergency."

Another sweatdrop... honestly it was sometimes really hard to keep up with the youngest tiger. "Rin, I can't really leave my work now-"

"Ianna-san," Rin called to the other barmaid with Eleanor, who was cleaning up one of the coffee filters. "I need to take Eleanor for a few, would that be okay with you?" 

"Yep, Rin-chan, not a problem." Ianna said with a smile, the guild hall wasn't really crowded right now anyway. Rin grinned up at the magnet mage. "See you soon then."

Eleanor sighed. As if she gave her another choice...

...

And so that was how she found herself in the girl's room in fifteen minutes. Rin was sitting cross-legged on her bed, so Eleanor sat across from her on a chair. "Okay... what's this about?"

"Sting-nii and Yuki-nee!" the girl said while raising a finger in the air but Eleanor was even more confused, first still over the weird name that Rin had mentioned earlier, Operation Lovebirds was it? And second why had this little kid called her away from her job to talk about one of her friends and their guild Master?

"I don't think I'm following Rin..."

"Isn't it obvious? Yuki-nee has been avoiding Sting-nii ever since Sting-nii pretended to be your boyfriend!" Okay, yes it was true that Sting had pretended to be with her but that was all to corner Gash and make him come out of his hiding spot, they knew better than anyone that jealousy fueled the guy but about the part of Yukino avoiding Sting...

"Um... Rin, I saw them talking normally to each other this morning..."

"Look..." Rin's tone was patient and understanding... like she was trying to explain this to a five year old. Eleanor didn't know what she should feel about it. "She talks normally of course and Sting-nii is oblivious by default but... Yuki-nee is shy, and proud, she will never talk to him directly."

"I think you are reading too many novels." the magnet mage said, raising an eyebrow. 

"Come ooon, don't you want to help me El? They would make such a cute couple together!" 

Oh boy, Eleanor thought. Knowing both of the said friends, she knew they wouldn't like any kind of intervention in their personal business... and knowing Rin, she knew she wouldn't give up easily on what she thought was necessary. "Rin they are adults, they should solve this themselves."

"We will all die, they will become old walking around with wood sticks before they confess to each other!" Eleanor honestly felt like facepalming at the exaggeration of the girl but in a way it was suddenly funny to imagine her two friends, all old, white or grey hair, wrinkles all over their faces and backs bent down, supported by sticks... Okay no she needed to get that image out of her head. "Sooo? What do you say??" pressed the kid while showing her big grin.

The magnet mage sighed, exasperated. "Okay okay I will help you." Someone has to make sure you don't go overboard, was what she didn't add.

"Yaaay you are the best!" the girl was practically jumping up and down, and Eleanor couldn't help but roll her eyes although she was smiling - she would probably never understand Rin's enthusiasm in playing the matchmaker - or well, in pranking Rogue for that matter. She had once asked Sting about it... and the blond had just played it off for the kid being... well, a kid. 

"So... what do you have in mind? How are we going to pull this off?"

"I'm open for more ideas but... since Sting-nii loves eating and Yuki-nee is an amazing cook..." she couldn't deny either of her points. "I was thinking maybe persuading Yuki-nee to prepare something just for him. Maybe you can keep Sting-nii away while I help Yuki-nee make him his fav-" she backtracked. "...a memorable dinner."

"Okay, I can manage to keep Sting away..." maybe there was a mission somewhere that would be enthusiastic enough for him to accept to do with her. "But I think we have a bigger problem in hands than keeping a dragon out of the kitchen..."

"Hm? What is it?" Rin tilted her head to the side.

"We... aren't the only ones at the guild remember? We have lots of members that love to go steal food from the kitchen." She was mainly refering to Orga, whose guildmates had caught him assaulting the fridge... even in the middle of the night.

"Oh! Right! Hm..." the blonde girl put a hand under her chin while thinking really hard of a solution for that problem, then she closed her fist and bumped it into her open palm. "I think I know how to kick them out of the guild earlier!"

Kick... them out? Eleanor didn't know if she liked the sound of those words and she had the feeling that either nobody would listen... or knowing Rin she would end up dragging more people into this... Operation Lovebirds and the magnetic mage knew all too well that when the whole guild tried to get involved in something... it didn't end well. But she would wait and see. Maybe, just maybe things would turn out okay...

...

"How about this one?" Eleanor showed to the white dragon slayer what was the sixth job request but the blond continued staring at the options with an unamused expression.

"Boring..." and that was all it took for the girl to hang her head in despair.

 "Oh come ooon Sting! There has to be a job that you like!" she didn't really want to use this card but this was requesting drastic measures. "I thought we got all the coolest jobs now that..." she bit her lip while eyeing the blond that was now arching an eyebrow. "Now that Fairy Tail is gone?"

Those words apparently touched a nerve. "That's part of it!" Sting was pouting now. "It doesn't make it half as fun when I know there isn't the competition with the Fairy Tail!" Well truth to be told, this had been the reason why they weren't participating in this year's games... Their master could be impossible when it came to Fairy Tail.

"Can't you think of it as honoring Natsu and his skills?" This was really dangerous water, but she had to push it and so far (thankfully) Sting wasn't taking it half as bad as he could. "I need your help on this one, y'know." Which was also true, the job was about some gold robbery... the one metal she had no power over (it could be said that she had purposefully taken that one). 

He could have deflected her, he could have told her to pick someone else for the job... but for whatever reason, Sting decided to humor the magnet mage for this once. "Okay, okay... I will come with you."

...

Watching the backs of the master and her new partner in crime fading into the distance, Rin felt proud of herself. Phase one of the operation complete... now it was her turn.

She looked at the small, red bag in her right hand (times spent with Natsu-san in Fairy Tail were never a waste). "Alright... here it goes."

...and that was how, a few seconds later, a blur in the shape of a little girl was running wild in the guild hall, screaming bloody murder as... what looked like blood squirted everywhere from her hand. Needless to say, everyone present was alarmed.

"Rin? What happened?!" Orga asked. 

"A squirrel... this size..." the girl showed with her hands what she thought was the appropriate size of a monster squirrel. "...bit me! It should be veeery dangerous, it nearly bit my hand off!"

"I don't have any memory of squirrels being able to do that..." Rufus said with a slight frown.

"Is this one of your silly pranks?" Rogue demanded, obviously not in the mood for one - well, he was the most frequent victim after all. 

"No, it's not you-" Rin caught herself before she ruined the act. "Oh! Oh, I can see the light... go and catch that little monster before it hurts anyone else..." and with that, she ended her dramatic action crumpling to the ground.

There was an awkward silence throughout the guild as they all  created a circle around the "fainted" child... nobody even dared to go down and pick her up but Metra was the first one to break the silence.

"Rin... what is going on?" 

The girl didn't answer and it was all it took for Rogue to roll his eyes at how melodramatic this kid was. "She isn't dying just so you know, her heartbeat is fine, she is just pretending."

Damn Dragon Slayer senses, damn Rogue... he was going to ruin everything! Seeing that nobody was falling for her trick, Rin finally opened her green eyes and sat up, bearing a big pout on her lips. "You guys suck, can't you just play along for a bit?? I need you to cooperate...!"

"Cooperate on...?"

Rin glared at Rogue but answered anyway. "In getting you all out of the guild before 7pm!"

"Nope. No. Whatever you're trying to pull off, I want no part in it." That being said, Rogue walked over to one of the chairs in the bar and sat down, with apparently no intentions whatsoever of ever leaving there. 

There was a brief flare of light, and everyone present gasped as Rin's attack hit the shadow dragon slayer in the face - obviously not doing much of an effect but enough to piss the black haired man off. In a moment the two tigers were nose to... err, nose, in a manner of speech, glaring each other down.

"You really want to go down this road, nitwit?" There was a vein popping on Rogue's forehead - it was honestly a wonder for all of the Sabertooth members how Rin could be so brave - or foolish - to keep getting on his nerves like that.

"Leave nicely and we won't have to." Rin countered, not backing down at all. For a moment she glanced at the clock hanging over the bar, announcing 5pm already but then went back to exchange glares with the shadow dragon slayer.

"Okay okay why do you want us to leave in the first place?" said Glacé as he put himself between the two tigers, trying to avoid a murder right in the middle of the guild hall.

"It's for Sting-nii's sake!"

Rogue crossed his arms. "He is out on a job with Eleanor dummy."

Another glare. "You think I don't know that? It's part of the plan dumba-" Glacé had put his hands over the kid's mouth before she even dared to finish the word, they really needed to stop saying swear words in front of her. Rin mumbled something not understandable under Glacé's hands before pulling them down so she could speak. "Yuki-nee is going to cook him dinner okay?"

"You lost me now..." Orga was stretching his head. "Yukino always cook something for us..."

"I can't believe you people!" the girl was becoming so impatient that she was actually stomping her feet - they were losing precious time here! "Don't you ever read any romance novels? I'm trying to do something nice for them if you just let me!"

"I think you're reading too many novels..." Metra said, shaking her head. "They are both-"

"...adults who won't confess to each other in a million years. Yeah, I know." and she was pouting even more now. "That's why they need a little push in the right direction. Or well, a big one if it comes to that."

"And I can't believe we're honestly all just standing here listening to you..."

"No, now that I think of it, it's actually a good idea." That was Orga, again. "But instead of getting us out why don't you let us help?"

"Stop encouraging her!" Rogue yelled.

The girl's green eyes immediately shone bright. "Really?? You would do that??" and the huge green haired man showed her a big grin before setting his fist on his chest.

"Yep! I am actually an expert in getting people together!"

"No, you're really not." mumbled Rufus, attempting to not roll his eyes but received a big glare from the lightning god slayer.

"Oh shut up!" he said. "Can we at least do this for our Master?? He has done a lot for us lately, the latest thing we can is help him back!"

"See! He understands me!" 

Rogue was honestly feeling like facepalming at this point, he really didn't have the patience for this. "And have any of you even pondered on, I don't know, ask both the involved if they want anything of the sort...?!"

"Of course they do!" the girl sounded so sure of herself but Rogue could bet on anything that if Sting was here right now... he would regret ever agreeing to accept this little monster into the guild. "There would come a time they will thank me and all those involved in it and I will make sure to mention you weren't of any help at all!"

And that was about it with his patience. "Yeah, right, works for me. I have a job to take care of anyway." He looked around for his exceed. "Frosch?"

"Fro wants to help Rin too..."

"Oh come on!!"

With a final blown raspberry from their youngest mage, Rogue pretty much stomped off to the door - only to see Yukino just entering the guild. "Hi everyone."

"Hi." it was all Rogue mumbled before he walked past her, to Yukino all he knew was that the shadow dragon slayer was in a bad mood... had he and Sting-sama fought again and "ended" their partnership? The girl could only shake her head with a soft smile on her lips as she walked towards the guild hall... and for some reason all the stares were on her... making her sweat.

"U-Um... is everything okay...?" she felt a sweatdrop roll on her cheek. "Did I miss anything?"

Silence for a while... and then suddenly the guild was back to what it was, noisy, loud and busy which only confused the celestial mage. Rin took this chance to approach the person she viewed as her hero.

"Yuki-nee, come with me!" she took her hands and dragged her towards the kitchen. "I have an idea for the dinner of tonight!"

"O-oh... um is that so?"

"Yeeep! See, I want it to be something special for Sting-nii, something I know he would love, because I never got to thank him properly for accepting me..." Yukino chose not to comment on that... for all her good intentions, Rin did try in the past, but she almost always overdid it. The celestial mage was actually kinda scared about what was going to happen now... 

"And... you know what he loves to eat?" For her it was a bit of a stretch that Rin would know about that, but the girl sounded so sure of herself.

"Oh it's nothing too complicated - although you would ace that too if it was." the girl said with a big grin. "It's actually a steak meal - but the trick is all in the dressing." Opening the refrigerator, she took out a plate of strawberries, which made the celestial mage sweat drop again.

"We... are going to make a dressing with strawberries?" That sounded more like Rin than Sting-sama.

"Nope. These are for me." The girl put the plate on the counter and returned to the fridge to take out more ingredients.

Yukino giggled at the amount of ingredients the girl was bringing just to make the dressing, she wondered if Sting-sama would even eat all that but she suddenly remembered the blond could have a ferocious appetite when he wanted to. She hadn't seen him in the guild hall when she arrived so she could only guess that the Master was either locked in his office doing paperwork or had gone on a mission (without Rogue apparently), either way she knew from experience that the light dragon slayer would be famished at the end of the day.

The girls then began preparing all the food for dinner.

About two hours later, just as Rin had planned, Sting and Eleanor returned from their succeeded mission but before they even made it to the guild, Eleanor had excused herself saying she needed an urgent bath which left the guild master to return on his own. Not that he minded though but he had mumbled sarcastically under his breath 'Women', apparently they couldn't have a little bit of sweat in their body.

His steps came to a halt as he entered the guild. Well, that was unheard of... the guild was actually very quiet, devoid of all the hustle and bustle of the various guild members - which was unsettling to say the least. It would almost remind him of the old Sabertooth, if it wasn't for the pool and the soft glow coming from it - wait what?

Intrigued (or rather, worried) the master immediately made it to the pool side... and what he saw made his jaw drop.

The first thing that registered about the scenery - literally the first thing to see - were... hundreds and hundreds of candles... everywhere. Beside the pool, on the eaves, on a holder in the mouth of one of their tiger statues (now that was just plain rude)... and finally on a table for two right beside the pool, which was, aside from the dinnerware and candles... were also decorated with rose petals. Lots of them.

"What the...?" he was speechless - and not of the good kind. "Hey guys - you know just how many fire hazards all these pose just now?"

As if that wasn't enough (because apparently it wasn't) a slow music begin to play... altho it was so that one could almost go to sleep listening to it. 

"Sting-sama?" he then heard a voice, although it sounded a little... unsure too... accompanied with a mouth-watering smell.

Sting turned around, although he knew who the voice belonged to, there really was only one person in the whole guild that treated him with that honorific - he knew it was out of respect but it honestly made him feel... old...

"Hey Yukino." the man looked around while scratching his head. "What is this all about?" 

"Um... I'm actually not sure... I have been in the kitchen preparing dinner since I got here..." Now that she remembered, Rin was also missing, although she had told her she was just going to get something really quick... "Where is everyone?" 

'I hoped you knew that,' he thought as he took one of the seats and Yukino set the food on the table. "I have no idea nor why there are all these candlesticks around the guild."

"Umm... yeah... it seems to be a very... peculiar setting..." trying her best not to blush, hard, Yukino lowered her gaze to the table. The truth was that... no matter how hard she tried, it remains to be the fact that she still had a big crush on the master... she had been somewhat successful to curb it down a notch while she was away from Sabertooth but returning to the guild, and more than that... seeing just how far (for the good) Sting-sama had changed... it would be a lie if she said that didn't rekindle some of that old flare.

"Ugh... those idiots... as if we can't just eat dinner, the two of us, as friends. Right Yukino?" That was when Sting finally truly noticed her face. "Eh , are you okay? You're all red..."

"N-no, I mean yes, I'm fine."

"Must be these candles, seriously, there's overdoing and there's insanity. Lemme just snuff out a-"

"No, please!" the celestial mage said immediately, trying to control her blush. "W-why don't we continue with the dinner?" Suddenly, she was intrigued to hear his opinion on this one, partly because she was curious about how accurate was Rin's predictions on their master's choice of appetite.

The blond thought about it for a minute, then shrugged. "Sure, I'm ravishing anyway." 

And so they started eating, Yukino carefully watching Sting. After the few couple of bites, the master's expression started to soften and turn into one that of amazement... "Yukino... how did you... this is amazing!"

The silver haired girl blushed a bit more and looked down shyly. "R-Really? You think so?" Sting-sama wasn't one to actually lie about anything really but it's just that Yukino never had much faith in her skills, or rather she wasn't used to receive such big compliments; the only one that really used to do it was Sorano... and well after her it had only been Lucy-sama.

"Hell yes!" the blond exclaimed causing the girl to snap out of her thoughts and raise her head to face him again. "This is one of my favorite dishes and you did it amazing!" And he took another bite into the food. "Really, whoever marries you will be very lucky." 

And there she was again blushing hard. "M-Marry...??" she had never thought much... actually she had never thought about it at all! Who would want someone like her, who brings bad luck, as a wife anyway...? But she didn't dare voice that thought out loud. "U-Um... t-thank you, I'm glad you are enjoying the meal."

"So," he changed the topic so casually. "Where were you most of the day? I don't remember you telling me about a job..."

"O-Oh no um... I went to see if I could buy new celestial keys, since I got enough money from the past jobs."

"Oh?" The master seemed genuinely interested (which he somehow managed to accomplish while he continued chumping on the food). It actually kind of flattered the girl. "Did you have any luck then?"

"Yep." She was actually pretty happy with her new accomplishment. She fished out the newest silver key from her key pouch to show it to Sting. "I can definitely call it pure luck. We didn't make a contract yet but... this is Feres, from the constellation of the Pegasi."

"The Pegasi?" Sting repeated. He wasn't familiar with all of the constellations (although he had gotten pretty familiar with the wolf and the dragon, no thanks).

"It is a winged horse from mythology!" The excitement in the girl's voice was palpable. She really loved the celestial spirits, the master realized It was almost... endearing. "I hope it will give me some advantage... with the wind element."

"Hmm... that means you now have three of the four elements in your hands." he sounded amused but actually happy for her, he eyed the design of the new silver key, silver like the others with a pair of angel-like wings surrounding the entire key until they spread on top of it, he had to admit that it was a beautiful key. Sting began wondering if Yukino would ever use the key whenever she wanted a ride to somewhere else, certainly it would be better than riding a train.

Flying... it reminded him of his days with Weisslogia.

"Sting-sama?" her voice woke the master from his deep thoughts and he quickly blinked to focus on her again. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah... yeah I'm fine. Just remembering stuff from the past."

She bit her lip, daring to ask. "About... Weisslogia-sama...?" But she quickly regretted asking the question and looked down, ashamed. "I-I'm sorry...! It's such a personal question, I shouldn't ask something like that... I have no right..."

It took Sting for a moment to reply, his gaze still far away. It was still a touchy subject to talk about, sure... He closed his eyes tight, not sure whether to continue or not. "It's okay... I know you didn't mean any harm by it." He sighed, letting his breath out in a long huff. "It's just... Weisslogia was the only parent I had as far as I know... and then I killed him... or well... I found out that was all fake memories... so all it left me in the end was..." a big loneliness... That was what he couldn't say out loud. Even with Rogue, his twin dragon slayer, the one who could understand him way better than anyone else because of their similar experience... he couldn't explain to anyone just how big of a void his foster father left behind.

He wasn't prepared when Yukino leaned a little forward and placed a hand, albeit hesitantly, on top of his. "You... you must be feeling lonely..." 

And the master was even more perplexed that the celestial mage could almost read his mind... or was it that much readable on his face? But in any case, that made him feel... a little better. It was almost soothing that he didn't need to put his feelings in words for someone to understand. "It's alright, really..." His fingers slightly curled on her hand. "Now I have a whole guild, so I can't really say I'm lonely all the time."

Yukino smiled so softly and kindly that Sting found himself returning the smile, he couldn't explain but it was so easy to talk with her, knowing she wouldn't judge him even if she didn't agree with something that he did or said; sure she would scold him but it was never in a judging way.

That's why that he wasn't uneasy to talk with her about Weisslogia, it would seem that he had already overcome that phase but he really hadn't and probably wouldn't for a while no matter how many years had already gone by... there were still times where Sting would dream of his time with the white dragon, when Weisslogia would tell him to climb on his back and took him on flights so high above the clouds or when he was stern in his training both physically and in dragon slayer magic, although afterwards Sting would fall asleep from exhaustion but the dragon scooted him under his feathery wings so he wouldn't be cold.

"So... I don't think I ever asked you about your family?" it was a casual, simple question but Sting knew that the expression the celestial mage made, albeit just for a split second, was one of pain...

"Um... w-well there isn't much to tell actually... I wasn't raised by a dragon so it can't be as interesting," this last part was clearly an attempt to hide the pain. "I had two parents and an older sister, whom I loved dearly... but then the children hunt came and well, we were separated and our parents killed..."

"...I'm sorry..."

Yukino shook her head. "No, no, it's alright. I've overcome it, it's been a while but..." she looked at her hands, closing them a bit tight. "Sometimes I wonder... if it's bad that... that I don't miss my parents..."

Sting found himself frowning a little, mostly out of confusion. He had known Yukino for a good while, and not once had he heard her talking this way, almost resentful to another person, let alone her parents. Granted, he never had much of a backstory from the girl after all, but still... something in her tone, in the tightening of her muscles intrigued him. Suddenly, he wanted to find out more about her. "Care to tell me why?" Then, realizing that he probably sounded pretty intrusive, he backtracked. "I-I mean... only if you want to of course..."

Yukino gave him a small smile this time, but it was one without humor. "It's okay..." she whispered, again looking down on her hands. "My parents... well, there had been times I wished I was non-existent to them... there were times where I had been just that... but mostly... whenever something bad happened, whenever things didn't go the way they want... I acted like the scapegoat. I don't know how I would've coped with it if it wasn't for... Sorano..." her voice broke at the end of it but thankfully her eyes stayed dry, she didn't think she could handle a breakdown in front of the blond now. She had never talked about her family so much in detail to anyone but Lucy-sama before... and it was almost mind-boggling of how easy it was to speak to Sting-sama right now... out of all the people. "I just wish I could see her once again, just one more time...I don't even know what happened to her..."

For some reason, Sting made it a note in his mind to maybe use the contacts he now had in the Magic Council to find the possible whereabouts of Sorano... of course if he had the same luck that he did when he tried to find out where the bastard that killed Rin's father was then he wouldn't find anything... but he would care about that later.

"She... she was so beautiful and was always there for me..." 

The Master blinked a bit confused as he repeated in his head everything Yukino told him. "Wait... your parents would... blame you for...?"

"...Anything... or everything that happened bad..." she still didn't look at him. "I shouldn't blame them though... they were right to think that way... whenever something bad happened I was around so..."

The celestial mage then jumped when she heard Sting punch the top of the table with a bit more strenght which made her finally lift her brown eyes to look at him... he didn't look happy. "No one..." he started. "No parent should ever make their child feel that way, a good parent would support their child when things go wrong, not put the blame on them!" He closed his eyes for a moment and then leaned back against the chair before re-opening them. "I'm sorry... I know they were still your parents but... quite honestly, no you shouldn't feel bad for not missing them." he didn't remember his birth parents but he knew that if they had been anything like Yukino's parents that he for sure wouldn't miss them.

His words... although they didn't yet erase her opinion completely about her bad luck... enveloped the girl's heart, and made her feel warm, happy... the smile that appeared on the young woman's lips was one of pure sincerity now. "I... thank you Sting-sama..."

...

Somewhere just a story above, two pairs of eyes were staring through the staircase banisters, one blue and one green.

"Really?" the mastermind behind the plan said, with a pout on her lips as she dangled her arms from the banisters and leant forward. "Is that all? Nothing's happening!"

"What did you want to happen? A kiss?" Eleanor asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Well duh! That would be so cute of them, just saying."

"I think Metra is right. You are reading way too many novels." Eleanor couldn't help a small giggle as she ruffled Rin's hair light-heartedly, then looked back at the scene below with a soft smile, happy for her two friends. "Things couldn't have gone any better."

[eorzeasntm]

ENTM Tumblr Cycle 10 Round Seven Results

Hi folks!  Last week we sent our models out into some bad weather.  This round presents some unusual challenges, specifically capturing the environment and balancing dimmer lighting against the gloomy background.  

While all the models emerged from this round slightly damp (or dry if they were smart enough to get out of the rain), the model whose photo most captured the hearts and minds of our voters this round was:

Odharnait “Ona” Greene

Congratulations!  Rongi Pongi was so impressed with this picture that he said it will inspire a future round of ENTM called “Doors.”  The judges and community agreed that this shot was lovely and a fantastic use of the watercolor filter to brighten the stormy night. 

We have one more week in Tumblr Cycle 10.  In the meantime, ENTM Instagram Cycle 1 is in Week 2 and community voting will begin shortly!  Please visit our Instagram Page for more information. 

Also the October Haukke Manner challenge will be closing at 10 PM Eastern TODAY (Oct 24th) so hurry up and get your entry in for a chance to win a minion from the Mogstation.

Our judges have feedback for our models after the cut. 

Judge Kai

Adam: This is a nice shot. It looks like you're trying to outrace the coming storm and reach a safe haven before getting drenched. You did a good job with the lighting, and used the surrounding area to your advantage! It was a very smart decision to have those glowing flowers in the shot and surrounding you. I can believe that the light that is hitting you is coming from them, and that is why the area (and you) are brighter, despite the darkness that seems to be engulfing the area. There are only two things I can think to suggest. The first is I wish you were just a little closer in this image so we could see you better. Which also leads to my second. I might have gone for a slightly lighter outfit, color wise. Because the image, and the background, is so dark a lot of those black tones start to blend in with what's behind you. Overall, you did a great job!

James: First off, I don't know if you did this on purpose, but I find it very amusing and great timing that it looks as if the lightning is coming right down to touch your hand. Moving on from that, this is an image that, to me, seems to hold sadness or loss in it. It's like the rain is reminding you of something from the past, and it's very lovely is a melancholy sort of way. You definitely pop against the darker background, sticking with the blonds, white and lighter grays are helping you a lot in this image. The lighting is very good as well, but I am wondering what the source of the light is? Perhaps a lightning bolt? While the lighting is well done, it just seems a bit overlit for not having a light source in the area. I think you could have pulled back just a bit, and still gotten away with this image. Other than that, I think you did a very good job!

Ni'ko: I am going to assume, from the way that you look in this image, you're the type of cat that doesn't like to get wet. Well, I don't blame you and that doesn't look like the type of storm I would want to be hanging out in either. Overall this is a good image. The lighting is believable for the time of day. It could be a fire burning just out of view, and it's casting its light on you. I also like the outfit that you picked for a few reasons. It matches the surroundings very well and seeing that this is a darker image, your skin tone pops. The dark purple of the swimming trunks is a good pick, it stands out from the neutral earthy tones around you and gives something that draws the eye to you. The pose is a little awkward as if someone caught you in mid-run,  and you're leaving a lot up to the viewer in this instance with the story you're trying to convey but overall you did a good job!

Judge Vederah

Cowbot: There's a really great, almost ominous feeling to this screenshot. Positioning of your character to the object he's looking at is spot on and helps bring the eye across the entire image. Only issue I have is this image reads way to dark. I think if a bit more lighting was used then your character wouldn't blend into the background as much, and we'd be able to more clearly see the rain effect. That detail was almost completely lost with how dark this picture was. Ona: This is, in my opinion, the best use of a gpose filter I've seen in this entire competition. I love how the water color effect really amplifies the rain effect in the background. I also really appreciate how the cool and warm tones of this image come together in this shot.  The only thing I could think of to change is possibly a very small light used to the characters right- the only downside of the watercolor filter is it blurs a lot of the smaller details. Here it cast a very dark shadow on her scales, losing the definition in her face. Wren: This shot reminds me of the scene from the original, cartoon Snow White as she's making her way through the haunted forest.  I just love how innocent and genuinely frightened your character looks against such a foreboding backdrop.  Lighting is the only issue I have here. The background on the right portion of the screen is so dark that just reads as empty space. I think if you had upped the intensity of the lighting on that half of the image just a touch, it would've popped those details in the foreground.

Judge M’Telihgo

Nadede -  I like this.  I love how you stand out against the background.  I also like the umbral static weather effect very much.  I enjoyed playing with different settings and see how images turned out.  Have you ever done that?  It could be fun.  I do wonder what you are looking at while doing your chakra, you seem so intent on it.  I think the bright colors of your armbands and your pants pop against your pale skin.  Which leads to my only real criticism of this picture and is minor.  While your top has some color in it, I think it blends into you a little, not too much but another color may have been better.  Still, you look awesome!

Chee – I love the background.  I like dark colors and things that seem kind of spooky, and this has that for me.  I approve of the location.  For all of that, I like it very much.  Your outfit in a lighter blue makes you stand out against your very dark background and I think the colors suit you well.  There is one thing that makes it so that I cannot enjoy this picture as much as I would like to.  I’m not sure what happened, but there is a ghosting around your face as if you were caught between frames of an animation where it is starting to draw in the next one.  Sadly, that blur makes it so that looking at it for more than a moment makes my eyes water.  It’s a shame too since I really like it overall.

Lantis – Ooh.  I do like this spot for exactly this reason.  FIGHT!!  Anyway, there is a negative though when doing this at night.  Dead space.  I see where your addition of the sakura effect may have been used to try and counter this and it does help.  I also think that a little different timing of your sparring partner would really make this pop much more.  As it is right now, you are in action and your partner is looking away, at their shoes.  If you could have caught it where they are looking at you, it would definitely sell the action seen much more like they are trying to parry your blow by timing their draw.  Adventure on the high seas!  Kind of anyway.  I still give you credit for catching the lightning bolt just right, I’ve done it and I found it to be a chore.  Well done!

Judge Kusuh

Azalea: I'm a huge fan of the overall "mood" of the picture- a paladin standing in a dark storm; did they recently fail a mission? Are they brooding? Is this where the orchestra swells to give a tearful moment? As I've said before, when I'm left thinking about the possibilities behind an image, it's a good sign! This may be one of my favorite pictures from you so far. The setting, the use of the pencil filter to add more of a "rain" effect, and the overall pose show me that you've given some real thought to everything that goes into this picture. The frame choice is also something I love, but it also comes with this one small critique: when you use this frame, you are using it to trick the viewer into seeing three separate pictures in a single shot. When you have parts of yourself spilling over into the other two frames, this kills the illusion and just leaves the picture looking disjointed. My advice for a picture like this would be to play with your zoom and pose options so that you can fit yourself into a single frame! You're improving every week, I can't wait to see what comes next!

Haila: You have a wonderful sense of visual flow going on in this picture. At first glance, I can easily follow from the spark in the top left corner, down the spear, to your face, and then follow your eyes to your fingers and then off the right side of the image. The choice of color (and the limit of color) were also a smart choice here; the limited palette really adds a sense of impact. Something to think about: This is more on the side of a "high fashion" shot as opposed to a story shot. Don't get me wrong, I very much like both kinds, but one of the things I've seen many ENTM models get pointed out (myself included) is when a shot lacks a story. Your shots in the past have always been a mix of both fashion and story, and this one feels like it shoots straight to the side of fashion. Once again, this isn't really a bad thing, but it's something I want you to be aware of as you plan your final shots in the upcoming weeks. Excellent work so far!

Judge Rongi

Lily:  With this shot, I think you found a really great lighting that makes your character look gorgeous. You could crop out this whole shot and just have it on you, shoulders up, and it'd be a beautiful head shot. The shot itself fits the theme of the week, but I wish it had a little more oomph! to it. I have "Summertime Sadness" stuck in my head now thanks to you though. Haha. I would have loved to see more posing, a stronger background choice, and a clear reason for why you are standing in the rain. Rymm:  These colors are everything. Great choice in gear. I love that the backshot is 3/4 of the way so we can still see a bit of your face. I wish we could see more, but its just enough to not be a backshot dead on. I usually would be against a solid black background, but using the lightning and your outfit colors to pop out like that is amazing. Had you been wearing all black, this wouldn't have worked at all. I love the pose of both you and the lightning. It creates a really interested shape in the middle, like dancing. Ysildor: You are going to get electrocuted waving that pick around like that! I love the idea as it beckons to Thor's hammer. I wonder if you had tried or could use an hammer instead. The background has those nice buildings in it that creates a line across the image that leads the viewer straight to you. And then we follow your shape up in to the sky and back down with the lighting. Really well done composition wise. 

[home-halone]

Long Post on Screenshots

Coincidentally, I had glimpsed the twitter thread in question (or something similar) before I saw a post about it and had some thoughts™ as well

I was going to straight up reply but it got out of hand and I ended up blabbing a lot about taking screenshots, mods and ReShade.

Mods. Literally just an aesthetic client-side change. I can't believe people are up in arms about this. Let people have their fun and ignore it if it's not to your taste. There's absolutely no need to shit on someone else's definition of fun. Your values for what comprises a good screenshot made with effort should not be imposed as the standard. (Unless you're holding a screenshot contest, it literally doesn't matter.)

I don't use mods personally, out of laziness and I cannot be bothered messing with my files. Partly because I don't have characters that have a particular appearance that I really want. But that's my reason, and if other people are happy with their mods, so be it. I'm happy with my own thing. Even a walk home next to a world-famous monument just gets dull when you see it so often. It's not a crime to appreciate it through a different lens.

I'm going to preface this by saying no one has to defend what they want to do for fun. And even if your reasons for using mods/ReShade etc doesn't fall in line with any of the ones offered below, it literally doesn't matter and you should have your fun.

Contrary to what some negative folks think, people are still fully capable of doing some really good glamour without mods. Although it makes sense when you play around with FFXIV's glams/character creator enough, you'll quickly realize that there are particular limitations (certain gloves don't show up with certain tops, some bottoms lose the pants/skirt when you wear certain things over them, etc) and some people simply want to portray the details of their characters accurately to their vision. I have seen a lot of really good designs that don't exactly match their in-game sprites. Some people might want to do an easy cosplay. Some people might just want to look pretty and sometimes it doesn't get deeper than that. 

Nevermind that there are ordinary people behind modding, creating these for use. They didn’t spawn out of nowhere. They’re a product of someone’s hard work and skill too. Shout out to @keeperofthelilacs​ for the posts & a glimpse into the grueling, painstaking process just to make a deceptively simple mod and apply changes to each model. I cannot fathom people creating things that are not even in-game.

But obviously, with modding being the new shiny thing, there would be an influx of pretty pictures with people using them. The majority out there still does some creative things without the use of these programs. But their use isn’t indicative of a lack of creativity in taking screenshots.

Yes, the game is intrinsically beautiful and the sights are breathtaking, and there's no shortage of unmodded, unretouched, unReShaded screenshots littered about. I know there are more than a handful of reddit threads with such screenshots up. But, even with the built-in /gpose, the options can be limited and the vivid colors don't always show up the way people intend them to. This is why ‘different’ draws attention. Since we all have the same washed out color palette (suitable for actually playing the game. try raiding with an Aesthetic ReShade setting with Depth of Field on, it is agony.) it’s easier to pick out brighter looking, unusual colored screenshots. Moreso if they’re beautifully composed.

The improvement of colors from ReShade are only one aspect of it, as a lot of people who use them could tell you.

This screenshot has ReShade on and some /gpose settings, and it’s whatever. It’s meh.

It’s poorly lit, tilted to one side for some reason, the background lantern is grabbing all the attention, but the scenery is somehow cut off, my character is awkwardly posed, the colors, while MORE vivid, aren’t really inspiring the ‘hey this outfit is awesome and unique’ feeling. You have no idea what you’re meant to pay attention to.

Now, before you say I took a bad one on purpose, this was actually from the time I first got the diamond coat so I was ACTUALLY trying to show it off. This was one of many screenshots I’d taken, trying to nail down what I wanted to do.

It just goes to show even if you have the tools, you can still produce some pretty underwhelming stuff. And you could easily take a better one if you know what you’re doing.

It may be beyond the provisions of the game, but it’s not an easy task taking good screens with ReShade. Like said, it takes time and skill. 

You have to know when to use angles and tilts and how to frame photos. Composition does SO much. The word gets used a lot but there’s a lot involved, whether you do it consciously or not. Do I zoom in up close or far out? How far?  Do I want to put my subject in the center or a little to the right? How much of the background should I show? Do I blur? Do I use dutch angles? Do I take a high angle shot? Daytime? Nighttime? /gpose which filter? How much can I crop? Do I need the feet in the frame? Do I add special effects? Lighting setting 3 2 or 1? More green or more red? Those are basic questions people think about, but these are settings you use to tell a story. Then there’s questions like, how do I frame the photo to draw more attention to the feeling of being trapped? How do I use lighting to create a feeling of dread? How do I use the environment to help me tell the story and not just take a dull photo of my character?

And that’s just taking the photo. It’s easy to be tempted by all the shiny stuff you can pile onto a photo, but if it doesn’t serve a purpose other than “ooh”, then the intense sparkles floating around a photo can distract more than contribute.

So you have everything set. You switch ReShade on. You picked out a good preset. But when it comes to stuff like this one size does not fit all, in order to make it work beyond what a preset provides (as night can be pitch black, and daytime is a complete bloom-filled eyesore) you have to get your hands dirty. Presets can be pretty for sightseeing, and for most it’s enough and they work well enough to use consistently in screenshots. And that’s perfectly fine. The settings are very technical and have numerical values. I don’t understand all the values and effects myself, and finding the sweet spot to produce is an arduous process.

The same goes for Photoshop. There’s no magic button to make your art look good. You need a good eye for adjusting saturation, color balance, lighting, cropping, framing etc. to improve ANY photo. More than that, you need to be good at making believable visual effects for fancier edits. If you drag a brush randomly, no one’s going to be immersed in the way those hair extensions were made. Nope, people study the native look of a photo to make changes. Otherwise you just end up with spaghetti hair.

[it’s the same ugly photo but with spaghetti hair]

I literally used the color dropper. It’s not enough to do that!! Like GIRL I’m a fuckin digital painter and I don’t know how all those people paint/edit hair, it’s a SKILL they learned and not one I have LOL. You have to care about lighting and getting the right width and all that. It’s not that simple.

Photoshop’s got a magic wand but it’s not that easy!

People who edit photos are familiar with these... and each one has its own settings and values :,^) that can change the mood of a photo by making only certain colors be more muted or even making everything look a little lighter and brighter.

It’s not that easyyyy look at one of these windows if I didn’t do this for a living I’d be so confused

So going back to showing off my coat. After I saw the lineup of photos I’d taken, I was pretty dissatisfied, especially because I knew I could take better photos. 

I identified the problems I saw:

1.Even though I wanted to showcase my outfit, I didn’t have to take a photo straight on. The photo earlier had her facing completely straight into the camera. And it felt very flat.   

2. It’s zoomed too far out, you can’t really see the details on the coat.

3. I tweaked my ReShade settings. I worked on the lighting. When I realized my settings and the lighting in game (and on gpose) were not cooperating, I decided to wait for daytime. Kugane at night was distracting as hell with all the lanterns in the background. My clothes were the star.

Here’s another screenshot I took wearing the Far Eastern stuff.

I wasn’t showing off the details of the glamour here. Kugane at night has a lot of personality, lights and colors. When I looked at this old screenshot, I realized that it wasn’t a good setting for a simple photo that said “hey check my glam”. This photo told a story. My clothes weren’t the focus, it was the fact that Proxi was in Far Eastern clothes in Kugane. All of those facts were of equal importance, so she was a figure immersed in her surroundings.I didn’t need to capture the details of her dress, just show enough for it to be recognized. That’s why this photo worked. And only one of the many reasons why the badly lit one didn’t work. Contrary to the urge to do so, I didn’t need to tilt the camera angle to make it look interesting. I used her body language, paused an emote at the right second to get something more relaxed, her over-the-shoulder look gives an inviting feeling. I let the color contrast separate her from the background as a figure, but I kept her a part of that warm Kugane vibe with bits of red lighting. There’s a lot of thought that goes into this. How color and mood tie together. Knowing what is essential and what isn’t helps a lot, and sometimes it’s trial and error and you don’t really actually know what you want.

Here’s the final image of the Coat screenshot that I posted  a couple months ago

The problem with the Diamond Coat is that I dyed it a dark blue color and I wanted to keep that sense of dark blue without shining a bright light on it, or lightening the color. I used stronger contrasts to bring out the blues, fiddled with settings I didn’t understand but it made details shaper lol. I used angles and some blur to add a little more dynamicity (being a more static photo) and focus on Proxi. While she is still mostly facing forward, I played with her pose more, to get more of a ~random well-dressed elezen on a stroll~ feel. And!! look at all the details on her coat, you can see them!! 

But wait, you ask, aren’t you just proving that ReShade is a crutch wELL IT’S NOT. It’s a TOOL. You use. If it makes your life easier and more efficient and it makes you happier, like, honestly it doesn’t matter.

But here’s a non g-pose, non-ReShade screenshot I took during a Zurvan EX run early last year. My PC froze for a second lol. I was going to have a heart attack doing this but as a SMN I’m obligated to RELISH Teraflare. This is ONE lucky screenshot I got and you know what, even if the colors aren’t super vivid, this screenshot feels SO right. The explosions aren’t overwhelmingly bright, the arena is surprisingly a fitting background, and she’s got her leggy up but she didn’t give me a panty flash and I am fortunate this turned out to be a great photo I could put in a church mural.

Another non-gpose one. See! framing, contrast and all that. This was from my old blog circa 2016 and it got one note! LOL gpose didn’t even exist yet as we know it, and I don’t think ReShade was widespread or even a thing yet and I was super proud of this one. The trees gave her a soft background without making it too blindingly bright so she stands out and I love it.

So there’s’ your normal screenshot look, without excessive flash and eyesore while still being pretty.

But yeah anyway

TL;DR 

1. Don’t be bitter about other people using tools and adding steps to enhance their aesthetic experiences or to create screenshots that are more faithful to their vision. If it’s not harming you, live and let live. 

2. There’s more thought that goes into pretty screenshots than you think. Just because they don’t pick up a brush and draw, does not disqualify these screenshot posters as skilled artists in their own right.

(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ'✿ That’s all!

[teenycabb]

Royai Week 17: Day 5

So this is a combination of angst and fluff. Because I have a pattern this week and can’t simply write fluff to save my life.

Day One Day Two Day Three Day Four

Theme: Letters

Words: 3,994

Riza removed the rest of the hangers from the closet and set them in the box. It was already filled with other miscellaneous items she had found and gathered from around the bedroom. A small bedside lamp, a couple of empty picture frames that had been hidden behind the dresser, one of Hayate’s balls, and an old book about the alchemical properties of gases. Just small things that the movers had missed when they took the large furniture out of the apartment.

Not that they really needed to move the furniture out of the apartment. The presidential mansion would be fully furnished when they moved in.

Riza’s lips ticked upward at the thought. They had finally made it. Roy had finally made it. All of the trials and the hard work paid off in the end and Roy was the leader of the nation. The image of Roy being sworn in on stage in front of a crowd of thousands would remain burned in her memory for the rest of her life. Even though she had been on duty, not even her stoic professionalism could prevent the smile from breaking across her face that day.

The same smile was spreading across her face now. Turning back to the closet, Riza stood on her tiptoes to see if there was anything left on the top self in Roy’s closet. He had been whisked away to a meeting with foreign dignitaries to discuss their treaty and had asked Riza if she would finish clearing his apartment for him. She responded with a dry quip about it being her day off and not being his wife, to which he gave a brief smile she couldn’t decipher before dropping a kiss to her forehead and leaving to meet Havoc outside.

Her eyes barely peeked over the edge of the shelf. There was a large amount of dust on the shelf with a few voids where boxes had been. She sighed and went to grab a dusting rag when a small box tucked into the corner of the shelf caught her attention. Reaching as far as she could on her tiptoes, she grabbed at the box. When she finally had it in hand, she pulled it across the dusty shelf, raining specks of dust down onto her head.

She sneezed at the irritants but looked at the box closer. It wasn’t coated in the layer of dust that the rest of the shelf had been and was in fairly good condition when compared to the other boxes she had unloaded from his closet. Her curiosity flared and she removed the cover to look inside.

There were papers inside. Some were yellowed more than others, indicating the age in which they were added to the pile. Her fingers drifted over them, feeling the edges underneath, before she picked one at random and pulled it from the box. The worn paper crinkled as she unfolded it, and Riza’s breath caught. It was a letter.

Addressed to her.

The date was faded and blurred by water but the year was legible. From the year it was likely to have been written sometime after her father’s funeral and the subsequent sharing of the secrets of Flame Alchemy. Riza glanced back at the box and wondered if they were all like this one. Letters addressed to her. She licked her lips quickly before sitting down on the sill of the window, letter in hand. The box she set on the floor beside her.

For the first time, she read the old letter scrawled out by the familiar chicken-scratch of her oldest friend.

Dear Miss Riza,

Forgive me. My train back to Central leaves in two hours from the time I’ve sat down to pen this letter to you, and by the time you read it I’ll be on my way down the tracks. I suppose I could have woken you prior to leaving, but you finally were in a sleep that seemed free from your nightmares, and I didn’t want to disturb that.

No. I don’t want to feed you another lie, even if it holds truth in it. I left without saying a proper goodbye because I’m ashamed. You’ve given me so much in these past few weeks, more than you’ll ever know, and there’s little I can do to repay you. You gave me a way help the nation, yet I could not help you when you needed my help most. Please forgive me for that too.

I’ll return to you and pay back my debt to you one day. I don’t know when that would be, or what I may be bringing you, but I swear that I’ll come back. Wait for me.

Your Friend,

Lt. Roy Mustang

Lowering the letter down to lap, Riza thought of the morning she had woken up to find that Roy had left for the State Alchemist’s exam. Ironically, it was due to a nightmare that she woke up.

She glanced down at the letter and pursed her lips together. Did he still think he owed her? Because he didn’t. If he had at one time, he had paid for it in full by now. In any case, she still needed to talk with him about the ‘debt’.

Folding the letter, she replaced it in the box and looked through a few more of the letters. Every one she opened was addressed to her. Though the way she was addressed changed as the date progressed. The earliest letters were addressed formally, always with ‘Miss’ preceding her name. But those eventually disappeared and he simply used her first name. The content of the letters were all similar. He catalogued what he did during the day. The training he was doing, the research he was conducting, the antics his family would get into at the Madame’s bar. Occasionally he rhetorically inquired about what Maes was doing.  A sad smile would appear when the younger Roy talked about his friend. From the dates of the letters, Maes would have been in Ishval for the majority of them.

The next letter she drew from the box had no addressee, no date, no signature. It held only two sentences, and Riza’s heart dropped. While the other letters had been written from the heart of a boy that was still somewhat naïve and hopeful, this one was not. She had no doubt when this one had been written. Ishval.

Don’t wait for me. I’m not worth it.

Riza’s fist clenched against her thigh. She didn’t know where the surge of anger in her veins was directed towards Roy or towards the corrupt government that had manipulated and betrayed their country. Towards the homunculi that played people like puppets on strings.

In the end though, it didn’t really matter. They were all complicit in the act. They all bared the blame.

She picked up the next letter after returning the scrap in her hand to the box. The new one in her hand wasn’t in much better condition than the small scrap she returned. The whole thing was crinkled, like it had once been waded into a ball before it was smoothed back out. In addition, there were places where the paper was warped due to water, sweat or tears. It didn’t matter at this point. It wouldn’t make a difference.

The noise that filtered in from the street grew louder. More vehicles were being driven on the road to get to their owners to their places of work on time. Voices, male and female, shouted into the street after others reminding them of things forgotten.

They all drowned in the scream the paper gave.

God damn you, Riza Hawkeye. Why did you have to come here? To this hell? This is not the place for someone like you, with your kind disposition and generous attitudes. This is not the place for people who want to do good for the people.

Whatever happened to you reconnecting with your mother’s side of the family? To finding something that you could claim as your own? Your father didn’t leave you with many options, and I know that you are brilliant enough to go on to achieving a higher level of education. I know you talked about that, before all of this.

You haunt my dreams, did you know that? On the nights I’m even capable of sleeping at all. There were times when all I could think of was your father’s face, your face, when you learned of what I was doing with the alchemy that you gave me. The way your disappointment would be written across your face; a stone face with the saddest eyes I’ve ever seen. It plagued me along with the faces and screams of the people I murdered with my flames.

But my nightmares couldn’t hold a candle to seeing that expression in real life. Because it wasn’t the same. Because it was like looking into a mirror and seeing all of the loathing I had for myself personified and taking the form of someone who once cared for me.

Do you loathe me as I do? There are times when I wish you do. Yet there are times, lowly selfish times where I wish that there was some small piece of your heart that could forgive me. But as I said it’s selfish. There’s nothing I could ever do to regain that trust I’ve broken and to erase the pain I’ve caused and will continue to cause.

I guess I could say I’m sorry, but such simple words would never cover everything I’ve done. Perhaps one day, I could find something more than words to achieve these things, but until then, all I can offer are my words. And for that, I’m sorry.

Sincerely,

Mjr. Roy Mustang

Riza dropped the letter to her lap and rested her hands over the words. There was so much about Ishval that had broken everyone. But he was right. She had hated him. Almost as much as she hated herself for not realizing that her father had taught her everything she would need to know. Those in power would do anything to exercise their will upon those below them, even if, especially if, they were working for the greater good. She had her father’s ink to remind her of that fact every single day.

The street outside quieted down a little. Vehicles were still making their way across the stones, but the large amount of shouting that had been going on had ceased. A few birds twittered as they flew overhead. Riza breathed deeply.

They had changed so much since then. Yet, in a way they didn’t change at all. His dreams could still be idealistic, and she believed in him and his dreams.

Riza folded the letter and returned it to this proper place in the box. There were only a couple letters left inside that she hadn’t read. She stole a glance at the wristwatch she had been gifted and attempted to gauge how much time she needed to get across town to the presidential mansion. Perhaps if they got everything moved in and in their proper places, she could have the rest of her day off to herself. Perhaps she could finally sit down and finish the book she’d been attempting to read for the past few months but kept having to set aside.

She had time, she decided, and reached in for the last two letters. Neither one looked to be any thicker than the other letters and therefore shouldn’t take very long for her to read. Leaning back against the windowsill, once again, Riza read the words written to her by her oldest friend.

Lieutenant,

It seemed like only yesterday you agreed to stand and my side and help push me to the top of this country’s military so I might change this country to right the wrongs it committed in the past. And true to your word you’ve been there at my side, always dependable, always someone I could count on. But now you’re not. You’re gone, pried from my side in an attempt to keep me in line in a much larger game than we expected.

I can swear up and down that I know you’ll be alright. That you won’t do anything that would put yourself into any more danger than I’ve already put you in. That you are strong and capable, and anything they throw at you, you’ll be able to handle in your own way.

But there’s something else. Something I’ve come to realize recently and haven’t been able to bring myself to actually confront. And I probably don’t even have to tell you, because you already know. You always seem to know things before I tell them to you. I don’t know how you do it, but I am in awe every time you do it.

But here it goes. I, Roy Mustang, love you, Riza Hawkeye. It’s stupid and nothing can ever come out of it, you would make sure of that, but it doesn’t mean that it’s any less true. Perhaps I’ve loved you for a long time now, but I’ve never really been the most observant when it came to things like that have I?

And I know my timing is terrible. Discovering that the leader of the country is a homunculus and that they have some dastardly plans for everyone in this country, and forcing you to become a hostage isn’t the best time to confess and realize what the feeling I’ve had for a while is. But as the saying goes, you never know what you have until it’s gone.

I promise you Riza, I will find a way to topple this and return you to my side. Whatever it takes, however long it takes, I will get you out from under that homunculus’ thumb. Take that to heart.

Wait for me.

Yours,

Roy    

Riza couldn’t help the small laugh from escaping her throat. Even when they were young, he always seemed to be cursed with poor timing. She remembered one time, he spent the whole morning working up the nerve to ask her to for a walk with him, only for it to start raining the moment the question left his lips. She teased him about that for the rest of his stay as her father’s apprentice about that.

So she wasn’t surprised to hear that the moment he became aware of his feelings for her was in the moment it appeared he was losing her. Riza would have been more surprised if he hadn’t.

Trading the letter she had read with the only one she hadn’t read yet, she hoped that he wouldn’t talk about the Promised Day. Not because she didn’t want to know what he had thought about what happened that day, but because she already knew.

There had been a lot of time just to themselves after the Promised Day. All those days in the hospital, sleeping in beds across the room from each other. With her under strict orders from the doctor to limit her movements due to her injuries and loss of blood, and him with his loss of sight, there hadn’t been much else they could do. Their friends had come around frequently, but visiting hours only lasted so long, and there was still so much to do with half of Central Command destroyed in the Promised Day’s proceedings.  

With all of the time they had to themselves, they did the only thing they could. They talked. From the meaningless trivia, like Hayate’s favorite food, to the deep questions and topics that needed to be discussed between them. What had happened on the Promised Day had been covered in depth over and over again. To have to read over that once again would be redundant at this point.

Riza shifted in her perch for a moment, she flipped open the last page waiting for her to read.

There was the tell-tale sound of the hall outside the apartment creaking as someone walked across it, but Riza paid it no attention. She was already deep into the words that had been carefully written across the page in her hand.

Riza,

You’ve been through so much in your life. Much of it at the hands of other people. Yet you were stronger than all of them. When your mother died and it was only you and your father, you stepped up and took care of everything that needed to be done, even though it wasn’t your responsibility. You managed to keep your father and yourself alive, even with the little that you had. You may not have thrived, but you survived. You survived Ishval, and you stood by my side afterwards. A fact that even now, I find myself somewhat amazed at.

Looking back upon my life, the near constant thing I can remember is you. You were always standing beside me in some way. Like when I was only an apprentice under your father’s tutelage, you were there making sure that I remembered to do silly things such as eating and doing laundry. Then you were there in Ishval making sure my dumb ass didn’t get killed. Something you continued to do after we returned home and to the East. Even when we were forced apart in the months leading up to the Promised Day, I know you were still looking out to make sure I wasn’t dumb enough to get killed.

But I almost lost you that day. Just as you almost lost me. And ever since we’ve been dancing around each other, unwilling to move forward, but unable to go back to what we had been before. I refuse to go back into the dark. I’ve made it as far as I can with you pushing me from behind.

Now please don’t think that I’m casting you aside. I’m not. I never could. I’m merely suggesting a change in position. You may not think that it’s wise, but I’ve never been the smartest when it comes to matters of the heart have I?

Riza jerked her head up and out of the reading. He couldn’t really be suggesting what she thought he was suggesting. Her hands gripped the side of the paper a little bit tighter. It just wasn’t possible. That much had been decided when she accepted the position to stand at his side as his bodyguard and adjunct. They were never to become anything more than that.

But they had. The years of working side by side with one another, the unspoken words inside of them, the way they couldn’t help but put the other’s needs and priorities over their own, built up. They bottled it down, but the Promised Day broke the wax seal and pulled the cork. Everything rushed to the surface and they couldn’t contain it anymore.

She could still remember the way everything crashed in the living room of her apartment late one night. And as much as she knew that it was wrong, Riza wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.

The wood floor creaked again, closer than the hall outside the apartment this time. Riza’s head spun to look at the door to the bedroom, hand already reaching under her skirt to grasp her gun. It was unlikely to be anyone of real threat, but training never went away.

Riza found that it was the very man she had been reading letters from.

“Sir? What are you doing here?” Riza stood from where she sat and attempted to hide the letter in her hand. “I thought you had a meeting with the ambassador to Aerugo this morning?”

Roy scratched at the back of his head. His face tilted down, but he maintained eye contact with the woman standing across the room to him.

“It was postponed. Something came up that needed my attention right away. I’m hopeful the ambassador can understand and would be willing to extend his trip for an extra day or so while I attend to this.”

Riza’s mind spun. If something had happened that needed his attention right at this moment, why was he there, with her, in a nearly empty apartment? If something happened shouldn’t he be at Central Command, arguing with his generals about the right course of action to handle the situation?

The little voice in the back of her mind whispered about the letter she still had in her hand. No, that couldn’t be it. Logically, he wouldn’t have postponed a meeting as important as one with their neighbor to the south to do what he implied in his letter. His letter that she wasn’t sure she was supposed to be reading in the first place.

“Sir, I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

Roy smiled at her and walked closer. She watched as his eyes darted to the letter in her hand, to the box it came out of, then back to her. There was a familiar twinkle in his eyes that she had come to associate with trouble over the years. He reached out and grabbed the hand that wasn’t holding the letter. It was her left hand.

“Riza, there are so many things that have gone unsaid between us over the years. And a lot of it doesn’t need to be said. Not when we know each other the way that we do. You probably already know what I’m about to say, but I’m going to say it out loud. Because there are some things that need to be spoken out loud.” Roy raised her hand up to his lips and pressed a kiss to her palm before dropping it down to press it against his heart. “Riza Hawkeye, would you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”

Riza stared up at him. He couldn’t possibly—But he did. He did and he was waiting for an answer. She swallowed.

“I thought it was customary for the proposer to get down on one knee? And have a ring in hand?” She couldn’t keep the smile from spreading across her face.

Without letting go of her hand, Roy dropped to a knee faster than she could disengage the safety and fire a shot on her gun. His free hand groped around in his pocket for a moment or two before he pulled out a simple gold band with a single stone on it. He offered it up to her, his face beginning to accumulate perspiration near his hairline. His mouth was slightly open, ready to respond to her answer at any moment. His eyes were hopeful.

Riza knew she should refuse. She was chief of his security staff at the moment, and it was a job she took with utmost seriousness. But there was no more pushing for her to do. Only guiding him to ensure he keeps his promise with every decision he made from now on. And perhaps she would be able to keep him there better if she were his wife, to be at his side when he needs her the most, than his adjunct, whose job ended when the work hours were over for the day.

She didn’t recall saying anything, but suddenly he was up on his feet again and she was gathered into his arms. He was kissing her, and she was kissing back to seal the decision. The cool metal band was slipped on her finger while her attention was elsewhere.

Roy drew back. Riza could see that his face was beaming. She wondered how she looked. It was probable that she had a smile very similar to his spread across her face.

“Thank you Riza. Thank you so much for waiting for me. Even if you did it in your own way.” Roy leaned down and rested his forehead against hers.

Riza closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling themselves closer together.

“You didn’t even have to ask.”

[saltykong]

Gif Tutorial~~~°˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°

Hi, guys~!

In lieu of all the greats sharing their wisdom and techniques, I thought I would make a tutorial, which is totally uncalled for, on my own methods and maybe inspire other makers!

If you wanna read the rantings, follow down in the cut below~

Let's establish some things: I am a Mac user, and although Mac’s are EXCELLENT computers, when it comes to awesome gifs, we don’t get to have that kind of benefit.

With those that have Windows, legit, y’all can use KmPlayer, PotPlayer, Avisynth

AVISYNTH MAN. If you want to know what that is, go to Brandinators tumblr, he’s considered God of Avisynth.

Here are some awesome tutorials that might be helpful made by great people:

✩ : This one is Ottokaji-VIXX, Agata is precious and this tutorial is hilarious

✩  : It’s fychasang, but technically this is CHA-NNNNN and it is a really great tutorial. Excellent tidbit on fonts as well. 

ANYWAYS GOING ON TO THOSE LESS FORTUNANTE AND CAN’T USE THESE 

So, what I use:

-ClipGrab (to download videos)

-Photoshop CS6 (if you don’t have any version, try to check out itsphotoshop blog!)

Okay let’s get rolling!

1. Download your video. I use Clipgrab and downloaded a Desperate performance from Youtube. This video will save on your desktop.

-ALWAYS TRY TO DOWNLOAD 720P OR 1080P. The higher the better. I also like .ts (or .tp) but those are like, if I get lucky.

2. The video will open up in Quicktime for me, but your video will open up in anyway you view it. From here, find a portion of the clip you want and trim:

Obviously I am a Hongbin stan, so I just want a Hongbin gif.

3. From here, open up photoshop and go to File > Video Frames to Layers

Select your video and make sure you don’t select the “Limit To Every 2 Frames” despite what other tutorials tell you. 

I mean, you can!

 But I guess I’m someone who loves lots of frames, which is why I opt out of it. 

*BUT BE CAREFUL! Sometimes you’ll get stuck with a CRAZY amount of frames for just a silly hair flip. Be selective!

3. Next, you’ll get a screen such as this one. Select ( or highlight) the bottom frames and change the timing as you would like. 

*TIMING IS ACTUALLY A VERY VERY IMPORTANT PROCESS. People for some reason don’t mention it, but it guarantees the smoothness of your gifs.  

I like 0.04-0.06, but don’t worry, you are gonna put this finished gif back in CS6 to adjust the timing again.

4. Next, go to the right hand-side and see a little button with 4 lines and a downward arrow. Press it and select “Convert to Video Timeline”

5. Afterwards, go to Filter > Convert to Smart Filters

6. This is the most fun step, the Coloring!

Now let me explain a few things. 

-I don’t give out PSDs because they are my personal one. If you like a color of a gif you are making, I recommend you save it then as a .psd so that you can use it on future gifs.

-Be creative and make your own style of coloring

But here is something I CAN give as a tip, I love to use Levels and Selective Coloring first! 

The Level’s function is like the Curves function, but eh, preference. I like to focus more on dark and less on light.

The Selective Color function is very important because I go in there to mess with skin color and background color. I absolutely adore blues so I try to emphasize it in background when I can. Or red...but that’s because these are my fav colors. 

I like certain colors to stand out more than others. If anything, there are so many coloring functions on here, be creative! Like, I’ll use a Photo FIlter of blue to counteract yellow tint.

After Levels and Selective coloring, put your PSD of choice and adjust!

Here is the “PLEASE DON’T DO THIS” portion: 

-Again, it is very important that you develop your own sense of coloring and style. It makes the world better trust me. Especially when people want to steal your gifs and you need to hunt someone down. It’s good to be able to distinguish them.

-But here are somethings to take note of:

+WHITE-WASHING

PLEASE DON’T DO THIS. 

IT’S UGLY AND PASTY. HONGBIN IS A GHOST WTF.

 Like, sue a girl for wanting her man to you know...look alive.

But also it shows how grainy it is

+OVERSATURATION

Someone get Wonka on the phone, he’s missing one of his Oompa Loompa’s

Like, I know I am someone that ADORES vibrancy and whatnot, I love using the function, but for heaven sake, have a limit children! 

This gif looks like Hongbin sat in the tanning bed for too long. 

Wait, I got one more!

Oompa Loompa dum bi dee doo We don’t want Hongbin to look like you~ 

Now i’m done. Moving on~

7. Yes NOW we do sharpening. I save this one for last because, when I color, I like to be able to move the cursor around and if the sharpen is already on there, it lags.

Go to Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen. 

I keep my settings on 0.03 radius...why is this at 100% amount? I thought it was on 500%? Oh well, do what you want and how you want to sharpen haha.

8. Okay so this is one of those secret techniques I have that isn’t timing and coloring.

Honestly, it’s just an extra step. You don’t need this if you don’t want it.

This is known as the Anisotropic function. It makes it blurry! 

Filter > Stylize > Diffuse

Select Anisotropic and press OK. 

Make sure you go back into the adjuster on the right hand side, where all the color functions and sharpen functions are, and adjust the intensity of the blur.

*THIS WAS AN OPTIONAL STEP. 

Really this doesn’t do anything at all, It’s just an extra step. 

Timing and Coloring and Frames are the most important.

9. Next, crop your gif and go to Image > Image Size. Adjust your gif size, this impacts the MB so be wise. I usually stay around 300 px unless I’m being adventurous.

10. File > Save for Web. Lower left-hand corner, it tells you your MB size. 

For you lucky ducks, Tumblr put the cap at 3 MB recently, so your gif can work under that number. 

BUT TRY BEING US WHO HAD TO DEAL WITH THE 1MB AND 2MB.

Adjust the way you want and save!

Next thing, you would take your created gif and open it up again into photoshop. We are doing this because it is too fast I bet you.

The gif will open up like Step. 3 did. Here, just select all the frames, adjust the time (I usually do 0.04-0.05) and then go to Save For Web again. Just save and replace the old.

Finished Product:

And now you are DONE!

I hope this was helpful in some way, I know I got lazy around some portions and this was long but I thank those that got here haha.

I hope this will be helpful for those that want to try it! 

Important emphasise one last time:

-Timing is important

-Coloring is important

-Frames are important

-BE CREATIVE AND MAKE YOUR OWN STYLE

Have fun~! 

Please credit me if you use anything here as inspiration!

[torritgrey]

How to document your artwork/paintings: A generous guide by the great painter Patrick Bayly

Hi Susan, here are some of my thoughts, experiences, and preferences about documenting work: first, you got in didn't you? How much does a dslr really matter then? My old camera is good, it worked for me with my tech suite and lighting situation for years, but the sensor is just too small to get enough light to reveal the fine detail (canvas grain, edges of paint, impasto), and creates a bit too much noise (small dots across the images) trying to make up for it, so I went with a camera that has a larger sensor. I ordered a Sony A7ii. It is an upgrade from the older, smaller cmos sensor on the Rebel T3i to a larger full-frame sensor. This will help resolve fine details in the documentation because the larger sensor lets in more light (which in the digital camera world equates with more information) in any given situation. The camera's processor has more information, and doesn't have to fill the gaps created by low light, with noise. Here's the key for getting into documentation: if, however, you don't know what any of this means, then you probably won't be able to tell the difference, and a cheap dslr will allow you to learn all the basics (aperture, focus, shutter speed), get into photoshop, and start you off on developing the skills that help you document your work. Once you start to learn, a cheap dslr and photoshop will definitely up your documentation game. That said, If you don't have or want the equipment (camera, photoshop), or if you don't have the desire to climb a whole new learning curve - your phone will and does produce perfectly adequate results. It's never really worth doing something extra that you don't also enjoy. When I document, I use my camera, a tripod, a clean wall, sometimes some clamp lights (nothing fancy), and my computer. I like to hang the piece on a white wall in the brightest space available that is not in direct sunlight (big open windows letting in beams straight from the sun cause too much glare). I move it around on different walls to find a spot with the least glare. Some glare helps convey information like brush strokes and impasto, but too much will obscure the work. If the light is too dark, I set up a few clamp lights (just $6 bucks from any hardware store) with 75 watt home light bulbs. I like bulbs that have a color temperature of 4500k, you can look for this on the side of the box. They are usually called "cool white" but if the box doesn't have the actual temperature on it, don't buy them. Daylights are bewteen 5000k-6500k, and are too blue (the cool colors in your work will be too poppy, and the warms will turn grey). Soft whites are between 2500-3500k, and are too yellow (the warm colors will be too poppy, and the cools will desaturate). I find the 4500k temperature is not too cool, not too warm, feels sort of like an overcast day, and is the most neutral light i've found to photograph work. When possible, I just take the picture on an overcast day in a bright window lit room (Prentis was really good for this...). I move the lights around again to avoid glare. Pointing them straight at the ceiling helps diffuse light into the room, bouncing it off the ceiling. It resembles natural even light, again like an overcast day, or to mimic the effect of lights in a museum or gallery which are usually very high above the work. Basically, direct light obscures the work, diffuse light reveals it. Then I set up my tripod, and position the camera square to the painting, dial in the focus, aperture, and shutter speed. The last step is to set the camera up for a two second timer mode. I click the shutter, remove any part of myself from the camera, wait, and let the camera work. The little delay helps prevent any vibration from my body from blurring the focus of the shot. I usually view the image, zoom as far in on the display to check if i can see some of the fine lines or brush strokes. If I like the image, I plug the card into my computer and open the RAW file with photoshop's raw image process, where I correct the angle of the shot (fix any warping from the lense), crop the image, and dial in the exposure, contrast and saturation of the image to most accurately represent how i see the painting. RAW files record all the information the camera's sensor recorded when the shutter flipped. Most dslrs have the option to shoot in raw or jpeg. Jpeg images are processed within the camera, and the secondary information is discarded. RAW images are larger in file size than jpeg, because they carry all the extra information, for example - the amount and intensity of light, the whitebalance setting of the camera, information about what kind of lense you used. All of this can be manipulated in photoshop's raw processor, to create a jpeg that you optimize to what you think is the perfect white balance, exposure, contrast, saturation, etc. One of the coolest features is that the program detects what lense you used, and some one at adobe has gone through and programmed a setting that will account for your lense and aperture, and automatically corrects any warping, darkness, or color diffraction that may have happened if your camera was zoomed far enough out that the curve of the lense started to warp the picture. Very usefull stuff. You can get around this shooting in jpeg, if you zoom in a little on the picture- the issue here is that zooming in closes the aperture, letting in less light and you have to position yourself further from the work - so if you are shooting in a small dimly lit space (like a bedroom studio for example), it's not optimal. If something on the wall or background needs to be removed or if the wall needs to be whiter, I transfer the file to photoshop, select the area outside of the painting, and fix whatever needs fixed. I used to use a crazy lighting set-up - I had four halogen lamps, positioned towards each corner of the painting to create a completely even light, then i would put linear polarizing films over each light, use a counter oriented linear polarizing filter on my camera, and then take the shot. This settup completely eliminated all glare. The images looked perfectly flat. Then i realized it was changing the way i saw the work, and that working with the light that you use to paint the work, the light in your studio, or approximating a gallery situation is a much more effective way to communicate how way the painting looks in the real world, so - a little glare is good. My basic principle is trying to make the image look the most like what the painting looks like to me.

patrickbayly.com

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New Post has been published on Seal i Deal

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How to Get Instagram Likes: 13 Tips that Actually Work

Want to be ‘liked’ by a billion people on their mobile devices (mostly)?

What a self-esteem booster that would be.

Of course, only the greatest ad ever known to man-or-woman-kind could do that.

But, that’s how big Instagram has gotten, with 85.5 million of those 1B users in the U.S. Only Facebook is bigger. Being #2 ain’t so bad, eh? Yet, Instagram is numero uno in growth per quarter, at 5%.

Watch out FB, Instagram is coming.

Instagram is the photo-and-video-sharing network behemoth for consumers and brands. With users sharing 95 million photos and videos per day.

And for your biz?

eMarketer estimates Instagram ad revenues will balloon to $10.87 billion by 2019. A 37.7% increase since 2017. Snapchat is for slightly more mature markets, using broadband and high-end mobile devices, mostly for millennials. Instagram however, is attracting even younger people in mobile-centric, emerging markets. Most users are between 18-29 years old.

With this humongous community, how are you going to get after it?

To get your brand in front of new fans?

Read on… we’ll show you how. Let’s get straight to it.

Oh wait, silly me… forgot one thing first…

What are Instagram likes?

“And why does it matter?”

Good questions.

Like with the other platforms, just click an icon to ‘like’ what you see and hear. Though unlike the others, you don’t have to be a follower.

‘Likes’ matter because they’re often the first contact between your business and a new follower. This makes it easy for anyone to appreciate your post.

On Instagram, the ‘like’ icon takes the form of a heart.

More likes = more cred for your brand.

Think of it as a long-term, stay-top-of-mind, marketing strategy.

Onward to the tips, for reals this time.

Bonus: Download a free checklist that reveals the exact steps an adventure photographer used to grow from 0 to 110,000 followers on Instagram with no budget and no expensive gear.

13 real ways to get more Instagram likes

1. Share high-quality photos and videos

Of course, great content requires thought and planning. That is if you want people to actually click that heart. Three tips to help:

Show your face. Or someone else’s. To increase your odds by 38%.

Know your colors. Primarily blue pictures get 24% more ‘likes’ than red ones. Single versus multi-colored also increases ‘likes’ likelihood by 17%.

Choose your filters. Thoughtfully. Filters that increase contrast, correct exposure, with a warmer tone get the best results. Just ask Yahoo and Georgia Tech. Use Instagram’s editing tools over their pre-programmed filters.

Keep things unique and varied, too. Instagram has tools for this. Here’s just 3 of them:

Boomerang to create video loops, frontwards and backwards

Focus to blur the background while keeping the face in focus

Superzoom to automatically zoom in while playing a dramatic sound

Here are some more tips on how to edit Instagram photos for maximum likeability.

2. Use hashtags wisely

Otherwise, you’ll make users angry. And Instagram, too.

You did your best to create great content, right? Keep up the pace with hashtags. These help others find you, even non-followers.

Finding you is the first step to liking you.

Best practices for appropriate hashtagging include:

Use relevant tags. Otherwise users will select the ‘Don’t show for this hashtag’ option.

Place them just right. Say, 2 or 3 of your most important tags in the photo caption.

Need more than a few? Fine, Instagram allows 30 per post. But post them as a comment, more out of the way than your main hashtags. Find out how to do this in our Instagram Hacks post.

Vary them up. Don’t use the same list for every post.

Which hashtags should you use?

Not the ones everyone else is using. Sure, #like4like is popular. But it’s pretty obvious to your followers that you’re fishing for ‘likes’ rather than connecting with like-minded peeps. Bots love these, too. Your stats will be meaningless, just like those tags.

Lebron James got in on the act with a vintage photo using #tbt (short for #throwbackthursday). That netted him 265,000 likes. Nice one, King James. Swish again.

View this post on Instagram

Wanna be one of the first to Congratulate you on this accomplishment/achievement tonight that you’ll reach! Only a handful has reach/seen it too and while I know it’s never been a goal of yours from the beginning try(please try) to take a moment for yourself on how you’ve done it! The House you’re about to be apart of has only 6 seats in it(as of now) but 1 more will be added and you should be very proud and honored to be invited inside. There’s so many people to thank who has help this even become possible(so thank them all) and when u finally get your moment(alone) to yourself smile, look up to the higher skies and say THANK YOU! So with that said, Congrats again Young King ????????! 1 Love! #striveforgreatness???? #thekidfromakron????

A post shared by LeBron James (@kingjames) on Jan 23, 2018 at 7:29am PST

One could write an entire article, just about hashtags. And we did.

3. Tag relevant users

Why tag someone? To encourage them to engage with your post and share it with their followers.

Or to credit them, if they took the picture/video.

Tag other Instagram users featured in your photos with an @-mention in your caption. Or, use Instagram’s tagging functionality. Either way, they’ll receive a notification.

4. Write darn-good captions

I was gonna say ‘damn-good’, but thought not to.

Anyway…

A nice visual plus text is like peanut-butter and chocolate. Readers will go ‘ahhhh’ (and tap the heart).

Write your captions with some TLC.

Tell your story, using words and pictures. Unlike Twitter, there’s no character limit. Make it long, or not. You get to decide. But make it count.

Some ideas:

Ask a question. It can make the reader lean in, with interest. Sounds less promotional, too.

Let your hair down. A little humor never hurt nobody. That ‘suit and tie’ approach… sucks. Especially for this crowd.

Show some love. Got followers praising you? Cool. Mention them in your caption.

That ‘less is more’ thing. True that. Sometimes a minimalist caption will highlight a striking image. Also, it can be a stylistic way to impress followers. One-liners, quotes, song lyrics… you’ve got options.

Short on caption ideas for your photos or videos? Get inspired.

5. Tag your location

Tagging your location puts your business on the map.

And, makes it dead simple for people to discover your photos and videos.

Plus, users view posts more that are tagged with a location.

Here’s how simple it is:

Tap ‘Add Location’

Search for your location

Select it and post the photo or video

This becomes a clickable field for the user. Clicking on the location shows all photos and videos for that place. Your brand is now associated with this location, like a shop, hotel, or head office. Or, make it more general, for a city or town.

We good? Moving right along…

6. Get on the Explore tab

Also known as the Explore page.

What is it?

Curated topics and personalized content you will adore. At least that’s what Instagram believes, based on your previous actions and engagement patterns. Wired calls it, “the most honest place on the internet.” Ah, how nice. Click on the magnifying glass to see for yourself.

Why use it?

For your brand to become more recognized. Placing high on the Explore tab can get you new followers and a steady flow of traffic.

How to get on it

It’s not completely known, but most likely, Instagram uses these criteria to place content in the Explore tab:

Content similar to what users engaged with

Content with high engagement

Content from accounts similar to accounts the user already follows

How to improve your chances

Know your audience. Like: your target customer, their interests, and who they follow. Create a persona to target your content.

Listen closely. Tailor your content based on how your audience is engaging with theirs.

Use hashtags. We talked about this above. Don’t skip it.

That’s the abbreviated version. Learn more in our post on how to get on the Explore page.

7. Post consistently

Why?

People will know what to expect. This keeps followers engaged with a consistent, versus overwhelming, flow in their feeds.

Establishes authority and credibility. You’ll be considered a thought leader in your industry.

Your brand will be recognized. By consistently sharing content with your target audience. 93% of organizations depend on this.

Engage with your audience. Which makes them come back for more. Loyal customers generate more revenue. Cheaper than acquiring new ones.

Generate leads. Give people useful, interesting content, they’ll knock on your e-door to learn more.

8. Post at the right time, too

Which is 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. Monday to Friday.

That’s what we do. Because our audience scrolls through Instagram during their lunch hour. Since we’re B2B, our strategy is weekday focused.

Instagram moved away from the reverse-chronological feed, but timing still matters. They explain on their blog, posts are ordered based on:

Likelihood of their interest in your content

One’s relationship with your brand

Timeliness of posts (an emphasis for us)

Timing is everything. What’s yours?

Find out by:

Knowing your audience

Testing different times

Measure what works, what doesn’t. Do more of what does.

9. Run a “like-to-win” contest

Say I offered you a free flight to your next holiday destination. You only needed to post a cool photo of yourself on vacation.

Would you do it?

Of course.

That’s the seductive play of an Instagram contest.

There’s a few types of these contests. We like the like-to-win one best.

It’s simple to do. Just ask users to like an Instagram photo of your brand, so they can win a prize. It’s a great way to connect with your audience and get people excited about your brand.

Set goals and metrics to see how it’s working.

For building brand awareness, measure follower count, engagement, and website traffic

For an annual sale, measure purchases, year-over-year engagement, and landing page traffic

You get the idea.

Bonus: Download a free checklist that reveals the exact steps an adventure photographer used to grow from 0 to 110,000 followers on Instagram with no budget and no expensive gear.

Get the free checklist right now!

10. Ask your followers to tag their friends

You can also encourage your followers to tag their friends in the comments. For example: “Tag someone you know who needs a vacation!” This can help expose your Instagram account to a larger network of people.

11. Comment and ‘like’ posts of others

Do this and Instagram will reward you, because they care most about engagement.

When a post receives a bunch of likes and comments, Instagram sees this as quality, engaging content that more people will want to see. So then…

Get on and scroll your feed

Like what you like

Write useful comments (not patronizing ones)

Participate in a social community that actually cares about each other’s posts. Not much more to say than that.

12. Share your Instagram posts on other channels

No need to keep things to yourself.

Increase your reach by sharing your posts on other social sites. But, alter them a bit versus just posting as is. So it works best for that platform and audience. For instance…

Address your Facebook friends differently than your LinkedIn connections

Edit your message to fit Twitter’s 280 character count limit

For Pinterest, post just the picture

Use formats wisely, too.

Multiple hashtags work well for Twitter and Instagram. But on Facebook or LinkedIn, you might not get the same results.

13. Use Instagram ads

Remember that $10.87 billion in revenue by 2019?

You want some of that, right? Just like 2 million other companies.

Here’s some ads to help you get more likes on Instagram:

Photo ads

Use these to tell your story and showcase your products using compelling images.

Parachute Home used these to promote a 60-night trial of their bedding, using a Shop Now call-to-action.

Their beautiful stuff aimed at 18-54 year-olds, for their core customer profile. The result? A 3.7 times return on spend. With a click-through rate 2 times that of ads on other platforms.

Video ads

As we now know, Instagram users are crazeeee about videos.

Videos were posted 4 times more than photos in 2017, compared to 2016.

Seems you should do the same.

OGX, a global hair care brand, created a video campaign around ‘Rock What You’ve Got”. This featured women celebrating their diverse hair textures and styles, targeted to millennial women.

This reached an impressive 61 percent of the target audience in the US. The same in Canada, UK, Germany, and Australia combined.

Video ads can be up to 60 seconds, but OGX shows a solid video doesn’t need to be long, as theirs was only 15 seconds.

Carousel ads

These let users swipe through a series of images or videos, with a call-to-action button connecting them directly to your website. Use more creative freedom to tell a longer story.

That’s what Kayla Itsines, founder of fitness empire Bikini Body Guide did.

She created and published a series of carousel ads for her workout app, Sweat: Kayla Itsines Fitness.

This showcased short fitness sequences demonstrating how users could exercise anywhere, anytime with the app. She targeted women aged 18 to 42, reaching 6.4 million people. With an incredible 21-point increase in brand awareness.

Woohoo! Gonna work on my bod right after completing this post. I’m inspired.

Sight, sound, and motion to inspire people around your brand and products.

Stories ads

These are full-screen ads appearing to users between Stories they’re already viewing from people they follow. 400 million Instagram users view Stories every day.

Choose how often people see your Stories ad. Stories expire after 24 hours, ideal for sharing limited-time offers and promotions.

Stories ads look like a regular post. The call-to-action works like a swipe-up feature, taking users directly to your website.

Good stuff for getting more Instagram likes using ads. Read even more about how to advertise on Instagram.

And that’s the story of how to get more Instagram likes

Now you know how to get more likes, which will get you more followers.

Nice.

But that’s not the only way to get more followers. Here’s 21 more ways.

A marketer’s job is never done.

And we can help…

Save time managing your Instagram presence using Hootsuite. From a single dashboard you can schedule and publish photos directly to Instagram, engage the audience, measure performance, and run all your other social media profiles. Try it free today.

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