#Then I took it back and refined the shading a bit

[justcallmesakira]

The reader looking so pretty at an event in the agency, co worker dazai can't help but stare at her :> make sum scenario :>

"I SEE YOUR PRETTY EYES AT MINE, MISTER~"

Sypnosis: Dazai just cant keep his eyes to himself when a colleuge of his is looking so darn pretty!

Dazai x fem! reader

Genre: suggestive, romance

Warnings: reader is sort of cheeky, suggestive as hell, implied alcoholism, author gave the reader on what attire shes wearing.

A/N FINALLY A REQUEST AFTER SO FUCKIN LONG

The agency had decided to hold another party in celebration of a huge deal which would help the agency .

And of course you were invited, almost everyone was. You decided to look extra pretty today because why not, not because of others but for yourself.

You had picked out a extravagant ebony coated frock which covered all the way up to your legs and ended with glistening white layers of laces.

The party was at 8 o clock, you had time plus what would you do getting there so early?

Gently tapping on the tubes of lipsticks you picked out a vermillion shade and smoothly applied the waxy substance on your lips. The colour suited the rose tied around your neck really well.

Finally adding some final touches you rushed out the door and walked along to the agency.

There were colourful lights and food everywhere, Atsushi teaching Kyouka how to make decorations, doctor Yosano taking a bit too much of wine, ranpo staring at powdered donuts... To think of it you remember him taking 5 of them sneakily one night and you wonder why hes so obsessed with them.

But one thing you could notice was a certain someones eyes on you... Dazai.

You walked up to atsushi and kyouka, talking to them and teaching them some tips and tricks to fit in with the agency.

You could feel at all times though, a certain pair of eyes glancing at you from time to time from the corner of the room.

"Excuse me, i will just fix my hair and come back" you politely end the conversation before walking towards the door and going outside.

Despite your heels clacking against the floor, you could feel another set of shoes following them.

"Dazai-san, may i know why i feel your eyes on my at all times?" you ask putting a perfect spot from the distance between your figure and the mans figure.

He chuckled.

"Bella, i must say your quite the smart one arent ya'?" osamu replies back with much cheekiness in his tone as yiu turned to him, he had a black tuxedo, a polished and refined one, it hugged his body quite tightly too.

You just sighed at his remark, he was a ladies man you knew but you have never seen the glint and love in his eyes on a girl ever before, it amde your stomach turn slightly in a good way, of course.

His teasing grin drops and turns into a more soothing smile as he walks over to you which makes you back towards the wall unsure whether to trsut him or not.

He lowers his head a bit to reach your face taking in all of it's features.

"Are you trying to woo me, dazai-san? It seems like it"

"Haaah, maybe. The thing is bella you just look so.." you expect him to give you some compliment like every boy does when they see a girl sitting pretty and all but instead he gently took a strand of your hair, took it to his lips and uttered every single quality and flaw about you, it was as if hes born to have a poets tongue with you being the muse.

"I just want to admire you all day, my darling. Its not lust nor a small crush, it isnt even close to love but something beyond the world and beyond the universe to attend to, i dont know i could drown in your eyes right now but i would prefer staring at them for an eternity as if its a gorgeous piece of art hung on a museum"

he said softly, oh god did this man made your heart drop down your stomach and melt into your intestines.

With each word he spoke through his charming voice, you could feel his breathe and hands going closer towards your sweating body and at last, he asked for your permission to which you only looked at him with a slight embroidery of embarrassment on your cheeks.

Dazai tenderly kissed your forehead but though it lasted short you wondered whether he tried to go for your lips instead because of the shift in his body.

"Oi, dazai and [Name] if your done with your cheesy af encounter than come back to the party! Presidents calling you two!"

Atlast after moments of intimate interaction which wasnt even intimate because of the silent yearn for something neither the two of you could preach. Both of you decided to go back to the party.

Later in the relationship you realised that your first kiss with this loverman was not the type of kiss those possessive men would do which would take your breathe away but more of a desperate one as if to reach out for something which one already got.

In the end nor dazai or you could just confess normally without making each other look like two pieces of magnificent artwork looking at each other.

A/N: i hate this more than dazai hates him self :(((((((( btw reader is wearing this dress

Divider crds! : @cafekitsune

Tags! : @inojuuy @silverbladexyz @atlasnessie @tsuunara @elizais @saelique @chuuyasboner @atzuhi @riiwrites @ruanais @biscuits-spooky-corner @rusmii

#sakira! #sakiras writing notebook!!! #bsd x reader #bungou gay dogs #bungou stray dogs #bsd #Bsd fanfic #Bsd drabble #Drabbles #dazai #dazai x reader #dazai osamu x reader #Osamu dazai #Bsd dazai #Spicy

[fafnir19]

Sailing the other way

Lauritz' sister's fiance Samuel and him were very different. Samuel, the suave and sophisticated heir to a wealthy family, always seemed to have the world at his fingertips.

Lauritz, on the other hand, was a rebellious and free-spirited punker who didn't quite fit in with the conventional lifestyle his family wanted for him.

Despite their differences, Samuel and Lauritz got along surprisingly well. Their interactions were a peculiar blend of class and nonconformity that created a magnetic dynamic between them. It was on the cusp of Samuel's impending wedding that an unconventional idea began to take shape.

"Ey, Sam, let's do something wild before your wedding, mate," Lauritz proposed with a glint of mischief in his eyes. Samuel raised an eyebrow, unsure of what adventure Lauritz had in mind this time. "What did you have in mind, Lauritz? Last time your 'wild' idea led to us spending a night in a police cell in Amsterdam." Lauritz replied: “Vegas would be cool, but at the end of the day it’s your bachelor party. I'll do whatever you want!" Flashing a boyish grin, Samuel draped an arm around Lauritz's shoulders. "I want to take our boat out and sail across the Baltic Sea. It'll be an epic journey filled with freedom and salt-kissed air. You in?" Lauritz, with his unconventional mohawk and punk attire, looked askance at Samuel. "Sailing? That's a bit, you know, bourgeois for my taste," he quipped, adjusting the studded leather jacket slung over his shoulder. Smirking, Samuel continued, "Nonsense! It's summer, and what better way to enjoy some fresh sea air? Besides, it’ll be an adventure, and it'll please the in-laws to see you refining your tastes." Lauritz's parents, along with Samuel's family, were indeed relieved by the prospect. "Better than if you were hanging out with those punkers," his mother had remarked with a grateful smile. With their bags packed and spirits high, Samuel and Lauritz boarded Samuel's family's mahogany sailboat bound for Helsinki.

The sun's golden gaze kissed the cerulean waves, casting a mesmerizing glow upon the Baltic Sea. "Ah, this is the life, isn't it?" Samuel exclaimed, his gaze sweeping over the glittering expanse of the sea. Lauritz nodded, a wry smile playing on his lips. "It's not as terrible as I imagined. But still, wouldn't you rather be planning your wedding festivities than gallivanting with me?" Samuel chuckled, adjusting his nautical cap. "Oh, come now, my dear Lauritz. We have the rest of our lives for all that. Let's revel in the freedom while we can. Besides, you're not so bad to have around, even for a punker." Lauritz feigned offense, his blue eyes twinkling mischievously. "You wound me with your words, Samuel," he teased. As the ship cuts through the gentle waves, Samuel took Lauritz under his wing, teaching him the art of sailing. Despite his initial skepticism, Lauritz found himself unexpectedly enjoying the experience, reveling in the salty breeze and the rhythmic lull of the waves against the hull. Their journey led them to the enchanting city of St. Petersburg, where the juxtaposition of baroque architecture and Soviet-era relics offered a feast for the eyes.

As they wandered through the labyrinthine streets, the allure of the city enticed Lauritz to explore the more unconventional facets. "I've been thinking," Lauritz began, his voice laced with determination. "I want an eyelet in my ear, like the punks back home. It's about time I made my mark, don't you think?" he declared, pointing to a trendy piercing found amongst the punk subculture.

Samuel's face turned a shade of pale as he frantically tried to dissuade him, envisioning the cocktail of disapproving glares from his in-laws. "Lauritz, you can't just waltz back to the family estate with a hole in your ear. What would my in-laws think? Besides, piercings can lead to infections. How about something more inconspicuous? Like a nipple piercing?" Lauritz let out a laugh, his eyes dancing with mischief. "Oh, Samuel, always thinking about appearances. But where's the fun in that? I want something that screams independence! Something bold." Their banter was interrupted by a raspy cackle that seemed to echo through the narrow alley they were passing. They turned to see an old woman, draped in shawls and adorned with clinking trinkets. Her eyes glittered with an unsettling intensity as she fixed her gaze on the two friends. "You just have to hold him tight, then we'll circumcise him and I'll make a silver ring out of his foreskin," the old woman mused, her eyes glinting with whimsical certainty. "All you have to do is put this ring on your penis and Lauritz will visually adapt to your taste as long as you wear the ring." Samuel gasped, his mind reeling from the outlandish suggestion. But to his surprise, Lauritz entertained the idea, his eyes gleaming with curiosity. "We'll do that, Samuel," Lauritz proclaimed, casting a challenging grin. "After all, you wanted me to do something inconspicuous. What's more inconspicuous than a circumcision?" Despite Samuel's vehement protests, Lauritz remained resolute, and before long, the old woman performed the peculiar ritual, and to their astonishment, the excised foreskin transformed into a shimmering silver ring, which she bestowed upon Lauritz.

Back on the sailboat, Lauritz couldn't contain his mischievous glee as he gazed at the ring. "Now, it's your turn, Samuel. Put the ring over your... You-know-what," he demanded with a sly smirk. Reluctantly, Samuel acquiesced, only to find that, to his bewilderment, nothing seemed to happen.

As the mahogany sailboat gently cut through the azure waves, Samuel and Lauritz lounged on the deck, basking in the warm embrace of the sun. The sea stretched out around them, a shimmering expanse as far as the eye could see, carrying them toward the next port of their Baltic odyssey, the enchanting city of Tallinn. Lauritz sprawled out on the deck, his eyes half-lidded and gazing at the sprawling cityscape of Tallinn ahead, the gentle sea breeze ruffling his hair. Lauritz raised a hand to his shock of green mohawk, only to find something unexpected. Instead of the vibrant strands he had known for years, his fingertips grazed a neat, blonde faded cut with shaved sides.

He let out a surprised chuckle, turning to Samuel with an air of amusement. "Samuel, can you believe it? The old woman's prediction must have come true!" Lauritz proclaimed, a glimmer of excitement in his eyes. "This silver ring has really worked its magic. Look at this hair!" Samuel's eyes widened, examining Lauritz's transformed hairstyle with disbelief. "But I saw your green hair this morning. You must have cut it just to fool me," Samuel elucidated, struggling to reconcile the inexplicable transformation before his eyes.

Their banter was interrupted by the sight of Tallinn's spires unfolding on the horizon, a tapestry of architectural marvels rising from the coastline. The allure of the city's winding streets beckoned them, and they eagerly embraced the promise of new adventures. In the heart of Tallinn, the cobblestone streets echoed with the lilt of their footsteps as they wandered through the centuries-old alleys adorned with vibrant blooms. They eventually settled into a quaint street café, the aroma of freshly brewed coffee mingling with the gentle breeze. Lauritz, donning a sailing jacket, leaned back against his chair, relishing the warmth of the sun's embrace. With a casual air, he began unbuttoning his jacket, revealing the absence of his usual body hair, a curious discovery that piqued Samuel's interest.

"Lauritz, your... your hair! It's gone," Samuel exclaimed, his eyes widening in incredulity. Lauritz chuckled, his voice laced with a roguish charm. "The magic strikes again, my friend. Behold the power of belief and a touch of enchantment." Samuel watched in awe as the revelation unfolded before him, unable to completely dismiss the inexplicable occurrences that seemed to dance around Lauritz like a whimsical symphony. "You must've shaved this morning to jest with me," Samuel suggested, his tone tinged with skepticism. "This can't be real." "Ah, always the skeptic," Lauritz teased. "But I assure you, this is the handiwork of the ring. It's brought a dash of transformation to my life, hasn't it?"

As the sun dipped beneath the horizon, casting hues of amethyst across the sky, they sailed toward Stockholm. The promise of new adventures and unexpected marvels beckoned them as they set sail toward the Swedish capital. The following morning, Lauritz awoke to the gentle lull of the ship, the rays of the rising sun casting a golden glow upon the skyline.

As he prepared for the day's exploration, his reflection in the mirror above the sink evoked a bout of bewilderment. His eccentric punk ensemble had been replaced by an impeccably tailored ensemble—an unbuttoned shirt and sleek olive-colored pants that exuded an air of refinement and sophistication.

"What in the world?" Lauritz muttered, his eyes widening in sheer disbelief. "Samuel, you won't believe this!" Samuel emerged from the cabin, his eyes immediately falling upon Lauritz's stupefying transformation.

"Samuel, it's happened again! This silver ring is truly astounding," Lauritz exclaimed, his spirit alight with unadulterated glee. "Look at these clothes! I didn't expect the magic to work on my outfit too!" Samuel's incredulity was palpable as he regarded the sight before him. "Lauritz, you must have changed into this outfit while I wasn't looking," Samuel reasoned, his tone laced with skepticism. "It's impossible for a ring to cause all this. Whatsoever, I still think it’s good that you dressed more refined today. After all, we want to have breakfast today at the Grand Hotel, where the Nobel Peace Prizes are usually awarded.”

The mahogany sailboat bobbed gently as it sliced ​​through Stockholm's sun-kissed archipelago en route to Visby on Gotland. Samuel manned the helm, while Lauritz was standing at the bow, his gaze trailing horizon. Suddenly Lauritz went through another unexpected transformation. Lauritz's black jeans and baggy T-shirt shifted seamlessly into a wide-open shirt and tight red shorts, his physique now exuding an athleticism that caught Samuel off guard.

Samuel's breath caught in his throat, his eyes widening in disbelief as he beheld the improbable evolution unfurling before him. "Lauritz, what... what in the world is happening? This—this isn't right," Samuel stammered, his voice trembling with an amalgamation of astonishment and concern. "I... I need to put a stop to this. I need to get rid of that ring." Lauritz, amusement dancing in his gaze, placed a supportive hand on Samuel's shoulder. "Come on, Samuel, don't be so quick to stifle the mystery. Embrace the uncertainty," he encouraged, a playful glint in his eyes. "Let's see what more this whimsical journey has in store for us."

As the sailboat glided toward the shores of Gotland, the island exuded an alluring mystique, its ancient ruins and labyrinthine streets promising an adventure both whimsical and enigmatic. Their footsteps echoed through the quaint streets of Visby, framed by structures that stood as timeless testaments to ancient grandeur. The island cast its spell upon them, ensnaring their senses with the echoes of bygone eras and the whimsy of forgotten legends. As they ambled through the cobbled pathways, Lauritz noticed a peculiar shift in the way the islanders regarded him. Warm smiles and nods of acknowledgment replaced the guarded glances that typically followed his punk façade.

"Lauritz, did you notice that?" Samuel inquired, his tone laced with a tinge of wonder. Lauritz nodded, a spark of amazement gleaming in his gaze. "It seems the residents of Visby have taken a shining to me, haven't they? The magic of the ring... it's a wonder indeed." The day waned into a resplendent evening, the sun casting its golden embrace upon the island as a symphony of stars unfurled across the heavens. Samuel and Lauritz reveled in the evening's enchanting tapestry, their thoughts drifting toward the next leg of their Baltic odyssey

The melding of disbelief and marvel lingered in the air, enveloping them in a veil of intrigue, as they embarked on their final leg of the journey toward Copenhagen. Clad in polished tuxedos, they reveled in opulent indulgence. Since Samuel had studied in Copenhagen, he knew how to gain access to the most exclusive establishments with a practiced ease.

Amidst the effervescent allure of the Danish capital, the two friends embraced the revelry of their adventure indulging in the opulence that enveloped them. Their boisterous laughter and animated conversations resounded through the hallowed halls of the city's elite establishments, the allure of upscale soirées and lavish gatherings capturing their spirits in a whirlwind of decadence. "Ah, Copenhagen has a certain allure, doesn't it?" Samuel remarked, a smirk playing on his lips as they strolled through the city's resplendent evening. Lauritz nodded, the vibrant tapestry of revelry and sophistication intoxicating his senses. "It seems your world has its own brand of enchantment, Samuel. I can't deny its appeal."

Samuel watched with an inexplicable mix of astonishment and fascination as the vivacious Lauritz seamlessly embraced the lavish lifestyle that had once appeared incompatible with his punk ethos.

The morning of their departure from Copenhagen arrived, and the sailboat set sail once more, carrying them toward Helsingborg where Samuel will marry Lauritz’ sister. As the sailboat rocked gently over the calm water, Samuel brought up the topic that had been bothering him. “Lauritz, I think it’s time to take the ring off. After all, your sister expects you to look like a punk – even though I prefer your current, charming look,” Samuel announced with solemn weight in his words. Venturing into the cabin, Samuel endeavored to remove the ring, only to be met with an unforeseen predicament.

His fervent words reverberated with unrestrained urgency, "Lauritz, I can't... It won't... It's... I can't remove it! Lauritz, I can't seem to get it off," he called out in distress, his voice wrought with urgency.  "It's stuck, and I don't know what to do." Lauritz sprang into action, his touch eliciting a peculiar sensation in Samuel, who found himself thrown off balance by an unexpected surge of arousal - Samuel sported a boner. Before their bewildered eyes, Lauritz's demeanor underwent a subtle shift, his gaze now infused with an alluring allure that took Samuel by surprise. As the unexpected surge of desire enveloped them, Lauritz dropped his shorts, parting his legs with a provocative air.

"Take this opportunity, Samuel. Let's embrace the unexpected," Lauritz uttered with a newfound confidence, the air thick with unspoken desires that coursed between them. Samuel was drawn by the sight and couldn't resist and took the opportunity to penetrate Lauritz.   After they made love Lauritz turned to Samuel, a solemn glimmer in his eyes, and whispered, "Samuel, I... I want to stay like this. I don’t want to become a sleazy punker again." Samuel’s breath caught in his throat, his gaze locked with Lauritz's. "What are you saying, Lauritz?" In an unexpected twist of fate, the ring tightened around Samuel's cock, seamlessly merging with his flesh. As the transformation took hold, a sense of undeniable euphoria washed over him. Gazing at Lauritz, a knowing smile curled Samuel's lips. "Tomorrow, I will marry my dream girl. And as her dowry, I received her brother to have fun with. I couldn't be happier." Lauritz chuckled and teased, "I guess even a trip to Las Vegas couldn't have been wilder. Seems like your gay sailing trip turned us both bi.”

The following day, as Samuel stood at the altar, he exchanged vows with his beloved, the echoes of a union hitherto unforeseen threading through the tender fabric of his heart.

And in Lauritz, he found a cherished confidant—a companion bound by the threads of an unexpected journey that would endure far beyond the veil of tradition. As the evening unfurled in all its opulent splendor, Samuel orchestrated a future endowed with an unforeseen serenity. With unwavering determination, he ensured that Lauritz was granted a place at an elite university and provided the resources necessary to flourish—a life enraptured by boundless opportunity.

In the wake of unforeseen revelations, Lauritz embraced the life of a typical, self-assured scion, reveling in the embrace of newfound passions and embarking on an uncharted journey tinged with the allure of possibility.

#male tf #male transformation #personality change #mystery #straight to bi #sailing tf #magic ring #punk to prep

[ophelian-darling]

hiiii!! can you write something with giorno with prompts 46 and 63? in which giorno lets darling out after months to meet up with some old friends (of course he has to be there too) and one of them (either girl or boy, it's up to you) is wayyyy too touchy with darling? and he gets jealous and possessive, wanting to go home as soon as possible.

and darling tries to calm him down, telling him that she only loves him and they cuddle & kiss aajahhaaha

you can also do it with gn reader, but i would like female. how you are more comfortable with!! much love <3

"I don't like them, don't ask me to be nice"

"A friend ? you call them a friend when they have their hands and eyes all over your body ?"

TW: Jealousy, Obsession, Possessiveness, Implied emotional manipulation.

enjoy ♡

The room basked in a warm shade of morning sun; casting its joy through the air to your smiling face as you stood in front of the vanity mirror, admiring your dolled reflection with glinting eyes. Giorno blessed your morning with good tidings: you were finally allowed to go out- not exactly what he told you, but it meant having some gentle breeze and sunshine caresses nonetheless.

Your Sweetheart said that he had an important matter to attend to, and it would be nice if you accompanied him (There was no way you'd refuse, memorizing the corners of the Villa exhausted your mind) and you gladly accepted. He mentioned the presence of his most trusted subordinates and close friends, and you couldn't be happier, a sweet excitement blinking in your eyes.

"Aren't you the prettiest?" it fell from his tongue, sugary in words and adoring in tone. Everything he says casted a certain magic on you that made you forget how intolerable he was with his jealousy and strict with his instructions concerning you: from your clothing, choice of words and comportment. Blamed be anything that pulled on the strings of his head whenever it was about you: other people's stares, pricks of the tiniest thorn or could be even a drift of air; to him, you were something that meant to be put on a pedestal, more of a porcelain marionette that its sob was a shatter. 

A shy smile toned your lips while a heat bloomed on your cheeks. These simple words felt like a pink cloud; soft and loving in a way so special another human couldn't know how to offer. Despite all of his thorns, Giorno carried a constant love for you, for all your flaws and each speck of dust you stepped on, for every breath you took and word you uttered. His tiring Jealousy was dark, but a side to the brightness of his affection's moon; none of it was out of pure malice.

He plastered a quick kiss to your cheek "We're not going to take long, just five minutes and we will come back home again. If you're a good girl, I'll consider taking you somewhere nice" 

You nodded. the same dreamy smile contouring your face with warmth. 

"Buongiorno, Don Giovanna!" a brunette greeted, with a soft voice of a spring rain. as you both stepped into the small orchard, her appearance welcomed you next.

Lovely. She was lovely, in every letter of the word and in every meaning of a tongue. 

Her skin, tan as a cloud's shadow, glowed under the morning's sun, refined as fine silk and smooth as fair sand. Her eyes sang for most of her loveliness- sorrel shade of brown, one of a rosewood or an orchid flower. you couldn't help but to stare. she smiled at you, revealing a row of pearls in her mouth.

"Welcome, Signora Giovanna, it's a pleasure to see you at last!" she swan gracefully, showing her full front; up from her amphora-shaped neck, middling to her tender cleavage and down to her hips that wrapped felinely under a pencil skirt.

Your shy smile must have conveyed something else for her. as she extended her hand for you, you took it a little stronger than you intended, causing her to pull you a little bit closer as to ease your nerves with a friendly gesture. Now looking at her through a distance she deserved to be beheld at, you noticed how a dark mole complimented under her left eye, as if it was a speck of black pearl's dust.

"Nice to see you Belladonna" 

"T-thank you" you gave her another grateful smile. 

"You're as pretty as I heard. no wonder that the Don is being such a genie" she chuckled, pulling on your heartstrings even more "He has quite a fair treasure. you're really something yourself, Signora" 

A laugh was all that you had to offer, words on your tongue weren't enough to mirror her flattery, one that kissed heat on your cheeks. She was just so sweet. 

"Tesorina?" It jumped to your attention now that her hand was still on yours. 

You glanced at your side, where Giorno stood up: his face twisted into sullen lineaments, green eyes darkened just a tad under. you conned all of his expressions as much as you remembered the palm of your hand; your heart sank at how a pleasant walk outside was bound to be ruined from the very first minutes, all thanks to a woman you barely knew. 

He pursed his lips in one tight line. as he ushered with his head to his side, you caught the drift and walked up to him.

"We're going home, now" 

"You do seem eager to gloat yourself in other people's attention, as if I don't give you enough already" 

"She was just being nice! none of what you're thinking was actually happening!" 

"Now having the audacity to lie in my face and deny what I've seen?!" 

"Nothing actually happened!" your hands flew around your head, while you did your best to compose your tone to be still. While he maintained his own anger at times you argued, he didn't want to hear your voice get louder at him in return. experiencing quarrels with him many times before, you knew that you were able to pacify things from your side by not fighting back, and saying what he wanted to hear the most.

"Gio…" you drew a meek smile "I don't have eyes on her at all. in fact, I don't see anyone else aside from you" 

His face remained still, clearly unimpressed by your words. you had to try better than this, and taking a step closer to him would start it.

"I'm really sorry if you've seen something you didn't like, but please believe me when I say that she didn't do anything direct to me, nor did I like her in any sense. She was just acting like a friend" 

He quirked an eyebrow "A friend? you call her a friend when she has her hands and eyes all over your body? you can't be this naive"

You felt a flutter in your heart. surely his paranoia was concerning ; yet you couldn't help but to feel a pang of guilt at letting him think that you weren't interested in him anymore. The idea of you preferring someone else over him was still carved in his head, and probably will never be erased unless you manage to prove your true loyalty to him. 

"Did she? I didn't notice at all. but can you please be a little nicer next time in front of others? it was rude to treat someone like that" you rested your palms on his shoulders, now looking straight through his eyes.

"Don't ask me to be nice, everyone knows who you are and who I am. I don't like how she expects you to simply speak to her as if you aren't my wife" 

"Aww!" you just laughed, planting a kiss in hopes of softening his rigid face. He is handsome- a smile on his lips meant a heaven full of stars to you.

Warmly, he enveloped you in a tender embrace, thumbs cosseting the sides of your cheek. You let yourself melt in his form, feeling his lulling pulse and kneading lips on your ribs and face, never feeling so revered than ever. 

The description of the female character included in this piece was inspired from this oc.

#yandere jjba #yandere jjba x reader #yandere jojo x reader #yandere jojo's bizarre adventure #yandere jojo #jjba x reader #jjba x y/n #jjba x you #sfw #yandere giorno x reader #yandere giorno giovanna #yandere giogio #yandere giorno giovanna x reader #yandere giorno #giorno giovanna x reader #giorno x reader #giorno x y/n #giogio x reader #bygiornogiovanna #i feel like i rushed into this one

[sheabuttahwrites]

in the Morning

story masterlist Shea Buttah Bakery Masterlist

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sounds// Peabo Bryson - Feel The Fire, Isley Brothers - Spend the Night (Ce Soir), The O'Jays - Forever Mine

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IV.

“Oh, shit. What’s up?” He smiled back and it was even more killer in person. Especially with the surprise of gleaming gold fangs and the matching slugs I could see peeking from behind his bottom lip. I had to remind myself to breathe. “You came.”

“I told you I was on the way.”

“Nah, I thought you was fucking with me.” Laughter took over the conversation as he opened the door a bit wider, stepping aside. “Come on in.”

Hell, I could barely believe I’d shown up myself. I had never really been shy, but he’d brought a boldness out of me that even I hadn’t seen.

When I passed him, I noticed that he was still significantly taller than me in four inch heels. Damn. Not like I wasn't overdue for a climbing lesson anyway. The scent of his cologne was also quite alluring. The woody, smoky fragrance pervaded my senses, warming all the spots that shot had missed. Of course he would smell just as good as he looked. He may not have believed I would be there tonight, but he had damn sure been prepared. 

“I can take your jacket.” 

“Oh, sure.” I went to slip it from my shoulders, but he circled behind me and took the collar into his hands. 

“Here, I got you.” 

Taken aback by his unexpected chivalry, I was stuck watching him walk back to the closet to carefully put it away. 

“This is dope. The gold on here go crazy.”

“Right? I thought the same thing. Had to have it.”

“Good choice.” He grinned as he strolled back over to me. “I like your whole get-up, though. You look good, girl.” The intensity he radiated in person was unreal. His blinding smile. Those piercing brown eyes. The once-over he gave me felt like he was sexing me up already. 

Of course, I was a flustered mess. “Thank you.”

“What’s in the bag?”

I held up my bottle for him to see. “Wine. Actually, could I put it in your fridge?”

“Yeah.” He reached for it, so I gave it to him. Then he nodded to the left. “This way.” 

We left the foyer and I followed him past a gorgeous living area, subtly admiring my surroundings. The height of the ceilings had caught my attention right away. All of it was stunning. Far from the bare walls, futon, and flat screens I had half expected. Off white walls and dark wood floors made up the most of it, but the decor was so sophisticated and refined. I’d already clocked a painting and coffee table that I wanted for myself. I could tell it had been carefully curated. I should've known he would give nothing less. We walked through an arched doorway into a kitchen that made me feel like cooking for some strange reason. Just like everything else I’d seen, it looked like something from a magazine. Shades of gray, black, white and green complemented each other well among all the satiny stainless steel. There were even fresh tulips sitting in the middle of the island. I was giving one of them a smell when he came over, leaning up against the marble counter with me. 

“I put it in the freezer for you.”

“Thank you.”

“No problem.” Having to look up was already doing something different for me, but the way he was smiling down at me made it so much worse. Prolonged eye contact was his thing, I’d already gathered. It felt like he was staring into my soul. Whew! “I’m glad you came.”

“Yeah?”

“Mhm. Not every day something this fine just lands on your doorstep.”

My head dropped into a faint laugh. “Baby, you ain't gotta butter me up. I’m already here.”

“I ain't tryna do nothing of the sort. I meant what I said.”

“Ok. So, you just be up in here by yourself?”

“Most of the time, yeah.”

I smacked my lips, less than convinced. “Yeah, aight.”

“You a trip,” he chuckled.

“Nah, you the one.”

“How?”

“Nothing. Don’t worry ‘bout it,” I said, grinning as I waved him off. 

“I got no reason to lie, mama. Like you said, you already here.” He wet his bottom lip before moving his eyes down my body once more. I shuddered. “I really don’t be having company like that, though. I know it might not seem like it, but I’m usually a pretty private person. I don’t like too many people in my business.”

“So, why you breaking all your rules for me then?”

“I don’t know…” He leaned a little closer. “Just something about you.” 

I rolled my eyes through the inevitable smile that followed his and that sly admission. “You know what, I know I just gave it to you to put away, but could I pour myself a glass?”

“Oh, yeah. Fasho.” He walked back over to the freezer and pulled out my bottle. Then he went to a cabinet for a wine glass before taking an electric corkscrew from a drawer. Once the bottle was open, he stepped back, presenting it all to me with an outstretched hand. 

“Thank you.”

“No problem.”

I poured myself a big glass, just low enough to prevent any spills while I walked.

“You only brought one glass. You don't want any?” 

“Nah. I’m more of a Hennessy man, myself.”

“Aah, ok.”

“I can put it back for you, though.”

“I think I’ma just keep it.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, this is good enough.”

“Aight.” He reclaimed his position at the island. “So, um, I feel like you breaking some of your rules for me, too.” 

“…Maybe,” I said, after finishing a big sip. 

“How you get so brave?”

I frowned. “Why you saying that like you about to chop me up and plaster me into your walls?”

“Damn, girl.” I cracked at the sudden shock that appeared on his face and we laughed so hard. “I’m just saying. You know women ain’t safe out here. Especially Black women.”

“Yeah, my girl wanted me to stay home real bad. But I don't know. Sometimes you just gotta take a chance. Plus, you didn't give me serial killer vibes. Didn’t see a windowless van on the premises either, sooo…”

His smile was beaming as we shared another laugh. “You funny.”

I shrugged a shoulder, preparing for my next sip. “So I’ve been told.”

He waited for me to finish before he motioned his head toward where we had just come from. “Come on.” Then he turned to walk off, and, once again, I followed. 

“And, anyway, for all you know, I could be crazy.”

Without hesitation, he replied, “Oh, I can take you.”

I gasped in false disbelief. “Excuse you. I could have weapons of mass destruction.”

“What? Like a chainsaw?” 

He glanced back at me as we neared the stairs and I busted out laughing. “Now that wasn't even me. My girl put that one in my head.”

“What she think, I’m Leatherface?”

“Shit, you never know nowadays.”

“You ‘bout right. But you can let her know you in good hands.”

“I figured as much.”

He smiled, stopping at the stairs. “After you,” he said, holding his arm out for me to step ahead of him.  

After giving him my bottle, I grabbed the glass railing with my freed hand. I made my way up the curved staircase, swaying my little bit of booty in case he was watching, and losing count of how many steps I was taking. 

“You better catch me if I fall.”

“I got you.” I laughed to myself as we finally reached the top. I waited for him to take the lead again and he came around me, settling his hand on my waist. “This way, mama.”

A floral, citrusy scent met me as soon as I stepped into his bedroom. Probably from the candles lit in various spots all around it. They also provided the light, along with two lamps on the wall framing the head of his bed. “It smells so good in here.”

“I tried to hook it up for you a lil bit.”

“I like it.” The click of my heels on his gray hardwood floors was briefly muted as I strutted onto an oversized circular rug en route to his bed. The couch was nice and spacious, but the bed was much more inviting. The comforter looked cloudlike and the corner of the sheet that was exposed looked fresh. It was huge, too. Likely out of necessity. I sat on the edge and stared over at the window wall across from me as I took a feel. It was just as comfortable as I’d presumed, maybe even more. “Why you way over there? You got—what you called me?—‘something this fine’ all in your bed, and you just gon’ stand there?”

He smiled. “Yeah. That’s what I said.”

“Come here then.”

“You on my side, though,” he teased, swaggering toward me in his crisp white tee and gray joggers.

I kicked my shoes off before sliding myself to the opposite side. “Better?”

“Much.” He came over and sat against the fluted headboard as I sat just a couple feet away from him. At that point, I took my phone from my purse and killed the power. I was not about to let anybody spoil my night. “What kind of music you like?”

“I’m an R&B junkie.”

“Ok.” He picked up his phone, plugged up on the table beside him. “Let me guess. 90’s and early 2000’s, right?”

“Duh! I love my oldies, too, though.”

“Word?”

“Yes. I spent the first fourteen years of my life almost exclusively with my grandparents. They blessed me.”

“Ok. What you know about this then?” After a couple taps, ‘Spend The Night’ by The Isley Brothers began to play. 

“Boy, what? This my shit.” 

“…You grooving your ass off, this really your shit.”

I howled, because I hadn’t even realized. Maybe it was the near-emptiness of my glass that had my shoulders and waist moving without my knowledge. 

“Anyway. So, what’s your favorite genre?”

“My music taste kinda eclectic. I like a lil bit of everything.”

“Like what?”

“Funk. Bounce. Jazz.”

“Okayyy.”

“R&B,” he continued, making sure to look me in the eye for that one. “House.”

“Ooh, I love House.”

“Yeah. But that’s just a few.”

I nodded. “Ok, next question.”

“What’s up?”

“Why you sit my bottle so far awaaaay?” I whined, staring longingly toward his dresser as I went to leave the bed. He laughed. 

“My bad. I’ll get it for you.”

“I’m just messing with you. I got it.” I walked over to fill my glass again, bobbing my head to my jam. 

“You mind if I smoke?”

“This your place, baby. You can do whatever you want.”

“Yeah, but you my guest. And, if I’m a bad host, you might not wanna come back.”

I squinted up at him, twisting my lips to try and hide my smile, but it didn't work. The charm was just too potent. “It’s cool. Spark up.”

“Aight.” 

He leaned over and reached into his top drawer for this little box. I couldn't see inside it, but he pulled out a pre-rolled joint and I just assumed that there were more. This nigga was a stoner in the truest sense. 

The level of my glass was starting to fall again and the wine had to be going straight to my feet. Instead of returning to my seat, I opted for a cute little two-step and a couple of slow spins, quietly singing along with Mr. Biggs and Angela Winbush between sips. The song sounded better than it ever had. 

“I’m glad I chose this cut.” 

I opened my eyes to see that Yahya had changed his position, lying back on his elbows at the edge of the bed and facing me. It took all I had to keep it together. My face was on fire. “Why?”

He smacked his lips at me and took a long drag from the J. I giggled as he aimed his face toward the ceiling to release the smoke, promptly sucking it back into his mouth before it could get away. “I think you know why.” He brought his eyes back down to mine, smiling while smoke rolled from his lips and nose. 

I returned his smile. Of course I knew. “What that shit taste like?”

“You never smoked before?” he asked with a wrinkled brow.

“Nope. I told you I didn't smoke, remember?”

“Yeah, I know. But you never?”

I shook my head. “Not even once.”

“You wanna try it?”

I bit the inside of my lip, not really sure if I should. The scent of weed was something I usually just tolerated, but this didn’t smell too bad. Either that or my fascination with this man had me highly delusional. Probably. “Mmmm…” Fuck it. Might as well since I was taking a walk on the wild side for the night. Plus, I’d always wanted to try it at least once. Just to see what all the fuss was about. “Yeah.” I shrugged it off and left my glass on a nearby table, but then it hit me that I had been drinking. “Wait. Should I be doing this with alcohol?”

“It ain’t gon’ do nothing to you.”

“But am I really supposed to mix the two?”

He just sat up and reached for me, signaling me over with his fingers. “C’mere.”

I sighed, quelling most of my concerns and taking his hand. He didn’t let me make a single step, pulling me right into his hard chest. He hurried his arm around my waist as my screaming morphed into shared laughs. “Oh my god, don’t do that!” I looked down into his eyes, resting my arms on his shoulders to help get my bearings. The laughter soon faded. Smiles went next. 

“Mmmm,” he groaned, biting his lip with those gold fangs on full display. 

That same breathless feeling that had hit me at my computer, smacked the shit out of me again. Just a hundred times stronger. Seeing his brand of fine this close up was devastating. Everything that looked so damn good from afar held all of its integrity and then some. The beard, the lips, the skin, the teeth. Truly immaculate.

“Youuu… are dangerous.” I capped the sentiment with a giggle, but I was not joking. 

He frowned with a telling grin in the forefront. “What? I’m harmless.” The elevation in his tone further confirmed the lies.

I pushed myself back up to my feet, flustered as fuck and almost hating how he could make me this way so effortlessly. I really had no idea I was so foldable and, though the circumstances were lovely, I didn’t know how to feel about it.

“Fuck that.” 

He laughed and held the joint up to my lips. “Go slow.”

I looked at it and then back to him, still slightly unsure, but I went ahead. The regret was instant. I choked, coughing up what little smoke I had brought in. And, to make matters worse, he had the nerve to be laughing while I was fighting for my life. 

“Naaah, not like that.”

I shook my hanging head. “That’s ok. I don't want to anymore,” I said, fanning myself and trying to catch my breath.

“Come on. I got you.”

I smacked my lips, looking into his half-lidded eyes with my own, and caved without an ounce of pause. Shameful. “...Ok. But, if I don't get it this time, I’m done. And don't laugh.”

“Aight, aight. I won’t laugh.”

“You better not,” I teased, rolling my eyes. 

He brought that shit up to my lips again, but, this time, he rested his free hand on my hip. I didn't pay it much mind. I was more focused on preparing myself for this second pull that was probably about to kill me.

“Go slow.”

I followed his instructions and took a relaxed drag. But I forgot to stop, and this nigga just let me keep going. My eyes popped when I realized what I had done. I stood there, cheeks puffed to the brim, not knowing what the hell to do. Again, Yahya was cracking up. I, on the other hand, started to freak out, groaning frantically and tapping at his arm.

“Just open your mouth, girl.” 

I opened up and the smoke billowed out and began to float away. 

“Now catch it. Inhale.” 

I did what I was told once again and watched as some of it disappeared back into my mouth.

“Ok, hold it… now breathe.”

I let go and, surprisingly, all of it came out without me bringing a lung up with it. “I did it!” I beamed, celebrating my first successful puff of Mary.

“Started off a lil rocky, but you finished strong.” I laughed with him, feeling too triumphant to check him for rejoicing in my struggles. “You wanna hit it again?” he asked, after taking another puff. 

I nodded. I felt like I had it down, but I just wanted to make sure it wasn’t a fluke. If I could do it two times in a row, that meant I could really do it. Feeling myself, I even took it from his hand when he brought it over to me. 

“Oh, shit. Ok. You a pro now, huh?”

I was too tickled, but in the merriment I still noticed that he had led his newly unoccupied hand down to my other hip. He kneaded his fingers into me, getting a nice, thorough feel. Naturally, my mind began to wander, imagining all the filthy, disgusting things he could do to me with those huge hands. I looked down at him and he was already staring back. His face was the most relaxed it had been all night. He took his gaze down to where my thighs met and I would swear I heard my girl sigh. This man was so fucking sexy it was almost infuriating. I had to look away. I took another successful pull, reveling in all of this delectable sin, and he carefully slid his hands around to my ass. The pungent smell of weed had possessed the air, the taste of the flower and a little wine were sweet on my tongue, and the sensual poetry of love songs gave us all the right directions. I couldn’t remember the last time I had been this bad. 

“How you feelin’?”

I opened my eyes, tilted my head and brought my hand up to mimic a chef’s kiss.

“See? Stick with me, I can show you some thangs.” I tucked what was left of the J between his lips and he hit it one last time before sitting it over in the ashtray. Then he pulled me closer. 

I smiled and bit my lip, gently placing my hands to his chest. When I started to back away, he smiled up at me and loosened his grip, but I could tell he didn't really want to let me go. 

“Where you goin’?”

I simply shook my head as I left his grasp. I just wanted to play around with him, make him chase me a little bit. The O’Jays were singing ‘Forever Mine’ and, somehow, I could feel it in my body. Whatever Yahya had for me, I was readyyy! I turned away and clutched the bottom of my shirt with both hands, pulling it up over my head and dropping it to the floor. Not a second later, I could see his reflection in the window standing from the bed. Off came his shirt in one swift motion as he walked, then I felt him slide up behind me. The chase was over. 

With his hands at my sides, I swayed to the hypnotizing melodies, savoring how good his bare skin felt next to mine. “I love this song.” I spoke quietly, fully entranced. My hands found their way to his, and the difference in size fucked me up even more. I was leading them around to where I needed them, when he latched onto the softness of my belly and started to move toward the window. I shuffled the short distance with him until I was standing directly in front of it. He eased his hold on me and grabbed my hand, placing it onto the glass a little above my head. I looked out over his backyard, wondering if any of his neighbors could see us. Part of me hoped someone could as he played around with the waist of my jeans, touching my skin in light whispers. He crept over to the button, undoing it, what felt to be, intentionally slow. My zipper came down at the same chilling pace. With parted lips, I looked toward his hand as I felt it slide into my pants. He started to rub my pussy over my panties and they soaked through on contact, trapping my next breath in my throat. 

“Say. How you like it, mama?” He easily caught the rhythm of my subtle grind. “You like slow and steady?” 

I scratched the glass with his hand still on top of mine, feeling his dick right against my ass. Flames flickered in the near-darkness, but, clearly, we were the hottest in the room. He moved my panties to the side and slipped through the flood until my clit was pounding into the tips of his fingers. A shy moan had barely made it past my lips when he sank them deep. I whimpered loudly, gripping his arm and bending my other hand into a fist, buckling under the pressure.

“Or you like that hood shit?” He brought his hand down from the window and fixed his arm across my chest, guiding me back into him while he clung to my breast. “Hm?”

I didn't answer. I wasn’t even breathing. Despite me being highly inebriated, my heart was about to beat out of my chest.

“Why you bein’ so quiet?” he finally asked, lips brushing sweetly against my ear. Then he laid a soft kiss just underneath it. “You said you came to fuck. Don’t get all shy on me now.” 

@19jammmy @twistedcharismaaa @lemmewritesomeish @thisiswhatshefelt @teheeboo @shanisims @honestpreference @iamfredtina @blackerthings @judymfmoody @lyrarodriguez @fendionmyfeet @fadingbelieverexpert @chaneajoyyy @astoldbychae @cecereads209 @90sisthenew80s @daddiespamm @lovethecheri @xo-goldengirl @miyuhpapayuh @buttrflybby @jiminie-08 @queengodiva619 -taglist-

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[mrschwartz]

Alex Turner for OOR Magazine (October 2022)

Conducted in August 20th 2022 by Willem Bemboom

Alex in the sun on a terrace. Leather jacket, classic shades, a big head of hair in desperate need of a handful of Brylcreem. He almost looks like a time-traveller, someone from another dimension, unmoved by the sounds of the city in the distance and the swelling lunch crowd around us.

He talks slowly and dragging, as if the battery is almost flat.  His pauses in thought are numerous and stretched out, sometimes to determine what he DOES want to say, more often to think about what he does NOT want to say. Apparently he is so used to intelligent or difficult questions, that the easy ones throw him off. What are you listening to? What has changed? What do you think yourself is the most beautiful lyric? Endless silences, you can almost hear the brain cracking. But they are by no means painful. The lesson taken from previous interviews - and in fact the essence of Arctic Monkeys: just let Alex Turner meditate, that's where eventually the best things come from.

The sunglasses meanwhile are being taken on and off every minute. With wide eyes full of wonder Turner turns the casual things lying on the table into a journey of discovery. OOR's old trusted dictaphone for example. 'Reliable stuff', he judges. ‘At worst eats your tape one time, but such a device will not betray you. Two buttons, on, off, record, play. You don't need more options. I want to start working with these things a bit more.”

He weighs the device for a moment, as if he is testing a peach or tomato at the local fruit & veg. A mysterious short laugh follows. Who knows what goes on in that head.

The Car as a record makes an analogous impression, either way in terms of technique and instrumentation.

Right? Texture wise for sure. Old instruments, string arrangements. The ideas are kneaded to songs with human hands. Although this time we also have a Moog.

And the subjects as well seem to come from a different time. Classic Hollywood, faded glory, but also Cold War stuff. In various songs there are spying elements sneaking around.

That’s for sure what I’m doing in the new songs. Think of Gene Hackman in The Conversation, you have to search in circle of people as such.Vague surveillance stuff, listening devices [focuses on the recorder again]. A bit like how this conversation is also being recorded, haha.

Social media seems completely absent, you are far from sketching a contemporary time frame. People talk on the phone together.

Good point. I imagine that phone in Big Ideas like that, on the wall, with a turntable. It is indeed an analog world, there is no apping or anything like that. On the first song on our first record I sing about a phone that is being unlocked [The View From The Afternoon]. You had to press the asterisk key to avoid accidentally turning on your cell phone. We still play that song every night, I’ve now sang it so often that I’m not thinking about those lyrics at all. A few days ago I did have a clear mind and suddenly I realised: gosh, this is not how phones are any more! Back in the days I was more up-to-date with my technological references, on AM there are still text messages and such. That's gone now. I have gone back in time, it seems.

Your previous album took place at the moon. Where - and especially when - is The Car set?

Hm. [long silence] You know what, I really don't have any idea whatsoever. Even for Tranquility Base I now wonder if it all took place at the moon. That sort of thing reveals itself only later, sometimes even a lot later. The music triggers something in me, I build on the atmosphere and the sound, and I just let The Idea run wild - though I refine the lyrics endlessly after they get into shape. But the source? Dunno, that can't be guided or be explained. I did try to steer away a bit more from the sci-fi idiom than on the previous one. Whether it succeeded is question number two. For some reason there’s somehow always science fiction seeping through.

You now refer in several numbers to old movies and showbiz, like the musical Anything Goes, 1930s Broadway, with music by Cole Porter. New fascination?

Hmmm, no. By the way, it is indeed lifted from a movie. Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom begins with the song Anything Goes, from that musical, sung in Chinese. Nice opening, although I’m certainly not the biggest Indiana Jones fan. I suddenly thought about it, so it ended up in that song. That's how it goes with most things. Who knows where it comes from and what it means. It's suddenly there.

Is Sculptures Of Anything Goes a New York song? Apart from the Broadway link you sing about 'city life 09', the period you lived in Brooklyn, and ‘Village coffee mornings, with not long since retired spies’.

As in: written in New York? No, I haven't been to New York in ages. The Village is in there…. I think this is another of those science fiction things. You've been nervously playing around with that empty cassette box for 15 minutes now, and I’m now imagining that it contains City Life 09. I’m fond of the idea there will be a city life cartridge in the future, a simulation that you can board. I’m imagining a full box of those cartridges, from 1929 to 1959 to 1969 to 1979 to 1989 and so on. That’s because I think there should be intervals of ten years to notice a substantial difference in such a huge city. And the 2009 one is missing from that lyric, it's inside the machine because it's used most often. Whether it's also refers to my time in New York… No idea. It's purely a bit of fantasy.

Let’s swap the fantasy for the facts for a little bit: where and when did you start making this record?

Even before the lockdowns, right away after the Tranquility Base tour in South America. In April and May 2019 I wrote the first attempts of new songs, we already recorded some bits in late 2019, but that attempt led to nothing. Only after the lockdowns we came back together again, last summer, in Butley Priory, an old monastery at the coast of Suffolk. No one knew we were there, it was a remote place. It reminded me of our first record, when we went from the madhouse to the countryside for a while as well. We never did that again ever since, until now. Recording a record in England also was a while ago, same counts for a summer album. So there we were again, at the English countryside, as a rrrrock band! [big eyes and a rolling rrrrr] No distractions, like in the city. Extra focus, no prying eyes. All in the same zone. Good morning, you know.

We will come back at that ‘rock band’ part for a bit later. What did a day in Suffolk look like for the rest?

Oh, every morning we got trumpeted out of our beds with a reveille. And a while after a bell was ringing: go to work, lazy bastards! Thereafter a Powerpoint presentation with schedules and tactics. No, just joking, it was the opposite. Very calm and relaxed, everything in our own tempo. These days I find it essential to take the time. That’s because every project has to search and find its own way. As a maker you also have to let a piece of work go its own way. During the summer of 2019 I read a book about movie editing, In The Blink Of An Eye by Walter Murch. Although movie editing is not my discipline, I did get interesting things out of it anyway, there are parallels with how I put together a record these days. Editing usually involves cutting out bad bits. The question that immediately arises: what is a bad bit? Are there bad bits at all? This Sir Murch calls the process of editing the discovery of a path through all the available material. The more you shot, the more possible paths there are. And because I had quite a lot of ideas, more than ever actually, which all wanted to exist, it was extra important to especially follow the feeling. Sometimes I got a direction in mind, and then the piece itself drags you in the opposite direction anyway. It has other ideas. It lives, it is an entity. Let it go. That’s how it went now as well.

You keep on avoiding the meaning of your lyrics. Is the writing of it not a conscious process then?

Hmmm, that always comes last anyway. I am endlessly adjusting and rewriting. When we were working on the music in Suffolk, I hardly sang on top of it. I do believe that at this moment in time I write down what I am experiencing more directly. I'm a bit more open, more honest, apparently inspired by four guys who are just standing together in a room making music.

What do you consider your favourite find on The Car?

Oh… I forgot to bring my cheat sheet. I’ve got a folder with notes, which I planned on bringing with me. But it also feels a little know-it-all and self-conscious to start giving a lecture from my own notes here. My best line… I wouldn’t know! I simply don’t know all the lyrics by heart yet. [long pause] I think ‘Big Ideas’ as a whole is a very accomplished song.

Ah, with the ‘hysterical scenes’ that are reminiscent of a band just breaking through. ‘We had ‘em out of their seats, waving their arms and stomping their feet’ – that’s where the echo of Monkeymania is audible.

Strange times.

Or just The Beatles. ‘Clap your hands and stomp your feet’, is what Lennon sometimes shouted from the stage…

Hm, yeah. No. Here I imagine sort of more like a movie producer giving someone a call. Or something like that.

Big Ideas is full of melancholy – and that counts for more songs in general.

It’s not just in the words, you know. Yes, so that’s how it works for me: the words arise from the feeling the music evokes. The melody supplies the words and ideally they complement each other. In that way, the things it makes you say are indeed not conscious. It purely revolves around what the music allows you to say.

“Over and out, it’s been a thrill”, you sing on Big Ideas. Hello You, Jet Skis On The Moat and Perfect Sense also contain “goodbyes” and “goodnights”. Are you saying goodbye to something?

Yeah, I think that’s fair. That all has to do with where I arrived in life at the moment. I’m 36, the band exists for about twenty years, including the whole run-up. So I’ve been in the band for more than half of my life. You leave things behind, while the clock keeps ticking. People, places, your younger self. Time. Though that’s not necessarily a bad thing, you get new things in return. But it’s human nature to sometimes look back on what has been, what’s behind you. Though I’m pretty good at leaving things behind.

Like loud guitar music for example.

[big eyes] Ha!

The rrrrrrrrock band you just mentioned is not the same as the one from 2006 anymore.

Haha, not on the record, no! But on stage we just keep on rocking, that all co-exists. But you know what’s the funny thing? We could very well still have made a loud guitar record after all. If the music had asked for it, I think I would have obediently followed. When we finished touring in 2019, everything pointed in that direction. Much louder than Tranquility Hotel, in any case. But that started to shift towards a different direction and that’s why we took a break from it at the time. I was afraid I would start forcing things. And sometimes you just have to accept the fact you can’t go back to the riffs from ten years ago. At the end of the tour I knew what kind of songs I wanted to do, with the lights of the stage still in my eyes and the thundering roars of the audience in my ears. Big, loud guitars should have been part of that. That’s what I’m gonna do! I even put on my motorcycle boots to get a hold of that mood. But that didn’t feel right in the end, as said. You’re not that person anymore, your music wants to go in a different direction. Then I can only follow that.

Put the Arctic Monkeys who were recording at the English countryside in 2006 next to the band working at Suffolk last summer. Not to see what has changed, but what hasn’t changed?

Well, everything has changed. [2 minutes of silence while you can almost hear a movie playing in his head] … except for the countryside and England, haha! I did find it more fun this time though. Maybe because right now we finally know what we’re doing. Yes, that has remained the same. The only reason we now can not make a loud guitar record in all peace and comfort, is because we’re still Arctic Monkeys. Everyone has grown up, the essence of the band has grown with us. The faces are a bit more round, the boys call their children instead of their parents, but the feeling remains the same. Life itself happened – and not in an unpleasant way. It’s all good, everything. Yes, it’s fine.

Why did you have more fun now than back then? Did that 20 year old kid that recorded ‘Whatever People Say I Am…’ not know what he was doing?

Not what happened to him, no. It was a great time, but oh dear, so much stress! Now I’m completely relaxed in everything I do. Looking back at 2006, everything was so… tight! My guitar was hanging just below my chin, the strap was almost pinched around my back. That example alone. I let the guitar nicely hang nowadays. And sometimes I even leave it in its stand. The schedules are looser, the people are looser, the music is looser. Less heavy, not as frenetic and whaaaargh! It’s fitting better in its own skin. Just like ourselves. The jacket is hanging loosely unbuttoned. I’m sitting behind a grand piano in the corner. And still it feels like Arctic Monkeys, because we’re still walking the same path, however strange the path winds. The same timeline and the same principles. The path, following the music, is the constant factor. 15 years ago we followed our instinct as young lads and The Record is what resulted from it. Now we’re still doing that, and this time that record is The Car.

Oh yeah, The Car. What kind of car is it?

Just a car.

Does it stand for anything?

No, it’s standing on a roof. The cover photo was taken by Matthew Helders, our drummer. When I saw that photo a few years ago, I immediately knew it had the potential to be an album cover for the band. There’s not just spies and goodbyes in the lyrics, if you listen closely you can hear a few cars. And after [raises voice] Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino the temptation to call something ‘The Car’ is simply too big. It is what it is.

So just a car.

Yep. And that car on the cover in particular.

Where was the photo taken?

If I’m not mistaken, in Los Angeles.

Ah, Los Angeles. There you’re nothing without a car. What kind do you drive?

I don’t own a car. I’m back in London now and it’s just not practical there. No car…

Where did you used to go on holidays as a kid?

Oh, eh, Eastbourne, on the south shore. With my grandparents on the Dotto Train, one of those tourist carts along the beach. But how did we suddenly end up here?

I wondered about this when I heard The Car, the song. Nicely melancholic, you sing about past holidays, falling asleep at the back seat.

But that doesn’t take place in Eastbourne [rolls his eyes]. But where does it take place, I can hear you think… In a parallel universe full of espionage and science fiction, haha!

Sounds exciting. Have you ever tried writing a script yourself?

No. The kind of stories I tell are mostly… based on the music and the melodical ideas, as I already explained. Those bring forth the story. If I wouldn’t have that, I would struggle. I would like to learn this though, sometime, one day. But I’m not working on it now, it’s a whole different skill to the one I’ve currently got on board. Never say never, we’ll see. But definitely not tomorrow [thinks for a bit, laughs]. Tomorrow’s Pukkelpop. There’s no time for drafting scripts. Although it is a world I would like to roam about, one I’d like to explore. At the Priory I had an old 16mm camera with me, one that fits in the palm of your hand and you have to crank up yourself. Still not even close to Hollywood. But ah well, that’s a hobby.

What music are you listening to yourself at the moment?

[two minutes of silence] I used to be able to always draw a straight line from what I was listening to right to the new record, that’s different now, I think. No more adding this, this, this and this and you’ve got the new Monkeys. It’s not as clear what those things are this time, not even for me.

If you could go to Record Palace at the opposite of Paradiso with 50 euros right now, what would you pick from there?

Oh wow, that place is amazing! I actually should stop by there later. We’ve been so busy fine-tuning the show, this morning I only took a walk in the park for a bit… Lovely morning.

But at the moment you’re listening to…

Oh man… After finishing the record, nothing for a while, for a few months. Now it’s starting up again a bit. Headphones on… listening to things. What do I want to share here right now?

I’ll just write down Nookie by Limp Bizkit.

Oh no. Is that a threat? Alright, in that case do… Nat King Cole! The song ‘Where Did Everybody Go’. Why? That’s why.

At There’d Better Be A Mirrorball you actually sound a bit like Nat King Cole. Coincidence?

Ha, that’s nice! Eh, yes, coincidence. On the other hand: what’s a coincidence?

You sing a lot in falsetto, you croon, sometimes you’re channelling Bowie. Are you still looking for your voice or are you finally coming close?

Always in search of! You look for a manner of singing that guides the music the easiest way. A way that’s in tune with the feeling you wanna convey. That’s the hardest part… no, that’s what you’re aiming for, that connection.

Connection with?

With what you can’t really grasp. And can’t understand. Or can’t express into words. How you as a normal little person can become part of that wonder, the music. There’s a technical component to it, by practicing a lot I can reach a higher pitch or hold a note better. Those are means. The purpose is something bigger though. There’s this great song on Sinatra at the Sands, 'Don’t Worry About Me', that he introduces as one of the best songs ever. In one part of a verse he sings a step-up note, bigger and bigger, that fills all gaps in the notes just to get to the next step. It’s off, but because of that it’s actually perfectly right. It stands out. That’s why I call magic. That’s what it’s about. Getting completely lost in that feeling and getting to a place where everything is right. Even when it’s not right. Even more so when it’s not right. Then you know it’s right.

#arctic monkeys #alex turner #the car #interview #this was veryyy interesting so many good bits here #2 MINUTES of silence?????????????????? 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 no fucking way oh my god #''just a car. and that car on the cover in particular'' #''the boys call their children instead of their parents'' 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 oh... #he interviewer threatening to put that limp biskit song as his choice if he didn't give his own vnjdnfjvnjgnjgb #what a power move more interviewers should do that it actually got an answer from him jnfjgngvjbngjbng #but also like #god like. he really is a true Artist with a capital a huh. he talks about music with such reverence and respect #it's so emotive and inspiring to see

[freesia-writes]

REBLOG CHAIN! For funsies!

Please, if you feel so inclined, reblog this and add a little blurb of what you would do if you had this weekend to spend with your favorite clone. Considering where you live, what you like to do, etc... Let's all just take a little mental vacation with our favorite boys?? <3

I'll go first! :D And it got a little long, LOL.

Eep -- it got a lil NSFW at the end, so minors be gone! <3

After all the duties of the week were finished on Friday night, Howzer and I had a wee bit of edibles, sinking into the couch into each other's arms and giggling about random things. We popped a batch of break-n-bake cookies into the oven, cooking them to the PERFECT softness in the center, and ate far too many because they were so warm, gooey, and incredible. We dragged ourselves up to bed, curling up with each other in bubbly-brained bliss, feeling heavy and content.

Saturday didn't really begin until noon, when we finally hauled ourselves out of bed and made some espresso drinks. We watched a recording of The Price is Right, calling out our guesses and teasing each other competitively. We threw together a cozy breakfast (around 1pm, haha) of sourdough French toast, eggs, and sausage links, and ate it on the garden patio. It was a warm, breezy day, and I was tempted to suggest going back to bed, but we opted to head to the bay instead.

We walked through downtown, aimlessly perusing the charming little shops that included everything from antiques to plants, books to confections. We pretended to critique the art in a gallery, putting on airs and snickering at our complete lack of refinement. Our stroll took us down to the pier, where we spent a leisurely hour watching the fishermen huddled over their rods and buckets, the salty scents of the sea ruffling our hair as it blew past. His hand in mine was warm and strong, and we paused at the end of the pier to lean over the rough wooden railing, gazing at the bridge in the distance and marveling at the unusually cloudy sky. It was filled with layers of every shade of grey and white, blending together seamlessly in a cozy canvas of calm. He leaned behind me, wrapping an arm around my waist as we took in the sights, whispering some inside joke in my ear that made me guffaw like an idiot, which made him grin even more.

The sun was sinking below the horizon, barely visible behind the thick layer of clouds, but the fading light of the sky and our growling stomachs clued us in to the late hour. We headed to an adorable blue and white building that was an old house turned into a restaurant, with all sorts of nooks and crannies stuffed with tables with expansive views of the bay. We opted for the balcony, pushing our chairs together on the same side of the table to snuggle into each other's sides, his arm around my shoulders. We decided to splurge, sharing our steak and salmon dinners with each other, enjoying a sparkling drink that complimented the food, and ordering two desserts because we couldn't decide on just one. When I gave him a bite of my flourless chocolate cake, he took the fork into his mouth with a slow suggestiveness, sliding his lips down the metal as he fixed his brown eyes on mine. My heart did a flip, and though I laughed on the outside, he knew he was kindling the flame within.

We rolled out of the restaurant, equipped with bags of leftovers and stuffed beyond belief. The train station across the street broadcasted the impending arrival of the last train of the night, headed out to the coast. With a glimmer in his eyes, he took my hand and ran for the ticket kiosk, and the next thing we knew, we were sitting in window seats in a plushly-upholstered train car, rocking gently down the tracks toward the ocean. The world faded to black outside, the passing cities indicated only by the twinkling lights of people gathered in their homes, stoking fires and tucking in for the night.

The small beach town at the end of the line had a variety of charming bed and breakfasts, but the one that advertised the "in-room fireplace" caught our eyes immediately. The entire wall that faced the sea was a sliding glass door that included a screen, and the combination of the sound of the waves crashing on the shore, the fresh breeze cooling the room, and the flickering gas fireplace made the little room impossibly cozy. We took showers, pulled on the impossibly soft robes in the closet, and flopped across the large bed.

We talked about everything and nothing, lazily caressing each other, hands exploring further, robes slipping off of shoulders and thighs. It was a languorous exploration of my other half, appreciating everything that made him who he was. A slight graze of the wrist across a breast, the shift of a thigh against his hips, sent tingles through each of us and slowly increased the intensity until we were both naked, slithering against each other in a tangle of arms and legs illuminated by the warm glow of the fireplace. Breathless sighs and little quips punctuated the sounds of the seashore. He pressed into me, my legs wrapped around his, my hands caressing the curve of his back and grasping his strong forearm next to my head.

It was truly "making love" in every sense of the phrase, the comfort and pleasure weaving us together in blissful contentment. When we collapsed in delirious release, cleaning ourselves up and matching every curve of our frames against each other in warm, satisfying spooning, it was only a matter of seconds before sleep greeted us with a warm welcome. Just kidding, we got too hot in less than five minutes and peeled apart from each other, sprawling across opposite sides of the bed and drifting off in real comfort. ;)

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

ARTISTS, FEEL FREE TO DRAW ANY OF THIS AS ALWAYS!! ;)

NPT: @wolffegirlsunite @littlefeatherr @dystopicjumpsuit @arctrooper69 @foreverdaydreaming1 @stunkbiggu @mxkyrie @starrylothcat @sinfulsalutations @littlemissbshine @atomickidsoul @dreamie411 @skellymom @nobody-expects-the-inquisitorius @followthepurrgil @the-hexfiles @1vlouds @sunshinesdaydream @anxiouspineapple99 @wings-and-beskar @ughhhhfoff @coraex @moonlightwarriorqueen @idontgetanysleep @clonemedickix @gt13tbbart @lune-de-miel-au-paradis @523rdrebel @ghostperson69 @rain-on-kamino @secondaryrealm @hellhound5925 @thew0nderer2342 @blueink-bluesoul @cloneloverrrrr @kashasenpai @lightwise @drafthorsemath @nahoney22 @kaminocasey @neyswxrld @amorfista @zaana @mythical-illustrator @angrypaperearthquake-tbbb-main @arctrooper69 @ghostperson69 @littlemissmanga @starqueensthings @nika6q @vimse @savebytheodoresnonjosestuff @mandos-mind-trick @clonethirstingisreal

#the bad batch #tbb #star wars fanfiction #the bad batch fanfiction #howzer fanfic #howzer one shot #howzer fluff #clone fluff #star wars fluff #fluff #clone love

[rinbowaman]

My Girlfriends Roommate - Chapter 8

Warnings: Harrassment (mainly sexual) against reader, slight use of violence (for good reason).

Lots of fluff in this one, I would say if you had to skip chapters (though I wouldn't recommend it because all of the chapters will have fluff that is juicy) but this chapter is a must as it's leading to a very important event.

Noting that it had been a few weeks at the very least since you last saw him, you were caught off guard by his sudden presence, but figured it was obvious since he’s more than likely here to meet up with Vicky.

Though his attire differed from his usually relaxed style he frequented, the black cap remained, like always. You chuckled to yourself at the prospect that you may never know the true face of Ethan Lee.

It was evident that after the countless times you saw him in the shade, black and dark bold colors were his favorite. He wore black skinny jeans, only this time there were no rips or holes in them, they were neat and looked fresh. He also had on a black v-neck shirt, a casual fitted blazer in the same color, and a pair of expensive looking boots, also in black. He was looking rather suave and refined.

You smiled at the thought of Vicky going through Ethan’s wardrobe and picking out his clothes with her being dressed in the usual preppy manner, no doubt this was an ensemble that she picked out for tonight. There was something else you took note of, although it took you a moment to try and figure out what else was different about his appearance, then you realized it was his hair. From what you could see that wasn’t hidden beneath his cap, his hair looked to be a few inches longer. It was slightly shaggy, some of the elongated pieces grazing over the helix of his ears, which adorned two types of earrings, one stud and one dangling with a small chain and a spear tip trinket hanging off the end.

Towards the back of his neck, though tapered, his hair still held on to some length, just enough where it rested below his collar. The sleeve of his blazer, rising from his reach, when he grabbed a bottle to pour himself a drink. You saw a silver chain bracelet wrapped his wrist and a collection of rings on his fingers.

While he took a sip of his drink, tilting his head back, he peeked down and notices you, giving him a gentle greeting wave and smile as he makes his way to come greet you verbally, re-leveling his head to where the bill of his infamous cap covered his eyes and left only his lips and his nose exposed. He displayed a small smirk on his lips as he spoke;

“Y/n, how have you been?” Hearing his voice for the first time in weeks, you felt relaxed.

A flash of comfort came about now that you were in a shared space with someone other than Gabe, who had subjected you to harassment that, while not physical, was still troubling you as much as you tried not to let it.

Of course, you refrained from doing so, yet you couldn’t lie to yourself when you thought about telling Ethan everything that had transpired since you last saw him. With Vicky being oblivious and Samuel being too busy, you hadn’t been able to vent out your frustrations regarding Gabe, which was something you were starting to believe you needed to do. You were just waiting for the right time to talk with Vicky.

You felt the smile that adorned your pretty lips softened at the thought, it just felt so comforting, and you couldn’t help but let it reflect off your face as you stood there, realizing now that you missed talking with Ethan.

“I’m doing good, how have you been?” You responded softly, just loud enough so you could be heard over the music. Your friendly smile coming back to life as you answered.

He didn’t answer your question, instead, he stood there silently with his eyes still covered. You felt a bit confused as to why he paused and wouldn’t respond, then you realized, he noticed something on your face that garnered his full attention. Unknowingly to you, a piece of your hair was stuck to the corner of your mouth.

The piece delicately reached over your cheek and remained gracefully planted, more than likely getting stuck as it draped over from when you tilted your head back, finishing off your drink just before he approached to greet you. He leaned in slightly, just a tad bit and while he may have not noticed, this was the closest you’ve ever been to Ethan.

For the first time you inhaled the scent of his cologne, it refreshingly cool, brisk, and bold. Not at all subtle but not overpowering either. You tried to narrow down the scent, it was faint, but you felt almost certain you detected a combination of mint and cedar; a very masculine scent that suited him well. It made you weak in the knees; you never met a man who smelled like that, it was powerful and intoxicating.

He gently raised a closed fist and barely rested it on your cheek. Using only the stretch of his thumb, he reaches for it, maintaining very light skin to skin contact. His touch was so gentle, considering he was such a tall and intimidating looking man, yet the smoothness of his swipe along the icy scent overwhelmed you.

Grazing downward, his thumb gently pushes the piece of hair away as he continues to move it off to the side, tucking it behind another piece that framed your face, just so it would stay in place.

“…I’ve been good.” He finally responded as he assessed your face with a content look.

His voice was probably the softest you’ve heard him speak; it was almost airy. Your breathing shortened. It almost felt like you couldn’t get air into your lungs as a slight sense of soreness was pierced our chest, that the blood rushed throughout your body, like Daytona 5. You hoped to God that your face wasn’t losing composure, because internally you were. Not being to withstand looking in his direction, you lowered your head just a tad trying to regain some stability in your breathing.

You shifted your gaze down and looked as you rolled the empty Red Bull can in your hands. Ethan also looked down to your hands, noticing that you were trying to regain steady flow in your breathing as you exhaled. In his usual mute fashion, he reaches over, grabs the can from you as he delicately pulls it out of your grip; the can slips out of your hands as you raised your head slightly, looking off to the side, not yet ready to look at his face.

He turns to face the bar, exposing his profile. His eye barely peeking from below his hat as he looks over to the bartender and places the empty can on the counter.

The bartender looks up at Ethan as he spoke in his usual relaxed tone; “Red Bull.”

The bartender nodded and handed him a freshly cold can to which Ethan received and turned back to face you. His eyes become hidden once more as he faces your direction, handing you the drink. You received it graciously and thanked him. At that moment, someone calls out from behind Ethan, at first you thought they were trying to reach him, but you realized they weren’t calling his name.

A young man is seen approaching closer to Ethan. His face looked friendly and kind, he reminded you of a puppy with his eyes wide as he reached out to pat his shoulder, displaying a big smile.

“Heeseung! Hey man what’s up? Hadn’t seen you since this morning. Where you been?” The young man spoke out as he and Ethan grabbed hands and pulled each other into a familiar hug as they greeted one another.

“Hey Jake.” Ethan replies. Just as Ethan received his friend; a pretty girl walks up from the man who was identified as Jake.

She reached around his arm, hugging it shyly. Jake turned his head to her while grabbing on to her hand in a reassuring manner, his smile grew wider as he looks over to “Heeseung” and introduces the girl.

“Heeseung, this is my girlfriend, Emily.”

Jake guides her to stand in front of him while rubbing her shoulders to ease her nerves as she shakes Ethan’s hand, obviously feeling timid from Ethan’s presence. Understandably relatable as you recall your first meeting him.

Emily was short and cute. She almost looked to be the same height as Vicky, possibly shorter. With a shaky hand, she reaches to meet with Ethan’s, only grabbing on to the tips of his fingers, she trinkled out her greeting.

“Hi….I’m Emily.” Her voice ridden with fear. You felt bad for the poor girl, had you not been a stranger to her, you would have consoled her and shared your experience on meeting Ethan for the first time.

“Nice to meet you.” Ethan simply nods and gently shakes her hand that was barely hanging on as she began to prematurely retract it when she looked up to view Ethan’s face.

You thought to yourself on how Ethan should really work on his countenance, the habitual effect of scaring the wits out of people wasn’t doing him any favors. Jake looks to your direction and his eyes widen as you both made eye contact, becoming grounded, his gaze began to zone out as he studied your face. He catches himself staring and shook back to his senses after Emily shoved and hid her face into his chest, feeling apprehensive of Ethan’s spine-chilling presence.

“I’m sorry, we haven’t met. My name is Jake, are you a friend of Ethan’s?”

You gladly shook his hand and gave a warm smile back. He really was polite and the tone of his voice was bubbly. He matched the criteria of someone who was loved and respected by everyone, never made an enemy in his life. Similar to Vicky.

“Nice to meet you, I’m y/n. I’m Vicky’s roommate, I met Ethan a few months ago.”

Jake looked somewhat perturbed when you mentioned Vicky’s name and glanced over to Ethan, who while remaining unchanged in his posture and expression, simply looked back at Jake and nodded his head from left to right as he briefly closed his eyes. Jake, giving a single nod back, looked as if he solved a riddle that laid beneath Ethan’s expression. At that, Jake turns his face back to you.

“Oh, I see…well, it’s so nice to meet you. This is my girlfriend, Emily.”

You were about to exchange greetings with the girl as she smiled widely and took your hand, which you had intentionally extended for a handshake. Yet instead, she held it with both hands and performed mini jumps as she became overly excited in meeting you.

“Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! I know who you are! I’ve seen you around campus and we have the same anthropology class, you’re the pretty girl everyone talks about!”

You were too stunned to speak, instead you looked at her with your mouth shocked open. Did you hear correctly that you both share the same class? You became even more perplexed of her mentioning this, which made you feel terrible for not recognizing or even knowing that she existed, yet here she was bouncing with joy while holding your hand, making her way closer to you as if she was going to embrace you out of pure joy.

“I’ve always wanted to say hi to you, but I was too shy-oh but!…wow…you’re…really pretty up close.” Her jumps slowed to a stop and her smile was replaced with a deep stare as she trailed off in her sentence.

Stunned with a look of esteem wonderment, she paused all movement and didn’t break eye contact as you watched her catch her breath and her hands slowly released your one. Jake looked at her adorably and laughed. He began teasing her for expressing how shy she had been to approach you, yet suddenly found courage to pour out her heart and feelings after meeting you via a third party introduction.

Ethan leaned back slightly to rest against the counter behind him, crossing his arms and tucking in his chin. Despite how the angle of his hat covered his entire face when he dipped it down, you saw a tiny glimpse in the showing of teeth as he gave out a small chuckle. He nodded his head, looking as if he felt Emily’s reaction was warranted, before bringing his head back upright, licking his lips and peering his gaze off to the side. You hear the girls calling to you, bidding you to come over to them. You excused yourself and gave a friendly so-long gesture to the boys as you walked over to the group.

Ethan and Jake migrated over to the opposing side of the kitchen, pouring their own drinks, engaging in friendly conversation. Emily stayed back and remained by your side and continued in getting to know you. You enjoyed her company and had fun laughing and poking fun at the comical whims of your shared professor. She was funny as she would accurately portray Mr. Lewis, your anthropology professor. You introduced her to the girls and their boyfriends; all of course were receptive of her and complimented on her dress as you all engaged in girl talk away from the boys.

You were having a great time. With the addition of Emily, you and the girls spent majority of the evening talking, laughing, and taking a few shots here and there. Just as you were pondering on her whereabouts, Vicky, on que with your thoughts, walks through the narrow hallway that led to the kitchen.

The entryway she emerged from was parallel to where Jake and Ethan were standing. Expecting for Vicky to migrate over to unite with Ethan, you were deeply shocked that they remained apart, and that only the exchanging of looks was shared between them. Ethan had his back leaned up against the wall, taking the strain out of standing for a long period time as he was talking to Jake. His arms remained crossed, and his face was slightly tilted forward as he shifted his gaze and daggered a very stern glare over to Vicky. A look that he had never issued to her before, not even during their worst arguments.

He didn’t make any movement towards her, not one single budge. His face remained hidden under the casting shadow of his hat as his lips remained shut and stretched into a tight line of aggravation. Vicky on the other hand looked uncomfortable and rather embarrassed.

By now, you already configured that they were either in the middle of an ongoing fight or that they were no longer together. Unsure if she decided to break it off with him much sooner than she had previously stated, you felt a boulder of dreadfulness hit you as you realized that, if they were no longer together, that could only mean…

Before you finished your thought, entering through the corridor and coming in behind Vicky, was Gabe. He was accompanied by another male, one who had a snarky look on his face and just like Gabe, was dressed in expensive attire, judging by the brand logos plastered all over. Speaking of which, it seemed Vicky imparted some fashion sense onto Gabe, seeing as how his outfit was well put together this time. It didn’t look randomly mismatched or screamed for attention.

A sudden shock of realizing something punched your gut from within. You were just now considering that the entire time Gabe was present at the dorm, Ethan, never once appeared or objected to his frequent visits, which was something that that would have happened, had he and Vicky been still dating. You felt like a fool. You stared at the floor speechless; you’re typically more observant than that, yet you had been blindly unaware of the obvious that pertained to this situation.

As they both entered the kitchen and walked over to the girls, you noticed the casual display of Vicky and Gabe’s affection as he wrapped his arms around her waist. You suddenly thought about Ethan and shot a glance over to the area he and Jake were standing. He simply stood there, but not without stabbing a glare towards both, Gabe, and Vicky. They remained ignorant to notice as he would observe their body language, before shifting his gaze over to you.

Making direct eye contact with you as the look on his face softened and he projected a new demeanor, much different than how he looked when he was eyeing the other two. You overheard the girls talking and they remarked on how handsome Gabe looked, the first you ever heard them speak that way towards him. Both, Gabe, and the young man standing next to him were shooting devious looks over to you.

Noting their stance and the sudden shift of eye movement, you realize that you were the topic of their exchanging of whispers. Issuing your own harsh looks towards Gabe and Vicky, Ethan looked your way intently observing you, he noticed your brows slightly furrowing the emotions of discomfort. He waited for you to look back at him, but you never did.

You were distracted by the plotting that was happening afoot, your instinct persuaded you to keep your eye on them. A disapproving look was cemented on your face as you watched Vicky with a discerning look smeared across your face. Gabe greets the girls and of course, initiates physical contact by opening his arms and receiving hugs from the girls and being touchy as ever. They remarked how the color of his attire brought out the blueness in his eyes, Vicky expressing bouts of “I told you so” towards him as he showered his sly smile. You were legitimately beginning to feel sick.

A nauseating feeling was beginning to rise from the base of your throat, and you contemplated in turning away to place your drink on the counter behind you and head back to your dorm room. Before you could set the can down, Gabe’s voice busted through your bubble as it sounded too close for comfort. You snapped your face over and saw him standing in front of you.

Poor Emily had to shift aside as he rudely made his way to get to you, almost stepping on her toes in the process. His eyes moved around as he took in your appearance, first staring at your chest before moving further down to your hips. He displayed the look of lustful perversion as he began reaching for your waist, trying to pull you in so he could receive a “hug”. The man was so shady, always using his requests for embrace to feel up a woman’s body. The nausea was starting to make you feel dizzy as you smelled the disgusting scent of his cologne surrounding you.

You felt violated the moment his greedy hands grazed the sides of your hips, something he normally did whenever he greeted Vicky or the others. You felt ridden with a sense of uneasiness as you clicked a step back, feeling the counter behind make contact with the base of your spine.

Snapping your head away, you stared at the wall, trying to be as calm as possible while your eyes became glossy out of frustration and disgust.

“Okay okay, I get it. You’re not the type to like hugs. But I just wanna say, y/n…” Gabe lets out in between his chuckles.

Of course, you weren’t going to hug him. You never had done so to begin with, yet he was always tenacious in getting one from you. Your head remained kinked, avoiding in facing him directly as you eyed him from the side and watched as he lifted his hand to point at you. Extending his index finger, he moves it up and down, directing the indiscriminate tip of it towards you.

He issued a nod as he followed the direction of movement with his finger, displaying his approval as his eyes shifted in sync. “Very nice. Hmm. Very, very nice.” You lost all composure, and the anger was reflected as you shook your head in absolutely disgust. You badly wanted to tell him off, but you couldn’t manage to find the words to use at expressing your disdain. There were too many that you wanted to throw at him and it was overwhelming when you couldn’t narrow down which ones use.

You thought about side stepping away along the L-shape counter to escape the pressures of the harassment. Yet you hesitated and your mind began to over think your actions and his reactions. Remaining still, you played out the effect of how he and his friend, in response to you trying to escape through the narrow path at your side, could snag you by the arm, taking advantage of slurred movement in your side steps.

Your eyes shifted back to the wall as your head remained facing over your shoulder, slightly leaned back as you felt Gabe’s face leaning in towards yours. You noticed the blank void of the paleness as you noted that Ethan and Jake were no longer present. Your focus on Gabe’s ill manners enabled you to be unaware of their disappearance, unsure of when exactly they departed.

The man hanging with Gabe and Vicky came up and peeked over Gabe’s shoulder, a single “whoa” came out of his lips, followed by him inquiring your identity. Regarding you, they exchanged a conversation as their eyes dripped down your figure.

“Who is this?”

“y/n. Vicky’s roommate.”

“Oh dude! This is y/n?! Damn bro, she is fucking hot! Fucking aye man!” Gabe’s friend coming off just as ill-mannered as himself, you could see why they had a bond.

“I told you. She’s perfect.” Gabe suddenly shifted the talk towards you as he pelted you with his mistreatment.

The sight of the wall was beginning to become blurry from the glossiness that burned your eyes.

“Y/n, do you have any selfies of yourself? You should send me one sometime, you know, just for memories.” Gabe’s audacity in requesting a photo projected the other man to chime his excitement as he requested for one himself.

Just as you were beginning to think that it couldn't get any worse, you once again found yourself drenched with utter shock towards the stupidity of the two as they manufactured their request. Their ignorance astounded you into pondering if they really thought you were going permit them a photo, handing it out like candy.

You rolled your eyes at Gabe’s displayed audacity. You tried yet again in your attempts to keep it together; however, the rolling of your eyes nearly projected the collected moisture in your eyes to stream down your face. As frustrating, uncomfortable, and sickening you felt in the stomach, you didn’t want to give Gabe and his friend the satisfaction of seeing your tears. You just had a feeling in your gut that convinced you to believe they would enjoy seeing that, regardless if it was caused by their tormenting behavior towards you.

The two exchanged laughs and remained planted, showing no signs that they were going to move. Gabe’s friend asked you to dance with him while Gabe looked over and chuckled.

“Just remember, I saw her first.” Gabe veered with a smile that reflected a disrespecting vibe of sportsmanship.

Your resolving will was deteriorating and you wanted to scream. The details of the wall could no longer be made out due to the collected moisture formulating in the ducts of your wide eyes. It was blinding your sight as all you could make out of the kitchen were shadows of blur.

Just as you were beginning to reach the abysmal pits of your despair, something suddenly projects out from the side, a shadow glints passed your face and projected a bolt of impact as it is met with Gabe’s chest.

It was fast, hard, and forceful.

[darkjazzpunk]

Thirst trap (BaizhuxReader)

A little something so I stay in practice

----------------------------------------

The questions and remarks got riskier and riskier each time and while the green-haired man always gave you time and possibilities to withdraw or put a halt to this situation you simply couldn't. Each look into his mischievous glowing, amber eyes made you feel like you were the one dragging on the expensive pipe and not him. Sure you got your fair share of the stuff by inhaling it passively (something he pointed out to you while he asked if it was ok for you) but was it enough to make you that dizzy? And why made it you lascivious rather than anything else? They were just painkillers.

You simply put another stone somewhere on the board not even bothering to check if this snake already caught you in its coils again. The game became secondary a while ago. You were far more interested in the questions he had up his sleeve and in letting yourself drown in this ethereal sight he gave you. He came out of a lavish bath when he had the idea of playing Go with you and put his freshly washed, enormous mass of emerald green hair into a messy bun with individual strands falling down his shoulder onto a lavender robe that was rather carelessly thrown around his slim figure. Although anyone would just see a man that was beautiful by nature and didn't care too much about aesthetics for a simple board game between friends, your mind wandered to places that made your cheeks burn up like mad. For you, he looked like one of the ludicrous expensive ladies from the pearl galley who just bid farewell to a customer between rice paper walls before preparing for the next.

The longer you lingered on the thought, the more details you took in about the "disheveled" pharmacist. While everything about his look seemed nonchalant, his makeup was on fleek. His lips even were a few shades darker than usual and the wing of his eyeliner a little more daring. Every move of his was precisely timed and choreographed to show you "accidentally" certain body parts considered erotic by people with a refined taste.

You are in the middle of getting thirst trapped by the owner of the Bubu Pharmacy!

And you felt caught in more forms than one. Baizhus sinful charade began way earlier than you noticed and normally you were the person pulling off stunts like that. He gave you your own medicine to taste and you didn't even notice until it was way too late. Now this divine being had you far enough to ask anything from you and you would give it to him gratefully. Be it your soul, your body, or simply your money!

You shook your head and tried to catch up to what was happening around you at this moment looking your opponent straight into his eyes, who held a stone in his own color up between his long and slender fingers to show you that you gained a question for him. His fiery gaze flared up as he noticed that you finally caught up to his little game. He even scared you with a bold grin before he brought his facial features under control and put his angelic mask back on.

This was maybe your only chance to shake up his self-confidence a little and get at least a bit of the same fun he had on your costs. You opened your (f/c) lips and rephrased the question in your mind before letting it roll off your tongue while taking the stone out of his hand

“Admit it. Do you think of me when you touch yourself?”

You caught him swallowing hard and drinking in how his vertical pupils retracted ever so slightly just before they dilated again, wider than before.

"You would like to know that, yes? Hmmm…", he playfully acted like he thought about his answer before he gave you a playful side glance then grabbed you by your collar and pulled you to him rather forcefully just stopping when his alluring lips were right next to your ear nearly brushing it: "Every single time since I got to know you, my Lotus."

With this he let his tongue flick along the shell of your ear slowly before he moved back to his previous position like nothing happened.

to be contiued....

--------------------------------- I just like the idea that Baizhu, since he's not able to have raw and rough nasty stuff or make-out sessions because of his frail body, tends to play all sorts of (consensual-ish) mind games with his "prey" for the thrill.

Also the reader can be seen as gender neutral but the continuation of this piece will be with a female Reader since that's what I'm most used to ^^"

#baizhu #genshin impact #genshin impact headcanon #baizhu x reader #go #am I evil? #probably #pre baizhu release

[microtonalmatt]

Redesigning Aife

Hey so it's been a while since I did or said anything with/about Beeknighted. After the launch of the demo disc, I updated the game feverishly for a couple weeks, but I got into some dire financial straits and was looking for more work for a long while. I also took a break from Beeknighted to work on Star Crucible, which was only intended to be a one-month quick little project for a game jam that has spiraled out of control. It's still in the back pocket but I need to let it simmer for a while I refine some of its ideas.

I'm now working on a third project, this time something I'm telling myself I'll actually get done in a short time (I know, I know). But I just couldn't stop thinking about things I wanted to do with Beeknighted. I've been writing characters, chunks of the main quest, designing weapons and items, all just on paper because I haven't really had a chance to properly work on it for a while. But I thought I shouldn't set aside both Beeknighted and Star Crucible without at least dropping a crumb or two, so I've been working on the redesign of Aife, the bee.

First off, why the redesign?

The bee was the first full 3D model I had ever created, textured, and animated. Period. It had...a lot of problems and beginner mistakes. And I didn't just wake up one day and bust out a perfect model of what was in my head. Version 1.0 of the bee was...quite frankly horrifying.

Yeah, it...it was bad. It was made in 3 days for a game jam using youtube tutorials for a guide (which was not the fault of the tutorials at all, simply user error). When I decided to develop the game further, I set about retexturing the model, thinking I could save the geometry. I really just cleaned up the face and body.

But this didn't fix the underlying faults with the model. The rig was just plain bad. There were weird issues with weights where if you bent the character too far forward the head would shrink, the hair couldn't animate well, there are no shoulder bones so no shoulder movement, lots of issues all around. Those weren't easily fixed when I already had made around 40 animations using the rig.

There were also issues with the body geometry. The arms/hands/legs/feet/wings were all fine, but the head, thorax, and abdomen, to get technical, were all imperfect. There's weird shading issues you can see on the body that are a result of bad topology. A failure to properly triangulate the abdomen caused it to look weird at some angles. And the head is just poorly modeled overall. It uses a lot more triangles than necessary and doesn't achieve the intended design goal. Heads are hard, faces even more so. She doesn't even have a nose.

Even if you can excuse the mediocre rigging and amateur geometry, you can't excuse the biggest problem of all: my crime against video game collision shapes:

I shouldn't even be allowed to touch a computer after this atrocity.

It was really important to me that the collision represent the shape of the character for the combat to feel precise. But this disaster meant platforming is all over the place. Not to mention if the character gets horizontally wedged between two walls, there's no escape because the character can't turn around. I had thought "Spyro did it [an oddly shaped character], so can I" but I am not a seasoned Insomniac developer. Even so, I don't know how I was allowed to sneak in this egregious sin against video games for so long.

So in short, these changes had been a long time coming.

The goals of the redesign:

First and foremost, the bee had to stand more upright (or else more horizontal, not diagonal) so that I could use a regular upright collision capsule. At the same time, I wanted to maintain as many bee elements as possible.

The abdomen had to be a bit smaller and more out of the way so the player could always see where the feet were landing for platforming purposes. This was a bigger problem than you'd think.

The character had to appear older but still look small. This was simply a mistake in the old design that the face looked too young by the nature of me struggling to draw faces + the bad geometry. The bangs were meant to hang down more but the model didn't allow for it.

Details needed to be crisper, bolder, and chunkier. When I played the demo on my CRT, I noticed the thinner points of limbs threatened to get lost on screen. N64 characters tend to be noticeably more chunky to compensate.

My inspirations for the initial character came from a range of sources. Obviously with the game being inspired by N64 graphics, I picked inspirational references from contemporary characters, as well as characters from media that had been created/released in the run-up to the N64 that might have inspired later works. I wanted the bee to look like a mix between a silent JRPG protagonist (or, y'know, Link wouldn't be a bad pick) and classic fantasy/horror anime female protagonists (the ones that all have that same long hairstyle, black/dark hair, poofy bangs in the front).

My moodboard included Yuuko from Valis, Utena from Revolutionary Girl Utena, Popful Mail, Aika and Fina from Skies of Arcadia, a handful of leading ladies from late 80s/early 90s horror OVAs (like the kind Madhouse was putting out at the time, but usually worse), and some Fire Emblem characters.

The N64 doesn't really have a lot of 3D "anime" characters to use for references. You've got the oft-maligned Quest 64, some of the bosses from the Goemon games (all the npcs are very chibi), and some of the more anime-inspired characters from the Zelda games and a handful from Megaman 64, though Megaman's art style and way of 3D modelling is fairly unique in its own right.

I suppose I should emphasize that while the main character and some of the side characters are anime-inspired, the point was not to make an anime game per se. I chose the look because of its potential to create expressive and amusing faces because I wanted the bee to have as much character as, say, Link from Wind Waker, who is constantly emoting about anything and everything.

The New Version

Aife's new model sports a totally remade head and body. While using the old limbs, I thickened them up a bit for visibility while still trying to maintain that bug-like spindliness. The abdomen is slightly smaller and the geometry is simplified. I simply didn't need that many triangles. She stands more upright, and the head is in a more natural place above the shoulders, and the human-ish proportions are better. The redone body uses vertex colors, rather than textures, but leaves the option open to texture new costumes. I also redesigned the bangs to drape lower on the face but not get in the way of the expression. The old bangs made the character look too childish, imo. All of the textures have been redrawn, simplified, and cleaned up. She now has a nose.

Despite all of the improvements and added details, the model weighs in at 100 fewer triangles than the old model, for a total of 672 tris.

I'm much more confident that this new Aife will be better suited to the highly animated gameplay required of her, and can't wait to dive into the rigging/animating process. But that's all for now!

#n64 #anime #character design #3d model #retro anime #godot engine

[gizmocrate-werecrow]

What to do when you are a leafling: life death and pikmin

Sherry floated beside Yonny and tapped him on the shoulder, she tapped until Yonny’s attention was caught.

“All Glow Pikmin are Yonny, I died when papa sent me to fight a giant Arachnorb with metal and flesh. It shook me off and the next thing I know I'm missing my ears and I'm a glow Pikmin!”

Yonny perked up at the mention of flesh and metal, his eyes lit up with curiosity and he listened with rapt interest. “I thought Cyborgs were fiction.”

“What are cyborgs…OH! Is it when a being is a mix of metal and flesh?”

“Yes! Sherry i want to find this creature someday, once i manage to fix up my condition of course. It sounds so interesting to see.” Yonny exclaimed, he held Sherry closer and smiled. His hand touched his chest again, his expression changing from a familiar smile to a frown. Yonny floated silently to the ground, letting his feet touch the ground before he turned to the direction of the hideaway.

“Yonny? I-i-i didn't think of asking before but why? Why are you here?” Sherry said, her voice wavering a little as Yonny stopped in his tracks.

“I am the doctor of the rescue corps, we were sent here by a distress call of the Hocotactian ship the SS Dolphin and its captain. However the seven of us were separated thanks to a mysterious force that crashed our ship.”

“Papa crashed thanks to a mysterious force and–”

Yonny turned on his feet and went right near Sherry, she let out an eep and readjusted the pen she had tucked behind her nonexistent ear.

“That’s the Captain we were sent here for! you worked for him! Where is he now?!”

“um…I don't know. Papa wasn’t a part of the Connection so I don't know.”

“I should've known. Wait a moment Bernard and Dingo are a part of this Connection. I could ask them.”

Meanwhile Dingo had taken off his suit, he rolled it up and put it to the side next to Bernard’s suit. He sighed and sat down.

“Shouldn’t we talk to Yonny?”

“Yonny has Sherry.” Dingo shrugged. He laid down and stretched. He looked at his hands and stayed quiet. The leaves seemed to sway and move when he moved his hands. Bernard sat down next to him and took off his shades. He had one green eye and one brown eye, a trait rarely seen from those native to Nijo.

“I don’t know how long Yonny was with Sherry before we reunited but listen, we need to support each other and find a way back home UNDERSTAND?”

“I do! Don’t yell at me like that. Fine, I'll talk to him. Come along Jack. You’re coming too Bernard!”  Dingo said with Jack happily following beside him. Jack twittered and climbed onto his shoulder while Bernard walked beside him. The group walked into the dark, the soft green glow in the cave growing clearer with every step.

In a flash of light, Yonny appeared right in front of them.

“Yonny! I…I’m…um…” Dingo started, he dug his hands through his hai—leaves—hair leaves once.

“What is it? Trying to comfort me after I have found out I am actually dead?” Yonny sighed.

Everyone took a moment before the silence was broken by Dingo blurting out: “You’re dead?!” 

“Yes, which is all the more reason we need to defend a luminknoll. As long as we have even one sample of glow sap we can wait until rescue to refine it.”

“Great, does this mean another fruitless defense.”

“No. We can learn from past mistakes, tonight will be different, come, the night has already begun so suit up.” Yonny said with a tinge of laughter behind it. He floated by while the others followed.

—

Up aboveground, no monsters have thankfully come around yet. Dingo was walking around the luminknoll alongside Bernard while Yonny floated near the top

On the ground Jack was digging through Yonny’s emergency kit, they rustled and dug a bit deeper and took out a sharp metal toothpick.

“It’s a pikmin sword!” Jack said, holding the small sharp stick triumphantly.

“That’s a toothpick for cleaning teeth. Yonny told me that.” Sherry flew down.

“It’s a sword!”

“Whatever you say.” Sherry said, writing down some notes, she then touched the tip of the toothpick in curiosity. The toothpick began to glow much like the luminknoll. Jack waved it around excitingly, swishing it around.

“It’s a glowing sword now! A sword that chases away the darkness! Dingo! Look at my cool sword!” Jack said, they happily ran up to Dingo.

“Check out my glowing sword!” Jack squeaked.

Dingo knelt down to look, it glowed like a glow stick or that one time he dreamt about glowing for three nights in a row.

“That is very nice.”

Just when Jack was about to answer, there was a bone shaking cry, everyone looked up and Yonny floated down, fear was clear in his eyes.

“I saw a creature made of fog with glowing red eyes, Sherry called it something…”

Jack froze up and dropped their sword, they were shaking and muttering.

Dingo looked into the distance, there was a cloudy creature that had a small red dot for a mouth and nudged forward on two arms. It tossed its head back and let out a long sorrowful cry.

(yes the toothpick is a legend of Zelda reference.)

#pikmin au #fanfic #pikmin 4 spoilers #red pikmin #glow pikmin #pikmin 4 #dingo pikmin #yonny pikmin #bernard pikmin #smoky progg

[bintage-veef]

Hey guys, lets talk about smthm real quick. I got into mcyt in august of 2021, and two months later I started drawing fanart.

This was my very first piece, and it's heavily influenced by the fact that I was just leaving the jse and markiplier egos fandom. I didn't like it very much, but I was happy to begin experimenting with lighting (something I still shy away from today.)

I drew this one very shortly after (it's Tango, don't ask me what my design idea was) amd I loved it! And I'm still glad I drew it, I can see the things it began to teach me, but the pride in it isn't there anymore.

At some point, this was one of my favorite drawings I did. And I still really like the sketch! However, I still would grow and see the critiques others had from here. I don't remember much from this time, so I don't have much else to say.

At some point I got to this (the steps now are a bit all over the place, long gaps, back and forths between art styles) and then I refined this sketch style! It was low energy but it worked! This is a begginning example but, there were some better ones too.

Such as this! And this is about when I started getting more consistent designs, too, and took on a different style of shading that ended up staying! Very shortly after, I begin studying different body types and aging and the like.

Then there was the conscious descision to go lineless. This here was the first attempt, and it has room for improvement. This style, still has adapted, but let's look at a favorite piece from this (that isn't super complex)

Now the pen i used for this is a bit different in all honesty because I switched devices now, as up until this point every single one of these had been drawn on a phone that was cracked to all hell, but the general rules to it are the same, same kind of shading, and such. This piece also showcases a bit of my experimentation with body types. I'd also go as far as to say this is my last drawing in that style.

And most recently, we have this. While it's still a variation and a similar style, there are notable differences. It, while still holding true to anatomy on a level, has a cartoonish aspect that wasn't there before, with differences in the shading. I enjoy this style immensly and I thought just my journey in this fandom was interesting. I'd take you through my entire art journey, but most of those are signed with legal names.

If there's anything to take away from this, it's that if you aren't happy with it now, keep going, it does work. And if you are happy, keep going amyways, who knows, maybe you'll improve drastically too. Just keep going, and one day you'll pause and be blown away by what you can do now.

#grian #mumbo jumbo #vintagebeef #tangotek #pearlescentmoon #goodtimeswithscar #welsknight #ijevin #a journey #art progress

[lunashiba]

A bit of a redesign for Morgan, first posted on 7-13-2022. I was very, very happy with how this piece turned out actually! It was my first time using a binary brush, so I had a small bit of a learning curve with this one. I usually paint and render, so I feel pretty uncomfortable with cell shading (but this time, it ended up alright). I’ll put some processes and such below, along with some more backstory and thoughts, if anybody is interested.

A minion is dangling on her tail on the bottom right.

Above are the sketches and WIPs I had leading up to the finished piece. I really liked these sketches, but ended up deciding to fully draw out one. Morgan was actually one of my first OCs, but her design has changed a lot over time. Back when I first started to draw, I thought that OCs were a bit too far out for me- I only ever envisioned myself as a fan artist. Nowadays, it’s quite the opposite- I don’t think I’ll ever do much art of popular media and such except if it’s for friends. The friends I made when I first started drawing all had OCs though, and that was what eventually made me more keen to the idea of making one. In my mind, having a consistent character to grind out all the time would be helpful in building my consistency and speed, so it counted as something that would help me grind- not to mention all the art stuff that went into “designing a character”.

I used to be extremely into learning art in a very methodical, nearly academic way. Everything had to be very productive and effective- I had to make sure I was getting as good as I could, as fast as I could; otherwise I’d be wasting time. I think it’s pretty easy to see my mindset at the time being unhealthy, but I don’t know if I’d regret too much of it. I enjoyed finally having a “productive” hobby in my life. With my online art friends, we decided to altogether draw something of a banner, with all of our pieces lined side to side- with this opportunity, I decided to draw the first iteration of my OC, who had no name at the time.

3-4-2018

I think that this may have also been my first piece with color? Or at least, full page of color. I think I just referred to her as “the horn girl” or “the antler girl” and based it on some crazy deer stuff. I loved the little doodles I did to the side- It’s something I haven’t done as much. I used to make sure to always put a little scribble as somewhere as a joke for anybody who looked hard enough to find it in all of my pieces, but it started annoying me because I couldn’t ignore it once I posted the piece. After this, I tried to further work on my OC, opting for different colors.

4-5-2018

I liked this design actually, but it didn’t really fit my personality. I guess I don’t really vibe that well with smug characters. I like the outfit I designed for her, but I think it shows a bit too much skin- it wouldn’t really be something I’d draw nowadays. It’d take a bit for me to realize that NSFW art or anything slightly so wouldn’t really be for me either.

4-30-2018

Things started to get refined- I kept around the ponytail, and toned down her outfit. I remember being extremely happy with the satchel and the earrings, and I kept around the thigh highs. I still felt a bit unhappy, with the design, but I couldn’t put my finger on what.

10-23-2018

If you look at the dates, you can see that it took a few months for this current design to come along. I actually extremely adore this design, and I don’t think I’ll ever fully shelve it. Disregarding the hair, this is pretty much the final design of this character. This is the Morgan that truly lives through to today. I remember drawing the shoes for over an hour- maybe two hours. I worked a long time on the line art, especially regarding the shoes, making sure that I’d get it absolutely correct in both perspective and in geometry. Nowadays I’m much less of a perfectionist in some ways (though more in others). Morgan initially had more brunette hair, but I gradually transitioned to a bit more of an anime red, and I brought back the horns that I really liked. A particular artifact of this era of art was that I used to draw little triangles above the eyes, to symbolize the little wrinkles in the eyelids. I know I didn’t make it up myself, but I’m not exactly sure where I got it from. Now, I just draw the eyelid folds. From here on out, it was more just personality growths than visual design changes.

3-6-2020

At this point, I had been accepted into art school and engineering school. I couldn’t give up either of them, so I doubled majored- as a result, what I had to give up on was time. I stopped doing as much digital art for a while, so most of what I have at this time period can be seen in notebook paper or scrap paper. I was a huge workaholic, and it started to affect my health.

3-8-2020

Morgan is gay. I came to the realization that I was pretty gay too, at around this time, and I guess I wanted to show it in my art too.

3-9-2020

The day after. She is very gay still. Here, you can see the absolute beginnings of a tiny doodle of Soone. She’d be developed later.

4-19-2020

I found my favorite marker. It wasn’t anything special at all- the tip was running dry, and it was completely blank- I couldn’t find any trace of a brand at all. The terrible paper with the texture of the marker made it extremely appealing to me however, and I fell in love with it. I don’t know where it is now, but I hope I’ll find another terrible marker at some point to fall in love with again.

Bonus Soone sketch idea. I really like this design, but overall decided to not use it- or at least, not all of it. I don’t think it’s fully gone yet though.

7-19-2020

Morgan’s character design is basically completed- She is very gay. I think at this point, she was also trans, though it was much more unspoken. It’s a bit subtle, but I stopped giving her as much indication of having “a chest”.

9-4-2020

I did a bit more work with Morgan’s horns here. It’s nothing that stays around too much, but who’s to say it won’t come back? I think I stopped drawing horns like this because I was a bit lazy with horn rendering. Also, it made the design a bit busy. This outfit is cute though, and I like it as a general vibe of Morgan. She also has a tummy piercing.

9-12-20

A little in-joke between friends.

10-7-2020

A Halloween drawing. She still has red horns. I used to always draw Sharingan on everything as a joke, but it’s faded out a bit now.

1-15-2021

I treasure this comic a lot. In a way, it helped me cope a lot, as it was based on a true story. I love this design for Morgan, kinda symbolizing an earlier Morgan, maybe a bit earlier in her transition. It somewhat aligned with my life, and the mental state I was kinda living in. I want to make more comics like this.

1-28-2021

Small doodles I had lying around on another blog.

3-29-2021

I forgot I drew this until writing this post. This Morgan was a bit of a vision of how a more confident, future Morgan would be like. Regarding her future, I think she’d end up enjoying being a professor, and I felt the vibes would be nice. Who’s to say if this is canon or not- or if there is a canon. I like having fun. Her horns are red and have ridges as well. I’d like to imagine that she’s the type of professor to have photos of her wedding on her desk, along with photos of her wife and her cats.

6-14-2021

This one was for Pride Month 2021. I should draw another piece next year, since I missed 2022′s. This is probably one of my proudest paintings ever, and one of my favorite Morgan Designs. I want to draw her like this again. I dropped the horns being red also, and moved to a more white/cream color.

8-18-2021

This one I made while I was very sad. It took a lot of coming to terms regarding my family, but this sketch helped me out a lot. I didn’t have the heart to color nor render it however, so I had posted it as is. I think for all of us, many things change, but some things may always stay the same.

8-24-2021

A bit of a happier time- a bitter sweet smile.

9-03-2021

I started to draw more of my daily life as well- this was inspired from my bus rides, where I’d constantly be stressed about school, but simultaneously wanting to draw. I’ve also transitioned from drawing wired to wireless earbuds. Technology evolving is great.

1-1-2022

Happy New Year doodles. I really like all of these designs. I don’t know what to do with this like though. I could always say “Maybe I’ll turn them into Twitch Emotes since I have space,” or “I should make some Discord stickers with them,” but I think I already I’ll be a bit too lazy to do so.

4-10-2022

This was inspired by two adorable mannequins I saw at the mall- I knew right away that I wanted to draw them in these outfits, so I took a picture right away and started a sketch I never finished. It’s around this time that I slowly started to approach the Adventure Time methodology to characters. In Adventure Time, the characters always had such varying hairstyles, clothing, and outfits that I adored- differing from episode to episode. I decided that any Morgan and any Soone will still be Morgan and Soone no matter how they looked, and actually focused on less of a central design (though I still liked the central design).

2-27-2022

A bit more of a “Realistic” Morgan and Soone. I think optimally, I’d love to draw Morgan like this more. Her design here as a more androgynous character is something I really wish I could do more often, instead of falling back on the easier to draw very-feminine Morgan. I based this design a lot on the Fate character Enkidu, whose androgynous design I’ve fallen deeply in love with (specifically, this one, which is one of my more memorable adored arts that I can think of).

4-01-2022

Morgan but ACTUALLY more real. I couldn’t get the colors right, so I left things as black and white. I’m still extremely happy with it though. I initially posted it for this year’s Pride Month, but then mentally removed it, since I felt I’d rather have a fully complete piece.

[------ END ------]

There are a few more Morgan pieces here and there, but maybe I’ll place out a few posts with them, so that I can put out the process and WIPs separately. As it stands, this post has run pretty long, and ended up being a lot more detailed than I had initially planned for. I ended up finishing the draft for this post at 4:40 AM, though I had initially posted it nearly 10 hours earlier. I ranted a lot, but I think it was nice to type all this out. Not sure who’d be interested in reading all this, but thanks for sticking through. I’m glad that I was able to write out so much for Morgan though. I also hope I can draw her more often, and post her everywhere. I hope that other people also like her as well. I hope everybody has a great day and night.

Thank you for reading.

Luna

#lgbtq #art

[frogbitsalad]

How's Downpour been treating you? Any thoughts on it?

It's been pretty slow for me right now, school's kicking back in and progress has been slow on arti and gourm's campaigns!

But what I have seen from what other people has posted (i am a sucker for spoilers), things are... interesting. I generally think that, where I am so far- which is rather pitiful in progress- things are pretty neat?

Gourmand's crafting is a really fun mechanic, and it's been fun finding things what I can eat and what things I can spawn and craft with Gourm. All around a fun time! (What's kinda wild to note is how strong Gourm is when they're not tired, about as strong as hunter? Which feels weird but is pretty neat.)

Artificer is one that I'm still having a bit of trouble trying to progress, I say that mostly due to the amount of times I try to stubbornly leave Garbage Wastes through the toll rather than slip into Shaded Citadel. Fighting scavengers is really fun though!

But the overall changes are.. interesting(?) i think? The addition of a day/night cycle to the Wall subregion is really neat I think! Watching the clouds change from day to sundown to night is really cool, though I do have to get used to the night time creature spawns! Pipes having a different symbol for gates took me back a little, but I can see why the dp devs would put it in. Not too bad!

The challenges are really interesting! I'm glad they're not all about killing creatures, but plays host to a variety of different mechanics. Getting food in varying different conditions and constraints, competing with different creatures for certain objects, attempts to tame lizards or steal from scavengers, so on and so forth! I feel that they're very neat and creative with some of these!

As for the more spoiler-y things that ive seen... well, I'll stick it down below, it's kinda nit-picky

The hunter rot corpse. For me, it comes with mixed feelings, not all entirely positive or downright negative. It feels a bit like a door wrenched open to whatever goes on behind the writers of downpour.

To start with, it feels like a let-down to have seen it be rot. Whatever mystery to Hunter's ailment has been simply slapped over with "it's rot!!!!!!1" and that is greatly unsatisfying. I suppose that it's neat that the devs thought to put it in, but it feels,, very overt and overall banging pots and pans "hey look at the corpse! Look at the Corpse!"

Not quite a fan of that.

Another point of contention for me is the name choice for Saint's region: The Rubicon. Of all things, to name it with, why something relating to real life history with the past event of crossing the Rubicon river with Julius Caesar? I do know that it is a popular phrase for some, about an act or action that has clearly crossed a line of no return, but it feels rather out of place in a game like Rain World, one that clearly does not have the same history or events as ours.

It's just out of place and just feels off, I greatly wish it was named anything else: Point of No Return, or perhaps The Quandary.

Next would be Saint's sleeping pose. I believe that I had touched upon it in the comments of a different post, so I will reiterate my thoughts on it here. I'm not a fan of it, it is interesting how RW draws inspiration from Buddhism, but having Saint in a very very human pose feels a bit like a slap to the face. This posture referencing a very human pose associated with greatly reminds me of how western people sees most asian cultures, either something not to be taken seriously, or something greatly mystical and overall unknowable. I apologize for my words, but it is greatly unexciting to see this. It's like shorthand I guess, a shortcut to say that "Saint is a very refined and mystical slugcat". It feels uncanny. (sorry if this paragraph feels off, i just feel very meh about a single sleeping pose, which might as well be blowing it out of proportion, but that's just my opinion, it doesn't have to be yours)

On a lighter note, slugpups are here! I wonder if ratrat44, the mod author working on a slugpups mod was able to work on this. I remember the mod being somewhat buggy with the slugpup AI (being a modified scavenger ai) freaking out to certain actions from slugcat, as well as certain foods bugging them out if eaten. Very cute to see their presence in this strange dlc.

#downpour #downpour spoilers #downpour crit #answered #long post #rain world downpour #rain world

[the-real-big-man]

PHEW it has been a while hasn't it! I know I said I might post more frequently but that was very clearly a LIE. Genshin Impact has consumed me and yes, I have C1 Neuvillette and no, I am probably not going to be able to get Furina in the next update, unfortunately. Poor F2P here. That being said though, I DO have something to share with you all that I had done a bit ago! I thought it would be fun amidst the GrimmHollow event that I'm a part of to draw Candice in a Halloween costume!

Say Hello to Candice Afton! For those of you out of the loop (which is many because I haven't posted about Candice at ALL here), Candice is my character/persona for a Discord Server that I am in called Macca Corp. Essentially, Macca Corp is a fan project between me and a couple of friends based off of Lobotomy Corporation, where our characters manage a McDonalds located in the Backrooms (because it's funny). Candice and her team make sure the Corporation is kept clean, and they also repair anything that ends up broken! In lore, Candice was a ex employee of Fazbear Entertainment who got tangled up in Pizzaplex shenanigans, and was fired due to "violent tendencies". She ended up tripping and falling into the Backrooms, which split her between space time, resulting in her body being... weird to say the least.

THAT BEING SAID THOUGH, Candice was a HUGE fan of FNAF, hence why she even worked at the Pizzaplex, and so for this Halloween she's going as Michael Afton during the bite of 83!

This next portion has NOTHING to do with the last one, so if you want to see more art and me gushing about my style overall, you may continue, but for now that's all I have to say about Candice without getting into ~Spoiler Territory~

So BECAUSE of this drawing that I absolutely fell in love with, I took another deep dive into my old art, and I found THIS gem of an artwork!

Needless to say, it's not the worst, but there is a LOT to be desired here. Firstly, the shading is ALL OVER THE PLACE. I remember it was supposed to be a top down perspective thing, but for whatever reason I decided to ALSO add ring lighting, so it just looks so messy. I remember as well that this was a redraw of ANOTHER drawing I had done a bit before that, but THAT drawing is on paper, so unfortunately I can't get it at this time. Still, I KNEW I could do better now, so I did!

SAY HELLO TO THE NEW DRAWING!

I used a lot of the same techniques I used in the Candice drawing above (although this one is considerably messier because I didn't feel the need to refine it, as it was mainly just a test), and I LOVE THIS ONE. I decided to just stick to ring lighting for it, so no top down unfortunately. There IS a difference in programs though, I will admit, but I still feel like a lot of the same techniques could be applied in my former program (I use Clip Studio Paint nowadays, but before I used an outdated version of Firealpaca).

Anyways I just felt the need to gush about the difference in style, I absolutely adore this mish mash of different brushes and tone layers, and I will never be going back!!

#oc #no idea what else I should tag this with

[ndostairlyrium]

speak-no-evil, megaphone, pencil for all of them?

O: these are super interesting!! Thank you so much!

🙈 SEE-NO-EVIL - whats a side of your oc that they don't want to show other people?

Elanor

That she can be so demanding when things just aren't served to her on a silver platter. Can be the smallest things like favors, or severe stuff like feelings. One tell that indicates she's restraining herself is her lips being so tight they form a straight line.

Hawke

He perceives himself as weak and pathetic, but he never shows publicly the sadness he feels because of it. He trained himself to just fake it to the point not even his family can tell he's upset.

Ankh

Her rage. More like raw frustration, which is something she needs to suppress or else she'd set fire to everything without a single remorse. It gets better after Corypheus is defeated but sometimes she just needs to take a deep breath and keep her hands busy.

📣 MEGAPHONE - how loud are they? what do they speak like? got a voice claim?

Y E S

I love this question! And I know italians in my followers list will have a good laugh at my choices 💛 or maybe they'd be just very concerned lol

Elanor

She has a decisive voice and you can tell she took lessons to refine it, I would say its tone is deep and a bit nasal but not too raspy. She's composed, most of the times, but when she gets loud she gets loud.

I do have the perfect voice claim for her but I can't find adequate vids or short clips << I'll elaborate on it another moment

Hawke

Oh he's loud and proud! He does have range of course, but when he has to draw the attention of someone on the other side of the street he just yells rather than walking there and tap their shoulder. Also he has a great singing voice o: I picture him as an effortless baritone.

His voice actor is just perfect so I won't go there, neither in eng nor in italian.

Ankh

Her

I like how the female inquisitor voice sounds in eng but like, how about the really annoyingly enthusiastical aspect of Lav's personality?? And what about the "I'm totally messing with you but there's a shade of melancholy behind it"? Where is it??

That's the perfect voice.

✏️ PENCIL - is there a particular quote / lyric that you associate with them?

uuuh I'm terrible at this and I know 80% of the time I will spend on this ask will be dedicated to this answer lol (I wasn't wrong)

Elanor: "It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes" Douglas Adams

Hawke: "If you're really a mean person you're going to come back as a fly and eat poop" Kurt Cobain

Ankh: "I tend to think that emotions are for ugly people" Willam

-

Emoji Ask Meme

#long post #oc emoji asks #ask meme #elanor cousland #kerry #ankh #the voice one is all over the place I'm sorry #I've been thinking of their ranges A LOT #but explaining myself is hard and explaining myself in another language IS HARDER lmao #maybe I can dedicate a post to it umm

[nitrochiralfan]

Personal rules for character design

I don’t own this translation or interview, All credit to the translation belong to Kimi Dake Translations who did a lot of hard work translating this. the original interview came from here

Hello, Kenkou Land’s Kokoroten here.

I got a message from someone who wanted to know more about character design, so today we’re going to cover that topic!

Yay, thank you so much for your message!

I make games because I was inspired by the games that other people made. If I can inspire you too, it’ll make me so happy!.

I wanted to share the aspects I pay attention to during character design, as well as the rules I always follow. This post might get a bit long, though.

Normally, the illustrator designs the characters after the setting and direction of the project has been decided. It’s easy to think that style is the basis for everything, but in this case, there are other aspects to keep in mind, like the fact that you need to establish the characters’ background in addition to their design, and that all of them must be suitable to be used in the standing portraits that are common to visual novels.

However, the request I got was to discuss the aspects to take into account during character design, not the process on how to come up with ideas.

The main goal is to define what rules should be followed to gather all the ideas you’ve come up with, and refine them.

I will use the works of my circle as examples for this explanation.

“Lemures Blue’s 2AM ” (official site)

“MAMIYA - A Shared Illusion of the World's End”  (official site)

“Vamp the Pray Velvet” (official site), a work by my collaboration circle

***

◆ Lemures Blue’s 2AM

·How to decide the color of the illustration

Let’s start with the basics.

Aoi is blue, Hinata is red, Itsuki is yellow, Sakura is green.

Blue is present in several shades and it’d be a good idea to pick colors that harmonize with blue when designing sub-images. Here, you can use your personal palette as reference.

In Aoi’s case, his sub-image color is a reddish shocking pink used in his flower-like pupil. Once the image color has been decided, you can use complementary colors to accentuate.

I used yellow for his shirt because yellow complements blue.

·Symbolism of facial features, hair style

·Flashy colors that are easy to understand, deformation of characters

For Lemures Blue’s, the character design process took an entire year (for more details, read the explanation in the Lemures Blue’s artbook!), and I kept this particular aspect in mind.

Aoi’s large, round, slant eyes, Hinata’s clearly defined drooping eyes, Itsuki’s emphasized drooping eyes, Sakura’s long slit eyes…

As I will explain later, back then, I didn’t really think about making their faces look different. I believed that characters could be recognized by the design of their eyes. And I also thought that, as long as they had one strand of hair sticking out (ahoge), they would gain personality as characters.

Overall, characters in Lemures Blue’s were mostly two-dimensional, because the approach was similar to the one used in games aimed at men and featuring female characters (known as gal games).

***

◆MAMIYA - A Shared Illusion of the World's End

Here, the approach was different from Lemures Blue’s. The colors weren’t decided from the start.

I used a more intuitive design process for the characters and the initial designs didn’t have to be redone (whereas Lemures Blue’s characters were changed at least five times…)

With MAMIYA, there was a period of three or four years between the design of the characters and the production of the standing portraits, and I’ll talk about what happened during that time.

·How to define the body and facial features

Body type → Compared to Lemures Blue’s, in MAMIYA, all the characters are handsome guys with narrower faces, and we aimed to make a clear differentiation between them.

This can be described as enjoying the small differences between members of male idol groups.

For example, muscular but delicate, curvy, bony… Even if you can’t express it clearly in a drawing, just being aware of their features will make a big difference!

These body characteristics, and details like deciding to give some stiffness to hair by drawing straight lines, have a tighter connection to the characters’ looks this time.

Looks → Specifically, I use the face of a famous person as a model, while thinking that it would be wonderful if the character could be drawn in the style of [redacted]-sensei. With this in mind, I decide who my ideal author is.

I believe that in the final design, the look and idiosyncrasies of the character will come together. And when I analyze a draft, I’m impressed by how similar it looks to my celebrity of choice, and my understanding of the shape of the face improves.

When you pick a real world celebrity as a model, you come to understand what type of face goes with what type of hair, and what clothes suit them best, and you can use this knowledge as reference to fine-tune the smaller details.

Again, this was different from Lemures Blue’s, but here’s another point that you have to keep in mind:

· Characters are deformed, but they still resemble real people

In addition to the individual characteristics of the MAMIYA cast, the visuals needed to have a tendency towards realism without causing interference to the people reading the story. Compared to Lemures, which was more similar to a gal game, the design of MAMIYA was more shoujo manga-ish.

I also used real brands for the clothing, provisionally, and it allowed me to think about the meaning behind each character’s selections regarding clothing, their personalities, their sense for spending money, and their eye for aesthetics, and, by doing so, I was able to express their normal everyday life.

You can check the final result in「マミヤFallDown RecordBook公開」(available only to supporters).

***

◆ Vamp the Pray Velvet

This one was completely different from the previous game, because all the characters were women!

I finally drew full-body portraits.

Kinari-sensei, who was responsible for the script, has vast knowledge about shoes. They researched the topic, and shoes were incorporated into the standing portraits. When shoes work well, they significantly deepen the character’s personality!

· Setting a clear fashion category for the outfits

This is a game about female characters and battles, and it was a lot of fun to break free from the aspects mentioned above!

Sweet lolita, military, sporty, etc. It’s a bit of an exaggeration, but I truly prefer when you can understand the character quickly just by looking at their name.

· Defining the silhouette

· Balance when looking at the body

We’re finally here, let’s talk about the basics of character design: silhouettes!

You can express a character’s personality through the length of a skirt, so the concept of silhouettes might be easy to tackle!

The easiest way to understand it is by looking at this girlxgirl pair, Reina and Yuriya.

When I decided the design of these two, and their colors and vibe, I knew that they would form a pair, but what matters here are their silhouettes!

For Reina, volume is located in the upper part of the body, while for Yuriya, it is in the lower part. These two are my favorites.

VampVel’s story is about battles between two people, so I had to be mindful of the height difference between them when they were standing together.

Momo and En. The protagonist pair. Normal girl/punk androgyny. Black and white. Pink and cyan.

Seimei and Ruri. Graceful/military. Light/dark colors. But their collars and the length of their skirts are similar…

Et cetera!

When I draw the standing portraits, I don’t draw the characters by themselves, but standing next to each other (the resulting file is pretty large, though).

***

These were three examples of how the aspects that you must keep in mind while designing characters make a transition onto the page. I hope the explanation was good enough.

These aspects vary from work to work, and it is difficult to tell you “do this!” in just a few words. If I had to talk about media other than visual novels (manga, Vtuber, characters for specific projects), the explanation would be different.

Looking back, I feel that every time I reflect on my work, it becomes clearer! And thus, continuing to create works is the way to go! Not that it needs to be said, right?

***

In the message, you mentioned that you wanted to make a game…

Assuming that you have the basis for the characters, now you need to ask yourself: what kind of game do you want to make?

Drama, suspense, romance… The power of character design can draw upon the current parameters of traditional works and break them!

Here’s to hoping that you’ll create beautiful characters that fit perfectly in the world of your game.

And I hope that this post will be helpful to all of you 🌟.

Kokoroten

#character design #Lemures Blue's 2 A.M. #lemures blue #MAMIYA – A Shared Illusion of the World’s End #mamiya