#don’t @ me i know this is a poorly proportioned drawing but i’m happy with it without aggressively comparing it to the pic!

[joannasteez]

Hey lovely! Could I request a little something for Jax? It could be a headcanon or imagine, it’s up to you. But could it be about the reader is Angel and Ez’s little sister, and she’s in love with Jax?

𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐘𝐎𝐔 {𝐇.𝐂}

𝐏𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆: Jax Teller x Reyes!Reader

𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐒: The emotional direction wasn’t specified so I kind of just went with what came to me, by the way, This is my very first request!!, so hope whoever sent it in enjoys ❤️

𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆: Angst. Fluff. I also suck at simplifying things so this is another long head canon, apologies if that sort of thing bothers you all lol.

Credits to the gif maker @tragertrap

Taglist: @my-rosegold-soul @appropriate-writers-name @est1887 @xladymacbethx @elektriknachosss @queenbeered @sesamepancakes @superhoeva @witching-hour @noz4a2 @nutterbu @withmyteeth

If you’d like to be tagged for Mayans MC fics ONLY let me know!!

☠︎

It amazed Felipe at times, scared him even, at how similar you looked to your mother Marisol. The spitting image of her; a younger, but slightly taller, reincarnation. But you were your fathers child through and through. The toothless yet warm endearing smile, the sharp intuitiveness, placid nature, and just through the black center of your eyes, enough experience to cover a few lifetimes. It’s what the Reyes men feared the most, that uncanny familial trait that forces you to bury such soul crushing pain, to turn cold to things that warrant warmth. Your father has it, your brothers as well, Ezekiel more than Angel, and so do you.

You had it now, that calm, collected demeanor, as the guys brought in a bleeding Jax Teller through the entry doors of the lodge. He was barely conscious, eyes dim, limbs heavy, and blood staining all along his color drained skin and the aged leather of his kutte. If you were anyone else you’d be alarmed, startled by the amount of blood and frantic men, but you were you, having seen too many things that resembled such a scene to let even a shudder pass through you.

“Get the kit, we need you to sew him up but he’s lost a lot of blood.”, Bishop says briskly, filled with worry, and your feet move faster than your mind can comprehend, snatching the kit laying near by and pacing to the bedroom where they have Jax. His head elevated by pillows, Both Ezekiel and Angel hot on your tail waiting for you to give them directions.

There’s a poorly wrapped cloth that lays against the wound, and just as you peel it back you pressurize the wound with a gauze. “I need gloves”, you say.

Angel’s a bit taken back, the President of the Sons original charter is on the precipice of death and you’re talking about gloves. “We don’t have time for that”.

“Just get the fucking gloves Angel”, you clip. Tone harsher than it’s meant to be, but he takes no offense and moves quick for the gloves before coming back.

You’re cleaning Jax’s skin once there on, wiping away all the blood that pours from him. A needle in your hand, eyes steady. “This is gonna hurt”.

Jax is sweating, teeth clenched at the piercing sting of the needle. “You sure you know what you’re doing?”

Did he really just ask you that? “I guess we’ll just have to find out”, you deadpan.

“Y/N”, Ezekiel warns.

The situation isn’t funny, a man’s life is on the line but still, you want to laugh at the audacity. “What?! He’s got a bullet in his abdomen and he’s worried about if I know what I’m doing”.

There’s silence now, a heaviness that settles to suffocate the whole lodge it seems. A dread of existential proportions that looms like a phantom in the waning rusted gold of the setting sun. The stillness is calming as you work, slipping the fine needle through his paling skin with a frightening ease that forces a worried look to Ezekiel’s face, Angel’s as well. Mayhem has consumed them all, men who laugh in the face of death everyday are doubling over, overwrought with fear, and here you are, unaware of the dark silhouette that threatens to form over Jax’s body, inching over the walls, creeping slowly as they tease whispers of death through the wispy blow of the wind.

Your brothers leave after while, called out by Bishop and Chibs who are talking over possible scenarios for revenge.

“Can you stay after this......... please?” It’s barely a whisper, and it’s drawled, but you hear the need in his voice.

It compels you to say “Okay”.

When you’re finished you wipe at Jax’s skin again, fingers trembling just the slightest as your mind catches up with your body, or is it the other way around? You’re not sure, but the two have surely had a crashing reunion and now you’re exhausted at such a fast build and fall of adrenaline. You’re thinking now, at the side of the bed, of deeply buried memories because the blood reminds you, it always does. All you see is Marisol, and your vision is blurred, eyes glistening with warm tears that comfort your skin, thumb shaking as you push the wetness away. She’s so lovely in your mind, a bright silhouette framing her and she’s so beautiful, so light and gentle. The aura of her, just from a thought, it makes her presence palpable again, till you remember she isn’t really there. Because it’s just a memory. A timeless mirage of sorts that ungrounds you from reality.

You breath, looking to the clock to find that it’s been three hours already. Three hours of you looking through your memories for your mother, Marisol. It’s purposeful, must be, why the need to think of her is so strong in this moment of all moments.

It’s infuriating, that you weren’t there, you couldn’t save her, but you were here now and you saved Jax. That counts for something right? It had to.

He’s awake again, and you’re not sure how but he is. Must be the force of his will that has his eyes opening, fighting against a sleep that feels too much like forever. “You alright?”

His eyes are a near lifeless blue but still they’ve got shine to them. “I should be asking you that, you’re the one that got shot”.

“Why the tears darlin’ ?”

You’re not up for a personal deep dive, never have been really. “Don’t know what you’re talking about”.

He smiled, noticing your reserved demeanor. “They we’re probably tears for me, I saw how worried you were earlier”, he jokes sarcastically.

You roll your eyes. “Why’d you want me to stay?”

“Didn’t want to die alone, if I did”.

You shake your head, fully convinced of otherwise. “You weren’t gonna die”.

He gives a weak smile. “I know that now since we’re talking, unless this is a dream, or some purgatory shit then I’m screwed”.

You chuckle at his dazed rambling and it makes his weak smile a little stronger as it spreads. Amusement looks good on you. Pretty. “There it is”, he says. Talking about your little smile.

There’s a stretch of silence, and it’s contemplative for Jax. Flashes of the incident from moments prior running through his mind. He’d just met Galindo for the first time, shook his hand, exchanging pleasantries. They’d talked business and at the end all parties seemed happy with the results, but it made him wary. How well everything was going, something somewhere was bound to go wrong, and yeah maybe he was a bit too pessimistic in the moment but it proved him right. The Sons and The Mayans were riding back to the lodge when the Lobos attacked and he can’t remember much after that, just feeling more than alive and then a little ways from death. His father calling him and then his mother, and he almost answered. He’s glad he didn’t.

“I’m sure you know as much as I do, you see a lot of shit when you live this life. Seen more guys than I can count take a bullet, and more times than none I’ve been the one to give it to them”. He’s quiet, contemplative. On the rise of something that resembles an epiphany. “After a while they just become faceless y’know, nameless, just kill #52 on someone’s list. That’s what it felt like, I was about to be on somebody’s fucking list and that shit is scary”. He turns to you then. “And then the next thing I know I’m in here, with your pretty ass standing over me saving my life. I thought I was in heaven”.

You roll your eyes, it’s delirium from the blood loss, making him say things he doesn’t mean. “Even with a bullet wound, flattery gets you no where Teller”.

“Tell me what does”.

———————————————————

𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐑 & 𝐀 𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐇 𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐑

He’s warm under your skin, heartbeat a sweet song that pulses a quiet steady rhythm into your ears. It’s a comforting thing, soothing and mellow like the fiery cool blend of a setting summer sun.

You feel his hand, cool rings caressing the nape of your neck. “You awake baby?”

You move against him, to let him know that you are and a hand pulls gentle at your chin. “Let me see you darlin’ ”

Your body pulls up atop of his, bare chest moving along his and toward him so that you’re face to face, legs tangled together. His hands reach to caress your face, touch a gentle flame that burns to light your skin. It’s the first time you’ve seen him in the morning for weeks, the club stealing him away every moment it could, screwing around with the days you’d set aside to see each other. He grins, loving the dim set of your sleepy eyes. “Hi”.

“Hi”, you say. Tone rasped, sleepy.

There’s a glimmer in his stare, a dazzling sparkle that lives just over the grayish blue of his irises. You don’t identify it, what the warm glint means, for fear of being wrong, but somewhere inside, you know it’s love. It looks to pure to be anything else. He’s grinning again, all nostalgic like. “I was thinking just now, about that day when you patched me up. Best day of my life”.

You scoff. “You almost died”.

“But I got to meet you”.

You’re shaking your head at how lovey dovey he’s being. “Always with the flattery”.

“I’m serious, I fuckin’ love you. More than I ever thought I could”. He rolls you both over easy, his lean build on top surrounding you, fingers still caressing idly against your face and yours drawing along his tattooed back. He kisses you, patient and deep, as if to savor this moment. Staining his memory with the soft pliant flesh of your lips, the airy moan that resonates from your chest, and the lulling skim your nails give the gold of his hair. Forget the Irish and their guns, the Cartel and their H and everything that isn’t this. If he could, he’d stay with you here. Just like this. Forever.

He’s at your neck now, teasing you with tongue wet kisses and stingless nips, but something comes to mind. A wary thought that’s bugged you for a while. “When are we gonna tell my father about us. I want you to meet him”.

He looks to you, confused. “You don’t wanna tell your brothers first?”

“Ezekiel already knows. Found out the first time we met back up to see each other”. You’d thought you’d been sneaky enough that night, leaving after everyone fell asleep, but Ezekiel was always a couple steps ahead it seemed, following you out of Santo Padre a few hours to a bar where you’d met up with Jax. The conversation with him was easier than you expected, but still he was wary, and how couldn’t he be. You were his baby sister. He’d worry till his last breath. “... and I told Angel a couple of weeks ago. Couldn’t really get out of explaining how I had your rings laying around”. You couldn’t remember much of what that admission to him entailed, besides the look of disbelief he had, and then the screaming, and then eventually the forced calm of his expression when he realized that there was nothing he could do about it. It was still unbelievable to him, you weren’t that little girl anymore, no matter how much he wanted you to be.

You were grown, beyond capable of making your own decisions. But boy did it scare you having to tell Felipe.

“Whenever you want to tell him I’m ready”.

His sureness makes you smile, wide and bright, laying a kiss to his rosy lips. “I love you too Jackson”.

#mayans mc #ez reyes #angel reyes #jax teller x reader #soa #jax teller #long headcanon #joannasteez #reyes!reader #jax teller x reyes!reader

[my-writings-and-musings]

TFA Bulkhead/Bumblebee

Bulkhead, hoping to paint Bumblebee, finds a number of unexpected hurdles in the form of a willing but very fidgety model.

Got a lovely commission that the commissioner was okay with me sharing, so here it is! I had so much fun writing this, and remember, I'm always open if you'd like a fic for yourself.

Working up courage wasn't something one had to do often when they were as big and strong as Bulkhead, but he'd needed every bit he could spare to approach Bumblebee with what he'd feared was a ridiculous request. The fact he could expect his friend to say yes had brought him little comfort, because being rejected just scared him too much. He didn't want to admit how long it had taken him to prepare…

But finally, the day had come, and he approached the little bot as one might an armed explosive.

"Uh… Bumblebee?" he spoke softly, tapping his big servos together to try and call himself down. Bumblebee was relaxing and watching something on TV, and Bulkhead was so nervous he couldn't even tell what. Primus, he was just grateful they were alone, or else this would have been impossible! Bumblebee thankfully noticed him right away, lifting his helm to look at his friend with a smile.

"What's up, Bulk?" he said in greeting, half turning back to the television before doing an actual double take back to the big bot. Concern crossed his features, and he raised a curious brow ridge before he spoke again. "You feeling okay?"

Bulkhead realized just then that his nervousness was probably showing through like a beacon, and he gulped in embarrassment, wanting nothing more than to disappear on the spot. Just his luck that things would already be going poorly… Steeling himself, he took a deep vent and put on the biggest smile he could manage. "Yeah, f-fine!" he gasped out, trying not to tremble. Wishing he'd written down what he wanted to say, he just managed to put some words together and speak, hoping he didn't look as ridiculous as he felt. "I just wanted… wanted to ask you something."

"Yeah?" Bumblebee asked, expression not changing once. Near to collapsing, Bulkhead soldiered on, wondering with every word if he'd made a huge mistake.

"Well you… you know I've been painting a lot lately, and I was wondering…" he gulped again, closing in on the final thing he'd come to ask and hoping he wasn't making a huge mistake in the process. If this worked, it might just be the happiest day of his life…

"I'm kind of tired of painting trees and flowers… could I paint… you?" he asked, not even waiting for a reply before he clarified extensively. "Paint a picture of you, I mean! Like… would you want to model for a painting? That's… what I meant…"

"Oh, model?" Bumblebee repeated, optics lighting up like a supernova as he repeated the word. Bulkhead felt relief like nothing he'd ever experienced wash over him as the question got exactly the answer he hadn't dared to hope for, enough so that he struggled to stay standing as he sighed. Bumblebee hopped upright and stretched, lean little frame already eager to get moving as he stepped beside his much larger friend. "What are we waiting for? Let's go!"

"Yeah, sure!" Bulkhead said with enthusiasm, trying his hardest not to cry a few happy tears at the turn of events. Moving as fast as he could, he followed Bee to his room, where all of his supplies were waiting for them in the unlikely event this worked out. The big bot had done everything in his power to get all the paint and brushes he would need if Bee said yes, so hopefully he did indeed have enough, or at least what he'd require to get started. He'd gotten so many shades of yellow…

When they arrived to his room, he briefly scolded himself for not fixing it up better, not that Bumblebee ever bothered to clean his own room, but he wanted to be a good host.

Pointing to the smushed couch he sometimes liked to relax on, which was also in a good spot for lighting, he tried to ensure he was calm despite his still fluttering nerves. "You can, uh, pose however you like. How about there?" 

"Sure, sounds fun!" Bumblebee replied, quite enthusiastic as he hopped on over. Not minding that the furniture was beyond lumpy, he began finding a comfortable way for his frame to lay, moving his tiny self about as Bulkhead got everything ready. Trying not to blush at how happy he was, the big bot grabbed a spare canvas and his favorite cans of paint, along with a few brushes in his size. Someday he'd have to properly thank Sari for introducing him to art, and being kind enough to provide tools in his size as well. When his easel was in place, he looked up to see Numb laying himself over the couch and grinning in his usual goofy way. "Paint me like one of your French bots, Bulkhead…"

Even if he hadn't been so distracted by what he was feeling, the big bot would have had no ability to make sense of what he'd just heard. All he could manage was a one word reply of total bafflement. "...What?"

"It's a… a human quote. I don't get it either." Bumblebee mumbled in reply, likely referencing some movie he and Sari had watched together at some point. Not wanting his friend to feel awkward, Bulkhead happily helped the conversation continue, smiling as he grabbed a brush.

"Oh, well um… how about we start small? Just sketches and stuff, you know?" he offered, trying to think of the best way to proceed. It was hard to plan much of anything when he was this happy, especially because he didn't want Bee to know how he felt, in more ways than one. He had to keep going as if this was just a casual thing, and not something that really meant the world to him.

"Works for me, just don't forget to get my good side… which is all of me." Bee said proudly, striking a pose and grinning as he did so. It was a perfectly in character position, so Bulkhead got to work right away, carefully articulating his large digits to control the brush. While small mistakes were just part of the process for painting, he didn't want to make one here. This piece was going to be perfect, so every stroke had to be the same, and thus his digits had an almost vice-like grip. It didn't escape his attention how few bots got to pursue their greatest wish like he was doing now. Keeping his smile to himself, he cast his optics to Bumblebee and back to the canvas, wanting to have the perfect grasp of scale before he began. Having a friend with such particular proportions wasn't going to make this any easier.

Sticking with the core of his muse, he made a few careful strokes to get the basic gist of his friend's pose, hoping to capture both his sense of excitability and his current relaxed mood. It would be hard, but he was more than up for the challenge. This would be worth every last second of work...

"Actually, hang on, my arm looks better like this."

Bumblebee surprised him with the words and the sudden movement he made to match, his arm swinging about to rest almost opposite to its original pose. As he hadn't yet started drawing that particular spot, Bulkhead let it go, having expected a little bit of restlessness. It was also only fair that Bee liked the final result and was comfortable with the process. Getting back to work, the big bot wondered if his friend's face might be a good place to start. His horns certainly added an additional detail for him to take into consideration… Perhaps he'd ask if Bee wanted his face to be more in profile or at an angle. All he wanted was to capture the essence of the bot he was so close to.

Bumblebee coughed, optics looking about bashfully as he blushed and shifted on the couch to move his other arm. It wasn't a big move, but the small bit clearly realized it was inconvenient, and looked guilty for the move. "Need to change this too, it's not working. This look better?"

"Oh uh… yeah!" Bulkhead replied quickly, uncertain how he should respond beyond acceptance as the last thing he wanted was for this to be uncomfortable for either of them. Some small changes would need to be made to what was already on the canvas, but that was hardly a bother. Getting more paint on his brush, he tried to work a little faster as he got the bottom layer established. Not that he didn't trust Bee to keep his word, but the little bot often fidgeted without even meaning to. Sticking out his glossa in concentration, Bulkhead worked fast, using up a fair amount of paint as he got what he presumed to be the core of the piece. Next would come the much tricker details…

Or at least they would have, if he hadn't glanced up to see Bumblebee in a completely different pose and half asleep...

"Bumblebee?" he said on reflex, coughing to try and gain his friend's attention. Startling awake, the little bot looked around in surprise, seeming to have forgotten exactly where he was and what was going on. When recognition dawned on his features, embarrassment wasn't far behind. A light blush lit up his cheeks as he shrunk down on the couch.

"Scrap, sorry, wasn't thinking." he apologized, trying to remember how he had originally been posed and failing to do so. Bulkhead felt a bit of frustration stirring, but he kept it well under wraps. Just because this wasn't going according to plan, didn't mean he was going to give up.

"That's okay! Just… need a new canvas." he said, keeping his smile even if he was a little more flustered. With a little bit of white paint he could salvage the canvas and use it later for something else, plus it wasn't like Sari didn't provide him with plenty of supplies. Getting set up all over again, he looked back to Bumblebee, who was once again settled in what appeared to be his position of choice. Hoping to begin in earnest, he was careful as could be when he broached the question on his mind. "Is that the pose you want?"

"Definitely!" Bumblebee said enthusiastically, giving him hope that he'd be able to paint for real this time. Not wasting even a moment, he painted as fast as he could, glancing back and forth between the painting and his subject to make the process as smooth as possible. It was an effective strategy, as it allowed him to get the outline twice as fast. This time he wanted to fully capture his friend in the picture as he'd been trying from the start. Some part of him just knew it would be worth it, and that they'd both be thankful he put in all this effort.

Or, at least, he thought he knew...

"Actually, sorry about this, but…" Bumblebee was bashful but not especially hesitant as he moved to lay on his side, stretching as he moved into an entirely different position. The poor artist felt his spark drop at the loss of progress all over again, even as his friend tried to cheer them both up by looking as chipper as possible. "That was so much more uncomfortable than I was expecting. Go on!"

Bulkhead didn't say a word as he grabbed another canvas, and did his very best not to look as discouraged as he felt. It didn't seem like this was going to stop any time soon, as much as he wished it would, and that didn't bode well for his wish to get this done. Perhaps he'd been far too hopeful…

Still, he did everything in his power to stay positive and make the painting he'd dreamed of become a reality.

Painting faster than he ever had in his entire life, the big bot ignored the imperfections that came from moving so rapidly, setting his jaw tight as little flecks of paint spattered across the canvas. At this point, such little things hardly seemed to mind. What really mattered was getting this done. A familiar form began to take recognizable shape on the canvas, and the artist started to plan ahead for his next move from then on. Shading would come after these little details, which he'd be able to put together thanks to having a lot of his friend's appearance memorized. Hope blossomed in his spark as he finally saw Bumblebee in the picture he was painting.

Getting so close to what he wanted made seeing a repeat of what had happened before hurt more than it should have.

Catching himself, Bumblebee blushed and shrunk down on the spot, smiling bashfully in apology for his unintentional movement. It really wasn't something he was doing on purpose; he wanted to see his friend happy! Sitting still just didn't work for him. Seeing Bulkhead look hurt, however, made him feel especially bad for the mistake.

"I don't think this is a good idea." Bulkhead said with a sigh, putting yet another canvas to the side and looking quite deflated as he did so. There wasn't anything he could think to do that might change this, and he was ready to just throw in the towel. Perhaps this was just the one thing he wasn't meant to paint.

"Aw come on, why not?" Bumblebee pressed, aware of the answer but hoping there was something he could do to fix it. Staying still just wasn't in his programming, but perhaps… he could get some tape? That wasn't realistic, but he wanted to try something to make up for this. Bulkhead only sighed again.

"You won't stay still?" he said simply, frustrated but not antagonistic in his summation. It was something neither of them could change, and that left both more than a little helpless.

"I…" Bumblebee stuttered off, tapping his digits together as he saw his friend get even more sad. Unable to help getting a little defensive, he got up from the couch, throwing up his arms as the big bot cleaned up some of the mess. "Come on, Bulk! You know me! Staying still isn't my thing, and I can't force that!"

"Well yeah, but… couldn't you just stay mostly still?" Bulkhead asked, still not ready to just give up all at once. Even if he had no idea how to fix things or make it work, he wanted this painting too much to just give up, no matter how many canvases it took. All he needed was a little bit more time than he had been getting. His determination must have shown, because Bumblebee furrowed his brow ridges in consideration.

"I… I can try! I…" he faded off as the pressure weighed on him, and thankfully his friend caught that quickly. To be clear; he wanted this a lot, but he could never want anything badly enough to make Bumblebee uncomfortable. Perhaps it was best they rested a bit, to restore their patience and approach this with clearer heads. He certainly needed a minute to relax from all this frustration...

"How about a break? We've been trying for a while, maybe a bit of down time will help." he proposed, already feeling a little better at the prospect of cooling down. Bumblebee shared the sentiment straight away, visibly relaxing on the spot and letting out a tiny sigh of his own. 

"Great idea Bulk! Let me just grab something…" he said happily, darting off and leaving the big bot alone with his supplies. Deciding to clean a bit to ease his mind, Bulkhead sorted the discarded canvases, hoping that he could paint over the unusable pictures with some white and reuse them. Seeing how much and how little progress he'd made at the same time made him wonder how he might improve on their next attempt. Nothing was coming to mind just yet, but that didn't mean he had lost hope. There had to be something on this planet that would motivate Bee to stay still, and by Primus he would find it!

As he was wiping up some paint that had managed to drip onto the floor, Bumblebee quite literally skidded back into the room, coming to a dead stop after running at full tilt. 

"I'm back! Just wanted to grab my game!" the little bot declared happily, waving the device about as he went to sit back on the smushed couch. The game had been a gift from Sari as well; some kind of earth console that had been sized up a few times over to better fit the servos of a Cybertronian. Smiling in acknowledgement, the big bot nodded as he went back to cleaning. Digital music met his audials as his friend started up the system and began to play, reclining on the couch as he settled in for a much needed break. Bulkhead had only had middling success with the games popular on earth, owed in large part to his size, but he was at least happy his friend could have some much needed fun with them. 

When the floor was finally cleaned up, he took stock of his slightly diminished inventory. There was still plenty of paint, and more than a few canvases, but if they continued at their current pace… He'd have to figure out a strategy before they tried this again, because otherwise this just wasn't going to work. Looking up at Bumblebee, he briefly considered proposing that they try this another day before his thoughts were systematically interrupted. 

Laying on his back over the pile of stuffing that had once been a couch, the small mech was entirely engrossed in his digital world, optics focused only on the screen as his digits rapidly tapped away on the controls. Other than the occasional shift of his expression, he was entirely motionless. It took Bulkhead a moment to process what he was seeing. Bumblebee was so rarely still, and never for this length of time… He didn't need to think much before he was reacting the only way he could.

Moving as silently as a mech of his size was able to, he grabbed what he needed, gathering his paints around himself as he got a fresh canvas and sat down before his easel. He couldn't have asked for a better setup; the pose, the lighting, it was all perfect. It was almost too much to hope this was real. Considering how many false starts he'd had, most could probably understand why he felt that way.

Daring to take his time, the big bot made every brush stroke count, trying to think of all the reasons he liked Bee so much as he made each one. His friend was confident, energetic, brave… All those thoughts motivated him every second he worked, and the results were soon apparent. The form of Bumblebee began to take shape rather quickly, coming together far more smoothly thanks to how relaxed he was. A base layer was ready to go in what felt like only a few minutes.

Oblivious to everything, Bumblebee kept right on playing, occasionally sticking his glossa out as he did so. Bulkhead contemplated including that detail in the piece, but ultimately decided against it. This was going to be a somewhat more dignified painting than that. 

When the time came to add lighting, he was almost over the moon, but he kept all the excitement to himself. Colors mixed together beautifully on his palette, forming the light and dark shades to the vibrant yellows and deep blacks that made up his friend's paint job. It was far more satisfying than painting even the most beautiful landscape he'd ever seen. Perhaps he was just a little biased on that front, but he did believe that painting things you truly cared about just brought them to life. One only had to glance at this piece to understand how much this bot meant to him.

It almost seemed like he was dreaming when each and every glance revealed Bumblebee to be sitting perfectly still, without a hint of movement beyond the minor. If this did turn out to be a dream, he'd at least be happy it was going so well. Fate had truly designed the perfect setup for them to finally get this done without any stress for either individual. 

Everything came together with what felt like only a few of the most well done strokes he'd ever painted. At long last, the bot he'd wanted to paint so badly had been captured on canvas! It was so exciting he couldn't hold back an exclamation as he set his brush down theatrically.

"Done!"

"Huh?!" Bumblebee gasped, half jumping on the spot as his game nearly flew from his servos. Looking about in a daze, he put the pieces together when he saw his friend, at which point guilt crossed his features. Time had slipped away from him even more so than it had for the very busy Bulkhead. "What? I… oh, Bulk! I didn't mean to get distracted! You could have stopped me earlier, I wouldn't have minded."

Waving off the appreciated but unnecessary apology, the big bot only smiled and wiped some paint from his servos, rising from his chair to puff his chest out with pride. "That's okay, I'm already finished."

"How?" the little bot gasped in awe, checking his internal chronometer to see just how long he'd been wrapped up in his game. It had only felt like a few minutes, but this wouldn't be the first time he'd gotten lost in a video game.

"Well, you were pretty content playing your game, so…" Bulkhead allowed his friend to put the rest of the pieces together, and in no time understanding dawned on the little mech. 

"Oh, I gotcha!" Bumblebee replied happily, quite relieved to have not held them up. If playing video games was what it had taken to make his friend happy, then he was quite fine with that. All he wanted was to get a look at the results, which he was certain would be incredible. "Here, let me see!"

Feeling a bit of shyness amongst his pride, Bulkhead handed over the canvas, careful to avoid the still drying paint.

"This is amazing!" Bumblebee proclaimed without hesitation, trying to be delicate even as he felt a surge of excitement upon beholding the painting. Of course he knew his friend had talent, but this was incredible! "Look at me, I look even better than usual!"

Bulkhead looked down to the floor and shuffled his pedes, doing his best to hide the blush creeping along his cheeks. "Well, I had a pretty great model."

"That's gonna sell fast, Bulkhead. No doubt about it." Bumblebee praised as he gave the painting back, confident in what he was saying. It didn't hurt that he was a good looking bot, but his friend had really done an especially good job on this one, and he was sure it would be bought up in no time. Taking the piece, the big bot smiled softly as he beheld it again. It had taken a lot of courage for him to get this, and he was quite proud of himself for that. As such, he held the painting very near and dear to his spark.

"Maybe, but… I think I'm gonna keep it, actually." he said softly, wanting to see it every day. There was a perfect place for it where he could do just that, not that he would say where that was. Bumblebee didn't mind the decision in the slightest.

However, when the little bot ducked in his friend's room later to pick up a borrowed item, he learned the true value of the painting to Bulkhead. On a wall reserved for only his most precious of works, the portrait sat high in a position of honor. Usually unable to say everything that came to mind due to overwhelming volume, Bee had been rendered speechless by the sight. Only a soft smile revealed how touched he was by the gesture. 

#transformers animated #tfa #bumblebee #bulkhead #commission #my writing #my commissions #fluff

[cryptic-michael]

I tend to procrastinate I'm told.

I tend to procrastinate I'm told.

Although I feel as if it isn't that, and instead somthing more.

It's not that I haven't gotten to the task, it's that my mind won't let me.

I have to meany projects of writings and art that I I don't know what to do.

And then we have my cat, who needs attention too.

As well as myself, I need a bath.

The laundry needs to be done too.

I need to cook myself food, and thought the dish I wont eat again.

My comic's need a story line and plot, as well as character design and more indebth personalities for all them.

I don't think have 2 comic series and some graphic novels are good.

That's just far to meany to keep track of!

And it's true, my generals and workers are long forgotten in the snow of Russia and my little jews have been stuck in their homes hiding in shame from the public.

My plague doctors haven't left Nottingham, but need to go to Brixtion, instead they are stuck in their caravan hoping for the light of god to bring mercy on them as they hope to be in Brixtion in a month.

Hell hasn't been this peaceful since it was made, that's because no one is making any conflict and instead they are home drinking their tea and coffee, listing and reading up about themselves in the papers and books. Heven is peaceful as normal, even Gabriel is shocked by how nobody is doing a thing. Even purgatory has been slow, it's mailroom abonded as the whiskey runs lower by the day and the smoke room gets cleaned...no ones been fired, or even demoted to purgatory or hell in over two years.

My cossacks are dead and gone, the little Russians stuck in the woods in a reched snow looking for their parents and t dth ing to find their way home.

My goat? Oh no, he was the first one I never finished....He was little and black, with a broken horn who belonged to a witch and her crow. He never found his witch, and only found the crow.

My strange story of him and him? Well...I don't talk about that one, to contraversal and I know I'll get yelled at once again for having a jew, since those times are bad.

Those are my tells I wish to finish, but cannot find a plot or things!

And damned be my mother, for she only goes, "It's your story, do what you please." I am! And I'll be damned to hell with all my demons before I finished them.

She only likes one, my Doctors, how they are silly and happy at times, but none the others.

The hell one gets to controversial she claims, how I shouldn't poke fun at god and religion. At times she's on board for it all, other it's to dark and bad for my mental health.

I dare not speak of my three sides that came to be general in the war, no dare not say, the three are silly, unprofessional and how did they land this position and die like that! I fear her words like a deer fears sounds.

I never told her my Russians and cossacks were for a story, just claimed them to be doodles and gave a vague idea of if it were a story, she claimed them cute and to make it happy, not so dark.

The loved my goat, but then didn't like it so much, in a strange mood from being dragged into meetings at the hall again, saying to make it light hearted and nor scary or dark. The darkest thing it it was when it would fall from a hill and be treated by the witch, who is clumsy but professional.

My him and him as I insist upone it? I've heard her words about such topics of love, and how she uses the proper terms as insults to me and others, poking fun at how gay a person can look or making assumptions about ones sexuality and gender, it's never nice and I dare not speak of it, only drawing the characters on separate pages and make it seem like one is in hell, the other my three generals, knowing full well the two soldiers share nothing in common except a love for the polish and jewish.

We have my plans! My story, my tales! As well as my woes and how I feel.

I never could express how much I love them, my stories even if I made them up for my own entertainment during test.

But they become forgotten whenever she would say, "There no money and pay in being an artist! You need a real job, a good stable one, you'll wind up starving and homeless is that what you want!"

The words still hurt and burn my cheeks with embarrassment and dread, I just wanted to share my passion with people, share my stories in hopes of helping people find a story they will like and love.

But I rarely post my creations in fear.

In fear that she'll somehow find them.

See the positive messages and comments I'll get.

In fear of her yelling at me, about sharing my art and it getting stolen.

It wont! Who would want horrible drawing in the first place?

They reched and bad.

Poorly drawn and I barley know how to do proportions.

"Well that wont matter to them!"

Yes it will, and I do traditional art.

I let my hand flow over the paper and create things, and I put my name.

I asume she just, doesn't understand.

Lives back in her times, or maybe not?

We are very diffrent after all.

I'd love to make art, comics, novels and stories! I dream of being a voice actor, I'm very good at mimicking and changing my voice.

But those are not real jobs. Their hobbies.

A real job is working at a bookstore or library?

No, those aren't real either.

Retail?

Perhaps.

Nuring and being a lawyer? Even an IT department worker at a plant?

There you got, those are real.

I dont want those.

I want to make art, I thrive from it and it helps me feel, helps me know who I am.

But my issues are this, how can I thrive and feel good about what I make, when I feel like I'm disappointing my mother?

It's not procrastination at all, no.

It's a poor environment, with very little hope of springing my characters to life.

The reasons I'm so hard on myself is because at times, she isn't that supportive, and I dare not reveal that to her, or anyone in fear of yelling.

#somthing #a somthing somthing #a little thing #on how i feel #jt is not good #or bad #or anything really #just an emotion #that i do not like #poem? idk #poem? maybe #poem? #poetry #not at all short

[singularname]

ooc: cats 2019 was hot garbage that doesn’t belong in the jellicle junkyard. Below are my thoughts and my review. I get pretty technical at points. So here you go. PERSONAL BLOGS DO NOT REBLOG! Liking and commenting and sending me asks about stuff is fine. But please do not reblog. I’m sure more thoughts will come out as I discuss things and such, but these are my first impressions.

positives ( will be above the cut ):

You could tell who the broadway singers were and they stood out.

Munk was good, but I have some thoughts but overall he was good. He was probably the only one that even remotely understood his character, but he still had a few off beats.

Jennifer killed it, no i wont take critiques. Memory was pretty good.

Mungo and Rumple made the debut version of their song likeable (cause I do not like the debut version of their song) yet i have thoughts.

Bustopher Jones (the song) was decent, out of all the reworked numbers it fit the best and didn’t seem to far from the reworked plot or the original, so it was a good middle ground. James did well, he’s no operatic singer, but he did well, best of the non-trained leads at least.

Gus was good but his song was a bit boring he needed someone more to play off of as that is what acting is partially

Skimble may just have been the best part of the whole damn thing. The inclusion of tap into his number was pretty smart. I do wish more of his accent shined through though.

The rundown theater worked it would have worked better if they kept it all there.

negatives ( below the cut ):

Dance was sacrificed for cinamtography which was a damn shame. this musical is one of the premier dance musicals

Munk’s voice at the beginning was far too high, and did not exude power. It got better.

Victoria being the stand in for the audience was stupid and pointless. Especially with the fact that Addressing of Cats was kept in and broke the fourth wall.

Victoria’s acceptance of Grizabella was pointless because the jellicles hadn’t accepted her, she wasn’t even considered a jellicle yet. Her agency in that number meant nothing. If she had been a jellicle it would have been better. A better audience stand in would be the fucking kittens cause its their first ball.

The lack of touching made the touching that was their awkward. It was like they were all afraid to touch and interact with each other. And the CGI didn’t help, like when Munk lifted Victoria off the car at the beginning which looked like he wasn’t grabbing her at all which we know isn’t true.

Tugger had no point in the musical because he sang his number and disappeared, and not by fucking Macavity. Jason could have done more with the character, he had the right voice, but its like he wasn’t trying.

Jenny-Any-Dots was ruined. She wasn’t a respectable cat, and the mice were stupid. Sorry, I mean the idea was cute in theory, I liked that, but the execution was stupid. And the zipping of her skin NO. It just works better with the cats acting it out like they act out skimble’s number or bustopher’s number. It didn’t add anythign to the cats sing the songs about themselves because that idea was dropped when Skimble and Bustopher even sang their songs. Like its a poor idea and poorly executed, especially since the original is like gossip the cats gossiping about who could be chosen.

Who will it be echoed only once? UGH. The chorus was fucking weak in the few moments they were given to stand out.

Speaking of clothing, the clothing choices made no sense, along with proportion of human clothing. If I put a watch around a cat’s neck it would fucking choke. Yet a ring can fit around a cat’s arm? Some of the clothing was too human like all of Misto’s costume (which why was he wearing it the full time? he looked better without it).

The replacement of coricopat and tantomile for the hip hop twins was utterly stupid and useless.

Some of the framing of songs and such especially at the beginning was bad. But that could also be because it takes you about 4 songs to get your eyeballs used to the damn CGI.

Mungo and Rumple were good, but Rumple would have been better if she kept the accent up like Mungo did. I loved seeing them do a burglary, but I prefer the musical version where the scare the cats away under the guise of macavity then have fun in the junkyard.

Growltiger had promise as a song but they only gave us a line followed by a joke so that was stupid. The whole barge shit was stupid. Their were no stakes and we never see the other cats get off the damn barge. Also griddlebone poor poor griddlebone.

The opening number was missing so many things like decent choreography. None of the choreography made them look feline, they looked like humans doing a mix of jazz and ballet. Just turning their hands over instead of open hands would have been a tremendous change. But like I said earlier what choreography there was was sacrificed for cinematography so you could see what you were supposed to see instead of letting the audience watch and see it on their own with some lighting suggestions to draw the eye away from the main dancing.

I think the concept of Skimble’s number was great, but I thought taking them out of the ballroom was stupid. But it was the strongest number and the one besides memory which had the most relation back to the original.

Why were their so many songs and verses cut? Naming of cats named only plain names, not the fun names which is where we get names of our characters from! Like half the cast is named in that number. It made the chorus seem distant and impersonal, along with the lack of touch.

Robbie should have gotten the same treatment as the girl playing victoria he had almost a bigger role than her, aside from her little grizabella moments which all of those important grizabella moments were done in seclusion. Half the reason they have agency in the stage show is because other cats can see her.

The lack of touch! enough said.

Tugger not singing Mistoffelees song upset me. Robbie did good, but he is not Tugger. Mistoffelees song was ruined by all the pausing and bullshit. There was not a climax to the song at all because it was always stopped and restarted. it felt like a dinky kids roller coaster that had no real payoff because Misto has no confidence so when Deuts appears it may not have been because of Misto at all just saying.

Old Deuts was... bad. Judi was pitchy at best (sing talking the lines just don’t work), and just not very convincing. Her presence wasn’t commanding or authoritative no matter how much Robbie tried.

Bomby was fucked three ways to hell. Taylor was okay, but the song Macavity was ruined with the catnip and all the bullshit with that. Macavity is a cautionary tale, and doesn’t fit in with the actual purpose the musical wanted it to be. Her song wasn’t as a good as normal, and it missed aspects that having it as a duet brought.

Beautiful ghosts was absolutely pointless, and quite petty of a song. Perhaps if we knew more about Victoria or she was a jellicle it would have made sense, but it just seemed very disconnected.

I am mourning the cut of Peeks and Pollicles. Because it explain its a dog, so when Bomby says it in Macavity you have a connection to the word. Here it just seemed like a nonsense word. Plus no rumpus cat. Cutting it means that Munk’s normal song was changed to skimble, and i guess misto. Also cutting it means you take a whole number away from the chorus, and thus you loose more personality of the chorus cats.

The chorus seemed absolutely pointless because you never could watch them and focus on them. They were just their not interacting with one another, not doing anything really. All of what makes the jellicles a tribe was taken away because these cats seem like strangers to one another. Not to mention taking away their solos at the beginning is a crime and again takes away from the personality of each individual chorus cat.

Jason should have sang misto’s song cause it would have given him a purpose besides a star to get butts in seats. he was their and i half wanted him to sing the end where victoria did because then he would have had a purpose but nope.

The cutting of so many verses from songs was just a shame. The musical inspires people to take up ballet, and jazz, and tap but all of it was cut for cinematography purposes and to make you look at the main actors in a different shot so their is no inspiration for the dance.

Skimble’s number had an awkward shot on the train bridge that was so far away you couldn’t even see the silhouettes any more.

I mentioned proportion earlier but like the train tracks were way off, i mean we’ve all seen Aristocats right?

Victoria not having her moment after naming of cats was sad. And whatever moment their was ruined by the assassination of misto’s character. Cause it was bad. He never questions himself as being good in the stage show just where his powers come from. But here he has no steadiness in if he is good or not, and he’s just badly characterized.

The kittens had no excitement for Tugger in his song. None of them did they seemed more happy about the milk rather than this hunk in front of them.

Macavity was shit. Seeing him throughout took away from him being mysterious and threatening. Seeing him fall at the end with Griz floating away was absolutely stupid and cartoonish and TS Eliot is rolling in his grave at that alone. Why he is not a zombie yet coming to kill Tom Hooper for fucking his poems up is beyond me. Also Macavity is a ginger cat... but he had no hint of red hair on him at all.

The jellicle ball dance sequence was bad. It wasn’t just that they weren’t cat like it was that what’s his face was trying to do a Sugar Plum Fairy and have them all dance to the quieter notes in the musical which made it seem disjointed. Sugar Plum Fairy works like that because its a light number she is supposed to make you listen for what she’s dancing too not just what you are hearing. This did not work.

The plot was stupid. The competition and stealing of cats was stupid. It was not needed. The had the element of putting on a show and talking about cats getting chosen they didn’t need macavity for more than that, or to make him want to be chosen. Him being a threat alone is good enough.

Munk did not get his fight. That was given to the damn cats on the barge. I am not happy with that.

I wish the named cats were more present in the bigger group. They blended into the background before their own songs, and then they disappeared because of the shitty capturing the cats plot device that was shitty and not needed. It took away from your familiarity with the cats who were present because we know nothing about those cats at all.

A moment of silence for all the chorus cats we don’t see or know, or were written off, and had no interpersonal relationships with each other. Literally the lack of touching between them makes it seem like all these cats are strangers to each other. Robbie tried.

Another moment of silence for Gillian Lynne’s choreography. The nuance she gave to it, that was all lost and gone.

Finally the CGI the hands were inconsistent, as was the face stuff. They had whiskers but they were hard to see, and because they had no nose or mouth (cat versions) defined it didn’t feel right, and we know it was possible to do both since the actors wore makeup.

#ooc: out of cats

[writtingsofspn]

Aladdin AU

Summary: Aladdin AU!

Pairing: Sam x reader

A/N: Finally continuing with my Disney princess AU list! Please please please let me know what you think and if you’re as excited as I am for the rest of this story!

You’d always loved spying on these meeting between your father and his advisers, finding the perfect hiding spot just outside the door when you were only 7. It made you feel important, informed of all matters, prepared in case you ever need be. Not that you ever would.

Years ago the matters seemed much less daunting, a thief stealing cattle from farms in the south, neighbors quibbles blown out of proportion, things such as this. Now, however, each meeting concerned the same thing as the last: money, or rather a lack there of. Citizens starving, the homeless population growing larger, family businesses disappearing, all caused by the treasury being all but empty.

This was what today's meeting concerned of course, and as always Amal, your fathers most trusted adviser, had an answer.

You listened as most of the men trickled out of the room, discussing amongst themselves what is to be done for the kingdom, while Amal stayed behind preparing to propose something he would not dare discuss in front of the other advisers.

“You know my king” He began, the mere sound of his voice making you want to roll your eyes “there’s always the solution I brought up last meeting”

You father sighed loudly “I told you once and I’ll tell you again I will not hear any more of that suggestion”

“But your majesty-“

“I will not be betting this kingdom on old wives’ tales”

“It is not as though you have another option sire”

Another sigh came from him, you could all but see him put his head in his hands, the stress of the kingdom’s situation weighing heavily upon him.

“Legend tells of riches far beyond any mans imagination” Amal continues cautiously “Certainly enough to save the kingdom for decades to come”

“Where can we find such riches” You could hear the defeat in your father’s voice, making your stomach drop.

“Many speak of a tomb buried deep beneath the kingdom, accessible only through caves on the northern shore”

“Then send a team to these caves, have them look for this tomb”

“I’m afraid it is not that easy your majesty” Amal chuckled “legend says only one man has any hope of finding this tomb, the son of the man who built it”

“So the fate of my kingdom rests in the hands of the son of a man who built a magic tomb that only reveals itself to him” A laugh and a pause as your father reveled in the hopelessness of this situation “So be it then. Amal, I trust you and only you to find this man. Do whatever necessary”

“As you wish your majesty” You could hear the giddiness in Amal’s voice as he said this which just made you sick. “In the meantime what are we to do with the people”

“Distract them I suppose” Your father sighed “Just until we can secure the money”

“A royal wedding perhaps”

You felt your heart drop. Surely they weren’t speaking of your own wedding. You were but a child, you knew no men to whom you could marry. Certainly you couldn’t get married to a man you didn’t know so soon.

“Y/N won’t be happy…but I suppose sacrifices must be made.”

And with those words your fate was sealed.

-

Dean awoke to a loaf of bread hitting his face. Groaning as he pushed himself to a sitting position on the hard ground.

“Where’d you find this one?” He asked as he tore off a piece and shoved it into his mouth.

“The baker is very easily distracted when beautiful women are nearby” Sam chuckled.

“So you dressed up as one?” Dean teased causing Sam to roll his eyes. “Did you already eat a loaf yourself?”

“Yes” Sam lied, the memory of the smiles of the poor kinds elicited from the loaf of bread given to them that Sam had stole for himself bringing a smile of his own to his face.

Dean nodded, seeing right through his brother as he tore his own loaf in half and threw it at Sam before he could protest.

Sam only nodded in response, catching the loaf easily and startded chewing on a piece of it happily. “So what’s on the schedule for today?”

“I’ve got some leads on work” Dean answered groggily “Check those out then I guess find some place to sleep for tonight”

Sam nodded, taking another bite of his loaf “Dean…we’re not going to be able to keep this up for that long”

“We won’t need to Sam” Dean answered looking off into the distance “We’ll find work, good, steady work and one day get off the streets, be able to actually buy our food…not have to pose as women to get it”

His attempt to lighten the mood having the desired effect as a small smile pulled at the corners of Sam’s lips. “You think so?”

“I know so”

-

“They tied me to a tree since they were in such a hurry but felt bad for me, in spite of me being a prisoner of war, and thus left me a sword and a promise to come back. When they did they found me still alive but surrounded by bodies sliced to death by my own hand”

His story had an air of being well rehearsed, the passion with which he told it much similar to that of a man over compensating for something.

“Wow” You said with as little emotion as possible; the prince, however, took no notice.

“You know there are many beautiful women in my home country” He said changing the subject as if it were a natural progression.

“mhm”

“I could have any of them if I choose” He continued undeterred “But the pull of a women with the title of princess is something else’

You paused for a second, honestly unsure of whether or not you were expected to thank him for such a comment.

“I guess what I’m trying to say is” He didn’t even look at you as he said this, instead inspecting his nails as he lounged in his chair casually “I would be honored if you were to give me your hand in marriage”

“No” The answer came to you quickly and easily though that was hardly a surprise.

“What?” The prince’s gaze snapped to you and he immediately sat up straight. This was undoubtedly the first time you had his full attention this entire encounter.

“I said no” Now it was your turn to lounge in your chair and inspect your nail bed mockingly “You clearly don’t care about me, are incredibly rude, remarkably narcissistic, and quite frankly I’d rather jump off my balcony than marry you”

The prince stared at you in total shock, his mouth hanging open slightly. And you’d be lying if you were to say that brought you no pleasure.

“And on that note I bid you adieu” You stood and bowed mockingly, turning around to take your leave.

“Don’t you dare walk out on me” The bite in his voice caught you off guard, turning around to find him on his feet and very red-faced. “Never have I met a girl so selfish-so vile-so undeserving of my affection”

“Me? Selfish? Vile?” You laughed “Have you looked in the mirror? You waltz in here as if you own the place, as if you were entitled to my hand.”

“I’m a prince” He spat as he folded his arms over his chest “You’re a princess, you do the math” And with those charming words he stormed out of the room, no doubt to complain to your father before going back him in the twelve carriages employed to bring him here.

You made your way towards your room, pausing only when you heard your father’s assurances to the prince as he tried to salvage the situation, knowing you were in for it once he left making you sigh before slamming your door behind you.

Your father forced it back open not soon after, much quicker than you were expecting. “What was that Y/N”

“He was an ass” You shrugged.

“Language please” You father sighed, plopping himself onto your bed.

“He is!” You cried “He was incredibly rude and didn’t care about me at all”

“Y/N there aren’t that many princes in this world, you unfortunately don’t have that many options”

“I know” You sighed “but I do still have options. I know that finding someone I love may be out of my reach but I at least deserve someone I like, someone who cares about me”

“And after word gets out about how you treated that man how many of those princes do you expect will be willing to come see you”

You were shocked into silence, you honestly hadn’t considered that. “But he treated me poorly as well, why isn’t his character being dragged through the mud as well”

“You’re the woman, you’re always expected to be significantly better behaved, as unfair as that is it’s how the world works”

You sighed, putting your head in your hands “Why do I even have to get married, it’s not fair”

“I know but as a princess it’s your duty. You owe it to the kingdom”

“I feel…I feel like a prize” You groaned “Being auctioned off to the best bidder”

“That would imply that you have no choice” Your father shook his head, grabbing your hand comfortingly “and you do. These men are for your choosing, not the other way around”

You made no answer, not fully accepting this answer but not having the motivation to object.

“I just ask that you be civil to all those to come”

“Alright, I will be civil” You promised, offering him a small smile as he left the room, collapsing dramatically on your bed as soon as the door was shut.

You laid for a while, doing nothing but staring at the ceiling before walking out to your balcony and looking out over the city. You just needed to escape your life, just for a bit. To not be reminded of your upcoming wedding to god knows who for just a day. To be a normal girl.

And so you resolved to do something about it, to not just sit on your ass feeling sorry for yourself for a change. You walked to your closet, finding a dark coat with a large hood and throwing it on before slowly climbing your way down the balcony.

It’s about time you took your life into your own hands.

-

You kept one hand at the base of your hood, keeping it draw close to your head doing your best to hide your identity as you strolled the streets, feeling at peace for the first time in who knows how long. As you neared the center of town, however, things took a turn as the effects of the kingdoms poverty became more prevalent.

Young children sat on each street corner, grumbling stomachs heard from blocks away. You reached one particular street in which tables piled high with goods lined each side of it. You looked at the poor kids on the curb, their large eyes looking up at you pleading for help. Looking around you saw that the table next to you was piled high with food, surely this man could spare just one apple for hungry children.

Without second thought you plucked one from the table and handed it to one of the children, watching with a smile as he ran quickly down the street with his prize.

“What do you think you’re doing” A harsh voice broke your train of thought as you saw the man behind the table leaning over it yelling at you.

“I hope you plan on paying for that”

“Oh-I-uh” You hadn’t considered bringing any money with you, still not sure why this man was so angry over one measly apple.

“That’s what I thought” He shook his heads before yelling out “Guards guards, thief!” and pointing right at you. You didn’t have time to think before your hand was seized and you were being pulled down the street.

Part 2

#sam x reader #Sam Winchester #Sam Oneshot #sam imagine #sam one shot #SPN #spn fanfic #spn fan fiction #spn oneshot #spn imagine #supernatural #supernatural oneshot #supernatural one shot #supernatural imagine

[mysticsparklewings]

I will be with You

When you go, just know that I will remember you If living was the hardest part, we'll then one day be together And in the end we'll fall apart, just as the leaves change in color And then I will be with you, I will be there one last time now --My Chemical Romance, "It's Not a Fashion Statement, it's a Deathwish" ____ It's rare that I'm this proud of an artwork I've created. ^_^ Usually, there's some glaring issue or just an assortment of small things I'd still change if I had the patience and/or artistic ability to do it. Or even just some things that I feel like could've been done better, even if I know it did the best I could. This time? No. Not right now, shortly after it's been completed, anyway. I'm sure years down the line from now I'll look back and feel at least slightly different. But as it stands now, while I'm sure it has its faults, I am truly happy and truly proud of what I've created here and whatever faults are there aren't bothering me at all. So what then is this, exactly? This my dear Sparklers is a visual love letter to the band I discovered just a little too late but was still there for me when no one else was all the same. Earlier this month, I uploaded a different piece of art to celebrate the announcement of My Chemical Romance's Return, but even when I uploaded that one I was already thinking of doing another one, this time something that was more obviously fan art. But not just fan art as I've done for them in the past (Exhibit A, Exhibit B, and Exhibit C), but something extra-special and fun. I really did go into creating this wanting it to be as I described it above; a visual love letter to this band that I love so much and could not be happier that they're back. As such, I've squeezed in as many references as I could: 1. The female figure is molded after Helena from the album Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge 2. The male/skeleton figure is supposed to be Pepe (that's what Google said his name was, anyway), the icon and seemingly marching band conductor from The Black Parade album 3. On Pepe's hat, I replaced the usual symbol with the Candle symbol that's been featured in the band's Return artwork 4. They fade into leaves based on the line from It's Not a Fashion Statement, It's a Deathwish (a song from Three Cheers) that I quoted at the top of the description 5. behind them is Party Poison's mask, as featured in the Danger Days music videos 6. on the mask, I replaced one of the black triangle shapes with the hanging man silhouette from I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love 7. The rest of the background is inspired by the covers for the Conventional Weapons releases (which in my mind I count as essentially an unofficial fifth album) (Debatable) 8. Their touching hands could be an indirect reference to the line "And as we're touching hands, and as we're falling down" from Demolition Lovers, a song from Bullets. That's at least one reference each (Three Cheers technically got two) for each of the main releases, plus one directly related to this new era we don't know much about yet. It's not an exhaustive "spot the reference" game, but I'm glad I was able to incorporate as many as I did. Now that I've explained them, maybe I can talk about my process without having to stop to re-explain each reference as they come up.   After some brainstorming, I got this image in my head of Helena and Pepe in this pose (inspired at least partially by this pre-existing fanart I've seen many times before) , which to me is a "renaissance dancing" pose but I'm sure there's some other better way to describe it I haven't thought of. I tried for a very long time to find a reference image of this exact pose to help me get the proportions and general anatomy right within my own stylization, but for the life of me, I couldn't find anything close enough to suit me and I really didn't want to have to settle for something else. As such, I'm sure the proportions and anatomy are off, but even so, I think I did pretty good considering. The main issues I ran into during sketching were mainly balancing the energy between the two characters--which I do think I managed in the end--Helena's skirt, as she's supposed to be holding onto it with that hand you can't see, and Pepe's torso. Originally, I was planning on doing this piece traditionally, but once the sketch was finished it almost immediately clicked into place that I'd be better served to do it digitally, considering what I wanted to do with the mask in the background already, as well as the leaf-fade. (The Conventional Weapons reference hadn't been planned yet, and it was technically only made possible later on by this piece being digital.) Luckily, doing things digitally meant that Pepe's torso was fixed pretty easily. It was too thin in the sketch, but all I had to do was select the right lines and move them out a bit in Photoshop. He's still a bit thin and not super buff, but personally I'm letting that go because...I mean, he's at least part if not all skeleton. If anyone's going to be too thin, wouldn't it make sense that it's him? Helena's skirt I did end up happy within the sketch but...we'll come back to the skirt in a moment. Pepe's...face? looked a bit odd in the sketch, but other than that, once I was happy with that foundation, I scanned it in and got to work on digitizing everything. I went over my lines for Helena and Pepe the way I normally would for something like this if a little intentionally messy instead of trying to get them super clean--as I thought that might be appropriate here--and then I paused with them to work on the mask behind them. The mask admittedly came out very poorly in the sketch, just because I bothered to look up no references for it whatsoever once I decided I was going to make this digital and I knew I could just draw half of it and flip it over. And I'm glad I didn't start trying to follow my sketch lines for it at all because looking up actual references showed me that would've been way off. While I had my reference up, I ended up going in and basically full-coloring and detailing the mask right then. That's the beauty of digital work; a lot of steps can be done basically out of order from how you'd have to do them traditionally and it doesn't matter because you can just move layers around and adjust effects later. I went with this pseudo-soft shading based on the colors and shadows I was seeing in my references, even though I wasn't sure yet exactly how I was going to shade Helena and Pepe. I figured that even if I used a different method for them that I could either go back and adjust the mask as necessary or that it wouldn't matter since the mask was part of the background anyway. Once that was done, I went back to ponder my two figures and the leaf effect that I wanted to do with them. And again, I went a little out of order here, as I ended up filling in the silhouette of Helena and Pepe with a blanket layer of gray so I could see how them blocking the mask was going to look (and I figured based on past experiences I might need the blanket layer in white later). From there, I went into working on the fading-to-leaves effect. My logic was that I'd need mostly the silhouettes of the leaves and then I'd get what I wanted after playing with layer effects or something. This assumption ended up being correct, but we're not there yet. As I worked, I kept looking at my "finished" messy lines. Something just didn't feel right. Honestly, I couldn't tell you where the idea to do this lineless look came from, but it got in my head as I was working and I kept looking at the lines I had and not being happy to just color those in as I normally would, shade it, and call it a day. I tried. I tried really hard to ignore the urge to at least try it and carry on as I was. I'd already come this far, and I'd be done so much faster if I stuck to the plan...But!! Clearly I lost that argument with myself. You know what though? I'm glad I did! I don't think I've ever done lineless art like this before, not counting my watercolor work where that's just part of the process to me. But digital? Certainly not. Human figures? Also no. I've come close in the sense that I've shaded my art before, turned off the line layers before, and thought, "oh hey that almost works without the lines because of the shading,"  but not much farther than that. Naturally, I wasn't even sure how or where to begin, so I went with what came naturally to me. I started by just filling in the lines as I normally would have, and then I went back layer by layer and went back and forth between having the line layer (with the opacity brought down somewhat already so I could sort of see what I was doing) on and off to try and balance the shapes between what they looked like with and without the lines. It's weird because if you ever try this, it's a little like having to figure out a bunch of individual silhouettes that make one whole one, except you need them to be a little more defined if you want them to make visual sense. That step and the next one, the shading, are tied in my mind for which one took me the longest. For the shading, I really just went in blind, using hard-edge cell shading, though originally I planning to come back with some soft shading in certain areas later. The soft shading ended up not happening partly because I liked it much better than I thought I would without it, and I thought the hard-edge shading made the figures pop a little more compared to the background. The thing about this was the same issue I run into with my lines nowadays; to get smooth shapes I spend a while going back and forth between putting color down and erasing it, and sometimes undoing and redoing the same line a dozen times to get it right in one stroke. But that's really my own fault for being stubborn and trying to work solely within Photoshop and not use other programs, as I know good and well I'd have less of that issue if I'd hop into Paint Tool Sai and use the linework layers in there. What can I say? I live up to my Capricorn sign by being as stubborn as a goat. Anyway. The biggest challenge to figure out the shading for was Helena's skirt. I think I would've still had issues with that though even if I colored and shaded my normal way, with the lines and everything. It's just the position it's in that complicates things. I actually did a good amount of shading in reverse here, where I'd make the base layer the shadow color and then the layer on top would be the regular color, as in some cases it just seemed easier to do that than the other way around. The part of Helena's dress around the top, for example. Or Pepe's pants (what little you can see of them). Additionally, I ended up leaving the feather attached to Pepe's hat alone and not really smoothing it out, as I thought the roughness and inconsistencies worked really well to make it seem more feathery. With enough patience and persistence and much back and forth among the various layers, I made it through all of that. I was a little concerned at first about some of my color choices and if the shading was too harsh in some places or not, but I mellowed out as I worked and ended up not making make adjustments after the fact. For instance, originally I thought I'd go back and make Pepe's...skin? closer to a true white and this fleshy off-white color was more of a placeholder, but the longer I worked with it, the more I didn't want to change it. It actually makes sense, given that his hands are normal (as they are presented in official artwork and other fan art not made by me) and that bones usually are naturally more of an off-white color. And I also think it just looks really good next to Helena's pale skin. The hands were a special challenge in regards to both shading and coloring, as hands like to be the more complicated part of a drawing more often than not, but even that I managed to get through with a lot more ease than I would've bet on. The other thing about that is that I was surprised once I got through the steps at how much better Pepe's face looked in comparison to the rest of the drawing. As I mentioned before, it looked odd in the sketch. But one I had most of the colors for him and Helena filled in digitally, the contrast or something just made it look infinitely better. (Combined with a hefty dose of earlier back-and-forth making adjustments to his jawbone area.) Originally, I thought I might use the same cell shading for Helena's eyeshadow. However, while I was still thinking of adding some selective soft shading, I added it using one of the brushes I'd used on the mask earlier. It looked so good to me that even after I tried added the soft shading with it like I planned and decided I didn't want/need it anywhere else, I kept it. And for the record, Helena's hair is kind of the wrong texture (it's officially more straight than this) and she's missing this little netted veil thing she's supposed to have, but I had a very specific vision in mind, so those were the two creative liberties I took with her design. I say it's fair game since I took a liberty with Pepe's hat to get the Return reference in. And besides, those two details being off doesn't make her totally unrecognizable if you know who Helena is in the first place. Once they were done, I spent longer than I bothered to document playing with the leaf layer I'd made earlier to try and figure out how to get the effect I wanted. Sparing you the boring details of my trial error, as I'm sure this description will be long enough without them, I eventually determined the best thing to do was to have one layer of the leaves on top set as an "overlay" layer, and another behind/beneath Helena and Pepe. Then I went back and extended my color and shading layers to extend down over the leaves, and I arranged and clipped the layers accordingly. Technically, the overlay layer wasn't necessary, but it added a little extra dimension that I really liked. By that point, it was my second day of working digitally and getting late, but I had to do one more thing before I could go to bed with my mind at ease that night. With Helena and Pepe done, I turned the mask back on (I'd turned it off so I could focus on them without it distracting me or otherwise getting in the way) and I felt like they weren't standing out enough against it. The bright yellow color was competing too much for my eyes' attention. So, after trying the "stroke" blending option in white and that looking God-awful, I added a new layer between them and the mask and manually gave them a white outline. It wasn't a perfect solution, and I knew that even then, but it was enough that I could sleep soundly knowing how far I'd gotten with the artwork. The next day I had to take a break from working on this to bust out a painting for the challenge I decided to take on this month, but I went back to this as soon as I could after that was taken care of. When I came back to it, I acknowledged that I technically could've left it as it was and call it finished. But I still didn't like how obnoxious the mask seemed for a background piece and it felt...I don't know. Almost hollow, in a way. It was a cool graphic, sure, but I wanting something more than that. Again, I'll spare you most of the nitty-gritty details. But long story short, I played around with layer effects and filters for a while until I had blurred the mask out just enough that it wasn't so obnoxious but also so looking at it directly didn't make me nauseous, and the edges were softened so it felt more like a true background piece and not just an accessory that had been plastered carelessly back there. It was only after I started saving off versions with different backgrounds--one with no background, one with white, one with black--that I realized I was missing a golden (semi pun intended) opportunity to incorporate a Conventional Weapons reference/allusion. Which was exciting because I'd previously been disappointed that I couldn't think of a good way to do that. I went back and forth on layer styles and adding texture with brushes and things for a while on that too, but you can see what I ultimately settled on. It's not a 1:1 to the CW covers, but I'm really pleased with it anyway. I did end up adding a bit more to the white outline in a few places and adding a drop shadow to Helena and Pepe so they'd pop a bit more (it almost makes them look like paper cutouts to me!), but really the only other thing I had to do after that was add my watermark. It took roughly 3 days of work from start to finish, but I was honestly surprised by how fairly smooth the process went. Especially considering the new things I'd tried along the way. I can only assume it's because of just how much my heart was really into making this piece. As I said before, I am truly proud of how this piece turned out. I love it. I love it, and I love the band that inspired its creation. Even the title says a lot here, I think. I picked this line that's repeated at the end of It's Not a Fashion Statement, It's a Deathwish, as it was a leading inspiration with the leaves and everything, and after looking at the lyrics I realized how fitting that line is for this. I discovered My Chemical Romance two years too late, two years after they broke up in 2013, but I've stuck by them ever since, and I will continue to do so, with whatever the unwritten future holds. They've changed, as anyone would over the course of six years, but they came back anyway. Even if it's just for a few shows and they're gone again. Or if it's going to be so much more than that. They. Came. Back. And that's not an easy thing to do a lot of the time. And so, I show my solidarity. I will be with you, MCR, no matter what comes next. You were there for me, and now it's my turn to be there for you, even if it as just another fan among the crowd. And that's really all I have to say on the matter. ____ Artwork © me, MysticSparkleWings ____ Where to find me & my artwork: My Website | Commission Info + Prices | Ko-Fi | dA Print Shop | RedBubble |   Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram

#mcrmy #mychemicalromance #mcr #helena #the black parade #three cheers for sweet revenge #danger days #thetruelivesofthefabulouskilljoys #killjoys make some noise #conventional weapons #return

[zecretsanta]

Fic: The 1st Annual First Nonary Game Survivor Snowball Fight

To: @reivolutionary-penguin

From: @morphogenetic

for @reivolutionary-penguin! you can probably guess which prompt I went with based on the title here, haha. happy holidays, and I hope you enjoy!

AO3 LINK

-

“So, let me get this…the four of you are taking an international flight…in the middle of December…to have a snowball fight?”

Akane sighs before answering. “Look, Junpei, we all have to do some stuff for Crash Keys. Aoi especially has some clients that he needs to talk to. The fact that it’s also going to be snowing back in Japan didn’t influence our plans in any way.”

“So the fact that you’re holding ‘The 1st Annual First Nonary Game Survivor’s Snowball Fight’ was just coincidental?”

A smile passes her lips before she answers the voice on the phone with mock seriousness. “First of all, we are absolutely not calling it that. That would draw too much attention from the wrong people. Second of all, it’s not going to be a snowball fight! We’re just going to be enjoying some time walking around in the snow. Aoi and I have been stuck in Nevada for almost three years now, we miss being cold!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Junpei says. “As if you four being competitive as all hell won’t make it turn into a snowball fight.”

“We’ll see on that, Jumpy. Not everything we do is competitive.”

She hears a long breath turn into a short laugh, before the voice on the other end quietly says “Love ya, Kanny,” before hanging up.

—

Well, this had started poorly. Before they’d even started the competition, all of Light’s clothes had been lost in bag check. The loss wasn’t a monetary problem – nothing was ever going to be a monetary problem for them at this point – but Aoi still despised spending (“wasting”) money on doubles of anything, so it was absolutely a ‘wasting five hours on clothes shopping while a grumbling emo man is breathing down our necks’ problem. Once this and the other two problems of ‘damn none of us have gloves’ and ‘Clover, that’s not an appropriately thick coat for the weather’ were solved, though, it was down to business.

“Alright, we all know the rules because we ain’t absolute idiots, but I’m still gonna go through them again, capiche?” Three nods. “Sibling teams, obviously. As long as you can throw the snowball with enough speed that it’s not just fallin’ to the ground, no guidelines on size. The team that hits their opponents the most times in the next fifteen minutes wins. If we somehow tie….I dunno, we’ll figure somethin’ out. Esper mind powers absolutely allowed, especially to coordinate with your teammate. Light, if you need it, feel free to ask for clarification on who you’re throwin’ at—”

“Oh, that won’t be necessary,” he says with his usual half-smile. “I can tell all of you apart by your footsteps, even in snow.”

“— alright, great, that’s what I figured, didn’t need to interrupt me,” Aoi mutters. “Uhh, anyway, I think that’s it. Any questions?”

“I have one!” Clover pipes up, not waiting to be acknowledged before asking, “Can we make snowmen and do snow angels and have hot chocolate after this?”

“…I guess? Good luck gettin’ anyone else on board, though, and count me out, I’m not covering myself in snow voluntarily.” He doesn’t acknowledge her groan before turning to his left. “Yeah, sis?”

“Did we agree on a reward for the winner?”

“Shoot, no, I don’t think we did. We’ll figure it out later, I s’pose.”

“Gee, not like you to be completely unprepared! What’s this about prepping a few years in advance?”

“Unless you immediately wanna lose a point to the Fields, I suggest shuttin’ up.”

Akane giggles. If you say so, Aoi.

He sighs a bit, only replying to her with a five-second mental groan, and rolls his eyes before continuing. “Alright. Guess we’re good to go. Head to your starting positions.”

With that, the four of them walk through to the corners of the park they’d selected for the fight. (Or, really, the park Akane had picked, after figuring out a location with minimal traffic and maximal space months beforehand, and that everyone else had agreed on, but that was neither here nor there.) They’d managed to arrive on a day where the snow was fresh, too, so the conditions really were ideal, minus all the problems they’d had before.

Ready, everyone?

Three mental nods.

Three, two, one…

—

The next fifteen minutes are a bit of a blur. Akane and Aoi had initially planned to keep track of each other’s movements via the field, and had attempted to make sure that, for the most part, they were behind the head of their current Field opponent. They had also both thought that Aoi, at the very least, would have some amount of camouflage from Clover when trying to hide from her from his white hair. The two of them, however, hadn’t realized that Clover would just mentally scream for five minutes straight, making it difficult for the two of them to actually communicate over the field feedback. (Apparently, her secret agent training had let her hone her skills to the extent that she could at least two-channel the field – not as good as Akane, but somewhat better than Aoi.) They’d also failed to account for the fact that Light could just hold snowballs in his prosthetic hand as long as he wanted without losing feeling from the cold, so no matter how close they got to him, thinking they were being surreptitious, he would turn and pelt them in the face twice each before they could hide and recover.

Five minutes in, and 3 points to the Fields’ 9, the Kurashiki siblings decide to make a tactical retreat to a particularly wooded area of the park. A bit of a waste of a time, maybe, but getting further behind isn’t an option.

Ughhhhh, this is impossible, Aoi groans. Light can just backload the snowballs, and Clover’s got that…weird…screaming thing. I didnt even know that was a thing you could do with the field?

Akane cocks an eyebrow. Really? I’m pretty sure that me mentally screaming made up most of the First Nonary Game.

Can we…not talk about that? We’ve got a snowball fight to win, sis.

Yeah, yeah. We don’t have long, you know.

Unsurprisingly, Akane’s skills at formulating plans under pressure come in handy as the two of them formulate their next idea. Stealth was clearly not going to work, especially since neither Light nor Clover was even remotely going for that approach. Instead, they decide, the solution is to incapacitate their opponents before hurling snowballs as rapid-fire as they can. Akane would take Clover, taking a front-on approach by throwing a giant snowball in her face before slamming small snowballs into her back. Aoi would tackle Light from the back (or, at least, as near his back as he could manage) and push his ears into the snow, making sure to dull his senses, or at least his ears.

With their hasty plan pulled together, they walk back, assured of at least a draw if not success.

—

As it turns out, the two of them shouldn’t have been assured of anything in a battle against two other espers. While the Kurashikis had decided to switch from stealth to aggression, the Fields had decided to switch their own tactics. Or, well, Clover had. Light was still storing snowballs in his left jacket arm – it wasn’t a broken strategy, so why fix it? Clover, on the other hand, had decided to alter her constant screaming tactic to constant silence. Let them communicate, but don’t let them think they aren’t being listened to. And let’s lie down in the snow, for good measure, so they can’t tackle us down.

So, at minute seven, two Fields, face down in a snowy field, try to crash the plans of the Kurashikis, simply by making themselves poor targets.

Keyword: ‘try.’ (In retrospect, it probably wasn’t the best plan.)

Hey, Aoi? Isn’t this kind of…weird? They’re both completely silent.

I mean… a little? Akane treads as silently as she can manage through the snow. It’s pretty likely that Clover changed her strategy of ‘just constantly screaming,’ but I can’t see what else they would be doing dif- oh.

What?

She pauses, muffling her laughter with her mittens. I. I think I figured it out.

What? Sis, what are you- oh. Oh my god. pfFTTT he LOOKS LIKE A FREAKIN’ DUMBA -

Akane doesn’t pause to listen – hard to pause when you’re dropping a snowball the size of your arm on a human, after all. She’s already started running when she hears the inhuman shriek that suddenly comes from the now snow-covered Clover.

“Oh, you are SO gonna pay for that!”

—

Clover.

NOT NOW, DUDE!

Clover.

WHAT DO YOU WANT, LIGHT.

I am thinking that this was, perhaps, not the best plan.

CALL ME ‘A BUFFOON OF THE HIGHEST PROPORTIONS’ LATER, NOW IS NOT THE TIME.

I was not going to call you that, I merely wanted to suggest another pl-

YOU AREN’T GETTING ANOTHER PLAN. BRO, YOU’RE A PHYSICS AND MATHEMATICAL GENIUS, FIGURE IT OUT ON YOUR OWN.

But —

Clover forcibly shuts off their field connection.

—

Light exhales – or, well, as best as he can exhale when he’s currently entombed by snow. To the best of his estimates, it’s been ten minutes now, and, at this rate, the Kurashikis are going to bypass their current score. He’s lost count of how many times Aoi has hit him in the back already, to the point that he barely even feels the next snowball. If it weren’t for the shouts of ‘COME AND GET THIS, EINSTEIN!’ vaguely echoing from above him, he thinks he could simply melt into the snow.

Hah. Melt.

As much as he’s annoyed at his sister shutting off their connection – a wall he would normally try to bypass, if he wasn’t in such irritating circumstances – Light still believes he can regain the advantage. He just has to pull this off, and the Field will be leveled. So to speak.

While the victorious laughter above him continues, he pulls off his prosthetic arm, and digs out a small space for it. (Logically, kind of a bad idea to do that while surrounded by snow, but victory in esper snowball fights supersedes logic.) He then stuffs the loose jacket arm full of snow, packing it as tightly as he can before loosely knotting the end.

“Come — get –!”

And come get he does. Light grabs his prosthetic before stabbing it upwards through the mound of snow above him, and, in one solid motion, springs upward, unties his jacket arm, and swings it towards Aoi’s face.

“What the absolute f-” he starts, before he sputters and chokes on the snow that’s just been swung into his mouth.

Light gives a half smile, before putting his prosthetic back in its proper place and spending the remaining two minutes of the match pelting his opponent with as many snowballs as he can.

—

In the end, they all managed to lose count of their total hit numbers, so Akane is designated the scorekeeper, to her dismay. It makes sense, given the fact that she’s the only one of them who can literally slip through space and time, but still. Not ideal, she groused, but she still does it anyway.

“Well, I got a total of 42 hits. Clover got…28? Aoi, you got 69 –”

“Nice.”

“– Light, you got 87 somehow? Man, I don’t even know how that’s possible. Anyway. That’s, let’s see, Kurashikis 111 points, Fields…”

“That would be 115 points for us.”

“Woohoo, hot chocolate is on you two!”

“I never said I was gonna do that, you pink-haired brat!”

“It would be unwise to discourage Clover from this. Once she’s made up her mind, she never strays from her path.”

“Oh, God, do I know that too well,” Akane groans, remembering the unfortunate end where Clover’s axe met Junpei’s arm. “Homemade, or cafe hot chocolate?”

“Uh, homemade, duh!”

The four of them make their way back to their hotel (which is definitely not conspicuously expensive for a few twenty-somethings, what are you talking about, dear receptionist?), only somewhat dissatisfied with the outcome.

Overall, though? A fair fight

—

Back in Nevada, one man wearing plaid wakes up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat.

“Aw, crap, I forgot to order the trophy!”

#zero escape #9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors #reivolutionary-penguin #morphogenetic #zecret santa 2018 #submission

[theepolynesian]

Troubles of the Heart

Overall Summary: It’s been five years since the battle of the five armies. The two once deserted cities were now in full bloom calling for a celebration of great proportions. Although your father was happy, you could tell he was not completely happy. Could you bring a certain hobbit and king together or will it go up in flames? What about your own heart?

Chapter Summary: You and Legolas get to know each other better.

Pairings: Bagginshield

Previous Chapter: Chapter 8

Next Chapter: Chapter 10

Author’s Note: I reread everything and realized I messed up. In the second chapter I said that Bilbo and Frodo have already been there for a week and had a tour and in the third I said that Bilbo and Frodo had been there for four days🤔 honestly I need to think about all the finer details and I don’t understand how writers can do it😧

You decided that respecting your father’s wishes was the best idea. Honestly, the more you thought about it, the more you realized how unreasonable you were being. The Red Mountains were farther away than the Shire. There is absolutely no way you wanted to travel that far again. Plus, you were going into a completely different kingdom without your father. That was basically going in there blind. You absolutely did not want that so you just decided to stay.

Besides, if you and Andvari were going to be married he would be King of Erebor (which means almost nothing) and you would be Queen seeing that he was the youngest grandchild and had almost no right to their throne.

You pause abruptly as you turn the corner, almost running into someone.

“Lady Y/n. Forgive me. It seems that I have lost my way.”

You narrow your eyes at the elven prince for he did not seem like one to get lost or apologize. In fact, you remembered, thanks to Gloin, that he had yet to apologize for calling Gimli a horrid creature,

“I suppose it is easy to get lost. Where are you going?” You ask.

“I am supposed to meet Tauriel in the training room,” he explains and you laugh, starting to walk in the direction that he came from.

“You were definitely going in the opposite direction,” you admit as he follows you.

You had forgotten about your long time feelings for Legolas since you were so busy focusing on Andvari and your father in the past week but now that you were close to him, you could feel your stomach bubbling up in excitement.

“How long are you and your father staying?”

“Itching to get rid of us?” He asks and you have to look up at him to realize that he was joking and you smile.

“Maybe,” you reply, “our hospitality is definitely better than yours.”

Legolas snorts as you turn down another corridor.

“I doubt Gloin is very hospitable.”

“You did call his son ugly.”

“The picture was very poorly drawn-.”

“And now you’re insulting Ori-.”

“You’re lying. I’ve seen Ori’s drawings and they weren’t as hideous as that,” he replies and you laugh.

“If I had known there was humor under all those layers of contempt, I would have found you to be a better man-.”

“Elf.”

“Whatever,” You retort with a roll of your eyes.

He was definitely not what you expected. He honestly wasn’t. He had a quick tongue that was just dripping with sarcasm. His humor was very similar to yours and you weren’t expecting that from an elf prince. You supposed you should have since Lord Elrond was a funny little thing that could elicit a laugh with a single look. Maybe there were more to the tree huggers than appearances suggests.

“Its tree shaggers not tree huggers,” Legolas voices and your eyes widen in surprise.

“Please don’t tell me I said that out loud.”

“Okay. I won’t,” he replies and you let out a groan embarrassed at your slip of tongue.

“Tell me,” he says, making you look at him, “How are Tauriel and Kili? She says she is fine but I can see it in her eyes and I can tell that she is not.”

You frown at that. You had noticed something a bit off lately but you didn’t want to voice it because whatever was wrong always seemed to disappear as soon as Kili had shown up. Perhaps Kili didn’t know about it either?

“She and Kili seem absolutely in love but I have to admit that I’ve noticed her… strangeness but it always seemed to disappear when he is around. She seems genuinely happy with him so perhaps she has a secret? Maybe she is with child?” You ask jokingly but him stopping makes you stop.

You frown at him as a frown appears on his face.

“I have noticed a strange aura around her as if there was another life form but I didn’t think dwarves bed out of wedlock. For elves, bedding is wedlock,” Legolas explains and you can’t help but snort.

“A bedding is a wedding,” you joke and you watch as he laughs, making him look even more gorgeous.

“I didn’t realize that the daughter of Thorin Oakenshield, the grumpiest dwarf of grumpy dwarves, would have a great sense of humor,” he says as you stop in front of the training room.

“And I didn’t think that the son of the most cold hearted king would have such a different personality,” you respond and he smiles.

“My father is not that cold. Trust me.”

“Oh I know. I’m just messing with ya,” you say, sending him a wink before leaving him alone.

He watches you leave before entering the training room.

Tauriel is by herself and it’s obvious she hadn’t heard him enter because her hand was resting on her stomach and she was currently staring at nothing.

“You’re expecting, aren’t you?”

That startles her and she fires an arrow in his direction but Legolas, expecting it, dodges it skillfully and Tauriel relaxes once she realizes it's him.

“Legolas. Don’t sneak up on me. I could’ve killed you,” Tauriel states.

“I’m quicker than that. Tell me. Are you with child?” Legolas asks again and Tauriel looks away before nodding.

“I am but I don’t know how to tell Kili. What with the dwarves celebration going on. You know how I am just barely accepted. How would they take having a dwelf born into the royal line of Durin?” Tauriel asks quietly and for some reason, Legolas can’t help but think of a certain heir to the throne of Erebor.

Forever Tag List: @miss-mcbotty @sdavid09 @awarwithinitself @emilyymichelle e @bee-wrecker @raisaioana71 @clockworkfall @dracsgirl @imaginesreblogged @realgreglestrade @brewsthespirit-blog @angstflaff @nelswp @savvythedork @j25m18c24 @general-stormpilot @evra-von-what @bellastellaluna @thepoet1975 @k-youre-a-fantasy @boyfriendsarebetterinbooks @the-latine-trickster @darknessfaerieofmoonlight @thegreyberet @evyiione @polychr0matic @strangewhovian-blog @nerdyandexhausted @aspiringtranslator @apathetic-bisexual @cd1242 @captain-amelia-bradley @infinte-exist-ence @darkestsoul16 @mottergirl99

Hobbit Tag List: @jotink78 @arabellaelliana @legolas-bromance @thealbersclan @youtubehelpsmesurvive @annajolras @sapphire110611 @filmozerca @darkblaze16 @pandepirateprincess @emrfangirl @crazefantwins @1lotr-trash @sweeticedtea @serenityfirefly97 @lazilysaltysweets @hobbuisness-lotr

Troubles of the Heart: @thilbob @catchydrug @jinx-is-fire

#troubles of the heart #the hobbit #fanfiction #bilbo x thorin #reader insert

[inloveandwords]

Lately, I’ve found that when I finish a novel that I love – one that has left me breathless and immediately wanting more just like it – I tend to try to pinpoint exactly what it is about that novel that I loved. Was it the trope? If it was how it made me feel – what specifically triggered that feeling?

In doing this, I came up with a list of – for lack of a better word – things I love that happen in romance novels.

I created a video about this topic, but I also thought I’d share that list here on my blog.

I’ve paired each of the topics with a book recommendation or two, however, I do hope to create separate posts and videos for each of these with their own recommendations.

Of course, if you have any recommendations that pop into your mind as you are reading this post, please leave me a comment!

  Virgin Hero

I didn’t realize this was something I loved in romance novels until I read Archer’s Voice. There is something about a hero who has some innocence about him, whether it be because he is a recluse like Archer or had a traumatic past like Zsadist from Lover Awakened by JR Ward or Zachariah from Keepsake by Sarina Bowen. There is something swoony about watching the couple fall in love and seeing the hero experience epic firsts.

  Longing 

For the longest time, I couldn’t put my finger on what it was in books that ripped my heart out of my chest when I’d read books that had this element in it until I read Truth or Beard by Penny Reid recently and realized that I am so attracted to desperate longing – particularly from the hero. Especially when the hero is like Duane who doesn’t want to rush anything because he has been waiting so long for the heroine. He’s not willing to cross any lines if it means that the long term isn’t an option. 

  Forbidden

This element goes hand in hand with the previous one. One of the best parts of forbidden romances is the longing. It’s almost guaranteed. As someone who, before meeting my husband, was extremely fickle, I’d always love the chase more than actually catching. When something is forbidden, it’s that much more attractive and in romance novels, when that HEA finally happens, it’s so, so satisfying. (Or it should be!)

  Groveling  

I actually had trouble thinking of a book that did this really well, so please give me recommendations. I think a couple of the most recent books I read that did this really well were The Best Thing by Mariana Zapata and The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams. For me, I much prefer the hero do all the groveling as opposed to the heroine. And, of course, whatever it is that he did to require groveling better not be too unforgivable, but also not something that should be easily forgiven. There absolutely has to be a good balance.

  Epic romance

I’ve only found EPIC romances in fantasy and paranormal stories, I think because it is those magical/paranormal elements that come into play and take the romance to another level. It’s not just love, it’s absolute fate. The type of romance that is truly once in a lifetime, one in a million. The ultimate will always be A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas, but The Caraval series also has a pretty epic romance as well.

  All the Swoon 

Many of the things on this list can cause lots of swooning, but nothing quite had me swooning as much as Leo Loves Ares by Anyta Sunday. Swoon can be found in super sweet, simple moments like those found in Leo Loves Ares. Of course, in order for this to happen, you have to adore the couple and the romance has to be incredible to begin with. If a romance is good enough, almost any interaction between the characters is swoony.

  Cringey moments

I am so here for the moments in romance novels that make me cover my face and fake cry with humiliation for the character. I live for the moments in which the main characters make fools of themselves in front of their love interests. This happens in epic proportions in Wrong and Fling by Jana Aston and The Hating Game by Sally Thorne.

  Butterflies

This, much like swooning, is basically guarantee if the romance novel is good enough. There are so many moments – some of them so seemingly small – that can send butterflies swirling like crazy. Honestly, everything on this list elicits butterflies. This is the #1 thing I hope for in romance novels when I read them. An example of a small moment that sent a million butterflies swirling was in The Wall of Winnipeg and Me by Mariana Zapata when Aiden is massaging Vanessa’s leg after one of her long marathon training runs. It is the build-up to this moment that made the butterflies go crazy, and if it wasn’t built up right, it wouldn’t have been a big deal, but this moment was so huge in the slow burn of the entire book.

  Impossibility

I love it when romance novels manage to break through predictability (which isn’t always a bad thing, btw!) and make you truly wonder how the hell the couple is going to ever end up together. This happened so many times in My Darling Duke by Stacy Reid. So many times in romance when there is something that is keeping the couple apart, the solution seems so simple, so I really appreciate it when a romance novel can keep you on your toes and truly make you worry that things won’t work out – even though we all know it wouldn’t be a romance novel without a Happily Ever After or Happy For Now.

  Wonder

I love this the most when the love interest is wonderstruck by the main character. Those moments when they just can’t believe how lucky they are. That it is really or finally happening to them. This often happens in tandem with longing – like when a hero has been pining after the heroine.

  Slow Burn 

This, like forbidden romance, is probably one of the most popular on this list. I mean, obviously, my go to for a guaranteed amazing slow burn is Mariana Zapata. She is the queen. Slow burns pave the way for such an incredible pay off in the end. You are taken on a journey with these romances. And, best of all, you are given the opportunity to slowly fall in love right alongside the main character.

  Loyalty/Devotion 

Of course, I adore this in the romance, but I also love loyalty from side characters as well. But, since we are talking romance specifically, I absolutely adore when the characters are loyal even when there are big obstacles between them, even when they are angry or betrayed, they still will be there when they are needed. I’m looking at you, John Ambrose McClaren from PS I Still Love You by Jenny Han.

  Healthy relationships

I get the draw of dark romances, I really do. I even sometimes can understand the draw of the bullying trope… sometimes. But, man, do I appreciate an incredibly healthy relationship. One where the characters communicate beautifully, they support each other, they motivate one another, and, yes, they are loyal. I know, it’s hard to create conflict when the couple’s relationship is healthy, but I promise it can be done. Check out Misadventures of a College Girl by Lauren Rowe for proof.

  Reverence

I know, the obsessive hero has been done incredibly poorly many times and, yes, it can easily be creepy – especially if you imagine someone acting that way toward you, but in a romance novel? Give me a well-written romance that has a hero that holds such deep reverence for the heroine like in With Visions of Red by Trisha Wolfe. I mean, Colton calls Sadie a “goddess,” and goddammit, she is. That’s probably the most important part of this working in novels – the heroine or whoever is the object of this feeling needs to be damn deserving. I better be obsessed with them, too.

  Uncertainty

This is very similar to Impossibility, however, it’s less… umm… impossible and more that you’re just not sure how things will work out, no necessarily IF they will work out. You don’t feel like the ground is solid beneath your feet as your reading. Everything seems like it could fall apart at any moment because things are so precarious. I’m thinking of an upcoming release, That’s Not a Thing by Jacqueline Freidland. The entire time I was anticipating everything falling apart and it kept me on the edge of my seat wondering WTF was going to happen. 

  Caretaking

This is one that I feel like I didn’t realize I appreciated so much until I read about it in The Hating Game by Sally Thorne and Marriage for One by Ella Maise. When you get to see the vulnerability of one character alongside the love interest stepping up (or vice versa), it strengthens the relationship and your belief in it significantly.

  Epic Banter

This is particularly great in romcoms. I mean, you can’t really have a great romcom without it, but honestly, it can be pulled off in any genre that has romance. Particularly if the romance is a hate-to-love. If it is a romcom and done well, it’ll have you laughing out loud (hey, Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren, I’m looking at you). If it is in any other genre, it can make you grin from ear-to-ear. 

  Undeniable Chemistry 

Chemistry is a must in any romance. Period. Without it, it just doesn’t work. There is no buy-in, no rooting for the characters if you don’t feel like they need to be together. This is what separates bland, meh, romances from the ALL THE STARS IN THE UNIVERSE romance novels. But when a romance can throw in burning chemistry from the second the characters meet? All the yes. And I’m not talking about having the characters just constantly thinking that the love interest is SO HOT (in fact that annoys the crap out of me – stop. I get it. They’re attractive. Please move on.) I don’t want to be told about the chemistry. Show me. With conversation, with body language. I feel like Lauren Rowe does this so well in all of her books. She throws so much chemistry into her romance novels, she’s like a damn scientist. 

  Tension

Much like longing, the buildup and tension between two characters makes endings so much more satisfying. The Hating Game and Birthday Girl has some of the best tension.

  When I finish a novel I love I try to pinpoint what it is about it I loved. If it was how it made me feel - what specifically triggered that feeling? In doing this, I came up with a list of things I love that happen in romance novels. Lately, I've found that when I finish a novel that I love - one that has left me breathless and immediately wanting more just like it - I tend to try to pinpoint exactly what it is about that novel that I loved.

#Favorites

[catarinaoliveirastudio]

What do all of these projects have in common? – A Summer recap

It’s no secret that I use Art Challenges with prompts lists to create new work and content for my portfolio when commissions are slow, they give me ideas for my own briefings and help me keep a daily practice. For me, it’s important to have a goal behind this self-initiated work like to get better at poses, although it could be just for fun, or as a warm-up, in my case, is the way I procrastinate for the most part. But once in a while, there is a list that sparks my creativity, that’s exactly what happened with the drawings I’m sharing in this post.

Here are just some of the places where I find challenges: 

- Instagram and hashtags like “Draw this in your style”.

- Lisa Bardot and her awesome website Making Art Everyday; 

- the Portfolio Club Group (for Instagram) and Illostories Group (operates on Facebook), mostly Kid Lit Art oriented instructions, ideas, and tutorials; 

- They Draw And Cook has different topics for their submissions.

__________

Circus 

July’s theme for Portfolio Club (monthly Instagram challenge) was Circus and I wanted to draw some characters (with no animals) at the time. I started with the Fortune Teller which sounded more of a Carnival Show, so I went with a vintage look and incorporated my characters in a deck of cards. I decided to use limited colors from the beginning, and as usual, that made it so much easier to simplify the composition, but, because the drawings were made spread out over the month, I don’t find them very cohesive, except for the colors of course. In a way, this is very similar to what I am sketching right now (see Animals with jobs).

__________

Food Illustration

I made a lot of watermelon salads this Summer and I even drafted a recipe for TDAC but then I saw that the new TDAC HandPicked Design Challenge was perfect for it, so I finished the watermelon recipe and scribbled a couple more ideas for the topic (Food Geometry). I only managed to submit one more simple illustration but I am happy to report that my Citrus and “naturally spherical fruit” submission will be featured in the Uppercase magazine. 

Naturally, I would love to be commissioned to illustrate food for any type of project.

__________

Tiny Houses coloring pages

2 weeks ago it was Lisa’s week of drawing Objects as houses. I’ve always loved tiny houses and suddenly I couldn’t stop drawing them. I would like to make a coloring book one day, so I took this opportunity to draw in black & white and focus more on the details instead of adding color. These drawings took some time as I can get lost in little tweaks for hours (I love that) so eventually, I missed a couple of the 7 prompts and ended up coloring 2 of my drawings in bed, just for relaxation. It was a good exercise though, to draw more backgrounds and environments.

I plan to release these as PDFs you can download, print and color!

__________

Animals with jobs colored sketches 

And before I even finished my last draft for the teapot Tiny house, I came across with a prompts list for Sketchtember. I was hooked despite being already August 31. My first sketch was very loose and simple but that’s the whole idea of Sketchtember right? (some people use it to do the sketches that they will ink in October for Inktober, so smart).

Anyway, I was in the mood to switch gears again from those detailed drawings, and it is always a good idea to practice poses, besides I love drawing animals.

My goal with these is to push my composition and movement skills and ultimately experiment with colors. Too much pressure? 

I'm writing this as I finish my 5th sketch and honestly, it might be my last, not because of the lack of fun but of time! I am not very fast or good at setting time limits, it’s the perfectionist in me. 

1. Lion, pastry chef. 2. Bear, fitness trainer. 3. Sloth, officer (pilot). 4. Mouse, waitress.

Prompts list created by Mia Gillenkirch.

To wrap up this post I’m sharing a bit of my process and 2 of my top tips when it comes to Children’s Illustration (KidLit or YA) and these quick/simple sketches: 

I draft my idea without any references first (I draw very poorly as you can see in this time-lapse video), and then I look at photos of real animals to draw some realistic features. But things like bikes, yeah I need references. In terms of composition, I start with a very simple straight pose before starting to push it forward by playing with proportions (big/small) like a huge nose or long arms. The other thing I keep in mind is to decontextualize objects to create a more interesting story, like an unexpected color choice, or giving a different context to a situation. It helps to get pose ideas, for example, instead of thinking of a hairdresser you can approach the crocodile (the hairdresser) as an artist looking at his art. I ask questions like, is there an emotion showing or is it dynamic enough? I draw a lot of versions of the same thing until I am okay with it, then I pause it (if I can), come back with fresh eyes and that always helps me noticing improvements I can make. That’s it! A third tip would be Keep it simple! 

Let me know if this was helpful and if you would like more of these posts.

__________

All of these were done with an Ipad Pro & Apple Pencil, in the App Procreate. One brush used, called Dry Ink. 

There are Art Challenges all year round but this is my favorite season, starting with Setchtember, Inktober, anything Halloween, leading all the way to Christmas and its countdown. At the moment I don’t have anything planned but I never know when Procrastination kicks in and says, “You have to do this challenge!” :D And no, I haven’t discovered the magic secret to finishing a drawing challenge, but I tend not to take these things too seriously. Have you ever participated in one?

To see the complete projects and all of my sketches check my Instagram @catarinaoliveirastudio.

[akria]

what can i say she inspired me

#don’t @ me i know this is a poorly proportioned drawing but i’m happy with it without aggressively comparing it to the pic! #art #my art #artists on tumblr #art by op #artist #drawing #sketch #watercolor

[ask-jungshook]

can i be real for a sec?? you are so amazing and im about to cry bc you're everything i wish i was. ppl love your art so much and your angst and you're so talented. you are so so talented. ok im sorry i just needed this off my chest

// OMG NOOOOOO NONNY PLEASE DON’T CRY!

For me, my ‘talent’ is probably an accumulation of ‘natural’ talent (basically your base stats in gaming terms lol), motivation, experience, practice, and personal drive.

So to get a general sense of where I’m coming from, let me tell you a story of a YOUNG DISSU and how her ‘talent’ developed. (aka my art journey LOL)

So let’s started!

Base Stats

When I first got into drawing (this was around middle school, so I was around 12 years old????), my base stat for drawing was probably a 1 out of 10 –  pretty horrible tbh because all I did was just to try and replicate my favorite mangas characters as they were drawn. (At the time I think it was Yu Yu Hakusho LMFAO). If I were to make an analogy or any type of comparison, let’s just say, my stick figures had better proportions than my actual drawings but I digress. But as much as I drew poorly, I found myself loving drawing and loving art because it was an outlet for me to relieve stress. (But looking back oh boy was I a hardcore weeaboo haha) This period of time was the time where I gave no shits if I drew poorly, I drew because I had fun and that was pretty much it. (So there was like pretty much 0 improvement since I didn’t really bother to learn anything technique-wise) 

Motivation & Practice

Around high school was when I first started digital art (I around age 16 at this time) and this was the time period when DeviantArt was the ‘go to’ place to post drawings and literature. (pretty sure tumblr and twitter didn’t exist back then and facebook like just became a thing lol) Avatar sites like gaiaonline were also super popular and filled with a bunch of talented artists. I remember distinctly being like ‘holy shit these people are so good and so talented and thinking that I could never surmount to anything like that’. But at the same time, another part of me was like AWE INSPIRED of their talent and would like obsessively see if they had any tutorials on drawing. So while yes, there was a portion of me that wanted to be like my art idols and draw the way they did, at the same time, I kinda knew in my head that that was impossible? (But it didn’t stop me from trying to emulate them) 

So while I kept on drawing because it was fun and I liked it as a hobby– BUT this time, I had people to look up to in terms of the ‘I want to draw like you’ aspect of it. They were my art idols and pretty much everything I wanted to be from an art standpoint hahaha. But those artists were my main source of motivation for wanting to improve throughout high school. So this was the period of time that other people’s art lead to me wanting to develop a better style and to improve my technique. (I drew a lot, but never really finished anything major because I was really impatient back then, but my style was HEAVILY impacted by my art idols lol – VERY VERY GRAPHIC NOVELY/DATING SIM-ESQUE)

Experience & Personal Drive

I think in recent years, I did a lot of growing not only as an artist but as a person. One thing to note about growth and  improvement is that seeing improvement/seeing growth does not happen overnight, and I took many art hiatuses during high school and most of college simply because I didn’t have time due to my course load. So after cycling through various styles, my art kinda just stagnated for a long time. At that time, it was a bit disheartening and frustrating for me, because at that point I drew for like 6 years and made like small baby steps. (I had a variety of styles, but I never really had the solid groundwork of like anatomy, how clothing works, or color theory.) So it did put a hamper down on my motivation to draw back then– simply because I didn’t think I was improving as fast as other people – which in retrospect, was mistake number one.

I also went through a pretty bad battle with depression while I was in college that ebbed down a bit, then resurfaced after I graduated (this was roughly a 3 yr span), which hindered a lot of my art growth substantially as well  because my mentality simply wasn’t there. (Music and art hold emotional ties for me, so whenever I’m depressed, everything relating to the creative side of me goes to shit and I will have 0 motivation to draw and basically just sleep all day.)

But to be brutally honest, this is where personal drive comes in. There was one day where I just had full blown out sit down with myself where I basically told myself that I was so sick of being sad all the time, so tired of just being tired, so sick of hating myself– and that I missed being happy and that I missed that sense of joy. So what did I do? I pushed myself and forced myself out of my bubble in an effort to crawl out of that pit that is depression. But one of the things that helped me the most was reconnecting with a bunch of art friends that I met online in high school on one of those avatar sites. I’m a lot stronger of a person mentally thanks to them. :) And with the help of my friends, I basically began my journey of a 360 degree change– my friends, music, art and the past depressed me were all sources of motivation for me to fight to win that mental battle against myself. (One of the things I did was delete all my social media and just start over– that way it’s easy to filter out unwanted things if you start with a blank slate. I also bought my dog around this time which helped my mentality exponentially.)

Getting started was probably the hardest part, because depression is a cycle of ups and downs– but in order to break free, YOU have to be the one to initiate change and stick to making it happen no matter how uncomfortable you may be. I understand that not everyone can be like me and resolve to do everything yourself. Some people need therapy, and some people need medication and that’s fine because as humans, we’re all different in how we cope with things. In my case, it was all about mental fortitude and my own will power. For me personally, I extended my art hiatus and took several more months off of art and just solely focused on myself and my mental health more than anything. I did a lot of soul searching during this time. Ironically, I think my main motivation for crawling out of that hell hole was just hating how much I hated being sad all the time because that’s just a place that I would never want to go back to.

And even now, it’s still a lot of self exploring of what I want for myself and understanding myself. I’m a person with many layers of personality (like an onion!) – and I’m still learning how to embrace all of those layers (even the bad ones) because in the end, your layers combined are what makes you who you are. If you try to reject a part of any layer, that’s pretty much you trying to reject a part of you– which may lead to or cause a lot of internal turmoil. (On a not so serious note, I realize this ‘layer’ thing was a totally unintentional analogy taken from Shrek, imsosorry lol)

And I just realized I took a HUGE tangent, but going back to the experience and personal drive, I think it was some time around 2016 and going into 2017 when I officially made it to be one of my goals for the new year as to get ‘better’ at art. At this point, I had like 10 years of ‘experience’ in digital art (probably a lot less if you factor in my hiatuses but I digress lol), so based off of those past experiences, I know what I’m good at and what needs improvement. (so I know where my groundwork is lacking and what I should focus on) From a mental perspective, I also understand myself more in the sense that I knew what caused mental stress on me, which in turn allows me to not put myself in uncomfortable positions mentally. At the same time, understanding myself has also allowed me to know my limits and understand how much I can push myself.

But more importantly (from an art standpoint), I’ve learned to take a lot of inspiration from other artists and a lot of art friends instead of wanting to have their style of drawing. I think it was important to me to realize and recognize that I will probably never draw like some of them (because they have a lot more experience than me), and that that should be taken as a positive thing because my art should reflect who I am. So remember that onion I was talking about? All the people I look up to and all the people who I’ve befriended through art also play a HUGE role in my many layers because without them, I personally wouldn’t have that personal drive to learn and get better. So def find something that motivates you to be a better version of yourself! (For me it’s music, books, and other people’s art!)

So going back to my main point of talent:

Don’t think of someone else’s talent as something you should replicate. Because honestly speaking, you can’t, since you literally are a different person– and no two people are the same. (Nor are two onions the same)  Instead– take an opportunity to view it as a source of motivation and inspiration to grow and foster your own talent and your own personal growth. Because talent is something you CAN cultivate into something beautiful given time and patience. (Related note: I wrote like an essay in my meet the artist link about my thoughts regarding art and improvement and about comparing yourself to other artists– dunno if that’ll help, but feel free to check it out here lol)  

It took me 12 years for my art to evolve to what it is now (I’m 24 now), and I still think I have a lot more room to grow because there was so much I missed out on when I first started out. So while yes, I would consider myself as ‘talented’, there were so many things that have attributed to and molded my base ‘talent’ from when I was 12  to what is it now. And beauty is, is that that everyone’s base stats are different– heck there are people HALF my age who draw better than I do now and that’s amazing! (Also don’t let someone’s age be a reason to put yourself down either! I personally find young artists super inspiring :’))

But honestly, the most important thing is that in the end, art should be about yourself! As I mentioned before, art and music are linked to me emotionally, so happiness is the main thing that I want my art to bring to me. You shouldn’t do things for the sake of others (like getting notes/being popular), you should do it because it makes you happy. (Because if you’re doing things for others, you’re literally putting your own happiness in the hands of other people– and it shouldn’t be that way) For me, drawing makes me happy because I like to see my progression over the years as well as that sense of accomplishment once you finish a piece.

I’m so sorry that this turned into a really long essay/rambling about my life (i tried to keep it as short as possible, but it still ended up long af weeps), but I just felt the need the type this because I’ve been in a similar position as you before. (When I first read this ask I had like a lot of mixed emotions because I was like yes, it’s a compliment, but at the same time, why do I feel really sad? lol so yeah … sorry about the wall of text)

So don’t wish you were me! LOL :’D (lol trust me bc I am far from perfect) Instead, embrace yourself, (& to paraphrase the chorus of Cypher 4)  know yourself, and most importantly, love yourself because you are ALSO a blooming talent in the garden that is life. 

:) So what I really want to see is the phrase of “you’re everything i wish i was“ turn into something like, “thanks for inspiring me to improve” or something along those lines.

As artists, we all learn off from each other. And personally, I would be honored to be some sort of inspiration to you – but as I said before, please don’t think that you’re any less than me or think negatively about yourself because you are amazing and talented in your own right! :’) And if it helps, I’ll be rooting for you to continue cultivating your own ‘talent’ into something even more spectacular! Nonny HWAITING!

Also if you ever want to talk, feel free to message me! (I hope I don’t come off as intimidating, I’m just very scatterbrained and get distracted easily lol i also apologize for any spelling mistakes in this because im too lazy to proofread lol)

#// unshook #// admin faq #// nonasks #// sorry i wrote a book lol #// but this is kinda important to me? #// @___@ unless if I'm interpreting this ask wrong lol if thats the case im sorry #// but i just wanted to put it out there #// that talent is made up by A LOT of factors #// my talent now vs what I had when i started are completely different #// so think of it as us being in different stages in our art journey :D #// keep on growing and striving to improve #// but remember to be happy too! #// i'll leave this off with what I try to live my life by- be hungry be humble but most importantly be happy #// also sorry if not everything makes sense #// i woke up sick today so im like trying not to die right now #// as snot keeps on dripping down from my nose lol #// my thoughts are rlly muddy right now lol #// ahhhhhhhhh i hope that whatever i typed makes some sort of sense #// watch me wake up tomorrow and be like dissu wtf did u type lol #// art faq

[collaborativeprojectjwba3a]

Reflective Journal

Week 1

This week saw the beginning of character creation. I decided to start off with making the stuffed Bear as it should be much easier to create than either of the humanoid characters or the monster. I worked on developing its appearance by comparing stuffed bears from different eras and of different styles and determining which would work best in terms of animation. I wanted something that could suitably deform and be posed in ways that wouldn’t look unusual or impossible for the model. I settled on something that looks quite similar to the design from the original artwork as a lot of older designs featured more rigid skeletons and some more recent ones have heavily exaggerated body features (massive heads - little body) that wouldn’t look right in motion.

Week 2

I went straight into modelling the Bear this week. Working with Maya I have learned there is quite a sharp learning curve and I don’t want to have all my character designs finalised only to find they’re impractical to create and require further work in order to function. In conjunction with modelling the Bear I have been watching and reading various guides/tutorials on modelling for animation. Modelling characters is relatively new to me, in the past I’ve either used pre-existing character rigs or utilised MakeHuman to speed up the modelling process, often to ill effect.

Week 3

A continuation of modelling this week. At this stage I feel confident in taking my time with this. In my experience with Maya I am well versed with the compounding effect of doing something wrong/poorly and ignoring it only for its negative impact to be felt much worse later on. The Bear is simplistic by design and shouldn’t cause too many issues (it’s the humanoid characters that pose the greatest hurdle). However getting a good understanding of this now should only serve to benefit me later. Research into good modelling techniques continues and I’ve acquired more books on Anatomy for Art, Topology, Faces for Animation, Rigging and Sculpting, there is a mix of information that is both a bit simple for where I am at in my understanding of Maya as well stuff that is a bit beyond my current level, but I am finding it useful.

Week 4

Now satisfied with my Bear model I moved onto texturing. Texturing I have the least experience with (which showed greatly in my last project) but I am making an effort to get a better understanding of UV Mapping, the tools associated with it and the techniques that go into creating it. However I think I made a mistake in doing this before Rigging. Applying textures to my model has allowed me to see flaws in its geometry that I had not seen previously and address them, which subsequently meant retexturing it. Once I start rigging having the freedom to alter the model to ensure the best possible deformity means foregoing the textures. Now I’m going to have to retexture once I’ve rigged or avoid changing the model. Obviously the former is better in the long run and at least I’ve learnt for future endeavours.

Week 5

I’ve decided on the textures I want for the Bear, now it’s a matter of whether or not the rig will require me to change it, but so far so good. The rig for the bear is simple as complex movement isn’t necessary. Since the Bear is stuffed and doesn’t technically have joints I’m not bothering with IK Handles. When the Bear is limp the arms and legs should hang which means the elbows and knees should be able to bend the other way. It makes posing more time consuming but not impossible. As the Bear will mostly be inanimate for the duration of the film it’s more important that it looks good then. Rigging has been an on going process for me as it is something I have a lot of experience doing I’m just not particuarly good at it. That said I do enjoy it. The more technical, problem solving aspect is a nice break from drawing and modelling, which do have a level of technicality to them just not to the same degree as rigging. As per usual I’ve been doing research into rigs, watching tutorials and deferring to the few books I have on it to inform my process. Since the Bear Rig is simple by design I haven’t had too much trouble with it, once I weight paint it will show any real issues but for now the standard deformation is good if unrefined. I was also able to get the Blendshapes done this week. They’re very simple with all the expression in the eyes, rather than subdividing all of the emotions into smaller movements I just did it eye for eye. The Bear doesn’t need to express complex emotions so it’s limited to the most basic ones. The props for the Bear were also completed this week. They were very quick to model and texture, as far as rigging does it’s just a matter of posing them correctly which shouldn’t be too difficult.

Week 6

With the Bear more or less finished I moved onto designing the Father character. I have a lot of books on character drawing and anatomy which I purchased during previous years and a couple this year and has informed a lot of my drawing work over the past three years. The Fathers original design was based on some anatomy work I’ve done in the past drawing simple male body forms. I started with a more muscle figure and refined it into something a bit lankier as it was a better fit for the temperament of the character. The face was designed loosely off my own face as it was the easiest to reference, I tried to cartoonise it for a more stylised look than what I typically do. Hopefully this should all make rigging and facial animation far better and less uncanny valley.

Week 7

Modelling began this week and I picked up my research into topology for animation. Previous research had been geared towards more simplistic characters as well as covering some more basic stuff, I’ve now started delving into more complex stuff in an effort to get better results. So far I’m really happy with the work I’ve produced and am moving towards finalising the Mesh so I can begin rigging, blendshapes and finally texturing.

Week 8

With the geometry now complete I can look forward to making the rig. I am pleased with how it turned out particularly the head. There are some flaws and my process was a bit sloppy but that’s something that will improve over time. For now though it turned out better than I had expected and am hoping the rigging process doesn’t prove problematic or force me to make too many changes to the mesh.

Week 9

I created the Blendshapes for the Father this week. I’m holding off on rigging until I feel a bit more confident with my understanding of how I intend to do it. The Blendshapes are numerous and should cover enough micro-expressions to get every emotion I need to convey, I even accounted for some I know I don’t need incase the story elements change. Some of them look good, others I’m not so sure on. This has been on ongoing problem with Blendshapes and I but I’ve always put it down to the model itself being the issues.

Week 10

Holding off on the rigging, I began on creating the Daughter. In a similar vein as before I used an anatomical adult female as reference for the initial drawing which was refined and then scaled using a child as reference for the scaled down proportions. I then scaled up the head size and eyes while scaling the mouth and nose down to make her seem younger and more innocent. I’m a bit uncertain with how the face looks but that might just be my attempts at drawing a head I’m envision as 3D and trying to accurately represent it as 2D.

Week 11

I modelled the Daughter this week and am ecstatic with how it turned out. I was able to do it much quicker than previously by just streamlining the process now I’m more adept at it. A lot of the mistakes I made previously were avoided and the end result shows it. As always improvements can be made but I’m definitely more confident with this kind of work now.

Week 12

I’ve gone straight into creating the Blendshapes as the head is unlikely to change. I made even more this time around as her expressions are more vital than the fathers and it’s important I have enough versatility to get it all right when needed. Reaching a point of confidence I’ve rigged her too. Much like the Bear her Rig is on the simpler side as she does not move much. I’ve mostly just been testing the Key poses I know I need to ensure everything looks good.

Week 13

Having more or less finished work on the daughter and feeling all the more confident in my ability for it I returned to the Father character to get his rig done. It became apparent straight away that his geometry was sub-par. I remember being happy with it at the time but now having worked on the Daughter I’m not so sure. It may have been that I was working on him for so long that I became blind to the problems and that spending time away from it working on something else allowed me to see it through fresh eyes. Or it was the shear superiority of the Daughters mesh that made my improvement all the more obvious to me. Either way there is a clear disparity between them and I felt compelled to try and fix it. The advice given at the start of my first year was that if it goes wrong digital work is disposable, throw it away and start again. I debated this extensively as starting over would almost certainly net me a better mesh which would benefit me going forward. However at this point I’m closing in towards the end and I’m consciences of Submission. The Render Service that is being tested would mean I don’t have to worry about leaving enough time to Render so I could spend more time doing other things, which could be remodelling. With all that considered, I elected to spend the week working on the mesh, particularly the head, to try and improve it to a comparable level of the daughter. While improvements were made it’s still not quite up to par, but I can’t spend more time on it and need to just move on.

Week 14

This week I alternated between Weight Painting the existing meshes and developing the Set. The Weight Painting has been pretty straight forward but monotonous, I watched a few tutorials on it that covered some complex stuff and found it to be a bit beyond what I needed. I just need good deformation without any glaring issues which is easier said than done. Now more than before I’m noticing where the geometry is lacking in terms of vertices I can utilise. It’s important that I get to the point where I can start animating so I’m not going to worry with overcomplicating things and just work with what I’ve got.      The Set has been straightforward enough. I’ve made a standard room and given it enough furniture to convey what it is meant to be. It could use more details to make it a bit more natural and look less like a set but other than that it’s good for what it is.

Week 15

Continuation of Weight Painting has seen some issues arise but after some troubleshooting and swearing I’ve been able to resolve nearly all of them, some required more work than others and I may of had to repaint an entire model but it’s all good now. The set has been duplicated and altered for each camera angle so it doesn’t get in the way of any shots. I’ve tested the scaling and it’s all good so now it’s just a matter of getting the blocking all done so I can move on with Animation.

Week 16

I was able to block out the entire animation this week. I had some issues in doing so, most notably the entire animation was Splined, meaning all movements have ease-in, ease-out and transition fluidly from one position to the next. This isn’t even remotely ideal as it means there is a lot of unwanted movement that has to be removed as it will get exemplified when I add in more key frames. It shouldn’t have done this to begin with as it was set to Linear Tangents but right now I don’t have time to sort it out so I’m just going to work with it. I’ve also noticed issues with weight painting in some niche cases so I keep going back and forth between the scene and the referenced files fixing out of place weighting. With the Deadline looming nearer and mistakes popping up left and right it’s more about fixing what I can and just working through everything else so that I can stay on schedule. To that end certain issues with characters won’t be resolved and as such a lot of the camera work has been changed to show the Father as little as possible. If he’s in frame it’s either at a distance or the edge of it as an over-the-shoulder shot. Also at this point its very clear I won’t have time to make the monster so I’m cutting the animation short. It should still tell a complete story just not exactly the one I wanted.

Week 17

I went through and cleaned up a lot of the animation work, issues with clipping should be resolved and most of the easing should be gone. I still need to work on pacing and timing of certain motions, it’s still a bit robotic and some moments are needlessly quick. I also had to go through and fix some more weight painting issues with the characters, some of it’s not going to get better but I can at least make it less obvious. The book needed more blendshapes as it was a bit too noticeable when it was messing up, ideally it would be rigged but there isn’t the time for that now. 

Week 18

I am very much a perfectionist when it comes to most things. I like everything to be exactly how I envision it and am wholly disappointed when it’s not. Something I’ve been learning over the years is to accept that not everything can be as I want it to be and to not be so disappointed when it inevitably isn’t perfect. I am far better at that now than I have ever been. There are lots of flaws with this project and things that aren’t how I wanted them to be but I’m not upset by that. A lot of what I have done is far better than I could do last year or even 6 months ago and it will invariably be even better 6 months from now. There is a week left till submission and not much will change from here. The work has been submitted to Render though there are issues with it rendering in Arnold which is beyond my control at this point so I will just have to take it as it is. All I can do now is get everything else ready for Submission and potentially work on this afterwards to try and get a bit closer to my desired outcome.

Week 19

This week has mostly consisted of compiling everything while I waited to see the results of my Render Submission. It’s probably one of my least stressful submission weeks of the three years as I’m not having to Animate + Render + Compile everything all while none of it’s finished and I hate it all. Most things have been done just not arranged in a neat and tidy way suitable for submission.

That being said the results of my Render Submission weren’t promising. There was an issue with the Render Service rendering in Arnold that was resulting in all of the frames being covered in Watermarks and even covered in Watermarks it still hadn’t finished rendering. Having spoken with the technician, we attempted to better optimise my scenes for faster renders without losing too much quality. We didn’t make much progress. Instead we systematically went through each material/texture and changed it to VRay as the Render Service had no issue with VRay renders and it could be better optimised. Once that was complete it was submitted to Render again. There is a noticeable difference in quality between my Test Arnold Renders and the VRay render. Some of the materials couldn’t be accurately transferred across and as such look different. The biggest problem however came with “Scene Six” which either encountered errors during the rendering process, or was unfinished when I came to collect it. Furthermore it appears there was an issue with the visibility of some of the layers that meant multiple objects were rendered on top of one another resulting in some horrendous clipping. My intent was to fix the scene and Render it again but a reoccurring issue I’ve been having is that whenever I open the Scene it has to relocate the Reference files, when I try to redirect it to the right file it instantly closes the File Directory window and moves to the Next reference doing the exact same thing. Meaning I can’t open the file as it deletes all my Characters and Props from the scene and I can’t stop it from doing it. I have a lot of work still to do for other projects so it’s difficult to justify using up a whole day going in to Uni to render around 200 Frames. Since much else of the Animation is unfinished I don’t take mush issue with submitting as is. My plan has always been to continue working on it post-submission in order to get it ready for the Degree show.

[recentanimenews]

What the "School Babysitters" Anime Gets Right About Child Development

What the "School Babysitters" Anime Gets Right About Child Development

By Caitlin Moore

  Kids in fiction are hard to get right. Most adults aren’t used to them or know much about them, so they seem like these strange little balls of irrationality. The natural humor of little humans trying to figure out the world can be tough to nail down, so writers often resort to overly-precocious smart-alecks. But what a lot of people don’t realize is that, if you spend enough time around them, small children are actually pretty easy to understand. While they are all individuals, they develop in predictable patterns of what they are and aren’t capable of at different ages.

    With all that in mind, I was pretty nervous about School Babysitters. As a toddler teacher, I spend 40+ hours a week around one- and two-year-olds and poorly-written children irk me like nothing else. Luckily, the first episode charmed me with believable, developmentally appropriate depictions of toddlers. Their personalities felt familiar as broad personality types, and the barely-controlled chaos of the room reflected a reality I’ve lived many, many times.

  I’ve pegged the children of the Babysitting Club as around two-and-a-half, except Midori, who’s clearly under a year old. Although they’re drawn as very small in proportion to the teens and adults in the series, their physical, verbal, and cognitive abilities fit that age range.

    One of the defining features of the toddler years is big emotions that they don’t fully understand or know how to deal with. Tantrums abound as kids get overwhelmed by their own feelings and their relationships with others. When Taka refuses to leave with his brother in the first episode or bursts into tears because he misinterpreted Hayato’s statement that he doesn’t like or hate him, he’s not just being a brat. He doesn’t understand that Hayato’s a stoic person who struggles to express his affection clearly, only that he’s cold to him. Taka doesn’t get that the daycare is closing and everyone needs to go home; the way he sees it, he’s having a good time and doesn’t see a reason to stop.

  Kazuma also struggles with his own big feelings, particularly his anxiety. He appears to be constantly on the verge of tears, with his big watery eyes and wobbly mouth, and his more boisterous twin brother offers him support when he falls down and cries. When their father, Kousuke, comes to visit, Kazuma just runs away and cries, refusing to play with him. Kousuke worries that it’s because he’s not around enough and Kazuma doesn’t recognize him, which is actually a pretty fair guess. Toddlers have a natural fear of strangers until around two years old, and Kazuma certainly isn’t the only one to show it; when Ryuichi first enters the classroom, the kids’ first reaction is to run away and hide behind Usaida, the nearest familiar adult. It happens as children learn to divide the world between the known and the unknown, the predictable and unpredictable - and there’s little as unpredictable as new people.

    It turns out that Kazuma wasn’t afraid because he didn’t recognize his father, but rather because he thought his father was the kidnapper he played in the last movie they watched of him. Toddlers are still figuring out the divide between reality and fantasy, and Kazuma didn’t understand that the bad guy he saw on the screen was only a fantasy, while the reality was actually his loving father. That trouble finding the dividing line comes up again in the fifth episode, when Kirin decides to try out being a witch. She and Taka fight over whether their Sentai show or witches is real, demonstrating an oft-misunderstood part of child development. It’s not that children don’t understand that there’s no difference between fantasy and reality. They start playing pretend around eighteen months, imitating the things they see the adults in their life do, and their dramatic play only gets more elaborate from there. It’s that they don’t always know what is real and what isn’t. Faced with denial that witches are real, Kirin decides to prove it by flying on a broomstick herself and, when taking off from the ground doesn’t work, she decides to try starting by jumping from a high place. If you accept  the premise that witches exist, Kirin’s logic is sound - the only problem is that she hasn’t grasped that flying on broomsticks is reality, not fantasy, even as she understands that Sentai is fantasy.

  When Kirin decides to jump off the stairwell, she’s not just putting herself in danger; she’s actually showing beginning problem-solving and persistence. Problem-solving and critical thinking are some of the most difficult skills to teach, but they’re also some of the most important. Toddlers can identify a problem and try different solutions; it’s up to their caregivers to help them find the right one without out and out giving them the answer. This deepens their understanding of not just understanding what works, but also why. It’s the difference between rote memorization and genuine critical thinking.

  When Kotaro makes honey lemon for Ryuichi, he has trouble squeezing juice out of the lemon with one hand. Instead of giving up, he demonstrates problem-solving by using two hands and succeeds, then persists long enough to squeeze out enough to cover the bottom of the cup, as instructed by the Chairwoman. His fine motor skills - the ability to make precise, controlled motions with the fingers and hands - aren’t yet developed enough to juice a lemon one-handed.

    Fine motor skills haven’t really been featured much in School Babysitters so far. The things they’re useful for - drawing and manipulating small objects - aren’t particularly exciting to watch, although the ending theme makes particularly cute use of it. However, a quite a bit of large motor (or gross motor if you’re nasty) development gets featured. The kids are always running or, in Taka’s case, climbing around. They’re a little clumsy and fall down pretty frequently, which is all accurate to the age. If they wanted a little more realism, they could have shown Ryuichi and Usaida constantly pulling them off the bookshelf.

  However, the character that shows the most gross motor development, as is expected, is Midori. In the first episode, she falls over from a sitting position and starts crying, unable to get back up. A few episodes later, after a few months have passed as shown by Ryuichi starting high school, she gets up and crawls off when he turns away while changing her diaper. Infants’ motor skills develop rapidly, and just a couple months can mean the difference between being unable to get around by themselves and actively exploring the environment. They can also move much, much faster than their caregivers expect at inconvenient times… just as Ryuichi discovers.

  Ryuichi and Usaida don’t always keep as close an eye on the kids as they should, because once those little legs get going, two-year-olds can move fast. Their natural curiosity can lead them to forget or ignore even well-established boundaries, such as when they follow Ryuichi out of the classroom or take off during their tour of the school’s clubs. They naturally end up in a classroom where the students are baking cookies, because small children love sweets - even when parents avoid sugar, most will clear the fruit from their plate first. Inomata’s frustration with the way they end up running amok may make her seem overly stiff, but I sympathize. After all, a high school is no place for unsupervised toddlers, with their curiosity and inexperience with life giving them a knack for getting into trouble. It’s not that she hates them, she just doesn’t know how to deal with them in a place they shouldn’t be.

    Inomata isn’t naturally good with kids or nurturing just because she’s a girl - the moment she connects with them most strongly comes from their side when she comes to visit their club. At first the children are just as apprehensive of her as she is of them, but when she breaks down crying, they cry along with her. Toddlers naturally lack empathy - their ability to understand other people as individuals with their own feelings is limited just developmentally. They don’t cry because they feel sorry for Inomata. However, young childrens are masters of reading body language; infants can read nonverbal cues from the moment of birth, and lose their instincts for it as they grow up. The children are taking their emotional cues from her - when she’s uncomfortable, they’re uncomfortable. When she cries, they get sad and cry as well.

  As Ryuichi learns throughout the series, managing a group of toddlers can be a lot of work and a huge energy drain. These tiny human beings can leave adults so exhausted, my colleagues and I often refer to them as “energy vampires”. It requires constant physical, emotional, and intellectual labor to keep them safe and happy; I can’t imagine going to school and then caring for so many children all evening for free like Ryuichi does. But it’s a far more fulfilling, rewarding job than any other one I’ve ever held, and I’m glad School Babysitters is here to show it for what it is.

    Watch School Babysitters now on Crunchyroll!

By: [email protected]

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