#also should I make a proper post for it with the cover art and stuff?

[emry-stars-art]

YES, PLEASE AND THANK YOU @snazzy-jas-z-is-a-fan-of !!

(Find the royal au writing masterpost here 💕)

And I’ll do an art-only version of this post for your reblogging pleasure here :) there's always always more to be said about this so I might make another post on the same topic but later

Anyway onto the juicy stuff

Okay so. Evermore and Palmetto both have glove etiquette, but in Evermore Nathaniel never had to worry about it, because he was expected to constantly be wearing gloves from first day he’s able to after getting nasty scars on his hands. Except for when he’s working or helping Nathan work. The nobles and specifically Prince Riko made it clear that they had no desire to see how ugly his hands were. (This is also why he has a habit of wearing a little of his hair down on the left side; it helped cover the scars on his cheek that ruined his pretty complexion.)

Then he comes to Palmetto and Day introduces him to a whole new set of rules. Gloves are a common and important part of dress and fashion, but people are also able to decide whether or not to wear them at any given time. The only real rules on gloves are when not to wear them; you always take off gloves to eat or drink, and to offer your hand in greeting or service.

Nathaniel gets to kind of ease into it; he’s not around anyone important enough to need to offer proper greeting or help, so mostly he takes his gloves off to eat in the servants quarters, where he doesn’t deal with more than curious glances. There’s a lingering fear of letting anyone important see his hands, no matter what Day says to assure him otherwise.

Then Nathaniel becomes the prince’s guard. Nothing changes for a while - the prince has always been more self-sufficient than most - until one day Nathaniel sees the prince eyeing the fall from his horse. (Really Andrew is trying to get up the courage to dismount, because even if the fall isn’t actually an issue for him, his fear of heights sometimes catches up to him when dismounting horses.) Nathaniel understands by now that he’s allowed and expected to help, so he reaches out - and remembers. He’s also acutely aware that the prince hasn’t yet seen his hands, then also also acutely aware of how serious Day was about the proper etiquette, and slips off his glove. The prince gives his hand a curious look, but accepts the help and all but crushes Nathaniel’s hand in his as he finally makes the fall. Even on the ground, though, he doesn’t let go quickly. Instead, the prince’s thumb brushes once across the back of Abram’s hand and he turns his hold, pulling Nathaniel’s hand up to examine it. The only thing keeping Nathaniel in place is the bone-deep instinct that he isn’t to deny anyone, especially a prince. Maybe the prince would decide he didn’t actually want to see Nathaniel’s hands and Nathaniel could go back to wearing his gloves with little more than a strike to the cheek for making the prince look at them.

But the prince does no such thing. He drops Nathaniel’s hand and continues on as normal. Nathaniel does his best to do the same, but that’s probably the first kind skin to skin contact he’s had in years. He isn’t recovering as quickly as he imagines he should.

(Meanwhile Andrew was NOT about to let an opportunity to hold Nathaniel’s hand slip like that, and he finds that he doesn’t mind the roughness. Most other guards were pulled from a much more privileged crowd - usually who had some callouses or scratches at most. Nathaniel’s hands show Andrew that this one isn’t all bark and no bite. Andrew… really likes them.)

Gradually, Nathaniel (likely soon or now Abram) gets used to taking off his gloves. He doesn’t without reason, it takes him a while not to feel naked without them, but it only takes a few more instances for him to realize that the prince truly doesn’t mind his scars. Helping the prince from his horse becomes easy habit (GS isn’t necessarily tall, but neither is Andrew. No step stool = Abram’s help).

Maybe there’s even a few times Abram is completely gloveless when he’s around only Day or the prince. He finds himself hiding his hands subconsciously when he’s not thinking about it, but he’s never once told to cover up.

Then Abram is kidnapped, taken back to Evermore. All the same rules are enforced and more. In this case, gloves aren’t all that different or upsetting. That much is okay.

It’s when he gets back that things change. Since he’s blind for a while, he’s relying much more on touch and hearing. It’s also a good tactile reminder; if he were still in Evermore, he would never be bare handed. This is when he truly gets used to not wearing gloves. (During this time he’s also touched more gently and more often than ever in his life. Others’ bare hands on his naked skin to care for scars and rashes and fever, first Day and medics and then Day and Prince Andrew. Abram finally, finally realizes that this is what he’d been missing. He actually finds himself calmed and cared for in being touched.)

Even when his sight returns, Abram only wears gloves out of doors or to formal events. Slowly and so, so carefully, Andrew finds more small reasons to touch Abram’s hands, and Abram always finds rationalization to accept. Then Abram even leaves his gloves in his saddlebags or pockets when they go out.

Winter hits. Abram has very few burn scars on his hands, but even the simple knife scars can seize and ache in cold weather. By now Andrew is very attentive to Abram’s pain or discomfort, so he notices. Abram’s hands hurt.

So Andrew buys him new gloves, lined with soft, warm fur. Abram is both pleased and disappointed - pleased because any gift from Andrew is a good gift, and disappointed because the prince expects him to wear gloves again. But the first time Andrew sees Abram wearing them indoors, he says easily, “They’re to keep your hands from the cold. Wear them only as much as you need.” (Because, again; he’s not going to admit it, but he loves Abram’s hands.)

It probably takes a long time for Abram to get accustomed to much more touch. He likes holding the prince’s hand, he’s used to that this far into their courting, but anywhere else with anything more than clinical intent - sometimes including with clinical intent - he gets overwhelmed very easily.

Andrew is careful with him. Like we mentioned in the last post, Andrew’s had about six to eight years longer to get readjusted to wanting and touching; Abram is essentially starting fresh. It’s a lot for him to handle.

(Don’t worry, though, I promise they figure it out. Just like they always do, in every universe, for all of our mental health.)

#handsssssssssssss #drawing them in that order in my sketchbook made me realize it was like #a timeline of abram (and Andrew’s) comfort #they are so so special to me TT #they’re so rough and mean and wary bc they have to be #but it can never be overstated #how soft they can be for each other #you know what I mean #do you read me on this one #i feel like that one post #‘i can’t make poetry out of that. you can do it yourself #look right there. it’s on the ceiling’ #(the glow in the dark star painted over in landlord white in the Airbnb or whatever) #I’m about to chicken out of posting this one #and it’s not even posting it it’s going into drafts rn #augh whatever. I’ll be back #fan art #my art #my writing #aftg #all for the game #neil josten #andrew minyard #andreil #royal au #tw scars

[hackedmotionsensors]

i didn't reblog the post but I do agree that the terminology for zines has gotten completely twisted.

ON THE OTHER HAND I don't think that selling them for say 20$ (which is what i sell my sketchbooks for) is unreasonable or unfair to still call a zine. I need to cover my costs of printing and the time I put into putting them together. yeah I can TECHNICALLY get a printer and print them myself but with the cost of printer ink and the lack of space its easier for me to just pay for someone to do it professionally but I'm also NOT making them at like....the HIGHEST QUALITY, LIBRARY BOUND, HARD COVER, IT COMES WITH A THOUSAND DOO DADS AND GIFTS. its just sketchbooks ofpreviously existing doodles and a few new sketches or sketches that I had before and colored in. Its essentially like selling a full print but in carryable size with some notes from me.

Its a zine but I call it a sketchbook because the idea of zines has changed for a lot of consumers. Thats not their fault bc those zines or anthologies DID start out in the "lets make a big ol book together because we are all horny for Reigen" kind of thing. A lot of times they're projects made from passion. I HAVE noticed that there's been a turn in the whole process of making them that both stresses out artists, requires kickstarters, and all sorts of shit that should be considered Artbooks. ARTBOOKS have always been on the higher end of things. There's nothing wrong with considering an anthology thats proper bound, and for a certain amount on a kickstarter you get extra things like stickers, charms, whatever.

But zines SHOULD go back to being simple little things. The cost to buy them shouldn't be lost UNLESS the artist wants it to be. If you print at home or using a schools printer and just print a bunch of cute little zines yourself then that should also exist and you can set your price point for whatever you want.

Its all semantics and personal preference at the end of the day but I do think that...yknow it wouldn't hurt if we could start calling the big project 50$ range books that often get run into the ground from bad leadership (or fun stuff like the organizer of the thing runs off with the money to play genshin) ...something other than zine. Like Artbook or Anthology. Or even Collection lol

Zine should be a small thing that you collect for fun and doesn't require a committee, a new discord channel, and a contract to make sure your organizer doesn't run off to play gacha (I'm sorry it still makes me laugh)

ALSO another thing about zines is that often times they were originally made to be alternatives to really closed minded book sellers. Like...its where a lot of the OG star trek fanfic/porn came from. Its a place to have your ideas put down. To explore narratives. Essentially Doujinshi can also be considered A TYPE of zine in that it literally means self published (not NECCESSARILY that its...yknow...bl or waifu porn lol Sometimes its just manga that artists put out before they can get published)

But lately there are a lot of zine projects (again...more actually like anthologies or art collections) that are REALLY REALLY closed minded even when the subject is SHIPPING.

So even the nature of CREATING the zines has changed a lot.

So yeah I agree with that post that I forgot to reblog. My only REAL gripe is that it doesn't mean that you should undercharge your work because you didn't print your zine at home or hand craft it like a youtube diy video. I did enough of that at art school I am not gonna bind a book or try to cut pages ever again if i don't have to lmao. CSP even has a zine preview so I can see the pages in 3d as if they were bound before printing lol

[limeinaltime]

This is in response to the recent drama that arose in the fandom recently. For context, here's the post and the response (had to borrow it from another blog because the poster has me blocked). Please read through all of it for context.

I don't usually do this, but I want to state my case on the matter. Note that I will be addressing both callout posts in this, and my contact with both ProjectAnomaly and the unnamed person who sent the DMs was limited. Putting this under a cut because I have some things to say.

Do I support the things mentioned in this post? No. Never. Not in a million years. But this is something that happened two years ago, and I never wanted to be involved in it to begin with.

For starters, let's cover the people I am in contact with.

River (now going as Lizzy) is a friend of mine and someone I've talked to ever since MD's first episode aired, and I can say for a fact that this conversation of adoption and letting them move in with them has played out. At the time, I felt hopeless and wanted to help as well, but Lizzy doesn't owe me anything. A then-13 year old doesn't owe me anything, especially if it's for something like basic empathy. That mindset is a pretty fucked-up thing to have, especially when someone comes to you for comfort. I don't think Juno's intentions were bad, but their reaction to Lizzy cutting ties was.

"I was never that close with them anyway" is a very flippant thing to say about someone you seemingly cared for enough to try and offer help.

Waayix and Belle, I didn't get into proper contact with until after this had passed, but I was aware of what was going on through what Juno and the unnamed person told me. Waayix, I had been contacted by a few times due to similar interests. Do I agree with what they did in the past? No, I don't, but I'll get to that later. I also don't think a minor should go poking around in 18+ spaces, either.

And saying that Waayix was "covering their tracks" when they deleted their own account once all of this started happening recently feels kind of hypocritical. This is a very "what were YOU doing at the devil's sacrament" kind of situation"

Waayix doesn't even say she likes it. She says she stays away from it at the point of those messages being sent. I am not defending past actions, but if someone's trying to fix a mistake, you don't just say "Yeah, they're just doing it to cover their tracks" you don't come out and admit stuff if you're trying to cover your tracks. The account was taken down, it doesn't exist anymore, Waayix expressed that they regretted it and it doesn't need to be a whole thing. There was no need to make this a thing.

I was 19 when this happened, and not active on the server where this took place, so my contact with Juno was pretty limited. I had no idea what was going on, and what I said in the post was based solely on what I knew from what I was told by the people I was messaging. I said what I thought based on what I knew and wanted nothing of it. I won't take it back, but I wish I handled it more maturely. When I learned about what happened, I was shocked and blocked Waayix and Belle for a while. I took everything Juno and the other person mentioned here said as fact, and solely based my reactions around that.

What happened was wrong and I won't take back my initial feelings. I was upset and confused because while I didn't know Belle, Waayix was someone who I had admired for their art a while, having only talked to them on sparse occasions. I blocked them because I wanted nothing to do with something I genuinely had nothing to do with. I blocked the unnamed person to tried to contact me because I didn't respond well to sudden mentions of conflict, something I regret in the present. I wish I had made myself more clear, and I wish I had told them. The reason I cut contact was because I wanted nothing to do with this, and I don't want to be connected to someone who reacts in this manner to conflict.

Time passed. The people owned up to it and I decided to give these people a second chance because I wanted to trust that this was a mistake instead of malice. If they did it again, I would've cut ties and left it behind without a second thought, accident or not. But they didn't. The incidents mentioned here never happened again. The choice I made was a conscious one, and one I made long after the incident itself died down.

You can form your own opinions on what this makes me in your eyes, but I want to put how I feel out here before everyone takes what I said in the post as the only way I feel.

I was upset at the time. I'm not anymore, and I don't like that I was used as evidence. The thoughts I had then do not line up with the thoughts I have now. I am not a good source of proof, and I don't want to be proof. I let my own opinions on them form, and I consider them friends that I can trust as of now.

I believe that people should be held accountable for their actions and that all mistakes have consequences. That's how we learn and grow as people. I believe that people are capable of remorse and changing their minds. A bad person feels no pain of their actions and an apology is just words, a good person makes active attempts to be better and push towards amends. If someone says sorry and does good on it with active attempts to be better and rectify what went wrong, then I will forgive them with time. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. But the words I said two years ago do not reflect the words I would've said now, nor should they have been used in this manner. These people have admitted to what happened, owned up to it, and have changed from who they were back then, and for that, I am willing to move on as well.

TL;DR (and I say this to both parties involved): I was upset, and said those things, but I'm not anymore and have forgiven these people and gave them a second chance. No one's obligated to do what I'm doing, but don't put these people on blast, either. Accept that people change and grow, mistakes are admitted but will not always be forgiven, and go on living.

#murder drones

[bellhopping]

merry christmas fellas, here's my little summary of art

Generally I'd say I've improved a lot throughout this year. Got a proper drawing tablet, switched drawing programs, finally begun working on using more then one type of brush... it's certainly been journey! A journey with many ups and downs, but one I am glad I went on anyhow.

Under the cut is individual uploads of every piece of art in this image, alongside a writeups about their creation. Cheers!

[1/25/23, Medibang Paint]

Starting off with a pretty alright one, drew this to commerate the release of a game I'd been interested in for the past 4 or 5 years. I think it could use some tweaks, but for something drawn in mobile medibang I'm still pretty proud of it.

[N/A, N/A]

This is where my february drawing would go... IF I HAD ONE !!!

I did not draw much digitally in February, on account of my tablet randomly breaking right at the start of the month. I did draw some stuff traditionally, but I don't feel like fishing it out at this moment lol

[3/31/23, Krita]

One of my first proper drawings in krita, and of a character I should really draw more of. This was made for trans day of visibility & comes with a trans pride palette to boot, though I ended up choosing the normal palette since the other one kind of sucks. Also could've done better on the posing, but I was still getting used to the ins & outs of drawing tablet usage so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[4/22/23]

Drawing I made for earth day, honestly a solid contender for best thing I've drawn all year. I did pretty good on the pose, still dig the background a fair bit, & overall think the piece came out damn cool!

[5/12/23, Krita]

An expirement with line thickness, featuring one of my favorite ocs. Despite it's roughness you can tell I had gotten a hang of Krita's core functions by now.

[6/17/23, Krita]

Cover art for the prolouge of CAT-Astrophe Comic, the webcomic my brother & I have been working on. Overall been really happy with my work on the comic so far, I've slowly but surely been getting better at each part of the process and am still making good progress on pages n such ^^

[7/9/23, Krita]

Fanart of a character from a game, drawn for my pal Rinbin after they bought me Rain World. This single handedly inspired me to draw more robots, definitely one thing I 100% intend to follow up on next year.

[8/1/23, MS Paint]

Drawn based off of someone elses post, I don't remember what it was really. Honestly still really damn proud of everything in this!!!

[9/7/23, Krita]

Drew some snakes/snake adjacent pokemon for snektember. I'd say this is around the point where I "mastered" krita, by this point I actively knew how to use a majority of featues & had even begun downloading outside brushes.

[10/20/23, Krita]

Overhaul of a character I made & barely used in 2022, her name is now Olive. I based the whole squidog thing off of something in a dream.

[11/26/23, MS Paint]

Fanart of a webcomic I really fucking like !!!!! Not much more to say I just really dig this one, fucking love drawing in MS Paint.

[12/20/23, Krita]

And, as if to repeat last year, I end this one with a DreamSide main cast image!

Really proud of how much all of my designs have improved throughout the year, from the small tweaks to gigantic overhauls! I finally feel ready to take the next step forward, so to speak.

And that's everything! Thank you all for your time, and accompanying me on this journey. It was certainly a rough one in many aspects, but every year is rough for me so I've gotten used to it. See you all later :>

#bellspeaks #my art #long post

[onebizarrekai]

some ibvs-related stuff

you probably noticed that it's been quite some time since ibvs updated (like. eight months) and while ibvs tends to have pretty large time gaps between updates, this one has been particularly long. it's been more of an unannounced and uncoordinated break, to be honest. I was hoping that I could at least update it before the end of the year. I still kind of want to do that—maybe it'll be easier after my next concert is over in the next few days—but yeah, it has been a long time.

I've been having a really hard time creating stuff lately. sure, I've cranked out a few dsmp pieces, I made a lot of danganronpa art and writing this year before I did that, but I mean like, in the last while. maybe the last 6 months or so. I don't even know how I posted anything in august. like, yes, my ao3 says I cranked some danganronpa stuff out in august, but I don't… really remember writing anything in august. I barely remember what I was doing in august. I guess they were like, partially completed wips already so all I had to do was get them done. I dunno.

I finished one fairly long-ish fic in the last month. I uh, had to post it anonymously for reasons, and I'm proud of what I wrote, but that's pretty much all I've been able to get done done. I guess this is part of the problem? not really ever feeling done with stuff. or maybe forgetting how much I've achieved and only being able to focus on the stuff I haven't been able to. and I have all these ideas for this same fandom and I'm struggling to get those done too. and like, my v3 fic series is just kinda collecting dust because I haven't been thinking about danganronpa in the last few months. that's just how it is, I suppose.

I've also just had like, the worst writer's block ever for ibvs and I'm just shoveling around in fandoms (and often misery) trying to stave off stress. I keep looking back at it and going "am I happy with this" and like, I am. I should be. I'm pretty happy with it, but the longer I go unable to write it the more I feel like I'm just adding things to the story that aren't gonna matter to anyone even though… it is that. it is the story. I'm writing it for fun. it doesn't have to be perfect. it has to start somewhere, but every time I try to write it it feels like I'm off in the deep end. I have to remember everything. I have to backtrack and make sure I know what I'm talking about. I have to make sure that I don't write anything that, well… is boring as hell.

I've been getting caught in a lot of negative thinking and I'm both trying to focus on mental health while also feeling like the things I'm doing on behalf of 'focusing on mental health' are actually either sustaining the problem or making it worse. like it's making me feel more lethargic and more trapped and less able to create things. I'm trying to get a therapist, but no insurance-covered psychologist who lives in near me is willing to do in-person sessions. one of my issues is feeling like I'm stuck at my computer and stuck online and stuck inside where everything is nonpermanent and I can't move; doing online counseling would make things worse. I don't really get it. I'm hoping I get a proper one soon.

anyway… we'll see if I feel better after the concert is over. maybe after I actually manage to get a therapist. thanks for the patience, everyone.

#random stuff #just like. mental health or the lack thereof stuff #I've been doing show stuff basically nonstop since like. june #got a break in november #but is it really a break if I still have a gig in december

[glitch-in-the-system]

dividers from here

Introduction

Main

Helloo!! I'm Pichu/Peaches, Freakazoid extraordinaire.

I've been in this fandom for... over a decade at this point-- wasn't around for when the show proper aired, but got into it from some internet video or another, and had been lurking for awhile before I finally made my contributions to the fandom (and hope to make more).

Huge writer (esp of Freakazoid in general), and hope to one day dip my foot into art as well. I'm as small as you might think from my name association, and while I tend to act more impulsively than I think I like to imagine it leads to some neat revelations from me than if I waited a long time.

No strict DNI, I usually decide who I don't want to interact with via blocking. Bigots get blocked on sight. Would also rather not interact with anyone making pedophillic or incestual content with Freakazoid-- which I think is unlikely but, y'know, covering my bases.

Projects

My current planned Freakazoid projects are as follows:

Glitch in the System - Arc 1, 2, and 3.

My initial project for the fandom, that I've since taken to rebooting due to several elements that I thought I could rewrite better. Planned to have three eventual stories.

Spark!

A more 'traditional' reboot in that it's a lot more typical-- hero fights a rogues gallery and what not, with way more action scenes within it. While more 'simple', I'm not intending it to be entirely flat either.

@F!

My current much bigger project-- taking place in Electri City, and focusing on how this city affects our protagonist... and those he's wronged in order to progress his streaming career.

Freakaspective

A project on this very blog! I'm currently going through the freakazoid series to make comments on it-- from jokes, to headcanons, to what could be pulled for a reboot. In general it's just an excuse to have a re-look at a show I love very dearly.

I'll likely share tidbits of all three of these projects at one point or another-- and also write short stories/drabbles/portions of scenes from all three that I'll post in their own short story collections-- both to get a vibe of how i should write it............ and also so i'm writing something so i don't get brain mold lol.

Discord

I also run a freakazoid discord server! It is open invite, but I will verify everyone who comes in before they get full access to the server. It is also intended to be a 16+ space.

Tags

My tags are as follows:

#reblog

#walky talky - my personal talk tag.

#freakanswer - answering asks

#Freaka art - art i reblog

#freakafic - writing i rb

#freakaboot - for stuff relating to freakazoid reboots/reboot concepts

#crossover - anything that has any crossover elements to it

#freakameta - behind the scenes stuff and analysis's

#freakaspective - for my freakaspectives. what episode and season it is will also be tagged.

#f!gits - tag for my freakazoid fic series, glitch in the system.

#spark! - tag for my freakazoid fic, Spark!

#@F! - tag for my freakazoid fic, @F!

#freakaquestion - questions about the show Freakazoid! Meant to make you think on both the show itself and any fic/freakaboot potential stuff.

Sometimes I will reblog things that I feel are related to my projects or characters in general and also tag them as such

Other tags will come as needed.

I hope you enjoy the blog!!! woooOOooOoSOSHSHSHHS

#pinned #intro #freakazoid #walky talky #freakazoid blog

[masterofrecords]

Storytelling for shits and giggles

Figured with all the stuff that's been going on I should probably make a proper pinned post for those of my new followers who are not, miraculously, bots.

So yeah, hi, Master of Records here, and I love storytelling in various forms, from running Pathfinder and other TTRPG games to translation and to writing.

Translations:

I currently translate the White Cat Legend manhua (and sometimes donghua) over at @whitecatlegend. A story of political intrigue and Tang dynasty court drama inspired by the real historical events of Wu Zetian's reign - come check it out, it's a good (if more than occasionally bloody) time.

I'm also slowly making my way through the end-cards of The Ravages of Time donghua and the related historical notes on the episodes. Here's a masterlist for that, there is plenty of fun stuff about the Late Han and the Three Kingdoms period even unrelated to the donghua!

I also sometimes complain about translation work on this blog, under the #masterofrecords translates tag

Original fiction:

I don't have as much time for it these days, but I occasionally write some stuff based on the big Pathfinder campaign I ran for over two years for my friends. Check out my Angstober 2022 and Angstober 2023 masterlists for that!

Games:

I've had the pleasure of writing the script for a wonderful gay vampire visual novel Once upon a Stormy Night as a part of Weird Birds Studio. Check it out - the character art is gorgeous, and even if I didn't have the time to write the scene of the cat familiar cheating at cards, I did write the polyamorous ending.

Fanfiction:

You can find my AO3 here.

Currently I only have posted works for Twisted Wonderland

Any wips and updates are usually posted under #masterofrecords writes tag

Aquarium (Ashenviper, T, 100k words and growing slowburn, updates regularly every 1-2 weeks well not anymore I guess)

Jamil had always found Azul's attention annoying, but after the overblotting incident the merman became downright insufferable.

That's when Professor Crewel gives them a group assignment. How much can change in two weeks? A lot, apparently, and what was supposed to be a simple alchemy project turns into something more complicated, involving a heist, personal drama, good food and surprising revelations, not necessarily in that order.

One caring gesture at a time, feelings grow.

Aquarium fanart masterlist

Covered Faces, Bared Souls (Ashenviper, T, only 1st chapter of 3 is currently posted, will update at an uncertain date)

Azul had never had many chances to dance, especially on two legs. In preparation for the masquerade ball he employs Jamil's help - whether it was a good idea or not, remains to be seen.

When things get particularly bad, I sometimes draw shitty stick figure comics about everything wrong with my life tagged as #mor's silly penguin comics. If you think I haven't posted anything of worth for a while, check them out, they might have answers on whatever mental health malady had befallen me this time.

Feel free to drop an ask if you have questions about any of my writing/other work!

#masterofrecords writes

[capricioussun]

don't feel bad about self reblogs, it's always awesome to see your art on my dash and I'm sure I'm not alone with this!

Awe, that's very sweet of you to say!

Tbth i have a really strange relationship with posting online – on one hand, I love just posting whatever and really really enjoy interacting with others, but on the other hand, I'm not sure if it's RSD or what, but i experience like. Social recoil? Where i tend to immediately regret and/or worry over the perception of stuff i post (way more than would be considered normal), especially with posts or reblogs that hardly really garner any interaction at all.

I know it's normal for artists of all kinds to be disheartened by things like that, and I don't necessarily create for others, but that is why i post it online- i mean...why else would you? I see that a lot, people feeling poorly about low interaction, and others trying to encourage them by telling them to make art for themselves and to not worry about it, but that's always come across a little odd to me. No, you probably shouldn't be doing something if you're only doing it for attention, but isn't interaction the point of sharing the things you make online?

Especially so in the case of people who really want to make a living being an artist in their chosen "field". To some degree, you do have to treat it like a business. You do have to sell yourself and try to "grow your audience" if you have any chance of making any sort of income at all, just like any self employment type of job. It feels condescending to see others tell artists who get frustrated with social media constantly doing things to make it harder to have any reach at all that they should care less about the algorithm or numbers when a lot of these people don't have a choice. It feels like hardly a day goes by I don't see posts on twitter or tumblr of someone taking emergency commissions just to cover rent or food for a few days.

Got a bit off topic there, but i sort of rest in a very strange place with my art in that, skill level wise, I'm very much an amateur, but due to Life Issues I won't get into, I can't hold a "normal" job, and I've been constantly kind of battling myself for a couple years now on how to approach trying to make Doing Art Online my career.

I need to put in the work to improve my art so i can not just post more frequently but hopefully get more commission work (which i would honestly also enjoy, I love making things for others, it's one of my favorite things about being able to post online), but i also want to improve my skill level so i can make the things I want to as well (I'm also unfortunately plagued by the Kind Of Wants To Do Everything desires and also want to make plush, music, 3D and live 2D models, and I'd love to get into streaming proper at some point).

So aaallllll of this to say, self reblogging is a big thing for artists on tumblr these days, esp as i see more and more talk about how low interactions gotten on here in the past few years, it's rough! But i also feel like im not...skilled(?) enough to do Proper Online Artist things. I guess. Which is dumb but ah I do not control the chokehold whichever mental issue has on me

#was gunna delete all of this and just respond like a normal person but I'm very sleep deprived right now so you get the evil version #might wind up coming back and doing that anyway via edit if the Fear finds me #my cat just came over and yelled until i lowered my hand to pet her and she rubbed her nose on me and left 😭 #she used me as a damn tissue #okay anyway #sorry anon you were being nice and i made it weird </3 #/lh #anonymous #i have a super complicated relationship with posting online and being annoying and struggling with Life Things #it's a balancing act for sure #ty all the same #clear sky sunset #sunny with clouds #edit: put his ass under a read more bc ough

[kellshaw]

2023 Writer Year in Review

It’s time for a late 2023 review post where I reflect on life, the universe and my author career. I did one last year which makes a good benchmark. Let’s see how I did!

2023 Goals vs Actual

Finish the next two books in the Revenant Records series

Completed half of this. I got Feral Night out, and I’m working on the third book in the series. Not quite at the stage of getting two to three books out per year. But I’m happy with the book I released—it’s a solid improvement over Final Night (which I still think is a pretty good first author book!) Currently, I’m knee deep in the entrails of book 3. I got ambitious and I’m attempting a puzzle mystery with two POVs which is slowing me down as I work through everything. I also won’t put this up for pre-order until it’s 100 percent finished, which includes proofing covers, backmatter—the works!

Complete twelve issues of the monthly newsletter

Done! I’ve kept the newsletter going. Still writing it in character, as it’s more fun that way. (In character? Check it out!)

Submit original short stories to magazines

This did not happen. I went through my old backlog of shorts and found a sword-and-sorcery-ish story that might be worthy of magazine submission with a bit of polishing.

Write a proper Lukie-focused short as a reader magnet

Done! It’s always good when your giveaway story relates to your in-progress series. You can grab Fiery Night here as a newsletter sign-up bonus.

I would like to do a second, completely free short for a wide release and even have an idea for one. Will do this later, but not prioritize it.

Streamline my automation sequence for the newsletter

This was a bit of admin that I kept putting off, but it’s done now. Need to improve and develop the sequence further.

Engage an artist for some character/concept sketches + learn to draw

I got some done by a talented artist for my newsletter which are fantastic, but I won’t be happy with sketches until I can draw my own characters competently. This year, I did a few simple art courses at my local community college and attended a few live drawing sessions. This year, I’ll keep practicing. I also signed up for an online drawing academy by clicking on a random Facebook ad and going “Hey, that’s not too bad” (I know, I know). Was stymied also by Apple Pencil breaking, and had to revert to the less technical Graphite Pencil.

Social media, book reviews

I continue to be inconsistent with social media. I do this ad hoc posts, but a meh presence on social media. Not good at the funny meme stuff, and my book-a-year schedule means I can’t do too much around launches. I tried many social medias in 2023. I should pick something and be consistent.

2024 Goals

Okay, here we go. In 2024, I’m going to simplify my list. In fact, I had a more complicated list. Start a subscription! Work on the tabletop roleplaying set in the Vestiges of Magic world, do more drawing, and then when I got some strategic advice which was...

Write the next book... No side projects?

And that’s my core goal for next year!

Finish Revenant Records #3 - Fractured Night

Still in progress. At first it was a puzzle mystery and now it’s more about the characters. The premise is like the Shining crossed with a dark faerie tale....

Start the 2024 web serial, do a chapter a month

I completed a web serial last year, which I’m sitting on until I get more material out to launch a series with it. (Having launched a series on the fly, my next series will have a bit more material ready to go before I launch.) This will be in my newsletter and on my website. I’ve got about four chapters done. The premise: a woman seeks the help of a supernatural assassin to avenge her murdered daughter, but the assassin she needs to help her has retired....

#writeblr #urban fantasy #writers of tumblr #indie publishing #author business

[sunburnacoustic]

Attempting to make some sense of the Madness on here because I've got a minute...

Tagging system (it is held together with duct tape and is borderline functional when I don't do like Muse Blackout-Reblog Saturdays or whatever)

Muse, Muse band: this tag will literally not help you find things on this blog, it's basically everything that has been tagged. It's more for finding posts outside of this blog than it is to find stuff successfully on this blog

Matt Bellamy/Chris Wolstenholme/Dom Howard/Tom Kirk/Morgan Nicholls: self-explanatory. I tend to not do a general tag where a post e.g. where Dom isn't involved with Dom, so anything that's tagged will just be because the tagged band member is in the post (or at most, being talked about in the tags)

{Matt, Chris, Dom} from Muse: three tags encompassing all the Muse Madness! Taking inspiration from the one and only "Hi, my name's Matt from Muse..." All the Muse silly moments. Some will also be tagged "silly hours", "silly moments", "sillies" or thereabouts, it's not really a robust tagging system lol. Some of those are more chit-chat/vibes based

Muse live: Now I wish I'd separated this out into two tags because right now, it's gig pictures and also any live performance videos. I briefly tagged live stuff with something like "Muse live gigs", but seeing as how I can't even remember the name you can see how well that went... (there's also "The Muse live experience is something else", and you tell me it isn't!)

Muse interviews: interviews copied and pasted, linked, gifs/videos of the band in interview if there's text of them actually saying anything. Quotes from interviews too.

Muse in magazines: written interviews, but also just photoshoots in magazines. I'm old enough to remember NME, Kerrang, Q etc. being print magazines, so I don't make a distinction between digital mags and paper scans. Many scans should also be tagged "mag scans" hopefully. Specific magazines are also often tagged (except Pitchfork probably lmao but that's because I simply don't post their stuff here, it is not worth it)

Muse audio: audio, usually from studio recordings, live gigs, sometimes interviews/radio performances, etc. Isolated tracks, instrumental tracks, vocals only, hyper-specific-'Undisclosed Desires vocoder (?) backing vocals on the last verse only' tracks, all covered here, but also there are more specific tags: "muse isolated audio" for all your analysis needs, "Muse instrumentals", "Muse isolated vocals" (<- don't remember this 100%)

Album tags, song tags, eras/tours tags: I'm so sorry this is a mess. Albums and songs are either tagged "Muse {title}" or "{title} Muse" sorry. "{Album} era", "{Tour name} tour". Knock yourselves out.

Musers: all fan-related stuff! Fan chatter, us all analysing and crying over a single song in 1500 words, fan artwork, gig pictures, the new polls, etc. all under the overarching Musers tag. I do tag fanart though: "Muse fanart" and also just generally art because why would I limit the amazing art people here make to just the 20 Muse fans here? Polls are specifically tagged "Muse polls".

band pics: usually press/on the road, etc. pictures of the whole band. Not super comprehensive lol I often forget to use this tag. 'the early years' -> baby era stuff, usually pre-Showbiz so I have no idea what else to tag them because 'Random 1-8 era' would be such a pretentious tag I'd have to punch myself.

anything with the word "collection" in it: we sure do love our collections here on muse tumblr - off the top of my head, there's a Matt Hawaiian shirt collection, Matt drinking things on camera collection, dedicated wardrobe collections (-> the legendary @wtfismattbellamywearing and @wtfisdomhowardwearing) and the sunglasses-on-head collection (dangerously close to 100 pictures...) "mum with sunglasses on her head lives!" Reason? Matt wears his sunglasses on his head a lot, he looks like my mum doing this, and it is the normalest thing you could see a Proper Rock Star like him do and it's just sweet and silly and we all have collector's disease what can I say. (My mum has responded "😍" to the collection so far)

Muse lore: all the band history, and commonly referenced memes amongst fans. Expect to see the 'fucking little fucking fuckers, yeah' Feeling Good performance, 'Hey you crazy kids!', 'The Muse' live on Italian football tele, idk, lots more I guess: 'Hi my name's Matt from Muse' (entire composition of the band dissolving around this), brie, trousers, showers, pwoper fishing, qua at aol dot com, weird interview quotes, various times Muse rebelled against being asked to mime. Lots of fun stuff.

faffing about - just posting!

Other than that, specific things might be tagged on posts, "pianos", "synths", "Manson guitars", "Mirror Manson" (big apologist here), specific weird quotes. Try a search if you need anything lol, good luck to you!

#random admin stuff - I am not even going to pin this so I don't know why I wrote it #I am too fond of my pinned post to remove it. As above so below: 'Sunburn acoustic live in an HMV in Bristol in 1999 beloved!' #faffing about

[blur-from-the-north]

AI training statement

I don't usually do text posts on this blog, much less random rants.

Anyway, Tumblr recently decided to do a Business Move where they sold image data to AI training companies.

First, I was like "Ha ha ha ha HA! Tumblr really is a good source for that stuff." I mean, this blog of mine is deliberately an outlet of mediocre photography.

To be perfectly clear: This blog is my outlet for publishing photos that i've deemed neat. They're not necessarily my best work. Some may be excellent like that. Some may be good. Some may be not. Many indeed may be not.

So I was kind of torn about this. Should I keep opted in to this shit? Contribute to the eventual model collapse where people ask AIs to generate good pictures with tags "Nikon D780", "Stylistic", "black and white", and end up with random nonsense?

Another thing was that I actually believe in open sharing of my work, and I really don't mind people reblogging my stuff or even sharing my work elsewhere (with proper attribution/back links).

But I ended up disabling the third-party sharing.

Why? Well, primarily, because I didn't consent to that in the first place.

Also, second thing to consider:

I was actually reminded that this thing was a thing when I was watching Super Eyepatch Wolf's The Bizarre World of Fake Video Games. One Tumblr blog mentioned by the author had disappeared. Commenters said that that could have been due to Tumblr's AI policy change.

OK, so there are art blogs in Tumblr that take art much more seriously than I do, obviously. And they might not even be aware of this policy change.

Dammit.

So:

Granted, whatever AI company is foolish enough to download Tumblr data is going to get a whoooooole lot of incomprehensible nonsense shit, outright Content of Halfassery, and Weird Nerd Shit, and go "whoops! Didn't mean to add any of that!"

But they might catch an occasional bit of brilliance.

Without them knowing it.

Tumblr did a booboo. The usual way websites do this stuff is to recognise that users have the ultimate rights under copyright laws, and that the websites ask limited rights to do whatever they need to do to operate technically, and whatever exceptions there are are specified explicitly. Tumbrl's TOS already tried to cover their butt:

You also agree that this license includes the right for Tumblr to make all publicly-posted Content available to third parties selected by Tumblr, so that those third parties can syndicate and/or analyze such Content on other media and services.

An example of what it means to "make all publicly-posted Content available" to a Tumblr partner for distribution or analysis would be licensing the Tumblr "firehose," a live feed of all public activity on Tumblr, to partners like search engines.

...and despite that policy change, this thing was not added to the "examples". The examples are just about things that you expect Tumblr to do as part of third-party integration, like analytics and search engine stuff. Not stuff like, oh, agreeing to send all of the data to AI companies, and adding opt-out feature afterwards. Funny how that works!

Maybe it's high time Tumblr clarified this particular part of TOS. I'm not a lawyer, I'm a software developer nerd an an an amateur artist, I've learned a lot about intellectual property stuff as a consequence, but this stuff is still murky and Tumblr just straight up deciding to "donate" content to AI companies without users' explicit consent is straight up wrong.

#rant #tumbrl #terms of service #ai bros #tech bros #intellectual property

[gossip-girl-of-middleearth]

Which is your story with the fireflies?

Hi, thank you for asking! ☀️ It comes from my main Legolas x OC story, which is currently being rewritten on Ao3 here.

It was previously on another site (Quotev), and the chapters are going up one by one after being rewritten, so you can’t find the firefly scene online yet, except for here down below 👇🏻

The scene in question is the first time Bonnie and Legolas fully let their guard down around each other. This is after getting drunk their first night being forced to travel with one another to reach Lake-town, where they’re aiming to complete individual goals regarding Thorin’s Company.

The entire scene can be found below the cut :)

(also, I might make an actual post introducing the story with the cover art and synopsis, etc? I feel like others have done that, and I should too?)

Now giggling and completely drunk on Oin’s moonshine, Bonnie and Legolas fell onto their backs against the green grass and moss.

Dancing had tired them out, as breaths racked their chests—more believable for the human girl than it was for the elf, but her modern music had a different beat, of which he was entirely unfamiliar with.

Regarding said music, the soft tunes of “Southern Nights” by Glen Campbell filled the air, providing a cosy ambience for them both. Bonnie was certainly glad her Sony Walkman had made it with her to Middle-earth, now more than ever.

She briefly wondered how they handled such silence otherwise.

It was intimate underneath the stars and beside the river, perhaps a little too intimate for the two reluctant travel companions. However, at certain points in their impulsive dance, they couldn’t help but secretly thank the orcs for ruining their previous plans.

The constellations above them glittered, like a million diamonds. Their heads were spinning from both the dizzying dance and alcohol, but even then, they couldn’t fight the stupid grins off their faces.

They felt as though they had just spun on the spot for five minutes-straight, as if they were no more than children again. Things felt, for the first time in a long time, easy.

Considering a dragon and war between their two sides was on the near horizon, that was a feat in itself.

Bonnie glanced to her left discreetly, stealing a peek at the happy prince. He was certainly odd, but in an even odder way, he made her feel safe.

Before he could catch her, she looked up at the stars again—listening in closely to his inhales and exhales, the running river, swaying leaves, howling wolves, chirping crickets and Sony Walkman.

Legolas, too, stole a glance at her, considering her greatly. He now knew her secret, and though that answered some questions about her, many more were left.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Bonnie remarked after a moment of silence, referencing the stars. “We didn’t have views like this back in Chicago—and if we did, they were usually just helicopters tricking you into thinking they’re God or some shit.”

Bonnie laughed to herself slightly in disbelief over the memory from that Chicago alleyway, nearly a whole year prior. Where had the time gone?

Legolas giggled with her, even if he didn’t quite understand what was so funny. He liked to laugh with Bonnie, and he couldn’t yet explain why.

Lifting a lazy hand, Legolas dragged it along the sparkling canvas above. “They tell stories. Did you know that?”

“No,” Bonnie replied, sincerely. She folded her hands and rested them on her stomach. “Can you tell me one?”

Legolas pursed his lips to one side in thought, and ran a drunken gaze along the sky. His eyesight, for the first time in his life, wasn’t perfect. He almost revelled in the feeling of the complete and utter lack of control.

“Hmm…” he hummed, and from the close proximity he was laying next to her, Bonnie could feel the vibration of his voice. “Ah, straight above—it is the story of a little elf losing his way from home, but ultimately returning.”

“Pfft,” Bonnie disagreed, waving her own hand. “That ain’t nothin’ but a bunch of tiny little dots, Blondie.”

“No, I’m being quite serious,” Legolas beamed, looking to his side and at her. “Look closer—you can see his little body surrounded by the trees, and over to the right, you can see him walking through them.”

Bonnie complied and followed his hand, smiling the whole while. However, her smile soon steadily ran away, upon catching sight of something else.

Legolas noticed this, and questioned her in a concerned voice, coming up onto his elbows.

“Bonnie? Are you all right?”

Instead of replying, she slowly sat up, and stared at the crowns of leaves above them in unbridled wonder.

There, floating above the city girl, were many fireflies—something she had wished to see her whole life, but never had.

“They’re…they’re—” she had gone to say.

“Fireflies,” Legolas grinned, looking up at the trees now as well.

Parting her lips, and gaping in shock, Bonnie stood upright. The fireflies came down to meet their woodland prince and worldly guest, gently floating by.

She held both hands together, and pressed them in close to her chest, as she turned on the spot slowly. There were so many of them, and more amazing than she ever could have imagined.

“They’re…beautiful,” the usually cocky girl slipped, for once speaking with her guard completely down.

Still only sat up on his elbows, Legolas watched Bonnie move around with studious eyes, a soft smile on his lips. Fireflies all around the prince basked him in a golden glow, as he watched the girl in quite literally a new light.

She grinned at the floating bugs, and reached her fingers out to touch them. He could’ve sworn he saw tears welling up behind her eyes.

Standing up behind Bonnie, he walked forwards, so that he now stood by her side.

“Beautiful is right,” he said, looking down at her with an expression no one had ever seen on him before.

And, for now, it was an expression no one else would see, for Bonnie missed his gentle voice—too caught up in the marvel that was glowing around her.

Understanding that she wanted to interact closer with them, Legolas lifted up a hand, so that one landed on his finger.

She gasped slightly, and responsively moved her eyes in closer, for Legolas had brought it up for her to view.

“Wait! Blondie! You’re an elven prince!” Bonnie suddenly recalled, beaming up at Legolas.

“Last time I checked,” he smirked, almost returning to his bickering ways in Rivendell with her.

Rolling her eyes, but still grinning brightly, Bonnie pressed on—Chicago accent thick. “You can talk to them! Oh, God, ask them something! Or, I don’t know! Talk about whatever you talk to animals about!”

Legolas smiled back in an eye-crinkling manner, and nodded, chuckling slightly. He brought the firefly in close to his nose, and spoke soft Sindarin words to the bug.

Soon, it seemed as though he was caught up in conversation with said firefly, for he responded a few times with warm words she didn’t at all understand.

At one point, he giggled shyly and blushed—looking away from the firefly and down at his feet instead, where he gently tumbled blades of grass over one another.

Noticing this, Bonnie knitted her brows and questioned him with a curious smile. “What did he say?”

As he lifted his eyes and met hers, Bonnie swallowed deeply, for there was a certain glow within them unmatched by the golden bugs all around.

“He said, and I quote,” Legolas began, in almost a whisper, “that ‘despite them all glowing brightly tonight’ and ‘despite the stars beaming down for us’ you, Bonnie, are ‘still the most radiant of all things’, and then I said…”

Bonnie sucked on her lower lip, and tilted her head slightly, trying to catch Legolas’ averting eyes.

“You said…what, Blondie?” Bonnie asked, feeling a slither of hope over something she didn’t quite understand.

Meeting her eyes again, Legolas smiled warmly, and concluded his words.

“I said that I agree.”

The smile steadily ran away from Bonnie’s face, as his words rang around within her mind, like melodic bells.

“Wedding bells,” she knew Bilbo would have said, for once glad he wasn’t around.

However, irregardless, whether it be the alcohol driving her forward, or something more genuine, Bonnie beamed brighter in response to the frog-loving archer.

With a blush creeping along his features, Legolas shyly returned her smile.

And there, as Bonnie’s Sony Walkman played many old songs into the golden air that night by the river and fire, the two previous rivals grew a little bit closer—praying that morning would never come, for they knew what lay ahead in Lake-town.

Everything they felt tonight, alcohol-induced or not, would have to be forgotten by morn, for Thranduil and Thorin would surely forbid what had barely even begun from blooming further.

However, there, amongst the fireflies, they decided that that was their future selves’ problem.

#long way to go yet #since it’s being completely rewritten #but it’s my main work atm with a new chapter every few days or so #also should I make a proper post for it with the cover art and stuff? #lord of the rings #lotrdaily #lotr movies #the hobbit #elves #hobbit #mirkwood #legolas #Legolas x oc #lotr x oc #the hobbit x oc #hobbit x reader #lotr x reader #Legolas x reader #lotr imagine #Legolas imagine #hobbit imagine

[katy-l-wood]

Rebinding paperbacks into hardbacks: a tutorial

I promised a tutorial about how I’ve been doing this, so here we go! First though, I must stress that I AM NOT A PROFESSIONAL. I am making this up as I go based on several hours of research for a single project about ten years ago. But I needed a serotonin boost from a project I didn’t have to buy anything new for, so I decided to just throw myself back into book binding.

Are there people out there with better advice? Yup. Am I doing parts of thing wrong? Probably. But I’m also having tons of fun. So goal accomplished.

Just...don’t do this with any books you adore/rare books without digging deeper into the more professional side of this. Just for fun, okay? Okay.

This will be a pretty long post, so most of it will be under a cut!

First up: Supplies.

Your book! For this tutorial I’m using a copy of The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater because I’ve ended up with three copies of it, so it’s perfect for this project.

Some clean scrap paper.

A cutting mat. If you don’t have one you can use some scrap corrugated cardboard (probably best to have a couple layers, if you do it this way), however the mat is nice because it has angles marked on it which will be important for later.

Rubber cement. (Technically, spray glue would probably be better, but I didn’t have any spray glue so it would’ve violated my rule of “do not spend anything on this project.)

Craft glue.

Ruler.

Scissors.

Creasing tool. Alternatively, a pen with a flat, slightly rounded bottom edge can work well too.

Sandpaper.

Pencil

Water cup.

Ribbon, if you want to do a bookmark.

Papertowels.

Paint pallet you don’t mind getting glue on. A sturdy paper plate works fine too.

A charm for your bookmark, if you want one.

Some kind of book board to form your covers. You can use a lot of things for this including thick, sturdy, non-corrugated cardboard, cereal box cardboard glued together in layers, wood, or actual book board that you purchase online. I am using some chipboard that was used to stabilize and protect something I ordered online. It works FANTASTICALLY. I always hang onto this stuff when I get a package that has it.

Some brushes you aren’t afraid to ruin with glue.

Heavy duty box cutter (if you’re using wood, you may need some sort of saw).

Exacto knife.

Something to form your spine. Again, you have a lot of options here. I am using some faux-leather I had laying around, which I’ve found works best. If you use a regular fabric you’ll have to hem it, and use a fabric friendly glue that won’t come up through the fabric, which is not covered here.

3-4 sheets of scrapbook paper. Thicker cardstock papers work best for their sturdiness, but you can use lighter weight papers as well, you just have to be careful how you glue things so the lighter papers don’t warp.

Letter stickers if you want to do a title on on the cover. There’s lots of other ways to do titles, though, so it’s up to you.

(sorry, forgot to add this in the picture) 6 small binder clips. Like, the half inch sized ones.

(No picture again, sorry!) Something heavy to set on top of your book while it is drying. I just used a box of acrylic paints.

Whew. Okay, onto the actual tutorial.

Step one: Measure and cut your boards.

Measure your book, and then add 1/8-1/4inch to each side EXCEPT the spine. So, if your book is 5x8inches, you’ll want to measure out 5.25x8.5inches. The 1/8-1/4inch part is up to you. I prefer to do 1/4 inch because I like to see a bit of the endpapers even when the book is closed.

Cut out two of these rectangles from your cover material using a ruler to guide the cut and your boxcutter. With chipboard, this will likely take several cuts. I put about half an inch between each rectangle just so that if I mess up a cut I’ll only ruin one of the rectangles, not both.

Congrats, you now have your two covers! Sand down any stray bits on the edges from cutting and you’re good to go. At this point, you can do whatever you want to the things. Paint them. Collage on them. Paper them. Woodburn them. Totally up to you. Just remember, at least half an inch of the spine side will be covered by your spine material, and the insides will be covered by your endpapers, so don’t put anything important there! For this tutorial we’ll only be covering the paper wrapping method, but you really can do whatever you like.

Step 2: Wrap ‘em in pretty paper.

If you are using lighter paper, you’ll use rubber cement for this step. If you are using thicker cardstock, you can use craft glue, but it MUST be watered down (about 1part glue, 2parts water in your paint tray). If you have a printer that is big enough for scrapbook paper, you can also print titles onto the paper before you attach it to the boards. This is what I did for Hunger Pangs. If you do this, you just have to be very careful with your positioning when placing the board so that your title lines up properly!

Take your first sheet of cover paper and lay it face down. Then, take one of your cover boards and apply an even coat of glue all across one face. Plop that down on the boring side of your scrapbook paper, with a couple inches of room on each side, and press it firmly for a couple minutes.

Next, trim down your paper with the exacto knife so it is even on all sides. I honestly just lay my ruler against the edge of the board, then cut along the other edge of the ruler. Quick and easy, no measuring required, and it will be exactly the same every time.

Now trim off all the corners at a 45degree angle, leaving about 1/8inch between the corner of your board and the cut. This is where the cutting mat comes in handy, since it already has these angles marked for you. If you don’t have one, you can just measure out the angles on your own.

Now, use the smoothing tool of choice to carefully and gently fold over each of your edges. Emphasis on gently. Then, using the same glue you used to secure the front side, glue down the edges one at a time. You’ll probably have to hold them in place for a minute or two to make sure they stick.

Congrats on completing the first cover! Now repeat the process for the other one. Again, you can do whatever you want to it at this point. I added a second layer of paper feathers to mine because, well, it’s the Raven Cycle. Feathers and trees.

Step 3: Attach the book.

Lay your backcover down in the proper position, and coat it with watered down craft glue (not rubber cement). For this you want your glue a little thicker, so about 1part glue 1part water. Don’t go quite all the way to the edges, except on the spine side.

Apply book. Make sure it is centered top/bottom, and the spine of the book is lined up with the spine side of your board. Press firmly, then put your weighted box/other books/whatever, on top and let dry for at least fifteen minutes.

Next, apply glue to the front cover of the book, and attach your new cover on top. Again, make sure everything lines up properly, then press firmly for a few minutes before putting your weights on top. Let dry for an hour.

Step 4: Give it some spine.

You can work on this during the hour your book is drying. I’m doing this with faux leather (which, I know, evil plastic, hissssss. But it was what I had laying around in my art hoard from before I knew how crappy faux leather is. Better to use it than throw it out).

Measure the width of your book with the two new covers included. Then add 3/4inches to the width on each side. Measure the length of your book, and then add 2x whatever you added when you cut out your boards to each end. So if you added 1/4inch to each edge in that step, add 1/2inch at the top and bottom each in this step. If you added 1/8inch in that step, add 1/4inch in this step.

Cut that baby out using scissors. (You can also add more than 3/4inches to the width of your new spine, it just depends on the look you’re going for. You can also have fun with the edges, rather than making them straight, as long as you keep that 3/4inches as your minimum and expand out from there.)

Once you’ve given your book its hour of drying time, remove the weights. Using a line of pure craft glue, secure the first edge of your spine in place. Make sure it is centered with an even amount hanging over the top and bottom. Only about 1/2inch of the long edge of the leather should be in contact with the book. Put the weight back on top and let sit for about fifteen minutes.

If you want to attach a ribbon bookmark, now is the time, after that 15 minutes of drying. Cut out your ribbon about 4 inches longer than your book, apply the charm if you want to, and then glue about two inches of it to the outside of the paperback’s original spine using pure craft glue.

Flip your book, and glue down the other side of your new spine the same way, making sure it is even with the front cover. Don’t pull it too tight, or it will keep your book from closing properly. Place it back under your weight and let dry for an hour.

Once dry, apply a line of pure craft glue to the little bit hanging off one end. Don’t make it too thick! Just enough to cover the leather well.

Now fold over the leather so it wraps around to the inside, and use the binder clips to hold it in place. Wipe off any excess glue that gets pushed out, then let dry for an hour.

Step 5: Endpapers!

While that’s drying, cut out your endpapers! You’ll likely only need one piece of scrapbook paper for this, but it depends on the size of your book and if you want to do anything special with the pattern you’re using. Again, if you want to you can use your printer to put text on these.

If you want to have your endpaper covering BOTH the inside of the cover and the first page of the book (and the last page/inside of the cover for the back) you’ll have to do some careful measuring to cut things out and you will need two pieces of scrapbook paper for this. But I like to keep things simple and just cover the insides of the covers, not the first/last pages too, so I just use two simple rectangles. You’ll want to cut them about 1/16inches SHORTER than the measurements of your new covers.

Once the spine is done drying, remove the binder clips and check that your endpapers fit properly and aren’t hanging over the edge. You may have to trim them slightly. Once the size is right, glue them into place using rubber cement. Use your smoothing tool to press down the edges. Do this for the front and back. Put back under weight for another hour.

You’re done!

Congrats on your new book! Enjoy it.

#Bookbinding #Tutorial #Art #My Art #The Raven Boys #Red White and Royal Blue #Red White & Royal Blue #hunger pangs: true love bites #Long Post

[steve0discusses]

S5 Ep 32: Mahad’s Dead

Feels like a million years since I’ve actually sat down and done a Yugioh post, which is a shame, because Bakura was just about to do some nonsense.

Mahad has decided that he’s going to trap Bakura’s soul into this tablet which like...good luck, man.

and like if we are assuming that all of these blank Chekhov’s tablets are going to house demon souls from all of Yami’s dead friends that will eventually become our playing cards in the future...Bakura’s monster, diabound, is a card nowadays right? (And I mean he’s a modern card in the shows universe, I figure there’s like a billion versions of diabound by now in Yugioh proper) so ... at some point Pegasus made him into a card.

So I guess that means Bakura’s soul monster isn’t actually diabound. I think? I try not to think too much about that at this point cuz it is a little bit confusing.

Look at em go, doing this vertical wheelie drop in those flimsy wraps, upskirting everyone on Bakura’s front line. They’re living their best life. Me, personally, would be terrified about going this fast without at least one belt on my sarong, but strangely this is the only time in Yugioh no one has 5-20 belts each.

(Bakura stuff under the cut)

Meanwhile, inside the tomb, Bakura and Mahad are gonna have a card tablet fight against the diabound that Mahad already knows needs a freakin God card to win against. Mahad really thinks a lot of his magician powers, which youknow...that’s hubris for you.

Yugioh loves to go back to hubris as a reoccurring theme and I appreciate that in every season of Yugioh, that has always been a constant. Don’t tempt (card) gods, folks.

Diabound now has a new look, and it’s getting kind of complicated for the art team, who just have no idea where to properly put the snake on this guy without it looking like a problem, so they just go for it and let it be a problem. I mean why the hell not, he has a snake for a lower torso. You can’t make this not awkward.

Because I know a little bit about how this game actually works (Character Development on my part, can I just say) I actually looked up this card, and no where does it say “it gains the super powers of the monster it fought before” so um...really glad I learned how to play this game.

When’s car season? I only know the car deck, and apparently no one in Master Duel plays any of these anime cards except for like Blue Eyes White Dragon so all of this is still completely over my head.

There’s not enough cars in ancient Egypt man. But you know what is in Egypt?

A little bit of actual Egyptian, which was cute!

At first I was like “wow, way to out that you’re from modern day Japan, Bakura!” and then I remembered his past self isn’t even from Egypt, either. Bakura being quite meta here.

Anyway, it was time for Yami to get the hell out of bed, because Yugi and Yami both have a really damn hard time sleeping on this show. And, I guess it’s been so long since Yami had a body and had to go to sleep that he forgot a little bit about how one gets ready for bed. Please admire how much metallic jewelry this child wears to bed.

It’s worse than Yugi. Yami your magpie situation is wow. Four rings, four bangles, a stacked choker, Tea’s airport cartouche, earrings--THE HAT? He even slept in the hat??? (also his eye liner, but I’ll give that a pass. We have, all of us, every single one, slept in our makeup and woke up to a pillow that has that one little splotch of mascara. We have, all of us, every single one, taken that pillow and just flipped it over to cover our sleeping-in-makeup sins.)

From an artist perspective, part of this is because they very much used a mirror tool do draw a lot of him here (which like, yes, you should absolutely be using the mirror tool if you have one. Please use the mirror tool and save your precious time on this planet earth. We like art shortcuts in this house) so if there’s earrings on one hand, it’s on the other by default. And also they just didn’t want to bother figuring out what his bangs situation was without the hat on--but it is pretty funny that he just...went to bed like this.

OR, and this is a big thing I just realized--that’s a wig. He’s bald under there. Do they have the guts to draw a bald Yami? Clearly not.

Parts of me are like...was there a point in the storyboarding process where Yami had no hair here? Did someone in a suit point at that and be like “this is very off-brand put back on the 30 lb hatwig I don’t care if he’s sleeping.” But we will never know.

Also please admire his bed.

What you don’t see here is the giant millennium eye just hovering over him on the bed rest. This is a very cursed bed situation that only a ghost would sleep in for any amount of time. (and that it was too spooky for even Pharaoh is saying something.)

Yes I did look up ancient beds in Egypt and none of them seemed to have four posters. But it’s not like this bed was even drawn to the perspective they clearly mapped out on the floor right there, so I don’t think they had the time to research that. Team did their best. Which involved taking that spooky bed from Noah Kaiba’s arc in S2 and shoving it here in Egypt in S5.

So Yami decides to ponder the sky pyramid that no one else can see but him. Just vibing in the middle of the night on a balcony filled with so much anxiety. This episode is really calling me out right now with my chronic insomnia, but thankfully none of my friends play murder cards (that are apparently made out of human souls of my ancient best friends).

In a sequence that was too hard to cap, one of the towers set off a little laser beam to inform us that Mahad was being a dumbass.

So something that I didn’t catch last episode, when I was hootin and hollering about the Anubis and how Anubis allowed everyone to just use the same damn deck of cards--I was wrong actually. Not my fault, it was the show doing organic storytelling and I was not prepared for that. Because it turns out everyone gets their own unique card crypt. So really, each of these towers is it’s own deck.

What a freakin nuisance this must have been to build, holy hell.

Also when bro was capping this, he at first was like “huh, isn’t this Dartz’ tower of souls?” and like yeah. Of all people, we’re getting a lot of Dartz throwbacks this season, so S4 wasn’t so tangential after all. Really they were just hinting that the horrible awful thing Dartz was doing, was done about 7 times over by Pharaoh’s Dad himself.

Which youknow...Yami is taking this in strides, still getting over the fact that his Dad probably (absolutely) killed that village, and that Seto is going to betray him very soon, and that Bakura is about to kill Mahad. Pharaoh I’m sure will eventually address this hypocrisy soon. Maybe. Kind of. Maybe not.

Man I can’t believe how honest Dartz was when he was telling Pharaoh point blank about how Pharaoh’s dynasty wasn’t that great in the past. Man. Pharaoh really shouldn’t have come here, kid should have just gone to math class, honestly. This isn’t worth ditching PE.

Anyway, Mana’s here because she also had the very bad dream that Mahad was about to biff it.

Imagine if this was a rule during the season where Tristan had the souls of 5 different dudes crammed into his brain who all freaking died in there. Tristan would be like 5 times banished.

Which now that I have played a Yugioh game, I know that banishing the same card 5 times in a row is a completely normal way of playing Yugioh.

Speaking of being dead and being banished and being Tristan, the gang is still lost in Yugi’s brain palace.

Yugi finds a door in it that for a split second really threw me for a loop. I 100 percent saw this and was like “DAMN IT HOW MANY BAKURA’S ARE THERE.”

Thankfully, this was a trick Bakura, and Ryou is indeed still passed out on the steps of Marik’s tomb. Assuming Marik hasn’t picked him up by now and shoved him into the Jeep.

Back in the simulation of the past, Bakura is doing really, really well for himself.

I do like the dedication to the detail on his Ancient Egyptian Toms. When even was the last time I saw a Toms in the wild with the tiny toe box? Like 2012? Maybe the fashion was the same for 3012 BC.

Anyway, Mahad is a real freakin asshole to Bakura this episode and that was kind of refreshing. It was a straight up Home Alone situation in here with him using his magic powers to just make a billion traps invisible. (and do less damage to Bakura than the Home Alone kid did to those robbers, ngl)

HOW.

How did he freakin miss this?

How is it even possible to miss the guy who is chained down by a bear trap with the largest ax that mankind has ever made? And how did it manage to break off said bear trap in the process? Like Mahad may be dark Magician, but he’s also the unluckiest human who has ever lived.

Anyway, Bakura reacts by shoving the ax at him which like--I never get to see this ceiling to figure out how the hell the suspension on this can go so many directions, but the big takeaway is that Mahad overcompensated, tried to kill a card god, and cheated at cards in the process of doing so, which in Yugioh means you’re already dead.

Meanwhile, in the Desert, Pharaoh is doing his best to not look like a dumbass in front of Mana.

Mana directs him to the summoning training grounds, which is where I guess they practice cards usually (don’t think about how many souls were sacrificed so they could practice cards). Where, Pharaoh finds out that Mahad has already locked himself into a cave, and that it’s too late to do freakin anything about it.

Mahad’s explanation for why he’s doing this is that he wanted to pay back Yami for all the goods stuff he’s done, like that time that Yami sucked the snake venom out of him all those years ago--which is a somewhat symbolic thing about how Yami tends to remove people’s darkness when he plays them with cards (or kills them, either/or)--but also puts in motion the fact that Mahads going to hella die here and put Pharaoh in a pretty bad position.

Mahad shouldn’t have done this, it definitely hurt Pharaoh’s dynasty in a huge way more than it helped Pharaoh, but Mahad was absolutely certain that his dark magician powers could do the trick. Which they didn’t but youknow...hubris.

Anyway, Bakura’s guards are here.

Lets jump cut so we don’t have to animate that. Instead, we’ll just jump straight to this:

This is a nice shot. For your redraw a scene from an anime meme, you could redraw this shot. I like this shot.

I don’t like this next shot though.

Good ol Egyptian spandex.

Unprovoked, the tablet from the very beginning of this episode decided it had enough of this plotline.

Pharaoh realized he was about to lose all of his magicians in one single day because of this single damn piece of rock, thanks to Mana just...standing underneath it. Bit she’s fine now. Mana survived.

Mahad is not though, he HELLA died.

If it had killed them both, it would have been a little awkward for that tablet because it’s only really supposed to fit one dude. We gotta wait to kill Mana for later.

Who would you cast as Mahad? Serious question, because I joke about this show becoming a Netflix original but there’s been a little bit of a Yugioh renaissance lately (like apparently Master Duel ended up having WAY MORE downloads than anticipated and it’s really upset the meta of the rankings because everyone is playing the same deck) so we all know it’s only a matter of time. How white are they going to cast Mahad?

Like it’s just going to be an off brand Robert Pattinson, and honestly I’d be kinda down for that because my expectations are zero, and I just want to recap that potential hot garbage and what it would do to their hair.

And if an off brand Pattinson is too much, like I enjoyed the cowboy Bebop remake cast, I just didn’t want them in the Cowboy Bebop remake. Make them all Yugi. Go ahead Netflix, Yugi’s so many people at this point, turn him into those three, you have done worse.

Yugi realizes that he needs to stop searching through random doors and simply wait for Pharaoh to call out to him, which, because Yami is trapped in a hell period where he’s absolutely going to die, should have already happened like a billion times already but Yugi just wasn’t paying well enough attention.

And like that, they get transported away. To where? Probably Egypt. Excited for the outfit change on all four of these guys. Yugi will be the only one in Egypt with a belt around his neck.

Soon, they will all be eating a garlic in Egpyt with the homies, assuming they don’t get immediately murdered because everyone will think they’re some sort of wizard. Which, in the case of Yugi is absolutely correct.

Anyway, see you next episode, here’s a link to read these in chrono order from the beginning.

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

#Yugioh #YGO #Yu-Gi-Oh #photo recap #episode recap #S5 #Ep 32 #Yami #Egypt #Bakura #Demon King Bakura #Mahad #Dark Magician #Mana #Dark Magician Girl #Yugi muto #tristan taylor #joey wheeler #tea gardner #Shadi #Sens fortress

[raibebe]

Of needles and seduction

Genre: Fluff and smut Words: 15.2k Prompt: Johnny tattoo shop AU featuring best friends Yangyang and Jaemin Warnings: contains smut, Daddy-kink, size-kink, mentions of mirror-sex

A/N: This is very self-indulgent, I’m sorry. While I do have piercings myself, I know next to nothing about tattoos, so I’m sorry if anything is inaccurate. Also I don’t advise what some characters in this are doing for yourself. Just a quick special thanks to @burtonized​ who has listened to me ramble about this story and Johnny and helped me write this by giving me ideas and support. Thank you darling! This fic is a beast, I have never written anything this long,it’s insane. If smut isn’t for you, you can stop reading after the phone call and still have a pretty decent story. If you feel like, you’ve seen this post before, you might have. I deleted the original one because tumblr decided to delete it from the tags.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” You asked for what you felt was the tenth time in the past five minutes. “It’s going to be fine. The shop is clean and sanitary,” your friend Yangyang groaned while running his hands through his messy, blonde hair. It was getting way too long, hanging low into his eyes. “I’m just saying that this doesn’t seem like a safe place,” you mumbled but followed your hyper friend through a more than dubious looking side street of Itaewon. “Jaemin got his piercings done in the same shop and those healed just fine, stop being a baby,” the blonde said while rolling his eyes. He quickly checked his phone for the address of the (probably illegal) piercing and tattoo shop and took a sharp turn into an even shadier looking street. “I still don’t get while you need me to come with you when you want to get your nipples pierced for god knows what of a stupid reason.” “It’s easy,” Yangyang grinned at you, “Ten said I wouldn’t dare to do it. And I’m going to prove him wrong and you’re going to document the progress.” “Do you ever listen to yourself talk? You’re literally paying someone to stab you into your nipples to shove a piece of metal through it just to prove a point.” “It’s just one nipple though.” “How does that make it any better, Yangyang?” You deadpanned. Your friend groaned again. “I knew I should have taken Guanheng with me. He would have been supportive.” “He would also be supportive of getting ‘I love Tacos’ tattooed on your ass.” “He would,” Yangyang agreed with an exaggerated dreamy look on his face. “What a madlad.”

You sighed but couldn’t help smiling at his antics. You had befriended the hyper exchange student when you had been assigned to be partners for a group project for your mandarin class. Yangyang had only taken the class for extra credit and easy good grades while you were struggling like crazy and had seriously questioned all your life choices that had let to you taking the class. (But mostly you regretted listening to Renjun who had convinced you it would be an easy class.) The group project turned out to be rather easy when you had a native speaker as your partner and you had become fond of the younger student, staying in touch with him and helping him find his way around the big campus. If you had known that he was a package deal with a bunch of other equally hyper and questionably crazy exchange students, you might have thought a little longer about keeping in touch after the project was over. But who were you kidding, the other boys and Yangyang were incredibly dear to you and if Kun had his regular morning coffee, the others weren’t even that chaotic.

“That’s it,” Yangyang suddenly exclaimed, pointing at a small beat up looking wooden door that looked like it was ready to fall out of the doorway any second. But a little green neon sign that hang next to it flashed the word “open” onto the street indicating that a shop must be hiding behind it. Your arguably best friend quickly grabbed your hand as if he had been sensing that you were about to complain again and dragged you into the shop. A little bell jingled quietly when Yangyang closed the door behind you two. You took a deep breath to calm your nerves (hell you weren’t even the one to get stabbed with a needle) and took a look around the small room. It was small and poorly lit and every free space on the walls was plastered with drawings and photos of both freshly done and healed tattoos. You had to admit that whoever had done those had done a good job, they looked really neat. You guessed that at least two artists must be working in the shop. A good portion of the art were very neat black and white works (some looking freakishly realistic) while others were very vibrant and artistic.

With a confident bounce in his step, Yangyang went up to the counter to a man with wild bubblegum pink hair wearing a black tank top that showed off the ink on his arms and torso, all kept in black except for a deep red rose on the side of his neck. His eyes were lined with dark eyeliner, making them seem like dark bottomless orbs, and they were fixed to the screen of a laptop that was covered in stickers that were a wild mixture of cute characters and various rock and hip-hop bands. “And what brings you here?” The man asked with a surprisingly deep voice, turning his head towards your friend. “A friend of mine told me I could get pierced here,” Yangyang spoke, his hands fumbling with the loose threads of his sweater. “And if that was the case, what would you want to get pierced?” “My nipple.” At that the other man raised one of his perfectly arched eyebrows. “People usually start off with getting an earring or something.” “Go hard or go home,” Yangyang grinned, making the other man snort. “If you have 70.000 Won in cash, I can look if one of the piercers is free.” When your friend got out his worn wallet and put a couple of bills onto the counter, the other man smiled for the first time. It didn’t quite fit his whole dark punk aesthetic but you couldn’t deny that he was really good looking.

“Don’t run away now kiddo, I’ll see if someone is free,” he grinned, “I’m Taeyong by the way.” When he disappeared behind a curtain made out of pearls into the back, Yangyang turned towards you with the biggest smile on his face. “I told you it was going to be fine.” You just hummed nonchalantly, still not entirely supportive of the whole idea. “One of the guys is ready in a bit,” Taeyong said when he came back to the main room. “Are you getting anything?” He asked, looking at you. “Oh no, she’s a scaredy-cat, just here for moral support and to document that I actually did it,” your friend answered for you. Your face immediately heated up under the intense gaze of the pink haired tattoo artist. “Too bad,” he just shrugged. “So technically you need to sign stuff for legal issues and whatnot. But since this place doesn’t exactly exist on records, we’re skipping that part. You’re not on drugs or any meds, right?” “I’m not,” Yangyang shook his head, making his hair flop back into his face. “Any issues with fainting or other medical conditions?”   “Nope.”   “Great. Had a good meal before coming here?” “I had breakfast,” Yangyang shrugged. “You had a slice of cold pizza from yesterday,” you groaned. “That I ate in the morning, therefore it’s breakfast,” he argued. “Well in that case,” Taeyong interrupted your bickering and threw a granola bar into Yangyang’s hands, “Eat that and let your girlfriend treat you to some proper food afterwards.” Before the blonde could deny anything, you had already opened your mouth to tell the other man that in fact you weren’t dating.

“Sure, sorry for assuming,” he shrugged and sat back behind the counter, taking out an iPad and began drawing something, probably a tattoo design. “Nervous yet?” You asked Yangyang who was uncharacteristically quiet while munching on the granola bar. “Shit, I’m really doing this,” he replied, exhaling shakily. “You don’t actually have to, Yangyang,” you tried to comfort him. “And let Ten just get away like that? No way. I am doing this. I’m not his little baby Yangyang anymore,” he said like the stubborn child he was. You could just sigh and roll your eyes at him. “He might have just been joking, you know?” “One does not simply challenge Liu Yangyang like that and not expect consequences.” “Kun is going to actually flip and pop a vein,” you tried to reason with your friend for a last time. Kun was doing a lot of coordination work for the exchange students with a Chinese background and had taken on almost a fatherly role for the younger students that hadn’t been in Korea for long. And even though Ten wasn’t even that much younger than Kun, he almost lost his otherwise calm composure when the Thai boy had announced that he successfully had pierced his ear by himself yet again after he had convinced a poor med student to smuggle some equipment for him. And from there the situation had somehow escalated into Ten daring Yangyang to get a nipple piercing. “Well he can’t do anything about it once it’s done. We’ll just make sure he’s with someone who can call an ambulance if he ends up having an aneurism.”

“Someone still wants their nipple pierced?” A new voice interrupted your conversation and a tall man with dark inky hair came into the room, making the pearls of the curtain clink against each other. One side of his head was shaved while the longer hair on the other side framed his handsome face beautifully. He was wearing a loose black T-shirt paired with ripped jeans with almost as many holes as there was fabric that hugged his long legs perfectly, showing that he had also ink on his legs. From his lobe dangled a little silver chain and of course his arms were covered in intricate designs, one arm strictly black ink while the other sported some colorful pieces as well. In the center of his plush lower lip sat a black ring and just beneath his left eye two little silver balls were reflecting the low light. You couldn’t deny that the man looked absolutely stunning despite his unusual appearance.

“Yes, me,” Yangyang eagerly answered the man’s question and walked towards him, tugging you with him. “Too bad,” the piercer grinned cheekily and winked in your direction, making your heart flutter in your chest and heat rise to your face, before he extended a big hand to shake Yangyang’s much smaller one. “I’m Johnny,” he introduced himself before leading you both into a smaller room in the back with a simple black padded bench in the middle of the room and a desk tucked into a corner. The walls were plastered with art and photos like the main room, showing that Johnny apparently was able to pull off a bunch of different tattoo styles. He seemed to have a thing for florals and roses though. The only free space was taken up by a full body mirror at the opposite wall. Johnny sat down on the little stool that was standing by the desk and motioned for Yangyang to sit on the bench while you sat down in the only other chair in the room, made of worn looking black leather.

“Let me see your chest before we start this whole thing,” Johnny spoke to your friend after he had grabbed a pair of silver framed glasses that sat low on his elegant nose and slipped on a fresh pair of black gloves. With only slightly trembling hands, Yangyang pulled his sweater over his head, keeping his hands buried in the fabric. “Looks good to me. Left or right one?” “Ehrm, I haven’t really thought about it,” he confessed. Johnny chuckled. “Spontaneous decision to get your nipple pierced?” “He does it to prove a point to a friend,” you supplied before Yangyang had the chance to answer. “Seems like a valid reason,” the tattoo artist grinned, “You play guitar or anything where the strap could irritate the new piercing?” “Just the violin,” Yangyang supplied, demonstrating how he would hold his instrument. “Then I’d suggest we go for the left one,” Johnny concluded, grabbing a bunch of stuff he needed. “Is it going to hurt badly?” “No idea, mine aren’t pierced.” “The first one is fine,” another voice chimed into the conversation and a pink mess of hair appeared in the doorway. “My client is there and Jaehyun isn’t back from his break yet, have an open ear for the door.” Johnny just hummed but it seemed enough to satisfy Taeyong who disappeared just as quickly as he had appeared.

“You ready?” Johnny asked one last time. Yangyang took a deep but shaky breath and nodded. “You better film this so Ten knows it’s real,” he said, holding out his phone towards you. Rolling your eyes, you got up from your actually really comfortable chair and took the phone from your best friend’s hands while Johnny disinfected Yangyang’s nipple and drew two little circles where the bar would go through it before grabbing a small mirror to show him. “Let’s do this,” your best friend nodded and you pressed record. “It’ll be quick,” Johnny promised, disinfecting one last time before he grabbed a pair of tongs to hold the nipple in place and freed a needle from a foil package. “I’ll count to three and then I’ll start, alright?” “A-Alright.” “Last time to chicken out.” “No, I’m doing this,” Yangyang gritted out, closing his eyes. After that everything happened really fast: Johnny counted to three and steadily pushed the needle through Yangyang’s nipple, who bit his lip hard. He then let the needle dangle from the nipple while freeing a little barbell from another foil package to insert it through the canal he just had made. “And that’s it,” he announced when he secured the little balls on either side of the barbell. You ended the recording when Yangyang left out the breath he had been holding in. “Now no sports, especially no swimming or sexual activities for a while. Clean it well and don’t worry if it gets sore, that’s normal. It can take a while to heal, so be patient and don’t let it get infected. You can get a smaller barbell or a ring once it’s healed. Just come back to get it changed to be safe.” “Fuck I really did that,” Yangyang cursed and looked down to his chest, “I think I need a minute before I can get up.”

“Take your time, I don’t have any clients for another half an hour,” Johnny reassured him, putting the used materials into the trash. “Just please don’t vomit all over the floor or hit your head while fainting.” “That has happened before?” You asked, eyes wide. “Not on me but it’s not unheard of. You sure you don’t want anything?” he asked, turning towards you. His silver framed glasses had slid down his nose a little and you couldn’t deny that the man looked really hot, looking at you from beneath his lashes. “She’s too scared,” Yangyang teased. He couldn’t feel too bad if he still could do that then. “Too bad, I think you would really suit a little conch or something,” the piercer motioned around his own ear to indicate what piercing he meant. “A conch?” You asked, turning towards the mirror to try to imagine it. “Wait let me show you.” Johnny quickly got up to search through the drawers of his desk before he pulled out a little box with a bunch of jewelry, grabbing a small hoop. He stood behind you in front of the mirror. “Hold still for me,” he breathed and bend down to push your hair behind your ear before he carefully put the fake piercing in place. For a moment you could swear that time had stopped. You felt his breath fanning over your skin gently and could smell the intoxicating smell of his cologne. You were so close to each other, you were sure that if you turned your head, your noses would brush against each other. But before you could do anything stupid, Johnny pulled back and gently turned your head so you could see the little silver ring. “I think I could put an even smaller one if you wanted,” he said, watching you through the mirror with an intense gaze from his dark eyes. “I’ve never thought about getting a piercing,” you admitted shyly. While you did get your lobes pierced when you were a child, you never thought of it much. “It looks good. Not so much like daddy’s good girl anymore,” the piercer grinned. You almost choked on air when the words left his plush lips, feeling the heat rush to your cheeks.

“How much?” “For you I’ll do it for free, darling,” he grinned, running a hand through his thick dark hair, making his muscles shift beneath his inked skin. While your brain was still short-circuiting from the nickname, Yangyang seemed to be back to 100%, destroying whatever the atmosphere between you and the tattoo artist just was. “Are you really going to say no to a free piercing, dude?” You could just groan and roll your eyes at your best friend. “Stop calling me dude, Yangyang.” “Only if you get that piercing.” “That’s blackmailing.” “Just do it, it won’t even hurt right?” “It’s just a bit of pressure,” Johnny assured you, his lips curled into a smile. “I can always take it out if I don’t end up liking it,” you thought out aloud. “The beauty of temporary body modifications,” Johnny sighed before he stepped in front of you to take the fake piercing off again. With his face so close to yours again, your eyes traveled over the little silver balls beneath his left eye, over his elegant nose down to the black ring in his lower lip and you briefly wondered what it would feel like to kiss him. “So what will it be?” You looked over to your best friend who had put his hoodie back on and nodded his head enthusiastically, making his fluffy hair flop into his eyes. He really needed a haircut.

“Alright, let’s do this,” you decided. “That’s what I like to hear,” Johnny grinned and moved to get his stuff ready. “Need me to hold your hand?” Yangyang grinned when you took his place on the bench. “I wouldn’t want to contaminate you with girl germs,” you teased, sticking your tongue out at him. “I’m sure he wouldn’t mind some girl germs if they’re coming from such a pretty girl,” Johnny cut in when he rolled back over on his stool, his glasses pushed back up his nose again. You couldn’t even fight the heat that crept onto your face at his words, he sure could feel it radiating off your cheeks from where his gloved hands were touching your skin. “I’ll do it where I placed the fake one, just with a smaller ring, alright?” He spoke softly when he disinfected your ear. You could just nod, anxiety taking over, making your heart race and skin prickle. When you heard the plastic bag that held the sterile needle rip, you pressed your eyes shut and balled your hands to fists. “Take a deep breath for me, doll,” Johnny mumbled, gently caressing your skin where he had grabbed your face to stabilize you. “In and out.” You shakily did as he asked you, his low voice comforting and calming your anxiety a lot. “Now you breathe in and let me count to three, then you gently release that breath. Can you do that for me, darling?” “Yeah,” you breathed, eyes still closed so you missed the soft smile on Johnny’s face. “Alright, deep breath in. One, two, three,” the pain of the needle piercing through your skin made you clench your fists harder, “And breathe out.” You tried your best to release the breath evenly until the pressure of the needle was just a low thudding. “You’re doing great, darling,” the handsome piercer reassured you, “I’ll just push the ring through and we’re all done here. Take another breath for me.” This time the feeling wasn’t as painful, just a really uncomfortable feeling of pressure. “All done, pretty,” Johnny concluded, clicking the ring closed. “Open your eyes.”

When you did open your eyes again, he held the little hand mirror from before in his still gloved hands so you could see the little ring that sat against your ear now. The skin was a bright red and you could feel your pulse throb around the metal but it actually fit the shape of your ear really nicely. “Thank you,” you smiled at Johnny. “It’s been a pleasure,” he winked before gathering the used needle and tissues to throw them away. “Take good care of it and try to not sleep on that side for a couple of nights and it will be healed in no time.” “Let’s go home, big baby,” Yangyang chirped in, already on his feet to leave the room. “I’m starving.” “There’s a good ramen shop a little up the street, not too expensive either,” Johnny recommended.

“Thanks for the piercings, man,” your best friend thanked the artist when he took you back to the main room. “No big deal,” Johnny shrugged and sat down where Taeyong had sat before, putting his long legs up on the counter. “Well, have a nice day, maybe we’ll come back for more some time,” Yangyang grinned, opening the door to leave the shop. “Oh I’m sure you will,” the artist replied, locking eyes with you before winking. “Take good care of that piercing, doll. You know where you have to come to if you want more.” You nodded shyly before bowing to the man. “Thank you, Johnny.” “I’ll see you again,” it wasn’t a question. Somehow you and him both knew that this wouldn’t be the last time you would step into the shady tattoo shop.

The next time that you found yourself in the shady streets of Itaewon came faster than you had thought. This time you were accompanying Jaemin to his tattoo appointment after Jeno had ditched him because he had to take over a shift at the cat café he worked at. (That poor boy had to take antihistamines before every shift because of his allergies but couldn’t resist the charm of the kittens.)   “You’re a lifesaver seriously,” the hyper boy repeated while jumping up and down excitedly, “Sitting still for hours on end is really so boring if you have no one to talk to.” “Can’t you talk to your artist?” You asked confused. “He threatened to stab me with the tattoo gun the last time when I was trying to talk to him while he worked,” Jaemin pouted. You could only imagine how irritating Jaemin and his moods could be to someone who wasn’t used to him. Ever since he had decided that he wanted to commit to what he had dubbed a soft punk look, he had been going to the shop somewhat regularly to start a collection of tattoos and piercings. It had started a year ago when he first had dyed his hair to a light blue color. Shortly after that he had first gotten his ears and then his nose pierced. The two lip rings in his lower lip were his newest addition as far as piercings went. The tattoos came a little later. After much consideration he had made the decision to start a floral piece on his arm, the center would be a hummingbird, all with black ink for now.

After a little bit of Instagram stalking you had easily identified the intricate flowers that adored Jaemin’s upper arm as Johnny’s work and the thought of seeing the handsome tattoo artist again had made your heart beat faster in your chest. Not that Jaemin needed to know that you weren’t coming with him for his sake but rather because of your desire to see the dark haired flirty man again.   You had been thinking about his dark eyes behind his silver framed glasses and how he scrunched his eyebrows when he was concentrating a lot for the last weeks. (Not that you had replayed the video of him piercing Yangyang an unhealthy amount of times or anything…) Every time you took care of your new piercing it reminded you of how his fingers felt on your skin and how his deep voice had gently guided you through everything. Not to forget how easily the pet names had rolled from his lips. And oh god his lips… His Instagram account featured a good amount of pictures of himself both casual and while working and the way his plush lips would curl into a confident smirk did things to your heart. His latest update had been the actual death of yours though. It had shown the new tattoo he had gotten recently: It was an intricate eagle that spread over his muscled chest, the feathers of the wings blending seamlessly into the other art covering his strong shoulders and biceps. Did you already mention that he was freaking shirtless in the picture? And that he was hiding a seriously ripped body beneath the wide T-Shirt he wore the last time you were at the shop? So to say that your thoughts had started to spiral after seeing that post was a little understated.

You still felt a little uneasy when you followed Jaemin through the backstreets of Itaewon but when the shabby door with the neon green ‘open’ sign came in sight, you felt the feeling disappear, only for it to be replaced with a mixture of excitement and anxiety. Jaemin grinned widely when he pushed the door open and his good mood was always infectious, a smile creeping on your lips. This time a new man sat at the counter, lazily rocking back and forth on the chair with his phone in his hand. His hair was dark and hung into his eyes and he wore a dark, long sleeved hoodie, so you couldn’t see if he had as many tattoos as his colleagues but if the tattoos on his hands and neck were any indication, he must be pretty covered as well. You recognized the rose on the back of his hand from one of Johnny’s Instagram posts. When the man looked up, you saw that he didn’t only have tattoos but piercings as well: In his lower lip sat two rings right next to each other, a ring dangled from his nose and two little silver balls sat in the hollows of his dimples that showed when he smiled at Jaemin. “Back for more?” He asked with a deep, rumbling voice and got up to greet Jaemin properly, bumping their shoulders together. “Got an appointment with Johnny for my sleeve,” the blue haired boy replied. “I see the snake bites healed well.” “Done by the best piercer of the shop.” “You know it,” the man laughed, throwing an arm around Jaemin. “Brought your girlfriend?” “I’m just a friend,” you quickly corrected the piercer. (Why couldn’t you just platonically join a friend for his tattoo session?) “Alright, just a friend, I’m Jaehyun. Johnny should be ready by now. You know the way?” Jaemin nodded and pulled you with him to Johnny’s room.

When Jaemin pulled the curtain to the room open, you weren’t prepared for what you were seeing: Johnny was standing in front of the full length mirror with his black button up shirt unbuttoned, applying cream to his still tender looking eagle tattoo on his chest, making his beautiful sunkissed skin glisten. “You’re early, Jaem,” he spoke. “Jaehyun said you were already ready,” the blue haired boy shrugged and plopped down onto the black bench. “Oh you brought company,” Johnny turned around when he spotted you and grinned, “I knew you’d come back, doll. How’s your piercing healing?” You had to summon all your strength to rip your eyes from Johnny’s strong and glistening chest to meet his dark eyes. “It’s fine as far as I know, doesn’t hurt anymore,” you stumbled across your words. Couldn’t he just button his shirt back up? “Let me see.” Before you could protest he had made two big steps and was right in front of you, the intoxicating smell of his perfume filling your senses. He gently tucked your hair back to have a look at the piercing and you swore you could feel electricity buzz beneath your skin where he had touched you. “You took great care of it, darling. Not regretting it yet?” “No, I like it.” I like you. The words had laid on your tongue but you managed to swallow them back down.

“Stop flirting with her, I’m the one paying for your attention,” Jaemin whined from where he was sitting. You of course immediately felt all your blood rush to your head but Johnny just chuckled. “I haven’t seen any cash yet, boy.” The tattoo artist gave you a last wink before turning towards his actual client, buttoning his shirt back up but leaving the last two buttons unbuttoned, letting the head of the eagle just barely poke out. Taking a deep breath you sat down in the worn leather chair while Jaemin handed Johnny a bunch of bills that the taller quickly counted. “Alright, I’m all yours for the next five hours or so,” he grinned, “You saw the drafts I sent you?” Jaemin nodded while he took off his jacket and rolled up the sleeve of his T-Shirt to expose the ink on his arm. It was already beautiful even though it wasn’t even halfway done. The hummingbird was still missing its shading and he hung in the air for now, the flowers and leaves stopping above its head. “Yeah, I’m still not sure about the color though. Can’t we just do more flowers instead?” “Sure but the inner arm and near the elbow is going to hurt like a bitch. So it’s either that or you let me color that hummingbird.” Jaemin groaned dramatically, turning his arm to look into the mirror. “He does look weird just half-finished like that.” “So color it is?” Johnny asked while rolling up the sleeves of his shirt a bit, exposing his own tattoos: A snake like dragon curled around his entire right arm, kept in all black ink. “I really liked that green-blue watercolor thing you sent,” Jaemin supplied when he turned to lie down. “Right, then I’ll do some flowers directly surrounding the bird and color that thing.” He snapped his black gloves on and turned to prepare his machine and the colors.

“Come closer with that stupid chair,” Jaemin whined, making grabby hands at you. After Johnny nodded, you pushed the chair closer with great effort. “Are you going to whine for the whole time?” You groaned but smiled fondly at your friend. “Most likely,” Johnny answered instead of Jaemin and rolled over on his little stool, his silver framed glasses back on his nose and a pen between his lips. “I’ll freehand a bunch of flowers first to make sure they fit around that little guy nicely.” “And I thought you liked putting others in pain,” Jaemin joked when Johnny adjusted a little lamp and began to draw flower after flower. It was really fascinating how quick his hand drew delicate petals and leaves, filling up the space around the hummingbird. “Oh if I put others in pain, they usually like it,” he grinned, his voice dropping an octave. You almost choked on plain air and had to try to mask it as coughing but if the way Johnny’s eyes twinkled was any indication, he had seen right through it and dared to be smug about it. “Wow my third appointment and we’re already talking about kinks?” “Sorry Jaem, not interested,” the artist laughed, “I’m more into cute girls.” He leaned back to examine his drawing, throwing you another quick wink. You barely held in a squeak. He really wasn’t even trying to be subtle about his flirting anymore. “Ready for the big gun?” “Oh dick jokes now, nice,” Jaemin chuckled while you were sure your head was about to explode from how much blood was collecting in there. You covered your hot cheeks with your hands in a hopeless attempt to cool them. “Oh look Johnny, she’s getting shy already.” “I haven’t even started yet, baby.” That was it. This man was going to be the death of you. You really didn’t need to know what it sounded like when he spoke those words that were dripping with honey. “Why did I agree to come with you?” You groaned, hiding your face in your hands. “Because you missed me”, Johnny said at the same time as Jaemin said: “Because you’re a good friend.”

After a beat of silence in which Johnny arranged his actual tattoo gun and Jaemin stared at you while his smile grew bigger and bigger, he asked: “Now which one is it?” “I’m not answering that,” you mumbled from beneath your fingers. “No answer is an answer as well,” Jaemin singsang but luckily the low buzzing of the tattoo machine saved you from any further embarrassment… For now…   “Now hold still or I’ll actually stab you,” Johnny warned before he dipped the needle into black ink and began to trace the lines he had just drawn on with a fine needle. “Yessir,” Jaemin joked, wiggling his eyebrows.

Johnny was unusually quiet while he worked, completely tuning out the chatter of you and Jaemin about shitty professors and assignments. You were absolutely fascinated by the confidence he radiated while dragging the needle over his client’s skin. He went back and forth between two different tattoo guns and rubbed Jaemin’s skin every now and then to get rid of excess ink. Soon Jaemin’s whole upper arm was decorated with delicate flowers and leaves and Johnny leaned back to both take a deep breath while stretching his back and to look at his work. “Let’s take a break before I do the color,” he proposed, wiping down the skin. “It looks great,” you complimented his work, taking a picture for Jaemin so he could see it himself. “Damn that pain really pays off,” your friend grinned, zooming in and out of the picture before posting it to his Instagram. “Does it hurt badly?” “You get used to it,” he shrugged, not taking his eyes from his feed, “It’s more like someone continuously scratching you.” “I can show you if you want,” Johnny chimed in from where he was cleaning his tattoo gun from the black ink. “I don’t think I’m spontaneous enough for a sudden tattoo.” “Not even if I offer it for free again?” He laughed. “I’m not mentally prepared for that,” you tried to reason. “I can still show you how it feels though. Without ink.” You shyly nodded and held out your arm for him that he quickly wiped down with disinfectant when he was done putting a fresh needle into the gun. “Just don’t flinch, darling,” he softly spoke before the buzzing of his tattoo gun filled the silence. You expected it to hurt a lot more when the needle touched your skin but it really wasn’t that bad. It was an odd kind of pain you couldn’t really describe. “It’s not that bad,” you told him, looking into his beautiful brown eyes behind his glasses. “It hurts more when it’s directly on the bone or at a more tender area,” Johnny explained and turned the gun off again, bending down to look at the slightly reddened skin of your arm before chucking the used needle into the nearby trashcan. “Let’s patch that up real quick, just treat it like any other scratch.” You nodded and let the handsome man put a band-aid over it. But before you could pull your arm back again, he leaned down to press a kiss on the cloth “For a good and quick healing,” he breathed and grinned smugly when you quickly turned your head away to hide your heated face.

“When you’re done flirting, will you finally put some color into me?” Jaemin interrupted, grinning widely. “That’s what she said,” you mumbled under your breath, making Johnny chuckle. “All you need to do is ask, darling.” Before you could even wrap your mind around what the tattoo artist had just implied, he had already rolled back over to your blue haired friend to take a look at the hummingbird. “Alright let’s do this,” he grinned before wiping down the skin once more. The buzzing of a new machine filled the room and Jaemin scrunched his eyes shut when the needle dipped in turquoise ink met his skin. “This is nasty,” he complained. “Don’t be a baby,” Johnny murmured, dragging the needle over your friend’s skin that accepted the ink quickly. “You want to hold my hand?” You giggled. What you didn’t expect was for Jaemin to actually reach out to you with his unoccupied arm, making a grabby hand. “Jeno always holds my hand,” he whined. “You’re such a big baby, Nana,” you sighed but still laced your fingers together, yelping loudly when Jaemin squeezed down hard. “You said it didn’t even hurt, you big liar,” you squeezed out between gritted teeth. “You’re not the one getting stabbed,” Jaemin argued, “That shit hurts different than the black.” “It’s a different needle,” Johnny explained, “People usually say it hurts less than outlines though.” “It’s not more or less, it’s just different.” “Well it’s going to hurt more if you keep seizing up like that, relax.” “You’re one to fucking talk,” Jaemin sounded upset. “Don’t curse at me for giving you a pretty tattoo,” Johnny just said, dipping his needle into the little pot that held the color again. “Talk him through it,” the artist said to you, looking up from behind his glasses that had slipped down his nose again.

“Hey, remember that time when Donghyuck was so drunk he wanted to jump from the roof into the pool at that frat house?” You quickly said, the silly story coming to mind first. The memory made Jaemin giggle. “Jeno and Mark had so much trouble holding him back once he managed to climb out of the window,” the blue haired boy chuckled. “They were lucky they didn’t fall off.” “That would have made for an even better story though,” Jaemin laughed. “They could have hurt themselves,” you said, scandalized, “You’re hanging out with Renjun too much.” Jaemin didn’t answer, instead he just hummed and wiggled his dark eyebrows.

“Did you ever go to college?” You asked Johnny out of curiosity even though Jaemin had said that the artist preferred to keep quiet and concentrate on his work. “Do I look like I went?” He just laughed, cocking one of his stupidly perfect eyebrows at you when he looked up. “Well, I didn’t want to assume,” you shied away under his gaze. “I dropped out of high school to learn tattooing,” Johnny shared while painting Jaemin’s skin as blue as his hair, “I wasn’t good in school anyways. So art school or something wasn’t an option either. Not that I would have had any money for that.” “What made you want to pick up tattooing then?” You asked curiously. “Art usually is very temporarily and if you make a mistake, you can just erase it or paint over it with another color. Not so much with tattoos. I like that. It’s immortal as long as you don’t start shooting lasers at it.” “I’ve never thought about it like that,” you confessed. Tattooing had never seemed like art to you but that was exactly what it was. Just not on a canvas but under your skin. “Thinking about getting one now?” Jaemin teased, squeezing your hand that he still held. “I haven’t even told my parents about the piercing,” you scoffed, “They would disown me.” “Well too bad, I know a pretty good tattoo artist,” he joked and poked his tongue out. “Do you now?” Johnny asked, a grin on his lips, wiping down Jaemin’s arm before going in with a lighter color. “Yeah, he works in this shady ass shop in Itaewon and I am pretty sure you can buy drugs there as well.” “Those are not for sale,” the artist chuckled when he saw your scandalized expression. “It’s just anesthetics for certain piercing procedures, calm down doll.” “So sadly, it turns out you can’t buy drugs at their shop but it still looks shady and I’m pretty sure they’re paying part of the mafia so the police won’t come to investigate.” “I know nothing of transactions of this sort,” Johnny commented before you could get an actual heart attack. Illegally tattooing and piercing was one thing but mingling with the mafia was a whole other thing. “Anyways, he does pretty cool tattoos and pierces as well,” Jaemin continued, a grin on his lips, “Also talking male to male here, he’s pretty ripped.” At that Johnny started grinning as well. “Wanna know his name?” Jaemin asked you when Johnny turned to clean his needle and you just rolled your eyes but nodded, wondering what he was getting out of all of this. “It’s Jaehyun.” “Excuse me?” Johnny exclaimed with wide eyes when both you and your blue haired friend started laughed at his stupid joke. “This kid,” he mumbled and shook his head before putting the needle back to Jaemin’s skin who seemed to have forgotten to whine about the pain.

The rest of the appointment was spend with you and Jaemin chatting about this and that and a short video call from a red eyed Jeno who had finished his shift at the cat café and wanted to apologize and promised to buy you two dinner after you were done. “I think that’s all I can do for today,” Johnny said after he had stared at the little hummingbird for a while, “Your skin took the color well but if I do any more, I’ll stress the skin too much. I can go in another time if I need to fix anything.” Jaemin nodded, sitting up so he could inspect the colorful hummingbird in the mirror. “Wow that looks sick,” he commented, his eyes going wide, “Totally worth the pain.” “That’s what I wanna hear,” the artist grinned, grabbing some paper towels to rub the tattoo down once more. “Let me snap a picture to post.”

After both men had taken about 20 photos each, Johnny quickly wrapped Jaemin’s arm in plastic wrap, reminding him how to take care of it. “Text me for the next session, I think we could fit some pretty roses at the bottom. Maybe add a dash of color here and there or other animals,” the artist smiled, slipping the glasses off his nose, gently placing them on the table. “I’ll think about it but first I gotta slave away behind the bar to make more money,” Jaemin sighed, shrugging his jacket back on. “And you darling?” Johnny asked, putting on his confident smile again. “When will I see you again?” You just stared at him, at a loss for an answer. Did he really want to see you again? But before you could even open your mouth, Jaemin had already pulled your phone from your grasp, unlocked it and shoved it towards Johnny. “Put your number in already,” he sighed and rolled his eyes dramatically. Laughing, Johnny did as your friend had said. “Very smooth, Jaem.” “I- I guess I’ll text you,” you stuttered when Johnny gave your phone back, your fingers tingling where his touched yours. “I’ll be waiting, darling,” he winked, raking a hand through his inky strands. “Alright, time to leave, before you start drooling,” Jaemin destroyed the intense atmosphere and grabbed your arm to pull you back to the main room and out of the parlor, leaving a laughing Johnny behind in his room.

“I wasn’t even drooling, what the fuck Jaemin,” you argued when you were outside, your phone clutched to your chest. “Stop complaining, I got you his number, you should be thankful,” he just grinned, absolutely shameless, tugging you along through the little street. “I will not thank you for embarrassing me in front of him,” you pouted, unlocking your phone to confirm that Johnny had indeed put his number into the contacts with a little black heart behind his name.

“Is it too early to text him?” You asked when you and Jaemin sat in the subway on the way to his and Jeno’s dorm to take him up on his offer for food. Your friend just laughed at you, making an elderly man scowl at the two of you, who shook his head in disapproval. Well, Jaemin’s visuals didn’t help him when he acted like this in public. But as long as he didn’t care, you wouldn’t care either. “Text him after we’ve eaten,” he advised you. “Then you don’t seem as desperate as you are,” he added, which earned him a punch to his not tattooed arm.

All through dinner, Jaemin retold every embarrassing moment that happened at the tattoo parlor, making Jeno laugh so hard that he almost choked on his rice. You really needed to find new friends. These ones were just harassing you at this point. (Aside from the fact that Jaemin had indeed managed to get you Johnny’s number, you’d thank him later when he couldn’t make fun at you.)

Later that night, you laid in bed in your own dorm room, staring at the screen of your phone. Your fingers were hovering over the keyboard but you really couldn’t think of what you should text Johnny. You didn’t want to seem weird. With how confident he was, he probably did this a lot and you were too proud to make a fool of yourself. Groaning you tossed and turned in your bed for a while, still staring at the empty chat box that by now must be mocking you for your cowardice. Sighing you typed out another short message to immediately delete it again. Should you just send him a simple ‘Hi’ or ask him if he had eaten? How the rest of his day went? In moments like this you whished you were more confident in yourself.

The sound of an incoming message suddenly filled the room and made you jerk. When you saw Johnny’s name on the screen, your heart first stopped for a second before it started beating about three times as fast as it should. How did that happen? With shaking hands you unlocked the phone to see that you in fact didn’t delete the last message but accidentally send it. Luckily it wasn’t as embarrassing as it could have been and Johnny had just answered that he was glad that you had finally texted him. Before you could think of an answer he sent another text asking you why you were still awake this late when he expected you to be a ‘good girl’. You could practically hear his smirk and you couldn’t fight the heat that rose to your cheeks. You replied that you were already in bed and were about to sleep if he was concerned about your sleep pattern that honestly wasn’t the greatest ever since the semester had started. ‘Oh, sexting already’ he replied, making you shriek in embarrassment. Was this what your message had looked like? ‘You alone?’ He asked and with a furiously beating heart you answered with a simple yes.

A couple of seconds went by with no answer from him which definitely didn’t lower your anxiety before the loud sound of your ringtone tore through the silence, Johnny’s name on the display. You quickly answered it to not wake up anyone on your floor, pressing it tightly to your ear. “Hello?” “Good evening, miss,” you heard the rumble of Johnny’s voice, “Missed me already?” “You’re the one who called,” you argued, making the man on the other end of the line giggle. “That is true.” “Why did you call?” You asked curiously, shifting to lie down on your back, staring at the ceiling. “Just wanted some company. My last client just left and I’m cleaning up the shop for today, the others already left,” he explained. “Jaehyun and Taeyong?” “Yeah those two guys,” he sighed and you heard him rummaging in the background. “Is it just you three at the shop?” “Yeah, it was just me and Taeyong at first but Jaehyun is an incredibly quick learner once he had found someone who was willing to teach him a thing or two. So he quickly joined the two of us.” You just hummed, your fingers playing with your hair, unsure of what to say. It was somehow easier to talk to him like this when you couldn’t see his eyes twinkle in mischief or his lips curling up in that confident smirk. Like this he was just a boy who wanted company and not an insanely handsome, heavily tattooed man who flirted shamelessly. “Do you usually work this late?” You asked to fill the silence and out of curiosity as well. If the shop wasn’t legal there sure weren’t any laws regulating how long the artists were supposed to work. “I don’t,” Johnny laughed, “But thank you for your concern. I was just tattooing a friend for free after my last paying client left because he was in the area.” “You do that a lot? Offering up your services for free?” “Just for friends and special people, doll,” he chuckled, “Why? Are you considering getting inked after all?”

Well were you? You didn’t even know at this point. Whenever you had thought of tattoos you had only ever thought about big bold and very black lines, of skulls, names of exes on your skin forever and warped pictures of people’s faces. But never of delicate flowers, bright colors and intricate designs. Johnny had made it obvious that it was art that he was doing and that it wasn’t just some technical procedure to get color beneath your skin. “I- I don’t know,” you confessed, “I never thought much about tattoos until Jaemin started getting them.” “I thought so,” the artist chuckled, “But I bet I could design a pretty piece that would compliment you nicely.” “I don’t think I’m the type for it though,” you argued, thinking about the amount of ink on Johnny’s body and you hadn’t even seen half of it. (Not that you planned on doing so but you were curious to know if there was more hiding beneath his clothes.) “It doesn’t have to be an obvious one. Just something only you know about.” That really got you thinking. His tattoos were really delicate and you had seen that he could write in really pretty cursive. “I don’t want to pressure you into anything, darling. But if you ever want one, you know who to ask.”

“Yeah, thank you Johnny,” you murmured, lost in thought about how you would look like with multiple tattoos. “I like the way you say my name.” “You- what?” You stuttered when he caught you off guard like that, making him laugh. “You’re cute,” he said once he had calmed down. “Stop pouting,” he added when you weren’t answering. “How did you know I was?” Johnny chuckled again. “I just knew.” “Thank you for keeping me company,” he said when you hadn’t said anything in a while. “It’s alright. I like talking to you,” you confessed. You could hear a door closing and his deep chuckle on the other end of the line. “You probably hear that a lot…” you murmured, embarrassed at how the words had slipped past your lips. “I actually don’t,” Johnny said, “I appreciate the words, darling. I’m all done cleaning up now, thank you for keeping me company.” “It’s fine, no need to thank me.” “You should go sleep now, it’s already late. Sweet dreams, doll. Maybe I’ll even visit you.” “Goodnight, Johnny,” you squeaked. The last thing you heard before he ended the call was another chuckle and a hushed goodbye. Smiling widely you turned your face into your pillow to muffle the scream you let out. How could this man make your heart beat faster like that with just a few simple words? And why did this short phone call make you so happy? Sighing, you put your phone to your nightstand and cuddled tightly into your blanket, the thought of Johnny’s smooth voice guiding you to sleep where he indeed did visit you.

After that initial phone call, Johnny called you more and more often. Sometimes when he was on his lunch break and his colleagues were still working, sometimes later at night when your head was spinning from studying and he was cleaning up the shop. You two talked about your days, you complained about professors, deadlines and assignments and he told you about tattooing and his sometimes crazy clients. And every now and then Johnny would bring up his offer to tattoo you. Which made your thoughts spiral every single time. In class you would scroll through Johnny’s Instagram account, imagining what some of the intricate, more feminine designs would look like on your skin. After much consideration you definitely ruled out anything big or colorful. But something small wouldn’t hurt, right? Well it would, you would be giving him permission to stab you with an automated needle a bunch of times which in itself sounded really scary. But Jaemin’s tattoo looked nice. And after his skin had peeled, the hummingbird truly looked absolutely incredible and you couldn’t wait for him to visit the shop again to keep working on the sleeve.

So in a whim of bravery and with the help of the little glass of wine you had drank you told Johnny that he should tattoo you. “Are you for real?” He asked. “I am,” you giggled, “I’ve thought about it a lot the past weeks.” “I am honored, darling. What will it be?” “Something small and no colors please,” you told him. “That’s all you’re asking for?” “Yeah, I… I like the simple black stuff you do,” you stuttered, suddenly really nervous and unsure if this was actually a good idea. “I’ll design something that’ll match you perfectly,” Johnny promised, sounding very eager. You could hear some rummaging on his end of the line. “I could fit you in Friday evening after my last client. It won’t be too late and I need some time to come up with a design that’s worthy of being in your body.” You swallowed dryly. If you said yes, you couldn’t back out anymore. You would be getting inked. Secretly. Without telling anyone. Not to mention illegally. In a reasonably shady shop that was owned by the most gorgeous man you had ever met. Taking a deep breath, you nodded before you realized that he couldn’t see that. “I’ll be there,” you promised. “I’m looking forward to it, doll,” Johnny said before he wished you sweet dreams just like every time when he called you late at night.

The neon light in front of the door to the shop was already shut off when you arrived the next Friday late in the evening but the door gave away when you pushed it open with trembling hands after taking a deep breath. “I thought you weren’t going to come, darling, you left me waiting,” Johnny greeted you, jumping down from the counter he had sat on. He was wearing a simple black t-shirt with a little white rose design over his heart that fit him perfectly. His hair was elegantly swept back, exposing the freshly shaved part on the side. “I’m sorry,” you mumbled, fumbling with the sleeves of your hoodie. “Don’t be nervous, I’ll take good care of you,” he promised, quickly locking the front door before taking you to his room where he motioned for you to sit on the bench. “Do you trust me?” He asked, tipping your head up so you would look into his dark eyes. “I- I think I do,” you stuttered. “I won’t tell you what you’re getting,” Johnny grinned and your eyes widened in shock. “You will like it and it’s not that big.” “I’m not sure, Johnny,” you voiced your concerns but he just pressed his index finger to your lips before you could say any more. Your breath hitched and he could definitely feel your shaky exhale against his finger. “You said you trust me, doll.” Taking another shaky breath, you nodded and a smile spread over his plush lips. “I need you to take off your shirt and lie down on your left side,” he spoke, his voice casual but you could feel something shift in the air between you. At a loss for words you just nodded again and did as Johnny asked when he turned around to gather his stuff.

“Take a couple of deep breaths for me, darling,” he instructed you when he rolled over on his little stool, his glasses sitting low on his nose and his hands already gloved. “It’s going on your ribs,” he told you so you wouldn’t flinch when he quickly dragged a razor over the area before disinfecting it. “I’ll draw a quick sketch first. I don’t want to mess it up when it’s going on your beautiful skin.”  You felt the tip of his pen meet your skin in a gentle stroke, tickling your skin so you had to giggle. “Don’t make me mess this up, baby,” Johnny scolded, playfully slapping your back. “It tickles,” you pouted. “I’m trying to be gentle with you,” he said and you could hear the smile in his voice. While he was sketching, you closed your eyes, trying to figure out what he was drawing. But all you could figure out was that it was something rather small which calmed your nerves a bit.

“All done,” the tattoo artist announced after a while and quickly pulled his little side table with his tattoo gun and ink closer. When the low buzzing noise filled the air, you pressed your eyes shut even tighter, balling your hands into fists. Technically you knew it wouldn’t hurt badly, Johnny had shown you before. But you were still getting stabbed a bunch of times and fuck, you were really doing this. Letting this man put something on your body that was going to be there forever and you didn’t even know what it was going to be. “Relax, darling. I’ll be as gentle as I can be,” he promised, running a hand up and down your back. “It’s going to be on me forever,” you said. “It is. Your own personal piece of art on your body. Just for you to have.” That was a beautiful way to see it, you thought. It’s not just some pigment stabbed into your skin but art. Something unique no one else had. And Johnny would be painting it on just you for you and you alone. “Okay, let’s do this,” you breathed. “That’s my good girl,” Johnny praised and the words made your stomach twist with a feeling you didn’t want to further explore.

The pain was bearable. It was weird at first and the ribs sure hurt more than it had on your arm and the bones somehow seemed to amplify the buzzing, making it travel through your body. You had to grit your teeth when Johnny went over what seemed to be the middle part of the tattoo, where he grazed the skin in quick successions. “That hurts.” “I know, baby. But you’re almost done. You’re doing so well for me,” he soothed and gave you a small break to breathe before he went back in.

“All done, darling,” Johnny announced a little later, turning off his machine and rubbing the tattoo down with a wet paper towel. “Can I see it now?” You asked. “In a bit, keep your eyes closed,” he spoke softly and took your hands in his now ungloved ones to first guide you into a sitting position and then off the bench and over to what you assumed to be the mirror. He turned you so your side was facing the glass and put one of his big hands on your waist. It felt hot on your exposed skin and made goosebumps break out on your skin. “Open your eyes, doll.” You did and looked directly into his dark chocolate brown eyes behind his glasses. “I’m too scared to look now, is that silly?” You asked, losing yourself in his eyes and leaning towards his body that just seemed to radiate heat. “It’s beautiful, just like you,” he assured you, squeezing your waist reassuringly. After taking a deep breath, you tore your gaze away from him and turned to look at yourself in the mirror where a delicate, black chrysanthemum was awaiting you on the skin over your ribs. It indeed looked beautiful, absolutely stunning. It was small but looked so delicate and realistic and fit well with the curves of your body. “It’s stunning,” you whispered.

“Thank you, Johnny.” “No need to thank me, darling,” he chuckled and when your eyes met again, his were dark and almost hungry. “But I think I should reward you for being so good while I tattooed you.” Before you could ask what kind of reward he was talking about, he had already connected your lips in a passionate kiss and pulled your body flush against his. You couldn’t help but sigh now that you finally knew what the metal of his lip piercing felt like against your lips. Johnny was a good kisser and you were boneless in his strong grip not long after he had slipped his tongue past your lips after you had moaned into the kiss when he had started to push you backwards to the bench again, hoisting you back up. “Let me make up for the pain I’ve caused you,” he breathed against your swollen lips when you broke apart to breathe.   “Just keep kissing me like that,” you demanded, burying your hands in his soft black locks to kiss him again. He chuckled and let you dominate the kiss for a while, toying with the black ring in his lip and exploring his mouth. Meanwhile Johnny’s hands started to wander from their place on your waist down to grope at your ass, pulling you forward against him, so you could feel his growing erection between your legs which made a spark of arousal shoot through you.

“Let me make you feel good, baby,” he breathed heavily while kissing down your neck, gently taking the skin between his teeth. “Please Johnny,” you begged, feeling the arousal simmer low in your stomach. Grinning he pulled back and raked his dark eyes over your figure before making quick work of your belt and sliding your jeans along with your panties from your legs, only shortly struggling with your shoes. “It’s not Johnny now, baby,” he rasped when he kneeled down in front of you, pulling you towards him roughly, so your glistening core was exposed to him. “It’s Daddy,” he added before licking a broad stripe through your folds and flicking his tongue at your clit. You could just mewl and throw your head back in pleasure. You didn’t know that this would be such a turn on for you. “Say it, baby,” Johnny demanded, lazily dragging his tongue over your sensitive bundle of nerves. “Please Daddy,” you whimpered and you could feel his low groan vibrating against your core. He wasted no time to attach his plush lips to your clit, gently sucking and grazing his teeth over the little nub, making you mewl and shiver in pleasure. He definitely knew what he was doing, altering between stimulating your clit to the point where it almost became too much before he focused on dragging his tongue through your folds, gently prodding against your entrance before it gave away. When Johnny moaned you could feel it travel straight through you, making your head swim with pleasure. Looking down to the man kneeling in front of you, you were met with his dark eyes, staring straight up into yours. Moaning, you threaded your fingers into his soft hair and pressed his face closer to your core, not even taking the chance that he could move back. “Feels so good, Daddy,” you moaned when he spread your labia with his fingers so his tongue could dive deeper into you, stimulating your velvety walls. When he hummed it send sweet vibrations through your core and you could feel your orgasm approach almost embarrassingly fast. “Mmmh, so close Daddy.” “You wanna cum, baby?” He rasped, his hot breath fanning over your clit that he was lazily rubbing with two fingers. You bit your lip and met his dark eyes, nodding furiously. “Then beg for it, doll. I could stay here for hours,” Johnny spoke before he turned his head to mouth at your thigh, gently biting and sucking at the sensitive skin until it bruised under his ministrations. “I would just keep you right on the edge for hours until you’re a shaking mess for me, begging for release.” His lips split into a wicked grin when he saw how his dirty words affected you and he slowed his fingers on your clit until it was just enough to keep you stimulated but not enough to make the knot in your stomach snap. “Please Daddy,” you whimpered. “Please what baby?” He rested his head on your thigh, looking up at you from innocent eyes as if he wasn’t driving you insane with just his fingers. “What is it beautiful?” He repeated the question, replacing his fingers with his tongue. “You wanna cum?” “Yes please,” you whined, grinding your hips against his tongue to get more friction. “Well if you ask so nicely…” Johnny immediately slipped two fingers inside you with almost no resistance from how ridiculously wet you were and began pumping them in and out of your core fast, crooking them to search for your sweet spot. “Come on baby,” he growled, locking eyes with you again when he closed his lips around your clit. Almost screaming his name, you came hard when his fingers finally found your sweet spot, rubbing at it mercilessly to help you ride out your orgasm. Your thighs were shaking and you fell back onto the bench, the leather sticking to your back where you just laid for a while, your head spinning, breathing heavily.

“You look gorgeous like that,” Johnny complimented you, when he got back up from the floor, raking his clean hand through the mess that was his hair before he shamelessly took his fingers that were covered in your essence into his mouth, sucking them clean. Through half lidded eyes you could see the way he was still straining against the fabric of his jeans and the sight made your mouth water. “You’re still hard,” you said breathless.   “I am,” he said matter of factly. You wordlessly let your thighs fall open for him, exposing your core to him. “Oh baby,” Johnny cursed, pressing the heel of his palm against his bulge, “As much as I want to fuck you right now, you still have a fresh tattoo, doll.” “Please, Johnny, I want it,” you begged. “Shh, baby,” he soothed you rubbing a hand over your thigh, “Let me dress that tattoo and then I’ll take you upstairs to fuck you on an actual bed like you deserve.” You nodded, amazed by his amount of self-control.

Johnny worked quickly and efficiently: Cleaning your tattoo one last time before putting some ointment on it to keep it moisturized. At last he gently taped down a small sheet of plastic foil to keep it safe. “All done, beautiful,” he spoke before pecking your lips, “You still want to come upstairs with me?” “Yes Daddy,” you answered and you swore you could see his eyes darken just from the word alone. “Hold on tightly,” he ordered before scooping you up into his arms, holding you up by your thighs. Squealing you quickly wrapped your arms and legs around him, holding on tightly. “I’ll get your clothes before we open up tomorrow,” he mumbled when he carried you through the back door of the shop that lead to a dusty staircase. You pressed your body closer to his, nuzzling your face into his neck where the smell of his cologne was the strongest, to have some of his warmth seep into your skin when you started to shiver from the cold air. Lazily you let your lips travel over his skin, sucking a mark next to a splash of ink.

Johnny quickly grabbed the keys to his apartment’s door from atop of the doorframe (not really safe) and unlocked his door while holding you up with just one of his arms, the display of strength making your head spin. With quick steps he crossed the way to his bed and gently laid you down on the soft sheets, immediately crawling on top of you, crowding you against the mattress. “I knew you would look good in my bed,” he rasped, kissing your neck while his hands made quick work of the bra that you were still wearing for some reason. “You’re gorgeous, doll,” he breathed after he had sat up on his knees, looking down at you with dark eyes, his big hands roaming your body. Feeling shy under all the attention and compliments he was giving you, you tried to hide your face behind your fingers but he wasn’t having any of it, quickly grabbing your wrists in one hand to pin them above your head. “Don’t hide from me baby. Daddy wants to see how much you’re enjoying yourself.” You could just nod, trying to force down the whimper that almost spilled past your lips, he hadn’t even done much yet and you were already feeling arousal pulse through your veins. “I couldn’t hear your answer,” Johnny teased, gently grabbing one of your boobs to massage the soft flesh. “Yes, Daddy.” “That’s my good girl,” he grinned, releasing your wrists to slip his T-Shirt over his head, revealing his strong chest where the eagle majestically spread its wings and the hard lines of his abs. “Like what you see?” He asked smugly, climbing off the bed to unbuckle his belt and slip his jeans off his narrow hips, revealing strong, muscled thighs. One of them was covered with the face of a growling panther while the other was decorated with a colorful koifish tattoo that disappeared beneath the fabric of his dark boxers that were doing very little to hide a prominent bulge. “Let me,” you breathed and crawled over to hook your thumbs into the waistband. But before you pulled them down, you pressed a couple of kisses to the cherry blossom branch tattoo that seemed to stretch from his back over his hipbone and further down, mingling with the koi tattoo further down. With every centimeter of skin you exposed, more ink from the blossoms became visible and you kissed every single one of the delicate flowers. When his length finally sprang free, you had to swallow dryly: His cock was huge and hung heavy between his legs. Licking your lips you looked up to him, to find him grinning down at you. “Go to town, baby.”

He didn’t need to tell you twice, you were itching to feel his heavy weight on your tongue. You pressed a sweet kiss to his tip before placing a hand at the base only to find him surprisingly soft as you experimentally pumped your hand once. “It takes a while for it to get fully hard,” he groaned when you moved your hand up and down his shaft a couple of times, feeling it pulse beneath your fingers. Damn if he wasn’t even fully hard, how big would he be if he was? Holding him at the base, you licked a broad stripe up the whole length before you swiped your tongue around the pink head, pulling another groan from Johnny’s lips. Taking a deep breath, you finally took him in your mouth and hollowed your cheeks, tasting his skin. The weight on your tongue felt just right and you couldn’t help but moan as you slowly started to take more and more of him until you felt him hit the back of your throat. Shit, you were barely able to fit half of his length in your mouth like this. “You’re so big,” you moaned when you pulled off of him with a wet pop, spreading your saliva down the shaft with both of your hands. Johnny just hummed and grabbed a handful of your hair to shove your mouth back onto his dick. He cursed when the velvety heat surrounded him again and gently began to thrust in and out your mouth. “Fuck you look so good with my cock in your mouth,” he breathed heavily. You could only moan where your lips were stretched around his length and hollow your cheeks when he pulled out, the grip he had on your hair keeping you in place while he snapped his hips. “Shit baby,” Johnny cursed when he pulled out, panting while he rested the head of his cock on your outstretched tongue. “I could cum like this.” You whined pathetically, looking up at him with pleading eyes. He chuckled and gently slapped his cock against your lips, smearing them with precum. “But you don’t want that, don’t you, baby? You want my cock inside you? Stretching you out?” “Yes Daddy, please. I need it so bad,” you blabbered, not even knowing where those words were coming from but you seemed to have said the right thing with how Johnny’s dick twitched in his hand.

“Then get on your hands and knees for me, baby. Ass up.” It was almost comically how fast you complied, baring yourself to him. “Such a good girl,” he praised, grabbing your asscheeks to knead and pull them apart. “Beautiful.” “Please Daddy,” you begged him, arching your back further. “Patience baby,” he chuckled. A frustrated groan got stuck in your throat and turned into a drawn out whine when he pushed two of his fingers inside you, pumping them quickly and curling them to find your sweet spot again. Soon two fingers became three and he had reduced you to a moaning mess with how he abused your sweet spot once he had found it again. “You think you’re ready for my cock, baby?” “Yes. Oh god, yes please,” you begged while shamelessly grinding back on his fingers that he had stilled inside of you. “Spread your cheeks for me,” he ordered while quickly grabbing a condom from his bedside table and rolling it onto his cock. Balancing your weight on your knees and shoulders, you reached around yourself to pull your asscheeks apart so Johnny could see your core clenching around nothing. “You’re such a good girl for me,” he rasped, running his palm along the curve of your body while lazily thrusting his cock through your folds, making it glisten with your essence. Finally you could feel him nudging at your entrance with the thick head of his cock. “You want it, baby?” “Yes please Daddy,” you gasped, trying hard to be good and not grind back against him. “You’re such a good girl for me,” he chuckled, “And good girls get what they want if they ask so politely.” With that he finally sank into you in one agonizingly slow thrust until you could feel his hip bones press against your skin. You had to screw your eyes shut and bite your lip to suppress a whimper. You had never felt so full before.

“Fuck baby, you’re so tight,” Johnny groaned, grabbing you by the dip of your waist with his big hands, grinding you on his cock. “I’m so full, Daddy,” you gasped when he slowly pulled out until only the head of his cock was inside you before he languidly thrust back in. “Yeah? You like that? Being stuffed full of my cock?” You could only moan and nod where your head was pressed into the sheets. His cock was so big that it seemed to press against every good spot that was inside you, setting your nerve endings on fire, the pain from being stretched like that only adding to your pleasure. “You‘re sucking me right back in baby,” he cursed and gripped your waist harder, pulling you back on his cock as he picked up the pace, low groans falling from his lips. Your moans got progressively louder and louder the faster Johnny snapped his hips. “Hands behind your back, baby,” he ordered panting and immediately grabbed both your wrists in his hands to use them as leverage so he could fuck into you faster, the change of angle and pace making you moan his name. Your head was swimming with pleasure and you could only moan and mewl beneath him, imagining how he would bite his lip while watching his dick disappear inside you over and over again, stretching out the delicate skin of your sex. “God baby, your ass looks amazing,” Johnny groaned, praise after praise falling from his lips that reduced you to a moaning mess.

With one particularly hard thrust he buried himself to the hilt inside you and draped his body over yours, his hot breath fanning over your face when he spoke, a deep rumble in his chest while grinding his dick right against your sweet spot that had you seeing colors behind your closed eyes. “Wanna see you bounce on my dick, doll. Can you do that for me?” Taking a deep breath, you nodded. Your ability to form coherent sentences had left you as soon as he had begun to fuck you in earnest. “You’re such a good girl,” he purred and gently pulled out, making you whimper from the loss. You felt the bed dip next to you and when you opened your eyes, you were met with Johnny’s pleased smirk as he leaned against the headboard of the bed, his cock resting against his hip, too heavy to properly stand up and you couldn’t stop another whimper. “Come on baby, I know you want it,” he grinned, crooking a finger in a ‘come closer’ motion. Dragging your limbs from beneath you with great effort, you climbed onto his lap, immediately claiming his lips in a messy kiss. You buried your hands in his stupidly perfect hair to mess it up and tug at the inky strands, causing Johnny to moan into the kiss. “Hmm, my baby is feisty,” he chuckled when he broke the kiss, the pupils of his dark eyes blown so wide that they seemed almost black. “But you promised me to ride my dick,” he reminded you. “And I’m gonna,” you slurred, reaching between your bodies to grab his cock, giving it a couple of strokes. “But turn around for me baby. Wanna see how much my fat cock is going to stretch you out,” he rasped, playfully biting your lips. “But I want to see you too,” you complained. “Oh you can,” he grinned and pointed over your shoulder. You reluctantly turned around before you saw what he meant. Right across from the bed was a big mirror and you gasped because of how fucked out you already looked. A couple of tears had rolled down your cheeks and messed up your makeup and your lipstick was smeared around your lips.

You carefully grabbed Johnny’s cock again and held it steady so you could sink down on him, watching yourself in the mirror until you sat snug on his lap and had to close your eyes because the feeling was so overwhelming. He felt even bigger like that. “You okay, baby?” He asked, grabbing your hips tightly to help you swivel them on his cock, making it press into your walls just how you liked it. “How does your cock feel even bigger like this?” You gasped as you leaned forward and slowly started to ride him at first to get used to his size and figure out the best angle for you. Your legs shook with the effort to keep your rhythm but the look Johnny had on his face, his eyes glued to where you two were connected, made it worth it. Suddenly a wicked grin spread on his lips and he snapped his hips up when you lowered yourself again, tearing loud moans from both of you. “Fuck, do that again,” you demanded when you raised your hips again. “What’s the magic word?” Johnny teased, holding you up so you wouldn’t drop down again. “Please, Daddy.” Groaning he started to snap his hips up every time you ground down on him, making your skin slap together with an obscene noise.

God you wanted to die on his dick. “Do you now?” Johnny laughed. Shit did you say that out loud? “Want to feel how deep it goes inside you?” He rasped, wrapping his strong arms around your waist. You went lax in his hold and mewled helplessly. Who knew that a little display of strength and a big dick were such turn ons for you that your brain was reduced to mush. Grinning he carefully pulled you up and against his chest and draped your legs over his after he had planted his feet firmly onto the mattress. “Watch, baby,” he ordered as he lifted you off of him until only the tip was barely inside you anymore before letting you drop down again. You mewled and thrashed in his hold, the feeling just on the edge of too much. Feeling him deep inside you was one thing but actually seeing it was a whole other thing and it messed with your head. Curiously you pressed your hand down on your lower stomach when Johnny had started to piston his hips up into you instead of dropping you down onto his cock every time and you swore you could feel him move inside you. A drawn out curse left your lips and you threw your head back onto his shoulder.

With the way he was snapping his hips up you could feel your orgasm approach at lightning speed and you were so far gone that you shamelessly reached between your legs to stimulate your clit. “Fuck baby, you’re so hot like this,” Johnny groaned, grinding his dick inside you as you quickly rubbed your clit, toeing right on the edge. “Please Daddy,” you cried out, not sure what you were even begging for. “You gonna cum on my cock?” He rasped, snapping his hips harshly, “Wrapped around my big cock stretching you out like this?” You nodded your head furiously, your eyes screwed shut. You were so close that you could already feel your toes curling. “Show me baby. Show Daddy how good his cock makes you feel.” That’s what pushed you over the edge, the way he was panting in your ear, his voice strained from how he was drilling into you. The coil in your stomach snapped and you almost screamed his name, your body curling inwards and thighs shivering as your orgasm washed over you, making a bunch of colors explode behind your lids. In the back of your mind you registered Johnny’s curses and how he was grinding his cock inside you to help you ride out your orgasm. “Such a good girl,” he praised when your body went lax on top of him, your chest heaving with heavy breaths. You briefly wondered if you had ever cum this hard and you couldn’t think of any other time. “Thank you Daddy,” you panted, turning your face to press a messy kiss to his plush lips that were bitten raw. He chuckled lowly when you whimpered when his still hard cock shifted when you tried to turn around.

“Will you let me fuck you for a little longer, baby?” He asked, running a hand through your sweaty hair. Instead of answering him, you lifted yourself off his dick to turn around on his lap, capturing his lips again. “Want you to ruin me,” you whispered between kisses, “Want you to ruin me for any other men. Want to only remember how you feel inside of me.” Johnny growled deep in his chest before he pushed you down onto the bed, hungrily licking into your mouth. “You’re the one who is ruining me,” he panted, rising to his knees. He quickly grabbed your legs and threw them over his shoulders before he sank into you again with a low groan. This time he didn’t waste any time with building up the pace and immediately snapped his hips harshly, chasing his own orgasm. “You’re taking me so well, baby,” he panted, folding your thighs to your chest so he could push into you even deeper, making you see stars with how he was nailing your sweet spot with the new angle. And even though you had just cum, you felt another orgasm build inside your stomach. A row of curses left Johnny’s lips when he could watch his dick slide in and out of you again and he gripped your thighs so hard you were sure you’d have bruises there tomorrow. But that was something you’d worry about later, right now your world was only made up of the handsome man with his huge cock that was currently rearranging your guts with how vigorously he was snapping his hips, making your skin slap together with lewd sounds.

“I’m gonna cum baby,” Johnny grunted, his hips losing their rhythm. “On me,” you managed to choke out, still lost in your own pleasure. Another groan left his bitten lips before he quickly pulled out and ripped the condom off, jerking his cock with quick strokes, his eyes fixed to yours. All it took was a couple of jerks before he threw his head back and you could see his abdominal muscles contract before the first burst of white hot cum spurted from his dick and covered your chest and stomach. With parted lips he stroked himself through his orgasm, milking rope after rope from his cock until he hissed with overstimulation. “Fuck,” he cursed before giggling when he saw the mess he had made of you, his cum dripping from your boobs and running down your stomach. He cursed again before claiming your lips. “You want to cum one last time, baby?” “Please Daddy,” you whined, spreading your legs further for him. “My good girl,” he sighed, sinking two fingers into your heat, quickly crooking them to stimulate your sweet spot while his thumb was putting sweet pressure on your clit, making you thrash beneath him. “You look so good covered in my cum,” he rasped before he kissed you harshly to swallow your moans and cries of pleasure. You desperately held on to his shoulders, breaking the kiss when your head was spinning from the lack of oxygen. While speeding up his fingers, Johnny began sucking bruises low on your neck and over the soft skin of your cleavage. “Shit, I’m gonna-“ you didn’t get to finish your sentence because right that moment he had sucked one of your nipples into his mouth which was just enough to send you over the edge for a third time that night, your lips parted in a silent scream of his name and your thighs shaking and closing around the handsome man kneeling between them. “That’s my good girl,” he praised breathily and gently rocked his fingers to help you ride out your orgasm before he pulled them out, instead winding his strong arms around your body, holding you to his inked chest.

For a while he just held you close, not caring that his cum was now also stuck to his chest. “Fuck that was a lot,” you chuckled, burying your face in the crook of his neck, inhaling his calming scent. “Not what you thought would happen when you get a free tattoo?” Johnny softly spoke, carding his hand through your messy hair. “Not at all.” Another question was burning inside your head but you were too scared to ask it. You didn’t want to push him and ruin the mood. “I should clean you up and see if that tattoo is still okay. Then we can cuddle, alright?” The tattoo artist said before he detangled your bodies from one another to get up from the bed. He looked around on the floor for a cloth and you could finally see where the cherry blossoms on his hip were coming from. A big samurai was stretched over half his back, surrounded by the pinkish blossoms. It seemed like it wasn’t a complete piece yet, the samurai staring at the still untouched skin of Johnny’s left shoulderblade. “Your back tattoo is really pretty,” you mumbled to fill the silence while Johnny was wiping his chest clean before he gently did the same to you, taking extra caution when looking at your still fresh tattoo. “Thank you,” he smiled, pressing a kiss to your forehead, the metal of his piercing feeling warm on your skin, “We should change that foil real quick.” You just nodded and let him do his work, exhaustion settling into your bones.

“Do you do this with all your clients?” Shit. You hadn’t meant to ask that, the question had just slipped your lips and you could feel Johnny freeze where he was dressing your tattoo again before he secured the last piece of tape. He sighed and slipped beneath the covers, pulling you against his chest, so you could listen to his heartbeat. “Not all of them,” he answered eventually, “I haven’t slept with a client in a while. It happens sometimes but usually I don’t think much about it.” “And now you do?” He just hummed nonchalantly, playing with your hair. “They usually don’t come back after I fuck them.” He paused, holding his breath. “Will you come back?” Your heart started to race and you could feel a bright smile spreading over your lips. “For more free tattoos and piercings?” “Oh, yeah, I guess,” he sounded so deflated, the confident tattoo artist suddenly gone. “You idiot,” you giggled, pillowing your head on his sternum so he could see the smile on your lips, “I like you Johnny. I’ll come back if you want me to.” Now he was also smiling, his features softening. “Don’t make jokes like that, my heart is fragile,” he joked, wrapping you up in his strong arms.  

“Which one was your first one?” You asked him when the silence between you stretched while you traced the scales of the dragon that wound around his arm. “My first tattoo?” Johnny shifted around for a while before he showed you his other arm that had all kinds of different designs on it, some in bright colors, some strictly black. “That little guy over here,” he said with a smile on his lips and pointed to a little sunflower at the bend of his elbow, “To remind me to always look at the sun, at the bright side of life.” “It’s cute,” you breathed, touching the yellow petals. “And then it went downhill from there,” he chuckled, “It’s addicting.” “Let’s hope I can stay abstinent.” “What a shame, I’d love to cover you in my art,” Johnny confessed, tilting your face up so he could claim your lips in a kiss. “Maybe one or two more,” you breathed in between kisses, making him chuckle against your lips.

#kafenetwork #johnny #seo youngho #johnny suh #nct #johnny smut #johnny fluff #nct smut #johnny imagines #johnny scenarios #nct imagines #nct scenarios #nct fic #johnny fic #johnny fanfic

[gphoenixsims]

Part IV - How To Undo a Grown Man in 3 Seconds From Across the Room

[[GIF text - Thea Winking: The young Marquess would soon find himself completely out of his depth, for a woman who has nothing to lose can indulge in unthinkable games ]] “Cover Art” Disclaimer: I know very little about the Regency era, it was never something that piqued my interest. Conversations with Veninorchid resulted in a hyperfocus on the theme, like I didn’t have enough AU situations for Thea and Octavious rattling around in my brain, this was one more for the list. Then, while looking for Regency stuff I found the series Bridgerton and got kicked down the rabbit hole. Since I have no more recent reference than that, (it’s been years since the last time I watched any version of Pride and Prejudice), this AU would take place in that universe because the concept of the character of Lady Whistledown is delicious. Also Lady Danbury, bow down to that woman! lol Like Star Wars this starts this would be part IV, in accordance with a timeline I’ve written up and because these are the only images I have completed. I have a few more scenes I wrote up last night - because who needs sleep and can I take a moment to express it’s hard to write in Regency English when you’re not native and poorly familiar with the vocab of the time? - but the texts came out quite long and it’d take me aaages to make all images this pretty. My shoulder still hurts from painting in hair in these... and dealing with all the green screen for Photoshop DOF effect 😭. So, should I post more, It’d be more text than pictures. Like in every single AU and in RP origin, Thea is always the destabilizing element about to throw Octavious’s prim and proper life upside down.

#sims 2 #ts2 #sims 2 pictures #ts2 pictures #sims 2 stories #ts2 stories #sims 2 regency #ts2 regency #sims art #my ocs #Thea Zimmer #Octavious Noir #regency!au #photoshop magic #this is what happens when I hyperfocus #what am I to do now with all the regency CC I collected in the past week?