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lyxzeun · 2 years

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Hiii! I saw your request is open so I have a few requests.

I was wondering if you could do genshin men arguing with their s/o who is a sweetheart? But one day, they had a fight about smth and their s/o just snapped.

I wanted them to like suddenly stopped talking and just death glare at them before walking to their shared room.

I actually want to know what their reaction be and what they do! I don't mind how many but I would love to see Xiao / Zhongli/ Scaramouche (if you do him too) !

— the story of us (looks a lot like a tragedy now).

;; the genshin boys get into an argument with their sweetest lover, yet, the “sweetest” has seemed to turn into something else.

:: preview: guizhong being zhongli’s past lover, and he isn’t moving on yet(aguyy), and xiao not being understandable of your situation.

“xiao, please! we could work this out together if you’d listen and understand me!” your sweet voice began to crack, and xiao is raising an eyebrow at you. the thing that happened was; xiao was pretty much away the past few weeks in which it has left you wandering around and helping people around, especially in the places where he could’ve been. one late night, he finally decided to come back in your shared home, which brings us back to where we were. “if you weren’t away these past few weeks i wouldn’t have been overworking myself in the midst of you being gone! there isn’t anything else i could do than help everyone around when you’re gone! it’s what i do!” you tried to explain, “and yet you’re still mad about why i keep working while you’re away? xiao, you need to know that if you weren’t gone i wouldn’t be so tired!” you sighed, “y/n, i hate how you work around for everybody, can’t you just rest?! i’m here guarding everyone- including you, so that everyone is safe and they’re able to feel safe, and yet when i tell you that you rest when i’m away, you work!” he started to shout at you loudly, and he stood there with his fists bolded up, “i work for us, xiao! you wouldn’t understand since you walk away all the time and now you barely have any time for me! i’ve been doing my best to keep us alive, and now your blaming it on me since i want us to live a nice life?! xiao, this is nonsense you’re bringing up. and i don’t want you to blame me into the wrong situations you’ve caused, and i don’t want to hear anything- anymore!” you began to splurt out words that was in your head, it was supposed to remain in your head and not out your mouth, and now tears started to spill down your eyes as you turned away from him, xiao had never seen this side of you so clearly and privately, and he began to think, and his thoughts were circling in his head, thinking about what you and him would’ve been doing if this stupid argument that the two of you had weren’t happening. your feet began to tap on the floor as you headed to your shared bedroom, catching his attention, right before one step into the bedroom, you gave him a piercing glare of knives stabbed through his heart. you then went inside the room, laying down on your side of the bed, unable to face xiao’s side of the bed, thinking of what he’s doing right now, and the answer was; he was walking around the living room, thinking of how to apologize, muttering out words that he thought to say. a few minutes have passed, and now you’re sitting on the bed looking at your photo album with xiao. you smiled softly, looking at the memories that the two of you had. you then heard the doorknob open, a figure walked over to your seat, and xiao was looking at the ground, attempting to atleast let out a word. “..y/n.” was that all he could say? your name? “…xiao..?” you turned your head to him, fiddling with your hands. “i.. i apologize. for the way i have acted. i didn’t understand your situation when we talked, and.. and it was stupid that i blamed you so bluntly without understanding your current struggles about us.” he began to raise his head up to you, smiling slightly, you could see his eyes get glossy, the moment his eyes saw yours. “and… i am also sorry for being absent and not being able to spend time with you… it was my fault. i apologize-" his sigh was cut out by you hugging him tightly, burying your face into his neck as you bursted into tears. his eyes widen, and yet his senses has made him hug you back, rubbing your back. “xiao… i- i’m so sorry!” your voice was muffled slightly by your head buried into his neck, “i’m so sorry that i snapped- i wasn’t really thinking- and the words that came from my mouth… i-i’m so sorry!” you hugged him tighter, sobbing onto his neck. “no… y/n.. it wasn’t your fault that you explained your struggles when i didn’t understand. it’s fine, y/n..” he said, whispering softly as he rubbed your back soothingly. xiao then kissed your forehead lightly and shushed you to sleep, calming you down.

zhongli was never really judging of you, still yet, you’ve never seemed to pass a day without him mentioning guizhong. his friend that died from the archon war, maybe even more than just a friend of his. — the day started ordinary like every day off of his, waking up with him, his messy hair all over the pillows and some on his hair, you fixing his long hair and tucking them behind his ear making you smile sleepily, seeing his face clearly in the early morning. “ah, guizhong used to do that when the winds would blow against us whilst we sat on a peak.” he smiled softly, caressing your face, although he mentioned guizhong, you couldn’t help but not mind it. his touch was soothing as always.. in the afternoon, you read some books to zhongli as his head layed on your lap, as he requested. “gui..” his voice started to fade, “y/n, dearest?” he smiled, staring into your eyes. your smile faded slightly, hearing the first syllable of… her name, again. “yes, love?” you responded. “i love you, guizho- ahem… y/n.” again? not only has he been testing you but it’s the nth time he’s mentioned (or atleast he’s tried to) guizhongs name. you chuckled, “i need to get something from the bedroom. you can rest on the couch.” you lifted zhongli’s head up your lap and placed it on the cushions on the couch. you headed to your shared room with him, and started to lay down on the bed. guizhong, guizhong, guizhong. that was all you could think of, did zhongli date you because he loves you for you, or did he love you for… your resemblance to her? your thoughts started to swirl again, guizhong, guizhong is the one he loves, not you, not you. guilt, doubt, worry, sadness and all sorts of emotions swirled inside, and it was unbearable, so unbearable. but no- not this time, he’s still waiting for you on the couch, you grabbed a hairbrush, to make up the image that you got the “thing” you wanted to grab from the bedroom. you went back to the living room. he was sitting on the couch, reading the unfinished part of the book you read to him. “ah, dearest.” he looked up from the book and saw you walking over to him slowly, “i suppose you’ve found what you needed? it took you quite a long time.” he set down the book on the nearest corner table, “yeah, it was hard to find it.” you brushed a few parts of your hair and placed it on the corner table and sat beside him, cuddling closer to him. “guizhong, my dearest.” you heared him whisper, making you pull away and bold your fist. “love? is something wrong?” zhongli tilted his head in visible confusion, “i’m not her.” you sighed, “y/n, dearest, what are you saying?” he chuckled in a joking way, thinking that you were joking. “i will never be her.. never.” you looked up at his expression of confusion with glossy eyes, tears were about to fall. “zhongli.. understand that… i am not her… and that i… will never be her..” the more you spoke, the more your voice trembled, and droplets of your tears started to wet the fabric on the couch. “no, love… i love you for you..” he tucked your hair behind your ear. “no! no you don’t!” you pushed him away and stood up from the couch. “you only love me and dated me because i am just like guizhong, and archons, am i tired of hearing her name every single time we’re together! i can’t even pass a day without having to hear her name from your voice again!” his hand started to reach out to you as he looked up your figure standing over him. “don’t even touch me,” you backed away and crossed your arms over your chest. “go back to her for all i fucking care!” zhongli’s eyes had widened, he’s never seen this side of you this mad, he knows that you’d usually be forgiving, just like how he mentioned guizhong’s name everytime! he stood up from the couch and standed facing your face flooded with flowing tears, his heart overflowed and overwhelmed with emotions of regret. you began to walk away and into your shared bedroom, you sat on the bed and started to hug your knees to your chest and let your tears flow freely from your eyes. minutes have passed and now you’re laying on your side.

you were hugging a pillow and burying your face into it. sniffling softly and hugging the pillow tighter and tighter. you heard a soft knock on the door, “love..? are.. are you alright? may i come in?” zhongli placed his hand on the doorknob, he didn’t hear you, but he opened the door in worry, guilt and regret. “what do you want?” your voice was still muffled by the pillow you were hugging, “i apologize, my dearest.” he sat beside your figure and placed a hand lightly on your head, “it’s no use, zhongli.” you whispered, hugging the pillow tightly. “i know i have done things wrong, my dear.” he sighed, “and i know that i shouldn’t have treated you like you were some reincarnation of her.” he began to stroke your hair slowly, “you are not her, y/n. you will never be her.” zhongli’s voice became softer, and… sweeter. “guizhong is the past. you, y/n, my dearest.. you are my present, you are my future, and you are my forever.” he began to carry your figure and held you close to his. “don’t ever forget that.” he kissed your forehead, “i apologize again, dear.” he kissed your lips softly, raising your head to his face. “hey… don’t kiss me yet.” you giggled with a soft voice, “my face is still wet from crying.” he chuckled and still kissed your forehead. “..hey, zhongli?” you leaned against his chest, and he responded with a small hum. “we’ll be okay, right..?” a small amount of worry was in your voice. “we’ll be fine, just as long as we’re together.”

- vale speaks ! .. hello! thank you for requesting! sorry for taking a very long time to do your request, my apologies for not being able to add scaramouche as well. sadly, I wasn't able to put scaramouche in this request as the two characters' parts were long enough and I wasn't able to put scaramouche's part in. thank you for supporting my blog! best regards, vale <3

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alexanicholsauthor · 4 years

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The world according to Anne, my writing playlists, and calling James Patterson out for a fight

Back when I was doing daily Diary entries (I still don’t see how I pulled that off considering everything else I was juggling), I used to let Anne occasionally slip in and write an entry for me. I would label these little creative outbursts of hers as “Anne’s entry” and just let her go to town – no grammar checking, no filtering, and no direction as to what she should write about. She loved it.

So, I figured it was time to give her another stab at it. What’s the worst that could happen, right? 😳

I got new video games and been watching Jersey shore I really like it. Alexa girl be you was right about the show. Do you want to hang out this weekend? How is your writing going I want to tell you about this new movie Call Deep sleep you should watch trailer for it. We been having fun Mario kart 8 I am all most done with one of Batman telltale game. The game are awesome. I like watching lore it’s very different.

So, there you are. The world, according to Anne. 🥰

My life has been a combination of three things lately: Jersey Shore binge-watching with Anne, overdosing on wax cubes (I love those damn things!), and writing like a fevered madwoman to get Erotic Urban Legends: Pulse finished for my Patreon peeps. As I write this, a dear friend of mine is beta reading it for me, so as soon as I get it back and throw it at the rest of my Beta Reader Hit Squad, it will be shelved! I really wanted to make a short horror story, but this motherfucker ended up 22,844 words – far from what I intended.

Initially, I gave myself a cap of 2,500 words, and the first version was somewhat close to that. After three different revisions and some severe brainstorming… things got a little out of hand. 😅 While my stories always inflate during the revision process, this was a bit ridiculous. I swear I spoil the shit out of my Patreons…

Because of my release schedule, I won’t be able to release it to the general public until April 2022, but I’ll give you a sneak peek of the cover now:

Because I was writing this, I had to temporarily pause the last book in my Exitium Mundi series, which is in the rough draft stage itself. Which means I’m also paused in the middle of Voyeur’s Season 2 (no, I swear it isn’t abandoned) and the next book in the Killer Lolis series: Hunt for the Lolistone. The cover for that book (which is also in the rough draft stage!) is below:

So many things I want to write, so little time! 😭 And then there are other stories that are almost finished that I really need to polish up like Mya, Lilith, Invictus, Balls Deep – A Love Story, and others. I need more hands. Or maybe I can pull a James Patterson and hire other motherfuckers to write my books for me and just sit back and rake in the money. I will never do this, of course, because, you know, I’m actually a writer…

#Shade #ShotsFired #ComeAtMeBro

Maybe I just need to double down my writing efforts. I dunno.

Which reminds me. I decided to add yet another feature to my paperbacks: playlists! See, before I write a book, I compile a 100-song playlist, and I listen to nothing but that playlist while I write. It was an idea sparked by a request from a reader (thank you, John!), and I decided to run with it. I’ve already started including short stories, previews of upcoming books, and interviews in the paperback editions of my books, so this will fit in nicely I think. Just for kicks, here’s the playlist I wrote to for Erotic Urban Legends: Pulse.

Ängie: Spun + Smoke Weed Eat Pussy + Housewife Spliffin Avicii: Wake Me Up Awolnation: Sail AZ Yet: Last Night Backstreet Boys: Inconsolable Bebe Rexha: I’m Gonna Show You Crazy + No Broken Hearts ft. Nicki Minaj Bhad Bhabie: Bestie (Feat. Kodak Black) Billie Eilish: Bad Guy + You Should See Me in a Crown Boyz II Men: Oh Well Brad Paisley: Whiskey Lullaby (feat. Allison Krauss) Britney Spears: Criminal Ed Sheeran: Shape of You Fall Out Boy: My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light Em Up) (Part 1) Fat Joe: Make It Rain Finger Eleven: Paralyzer + One Thing Frankie J: Daddy’s Little Girl Full Exposure (feat. Mario & Serayah) Geto Boys: Mind Playing Tricks On Me (Uncut) Ginuwine: When Doves Cry Go West: King Of Wishful Thinking Hailee Steinfeld: Most Girls Halsey: Nightmare Hayley Kiyoko: Girls Like Girls Insane Clown Posse: In My Room Jessica Simpson: I Belong To Me Justin Timberlake: Cry Me A River Ke$ha: TiK ToK Keri Hilson: Pretty Girl Rock kirstin: Break A Little + Naked + Bad Weather Linkin Park: The Hybrid Theory + Living Things + and Recharged albums. Mario Winans: I Don’t Wanna Know Maroon 5: Girls Like You ft. Cardi B MAX: Lights Down Low Offset: Clout ft. Cardi B Phil Collins: In The Air Tonight Porcelain Black: Naughty Naughty + I’m Your Favorite Drug Post Malone: Rockstar + Goodbyes ft. Young Thug R. Kelly featuring Keri Hilson: Number One Rita-Ora: Girls Santana: Maria + Maria Seckond Chaynce: Undeniable Silk: Freak Me Baby Somo: Ride Star Cast: I Bring Me + There For You Tamar Braxton: All the Way Home + Love and War + Let Me Know ft. Future + Prettiest Girl + The One Taylor Swift: Gorgeous The Fugees: Killing Me Softly The Weeknd: Often + Party Monster Tinashe: No Drama Young Jeezy: Tear It Up

Thanks for reading my latest rant, beloveds. I really appreciate it. 🥰

#amwriting #amediting #writer #writerslife #Writerscommunity #indieauthor #author

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unpack-my-heart · 5 years

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The Ghost of You – Updated

New chapter of Property Developer!Richie / Ghost!Eddie AU

Read it on AO3 HERE or I’ve pasted it under the cut.

Preview:

When Richie wakes up the next morning, he all but launches himself out of bed. He runs to the window, hauling it open, not bothering to open the curtains.

The lake twinkles in the sunlight. Eddie is not stood by the shore.

The room is silent, save for the short, heavy puffs of Richie’s anxious breaths. Eddie is not in his bedroom, he’s not in any of the spare bedrooms, and he’s also not in the bathroom. Richie walks downstairs, and does not find Eddie in the kitchen, dining room or lounge. The house is empty.

The door wrenches open and Richie screams.

Tag list:

@violetreddie @constantreaderfool @xandertheundead

When Richie wakes up the next morning, he all but launches himself out of bed. He runs to the window, hauling it open, not bothering to open the curtains.

The lake twinkles in the sunlight. Eddie is not stood by the shore.

The door wrenches open and Richie screams.

“Fuckin’ hell!”

“Jesus Christ on a fucking crackerbread, Hanlon, don’t you knock?!”

Mr Chips bounds through the open door, tongue lolling lazily out of the left side of his mouth. Richie crouches down, partly to keep himself from fainting from shock, but mostly to give Mr Chips a scritch behind the ear.

“Why’dya scream like that, lad?”

Richie’s hamstrings start screaming at him, and after debating standing up and doing something productive, Richie flops down onto his arse, legs splayed. Mr Chips, delighted, lies on his back in between Richie’s legs. Richie rubs his fluffy tummy. Mike laughs at them, and begins filling up the camping kettle.

“Och aye, just regular wee things, laddy”

“Git tae fuck” Mike scolds, but he shoots a smile at Richie, who has progressed to lying on his back, with Mr Chips front paws on his stomach.

“Sorry, sorry. I’m just trying to practice, I’m determined that eventually I’ll be able to go shopping in Portree and convince everyone I’m actually Scottish”

“You do realise that everyone on the whole Isle knows you’re American, right? I don’t think anyone who isn’t Scottish has lived here for decades. You’re the most exciting thing to happen to this little isle for years” Mike says, passing Richie a mug of steaming coffee. Richie stands up, accepting the mug graciously.

“Yeah, about that…”

“So let me git this straight. Ye’v bin seeing a guy in this house dressed as an army officer?”

Richie rubs his hands over his eyes, scrubbing hard enough that stars bloom in the darkness behind his eyelids.

“Sort of”

“Is it some guy playing a joke on ye or something? One of the wee bairns from the town?”

“Naw, it’s definitely not a kid. He’s a fully-grown man, like, my age or sumthin’”

Mike hums thoughtfully, his face screwed in concentration as he wrestles with the pipe he’s trying to bend into place. Richie stands behind him, half-heartedly screwing a mirror into the wall. The drill spends more time on the floor than in Richie’s hand, though.

“and ye said he told ye he was dead? That he’d died in ’45?”

“Yup, s’what he said”

“and yer sure he’s not a ghost?”

Richie scoffed incredulously.

“Michael, ghosts aren’t real”

“What makes ye so sure?”

“Common sense”

Mike shoots Richie a raised eyebrow.

“… Do you not have common sense?” Richie mumbled.

“I guess not” is all Mike says, shuffling closer towards the pipe-bend.

“Mike, look. You’ve either left a gas tap loose and I’m going mad, or I’m genuinely being haunted so I’d appreciate it if we could approach this little bit more seriously”

Mike finally bends the pipe into place, and sits back on his heels with a triumphant grin. He stands up, and turns to face Richie.

“I saw my maw three days ago”

“… Ah yes, an entirely relevant digression”

“She died six years ago”

“… Shit”

After a large amount of begging on Richie’s part, and a desire to get the washing machine plumbed in early on Mike’s part, they came to an arrangement. Mike would stay in the cottage on the moor overnight, sleeping in the guest room right next to Richie’s bedroom. They’d stay up as late as possible, and try and lure the man in the khaki uniform out of hiding.

“He said his name was Eddie, so maybe I can just stand in the gardens and … yell for him?”

Mike shot another incredulous look Richie’s way.

“Are ye sure that’s tha best way to beckon a maybe-not-real ghost out of hiding?”

“I have no idea, Michael, I’m not the one who seems to commune with the dead on a regular fucking basis now, am I”

They’d finished working for the day a few hours ago, and were now sat out on the grass near the lake. The lake was a lake of fire, reflecting the golden rays of the sun. Mr Chips was sniffing in the undergrowth lazily, occasionally coming back over to Mike for an ear scratch. Richie had cooked them pasta – about all he could manage on the small camping stove. The moor was bristling with noise, but the two men were silent. Mike’s eyes were closed as he lay on his back, head resting on his arms that were folded behind his head. Richie was throwing small stones into the lake. plip plip plip.

When it was dark, they moved inside and sat around the small burner.

“So what normally happens, then? When does yer army fella normally come out?”

“He’s not a train, Mike, he doesn’t have a schedule”

“Y’know what I meant”

“He just sort of … appears. I’ve never had to actually do anything before apart from –“

“Apart from what?”

“Well, every time he’s come out, I’ve hurt myself”

Mike’s face lights up, and Richie’s clouds with horror.

“No, Mike! No”

“Just a wee cut, ye’ll barely feel it”

“NO, MIKE!”

With this, Mike began to chase Richie around the house, brandishing his pen-knife like a sabre. Richie was hollering with half-delight half-genuine panic that Mike would carve him up with the small, probably incredibly blunt, blade.

“MIIIIIIKE! I changed my mind, it’s not that I hurt myself then see him, I see him then hurt myself! Put that fucking knife away” Richie screamed, very aware that Mike was a hairs distance away from him now.

“Fine, I’ll stab ye when I see him!”

“You do that!”

They both slowed to a walk, Richie’s chest heaving markedly more than Mike’s. They’d ended up in the kitchen, and Richie watched as Mike put the pen knife on the kitchen table.

“Tea?” Richie asks, picking up the kettle and filling it from the newly functioning tap.

“M’gasping, thanks, lad”

They sat huddled close together for the rest of the night, neither bothering to take to their beds upstairs.

Eddie didn’t appear.

Richie awoke the next morning with a crick in his neck and a tongue in his eye. He gently shoved Mr Chips off his chest, where the collie had slept for most of the night, before rolling onto his knees and hauling himself up. Mike was already in the kitchen, fiddling with the back of the new washing machine.

“G’mornin’, Guvna!”

“M’not from London, Rich”

“Eh, same difference. Howzit?”

“Yeah, she’s bein’ a brat right now but I’ll soon ‘av ‘er singing” Mike grunted, still fiddling with some bendy tubing he was fixing to the back of the washing machine.

“He didn’t show up” Richie said, filling up the kettle.

“I know”

“I think I’m losing my fucking mind”

“I know”

Richie placed the kettle on the gas burner, twiddling the knob to allow the gas to flow from the gas canister into the burner. He jumped backwards when the flame bloomed suddenly, glowing orange then red then blue.

He hadn’t showed up. Richie had sort of expected it. It was sort of like when you did something really impressive, and then ask someone to watch you do it, and then you can’t do the impressive thing again, no matter how hard you try. Not that seeing (hallucinating?) 1940s army doctors was impressive or anything. It was probably quite the opposite.

“I need a break” Richie mumbled, mostly to himself.

Mike stops what he’s doing, and stands up, wiping his greasy hands on a cloth.

“How long have ye been out here on yer own?”

“To be honest I can’t remember”

“Yer obviously in need of a break, Rich. You’ve been out here on yer own for too long, s’bound to make ye feel a bit squiffy. Come back to mine for the weekend, we can take it easy and ye can come back here and if ye do see the ghostie again, we’ll know its something we need to sort oot”

Richie decides on the spot that Mike is one of the best friends he’s ever had.

Mike lives in a modern house that sits almost jarringly in the mouth of a hill. It’s all clean, white lines and sloping ceilings and Richie both hates and loves it. The first thing Richie does when he gets there is collapse on Mike’s squishy black sofa, arm flung dramatically over his face. He intends on only resting his eyes for a few seconds, but before he knows it he’s out for the count. Several hours lost to a dreamless sleep later, and Richie wakes up. He feels alert, and more rested than he ever has since he moved to Scotland all those months ago.

When he looks around, he spots Mike sat in an armchair next to a fire. He’s got one hand on Mr Chips’ head, and one hand flicking through an old looking photo album. There’s a glass of honey-coloured liquid on the table next to him, two orbs of ice floating in it.

“Oops. Sorry, dude, I think I’ve been sleeping a bit worse than I thought”

Mike laughs indulgently, and Mr Chips’ head perks up at the sound of Richie’s scratchy voice.

“S’okay, lad”

Richie swings his legs off the sofa, and leans forward, eyes scanning the photos glued on the open page of the album Mike is looking at.

“Is that you?”

“Aye”

“Aw, you were so cute. What happened?”

“get tae fuck, cheeky bastard” Mike scolds, swatting half-heartedly at Richie’s head, before he points at another glass of honeyed liquid on the floor by Richie’s feet.

“It’s scotch, if ye want it.”

Richie nods gratefully, leaning down to pick up the glass. It’s a welcome cold against his slightly clammy skin.

“Is that your mom?” Richie asks, breaking the silence. He points at the photo with the young Mike whose sat on the shoulders of a young woman with sparkling eyes and a kind smile.

“Aye” is all Mike says, eyes glazing over for a second.

Richie doesn’t know what to say, and so he says nothing.

They sit in silence for a very long time, the only sounds the crackle of the fire, Mr Chips’ snuffly breaths and the crackling of the photo album paper.

“They died in a house fire”

Richie doesn’t say anything.

“Arson, it was. Some wee drunk bastard from the city. Threw a lit cigarette in through their window and it caught the curtains.”

Richie doesn’t say anything, just closes his eyes.

“The first time I saw her was a year after she died. She was in my garden, watching the birds. I damn near had a stroke. I yelled out to her, anything to get her to talk to me. But she didn’t. I’d see her, occasionally, always sat on the same bench in my garden, but she never spoke to me. She still doesn’t.”

“Do you ever see your dad?”

“Naw, never have”

“So that’s why you don’t think I’m insane”

“Aye”

“Will you think I’m horrible if you say I don’t believe you?” Richie asks, hesitantly.

“No” Mike replies honestly. “Do you believe me?”

“I don’t know what I believe anymore”

The weekend is over before Richie even blinks. He spends most of it asleep, or mooching around Portree with Mike. They drink a lot of scotch, play a lot of card games and eat a lot of food. Richie eats a lot of food. After eating only camping-stove-pasta for months on end, oven pizza tastes like the nectar of the gods.

Before he knows it, and before he’s really ready, he’s clambering out of Mike’s van back at his little cottage on the moor.

“I’ll be back tomorrow, lad”

And then Mike’s gone.

Richie stands on the porch of his little cottage, and takes a deep breath. He opens the door.

Eddie’s sat at the kitchen table.

“I am fucking insane”

“Hello”

“You’re not real”

“I mean, I’m a ghost, so I’m about as real as a ghost can be”

“You are a figment of my imagination. I am not standing in my kitchen talking to a dead person”

“… You are”

“Why didn’t you come out when Mike was here? When I was yelling for you in the back garden? Did you even hear me? Can ghosts hear? You must be able to hear, I mean, I’m talking to you right now and you’re responding so you must have some capacity for hearing which means you were just ignoring –”

“I’m shy” Eddie interrupts, face turned towards the floor.

“Huh?” Richie grunts, pacing back and forth.

“I didn’t want to come out when the other man was here, I didn’t know who he was and I got … scared …” Eddie trails off. His face was still turned towards the floor, and Richie was sure that if it were possible for a ghost without blood to flush, Eddie would be scarlet red by this point.

“In my defence, you barely know who I am either and you don’t seem to mind popping out of the woodwork every so often to scare me shitless, do you!” Richie responds, accusingly.

Eddie tilts his face, and meets Richie’s gaze.

“I sort of do know you, I’ve been watching you for the past few months, after all"

“That’s fucking creepy, Eds”

As soon as he says it, Richie knows he’s fucked up. Eddie’s face twists in pain, and he stands up and leaves the room. Only, he doesn’t leave through the door, he walks straight through the wall. Richie stares at the spot in the wall that Eddie had disappeared through, slack jawed.

“Wait! Eddie!”

Richie scrambles around the kitchen table, and follows Eddie (through the door) into the living room. Eddie is crouched in the corner of the room, head in his hands.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you or anything. I’ve just been on my own for over 74 years and I – I am so desperately lonely, Richie”

Richie’s heart thumps painfully in his chest. He squats down, but leaves several feet between him and the ghost.

“Aw, shucks, Eddie. If I could touch you I’d give you a hug right now”

Eddie snorts, and looks up at Richie. His eyes aren’t wet, which Richie assumes is because there is no water flowing through his spectral form. His eyes are slightly shinier, though, and they’re more insistent, more earnest.

“I don’t think you can touch me”

“Maybe we could try?” Richie asks, before he can stop himself. He doesn’t have long to panic about being forward, though, because Eddie agrees almost immediately.

Richie debates just trying to touch Eddie’s hand, or his shoulder, but decides to just go all out and leans forward, arms open, expecting to enclose a solid form in his arms. That doesn’t happen. What does happen is Richie falls forward, straight through Eddie’s ghostly form, and almost headbutts the wall. The air that Eddie’s form occupies is scalding hot. Eddie leaps forward, shaking his limbs violently.

“Bloody hell!” Eddie exclaims, face contorted in pain.

“Huh” is all Richie says. He shifts so he’s sat on his arse, knees folded up against his chest. Eddie stands before him, looking mildly scandalized.

“Why aren’t you freezing?”

“Pardon?”

“Ghosts are always freezing in movies. You’re not. You’re like I just fell head first into fuckin’ Mount Vesuvius. Why aren’t you freezing?”

Eddie doesn’t say anything, just continues to look upset.

“Wait – when I fell out of the window you managed to put a pillow behind my head. How’dya do that if you can’t touch anything?”

“Well, I’ve done some experimenting over the past seven decades, and I’ve worked out that I can touch things that aren’t alive – so things that aren’t made of flesh. Or things that are also dead, I can touch those, too. I just can’t touch living matter”

“I see, very scientific” Richie replies, but he’s mostly lost in thought. Without warning, he scrambles to his feet, and disappears into the kitchen. A confused and still scandalized Eddie follows, floating through the wall, where he finds Richie triumphantly holding out a pair of still-in-the-packet oven mitts.

“Put these on”

Eddie does as he’s told.

“Why am I wearing these? What are they?”

“Oven mitts. I bought them to help me carry pots of boiling water up the stairs but I haven’t needed them so far – I thought we could -“

Richie trails off, and reaches out to touch Eddie’s oven-mitt covered hand. Eddie flinches away a bit, but doesn’t move his hand.

Richie makes contact with the oven mitt, and squeezes.

Eddie squeezes back.

#reddie #richie tozier x eddie kaspbrak #eddie kaspbrak #richie tozier #the ghost of you #ao3 #thefutureisbright #ghost au #!!!

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christsoupas · 4 years

Text

Week 12 - Activate the collection

Project 1 – NASA Collection

This week I focused on finalizing the music and sound design which entailed writing new music and swapping out or A/B-ing different pieces. The main part of the score that still needed developing was the ending/outro. After submitting a visual edit with a partial score and therefore “locking in” that version for a period of time I grew to like the stark ending that wasn’t accompanied by any music. I found that then attempting to score that section became forced almost. I found that if I had mock credits run after the cut to black at the end, and then music kicked in over the credits it felt better. Furthermore a quick transition to a short preview/additional mock trailer advertising the sequel – coupled with strong musical elements, worked equally as well and it could be said, arguably better. Ultimately I think I will opt for the stark ending with the intention to tack on credits that would have the intro theme return or alternatively a completely different musical piece. (For my final presentation if time permits I may include some alternate endings to illustrate this point). The ideas I experimented with here were firstly a dark and powerful spacey Rock inspired piece that leans into and is in keeping with the Metamodernist or cheesy approach, and then an idea that was a slow, sparse, melancholy and eerie piece.

Additionally this week I will continue to plough through Premiere and After Effects tutorials focusing on general software operation, and then advanced colour correction and grading. This aspect remains the biggest challenge at the moment as I lack any technical background in this area; however my overall obstacle/challenge is the short remaining time frame before deadline. I must still factor the mixing and mastering process of strictly the audio as it is still time consuming, albeit being much clearer to me in terms of the execution process.

In conclusion, I am largely happy with this work in terms of what I set out to do - which was to effectively create Advertising in the form of Net Art/video mash-up in the form of a short film/mock trailer and reinvent a video collection, before “sampling” from it as it were, however I think that this idea can be further developed extensively. On one hand I could approach this finished work as a starting point to now create a stronger piece of work. One of the main ideas I would like to attempt would be to bring this work into 2020 so to speak and import this into After Effects and rotoscope the entire film, set out the extracted “cut outs” in 3D space, and then execute interesting and exciting camera animations. I think that taking this same approach with the titles would be equally as effective, however the main idea I will explore will be to divide this work up into 3 x 1 minute episodes to be used in the promotion of an album by the same name.

Strictly in terms of Audio-Visual relationship, this work walked a strange line in that it wasn’t a short film nor a trailer or a music video per se although it had components of all of the above but largely resided in the realm of an approach of scoring a trailer (and in terms of my reference being the trailer for the film “Solaris”) again highlights the challenge of the fact that its counterintuitive to the actual process of the creation of a trailer, as in that approach the sound/music is incorporated into the footage that has been edited/cut together for the purpose of said trailer. With that said at this stage the required A/V relationships to provide materialization for scenes in which it is essential have been mostly executed to my satisfaction.

The other idea is to completely rework this piece into a more sincere and serious orthodox short film format accompanied by an orthodox score. This would require the source material being loaded into After Effects and Premiere, and ensure formats and resolutions are “correct” from the beginning. Working this project in these applications will provide infinitely more tools and therefore opportunities to produce higher level work.

Project 2 – Bobo “Rebirth”

In regards to this project, this week I focused on finalizing the work. Last week I was compelled to largely finish this work due to the pending visit from ACMI Head of Collections Nick Richardson, so this week was all about final touches. I worked mostly on bouncing all midi to audio and then re-establishing the session and therefore the overall mix. I encountered some problems matching the previous mix/session. These obstacles centred mainly around effects but more accurately getting levels right, as the musical technique/approach I took in this work – of overlaying two completely different and vastly contrasting pieces of music - One being a delicate classical piano motif/progression, and the other - a wild and raw distorted guitar/noise art movement require the right balance which entails tweaking once compression and then overall mixing and mastering are factored/executed.

In conclusion, I feel that this work is a success if taken on its own merit. However there seems to be some dissonance with myself and the video artist in terms of what “matches the theme” - the theme being Rebirth, yet nothing descriptive really offered in terms of what would match the theme. The film comprises of quite conspicuous footage of Shaun Wilsons film edited with some excerpts from a home movie collection (on offer by ACMI) of children playing. There is no obvious narrative of rebirth present in the edit – an abstract work.., which then effectively becomes a discussion based around subjectivity and individual aesthetic preferences. The footage is largely dark foreboding and ultimately spells a narrative of fear, confusion and sadness. I think that I have employed a strong audio-visual relationship here both in terms of having successfully attributed the correct or apt musical mood to the imagery, and then the obvious syncresis at points. I feel that perhaps a completely abstract sound design focused approach might’ve worked but again without any articulation of direction other than a rough overarching theme it becomes a collaborative process of “stabbing in the dark and see what sticks”, which is ultimately very taxing in terms of time and energy expended.

In summary, I feel I am on track to deliver both projects on time before deadline. There is still work to be completed for both projects which I will endeavor to finish in the next 24-48 hours, which will allow me around 24-48hrs to initiate and complete my 8 minute final video presentation before submission on Friday.

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