#the muscles and the brute force of the group
Text
Waiting For The Roommate
Max sat in the passenger seat of his roommate's truck, waiting for Buck, who needed to quickly come back to their dorm room. As he waited he took off his tank top, it was fuckin' hot inside. He rolled down the window to get some fresh inside the car.
As he stuck his head out the window to breathe in some fresh air he saw some nerd approach him. He was wearing a dark brown button-down shirt and had a stack of papers in his hand.
"Max, is that you?" The nerd asked, looking at him. A smile appeared on his face.
"uhhhhhhhh... dude, do i know ya?" He asked, convincing himself not to call the guy a loser or a nerd. Coach said he had to get better at dealing with strangers.
"Max, it's me - Michael. We went to high school together!" The other guy replied, clearly convinced that they knew each other. High school? Max's head was covered with a fog, he couldn't conjure up any specific memories from high school.
"you sure bro?"
"Damn, Max, we had like half our classes together!" The nerd was getting a bit frustrated for some reason. "We talked about going to the same uni, and so much more! And now you say you don't know me?"
Max tried to focus. High school, friends, classes, college. It felt like his brain was fighting against him, a thick fog covering everything. His thoughts began turning towards his next workout. Damn, he'll be doing arms and chest. Yea-- Holy shit, he knew that guy!
"oh fuck, mike, yeah, of course, how are you brah?" Max extended his hand for Mike to bump, but he just awkwardly looked at it. Max ignored it.
"Oh my god, for a moment I thought you weren't joking" A half-hearted laugh escaped Mike's mouth. Max just grinned. "I'm fine, settled into college life. Found a study group--" Mike continued talking but Max didn't register another word. He was this guy's good bro - apparently - but that didn't mean he would be able to tolerate that nerd bullshit. He was made for different things than studying - like workin' out with his best bro Buck.
"Anyway" Mike looked straight at Max, whose attention came back. "How was your first year. You look... like a different person!"
"what you mean bruh?" Max asked. What did that ner-- what did Mike mean? Different? He was always a badass jock.
"I mean, you're jacked! In high school you hated gym class, and here you are, buff and all."
"dude, am like, ya know, a real bro, dude. gotta be jacked as hell" He responded and flexed his right arm, his biceps moving and bulging under his skin.
"I mean, that's quite the change. Like, we kinda lost contact after the summer, and you didn't give any sign of life, and I thought... but you're here!" Mike was clearly excited and Max smiled. Wait, what was this dude's deal? He was textin' and talkin' with a nerd like that? Nah, this didn't make sense... where the fuck was Buck where he needed him!
"huhuhuhuhuhuh, yeah bruh" Max just chuckled like the dumb jock he was, he didn't know what to say. He shifted in his seat and scratched his armpit.
"Anyway" Mike went on "how was your first year in college? Were you able to get into that engineering program you've talked about?"
Engineeri-- what? "huhuhuh bro, are you high dude, i ain't here for some weird soundin' shit like that bro. am here to get drunk, work out and crush State, fuck yeah duhuhuhuh." Oh yeah, Max remembered the last game they played, State's lame ass defence couldn't stop the brute force of their offensive line. And the look on their faces when their WR1 tore a muscle in his leg... fuckin' priceless dude!
Mike was clearly not prepared for that answer, which Max found weird, cause he thought his jacked bod was proof enough that he wasn't a stupid nerd.
"Wait, so..." He was clearly confused "if you're not doing engineering then what is your major?"
"major?" Max had no idea what that guy meant... Major... what was a major... Coach talked to him about something like that... It was something along the lines of... "uhhhhh, general ed? dunno bro, never really been a guy to focus on shit."
"What, general education?" Mike seemed shocked. "But, like... I don't understand, Max, you... You said you wanted that, so that you could do a PhD... Why did you change your mind... Like, really, why did you change so much?!"
All that talk 'bout changes made Max's head spin a little bit. Like, what changes? He's been a fuckin' bro since he came here, got a room with Buck, cause before that-- his brain again began filling with fog, his thoughts slowing down to a halt, but not before he blurted out a response.
"duuuuude, like, bro, ive been a real bruh, like, forever dude, duuuuuuuh, like i got my bro Buck, and he got me to Coach, and uhhhhhhhhh, ya know, he worked on me and huhuhuh--" and his mind went blank, a dumb grin stuck on his face.
"What do you mean? A coach 'worked on' you? That sounds... concerning, you know that, right?" Mike adjusted his glasses and looked at Max, clearly concerned.
But Max... Max's brain had shut off. He was sitting in the passenger seat of his best bro Buck's truck, chuckling like a dumb idiot and drooling slightly.
"duhuhuhuhuhuh, duuuude... fuckin' hot today brah, gotta get that pump huhuhuhuh" He flexed his arm and touched his bulging biceps.
"Jesus, did they do something to you? Did you have some traumatic head injury?" Mike leaned on the car, looking inside the vehicle to see what was happening with Max. "God, did they brainwash you? You're a completely different person... and a dumb jock!"
It took a while for Max's fog-covered brain to register what the nerd said. And before he even began formulating a response Buck approached the car.
Buck was wearing a loose tank top that revealed his broad shoulders and giant guns, while also showing off his chest. His shorts, like second skin on his thick thighs, left nothing to imagination with his bulge clearly visible. He was a jock. An alpha. Max's best bro.
"duuude, ya won't believe the chick i saw while gettin' out of the dorm--" He started speaking as he opened the door on the driver's side, but then he noticed Mike standing by Max's window. "ey bruh, who's that loser?"
"huh?" Max turned to Buck, his grin disappearing and his his brow now furrowed. "i... dunno, bro..."
Buck and Mike looked at each other for a moment, the first one annoyed, the second slightly terrified.
"get away from the car" Buck barked as he sad down in front of the steering wheel.
"Wait, please, just a moment, you know what happened to Max? Pleas i just want to--"
"Go away, you fuckin' nerd" was the response Mike got. He took a step away from the car but didn't go away. Meanwhile Max realized what was happening. Some nerd was disturbing them and not listening to Buck's commands. And that wasn't the right thing to do. He turned his head to face the nerd.
"why you starin' at me, nerd" Max growled. His mind, completely covered by the fog, was now following Buck's lead. And Buck didn't like the nerd. So Max didn't like the nerd.
"Max, what... what happened?" Terror shifted into confusion as Mike tried to comprehend Max's sudden change in mood.
"oh, just fuck off, loser" Max responded and Buck took that as a sign. He turned the engine on and drove away, leaving Michael alone in the parking lot.
"uhhhhhh, do we know this guy?" Max asked a few minutes later. "that nerd form before?"
"nah, bro, of course not. we're real jocks, we're not gonna fraternize with fuckin' losers." Buck let our a low and dumb laugh. "by the way, tomorrow we're gonna get ya to Coach for a check up, just in case"
721 notes
·
View notes
Text
I saw some mentions of rabies going around again and have no clue what's set it off this time, but given recent scientific developments I want to revisit the idea of curing symptomatic rabies.
First things first: there is still no practical way to do this. The famous Milwaukee Protocol fails far more frequently than it succeeds, and even the successes are not making it out in anything like a normal state. It's been argued that it should no longer be considered a valid treatment [1] due to these issues; any continued use is because there's literally nothing else on the table.
However. There are now two separate studies showing it's possible to cure rabies in mice after the onset of symptoms. The lengths you have to go to in order to pull this off are drastic, to put it mildly, and couldn't really be adapted to humans even if you wanted to. But proof of concept is now on the board.
long post under the cut, warnings for animal experimentation and animal death. full bibliography at the end and first mention of each source links to paper.
Quick recap - rabies is a viral disease of mammals usually transmitted through the saliva of an infected animal. From a contaminated bite wound, it propagates slowly for anywhere from days to months until it reaches the central nervous system (CNS). Post-exposure vaccination can head it off during this phase, but once it reaches the CNS and neurological symptoms appear it's game over. There will typically be a prodromal phase where the animal doesn't act right - out at the wrong time of day, disoriented, abnormally friendly, etc. This will then progress to the furious (stereotypical "mad dog" disease) and/or paralytic phases, with death eventually caused by either seizures or paralysis of the muscles needed for breathing.
That's the course we're familiar with in larger animals. Mice, though, are fragile little creatures with fast metabolisms.
In the first study's rabies infection model, lab mice show rabies virus in the spinal cord by day 4 after infection and in the brain by day 5. Weight loss and slower movement start by day 7, paralysis starting from the hind limbs from day 8 on, and if not euthanized first they're dead by day 10-13. [2]
This study (fittingly conducted at the Institut Pasteur) had two human monoclonal antibodies, and wanted to see if there was any possibility they could be used to cure rabies after what we think of as the point of no return.
Injecting the antibodies into muscle saved some mice if done at days 2 or 4, and none if done later, even at high doses of 20 milligrams per kilogram of body weight of each. Conclusion: targeting the virus out in the rest of the body is no use if it's already replicating in the CNS.
Getting a drug past the blood-brain barrier is, to use a highly technical term, really fucking hard. It's the sort of problem that even the best-funded labs and biggest companies in the world routinely fail at. And that's for small molecule drugs, which are puny compared to antibodies.
But this isn't drug development for a clinical trial. This is a very, very early proof-of-concept attempt, which means you're willing to ignore practicality to see if this idea is even remotely workable. So you can do things like brute force the issue by cutting through the skull to implant a microinfusion pump, which lets you deliver the antibodies directly into the normally-protected space around the brain. Combine this with the normal injections, and you can treat both the CNS and the rest of the body at the same time. Here's a survival graph of treated mice. X axis is days, Y axis is percentage of mice in that group still alive.
Figure 2A from reference 2, accessed February 2024
The fact that the blue, green, and purple lines did anything other than sink horribly to zero is unheard of. When the combination treatment was started at day 6, 100% of the mice survived. Started at day 7 (prodromal phase), 5 out of 9 mice recovered and survived. Started at day 8 (solidly symptomatic, paralysis already starting to set in), 5 of 15 mice recovered and survived. And when they say "survived", they kept these mice all the way to day 100 to make sure. Some of them had permanent minor paralysis but largely they were back to being normal mice doing normal mouse things. So, success, but by pretty extreme means.
Enter the second paper [3]. This was a different approach using a single human monoclonal antibody against Australian bat lyssavirus (ABLV - closely related to rabies, similar symptoms in humans) to try for a cure without needing to deliver treatments directly into the CNS. They also made a luminescent version of ABLV that let them directly image viral activity, so they could see both where the virus was replicating and how much there was in a live mouse.
Figure 1 from reference 3, accessed February 2024
Mice infected with ABLV start showing symptoms around day 8. You can see in the figure that at day 3 there's viral replication in the foot at the site of infection, which has shifted into the spine and brain by day 10. So what happens if you give one of these doomed mice one single injection of the antibody into the body?
Done at day 3, the virus doesn't make it to the brain until day 14, and while disease does set in after that around 30% of the mice survive. Days 5 and 7 are much more interesting. Those mice still develop symptoms at day 8, but the imaging shows the amount of virus in their spines and brains never gets anywhere near the levels seen in untreated controls, and within days it starts to decrease. Around 80% of day 5 and 100% of day 7 mice survive.
Okay, sure, you can stop another lyssavirus, but technically you did start treatment before symptoms appeared. What about symptomatic rabies?
The rodent-adapted rabies strain CVS-11 starts causing symptoms as early as day 3 after infection, and untreated mice die between days 8 and 11. The same single dose of antibody saved 67% of mice treated on day 5 and 50% of mice treated on day 7. Without making the luminescent version of the virus there's no real-time imaging of the infection, but you can still track symptoms.
Figure 2 from reference 3, accessed February 2024. CVS-11 is the name of the rodent rabies strain and F11 is the name of the antibody.
Disease score is a combination of several metrics including things like whether the mice are behaving normally and whether they show signs of paralysis. In untreated mice it goes up and up, and then they die. If one of those lines starts coming back down and continues past day 10 or so, that's a mouse that recovered. The success rate isn't as good as against ABLV, but again, this is a rabies strain specifically adapted to rodents and treatment wasn't started until it was well-established in the CNS.
So how on earth is this happening? The antibody neutralizes both ABLV and rabies really well in a test tube, but we've already established that there's no way a huge lumbering antibody is making it past the blood-brain barrier without serious help. Something about the immune response is clearly making it in there though. And it turns out that if you start trying this cure in mice missing various parts of their immune systems, mice without CD4+ T cells don't survive even with the treatment. By contrast mice without CD8+ T cells take longer to work through the infection, but they eventually manage it and are immune to reinfection afterwards.
To grossly oversimplify the immune system here, CD4+ are mature helper T cells, which work mostly by activating other immune cells like macrophages (white blood cells) and CD8+ T cells (killer T cells) against a threat.
Normally, T cells are also kept out by the blood-brain barrier, but we know that in certain specific cases including viral infection they can pass it to migrate into the brain. In the brains of the infected mice for which antibody treatment either wasn't given or didn't work, you can find a roughly even mix of CD8+ and CD4+ T cells along with a whole lot of viral RNA. But in the brains of those successfully fighting off the infection, there's less viral RNA and the cells are almost exclusively CD4+. So the antibody doesn't work by neutralizing the virus directly - something about it is activating the animal's own immune system in a way that gives it a fighting chance.
Again, neither of these proof of concept treatments is really workable yet as a real world cure. The first one is almost hilariously overkill and still has a pretty good chance of failure. The second is less invasive but careful sequencing still shows both low-level viral replication and signs of immune response in the brains of the survivors even at day 139, so it may not be truly clearing the virus so much as trading a death sentence for life with a low-level chronic infection. But now we know that 1. curing rabies after symptoms begin is at least theoretically possible, and 2. we have some clues as to mechanisms to investigate further.
Not today. Not tomorrow. But maybe not never, either.
References:
Zeiler, F. A., & Jackson, A. C. (2016). Critical appraisal of the Milwaukee protocol for rabies: this failed approach should be abandoned. Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences, 43(1), 44-51.
de Melo, G. D., Sonthonnax, F., Lepousez, G., Jouvion, G., Minola, A., Zatta, F., ... & Bourhy, H. (2020). A combination of two human monoclonal antibodies cures symptomatic rabies. EMBO molecular medicine, 12(11), e12628.
Mastraccio, K. E., Huaman, C., Coggins, S. A. A., Clouse, C., Rader, M., Yan, L., ... & Schaefer, B. C. (2023). mAb therapy controls CNS‐resident lyssavirus infection via a CD4 T cell‐dependent mechanism. EMBO Molecular Medicine, 15(10), e16394.
244 notes
·
View notes
Text
𝕴𝖓𝖙𝖔 𝖞𝖔𝖚𝖗 𝖆𝖗𝖒𝖘.
𝑨 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒕 𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝑪𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒐 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒔 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒍𝒚.
Leaning on the railing with your head propped up by your arm you stared at the undeniably charming man beside you.
With a cigarette held between his fingers, wisps of smoke curled upward.
With no shirt, you could see his muscles rippling with every subtle movement and with his hair slicked back you had a clear view of his face that never failed to make your heart speed up.
Sensing your ogling he turned his head and met your eyes that flickered with adoration.
“Careful love, you're drooling.”
To meet your eye level he mimicked your position and set his eyes on yours.
You touched the corner of your lips and as you suspected he was teasing you.
“Am I that charming, my love?”
“Charming? I was just wondering how such an ugly brute exists.”
Laughter slipped out and unknowing to him the sound warmed your heart.
“Is that so?” Chuckling he put his cigarette down, crushing it with a light force and took out another, lighting it up.
Just as he raised the cigarette to his lips you swiftly stole it from his grasp and brought it to your lips. You inhaled deeply, savouring the familiar taste that flooded your senses with a wave of nostalgia.
“Now now love, stealing is rude.” Tch. How ironic.
“Says the infamous leader of a group of thieves,” you scoffed, “though you should teach me your ways of stealing. I'm quite interested.”
“I'm afraid it is too late for you to be asking that. You've already mastered the art of stealing.” He grinned.
“How so?” you asked inhaling again but before you could release a sudden fit of coughing seized you.
“You've already stolen the heart of this infamous leader of thieves. What else could you hope to steal, love?”
Your eyes widened and you smacked your hand against your chest.
He couldn't tell if you were coughing or laughing but still made an effort to stop your coughing by gently patting your back.
You wiped your nonexistent tears as you took deep breaths in hopes of calming down.
“You..you.. bastard.”
Punching him on the arm you shook your head.
Before you could take your arm back he pulled you towards him making you land on his firm chest.
With one arm wrapped around your lower back and the other around your shoulders, you were caged in his embrace.
Your eyes widened at the sudden assault and you turned to push him off but the feeling of his warm breath fanning your neck made you stop in your tracks.
He nuzzled his head into your shoulder mumbling something into the side of your neck.
“Whatever you wish to make yours I will steal it for you.”
Just like his embrace, his words were also comforting.
As if his hold on you wasn't already strong enough, his hold on your heart that was once entrapped within unbreakable barriers had become even stronger.
You responded by embracing him, wrapping your arms around his neck, and he held you tighter.
It was a moment of comfort and solace, and his grip conveyed a sense of warmth and safety.
You felt overwhelmed by the rush of emotions.
His warmth, scent, and his voice, all made you go crazy.
“I don't wish to let you go..”
“Then don't.”
He smiled at your blunt tone, but was glad to hear that you felt the same.
#anime#chrollo lucilfer#kuroro#kuroro lucilfer#chrollo hunter x hunter#phantom troupe#hunter x hunter#chrollo x reader#hunter hunter#hxh chrollo#x yn#chrollo x you#chrollo x y/n#chrollo x oc#chrollo
57 notes
·
View notes
Text
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
The next few days were peaceful. The kind of peaceful Lucifer hadn't experienced since the Hotel was in the process of being rebuilt. He hadn't realized how much stress Alastor was causing him until he backed off.
Lucifer might even have gotten a full nights sleep last night! That hadn't happened in an especially long time!
(He wasn't thinking about the fact that his sleep had been haunted by the caress of teeth along his neck or glimpses of red, red sated eyes.)
The images threatened to steal his attention, even as he tried to bury them down with all the other things he was refusing to think about at this point. He forced himself to pay attention, tuning in as Charlie said, excitedly, "She's already spending half her time here! It's really only a matter of time before she agrees to join us full time!"
The campaign to get Cherri Bomb to join the Hazbin Hotel had been having mixed results since the fight with Adam and her participating in the rebuilding. She was clearly here mostly for Angel, but it seemed that the other denizens of the hotel were growing on her. Charlie was correct in that the cyclops spent just as much time at the hotel as she did were ever else she landed when she wasn't with them. She even had a room of her own, even if she didn't officially claim it. It definitely helped it was right next door to her best friend.
Lucifer patted her shoulder. "She'll come around in her own time. Remember, for this to work, they have to actually want it."
Charlie placed her hand over her father's, biting her lip and near bursting with excitement. "I know, but it just feels like we're so close! It'll be so great when she agrees."
"Yes, but in the meantime, we'll just continue to make her feel welcome." He smiled at her proudly. "Which you're already doing so well at!"
Charlie's returned the smile, pleased with his feedback.
The moment, like so often when one lives in Hell, was suddenly and abruptly interrupted by the entire building shaking.
Angel appeared on the landing of the second floor, the one that overlooked the main entrance and foyer. "What the hell? We haven't had any shady guests lately, have we?"
Alastor stepped out of the shadows near the entrance, a loud boom ringing out as something large and heavy hit the door.
Lucifer was suddenly glad he had reinforced the structure. It wasn't impossible that someone could break in through brute force, especially if someone was extremely determined, but the sheer effort would give the hotel guests ample time to mount a defense.
Loud shouting came from outside, words unintelligible through the thickness of it. Alastor ignored the hostile aura premating from outside as if he couldn't even feel it, throwing open the door.
"Oh my, you are quite annoying," he greeted the group at their door. The two fellas up front, stooges and the muscle by the look of them, were holding a large battering ram. Alastor eyed it distastefully. "Whatever business could you have with us that is worth all this racket?"
A nervous looking demon cleared his throat, unwisely drawing the Radio Demon's full attention. "We." He swallowed, complexion growing paler the longer Alastor stared at him. In a rush, he stated, "We were sent here to send a message!"
The radio host tilted his head to the side. "Message?"
The group glanced at each other, clearly psyching themselves up. Nodding, the 'leader' proclaimed, "Yeah, 'give up this shitty mission, or else.'"
"Or else what?"
The group collectively drew their weapons, an assortment of guns and knives. "Or else we're going to have to use force."
The widening of Alastor's grin should have been a warning. Lucifer would have felt bad for the little idiots for not seeing the flaming pile of shit they had just stepped in, but they were in the process of threatening his daughter and that was just a big no go for him.
"Oh, you really don't want to do that." Lucifer came up to stand beside Alastor, hands coming up in a shooing motion. "Like, seriously. Go back to whoever sent you and tell them they don't get a second warning."
The leader blinked down at him. He must have been new to Hell, because he asked, "And who are you?"
"Oh, little ol' me?" Lucifer's wings and horns appeared in all their full glory. "I'm the Devil, bitches."
The group barely had time to do little more than gape before they were sent tumbling arse over head from a powerful gust of wind, curtesy of the before mentioned wings. Fully prepared to rough them up a little before sending them on their way, Lucifer stepped out of the hotel.
Only to be halted by something wrapping around his waist. He glanced down at what appeared to be a shadow about the thickness of a vine. Now, where had that come from?
"Now, now, your Majesty, that won't do."
Ah, yes. Of course, it was one of Alastor's shadow tentacle things.
"Oi! Put me down!" The blond protested as he was picked up and then deposited on one of the second floor balconies.
Alastor didn't bother looking back at him. His tone was that of a parent talking to a particularly petulant child as he ordered, "Why don't you stay up there for a bit? There's really no need for you to get involved."
Lucifer had half a mind to take not just the goons out, but Alastor as well, but ultimately decided to let the Radio Demon have his fun. Besides, he was looking a little peckish lately. "Just leave one alive so they can tell their boss to back off!"
Down below, Charlie chimed in with, "Or we could leave all of them alive?"
Alastor near cackled as he grew in size, the invaders suddenly realizing they were in serious danger and attempting to make a run for it. Shadow creatures began to rise out of the ground, breaking off their get away. "Nonesense!" Alastor disagreed cheerfully. "Everyone mysteriously disappearing is a much more delicious way of keeping people on their feet!"
Lucifer rolled his eyes. Oh, he bet it was 'delicious.'
A noise behind him drew his attention. Lucifer looked over his shoulder, finding himself eye to eye with a wolf demon he'd never seen a day in his life. Especially not one that had no business sneaking into the hotel with a knife he was clearly intending to use.
They started at each other for a long moment. The guy must have been an idiot, because he apparently decided he wanted to take his chances and attempt to stab the King of Hell himself.
Lucifer reached up, fully intending to catch the blade. Under normal circumstances, weapons made in Hell couldn't hurt him and would have just shattered on contact.
But this blade wasn't just an ordinary blade made it Hell. Lucifer realized it must have been made from Angelic Steel when the knife cut straight through his hand like a hot knife through butter. He winced, despite himself. Somehow, he'd forgotten how much that could hurt.
The wolf demon made the mistake of not pressing his advantage, seeming to think that the pain of something as simple as a knife through the hand would be enough to make the first being to ever lead a rebellion against a real army to pause. Oh no, all it did was infuriate him.
Lucifer pressed his hand down the knife further, allowing him to take hold of the hilt. The demon's grip went slack with shock, allowing the blond to wretch it out of his hand. With his good hand, Lucifer yanked the offensive object out, carelessly tossing it onto one of the other neighboring balconies, where it would be of little use during this battle and could be retrieved later. "Oh, that was a very poor decision." Giving no quarter, he darted forward to wrap his hand around the demon's throat, wings flapping to give him the hieght to do so. "Tell me why you're up here, before I decide to be rid of you regardless."
The wolf grunted, hands clawing uselessly at his arm. He managed to choke out, "Like we said: we're just here to send a message."
Lucifer looked down at where Alastor was rounding up the last couple of stragglers, tossing a third into his mouth. The little nervous demon from before appeared to have peed himself from fright. The seraphim turned back to his captive. Something told him that those boo zoos were a mere distraction and this was the real leader of the group. Shaking him a little, Lucifer demanded, "Who sent you?"
A sneer came in response. "We're just for hire. We get a call and we do the job, no questions asked."
Lucifer realized he wasn't going to get anything of use out of this guy. And since he was likely the only real threat of the group, the blond didn't feel comfortable letting him be the return messenger.
A beat of his wings had them air born, bringing them to hover over Alastor, who's ears perked up as he realized he was about to get another morsel. "Whelp, in that case, it sounds like you're useless to me. Guess I'll just hand you over to the Alastor--"
"W-wait!" The wolf demon frantically choked out, "Isn't this p-place for s-second chances! Your d-daughter believes in that s-shit, doesn't she?"
Lucifer's eyes narrowed. "You're right. My daughter does have a gift for seeing the best in people, even when there isn't any. But me? My curse is that I'm damned to always see the worst in all of you." Between one blink to the next, he let his form bleed into it's most demonic, hellfire igniting and his broken halo taking form as the true crown of Hell manifested. His True Eyes opened along his coat, Seeing right through this worthless soul and all of his sins. "Tell me, honestly, do you regret, even a little, for pushing Elizabeth in front of that train? Did you care in the least that her husband only had a handful of voicemails to remember her voice by? That her son grew up without any memories of his own mother?"
The wolf demon gasped for breathe, eyes wild. "The- the reporter? I had to kill her." He squirmed and yanked to no avail, Lucifer's hand like steel around his neck. Frantically, he added, "She was no-no one! She- she was going to ruin everything!"
Lucifer sneered. "Wrong answer."
Without hesitation, he opened his fist. The wolf demon shrieked as he fell, the shrill sound abruptly cutting off as Alastor closed his mouth around his treat.
The nervous little demon, perhaps smarter than they gave him credit for, took advantage of the distraction to make his get away. Alastor let him in favor of watching his king, eyes alight and calculating.
Lucifer hovered above him, every one of his eyes trained on the sinner below him. He realized that while he had seen Alastor in his full eldritch form during their first meeting, this would be the first time Alastor was seeing him in his own full demonic form.
Alastor, like in every aspect of his life, neither blinked nor cowered. He brought up a hand, the motion that puppet slowness he'd showed when Lucifer had manifested the pair of deer ears. He brought it up until it hovered just below the Devil's feet.
Lucifer squinted at him, not trusting that if he let himself land in Alastor's hand, the latter wouldn't just drop him out of spite.
He never found out either way, as he became distracted by Charlie's alarmed shout of "Oh my goodness, Dad!"
Alarmed, Lucifer spun around, his demonic features melting away into his normal appearance. "Charlie? What's wrong?" He came down to land in front of her, reaching out to make certain nothing had gotten past them to hurt her. "Are you okay?"
Charlie grabbed onto his hand, causing him to wince. Horrified, she cried out, "Forget me! Your hand is hurt." She hissed as she assessed the full extent of the damage. "Oh shit, it went all the way through!" She twisted around to shout back at the other behind her. "Vaggie! Bandages!"
Lucifer held up his free hand. "It's fine, sweetie, really. It'll heal up in no time. Really, I'd be more worried about any survivors. Alastor is way too enthusiastic for a guard dog." He glanced over his shoulder at Alastor, who had shrunk down to his normal size. Lucifer caught a glimpse of a gold coated tongue past the the hand the red head had up to his mouth. Lucifer found himself reassessing if Alastor had been offering him a hand after all or if he had just been taking the opportunity to get another taste of angel blood.
Judging by the pleased look on the deer demon's face, and the fact that he was letting 'guard dog' comment slide, it was most likely the latter.
And this was why Lucifer had trust issues when it came to this little shit.
Charlie tugged him towards the inside of the hotel, saying something about bandaging his hand. He was forced to break eye contact with his rival or keep his daughter from carrying on with his fretting. Really, it was all too much. It would take longer than the usual for injury to heal - the scar would barely be noticeable in a few days! - there was really no need for all this fussing! He even tried to say as such, which turned out to be a bad idea, because now Charlie was making sad eyes at him and really he was just going to be quiet and let her do her thing because it was so much better than her crying.
In the mess of the clean-up, Lucifer completely forgot about the angelic blade.
tbc
Part 5
#radioapple#appleradio#alastor#lucifer morningstar#deer lucifer fic#deer lucifer who is not actually appearing in this chapter#we needed some team building between lucifer and alastor#it'll be worth it all later#this chapter might have been inspired by the malificent movie#i just mostly wanted to write out the scene with lucifer in full demon form#so sue me#and wild plot appears!#its largely there to keep these two idiots interacting#we'll see where this goes#deer lucifer may be back in part five or six#likely six
59 notes
·
View notes
Note
i think that the relationship between lilia and idia is so fun and interesting! it really makes me wonder how the 'reveal' is going to go in the story
my question is: how many times do lilia and idia interact in person? and how many times do we see them interact online? i know they interact a little but IRL during the ghost bride event, and then later they talk online during Lilia's event vignette... but i could swear they talk more often than that
also i just find it funny how lilia talks like an old man online xD
Hello hello! ^^ Thank you for this question!
Idia and Lilia do not interact much in person from what we have seen, but there are a few times!
Idia mentions getting a palm rest from Lilia for his birthday ("It's the same one that I recommended to Muscle Red-shi. What a coincidence that Lilia-shi would get one for me") and they overlap at the beginning of Book 5 where Lilia explains to a surprised Idia that he enjoys TV dramas and video games, but Idia is communicating via tablet so that may not count.
They also meet briefly in Silver's ceremonial robes vignette, right after Silver has been explaining how amazing his father is. Idia reflects, "he sounds like the kinda guy I'd actually like to meet someday."
Like most of the cast, Lilia might not actually like Idia that much. He has a voice line of, "Infiltrating enemy lines on a rescue mission sounds delightful! It's just like an RPG. Pity my motivation's gone because we're rescuing Idia."
He also encourages Idia to kiss Eliza during Phantom Bride (which would have killed Idia), and banters with Jade about whether or not Idia will still be able to serve as Ignihyde Housewarden after he's dead.
They overlap briefly in a Glorious Masquerade vignette where Idia talks about upgrading Ignihyde's security system after Silver and Sebek are able to successfully brute force their way in and drag him to Diasomnia to rehearse for the performance at Noble Bell College.
Lilia explains, "When someone tightens their defenses, we have but to increase our offensive force. Ignihyde's vaunted ironclad security system makes a fine test for Diasomnia."
They get along much better online, with Idia calling Lilia (as Muscle Red) his "one and only trusted companion."
They also overlap in Idia's dorm uniform vignette, where Muscle Red offers to visit Idia in person whenever he would like to meet. Idia says, "I'd do anything for him!" and talks about how they may be able to attend a live concert by his favorite idol group together one day.
Idia refers to himself and Muscle Red as war buddies and will even refuse to spend time with Ortho in favor of Muscle Red.
Idia says, "'Grateful' doesn't begin to describe how much I appreciate him."
They also overlap digitally in Book 6 where Idia says, "This right here is what friendship's all about."
Both Idia and Lilia talk about receiving birthday messages from one another for their birthdays. Lilia says, "What a faithful friend!"
As you say they also overlap digitally in Lilia's Phantom Bride vignette, where Lilia is looking for another person in their game to perform a "Promise ceremony" with.
It seems that had wanted Idia (as Gloomurai) to do the ceremony with him but, "(Gloomurai) apparently harbors a rather negative view of it..."
Idia and Lilia both seem very fond of each other online, and it is exciting to look forward to when (or if?) the two finally realize who they are to each other! :>
110 notes
·
View notes
Note
Your body dysmorphia post has me Thinking.
Sephiroth and Genesis bodies are ultimately, very much for show.
Sephiroth is built for precision and agility, his blade and skillset meant for quick efficient culling of large groups of enemies or getting to weak spots on monsters. Like a scalpel. His muscles are mostly for his image, rather then from actual training. The mako makes sure he doesn't need as much physical mass for strength.
Genesis is similar. He's naturally slender, and his image is VERY much appearance focused. I mean hes a magic caster above all, so he's built for speed and dodging.
But Angeal? Angeal is all brute fucking force. That man is STRONG and built for it. You see wrestlers and professional strongman with his build, people meant to hit hard and move weight around. He's like an ox. He puts weight on differently then the other two, and he's a foodie! (Also there's probably something with growing up in relative poverty and then not being there anymore.)
And it is honestly inevitable that they're going to be compared. Their the three Firsts, they're seen together a LOT in pr events and such. And its even more inevitable Angeal is going to compare himself as well.
Angeal's phisyque is impressive and I don't doubt Genesis envies him for it sometimes. He's strong and puts on muscle easily, which I imagine is extremely valued in SOLDIER. I agree, the comparisons are inevitable and I could see it affecting all three of them (even Sephiroth, who could favor Gen and Angeal's more "human" looks over his own).
I beg you to forgive my mini rant under the cut. I fell down a rabbit hole, got keyboard-happy, and want to share my thoughts with you lol.
Assuming the east-Asian male beauty standards are the same in the FF7 world, Angeal is essentially friends with two of the most⏤if not the most⏤attractive men on the planet. He would have grown up seeing Sephiroth and Genesis receive praise and admiration for their looks and constantly being compared to them.
I’m not sure what influenced Angeal’s character design exactly, though we can say that Sephiroth and Genesis’ designs are in contrast to the Western ideals, Genesis more so because he was based off of Gackt (specifically Gackt in the 2000s), which means his design adheres to the east-asian male beauty standard. The two are so contrasting because the east-Asian male standards promote more androgynous and softer looks as opposed to the West’s fixation on hyper-masculinity.
I would say Sephiroth is a mix of both. While his design is inspired by Japanese historical figures and features that give him that “bishonen” appeal, his overall design is pretty masculine. He’s tall and muscular. His body, overall fits into the West’s standards while his face is ethereal enough for us to fit it into the east-Asian standards. Aspects that the West would consider effeminate such as the long hair actually used to indicate a warrior’s class. Funnily enough, long hair as a symbol of masculinity used to be a thing across many cultures, not just in Japan.
The thing about Angeal is, he is attractive. He fits the Western male beauty standard down to a T with traits such as being tall, having a muscular build, square jaw, and facial hair. But if indeed the FF7 world’s equivalent of male beauty is the same as Japan’s… Well, maybe getting compared to Sephiroth and Genesis gets to him.
Don’t get it wrong, the comments about his appearance are usually positive, but they’re always about how “strong and ripped and big” he is. Not to mention he constantly gets told how much older he looks than Sephiroth and Genesis despite being the same age as them.
He doesn’t feel attractive, he feels useful. He sees his body as a tool to get his job done. He has the body of a warrior, a Soldier. It’s built for fighting. The problem is, he’s constantly compared to his friends—the same friends who get compared to angels. They stand out, they’re pleasing to look at. He may be at an advantage with his brute force and ideal masculine physique, but—and I cannot stress this enough—men are not immune to body image issues and eating disorders.
I’ll admit that this headcanon partially stemmed from comments I’ve seen about Angeal’s appearance within the fandom. Some people think he’s ugly, which is fine, no one is forced to find anyone attractive. But I imagine the hurtful comments and the constant comparisons to his “more attractive” friends could hurt Angeal if he were to see them in his day to day life. He may be an enhanced super-soldier, but he's still human.
Again, please forgive the word vomit. I just have so many thoughts on this lol
#angeal hewley#ffvii crisis core#ff7 crisis core#ff7cc#asks#tw body dysmorphia#tw body image#tw body issues
66 notes
·
View notes
Text
if I were you.. | CH.1
wanda Maximoff x fem!reader
CH.2
summary: y/n is best friends with vision, who ironically, is the boyfriend of his worst enemy, wanda maximoff. until one night, when the clock struck midnight, they are both struck by something mysterious that completely changes the fate of their best friends, including a certain redhead… be careful what you wish for.
note: this is an adaptation, all credits to my star allyszoka. ☆
sorry for any translation errors, english is not my first language
(...)
"Can I sleep with you tonight?" you murmured at the entrance to the room, slightly startled by the thunder that collapsed into the sky with a noise that echoed throughout the house.
Of course, my love. - Scott responded by giving her a space in the bed for her daughter.
Despite being a teenager, you was still scared to death of lightning and the rumble of thunder terrified her. The girl cracked a beautiful childish smile, showing off her nasal muscles, and snuggled between her parents.
You are considered unpopular by most students as you seemed to be very "self-centered and impatient." You are known to be very competitive and always want to get the role you thought was right. And not forgetting: you're best known for getting cold scratch cards on your face.
Wanda Maximoff is their card-carrying enemy: the popular cheerleading captain, the kind of girl they die of envy and love for. Girlfriend of Vision Stark, the newest member of the popular group, and who ironically is his best friend.
Obviously, much to Maximoff's chagrin, you and Vision became best friends when he came two years ago to attend Harbor High School in another all-boys boarding school town. He didn't have much of a knack for girls. And with dyslexia, the grades weren't as good, but you always tried to help him with these problems.
He also had his nerdy side, he loved Star Wars, Harry Potter and Avatar, At first he got a lot of scratch cards for being a joke, but that changed about a year ago, when he decided to join the football team and when he started dating Maximoff to become more popular. Because he was new there he was afraid of being socially excluded, but gradually he fell in love with Wanda, and vice versa.
But not for these reasons did he abandon his friendship with you; Raised in a lower-middle-class place. was mocked for being poor and not having the conditions like most students, and for the way she dressed badly, in an infantilized way.
Such a trait given by one of her classmates, Natasha, "as a grandmother and at the same time a five-year-old." you was a virgin and wasn't shy about admitting it. and was also a vegetarian.
The day was born you got a yellow star plush from your parents. To them, you was a star. At least, that's what you been telling herself since you won her first dance contest at the age of three.
You loves stars, and her signature is always followed by a golden one, because metaphors are important.
It's a metaphor, and metaphors are important. My golden stars are a metaphor for me being a star.
Though some — the vast majority — don't agree with the things you does.
You was the essential voice in the Choral Club.
- Comes... Let me help you. - Vision said with a friendly smile on his face.
He opened the cupboard next to his and grabbed a blue towel that read, "Best friends forever." A gift you gave him, having an equal, only in lilac color. The boy helped clean himself up
"These brutes will never leave me alone. - She grumbled. - They'll regret it when they're the drivers of my expensive limousines.
Vision laughed in agreement.
- But look on the bright side... At least it's strawberry. Your favorite.
- Tried to force a smile and got a simple one back.
- Idiot. - Punched his arm weakly.
- Already filling my boyfriend again, homeless? You rolled her eyes at hearing that queasy voice.
- Good to see you too, hunchback. - you said in a sarcastic tone and still rolling his eyes in boredom.
"Who do you think you are, imbecile?"
The two shot each other with their eyes and Vision stared from one to the other in fright, not knowing exactly what to do. Wanda was already about to open her mouth when she was interrupted.
- Shall we stop? - Asked the boy.
- I don't know how you handle this... thing. - Kept teasing.
- I don't know how you handle this sour barbie project! -Retorted.
- Oh, please. Go to the garbage can that is your place. Enjoy and take the rest of your family. That which you call father and mother!
- That's enough! - The boy said firmly.
- I'm not going to stand here listening to your shit. See you later, Vision. - After that, you left a little upset.
you couldn't stand Wanda maximoff! The most annoying girl. you didn't understand what Vision had in her head to date something like... that! And then she was popular and beautiful? It was just that! She was shy, cold, calculating. A bitch. That's what you thought
"You shouldn't have talked to her like that. - Reproached the boy realizing how sad his friend had been.
-What? Are you going to be defending your weird friend now? - Replied in the same tone
Vision looked at her completely seriously.
- It's not about defending or which side I'm on. I'm just tired of my best friend and my girlfriend fighting like dog and cat!
Wanda rolled her eyes and the boy sighed giving up on talking about it.
- Let's not talk about that now... Is the invitation to spend the night at your house still standing? - He tried to change the subject.
"But don't you think you're only going because my parents won't be home, that there's going to be something else besides sleeping.
-Calm. That didn't even cross my mind. - Smiled mischievously.
"Mom, are you home yet?" - Shouted looking at the rooms of his house while locking the front door.
Vision lived only with his mother. A woman who liked to occupy her time with work. Especially after the death of her husband five years ago, after that she never left or fell in love with anyone. She worked as a nurse in one of the best hospitals in Miami, where she occupied all her time. And since she had to deal with it alone, she always tried to work as many overtime hours as possible, coming home late and already tired. Although Vision understood his mother's necessary absence, that didn't mean he didn't miss her company. But whenever she had free time she did not hesitate to spend with her only child.
The boy realized his mother wasn't home, but found a note attached to the fridge.
"I'm sorry, son, but I'll be back later today. I'll have to stay on duty. Lunch is in the fridge, just need to heat in the microwave. Mom loves you!"
"I love you too, Mom," he whispered in a thread of voice in that quiet kitchen.
But what made him happy was that he, today, would not spend his night alone...
(...)
The plan was to sleep in a shell but a series of warm kisses began between the two young men. He was already on top of Wanda kissing her, he was panting and tried to take off the girl's blouse but was stopped.
-No... I'm not ready yet. - Murmured composing himself.
Whenever he had a little loophole, he would try to go beyond kissing Wanda. I couldn't help it, they had been together for almost a year and nothing was happening but kneading and kissing. He also never forced anything, Vision respected her.
- Alright, I'm sorry. - Said sympathetically coming out of it.
- How about we just sleep in shells? - The girl asked for candy looking into his eyes. He nodded with a smile.
#wanda maximoff x reader#wanda maximoff x you#wanda x reader#wanda x y/n#wanda imagine#wanda maximoff#wanda x you#wanda maximoff fluff#my fic#wanda maximoff imagine#elizabeth olsen#elizabeth olsen x reader#the scarlet witch#marvel fanfiction
119 notes
·
View notes
Text
Colour Theory, pt. 2: Vanishing Point
todoroki touya & afab she/her and poc friendly reader × shimura tenko.
not safe for work // 13k words // AO3 // part 1.
(this is readable as a standalone if you have no interest in the series. otherwise, i do not recommend skipping part 1.)
warnings: jealousy, established relationship, unrequited/one-sided pining, angst, smoking, swearing, dry humping, public nsfw, drugs, biting, licking, denial of feelings, slow burn, trust issues, friendship, frozen yogurt, drama, musical theater, fine arts au.
summary: when you love your best friend, but your best friend loves you.
Touya was too late.
Vanishing Point -- A point of space, usually located on the horizon line, where the parallel edges seem to converge, creating the illusion of intersection.
×X×
He dumped the pastry box onto an overfilled trashcan.
"Himiko, you can't just take food from the garbage!"
"Aw, c'mon, 'Chako! Look at how tasty this cake looks. The strawberries are such a pretty red!"
"Ahem," a resident advisor clears her throat in an attempt to re-capture the attention of the high school group she was showing around. "This is the south campus bus stop. The southern resident halls are down this path."
The R.A. once again lost their attention, with students murmuring amongst themselves as Touya walked by.
"Hey, isn't that guy from that one movie?" Asked one particularly loud kid.
He pulls his hood up, stuffing his hands into his pockets as he stepped inside a convenience store for a moment before he continued his walk. It was a twenty minute walk to the lakeside park at the edge of campus so he put on his earbuds to listen to music to help clear his head. He ended up skipping every song that came on shuffle. They all reminded him of you.
He huffed in frustration as he took a seat on the bench, lighting his cigarette. It was simple muscle memory from a time when he only ever felt low. And, as if he'd never broken the habit in the first place, his lungs easily accepted the poison and he held his breath for a while to really let the toxins coat his insides. Unfortunately for him, the tobacco taste wasn't enough to hide the feeling of bile threatening to come up ever since he saw you with that creep.
Touya was too late.
In the three years that he'd known you, he'd never seen you look at another person with romantic intent and he figured a guy like Tenko wouldn't be on your radar. Not in a way that mattered to Touya, at least.
He had teased you for possibly having a crush on him, but didn't think you actually liked the guy. He thought that was just how you were when meeting new people sometimes. You did the whole clingy thing with him, after all, and there wasn't any kind of energy coming from you that made him think you were interested in anything with anyone. Sure, you were a hopeless romantic, but Touya also knew how busy the life of a performing arts major was. Neither of you would've had much time for anyone outside of the musical theater bubble, or so he thought until Valentine's Day.
He had overheard you telling Tenko about how you were placed in a children's home when you were young. That on it's own was surprising to him. You never willingly told anyone that, aside from two people. A close friend in high school and Touya. When he heard the practice room go silent, he peeked through the window and saw you holding Tenko's hand. He had to intervene. He knew what was likely to come next.
Touya had spent the last few weeks trying to get you to look at him, and you did, but the shift in your tone whenever Tenko came up in conversation made him feel like he was losing a game he'd never agreed to be a part of. Touya wasn't a quitter but Touya also knew this wasn't the kind of thing you could win with the brute force he was accustomed to approaching obstacles with. You weren't an obstacle, you were you and he didn't want to hurt you, but when it came to handling his feelings he was still… weak.
He had been deep in thought, glaring at the water when his phone rang in his pocket. He pulled it out and saw it was a video call from the last person he wanted to talk to right now.
He clicked the red button, only to be repeatedly texted.
[10:44am] Fuyumi: Tou, she just told me.
[10:48am ] Fuyumi: Are you alright? I'm sorry.
Touya groaned. His sister was blaming herself.
[10:58am] Touya: im not turning on my cam
Fuyumi calls him again and he takes one more inhale of his cigarette before snubbing it against the metal armrest of the bench and pocketing the butt. He couldn't on good conscience smoke with her worrying about him on the other side. She had been so proud of him for finally quitting.
He answers the call and sees his sister in her work clothes. "Aren't you supposed to be teaching brats how to read?"
"I have twelve minutes left in my lunch break." She lifts her salad bowl to show him her meal before setting it down. "Tou, I'm sorry. I thought you were the person she liked."
He snorts, "She didn't even give you a name?"
Fuyumi shook her head as her fork pushed a tomato around her bowl. "No. I thought that she was being shy since I'm your sister."
"S'fine, Yumi." It was.
"Did you get to give her the mini cake?"
"Nah. Gave it to the less fortunate."
"I'm glad someone can enjoy your hard work. Are you skipping class?"
"Nope. Free time." He leaned back on the bench, stretching out his legs.
"Don't you have seminar right now?"
Touya lifted a brow, "How the hell would you know that? She tell you my class schedule, too?"
She shook her head, "No. She mentioned she had to go to seminar and since you're both in the same classes…" She gave him a stern look, "You shouldn't skip class, Tou."
"Eh, no big deal. It's seminar. Not even my turn to sing this week." It was yours.
"When you videocalled me to help you bake that cake two weeks ago, I was so happy for you. It was really sweet getting cake updates. You really improved with each one. I'm sorry things didn't go the way you planned." She looked at him with concern and he sighed.
"Don't apologize, it's weird now."
"No it's not? I thought you've been getting used to talking about feelings?"
"That's different. You're my sister."
"What does that mean?"
"It means I'm not talking about this anymore."
Now it was her turn to sigh. "Come visit some time. It's been a while."
"Three months. You saw me over Christmas."
"Mom misses you."
Touya took a moment to swallow. "I'll think about it. I'm a busy guy. You should eat your sad little salad, lunch is over in 2 minutes."
Fuyumi flails and they exchange goodbyes. The call ends, leaving Touya in the quiet. He shut his eyes, listening to wind rustle tree leaves and ducks quack in the distance. A drop of water on his cheek interrupts his moment. He opens his eyes and sees grey clouds rolling above him. He stands and stretches, before jogging hurriedly to the south campus parking garage.
He didn't want to show up at the house soaked and make his mother worry.
×X×
"Touya's been weird lately."
You pulled out a blanket from your laundry basket and began to fold it as Tenko sat at your desk chair, sketching. "He's been missing classes, too."
"Won't he get dropped..?" Tenko asks while admiring your movements, pencil dancing along the paper. Even the mundane could be captivating, so as long as you were the subject.
"He might. He hasn't missed this many classes during the time that I've known him. I'm starting to get worried…"
"…wasn't he known for partying?" It was a simple question.
You finished folding the blankets and moved the throws to the edge of your bed to be used later. You crawled in bed, leaning against the wall as you hugged a light blue blanket. Touya bought you this one since you were always getting cold. It was soft and smelled fresh as you clutched it closer to you.
"He was. He quit after enrolling, though. For the most part."
Todoroki Touya's past wasn't a secret. After he graduated high school, he took a break and spent some time partying on college campuses. For a while, he was routinely dubbed by the tabloids as another talented child star turned drug addicted burn out due to the number of sightings of him getting trashed.
You remembered the sloppy smirk he gave you when he called it his 'tour,' which made you roll your eyes. You knew he had no intention of getting to know the schools beyond getting smashed and smashing his 'guides.'
If someone were to search his name, they would find articles and forums filled with gossip. The public's view of him wasn't the best, even if the family Public Relations team did their best to tidy things up. Aside from dating rumors, there had been less dirt since the tabloids lost interest in him during his mostly quiet three years at university.
The underage drinking and smoking rumors that lingered in the downvoted bottom end of the comment sections never had any proof and any photos were usually edited or lookalikes. Though, fan accounts were usually… negative. Touya was the type of person who wasn't afraid of letting people know that he'd rather be left alone. In his own colourful ways, of course.
"This is our third year and he hasn't missed any class until now. He's got a messy public image but he's actually quite serious about university…" You chew on your bottom lip, hugging the blanket while sitting in bed. The warm lighting from the fairy lights hanging around your dorm gave the room a cozy feeling, however, it wasn't enough ease your stress at the moment. "I think he's avoiding me."
Your quiet voice had brought the pencil in Tenko's hand to a standstill. His eyes peered at you through his dark, wavy hair and met yours. You smiled sheepishly, "Sorry. I don't mean to be a downer. You came to hang out and all I've done is laundry and talk about another guy..."
"Why would that bother me..?"
"I think most people would feel a little threatened by someone like him."
Tenko eyed you for a moment, before setting down his pencil. "I already knew he was your best friend prior to our relationship. I don't feel threatened by Touya."
"Really?"
He nodded, "If he's important to you then he's important to me."
You felt your face heat up and you ignore the urge to shove your face into the blanket. You had been dating for a little over a month now and were used to the idea of Tenko being your boyfriend, but there were still moments every now and then that made you feel flustered. He was quiet, sweet, and always found a way to make time for you. It meant a lot considering your busy schedule. He was happy doing whatever you wanted to do, which made it a bit difficult to plan to do things he might want to do, but you were working on it. Tenko was a shy guy.
You did most of the talking and he seemed happy to listen. You didn't know much about his life before university, aside from the two of you bonding over being rejected by peers growing up, due to the societal prejudice towards children raised in orphanages. You didn't mind not know everything about him because what mattered the most to you was how well the two of you got along now. Maybe you didn't know where he was from or what his favourite colour was, but you knew he was a hard worker that also went out of his way to try and make you happy.
"Does it bother you that my best friend is a guy?"
Tenko seemed to ponder your question for a moment before continuing his drawing. "No."
It's not that you thought Tenko was a liar, but you really had a hard time believing that. You knew that it was only platonic between you and Touya, yet it didn't stop other people from thinking there was something more going on. You didn't care that much anymore about what people thought. Tenko's thoughts on the matter did matter to you, though.
"However," Tenko continued, "It seems to bother him."
You felt a lump begin to form in your throat.
"Yeah..." You could only softly agree.
It wasn't like Touya was missing every class. He was missing the ones he shared with you. For the past three years, you had been his usual partner whenever the professors let you choose who to work with. Ever since you started dating Tenko he went back to his previous partner and stopped showing up to your usual practice times. He hadn't even shown up at the gym while you were there.
It felt like you were losing your best friend.
You hear an intake of breath and look over at Tenko, realizing he looked blurry because you were crying. You wipe your eyes against the blanket, then remember the annoyed look Touya gave you when he first threw this blanket at you and walked away. To anyone else, it would seem like it was a chore for him to be kind to you, but you also remember the look of content on his face when it reflected off a wall mirror he walked past.
You broke down crying.
It was so sad that your best friend didn't want to be with you anymore.
You wipe your eyes against the blanket one more time and sniffle before looking over at Tenko who was just staring at you like he didn't know how to react at a time like this. He probably didn't.
You sniffle. "Can you sit next to me?"
He did not waste a second and went to where you sat on your bed. He hesitantly sat beside you, leaving two feet of space in between as he leaned his back against the cool wall of your dorm.
You snort, "Do I smell?"
"Huh..?"
"You're so far away." You wiped your eyes with the back of your hand. "You can come closer, you know. If you're comfortable with that."
Tenko swallowed and nodded his head a bit eagerly, which made you smile as he moved to sit beside you. He stiffened when your shoulders brushed against each other. The two of you had kissed many times since Valentine's Day but Tenko always seemed like he was trying to be careful with you. It was like he was holding himself back.
"Tenko," you say, your sweet voice made him shiver. "You're so nervous. Don't worry, I won't make you do anything. I just wanted to be closer with you."
Tenko fidgeted with his sleeve and looked at you from the corner of his eye. "What if… I want you to make me do something. What if I wanted to be even closer..?"
You did not expect that.
"Are you sure?"
Tenko looks at you and nods. You weren't really sure how he meant it. You wanted to ask but you couldn't. Your eyes were stuck staring into his.
The only sounds in the room were the air conditioning unit and the blood pumping in your ears. You licked your lips in anticipation. For what, you didn't know, not until Tenko's eyes dropped down to your lips and he licked his own. There was the sound of something in the distance of an origin you weren't so sure of. Was that your heart or his?
Your lips crash against each other, hands reaching for as much as your hands could hold, pulling your bodies as tightly together as possible.
You gasp as the actions finally register, your chest pressing against his while he kissed you deeply. He had gotten better with practice and you enjoyed that he wasn't a shy kisser. His demeanor was typically timid, save for when he kissed you. His lips always felt hungry for yours and right now he was a man starved.
You let yourself fall back onto the bed, pulling him on top of you. You adjusted your legs so that they were wrapped around his waist. He leaned on one arm while the other rubbed up and down your side, as if trying to commit the shape and feeling of you to memory. His wavy hair tickled your face and you let out a giggle. He froze and looked at you, wide-eyed as if he was just now aware of everything going on.
"I always thought your eyes were brown, but are they actually… red?" You ask while looking up at his blushing face. His pupils were blown wide, but the hanging lights reflected off of his iris's and made his eyes shine a deep shade of scarlet.
"Am I going too far..?" He asks in a small voice with anxious eyes.
You shake your head. "I don't mind going further. How about you?"
He dives back in to catch your lips with his own.
During your heated make out session, you pulled your shirt up, allowing Tenko to see you in your bra and you swore you could hear him growl before he squeezed the soft skin over the fabric. Your hips grind up against his and he ground back against your clothed core, surprising you with his eagerness.
The two of you rock against one another while kissing. Bed creaking loudly from Tenko's excitement, which you could feel and it was much larger than you expected.
You gasp his name as he rutted against you, which spurred him on. He tried to keep kissing you but his jaw went slack as he moved his hips furiously.
You heard the sound of the door of the dorm next door opening and closing, Touya's voice booming as he argued with someone over the phone.
Tenko didn't seem to notice. He was much too occupied with moving your bra out of the way and staring at your bare chest as he rocked your body. His movements felt incredible, yet you couldn't pull your focus away from Touya's voice in the room next door. He had been ignoring you and you missed him but you also knew that getting dry humped by your boyfriend quite literally was not the time to be thinking about your best friend.
Touya was shouting at the feminine voice he had on speaker. You could hear most of what he was saying through the walls and you hoped he didn't hear the rhythmic metallic squeaking of the old bed because you were sure it would make him want to talk to you even less.
"I already told you, I don't care! Fuck them, if they wanna run those articles then let 'em. Leave me out of your P.R. bullshit."
Things must really not be going well for Touya and you wished that he would talk to you. Even if it didn't sound like the kind of thing you could fix, you knew he would need a friend at a time like this. Tenko, who was lost in the moment, bit your nipple, hard. A whine escaped you and Tenko's body shuddered in response, groaning loudly as he came in his pants.
Touya immediately stopped mid-sentence and paused for a moment. The person on the other end of the line is confused by his sudden silence and Touya hangs up on them.
Tenko sunk his teeth into your neck.
"Tenko..!" You yelped.
You could hear the sound of the door slam, followed by boots stomping down the hallway, getting farther and farther away.
"You're mine," his voice was deeper and hoarser than you'd ever heard it before. Tenko seemed to have different sides of him that came out at different times. He licked the side of your neck slowly then hugged you tightly against him. You kissed the top of his head and heard him whimper before he looked at you with pleading eyes. He squeezed you closer and peppered your neck and chest with kisses, leaving your skin coloured with deep purple hickies.
×X×
"Touya, slow down!"
You were trying to talk to him, but the head up his ass was making it a bit difficult. At first, you thought he was avoiding you because he wanted to give you space now that you were in a relationship, but it was July now. He had given you the cold shoulder for four months.
He stopped skipping classes and continued to cooperate with the theater department to participate in a musical. You were very thankful that he was able to set aside his personal grievances and kept things professional, especially since two of you were the main leads again.
Now, if only you could get him to treat you like a friend and not just an acting dummy meant to be fed lines to. He seriously hadn't spoken with you about anything that wasn't school-related.
"I don't wanna hear you whining about the damn cigarettes," he stuck a lit stick back between his lips after taking a deep breath.
It was the time of night you knew he'd be itching for a smoke, so you waited for him to leave his dorm to corner him at the smoking area outside. It was pathetic and you didn't care. You wanted to talk with your best friend.
"I wasn’t going to, but while we're on the subject-- You quit. What happened? Is it because of what they're saying about you online?"
There had been online articles circulating about Touya and it was… not great. They were even starting to bring his family into it. Touya was someone who didn't seem to care about a lot of things but he was still a human being.
"Yeah?" He laughed. "Really breaks my heart to hear that the celebrity gossip sites think I'm a junkie. Boo hoo. This why you're out here? To have a midnight heart to heart beside a dumpster?"
"I feel like we're drifting apart and it scares me."
Touya smirked at you as he inhaled before he blew the fumes up at the starry night, the breeze carrying the smoke away from you. "How touching," he mocked. "Luckily for you, you got a nice little boyfriend to go crying to now."
"So, it really is about Tenko, then?" You took a step forward. "Are you scared it'll mess up our friendship if I spend time with someone else? Do you feel replaced--"
"You know," he interrupted. "You're the only person who knows shit about me. How do I know you're not the one selling me out?"
Your eyes widen at the accusation. "I wouldn't sell you out, Touya."
"No?" He lifted a brow, seemingly unconvinced.
"No. I wouldn't. Giving up your privacy for the sake of money, that's…" You shook your head. "I wouldn't do that to you."
"I think it'd be more pathetic if you did it for free. At least do yourself a favor and take the money."
"I'm-- I…" You were stunned. He knew your financial situation and still said something like that. You swallow down the lump in your throat. "I know you're just saying that to get me to leave. I'm not falling for it. You're a private person, so no one else really knows as much as I do, which makes me a reasonable suspect. I-- You know deep down that I wouldn't do that to you."
"Do I?" His icy eyes were lit up by the moon as he stared at you, cold and empty.
He really didn't believe you?
You would never talk about his private life to anyone.
You wouldn't and you knew that he knew you wouldn't.
Still.
It hurt.
"Don't corner me while I'm smoking just to talk about nothing." He dropped the butt of his cigarette in the hole of the cigarette receptacle.
"It's not nothing," you say as he passes by you to walk down the walkway, away from the dorms. You followed, legs struggling to keep up with him. His legs were longer, which made it hard for you unless he was consciously slowing down. Right now it seemed like he was trying to get away.
"Sure."
"Touya, I--"
"Whatever. I'm gonna crash somewhere else for the night. Feel free to fuck like rabbits."
Your face heats up, from embarrassment and frustration. "W-Where are you going at this time of night?" Probably nowhere good.
"Why? So you can tell your buddies at TMZ? Here, let me help you out." He turned to face you from the other side of the street. He looked amused as he cupped his hands around the sides of his mouth and shouted, "Hey, you southern dormitory fucks! Todoroki Touya's on his way to a party to do illegal drugs! Lots of 'em!"
"Touya..!" You spoke in a hushed tone as you look both ways before crossing the street. "Don't yell stuff like that. You don't know who's listening."
"No, I do." The toothy grin on his face wracked your nerves as you approached him. You frown as you watched him spin gracefully with a hand in the air, before bowing ninety degrees. "Any performer worth their salt knows their audience and tonight… it's you."
He stays in his bow as he offers his hand for you to take while looking up at you. You look at his hand then at his eyes that finally looked at you with more than indifference.
It wasn't unusual for you and Touya to touch -- you were actors. On stage, you've held hands, held each other. Kissed. Off stage, you've used him as a pillow and he's leaned in so close that it felt like he was on top of you. Since becoming friends with him, he'd never once made you feel uncomfortable with his proximity.
However, there was something about the way he said something earlier, and the way it mixed with the way he was acting right now that made you hesitate.
Why did it feel like it would be wrong to take his hand?
"Touya, I--" Your voice broke into a hoarse whisper, "I can't."
You didn't know what that meant, simply that you could not.
Touya takes a moment to stare back up at you, the chill in his eyes immediately returning before standing upright and walking away from you. He wordlessly entered the parking garage as you stood there watching his back disappear from sight.
The sinking feeling in your stomach didn't disappear during your walk back to your dorm.
Tenko was where you left him, slouched at your desk as he studied for his Calculus II exam. Any hope of finishing his study packet was abandoned when he saw your face. You had tried washing your face with water to hide any trace of crying from him, but Tenko knew.
He hurried to your side and you wept against his chest as he held you and pat the top of your head.
"What happened… were you not able to talk to him..?"
You shook your head, "I think-- I think you were right." Tenko didn't out right say it but you could see it on his face over the last few months that he had his own thoughts on the matter. He was so respectful. "I think Touya might've-- had feelings for me."
Tenko rubbed your back in place of speaking. He was a very physically affectionate person. His hands were always on you and in this moment, you really appreciated it.
"I don't want to lose my friend."
Tenko gently dragged you to the bed to hold you in his embrace. He let you cry it out for ten minutes until you had no more tears left in you.
"I'm gonna go shower now, Ten." You half-cover your face in humiliation. You knew you probably looked bad after all that crying. It was so embarrassing that he saw you cry twice now. You knew it wasn't pretty.
"Hey…" He gripped your wrist and pulled it out of the way to see your face, "Don't hide from me…"
"I look gross," you laughed softly.
"You don't."
You felt your face heat up at the hungry look he was giving you. His eyes lowered to your lips and you knew what he was thinking.
"I'll be right back," you peck his cheek. "I need to wash off. It'll be a good chance to clear my head." You stood and collected your things for your shower. As you turn the door knob, you hear him make a noise behind you. You turn your head, "Sorry. What'd you say?"
"I…" Tenko's face heated and he itched the side of his neck, "…said have a nice shower."
You smile and nod as you opened the door.
You knew that wasn't what he said.
×X×
Touya got arrested.
He was released, not before being questioned and taking a urine test. He kept eye contact with the officer in the room and made casual conversation while taking it. The filthy pigs were biased but it didn't mean Touya was gonna lose his dignity over a little piss test. The only crime he was guilty of was drinking two shitty beers and eating some rando's snacks.
The party had been at some rich no-name's house in the neighboring city. A few days earlier, his old dealer had invited him and Touya knew that it wasn't because he wanted to see him again. If Touya was there it would guarantee him some more customers that night. Touya himself had no interest in it.
He also couldn't stay on campus after that conversation -- especially in the dorm next to yours. For fuck's sake, your beds were pushed up against the same wall. He did not want to be a witness to whatever freaky shit Tenko had cooking up in that mop of a head. There was something about that guy that Touya didn't like.
And, no, he was not being biased.
He could hear you in his head and it only served to piss him off even more.
That night was the first and last time he heard you with Tenko, making those… sounds.
He didn't want to risk hearing that again.
It took hours upon hours of music to distract him from the noise you made. It still lingered in the back of his head (regretfully keeping him company on lonelier nights), albeit it wasn't as loud as it was four months ago.
What did help was the house's sound system. He almost didn't mind that it was worsening his headache as it reverberated throughout the house and made the pantry shelving shake. There was a pile of fallen snacks surrounding him where he sat against the wall as his bones rattled to the beat of someone's bass boosted hyperpop playlist.
He could almost hear the sound of the potheads trying to break into the pantry from over the music. He leaned back and ate unbothered until the music got cut off and cops shouted at people to get on the ground. He finished his bag of dried fruit. They came sooner than he thought they would.
He had been wondering if there was some kind of undercover sting operation going on. Something about the party felt off.
Drugs weren't particularly hard to come by on a college campus, but he did find it kind of ridiculous how much more seemed to be in circulation recently. Amphetamines, coke, and weed were the more common ones amongst the college crowd in the area but this semester he had been offered on three different occasions if he wanted ketamine. Touya was already having a bad time and he wasn't about to make things worse for himself. He was pretty good at doing that on his own.
He was currently sat in the passenger's seat. He stared out the window with his arms crossed as he was driven back to campus. "You're not gonna ask?"
"Would you answer if I did?"
"Hell no."
The ride was silent as Todoroki Enji drove down the highway. No sooner than three minutes later, Touya went on a tangent.
"--and I'm sick of your P.R. team expecting me to care. Tch, it's not like I even have a career anymore. How is it my problem if you lose a role? Get better at your job so that the casting team has something to actually talk about that isn't your drug addicted son."
His father was silent as Touya stewed in his seat. They'll say anything, whether it was the truth or a lie. "I'm not worried about those vultures. Fuck them."
"…I hear that school's been going well for you…" His father awkwardly started. He sighed. "No matter what the headlines have been saying recently, I never doubted you, Touya. You're too smart to do what they're saying."
Touya wants to laugh because he was indeed partying hard during his gap year but his old man didn't need to know that.
"Fuck them," Enji says, which surprised Touya. His father didn't often swear anymore unless it was for work. "You were right when you said it. Though your shouting did scare the P.R. team's new intern."
Touya turns his head back to the window to stare at the streets of the city, unable to resist a smirk. Enji was never a fan of the paparazzi but he still put up with them even if the reception wasn't very good. He had never enjoyed Touya's more abrasive approach to warding them off either, an approach which consisted of constantly flipping off cameras and mocking them back whenever they tried to get a reaction out of him. Still, the validation from his father made him feel good. Not that he'd ever admit that to him.
"After you finish your musical, you should invite her to come have dinner with us again. It's been a while since you brought her over. She was hardly here over Christmas since you took her to that ski resort in Hokkaido."
"Don't hold your breath."
Enji looks over at him like he wants to say something but doesn't know how to word it, then looked back at the road.
Touya sulked. "There's another guy."
He didn't wanna talk about this but he also felt the urge to. Enji was the last person he expected to bring it up with. Natsu would at least give him a "damn, that sucks, man." What the fuck was his old man supposed to say to that? He was pretty sure Enji had only ever been with one person.
"I see..."
Touya rolled his eyes, letting out a sigh that blew up his bangs and fogged up the glass window.
"Touya, I don't have much dating experience..."
He sighed again, this time for more fog and pressed his finger to the cool glass.
"Don't let that stop you. I've seen how you are with her. She's good for you."
"That what they teach you in therapy? Bond with your delinquent son by encouraging him to be a homewrecker?" He added a little stick body to his absentminded doodle. "She's not the type to fall for that and if she were, I wouldn't care nearly as much. She's a loyal little idiot." He glared at the stick figure that glowed colourfully from the neon city lights outside. The clueless little face reminded him a bit too much of you.
"I want you to do what's best for you."
"Fuck you, old man. I'm not a homewrecker," Touya grumbled as he clicked the button that lowered the window. He watched as the doodle disappeared into the slit of the car door. He propped his arm against the window as his father drove through the campus entrance. The night breeze felt like a relief as the cool chill of reality brushed against his skin.
×X×
[02:48am] Touya: hey
[02:48am] Touya: you up
[02:49am] You: yeah!
[02:49am] You: is everything okay??
[02:49am] Touya: you alone
[02:49am] You: no. tenko's sleeping.
[02:50am] You: did you want to talk?
[02:55am] Touya: no
[02:56am] You: ...you didn't want to talk?
[02:56am] Touya: nope
[02:56am] You: i want to talk
[02:56am] Touya: gn
[02:57am] You: HEY
[02:57am] You: if you won't talk to me to my face then i'll just have to do it with a wall in between us
[02:58am] You: ...
[02:58am] You: actually nvm this is a face to face kind of talk
[02:58am] Touya: im blocking you
[02:59am] You: can we meet in the lounge?
[02:59am] You: the one without the kitchen
[02:59am] You: where you tripped me during line practice last year
[02:59am] Touya: you tripped yourself
[02:59am] You: don't gaslight me
[03:00am] Touya: [Sends a photo of his left hand. It was tinted blue from his LED lights as he flipped you off.]
[03:00am] You: thank you for the hand content i will be sharing this with the touya fan accounts on twitter :)
[03:01am] You: jk jk don't kill me
[03:01am] You: i heard your door open i said JK!!!
[03:02am] Touya: im in the lounge
[03:02am] Touya: get your ass out here its 3am
[03:02am] You: the witching hour
[03:03am] You: you scared?
[03:03am] You: i'll save you >:)
[03:03am] Touya: you never shut up
[03:04am] You: gimme a sec i don't wanna wake him up he's got a 7am
[03:04am] Touya: hurry upp
[03:07am] Touya: how longs it take to put on shoes
[03:11am] Touya: hey
[03:14am] Touya: hey
[03:14am] Touya: did you fucking fall asleep
[03:18am] Touya: cmonnn
[03:28am] Touya: im going back to my room
×X×
"Don't bother."
"I'm sorry."
He continued walking past you as he left rehearsal to have a cigarette for lunch. You followed him outside the performing arts building, struggling with the long bangs of your wig that poked at your eyeballs. You woke up late and didn't have a chance to eat breakfast, yet the feeling of guilt pooling in the bottom of your gut kept you from feeling hungry.
"I fell asleep. I really was going to see you, okay?"
A sound of amusement left his lips as he placed the unlit cig between them. He patted his pockets and grunted in annoyance as he looked for something. His lighter, you assumed.
"Thought I told you not to corner me while I'm smoking."
Technically, "You're not smoking."
"Listen," he leaned against a brick wall and removed the cigarette from his mouth and glared at you. "Why don't you make this easier for us and go back inside, yeah?"
"No--"
"I get it, it was three am. Y'got tired, fell asleep. No harm, no foul." He looked down at the cigarette as he rolled it between his index and thumb, "While you were having sweet, sweet dreams, I thought about it some more and decided it's better off this way."
"What? You--" Your mouth went dry, "Y-You thought about what, exactly?"
"We're busy people. You've already got your free time filled up and I don't do second best."
You could hear your heartbeat in your ears, feel your hands as they trembled at your sides.
"You're… this is taking it too far…" Your voice went quiet.
He tilts his head, his face was blank. "Am I?" Empty.
The side door opens and a cast member told you that your boyfriend was looking for you.
"I'll meet him in the lobby in a bit…"
"Hey, Raita, you got a light?" Touya lifted his cigarette. "Left mine in the dressing room in my other pants."
"No worries, I got you, man." They pulled out a lighter and held it up to his cigarette until the end burned bright orange. They left and you watched Touya as he smoked.
For a few minutes, the two of you stood there in the quiet. You struggled with which words to say. Your mind was spinning.
"I didn't fall asleep on purpose," Your voice sounded tired from the racing of your thoughts.
"Yeah, I bet you were really struggling to get out of bed, huh?" He said bitterly.
"This is excessive. I know you're upset, but please…" She didn't want this to be the reason they couldn't finally reconcile.
The side door opens again and a familiar black mop of hair pokes out and smiles at you.
Tenko had been bringing you lunch during rehearsals for the last couple of weeks. They weren't handmade but that didn't make it any less thoughtful. You hadn't been able to see him much since the two of you had been so busy with your own projects and studying for finals. Tenko did his best to make you feel taken care of and it was so incredibly sweet. The timing could not be worse.
"I'm interrupting… I'll wait for you at the table."
"Actually," Touya leaned against the brick wall, "We're done here."
"Really..?" Tenko looks at him, then at you. You were panicking.
"She's all yours." Touya blew his smoke to the side away from the two of you.
You chew on your bottom lip and leave with Tenko who seemed hesitant, but didn't force you to stay.
Lunch with Tenko was good.
It was from a shop near campus that you liked. He had brought you your favourite meal and drink. You could tell he wanted to cheer you up and was unsure of how to do that. His chin rest against your shoulder as his fingers twitched anxiously. You took his hand into one of your own to soothe him.
"It's fine," you hide a sniffle with a bite of your food.
It wasn't but it had to be.
×X×
"Are you thinking about Touya..?"
You're pulled from your thoughts at the sound of Tenko's voice coming from behind you as he walked to your side. You swallow and look over at him with a weak smile.
"Yeah…"
He made a quiet noise of acknowledgement as he looked at the painting you had been staring at. It was a warm-toned piece with flecks of vivid cerulean and violet that blended into pink and crimson. The little white label beneath the painting read:
"Forever, 2223
Oil on canvas
A celebration of friendship."
You knew that it was stupid. You knew you should be angry at how easily Touya threw you away at the first sign of trouble. Yet you could only feel compassion for the friend that had been pretending you no longer existed.
It seemed like it was easy for him to push you away, to act like he wanted nothing to do with you. Then you remember that this was also the same person who had made sure you weren't lonely during holidays and invited you into his life.
Touya had shared with you his hurt and his joy, the same way you had shared with him your own. Three years ago, Touya was a person who could only trust himself to catch himself whenever he fell. With you, he had learned to take leaps of faith every time he entrusted you with pieces of himself.
It seemed like he was giving up on you, when in reality he was giving up on his first healthy friendship in a long, long time. The very thought put you in distress.
Tenko hugged you from behind, placing his chin on your shoulder. His body held you close and tore you from your downwards spiral. You didn't think your face had given away much of the storm that brewed inside of you for months. You had tried to put on a brave face around Tenko. Perhaps he knew you better than you thought.
Tenko's hands fiddle with the hem of your top as he buried his face into your neck, making you feel shy.
"We're in a gallery full of your classmates and professors…"
"They're all too busy schmoozing with each other to notice us in this corner..." He placed a kiss into the crook of your neck which made your skin prickle up with cute little goosebumps. "Soft…" His tongue licked a stripe teasingly against your neck and you shivered in his arms.
The gallery room was large and dimly lit, with the only light sources being the lamps angled to light up the artwork. There were a little less than eighty people in the room talking amongst themselves, when Tenko's hand slipped beneath the fabric of your bottoms.
His finger lightly rubbed the front of your panties. You should've told him to stop but in just three months Tenko had quickly learned the in's and out's of your body. He knew exactly what to do to make you desperate for more.
You squirm in his arms as you felt him maneuver his fingers. He pushed your panties to the side as he let his finger slowly swipe up your slick pussy. He chuckled darkly at the sound of you quietly gasping his name. The tip of his finger softly played with your clit and you gnawed on your bottom lip to keep yourself from making a scene.
You could feel Tenko's determination to hear you break from his movements as he moved his fingers in the way that guaranteed a quick finish for you. You wriggled a bit in his tight hold which kept you in place. You were so close, you could feel yourself on the verge of cumming in a room full of academics at any moment now.
"Oh, there you are, Shimura! We were looking for you!!"
You stiffened at the voices walking up from behind the two of you. Tenko growled and you almost didn't think he was going to pull his hand away until he begrudgingly did so and turned.
"Ah, Professor Yamada," Tenko gave a 30 degree bow in greeting to one of your professors. Yamada was a nosey man that had become acquainted with Tenko after noticing your relationship with each other.
"Aizawa and I came to see your display. It was one of our favourites!"
"I don't have favourites and I had to come. I'm a Studio Art professor." Aizawa corrected.
"It's incredible!" The chipper professor continued, "I see your muse is here with you tonight. Music and Art go hand in hand, you know!" He grabbed ahold of Aizawa's arm.
"That's my arm and no P.D.A. These are our students." Aizawa snatched his arm back, causing Yamada to pout audibly. The art professor looked at you with eyes that made you feel like he knew what had been going on before they had interrupted. Your face burned with embarrassment and your pussy throbbed as it missed Tenko's touch.
Tenko took his hand in yours as he discussed the exhibit and his art with the professors. It was the same hand he had in your pants a minute earlier and you could feel his finger rub the patterns you liked against the palm of your hand.
You still didn't know his favourite colour, but now you knew he liked to toy with you.
After the professors left, Tenko continued holding your hand as he walked out of the building and the two of you took the campus bus to the train station at the northern side of campus. While you waited for the next train, you opened your bag and pulled out your travel hand sanitizer and squirted fat goops into his hand and yours. Tenko deflated.
"Tenko," you laugh. "We can't just walk around in public with cummy hands. That's dirty."
With a pursed lips he wordlessly rubbed the antibacterial against his skin and let them air dry. A minute later, the train rolled up and they stepped on. It was the afternoon and the train was crowded from workers heading home. Tenko and you stayed standing near the doors since you were only riding for a couple stops. He placed his chin back on your shoulder and wrapped his arms around your waist again. You didn't want to get caught and fined for public indecency, so this time, you kept his hands busy by playing with his nimble fingers.
The train reaches the stop and the two of you walk a few blocks to reach a whale themed frozen yogurt bar. You each greeted the worker and grabbed your bowls while talking. After choosing your yogurt flavours and toppings, the two of you head for the register. You pull out your wallet and ignored Tenko's eyes on you as you did so.
"I'm paying."
You pout. You didn't have a job but it wouldn't hurt to use your food money on, well, food. You've had this conversation with him many times and he never budged. He seemed casual when saying the money was from his inheritance. That only served to stress you out more. He should've been saving it or using it for school, not on your dates.
"Tenko…" You whined as he paid. He grabbed your bowl and walked to a corner booth. "I wanna pay you back."
"You pay me back in different ways."
"Sex doesn't count." You pout as you sit beside him.
"I didn't mean that…" His cheeks held a sweet blush as he took a bite of his froyo.
"No?"
He shook his head.
"Then how?"
Tenko didn't answer. He was shy and didn't speak much about his own feelings and you didn't want to force it out of him. You were glad to hear a confirmation that your more intimate moments with him were not seen as transactional, not that you ever thought he saw it that way. You picked up your spoon and took a bite, enjoying the taste as you thought.
You watch him lick a sprinkle that had stuck to the edge of his lip and as he took another bite, your eyes stayed on his lips.
"Ten, I've always wondered…" You nibble on one of the toppings before continuing, "How'd you get that scar on your lip?"
Tenko's gummy worm fell from his spoon onto his lap and you used your napkin to help clean him up.
"I don't remember."
"Oh. Okay." You nod and set the napkin to the side and dig around your bowl in search of a topping you liked. You must have eaten them all.
You see Tenko moving in his seat in your peripheral and look up to see him holding a spoonful of his froyo with the topping sitting pretty on top.
"Say 'ah.'" Tenko ordered in a quiet voice.
You grin as you open your mouth for him, "Ahhh."
He moved the sweet treat into your mouth, your lips wrapping around the plastic of his spoon.
"Thank you," you snuggled into his side, hugging his arm.
"The award I won… it was thanks to you." Tenko said quietly as he pushed around a chocolate chip in his bowl. "I wouldn't have been able to do it without you, my muse."
You knew you were the subject of many of his works this semester, yet hearing him call you his muse filled your face with heat and you nuzzled your face into his upper arm in an attempt to calm yourself down. Tenko could be the sweetest boyfriend.
After froyo, the two of you walk around a public garden at sunset. The sky was brilliant orange with pink hues, tinting the world in warmth.
"I really did love the exhibit. I got to see your finished work and watch people compliment you and discuss art with you. You were in your element. You also look really good in a blazer and bun."
Tenko wore an unbuttoned black blazer that showed his signature black hoodie underneath. His wavy black hair was usually loose, covering much of his face, but for the event you helped him tie it back in a loose bun. With his hair (mostly) out of the way, you could see more of his pretty facial features. You were pleased to see that his skin looked much healthier than it had when the two of you had started dating. You had helped him find a simple skin routine that worked well for him. Hydrated or not, Tenko would always be cute to you.
You smile warmly as he took your hand in his. "I don't quite have the words to articulate it well, but the colours were my favourite part. I took an art class in high school and I couldn't ever really grasp colour theory." You knew the terminology but in practice you weren't very successful with it. "I know that there's something called colour harmony and complimentary colours but beyond things like hue and saturation… I'm lost. I don't understand the difference between RGB and CMY. Is there even a difference?" You looked puzzled.
"There's a lot that goes into colour theory. To answer your question, there are two main approaches: additive and subtractive. In additive colour theory, which is commonly associated with RGB, colours are made by emitting light through a light-based display. An example would be the pixels on a monitor You can mix light colours to form new colours."
"Subtractive colour theory, also known as CMYK, creates colours by absorbing and reflecting light. CMYK are colours that're used in the physical world, like photography and prints. In printing, for example, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and black inks are combined to create a range of colours by subtracting certain wavelengths of light. By reflecting, it absorbs the colours that are not the one you see and subtracts the colour…"
He walked passed a fountain as he spoke and reached a shady area with a bench. "If we imagine both using Red, Green, and Blue then in additive theory, they would mix to become white and in subtractive theory, they would mix to become black. Mastering both makes it easier to manipulate colours more effectively."
You stared at him in awe and he nervously itched his neck as if he were self-conscious for casually info dumping on you.
"That… made a lot of sense actually. You're so smart, you know that?" You giggled as you swung your hands together.
Tenko took a seat on the bench and you moved to sit beside him, but he pulled you to sit on his lap. You squeaked in surprise as you fell back onto him. His arms were strong as they wrapped around you and he kissed your neck.
"Someone's feeling clingy today." You giggled as he breathed in your skin.
"Mmph. You did this to me..."
"I'm not complaining."
Tenko quietly kissed your neck for a moment before he slipped a hand back into your bottoms. You were surprised and looked around for any onlookers. It was only the two of you.
Tenko once again rubbed the front of your panties while kissing the side of your pretty neck. Your hips reflexively jerked against him and you whined in frustration.
"Don't tease me, Tenko…"
"You said it'd be dirty to be in public with cummy hands."
"I-- I don't care about that right now."
"How filthy..."
He licked at your neck, grinning wide as he slipped his hand into your panties. He massaged your clit, making you wriggle and pant in his lap. His other hand slipped under your top to squeeze at the sensitive skin of your chest. Your nipples perked and he kneaded one of them, making you squirm more.
You leaned your head back against his shoulder and felt your eyes roll with pleasure as he played with you. You opened your legs a bit more to allow him better access and he slid his fingers up and down your slit to collect your juices before he teased your hole.
"Tenko, please…"
He hungrily jammed two fingers into you, making you yelp. He momentarily released his hold of your breast to tilt your face towards him and took you into a kiss. He continued moving his fingers, pumping in and out of you at a slower pace that slowly increased to a more moderate one. You clenched around him as he brushed against your g-spot.
"Your pussy's driving me fucking crazy," he laughed darkly.
You shivered over him, "T-Tenko, I'm close..."
"Come on my fingers." The hand that wasn't in your pants wrapped around your throat, his fingers pressed on the sides. "Come for me, angel."
The nickname he gave you during intimate times was so sweet, so Tenko, that it was the catalyst for the dam to burst. You bit your lip and shook as you came.
With Tenko's incredible finger stamina, he removed himself from your hole to continue his rubbing against your clit even as you whimpered from the overstimulation.
"Tenko... I-I.." You gasped and panted as you came again.
Tenko's fingers didn't stop.
You trembled violently in his lap as he stroked your clit and toyed with your nipple. His mouth had returned to your neck and he licked the flesh. You covered your mouth with your hand to muffle your scream as he made you cum a third time. You weren't sure how much longer you would be able to last and you didn't want to force him into having to carry you back to your dorm because of your shaky legs. You whimpered the safe word and he removed his hand from your bottoms.
He sucked on his fingers that were soaked with you, before sticking them in your mouth, too. You sucked on the digits slowly, keeping eye contact with him, enjoying the way his scarlet eyes were almost black from dilation. You finish and place a soft little kiss against his lips.
"My Tenko's such a fast learner."
He blushes as a shy expression appears on his face. You smile and rest your head against his shoulder, thinking about how lovely he looked when his cheeks matched the sunset.
×X×
It was the day before opening night and things were rough.
There had been too many technical issues with the stage, meaning they had to re-locate to a different theater in the building. The dimensions of the stage weren't exactly the same, but it was do-able. Apparently, there had been an electrical fire that caused too much damage and it wouldn't be fixed in time for opening night.
Moving sets to the other end of the hall cut down on rehearsal time, so everyone arrived a few hours early in a rush to get things done. You struggled as you carried a medium sized box of props and lost your footing on the steps. You nearly fall until someone much stronger than you catches you and the box.
"Oh my god, thanks-" You look up and see Touya staring down at you. He's got that bored expression he used to always wear when you first met him. You quietly clear your throat, "Thanks."
You attempt to leave with your box but he snatched it from you and walked up the stairs towards the back of the stage, leaving you behind.
In between warm ups, costume adjustments, and technical run-downs with the assistant stage manager, you return to helping the tech crew with tasks. There was still another hour before rehearsals officially started. You decide to go get food for everyone to help boost morale.
You knew that Touya wasn't the only person in the room with a car, but you didn't know any of the other available people well enough to be alone with them in a car. So, you approached him.
"I'm here on theater business."
Touya paid you no mind as he continued to scroll on his phone.
"Can I get a ride to the pizza store? The one next door to the coffee shop with the good donuts."
"Catch a train."
"I would but I can't carry everything in one trip."
He finally looked up at you and gave an exasperated stare before walking away. You began to mentally calculate how much it would cost to order a taxi. That would certainly be easier than carrying enough food for 40 on the train…
"Hey. Don't just stand there. Hurry up."
Touya was waiting for you, holding the door open.
Your face lights up and you follow after him. He lets the door shut before you make it all the way through.
"Rude!"
"Tch."
The car ride was void of any form of communication. You were thankful he had music playing. You eyed the screen, noting that it was his shoegaze playlist. You wondered if he was okay. He usually listened to that particular playlist when he had a lot on his mind. It was really hard not to bring it up.
Touya let you carry the pizza boxes yourself to the car while he sat at a table in the coffee shop. When you entered the shop and began to collect the drinks, Touya read through the orders scribbled onto the sides of the cups. They were all mostly the same with the exception of a few.
"You can have a drink, but please don't touch the black coffee and keto lemon bars."
He clicked his tongue against his teeth in condescension, "Didn't know you changed your diet. Your boyfriend make you do that?"
You dug through your bag for your wallet and pulled out your debit card and student I.D. for a discount. "Sato on lights is diabetic. Mine is the same as always."
Touya made no comment.
You paid and he sat in the car as you made a few trips back to the store to pick up the food and drinks. Soon after, the two of you were finally on your way back to campus. It wasn't a long drive, only five minutes, and Touya was already diving onto the walkway to pull up near the doors closest to the back. As he parked you continued to stare at the little stickers of puppies, kittens, and rainbows he had stuck around his dashboard. You had bought them for him a couple years ago on a whim and their cuteness looked out of place in his sleek, luxury car.
He stepped out of the car and you caught a glimpse of the keychain that matched the one on your keyring. Early on in your friendship with Touya he had made it known that he thought your handmade keychain was ugly. You thought it'd be fun to make him one too. You didn't expect to see him clip it to his keys, let alone continue to use it nearly three years later.
The cutesy stickers you bought for cheap and silly handmade keychains you recycled old craft supplies for were juxtaposed by his expensive car that could pay for your entire university tuition... It was all a reminder of how the two of you had come from completely different worlds and yet were still able to be such a big part of each other's lives.
Touya opened the passenger door, startling you. "Your little act of kindness ain't gonna mean much if the food gets cold-" He stops himself mid-sentence as he looks down at you in the car.
You frown and wiped away the tears that had formed and unbuckled your seat belt. You grabbing the carton trays with drinks and walking towards the building.
Touya walked ahead of you as he carried the boxes of pizza and donuts and tapped the handicap button with his boot. The doors to the performing arts building opened and he wordlessly followed you inside.
×X×
Touya watched as Tenko kissed you good luck before he left to sit in the seat you had reserved for him. It was opening night. The moment that everyone had been working towards for months was finally here.
Midway through the show, there had been technical difficulties. There had been a glitch in the system causing the show control to stop working and the techs were unable to take any cues. Luckily, Touya was an expert when it came to thinking on the fly so his improvisation felt like a natural part of the show. After his scene, there was an intermission and the cast waited in the back.
It was awkward as you sat in the make up chair beside Touya's. It felt like such a sharp contrast to the way your friendship normally was.
You stared at old notes on your script, your eyes still. You weren't reading and it looked like you were lost in thought. Touya's eyes quickly flitted away from yours when you looked over at him and he acted like he hadn't just been caught looking at you.
He heard you take an intake of breath, but no sound followed, which had him look back at you. Your mouth was half open until you shut it with a frown.
Touya stood from his chair.
"Fuck it."
He grabbed you by the wrist and pulled you to follow him down the hall.
"W-We're on standby we cant just leave..!?"
"We're not leaving."
Touya stuffed the two of you into of a broom closet. The florescent lights were harsh on his features, the shadows digging deeper into the scars covering his face.
His piercings were usually taken out for shows but this time, they were left in. They complimented the maroon liquid latex scars that mottled his pristine skin. There were pieces of cut wire, bent to look like staples holding his skin together. His hair had been dyed black for the role. It was different from the snowy white that was so Touya, but the dark look also had it's charm.
"Touya, they could need us at any time, we really shouldn't be--"
"Give me a fucking minute."
He had months, years, of frustration burning his insides and he had to fight the flames to collect the more rational thoughts.
You nodded patiently as he glared at a box of junk on the shelf beside your head. You looked down at his hands that were balled into fists, with knuckles that paled from the force.
When you looked away from his face down to his hands, Touya's eyes went back to you, his glare now aimed at the pensive look on your face. It wasn't that long ago that being this close to you was normal.
Though Touya had said it, he never truly believed that you were the one selling him out to the tabloids. He knew you would never do that. The trust he had for you was unlike anything he had ever experienced before.
His mind raced with flashbacks of the moments leading up to him realizing he had feelings for you, the dopey faced do-gooder that didn't mind her own business but also didn't overstep his boundaries. The two of you were from completely different worlds. You could've easily betrayed him on a number of occasions and you didn't. Whether it was to support him or scold him, you were always there for him.
More than anything, Touya wanted to tell you his feelings.
Your eyes look up at him with gentle concern and he feels the guilt run down his spine cold as ice.
He couldn't tell you. He couldn't risk hurting you like that. Not you.
"I--" he cleared his throat, "I've been an ass."
You nod in agreement.
"You're my best friend." He was unable to keep his voice from shaking at the end. He was glad you weren't the kind of person to judge him for it.
"You're my best friend, too." You adjust your stance as you looked up at him. "I'm guessing... you were jealous? Of Tenko?"
"What?" His eyes widen a fraction. Had his feelings been that obvious the entire time? Fuck.
You fidgeted with a piece of fabric on your costume, looking as shy as you did three years ago. "It all started around the time Tenko and I started dating… I thought you were just jealous of him getting all of my attention, but you completely shut me out. You liked me, didn't you..?"
Oh.
He almost laughed out loud at how frustrating the entire situation was.
He simply looked down at you and made no effort to speak. The smudged eyeliner around the edges of his eyes, dark as soot, made his piercing eyes look even more intense.
"I'm sorry for not realizing sooner. It must have felt terrible whenever I talked to you about Tenko..."
He was so restless that he had to add more workouts to his routine and at one point, he even broke out a birthday gift you gave him a while back. A fidget toy, because he was always moving around whenever he got excited. Stressed too, apparently. He was so stressed recently. It was fucking awful.
He rolled his eyes, "It wasn't that bad."
You reach for his hand, careful not to ruin the make up as you gripped his fingers.
"I care about you, Touya. You mean the world to me and I never want to lose you."
It was something he had always wanted to hear, yet his stomach sank as she said it. It was a feeling he had gotten much too acquainted with recently.
He knew what was coming next.
"You're my best friend."
He knew what you were saying. He could hear it loud and clear.
"I know."
He fixed his gaze back on the mess behind you. He couldn't keep looking at your watery eyes anymore. He sighed, running a hand through his jet black hair and leaving it more wild than it already was. After a moment, he opened them to look down at you again. "I've accepted it."
He gently pat the top of your head, careful not to mess up the wig. He preferred the look and feel of your natural hair as opposed to the synthetic rat's nest the hair and makeup team picked out for you.
"Yeah?" You asked hopefully.
He hummed a quiet affirmation. "And if that shrimp tries anything, I'll deep fry him."
You pout and he forces himself to pull his hand away and reminded himself to keep his distance from you. You weren't his.
"If he's a shrimp then so are you. You guys are the same height."
"Nah," he gave you a lopsided grin as he stuffed his hands in his pockets. "I'm taller."
"You're delusional."
The two of you jumped when a stage hand walked in on the two of you and talked into their headset to tell someone that they found you. It was time to go.
You smiled softly at Touya before walking out with him close behind.
×X×
The performance went without anymore major technical issues. Near the end, your outfit got caught on the set and Touya handled it so professionally that it was highly unlikely that anyone in the audience had noticed.
You were backstage at the makeup vanity quickly dabbing away sweat while a mini fan blew the wig around. The cast were encouraged to go meet with the audience post-show in the lobby. The others were already out there and you were a little behind since you ran off to the bathroom after the curtain call.
A bottle of water is placed on the vanity and you look over to see that Touya brought it to you. You thank him and chug most of it. The cold was a relief. You let out a sigh as you set it down, catching Touya as he stared at you in the reflection of the mirror.
"What?"
His eyes shifted higher up from your face, to the creature that sat on your head.
"Take that shit off. It looks bad."
"No way. My hair's not done under this."
"Who cares."
"I do. We take post-show pictures."
He rolled his eyes and sips the rest of your water.
"You're just jealous you didn't get a wig."
"I said no. You should've said no." And if the costume department had an issue with it, Touya would've let them know exactly how he felt about that.
You reached for the water and pout when you realized it was empty. He smirked at you and opened his mouth to tease you about it when the assistant stage manager entered the room.
"You two are still here? Go out there and say hello. You've got people waiting for you..!"
You quickly touched up your make up before hopping out of the chair and rushed to the lobby, with Touya lazily walking at his own pace. Attendees praised your performance and after they left the cast had a photo op. Finally, it was time to hang up the costume and remove the makeup and wig. You walked down the hall in your normal clothes and passed through the lobby. Your eyes searched for black hair when a large bouquet of pink roses obscured your vision.
"Long time no see!" Fuyumi chirped as she placed a gift bag in your hand. "Homemade pastries. Shouto helped."
"I didn't know you guys were coming to opening night. Thank you so much." You took the flowers that Natsuo was handed to you.
"Oi, Natsu." Touya's said as he stood beside you. "I don't think your girlfriend's gonna be happy to hear you're giving flowers to other girls."
Natsuo's face turned beet red, "Th-These are from all of us..! Mom picked them out!" He rubbed the back of his neck. "She's sorry she couldn't come. She didn't wanna risk getting anyone sick."
"I got someone recording it anyways…" Touya couldn't hide the slight disappointment in his voice.
You gave Touya a smile of reassurance before you looked back at his siblings. "It's okay, I'll come visit over the summer and we can watch the recording together. It's better if she rests."
"Would you like to join us for dinner?" A gruff voice asks as it approaches.
"Mr. Todoroki," you bow low. "Um, I'd love to but--"
"She's got plans," Touya finished for you. Touya knew you felt grateful for his family's kindness towards you and that you had a hard time saying no to them because of it.
You smile sheepishly, nodding. "Since there's no cast party tonight, my boyfriend wanted to do something."
"Another time, then." Touya could see that you didn't miss the way his father looked at him when he said that. Enji didn't know subtle even if it hit him with a train. Fucking hell.
"Anyways," Touya grumbled. "Guess who decided to finally show up."
You look over at the direction he was facing and saw the familiar dark mop of hair standing by a pillar. Tenko held a bouquet of flowers and a gift bag as he stood in the corner.
You wave him over and he timidly approaches. Everyone bows and does polite introductions.
"Where are my damn flowers?" Touya asks with no real bite to it. He had no idea why he was trying to lighten the weird tension that had settled onto the group with Tenko's arrival. He tried to keep his eyes off of you.
"Next time I'll…" Tenko looked at you, seemingly caught off guard by Touya's sudden willingness to talk to him. "…bring you something."
"Thank you," you tell his family. "We'll definitely make summer plans, okay? Thank you." You politely bow in farewell to the Todoroki family before walking across the room to the corner with Tenko.
Touya ignored the looks he was getting from everyone except Shouto who didn't really seem all that interested in what was going on.
"Don't--"
"Boyfriend!?" Natsuo whispered wildly. "You guys really weren't dating this whole time!?"
Fuyumi elbowed him, "What Natsu means to say is it's a very surprising turn of events." She glared at him for a moment before looking over at you and your boyfriend talking. You were smiling. "She seems happy…" Fuyumi treaded carefully.
"You look like a different person." Shouto bulldozed through the strange atmosphere of the group, "It's weird seeing you with black hair."
"Okay, split dye."
"This is my real hair colour. You should know, you're my brother, aren't you?"
"I like it," Natsuo chimed in. "Maybe I'll go dark, too!"
"What's your girlfriend gonna say about that?" Fuyumi joked knowing any mention of his girlfriend got him flustered. Natsuo squawked in surprise and Fuyumi giggled as he complained.
"A bit soon to be getting married, don't you think." Shouto said monotonously. Everyone stopped and looked in the direction he was looking and they watched as Tenko slid a ring onto your ring finger.
"N-No way, she wouldn't. That's has to be some kind of promise ring… right?" Fuyumi nervously eyed Touya did his best not to show his feelings on his face.
"Whatever."
"Really? 'Whatever'?"
"Yeah. Whatever." He peeled his eyes away and focused on picking at the leftover staple glue on his hand while he ignored his feelings.
"Big bro Touya's an idiot." Shouto stated simply as he took out his phone. "I am going to call mom and tell her it's over. Do I tell her you're coming back with us?"
Touya glared at his little brother and huffed, "Yes."
He'll drive himself so he's not stuck there overnight. Shouto left the room. Fuyumi said she was gonna go too and ended up tugging Natsuo along with her when he didn't get the hint.
Enji awkwardly stood near Touya.
"What? Take a picture it'll last longer. You're stinking up the room with your old man smell."
Honestly, Touya had no idea why he himself was still there.
Well, he did, but he didn't want to think about that.
"Are you going to be… alright?"
Todoroki Enji was big as fuck and the way his voice sounded nervous as he broached the topic was so uncharacteristic. It didn't fit the version of him Touya was used to having in his head. He actually sounded genuine. Fuck this was awkward.
"If you're asking if I'm going to break down crying over a little crush then you should just shove it." Touya forced his hands into his pockets. They were some of the last people left in the lobby.
You look over at Touya and see him alone with his father. You smile at him and wave goodbye as you exit the building, the ring glinting in the light. Touya watched the two of you walked out in the direction of Tenko's dorm.
"I may be an old man that's out of touch, but even I know it wasn't just a little crush."
And with that, Enji left.
"Stupid old man. What does he know…" Touya grumbled to himself.
A lot, apparently. More than Touya was willing to admit to himself. He thought he was over the whole 'rejecting his feelings' thing. Apparently not.
He had to learn to accept it.
If anyone deserved to be happy, it was you. He'd take the heartache. Maybe he didn't have you in the way that he hoped he could, but you were still willing to be his friend even after all his selfishness.
He'd have to get over it. For your sake and his.
You were his best friend.
#dabi x y/n#dabi x reader#dabi x you#todoroki touya x reader#shimura tenko x reader#shigaraki tomura x reader#tomura shigaraki x reader#tenko shimura x reader#tomura x reader#tenko x reader#shigaraki tomura x you#shigaraki tomura#shigaraki x reader#shimura tenko x y/n#tenko shimura x y/n#tenko x y/n#shimura tenko x you#tenko shimura x you#shimura tenko#tomura shigaraki x you#tomura shigaraki#tenko shimura#why are there so many#todoroki touya#dabi#touya todoroki#toya#soooo sorry to non reader insert ppl that see this in the tags ;;;;;;;#SpookyxSprinkles#this was supposed to come out on leap day but i spent 3 weeks procrastinating
31 notes
·
View notes
Note
how do u practice ur figure drawing? i love the way u do them sm, and it feels like u have a great grasp on anatomy ^-^ have you done anything in particular to hone that?
Mostly it's just a lot of bull-headed brute force lol. I do both digital studies and have a physical sketchbook for traditional studies, I try to do at least a couple every week.
Mainly I go about it in two ways: Broad strokes gesture studies where I try to get the general shape down (getting good at simplifying the figure in perspective helps when it's time to draw poses from imagination), and nitty gritty anatomy studies where I try to figure out how all the muscles work.
+ Take little notes on things you observe, like the way specific stuff intersects (for example noting the zig zag pattern of the serratus anterior where it meets the external oblique).
+ Practice your eyeballing – take note not just of the figure itself but of the negative space around it and in-between the limbs (you know how when you put your hand on your hip there's this triangular shape between the torso and arm - stuff like that), notice where all the big limbs are in relation to each other. Getting good at taking measurements by eye is super helpful if you're trying to do photo-accurate studies, and also helpful for keeping proportions in check when drawing stuff from memory.
+ The book Anatomy For Sculptors is nice for quickly looking up what a specific muscle looks like and how it connects to the others around it, they do that thing where they have a real model and then draw all the muscles on top of them so you can see how everything works with and without skin.
+ Simplify + find a shorthand. Best way I can describe how I think of this is with this older doodle - I group the chesticles into this lumpy rectangular crop top shape so I can turn it around easier, add detail later. Knowing some basic perspective and how to turn objects around in space help here.
Also at the end of the day sometimes your best bet is to get in front of a webcam or mirror and see how your own body works. Useful when trying to figure out how something looks when foreshortened or at a difficult angle.
And this might be weird but I do a lot of observing even when I'm not drawing. Every time I'm watching a movie or looking at people irl I'm noting of how the body moves and trying to commit some of those observations to memory - it's just a part of my brain I can't seem to turn off.
#text#hope some of that helped!#i will not lie i do bullshit a lot lmao. sometimes i just canne be bothered to look up ref for the smaller muscles
161 notes
·
View notes
Note
okay so, what about a lockwood and co x reader (platonic) where reader is quiet but if she does speak it’s always blunt or sarcastic or kinda rude because she doesn’t know how to express her feelings nicely but she shows her love in ways like act of service or protecting the others on a mission and like linking pinkies with them when walking to the archives and things and everyone is convinced she hates every other person but they know they’re the closest thing she’s ever had to a family even if she doesn’t say it
thanks so much bae i understand if you don’t want to write it no presssure <3333
Saving Your Friends 101
Pairings: Lockwood & Co & gn!reader (I know you used she/her in the ask but there aren't actually any pronouns in the fic)
Content: found family, struggling with expressing feelings, school bully, canon-typical violence fighting a ghost, Kipps being a jerk
A/N: I'm the least sarcastic person ever so I hope this all sounds okay 😅 also I just had to use that gif as the header, Lucy looking so done felt like the right vibes for reader in this
Word count: 2.7k
Taglist: @neewtmas @marinalor @ettadear @honey-with-tea (lmk if you want adding or removing!)
"Hey loser! I thought I told you to finish my maths homework!"
You were 8 years old, sitting making patterns in the dirt of your school playing field when your horrible classmate Jason stomped over with his group of equally unpleasant friends. He was a brute of a lad: what he lacked in height he made up for in muscle, his expression was almost permanently fixed in a scowl, and he had a small scar on his cheek that everyone thought was so cool and intimidating (but which you knew he got from falling off his bike when he was 5). Half the school, teachers included, were wrapped around his little finger in fear. But not you.
"Go away, Jason."
"Or what? You're not doing anything, nobody ever wants to play with you."
"I don't care," you shrugged. "I'm not going to waste my time so you can pretend you're not too stupid for times tables."
Jason stepped forward to tower over you, stocky frame casting your whole body in shadow, and a few of his cronies twitched with tempered aggression. "What did you say?"
You stood up on the spot, forcing him to lean back to normal as your face rose ever closer to his. You were a couple of inches shy of him, dungarees rolled several times at the ankles to stop you tripping over, but he wasn't exactly tall in comparison to his group. Being smaller didn't faze you; you squared up to him without hesitation. "I said you're stupid and wasting my precious minutes. Life is short… and so are you."
The cluster of boys burst out laughing - not at you, at him. Jason grew red in the face and puffed up like he could account for the missing height to fight you better, but you merely raised an eyebrow. One of the boys stepped out from the group and punched you encouragingly on the arm. Another much taller boy leaned on Jason's shoulder to emphasise the difference. Jason stormed off.
—
Ever since then, quick wit and sarcasm had been your shield as you carried yourself through the world. From holding up against your affectionless parents to commanding instant respect when you started training to be an agent, they served you so well that you near enough forgot how to be any other way. And that was fine. It worked, kept you detached and independent. That is, it worked until you joined Lockwood & Co.
You settled in quickly, discovering that the rest of the agency could be just as snappy as you. George especially had proved more than a match from the day you arrived.
"I'm here for a job," you announced when the curly-haired boy, dressed in orange plaid, opened the door of 35 Portland Row.
"As an agent?" he frowned. Lockwood hadn't put out another ad, as far as he knew.
"No, I just like accessorising with a rapier."
"Well, if it's as sharp as your tongue I shouldn't be in too much danger. Come in." Despite the insult you followed him with a grin. Finally, someone who might get you.
Unlike you, however, they knew how to switch it off. Your switch had rusted long ago, if not fallen off completely. Normally it wouldn't have bothered you, if it had kept you alive up to now it was worth it, but the longer you stayed the more you found yourself growing genuinely fond of your teammates and entirely unable to tell them as much. Nothing had to change, of course, that was what you told yourself - letting them in would only make you weak, it was better to keep to yourself. Say as little as possible to them. You tried to quiet the little voice in the back of your head which whispered that maybe the reason you kept your distance was that you were afraid of saying the wrong thing and scaring them off, of losing your first real friends.
—
"Everybody ready?" Lockwood asked as he dropped his kit bag onto the kitchen floor with a dull thud. You'd been ready nearly 10 minutes, still fairly new to working cases despite the months you'd been there and eager to respect the schedule that Lockwood had set out. Lucy had been the next after you to arrive, offering a quick 'hi' which you acknowledged with a nod. When George came down he immediately started chatting to Lucy. He didn't ask if you wanted to join the conversation. You never seemed to. He often wondered if you actually wanted to be there at all, but you hadn't left despite how little you'd tried to bond with them. There were plenty of other agencies to go to, yet still you stayed.
While Lockwood checked over the supplies once more, you leaned over to Lucy, who so far had been a reliable source on the boys and their actions.
"Is he always this picky with the gear?"
Lucy sighed as she adjusted her bootstrap. "No, just when the case involves families like this one. Brings out his protective 'save the world' side."
You'd heard by now about the young age at which he'd been orphaned, he was open enough about the circumstances if not the details, and you understood his pain but had never been taught how to address anything as serious as that. All you had to work with was your dry humour. "Save the world? He can barely even save his toast in the mornings," you muttered. Lucy snorted.
"If you're quite done mocking my culinary abilities…"
"Oh, I'm definitely not done, but it can wait," you smirked. Lockwood rolled his eyes, but didn't miss the way you wordlessly joined him in sorting through the bags.
The case itself went well, up until about the last 5 minutes. You all successfully secured one source, but it turned out the house had a second Visitor which you discovered when the four of you were ambushed by it in the dining room. It was a man, looked to be in his late 40s, with a thinning head of hair and an even thinner frame. The previous owner, then, Richard. Lockwood immediately stepped forward, rapier brandished, but with an ear-splitting screech Richard tossed him aside. The rest of you watched in horror as he flew across the table and crashed through a chair to land in a pile of splintered wood.
You levelled your own rapier, less aggressively. "George, Lucy, look for the source," you fought to keep your voice as steady as your blade, all your usual confidence gone without the safety net of your snide remarks which would only anger the ghost. "Cabinet behind us is our best bet, I think. I'll help Lockwood." The other two exchanged a glance before nodding and moving slowly towards the cabinet in question. You began to move in the other direction, around the side of the table and towards the spectral figure which was hovering worryingly close to the boy in the debris.
"Hey!" you called. Richard's gaze snapped to you. You faltered. No. Confidence. Wit. Use your ridiculous snarky brain to keep Lockwood alive. "He's not a fair fight any more, and you're better than that, aren't you? Come on, show me what you've got."
You almost heard Lockwood's protest - you saw his lips forming the words, sure, but the noise itself was drowned out by the shriek that burst from Richard's snarling mouth as he rushed towards you. You planted your feet and held your ground, just like you'd done that day in the school yard all those years ago, but at the last second you rolled out the way and sent your rapier slicing upwards. Richard howled, but it wasn't enough to dematerialise him and within seconds he rounded on you again.
"Aww, not bad for a first attempt," you jeered. "Do you want to try again?" The words had barely left your lips before he was upon you, and you swung hastily. The blade split him right down the middle, but he reformed behind you and you had to dance across the space to avoid him, smacking your ribs painfully against a sideboard as you did so. Your chest was heaving as you faced him once more.
"Are you even trying to hit me?"
A lance of air struck you in the centre of your chest, knocking all the air from your lungs as you collided with the wall. That answered that. You would have cried out if you'd had the breath to do so. Lockwood was right beside you, midway from climbing out of the broken chair but now frozen in the glare of the wrathful spirit which hung above you both. With the last of your energy you dragged your body between him and it.
"Got it!" Lucy yelled frantically in the distance, and in a wave the feeling returned to your limbs as Richard disappeared. Lockwood groaned, reaching out to help you up from where you'd slumped against him.
"So you know when you're taught not to taunt the Visitors, did you just skip that class, or…?" he scolded, but there was a touch of amusement in his voice, his way of showing he was grateful to have been saved.
You chuckled, wincing as the sound rattled your bruised ribs. "Scheduling conflict, not my fault. Clashed with 'Saving Your Friends 101'." You realised that was the first time you'd called them your friends out loud. They realised it too.
—
That case marked the beginning of a shift within the agency. Where the rest of them had been struggling to see any indication that you cared about being part of the group, suddenly they couldn't stop seeing them. Nothing had changed in the way you spoke (minimally, and heavily sarcastic when you did), but they learned to notice everything you said without words. How you always grabbed the first aid kit when someone came home injured from a case, and insisted on treating the wounds yourself. The way you clicked the release on the toaster every time Lockwood risked leaving it a little too long. The times George would fall asleep while researching with you in the library and wake up with the blanket from the back of your chair draped across him. The fact that none of them had bought any more of Lucy's favourite tea in nearly two months, and yet whenever she was close to running out the caddy would be full again the next day. As they began noticing the subtle ways you expressed your feelings, they began to find little gestures they could do in return to show they cared without pressuring you into talking, which only strengthened your commitment further. Lucy poured you juice in the morning before you asked and put your pyjamas in the dryer while you were in the bath; Lockwood made a big act of ruffling your hair and calling you 'kiddo' like an enthusiastic uncle when you did something particularly well; George learned your rankings of pizza toppings and Arif's doughnuts by heart so you'd always get the highest one available. All so uniquely them.
—
It was a bright June morning, with fine wisps of cotton candy clouds drifting lazily across the sky. An ice cream van sounded nearby, being pursued by a horde of excitable children. This was no time for ice cream for Lockwood & Co, though - there was an exceptionally big case to research, and it was all hands on deck as the four of you strode towards the British Archives. Lockwood was on the right, trenchcoat left at home and shirt sleeves rolled up to make the most of the glorious sun, rapier hanging from his belt. Lucy was on his left, arm linked through his. Her other hand had started in the pocket of her blue playsuit, which today she wore without tights, but now it held yours and swung casually back and forth. George completed the line on your left. You knew by now that he wasn't overly keen on physical interaction, which you completely understood, but you also could tell when he was willing to let it slide to join in with the group. This was one of those moments. Your hands had brushed as you walked along, and your pinky had twisted round his. This was almost a habit between the two of you by now, not quite as intense as holding hands but still providing a tether, a connection.
Inside was bliss, the comforting scent of old books accentuated by crisp conditioned air which provided relief from the blazing heat outside. You all spread out to gather resources from across the archives. Lucy returned with a stack of books so high she could barely see over the top, and you shifted your files into one arm so you could pull a chair out for her with your free hand. She smiled at you as the books cascaded onto the table.
Before long you were thoroughly engrossed in the research. It was one of your favourite activities within the agency, an opportunity to make a helpful contribution without the expectation of speaking to anyone. The only sounds were the rustle of turning pages, the scratch of your pen as you scribbled notes, and the occasional comment from one of the others when they found something unusual.
"My my," a voice that didn't belong to the group filtered through the barrier of concentration you'd built. You looked up to see Quill Kipps and his team sneering at your table. "It must be a big case to have you all working on it. Or do you just need help with the difficult words, Tony?"
There was a tic in Lockwood's jaw, but he forced an overly polite smile. "It is a big case, one that our client clearly thought we were better equipped to handle."
Kipps scoffed. "Probably just trying to save a bit of cash on a sub-par service instead of paying for the premium. Not to worry, Fittes will be more than happy to finish the job when you fail to."
You decided to follow Lockwood's lead, putting on the most innocent expression you could muster. "Hmm, what was I…" you feigned forgetfulness. "Oh, George, you'll know! What's that theory with the monkeys and the typewriters?" Kipps' team took the bait immediately, giggling amongst themselves at your scatterbrained question.
"Supposedly if you had infinite monkeys with typewriters or one monkey with a typewriter and infinite time, they would eventually type out the complete works of Shakespeare. It's not exactly true though."
Your smile turned wolfish. "That's the one, and remembered without a database too! I just thought of it because I was wondering whether, given long enough, Kipps would eventually say something intelligent. Don't think that's true either."
The other group fell into a stunned silence, giving everyone the opportunity to hear Lucy choking back a laugh. Kipps opened his mouth to respond, but then had just enough sense to realise that there was hardly anything he could say that wouldn't prove your point and promptly closed it again. Instead he shot you all one last glare and turned silently on his heel. The rest of his team scampered after his retreating figure.
Lucy's laughter erupted with enough force that she almost tipped backwards out of her chair. George grinned at you. "That was amazing!"
"Couldn't have done it without you, genius."
You suddenly glanced at Lockwood. His rivalry with Kipps was more intense than any you'd seen before, and you hated to think you might have overstepped or taken away his chance at gaining the upper hand. Relief washed over you when he gave you his signature smirk, eyes twinkling with mischief. "If that's something else you learnt in 'Saving Your Friends 101', I might have to sign up for classes."
"Lucky for you I'm very committed to my studies, I can just lend you my notes."
Lucy leaned over to watch your pen gliding across the notepad as you spoke. She frowned at the page. "Your current note is just a doodle of… is that a crying monkey in a Fittes uniform?"
You all glanced in the direction in which Kipps had retreated. Lockwood reached across and picked up the notebook. "I'll definitely need to borrow this, for educational purposes of course… and then it's going on the fridge." You beamed with pride.
#lockwood & co x reader#lockwood and co#lockwood & co fanfic#gn!reader#platonic reader#save lockwood and co#anthony lockwood#lucy carlyle#george karim
84 notes
·
View notes
Text
Aaaaand I'm done for busts of other characters in TMNT: From the Hidden City because I didn't feel like drawing fullbody refs! In order from left to right (and under the cut because this is long), we have:
Slash, the leader of the Animal 5, an amateur garage band/vigilante group in the Hidden City. He's a tortoise yokai, and somewhat hostile to the Turtles at first since they seemingly came out of nowhere during the Tournament. Nonetheless, his heart is in the good place.
Mona Lisa, a member of the Animal 5. She's a salamander/axolotl-like alien, and her temper (which matches Raph's easily) doesn't undermine her intelligence. She and Raph quickly bond over how much they have in common once the initial hostilities are gone.
Leatherhead, a member of the Animal 5. Unlike the others, he's a mutant, mutated from a baby alligator that was splashed in Mutagen the night the Turtles were made. Unlike the Turtles, he didn't get the luck of a caring parent when he somehow escaped back in New York, and was forced into horrible things by his captor. Nonetheless, he was eventually able to find his way back to the Hidden City. Despite his scary appearance, he's a sweetheart.
Mondo Gecko, a member of the Animal 5. He's a lizard yokai and an otherwise regular civilian in the Hidden City, content with living a simple life. He got in the Battle Nexus on a bet and for a chance at the prize money, but found a talent for fighting along the way. He's the more relaxed member of the Animal 5, and was the one who came up with being a band to cover their vigilante activities.
Miyamoto Usagi, an apprentice member of the Hidden City's old guard. He's very dedicated to his training, and his peers describe him as incredibly mature and talented for his age. The only person who's been able to get underneath his mask is Leo, who's earnestness and kind heart are able to drag out Usagi's own inner child. He has a strange power that allows him to peer in other universes, and often uses it to ask advice from a certain older, more experienced version of himself.
Shinigami, a sorceress who was born in the Foot. She's Karai's most trusted associate and long-time girlfriend. Compared to said girlfriend, she's much more laidback and casual, and more willing to have fun on missions. She's still very much loyal to her. Some could argue she's more loyal to Karai than she is to the Clan... her magic allows her to hypnotize people and transform into a cat.
Jennika, a member of the Animal 5 and a frog yokai. She's actually a spy for the Foot, having been recruited during the Battle Nexus by Karai. She keeps them updated of what's happening in the Hidden City, but slowly comes to questions herself as the story progresses. She fights like a boxer, and can secrete poison.
Koya, a bird Yokai and a recent addition to the Foot. She was recruited during the Battle Nexus by Karai, and is part of her squad as a scout, archer, and air fighter. She's quick to attack and dislikes hesitation, conflating it with cowardice. Once Karai leaves the Foot, she very quickly realizes how insane everyone in it truly is without a buffer (Karai), but she believes that leaving now wouldn't do any good.
Bepop and Rocksteady, two thugs who were mutated by Draxum during his test runs of the second iteration of mutagen. They were hired by the Foot as muscle before Donnie could administer the retromutagen, and they often serve as comedic relief to Karai. The both of them are also complete idiots.
Goro and Blaze, Karai's mentors and technically her adoptive fathers. When Shredder isn't around, they run the Foot Clan to the best of their abilities. Goro knows bits of magic, and Blaze possesses enough brute strength to level a building.
Kirby O'Neil, April's father. He's a comic writer and illustrator, and created a relatively obscure comic that's just popular enough to pay the bills. Even so, he has an additional dayjob as an editor for a journal so he can make sure his daughter doesn't miss of anything. He's a hardworking man who often worries for his daughter, but can clearly see that she's at her happiest being friends with four green weirdos. His necklace is a gift from his late wife...
Lou Jitsu, Splinter's former identity. Martial Arts master. Even better at improvising with things such as ladders and fish. Movie star and celebrity. Bisexual icon. Once yelled out 'Hot Soup' instead of 'Hatsu' during the heat of a fight and it became his catchphrase. Has had it enough with the casual racism and homophobia of the early 2000 that he ran off to another dimension to marry his girlfriend. Certified monsterfucker.
Dr. Honeycutt, a technical war criminal from another galaxy. Regretful of his past as a weapon maker, he escaped to Earth where he was found by the Hamato clan. He is a friendly being, who's regret over making weapons have made him take a vow of pacifism he swore not to break.
And the Crying Titan, also known as Venus. She crashed onto Earth a few millenias ago, and is responsible for a bunch of things. From creating Yokai-kind (accident) to giving the founders of the Hamato clan their powers (willing). Baron Draxum was her student, and his mourning of her death at the hands of a nascent Foot Clan quite literally resulted in him creating the Hidden City.
If you have questions about any of them, or the plot of TMNT: From the Hidden City, don't hesitate to send me an ask!
#art#my art#tmnt#tmnt:fhc#teenage mutant ninja turtles#tmnt 1987#tmnt 2003#tmnt 2012#rottmnt#tmnt redesign#tmnt slash#tmnt mona lisa#tmnt mondo gecko#tmnt leatherhead#miyamoto usagi#usagi yojimbo#tmnt shinigami#tmnt jennika#tmnt koya#tmnt bebop#tmnt rocksteady#tmnt foot lieutenant#tmnt foot brute#tmnt kirby#tmnt lou jitsu#tmnt fugitoid#tmnt venus
67 notes
·
View notes
Text
When Kylo and Hux are separated from their planetside group, they’re forced to make camp beside a pretty little lake. There’s no immediate danger since the planet is mostly fauna but Hux is still a bit on edge about being stranded here without any comms.
They work together to make a tent and start a fire. Night comes quickly but the darkness is friendly since the sky is illuminated by the mass of shining and shimmering stars. Kylo even goes foraging, adding to Hux’s list of skills that he didn’t know the brute-like knight had.
After a tiring day, Kylo decides that he’ll take a dip in the lake to wash. Hux tightens his greatcoat around himself and scrunches his nose up at the thought of getting into alien waters but Kylo doesn’t care. He begins to undress, throwing his robes and cowl over a low hanging branch of a nearby tree before standing in the pale starlight in front of Hux.
It’s the first time he’s ever seen Kylo without any clothes on. And, hells. His body makes Hux believe in gods. Kylo is sculpted in places that Hux hadn’t even dreamt of, his abs so strong and his shoulders so wide. He’s perfect, he’s a specimen, he’s—
—he’s cannonballing into the lake. A splash, and water is everywhere but Kylo soon rises back to the surface, brushing his soaking wet hair from his face.
Hux shuffles back into the shelter of the tent, making sure he’s hidden by the shadows cast by its leafy canopy. It’s wrong, so wrong, but his hand is suddenly at the front of his trousers, palming at his hardening cock as he stares at the droplets of water cascading down the crevices of Kylo’s muscles. With a bite of his lip, Hux sends his hand underneath his waistband and touches himself, imagining himself beside Kylo in the water, his hands roaming every inch of his perfect skin as though it’s his own blank canvas to mark.
And whilst Kylo can’t see what Hux is doing, the raw energy that’s filling the air around him is sending prickles of electricity into the Force, charging it and filling his mind with the thoughts that are causing it.
Beneath the secrecy of the water, Kylo’s own hand finds his hardening cock, his mind filled with Hux’s dirty thoughts. This isn’t what he had in mind to pass the time until the search party finds them but it’s new and exciting.
#kylux#idk what this is but I just wanted to share it before bed!#Hux sneakily touching himself after being so turned on by Kylo’s physique? and then Kylo touching himself because he can feel Huxs arousal?#yes please
60 notes
·
View notes
Note
This isn't really a question, but I just wanted to say, your art style is amazing. I'm still struggling to draw hands
Thank you very much for the kind words! I really appreciate it<3
As for the second part, and i apologise if this is overstepping, but i'd like to offer my personal approach for drawing hands:
- Usually i find it helpful to keep in mind a very simplified (my style isn't super realistic either:P) skeleton structure of the hand when drawing, mainly the joints (indicated by the little circles here) and where the shape of the bone may be more prominent (eg around the wrist and knuckles)
- It's also convenient to group the middle and ring finger together and let the index and pinkie kind of do their own thing + simplifying the fingers into blocky shapes makes it easier/faster to get to the overall pose
-Another way to simplify the hand that's used a lot is to cut down on the number of joints
These are just general guidelines i keep in mind though, and they dont necessarily prevent things from just... not working out (as you can see from how messed up the paper is, getting it wrong isn't a particularly rare occurrence). Hands have funny, easy-to-mess-up proportions. When that happens, my go to approach is to brute force it. As in, i find references and do a bunch off drafts until it looks passable or a break is in order. I don't want to go "just practice" because that sounds vague, it's more specifically that i find building muscle memory via repetition very important. Cool fictional characters usually have hands though, so there's always an excuse to practice (to this day i still assign a lot of my progress to that time i drew a ton of muffet (undertale) fan art lol).
This got very long-winded:P i hope it was at least a little helpful
#sorry it took a while!#i was sketching out some hands for this but in a wonderful demonstration of this post i kept getting them wrong#also i dont check my inbox very often lol#asks
26 notes
·
View notes
Text
𝗯𝗮𝘆! 𝗹𝗲𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗼 | butterfly ⁽ ³ ⁾
Leonardo ✷ Alaska ( pining friends ) MASTERLIST 2012! – BAYVERSE!
ᕦ(๏益๏)ᕥ: third pov, turtle anatomy, pining like a damn idiot, Raph being the big softy we know he is, spidergirl persona, all characters are 18+, NSFW scenes, and Leo being a fucking simp. wordcount: 2368
⁽ ¹ ⁾ , ⁽ ² ⁾ ... ⁽ ⁴ ⁾
RAPHAEL GRABBED HIS SAI and twisted the hilt, but before he could take a stab at Alaska, she already landed a kick to his plastron, the hardness of the shell sending a jolt up her leg. He stumbled back from the sheer force of the kick, momentarily stunned at her strength before jumping back into action and sending another slash of his weapon in her direction.
Alaska calculated his movements; eyes assessed the twitch of his muscles as he planned his moves. She had sparred with him enough times to know his tells, so she was already prepared and went into a swift back handspring as she dodged the attack. Her chest was heaving as she crouched, one leg stretched out to her side as the other planted under her body, balancing her weight. Her fingers weaved in the grass below as she licked her lips, swallowing thickly as she tried to catch her breath.
As they continued to spar, the rest of the group watched on, all seeming a bit mesmerized by Alaska’s agile movements and Raphael’s brute force.
While Raph was swift, using his strength to his advantage – Alaska was more balanced and precise in her steps, using speed and agility to her advantage.
Just as she jumped back to her feet, ready to dodge another swing in her direction, a familiar buzz tickled her mind as her ‘spidey-senses’ as Mikey called them, went into over-drive and she could feel a pulsing vibration coming from above. Her moss-colored eyes snapped up and she spotted a blue butterfly fluttering by, her sight felt as if it zoomed in on the insect and she began blinking quickly to make it stop.
Raphael was so lost in his adrenaline high to notice when the young woman stopped as he continued his attack and swung as hard as he could with the hilt of his Sai, the hard end hitting her dead on the temple and cutting into the skin. A pained grunt slipped past her lips as she flew a couple of feet away, her head jerking to the left. She landed on the ground, her hands snapping out to catch herself before her face hit the ground.
Alaska squeezed her eyes shut, lifting her hand to the fresh cut before pulling away, her vision blurry as she spotted blood on the tips of her fingers. Oh shit. She thought as her skin suddenly felt cold and her stomach rolled. The ebony-haired girl shifted to sit on her bottom, hunching over as a shiver forced itself on her. She was never good with pain, and Raphael had just knocked her stupid.
As Alaska was trying to gather her scrambled thoughts and keep herself from going into shock from the sudden pain, large hands suddenly grabbed her body and forced her up. She knew for a fact if it weren’t for the Radioactive venom coursing through her veins, a hit like that from a turtle—who could literally bench press an OX—would have rendered her unconscious, or better yet, dead.
She was suddenly grateful for that creepy crawly.
“H-Holy shit, Rebel — I didn’t mean ta’ — shit.” Raphael was saying as his hands jerked her into a sitting-up position, the large terrapin was on his knees as his body curled over her and a large arm rested in the dip of her back. A callused finger pressed under her chin, tilting her head to the side to expose her cut temple to him. “Dammit, Reb, I thought ya’ was gonna block it — I’m sorry—”
“Red, I’m fine.” She tried to say, her voice sounding a little thick as her head started to throb. She felt a little disoriented, but other than that, she knew she’d be fine.
Alaska could already feel the cut trying to heal.
Everyone was standing close to them, April nibbling her bottom lip in concern as Donnie quickly appeared with a First Aid kit. As he dropped to his knees beside them, Alaska sent him an odd look, having to squint her eyes as another ‘thump’ of pain came from her head.
“Did you just pull a First Aid kit out your ass?”
He chuckled, glasses shifting on his nose as he smirked. “No, I always have it on standby while we train. You know, just precaution.”
The younger woman leaned into Raphael’s plastron as she nodded. That made sense. Like, why wouldn’t they have First Aid while training? Especially when the brothers trained like they were in some type of ‘Ninja warrior’ contest.
“The cut isn’t that deep to need stitches, though, you’re teetering on the line,” Donnie told her as he pulled out adhesive tape and pinched the skin together. Alaska jerked from the sudden flare of pain, and he sent her an apologetic smile, “Sorry,”
She just gave him a look as he finished up, placing a gauze over the wound to stop the bleeding and taping it off. While Donnie was doing that, Alaska could feel the arm around her back tighten and she side-eyed Raph. There was a deep frown on his scarred lips, guilt swimming in the pools of his eyes as he watched her closely.
When Donnie was finally done patching her up, she turned and gave Raph her full attention.
“Red, I’m okay.” Alaska said to him again, this time stressing the word.
He looked back at her for a long moment, his emerald gaze locking on the white bandage that was now taped on her temple. “Why didn’t you block it? Shit, Alaska, that damn attack was easy – especially for you.”
All eyes were on her, and she fought the urge to squirm from the attention. A frown curved on her lips, and she attempted to stand. She would have fallen over if it weren’t for Raphael and Donnie steadying her. Alaska moved away from them, folding her arms around her mid-section as she stared down at the grass.
“I got distracted…”
Her excuse didn’t seem good enough for the Red-clad turtle because a deep rumble came from his chest that caused her to tense and snap her eyes up at him, seeing his face shift into a look of irritation as his quick temper made an appearance.
“Distracted?” He scoffed.
“Yes, there was a butterfly and my—” She started to explain only to be cut off.
Raphael’s eyes were as sharp as dagger’s now, “You tellin’ me I could have fucking killed ya’ because of a damn butterfly?” The tone in his voice dropped and his expression was shifting through different emotions as he thought over how bad this could have been if she were a normal human girl.
“No! If you’d let me—” She went to explain again, but Raph and his big ass mouth couldn’t help but stop her again.
“Don’t give me a piss ass excuse,” He jested, before going on a rant, “Ya’ gotta remember to keep your stance low. You’re small, so use that to your advantage. You can’t start slackin’. ” He scolded her in a low voice, causing irritation to bubble in her chest.
He sounded just like Leo, and it was starting to piss her off. Ever since the leader in blue went out of commission, Raphael had taken it upon himself to take over things and play leader. And at first, Alaska understood why he did. Donnie had no interest in leading, and Mikey didn’t care as long as he was included in things. But if she were being honest, she much rather Raphael as her best friend, than some Hothead who didn’t know how to give a direct order without letting his own emotions get the best of him.
The air around them was growing uncomfortably tense as everyone watched the exchange with frowns, already knowing how this conversation was going to end. Alaska and Raph were both stubborn and struggled with expressing their emotions. So oftentimes, they argued. It was a great contrast with how Leo would handle their snarky smart mouths.
Her lips went tight, “I’m trying,”
“You ain’t tryin’ hard enough.”
"Excuse me?"
He gave her a heated look, his own frustrations about things she had no clue about, fueling his anger. "I didn't stutter," The red-clad turtled snarked, "You haven't been tryin' with anything, and I'm gettin' sick of babysitting your ass."
And that was the flame that lit the fuse.
“Babysitting?!” The venom in her question was thick as the green in Alaska’s eyes seemed to blaze as his response triggered nothing but rage in her, that invisible band in the back of her mind snapping as she dropped her arms to her side and bawled her hands into tight fists. The cut on her head pinched and a throb in her head began to pulse, “I have done nothing but try! And I’m sorry, Raphael, but if you got you’re head out your ass, you’d notice I have no fucking idea what is wrong with me!”
Her reaction to three simple words had everyone blinking in shock as she began to pace beside the old van parked in front of the barn. The truth was out in the open now, avoidance over the matter she had been keeping to herself for months no longer unavoidable. The wall she kept up to conceal the truth from her friends so they wouldn’t worry came crashing down and she couldn’t stop her mouth.
“I-I can’t fucking eat, I can’t fucking sleep, a-and when I’m outside—” She tugged at her hair, frustration searing through her belly like wildfire as her head began to hurt more and her thoughts began to buzz, only fueling her rage. “This damn farm has so many bugs and buzzing and-and I can’t—UGH!”
Alaska let out a frustrated scream, slamming her fist into the side of the old van to find an outlet for her frustrations. The vehicle jostled and skirted away, the tires dragging the grass and tearing the dirt. She hated this feeling, she hated how Raph was acting, she hated everything about this situation.
But she loved the pain she felt when she hit the van with her bare knuckles.
The young woman lurched forward to hit the vehicle again, wanting nothing more than to find an outlet for her frustrations and make the pain in her head stop.
She expected her hand to collide with more metal, but a pair of strong arms wrapped around her, pulling her into a very hard chest and provoking her back. “Let me go!” She screeched, thrashing in the arms that only seemed to tighten, struggling a little to keep her back.
Whoever was holding her lifted her up and caused her feet to come off the ground. “Shh, Saska, you’re okay – breathe.” She recognized the voice of Mikey as he pleaded for her to calm down, his grip firm yet gentle as he held the petite girl close.
“Let me go! – Let me go dammit!”
But Mikey relented and kept whispering in her ear, and soon enough her words became gibberish and her body, shaking from adrenaline, gradually sagged. Her eyes were set forward, locked on the deep dent in the van as her senses came rushing back, and the frustration she felt started to dissipate and was replaced by embarrassment, realizing how she just acted over a simple sentence.
As she was set back on her feet, she turned to look around at the people she held close to her heart, only to feel more embarrassed as she saw them looking at her with mixed expressions, but one stuck out like a sore thumb.
Concern.
Alaska could already see Donnie’s eyes calculating, his mask and glasses shifting as he stared at her. He was watching her more intently than the others, and she knew he was most likely going over different diagnoses for her behavior. Then she turned to Raphael. She couldn’t read his face, blocking any emotion from coming to him. But she knew him well enough to know what he was feeling just by the way he held himself.
His shoulders were tense, and his feet were spread in a defensive position. He was concerned and she knew if Mikey hadn’t grabbed her first, it would have been Raph.
“Saska?” The softness in Mikey's voice caused her throat to tighten and she slowly turned to look at him, fearing to see his expression. The youngest turtle stared back at her with soft hurt eyes, his mouth tilted into a frown. He took a step toward her, but she quickly moved back.
“Please don’t,” her voice didn’t sound like her own and her heart tightened when she saw the instant hurt wash over his face. She never wanted to hurt him, but she didn’t trust herself anymore. Something was seriously wrong with her, and she felt like an unhinged lunatic with how she acted. It left a bitter taste in her mouth. “I’m sorry, but don’t…”
“Babes, it’s okay.” He told her, baby blues shimmering as if he was getting emotional and could feel what she was feeling. And maybe he could. “Like Master Splinter always says, ‘With any given ability, we must be patient and accept the hand the universe has dealt us.” He softly said as he slipped into his father’s accent, obviously hinting at her previous words and trying to make her feel better.
Her gaze became slightly bleary, and she had to look away before she began to cry. Knights don’t fucking cry. Most times, Michelangelo’s words would bring a smile to her face and make her feel better. But as of right now, she didn’t feel much of anything, not having the mental capability to put up her façade anymore.
Alaska numbly started to walk to the house, hand touching her lightly throbbing temple, “Gello, Splinter is gone and Leo might never wake up — fuck the damn universe.” She called over her shoulder, and with that, the only sound that could be heard was the slamming of the screen door as she slammed it behind her.
#bayverse raphael#bayverse tmnt#teenage mutant ninja turtles bayverse#bayverse donnie#bayverse mikey#bayverse turtles#teenage mutant ninja turtles#bayverse leo#tmnt bayverse#tmnt leonardo#spidergirl person#spidergirl persona oc#tmnt spiderman au
13 notes
·
View notes
Text
Or Thursday. It's fine. We're pretending yesterday wasn't real right now.
These last two weeks have been brutal to my writing schedule. Being an adult is too much. Being responsible for other humans is overwhelming.
On the positive side, I have a million ideas and plenty of WIP's!! Just need to find the time to get to them. There's FOUR snippets under the cut that I need to stop staring at and just finish.
My current baby is still Infinity In Your Chest Pocket. Chapter 3 is coming along smoothly. It should be up SOON (I'm sorry it took so long @ionlydrinkhotwater )
Snow looks like a lost puppy as he follows our group through the shopping center. Or really, follows my cousin.
It reminds me of fifth year, when we couldn't do anything without Snow sniffing around us like a blood hound. Baz was going out of his mind by Spring.
He'd come out to his family the prior summer, and while it hadn't gone terrible it also wasn't great. Uncle Malcolm tried to act like Baz had never opened his mouth. So, Baz kept his mouth shut at school. Niall and I knew, but that was it.
There were a few opportunities when Baz could have made a derisive comment to Snow about his stalking habits that year, but he never did. I've always suspected his attitude towards Snow. I know how Baz treats someone he detests, and his treatment of Snow is not that. Not that I’m dumb enough to point that out to him.
Right now he's leading Snow around from shop to shop, acting like this is something we've always done together. As though Niall and I are just supposed to follow his lead.
Well, Niall does. They are best friends, and love shopping together. I'm more so here to carry their haul like some pack mull.
Snow has muscle, though, so when my arms start to get tired, I toss some bags his way. "Here, consider this your initiation to our group."
I swear I haven't abandoned Let's Avoid Spoilers, Darling either. The plot for this keeps shifting in my head. Originally, it was supposed to be very serious. But more and more ideas keep popping up in my head that border on crack. So I have to squash them routinely.
It’s locked. I growl, frustrated and try to turn the handle again.
“Stop.” Baz whisper-hisses at me, getting in my personal space.
“What are they hiding from us?” I demand.
“I don’t know, but my future-self is going to hear us if you keep trying to force that door open.”
Resigned, I let the door knob go. “So what do we do now?”
Without answering, Baz grabs me by the elbow and pulls me back into the room we’re sharing. “Right now? Nothing. We can’t go sneaking around this house so openly.”
“You think any of our future selves are going to leave us unsupervised long enough to sneak around except at night?” I ask.
This forces Baz to pause, crossing his arms and bringing one hand up to his mouth. He does this sometimes, it’s one of his plotting faces, chews on the pad of his thumb while he thinks.
My submission for EGF is also taking shape. Realistically, I wanted this to be a multi-chapter endeavor. But I think it's going to be a one-shot. We'll see.
I never thought that the hands that so deftly wield a sword, could be this delicate. The way Simon plucks my shirt buttons open with a smooth finesse is borderline hypnotic. He's gotten so good at it. If he really wants to, he can get a couple buttons undone without my noticing.
Normally, Simon is brute force and strength in everything that he does. But with me, it's the opposite. He treats me gently, reverently, just like I asked for when he decided to genuinely try.
When I finally feel the tips of his fingers on my newly exposed skin, it makes me shiver. The temperature contrast between us has my nerves feeling extra sensitive.
Finally, I had a random thought (and was then bribed by @ic3-que3n with their stunning artwork that I am willing to sell my soul for) to create a Witcher!SnowBaz AU. This is still in the planning process. I probably won't post anything for it until after EGF to balance my plate. So, it's just an outline for now.
Open the scene in a small desolate village at night with the streets empty
Simon is in the middle of battling [insert dark creature]
He defeats it easily with just a couple of scratches, nothing to be concerned about for him
Payment is left outside the village leaders home - no words are exchanged
Flashback Scene
Simon on his first hunt with [insert Witcher Mentor]
They’re explaining to Simon the real world practices of the Witcher trade
Hunting monsters at night
How villagers will likely not want to talk to him
How the world relies on them to keep the monsters in the dark at bay
Jump to next scene of Simon in a different town, talking to an innkeeper about a monster problem
Someone tries to hire Simon as a mercenary
Comments about Witcher’s not having emotions/feelings & only looking for coin are made
Simon ignores them and the men
Flashback Scene
Simon is in the market with other young boys from Kaer Morhen
The boys are offered coin for a small job
End up robbing an innocent shop-keep
Simon feels extreme guilt for his actions
While I have been spending too much time just staring at blank documents lately, I have still been writing a lot. But not alone. So I won't share pieces from them. BUT I have been role-playing with two amazingly talented individuals.
@buffy has me going feral over our snowbaz mpreg plot. It's so emotional. Has literally made me cry. I love it. We need to check our word count cause I think we’re over 40k now.
And @upuntil6am has me head over heels for our tender snowbaz a/b/o dynamic plot. It's tooth rotting sweet (for now, I swear you can trust me though) and I need more of it at all times.
We're not going to talk about the fact I need an idea for COBB still.
Thank you to @confused-bi-queer @hushed-chorus @shrekgogurt @johnwgrey and on Sunday @palimpsessed for all the tags these last few days ♥️ I do see them and they make me so happy to be included in the community of this lovely Fandom.
I'll forgo tagging back since it's. You know. Thursday.
#wip wednesday#well#thursday#thirsty thursday#i guess#my works always land in the M/E categories#iiycp#lets avoid spoilers darling#carry on#snowbaz#simon snow#baz#egf2023#au#roleplay
38 notes
·
View notes
Text
@therapardalis asked; [BURRITO] You know where I'm going with this, right? ;)
Given to an unusual degree of notable lethargy, a trick of coincidence had seen Miguel fall under the weather. Earlier that day, he had played his part in helping Parker dispatch the Wrecking Crew and their hired muscle, a conflict as mundane and ordinary as any other group of goons he had dealt with in the past-- for the most part. For, in typical O'Hara luck fashion, there lurked a twist in the tale, an unexpected element that came by way of the Spider colliding with the brute Bulldozer at force enough to hurt, halting only when the crook sent him crashing into a pile of cargo boxes.
Were that all to it, the man of tomorrow would've rebounded quickly, rolled back onto his feet to deliver a new round of punches and kicks before immobilising Bulldozer with webbing in response. Unfortunately, it had taken Miguel a few minutes longer than usual to dig his way out of the pile of boxes, necessitating Parker to step in and finish the job on his behalf. Although somewhat grateful for the assist, by the time that the man had established a vertical base, it became quickly apparent that something was amiss, for various parts of Miguel's digital livery now sported holes, whilst a sharp, almost medicinal odour seeped from his now drenched costume.
Soaked to the skin by something that had been kept in the boxes scattered around them, when Peter advised him to head home, for once Miguel hadn't debated the issue, ceasing the opportunity to make a quick getaway instead. Upon returning to Thera's place, he hadn't so much as waited for the front door to close shut behind him before all feigned pretences of wellness were dropped in a hurry, the sound of his felt discomfort escaping in a deep, involuntary groan that reverberated throughout the apartment.
Hoping that she wasn't at home yet to have heard that, not wishing to make her worry, Miguel fetched a fresh blanket from a basket on his way towards the couch. Sitting down with a suddenness that was half-fall, half-stumble, red hues were pinched closed in response, another sharp exhale forced from his lungs as he begins to gather the blanket around himself for comfort. Feeling himself starting to burn up, run a temperature, he moved to tuck his errant limbs against himself, transitioning into a cross-legged position as a chain of shivers racketed up and down the length of his spine.
What on earth had he been doused with?
Unsure he wished to find out, he continued to curl in on himself, form growing more compact with hazel brown tufts the next feature to vanish beneath the blanket's all-consuming spread. Soon he was reduced to little more than a vaguely human shape presence, that peered at his surroundings with a glassy-eyed garnet gaze. Waiting, beyond all else, in the hope that his overtaxed healing factor would chip in somewhat by healing the wounds he acquired from his recent fight to instead address the illness that had zapped him of his usual vitality. He had just enough stamina in reserve to not pass out by the time he heard Thera unlocking the front door.
#therapardalis#answered prompt#verse; trasnaigh an rubaicón#yesss time for softness and sick miggy#changed it up a bit and threw in the insecticide thing we were musing about a while back#also it's literally been like a month and i'm stilll coughing 😭#i swear if i get sick like this for a 3rd time in the future i'm just going straight to the local gp#long post
3 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
villainstearoom
Villains Tea Room
kernlundgaard70
The Journaling of Clapp 998
cholooks
cholooks
kaylawhitmer
GOOSE
undertale-and-deltarune-drawings
undertale/deltarune drawings