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sgkophie · 2 years

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Man's World - Chapter 5 - No Pole, No Problem

Pairing: Female!Leclerc reader x Carlos Sainz Jr, Reader x Carlos Sainz

Warnings: slow burn, eventual Smut, enemies to lovers

Rating: Mature

AN: So Sorry this took so long to update... finally finished a big work convention and I am so excited to post this - YAY! I am hoping to sneak in a little smut into the next chapter... but if it doesn't work, definitely by chapter 7! I'll have both out this week. Chapter 6 just needs proof reading so whoo! Thanks again for all the love. You guys rock!

Check out the full intro synopsis here!

Garage Visit – Friday

Lizzie met me in the garage as I popped out of my car. “Alright, time to go!” she shrilled, swaying her hips a tad as if she thought that was going to get me more excited. I just sighed in response.

“Ok, so when we get to the garage, you need to be all cheeky and ask Mattia if Carlos is there.”

“Why wouldn’t he be there? He’s a Ferrari driver…” I cut in, giving Lizzie a stupid look. She just ignored me.

“And then Carlos will come out and give you a hug, ask you how Free Practice went, blah blah.” I loved how she said blah blah at the end. The only thing Carlos and I had in common was that we raced cars – discussing free practice seemed like the obvious and only choice.

When we arrived at the Ferrari garage, Lizzie fixed my helmet hair and I put on the biggest smile I could possibly muster. As I approached Mattia caught my eye, clearly he had been prepped for this. “Hi Mattia, is Carlos around? We were just walking past the garage and I thought I’d see how his session went,” I asked casually.

He nodded and before he could even call out, Carlos came swaying out, his racing suit still around his hips. Like me, he was drenched from the Miami heat and his fireproof clothing was sticking so close to him you could see all of the ridges of his abs and chest underneath his fireproof spandex. I did my best not to stare – didn’t need Carlos getting even more of an ego boost.

“Oh look who popped by? How did free practice go, cariño? Heard you got P3 – nice one.” I internally winced at his nickname. Since when did I say it was okay for him to call me that? Before I knew it Carlos had his arms wrapped around my waist and we were hugging. My head was placed flat against his chest and he gave me what was possibly the world’s biggest hug. If he wasn’t drenched in sweat still, I probably would have enjoyed it. Although I decided to keep that thought to myself and bury it way down. Gross.

“Yeah, car felt good but the heat was draining. Really hoping we get some rain tomorrow before qualifying; would make it cooler.” We awkwardly chitchatted for a bit more, and out of the corner of my eye I could see a Ferrari social coordinator filming our conversation.

After a few minutes, Carlos put his hand on my back and led me further inside, pretending to give me a tour of the garage – as if my very own twin brother didn’t also race there. I’d had this same tour a million times. I tried not to roll my eyes.

Was anyone going to believe this?

Another ten minutes passed and I could see Coco and Lizzie both nod their heads, as if to say “good job faking it, guys.” Lizzie approached me and made up some story about us needing to get back to the garage, and then we set off.

Awkward garage visit 1 complete. I was sure once this particular social media was out, I would be hearing about this from Danny and Pierre.

Saturday - Qualifying

By the time Free Practice 3 was complete Saturday morning, I was feeling ready for qualifying. It had rained a tad in the morning which did lower the temperature a bit, but that only meant the humidity had increased which was going to be rough on my engine – and my body.

After a rough couple of laps due to being blocked by the Alfa Romeo, I easily passed through Q3. Q2 was a different story, but I had managed to get the 9th spot.

“All you need is top ten,” I heard Mel say in my ear, trying to cheer me up. I was a championship contender – I didn’t want to settle for P9. Lily had also made it through, which was great for the team. We were really coming into our cars, and the new wing upgrades were phenomenal.

As Q3 started, I heard a loud sound from my car on the out lap.

“Shit – what is that?” I gritted out into the radio.

“Box, box,” was all I heard back from Mel. After a quick look at the car, they found some debris stuck in my flooring. Great, just great. Not what I needed right now. We quickly got the car back onto the track, but the best I could pull was a P8. Lily, however, managed to squeak out a P5. As I returned back to the garage, I tried to hide the feeling of fury within my face – but the look on Mel and Susie’s faces told me they knew how I was feeling. I hopped out and went straight to my drivers room and threw down my helmet.

“FUCK!” I screamed, putting my head in my hands. Every race counted and now I had my teammate in front of me which would make it even harder to pass tomorrow. I threw off my racing gear and hopped into the shower – opting to get it as cold as possible. As I came out of the shower I heard a knock on the door.

“Georgie, it’s me Danny – can I come in?”

I quickly threw on some clothes and opened the door to see Danny standing in front of me with a bottle of wine and two solo cups. “Figured you could use a drink.” The McLaren driver came in and plopped himself down on my massage table, clearly making himself at home.

I nodded, happily taking the wine glass from Danny’s hand.

“So… how are things with Carlos?” He asked. I couldn’t help but notice the slight twinkle in his eye – clearly he was also enjoying this.

“As good as can be when I’m fake dating a real buffoon,” I bit back. He laughed at that, raising his drink and cheersing with mine.

“Yeah when Zak came and informed Lando and I about the plan, I have to say – we were both quite shocked. That said, Lando has a bet that by the end of the season, you’ll be actually dating.”

“Lando is actually an idiot,” I deadpanned back, rolling my eyes.

“Maybe – but he thinks Sainz likes you, ya know.”

“Doubt it. The only thing Carlos Sainz likes about me is his ability to get under my skin.”

“So how long do you think this will have to go on?” He asked, clearly trying to move the conversation into a different direction.

“Until the sponsors decide we’re worthy of their money, I s’pose,” I responded with a sigh. Danny got up from the massage table and moved over to give me one of his signature Danny hugs.

“Keep your head up, love. Who knows, you might find something you like about Carlos?”

I rolled my eyes at that, but hugged him back. Why does everyone keep saying that? Was Carlos some enigma that half the paddock had figured out?

As Danny left I packed my bag for the hotel. The likelihood of tonight being a long sleepless night was strong. But, on the plus side, I guess the best part of not getting pole? I didn’t have to do media.

Miami – Race Day

‘And we have a blistering 100 degrees Fahrenheit here on this beautiful Miami Sunday,’ I heard the radio say. I quickly turned it off, mourning the loss of the clouds that we had seen yesterday. 100 degrees – how the hell was I supposed to race in that kind of weather?

Yesterday had been brutal, as seen by my embarrassing 8th place grid start. Even Lily had managed to qualify better than me – not that I was begrudging her for the excellent 5th place qualification, but I had never qualified lower than 5th place in the last 4 races and as Bugatti’s number one driver, it hurt when my teammate out-qualified me – even if she was the sweetest person on the planet.

With a 12:30pm race start, I was expected at the Paddock early in the morning – especially if I was to casually drop by Carlos’ garage again. Except this time it was going to be more than a little ‘pop in’, Coco and Lizzie had decided. Since things were going so well on social media, an Italian coffee date was clearly in order. My love of coffee was known all across the track; fans even made me little coffee cannisters and gave me mugs as gifts when they popped by for signings. Valtteri and I had done a couple joint Instagram posts supporting various local coffee brands in the countries we had visited.

I made it clear to Charles last night that he was to make sure he was available at 9:30am, less I have to face Carlos alone again for another awkward “omg, can’t believe I found you here… at the Ferrari garage…. where you’re supposed to be” moment with Carlos.

I arrived at the paddock by 9am with Chris in tow. He knew I liked to typically arrive at race day events by myself – a weird ritual I had started at Indy Car. I enjoyed being alone in the morning before a race – just me, my thoughts, and a carefully crafted playlist. But with everything going on these days, Chris offered to hop into the car with me; and I couldn’t bring myself to say no.

“Good morning,” Lizzie announced as Chris and I walked into the garage together. She was wearing a bright yellow bandana that made her look as though she was emulating the sun. I told her as such and she smiled a smile that could only be described as ‘ear to ear’.

“Thought I would try and bring the sunshine in case Miami brought rain – but now I fear it worked too well,” she giggled.

I dropped my stuff off into my room and grabbed my phone. “So, should we get this little coffee date over with so I can go back to focusing on my race?” I suggested.

“Yes, yes – off we go,” she sang. As we walked through the paddock, I saw a few familiar faces. Pierre and his parents waved at me as I approached the Ferrari hospitality entrance. We arrived at the entrance and the guard let us in – I supposed he had been told a small group from Bugatti would be joining. As I walked into the hospitality suite I saw Carlos and Charles waiting for me, Carlos holding two cups of coffee.

Smart man – if he had some already brewed, we could cut down the interaction by… 2 minutes?

“Oh, look who it is, Charles, it’s the Bugatti team here to steal our race strategy,” said Carlos, laughing and shoving the coffee cup into my face, albeit a little too forcefully.

“Don’t be silly, we don’t steal losing strategies over at Bugatti,” I quipped back. Carlos let out a big laugh – one that almost seemed genuine. Charles padded on over and gave me a hug.

“Nice of you to visit us over at lonely old Ferrari,” he proclaimed.

“Well when Carlos boasted that Ferrari had the best coffee in the paddock, you know I had to come try it out. That’s a bold claim from the smooth operator,” I said, winking at the both of them. Carlos motioned for the three of us to sit down at a table, Carlos and I on one side and Charles across from us.

“So, you feeling ready for today? Must feel real good to have pole position,” I said, trying to sound excited for my brother. He deserved the pole position – he drove exceptionally well. “I’m sorry I didn’t bring any cake from Monaco with me in case you win.”

“It’s fine – I’ll just have to settle to forcing you to go out with me tonight to celebrate my win.” I rolled my eyes at that.

We continued on with a little more chit chat between the three of us for another ten minutes before Lizzie was motioning for me to leave. I had no doubt that she had made sure the Ferrari social coordinator got all the footage of the three of us. I gave Charles one last hug. As I went to turn around, I felt Charles push me slightly into Carlos, giving me a look that said ‘hug him.’

Had we already reached the hugging stage of our relationship? Gross.

Perhaps a little too awkwardly, I wrapped my hands around Carlos’ waist and gave him a hug. In return he wrapped his hands around my neck and gave me a soft squeeze. His body was incredibly warm and he was wearing that cologne again – the one he had worn the night I ran into him while waiting for the elevator in Italy – the one that smelled of lilacs and the sea. I closed my eyes for just a moment and drank it in, before opening them quickly, backing off from Carlos.

“Right, better get back. 1st place won’t be easy, so need to go prepare.” I gave my brother a little smirk and then head off in the direction of the Bugatti motor home.

“See, Georgie, that wasn’t so bad!” Lizzie announced as we left the Ferrari hospitality suite. She was right – it had actually been more manageable, but I wasn’t going to let Lizzie know that.

“Yes, it was good to see my brother,” I let out softly. Lizzie just smirked at that. She knew I would never admit that the coffee date wasn’t that bad, but she decided to take her wins where she could.

The next several hours revolved around me prepping for the race. There were training sessions with Chris, reaction time exercises, and race strategy reviews with Susie and Isabelle. I knew I was going to need a bit of a miracle if I was going to get on the podium, but I was prepared to put the work in. All I needed was a couple DNF’s – and Redbull, even Ferrari, were getting good at those.

“Alright, time to get in, Georgie,” I heard my race engineer Mel say from across the garage. I nodded, crawling into the car and attaching my radio.

“Is it always this hot in here?” I muttered to myself. I felt around for my water, and then pressed the radio button. “Umm, there seems to be an issue, the water is basically empty,” I called out.

“No issue Georgie, we needed to dump the weight so we gain a little more speed,” Mel casually responded.

Dump my water?! Did my race engineer not know it was 100 degrees outside. I grumbled in response. Mel had been with me since last year. She was a brilliant race engineer, one of the best, and when I signed for F1, I knew I had to take her with me. She had the strongest southern drawl I had ever heard, but her mathematics were on par Pete Bonnington over at Mercedes.

“Fine, but let’s not make a habit of it,” I remarked. I knew part of this was my fault. I had gotten 8th place on the grid and we needed to make up time. The WDC was at stake; I could survive a 90 minute race with just a little of water.

Before I knew it we were doing the formula lap. “How are things, GG?” GG was the name Mel called me over the radio – she had been doing it ever since we were racing in Indy Car when she proclaimed “Georgia is much too long!” during our first race together – so GG stuck.

“Feeling ok – wish me luck.”

“You never need it.”

I got to the 8th place spot and waited. The wait for the lights out was always the worst part of the race. The anticipation and thrill was always on the tip of my tongue. I loved starting the car off the grid – there were no words to describe the magic and wonder of driving a Formula 1 car. Every day I got into that car I was reminded of my dream.

And its light out and away we go…

The 5th light went out and I started the car as if I was a person who hadn’t eaten in a week and food had just been offered to me. I was hungry for this win – or to at least get on the podium. Within 3 seconds I had already jumped two places – nice. Pierre and George had gotten bad starts, and I certainly wasn’t going to let this opportunity pass. “A good driver takes any opening they can get,” as my brother Lorenzo would say.

As I was crossing over the line and heading into lap 25, I saw the lights of Sergio Perez’s redbull start to come into play. Before I knew it I was passing him, and in my wing mirror I could see his car die on the side of the track.

“Yellow flag, GG, that’s P5 now.” Great, only 2 more places to go. “Order is Charles, Carlos, Lily, and Max. Max has something wrong with his front wing. Box Box.”

“Roger.” So Lily had managed to pass Max – nice one Lil.

I went into the pits and got a fresh set of tires, and then continued on my way.

“Yellow flag will be lifted this lap. Let’s push.”

And push I did. Within another ten laps I had gained DRS on Max and had quickly overtaken his Red Bull - I was now sitting P4 in the race, albeit with Max close behind.

“It’s real hot in here Mel, everything okay,” I mumbled into the radio. She agreed to check and quickly came back to confirm that the car was fine and I was to keep pushing. And push I did because as I reached lap 40, I was on the back of Lily.

“Tell Lily I have the pace, she needs to get out the way. She’s driving too slow.” I demanded on the radio. Not one of my finer moments – typically team orders came from engineers to drivers and not the other way round, but I knew I could pass my less experienced teammate. Max was on my ass and I knew if we didn’t pick up the pace, I would use the rest of my tyres defending my P4 position.

“Hold.” Was all Mel said.

“No – tell Susie that either Lily gives me the space or I’ll take it from her.” Isbabelle had made it clear when I joined we were a team of drivers. While I was clearly the number one driver and had the best hope of winning the World Drivers Championship, Isabelle wasn’t about to take podiums away from the other driver if we could help it. Demanding she give me her place wasn’t going to make Susie or Isabelle happy – but I knew I could get on this podium. I had to.

“Lily has been instructed to give you the position on the straight. Go quick.”

I didn’t respond to that, and as we reached the straight, I sailed on by her. “Thanks to Lily,” I mumbled, a little embarrassed by my outburst earlier, but now I was P3 and Carlos was only 5 seconds ahead of me. I could do this.

“And that’s fastest lap, GG.”

I’m not entirely sure what changed, but as I reached lap 42, I began to feel my heart beat slowing down, but I knew it had to be beating fast at this kind of racing speed. As I settled into the race pace chasing Carlos, I became acutely aware that I was incredibly hot – and my head felt like someone had just wacked it with a baseball bat. I sucked on my straw but I knew I was out of water, I had been out after lap 30. My lips and mouth were completely parched. I hadn’t felt this nauseous since the very last race of Indy Car when I knew if I won, I was taking home that trophy.

I went to press the radio button, but nothing came out of my mouth. I wasn’t sure what I was going to say anyway. There were only 15 laps left now – I could survive another 15 laps. I put my head down and focused on the road in front. I could see Carlos’ car up front, just needed another 2.5 seconds on him and I could get into DRS range.

“GG, you slowed down that lap more than expected. All ok?”

I wanted to respond to Mel, tell her how I was feeling, but I didn’t have the energy to utter the words, so I just kept driving and uttered an “uh huh” into the radio.

Lap 50. Seven more to go.

“Gap is now 3 seconds, GG.” I knew Mel was trying to encourage me to push, we had lost time on Carlos. She sounded lightly frustrated, but how could I tell her I was just trying to focus on just not passing out? It had to be almost 105 degrees outside.

Lap 56 rolled around and my radio went silent. It had become clear that they had accepted I was going to get P3.

“Last lap Georgia, let’s push for fastest lap. Charles currently holds it.”

I took a deep breath. Fastest lap would give me an extra point, and every point counted at this moment in time. I lifted my visor up and put it back down again, enjoying the 2 seconds of air that swept onto my face.

Fuck it Georgia, let’s push, I said to myself.

And push I did. It was as if time had stopped and I was the only one on the track. I was flying in what was probably the best lap of a Grand Prix I had ever done. I might have been blinded by the heat, but I would be damned if I was going to let my brother take this one, tiny victory from me.

“That’s P8 to P3 GG, very good and fastest lap. Congrats! Unfortunately Lily DNF’d at Lap 53 – issue with the battery forced her to come in and retire. Race order was Charles 1, Carlos 2, you 3.”

I groaned. Well, at least I didn’t have to feel guilty about taking her spot. It wasn’t the race win I had hoped for, but I was still fairly proud of myself. I pressed the radio button and went to say something to the team, but as I opened my mouth, a wave of intense nausea hit me – the adrenaline of the race had clearly run out and I all of a sudden realised how intensely ill I felt.

“Yeah… uh… thank… the team…” I gritted out, just barely. I supposed the team thought I was upset about the race, as no one said anything back to me. Truth be told, I was surprised I could utter anything out at all. As I made the last cooldown lap around the track, I entered the pit lane where the #3 sign was waiting for me and parked my car.

As I arrived at the parking spot, I could see Charles in the background, clearly celebrating his win. I smiled just a little bit – bastard did it after all, good for him, I thought. I went to pull myself up out of the car so I could go congratulate my brother, but my body didn’t move an inch. Had I just imagined doing that? I pulled again on the halo, but nothing happened. Maybe I just needed a quick moment to regroup. I made sure I was unhooked from the car and tried again.

Shit.

As my vision started to fade black, I felt someone begin to lift me out of the car.

Strong arms lifted me out of the cockpit and wrapped my arms around their shoulders. “I got you,” I heard a soft voice whisper. It wasn’t Charles, was it? The person quickly took my helmet off and put a straw in my mouth, still holding me up in my cockpit.

“Drink, slowly,” he reprimanded as I began to quickly suck the hydration liquid out of the water bottle. I inhaled a large breath and smelled something familiar.

Lilacs and the sea. The realisation hit me – it was Carlos holding me.

As I began to come to, I opened my eyes and looked straight into his brown eyes. They were soft, full of concern, and staring right back into mine. As I observed his face I noticed he had the smallest freckle on the side of his right eye; I had never noticed that before. Our faces were mere inches apart, and his breathing was steady. He really was a beautiful man. What is wrong you with, I thought to myself. You almost passed out in your car and here you are ogling the enemy.

Must be the heat exhaustion.

“Keep drinking,” he commanded. I listened and grabbed onto his shoulder tighter as he pulled me from the cockpit. Out of the corner of my eye I could see my brother running towards me, panic written all of his face. Carlos set me on the ground, but held onto me completely, letting me put my weight on him. My feet were unsteady, but as I began to feel the breeze against my face, I was feeling a bit stronger.

Charles reached out to grab me from Carlos, but Carlos blocked his way. “I got her, don’t crowd her,” he told my brother. Charles wasn’t one to listen to anyone – but I could tell he was panicked enough to back off just a tad, giving me some room. By now a few of the other drivers had come over – Max and Lewis included.

“Let’s take her to the medical tent,” I heard Lewis suggest.

Before I knew what was happening, Carlos had picked me up in his arms bridal style, and he and my brother were moving me towards the medical tent. I could hear Mel and Susie behind, calling out to Carlos and Charles, asking what had happened.

“Probably just heat exhaustion,” the doctor declared as we entered the medical tent. He had seen the footage, and was already prepping IV packets. As Carlos set me down on the medical bed, I was beginning to come to and feel quite a bit better. Sure, I was still hot in my several layers of racing clothing – but I no longer had the intense nausea that I had experienced in the car.

“I’m fine,” I finally spoke up, looking at the rather growing group of people in the medical tent. “Just give me a minute and then I can go weigh myself.”

Charles scoffed. “Peaches, you need to lie down for a bit.” But before anyone could stop me, I was standing up – a little unsteady – but still standing. My brother had just won his second F1 race of the season and I had fought long and hard to be on that podium with him – nothing was going to stop me.

“How about this,” the doctor suggested, “you can head to the podium celebration, but I expect to see you here right after for IV fluids.” I nodded – seemed fair enough. “And take this water and hydration package with you.” Before I could protest, the doctor dumped a bunch of water and a packet into the Ferrari water bottle I was still holding – Carlos’s water bottle.

Charles helped me from the tent and we set foot towards the cool down room where I proceeded to rip off my race suit and tie it around my waste. My fireproof shirt was absolutely soaked through and sticking to me. Not the classiest look, but if the F1 cameras weren’t in the room, I definitely would have taken my shirt off.

Not that it had stopped Carlos. As I turned around, I saw a shirtless Carlos sitting on one of the chairs, rubbing his soaking wet hair with his shirt. I stared for what was probably a little too long, and then sat down next to Charles, who was forcing the water bottle back into my mouth,

“Drink, Peaches,” he demanded, a serious look in his eyes. I knew he was annoyed that I had come to the cool down room – but I was insistent.

As Charles turned to his left, he saw the shirtless Carlos who was watching the replay on the screen. I heard him mumble something to Carlos, who only mumbled something dryly back to Charles. He turned back to me and smirked a little. I had been caught.

So sue me – Carlos was attractive. No one had accused me of being blind, just of being bad at media. It was clear that Carlos had been told to put his shirt back on, because he rolled his eyes but slapped his sweaty shirt back on. Show is over ladies, I thought to myself. I’m sure there would be hundreds of gifs of shirtless Carlos all over the internet by tomorrow.

Soon we were ushered onto the podium, wearing our Pirelli hats and spraying champagne all over Charles. If someone asked me one of my favourite moments, I would happily say it was any of the times I stood on the podium with my brother. It didn’t matter who had the higher step – being with Charles on that podium was a dream come true.

Once the anthems were done and champagne spraying was finished, we walked back down to the paddock. Susie and Paula, Bugatti’s team doctor, met me at the bottom of the steps and ushered me back towards the medical tent. After 20 minutes of IV prep and some Tylenol, I was beginning to feel like a new person. The plus side was, I was definitely missing the podium press conference, it probably started 5-10 minutes ago.

“How do you feel?” asked Isabelle. She had arrived just a few minutes ago to check on me.

“Much better, thank you.”

“That was an excellent race today. You showed great pace. We’ll get them next week.” I nodded. It was likely we were going to address my sudden outburst on the team radio, but fortunately it seemed like Isabelle would give me some reprieve today.

“Well, since you’re feeling better, I guess you had better get prepared for the winners conference. Starts in 30 – they pushed it back in hopes that you would feel better.” If I hadn’t known better, I could have sworn that I saw a slight smile on Isabelle’s face.

Well, shit.

Had Isabelle asked them to push back the conference as punishment for the outburst on the radio? Most definitely. Isabelle knew how to push my buttons.

I guess if I had stayed in 4th place, I wouldn’t have had to do media.

When I entered the press conference, I walked over to Carlos and handed him his water bottle.

“Thank you, for today,” I said softly.

He took the water bottle and shook it a bit. “You should finish what’s in here.” I raised my eyebrow and gave him a questioning look. Did Carlso Sainz… care? I mean, he had had to care a bit – he needed this arrangement too, but even I had to admit he was being awfully nice for us having ‘just started’ our relationship. I simply nodded at him and took a seat on the other side of Charles, who was clearly enjoying being in the middle seat this time.

Charles leaned over and whispered, “Ferrari water bottle looks good in your hand, ya know.”

“Oh yeah, you going to give me your seat next year?” I whispered back.

Before Charles could get another word in, the press conference began. The journalists started with their usual questions they had for the winner – a discussion on the tires and new track. As the discussion turned to the temperatures, the journalist turned to me.

“So Olivia, how are you feeling after that? You looked pretty worse for wear out there at the end of the race.”

I nodded, picking up the microphone to respond. “Yeah, as you know we’ve been dealing with weight issues and the team felt it necessary to limit my water – bit of a trough call, because we needed to better balance the car due to my starting 8th, but still – I don’t think it’s a call we can make again.” I winced at the last part; probably not what Isabelle wanted me to say but it was the truth – I couldn’t do that again.

“Well we’re glad you are ok. But I have to ask, since there’s a big push to get more women in the sport, do you think your heat sensitivity had anything to do with the fact you’re a woman?”

As the journalist asked the question I just stared at the guy blankly, dumbfounded was the only way I could express how I felt. I could feel Charles tense up next to me, but before either of us could say anything, I heard a thick Spanish accent in the microphone next to me.

“Did you not just hear her? She said the lack of water in the car was the reason. What does that have to do with being a woman?” The voice was rough and laced with frustration. I turned to the right and saw Carlos standing, getting closer to the journalist, clearly expecting an answer direct to his face.

The journalist looked shocked, his mouth agape as he stared directly into Carlos’ eyes.

“You know, we all struggle with water consumption in the cars. With the weight restrictions, we often have to face minimising water with our set ups, depending on the track temps and our place in qualifying,” Charles spoke up, clearly trying to clear the tension in the air and deescalate the situation. We knew the press didn’t like me, but we couldn’t risk them starting to turn on Carlos as well. Charles stood up and tapped Carlos on the shoulder, who had already begun retreating to his seat, the look of fury in his eyes.

“Right, yes, sure,” was all the journalist would retort, clearly still a little shocked from Carlos outburst. I turned to look at Carlos, who was making a point to still stare at the journalist.

“Judging by the fact that Lily was able to complete 98% of the race without passing out, I would say no, it has nothing with me being a woman and everything to do with my set up and lack of water,” I said, starting to gain confidence in myself. “We drive 300kph in temperatures well above 100 degrees. We learned a lot about the car this weekend and we learned about our limits, and that’s what matters. You can’t be perfect all the time, and that’s what I learned this weekend.

But what I can say, is that I’ll be back next weekend stronger than ever. I mean, someone has to show Chili how to get on the Barcelona podium.” And with that, I turned to my right and winked at Carlos.

As I turned back to the center, I heard a laugh coming from my right. I’m not sure if it was shock, but Carlos was head back, eyes closed, actually laughing in his seat. Charles also had a smile on his lips.

“We’ll see about that, Cariño, we’ll see,” he said, a smile on his face.

@ferrarifwendvale @ihearttheoriginals @lightsoutpierre @starxqt @internetgremlin @ashf1 @lovingroscoee @ccloaned@xheera @markluv4u @kashee-h @questionslostinmoments @pierre-gasllllllyyyyyy @questionslostinmoments@jpotterdilf @oyesmendes @groovy-slytherin @hnmaga-blog @zoobabystation @opfire @running-colourful @alina-starksov @localfreckle @jpotterdilf @gingerxarmy @bands-messed-me-up @guardians-ofthe-lastyoungkilljoy@panicforspec @zoobabystation

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twilightknight17 · 23 days

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P3R while I was gone, part 1:

Featuring my very first reversed social link ever, delicious pancakes, and a marriage proposal!

But first, yet another cat on floor 100-whatever of Tartarus.

...you and me both, kitty. Still don’t know how the fuck you got here.

My next outing with Elizabeth takes us to school, which… maybe we should have done at a different time.

Oh man, wait, can you change your clothes? Liz in a Gekkoukan uniform would be--

……..nevermind. God. X’D

So we’re off into the school. Apologies in advance for my weird cousin, everyone. She’s, uh, from abroad.

The school store only sells bread. Which… I don’t actually know if school lunch is a thing in Japan. Gekkoukan doesn’t seem to have a cafeteria or anything.

Jesus christ there are people in here.

Huh. Never seen Liz “unsettled” before. Interesting. Add some more points to the “the Velvet attendants are pretty human after all” column.

After some other activities, we end up in the music room!

I am, actually! But it was the Long-Nose Song before. Although, I guess I don’t remember that, since it was in the Abyss of Time. Liz is good at piano, though, which… I would hope so, considering she lives with Nameless. He’s probably given all the siblings at least a few lessons.

Elizabeth enjoyed her trip to school, and it’s… really nice to get to see mundane things through the eyes of someone who has never experienced them.

Awwwwww. I really hope that at some point she changes her mind about going out at night, so we can visit Escapade.

Anyway, all of my social links are not ready to rank up, except the Gourmet King, so I guess we’ll go spend time with him.

...great.

The guy who walks up is the thug from the previous rank, who the guy hired to, presumably, beat Suemitsu up. Minato tries to tell him to just stop, and honestly, both dialogue options were pretty blunt and probably rude. But I don’t even feel bad.

……….you know what, yes. I’m hotter than you. Lots of people are. You didn’t have to join a cult over it.

FINE. Whatever. I’ll get you next time. I don’t think you’d have responded any better to the other dialogue option, but whatever.

Suemitsu leaves with the thugs, and Minato, because he’s too good of a person, goes after them.

Honestly, I don’t know what I’m doing here. I really don’t care about you, tbh. But my Moon link un-reversed, so I guess that was a scripted thing.

...maybe I can do a “reverse all links” run at some point. That might be funny, to see how fast I can piss off everyone I know. XDDDD

The thugs decided this wasn’t worth it, so after leaving Suemitsu to sort himself out, I head home to study for my midterms.

“Fun”. Akihiko, you think all the weirdest things are fun.

But the next day, he wants to hang out, so let’s have some more fun!

...oh. Oh.

He wanted to make them for everyone in the dorm, to cheer people up.

I guess this is where my Minato learned that making pancakes is the ideal food after a rough time. P3 retroactively justifying parts of Hours for me is absolutely incredible.

I mean, yeah. You shouldn’t.

He says that this is all he can do right now, but… it’s enough, Akihiko. It’s enough.

Anyway, time passes, midterms start tomorrow, and everyone I live with continues to be weird.

You wanted to watch us study. Ken, please. God. Just go get your books and come study with us.

...hehehehe

This is a new episode, I think. I’m delighted. <3

And, finally, it’s time to wrap up Maiko’s social link, so I can have two that are properly maxed out!

Of course we will. You’re not getting rid of me that easily.

We spend her last rank-up running around the playground, before finally climbing up to just hang out and sit.

Maiko has important things on her mind, though.

I’ll think about it, munchkin.

She gives you a bead ring, which, I dunno. Is Maiko seven? I didn’t give her a treasure in return, so I think I’m safe from being trapped in a childhood marriage promise.

...it’s really cute, though. I… Well. There’s no way to see what would happen if they met again. But I think it would be funny to remind her of this when she’s a teenager. ^_^

Next time: the last Full Moon

#Li plays P3Re

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black-mask-babyyy · 2 months

Text

Ok I’ve had like 24 hours to digest the ending of P3 so I’m here to dump my thoughts. Full disclosure this is going to have a ton of spoilers for Persona 3 Reload!!

The party members were good, I didn’t like them as much as 5 but I do prefer them over 4.

I was kind of annoyed to learn that Chidori could be saved, because the whole thing is easy to miss. I also think the whole idea of her coming back alive and not remembering anything about the Dark Hour or her persona is kind of… lame. It’s just a very convenient way to wrap up her storyline. I did like Junpei’s growth, though, and she obviously contributes to that. Their personas merging when she dies is really… bittersweet.

Speaking of character deaths… Shinjiro??? Hello??? Absolute shock, I was not expecting to lose a party member. Can’t believe they got me to instantly ship Shinjiro and Akihiko just to have Shinji die in Aki’s arms.

And bringing up both Chidori and Shinjiro’s death, let’s talk about Strega. Jin is overall pretty plain, I don’t have much to say to him either way. Takaya, on the other hand, I have so much to say. Full disclosure, I started calling him “Jesus” as soon as I saw him, which I mean… makes sense with the theme of the game. He’s a good, creepy, culty villain and he does it well. My only issue with him (aside from like, obviously disliking him because he’s the villain and a murderer and stuff), is his design. I absolutely hate that he is always shirtless, it is super uncomfortable and weird (which is presumably the point, but still it gives me the ick).

I enjoyed most of the social links, overall. I didn’t really like Kenji and his whole dating a teacher thing, but his link did get better once he was dumped.

I was also kind of irked by Nozomi because his character and the writing is… pretty fat-shamey, but my main problem was the way his storyline feels incomplete. We learn he was in a cult but don’t ever really learn directly what they were about.

I maxed out all but two social links. Chihiro was left at rank 9 and Kazushi at rank 6. I consider that a pretty solid attempt at maxing for a first run.

I knew this going in (one of the few things I knew about the game before playing) that the male party members did not have social links. It’s still a bummer though, because I would have liked to spend more time with them and see them developed outside of the main plot.

And speaking of main plot. I did actually like the pseudo-science involved in the Dark Hour’s creation, I thought it was kind of neat to have a sort-of explanation for how the world with shadows came about (at least for this game).

The way I lost my mind when it was revealed that Ryoji was death… damn. It was a little predictable, because something was obviously weird with him but I was not expecting it to be that weird!

The whole end of the world final showdown is pretty standard JRPG stuff, so I don’t really have much to say on that plot point, but I have to admit I don’t really like the ending.

Don’t get me wrong, I think the idea of the protagonist sacrificing themselves is fine, even if it’s emotionally charged, I respect that as an ending. I’m more irked by the idea that the protagonist basically fought to survive a few months in order to fulfill his promise to meet the team on the school roof, just to die right before they all arrive (excluding Aigis). It feels like the ending doesn’t really give closure, to see SEES happy together after their success or alternatively have them grapple with the loss of their leader and friend.

Overall, I thought the gameplay was fun. Theurgy adds an extra little boost to your character’s strengths which was nice and helpful in speeding up some of the full moon boss battles (and cheesing the Reaper). People (and cats) getting lost in Tartarus adds an extra reason to explore Tartarus along with Elizabeth’s requests, making extra trips to Tartarus worth doing.

The music is fantastic, of course. Bangers all around, and I don’t think this needs any additional explanation.

So here’s my final thoughts/stats for the time being—I’ll be back to 100% it soon:

Persona 3 Reload

Achievement Progress: 85%

Play Time: 85:15

Rating: 8/10

Favorite Song(s): Master of Shadow, Mass Destruction, Burn My Dread - Last Battle

Favorite Character(s): Yuko, Ryoji, Mitsuru, Shinjiro, Koromaru

#persona 3 #persona 3 Reload #persona 3 reload review #persona #game review

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someone-worth-racing-for · 3 years

Note

We need a fanfiction where Lando is heartbroken after the last race with Carlos and Carlos cannot find him :(

Just something sweet for in between 😊✨

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Have you seen Lando somewhere?” Carlos could hear Charlotte asking his mechanics behind his back. “Do you maybe know where he is?” The blond woman finally asked the three of them, when she stepped right next to their sides.

Caco and Rupert instantly shook their heads, while Carlos thought about the last time he had seen his teammate. It was about 20 minutes ago, when the Spaniard got himself, his cousin and trainer some more beer. Lando had promised him to join them and celebrate their last race and also their achievement together, but before he wanted to get changed.

Charlotte crossed her arms in front of her chest, tapped with her feet impatiently onto the ground and sighted already lightly annoyed about the younger one making her so much trouble even in the very last minutes of the season. “Henrik wants to make one final interview with him and I just can’t find him anywhere.” She complained and rolled her eyes about his behaviour.

“I know where he is. Give me five minutes.” Carlos told her, before he placed his beer bottle into her hand and disappeared into the direction of their driver rooms. “Lando? It’s me. Can I come inside?” The Spaniard asked for his permission to come inside, after he had knocked at his door.

When no answer came even after seconds, he warned him with telling him “I will come inside now.” But to his surprise, his younger friend wasn’t inside his room any more or actually never was, because his clothes, Jon had prepared for him to get changed into, were still laying untouched on top of his massage table.

Latest now, Carlos became lightly worried about Lando and his being. Just yesterday evening they had one of their serious, heart-to-heart conversations, where Lando had confessed to him about how much he did actually suffer about everything at the moment.

The pressure he had on his shoulders to drive well today, so they could finish on P3 in the constructor championship, about missing his family and friends at home and of course also because things will change after this last race, after their last race together. He will get a new teammate, there will come new, even harder challenges his way, also his already so familiar and trust worth support in the form of the Spaniard would no longer be next to his side and he was sure that also their friendship will suffer under it.

Carlos had actually thought that things would become easier, after they had really made it and brought P3 home, but Lando still seemed to struggle, because like Charlotte he also wasn’t able to find him. Concern slowly but sure began to fill his body, when he suddenly saw a slim figure all curled up behind some trucks.

Relieved about that he had finally found his younger friend, Carlos smiled for a brief moment to himself, before he carefully got closer to him. He didn’t want to scare him away like a shy fawn, exactly knowing how sensible and vulnerable Lando could be sometimes.

Carlos made sure about that Lando could hear him coming closer to not frighten him, when he finally stepped around the corner and said all softly “Here you are.” Like a little fawn indeed, he was looking up at him through his lashes and the Spaniard could tell instantly, that he had been crying.

Carlos got down onto his heels right in front of his younger teammate and eyed him closely with a tilted head. Yeah, Lando had shared some tears, his eyes were still glassy and his nose a little red, but at least he hadn’t had a complete break-down. Carlos was relieved about that, because he didn’t want Lando to get through something like that behind some trucks all on his own.

“What’s wrong, little one? Tell me.” The older one asked gently, while he placed his palm onto his leg and stroked comfortingly up and down. Lando only shrugged his shoulders in response and hugged his legs even tighter.

But Carlos already knew his younger friend way too well and even when he didn’t tell him what did bother him and why he was so sad, he still understood and tried to cheer him up a little with praising him. “You did so well today, through the whole season actually. You can be so proud about yourself and what you have done, little one. The whole team is proud about you, also your family and I’m proud about you as well. Today is not the day to be self-critical at all, not after you have done so well. And in a few days you are finally able to see your family again and be with them for a longer while, to finally calm down and relax. Don’t always be that hard on yourself, there is no reason for self-critic tonight.”

During his words, Carlos had watched Lando pressing his eyes closed and looking away from him, too ashamed for his friend to see him cry, again. “It’s not that. Not only.” Lando pressed out all tortured, his voice was dangerously thin and small. “What is it then?”

One single tear fell over the edge of his eyes, when Lando leaned forward and took his friend’s hand into his. Of course, Carlos knew what he was trying to tell him with that gesture. “Oh, Lando.” The Spaniard whispered, before he sat down right next to the younger one, placed his arm around his smaller shoulders and pulled him into his side.

Even when they had already talked about it so often, almost regularly since Carlos had told him about his plans to change teams, he still knew it wasn’t easy for his younger friend. Hell, it also still wasn’t easy for Carlos himself to leave him, especially when he was suffering so much under it.

“It’s okay, everything is alright. It’s not the end, just the end of one chapter and the beginning of another, like you have said it yourself. Maybe some things will change, but you will still stay my friend, Lando.” Carlos tried to comfort him with rubbing up and down his upper arm and he smiled to himself, when he felt Lando lean closer.

“No, everything will change and I don’t want it. I don’t like changes.” Lando whined, even when the older one had promised him the contrary already so many times. “But I promise you to always be there for you, whenever you need me. Nothing will change in our friendship, you will see.”

“You can’t say nor promise that, because you also don’t know it yourself.” The younger one sniffed in his arms, sometimes Lando made himself his own life harder than it needed to be. “I didn’t say it will be easy, not as easy any more as it had been until today, but it’s also not impossible. It can all work out like we want it, but I need your help with it.”

“My help?” Lando looked up in disbelief by his words, his eyelashes were still lightly wet and his body was trembling in his arms. “Sure. I also need your help to make that promise work for both of us. We will still spend as much time together as possible, we will still have a lot of fun together and you also won’t ever get rid of me again, little one. Please, stop worrying now and enjoy these moments with me together.”

Even when Lando’s face had lighted up at least a little before, that flame of happiness was already gone again in the next moment. “I don’t want to do any more interviews today. I just can’t hear the question if I'm going to miss you any more, because.. I already miss you like hell right now. Please, Carlos.”

The older one was aware about what this kind of questions did to his friend, especially in the state he was currently in. Lando had never been one to show his real emotions in front of other people or even cameras. He hated to say what he was feeling and letting other people know about what was going on deep inside himself.

Of course, Carlos had got that pretty quickly and also respected his wish to not give away too much or let anyone take part of his emotional world he didn’t want to. But he was still pretty relieved about that Lando could talk with him about his thoughts, feelings, worries and doubts about himself, because he trusted him enough for that.

“It’s okay, you don’t have to make any more interviews, if you don’t want, little one. I will talk with Charlotte and Henrik about it.” Grateful, Lando snuggled even closer and wrapped his arm around his teammate’s belly in thankfulness. They stayed like that for a while, all quiet and peaceful, just enjoying each other’s company and closeness.

Till Lando broke the silence with asking all nicely “Will you still give me tips next season?” His question caused Carlos to laugh and pull him one more time closer. How could he ever manage to say no to this sweet, young man in his arms? “Sure, if you still want them.”

Urgently Lando nodded his head, before their eyes finally met again and to his surprise, the younger one’s eyes weren’t swollen nor glassy any more, he was also already lightly smiling again. “Can you also promise me something?” Carlos whispered with a soft smile on his lips.

Once again Lando nodded his head, even when he was afraid about not being able to keep the promise. “Come with me back into the garage. I want you to be there as well tonight, next to my side and celebrate our achievement. It would mean so much to me.”

And after everything the Spaniard had already done for him, Lando just had to agree, nodded his head to do his friend that big favour and he even managed to form a smile on his lips for him. “That’s my boy. And now come on. You change first and then we will get back to the other and have a good time.”

Carlos was on his feet first, before he offered his younger teammate his hand and finally helped him to stand up as well. While they were walking back together, Carlos with his arm around his friend’s shoulder and Lando’s resting on his back, the older one added “You need to promise me something more, little one.”

Expectant Lando looked up at Carlos smiling teasingly down at him, before he finally went on “Promise me to not forget every single Spanish word I have ever taught you.” Lando’s usual big, cheeky smile was back, when he nodded promising his head and told Carlos teasingly “Soy lago.”

The Spaniard ruffled through his wild curls and even after all this time, they were still laughing about that inside joke of them. And also this will never change.

#lando norris #carlos sainz jr #carlos sainz #carlando #carlando fanfiction #fanfiction

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starlling-writes · 5 years

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Bewitching Monsters - Elf (Aero) Part 1

Series Rating: 18+ Chapter Contains: no warnings Pairing: f/m BeMo Masterlist ☆ Writing Masterlist

For about a week, I had put off opening the mysterious box my elf courier randomly gave me. Apparently it was a present from him, though he had failed to mention that at the time. When I confessed to neglecting the box, he was understandably piqued. I didn’t mean to insult him; I seriously had no idea it was important for me to open ASAP.

Caera, wafted around me as I sat down, blade in hand, ready to open the gift. She had bothered me a time or two about it. Now I felt her excitement in the air as I cut the twine and opened the box.

First, I found a note. “A welcoming gift. I hope it’s to your taste. Perhaps I’ll see you at the Brumalis feis in this? Or not in this, whichever you prefer, Little Witch,” I read aloud. I groaned and tossed the letter aside. He was never going to let me live down how we first met—I was naked and he got a good long view.

I pulled a dress out of the box. Made of black chiffon, it was a simple, sleeveless, shift dress sewn in panels to give the subtle illusion of a spider web. Okay it was actually really cute and seemed like it would fit. It was too sheer on its own, but I had plenty of options to wear under it. Feeling giddy, I decided to play dress-up.

This was going to be the first feis I took part in since moving to Arvos. I missed the Autumnal feis because I was so busy settling in and dealing with Caera’s mischief at the time. I still paid my respects, but there was no celebrating beyond enjoying a large piece of fudge and a bottle of delicious mead. For Brumalis, I was thinking of going no holds barred.

Brumalis celebrated the end of the harvests and marked the changing of the seasons to winter. Since it began the season of death, it was also the time when we paid respect to those departed. Grand festivals went from sunset the day before, to sunrise the day after. Both autumn and winter colors were popular. Blending the color schemes was equally as common as costume changes. However, multiple outfits would not be wise this year. I planned on getting wasted. I doubted future-me would have the coordination to successfully change clothes without any troubles. And I really did not want to risk ruining my new dress—even if it was from a bothersome elf.

The next day, I stopped in at Honey Cup to grab a latte on my way to the archive. I had research to do and needed all the caffeine I could get. Plus, I was hoping that I’d be able to run into the air elf again so I wouldn’t need to track him down on my own.

“Sweet morning, Witch. You’re in here earlier than usual,” greeted Honey.

That was another reason I needed caffeine: I was up way too early for the schedule I kept. Sleep eluded me half the night. I was even able to watch the sunrise for once today—it would have been lovely if it weren’t for my unexpected guest. “I feel dead inside.”

“Spiced tea latte?”

“Yes. In the largest size you can make.” I leaned on the counter and stared at the menu. I never took the time before to look at all the food options they had. Most were fruit or vegetable based pastries, along with a couple hearty soups for the season. The café was still slow at this hour so I wasn’t worried with holding up the line as I tried to pick something. “I’m torn between a berry tart and a veggie pot pie. Both sound amazing right now.”

“How about the pot pie for now and take the tart to go?”

“See this is why I love you. You let me indulge in all my cravings. It’s also why I hate you—for enabling my poor habits.”

“What kind of fae would I be if I didn’t tempt my patrons?” She smiled mischievously as she handed me my tea. The warmth of the mug seeping into my hands was bliss. I curled up in the corner of a couch and sipped, savoring the flow of this magical life-giving beverage at this unholy hour. Within a couple minutes she delivered my food to me too.

Never have I scarfed down any meal as quickly as I did that pie. I was fairly certain it was spelled to be more delicious than any food could hope to be. Then again, I had been up for hours now with nothing in my stomach, so it might have just been my ravenous hunger. Still, it was heavenly.

“Hey Honey, how often does that one courier come here?”

Her eyes flashed up at me and the corners of her mouth tugged into a sly smirk. “Why the inquiry, dear Witch?”

“Don’t read too much into it,” I warned. “I just want to know if I should bother trying to run into him here, or just call for him at the postal court.”

She dashed over and flung herself onto the couch beside me—and partially onto me. “You opened the gift?” Her voice chimed with the joy of a child receiving the puppy they always wanted. It was a challenge not rolling my eyes at her gossip-loving reaction.

“Yes.”

“Well?”

“He gave me a dress and said he hoped to see me at the Brumalis feis.”

She jerked away, sitting up straight and cocking her head slightly. “Gave you a dress?” I nodded. “He, gave you a dress? He gave you—and just wished to see you there? Not ask you there on a—what have you done to him?” she accused.

“What? Nothing! We barely know each other. I think we’ve maybe had like—three?—interactions so far. Maybe four. I didn’t spell him, that’s for sure.”

She pulled her legs up and wrapped an arm around them as she placed her thumb to her lip. “I’ve just never known him to be the generous sort like this. I’d thought he offer the dress as a bribe to being his date, not give it freely.”

Her insight played weirdly with my heart. The only notable thing that happened between the air elf and myself was me flashing him. Was that enough of a moment to make him act uncharacteristic? I didn’t think my body was that special—being a short, small chested, jiggly pear. It was nice thinking my natural self had charmed someone to such a degree.

My joy dipped as the Honey’s finger dug into my cheek. “Someone’s blushing!” she sang.

“I’m going to the post now.”

“Fine, fine,” she continued to sing. She jumped up and walked behind the counter to grab the little bag she prepped my tart in already. She handed it to me, along with a small tea to go, and waved me off. “But expect to dish the deets at some point.”

“Sweet day, Neighbor.” I switched back to the default fae-name to pester her as much as she had me. It only made her smile more.

“And a very sweet day for you, Witch,” she winked.

The postal court was a bit out of the way from the archive, but it shouldn’t be too long of a detour. Not that the books were going anywhere. I had never been inside the building before and was a bit awestruck when I entered. Vaulted ceilings, towering columns, and rows and rows of equaling towering shelves filled with packages stretching back behind the large clerk desk bisecting the lobby.

Once it was my turn, I greeted the clerk and asked, “I was wondering if one of the couriers was currently in. Or if I could leave a message for him.”

“Courier number?”

“What?—Oh. Umm, I don’t know… his number,” I admitted. “I’m the witch from the southeast woods. Is there a way to see who has delivered there? He’s the only one that’s come by.”

“Don’t worry,” answered a voice behind me as a hand touched my shoulder. I turned to greet a familiar grin. “I believe I’m the one she’s looking for.”

“That was easy.” We walked off to the side of the lobby for a bit of privacy.

“I’ll come whenever you like, Witch,” he said and leaned against the wall. He pulled one of his vambraces out of his bag and started strapping it on his arm.

“Watch your words,” I slyly retorted. But we both knew he measured every word he chose well.

“Visiting me at work now,” the air elf said and reached in his bag for his second vambrace. “I might start getting the wrong idea.”

“I only came to thank you for the dress and accept your invitation.”

His eyes sparkled. “Perhaps I’m getting the right idea after all.”

“Oh, please,” I snickered. “I don’t know many people yet, and I’m going to be at the feis anyway. Hanging with you should be much more fun than partying alone.”

“Hmm. I prefer my own interpretations. Anyways, what color dress will you be wearing? We should coordinate.”

“What makes you think I’m gonna wear anything under the dress you gave me?” I teased, feeling my flirty side bubble up.

He raised his brow and gave me a knowing look. “Because as you’ve already demonstrated a second ago, you love destroying my fantasies.”

I shrugged innocently and took a sip of my tea. “I guess you’ll just have to wait and see then. Or not see. Whichever I end up preferring.”

He chuckled darkly and traced his fingers down my arm. “Wicked, little Witch. You could kill a male with such trepidation.”

“Good thing I know how to dispose of bodies and am attracted to the other sexes.”

His laugh filled the room twice over, resulting in many looks our way from both employees and patrons. It sounded like summer, well into a still bright evening. He brought my hand to his lips. For three heartbeats, he kissed it. Slowly he brought his eyes up to mine and sent butterflies fluttering into my core. “Until the feis. Little Witch.”

I watched him leave and return to his work. The air felt lighter.

Brumalis was going to be interesting this year.

— — —

BeMo Masterlist ☆ Writing Masterlist

Story: Previous — Next

Character Arc: [Here] P2 P3

#monster love #exophilia #writeblr #elf x human #fae #elf love #fae love #fae x human #Bewitching Monsters

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rainandhotchocolate · 5 years

Text

Tutors Pet - Part 3

A/N Part 1-2 on my profile! Praying that this shows up in tags so I’m not sad and think everyone hates my writing :’( (I joke I promise) - anyways sorry for taking so long, the new year has so far been a bit of a process for me, but I’m hopefully back back now! This didn’t go at all the way I had planned lel so I hope it still works, anyway enjoy :)

It was the little things. The little touches under the table at breakfast, grazing her thigh in the Three Broomsticks, brushing hands in their now shared potions class. The hushed kisses in empty hallways and behind secret passageways (that Sirius and James had shown them, very unnecessarily in the middle of the night under an invisibility cloak that was far too small for 4 teenagers) were definitive perks of dating Lily Evans.

Unfortunately, this very moment was not so much. Y/N watched sourly as Lily chatted animatedly to a boy who was clearly infatuated with her, I mean who wouldn’t she thought gruffly to herself, a little annoyed at her great taste in girls. As much as she knew there was absolutely no reason to be jealous, she could still feel her chest tightening as he casually grazed her arm. If she could just walk over there, sling an arm over her shoulder and kiss her on the cheek, just obnoxiously enough for him to be a little- Lily swung around to look at Y/N and broke her train of thought as she moved to face her breakfast again, avoiding Lily’s bright green stare.

“Smooth moves, Y/L/N” Lily suddenly whispered from behind her before joining Y/N at the Gryffindor table.

“I try” Y/N grumbled, desperately trying to hide her blushing face.

“Not spying on me are you” Lily raised an eyebrow, picking up two slices of taste and a dollop of jam.

“Not spying…just watching” Y/N groaned, “creepily, from afar”

“At least you’re honest” Lily chuckled loudly, “He wasn’t asking me out you know”

“I know, I’m sorry. I just, sometimes hate having to hide… use you know”

Lily grinned, sighing as she took a bite of toast. The hall around them was buzzing, filled with people all getting extremely excited for the holidays. The Hufflepuffs currently had a long ball of string hovering in the air and was knitting a long yellow and black Christmas scarf to wrap around the entrance to the kitchen, as per last year and the Slytherin’s were sending paper airplanes into the biggest holes in the scarf.

“I know, but you know it-“

“Makes sense for now, especially with people disappearing, I know I know” Y/N recited, if only a little bit sarcastic. Lily smiled at her all the same and poked her cheek as Y/N chewed on her cereal.

“Look, how about we go have a proper date this weekend – just the two of us” Lily looked down at her, pouting a little.

“Don’t you have Prefect duties all weekend?”

“Oh shoot” Lily bit her lip, turning back to her toast. Y/N felt a little dip in her stomach as she tried to hide her disappointment.

“It’s ok we-“

“No, it’s not ok! I can’t believe we haven’t had a proper date, just the two of us, not pretending to be out with the boys so we can hold hands without anyone noticing this is stupid. Let me just, hang on, gimme like 3 hours ok?” She grinned broadly, squeezed Y/N’s hand and jumped out of her seat, heading out of the Great Hall.

Y/N didn’t see Lily for the rest of the day, she sat wondering what was going on as Professor Binns droned on and on about something regarding the elfish wars in the 1800s.

“What are you doodling there, missy” Louisa Prette whispered next to her, winking suggestively. Y/N tried to hold back a grin, but Louisa had a way of getting under her skin and stopping her sulking.

“Nothing in particular” Y/N mumbled, trying to pull it away as Binns floated around the room and near her seats. Lousia managed to wrangle it out of her hand and made a soft squealing noise.

“Don’t tell me, Y/N’s finally got a lil crush?” Lousia grinned broadly, “WHY would you not tell me! You know I’ve been waiting to pass down my wisdom”

“What from your one date with Xavier McLaggen? I would have thought that would be more about what not to do”

“I have plenty of experience, missy, now tell me tell me tell-“

“Was there something more important to discuss Miss Prette” Professor Binns drawled slowly, staring at her absently whilst the whole class suddenly sat up from his change of pace.

“Nothing could ever be more interesting than you Professor Binns” Louisa smiled broadly, her teeth practically glistening with the amount of sarcasm dripping from her words.

“Mmmm” Professor Binns looked like he would glare if he really could but continued to glide onwards and around the classroom.

“Ok, now- spill” Lousia leaned in eagerly and grinned at her. When Y/N said nothing Lousia began to nudge her obnoxiously, “I know I’m annoying but it’s for your own good, you bottle everything up too much, gal”

“I don’t bottle things up, I talk the appropriate amount t”

“Yeah says the girl I had to ASK for her to tell me about her first kiss! Who doesn’t tell their best friend about their first kiss?”

“It didn’t come up in conversation!” Y/N said exasperatedly, feeling increasingly embarrassed.

“Stop changing the subject, so, who’s the guy?” Louisa finally asked the dreaded question. Who’s the guy. Y/N couldn’t blame her, her first kiss was with a guy, her first crush was a guy (well what she thought was a crush but was actually just a guy being nice to her), and Y/N had never indicated otherwise. But there was still a little part of her that wanted slap her for not magically presuming otherwise, or perhaps magically destroying the internal bigotry against anyone not heterosexual. Potentially too much to ask in one best friend.

“Hello, Y/N?”

“Right sorry, zoned out” Y/N smiled, “not much to say really… I mean don’t want to jinx it”

“Ugh, so paranoid” Louisa scoffed, a little too loudly and covered it over with some wild coughing (much to Professor Binns continued annoyance), “But I get it, you want him allll to yourself for a little bit huh”

“Something like that” Y/N smiled and went back to pretending to write notes to stop her from pestering anymore. The more she wrote down random elfish sounding names the more she couldn’t stop herself from feeling more and more self-conscious. There was something about the whispers between everyone in every corner of the room that made her feel like they could only be talking about her, that there was something wrong with her, that she wasn’t normal.

“Y/N, class has ended, you can stop making up baby names” Louisa winked and shoved her lightly to go and grab her books and finally leave the classroom. The buzz of the end of the day was increasing every day the Christmas holidays got closer. There was a chill in the air that could very easily be fixed by the warm mugs of hot chocolate and pumpkin juice was served at every meal and glistening lights that looked like snow falling in the sky above the Great Hall. Y/N, however, was not so hungry and gave a lame excuse of going to the library before skulking off and back up towards the common room.

She wandered slowly, wondering why she couldn’t just stand tall like Lily does and not care about what people say or don’t say. Where was she anyway? Running around with her – shut up Y/N. She internally cursed herself for getting so negative. She looked up and realised she’d reached a part of the castle she hadn’t really explored yet. It was dark, and there were multiple knights in armour standing around large metal doors. She stood momentarily watching them as they began to creak and she heard the unmistakable sounds of someone trying to wrench them open.

“…there isn’t much time left until he’ll call us in you know”

“It’s only a matter of time”

Voices came from the door as it pulled open and Y/N came face to face with three large and vaguely recognisable Slytherin boys. One had long blonde hair and a pointy nose, Y/N had remembered him from the Slytherin Quidditch team, a beater and very fast, the other two both had dark brown hair, one long and un-showered, and the other clearly well showered and a subtly handsome.

“Who’s this, listening in” The blonde one growled, leering down at her. Y/N gaped suddenly, feeling very much like a fish but was interrupted before she got any noise out.

“You know exactly who this is” The more handsome one grinned, flashing scarily white teeth, “The youngest of the Black clan, Regulus’ sister. Don’t you remember her hexing you into St.Mungos last Christmas?”

“Of course! I wonder what she’s doing here, not trying to catch an earful I hope” The blonde continued to leer. Y/N had a sudden flashback of a very rash decision to point and shoot out a string of hexes at her mum’s favourite friends’ sons all lined up for her, leering down at her very uncomfortably tight dress as the blonde boy was doing now.

“Perhaps she needs a little lesson in manners” The slimier one finally chimed in, still standing behind the other two but somehow seeming the most menacing.

“I think you’re right” She saw a smile and then she was suddenly unable to see.

Taglist: @maraudersandco @northscorpio @seesaw-it @lustfulcry @depressedcoffeebean @supercuteasalily @palaisdecouture @blackpinkdolan @fashionlive15 @creepysweet

#Marauders #lily evans x you #lily evans x reader #lily evans imagine #Lily Evans #lily evans fanfiction #marauder #Marauders RP #marauders imagine #marauders fic #rainandhotchocolate

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spiffyworks · 5 years

Text

Artist’s Software Surfing P1 - Sketching

SSSo recently, after finishing (an admittedly long-overdue) a piece, I decided to download a trial of the new Corel Painter 2019. I hadn’t used Painter since my old DeviantArt days (circa 2005) and wanted to see how it felt with more digital art-veteran hands. Loaded it up, started sketching my default doodle-muse and wow, that “Real 2B” pencil feels great. I loved it so much, and wondered why.

That’s the story that is spawning this weird personal series of Software Surfing. I wanted to write little notes to future-me on how it felt using my favorite sketching tools in each program I have, and after the sixth one I thought it might be a good idea to check out inking, colouring, painting, etc. and writing those down as well.

So I’m writing this series for myself, but making it available in case anyone else can benefit as well. Thanks for sticking with the intro, let’s get into it.

Artist’s Software Surfing P1 - Sketching Artist’s Software Surfing P2 - Inking Artist’s Software Surfing P3 - Colouring Artist’s Software Surfing P4 - Painting

There are many ways to sketch, but this is specifically the classic “pencil” or “drawing” form using the tools with the program’s default settings.

As an introduction, this is my doodle-muse, Cloey. She was my first original character, and though I don’t usually share my anthro art on here (I know that’s not everyone’s thing) I do have a separate blog for that stuff that you can find here if you’re so inclined. If you’re familiar with Artgerm (and you should be), she’s basically my Pepper.

Corel Painter’s “Real 2B”:

The one that started it all. The pencil just GLIDES, and I’ve always loved when you can tilt a pencil tool and it will shade just like tilting a real-life pencil. The only thing I want from a program now is to be able to bind touch to blenders so I can use my finger to smudge-blend the scribbling. (I tried drawing that fist so many times /fume)

Likes: Tilt functionality, line width variance, stroke speed, eraser Dislikes: Rebinding Rotate Canvas tool was a pain. I like Shift+Space, and that key combo is reflected in the shortcut panel, but it just continued to pan. Never worked for me, and rotating or flipping the page quickly is crucial for my sketching process. Also sometimes if I quickly resize the eraser and mash it down to use, it won’t detect any input.

Photoshop, Kyle Webster’s “2B” & “Animator Pencil”:

**Disclaimer** Firstly, I’ve used Photoshop for over 15 years now, and it’s a great digital art tool, but for drawing and painting I find it’s sorely lacking. It’s slow, expensive, and unintuitive. That being said, there are some things this program does exclusive to others so I’m still clinging to it (desperately) and while I would definitely recommend something else for budding digital artists, I have to supplement my misgivings by purchasing additional plugins and tools, such as the famed Kyle T Webster’s Ultimate Megapack for Photoshop (

which is now complementary with Photoshop CC, damnit

). Unless otherwise noted, all the brushes I use in Photoshop will be from that pack. **End Disclaimer**

Following off the heels of Corel, I remembered messing around with another “2B” (which btw is my personal favorite traditional pencil to sketch with) in Kyle Webster’s Drawing Box in Photoshop. It felt a bit similar, but with no tilt functionality and it really lacked the chunky-thickness (a scientific term) I enjoyed with Painter’s pencil. I switched to my favorite (and the favorite of MANY digital artists btw) his “Animator’s Pencil”. So chunky, but the ability to shade lightly... It’s really a fun brush to use for sketching digitally. Still one of my absolute favorites.

Animator Pencil Likes: Line width variance, texture fills in and scales perfectly Dislikes: It’s a photoshop exclusive, a program that for some reason you can’t bind shortcuts to whatever you please, takes forever to load, and WAY too often suffers input lag while drawing. Also no tilt shading, :’( aw

Paintstorm’s “Textured Pencil” & “Pencil Tilt”

As a bit of an aside, I love Paintstorm, Paintstorm is what got me back into digital drawing and painting after doing 3D and game design for 7 years. I bought it for the very low price of entry (2 licenses for $30) and was impressed by its ability to customize literally anything in the program. You can create your own tool/brush boxes, bind any shortcut to any key combination, and every single brush tool adjustment comes with the most customization control of any program I’ve come across since Photoshop set the bar way back in the day. Out of the box a lot of the basic brushes have that old OpenCanvas or PaintTool Sai feel, but more recently they’ve added some very textured default brushes you can play around with. It’s also hands-down the FASTEST program I’ve ever worked in. I highly recommend giving it a try, it’s great for learning and experimentation. I grew a lot working in Paintstorm.

The Textured Pencil is a fun sketching brush, you can get as think or thick as you’d want and it keeps a clean outline. The Pencil Tilt really blew my mind the first time I used it. YOU CAN SHADE! It was the first time I had ever seen a program do that. The tilt has a great texture, fantastic control, and gets just as dark as you’d need. I’d recommend using them both, the Textured Pencil for a cleaner sketch, and the Pencil Tilt for something more expressive or loose.

Krita’s Ink-Tilt & “Sketch”:

I’ll be honest, I have almost no experience in Krita despite having downloaded and given it a try back in 2014. It was a hell of a time to figure out how to rebind my usual shortcuts (flip horz, rotate canvas). I couldn’t even rebind colour grab/eyedropper. Yikes. I opened up the “Sketching” brush box and there were only two options, made worse as one was a sketch pen... That lacked the flexibility of ballpoint.

First I grabbed the pencil dubbed “Sketch” and was bewildered why the size of the circle was so large compared to the mark it made. Very confusing. Feeling intimidated, I abandoned it immediately to try out the “ink_tilt” (which by the way there’s no tilt functionality??) and hated it. I reluctantly went back to the pencil and just started trying to make marks. Wow. It’s weird, but surprisingly fun. You have to be willing to relinquish a LOT of control, but the shapes the brush makes while moving and tilting during a stroke can yield some really interesting and suggestive shapes. I would say great for early concepting or making something really loose and expressive. Fun to play with, but not really practical.

Clip Studio Paint’s Real Pencil & Rough Pencil

I’ve been wholly immersed in CSP since I purchased the program back in late 2016. It goes on sale often, so you can pick up a nice fully featured program for ~$35. I’d had my eye on it for a while and still really want to get into self-publishing comics, so I picked it up, bought a couple of brush packs for it (it’s pretty lacking in default painting tools) and I’ve been illustrating in it ever since. The brush creation isn’t as fun as Paintstorm, but brushes are quite customizable. I usually like to use the “Rough Pencil” if I want just a little texture and line variance, or the “Darker Pencil” for something cleaner. Trying to be different, I just jotted out a couple heads in ones I don’t normally use, the Real Pencil and Design Pencil. The Real Pencil has a lot of texture, but for some reason in CSP the textures don’t seem to scale with the brush, so I tend to avoid using it in most cases. I hate the design pencil, I just could never get dark enough. I guess that’s probably the point, though.

Well, that definitely wraps this digest up. I feel refreshed after trying out a lot of new digital sketching brushes. I was really reminded of how much I enjoyed drawing in Paintstorm. I hope someone other than me found this useful or otherwise inspiring! Sometimes, especially if you’re stuck in some art blockage, it’s a good idea to try something new, and for me digitally that’s hopping programs and trying new brushes.

I’m thinking about doing inks, colours, and painting at some point. Let me know if anyone’s interested in those! I’m planning on doing some for myself eventually, but I might expedite a post if anyone is interested. o/ Take it easy, y’all.

Artist’s Software Surfing P1 - Sketching Artist’s Software Surfing P2 - Inking Artist’s Software Surfing P3 - Colouring Artist’s Software Surfing P4 - Painting

#process #sketching #software #guide

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panda-noosh · 6 years

Text

ser•en•dip•it•y {part 6}{Matt Holt x Reader}

Words: 4725

Summary: You and Matt used to be childhood best friends, but that hadn’t been the case for nearly four years now. Whenever your parents insist on going to the Holt family country home for the summer, you may be forced to face old feelings as Matt makes an appearance.

Pairing: Matt Holt x Reader

Notes: p1 - p2 - p3 - p4 - p5 - FINAL; yeehaw.

Chapter 6

You knew there was a definite sense of desperation in your system for you to have agreed to meet up with Keith Kogane during the summer.

You and Keith had never entirely had a friendship, per se. Both of you were well aware that the only time you two ever really spoke was whenever the other was in need of homework, or help with studying, and even then the conversation would be minor. Your relationship was based around lost library cards, college student mental breakdowns and passing pens to one another around the classroom after the teacher had already scolded you for not bringing one of your own.

Never before had you met up with Keith outside of those circumstances, and the idea of doing so made you oddly nervous.

You were a completely different person outside of the classroom. Whenever you were sat in front of the board, or crowded by books, you were focused. You had something to talk about. You could keep a manageable conversation up because there was a conversation to be had.

Now, what if things went silent? You and Keith would meet up for coffee, and you’d just sit in an awkward silence, making dumb small talk until you finally realised how bad of an idea this was and left.

That apparently hadn’t stopped you from agreeing, though.

Keith had texted you the night after your conversation with Jamie, asking you if you’d like to meet up for coffee for a ‘quick catch up.’ You were puzzled by his choice of words - there was nothing to catch up on. You and Keith had never been caught up with each other, unless complaining about algebra equations was a suitable description of such a statement.

You had sent back agreeing before you could argue yourself out of it, and now here you were - waiting for the black haired man to arrive.

You wore a frilly, white summer shirt and high waisted, light blue jeans. It was fancier than you were used to, your summer wardrobe usually consisting of nothing but tank tops and shorts, but you felt like making an effort would be appreciated. Perhaps wearing something pretty would make your mood lift a little bit.

You had to admit, being away from the house was helping matters much more than you thought they would. Finally being able to escape the non-stop tension that now brewed between everybody within those walls was like taking a breath of fresh air.

Keith arrived on time - it was you who had been early, insisting you get there before the acquired time so you could practice your greeting before Keith actually showed his face.

But now here he was, his red jacket pulled on over a black shirt with a belted pair of brown trousers and boots; always the kid who wanted to be in the Garrison, and his clothing choice proved such a thing to you. He had once been a student at the Garrison, you were aware, but had dropped out shortly after and had gone back to public college to finish his degree.

“Keith!” you exclaimed. He looked up from his phone and immediately his face brightened. He crossed the street with a light jog to his step before, taking you by complete surprise, he wrapped one arm around you and tugged you into a slightly awkward side hug.

“Y/N! It’s so good to see you,” he said. You patted his stomach, unsure of what else to do. He pulled away and looked down at you, stuffing his phone back into the pockets of his Garrison gear. “Were you waiting long? I thought I got the time right, but my phone’s been playing up lately so I could be very, very late.”

You chuckled, shaking your head. “No, no. I was a bit early, but I wasn’t waiting too long. Wanna go and get a drink?”

He nodded an affirmative and the two of you waltzed back into the crowded coffee shop. It was a cosy place, leather sofas set up and candles lit on each one. Large, condensation-littered jugs of water had been set in the centre of each table, and you had to admit that they looked incredibly tempting.

You ordered a hot chocolate at the counter, held it between your hands as if it was a cold winters day rather than scolding hot outside.

Keith ordered a caramel mocha before you two found seats on the far side of the shop, away from all of the prying eyes that didn’t exist; nobody was looking at either of you, but you felt oddly scrutinised. Perhaps it was the reputation of Keith not wearing off just yet. He wasn’t exactly known for being the friendliest person in the school, though the time you had spent together - as meaningless as it was at the time - had shown you otherwise.

“Sorry for texting you so out of the blue,” Keith began, and you almost let out a sigh of relief at the immediate conversation. “My friend told me you wouldn’t mind if I texted you - Jamie. You might know him?”

You took a sip of your hot chocolate to hide your laugh. “Jamie? It doesn’t ring a bell, but I’m glad he told you that. I was surprised, but it was nice. I haven’t seen anyone outside of my own family for nearly three weeks.”

Keith frowned then, leaning back in the plush leather sofa. “Are you not staying with the Holt family for the summer like you always do?”

You frowned. “How did you know?”

“Everybody was riled up that Matthew Holt was back from the Garrison. He was the only one out of our class that passed the exams and managed to get in, so everybody wanted to see him, to ask him what it was like.” He shrugged. “Plus, you two were always so close. I just assumed that if anybody would have spoken to him, it would have been you.”

Involuntarily, a blush crept along the edge of your throat and onto your cheeks. You wanted to change the subject, talk about anything other than the person Keith seemed to admire so much; looking into his violet eyes now, you saw that his opinion of Matt was nothing less than friendly.

“I am staying with him and his family, actually,” you replied.

Keith’s eyes popped open over the rim of his coffee cup. “Really? Did he tell you anything about his time at the Garrison?”

“I’m surprised you’re so interested. Did you not spend a few months there?”

Keith relaxed then, a lazy smile appearing on his lips as if he was happy that somebody had finally recognised his short time at the all-superior school of the Garrison.

“I did, actually,” he replied. “Only a few months. It was a bit too - controlling for my taste.”

You hummed. “I heard it can overwhelm people quite a bit.”

“It wasn’t overwhelming,” he insisted, clearly trying to make himself out to seem a little bit tougher than he truly was. You found yourself amused by the way his voice rose an octave higher as he came to his own defence. “The teachers were assholes.”

You laughed then. “Would you ever go back?”

“I don’t think I’d be allowed back. I broke all kinds of rules whenever I left - it wasn’t exactly an organised departure.”

“So the rumours are true? You just got up, stole one of their jets and left in the middle of the night?”

Keith blushed, ducking his head down to look at his crossed legs. “Something like that. It was more difficult than that, but that’s the basic jidst of it.”

You gawked. The rumours had been circulating campus for months after Keith arrived - or, reappeared would be a better term - but you had never believed any of them. The idea of somebody stealing from the Garrison - leaving the Garrison in general - was beyond your wildest imagination. The school was prestigious, one of the most difficult flight centres to get into. Anybody who had managed to get in didn’t just want to leave straight after.

And yet Keith Kogane was different, clearly, though you found yourself not entirely surprised. He didn’t seem like the type of guy who liked being pinned down to one thing, and by the sounds of the Garrison, it was an extremely difficult place to become comfortable in.

“Is Matt enjoying his time there?” Keith asked, suddenly. You hadn’t realised that you had stopped talking, abruptly making the conversation end towards that awkward silence you were so adamant to avoid.

You nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, he says it’s great. He worked hard to get into it, so I’m assuming he’s just taking every moment as he can.”

“As he should do,” Keith said. “He was always passionate about flying, I remember. So were you at one point.”

You blushed, remembering your thirteen-fourteen year old self, sitting beside Matt in the school playground, talking animatedly away about your dreams of overtaking the skies together. Your dreams of sitting side-by-side in a fighter jet, taking down enemies, saving the world.

The mere idea of you in a jet made you cringe now, knowing your stance on the whole thing.

“Didn’t everyone want to be something stupid when they were younger?” you asked, a mild nudge in a different direction. You didn’t want to reminisce on your time with Matt, lest the truth of your and Matt’s strained relationship slipped through.

Keith nodded. “I wanted to be a Galra.”

You giggled, covering your mouth. “A Galra? Why would you want to be one of those?”

“My mum was a big fan of the Galran lour,” Keith explained, nudging your knee slightly as you continued to laugh into your hand. “I read some of the books she brought home and thought they were just living the god damn life. It’s wild, I know.”

“Such a boy thing to do.”

Keith grinned. “Alright, Amelia Earhart. Going through space in your favourite rocket ship, or whatever way the song goes.”

You gasped, flicking your foot out and kicking Keith in the shin. He laughed at the movement, pushing you back lightly. “A fighter jet, Keith. I wanted to pilot a fighter jet. A rocket ship and a jet are two very different things.”

“You’d know,” he chuckled. “Nerd.”

Your day with Keith went surprisingly well, you found.

Though the romantic air you had been worried would form had made no such appearance, that didn’t make the day any less meaningful. You realised, as Keith and you approached your front door, that a friendship could sometimes mean a whole lot more than any type of romantic relationship.

The night air was settling over the two of you by now, eleven o’clock spinning around all too quickly for you to comprehend. The day had ended in a fit of giggles in the middle of the park after Keith had insisted on trying to paint with mud. He had ended up nearly sinking within the mud put, and you had been forced to drag him out, getting your own outfit dirty in the process.

But it was friendly, and you hadn’t realised how much you craved such a connection with somebody over the past three weeks.

The lights from the summer home came into view as you pushed open the metal gate and led Keith into the garden. He had expressed his refusal to go inside of the house, worried he would either bump into your parents or wake them up, and you had agreed. Leading Keith Kogane into the same house as Matt seemed like an awful idea, especially when you were covered from head-to-toe in sun-dried mud.

“So I guess this is goodnight,” Keith said as you two approached the lit-up door. You turned to him, placing your hands in front of you as you smiled.

“Seems so,” you replied. “I hope we can do this again soon, Keith. I had a good time.”

“So did I,” he said. “Even though you insisted on giving me an extremely detailed run-down of the mechanics of a fighter jet.”

You shoved his shoulder. “And don’t you forget any of it. I’ll be testing you when we get back on campus.”

“I’ll make sure to study.” The two of you chuckled lightheartedly, the air dim around you, calm. The calmest it had been around you in weeks. It felt good, like a boulder had been lifted from your shoulders and discarded elsewhere, allowing you to just feel again.

As you and Keith shared your final goodbyes, the door behind you opened.

You turned, expecting Jamie to be there, or even your parents. They always managed to say thank you to the person who brought you home safely - they were just those types of people.

But your stomach flipped whenever you met the beaming, tired eyes of Matt Holt, standing by the door with his buff arms folded over his shoulders.

“Matt,” you squeaked before you could stop yourself. “What are you still doing downstairs?”

“I told your parents I’d make sure you got home safely,” he replied, his eyes trailing over Keith in an almost sinister way - as if Keith were prey.

You had a sudden urge to scold him, to tell him to mind his own business because it was no secret why he was doing this - he was either wanting a fight with you, or wanting a fight with Keith.

Going by the look on his face now, it was Keith he was wanting to hit more.

“Well, I’m home,” you said. “You can go to bed now. I can get myself tucked in nice and cosy all on my own.”

Keith frowned. “I should go-”

“Why is there mud all over your shirt?” Matt said. His voice wasn’t stern - Matthew Holt was incapable of sounding angry - and his fingers weren’t rough as they plucked at the frills of your white shirt, frowning at the mess that had been made.

You shoved his hand away before pressing your palms into his shoulders, pushing him back into the house. “No reason, Matt. Go to bed. I just need to say goodnight to Keith and-”

“You need to get clean clothes on before the bugs start biting at your skin,” said Matt, and before you could even turn to say your final goodbye to Keith, Matt had slammed the door shut and was locking it.

You stood behind him, totally in shock and disbelief that Matt - the Matt, the kind hearted man who wouldn’t hurt a fly if his life depended on it - was being so rude to a person he barely even knew. Somebody who had gone out of their way to make sure you got home safely and in one piece, and he was treating him like shit.

Matt turned after the final lock was done up, trailed his eyes over your mud stained outfit and sighed. “I’ll get you some water whilst you get out of those clothes. How long have you been in them? I need to know how long to put the spin on.”

He attempted to walk past you, but your hand shot out and grabbed his wrist before he could get much further. He stopped abruptly, stumbling a little bit at the sudden contact, but you were utterly seething, in disbelief.

“What the hell was that, Matt?”

He raised a brow, and your blood only boiled to a much more extreme extent. You wanted to scream, wanted answers, wanted to kiss him all at the same time.

It was an odd feeling. Seeing him being jealous was satisfying in the sense that you knew you weren’t insane for feeling the same - if Matt had come home with a girl, you knew full well you’d probably be acting the exact same way.

But it was Keith, and you had firmly established that Keith was nothing more than your friend. Keith knew that, as well. Matt should have known that.

“I don’t know what you mean,” he replied after a moment.

You gritted your teeth. “Matt, this isn’t funny. Whatever it is you’re doing, I don’t want to be a part of it, okay? Let me do what I want, or stay out of my life.”

The words burned. The idea of Matt exiting your life - at your request, as well - was heartbreaking, but you stood your ground. You kept your eyes firm on his, never once looking away, even as you saw the bold emotion that he once held within them shatter completely.

“Go get out of those clothes,” he mumbled at last. “Bring them down and I’ll wash them.” He pulled his arm out of your grip, ran his eyes over you one last time before he headed into the kitchen, leaving you stunned in the centre of the living room.

Despite the exhaustion that rattled your bones, you did as Matt said.

You could have easily flopped down onto your mattress and gone to bed in the clothes you wore, as dirty as they were, but you knew Matt had been right in telling you to change. The bugs that no doubt littered the fabric now was bound to get you sick if you let them linger for too long.

You shed the clothes and got changed into a pair of night shorts and a tank top, turning on the ceiling fan in your room before exiting and heading back into the kitchen with your bundle of dirty clothes still in your hands.

By the silence of the house, everybody bar you and Matt had gone to bed. You could hear Jamie and Pidge talking in hushed whispers inside their room, but you knew they would be like that for hours now. You wouldn’t have to worry about either of them coming out to ask you about your day out.

Matt stood over the washing machine, adding in the detergent. He hadn’t turned around before you were coming up to the side of him and placing your bundle of clothes into it.

“There. I did as you said,” you grumbled. You turned lazily, your bones creaking and complaining with every step you took. Despite having been on a hike almost everyday for the past three weeks, you were still incredibly unused to running around and losing breath and being active. You were a college student; free time to do such activities was not a luxury you could afford.

“Y/N, wait a second,” Matt suddenly called out. Against your better judgement, you stopped and turned to look at him.

He was still leaning over the washing machine, hands gripping the edges with his shoulders rising and falling, indicating his heavy breathing. You had the urge to reach out and place a comforting hand on his shoulder, not enjoying seeing him look so broken, so lost, but you stood your ground and folded your arms over your chest.

“What?”

He flinched at the harshness of the single word. “We should talk. I don’t want to keep fighting like this.”

“That’s the point I’ve been trying to make,” you grumbled.

He turned around now, looking at you with mildly bloodshot eyes that indicated his own exhaustion. He was fighting it off to speak to you.

“At dinner the other day, we were both being childish. If we want to sort this out, we shouldn’t do it whilst yelling over our families heads - it’s not fair on them.”

“I know.”

“So let’s talk now. Here. Like adults.”

Your fingers dug into the flesh of your upper arm. “Matt, I don’t even know where to begin.”

“Pick a random place. Tear me apart. Just talk.”

The desperation in his voice startled you. You swallowed down the lump in your throat and sighed, letting your head fall to look at your arms, which were bumped with goose flesh despite the warm weather.

“I don’t want to do long distance, Matt. That’s all there is to it. There’s nothing I can say.”

Matt nodded slowly, as if hearing those words for the first time, finally understanding them, You could tell by the way his knuckles suddenly grew white against the edge of the washing machine that he was struggling to come to terms with such a thing, but you respected that he was at least seeing things from your perspective.

Your voice wobbled when you spoke. “What about you? What do you want?”

His Adam’s apple bobbed, and suddenly he couldn’t meet your eyes. It was like looking at a child up on stage during their first Nativity play - nervous, unsure of what to do, waiting for their turn to speak with the most neutral expression on their face.

“Do you want to hear the honest truth?”

You nodded. “Always.”

“I want to be with you, and I don’t think it’s selfish of me to want that,” he said, and your breath hitched. You had expected it - he had made his feelings very cleat, but hearing them so open and unfiltered had your heart beat slamming against your rib cage.

He took a step closer to you. You fought the urge to back up, the heat from his body clashing with yours in a way that made your head swim.

“I’ve wanted to be with you since we were - what? - fourteen? Probably even younger than that. Back then I didn’t know what it was I was feeling, or why I was feeling it, and we had spent so much of our time together denying that we were in a relationship, that I just kind of always believed that was how it was - me and you, friends. And I loved every minute of my friendship with you, Y/N, and I will take a platonic friendship over nothing any day, but god fighting off my feelings for you even after we lost touch was the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to do.”

“Matt-”

“I went to the Garrison because it was my dream to go to the Garrison. You knew that.”

“I was so selfish whenever you told me about your dream to go there, Matt. I’ve apologised for it before, but-”

He stepped closer still, until you were forced to look up at him to meet his eyes. “And I will forgive you for it a thousand times over if it means we can have something.”

Your breath hitched all over again, and you were positive your heart had stopped beating in your chest. You always knew he was poetic - he was a Holt. None of them knew how to form a sentence that didn’t have a hint of Shakespeare to it - but this was different. This was so, so much different and it made your body ache and your fingers twitch with a need to pull him closer to you, with a need to feel his skin against yours in the way you had felt in the lake that god forsaken day whenever you had made one of the biggest mistakes of your life.

“You’re leaving at the end of the summer,” you whispered, your voice cracking. “I don’t want to go through that. Don’t make me go through that.”

Matt closed his eyes, and almost absentmindedly, he reached down and tangled your fingers together. They fit perfectly. You wanted to cry.

“I can promise you here and now, on every grave, that I will not just forget about you once I go back to school. I couldn’t forget about you four years ago, and I definitely can’t forget about you now.”

Your lower lip wobbled. “I’m scared.”

“Y/N, if it doesn’t work out-” He opened his eyes then and dragged your hand upwards, pressing it to the left side of his chest. You could feel the sweat through his shirt, feel his heartbeat beneath your fingertips. “-I give you permission to break my heart, okay? If being away from me makes you feel any sense of loneliness, like you can’t carry on the relationship, it would be my fucking honour to have you shatter my heart. But we can give it a chance if you want that, too. We can try this.”

Your mouth had run dry. Your brain had already made up its decision, but the erratic beating of your heart was swerving you in an all-different direction.

Nevertheless, you found yourself curling your fingers in the fabric of his shirt, just to feel something - anything - beneath them at this point. Your head was dizzy with the memories of that night on the lake, his lips against yours and his hands roaming your body in the way that felt so oddly right and scandalous and wrong all at the same time.

But there was nothing wrong about how you felt right now. Nothing scandalous or disapproved. You were so young, yet so sure and set-out upon your feelings - you had been sure of your feelings since you even knew what feelings were, what having a crush on somebody consisted of. You had joked about kooties, told everyone you would rather kiss Slav than go out with Matt Holt, but it had all been childish games back then.

Oh, how you wished you could go back to childish games.

You inhaled deeply. “I’ll give it my best shot.”

There was nothing else needed to be said - not really. You felt Matt’s heart stutter beneath his shirt, before his hands were falling from your own and placing themselves on your waist.

“You’re sure?”

You nodded, biting your lip to hide the smile that was threatening to curl onto your features now. “I’m definitely sure.”

“Thank God.”

And then his lips were on yours, at long last. The kiss was soft, but as the realisation kicked in that everybody was asleep, that nobody would walk in you now, you both took the chance. His hands slip beneath the fabric of your shirt, rested on the bare skin of your waist as he span you around and pushed you into the fridge, pressing his own chest to yours shortly after.

You gasped against the sudden coolness that slapped at your back, arching forward into Matt just a little. He groaned, lips never leaving yours but becoming increasingly messy as his mouth opened.

Your hands roamed through his hair, tugging on strands, pulling him back before chasing his lips and pressing them back together again in a way that clearly drove the Holt boy absolutely mad - this breaking of lips and coming right back for more was going to bring both of you to an early grave at some point.

Matt released one hand from your waist and placed it at the side of your head on the fridge. He leaned back then, the kiss fading into small pecks that consisted of breaking apart, staring into each others eyes, before pecking the others lips only slightly, and repeating the process until the laughter that was bubbling up inside of you made the movement impossible.

Matt was panting as he leaned his forehead against yours. “I - I needed that tonight.”

You nodded. “And what are best friends for, Matthew Holt?”

He snarled - a most attractive noise coming out of his mouth, if you were to say so yourself. “I don’t ever want to hear you call me best friend again.”

You grinned. “Sorry. Force of habit.”

He slammed his lips back to yours all over again, lifted you up and you squealed. Matt laughed loudly, pulling away to place a startled glance up the stairs. You shrugged, tugging at his collar and pulling him back towards you.

That night, Matt slept in your bed, and it was the best nights sleep you had ever gotten.

#voltron #voltron headcanons #voltron scenarios #voltron fics #matt holt x reader #matt holt fic #matt holt #matt holt voltron #takashi shirogane #shiro voltron #keith kogane #keith voltron #lance mcclain #lance voltron #pidge gunderson #pidge voltron #hunk garrett #hunk voltron

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velvetroom--imagines · 7 years

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First off, it's nice to see another imagine blog. I really enjoy your writing so far and wanted to tell you good luck with your blog ^^!! Can I ask for a imagine of the protags from P3, 4, and 5 in a love square with the same crush? Thought that would look pretty funny since they all would be trying to social link them.

I took way too long with this because so many ideas for this imagine came up.I was halfway through writing an actual oneshot when I realized I may never finish it. I probably wrote way too far than intended. I seriously love this idea too much ;-; Please send more asks about P3/P4/P5 mashing in together. I could’ve gone on and on about this, but I’m afraid it would be too long and this would’ve been overdue.

Minato/Yu/Akira in love with the Same Person HC

Mentions of Spoilers of all 3 Games

Goodness, just what kind ofmess did you get into?

Being the center of these boys isgoing to be a hassle. It’s just a recipe for either disaster or a veryfulfilling relationship.

For a quick backstory, you werefirst involved in the world of Personas during P3. For the sake of this story,Minato just falls into a coma. Through the previous games,you knew that Shadows existed but didn’t have the right circumstances to fightwith them.

Initially, you were in Tokyo forschooling and by then, you had become fairly acquainted with Akira Kurusu. Itwas no secret to you that he was the Phantom Thief ever since you foundyourself in the Metaverse. You never did tell him how you managed to survive inthere for a long time. Months passed, and it was still left unexplained.

You were having a quick snack with Akira in the morning, waiting for him to finish brewing coffee. He had been itching to ask you for a date at the Seaside Park for ages, and he finally had enough charm to do it. Looking at you straight in the eyes, he took in a breath. “Hey, S/O, what do you think about going to the Seaside Park with—”

Suddenly, some kid with a silver bowl haircut comes into Leblanc. ”How may I help you–”

“S/O, is that you?”

just who interrupted my proposal?

That was exactly how this little started, quietly and dangerously.

After you introduced Yu and Akira to each other, the atmosphere was already tense.

Yu wasn’t upset, but found this situation to be a challenge to your heart. Akira, on the other hand, was hoping he had enough Charm to keep himself composed. “Oh, so you’re the one who’s been looking after S/O?” Yu asked with a small smile. Mirroring his expression, Akira nodded. “I’m so glad that they have such a nice friend.”

Obviously, Akira wasn’t going to let this Inaba Guy stop him from asking you out. After regaining confidence, he looks at you. “S/O, I was wondering if you would like to come to Seaside Park with me.”

“… Of course, I’d come! Can we bring Yu with us?”

Ah, look at that little smirk on Yu’s face.

“I haven’t seen him in a long time, Akira.” The Phantom Thief couldn’t deny you with that small pout on your lips. “Fine.”

Yu was very lucky indeed. How could we not forget how confident he was after the King’s Game Incident? He had a small crush on you during his stay in Inaba. However, your paths were forced to split up at the end of the year. While you two even exchange numbers, it would never compare to being able to see you in person.

On the way to the Central Street in Shibuya, there was a large crowd. Akira and Yu would try and get you to hold hands with them, but it would often end in silent arguments between the boys. Whenever you would look back, they would always be smiling at each other. You couldn’t help but notice Akira’s lip twitch out of irritation.

Somehow, they were too busy glaring at each other to notice you got lost in the crowd.

“Well, I’ve got the Knowledge to impress her.”

“Akira, is that so? At least I have maximum Charm to win this little game of ours. What do you think, S/O? …S/O?”

This was one of the only moments when Yu and Akira would chill out. They suddenly start looking all over the street to find you. Deep down their calm faces, they were freaking out. What if you got kidnapped or hurt?

Little did they know that someone else had you in their grasp.

Sitting down on the pavement, the two boys looked at each other in desperation. They knew that they were in big trouble if they couldn’t find you. Akira glanced at Yu, seemingly apologetic. “I think we got off on the wrong foot.”

The silver haired man looked equally as apologetic. “It was partly my fault. I’m sorry.” He sighed, hanging his head low. “Man, if that guy found out I let this happen, we’ll never get out alive.” Akira looked at him in confusion. “Who’s that guy?”

“… We meet again.”

Shivers ran up the two protagonists’ spines as the chilly voice processed through their ears. Yu couldn’t help but pale, recognizing the voice.

You stood beside a shorter blue haired man, clinging onto his arm for dear life. You smiled at the two boys. “This is Minato, my friend from Iwatodai. Don’t you remember him, Yu?”

God, have mercy on Akira.

Minato looked at you with a gentle gaze before nodding. “I believe we have met before. Who is this?”

After introducing everyone to each other, Akira couldn’t help but feel a click. Something just felt odd about these people, sensing some familiar energy within them.

Introduction’s over, now with the General HCs.

Akira would be the most cautious and fidgety. Not only are they older, but they’ve known S/O way before he did. Towards Yu, he would be less tense. He sees Yu has a playful guy, sly but somewhat harmless. Minato was a different case, similarly to an overprotective brother. He wouldn’t show it, but he is a bit scared of him. Akira wouldn’t dare play an cheeky tricks on the eldest.

Yu wouldn’t be tense around these two. He takes this situation very lightly, and doesn’t really give a fuck. He’s in for the fun, and isn’t up for breaking hearts. He treats Akira as a little sibling, and treats Minato as a boss. Rather than disliking the two, he actually becomes fond of them. He loves teasing both of them, though.

Minato was somewhat aloof to this whole situation. He’s already used to Yu’s weirdness. He’s much more interested in Akira’s reasons of liking S/O, but it doesn’t matter. He’s sticking around to make sure Y/N doesn’t get hurt because of these two.

This love square would consist of a lot of rivalries. Unknowingly, they would start up ‘friendly’ arguments about their stats. Akira does the best in intelligence, Yu is good at charming others while Minato wins when it comes to Guts.

Divided, it becomes a war zone. Each of the three would never go far to using violence, but they will try to annoy each other in subtle ways.

Yu is fond of sabotaging dates with his presence, often making situations awkward. Whenever you are on dates with another Protagonist, he would pop up out of nowhere. “Me? I’m just shopping for clothes. Yes, it’s perfectly normal for people to buy clothes at a beach, thank you very much.”

Akira looks innocent on the outside, but that small smile is just a front. Luckily for him, the S/O comes to Leblanc on a regular basis. If any of the other guys came with her, he wouldn’t hesitate on adding an extra spoonful of salt or pepper into their coffee. Like Yu, he may also sabotage dates with his presence. Sometimes, he would team up with Yu to bother Minato. “Is that a bit too sweet? Oops, I thought the curry would taste better with sugar.”

Minato wasn’t as immature as the other two. Rather than focusing on sabotage, he likes to make them jealous. Since he knew you the longest, he tends to be much more touchy with you. He starts off with the small things, like holding your hand or wrapping an arm around your shoulder. Then it gets more sweeter, especially when he pulls you closer when walking in crowds, or wiping that whip cream from the side of your lip. He’s got some guts. Another way he annoys the other two, is when he purposely makes up situations to shoo them away. “Is that your friend over there? You should go and check up on them, Akira.” “That’s not my-” “Hush, I know you must go. It’s okay.”

When they realize they are Persona Users with the Wild Card ability, everything gets intense. Not many people have his ability, and it rose tensions. They still try to compare each other in this sense.

“I steal the hearts of the selfish and force the unjust to admit their crimes.”

“Oh really? I hunted down a serial killer and saved my town from turning into shadows.”

“Heh. I faced death without complaints. I saved the world from ending.”

“…”

In secrecy, these three would try to test their abilities. Yu would drag the two into the T.V world, Minato would make them stay up into the Dark Hour and Akira would take them to the farthest edges of Mementos.

At some point, they would want to challenge each other, one on one. Minato would have the greatest advantage since he was trained as a Shadow Operative and had the longest experience out of the three. Normally, Yu and Akira would have to battle it out first before taking Minato on.

They are usually neck-to-neck at the end of the battles, and often stop out of exhaustion. While they are rivals to your heart, they respect each other in terms of battle.

Being love rivals is hard, but it makes a fulfilling friendship. Whenever you are together with the Protagonists, expect them to act as your bodyguards. Yu would follow from the back, and the other two would walk with you by your side. The only people who could ever compete for you are those three, no one else.

United, they are very protective of you. Usually, it’s up to Minato to deal with anyone who bothers you. When it comes to people who are actually messing with you, Akira won’t hesitate in bringing these two to the Metaverse to deal with the problem. Yu, on the other hand, would also shield you if Minato wasn’t available.

When they’re not in the mood to bicker, they’re really sweet altogether. A favorite memory was when they went to Seaside Park together. You were always holding one of their hands, smiling at them. What mattered the most at that time was to make this a good experience for you.

It gets pretty tiring to constantly fight for your attention, but at the end of the day, they know you’d have to pick someone, whether it’s one of them or not. They will support your relationship with little complaint, and will protect you nonetheless.

That’s unless someone proposes a reverse harem. Now that’s another story. Actually, I wouldn’t mind writing something about this.

#persona 5 imagines #p5 imagines #p5 headcanons #persona 5 headcanons #persona 3 imagines #persona 4 imagines #persona 4 headcanons #persona 3 headcanons #p3 headcanons #p3 imagines #p4 imagines #p4 headcanons #akira kurusu #yu narukami #minato arisato

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memoriesofthecity · 7 years

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How would the P3 boys react to a s/o who is really cuddly and affectionate? Like, they give lots of hugs and like to hold hands.

i’m sorry this took so long, i hope you enjoy! it’s a little short but i wasn’t sure how to make it longer.

Minato:

Minato had known you were extremely affectionate even before he started dating you. You already held his hand often when you were just friends, so he wasn’t too surprised that you became even more affectionate with him.

Although he wasn’t the most open with his emotions, he was always open when you cuddled with him. If you did it in public he would wrap an arm around you, but if you were in private he would be even more affectionate to you than you were to him. Whenever you snuggled up to him after a long day, he would cuddle you just as tightly back.

Whenever he studied or worked on something, you liked to come up behind him and hug him. He didn’t ever say anything, nor did he protest it, because he liked it when you laid your head on his shoulder and watched him work.

Sometimes you weren’t sure if he liked you being so affectionate or if he just didn’t care, but he really did enjoy it. Although your boyfriend wasn’t the greatest at expressing himself, you did know that he didn’t get enough affection when he was younger. You made sure to make up for that every day you were with him.

Junpei:

Junpei was also affectionate with you before you started dating, but he was a little surprised with how clingy you were after you did start. Not that it was in a bad way, but you just wanted to always be with him and close to him. He didn’t mind.

Whenever you held his hand and cuddled up against him in public, he would absolutely love it. He would hug you right back and make sure anyone looking knew you were his.

You liked cuddling with him after school the most, and since you both got stressed from things often it was a nice way to escape it. More often then not you would end up forgetting your homework and fall asleep in each other’s arms.

He always enjoyed how affectionate you were with him, no matter where you were. It made you both feel better and you were glad he accepted you for who you were instead of pushing you away.

Akihiko:

Whenever you were affectionate with Akihiko, he was instantly a blushing mess. Even holding his hand could make him unable to speak correctly, but you still did it anyway. Thankfully, he didn’t seem to really mind, but he was just clueless on what to do.

He liked to hold your hand, but he didn’t like the fact that you couldn’t do it in public safely. You knew that his fan club would ruin you if they saw you being too close to him, so you did it discreetly. He told you repeatedly of how much of a nuisance they were and that he wished you could do want you wanted without having to hide it.

After practicing his boxing, you loved to lay down and cuddle with him. Since he was always tired, he didn’t have the energy to get embarrassed. Instead, he would pull you even tighter into his arms and whisper to you how much he adored you. You thought his braveness to say those things was endearing, even though he would blush and deny it ever happened afterward.

Shinjiro:

Shinjiro tried to put up a tough exterior and stop you from being so overly affectionate with him, but it failed. After all, you were dating him. You knew he wasn’t as tough as he looked, and you also knew that he actually liked it when you were affectionate with him, publicly or not.

You liked to hold his hand and give him hugs publicly, since he was a little uncomfortable with anything more. Especially since he needed his body temperature to be regulated, he liked having you warm him up.

A few times, you fell asleep cuddled up to him on the Iwatodai dormitory couch. Although the other members admitted to nothing, they took photos and put blankets on the two of you. Koromaru laid down on the empty space, so you often woke up to the sleeping faces of both him and your boyfriend.

When he cooked for S.E.E.S. or just for you, you liked to come up and hug him from behind. He wouldn’t admit it later, but he would relax into your touch and get a soft smile on his face. Although he tried to act cold to other people, with you by his side he no longer seemed so intimidating.

Ryoji:

Ryoji and you were both extremely affectionate people, and even more to each other. You were tooth-rottingly sweet together, and everyone knew it.

You liked to take his scarf and wrap it around both of your shoulders. Not only did you like it because it would keep you both warm, but it was an excuse to be close to him. He liked to just give you his scarf entirely, saying you looked cuter with it than he ever could.

Since he had a little bit of a following with people at school, they were extremely jealous when you started dating him. He made sure you never felt uncomfortable being openly affectionate with him, though, telling off anyone who tried to insult you.

You loved to hold his hand, especially when you were cuddling. Just laying in each other’s arms, hand in hand, made you both feel like you would be eternally safe from anything that came your way. You both loved how affectionate the other was, and you wouldn’t change it for the world.

#minato arisato #junpei iori #akihiko sanada #shinjiro aragaki #ryoji mochizuki #persona 3 #headcanons #persona 3 imagines #nikkistrations2-point-0

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spiffyworks · 5 years

Text

Artist’s Software Surfing P2 - Inking

This time around I’ve created a better sketch similar to the ones I made for the first part of this exploration series and I have tried different tools in different programs to see if I can learn anything new or find any inspiration among this heap of brushes I’ve accumulated. @o@ Lettuce begin!

Artist’s Software Surfing P1 - Sketching Artist’s Software Surfing P2 - Inking Artist’s Software Surfing P3 - Colouring Artist’s Software Surfing P4 - Painting

Corel Painter

This is the program that is inspiring this journey through different tools and brushes, so most of my time in here is experimentation.

“Liquid Ink” - Dry Camel I probably should have read the manual on “liquid ink” layers and why they are important, but this time I just jumped right in and started using the tool like I would an inking pen in CSP or Paintstorm. I was surprised how nice it felt, how it would cleanly fill in spaces up to the shadow line I drew, and the subtle texture if I made a light stroke. This “Liquid Layer” system I guess means it changes the behavior of the pixels however, and erasing was a little wild and the ability to pull ink from what would be considered a “blob” was really neat. Fun tool, depending on the style you are going for. Happy accidents happened with this brush so you have to be willing to relinquish a bit of control. My only gripes are, I can’t flip the canvas with this layer type, eraser was more of a hindrance than a help, and cross hatching or shade lines work a lot differently with “wet” ink than I’m used to.

“Artist Favorites” - Scratchboard This is one I actually remember from back in the day, and when I googled “Inking in Corel Painter” this one came up in a few people’s lists. If you are used to inking on the computer with some stabilization, this is just like those other tools you’ve used. Great line width variance, smooth lines, easy to control, easy to erase. It’s basic, but you get the most control out of it, meaning no happy accidents or unexpected behaviors.

“Natural Media” - Smooth Croquil This is that awkward moment where I admit to never having used quill tipped pens. I know they are a favorite of many veteran inkers who still work traditionally. I guess it’s on my to-do list. That being said, I have no frame of reference for the expected behavior of this pen, but I actually really enjoyed working with it. This was the “Smooth” version, meaning it had more stabilization in the stroke, but I was surprised at the nice hatching I could get. Would not recommend for filling black solid shapes, but the more “drawing” portion of the inking process, this would probably be my go-to for artwork with big shapes and long, sweeping lines.

Sumi-e Though I tried many of the options in the brush box, I ended up being pretty disappointed with this set. I never like using digital sumi-e brushes, the usage is just too different considering the traditional brush shape, but the texture in here just makes the artwork look pixelated. I included it just as a special mention. Won’t use it again.

Photoshop, Kyle T Webster’s Inkbox

Lord, I swear I saved past this point of this draft several times and some how Tumblr really dropped the ball. I still have the artwork, but I’ve lost all my immediate first-impressions of the almost dozen Kyle’s Inkbox variants I got to mess around with. A real shame, so I’m going to simply do my best and group them up, as I noticed some patters with some of them. Also, I hadn’t updated in two years and they’ve added a couple of important features I thought Photoshop was missing, like brush stabilization and symmetry drawing.

Nice, Scratch brush with decent texture and line width variance :: Pocketbrush 1, Badass Brush

Personal favorites :: Thick, chunky, expressive, and fun to ink with: Belgian Comics, Fountania, Guelph inker, Seth Comics

Interesting, but impractical :: Brush Beauty, Copier Rat, Fountania Brush Pen

Everything else, as far as I can recall, was just standard smooth pen with a touch of texture.

Paintstorm

Out of the box, this program doesn’t have much. It’s basically your basic round brush with stabilization settings. It’s very fast, however, and the customization is easy and fun if you want to add some texture to your ink pens. The toggle for turning your ink brush into an eraser is as easy as pressing E which makes for some nice hair push-and-pulling. Rewarding to work in, but very basic out of the box.

Krita

So, similarly to Photoshop, I hadn’t updated Krita in a handful of years and some of the features have been updated. It feels a bit better, I am able to mirror view and rotate the canvas just like I like to. I still struggle with the interface a bit but I’m sure I will get used to it with time.

I didn’t find many default pens that I liked or were unique enough to remark on so I just ran with the... (jfc is that really the name?) ... “d)_Ink-7_Brush_Rough” because of its bit of texture that’s revealed more as the lines thin. Figuring out the stabilization options was hell. It took a lot of fudging the sliders and making assumptions on the difference between “Distance” and “Delay” and why those mattered. Most programs just have one slider for brush stabilization. In fact, they all do. Not sure all of these options are necessary, but have at it if that’s your thing.

Clip Studio Paint

Not much out of the box here either, but the customization options are always nice. One thing I do want to mention for inking in CSP is the Vector layer option. You can create a “vector layer” then draw on it with any subtool and to back and edit those lines later. Or you can draw with the Figure tool and adjust lines there. Honestly this feature makes doing linework, especially for hard surface objects, super easy breezy and clean without removing the organic feel in areas that need it. I noticed Krita had vector layers as well, but like I mentioned before I just don’t have a whole lot of experience with that program so I’m not sure if it works the same way.

Well that about wraps it up for inking software, Kyle T Webster’s brushes in Photoshop coming out on top for this particular drawing. o7 I think I’ll do basic colouring next (comic book style). Hope this helped!

Artist’s Software Surfing P1 - Sketching Artist’s Software Surfing P2 - Inking Artist’s Software Surfing P3 - Colouring Artist’s Software Surfing P4 - Painting

#myart #guide #inking #software

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