#I’ve never drawn Oscar before look at that little guy he’s so cute

[riveluart]

When they finally get out of the Ever After

#ally cat doodles #my digital art #fan art #rwby spoilers #rwby volume 9 #rwby volume 9 spoilers #rwby comics #rwby #bumbleby #bmblb #blake belladonna #yang xiao long #lie ren #nora valkyrie #qrow branwen #oscar pine #emerald sustrai #I’ve never drawn Oscar before look at that little guy he’s so cute

[totallyimagines]

Ferid Bathory Nsfw Alphabet

A-Z nsfw alphabet, Essay

You know what your signing up for if you tap that keep reading button, no warnings needed then.

A = Aftercare (What they’re like after sex)

He’s amazing at it. He’ll run you a bath or get anything you need. He doesn’t mind being sweaty though, so if you don’t want to move after sex- that’s ok because he’ll definitely be the type to just cuddle you after. Or praise you on how well you were doing. (doubt he gets any sleep, you’ll always wake up to him staring at you, one way or another. Or maybe you’ll wake up to him not there but you never get to see him sleep.) if your on punishment though, no aftercare. Here’s a win-win situation.

B = Body part (Their favourite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)

Maybe his hands, tounge, or fangs will do. He can’t choose so those are his top three. Maybe because all three get some type of reaction out of you. For you, it’s probably your blood or neck. Well, it’s something that he can chew on and still get a reaction out of you from doing something he ‘loves’. Your collarbones are probably littered in love bites and his special bites.

C = Cum (Anything to do with cum basically… I’m a disgusting person)

Cums anywhere that’s part of you, he just like the thought of claiming you as his own- just like that. He’ll hate for it to go to waste. The thought of claiming you his, always comes to mind when he sees his cum all over you.

D = Dirty Secret (Pretty self explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

He’s probably sniffed your underwear at least, once. Your scent is on them and drives him wild so yeah he’s probably going to do that. Also, he wants to do it when your on your cycle. Now that, won’t stay a dirty secret for long because it’ll eventually just happen. Face sitting too, that WILL NEVER STAY A DIRTY SECRET. Because he’ll definitely just say it out bluntly and then if you agree to it- there you go.

E = Experience (How experienced are they? Do they know what they’re doing?)

He’s pretty experienced, he’s been around for a while now. What do you expect? He’s probably lured, hundreds of people towards him. And gave them that Chick-fil-A combo but nothing compared what he has planned for you. He also never tells you how many lovers he’s had in the past and it leaves you more than curious. But doubt, he’ll ever tell you no matter how much you beg and plead.

F = Favorite Position (This goes without saying. Will probably include a visual)

Probably missionary because of how intimate it is and also because he gets to see your reactions. Also because of the neck biting, he’ll never be able to get over that. He can also here all the small praises spilling from your mouth, like he doesn’t have advanced hearing- ahahah. Besides that, doggie and probably you riding him. It seems to make him a little more cocky when you try to play the dom. Don’t get ahead of yourself now, he’s still the dom but try. He’ll let you have your moment, it probably won’t last long but you’ll definitely get it.

G = Goofy (Are they more serious in the moment, or are they humorous, etc)

Hard to explain, he’s not laughing with you- he’s laughing at you. He’ll make little jokes here and there, but they are for him. Not for you. But other than that, he’s intimate but kind of not. Like I mentioned, he can say anything he wants and it stills turns you on because he seems to be talking to you or himself but either way you can’t seem to focus. So, it’s just a bunch of sexy mess going on. Other than that, he would probably say some things that would make you laugh but only make you more aroused on how he’s saying them. Yeah, it’s confusing.

H = Hair (How well groomed are they, does the carpet match the drapes, etc.)

Nope, presentation. Like I said, he may have lured some people into getting what he wants. So, no he doesn’t have any hair and your not even sure if it grows down there. You have to at least be trimmed down there, I’m not sure he would mind the hair but if he’s going to eat you out, at least be trimmed. Although, other than that- your okay.

I = Intimacy (How are they during the moment, romantic aspect…)

Lets see here, he can be intimate when he wants to be. When he’s focusing on your pleasure, he can be more than focused but when it comes to his...he really can care less. Especially if he’s punishing you, he’ll probably just use his fingers and talk the whole time because that’s what he does. Probably just smirk as he’s doing this too, not really caring what you say.

J = Jack off (Masturbation headcanon)

As if. Not sure that this man would jack off. Especially if he has you, he can literally ask you to fulfill each other’s sexual desires and needs. Seriously though, he’s busy as it is and I doubt vampires think much about sexual pleasure. It doesn’t really ‘satisfy’ them as much. Blood does the trick, of course. Or their fangs but then again nothing really humanly but doesn’t mean that can’t get pleasure from it.

K = Kink (One or more of their kinks)

Biting kink, we already he had this before he knew he had this. It’s something that turns him own so of course he’ll do it. Blood play too, not much of it though if you dislike it. Worshiping or praising kink, it’s just another way of expressing or maybe just to tease you. But other than that, he’s pretty experimentve, he’s a really kink guy so he’s willing to learn and try out new things. Maybe a Size kink as well, he likes the size difference between you too. Doubt he would try something that you dislike. Well that’s if it’s not something that’s going to hurt you- physically. (Ahahaha, just kidding- he probably won’t ever spare you after he’s done)Maybe some mirror sex, too. He seems to get off at your submissive and ashamed side but if it’s too much- he won’t do it as much.

L = Location (Favourite places to do the do)

Anywhere in the manor, the risk of you two getting caught also turns him on. I’m pretty sure you’ve done it in every room of the manor, maybe being loud or not- either way. If You can get caught, he’s in. He’ll probably tease you in public too, maybe because he’s leaving today to go on a mission and he’s not going to be there to satisfy your needs. So, of course- he’ll tease and come back and don’t tell him you’ve already satisfied yourself. Which I’m pretty sure he’ll know- he can probably smell it. So no use lying now, is there? He probably will leave you hanging, which- like it or not, kind of pisses you off but then again sometimes he could care less. Cocky man here. Maybe shower sex too, or bath- which ever one. Less of a mess, so it’s actually better well that’s until water gets on the floor.

M = Motivation

You leaving him thirsty, especially in public. He doesn’t know what to do when you tease him in public, how did you turn on that quick. This was probably result in some harsh punishment but who wouldn’t, it just makes him more of the DOM. But other than that, motivation can come from anything. It can come from your blood, you simply doing something ‘humanly’ or you just being submissive/cute in general. Keep in mind, if your living with him- your living with a lot of thirsty vampires. So, then again it doesn’t really help your situation if someone like ‘another vampire’ wants you, which Ferid wouldn’t allow because your his. So his motivation can actually come from anywhere, especially you being cocky. This can be counted as a turn on because he’ll definitely be waiting for you. Or he’ll just sit back and watch you in amusement until you cross the line then he has to put you back in your place.

N = No (Something they wouldn’t do, turn offs)

Share you, with all these hungry vampires in this manor. Never. He hates the thought of someone even looking at you the wrong way. And if you want to have something like that, he won’t agree with you at all. He honestly just doesn’t like sharing but doesn’t mean it can’t happen. He wouldn’t share you with someone he’s not ‘close’ with. So, it’s possible but it’ll take a lot of convincing for him maybe not as much as the other person but lots of convincing. Anything that would hurt you like really bad, he doesn’t really take it as far as where all you feel is pain and no pleasure.

O = Oral (Preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc)

He prefers giving and not receiving, he doesn’t find much pleasure in receiving so he’d rather give. Any boy oh boy, does he work wonders between those legs of yours. You’ll be pretty much overstimulated and unable to think at any point where he’s between your legs. Very skilled at this, he deserves a Oscar because of how good he is. So, be expecting lots of receiving from this man.

P = Pace (Are they fast and rough? Slow and sensual? etc.)

Fast and can be slow. But he’s more of a rough and fast person because that’s just him. He can be more than romantic though, so if you want slow and gentle. He can do that. (Also this is probably what he does to most people-) maybe he builds up to bite them. Because biting you will happen in slow or fast sex. It’ll probably happen more in slow, because it just adds to the pleasure and he just gets to feed. Yeah, that’s probably all he’s living for during intimate-slow sex.

Q = Quickie (Their opinions on quickies rather than proper sex, how often, etc.)

Doubt that he’ll do this a lot, why do that when he’s got all the time in the world and when he’s practically- Da boss. So that’s a maybe on his part, prefers intimate and maybe long drawn out sex. But that can happen anywhere, maybe that’s why you guys took so long in the bathroom-

R = Risk (Are they game to experiment, do they take risks, etc.)

Yes. Your speaking to a man who can jump on buildings and stop swords and throw people. But anyways, risk is definitely in his category-. Like I’ve mentioned, anywhere in the manor and probably outside the manor too. It just makes the risk better and it adds to his ego. Especially if your afraid to get caught with him, he’ll just tease you for it. And if he wants to, he always points to the nearest building for you guys to do it in. Well, that can be aided if it’s just the two of you on a mission. So nothing to worry about there, but yes risk he can do. Because he really doesn’t have any shame.

S = Stamina (How many rounds can they go for, how long do they last…)

Lots of it, well according to this long ass eassy about Ferid Bathory. We can tell just by looking at him, he’s going to have some stamina. Although, I’m pretty sure every vampire has more speed than an usual human. I mean, they are advanced in every way so makes sense for him to have tons of stamina storaged. He won’t use all of it on you though because your just a mere human and you’ll probably more than likely pass out. Probably can last 3 or more rounds if you ask me. So, he’s probably just going to go for one or two rounds for you.

T = Toys (Do they own toys? Do they use them? On a partner or themselves?)

Fang buzzer, my kind fellow. Vibarator, Ferid. It’s a vibrator. He’s actually kind of new to toys so no biggie there. He’ll probably just use them for self amusement, watching how much you squirm, just from a little ‘vibrator’. He’ll also play with the buttons while it’s between your legs and you’ll be feeling all types of things. No seriously, you’ll be overstimulated from a Vibrator, probably the last thing you want to be overstimulated by. I mean, it’s Ferid controlling it so that counts. Maybe a dildo, but would be a little offended by you hiding it from him. And would ask what you use it for. Explaining toys to him would be awkward, I mean explaining toys to anyone would just be awkward. So, please be open with this man. Though, he wouldn’t even try and use the dildo often. He probably try it on you once and say he can do better.

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)

More than Unfair, you wouldn’t be able to get a break at all and your face is what makes him want to tease you more. He’ll just be unfair by not satisfying your requests or denying to let you cum- multiple times. He’ll just give you a fancy grin at how irratated you get sometimes but would still push you at some point. Even if your in a bad mood today, he can still find some button to push on you, that’s makes you just-wanna-

V = Volume (How loud they are, what sounds they make)

Depends on what your doing to him, I’ve mentioned, once again, that he doesn’t find much pleasure in ‘humanly’ pleasure. So as a human, you might have to find how to make him moan. Well, that isn’t so hard is it- well is it? You just have to find a few spots to make him moan, nothing difficult. How about his neck, don’t be shy bite him. It just makes him feel good like it would go you or any other human being. He probably has a sweet spot, but it’ll take a while to find it. Pull on his fangs, or lick them. Just do something to those fangs. He probably just really feels something when it comes to those, because he’ll slightly moan whenever you touch them. That’s probably the most your getting out of him, because he doesn’t want you to discover anymore.

W = Wild card (Get a random headcanon for the character of your choice)

Watches you sleep, like all night. Well, that’s if he didn’t get up and leave. I don’t think he needs sleep, but also does it because he wants to at least ‘feel’ human. But then again, doesn’t want to be one. So, you’ll probably wake up In the middle of the night sometimes with red eyes glowing back at you. Which will probably freak you out but when you realize it’s just Ferid and not some ‘demon or other person in your room’. Your all cool again.

X = X-ray (Let’s see what’s going on in those pants, picture or words)

He’s packing and yes we all know you want some. Although, would he let you get some?(doesn’t have much to put here- *red alert*)

Y = Yearning (How high is their sex drive?)

He doesn’t really have a high sex drive but I’m certain you’ll wake up in his bed most of the week, thinking about how the hell did you get here? And what the hell happened last night? Doubt he’ll tell you but ok, nothing suspicious. Even when he’s with you, his sex drive only went up a tiny bit. He’s more of just a tease and if you are horny, he’ll actually only focus on your pleasure. He probably won’t take of any of his clothes though, so foreplay only- probably:/

Z = Zzz (… how quickly they fall asleep afterwards)

Nope, you won’t be able to see this man go to sleep before you do. It’s rare to wake up before him though, well that’s if he even does go to sleep. So catching him sleeping right after sex, isn’t possible.

#ferid bathory x reader #ferid bathory

[roguestarsailor]

One Day In December is such a good novel. I can’t believe I read the scorpio book recommendation and picked this up; whoever the astrologer person from the library is they really hit the mark. My god im literally sobbing. This is so goood!

Laurie and Jack have the most ordinary and mundane yet antsy and frustrating love story ever. I mean, this is a romcom so obviously they’ll end up together but the book spends like +300 pages making it seem impossible for that to happen! So many life moments that really shove them together but also tear them apart. So much unspoken tension!! So much unspoken truths!! so much to lose!! But as it near the ending and they’re both really figuring out their lives instead of finding distractions, or brushing aside feelings and red flags, and BOOM right in the feels. ahhh, i’ve never teared up for a love story before but I did for this! wow!!

“Might as well,” I grumbled. “My love life is official dead.”

Sarah screws up her finished-with fish-and-chip paper. “You’ve only got yourself to blame,” she says.

She’s referring to bus boy, of course. He’s reached near-mythical status now, and I’m on the very edge of giving up on him. Ten months is a long time to look for a complete stranger on the off-chance that they’ll be single, into me, and not an axe murderer. Sarah is of the vocal opinion that I need to move on, by which she means I need to find someone else before I turn into a nun. I know she’s right, but my heart isn’t ready to let him go yet. That feeling when we locked eyes--I’ve never had that before, ever.

i dog-eared this page because this is meeeeeeeeeeeee. not that ive ever had a love at first sight sighting in my entire life (but no one is gonna stop me from not making eye contact on public transport and hoping for the best!!). i love that Laurie is just as wistful; makes me feel better about myself (and makes me foolishly hopeful!!!) lol.

*spoilers*

Anyways, the time passage through this book was speedy; literally years pass as we read on. I was so anxious because its like long stretches of time passes and it literally takes years for them to officially get together. This is very different than other romcom books I’ve read since those generally is more quick to lead to the happy ending. And I guess it’s true. Love develops over time and at the same time, the time needed to *try* to get over someone but also figure yourself out as you age through your twenties. It’s never constantly spending time with someone either; its long stretches of time away from each other too. Most of the things that happen are really really mundane. It’s not grand, its not dramatic and its very quiet. Nobody makes quick decisions here and it’s so drawn out. 

It’s like how working at a job you hate can just escape you and you end up staying for too long. This book covers both the career stalemate and the love portion--staying in a relationship because you’ve built it and its actively choosing to keep it going even though it obvious not going to last. Even when Sarah and Laurie have their fall out, a good distance between time passes and I think that’s very normal. Even when they reunite again, its quiet and just casual and they slowly work back up to being the bestest friends again. Laurie and Jack relationship’s was actively trying not to engage with one another and it really showed--but its not completely radio silence nor intense heated moments. It’s fleeting because they both recognize that if they got together they would hurt Sarah, and then eventually Oscar and probably themselves the mostly. It’s watching them seeing the other person be with someone else or moving through life at a different speed and feeling like they’re too late and then having their paths diverge even more and then connecting at realizing the feelings are still here, and then diverging again and coming again. Their relationship is the definition of missed opportunities!!! But I think this is the most accurate account of adult relationships I’ve ever read so far and its really refreshing.

^ my literal face as i read the last few pages

*personal thoughts*

This gave me a really good insight into the world of dating and relationships and love. I am so used to reading these big grand things happening that the universe allow these two people to meet and create this magic. There’s the hurdles to jump through but they get through in the end and its implied that because they have the biggest element, which is love, means that they will be ok. They might have friends who root for them, they have little mice and birds to help them, so many elements in a typical romcom universe that pushes these two together. But this book was different.

As Jack dates Sarah, we know they don’t fit well but they stick it out. They actively try to date and get to know each other so they spend months to years dating. And its not that Jack only thinks about Laurie but rather its always in the background. Laurie tried to stay out of the way and Jack does the same. It’s wild to think that someone you have an almost instant connection with might not actually be what you want and you have to actively see the reality of the situation and actively live your life. To figure out if what you have with that person can technically work--makes it clear that a relationship IS work. It’s not passionate and fire! it’s very small, its texting every day and slowly giving a piece of yourself to this person. And its inconvenient as hell!!! Even Laurie being with Oscar, and actually getting married and trying to make married life work for them was mundane and average. There was no point where there was a dramatic STOP THE WEDDING, or like screaming “I Love You’s” and such for Laurie and Jack. Nobody was the bad guy and did the bad thing that made people realize that they don’t belong together; none of that! Oscar never cheated or became problematic, even Jack realized that have casual relationships wasn’t for him; nothing dramatic like that at all. Nobody actively objected to Laurie/Oscar’s union and nobody was actively rooting to get Jack and Laurie together. It had to be them, as individuals, choosing each other which is so fucken sweet and such a good expectation to have regarding romance love. Even though it started as a chance love at first sight moment, it ended up being them actively choosing and actively seeking out their own happiness and idea of what they want in life and then declaring it, separately, to each other that made them work as a couple. well there was a bit of a fanfare at the end of the book but it was cute. It was normal people! finding love! for each other!! I love this so much!!!

Songs to include in this Playlist I am 1000% gonna made for this book: invisible strings by Taylor Swift, Enchanted by Taylor Swift, gold rush by Taylor Swift, Speak Now by Taylor Swift, Permanent by Kygo, In Your Eyes by The Weekend, Heat Waves by Glass Animals, Just For A Moment by Gryffin, Iselin, Comeback by Carly Rae Jepsen, Bleachers, Don’t Give Up On Love by Kygo, Losing It Over You by Matoma, Ayme

#amandabookthoughts #one day in december #love at first sight #josie silver #contemporary romance #na literature #love story

[austarus]

Harry Wells x Reader Decisions and Impulses

**A/N: The picture/edit/gif does not belong to me. It belongs to @stellar-raven .

“You mean the old Harrison Wells? As in Eobard Thawne?” Cisco asks, with a look on his face as you and the trio walk into the Cortex. You held your tongue, knowing that getting faster is everything to Barry at the moment, no matter how he does it. “You want him to teach you how to run faster? Oh, that’s rich.”

“How are you gonna do that?” A query Caitlin resonates, a question that the three of us have been thinking about since Barry made his pitch with this outrageous idea.

“By running back to a time last year,” Barry simply answers, rounding around the main monitors to face you and the others.

“And what about the other you, the one from that other timeline?” You inquire, raising an eyebrow as you stood in between Cisco and Caitlin at the monitors. Caitlin rests her hands on the backrest of the chairs, while Cisco leans forward slightly to rest against his own respective chair.

“I’ll knock him out with something.”

“Barry,” you give him a look, which the speedster quickly disregards as he continues to speak.

“I mean, it’s not like he’ll see me coming, and then I’ll have Wells teach me.”

“Barry, that’s crazy,” Caitlin immediately responds in a ‘voice of reason’ tone, yet not a harsh response on which Barry would have received from a certain grumpy scientist.

“Nothing I’ve read is pointing me towards a solution, and if there’s anybody that’s figured out the key to getting faster without V-9, it’s him.” Barry glances at all of you briefly, mind literally racing for some sort of solution to beating Zoom and ending his treachery. “What do you guys think?”

You let out a little and quiet sigh, listening to Barry justify his conclusion. The idea didn’t settle well with you, neither with Cisco and Caitlin either, especially with interfering in a past point in the timeline. There is literally a 50-50% chance that something could go wrong… You could only move your gaze down to the idle computer screen, pursing your lips and folding your arms. Cisco and Caitlin let out little breaths and digest Barry’s spontaneous plan.

You four hear a sudden scoff, all of you snapping your heads to the source. Harry glances at you, his bright blue eyes softening for a fraction before narrowing them at Barry with a hardened expression, “Your plan is asinine.”

Barry rolls his eyes and makes a face as Harry strolls in his with bag and brooding mood.  

“Did you find Jesse?” You unfurl your arms, as you and Cisco ask the current million dollar question that’s been plaguing the genius physicist.

“Does it look like I found Jesse?” Harry fires back with a grave tone before throwing his bag onto the table, then turning around to face Barry. “How many times have you traveled through time?”

“A few.”

“Do you have any idea how many things you could screw up?”

“All I need is one conversation with Dr. Wells.”

“He’s not Wells-”

“-Thawne-”

“I’m Wells!”  Harry shouts while throwing down his dark jacket. Barry of all people should know that Harry hates it when they refer to Thawne as Wells. “This man has been studying you for 15 years. For 15 years. And you don’t think he’s not gonna know who you are?”

Harry does have a point… you think as you walk around in hopes of calming the two men down because honestly, Harry might throw something at this point.

“Barry,” you rest your hand on Barry’s arm so he can look at you. You reason your thoughts, “Harry’s right, what if something happens? What if he finds out? Then what? Eobard can smell deceit because he's practically the embodiment of deception.” You move to stand beside your grumpy boyfriend, “The mess would be even bigger and we wouldn’t know how to fix it or where to start with it.”

Barry looks around exasperated before looking at you like a kicked puppy. He just wants an answer to end everyone’s constant state of misery.

“Barry’s pretty good at impersonating himself, though,” Cisco intervenes, completely missing the look you threw at him to not encourage Barry with going through with this. “You should’ve seen him over there on Earth-2. I was like, ‘Somebody get this man an Oscar.’” The mechanical scientist voices his own thoughts with a grin to Caitlin, who humored him with a tiny smile.

I thought the boys agreed not to speak about what happened on Earth-2. You look up at Harry, who had his steely expression locked onto Barry. With crossed arms and an amused smile, the scarlet speedster gave you both a look that hinted what his next course of action will be.

"He will know, Allen. He will know.”

“All right, then what am I supposed to do?” Barry gestures with an extended arm to the speed equation written on the glass board. “I mean, how am I supposed to stop Zoom? Do you know the answer to this equation?”

You, like the others, understand that this- this seems like the only option. A chance, really. Do or don’t. Two options, both which can lead to victorious triumph or disastrous defeat along with the loss of so many lives. How many people have to die because of an evil speedster with a megalomaniac complex?

“If Thawne figures out that it’s you, the timeline will be altered. People can die. Others could live, and no one will know who or what will be affected, but I promise you, when you come back, things will be different. And only you will know what those differences are.”

“Well, if that’s what I have to do to stop Zoom, then so be it, because if I don’t, and Zoom gets my speed before I learn how to stop him,” Harry just shakes his head and presses his lips into a thin line, retaking his bag as Barry speaks. Caitlin and Cisco were quiet throughout the exchange, thinking up possible routes the speedster can take if he does go back in time. “Everybody I care about. Everybody in this whole city, their world will never be the same anyway.”

You all glance at each other when Harry backs down, he takes a glimpse back at the speedster before pulling on his cap as he steps away and out of the Cortex without a single word. You take in a breath, wanting to follow him out. Glancing back at Barry, you register the fact that his green-ish eyes spark with confidence and a tinge of determination.

Taking a few steps, you tilt your head a little before speaking, "Just… if you do go through with this, be careful.” Making eye contact STAR Labs’ resident biochemist and mechanical engineer, you then look at Barry. “It's not just your life on the line, Barry, its all of ours too.”

.:.:.

You knock on the door-frame of the smaller lab with your knuckles softly, blue eyes instantly snapping up away from the board to turn to you. “Hey,” you greet the taller, dark-haired man with a soft smile. Harry looked as if he prepared himself for another yelling match with the hero of Central City, only to drop it when his mind instantly realized that it's you.

He looks cute with his glasses on

“Hey,” he caps the marker in his hand, awkwardly standing there when you took a few steps forward. You couldn’t stop yourself from wrapping your arms around him in an attempt to either comfort him or to subside his remaining inner frustration and rage, to which it took Harry a couple seconds to respond to. This relationship between you and Harry was still new, physical affection rarely exchanged outside of simple hand-holding and brief hugs. Understandable though, Barry's sudden and rash idea on top of Jesse’s disappearance is hitting him even harder now.

You pull back slightly, looking at Harry with a worried look as his arms still curl around your waist, “Are you going to be okay?”

He breathes through his nose, moving his gaze to look past you before making eye contact again, ”I’ll… be fine with you by my side.” His simple words make your heart jump, warmth rising to your cheeks. Harry’s not the coziest with emotions, but you gradually found out that when you’re alone with him he can bring down his walls. Trust, loyalty, and the relentless need to protect the ones he loves.

“I’m here for you, whenever you need me, Harry. I'll do the best I can to help you get Jesse back,” you beam a confident smile and twinkling eyes that indicates every bit of adoration at him when he cups your face. A gesture surprising you, but you don’t pull away. His thumb brushes over your cheek, a million thoughts running through your head as you remember the girls slightly teasing you for not having a first kiss with Harry.

His sky blues gaze into your own eyes, the world around you going on a stand-still. Your heart skips a beat or two, it always did whenever you were around him. What good have I ever done in the multiverse for you to bring such light into my life? Harry thinks as he leans down, pressing a long and overdue first kiss to your unsuspecting lips. Never sparring a thought at the abrupt surge of affection.

You shut your eyes tightly and respond to his lips after getting over your initial shock. The kiss only lasted a few seconds, both of you parting with flushed cheeks.

“Sorry-”

“-One more.” The words leave your mouth and you’re frankly a little bewildered by how forward you're being, cheeks flushing in embarrassment at you outburst . Before Harry can say anything or even come up with a response, his body moves on its own as he kisses you once more. Like how a moth is drawn to the fire. This time with a newfound passion. You take a step forward, resting your palms flat against his black sweater as he pulls you closer to his strong form.

Your mouth meets his over and over, eventually, your tongues joining in. Ragged breaths and little content hums leave one of you at some point, seconds seemed to turn into minutes. One little kiss turns into a smooch session filled with endearment and emotion, hopefully something that a certain scarlet speedster couldn’t ruin even if said speedster went back in time. It’s addicting… kissing her, having her in my arms like this... Harry can’t help but muse to himself when you two give each other one final kiss before pulling away.

Biting your lower lip, you shyly look up at him and a zoo of butterflies flutter around in your body when you see his lips tugged up in a smile. He lets out a sigh and wraps his arms tighter around you. This… Her, I will protect her and Jesse.

#harrison wells x reader #harry wells x reader #harrison wells #harry wells imagine #harrison wells imagine #the flash x reader #the flash imagine #the flash cw #the flash fanfiction #the flash #cw #arrowverse #barry allen #caitlin snow #cisco ramon #flash cw #team flash #flash x reader #zoom #reverse flash #team flash x reader #team legends #team arrow

[races-erster]

knight in shining armor (davey x reader)

Requested: yep! by anon!

Word Count: 3185

Warnings: Violence

A/n: This is the longest fic I’ve ever written, and I’m very proud of the outcome! This is also my first time writing for Davey, and i feel like it’s pretty in character, so I hope you all think the same! also, thanks for the anon who requested this! I ad a lot of fun writing it! 

Prompt: “you make me cliche, but I love it I guess.”

Materlist

How to be tagged

Request

—

David Jacobs had read hundreds of books. Some were scientific, others had been plays, but his absolute favorite were fairy tales or anything romantically cliche.

When David started to sell newspapers, his time for reading was diminished. He longed to read anything other than the news. He longed for a cliche story to read. He longed for the stories of a knight in shining armor, saving someone, and them living happily ever after.

David wanted his life to be like those stories he wanted to be the hero for once in his life. He wanted an epic love story. Little did he know, he was about to have all of that.

—

You noticed him as soon as he walked through the circulation gate. There was a new kid, and for some reason , he was incredibly intriguing: the way he carried himself and the way he dressed was different from all the boys you had gotten used to. He seemed reserved and worried about the strange new company around him and about the small kid who trailed closely behind.

You had been talking to Jack when your attention was further drawn towards the new kids. The smaller of the two made a comment about also being new to Wiesel as if he was offended for not being noticed.

After that, you all turned to see the situation unfold. The older boy had claimed that he was missing a paper, and the Delanceys looked like they were getting ready to soak him for the accusation. Jack started to go over to the kid, but you stopped him and went over yourself.

The kid looked startled when you went over and abruptly took his papers to count them.

“Hey, the new kid’s right Weasel. You only gave him 19. I’m sure it’s an honest mistake though, on account of Oscar can’t count to 20 with his shoes on,” you teased.

Oscar looked ready to fight you, so Jack drew the attention away, “Give the new kid 50 more papes!”

“I don’t want more papers. I’m no charity case. I don’t even know you.”

The older kid grabbed the smaller one’s hand and began to pull him towards the exit of the square, but the latter pulled out of his grasp and climbed up on a stack of papers.

“His name is Jack! And that’s Y/n!”

“Yeah! This here’s the famous Jack Kelly! He once escaped jail on the back of Teddy Roosevelt’s carriage. Made all the papes. Y/n’s smuggled food and things to the kids in the refuge all their life and they get kids out of there sometimes. They’re the best newsie in the city too,” Crutchie boasted.

“Guilty,” you admitted. “How old are you, kid?”

“I’m 10...almost!”

“Well kid, if anybody asks, you’re 7. Younger sells more papes, especially if we’re gonna partner.”

That got the older kid’s attention really drawn in on you and the younger kid, “Who said we wanna partner?”

“Selling with Y/n is the chance of a lifetime. You sell with them, you sell with the best!” Crutchie boasted again.

“If they’re the best, what do they need with us?”

“Cause you got a little brother and I don’t. With that puss, we could easily sell a thousand papes a week,” you countered.

“This is my brother David! And I’m Les!”

“Nice to meet you Davey. My two bits come off the top, we split everything 70 30. Y’know what? I’ll do you even better than that. 60 40.”

“50 50. You’re trying to pull a fast one on a little kid!”

“60 40 and that’s my final offer. Deal?” You asked, spitting in your hand and sticking it out for him to shake.

“Deal,” he said, spitting in his hand and returning the handshake.

“That’s disgusting,” Davey inquired.

“That’s just business,” you protested. “We better go before the Delanceys try to kick us out. Come on.”

—

Les was a natural born seller. Davey on the other hand, wasn’t as good as he could be. You had sold out of papers long before he had. Les had even run out of them and sold one of Davey’s last two.

Davey tried so hard to sell the paper, but it was to no avail. He wasn’t able to make up headlines or make the stories sound interesting. You decided that you would just sell his paper for him and give him the money.

“Extra, extra! Terrifying flight from burning inferno! You heard the story right here!” You called, and a man came up and paid you for the paper.

“You lied,” Davey gawked.

“I did not,” you protested. “I said he heard it right here and he did.”

“Yeah well, my father told me not to lie,” Davey said bluntly.

“Theirs taught them not to starve,” Jack said coming up behind you.

“We should get going if we’re going to find them a place to stay, Jack,” you said turning to him.

“Oh, yeah. Right. Hey,” he started addressing Davey and Les, “how about we divy up the money? We’ll get you some food and find you a place to stay.”

“Oh, we gotta get home. Our folks will be waiting with dinner.”

“You have folks?” You questioned.

“Doesn’t everyone?”

Les’ question made you sharply inhale and look down at the ground. Les was too innocent for his own good. You only hoped he would never have to go through losing one of his parents while he was still young.

“Les,” Davey warned once he saw how your demeanor change. “Why don’t you come over for dinner? Our folks would be glad to have you.”

“Thanks, but I just remembered that Jack and I have a meeting with somebody soon. They’re probably waiting for us now,” you lied.

Les pointed further down the road and asked, “Is that the guy you’re meeting?”

You turned and saw Snyder coming toward you. He noticed you and Jack and called out your names. You told Davey and Les to follow you as you all ran down the streets of the city.

You were still being chased by the time you got to the Bowery. Jack ran up the fire escape followed by Les and then Davey. As you started to climb, you felt a hand grab you ankle and start to pull you back towards the ground.

Davey noticed that you were taking longer than everyone else had, so he turned to check on you. He saw Snyder pulling you down by your leg and he gave you his hand to pull you up.

Once you were finally free from Snyder and up the fire escape of the theater, Davey still had ahold of your hand and you had a strange feeling in your chest.

—

You all entered the theater though a back window and ended up on the catwalk.

“Why am I running? I have nobody chasing me,” Davey muttered.

“Believe me, if you knew who that was, you’d have a reason to run,” you replied.

“Then, who was it?”

“You were about to answer when Jack spoke up instead, “That was Snyder. He runs a jail for underage kids called the Refuge.”

“Do yourself a favor and stay clear of him and that god awful place,” you added.

He nodded as you heard Miss Medda call out from the stage “No kids allowed in the theater!”

Jack climbed down from the catwalk, and the rest of you followed in suit. You and Jack both greeted Miss Medda and you introduced Davey and Les.

When Davey greeted her, he bowed as if he was meeting royalty, and you couldn’t help but laugh to yourself a little. It was kinda cute.

Davey heard you laugh quietly, and shot straight up from his position. He could feel the heat rising to his face, but turned when he noticed that Les was staring at the Bowery Beauties.

“What’s wrong with you?” He asked Les sternly.

“Are you blind? She’s got no clothes on!” Les responded.

You, Jack, and Medda all tried to hold back your laughter while the conversation between Davey and Les was unfolding. You had lost focus on what was happening around you as you looked at Davey, until you heard Miss Medda say, “Theater’s not only entertaining, it’s educational. Got your picture kid?”

Les nodded frantically as Miss Medda had began to acknowledge the backdrop Jack had painted her. Les and Davey began to admire and compliment him on his work, but he just brushed of the comments as if painting something that intricate was child’s play.

Suddenly, Miss Medda’s stage manager ran up to her, telling her that she was supposed to be on stage. She made a joke about and laughed, which you and Jack went along with as well.

Miss Medda told you to stay as long as you all needed to before she went on stage to perform. Jack went to sit with the audience, while you, Davey, and Les stayed behind and watched from backstage.

After Medda went on and introduced the Bowery Beauties to the audience, you noticed that Les looked exhausted. You nudged Davey from his spot beside you to get his attention.

“Y/n, I think I’m going to take him home,” Davey whispered to you in order to not interrupt the show.

“That’s probably a good idea. I’ll walk out with you since I can’t find Jack.”

—

The three of you went outside of the theater after you made sure Snyder wasn’t still out there waiting for you.

“Y/n, do you want us to take you back to wherever you’re staying?” Davey asked.

“No thanks, Davey. I’ll be alright. Besides I don’t want to keep you guys from getting home. Your parents are probably worried.”

“Okay. Goodnight, Y/n.”

“Goodnight, Davey.”

—

The walk home between Davey and Les had been silent. Les was thinking through the day, and thought of a question for Davey.

“You like Y/n don’t you?”

“They’re nice. Is that what you mean?” Davey replied.

“No. I mean you love them, don’t you?”

Heat rose up to Davey’s face for the second time that night and stuttered out, “People don’t fall in love in one day, Les.”

“But that’s how all your books go. The one guy, I can’t remember what they’re called, saves somebody and then they fall in love right after.”

“They’re called knights in shining armor. And I haven’t saved Y/n from anything. Besides, people only fall in love like that in stories,” Davey defended.

“You have saved them though. When that guy was chasing us and he grabbed Y/n, you went to get them,” Les added.

Davey never responded and spent the rest of the night contemplating what Les had said. Even when he was trying to fall asleep, he couldn’t get your name out of his head. Maybe Les was right.

It would explain why he was so embarrassed when he greeted Miss Medda and it would explain why he didn’t let go of your hand after he knew you were safe when Snyder grabbed you.

Meanwhile, back at the lodge you were having similar thoughts. You kept thinking back to that feeling of Davey’s hand in yours, how your hand felt empty without his, and how he offered to take you back to the lodge. He sure was something else.

—

The next day, you woke up feeling great, until you saw the new headline. They were going to make you pay 60 cents for 100 papers instead of the usual 50. You all decide that no one was going to sell papers until they put the price back. You were one strike.

The boys all decided that you and Jack would be the presidents of the strike. Davey was the only one who was apprehensive about joining though. You explained to him why you all had to go on strike, and he finally agreed.

Later that day, you were all sitting around the tables at Jacobi’s Deli discussing who would tell the other boroughs about the strike. It was decided that you, Jack, and Davey would take care of Brooklyn.

While you were all determining who would go where, a young woman walking in asking why everyone was so afraid of Brooklyn. Jack seemed to already know her, and you sort of recognized her from the day before.

She said that she would be able to get all of you in the paper, front page even, if she had an exclusive story about the strike. That got the attention of everybody, and soon you were all wondering if you would actually be able to be on the front page.

You all left after that and decided to head to your designated boroughs the next morning. You and Davey bid each other goodnight just as you had the night before.

—

Waiting for the circulation gate to open the next morning felt the same as torture. Brooklyn wasn’t coming, and you were losing hope that anyone else would.

Race came up and asked if you had seen Brooklyn and you couldn’t help but groan.

“Sure we seen him,” Jack exhaustedly said.

“Him and about 20 of his gang,” Davey inquired.

“And those Brooklyn boys is big,” Les added.

“Yeah, everyone except for Spot,” you said, sarcastically. “At least he was impressed though. Not with us, but impressed.”

“He’s really not gonna help?” Race questioned, his tone filled with discouragement.

“That all depends on how you look at it. If you look and see Brooklyn, they’re with us,” Davey explained.

“Yeah. They wanted proof that we weren’t going to fold at the first sign of trouble,” you scoffed.

The rest of the newsies came by, and said that each borough was only going to join once Brooklyn would. Needless to say, everyone was ready to quit.

Jack had Davey launch into a big speech about how we had to strike in order for everybody to see that you all weren’t just kids. By the end of it, you were once again ready to face Pulitzer and Hearst and get the rights that you all deserved.

—

Suddenly, three scabs pushes passed everyone and bought papers. Jack spoke up to get them to join the side of everyone else, and soon after, everyone was speaking in order to get them to join your side.

The scabs decided to ditch Weasel and the Delanceys in order to fight for what was right, and the strike looked like it would end in your favor.

You were by Davey when you heard Les calling for help. You both turned, and saw the Delanceys shoving Les around. Davey ran over and pushed the Delanceys away from him, and he gave Les to you.

All the newsies in the square cornered the Delanceys and pushed then down, so Les was able to hit them together. Once they were able to get up, the Delanceys ran out of the gate.

You all threw papers around after they left, and you ran to find Davey in the crowd. Once you did, you threw your arms around him.

“Thank you, Davey. Without you none of this would have happened,” you said.

You kissed his cheek and he returned your hug. You stayed in each other’s embrace until you noticed everyone had gone silent. You lifted your head off of Davey’s shoulder and saw Weasel surrounded by strikebreakers. Davey noticed the look on your face, and followed your gaze to once again see the large amount of strikebreakers. Instinctively, his arms wrapped tighter around your waist.

“Y/n, I need you to take Les and get out of here.”

“Davey, I’m not leaving without you. Either we both go, or someone else takes Les,” you protested. “What if Katherine took him? Or at least hid with him?”

“Fine. But if anything happens, come find me, okay?” He asked, as Jack told all the newsies to fight.

“I will.”

You ran to find Katherine to two her to keep an eye on Les. She grabbed his hand and ran with him to hide in the nearest alleyway.

—

You had been fighting one of the strikebreakers when you heard Romeo thanking a cop for showing up. Next thing you knew, Romeo was on the ground, and Davey had been hit by the bull.

You rushed over to his side to make sure that he was alright, but all he said in return was, “Y/n, you have to go now. Please.”

“Davey. I’m not going. Everyone needs me here and besides, I wouldn’t leave unless you did too.”

“Okay. Just don’t get hurt.”

You ran off to help Elmer, but ended up being grabbed by Oscar. He punched you and knocked you to the ground. It ended up knocking all of the air out of you and it took you a few minutes to remember what was going on.

You were still on the ground when you saw Davey over you, getting Oscar away from you the best that he could. Eventually, Oscar got tired of his efforts, and moved on to fight someone else.

Davey picked you up, and you tried to protest, but by the time you started, you, Davey, Katherine, and Les we’re out of the square.

“What happened to them, Davey?” Les asked, worried about you.

“One of the brothers just messed with them a little bit. They’ll be okay though,” he answered.

You looked up at Davey and couldn’t help but admire him. Eventually, you felt a wave of exhaustion take over you, and fell asleep in Davey’s arms.

—

You woke up and felt something on your head. You removed the wash rag, and looked over to your right. Davey was next to you, tending to another one of your wounds.

He noticed that you had woken up, and moved so he could help you sit up in the bed.

“How’re you feeling?”

“I’m okay, Davey. Really.”

“I’m glad,” he started. “When you fell asleep, I got a little worried.”

“You don’t have you be worried. I’m okay.”

You moved so you could rest your head on his shoulder. After sometime, you finally said “You know, Davey? You make me really cliche, but I love it, I guess.”

“What do you mean?”

“Just, thank you for saving me.”

“I wouldn’t necessarily say that I saved you,” Davey said, blushing at your words.

“I would. It’s the second time you have, really. First you saved me from Snyder, then you saved me from Oscar. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’re like my own personal knight in shining armor,” you joked.

Although it was a joke, there was a lot of truth behind it. Davey had saved from any tough spot you had been in since you met. In a way, he was your hero.

“Well,” Davey started, “when a knight in shining armor saves someone, they usually end up falling in love. Does that mean you’re falling in love with me?” Davey asked you, nervously.

“It just might.”

—

Tag List:

@blytheandherbrain @adderall-anon @well-the-kids-do-too @writer-of-camelot@viennaleia@sunshinecrutchie @sapphire–love @midnight-finch @crutchieee-morris@dpslover4life-blog @newsieswearingheelies @fishtankfullofpennies@musicalidiotthe3rd @ben-cook-can-cook @pandalfthesmol@carryingthedaveyjacobs @sunshine-musicals-yea @just-go-and-get-her@ilovebway @thebroadwayaesthetic @was-it-the-nargles-again @fandom-fangirl07 @newsies-plaza @i-got-personality @awwwwwwdang @c0ronas@ughwaitwhat @thecaptainsgingersnap @the-woild-is-my-what-now @you-thinks-wrong-romeo @suddenly-im-respecsable @racinghiggins @bennie-badeend @ilovejoshburrage @val-dani03 @newsie-fics @newtieparker @seasickdolphin @happy-little-musician @the-story-of-the-tucks @the-world-has-buttery-smiles @spot-conlon-king-of-brooklyn @the-real-king-racetrack-higgins @c-taylor-wanna-be-a-glader @rsis0811 @iwantsomesleep @nverkept @constantly-singing @happy-little-musician @bastille-smedry @king-of-nyc @jd-sammy @farfromjustordinary

#newsies #newsies x reader #davey jacobs #davey x reader #davey jacobs x reader #jack kelly #katherine plumber #les jacobs #racetrack higgins

[codyfernaesthetic]

Unholy: The Wolf’s Invitation

Summary: Father Langdon invites Mallory to finish what they started.

Warnings: Harsh, explicit language, blasphemous situation(?)

Author’s note: Surprise suckers, it’s a three parter! I want the...consummation to be perfect. Enjoy!

Mallory had never felt more out of place than at Mass the following Sunday from her sinful encounter at confession. Every utterance of holy Scripture burned on her tongue, the wine of communion was souring in her stomach. Even her outfit, a draped white blouse and black skirt with heels felt more scandalous today despite wearing it hundreds of times before. She sat at the end of her usual pew, legs pressed together tightly and hands folded demurely in front of her. Her eyes darted everywhere, terrified that somehow the other congregants could read her mind; because all she could think about was Father Langdon’s dulcet voice as he uttered deliciously sinful words right inside the four walls of the holy of holies. Without a single touch, he’d ravaged her so completely. The hymns she sang erupted from constricted breath as she imagined him slipping his elegant fingers between her legs and bringing her to ungodly bliss. She felt hot to the touch beneath the glass stares of saints and angels. 

She was thankful another priest delivered the sermon today; grateful how utterly boring he was, how completely dispassionate. One of Langdon’s beautiful orations would have been a detriment to her ability to stay calm. When the service ended, she gathered her purse and rushed towards the exit, desperate to feel the chilly winter breeze.

“Mallory!”

The voice stopped her in her tracks.

“Always a pleasure to see you,” Langdon commented sincerely, walking up to her with his hand outstretched for a friendly greeting.

She didn’t accept it, and words spilled out of her mouth hastily, “Father Langdon, I want to apologize for what happened at my confession. I should not have let myself give into temptation so eagerly, and in my sin I led you astray. I pray you can forgive me.”

He cocked his head, offering her a playful smile and sympathetic eyes, “Oh, Mallory, there’s nothing to forgive.”

Her lips parted in surprise, “But…”

He motioned for her to walk with him a bit farther away from the exiting crowd, which she did reluctantly.

“Human nature is such a fickle beast. If you tell it not to do something, it desires it all the more. The fruit never looked so appetizing until it was forbidden,” he looked at her, “Have you ever read Oscar Wilde, Mallory?” She shook her head. “Brilliant writer,” they stopped, their eyes meeting, “Perhaps my most favorite quote from him is, “The only way to get rid of temptation, is to yield to it.” I must confess that quote alone influences more of my theology than some parts of Scripture,” he admitted sheepishly before giving a wink, “But that can be our little secret.”

Heat bloomed in her chest, “I’m afraid I don’t really understand.”

He spoke with his hand, the member gliding gracefully through the air, “Consider what happened at your confession as an extreme form of penance. Getting the sin out of your system, freeing the mind,” he smiled, “As long as it is taboo, it dominates your mind, but when you are allowed expression, you dominate it.”

As irregular as it was, Mallory took some comfort in the holy man’s explanation. Though, the ugly head of jealousy peeked through as she thought of anyone else being “helped” by him.

“Has your extreme form of penance worked before?”

His eyes lazily rolled over her figure, smile turning impish, “Are you asking whether or not I’ve made other congregates cum like you?”

Hearing him say it aloud, even so intimately quiet, caused familiar panic to jolt through her; along with a sharp pang of desire.

“No,” he chuckled, “My methods would have me removed from the Church.”

Confused, she tucked her hair behind her ear, “Then why...?”

“Why you?” He finished for her, gazing at her with an admiring look, “You’re different, Mallory. There’s an aura about you, I don’t see any pretense in your faith. You’re...genuine,” he stepped closer, sending a trail of goosebumps down her spine, “Hypocrisy is such a rampant plague among the faithful. In you I see the true image of God. Divinity given human hands.”

She blushed further, if it were possible, “I’ve never seen myself as anything special like that.”

His took her hand between his, The comforting warmth intoxicating.

“Then you do your Creator a great disservice, for he made you with a crown upon your head.”

He looked away for the first time, as if embarrassed, “And, well, I was also purging my own sins in that confessional.”

Her heart jumped.

“I didn’t think you thought of me in that way.”

He laughed, low and gentle, “I’ve thought of you in every way, Mallory.”

She had a flashing thought of him with her pinned against the pew, but threw it away.

“And if you are willing,” he continued, letting go of her hand, leaving a trace of abandonment,”I’d like to make good on my offer for us to discuss this in more detail.”

Her mind demanded she say no. What kind of woman was she to be alone with the priest she lusted over?

“How so?”

He held his hands behind him, “Are you free on Friday night by any chance?” She knew it was the decent thing to say no, “Yes, I am.”

“How about dinner at around 6-6:30? I promise I’m just as good a cook as I am a preacher.” She nodded, “That sounds great.”

He looked so pleased, “Wonderful, let me tell you my address.”

__________________

She stared at herself in the mirror of her bathroom for an hour; her makeup, her dress, her hair, even practicing how she would say hello.

“Good evening, Father,” she smiled at her reflection before shaking her head. Too formal.

She gave a toothy grin, nearly bouncing on her heels, “Hi! Thanks for inviting me.” She groaned, cringing. Too peppy.

She took in a deep breath and said pleasantly, “Hi, Father Langdon. Thank you for inviting me.”

She sighed, frustrated with herself, and shut off the light, heading into her room. She grabbed her purse and keys, taking one last glance in the mirror before leaving.

She didn’t know what to expect his house to look like, but it didn’t come as a surprise as she pulled into the driveway.

It was a modern Victorian home, painted black. A small garage sat adjacent to a set of stairs leading to the door underneath an archway. Three windows gazed over the garage in a semicircle overlook, the blinds closed. It wasn’t gaudy in any way, but it was most certainly gothic set against the starry sky.

She locked her car and cautiously mounted the steps, ringing the silver button doorbell; a pleasant chime emanating from inside.

After a few moments, the door opened; Father Langdon’s gracious tone welcoming her.

“Hello, Mallory.”

He was everything she expected from the feet up, black boots and pants; but it shifted once her eyes drawn up. He wore a black shirt, sleeves reaching to his wrists, a normal solid collar around his neck, but his shoulders and collar bones were exposed through mesh, stopping just above his chest. His smile was genuine, under eyes framed in black eyeshadow. He was a vision of something so feminine, yet radiating with power. She was hit with a bout of shock. A strange feeling formed in her chest, confusion, desire, fear all swirling together.

She mumbled a hello under her breath.

“I’m so glad to see you.”

She managed a squeaky, “You too.”

He stepped back, extending his arm, “Please come in.”

She noted the large square ring on his middle finger as she stepped inside the little parlor. Cylindrical lights hung from the ceiling bathing the cream walls in a gentle hue; an ornate black staircase leading to the second floor.

“You look beautiful,” he commented looking over her simple dress.

She breathed for what felt like the first time since seeing him, “Thank you. You look...different.”

He chuckled, “I like playing with expectations,” he quirked an eyebrow, “Do you like it?”

She gulped, “I do, it looks…” she held herself back from saying ‘sexy’, “Good.”

He smirked, as if reading her thoughts, and invited her to the dining room.

Dinner went by normally. They talked about life. How Mallory was fairing in her senior year of college, how her family was doing back in Georgia, etc. He never went into too much detail about himself, even when she would ask. He only told her that he had moved to the city after his ailing grandmother died and that he’d been a minister for five years. Nothing else, he was strangely guarded for how sociable she  knew him to be at the Cathedral.

Afterward, they’d moved to a small sitting room, where he poured two glasses of wine. He handed her the glass and settled into the leather chair, taking a sip, “So, tell me, if we may get down to business, pardon the expression,” he laughed, “what attracts you to me?”

She stopped her lips parted over the rim of her glass.

He grinned sympathetically, “Come on, there really is no point in being coy about it. And that is why we’re here,” he sipped before setting it on a small table next to him, “To exorcise your demons, so to speak.”

She swallowed a too big gulp of the wine before nervously fingering the stem, “You’re...very attractive, charismatic, charming,” she glanced up at him, “you command a room.”

He hummed, intertwining his fingers, “Have you often had attractions to authority figures in your life?”

She thought of her youth minister back in 9th grade. He was a cute, recent seminary graduate; she became his favorite student to gain his attention. Guys her age just didn’t appeal to her all that much.

“Some.”

“Do you like being dominated?”

He asked it so brazenly, it hit her like a slap to the face. She shrugged, stuttering, “I...I guess I have a proclivity to...follow the rules.”

His voice became a commanding growl, his controlled expression never shifting, “That’s not what I asked.”

Heavy heat settled between her legs at his tone; she yipped a response, like following an order, “I like the idea of it.”

His hand rested under his chin, his eyes burning with curiosity, “Why? Is it being helpless?”

She shook her head, her voice maintaining a tinny as she confessed, “Not helpless. Just the idea of being corrupted,” she looked him in the eyes, “Of an attractive older man taking an innocent and dirtying her up. Letting go of certain standards that keep me so rigid.”

A low, pleased note rumbled behind his smirk, “Are you a virgin, Mallory?”

She cleared her throat, “Technically I suppose, I’ve never been...penetrated.” Her face was red, “I let one guy finger me, but it was kinda uncomfortable.”

He tilted his head, waiting for her to explain.

“Like, he was kinda rough and he sorta blamed me for not cumming.”

That made his lip curl into a snarl, “What a stupid, useless boy.”

Her pulse was pounding in her ears, breathing becoming shallow. He remained a vision of calm confidence.

He gripped both arms of his chair, leaning closer, something dark coloring his eyes, “What makes you wet?”

A spear of cold shock and yearning pierced her core, “I’m sorry?”

His smile grew, slightly shaking his head, as if at a young child’s antics. He leaned back, looking like a king on his throne, “What makes,” his tone was languid, “your gorgeous little pussy hungry for a big cock to pin you down and own you?”

She released an audible gasp, her body trembling. She swallowed hard, “What you just said.”

He nodded, “Dirty words. What else?”

She felt entranced, his icy eyes stripping away her inhibitions, “Things that are forbidden, things that would make me seem like a whore.”

“Hmmm…” He bit his lower lip, moving his hand; his fingers practically danced from his chest to just above his belt, “It’s quite forbidden for anyone, let alone a priest, to touch themselves while another looks on.”

She watched his hand glide to his crotch, palming the growing bulge. She licked her lips at his tiny groans of pleasure as he played; his knuckles were white, gripping the leather, “Do you like that?”

She nodded, a bit too eagerly. He giggled, a breathy evil sound, “What’s the dirtiest thing you can think to do right now?”

Her voice was thick, “Crawl on my hands and knees and grind on your cock.”

He let out another chuckle as he bit his lip again, his hand palming the black fabric of his pants faster, needing more friction, “You naughty little sinner, wanting to seduce a man of the cloth like that,” he sneered, “Shame on you.”

She set her glass on a counter, dropping to her knees and crawled to him slowly, her eyes wide and reverent. He held out his hand to beckon her, and she sat on his lap; releasing a choked moan as his bulge bucked against her wet slit through her panties. Her hips rocked slowly, earning her a needy groan from him; his hands grabbing her ass, “Oh, temptress, what man beset by you could resist?”

He pulled her closer, making her move a little faster. His lips left wet kisses on her neck. She smelled like citrus, her skin soft and flushed under the attention of his mouth.

“The things I want to do to you,” he growled.

His tongue licked a stripe from the curve of her neck to her ear, softly biting it, “Will you let me purge you, Mallory? Will you let me cleanse you of all these filthy lusts?”

Her hands clutched his shirt, her head thrown back; she intended to grind out every frustrating urge he made her feel. Without warning, his hand was at her throat; gripping just tight enough to cause her eyes to be taken over by fear, then lust.

“You’re such a pretty little lamb,” he muttered, his other hand sliding up Her body to cup her breast, “straying from the flock of the faithful to play with the wolves,” he chuckled, rubbing his thumb over the now hardened nipple through the dress fabric, “Such a bad little saint. But you crave the wolf, don’t you?”

His lips hovered just above hers, “You want to feel that wild, uncontrollable passion, you want to be left gasping, aching, the wolf’s fang marks left in your skin. So when your good shepherd finds you, you’ve been dirtied, defiled,” he tightened his grasp, “claimed.”

She moved her hand to brush over his clothed cock. He wrenched her closer, their warm breath passing between them, “And even when you’re back safe and sound in your little pen, you’ll be thinking about the wolf and how fucking good he felt. Because no one has ever touched you like he did.”

She looked like a frightened deer, doe eyes filled with desire.

“Get on the floor.”

She slipped off of him, her bare knees hitting the carpet.

“Take out my cock,” he commanded.

She undid his belt and pulled down his pants, freeing him. Hunger overtook her as she wrapped her lips around the head, sucking gently.

He gasped, “Eager little slut.”

She massaged his balls, taking more of him into her mouth. He groaned, fingers threading through her hair. She gripped his thighs, gagging as he hit the back of her throat. He moaned and began to roll his hips, fucking his cock in and out of her mouth. Drool poured down his shaft as she moaned gargled noises around his thickness. Tears pricked at her eyes as she pulled back, his dick making a wet pop as it exited her mouth; a strand of saliva still connecting her bottom lip to his head, now red and leaking.

He caressed her cheek, as she dragged her tongue over each ridge, lapping up his precum.

“Come here,” his raspy voice told her.

She propped herself on his knees, her eyes falling to his full, beautiful lips. He tipped her chin with his forefinger, “Oh, would you like a kiss?”

She responded quietly, “Please?”

He cupped the back of her head, bringing their foreheads together, their lips centimeters apart, “How adorable, my little lamb,” he tugged a fistful of her hair, “Maybe once you’ve earned it.”

His gaze focused on her glossy mouth, “Although,” he leaned in to graze her bottom lip with his tongue, “I’d love to taste your adoration for my big cock in your pretty mouth.”

He pulled back with a tiny smirk, “But patience is a virtue.”

He delivered a swift, hard slap to her ass, her tiny yelp making his cock jerk.

“Follow me.”

#michael langdon #mallory #millory #ahs apocalypse #cody fern #billie lourd

[hekate1308]

Just Black

There aren’t enough cute Drowley AUs. Enjoy!

His son often told him that he was predictable. Crowley disagreed. He’d always made a point of being unpredictable. Yes, he had a tight schedule that he strictly adhered to, but as the CEO of the firm he’d built up from the ground, that was only to be expected.

At the beginning he had liked to keep informed of every little detail, but that was impossible these days; and so he vaguely recalled that the coffee shop in the foyer had been newly leased on this Monday morning, but didn’t worry too much about it. He took his coffee black anyway.

It had been an idea of his mother’s, the coffee shop within the premises of his business; and to this day, he only begrudgingly admitted that it had been a good one. The truth was that many of his employees preferred popping down for a quick snack to eating in the cafeteria; and Crowley himself had found it was less of a hassle to purchase his coffee in the morning than make it himself.

Still – he hadn’t checked the new tenant of the coffee shop, trusting Charlie Bradbury’s back check. If she didn’t find anything, there simply was no reason to object to the man – Dean Winchester, he suddenly remembered.

So nothing could have prepared him for the side that met him as he strolled through the door.

On the counter of the coffee shop stood the most attractive man he’d ever set eyes on, and that was saying something.

He looked up and beamed. “Good morning!”

“Morning” Crowley replied automatically. Dear God, those green eyes. “One coffee, black –“

“Nope” he answered matter-of-factly. Crowley stared at him.

“What?”

“I run a coffee shop, and you expect me to just serve you black coffee? That’d be an utter waste.”

“An utter... do you even know who you’re talking to?”

It had happened a few times over the years – new employees not realizing who Crowley was when they first interacted with him; he had got used to put them in their place –

“Fergus Crowley, CEO. Even less reason to torture yourself with boring coffee, then.”

Dean Winchester raised an eyebrow. Clearly, he was trying to challenge him.

Two could play at that game.

“So then what would you recommend, Mr. Winchester?”

He grinned, his eyes sparkling. To his surprised, Crowley realized he would have been at danger if the man hadn’t been so utterly irritating. “First of all, you always want a hint of cream and sugar in your coffee. Just black means you’re only trying to wake up, not enjoying your drink.”

“Which, I believe, is the purpose of coffee” he shot back.

“Not here. Nope. Not at Winchester’s Pie Emporium.”

Dear God, he hadn’t paid attention to the name before.

“Here, we want people to enjoy their coffee, and to get a bite to eat while they’re at it.”

“I never have breakfast.”

“Pie isn’t breakfast. Pie is brain food.”

The man was lucky he was so handsome, otherwise Crowley would have left five minutes ago. “So in order to get my coffee, I have to purchase a slice of pie? Is that your idea of how business works?”

He gave him another cheeky grin. “No.” And he quickly turned around to make coffee while Crowley could only look on, feeling rather confused. It was not an emotion he was sued to nor one he particularly liked.

“Here” Dean announced with a flourish, sliding both a cup and a piece of pie over the counter. “Pecan pie and coffee... with spice. On the house.”

“Spice?”

“You look like you could need some in your life” Dean winked.

“I’ll let you know” he drawled before leaving, not giving him the satisfaction of watching him react to the food and drink.

And alone in his office, he had to admit that both were delicious.

If only Dean Winchester weren’t so annoying. Well; there was no reason for him to visit the coffee shop; he could always get his assistant to bring him some, or he could go without, if he had to.

And yet he returned to the shop the next morning. It seemed the place was already catching on. Several of his employees were sitting at the tables having a quick breakfast, none of them meeting his eyes. He was sued to it.

Winchester beamed at him. “Crowley! How did you like the pie?”

Something he definitely wasn’t used to was being addressed so formlessly, and he could almost hear each of the patrons holding their breaths.

“It was adequate, thank you. Do I get my black coffee now?”

Dean pouted. “I thought I had converted you from your blasphemy.”

Strangely, Crowley found himself wishing to give in. He squashed that impulse quickly.

“Just coffee, black, strong.”

“Fine, fine, but don’t say I didn’t try.”

“I would never do that” he assured him calmly. Dean brought him his coffee and he went to his office, aware of several incredulous stares from his employees. Really, they were being overdramatic. Just because Dean’s approach to business was a tad unusual didn’t mean that he had to be a bastard towards him.

Only after he had taken several sips of his coffee (that tasted excellent, however it felt like he was missing something... maybe spice? Wait, what? No he wasn’t going to go there) did he notice that Dean had drawn a smiling sun on his cup with the line “No need to be bitter!” under it. The word bitter was underlined.

Who was this man?

That afternoon, Charlie Bradbury came to his office to discuss the new accounting program. As always, she’d done everything to ensure a swift and easy transition; and Crowley mused once more that it was more than worth it to allow her to wear her Doctor who shirts during meetings.

“Miss Bradbury” he said as she was about to leave, “The new tenant of the coffee shop, Dean Winchester...”

“Oh, you’ve met Dean?”

He raised an eyebrow. The question implied a familiarity he had not been aware of. “You know him?”

“Sure, we’ve been friends since college. He got a business degree to open his place after he’d become a baker.”

Dedication. Certainly more than Crowley usually encountered. He cleared his throat. “He seems very... opinionated about coffee.”

She grinned. “So you already got the “black coffee is a waste of all my year of training” speech?”

“Something like that.”

“Don’t worry about that. He’s really a good guy – one of the best men I’ve ever known. Helped keep me on the straight and narrow back then, really.”

Crowley could have replied that he had his doubts this was entirely true, but it would have come close to bantering.

She was eying the cup he hadn’t thrown away yet for some reason. “Oh, he must really like you. He’s begun with the puns.”

It was of no consequence whatsoever whether Dean Winchester liked him or not, so why was he pleased to hear that? “We’ll see how it goes – with the coffee shop, I mean.”

“Of course. Don’t worry, Dean’ll make profit. He’s really good at what he does.”

Remembering the pie, Crowley had to agree with her.

Not out loud, of course.

The next morning, Dean greeted him with a big grin. “Charlie told me you really liked the pie.”

“I did not say any such thing.”

“Yeah, but she can read you like a book.”

He’d rather not have his employees gossip behind his back, but he could hardly do anything against that.

“Don’t look like someone kicked your puppy. She thinks the world of you.”

That... was definitely not something he had heard before.

“Here” Dean said, sliding over another piece of pie with his black coffee. “Apple. On the house.”

“You do know what it means to make profit, right?”

“I know what it means to make my customers happy” Dean said cheekily and Crowley looked down at his cup.

A drawing of a kitten next to the words Just espressing an opinion, but black coffee is still boring.

Another pun. He thought of what Charlie had said and left quickly.

A few days later (all of them beginning with Dean’s happy grin and puns on his cup) he and Gavin had a fight. He’d just called him to talk about his plans to expand – they didn’t always see eye to eye, but Gavin was still his son and heir and needed to know about such things – and they had ended up quarrelling about his work ethics again.

“Father, you’re not getting any younger. You shouldn’t work every day of the week, and you’re lonely –“

“I’m not lonely.”

“Of course you are, I can hear it in your voice –“

Things had only gone downhill from there, and he was annoyed enough to leave his office not at ten pm as he was used to, but at nine.

As it turned out, Dean was just closing up shop. He must have seen him through the glass doors, for he pushed them open and called out, “Hey Crowley, come in!”

He obeyed, not quite sure why.

Dean put another piece of pie in front of him, this one with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“How do you know?”

“I am familiar with that expression. Seen it often enough in a mirror” he replied simply.

“I had a fight with Gavin.”

“Your son?”

“Miss Bradbury should –“

“Please. You really think I don’t check on people I do business with? That’s how I know about him.”

Crowley was impressed. Not many people managed to surprised him.

“Yes. He thinks I should take it easier.”

“Can’t see why you shouldn’t. Business is booming, you have more than enough people to take care of things...”

“I don’t really like to let go of my control” he answered.

Dean grinned. “Too bad. Maybe we should work on that.”

And just like that, the conversation took on a completely different tone. “You think so?” he asked casually.

“Yeah. Can’t disappoint your son, after all.”

“I think I did that years ago.”

Dean shrugged his shoulders. “You know how it is. Children rarely, if ever, forgive their parents.”

Oscar Wilde? Crowley was finding more and more layers to Dean Winchester.

It was... almost exhilarating.

He shouldn’t have – common sense told him he shouldn’t have, but he’d always had trouble denying himself what he really wanted – but he went home with Dean that night.

He would have excepted it to be a one night stand, but somehow, it kept happening. A few nights a week, either his or Dean’s place, no one to see them or judge them, and then he found himself taking a weekend off for the first time in decades.

And yet he wasn’t allowed to sleep in; a phone call woke them both up early Sunday morning.

Dean groaned and turned around, burying his head in his pillow. Crowley allowed himself a small smile as he answered.

“Father! You’re not in your office! Is everything alright?”

“Yes, Gavin. I have merely taken your advice and taken a weekend off –“

“Not that it didn’t take me months to convince you to” Dean grumbled, still half-asleep, which was probably why he didn’t realize Gavin could hear him.

“Father!? Did you find a boyfriend!?” Gavin all but shrieked and Crowley idly wondered if that was the reaction children were supposed to have when they found out their parents were dating.

Wait – dating? Were he and Dean dating? They had never talked –

Dean took the phone out of his hand. “Gavin? Hi, this is Dean Winchester, your father’s boyfriend. Yes, i would like to meet, but I only just got him to take some time off, so... Alright, I’ll tell him.”

He hung up. “He’ll call this afternoon.”

“Alright” Crowley said, still feeling a little bit unsure –

Dean cuddled up close. “We’ll talk later.”

Crowley, on this warm Sunday morning, decided that this was a wonderful idea.

#my writings #crowley #drowley #dean winchester #drowley au #human!crowley #ceo!crowley #baker!dean #coffee shop au

[gwynnew]

From Ariel to Kobe Bryant: Disney legend Glen Keane takes us inside Oscar-nominated 'Dear Basketball'

The animated short Dear Basketball is getting plenty of press for making NBA superstar Kobe Bryant an Oscar nominee. But it’s also the first nomination for Glen Keane, the long-time Disney animator behind characters like Ariel, the Beast, Pocahontas, and Rapunzel. Keane left Disney in 2012 to pursue more personal projects, and Bryant’s pitch for Dear Basketball spoke to him immediately — even though Keane knew nothing about basketball. “Kobe and I found that we had this connection of careers that we were really identified with, and yet we had stepped away from — him with the Lakers and me with Disney,” Keane told Yahoo Entertainment. “There was something a little bit scary with this whole new path that we were taking, and yet thrilling.”

In the five-minute-long film, Bryant (who retired from professional basketball in 2016) reads a very personal love letter to the game, describing how he first became obsessed with basketball and why he needed to walk away after 20 seasons. Under Bryant’s narration, Keane’s illustrations show Bryant at different stages of his life, from boyhood to retirement, using a naturalistic style and subtle touches of purple and gold (the colors of the L.A. Lakers). The moving film, which will compete for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film on March 4, was Bryant’s brainchild. “He’s an animation geek,” Keane explained. Talking to Yahoo, Keane broke down all the personal touches Kobe brought to Dear Basketball, from his tube-sock-rolling technique to the childhood photos he provided. The artist also revealed the inspirations for his most iconic Disney characters (Ariel, for example, was based on his wife), and revealed whether drawing Kobe Bryant can help a person play like Kobe Bryant. (The answer may surprise you.)

Legendary Disney animator Glen Keane earned his first Oscar nomination for Dear Basketball. (Image: go90)

Yahoo Entertainment: Congratulations on the Oscar nomination! How does this feel compared to, say, Beauty and the Beast getting nominated for Best Picture? Glen Keane: Well, that was Disney. I contributed in having done the Beast, but still I didn’t feel quite as personally involved. With this one, so much my personal drawings are up on the screen. This was such a labor of love for me. It very much was a passion project to be able to draw and animate in a style that I’ve always loved, and the original drawings are up on the screen; they aren’t hidden behind clean-up drawings, which is what we’ve always done at Disney. You don’t have the original animators’ drawings up on the screen, you have finely traced clean-up, and then that’s painted. So there’s something really direct and emotional about the drawings, and there’s something really direct and emotional about the nomination.

Tell me how you came to make an animated short with Kobe Bryant in the first place. Kobe reached out and connected to Karen Dufilho, who was an executive producer at a film we did at Google called Duet, which Kobe had seen, and he was also familiar with my work at Disney. So she set up a meeting between Kobe and myself at our little studio here in West Hollywood. Kobe arrived with his wife and daughters, and my wife was here, and my producer Gennie Rim and my production designer Max Keane. So we all sat down in my little office with my animation desk, just to see, do we get along? Can we connect creatively? Can we connect just as people? And immediately Kobe and I found that we had this connection of careers that we were really identified with, and yet we had stepped away from — him with the Lakers and me with Disney. There was something a little bit scary with this whole new path that we were taking, and yet thrilling. And we both just really connected with the excitement of what lays ahead. It was illustrated in the film: As Kobe walks off the court, through that tunnel, he steps into the light, into something new that’s waiting for him. And that’s what I’ve been feeling ever since I left Disney.

So did Kobe write the “Dear Basketball” letter specifically for this film? He knew that he wanted to do something with animation — that’s been cooking with him for a while. He’s an animation geek. [Laughs] Which was really surprising to find! Even when he was a kid [living in Italy], he learned a lot about basketball through some European animated films that were about sports. So that was kind of a trigger for him to start, and a natural place for him to go when he ended: to write this letter to basketball, imagining it as an animated film. He met with me before he wrote that letter. So he was already thinking, how am I going to communicate a goodbye to the game? But he was visualizing it. I mean, the whole letter is surprisingly well-crafted as a screenplay. It has basically three acts to it, and there’s this climax at the end of the second act where Kobe is there and the crowd is cheering and there’s confetti falling and it feels like it could be the end of it. But then there’s this death, really, as his injuries take over and he has to let go of the game, and the ball drops and rolls and the screen goes black. But then there’s this wonderful resurrection where we find that little six-year-old Kobe has always been with adult Kobe, and we see them playing on the court one last time, and he sinks the ball and Kobe steps off the court and goes into his future.

Watch: The Making of ‘Dear Basketball’:

I remember when I was storyboarding it, I didn’t realize how much was in that letter until I started to draw the different shots. And it was when I got to the end and I realized — oh, Little Kobe is still there, and they both have to be on the court at the same time! I just got chills. And it was at that point I realized, this is not a letter about basketball. This is a letter that’s to all of us, about that 6-year-old version of us that’s still with us as professionals, as adults, and the dreams we had as a child have never left us. It really could be “dear animation,” “dear medicine,” “dear writing,” dear whatever. I just knew that the film was much bigger than basketball.

The moment when Kobe and little Kobe on the court together made me cry. Oh, thank you for saying that. That’s exactly how I felt when I was sketching that out. Because at the beginning these are rough little sketches, oh, I’m going to animate Little Kobe. And then I realized once I got into it — wait a second, drawing Kobe, he’s not going to be some goofy little cartoon character. This has got to be a finely rendered version of Kobe that everybody can recognize. Wow. It’s not like the Beast. I mean, I could draw the Beast, and he could be any beast. I could define the Beast. But with Kobe, it’s gotta be him. And he’s actually got very delicate features to his face. He’s not easy to draw. That was a big challenge for me.

When you were drawing young Kobe, did you ask him for reference photos? I got every photo of Kobe that he had when he was a little kid. There weren’t a lot of them. I used those very carefully, had them on my desk. And there’s different ages that I got — really little Kobe to adolescent Kobe to teenage Kobe — and I was able to use those as my inspiration for him. So that’s kind of how Kobe looked when he was a little kid, a really cute little guy. The posters on the wall were all the real posters that were on Kobe’s wall as a kid. Kobe was constantly texting me the details, images that he really wanted to use. The videocassette player that he’d have on his bed, looking at the Lakers game. The videocassettes that his grandfather would send him. The way the chairs were set up on the court — Kobe sketched out the little pattern of chairs. I mean I’ve still got his horrible little drawing [laughs] of the chairs there. Everything had to be true.

Little Kobe has big dreams in Dear Basketball. (Image: Go90)

How you fold his dad’s tube socks was the first thing. I skipped over that, but my son Max was storyboarding a version of it, and I noticed that he had really focused on how the tube socks were folded. I said, is that really that important? And it was. Kobe was like, “No no, you have to know — here, I gotta get some tube socks.” And he got some. “You gotta film this” — so we filmed it, and we animated it based on that little footage.

Tell me about developing the art style, which is so wonderful — the color palette and the way it’s drawn. Max Keane is our production designer. He’s my son as well. He’s known my drawings his whole life, and he’s got great taste. He’s always been a critic of my animation, ever since he was a little kid. You know, he’d look at something with Aladdin and say, “I don’t know Dad, you’re beginning to repeat yourself. That’s the same gesture.” He was a little 10-year-old kid at that time! But he’s always been incredibly honest and has great taste, so we’ve been working together since I left Disney.

And Max has this personal goal, it seems, of celebrating the expressive line. At one time he said to me, when he was a little boy and he’d just done this drawing, “Dad, do you know that every line you make on the paper, or anybody makes, is a unique creative act never to be repeated again in history?” And I realized, he’s right. Every line you make, if you look at it really close, it’s this explosion of graphite dust across the paper, like a star field. And there’s this energy to that.

So we’ve been sort of celebrating hand-drawn line in the film we did for Google, Duet, and everything that we’ve done since then. Max has this way of lifting the lines off the paper and setting them in dimension so that there’s space. They’re not flat any longer. There’s parts of the drawing that are out of focus because he’s suggesting that they are closer to the audience, and other parts that are really focused and in detail.

Kobe Bryant in animated action in Dear Basketball. (Image: go90)

The challenge of animating this in the Staples Center, where you’ve got thousands of people — how do you do that without drawing everybody in there? Max had a way of putting depth and subtle color, slight purples and golds, throughout the whole film — very, very understated, but that’s the color theme, this gold and purple throughout. Everything is very natural. We’re not trying to sell or push anything with it.

There’s one particular shot I want to ask you about — that turning point where Kobe says, “My body knows it’s time to say goodbye,” and we see his injuries. Max personally put in a good month working on that one moment. It was basically a few drawings of action that were one pose; somebody had snapped a photo of Kobe at that moment, and I was animating it. But Max ended up taking a skeleton drawing that I had done and imposing it as an X-ray in there, so that you had this X-ray and then a muscle pass over top of that. And then we told Kobe, we want to see your injuries light up on your body at that point, like little flashes of light in the places those injuries were taking place. So I asked, can you give us a list of your injuries? Kobe gave us, I don’t know, two pages of injuries. I said, “OK look, we can pick four!”

So the last flash is really on his Achilles tendon. And it’s the most wonderful moment because you see Kobe move into this freeze frame, and in that moment you get to understand the pain that a basketball player like Kobe goes through, and how you push the body to its human limits. The desire can be there to go on, but the body just can’t do it. We were trying to figure out how to do that. We had animated a section where Kobe is in ice after the game, but it wasn’t as dramatic as showing the moment, an X-ray vision of the body struggling to keep up with what that moment was.

Dear Basketball in X-ray vision. (Image: Go90)

You worked on so many unforgettable animated characters during your time at Disney. What inspired those designs? I invested a lot of myself in the characters I designed. Before Little Mermaid, I was doing villains: Ratigan [in The Great Mouse Detective], the bear in The Fox and the Hound. I was doing villains. And I was cast to do Ursula in Little Mermaid. But when I heard Ariel sing, I just really related to this character that believes the impossible is impossible, that this mermaid could fall in love with a human with legs. I was intrigued with this girl’s belief that nothing was going to stop her. And I told the directors, I’ve got to animate that girl. I’ve gotta be Ariel. And they said, “Well, can you draw a pretty girl?” Because I’d been doing these big ugly characters. I said, “Yeah, I can draw a pretty girl — I’ve been drawing my wife for 10 years now!”

So I designed Ariel really based on my wife, who very much looks like Ariel, except no fins. And the big expressive eyes were just a way of really trying desperately to communicate what is going on inside this girl’s soul. The eyes are the window to the soul, and I made ‘em big.

Ariel in The Little Mermaid (Image: Disney)

Beast was much more like me. I had a terrible temper when I was a little kid, would throw things around. And that somebody could look past this beastly exterior and find something to love? That really moved me. So living in the skin of these characters has been what’s natural for me.

Tarzan was very much my son, Max. At the time I was trying to figure out how to animate Tarzan swinging on a vine, but he seemed passive, Tarzan just hanging onto a vine. But my son Max — our family had moved to Paris, he was 14 years old and he refused to accept he was no longer in California. So he skateboarded everywhere in the city and would come home with bloody knees, going down railings. We’d watch these extreme sports videos together, and I started thinking about Tarzan as, instead of swinging on the vine, what if he was like a tree surfer? So his whole movement was based on my son, the way he was moving around on the skateboard.

Rapunzel [in Tangled] was my daughter, Claire. When she was 6 years old I remember she wanted to paint the ceiling in her bedroom. And my wife said, “We’re not going to set a 6-year-old loose with paints in the house.” So when Claire graduated from art school, I hired her to be Rapunzel as an artist: when Rapunzel paints on the walls, we had to have an artist to do that. So I said, “Well hey, Claire, now you get a chance to paint your bedroom.”

How did those experiences at Disney influence your work on Dear Basketball? My approach has always been about what my dad [Bil Keane] taught me, because my dad was a cartoonist. He created the Family Circus comic strip that he based on his own family, and I was one of the kids in there. Dad was always telling me, “Glen, draw what you know.”

And that was the scariest part of Kobe asking me to do this film: I really, truly did not know basketball. I was terrible in basketball. As I told him, “You’ve got the worst basketball player on Earth animating you.” And he said, “Well that’s good, because then everything you’re going to learn is going to be through analyzing and studying me.” And it’s true. I mean, I studied every move that he made. He’s an illusionist on the court. He’s a magician, where he was constantly making the opponents commit to one fake he was doing so he could move to the other side, and faking people out with incredible skill. I was just amazed as I was animating him, to the point where I’d finally learned it so well that I really believed I could do it. I mean, I really believed I could play like Kobe!

So one night at the Lakers Training Center after evening was done, the lights were off, I went out onto the court and I got a basketball, turned on the lights, and said, “I’m going to do a three-pointer from out here.” There’s this jump fade shot that Kobe learned from Michael Jordan that in a lot of ways became a signature shot for Kobe. I knew I could do it. From all the analysis I knew that you’ve got to jump up and kind of fade back, your right hip is slightly forward, your left arm is straight up holding the ball, your right arm is at about a 45-degree angle holding the ball, and then you release on all the way until the tip of your finger lets go of the ball. I remember Kobe saying “Even after the ball has left my index finger, I still feel like I have control over directing the shot.” I mean, I felt all of that. And the ball is flying through the air, and I can’t believe it, I’ve never been able to do this — the ball is heading straight for a three-pointer from way out in the middle of the court!

And then the ball falls about 10 feet short of the basket. But it was going in a straight line. It was gonnna make it! But it was one of those wonderful moments. A little humbling. Like, OK, I’ll stick with my animation. But I think I still had good form.

[Editor’s note: Dear Kobe was produced by Go90, which, like Yahoo, is part of the Verizon-owned company Oath.] 

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:

‘Coco’ the musical? This deleted scene shows Pixar film’s radical transformation (exclusive)

How to watch all the 2018 Best Picture Oscar nominees, from ‘Get Out’ to ‘The Shape of Water’

Oscars 2018: All the snubs and surprises, from James Franco to Steven Spielberg to Kobe Bryant

#news #oscars 2018 #_revsp:wp_yahoo_entertainment_us_421 #_category:yct:001000031 #kobe bryant #_lmsid:a0Vd000000AE7lXEAT #_category:yct:001000593 #animation #glen keane #_author:Gwynne Watkins #disney #dear basketball #_uuid:8e12880f-df2c-3b3d-8ec0-1c84d5a1f600 #best animated short film

[thorne93]

Why Her? (Part 6)

Prompt: You’re in love with Chris Evans...but your best friend is dating him

Warning: language, adult content-ish? Jealousy, drama-rama

Word count: 1227

Note: This is for one of my bestest friends. I hope she enjoys it! @amarvelouswritings This will feature Sebastian Stan and OFC Lexi. This is a drabble/short chapter series. Beta’d by the perfect @like-a-bag-of-potatoes

Forever Tags: @amarvelouswritings @cocosierra94 @essie1876 @magpiegirl80 @letsgetfuckingsuperwholocked @harleyquinnandscarletwitch @iamwarrenspeace @marvel-imagines-yes-please​ @superwholocked527​ @myparadise1998

Chris Evans Tags: @obsessedwithmisha​ @camigt1999​ @lostinspace33​ @alwayshave-faith​ @elleatrixlestrange​

Why Her Tags: @seargantbcky @sevennight7 @supernatural-girl97​  @princess76179​ @nerdingoutismylife​ @shamvictoria11​ @ajaxfuckingfreeman​ @rda1989​ @soundslikevanilla​ @karlhacontreras​ @tacohead13​ @masha-meow01 @elyza-jeanette  @forever-wander-neversettle @sorryimacrapwriter @buenostardissherlock @wangdeasang @justformarvel @loki-bucky-wanda-ohmy @queendivaofthedark @thejulesworld @patzammit

~~~~~~~~~~

The following morning, you woke up a little stiff, the ground definitely not as comfortable as your memory foam mattress back home. When you got up, Chris was the only other one awake and he was brewing coffee over the new fire.

“Good morning,” he greeted with a grin that could win ten Oscars alone.

“Morning,” you muttered taking the cup he offered you, trying to calm your raging emotions.

“I thought today we could all go fishing down at the lake? It’s just beyond those trees,” he said, putting his hand on your shoulder pointing to a line of trees where there was one small break and you could see the water glistening under the rising sun. The sensation of his touch sent a zing of electricity through you and you wondered if he felt it too.

“That sounds heavenly,” you said with a content sigh. “It’s so beautiful out here.”

“I know. I’ve been out here twice before and I just...I love it. I’m always drawn back to it.”

“You know how to pick ‘em,” you said with a flirtatious grin and he shot an equally flirty look back at you.

You should’ve been upset. You should’ve felt guilty. But you didn’t. You wanted this. You wanted more than anything for Chris to look at you the way he looked at Lex, the way they were together. You wanted all of it for you, and if Chris was going to give in (miraculously) and give you that, you wouldn’t stop it, at all.

“Thanks. How did Lexi sleep?” he asked before sipping the coffee.

Then just like that, the moment came tumbling down. Of course he would want to know how his girlfriend slept.

“The answer to that...is like shit,” Lex noted as she came out, sunglasses on, pink and blue hair disarrayed, but somehow pulling off the look. She was that sort of girl that did the whole messy bun, yoga pants, and tank and instead of looking like a slob it looked like an ad in a magazine. Only she could look like a superstar after sleeping in a muggy, hot, bug infested tent.

“We all had like 2 beers last night, what gives?” Chris asked as the two of you laughed at her.

“I’m not hungover, you ass. I just slept on the world’s hardest ground,” she replied, stretching and rubbing her lower back.

“You’re being over dramatic,” he remarked with a grin as he shot a look to you and a shy smile crept on your face in response.

“Maybe I am, all I know is my back hurts.”

“Morning everyone,” Sebastian suddenly voiced as he crawled out of his tent.

Chris told everyone his offer for fishing and you all agreed. Chris and you got the fishing rods set up, occasionally brushing hands and his touch sending another wave of emotion through you. He never apologized for it and seemed to do it on purpose, or maybe that part was your imagination. But it was curious that his hand would glide over yours often. Once the rods were all set up, you handed one to everyone and you all sat on the shore of the lake in folding chairs.

This was just what you loved: quiet, morning, nature, a nice cup of coffee and a fishing rod in your hand. Simple life, perfect life. Even if the fish weren’t biting, it was a good excuse to just do nothing.

You noticed Lex seemed bored though and Sebastian was rather restless after only one hour.

“I’m not getting anything,” Lex remarked.

“Just wait,” Chris said softly.

“I’d rather just go swimming,” she noted.

“I second that!” Sebastian suddenly said.

“What? You’re quitting too?” Chris questioned.

“Fishing isn’t really my thing. I’d much prefer to be in the water than trying to take something out of it.”

“Yes! Y/N, you coming?” Lex asked as she started to walk away.

“No, I’m good here,” you answered.

“Suit yourself. We’ll swim down the shore a bit so we don’t scare the fish,” she informed.

They were gone and it was just you and Chris - alone. This was the first time it had ever happened.

“I don’t see how they don’t like this,” Chris quietly mentioned.

“Me either. It’s so serene and beautiful. Makes you just think about life,” you said.

“That’s true. Hey, do you still do those drawings?” he wondered.

“You remember those?” you asked, surprised.

“Well, yeah, why wouldn’t I? Y/N, I remember just about everything you’ve ever told me. Those drawings were amazing.”

You sat stunned. You’d once brought your sketchbook to work to play around with drawing, one of your passions, while you waited for the crew to need you to touch the actors up with their makeup. When Chris was sitting out for one scene and you were redoing his hair, he noticed the book, picked it up, and glanced through it. He complimented you back then but you thought he was just being nice.

“Wow. Well, thank you. And to answer you, no, I don’t draw too much any more. I’m busy with work and helping Lex and stuff.”

“You need to take more time for yourself,” he said.

“Hah, I’ll try to remember that when I’m paying bills.”

“I’m serious. Lexi has producers, she’ll be fine on her own, but you need some you time. Ya know what I mean?” he said as he turned to look you directly in the eyes.

“Yeah,” you quietly responded, nodding, getting lost in his stunningly clear blue orbs.

The moment shared between you two was so sweet and so genuine, you wondered how he and Lex even had a relationship, when you two had times like these. But then you thought back to all the sickenly cute love moments you’d seen between them, and remembered how easy it was to love her...and not you.

After a while, you and Chris decided to pack up the fishing gear and join them in the lake, as it was getting far too hot. Right as you got back to camp, you heard squealing.

“Last one to the dock makes dinner!” Seb shouted as Lex was on his back and he was holding on to her. Just as you were about to become fuming mad that she was heavily flirting with another guy in front of her boyfriend, Chris turned to you.

“You heard ‘em, Y/N, come on!” he urged as he leaned over so you could jump on his back.

Before you could respond, he used his amazingly strong muscles to whip you up and onto his back as he took off full speed down the gradual grade of the hill after Seb and Lex. All of you fell into the water laughing, the sensation felt great. It felt right, with you and Chris and Lex and Sebastian.

Yet, when everyone emerged from the surface, somehow Chris and Lex found each other. He wrapped his hands around her and her hands carded through his hair as they stared into each other’s eyes, making you jealous, angry, and queasy. You were back to feeling like the potato. Seb was just coming up from the water, wiping it away from his face. Soon, Chris and Lex broke apart to offer a game of volleyball between you four of you.

#why her #chris evans #chris evans fic #chris evans x reader #chris evans x ofc #sebastian stan #sebastian stan x ofc #sebastian stan fic

[profound-boning]

Just Give Me a Try

Supernatural Prompt Challenge January: Emotions prompt: Courage pairings: destiel wordcount: 3.4k tags: no warnings apply, meet cute at a rock climbing gym, experienced climber sam, newbie dean, dean is bi, tattooed hippie route setter cas, ao3

beta shoutouts for @punkascas and @jhoomwrites x

On a chilly Thursday evening, Dean’s perspective on climbing nerds like Sam changes.

Sure, he’d seen some good-looking people at Sam’s favored gym before, employees and fellow climbers alike. But this guy takes the cake.

How the hell Dean had never seen him before he doesn’t know, but he’s ready to give thanks to all major deities he knows of for Sam wanting to go to this 'setter’s meeting.'

Sam had explained in the car that the setters are employees of the gym who design and then install new routes on a weekly basis.

“They do all kinds of training and certification for it,” he’s saying, tapping his foot excitedly. “And it’s amazing to watch them work. Who even has the brain for that sort of thing?”

Dean just nods, pulling into the parking lot next to the warehouse which houses the gym. It looks so drab and inconspicuous on the outside, you’d never guess there’s a lively bunch of hippie rock climbers inside.

He’s uncertain about what possible contributions he could make. He’s only been climbing half a dozen times, he didn’t even know what a heel hook was until two days ago.

Sam has been rock climbing seriously for about two years, ever since he took a class at his college on a whim. Turns out it’s the perfect form of exercise for a Sasquatch, and he’s been raving about it to Dean ever since. Dean was wary at first but he finds himself enjoying it a little more every time they go together.

Kind of like California, actually. Dean had been nervous as hell to move away from Kansas, from everything he’s ever known. But in truth, there was nothing left for him in Lawrence. Just a childhood tinged with sadness. And Sam always sounded so damn happy on the phone and over Skype. He’d found a great place to be, but he still missed his brother. Dean couldn’t begrudge him that, obviously, since he’d felt the same way. Turns out the best solution for both of them was the same: that Dean move out to Palo Alto. He’d been scared, but so far it's been worth it.

When they step into the gym, they greet Hannah at the front desk. Sam spots a couple of his friends right away and Dean sprawls out on the largest couch in the sitting area. His eye is drawn to where Sam is pulling on his favorite pair of climbing shoes. They’re completely flat on the bottom though if you look closely you can see the curve from heel to toe, where the shoe is pointed and made for a climber to perch on their toes, no matter how small the foot hold.

Should I even rent shoes? He wonders if other regulars come in to climb while the setters are working.

“You’ll need shoes, won’t you?” A gruff voice suddenly speaks from above him. Dean looks up and is momentarily mesmerized by striking blue eyes and a dark, scruffy jawline.

“Uh,” he stalls. Dean stands up and is pleased to find he’s got an inch or two on this guy. “M’not really sure I need ‘em. Not sure if I can climb while they’re, uh, setting. The, uh. The routes.”

One eyebrow raised, the guy looks Dean up and down. (No it is not like that, mind out of the gutter, Winchester.) “You certainly don’t have to climb if you don’t want to, but we could always use a beginner’s input. I want you to be just as successful as an experienced climber.” He extends one hand towards Dean, who takes a moment to appreciate the geometric tattoo on the man’s tanned forearm. “I’m Cas.”

“Dean.” He shakes Cas’s hand in greeting and takes in the Bouldering Club t-shirt stretched across his muscular chest. “You work here?”

“Yep.” Cas pops the ‘p’ sound with a small smile. “Moved out here a few years ago for training and I never left.”

“That’s my brother.” Dean jabs his thumb in Sam’s direction. “He graduated from Stanford and kinda convinced me that Palo Alto is more exciting than Kansas ‘bout six months ago. Convincing me to climb with him was a little more recent though.”

Cas’s smile grows. “It’s cool he got you into it. I recognize him. Sam, right?”

“Yeah.” Dean nods, crossing his arms over his chest. For some reason, realizing that Cas met Sam first creates an ugly black storm cloud in his gut.

“So, is it your first time at a setter’s meeting, then?” Cas continues, his posture open and friendly.

Dean nods again and out of the corner of his eye, he sees Sam coming their way.

“Hey,” Sam greets with a little nudge to Dean’s shoulder. “Glad to see you making friends, you old geezer. Told’ya not everyone here is a ‘hippie douchebag.’”

He flushes and pushes at Sam’s shoulder with a bit more aggression than Sam had used.

But Cas just laughs. “Well, I’m probably guilty of being a hippie. I plead the fifth on douchebaggery, though.”

“Try not to use too much lawyer talk, Cas,” Dean warns. “You’ll get him all hot and bothered.”

“Hey!” This time Sam smacks Dean with more force. Cas chuckles again.

“A lawyer from Stanford, huh?”

“I guess that’s me,” Sam concedes. “I hope he hasn’t told you any more or I’ll have to go back and let you know what’s fact and fiction.”

“It’s all right, Sammy, I didn’t tell him about the Superman undies.” Dean dodges another hit.

“But if you had, then I could’ve told you about my Batman ones,” Cas interjects.

“Oh no,” Sam sighs with a very put-upon air. “Now you’ve done it.”

Cas just looks confusedly at Sam while Dean quickly covers up the no doubt hungry look on his face.

“Now it’s Dean who’s all hot and bothered.”

“All right, all right,” Dean shoves both Sam and Cas towards the wall. “Maybe you two losers should be over there. Working. Or something.”

He watches the pair amble over to the group of other employees in matching Bouldering Club t-shirts. A short guy with floppy honey colored hair gives both of them a tight hug. A handsome black woman hands Cas a box of the colorful rock thingys and after saying something to Sam, she punches him in the shoulder (Dean likes her already).

“Let’s get to it then.” Cas and his team begin adding the first of the rocks—uh, foot holds—at the bottom of the wall. The noise of their drills is near deafening, thanks to the acoustics of the gym. But it’s mesmerizing to watch them add, step back, adjust, and study what they’re creating. After a while, Sam and a few other people in regular athletic clothing and climbing shoes step up to test out the first couple of moves.

The two employees that Dean had noticed earlier are named Gabriel and Raphael respectively. He learns this because they and Cas seem to be the most experienced. Also because people keep yelling at Gabe to quit fucking around.

Dean also enjoys overhearing Cas teasing Sam for his height.

“Dean.”

He’s startled by the sound of his name.

“Dean.” Cas beckons to him this time. “Come over here.”

Dean bites his lip and rises from the couch. He stuffs his hands into the pockets of his hoodie and shuffles over.

“What’s up?”

“Can you please try this?” He points to some small looking hand holds. Dean bites his lip, considering.

“But—but I’m not—”

“Please.” Oh no. Cas has big blue puppy dog eyes to rival Sam’s.

“I—. Okay, fine.” Dammit.

He goes back to the front desk and Hannah hands him the correct pair of shoes and he changes into them swiftly. Standing next to Cas again, he eyeballs the green starting position. His cheeks are warm with blush as he looks at the holds higher on the wall. (He still doesn’t know what Sam sees exactly when he does this. Something about 'planning your route' and 'looking at the whole problem.' Dean’s not sure. They just look like colorful rocks to him.) Of course, it’s only about halfway complete at the moment. Cas smiles at him encouragingly.

Dean levers himself onto the wall, gripping the two hand holds tightly, perched on the smaller foot holds. Gingerly, he reaches up. Steps on another foot hold. Balances. Looks around. Up again. Slowly he finds each position and soon enough he’s reached what is, so far, the end of the route.

Cas is grinning at him from the ground. “That was great, Dean. Exactly what I wanted.”

Dean looks up to the ceiling to avoid letting that train of thought grow any more inappropriate.

“Hop down so I can keep going.”

Uh. Dean’s stomach knots up. His toes are only about five feet off the ground, but his six-foot frame makes it seem like eleven feet and, oh God, what if he lands wrong and damages something? They can’t take care of medical bills right now. What—

“Dean,” Cas calls him back to the moment gently. “There’s a crash pad underneath you now. Try downclimbing. Just go in reverse and back down the way you came up until you’re comfortable jumping off.”

 Deep breath. Okay.

He follows Cas’s advice and lowers himself to the ground. But once he’s there, he can’t bring himself to make eye contact with Cas. Not only is the guy smoking hot, but he’s an experienced climber, like Sammy, and probably has no worries about leaping from the top of the wall.

But Cas doesn’t say anything about it, just claps Dean on the shoulder and moves towards the wall to make adjustments. Dean awkwardly shuffles further away, giving the other employees and climbers space.

Later, after all of the routes on the north and south walls have been reset and Dean is driving them home in the Impala, Sam jumps at the chance to give Dean a little grief.

“C’mon, Dean,” he prods. “You think Cas is hot even though he’s a hippie, don’t you.”

“Whatever, man.” Thank goodness it’s dark enough to (hopefully) hide his blush.

“Well, he certainly likes you,” Sam says with an air of smug satisfaction. “I can tell.”

“And how on Earth could you possibly know that?” Really, he should win an Oscar for how chilled out and not at all interested he sounds.

“The way he was checking you out, for starters.” Sam smirks at him. “Plus, I dunno, Cas isn’t really… friendly? Not that he’s an asshole, but in all the times I’ve seen him I haven’t seen him talking to other people a lot. If he’s at the desk, he’s courteous, but he’s not chatty. He doesn’t do private lessons. If he’s helping someone else climb, he’s straight to the point and it’s over. I don’t even know how he knew my name, except that I’ve been there so often. Gabe talks with everyone and Raphael gives the most lessons and even Hannah is more sociable than Cas is. So, why you?”

“Why me what?”

“Don’t be obtuse Dean. There were other climbers there tonight, weren’t there? But he went over to where you were sitting and asked you to climb his routes. Why would he do that, when really it’s better to have someone experienced with plenty of stamina to do it? Hmmm, I wonder.” Sam finishes mockingly, nudging Dean’s shoulder.

Dean tosses and turns for over an hour that night thinking about what Sam said and smiling furiously into the darkness of his bedroom.

[ Read the rest on ao3 ]

#supernaturalpromptchallenge #pbwrites #publicado #castielsmoon #adoringjensen #ozonecologne #lostboycas #omegadeannet #mishacollinsnet #adorablecocklesnet #scrunchnet #dcjsquad #fic #au #bouldering!au #climber!sam #climber!dean #dean is bi #climber!cas #tattooed!cas #brothers #dean #sam #destiel #cas #gabriel #raphael #hannah

[gwynnew]

From Ariel to Kobe Bryant: Disney legend Glen Keane takes us inside Oscar-nominated 'Dear Basketball'

The animated short Dear Basketball is getting plenty of press for making NBA superstar Kobe Bryant an Oscar nominee. But it’s also the first nomination for Glen Keane, the long-time Disney animator behind characters like Ariel, the Beast, Pocahontas, and Rapunzel. Keane left Disney in 2012 to pursue more personal projects, and Bryant’s pitch for Dear Basketball spoke to him immediately — even though Keane knew nothing about basketball. “Kobe and I found that we had this connection of careers that we were really identified with, and yet we had stepped away from — him with the Lakers and me with Disney,” Keane told Yahoo Entertainment. “There was something a little bit scary with this whole new path that we were taking, and yet thrilling.”

In the five-minute-long film, Bryant (who retired from professional basketball in 2016) reads a very personal love letter to the game, describing how he first became obsessed with basketball and why he needed to walk away after 20 seasons. Under Bryant’s narration, Keane’s illustrations show Bryant at different stages of his life, from boyhood to retirement, using a naturalistic style and subtle touches of purple and gold (the colors of the L.A. Lakers). The moving film, which will compete for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film on March 4, was Bryant’s brainchild. “He’s an animation geek,” Keane explained. Talking to Yahoo, Keane broke down all the personal touches Kobe brought to Dear Basketball, from his tube-sock-rolling technique to the childhood photos he provided. The artist also revealed the inspirations for his most iconic Disney characters (Ariel, for example, was based on his wife), and revealed whether drawing Kobe Bryant can help a person play like Kobe Bryant. (The answer may surprise you.)

Legendary Disney animator Glen Keane earned his first Oscar nomination for Dear Basketball. (Image: go90)

Yahoo Entertainment: Congratulations on the Oscar nomination! How does this feel compared to, say, Beauty and the Beast getting nominated for Best Picture? Glen Keane: Well, that was Disney. I contributed in having done the Beast, but still I didn’t feel quite as personally involved. With this one, so much my personal drawings are up on the screen. This was such a labor of love for me. It very much was a passion project to be able to draw and animate in a style that I’ve always loved, and the original drawings are up on the screen; they aren’t hidden behind clean-up drawings, which is what we’ve always done at Disney. You don’t have the original animators’ drawings up on the screen, you have finely traced clean-up, and then that’s painted. So there’s something really direct and emotional about the drawings, and there’s something really direct and emotional about the nomination.

Tell me how you came to make an animated short with Kobe Bryant in the first place. Kobe reached out and connected to Karen Dufilho, who was an executive producer at a film we did at Google called Duet, which Kobe had seen, and he was also familiar with my work at Disney. So she set up a meeting between Kobe and myself at our little studio here in West Hollywood. Kobe arrived with his wife and daughters, and my wife was here, and my producer Gennie Rim and my production designer Max Keane. So we all sat down in my little office with my animation desk, just to see, do we get along? Can we connect creatively? Can we connect just as people? And immediately Kobe and I found that we had this connection of careers that we were really identified with, and yet we had stepped away from — him with the Lakers and me with Disney. There was something a little bit scary with this whole new path that we were taking, and yet thrilling. And we both just really connected with the excitement of what lays ahead. It was illustrated in the film: As Kobe walks off the court, through that tunnel, he steps into the light, into something new that’s waiting for him. And that’s what I’ve been feeling ever since I left Disney.

So did Kobe write the “Dear Basketball” letter specifically for this film? He knew that he wanted to do something with animation — that’s been cooking with him for a while. He’s an animation geek. [Laughs] Which was really surprising to find! Even when he was a kid [living in Italy], he learned a lot about basketball through some European animated films that were about sports. So that was kind of a trigger for him to start, and a natural place for him to go when he ended: to write this letter to basketball, imagining it as an animated film. He met with me before he wrote that letter. So he was already thinking, how am I going to communicate a goodbye to the game? But he was visualizing it. I mean, the whole letter is surprisingly well-crafted as a screenplay. It has basically three acts to it, and there’s this climax at the end of the second act where Kobe is there and the crowd is cheering and there’s confetti falling and it feels like it could be the end of it. But then there’s this death, really, as his injuries take over and he has to let go of the game, and the ball drops and rolls and the screen goes black. But then there’s this wonderful resurrection where we find that little six-year-old Kobe has always been with adult Kobe, and we see them playing on the court one last time, and he sinks the ball and Kobe steps off the court and goes into his future.

Watch: The Making of ‘Dear Basketball’:

I remember when I was storyboarding it, I didn’t realize how much was in that letter until I started to draw the different shots. And it was when I got to the end and I realized — oh, Little Kobe is still there, and they both have to be on the court at the same time! I just got chills. And it was at that point I realized, this is not a letter about basketball. This is a letter that’s to all of us, about that 6-year-old version of us that’s still with us as professionals, as adults, and the dreams we had as a child have never left us. It really could be “dear animation,” “dear medicine,” “dear writing,” dear whatever. I just knew that the film was much bigger than basketball.

The moment when Kobe and little Kobe on the court together made me cry. Oh, thank you for saying that. That’s exactly how I felt when I was sketching that out. Because at the beginning these are rough little sketches, oh, I’m going to animate Little Kobe. And then I realized once I got into it — wait a second, drawing Kobe, he’s not going to be some goofy little cartoon character. This has got to be a finely rendered version of Kobe that everybody can recognize. Wow. It’s not like the Beast. I mean, I could draw the Beast, and he could be any beast. I could define the Beast. But with Kobe, it’s gotta be him. And he’s actually got very delicate features to his face. He’s not easy to draw. That was a big challenge for me.

When you were drawing young Kobe, did you ask him for reference photos? I got every photo of Kobe that he had when he was a little kid. There weren’t a lot of them. I used those very carefully, had them on my desk. And there’s different ages that I got — really little Kobe to adolescent Kobe to teenage Kobe — and I was able to use those as my inspiration for him. So that’s kind of how Kobe looked when he was a little kid, a really cute little guy. The posters on the wall were all the real posters that were on Kobe’s wall as a kid. Kobe was constantly texting me the details, images that he really wanted to use. The videocassette player that he’d have on his bed, looking at the Lakers game. The videocassettes that his grandfather would send him. The way the chairs were set up on the court — Kobe sketched out the little pattern of chairs. I mean I’ve still got his horrible little drawing [laughs] of the chairs there. Everything had to be true.

Little Kobe has big dreams in Dear Basketball. (Image: Go90)

How you fold his dad’s tube socks was the first thing. I skipped over that, but my son Max was storyboarding a version of it, and I noticed that he had really focused on how the tube socks were folded. I said, is that really that important? And it was. Kobe was like, “No no, you have to know — here, I gotta get some tube socks.” And he got some. “You gotta film this” — so we filmed it, and we animated it based on that little footage.

Tell me about developing the art style, which is so wonderful — the color palette and the way it’s drawn. Max Keane is our production designer. He’s my son as well. He’s known my drawings his whole life, and he’s got great taste. He’s always been a critic of my animation, ever since he was a little kid. You know, he’d look at something with Aladdin and say, “I don’t know Dad, you’re beginning to repeat yourself. That’s the same gesture.” He was a little 10-year-old kid at that time! But he’s always been incredibly honest and has great taste, so we’ve been working together since I left Disney.

And Max has this personal goal, it seems, of celebrating the expressive line. At one time he said to me, when he was a little boy and he’d just done this drawing, “Dad, do you know that every line you make on the paper, or anybody makes, is a unique creative act never to be repeated again in history?” And I realized, he’s right. Every line you make, if you look at it really close, it’s this explosion of graphite dust across the paper, like a star field. And there’s this energy to that.

So we’ve been sort of celebrating hand-drawn line in the film we did for Google, Duet, and everything that we’ve done since then. Max has this way of lifting the lines off the paper and setting them in dimension so that there’s space. They’re not flat any longer. There’s parts of the drawing that are out of focus because he’s suggesting that they are closer to the audience, and other parts that are really focused and in detail.

Kobe Bryant in animated action in Dear Basketball. (Image: go90)

The challenge of animating this in the Staples Center, where you’ve got thousands of people — how do you do that without drawing everybody in there? Max had a way of putting depth and subtle color, slight purples and golds, throughout the whole film — very, very understated, but that’s the color theme, this gold and purple throughout. Everything is very natural. We’re not trying to sell or push anything with it.

There’s one particular shot I want to ask you about — that turning point where Kobe says, “My body knows it’s time to say goodbye,” and we see his injuries. Max personally put in a good month working on that one moment. It was basically a few drawings of action that were one pose; somebody had snapped a photo of Kobe at that moment, and I was animating it. But Max ended up taking a skeleton drawing that I had done and imposing it as an X-ray in there, so that you had this X-ray and then a muscle pass over top of that. And then we told Kobe, we want to see your injuries light up on your body at that point, like little flashes of light in the places those injuries were taking place. So I asked, can you give us a list of your injuries? Kobe gave us, I don’t know, two pages of injuries. I said, “OK look, we can pick four!”

So the last flash is really on his Achilles tendon. And it’s the most wonderful moment because you see Kobe move into this freeze frame, and in that moment you get to understand the pain that a basketball player like Kobe goes through, and how you push the body to its human limits. The desire can be there to go on, but the body just can’t do it. We were trying to figure out how to do that. We had animated a section where Kobe is in ice after the game, but it wasn’t as dramatic as showing the moment, an X-ray vision of the body struggling to keep up with what that moment was.

Dear Basketball in X-ray vision. (Image: Go90)

You worked on so many unforgettable animated characters during your time at Disney. What inspired those designs? I invested a lot of myself in the characters I designed. Before Little Mermaid, I was doing villains: Ratigan [in The Great Mouse Detective], the bear in The Fox and the Hound. I was doing villains. And I was cast to do Ursula in Little Mermaid. But when I heard Ariel sing, I just really related to this character that believes the impossible is impossible, that this mermaid could fall in love with a human with legs. I was intrigued with this girl’s belief that nothing was going to stop her. And I told the directors, I’ve got to animate that girl. I’ve gotta be Ariel. And they said, “Well, can you draw a pretty girl?” Because I’d been doing these big ugly characters. I said, “Yeah, I can draw a pretty girl — I’ve been drawing my wife for 10 years now!”

So I designed Ariel really based on my wife, who very much looks like Ariel, except no fins. And the big expressive eyes were just a way of really trying desperately to communicate what is going on inside this girl’s soul. The eyes are the window to the soul, and I made ‘em big.

Ariel in The Little Mermaid (Image: Disney)

Beast was much more like me. I had a terrible temper when I was a little kid, would throw things around. And that somebody could look past this beastly exterior and find something to love? That really moved me. So living in the skin of these characters has been what’s natural for me.

Tarzan was very much my son, Max. At the time I was trying to figure out how to animate Tarzan swinging on a vine, but he seemed passive, Tarzan just hanging onto a vine. But my son Max — our family had moved to Paris, he was 14 years old and he refused to accept he was no longer in California. So he skateboarded everywhere in the city and would come home with bloody knees, going down railings. We’d watch these extreme sports videos together, and I started thinking about Tarzan as, instead of swinging on the vine, what if he was like a tree surfer? So his whole movement was based on my son, the way he was moving around on the skateboard.

Rapunzel [in Tangled] was my daughter, Claire. When she was 6 years old I remember she wanted to paint the ceiling in her bedroom. And my wife said, “We’re not going to set a 6-year-old loose with paints in the house.” So when Claire graduated from art school, I hired her to be Rapunzel as an artist: when Rapunzel paints on the walls, we had to have an artist to do that. So I said, “Well hey, Claire, now you get a chance to paint your bedroom.”

How did those experiences at Disney influence your work on Dear Basketball? My approach has always been about what my dad [Bil Keane] taught me, because my dad was a cartoonist. He created the Family Circus comic strip that he based on his own family, and I was one of the kids in there. Dad was always telling me, “Glen, draw what you know.”

And that was the scariest part of Kobe asking me to do this film: I really, truly did not know basketball. I was terrible in basketball. As I told him, “You’ve got the worst basketball player on Earth animating you.” And he said, “Well that’s good, because then everything you’re going to learn is going to be through analyzing and studying me.” And it’s true. I mean, I studied every move that he made. He’s an illusionist on the court. He’s a magician, where he was constantly making the opponents commit to one fake he was doing so he could move to the other side, and faking people out with incredible skill. I was just amazed as I was animating him, to the point where I’d finally learned it so well that I really believed I could do it. I mean, I really believed I could play like Kobe!

So one night at the Lakers Training Center after evening was done, the lights were off, I went out onto the court and I got a basketball, turned on the lights, and said, “I’m going to do a three-pointer from out here.” There’s this jump fade shot that Kobe learned from Michael Jordan that in a lot of ways became a signature shot for Kobe. I knew I could do it. From all the analysis I knew that you’ve got to jump up and kind of fade back, your right hip is slightly forward, your left arm is straight up holding the ball, your right arm is at about a 45-degree angle holding the ball, and then you release on all the way until the tip of your finger lets go of the ball. I remember Kobe saying “Even after the ball has left my index finger, I still feel like I have control over directing the shot.” I mean, I felt all of that. And the ball is flying through the air, and I can’t believe it, I’ve never been able to do this — the ball is heading straight for a three-pointer from way out in the middle of the court!

And then the ball falls about 10 feet short of the basket. But it was going in a straight line. It was gonnna make it! But it was one of those wonderful moments. A little humbling. Like, OK, I’ll stick with my animation. But I think I still had good form.

[Editor’s note: Dear Kobe was produced by Go90, which, like Yahoo, is part of the Verizon-owned company Oath.] 

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