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#learning more about light and colour and stuff
narutomaki · 10 months
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I always get self conscious when people talk about the amount of thought the goes/went into their art because there is.
there is no upper processing happening when I'm designing a character or background. my hand starts moving and my brain shuts off. I recognize there was probably a point in my life where this WASN'T the case but. like. it's why my art is like. mostly flat and lifeless. my art is never intended to tell a story because when I intend to I get angry/frustrated to the point of wanting to break shit because it's not going right. and I've tried to tell stories with my art both comics and stand alone pieces and it all feels fake or flat or.
idk.
I've TRIED to start and finish a piece where I've made conscious choices beyond "does this look good/right" and "am I being offensive in ways I'm aware of with anything here" but it just. makes me want to scream.
I learned people told stories with their art and I tried to and I stopped drawing for 5 years despite having. before that point been doing art studies for 8 to 10 hours a day for. 2 years.
I mostly just think it's because I have nothing to. say.
I can't add anymore tags to this post??? homophobia.
any way this post is useless idk I'm just sad because people do this thing so easily and enjoy it when it makes me break down crying. I don't get it. every person I've known regardless of neurodivergency has been able to do this consciously to some degree and enjoy it and meanwhile my stupid ass is asked how/why i chose something and I just. shrug. idk
looked nice?
#idk i probably say a lot UNintentionally#but like.#idk i feel like im just being. like. whining. for no reason. like boo hoo no one cares grow up if art makes you thay mad just stop drawing#like. man i WANT to think i WANT to tell stories i intend to tell along with the things i dont pick up on but.#i also mean like. if someone looked at a piece they could pick it apart comprehensively. like#but its like. idk. im like. i think im just to stupid for it.#im the same way with media analysis to be fair. which isnt like great but like.#why did someone choose this lighting? i dont know they thought it looked good ?#i have gotten 90-100% on every single analysis and opinion piece i ever submitted in HS for English#the only time i DIDNT get over 89% on an opinipn piece is when i tried to articulate my actual feelings on a topic to go along w researc#THAT got me pulled aside and told what i had written about was inappropriate and that i should think twice#before submitting a paper with that kond of content in the future#ao i did :^) and went back to bullshitting every single thing!#the curtains were blue in this scene to indicate not sadness but instead her deep love for uhhh fuck. flips through reading material and#lands on a random page. her dog buddy who is depcited in chapter (x) seeing as buddy is usually a male dogs name we can extrapolate and say#she chose these curtain colours after his death to remind her of the dog she had lost ÷#end sentence end oaragraph submit paper withoit a secondary proof reading and lie and say i left the roigh draft at home. walk away#how did i get high grades. dude. like everyone says teachers know when a kids bullshitting but like#the teachers ATE MY SHIT UP 😑 i got used as an example of comprehensive stucture and analysis on more than one occasion#this is not me bragging this is me saying i never actually learned how to domthis stuff because i was supported in faking it#some people can do analysis like yhis on their first read through like. and remember it. how? how??? what???#whay do you mean its because you read mote than thee sparknotes and random chapters because the book didnt interest you.#'we know when you dont actually read the book?' why did you compliment me on my comprehensive opinons of the parts i didnt readm#'We know when you write it the night before?' why did you laude me as an example of dedication put into an essay when i fucked around every#single in class wotk session past the first one and frantically typed and printed that in the computer lab before class 20 minutes ago?#why!! like DUDE#its like when they say they can tell when you use wikipedia to soirce things and then lie about it#and then compliment ur sources when youbl just used wikipedias sources. witout reading them urself.#which i also did#and when they tell you not to just use google translate because they can tell. when i did and then edited a LITTLE to catch names.
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teacher!mingi x teacher!reader
summer camp/school trip au
word count: 7.8k
genre: fluffy stuff, just tooth rotting fluff for once
synopsis: when you suggest the idea of a one week trip to give the seniors a little break before their exams, you find yourself paired with mingi as the teachers in charge of your group of students, to your surprise and satisfaction. you've had your eye on him for quite a while- but so has mingi. he proves that it isn't too late for a highschool sweetheart - him.
manager-nim: @eightmakesonebraincell (we formally salute all fluff writers bc this shit was tough)
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when you heard you were accepted as a part of the crew who would be accompanying students on a one week road trip 
not only were you beyond relieved because you needed a break so bad
but you were also way too curious about who else made it into the crew
it hadn’t been long since you started teaching at eden high school
but it was the quickest you found your place as an english teacher
it was surprising how well you got along with the staff here considering your not-so-excellent experience at your previous school
and the students here were just students, yes, just like everywhere but
you were pretty sure this was the most adored you had been
perhaps because you were in charge of the seniors who really needed someone like you- a person they could confide their problems and concerns in
a person who would offer solutions instead of telling them that it was just a fleeting worry
a person who would notice when they were beyond exhausted with the pressure of being, well, a senior
you remember how hard it was when it was your time and you wouldn’t want your students to go through the same thing
which was why you once suggested to mr. kim that perhaps the students would appreciate a trip
it was just a casual observation you had made and when mr. kim said ‘perhaps they really need it’, you weren’t sure if he was being serious
but turns out that he was, and the preparations began
not all the teachers could join but you had to be a part of it, mr. kim said, since you suggested it in the first place
you got so busy with assuring the students that they would have fun and they had nothing to worry about
talking to their parents in case they were being reluctant to send their kid, thinking it was a waste of time
convincing the students who were taking their studies way too seriously that they needed this- they really didn’t want to be burned out when exams would be near
that it slipped your mind- another suggestion for mr. kim to take mr. song along
mr. song mingi- the history teacher- the one who made history quite fun to learn
you had specifically planned with the staff- including him- to visit a few historical sights on the road-trip
however, he wasn’t the only history teacher here so you weren’t sure if he would be tagging along
and you never got the chance to ask him
(or even if you did, you were too shy)
but the day finally came
way too early in the morning when even the sun was asleep, you were standing by the bus counting the heads
almost all of your students made it- it was a bummer that some couldn’t but you promised to take them out for dinner after you were back
it was the least you could do for them
the girls were all over you, finding your casual style pretty intriguing
they had only ever seen you in professional clothing, tied hair and reading glasses on the bridge of your nose
so with your hair down, shades hanging by the neckline of your light blue sundress
the girls were pleased, yes, but the boys couldn’t help but share the sentiment too
“miss y/n, you should wear dresses more often!��
“light blue is your colour!”
“your hair looks so good-”
“come on now,” a familiar voice boomed and if you thought the flood of compliments from your students was making you smile
the smile changed into a grin, almost a giggle when you turned to the source
the source being none other than song mingi- in a loose sleeveless white shirt with a denim outerwear and matching jeans
song mingi may be a ‘boring history teacher’ like you sometimes teased him
but that man has got impeccable style
“stop flattering poor miss y/n and find your seats, come on!”
the students laughed but obeyed and the class pres started the roll call
and you felt a little somersault in your stomach when you locked eyes with mingi
“you made it”
he grinned back. “did you think i wouldn’t?”
“i was hoping you would, actually.”
and that took mingi off guard
you weren’t always forward with what you said unlike him and he found you a bit hard to read sometimes
and oftentimes, you surprised him with your actions or your words, just like you did now
but mingi knew when to make something out of an opportunity
“well, you’re stuck being paired with the boring old history teacher. hope you don’t mind.”
“i never called you old, though,” you told him, smiling to yourself before following the guard’s orders and getting on the bus
.
mingi, of course, sat next to you, the only seat available
and you marvelled at the turn of events
because how long had you wished for some sort of proximity to happen?
it wasn’t easy to be alone in the school with him- not that you wanted to do anything alone with him, but
sometimes, you thought, it would have been nice if you got one-to-one interaction with him that wasn’t related to grading each other’s papers 
or sharing pointers about the next exam
sometimes, he would find you alone with your head in your hands
and he would decide not to disturb you and leave a little something for you near your desk for you to spot if you, well, got your head out of your hands
a candy or a ‘cheer up!’ note
you would also find him alone in some classroom sometimes
you noticed he preferred to be alone at times so you knew to look in his classroom first instead of the staff room
he would be so absorbed in whatever he was doing
that you would simply watch him until he felt your gaze burning into his skin
and then you would pretend to have been passing by 
and of course you ‘accidentally’ bought two of whatever you were going to snack on
mingi would offer you to join him but most of the times, you let him be
but sometimes, if the staff room was too noisy, you would join him
and the two of you would sit at opposite ends of the classroom doing your own work
(while secretly stealing glances but nobody needed to know that)
so now that you finally got to be alone with him
ignoring the twenty-some noisy children in the back- they could be considered background noise
you couldn’t help but play with your fingers
the bus started and mingi initiated conversation
telling you who was paired with who
each bus had at least one male and one female teacher and only two out of the four buses had two teachers
the other being jongho and gyeoul
“ah, gyeoul is going to forget she’s a teacher. i bet she’ll be sitting with the students playing uno with them.”
“jongho is going to drive the kids away with his dad jokes,” mingi tsk-ed. “but guess the most interesting pairing?”
us?
“hongjoong, wooyoung and yuqi.”
“no way!” you actually laughed out loud this time. “hongjoong’s going to regret ever planning this trip.”
“you bet,” he scoffed. “seonghwa, mina and eunha are in the other bus.”
“all the calm ones?”
“i switched with seonghwa, actually,” he admitted and you raised a brow. “seonghwa gets along with them. i get along with you. we might as well have a good time too, now that we’re here, right?”
right.
he switched to be with you
“you sure you won’t regret that decision?”
you didn’t expect his eyes to travel all over your face and his lips to curve into a smirk
“i’m sure.”
and that was your cue to check on your students
you took a round, making sure everyone was comfortable and told them all to just take a nap
there wasn’t anything interesting going to happen for a good few hours
lucky for you, the kids were sleepy
so the bus fell quiet, the driver assuring you that you both could relax too- there was another driver to keep him company anyway
so you asked mingi if he was sleepy
“not yet. are you?”
“not yet,” you confirmed.
“are you comfortable? do you need anything?”
you relaxed back, shoulder to shoulder with mingi, a small blanket on your lap. “i’m good. do you need anything?”
“not for now, nope,” he took a deep breath. “how long has it been since your last trip?”
.
and that was how you found yourself actually relaxing and talking to him
you told him your last trip was a while ago with your family
you didn’t want to count school trips but you told him about that too
and he told you about his experiences
just like that, you got to know each other a little better
details you wouldn’t have shared otherwise
from random facts about each other:
“i used to love reading. i became an english teacher because i would consume books like nothing else. but i haven’t read a new book in about a year.”
“i hated the idea of being a history major until one of my professors started using storytelling as a way to get us to learn about the world. i still remember the stories he’d make up.”
to gossip:
“i think i saw wooyoung checking out eunha earlier”
“don’t you think mina’s got a thing for seonghwa?”
somewhere between all of that, you got too sleepy to continue talking
you didn’t realise when you dozed off but when you woke up with a weight on your side
your heart almost stopped when you realised it was mingi resting his head against your shoulder
and quite comfortably at that
you realised you may have been resting your face on his head too
and the current position with your neck upright was sending a painful wave down your shoulder
so you decided to give in, checking the time- you could sleep for another hour
you went back to resting your face on top of his head, the bubbly smell of his shampoo lulling you right back to sleep
you woke up when you felt the bus stop and when you groggily lifted your head
you realised that mingi had been awake for quite some while, using his phone
but he never moved because you were using his head as a pillow
“oh my god,” you said, hiding your face in your hands so he wouldn’t see your flaming cheeks. “i’m sorry, i didn’t realise-”
“it’s okay,” mingi chuckled, waving his hand in dismissal. “i’m to blame too.”
you looked at him to make sure it was really okay and when he said, “your snores are cute” you chucked your blanket at him and looked around
you were making a quick stop at a rest area
you woke the kids up and told them now was the time to get snacks or use the toilet
you met up with the teachers to have coffee, everyone in good spirits having woken up from their naps
the wind already felt different and fresh now that you were a few hundred miles away from the city
with newfound energy, you all got back into your buses and that was when the fun started-
for the kids.
it was suddenly too lively and noisy, loud music blasted in the bus and a few kids showing off their dance moves, the rest cheering them on
you clapped along, reminiscing about your own highschool time
soon, you reached the first town on your list- a town known for its historical ruins
though the kids had been complaining about visiting ruins- what’s there to learn about ruins?
you assured them the trip would only get better and you kept the ‘boring’ sites for the first few days
because you wanted to end the trip on a cheerful note- the beach
as the kids crowded and started following the teachers, you took note of their complaints and unsatisfied grunts
and though panic started bubbling in your heart- maybe you shouldn’t have put this town on the list? all your anxieties faded away when a certain history teacher stepped in to save the day
“alright, remember when i told you guys about the spirit of the exiled princess that haunts a certain town? that people spot in the forest sometimes?”
“is the spirit pretty?” a boy asked, earning a bunch of snickers from the crowd
but the way mingi smirked made them all shut up
“i guess you’ll find out soon.”
you winced when the kids burst into a chorus of cheers or frightened screams and the teachers shared a good laugh at how mingi handled this
“remember- if you find a four-leaf clover, the spirit might spare you!”
and as mingi guided them along the town, sharing fun facts about the sites, the kids kept their eyes trained on the ground in chances of finding the lucky leaf
really, it was worse than a needle in a haystack
.
after visiting a few sites, you found yourselves in the heart of the town, at a food street
all the class presidents were instructed to make sure the kids stay in sight and that they were free to go eat whatever they wanted
the kids were simply famished and just wanted those corn dogs and fish cakes
the staff took a table in the centre and you were glad that it was a weekday today- apart from a few people, you were the only ones here
you all got some noodles and double checked on your accommodations- it was supposed to rain so you wanted to check-in before dark
just like that, it was time to go find shelter
you stuck with your group of students like every other teacher 
and when you reached the lodge, you made sure everyone went to their rooms before finding your own that you were to share with the female staff
the rest of the girls were already there, removing their makeup and stretching. you smiled as you followed suit
“this trip is exactly what i needed,” yuqi slumped down on the mattress as she said. “even though today was a bit boring, the weather makes up for it.”
“well, the night isn’t over yet,” gyeoul smiled mischievously. “it doesn’t have to end on a boring note.”
she came up with the genius idea of having drinks in the backyard with the boys
mina sighed in disappointment because if gyeoul had told her earlier, she wouldn’t have removed her makeup so soon
“you’re pretty anyway,” eunha told her, grabbing her hand and dragging her out
you told them you would join after a few minutes and changed into your pjs like the rest
when you went to the backyard, you let out a surprised laugh
because the boys had already prepared drinks for all of you before gyeoul
“great minds think alike” hongjoong said
“rich coming from you because all it takes is one drink and it’s game over for you,” wooyoung said and seonghwa’s laughter boomed in the air
“you’re no good either, seonghwa!” mingi pointed at the teacher, clicking his glass with wooyoung’s and sharing a shot
you smiled to yourself- it looked like you were going to make really good memories on this trip
you took a seat between the noisy ones- wooyoung and yuqi- and immediately started regretting it
because not only were the two of them were making you drink a lot, ensuring a good hangover
but they also kept teasing everyone (including you) and you thought they were too loud
not that you weren’t having fun
you surprised everyone by joining them after a few drinks, though you couldn’t defend yourself like the two did
what a team they made
of all the people, mingi noticed that perhaps… you needed to switch seats
or the environment- he didn’t want you to get too drunk
so when he subtly motioned for you to follow him, you nodded in answer
he told the drunk lot he would get more drinks
as if there weren’t a bunch of unopened bottles on the ground 
but thankfully they were too busy roasting each other to notice
and then you made the excuse of wanting to go to the toilet and left
you walked inside the hall, trying to figure out exactly where mingi had gone
you almost walked past him in the dark corridor and if mingi hadn’t grabbed your arm, you wouldn’t have known
you turned towards him, eyes wide in surprise
he immediately let go of you, not wanting you to feel uncomfortable
“wanna go see the stars?”
when he said that, you didn’t realise it would become a nighttime ritual for the two of you
because away from the city, you could see so many stars
that drunken night, you watched the stars with him in silence
too afraid to speak lest he figure out the desires within your heart
the desire to be with him, to get to know him more, to simply talk to him
but that comfortable silence definitely created a shift in your dynamics.
.
you didn’t travel much the next day, just explored the surroundings and made a trip to the top of the hill
taking as many photos as you wanted
capturing candids of the students and the teachers to share with them later
watching in fascination as some of the kids caught bugs quite easily
thanking the girls who made flower bracelets for all of you
and when you caught mingi smiling at the bracelet on his wrist, you showed off yours
“the boring old history teacher received a gift?” you teased
“you have to admit that they’re creative,” he laughed. “look- the boys want them too.”
the boys, in fact, wanted them. they were all queued up waiting for the girls to give them all a bracelet- or a ring
“oh, when we go back, there are gonna be so many campus couples,” eunha joined the two of you to watch the sight
really, it was pretty obvious who liked who- they wanted to receive the flowers from the person they liked
and the girls wanted to give the flowers to the person they liked
you wondered if they were so obvious… were you too? 
because it was common knowledge that wooyoung liked eunha- even right now, you caught him stealing glances at her
and if you looked behind you, mina was listening to seonghwa quite intently while he rambled on about something
hongjoong, who was right there, seemed the least interested
so when you looked up at mingi, you caught him staring at you and your heart skipped a beat
“you’ve got a little something on your head- a petal.”
“where?” you ran your fingers through your hair where he pointed but it seemed like you didn’t get it
and mingi decided to take the matter into his own hands and leaned down a bit to pick the petal from near your ear
and just like that, time stopped for a few seconds
maybe you should stop really stop reading novels
even though you haven’t read one in about a year
but just like in the books, the length of the duration- despite being only a matter of a few seconds- seemed too long
as you met his eyes, the golden rays of the sun casting a warm glow on his skin
and making his dark orbs more prominent
you wished he was wearing shades right now so you wouldn’t be entranced by the way his eyes scanned your face
but you blinked, and the moment was over- he drew away and tossed the petal on the ground, smiling awkwardly
and you were so glad jongho called you at that moment, having spotted a kitten and knowing how much you liked cats
you got busy with him, burying that moment aside for the time being
that night, you came back to the same lodge
you didn’t drink this time, having learned your lesson from how bad the hangover was in the morning
but you played a few games of uno and perhaps… this was noisier than last night
because there were quite a few sneaky players in this game
gyeoul and jongho- the evil duo of the school
“have some shame,” wooyoung tsk-ed at gyeoul who grinned at jongho- only you seemed to have noticed the look they shared
the look of an underlying scheme
you were sometimes surprised by how well they got along despite gyeoul being a few years older than all of you, and jongho being the youngest teacher in the school
like attracts like, apparently. evil attracts evil
you noticed jongho mouth a number at gyeoul and you realised what was going on
they either took a peek at the other teacher’s cards since there wasn’t much space here to hide your cards properly
or when jongho had shuffled the cards… he had pulled some trick at that time
either way, you weren’t going to let the two of them win- at least not them
so you looked at mingi who was right in front of you, and you subtly let him know that the two were at it again
he stifled a smile, whispering ‘i got this’ 
and the tables turned when within a few minutes, he somehow tricked gyeoul into playing her wild cards but completely destroyed her
he did not win the game but to you, he was the winner
and you told him that when he asked if you wanted to watch the stars a bit tonight too before sleeping
he laughed loudly at that, almost getting shy
.
and that night, you talked about the most random stuff. again.
it was like you could never run out of things to talk about
after all, there was so much to talk about
the work tea
recent developments- eunha was noticing wooyoung back and seonghwa was still an airhead
you thought seonghwa was just equally nice to everyone so it would be hard to figure out if he looked at mina differently
some students tea- one of the close-knit group of friends had a falling out during the trip
mingi was sure they would figure it out on their own
but you were sure one of them would come to you or wooyoung for advice
you both were the unofficial counsellors in your school
“why wooyoung?” mingi wondered. “why not me?”
“because you, mr. song, seem a tad bit intimidating at times.”
the puppy eyes of disbelief he made in response proved you wrong
“who? me?”
you couldn’t help but laugh at the way he was looking at you
“sometimes, yes.”
“more than wooyoung?”
“wooyoung is a literal ball of sunshine though…”
mingi turned towards you, stepping closer
“do i seem intimidating to you too?”
though it was an innocent question
it did nothing to help the butterflies in your stomach
it took everything in you to shake your head no
because he felt intimidating sometimes, that was true
and if it wasn’t for his warm personality
you might not have ever interacted properly with him
mingi laughed to himself, perhaps knowing that you might be lying
and it fell silent all of a sudden
just the sound of the crickets and the rustling of the leaves
and the loud sound of your thoughts
the next two days were a blur
and you thought that when you would go back home, you would have to look at all the photos you took
to ingrain these memories in your brain
because the days were packed travelling and having fun
the bus rides were fun and now it was mr. song who showed his dance moves to the students
he was surprisingly very good- in fact- too good
you wondered if that was why he felt so chill- because he just had this chill groove to him
which showed a lot in his dance moves when he freestyled
you had to physically go and calm the girls after this because
suddenly they were seeing the boring old history teacher in a new light
you folded your arms when mingi made his way back, still laughing at the way the girls cheered for him and the boys clapped
he asked you if you liked what you saw
and that made you smack his arm and turn your focus out of the window to hide your blush admire the scenery
now it was mostly visiting a few spots such as more historical sites and shopping points
and during the day, you were usually with the girls so you could shop together
you tried the local delicacies which was a new experience for most of the people here
and visited an apple farm to help the farmers as well
since it was a packed two days, the teachers didn’t really play more uno or drink 
though all of you would gather, this time in the common room, to plan what was next
but both of these nights, mingi offered you the same thing-
wanna see the stars?
you learned more about him and he about you
you learned that he has always loved to dance 
and he loves karaokes- especially drunk karaokes
he learned more about your previous school experience 
how they overworked you so much 
combined with gaslighting, you thought it was normal and you were just lacking
he assured you that you made a good decision quitting
and commended you for taking the big step- after all, it must have been daunting
though he did not have a similar experience, he could understand you
just like that, you learned the little things about each other
and now that the trip was almost over, you told mingi that you would like to take a walk around while you watched the stars
.
while walking, you were suddenly reminded of the time the staff went out for dinner once
and everyone was at least a bit tipsy if not drunk
when it was time to wrap up and mingi saw that you meant to walk home
he offered to accompany you
and that was only a few months after you started teaching so you weren’t very familiar with all the teachers
though you were pretty sure they were all very nice
you told mingi that he was too drunk but he insisted anyway
and you let him walk you to your neighbourhood which wasn’t far from there
now, almost two years later, you were both taking a walk again and it was oddly reminiscent of that time
and it seemed like mingi was thinking the same when he asked you if you remembered when he first walked you home
“i never told you but i didn’t remember for a while,” he confessed, the rustling of the leaves under your steps growing louder as you stepped on the autumn leaves
you weren’t surprised, if you were honest
“it’s okay. you didn’t do anything stupid. except make crow noises, but that’s okay.”
mingi covered his face in his hands as he laughed and you smiled
“i may or may not have been trying to impress you.”
“really? it was a success. i haven’t heard many people pull off crow noises that well.”
when mingi made a face at that, you lightly punched his arm
“it really is okay. but i have one little favour to ask…”
mingi knew what was coming before you said it
and you both walked a bit further from the hotel
making sure no one was around
before mingi turned away from you and made the loudest caws
and this time, you laughed heartily 
you were so absorbed in your little bubble that when you heard the sound of a door opening
probably the door of the nearest lodge who heard strange sounds in the middle of the night
you grabbed mingi’s hand instinctively and started running away from the source of the sound
the two of you couldn’t stop laughing, even as you ran
so much that it made it harder to run, actually
he took the lead and guided you to the benches to catch your breaths
and it was only after a couple of minutes when your breathing returned to normal
and the adrenaline started to wear off
that you realised the two of you were still holding hands
maybe because the muscles of your arm tensed at the sudden realisation that mingi finally noticed your joined hands
but when he glanced at you and found the corners of your lips curved in a small smile at the sight
he squeezed your hand instead of letting it go
and you looked up at him to see him shyly smiling
“what?” you asked
you couldn’t help it- you needed to know what he was thinking
“nothing, y/n,” he shook his head though he was unable to stifle his smile
“it’s not nothing,” you insisted. “why are you trying so hard not to smile?”
“it’s because i quite like this,” he finally admitted, raising your joined hands and you noticed how small your hand was in his, almost swallowed in his grip
for once, you were the one who was at a loss for words
“did i say something wrong?” mingi asked
and you wished he wasn’t so straightforward
but perhaps, it was for the better
and you thought the timing felt right too
the sky looked beautiful
the air felt like it was enveloping you in its embrace
the moon beautifully lit his face, highlighting the sharpness of his features
yet casting such a soft, welcoming glow
you shook your head, caressing the skin of his hand with your thumb in answer
there was no need for words anymore- the feelings were reciprocated, and you both could feel that
.
mingi made a daring move when he raised your joined hands in the air again
you wondered what he was up to now
but the last thing you expected was for him to kiss the back of your hand
it was such an endearing action that you could not help but giggle
“can’t we stay like this even when we go back home?”
an offer. a question. a confession. it was all of that and more
“i don’t think you can see many stars in the city though.”
“i don’t think i would have to look for stars,” mingi said, looking right at you
that was enough
you smacked his arm. “that’s the cheesiest pick up line i’ve ever heard. you really are the boring old history teacher, mingi.”
you started to go back, folding your arms and still giggling especially when mingi laughed loudly, rushing after you
you tried to run but damn his long legs
he caught up to you, running backwards in front of you now
you pouted as you tried to cross him, but he just won’t let you
“you haven’t answered my questions.”
you paused. you really hadn’t, huh?
he stepped closer to you, trying to read your face for a hint of what was going on behind your eyes
and you thought it was time to finally follow your heart’s desires
and test the waters without any fear
you stepped closer, surprising him
you placed a hand on his shoulder and he wondered what you were about to do
he shut his eyes when you stood on your tiptoes, inches away from him
and you took a moment to drink in the sight
before you pecked his cheek, a giggle escaping your mouth
and this time, you ran for your life
because you didn’t think you could take anything else right now
especially because you had waited so long for some sort of a signal from him
though you wanted nothing more than to hug him and stay there for the rest of the night
you let him chase you and let him hold your hand again
when it was time to separate to go to your respective rooms
he patted your cheek, looking at you with such soft eyes that you melted
and you knew, in that moment
that you were absolutely done for
the travelling time for the next day was a bit longer
which meant you got to spend more time with mingi on the bus
and it was a little awkward at first, the both of you fumbling around like the very teenagers you were making fun of not too long ago
the very teenagers that were on the bus right now
and it took you both a while to stop fidgeting and do something other than awkwardly laugh
thankfully, one of the students came forward with some snacks to share
and thus began a discussion of which snacks were better and which were mid-tier
you both were so enthusiastic about this that the students joined as well
before you knew it, you reached the outskirts of the village you were going to stay in for the next two days
and you thought beautiful was an understatement
the sea was so bright that it looked like a sheet of clear crystals under the sun
the air smelt of salt and sand and you felt a sense of relief
and so did the rest of the passengers- you could hear the soft sighs of the students
this was why you planned the trip
so everyone could just relax at the seaside
there was nothing planned for the last two days- there were a few sites so the students could divide into groups according to where they wanted to go
and the teachers would divide and tag along accordingly
the next two days were all about having fun
no more historical sights, as the kids teased mingi
though mingi retorted with a poetic ‘history is everywhere’ that earned him a few grimaces
as soon as you reached the lodges by the beach, the kids all ran towards the sea with the teachers shouting concerningly
thankfully, there were a few lifeguards since it was a tourist destination
so all of you decided to relax a little too, while still keeping an eye on the kids
.
that day, you all simply enjoyed being on the beach
making sandcastles, playing volleyball, swimming and collecting shells and rocks
mingi was out with his sleeveless again, no jacket covering his arms this time
you had a tough time if you were honest
and so did mina who couldn’t stop sighing at the sight of seonghwa’s long wet hair matted to his face
you could kind of relate to her, though your eyes only followed mingi
and perhaps, you were as obvious as mina now
because a certain menace came to stand next to you
“was just curious why you keep grinning into the distance. but nope. you’re just watching that fool. also, maybe wipe the drool off your mouth.”
you glared at wooyoung
“when you wipe yours. do you want to know what eunha thinks about you?”
suddenly, he’s ready to bow in front of you if necessary and you laughed
you’re both just two lovesick birds at this point and decided to calm yourself by making some sandcastles
“i never realised you got the hots for mingi too,” wooyoung said while trying to place a shell on the top of the lopsided castle. 
“what do you mean ‘too’?” you asked absently, more focused on making sure the whole thing wouldn’t collapse because of a shell
“he’s liked you for the longest time, y/n. you’ve just only noticed now.”
oh. 
that can’t be true, can it?
“are you sure?”
“i mean, he literally watches the stars with you every night. why else would he do that? and only with you? i like watching stars too, he knows. never offered me now, did he?”
you snorted at that
it did make sense
plus, with the events of last night… he must like you a little, right?
you decided to confirm it tonight
this time, you were the one who asked to watch the stars with him
after dinner when you made sure all the kids were in their rooms
the whole staff went to watch the stars, actually
you couldn’t miss it here- the full moon was the cherry on the top
however, you noticed how wooyoung and eunha found a spot away from the rest
mina also managed to get seonghwa to follow him- and perhaps, you thought, he really did like mina 
the rest were in their own bubble
and you grabbed mingi’s hand to lead him towards the big rock you had spotted earlier
where you could have a little privacy 
not that you aimed to do anything, no
you just wanted him all to yourself
was it selfish of you? yes. absolutely. but did you care? 
nope
did mingi care? he followed you willingly
this time, you were more touchy with each other
while you talked about how much you had missed the beach, his fingers trailed the curves of your hand absently
you brushed the sand off his cheekbone
and he scooted closer to you
“i don’t want to go back now,” you sighed happily
you really didn’t want to- it was too peaceful here
and you had never felt more content
“neither do i,” mingi said. “but at the same time… i do.”
“hmm… are you sick of watching the stars with me?”
mingi laughed at that
“i thought by now you knew that i never watched the stars.”
your heart did a few flips at his words and you glanced at him
he was right- he never really looked at the stars
he was always watching you
“would you like to see the stars when we go back?”
“every day, if i can?” he tucked your hair behind your ear as he said
“i really like you, y/n.”
.
god
it’s like you’re the high school student on a trip the way you’re feeling right now
you smiled, looking away and shyly responding
“i really like you too, mingi. i have, for a long time now.”
“how long?” the goofy mingi was back
“never answering that by the way,” you said, getting up and away from him. “you cannot extract that information out of me.”
“y/n!” he yelled your name in warning and you laughed as you tried to make a dash
but he was far too quick and he grabbed your wrist
you had to put your free hand over your mouth to keep your laugh from booming across the horizon
but you could not contain it when he pulled you in to his chest
you wasted no time wrapping your arms around his slim waist
and he curled in your hold, rocking you back and forth
“you’re too tall, by the way,” you said when you realised you were on your tiptoes and he was leaning down
he parted with a kiss on your cheek, pinching your nose afterwards
sending your brain into a spiral, turning you into mush
“you’re too cute.”
no.
you’re too insane because you want to kiss him right now
and you don’t know what took over you when you did just that- pecked his lips, surprising both of you
giggling when his eyes went a little wide 
your grin almost faded when he didn’t respond
but before you could say or do something, he crashed his lips on yours
kissing you deeply, once before drawing away and making sure that it was okay
oh, it was more than okay
but he decided to keep things calm, kissing you slowly and testing the waters
it was perfect in every way, more than what you ever dreamed about
you just never expected this
you and mingi on this beautiful beach, the full moon shining on you two, the waves almost washing your feet
all the four-leaf clovers you found were worth it, it seemed
now that you were sort of official
you spent the next two days with each other
without any hesitation this time
the others barely noticed the difference and you realised that it was because perhaps, the two of you had always looked at each other that way
(or maybe a certain kim hongjoong told them to shut up and let you two enjoy)
but either way, the others let you two tag together when you accompanied the students into town
you went to the local shops and this time, you bought things for your friends and family just like the students
you all had bbq before coming back to the lodges
and that night, you gifted mingi a silly pair of sunglasses
round sunglasses with wide white rims
and when he wore them, you burst into a fit of giggles
“you look like willy wonka from charlie and the chocolate factory”
“do i?” mingi asked, unlocking his phone to check
“mingi wonka. mingi wonka, the amazing history teach~”
you were pretty sure your laughter was heard by everyone on the beach as he chased you 
you decided to take refuge in the waves of the sea and started swimming away from him
but he was quick to follow
and once he caught you, wrapping his arms around your waist, you laughed shyly
“someone will see us!”
but when you turned in his arms
the moonlight illuminating his face but hiding his eyes due to the glasses he still had on
you tried taking them off his face but he grabbed your wrists
“yeah, keep them on,” you whispered. “they suit you.”
“i can’t tell if this is a joke or not,” he smiled a bit
“you just need a hat and a cane to go along with it-”
and before you knew it, mingi put his hand on top of your head and dunked you under the sea
you splashed water on him in revenge
and the two of you chased each other again until he finally caught you
and this time, you thought he really did look beautiful with the damp hair and the glasses
so you didn’t try to wriggle away from his grasp when he leaned in to kiss you
.
the last day, everyone decided to just laze around at the beach
the kids played in the water all day
and it was a bit cloudy so the heat was tolerable too
you wore a hat, resting your back against a rock
and whoever passed by would mess up your hat, annoying you
wooyoung decided to step in to guard you
but also for advice
“would it be too much if i cook and take eunha to a private spot for a little picnic?”
you shut the book you had been trying to read and turned your focus to wooyoung
“that sounds cute, actually. would she accompany you willingly?”
wooyoung smacked your arm and you snickered. “she gifted me my favourite perfume last night.”
“so?”
“how did she know?” wooyoung folded his arms. “i’ve never talked about which perfume i wear. no one knows, but she knew.”
this time, you let out a long ‘oh’ as you pondered
“you’re telling me she did her research?”
wooyoung nodded, very pleased
“do you know what her favourite food is?”
“that’s what i came to ask.”
you both did a little planning and wooyoung admitted that he had noticed a shift in your relationship with mingi too
you asked him if you were that obvious
and almost comically, you both looked towards seonghwa
“he’s hopeless,” wooyoung concluded
for some reason, mingi was very curious about what you two were talking about
(or maybe he just wanted you all to himself for the time being)
and he told you that intrusive thought that night
it was the last night of the trip and you would be leaving for home in the morning
so you told him that he better get used to the lack of proximity
because during school hours, it would be pretty packed especially now that exams were nearer
and after that, you both would have too much to work on
“will i be able to see you often then?”
“i mean…” you began. “what are we?”
mingi’s mouth formed an o shape as he realised
that you two hadn’t really talked about this
“shall i ask you out?”
“if i have to tell you that…” you scowled at him and he laughed
digging into his pocket to extract a small box
it was your mouth forming the o shape now
he opened the box to reveal a set of matching bracelets
a pretty little silver chain, very subtle, and just how you preferred
“will you go out with me?”
you made an impressed face, accepting the bracelet
“i didn’t know you were such a romantic”
“there are a lot of things you don’t know yet”
“i’m pretty sure i don’t need to know most of those things-”
mingi only laughed this time 
that night came to be a memorable one
as the trip concluded and you got back to your daily routine
you found that it no longer felt mechanical
you started off with a smile on your face
even mondays felt exciting 
because you could see mingi at school
you would eat lunch together everyday with the rest of the staff
but it was official now- you and mingi
and wooyoung and eunha
the latter was more unexpected, the staff revealed
and you were flustered to hear about how obvious the two of you had been
but it was okay
seonghwa finally noticed that mina acted differently only around him
and was left confused as he tried to figure out how he felt
hongjoong and yuqi were your new enemies
they made it their life’s mission to never let you couples have a peaceful moment
at least wooyoung could fight back
you and mingi were the type to let him bully you
and the students?
they thought they were being subtle when they tried to make the two of you cross each other at the same corridor
or when they casually told you things about each other, little updates
you caught on pretty quick but you let them be
though it was all fun and jokes
hongjoong told you a little secret later on
that mingi had specifically requested to come on this trip because of you
it was endearing
after school, mingi would walk you home every night
because that was the time you could catch up with each other in private
sometimes, you would stop by to have dinner or coffee
you met each other’s families and they instantly liked you
everything was perfect
everything was perfect, just like the waves had been on that beach 
calm, playful but strong
just like your love for each other
and every night before you went to sleep
(if you were not sleeping beside mingi)
you would look at the grid on your wall
at the pictures of you and mingi on the beach
and the picture of him in those silly glasses that suited him so well
and if you were sleeping beside mingi?
well
you could just look at the real thing :D 
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mysacredmuse · 3 months
Note
hello!! can i req some hcs w aventurine?
ykw how his eyes are so bright n pretty? imagine s/o just staring into them and admiring them instead of harassing him n stuff... i think its so cute
his eyes are so captivating!!! s/o just grabbing his face and staring at his eyes silently LMAO, n hes just like ??? what
i'd imagine s/o rambling about the colours of it n everything, esp as an artist myself haha im literally in love w them
hello there !!! of course you can, I absolutely love this request :) as soon as I saw him, his eyes caught my attention, such a beautiful design !! I am not an artist, so I wish you can forgive me if I describe something poorly, but I hope it will be enjoyable for you regardless :) <3
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soft bf! aventurine and admiring his pretty eyes <3, written with gender neutral reader in mind, fluff ! :)
dividers by @/cafekitsune :)
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he doesn't get it at first. You constantly ask him to widen his eyes at you, staring at them with a soft smile on your face. Anytime you take a picture of him or a picture together, you just zoom into his eyes and stare for literal minutes, without uttering a word. Sometimes he teases you, asking is that the only quality of his that you like, as if he doesn't have so much more beauty to offer. He will buy a new outfit, showing it off to you and all you say is how the light blue really gives a captivating effect to his eyes?
when you go to sleep, he stares into your lips in order to give you a hint that he wants a kiss while you keep staring into his eyes. He jokingly tells you that they aren't worth anything if your plan is to sell them, little creep. You just reply how they are worthy everything to you, tone quite offended which turns into an endless ramble of yours :3
you begin explaining to him how his eyes are the most unique thing you have ever seen, how the contrast of pink and blue never looks as good as it does in his eyes. You explain how pink resembles softness, warmth, femininity, romance and tenderness, while the blue contrasts it with depth, light, slight masculinity, firmness, yet safety and comfort
you continue explaining to him that the pink could easily represent a soft sunset, while the blue contains freedom and beauty of an ocean, so anytime he misses any of those - all he has to do is look into his own eyes. You explain that the colors in his eyes are quite literal epitome of love which proves that he was made out of deep love and his existence is a proof of love itself <3
he just smiles awkwardly, his heart softening from your words, but he urges you to go to sleep as you are speaking "nonesense" 😒
he finds you getting lost in his eyes all the time, sometimes having to snap his fingers in order to gain your attention. A secret he won't tell you is that sometimes he lets it go on for as long as possible as he never had anyone look into his eyes so lovingly, praise them so wholeheartedly and find beauty in them :)
you also grow a habit to squish his cheeks, enjoying how his pretty eyes widen at you from suddeness. He often acts like it's annoying him that you do that only because he gets so flustered, heart beating so fast as you stare so tenderly into his eyes <3
anytime he wears sunglasses of any kind, you immediately remove them, just blankly staring into his eyes and scolding him for hiding them away from you. You also grow a habit to point at a pink sunset that arises while mixing with blue sky at places and tell him that those are his eyes, trying to make him understand their beauty :3
through you, he learns to love his own eyes more and find pride in them. He used to avoid his own gaze in the mirror, wear sunglasses as his eyes often inviting rude comments, humiliation and overall hatred, whether it was his own or from other people. You taught him to love himself more and now he finds himself looking for clothes that put an accent on his eyes, just to hear more of your loving praises and compliments :)
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originalartblog · 1 month
Text
"Nawy what do you MEAN quick-ish 3D render it's got scratches and everything and I thought this was real for a minute!!"
Well, first, thank you very much that was the intention ❤, and second, you see, all speed is relative, and between finding my references, modeling, texturing and lighting, on top of having to learn how to make convincing gems, it still took me quite a few hours. I, however, cut corners everywhere for speed, and I wouldn't put this piece in a portfolio in its current state.
But! for the curious, I thought I could do a simple breakdown of how the witchcraft happens, without using too much specialized language to make it more accessible. In short,
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In this case, I’m talking about a 3D model that was textured (colours and stuff) and then lit (lights on!) to make a pretty final picture. The objective is not to make a tutorial, but to put in simple terms what a 3D artist does to make something go from this, to that:
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(people curious and/or trying to see if this interests them welcome)
I'm skipping the 3D modeling part altogether, since it isn't where most of the magic happens here. Just know that to be able to add colour and stuff on a 3D object, you have to go through the process or "unwrapping" it, which is like doing those foldable cubes in reverse
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and then we can draw on it!!
Now, the good stuff:
Surfaces (metal, plastic, fabric, wood, skin, etc.) have different looks that make you able to differentiate them on sight. To make something look realistic, you have to try to replicate real life into the 3D world (duh.)
The software developers took care of the hard part (math and coding), so as artists we can play with the parameters available to make something pretty. What those parameters are depend on which "recipe" we're using. One of the most common "recipes" for realistic results is called PBR: Physically Based Rendering, named that way because it's trying to replicate real-life light physics. In this case, the 4 basic parameters are called albedo, roughness, metalness, and normal.
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Albedo is the base colour of the surface (easy stuff). Roughness is to determine if a surface is rough or shiny. Metalness is to say if something is made out of metal or not. The normal is there to add all those tiny details you don't want to or can't sculpt on your 3D model (engravings, fabric bumps, etc.)
The roughness and metalness are black and white images because the information you're giving to the software is black = no and white = yes. It's easier to understand in the metalness image, where everything that is NOT a metal is black, and everything that IS a metal is white.
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The normal is a bit more complex, but in short, it uses the colours green and red to know what is up/down or left/right, and will help the software fake relief on top of the model. You don't make it by hand; it's computer-generated from other stuff I'm not getting into.
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With the technical stuff out of the way, we can actually use these. There are specialized softwares that will let you preview the results of each parameter in real time, so you can see what you're doing easily. This is what I have.
That software comes with some types of surfaces that are already set up, like the fabric in my piece, which was already 85% good for me straight out of the box. Then, it's up to me to use the tools available to decide how shiny a surface is, if there's dust or scratches and where, what colours things are, if there's metal parts, etc. That's where you can see a 3D artist's skills.
And finally, you bring it all together into a specialized software that can render 3D stuff and use those images on the corresponsing parameters, and then light the scene.
Because it all comes down to this: the light! For something realistic, light is vital to get right. You can pour your heart and soul into those tiny scratches, but if you don't light the scene correctly, well...
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So we carefully light the scene to get some nice highlights to make the textures look good and highlight our subject (it's basically a photography studio inside a computer)
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And then we add some camera effects...
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and voilà! pretty picture!!
... and if you somehow did notice something different with the bolo tie from my last post, I did find out while taking all these screenshots that I messed up my initial renders in a way that made everything darker than it was supposed to be and that's why my gold looked so muddy...
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I hope this was interesting and that you learned a thing or two!
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mcrslover · 2 months
Text
MCR quotes for anyone who needs them:
"Kids would say they were going to kill themselves then they heard our music... it's our mission"
- Mikey Way.
...
"Reasons why mcr is good for you
juradsleigh:
Feeling like a rad vampire? Listen to bullets
Feeling angry? Listen to 3 cheers
Feeling sad? Listen to black parade
Feeling colourful and happy? Listen to danger days
Feeling like breaking up your band? Listen to death never stop you"
...
"This is for every kid out there... That dyed their hair a fucked up colour and can't get a job. They got a tattoo on their neck like Frank, and can't get a job. That does this because they fuckin' love this. This song is for every kid in the audience- even if you don't have fucked up hair or tattoos-every kid on stage, this song's about us, this song's about you, it's called The Kids From Yesterday."
- Gerard Way.
...
"Stop covering your children's eyes.
Everything is fucked up and pretending it's not won't make it any better. I'm tired of people praying for a change when it's up to them to get off their asses and make a change."
- Frank Iero.
...
"I spent most of my time in the back of the class, just drawing. My goal was to not get noticed in school, because spent so long not being noticed anyway or being treated as if I were invisible that I started to like it.
I've learned that it's actually not very lonely... It's like, you have less friends but the friends you have count more. I met a lot of people that weren't outsiders, or they were very popular, and they have a lot of friends but I don't know if they're the kinds of friends you would call up at 3 am to help you out or talk about being depressed."
- Gerard Way.
...
"Promise me, when MCR's gone, you'll do what it takes to survive. You're strong enough to do it without us."
- Gerard Way.
...
"All your quirks and all your problems, even your depressions, and your failures that's.. that's what makes you, you."
- Gerard Way.
...
"If you or someone you know is severely depressed you need to fucking talk to someone! Your mom, someone in school, I don't give a fuck! Because suicide is fucking bullshit."
- Gerard Way.
...
"Being happy doesn't mean that everything is perfect. It means that you've decided to look beyond the imperfections."
- Gerard Way.
...
"Nothing is worth hurting yourself over, nothing is worth taking your life over"
- Gerard Way.
...
"If we never play another show again, just keep yourself alive."
- Gerard Way.
...
"We're outsiders, we're the kids who didn't get dates for the prom, we're the kids who were confused, who didn't fit in with the cliques, who weren't part of the in-crowd.
Growing up can be a very frightening and confusing time, and I think people look at us and see it's okay to be different. They see that there is a way other than what they're being offered. That you can stand out, that you can be creative, that you can be yourself."
- Gerard Way.
...
"gerard-hey:
I love MCR so much it's like they have a song for every situation. Feeling sad? Listen to The Lights Behind Your Eyes. Feeling frustrated? Listen to I'm Not Okay. Feeling Energetic? Listen to Na Na Na. Feeling like you wanna kick some ass? Listen to Destroya.
Feeling rebellious? Listen to Teenagers. Feel like you wanna break up your band? Listen to Fake Your Death."
...
"The difference we want to make is, number one, to let these kids know that they're not alone, that they're actually not that messed up, and that they can do whatever they want they can express themselves in any way they want without being persecuted or called a faggot or some kind of racist thing. Really just get people to get over their stuff so they can live."
- Gerard Way.
...
"Whatever happens to you, no matter what, l'm always fucking there for you... Don't forget that. I don't give a shit if your boyfriend dumps you. If your girlfriend dumps you. If you're working a shitty job or can't get through school. If you can't get through a fucking Harry Potter book, there's nothing worth dying over. There's nothing worth taking your life over. I will always fucking be there."
- Gerard Way.
...
"If you come to an MCR show, you're probably a little fucked up, and that's okay because we're just as fucked up as you. It's us against the world. And it's great because there's thousands of us in one place."
- Gerard Way.
...
"Someone doesn't like you? Fuck it.
Having a bad day? Fuck it. Didn't get that job, or that grade, or that promotion you wanted? Fuck it. Fighting with your lover? Fuck it. Feel fat today? Fuck it. Losing control of everything and everyone? Fuck it.
What matters now won't matter soon; the truly important thing is that you are alive, and that you have the capacity to do absolutely anything with this beautiful, crazy coincidence of being on this earth. Just stick your middle fingers in the air and think, 'Damn, I have it good."
- Gerard Way.
...
"You're going to come across a lot of shitty bands, and a lot of shitty people. And if anyone of those people call your names because of what you look like, or bedause they don't accept you for who you are. I want you to look right at that mother fucker, stick up your middle finger and scream
"FUCK YOU!!"
- Gerard Way.
...
"Real revenge is making something of yourself."
- Gerard Way.
❤️🖤❤️🖤
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rad-roche · 2 months
Text
Pulp Covers And How To Paint Them
With the rise of cheap printing in the early twentieth century, mass-marked paperbacks swept the world, each offering lurid thrills for obscenely low prices. Sex, sadism, and incredible violence for as little as ten cents. An easy purchase to slot in between fifty cigarettes a day and enough bourbon slugs to kill a small garden.
Pulp fiction is where some of the greats of American literature cut their teeth, including the big three, Raymond Chandler, Ross MacDonald and Dashiell Hammett. The contents of these stories, both the dizzyingly good and astoundingly terrible, have been absorbed and digested and remixed and regurgitated in nearly every permutation imaginable, fuelling pop culture some one hundred years on. This isn't an essay on that. Nobody likes to open a tutorial and be greeted with a wall of text. The history is for another time.
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But it is about how to paint it.
Don't let the pre-amble intimidate you, it's not as hard as it sounds. You will need:
Painting software with some image editing capabilities. You don't need all the bells and whistles of Photoshop, but I wouldn't recommend something like MSPaint, at least not to start with. I'm using Clip Studio Paint.
A really beat-up paper texture. The grungier, the better.
A lightly-textured brush. Here are the specific brushes I use, 99% of which is the well-named rough brush. Try and avoid anything with any impasto elements.
Go to your colour-picking tool and use the 'select from layer' option. Doing all the painting on a single layer is going to make your life easier.
A complete willingness to make mistakes and, instead of erasing, painting over them. It generates much more colour variation and interest! Keep your finger off the E key.
Good reference! That painting is a master copy of Mitchel Hooks' art for Day of the Ram. Find a style you really love and want to learn? Have no clue where to begin? Do direct studies!
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Let's not worry about whatever is happening in the background. It's probably fine. Let's get started! Pulp magazine art is a lot more varied than you might first think, so don't agonize over having a style that 'fits' or not. I'm also specifically aiming for something you'd see on the cover after printing, not the initial painting they would use for printing. The stuff I'll show here is a pretty narrow band of it, but here are some general commonalities. This is a painting by Tom Lovell.
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Let's dig into this.
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The colours are very bright and saturated, but the actual values, the relative lightness and darkness of them, are actually grouped very simply! You can check this by filling a layer full of black, putting it on top and setting its mode to colour. If the value of a painting looks good, you actually get a lot of leeway with colour. But here's what I think is the most important thing to keep in mind.
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The darks aren't that dark, and the lights aren't all that light! Covers are paintings reproduced on cheap paper. Anything you wouldn't want to happen in the printing process, you lean into. Value wash-outs, lower contrast, colours getting a weird wash to them, really gritty texturing. So let's get painting! Here's my typical setup.
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That bottom folder is the painting itself. The screen layer is the grungy paper texture. To get the effect you want, put it down, invert its colour, then set it to screen. That washes out your painting far, far too much, so to compensate, I put a contrast layer up on top. Fiddle around with the settings, but this is where mine ended up sitting.
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Note I'm saying this before even starting the painting: you want to do this as early as possible. This is where the 'select from layer' colour picker comes in handy. You can paint without worrying about the screen or contrast layer. Something not looking right? Enable your value check layer and keep painting. When you turn it off, it'll still be in colour. Here's a timelapse so you can see what that looks like.
And when you check the values...
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They're pretty simple! This isn't a be all and end all, but I hope it serves as a decent primer. I want thirty dames on my desk by Monday!
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jeongharine · 4 months
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a fruit made for two
⚝ jeonghan x reader
⚝ comfort, romance, established couple
⚝ notes: you might think "how lame" when you will be done with it, or "can she write about anything else other than tangerines" and yes, while i acknowledge my problem with tangerines, i can tell you that i'm done writing about them. but enough of my rambles, just wanted to post this little (maybe a bit sad) scenario that i have come up with during these days.
wishing you a good start of the year and a not so rough january (i personally dread this month) :)
enjoy and thank you for taking time to read this short fic x
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you have always liked to peel tangerines neatly. jeonghan was focusing his attention on your fingers work. the sections coming apart cleanly in your hands.
he’s trying to cut out the noise, the laughters of the other guests at the table, the cracking open of the nuts, the clinking of the glasses and the cutlery, your aunt bragging about your cousins to your mom and your nan nearly tripping into the dog.
“that’s the limit, from then on her eyesight will worsen to blindness and there’s nothing they can do,” that’s what your father had told jeonghan before christmas lunch.
he reasoned you didn’t have the courage to confront jeonghan with the matter. so, he took it in his hands.
your thick eye-glasses nearly falling off your nose while you’re peeling away neatly the white parts.
“hannie,” you said, “i don’t know how you do it. always tearing holes when you peel tangerines and oranges, juice going in every direction,”
you’re jeonghan’s love of his life.
“i hope you never learn how to peel them, hannie. i want to do it for you for a lifetime.”
x
“where’d you get these?” you nearly shouted in the college backyard, while jeonghan handed you an orange.
“just took them out of a plastic bag someone left behind in class,” he said.
you laughed. you started to peel the orange, separating it in two perfect halves to give one of them to him. “you know, when i won’t be able to see no more i will miss terribly peeling citrus..”
if he could have wore his half like a friendship bracelet, he would have. “i mean, i still will be able to do it but man how it satisfies me to see the colour of the fruit changing: different shades of orange, white and then orange again,”
instead, jeonghan just swallowed each segment one by one and told himself that this, this exact moment, would have always meant so much more.
“... and your face, to see your face so focused on how i peel citrus fruits! i have to start giving you lesson,”
to share it with you. to chew and to swallow with you the sections that you so dutifully and accurately peeled, listening to all the possible rambles you might have had to tell him. to just taste the same thing in the same moment.
“here you go hannie,” you handed to jeonghan his perfectly peeled half.
the air around you filled up with the smell of peeled orange.
x
it was christmas’ eve. no festivities at home this year. closing the front door, jeonghan longed to hear your hasty steps down the corridor.
longing to slip an orange or a tangerine into the pocket of your wool coat before heading to town.
instead, he ignited the engine of his car and drove to the hospital where you had been staying. your eyesight barely spots of colour and light by now.
you were looking out the window into the wintery morning haze with a smile on your lips, when jeonghan entered the room. “hannie you’re here,” you recognized his footsteps and his scent. the sweetest kind.
he brought tangerines with him, peeled three of them in his car. he peeled them perfectly, peeled away every little part of the white stuff until they were all orange like you did. so you wouldn’t have to worry about not enjoy one of his favourite things.
it took him some time, but love always does.
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shreddedleopard · 11 months
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Okay back on my bullshit and I need to talk about these —
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This to me is a direct call back by Sherlock to Liam pre- William James Moriarty. Baby Liam, before he stained his hands with all that killing and stole the identity of another child. Can you see the way Sherlock gets down on his knee like that? Know what it reminds me of?
How you speak to a child on their level.
“You’ve taken your first step …”
Also feels very child-oriented to me. And painting an ideal future …?
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Sherlock is appealing here to the boy who never was; the boy who never got the chance to grow up and learn about his true self …
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“My own self …”
Liam’s entire life has been spent behind a mask. His whole existence was that of a ghost; the shell of a dead child. He never gave himself permission to consider who he truly was; him him, and not William Moriarty, because the old him had to die in that fire all those years ago. I cannot even begin to think about what that must feel like.
And then along came Sherlock Holmes, and with a simple look during a moment of rare honesty from Liam — his genuine, child-like inquisitiveness at the sight of that spiral staircase provoking a trait that was truly his — his love of mathematics — Sherlock was able to effortlessly reach out and take the hand of the person who existed behind the mask.
A mathematician: one of the most elementary aspects of Liam’s character, indeed. His love of mathematics shone long before he committed his first act of violence. To be judged so quickly and found not to be the devil, but just a man who loves numbers — that was a glimpse of his true self that he’d almost forgotten about, amidst the pressure of his plans on the Noahtic.
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Sherlock is also, aside from Louis and Albert, the only person to my knowledge who is aware of Liam’s true name — and because it was Liam’s choice to gift that knowledge to him. Recalling that Liam believed he was about to die, him giving Sherlock the evidence of his birth, as he was truly originally supposed to be, feels like a painfully poignant and intimate gesture.
Even we, the readers, are not privy to that information. It’s granted only to Sherlock; a secret they share.
The theme of rebirth is very present in the climax of the story, and Liam even states in his letter that if only he could be born again, this time he thinks he and Sherlock would be true friends. It’s desperately sad that he can’t see at that point that he doesn’t need to be reborn to get back in touch with his old self, because he’s still there inside of him. Sherlock is the proof of that, because Sherlock hasn’t found a friend and, dare I say it, a soulmate in William Moriarty, or the Lord of Crime. Sherlock has found that connection with the man beneath the mask.
During the moment on the Thames, William James Moriarty did indeed die a second time. But this time it was so that Liam, as his true self, could re-emerge. This is why he suddenly sees all those colours again — that which was buried is now brought forth towards the light.
Another small point to make is the decision to have Sherlock use Liam almost immediately. It’s a name that feels a lot more removed from the identity of William Moriarty than for example, Will. It’s new and something that’s very much separate from the dead boy Liam embodies. It’s a tiny glimpse of the branch in identities beginning once again after years of suffering his sins in silence.
I could go on and on about all this. It’s probably just obvious stuff to most people. But god damn is it the most beautiful story of losing and finding oneself again, even in the darkest depths of despair, because someone cared enough to reach out a hand.
Might just be my favourite.
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leahsgirl · 4 months
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celebration night | alex greenwood x reader
based off this request except i kind of went off script a little, only a short 1.3k for because its currently 4am right now - hope you enjoy!
mentions of anxiety (only briefly), suggestive language, smut sort of??
it was times like these, where you were sat in the back of a car, dolled up to the nines, when you wondered how you ended up with your girlfriend.
the two of you was en route to another awards ceremony that would be celebrating her (and her teammates) contribution to the footballing world.
you was her plus one of course, having dragged you to a couple beforehand over the course of your relationship. you weren't exactly the biggest fan of these events considering you was a very introverted person with an almost constant pit of anxiety in your stomach, but you knew how much they meant to Alex and what kind of girlfriend would you be if you weren't there supporting her?
when you first met her, at a club match you went watching for your childhood friend chloe, you already had a massive crush her. what you didn't expect was for the blonde to offer getting drinks sometime when kelly introduced you and the rest was history really.
so yeah, back to the present where you, a bartender, was keeping a strong grip on your football sensation girlfriend's hand, trying your best to keep your nerves under control. "i'll say it once i'll say it again; how do you do this all the time? how do the nerves not knock you sick?"
the older girl chuckled, "nerves turns into adrenaline - and adrenaline helps me play better." stating it simply and turning her head to press a light kiss on your temple. "you'll be fine baby; you always have me remember?" alex was aware of how your thoughts could spiral to the point of no return, how you would psychoanalyse certain situations and how you anxious you could get when in big groups like tonight will be. she knew exactly how to calm you down and for that you was thankful.
the car now pulling up outside the steps that lead to the building, a chauffeur opening the door for the blonde and you, alex got out and once again held her hand out for you to take. there was a few paparazzi/photographers outside behind the rope fences calling out your girlfriends name. "alex! alex!" "alex! whose the girl with you?!" "over here alex." after a few shots you was ushered inside where the place was already buzzing with people.
they'd gone for all white and gold decorations you gathered, having noticed the balloon arch mixed with the two colours, as well as white decorative roses scattered around in bunches and a champagne tower slap bang in the centre. you never understood the point of them if you was honest, the glasses are far too dainty to remove from the pyramid and just one accidentally nudge to the poor thing and it would come crashing down.
"y/n, alex, hiya." turning around to the familiar voice you see lucy, one of the blue-eyed girls national teammates. you liked lucy, she was one of the girls you clicked with the most when visiting alex at her european and world cup tournaments. "oh my god i feel like i haven't seen you in ages" you say as you went in for a side hug. "its only been two months y/n, has alex over here been boring you that much?" the brunette smirked while your girlfriend rolled her eyes playfully.
"she's been keeping me busy actually, last week she forced me to learn how to rollerstake for no reason." its true, the thirty-year-old was always convincing you to do the stupidest, most cheesy stuff but you don't mind. In fact, it's probably one of your favourite things about her seeing this goofier side compared to the more serious and reserved ones the fans got.
"don't act like you don't secretly love it." she said crossing her arms over her chest while you just giggled in response and pecked her lips. "i do sweetheart don't worry."
after some mindless chatter with the barcelona player, staff came out to escort people to their seats. the set-up was tables of six and you was happy to find out accompanying you on your table was mary, lucy, ella and her boyfriend joe.
complimentary alcoholic beverages were being given throughout the night which you indulged in as you watched the awards being presented one by one.
alex was up for some sort of team award if you remembered correctly, not exactly understanding the drabble of words she was saying when she first told you the news, you think its eleven people getting the same award or something if you took anything from the conversation. what you did know is that she had to go up against international players which makes the award even more special if she is to win.
the night dragged on as you listened to speech after speech after speech. eventually, the time had come for 'FIFPRO Women's World 11' "that's it." you thought to yourself as the man read the title of the honour, now recalling alex telling you about fifa's women starting eleven.
"now introducing your women's starting eleven team!" the massive sliding doors opened up, revealing the ladies one by one. An overwhelming sense of pride engulfed you as you watched your partner stand on stage in her very sexy suit (if you do say so yourself) with trophy in hand. with a quick few lines from each girl, they made their way back to their seats. standing up, you beamed at alex and placed your hands on her cheeks "i'm so so proud of you." she leans in and kisses your lips, smudging your red lipstick slightly.
"you in the mood for celebrating later?" parting away from your lips, she whispered in your ear. you could see her eyes filled with lust which meant only one thing. offering to get out of there, alex and you say your goodbyes to your friends/her teammates. To be honest the ceremony was dying down anyways so it was only a matter of time before you actually did leave.
as soon as your front door closed hands grabbed your waist and pressed you onto the wall. lips attached to your neck, biting and sucking at the skin as you gave in to the quiet noises of pleasure before they found your mouth once again.
the kisses were sloppy and eager as the defender swiped her tongue across your bottom lip gaining entrance into your mouth, tongues in a fight for dominance.
she stopped. dragging you by the hand into your bedroom and pushing you onto the end of the bed. this time, she snaked her hand under your top, reaching up to massage your breast. "you're beautiful you know that?" alex watched in amusement as you tried to stay quiet while she pressed her knee up against your centre. "tell me what you want princess."
literally just the words she was saying was enough to send you over the edge if you let it. "i want- i want you lower." the breathlessness in your voice made the blonde smirk, complying with your wishes. she made her way down to your pants menacingly slow, undoing the button and sliding the silk material off until they were disregarded somewhere in the room. "can i just say, I'm practically naked and you're out here still in your suit." as much as you loved the suit, you'd much rather be seeing her toned abs right now.
taking the hint, she quickly thew the outfit off, now hovering over you in just her black lingerie. "better?" she asks and you nod, shamelessly raking your eyes down her whole body.
the man city player busied herself with tracing patterns up your thighs, getting dangerously close to your centre without actually touching it. "alex please."
toying with the elastic on your thong she looked up at you. "please what? i want to hear you say it." the lust was practically oozing out of her mouth right now. slotting her hand under the mesh material of your underwear she repeated herself, "say it y/n."
your brain was going into overdrive from the teasing she had given you; your chest heaving. "alex..please fuck me already."
she caught your lips in a passionate kiss. "good girl."
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magicalrocketships · 5 months
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I adore your deaged max AU! Curious if while max is small, if daniel and him celebrate any holidays together? How does max feel about them? Do they establish any traditions? :)
I don't think this version of Max is particularly excited by Christmas, but he does like lights, and being with Daniel, so I've combined them together for them to have a little outing of their own. And because I personally love lights in the middle of winter.
This follows on - with a few days unaccounted for (because I haven't written them, but they've been staying with Christian and Geri) - from this part I posted yesterday. Max was a tiny toddler but now he's back to being seven.
(this link shows the stuff I’ve already posted in chronological order if the tag isn't working.)
Happy holidays, pals. 🧡
The day after New Year's Day, Daniel takes Max to visit an Enchanted Light Trail. It's only on for another couple of days, and a lot of local schools have gone back today so it's quiet when Daniel parks the car. It's already mostly dark, and Max, seven years old again and interested, almost stumbles out of the car. He's in his new wellington boots, with a puffy winter coat that Daniel has to spend two minutes talking him into getting zipped up. Then a scarf and a hat and gloves. Max is unconvinced by them all, especially the gloves, but when he sees Daniel wearing a pair too, he concedes to keep them on.
He slips his hand into Daniel's, and asks if it's going to be loud. Max doesn't always like loud. He's not loved sharing Daniel with the other people in Christian and Geri's house over the past few days, and he is not quite over being left behind with Monty and a babysitter when Daniel and the others went to the Red Bull New Year's Eve Extravaganza. So: a little treat that's just for Daniel and Max together, alone, now that Max is back to being seven.
"Not loud," Daniel says. "Just lots of nice lights, and a place to see animals, and we can have hot chocolate." He shoulders his backpack, which also has a thermos flask of tomato soup and some bread and butter in little pieces in a lunch box. He's learned from experience that Max will experiment with experiences more than he'll experiment with unfamiliar food in unfamiliar places. "But I've brought tomato soup too."
"Okay," Max says, only semi-dubiously. He's so serious sometimes. Daniel lets him think through whatever he's thinking about as they wander through the car park and up to the little ticket booth. He'd bought tickets for them online, so he only has to wave his phone screen at a bored teenager who wishes them a desultory happy new year to be given a little trail map and a token to get through the gate.
Daniel lets Max feed the token into the entrance gate, and then they're inside the farm park, and at the start of a path lined with trees wound with hundreds of tiny, coloured lights. The branches are also lined with lights, and even Daniel is almost floored by how pretty it is.
"Oh," Max says, in sheer unadulterated wonder.
Daniel for a single, desperate second, wants to cry. Every moment with Max might be his last. It had been awful enough when he'd been sitting next to a little chunky three year old Max a couple of days ago, and he'd had to squeeze his eyes shut and almost couldn't bear to open them again in case it was a grown up Max sitting next to him, desperate to get away from him.
But it was this Max, Daniel's Max, his seven year old, his favourite seven year old on the planet.
It doesn't mean grief doesn't sit, tentative and yearning, on the edge of everything he experiences.
"Do you like it, Maxy-Max?"
Max nods so hard his hat almost falls off, and Daniel has to stop to make sure it's on properly and keeping Max warm.
"Good," Daniel says, and he lets Max set the pace as they wander down the track towards the barns. The next part of the path doesn't have little Christmas lights, but the trees are lit in purples, greens, and are wrapped in starlight skies, little spotlights along the ground turning the trees into beautiful swathes of colour.
Max looks up at him in wonder. "Like the nightlight at home," he says, clutching Daniel's hand. The nightlight in Max's bedroom at Daniel's projects colours and stars across the ceiling. Max hasn't been home with Daniel in a while. It doesn't mean it isn't his home too. It'll always be his home, even if Max grows up and stays grown up and stays a long way away from Daniel like he does now.
"Just like the nightlight at home," Daniel agrees.
The Enchanted Light Trail is supposed to be a 60-90 minute experience, but it takes them almost half an hour even to reach the barns where the farm animals are. Max loves the colours, and the trees, and the lights — just like Daniel had hoped he would. Max had liked going to the zoo that time, and he likes colouring in, and he likes things that are just him and Daniel, so it had made sense when Daniel googled that this was the thing he would pick to get them out of Christian and Geri's hair for a bit.
If Max doesn't get big again in the few days or so, Daniel's taking him back to Monaco, and he doesn't care what Christian says about the pre-season work Max is supposed to be doing here. Daniel's Max's guardian, nobody else. And he wants to take Max home.
"What happens if you are scared?" Max asks, before they go into the barns. He always asks about Daniel being scared, and not him.
"If I'm scared or if you're scared," Daniel tells him, just like every time, "then we can come back out here. That's fine."
"Okay," Max says, and his face is a picture of fierce determination. Daniel's seen that face before, a hundred thousand times, before and after races. It's funny to see it reflected on such a little Max, a Max that just doesn't have any of grown up Max's competitive spirit in him. Daniel gives him a moment to acclimatise, and then Max nods and they go inside.
The barns have also been lit up in swathes of pretty colours. The animals seem quite happy, and they see the rabbits and the sheep and the goats. Max refuses to go near the goats, even though the farm staff say he can help feed them. That is a solid no, which Daniel understands entirely because the last time they met a goat together at the zoo that time, it had tried to eat Max's hair for dinner and Max had cried. Instead, they stand against the opposite wall of the barn, as far away from the goats as possible, and Trixie, who works at the farm, points out each of the goats in turn and tells Max their names.
Max puts up with this for three minutes, which Daniel counts as 150% a win, and then they say thank you and move on to the next barn. This one has cows in it, and one moos loudly as they come in. Max bravely does not nope out, but they stay away from the gates. One of the cows is called Strawberry, which Max finds hilarious. Daniel suggests some other very silly names for cows even as they go and look at the pigs and meet a horse dressed for the season in a big knitted scarf and blanket. There are chickens, and more rabbits, and a dog, which Daniel suspects isn't part of the attraction in general and that Max is very cautious of. Daniel is too, but he tries not to let it show.
Then it's time for the 'things to do' barn, which has some little tables for crafts and a cafe at the other side. Max doesn't want to make Christmas crafts and he doesn't want to join a table with other people on, but there are some tables with pictures to colour in and some crayons and pencils. He settles himself at one of the tables, and tells Daniel that it's okay if Daniel crosses the barn to get them some orange juice (Max) and some hot chocolate (Daniel). Daniel keeps turning around to find Max watching him with his little serious expression on, and so Daniel makes a series of increasingly silly faces just to make him laugh.
"You've got yourself a serious one too, then," the woman behind the counter says as he pays for their drinks. "Mine's the same."
"Yeah," Daniel says. "Best kid in the world, though."
"Fight you for it," the woman says, laughing, and that grief is back, hovering, desperate, endless. Daniel tries to smile. He wishes her a happy new year and goes back to sit beside Max, who's picked out a farm picture to colour, with lots of trees and some animals. He's got one for Daniel too. He doesn't want to try Daniel's hot chocolate, but he does like the smell. He's industriously colouring in one of the trees in purple — like the ones outside — when one of the farm staff comes over to ask if he'd like to make a tree at one of the craft tables.
"No, thank you," Max says, attention focused on his picture. "Me and my daddy are colouring."
Daniel has to swallow down an actual sob. "We're good here, thanks," he says. "But thank you."
After she leaves, Daniel has to use one of his hot chocolate napkins to blow his nose. Max looks up at him.
"Can we go home soon?" he asks.
"To Christian and Geri's house?"
"No," Max says, giving him a withering glance. "Our house, Daniel."
Daniel leans in and kisses the top of his head. "Yeah," he says. "Promise."
"Okay," Max says, content with Daniel's yes. Daniel doesn't lie to him. Except, maybe, about the growing hole in his chest. Max goes back to colouring. Daniel swallows, tries to get a hold of himself, and resorts to naming all of the animals in the picture the stupidest names he can think of, just to make Max laugh.
Later on, they walk along a little pathway through the lit-up woods, and drink a cup of tomato soup at a picnic table. Max is amazed at the idea of drinking soup outside in the dark. They don't stay at the table long because it's cold, but Daniel takes a thousand pictures of Max beaming at him, soup around his mouth, and lets Max take some of him in return.
"I love you," he tells Max as they walk back towards the car. It seems important to tell him, urgent, imperative.
Max swings their joined hands. He's got his coloured-in picture and a glowing stick with a star on it clutched in his other hand, a present from the farm shop. Daniel's got one too, and a bag with some in for Monty and Olivia and Bluebell even though Bluebell's probably too old for it.
"Love you, love you, love you," Max says back, kicking his feet in his new wellingtons. He looks up at Daniel, sleepy but happy, and Daniel's heart twists in his chest. "Can we go home now?"
"Tomorrow," Daniel says, making a decision. Fuck it all, he thinks. I'm taking Max home.
Thank you to Zoe and Lena for reading this through for me. 🧡
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maxcuntstappen · 26 days
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checo spends more time than anyone with lestappen what with cooldown rooms interviews, barging into Max’s drivers room unannounced etc etc
So he just, accepts Charles presence as The Constant in the world. And So when lestappen can’t talk right away he actually finds himself in interesting strat convos with Charles. Leading to them talking abt random stuff until Max steals charles away once again
So recently, with Charles being gone. He’s a bit confused? like max is but slightly less. Like?? who’s he supposed to talk to now?? Max? All they’re gonna do is talk about Charles!!
Well, that doesn’t sound to bad actually. So they do. And whoever the third is just has to sit there and take the convo of the two red bulls lamenting about how they miss charles and charles should be here and charles is so cool and on and on
(idk also in my mind they go out for drinks after races sometimes :) for funsies)
"Sooo..." Checo starts, before awkwardly trailing off.
Max blinks at him, once, twice.
And then Checo needs to look away because there's only so much time a man can stare at Max's nearly-too-blue eyes without finding themself stuttering and stumbling.
Checo has had to learn this the hard way.
The race has only just finished. A Red Bull 1-2. A good day at the office.
There's just one thing missing.
The wrong colour race suit hovers around them.
Maybe Checo had begun taking Charles' presence for granted.
Relied on him being around too much, too often. Being way too comfortable with the other two doing the talking and socialising and letting it wash over him, chipping in if he wanted to.
But otherwise, just chilling out.
Neither Max nor him know what to do now.
Standing around in a loose circle, shuffling their feet, waiting for the interviews to begin.
The silence is anything but comfortable.
Checo needs to do something.
Needs to say something.
Now.
"So, Max, what about Charles' last lap overtake, huh?"
The effect is instant; blue eyes lighting up, hands taking flight.
"Mate," Max begins, and then he's off, talking a mile a minute.
And it's comfortable. Familiar. Checo cannot help but smile, relaxing into it.
If either of them had paused, or perhaps even cared, to notice. They would notice the third place man grumbling as he walked off, "You have to be fucking kidding me."
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journen · 7 days
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do you have a list of good CoD fanfics, or favorite writers in general?? <3
Presented in no particular order, here are some of my personal faves / fics I really enjoyed, and my own summaries for them. Hopefully you enjoy, thanks for the ask, anon!!!
I didn't tag all the authors because I'm not sure if they all have tumblrs, but also I'm shy tagging people ahjdfhkaheje. If any authors here are mentioned tho and you have a tumblr, feel free to lmk and I can update this post to include your tag!!:)
Anything rated mature I colour coded the name in red, and anything explicit green. Not all the mature fics feature smut, but yeah! I didn't want to link anything tooooo explicit here, but if anyone wants any, I can definitely rb this post to add a few more 😅
Also, just beware the tags on any of these fics because some feature kind of heavy subject matter. 👍
COF FIC REC LIST:
A Very MacTavish Christmas - @m3rrywe4ther
Prob my fav fic in the fandom lololol. HUGE RECCOMMEND. It's about Johnny who gets roped into spending the holiday Christmas season with his , for the most part, very not so nice family, and Simon accompanies him. So much stuff happens in this fic and it's such a great character exploration of Simon and Johnny independently, but also as a couple, and just so much stuff happens in it lol again, HUGE RECOMMEND!!!
We'll make Death Proud to Take us - Literal_Satan
Fic where, it starts off really sweet where Simon goes to Scotland with Johnny to spend Christmas with him and his family, but things take a drastic turn when Soap's brother, a police officer/detective, gets a little too curious about mysterious Simon, and the story spirals from there. All the guys end up on this crazy goose chase tracking down some of the people who were involved in Roba's brainwashing operations. The fic gets v dark at times and deals with some very heavy trauma so beware, but it's SO. GOOD.
Dream a Little Dream - Angelicasdean
Again, one of my total fav fics in the fandom!! AU where Simon leaves the army to raise his nephew Joseph, who's the sole survivor of the Riley family massacre, and Johnny is one of the daycare teachers at the daycare where Simon takes Jo 🥺🥺👍👍
Pretend to love me like I do - FetteEule
Really cute fic of Simon who accompanied Johnny to Scotland for his sister's wedding, under the ruse they are dating. They are v much pining but not there yet. Features lots of really cute domestic moments and Simon being really sweet to Johnny's kid nephew 😭🧡
Something important - Anonymous
One of the fics that has me totally brainrotted rn. It's about Simon's who's been de-aged to 6 years old, and Price, Gaz and Soap all taking care of him and trying to figure out how he got turned, and how to turn him back! They all get tested on their abilities to care for a child, and unwillingly learn a lot of details about Simon's childhood they never knew. This summary doesn't do it justice tho, so I'd just recommend checking it out! Beware tho again, there is some dark childhood trauma stuff but there are warnings at the start of each chapter that contains references to it.
Seasons - StinglessWasp
In this fic every chapter is set during a different season and tells a unique sort of story/mission/interaction Soap and Ghost have. Definitely some v good angst&hurt/comfort stuffs too. Starts off pre-relationship, and explores their characters a lot! It's just really good HUGE reccommend lol.
What the Eyes Don't see - WhiplashRogue
One of my FAVESSSS! So the premise is like, Soap can actually see ghosts ever since he was a child (which most other people can't see and also don't believe in), and Ghost has 2 spirits attached to him that follow him around(Joseph, and Roach). The fic starts off pre relationship, and it mostly about Soap trying to learn more about these two spirits and discovering more about Ghost's past.
All that's said in the Low Light - Headlocket
Probably one of the most emotional I've ever read LMFAO. It's about Johnny, who receives a back & knee injury bad enough he gets discharged from the army, and is back in Scotland living with his parents as he recovers. He and Ghost lost contact a bit since the accident, and it's sort of a story of them reconnecting. This description doesn't do it justice, just read it, but it will emotionally destroy you lol
Time Loops Suck (series) - Enter_fand0m_reference00
The first installment of the fic takes the idea that Soap is stuck in a time loop during the alone mission! And all the optional dialogues and interactions in thE alone mission are separate attempts of his trying to survive the loops and rendez vous with Ghost. It's just sooo good!! And then there's a follow up fic where it deals with the mental aftermath of the loops and Ghost comforting soap through it, then there's 2 other installments of Simon who instead goes through a time loop! They are such great character explorations in how both Soap and Ghost experience the loops, and I whooleee heartedly reccommend.
Yellow Card - SkerryB
Soccer au fic!! It's so good! Simon is the captain of a soccer team Soap is drafted to as their new goalie. Simon has had a history with Soap before though, that he was the only goalie Simon could never score on! So that's how it starts, and it's just so good from there!! Simon's family are also alive in the fic and his nephew is adorable.
You swept me off my feet - @ghoulishhone
Ghost is down bad for strong Soap, the fic xD This was a fic Ghoulishone and I were paired together to work on for the Ghostsoap server reverse bang! They wrote the fic and I made some accompanying art. Just a cute fic of Soap having to pick up Ghost after he gets injured and some other shenanigans that ensues:)
Dear Mr Ghost - @shortcuts-make-long-delays
SUCH A CUTE FIC!! The majority of the fic is these letter/pen pal exchanges between Ghost, and Soap's young niece Chloe...it's just. So. Good. And was written by a friend of mine too! BIG RECCOMMEND.
Give me Hope and Let me Down - MechanicalBones
Some of the best Ghost whump I read lolll. Ghost is captured by some people with ties to Roba and tortured. Meanwhile Soap is on his way to rescue him, and eventually he does, and there's a lot of hurt and comfort. It's also a getting together fic. 🥺
Unspoken Love - Hammy101
( Super amazing oneshot. I feel I can't do this fic justice with any summary. Just read it. 🥺 It has decent Ghost whump AND domestic off duty cute ghost soap angsty stuff it's just one of my faves ever!!!!)
Except You, You can Stay - Iravaid
Really realistic, believable portrayal and expansion upon a lot of the key events that happen in the Ghost comics. From his childhood, to the mental aftermath of Roba, his family dying...it's heavy but really really good. And has a happier hopeful ending that's Ghost/Soap 🥺
Hat Trick of the Heart and the sequel Family, Gotta Love em - Librarian_FanFicFan
Absolutely am obsessed with these fics!!! It's an AU about Ghost who is recently discharged from the military due to injury, and on a flight back to London where he is seated next to Soap, a famous footballer/soccer player. Ghost doesn't know who he is tho, but they hit it off and exchange numbers. The second installment features Simon's family!!! And Tommy being dramatic and shocked over the fact his brother got the number of this famous sports player... SUPER CUTE IF YOU LIKE RILEY FAMILY STUFF.
As for my fav CoD authors I wholeheartedly recommend anything by:
RedClegane, m3rrywe4ther, Hammy101, TheEdwardianOne, Iravaid, and so many authors but I can't list them all ahaha...but hopefully this is a good start!
Hopefully this helps anon! Sorry it took me a while.
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henchy5824 · 26 days
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My newest project is a scene inspired by the #666 live on air series from the amazing @prince-liest Go check out their stuff!
Jazzhands
SO I've never done lighting before. I live in perpetual darkness. I don't know what light looks like, can't you tell??!
I've had to actively hype myself up to draw Alastor and I kept putting it off. The intimidation factor with the strawberry pimp is pretty high....
Alt version below
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"something violently teal-colored", you say? "fluorescent purple cap", you say? Say no more fam ❤ Of course it would be Nuka-cola-quantum. What else is there?!
They both have a bad day, I feel like. Vox is wearing the most scraggly looking shirt that was not yet chucked in the laundry and he doesn't even care that it's buttoned unevenly. Val is on a date without him, after all.
Alastor has one of those bad hair days. He kept going through his hair all day. Not sure about the ghostly sensation of Vox scritching his ears the day before.
Also: I don't know why Vox would have pcb patterns on his arms on the outside of his body but the idea seemed hella sick, so I had to draw it.
So headcannon time:
-Vox would be the type to have the most designer- and bare-looking kitchen in the history of Hell. Velvette designed it for him and he didn't mind.
-He's got a Potoro Marble countertop and he uses it to eat takeout straight out of the cardboard box and microwave meals straight out of the tin they came in.
-If the appliance isn't fisher price-coloured, it's not VoxTek and therefore has no place in his kitchen.
-The most used appliances are the coffee machine and the microwave.
-He has more barstools but the only one he uses is the one Alastor is currently sitting on. Vox only lingers in the kitchen to scroll on his phone while his meals are heating up or the coffee is brewing.
-He does own a knifeblock and several high-grade kitchen knives but they are still in their packaging in one of the drawers under the counter. He only uses his claws to perforate his microwave meals.
-He does own pots and pans....somewhere.. They are also VoxTek branded.
-Of course he would choose the most retro-50s-looking wallpaper possible. It drove Velvette up the wall but he insisted.
Things I've learned while doing this piece:
-How to use colour swatches
-Being sensible about layers and which layers will interfere with others
-Using light gradient boxes and swatches (omg so helpful)
-Actually using a colour pallette
-The perspective tool!
-Creating a colour filter by applying opacity. (yea, as if I actually knew what I was doing!)
Thanks for reading my brainrot and sharing in my continued effort to draw somewhat adequately looking stick figures and badly lit settings!
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I'm not German or speak German so sorry if I translate it wrong just blame Google translate
Both bill and the reader are 16
" Hallo i-ich bin y/n" ( hello I'm y/n).
I say, well try to say. I'm trying to learn German by myself just for something to do. I don't think I will ever need it but it's gonna be awesome to say I can speak more than one language and that's German, plus German people have amazing accents that make them sound fantastic.
I sit on the swings staring down and the miniature sized book in my hands . Even though I'm swinging slightly the swing still  screeches . It's not the best park, it has a broken roundabout that barely spins, the slide gives kids burns no matter what you wear. The over flowing bin thats full of beer bottles and other stuff I probably don't want to know about.
Everything in the park has worn out, dull paint on it. It looks like no one has been in for years and that's kinda true ever since the new park was added all the younger kids go there, it's in the nicer part of town as well.
It seems as though only drug addictics, drunkes and some teens go to this park now which is normally at night so sometimes I get this place all to myself.
My eyes quickly skim the page.
"alright so they pronounce their 'w' 's as v' s. So wine would be vine?" I look up to the clear blue sky and sigh. Closing the book I put it on the floor. I pick up my phone from the ground and skip my music till I find a more upbeat song, I place my phone back on to the floor then I start to swing getting higher and higher.
I sit swinging for about 45 minutes being in my own little world while listening to music watching the world go by. I slowly slow down draging my feet on the gravel and pull myself to a stop. I slip off my headphones and place them around my neck. Jumping of of the swing I bend down and pick up my book, phone and my bottle of water, I place my phone into my Jeans pocket. I start to head out of the park when I drop my waterbottle . I reach down stretching my arm out ready to grab the bottle when another hand beats me to it. I look up at the person ready to say thank you and I'm met with a really pretty, tall, skinny boy with longish black hair. 
" Thanks, you didn't have to do that but I appreciate it"
"Don't worry, it was no problem. I'm Bill" the German accent catching my attention. Bill holds my bottle out and I reach to get it.
" Thanks" I say again "I'm y/n" grabbing the waterbottle.
Bill steps to the side  slightly and that's when I notice another boy with dreadlocks.
"This is my brother Tom."
" it's nice to meet you but I probably should be going. Have a nice day" I say and continue to walk out of the park and along the path heading home. I turn to look back at the park and catch bill still looking at me, he doesn't turn away quickly as I thought he would, he just continues to look. I turn back around and continue my way home.
~~~~~~~°°~~~~~~~°°~~~~~~~°°~~~~~~
I kick my shoes of at the door and set down my book and waterbottle on the bench. I look at my waterbottle thinking back to the boy in the park and his brother, they looked about my age.
I open the snack cupboard and take out a pack of sour patch kids I grab my book and water and head up to my room.
Closing the door I chuck the sour patch kids on my bed as well as my waterbottle .
My room isn't very big. It has light gray walls with windows on both the front and the back of my room. My beds near the front of the room, my conserlation bedding make my room look more  neater for some odd reason. I have about fifty thousand plants dotted around in different coloured plant pots. My room doesn't really have a theme it's just random.
For a small room I have a lot of stuff and I don't even need it. I don't use the things so there's no point in having them but it's the fact that most of the stuff is gifts and things that I might in the future, who knows.
I walk over to my bed and  get on. lying on my stomach I reach to my right and put my book on my book shelf that has far to many books for it, and if I'm being honest I have 4 books on the go that need finishing.
I open the bag of sour patch and start scrolling on Instagram.
After about 15 minutes I get bored. I chuck my phone to the side and get up from my bed streching as I do so.
I hear the door open and close from my mum coming in from work.
"I'M BACK " she shouts. My mums pretty chill, just don't get on her bad side.
"OK" I shout back
"is your sister In?"
"no, she's staying at jasmine's tonight"
" should we order in tonight then"
I run out of my room and down the stairs into the sitting room. Not only is my room small every rooms small. My mum's sitting on the sofa scrolling through what I'm guessing is a takeaway menu.
"how does Chinese sound?"  mum says looking up from the menu on her phone.
"yeah that sounds great"
We normally order in if maddison is out because she doesn't like eating fatty foods, she says its going to ruin her skin and figure . I mean when I was 14 i had okay skin a few spots every now and then  but I didn't stop eating stuff  because of it. The acne has gone now thankfully, and I'm happy about how I look because I relised that unless I get plastic surgery, which is hella expensive, I can't change the way I look.
About 12 minutes later mom gets a phone call.
I don't pay attention until I hear my name being mentioned, I turn my head towards mum now interested in the conversation that mums having.
"No, I'm sure she'll be fine with going, one sec, I'll tell her"
"y/n, sweetheart, maddison wants to go to this concert thing with jasmine in 2 or 3 weeks, apparently they have vip tickets or what ever you call them. And they want you to go are you okay with that" she says looking over to me
"yeah, sure, I don't mind"  mum turns back to facing forward again.
" your sister says yes she'll go with you"
"Okay, bye love you" mum hangs up the phone and turns back towards me.
" Are you sure you're okay with going?"
"yeah I need to get out anyway, did she say who we're going to see"
"no I don't think so, only that they have back stage passes, apparently jasmine's parents bought them for her and accidently bought 3 instead of two without knowing. You know how rich people are"
Hi everyone thanks so much for reading.
I have no clue what happens at a concert cause I have never been to one never mind back stage so please bare with me. I'll try and update as much as I can.
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tofupixel · 24 days
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Hello Tofu! One thing I admired about your work is your perception to colour, and how you divide things with backgrounds without the need for lineart. Do you have any tips regarding capturing that kind of style in pixel work? Do you have any general tips as well for more fluid characters in drawing and animation? :]
hi there, thank you very much!!
i'm not fully sure i understand what you're asking but i will try to answer. feel free to send another ask if i missed something
for me it's about value (brightness when in black&white). and in the beginning i think of my sketch in big areas of value, dark and light respectively, with big big contrast around things i think are important (statue)
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the rest of it i keep kind of low contrast, as long as those key areas are standing out i'm happy. it can help to put your art in black and white. i always flip my work constantly too so i can get a fresh view of what's going on
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this one is a more soft version but the idea is the same, the trees stand out a lot but the grass fades. you can see 5 separate layers (foreground, main battle area, middle, back, and sky) and i wanted the grass to fade between layers.
what i do is i colour pick some grass, make my brush 50% opacity and draw over the background, then colour pick that again and use that as a middle/blend colour
i do that for almost everything, if i need things to be more smooth then i add more colours.
as for animations hmmm... ‼
i'm really not the most confident animator but for me going faster than the 100ms frame duration (which is default on aseprite) helped me a lot i think. something like 70ms or even 50ms feels so smooth but of course it is faster // more work
i also want to recommend this guys youtube channel, every time i had to animate something i went to a video of his and studied and learned from it
i hope that helps...! im not super good at articulating this stuff cos im not a thinker im a pheromone based organism so lmk
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drenched-in-sunlight · 9 months
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hello hi!!! grfhvhghr i am in love with your artwork so much you cant believe-- i wanna ask if you have any tips on how you lineart and colourpick?? no pressure to answer tho, have a great day/night!! again, love your art <33
hi!! thank you for your kind words!! since i got asked about these a lot, im answering this for all the other ask asking about lineart and colour tips too! You can see some previous post here.
also i could only give out tips that work for my drawing style - which is heavy lineart / colours pop up the line (believe it or not it's American comic book style. ppl cant understand why my art doesnt really look like usual anime/ Asian webtoon style, even though it is still clearly anime / Asian webtoon style, but when i told them it's because im drawing these by studying American comics, no one believes it either lmao.
i do study but i do my own things too, so most of my art inspo is really unexpected to ppl, but they r really where i learn things from, cuz i dont even go to art school TT_TT).
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Changing the brush size will help you achieve thick/thin lines better without having to put pressure on your wrists. Keep your hold relaxed and let bigger brush size give you the thick strokes.
I like messy sketch, to me the sketch is just an outline shape to fill details in when i do the line, it also gives more freedom to wriggle as i draw! cuz i dont really plan out everything from the start, just wing it as i go, so a lot of my work is actually very spontaneous.
that leads to this point: when you do the lineart you should start deciding which colour style you want from it to adjust the details amount. the ink shadow blocks in my art aren't there randomly, i adjust them to best complement the shape language and colours.
for piece where i want the line/shadow to...idk hit (?), the colours are almost flat with textured brush adding depth to them, so the inking is the shading, thus there are more details in the lineart / ink blocks.
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for the video above and piece like this where i want the colours to be clear and pop out, the use of ink blocks are minimized and i do the shading during colouring process. but! the ink blocks can still make some places pop very nicely! just use in moderation!
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when doing the base it's good to keep the colour on the left side of the colour wheel (low saturation), but as you do shading and lighting, try to spread out evenly so it won't look washed out.
toggle around with hue and saturation slider as you go! the key is always adjusting! you're making hundreds of decisions at once, being conscious of your choice in why a line or a colour should be in a certain way will help improve your process a lot! (i think you can tell which art i turned off my brain and just draw for stress relief ........ which is also a valid way to draw and sometimes the result might surprise you! but for more serious stuffs i try to be aware of most of the move i make. it's problem solving, yeah?)
i find that one way to keep your art from appearing too...yellow in the end (which is sth that haunted my ass for a long while) is always aim for cold tone, so if you accidentally make it warm either way in the end it won't be too warm (and yellow :cry:)
well that's all the stuffs i can think on top of my head. sorry i can't give more advice on colour picking cuz it's sth i don't really know how to give advice on???? i think my colours now are still pretty lame haha........ if there are still any questions i'd gladly answer within my ability, though im very slow to answer ask ( i do read and be happy at all of them tho!)
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