#Such a large painting was maybe a bit too ambitious but it is done :3

[leapdayowo]

Over the Garden Wall :3

I think I did otgw art forever ago once, and I’ve made a few attempts over the years, but I finally did it! It’s them! :D and just in time for autumn and spooky season!

oh also here is the painting in direct sunlight (it’s not the right vibe but I like sharing it anyway):

#over the garden wall #otgw wirt #otgw greg #otgw beatrice #otgw fanart #watercolor #traditional art #so happy I managed to paint this :)) #I haven’t been able to paint for a while and I’ve been a bit intimidated trying to start again #Such a large painting was maybe a bit too ambitious but it is done :3

[tactileprogress]

Project Proposal

My idea is twofold- the ambitious, probably-wont-have-time idea, and the more reasonable but slightly less interesting idea. The first is to have a sort of drawing program, but all interactions with the canvas have to be done with a slingshot- throwing balloons full of paint, smaller projectiles to leave dotted lines, etc. Because of the amount of things a drawing app needs- color selection, tool selection, some way of wiping the canvas, some way of saving the work- i feel like this might not be a reasonable project to undertake- I’d live to 1on1 to discuss it though. In the meantime, the more scaled down idea is a little arcade-style archery game, using the same mechanics the slingshot would but only worrying about hitting targets, not creating art. Because of the conceptual similarity, the first few days of work will be the same either way, giving me a little buffer to figure out which one I want to really commit to.

These links were largely aesthetic and controller based- I’m really leaning towards archery minigame, for practicality’s sake, but an arcade cabinet as a framing device could work either way.

Technology wise, the backbone of the project will be a flex sensor, affixed (most likely) to a rubber band unless I can figure out a way to get a ribbon to auto-reset when released. I’m worried about the elastic snapping after too many uses, is all. The flex sensor will determine the power behind the bow/slingshot, and practically how far up/down the canvas the shot goes. Left to right will be done using either a potentiometer or two buttons, depending on which is more intuitive to implement, and loading ammunition will be done by a button (maybe cycling through to different colors on repeated presses?) I’ll be using Processing for this project, since I’m most comfortable with it. The tech will be hidden under a cardboard/cardstock shell that I’ll probably design to resemble a arcade machine no matter which direction I choose to go.

Challenges: Oh boy do I suck at Time Management. It’ll be the biggest issue for me by far, just making sure I get things assembled and tested on a regular schedule, and not getting eaten by my ADHD and having to do it all at the last minute. These blog posts will likely help, but I think being able to have tangible goals to reach each week’s end would help even more- another thing I’d like to 1on1 with you about. (I plan on scheduling it properly don’t worry! I just suck at time management and I forgot this blogpost was due for far too long, So I’m currently planning to catch you after class/get an email sent tomorrow)

Strengths: I rock at Processing! There’ll be a bit of delay going back from using mostly p5.js, but I really think I prefer how relatively painless using serial ports with processing is in comparison to p5.js. I’m very familiar with the language, and I think I’ll be able to knock out that side of the coding portion of this without too much issue. I’m also getting much more comfortable with Arduino and wiring, and the only thing I’m a little shaky on is if I’ll have to do any soldering (which I haven’t touched since systems). As for the aesthetic side of things, I love doing papercraft and can make reasonably pretty sprites to clean up the aesthetic of my program without having to rely on drawing using basic shapes in Processing.

Inspiration

My inspiration searching was mostly centered around the links above, to narrow in on the aesthetic and options I had for my project, but I also found this mask which really piqued my interest in regards to sensing things unseen.

Progress

Reflection

Oh god big projects always scare me. I have a really bad habit of putting things off until the last possible moment that I’ve been trying really hard to break. It has left me with an inability recognize what a reasonable amount of work is for a given timeframe! It’s entirely possible my more creative idea is doable, I just wouldn’t know. There’s a lot of apprehension, is what I’m saying. With that all out of the way, I do think I’ve got almost all the tools in my toolbelt I need to pull this off, and both my ideas have been roughly broken down into the components they’d need. From here, I think I just need to narrow my focus to the next step, take a deep breath, and start doing the work that needs doing.

[wilwywaylan]

The Artist above and the Revolutionnary below - Part 4

Fandom : les Misérables

Modern!AU, Enjolras x Grantaire, 3473 words

Last part of the fic for the Same Prompt Challenge ! Finally, it’s done ! 

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3

Also on AO3 !

- 

Step one : wash self. It would do no good to present himself to Enjolras looking like some kind of cave troll. So Grantaire took a shower, taking great care to wash his hair and untangle the curls. Once mostly dry and dressed in clean clothes, he aimed for the kitchen. Not for the coffee, even if he started by making himself a nice cup, but for something far more ambitious : he was going to cook.

Four hours later, his kitchen was a mess, every horizontal surface was covered in flour and there was even some sticking to some vertical parts, the sink contained more dishes that he believed he owned, and he was in dire need of another shower. But there was a whole plate of cookies in the oven, and it smelled quite good. Not that Grantaire wanted to brag, of course. He didn't have any time for it, anyway, he was way too busy watching the biscuits by the small window. He didn't want...he couldn't mess them up. He didn't have the courage nor the ingredients to start again.

But luckily for him, the cookies got out deliciously golden, and absolutely perfect. He transferred them into a metal box, resisting the urge to eat one himself. After a second shower that got rid of most of the flour, he went to sit at his easel. Now came the third, and most important part. Cookies were a nice touch, but he wouldn't be forgiven just with this, Bahorel's super secret recipe notwithstanding. No, he needed to find the perfect present that would melt Enjolras' anger like a cube of ice during summer. And nothing could be more of a perfect present than something handmade, or in his case, hand-drawn.

The white page was almost intimidating, at first, more than during one of his assignments, even. Assignments, he could bullshit his way through them if inspiration didn't strike. But this.... this was way more important. Okay, no, maybe not. He couldn't claim a cute boy was more important than his studies. It was important in a different way, but he couldn't just pretend he knew what he was doing. He needed to know. He needed to make it perfect.

The first strokes were hesitant, almost shy, barely scratching the surface. But as he went, the picture in his mind grew clearer, his gestures became more assured, and he started working faster.

When he finally moved, the sun had set, his neck was sending jolts of pain up his skull, his fingers hurt, and his hoodie had lost all pretention to be an actual color. He stretched, sending his arms above his head, only realizing now that his stomach was growling. Probably loud enough to wake his neighbors up. But he didn't care. He felt well. The painting on his easel was probably one of his finest works since... oh, several years. Enjolras stood in the middle of it ; Grantaire had painted him dressed in a XIXe century style, with a red jacket with a cockade pinned on the lapel, a black cravat resting undone on a white shirt under a black waistcoat. There was a smudge of blood on the cheek, but he was brandishing a red flag above his head. The whole sky behind him was a brilliant whirlwind of pink, orange and yellow, and a timid sun was stroking Enjolras' face with gold rays. Any critic would have dismissed the piece as "overly pompous" and "pretentious", but Grantaire felt a mix of pride and anxiety watching it. It certainly was fine, but didn't he exaggerate, making Enjolras' face softer than it was ? Maybe his eyes weren't fierce enough, not full of fire enough ? And what if Enjolras didn't enjoy a portrait of himself ? Oh well, too late now, it was done. Tomorrow, he would make his move. But for now, he wanted nothing more than sleep. He made his way to his room, abandoning his clothes on the way, and dropped on the bed. The remnants of Bahorel's impromptu breakfast were still on the nightstand, and he devoured the rest of the croissants. Once sated, he wrapped himself in the blankets and just laid there, content and sated, for the first time in days. Maybe things were looking up, after all.

~*~

Next morning saw Grantaire up earlier than he'd been in months. He'd woken up almost with the sun, and had been since tossing and turning under the blankets, trying to keep himself busy until it was a decent time to put his plan in motion. He didn't know about Enjolras' sleeping habits, and didn't want to wake him up. That wouldn't put him in good dispositions. So he browsed the internet, trying to distract himself until it was time to move.

At around 10 AM, he decided to act. He rolled out of bed and got ready, going through the motions with application, concentrating on each gesture to ignore the way his heart seemed to try to get free from his chest. He took the box of cookies, the painting, and snuck out into the hallway. It was dark and deserted. Perfect. He went down the stairs, his socked feet silent on the tiles. Still no one. He managed to reach door 32 without a hitch, without any nosy neighbor opening their door to see who was playing spies in the hallway. He carefully put the painting down, put the box beside it, with a small message he'd spent at least fifteen minutes writing. Nothing fancy, just a heartfelt "I'm sorry I've been an ass". No need to start babbling on writing. Good.

He rang the bell... and ran away, up the stairs, almost falling down and hitting the ramp in his hast. He had barely reached his story, when he heard a door open. There was  a moment of silence. And a thought hit him right between the eyes : what if Enjolras decided to climb here to see who put the presents on his doorstep ? He'd see him crouching behind the railing like an idiot. He dashed inside his apartment, closed the door, then opened it a tiny sliver. No Enjolras materialized on the landing, but there was a rustling. Like things being picked up and carried inside. So he had found the presents. Very good.

Grantaire retreated inside, pondering on the next move for a second. He could start working on his assignments again, clean a bit of his flat, maybe scrub his bathroom. Things would go back to how they were before all these guitar shenanigans. But that wasn't what he wanted, right ? So he needed to follow the plan.

He needed to rummage a little (a lot) through the mess accumulated under his bed and in his cupboard, but he finally unearthed an old, battered case. The guitar inside had lost a bit of its shine, but the intricate patterns on it, flowers and clouds, were still as vivid as always. He took it back to his window and sat as comfortably as possible. It was out of tune, of course, after so much time in storage, but the gestures came back to him easily, and soon, it was fit to play. He stroked the strings, just enjoying the sound for a few seconds, then started to warm up. The notes flew by the window, carried by the wind, soft and round at each vibration of the strings, climbing the scales up and down. His fingers were dancing, almost on their own, modulating the melody almost perfectly.

Under him, a window opened. He didn't hear footsteps, but he imagined them all the same. Time to go to step five. Or six, he didn't remember. He abandoned the scales for real melody. Still no noise coming from under him. Oh well, he could still play for himself, couldn't he ? After all, he did like this song. And so, he started singing softly, almost under his breath.

Lay down in the stars, my bonny lass Lay down in my arms, we'll make it last The senses aspire to this far greater time As the rivers flow your heart will be mine

He played the song from start to finish, enjoying how easily it was all coming back to him, the lyrics and the melody, how delightful it was to play again. The last notes fled outside, fading slowly as the strings stopped singing. Grantaire leaned on the guitar, feeling the vibrations stop under his fingers. The silence after a song always had a special quality, soft and serene, like it was another part, something that completed the song.

- Are you there ?

Enjolras' voice cut the silence, made him jump so hard that he almost dropped the guitar. He did call for him. Enjolras wanted to talk to him ! Do not ruin this, play it cool. He walked to the window and leaned out. Enjolras was peering up at him, and Grantaire's heart gave a little tug at the beautiful eyes fixed on him, so large and so blue that they seemed to hold the whole sky. He also noticed that he didn't look as angry as yesterday. Or perhaps he was very good at hiding his feelings. Grantaire composed himself a friendly smile, and answered :

- I am, yes. Hello, Enjolras.

- Hello. I heard you playing, so I wondered....

- If it was me, or the ghost of Christmas past ?

Enjolras frowned, and Grantaire remembered that he was supposed to be nice and friendly, not rile him up again by making fun of him.

- Sorry, he added. What can I do for you ?

- Someone put a box of cookies and a very nice painting on my doorstep, and I was wondering if you knew something about it.

The urge to roll his eyes was stronger than ever, but he refrained heroically.

- Why yes. Do you enjoy cookies, at least ? Because I didn't really ask...

- Oh, so it was you ?

- Yes ? I mean, I signed the note, so....

Enjolras frowned again, more perplexed that angry this time.

- Yes, but.... you.... didn't really introduce yourself. Your friend called you "R" that time, but I didn't know that it stood for "Grantaire", so...

This time, Grantaire facepalmed. Count on him to be so stupid he forgot to officially introduced himself.

- Sorry. I'm Grantaire. Pleased to meet you.

- Pleased to meet you too.

Grantaire tried not to smile too wildly.

- So, what do I owe the pleasure ?

- I heard the guitar. Were you playing ?

- Ah yes, I felt like getting it out of storage and tickling the strings a little.

- That was really great ! I didn't know you were such a good player !

He really needed to stop complimenting him, because Grantaire wasn't sure he was going to maintain his composure for long.

- It's been a while since I've played, but....

- Do you think you could... come down, and we'll play ?

What ? Did he hear right ? Was he....? This was a dream. This could only be a dream. Did Enjolras really ask him to come back ? But he was watching him with his beautiful eyes, and still looking expectantly up at him, and pinching himself didn't suddenly wake him up. That was reality.

When the information reached his brain, Grantaire grabbed his guitar and, once again, ran all the way to Enjolras' door. As he knocked, he suddenly realized that he had bypassed shoes entirely. Too bad, Enjolras was already opening the door, his cat in his arms. Grantaire scratched the little head between the hair, refrained from doing the same to Enjolras.

- So, he said instead, I heard you wanted to play ?

Enjolras lead him to the balcony again, where two cups of coffee were waiting, smoking quietly. Grantaire was both oddly touched by the welcoming gesture, and impressed at how Enjolras seemed to be sure that he would come done. But then again, maybe Bahorel was right and his crush *was* visible from space.

- Anything you want to play ? Grantaire asked once he’d sat down on the rickety chair.

- Can you play Wonderwall ?

- Of course, I taught you. Together ?

Enjolras picked up his own instrument. He carefully placed his hands as Grantaire had shown him, tuned it a little, then turned to face him. Grantaire counted the rhythm as he had taught it, careful of not going too fast.

It was weird, playing together like this. Enjolras did lack a bit in rhythm, forcing Grantaire to adjust, but nothing he couldn't deal with. He didn't dare sing at first, rather enjoying Enjolras' voice, but after the first verse, he just let himself get carried away. It was great, moving like this, in unison, almost like they were two halves of the same thing. Grantaire didn't want to read too much into the situation, but it was... exhilarating. It felt like flying. Like being, for a few seconds, at the top of the world, with him.

It ended, because of course, it had to end, leaving Grantaire disoriented, and a little breathless. Probably the singing, of course. But Enjolras looked as affected as him, so maybe he hadn't imagined the connexion they shared for a minute or two. He tried to play it cool, picking at the keys to retune the strings. Enjolras watched him do with interest.

- Can you play something else ? he asked suddenly.

- Of course. What do you like ?

- Anything you want.

Anything ? Grantaire didn't have to pick his brain to find a song. Of course, that would be a very daring move, but Fortune favored the bold and all that. What did he risk, except a slap and being thrown over the balcony rail ? (probably not). He started playing the chords, softly at first, then seeing that Enjolras didn't run away, launched into the song.

Wise men say only fools rush in But I can't help falling in love with you...

It was a good thing he knew the words by heart, because Enjolras was so close their knees were brushing, and Grantaire had great trouble stopping himself from jumping each time he touched him. His heart was beating fast, so fast, and he was sure he could hear Enjolras', beating in tune. Or that may just be wishful thinking.

He didn't know how he got to the end of the song without running away or bungling anything. He was ready to jump out of his skin at each light touch. And as he lifted his head, it was to discover the beautiful blue eyes set on him, pinning him in place. He  couldn't turn his head, he couldn't say anything, he could just look at him, and hope his eyes would do the talking.

Suddenly, Jude jumped on his master's lap, almost knocking the guitar over, breaking the spell. Enjolras patted him as he kneading his pants, and asked :

- This song...

- Yes.... Did you like it ?

- A lot... It's very pretty.

- Very, yes.

Perfect. When did they land in a potboiler and get turned into shy teenagers ? Grantaire would have slapped himself if he didn't fear looking like an idiot. He'd always hated that genre, so to suddenly find himself like this, babbling and muttering, incapable of speaking his mind... They'd never get there, not like that. Someone needed to take the reins of the conversation for something to happen, anything. He opened his mouth, but Enjolras beat him to it.

- Did you choose it for a reason ?

Ah, short and to the point. Enjolras certainly didn't embarrass himself with subtleties. But now, he was expecting an answer. And this meant Grantaire needed to think very hard about the answer he was going to give, and quick. And Enjolras was still looking at him, so he needed to focus extra hard to not say anything stupid or incriminating. And he needed to think, and to think quickly, instead of being sidetracked like this.

- I....

Great start, Grantaire. Now say something, or he's going to lose his patience, and maybe his temper. But what could he say ? That he really, really wanted to kiss him ? Hold his hand and the rest too ? Set his life at his feet ? Well, yes, this was what he wanted. But he couldn't say it, or Enjolras would run away. But he needed to say something now. Anything.

- I like it.

Oh great. This time, he hit his head against the guitar, lightly, of course.

- Is that the only reason ?

Grantaire took a deep breath, lifted his head. There they were. No going back now.

- I....

It didn't want to come. He was ready to say it, that was the best moment, the only moment, it was perfect, the atmosphere, the guitar, everything, and he couldn't say it. Count on him to be so stupid he couldn't confess his feelings.

A hand closed on his and squeezed gently. He looked down at their fingers, then back at Enjolras' face, who kept his eyes down.

- I don't want your whole life, he said, but I could... take your hand, if you want.

Grantaire was a bit tempted to laugh, but he refrained.

- Would you, really ? He asked, very low.

- I want to try, at least. If you want to.

He was looking at him, now, with such an open expression that Grantaire almost wanted to scream and tackle him. But no. Act like a normal person. He lifted the hand Enjolras wasn't holding, stroked his cheek, very slowly. His movements were measured, to give him all the time he needed to move back. But Enjolras didn't move back. Not when Grantaire bent down, very, very slowly to kiss him. It was soft, almost too much. Clumsy, too, like Enjolras wasn't used to being kissed. They just kept like this for a moment, barely moving. Not enough for Grantaire, he wanted more, way more, he wanted to ravish him, to leave him red, breathless, to hold him tight and never let go. But it was perfect none-the-less.

They parted for breath, and because Grantaire's neck was starting to hurt. Enjolras was looking at him, his cheeks a little red, his smile a little shy. Positively adorable. Without letting go of Grantaire's hand, he moved his chair a little closer, until he could lean against his shoulder. It was not the most comfortable way to sit, but Grantaire wouldn't have let go for anything in the world. Still, he felt compelled to ask :

- Are you sure you want this ? I mean....

Enjolras moved a little, and he wanted to hold him back, but he didn't step aside, not even a little.

- What do you mean ?

- Well... I'm me, and....

This time, Enjolras shifted to be able to look at him without leaving his shoulder.

- Yes, I know.

- Are you sure this is what I want ? Because....

- I am sure, yes. I know what I'm getting, and what I don't know, I will discover. And I'm sure I will like it.

A very large emotion got stuck in Grantaire's throat, effectively cutting all the words he could have used. So he just held Enjolras' hand tighter, and twisted a little to be able to lay a kiss on his forehead.

They sat like this for a moment in silence, watching the sparrows fly by. Grantaire's thumb was stroking the soft skin on Enjolras' hand, very gently. Suddenly, Enjolras asked :

- It wasn't... too awkward, was it ? When I said... (He gestured vaguely with his free hand.) About your life, and....

- It was, Grantaire chuckled, but that was adorable. It's very... you.

Enjolras laughed a little.

- You better get used to it, it seems that I'm very clumsy at speaking my feelings.

- Don't worry, I like it a lot.

- Good. Now would you maybe play that song for me again ?

Grantaire let go of Enjolras' hand with a hint of regret, and took his guitar back. Immediately, Enjolras settled back against his shoulder. Grantaire didn't know if he could play with someone against him like that, but he certainly wasn't going to ask him to move. Certainly not. He stroked the strings again, and started the song a second time. Enjolras was warm and heavy against him, and it was perfect. The notes started to fly above the roof, to tell everyone listening that they had finally found each other.

-

Songs are True Life Song by Jon Anderson, and Can’t help falling in love with you by Elvis Presley

#les miserables #enjolras #grantaire #enjoltaire #same prompt challenge #dorks #such dorks #they are so dorky #I love them

[kairi-chan]

Wish Come True - BoruSara

Rating: T

Genre: fluffy fluff fluff

Beta read by: @momoiina thank you, darling! <3

A/N: happy 2019! Here’s hoping you get all of your heart’s desires this year.

25-year-old BoruSara. Takes place in Shifen Old Street!

—

The walk from the waterfalls wasn’t that far, but it was hot. The sun was high in the sky, and the sunlight that hit his face was warm, and the wind was cool. But that wasn’t the only thing that was irritating Sarada. Boruto decided to give her some space and walked a few steps behind her.

Sarada wasn’t even looking at the view to her right. She was missing the view of the side of the mountain, as she was too busy looking at her phone.

She had always been the ambitious type. Although people wouldn’t even think of the word and just peg her as a workaholic. Not Boruto. He understood why she was this way, Sarada got big dreams and she knew she couldn’t achieve them by just lying around.

It used to weird him out when they were kids and intimidated him when they were in high school. But he learned to admire her and wished to support her all the way when they were in university. He understood why a lot of the boys their age were too scared to ask her out or date her. She was just too perfect. Too good for anybody. Not that she said this… it was just something everyone—including Boruto—felt.

He patted down his right pocket and felt its contents. He smiled nervously and fondly thought of how lucky he was to have her. For years he had been pining after her. Thanks to their meddling friends, they finally started dating and got together. He would never admit it, but he was all too thankful for the way his friends kicked him in the ass to ask her out already.

They had been dating for only a few years now, but it was the best years of his life, and the only thing he wanted was to keep her.

Boruto looked up and saw some paper lanterns in the sky. He could also see small structures up ahead and… She was still on her phone.

He frowned. They were on vacation. She was supposed to leave her work at home.

“Sarada…” his voice was soft, just trying to get her attention. It didn’t work. He tried again. “Sarada.”

Nope. Still on her phone.

“Sarada!”

She whipped back to face him, a scowl on her face. “What?”

He paused. She was already stressed enough at is. From planning the trip to trying to manage the company. He sighed and tried to smile. “We’re already here.”

She pursed her lips and looked ahead. There was a crowd of people, mostly situated in the middle of the train tracks. They were taking photos and lighting lanterns—some paper lanterns were already flying in the sky. It was such a festive view. And Boruto could feel his excitement bubbling.

Sarada looked at her phone and started texting again. Boruto walked to her side and squeezed her upper arm. He leaned in and said, “You just finish that, alright? I’ll go look for a lantern for us to write on.”

For a moment, she put her phone down and gave him a tired, although genuine smile. “Alright. Thank you. I’m sorry, I just—I’ll just finish this and I’m all yours, okay?”

He feigned shock. “Aren’t you mine already?” When she rolled her eyes in response, Boruto grinned. “Just want the assurance, ya know?”

She laughed, and he placed his hands on her shoulders before sitting her down on a bench. “Just stay here, alright? I’ll be back.” He planted a quick kiss on the top of her head before leaving.

She nodded and then proceeded to text again.

It didn’t take him long to find one, all he had to do was listen to where the crowds were going, and what the shopkeepers were saying. An old man invited him inside a shop that was filled with little items, charms, and lantern themed keychains. There were also paint brushes and lamps, as well as other souvenir items.

He smiled at the old man and made a large gesture. “Can I have a lantern?”

The old man smiled and then handed him a card. There were a lot of colors to choose from, but he was only looking for one. “I’ll have this one.”

The old man nodded and ushered him to the cashier, who was an elderly lady. Boruto grinned and guessed that this was his wife. He handed her some notes and he received a coin in return.

A young woman came in and ushered him into another room. She opened up a lantern and hung it on a frame for him. “Brushes are on the side for you to write.” With a nod, she left him there. There were other tourists next to him, a family of four and a young couple.

Boruto wanted to leave to go fetch Sarada, but he opted to write on one side first before going out to get her. He picked up the brush and wrote one word in the middle. He took a step back and grinned, pleased at his creation. He then moved to the other side and then wrote four more words.

“I’m done!” He said to no one in particular, but the young lady had heard him.

“Do you want me to flip it already?”

“Oh yeah,” he took a step back and gave her space before continuing, “Please do. I’ll be right back.”

.

.

.

Sarada had just finished making her email. She then took a deep breath and stuffed her phone back in her pocket. Rising from the bench, She stretched and took a look around. There were families, friend groups, and couples all lined up on the train tracks, writing wishes for the year on paper lanterns and taking pictures before letting them fly up in the sky.

She smiled when she noticed a couple making tiny hearts with their fingers, as the side that was ready for the photo read: a long and happy marriage.

It was sweet that they would wish for that. Her heart twinged with guilt. She was on her phone since the cab ride to Shifen Waterfalls and only got off it when they were having a snack and taking pictures. It wasn’t the ideal vacation and quality time she wanted to spend with her boyfriend. Sarada sighed and looked around.

The tourists were also on their phones, but it didn’t look like it was because of work, but because they were taking pictures with their companions.

Speaking of companions, where was Boruto? Surely it wasn’t so hard to find a place to purchase a lantern. There were vendors everywhere. She looked to her left and then to her right. She took a step back because his face was only inches away from hers.

“I got us a lantern!” The excitement was all too clear in his blue eyes. “You’re gonna love it.”

He held onto her hand and pulled her into a shop. Sarada had to dodge the number of patrons inside. She then found a large red lantern hanging on a frame. It was blank, and when she walked on the other side, she found it was also blank. “You get one side and I get the other?”

He shook his head and held up his phone, pointing the camera at her. “I’m already done. I wanna take photos and a video of you while you write for your wishes this year.” He presses a button and then moved closer.

His grin was infectious, and her cheeks colored. “Boruto… what did you write then?”

“That’s a secret!”

She puffed her cheeks. “That’s not fair!”

He stuck his tongue out playfully at her, still recording. “Go on, just write already. You’ll see it later when they take our photos.”

Sarada rolled her eyes and proceeded to write. She wrote the usual wishes, which she thought were cliché and felt quite embarrassing. She wished for good health for her parents, a successful career, and more time for herself and her friends. Once she filled up one side, she moved to the other and felt excited when one particular wish had floated to the surface as Boruto took a photo of her first set of wishes.

For Boruto and I… She wrote that but stopped. Sarada bit her lip and looked at him once again. His blue eyes shining with delight as he read her wishes again. To get married. It was what she wanted to write, but decided against it.

She wasn’t so sure how he would react, maybe it was too soon. They had known each other since they were kids, but they had only been dating for a little over two years. It might just scare him off, and Boruto had a reputation for having commitment issues. She didn’t want to risk any of it. Everything was going so well and she really didn’t want to lose him.

He walked over to her side. “So whatcha writing here?”

Sarada forced a smile and continued writing: to be happy together.

“Praying that I don’t get sick of your face,” she teased.

Maybe it was a trick of the light, but she could have sworn he looked disappointed at what she wrote. He laughed. “You’re stuck with me, ya know? You better pray harder cause not even the gods can take you away from me.” He planted a quick kiss on her temple. “I won’t let them.”

She giggled and continued to write more wishes for the two of them. She wished for more adventures and for their bond to grow stronger. He scoffed at that, and said that any closer and they would become the same person.

Once she finished up her wishes, the old man came to them and took the lantern. Before going, he took a lighter and some paper. He tied it to the end of the lantern, where he was to light it before leading them to a space on the railway.

Sarada’s knuckles brushed against his, which only made her want to hold on to his hand. Her pocket vibrated, and her lips pressed into a fine line. She resisted the urge to check. It vibrated again, and her hand almost instinctively came to pull it out, but Boruto caught her hand and lifted it to his lips, giving her knuckles a soft kiss.

He looked worried, and her brows furrowed. Why did he look so anxious?

“When you see my wish…” he held her hand to his chest, and she could feel his heart beating wildly, making her nerves raise as well. “Promise me you won’t laugh, okay?”

She breathed out the breath she didn’t realize she was holding. Was that it? Sarada laughed. “What did you wish for? A year supply of Thunder Burger?”

Boruto laughed and helped her onto the tracks. “That’s a good one, but maybe I’ll wish for that next year instead.”

The old man was opening up the lantern and instructed Boruto to hold on to one corner, and Sarada on the other side. She looked at the side facing her and laughed. “You wrote my name?”

Boruto blinked and his cheeks colored a cute shade of pink. “I told you not to laugh!”

Too late. She laughed all the more. Her boyfriend really was too silly. Why would he wish for her when she was already his?

Boruto handed the old man his phone, and the two of them smiled. the first side on the photo was Sarada’s list of wishes for her parents and friends, as well as her career. Once the old man told them to switch sides, her name came into view, and Boruto blushed some more. Sarada was laughing as the old man took the photo. They turned the side, and it was Sarada’s wish for the two of them. It was her turn to blush now, and Boruto laughed nervously.

“Okay, last side!” The old man said. “Turn it!”

And when Sarada turned the lantern and read Boruto’s wish, her knees went weak.

Sarada to say, “yes.”

She covered her mouth and found Boruto looking at her, his cheeks all red, looking so shy. He was smiling and slowly, held up a ring with a single diamond in the middle.

Tears pooled at the corner of her eyes. “Oh God…”

The old man kept taking photos and Boruto let go of his side to kneel in front of her, holding the ring up. Sarada dropped the lantern and covered her face. Her cheeks were burning up and a rush of emotions of filled her entire body.

She didn’t write the wish down, they didn’t even light the lantern yet and let it fly into the sky—hell, the first week of the new year wasn’t even over yet and Boruto was already fulfilling the wish she so badly wanted.

How could she say anything else other than, “Yes.”

Boruto also looked ready to cry once he heard her answer. She extended her left hand to him and he placed the ring on her finger. Once he rose to his feet, Sarada threw her arms around his neck and gave him a warm hug. “This is what I wanted to write.”

Boruto wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her cheek. “No need to write it now.”

The old man was still taking pictures and filming. He had the biggest smile on his face. After giving them a moment, “Do you want to lift the lantern now?”

They both let go of each other and he helped light the lantern. Boruto and Sarada took a picture holding the lantern in place as it hovered above their heads. They took another one after watching the lantern float up to the sky.

Like the lantern, Sarada felt as if her heart was floating up in the sky. Boruto kept his hand in hers the entire time, the blush on his face was starting to look permanent. It was so cute, and so sweet of him. Part of herself also couldn’t believe they were already engaged.

“Did you ask my parents about it?” Sarada looked at his face, and grinned when he pouted.

“Of course I did. Sensei scared me for a bit, but I think he was really happy.”

Sarada chuckled. That sounded exactly like her Papa. “And Mama was okay with it, too?”

Now, Boruto’s mood lifted. “Yeah! She didn’t even look surprised.”

They both stared at each other for a few moments before they burst out laughing. She didn’t expect any less from her mother.

As the afternoon progressed, they took more photos together and ate their way through the old street. Sarada enjoyed her time eating and just being with her fiancé. So much that she forgot all about her work and phone.

Once they were on the train going back to Ruifang, Boruto had slightly dozed off, and she made him lean on her shoulder as she looked out the window. Her pocket vibrated and she pulled her phone out. A quick glance at her screen revealed a number of emails and texts from work.

“What does the office want this time?” Boruto asked, sleepily.

Sarada turned her phone off and placed it in her bag. She then leaned on his head and replied, “it can wait. I’m on vacation with my fiancé.”

A goofy grin spread on his face. “It feels so good for you to call me that, ya know? I still can’t believe it.”

He lifted his head and wrapped an arm around her. It was Sarada’s turn to lean on him. “Well, get used to it. I’ll be calling you that for months.”

Boruto kissed the top of her head. “I can’t wait until you call me something else. Maybe I’ll raise another lantern for it,” he joked.

Sarada felt her cheeks fill with heat and she responded, “You just need to be patient. You don’t need to wish for it anymore.”

“My wish was already granted.”

She lifted her head and gave him a funny look.

“I wished for you to be mine and you already said you were.”

She rolled her eyes, but then she smiled. “I was always yours to begin with.” She watched his eyes go wide and his face turn as red as a tomato.

“Dammit!” He whined dramatically. “I just wasted a hundred-fifty then!”

Sarada facepalmed. “Stop ruining the moment!”

Boruto laughed heartily and it melted her heart to see him so happy. “I’m just so excited, ya know? Imagine, you’ll be calling me your husband and I’ll be calling you my wife.” He sighed dreamily. “My younger self is celebrating right now.”

It was her turn to laugh. She was also excited and couldn’t wait to start calling him her husband, too. She cuddled closer to him and felt thankful that her year was starting to look great.

A/N: Thank you for reading!

If you like what I write, please do check out my #fanfiction tag. I also have links to my Masterpost, FFnet, Ao3, Twitter, and Ko-Fi there. :) 

#borusara #borusara fic #borusara fanfiction #borusara fanfic #boruto x sarada #boruto and sarada #boruto #boruto uzumaki #sarada #sarada uchiha #fluff #boruto fanfiction #shifen #proposal fic #happy new year! #fanfiction

[spenceraverywrites]

All-Around Goals for 2019

Note: I wrote this on Christmas Eve, a week out from the end of the year. However, if all has gone right and proper, this should go up while I’m either being the big spoon or little spoon with my partner. I’ll try to stop doting on her long enough to check my dash just to see.

So instead of doing, I just wanted to share my all-around goals for the upcoming year.

2018 wasn’t easy on a lot of levels: I lost a lot of people, which made grieving every few months hard. I spent a lot of time and effort on starting the process of healing from years of misdiagnosis of my mental health, and a lot of time on trying to be okay with myself.

I do have to say that I’m proud of myself for keeping faith that I would make it. 

I’ll go on and say thanks for everyone’s support through this past year. I appreciate both your encouragement and patience: that helps make writing and creating much, much easier. I don’t know what 2019 will bring, but I do hope to continue to do my best, whatever that is. 

Now... Read on below the cut to see what I’m up to, and hey, send me a message telling me what you’re going to try and do in 2019!

1. Learn how to do Pixel Art/Spriting

I really, really love pixel art and spriting. It’s beautiful, and it’s a low-fi way of creating absolutely lush art. As of late, it’s my favorite style, whether it’s in my favorite game VA-11 HALL-A or on a scarf. And I’m determined that it’s not impossible for me to learn a new style of creating art, especially landscapes.

As I’ve gotten more comfortable with drawing and creating this year, I’ve found myself branching out. I even tried to branch out into Pixel Art: I got an app on my iPad that will let me do everything, and have dozens of color palettes to work with. All I need to do is be patient with myself and have fun

(Thanks to @rapidpixeladventure for inspiring this goal!)

2. Make a Pokemon Tapestry

So one of my wishes for this Christmas was a loom, and my mother revealed to me -largely because she forgot to wrap it- that she’d gotten me an oversized tabletop loom, which will be fun to haul back to Japan, but will let me work with a very large canvas. It’s glorious y’all: weaving is something I really, really love doing, and have done most of my life. Having this loom makes me feel like such a boss.

Why Pokemon? 

Well, why not? It makes me happy, and 2019 is all about being happy and having things that keep me going, whether that’s relaxing things or things to progress my career as a writer. 

My goal is to produce either a minimalist tapestry using my favorite Poke’s colors (I really love Litwick and Leafeon) or try to actually make a pixel-inspired tapestry.

Lots of pixels this year, yeah?

3. Finish my novella “A Study in Bloomotics” and my novelette “The Kindness of Shadows”

This feels a bit ambitious, but that’s only really because I keep telling myself it’s hard. But writing is something I work at a lot: there’s a bunch of behind the scenes work that I do, and I know that ultimately, I write almost every day and am doing the best I can.

However, these are stories I want to see finished, not because I want to publish, but because I want to see them from start to finish. I already know the bookend bits, but the middle is a mystery, even with my overly detailed outlines.

Also, it would free me up to work on my NSFW writing, and also let me do new stories too!

4. Do a digital Bob Ross Paint-A-Long project once a month

This only occurred to me on my flight to Dallas because what can you do with 14 hours in the air but think? (Sleeping on the plane was hard because there were many sick children and hearing kids vomit makes me feel sad for them because it’s mortifying and uncomfortable for the poor kiddos.)

I’ve decided that this’ll be a Saturday kind of thing: I’ll work in either Procreate or Autodesk Sketchbook on my iPad and record my progress from blank, A3 canvas to whatever Bob Ross helps me create. I’ll try and do a theme each month, and I’ll link to my art and the video: it’ll all land over on my art blog @renejamesart and also on my Pillowfort and other social media.

I figured it’d be much more cost efficient than me buying a lot of acrylics or even watercolors: plus, it’s easier on my hands since I can sit down on my bed with my heat pad for my back and work just as efficiently.

Maybe I’ll make a calendar. Most likely, i’ll just enjoy making something really neat for myself.

5. Create a fictional food compendium (Working Project Title: The Gourmand’s Guidebook to Subterranean Gastronomy)

This is my big, year-long project, starting soon after the start of the year and running until 12/31/2019. My goal is to create at least under one of five categories: drinks, snacks, desserts, main, and breads. That’s incredibly likely to change once I start outlining in the new year.

What isn’t likely to change is the concept of using different strata/levels for food: I hope to go through different parts areas of an underground dungeon that match a specific flavor: in this case, five areas locked to Bitter, Salty, Sour, Sweet, and Savory. I’ll think of creative punny names for each area latter, but I will enjoy this to the max!

I’m not sure what’ll ever happen to this other than me just creating a compendium of fictional foods for a fiction, Etrian Odyssey-esque country. I’m sure there will be short stories to go with each level, and some other work that’ll go into this too.

Ultimately, this is just something I want to create, especially in light of all my food writing. I figure that next year should have things I like: food’s something I like and love, so why not write about it?

#chatter #goals #goal setting #goals for 2k19

[lynyrdwrites]

The Path Not Taken (2/?)

Did I mention that I have 3 parts  of this written? Because I do.  This takes place immediately after the first one shot, and I kind of loved writing Lucy’s pov?  Fairy Tail as a whole is so much fun to write.  Their dynamics are just the  best.

Read Part One

Or Read it all  on AO3

---

“I am so sorry.”

              Those were the first words Lucy said to Erza when the redhead dragged Natsu back to the guild  after their  night spent in prison.  Erza looked almost taken aback at first, before she smiled and dropped  Natsu to the floor.   The hand she slammed onto Lucy’s back  nearly knocked the  air out of her, and she just barely kept herself from joining Natsu on the floor.

              “It’s hardly your fault, Lucy. There are people I blame before you.”

              Makarov, Mira and Gray all wilted under Erza’s glare, and even Laxus, up on the second floor, didn’t bother to make one  of the almost cruel comments he’d been throwing around since his arrival.

              “I don’t get why you’re so mad,” Natsu complained, sitting up and rubbing the bump Erza had left on his head.  “I mean, I’m the one that had to have a first row seat to you and Jellal.”

              “Jellal showed up in person?” Laxus remarked. “You must be something special, Titania, to bring him from Era.”

              Erza glared up at the other mage, her hand hovering over her sword.  Natsu, on the other hand, was completely oblivious and scoffed.

              “Nah. I guess it was one of his projections.   They must be getting better, though, ‘cause I don’t remember Erza being  able to kiss ‘em bef  - ouch! Erza, what was that for?”

              Natsu rubbed yet another bump, and glared at Erza’s back as she stalked toward Mira and Makarov at the bar.   Mira looked sympathetic, and Lucy thought Makarov might flee rather than experience Erza’s wrath.

              “Jellal?” Lucy murmured to Happy, who seemed to think her shoulder was far safer than Natsu’s.  “As in… the Councilman?”

              She had heard of Jellal Fernandes, of course.  He was a favorite of Sorcerer Weekly. Attractive, and insanely powerful; not only had he become a Wizard Saint before his eighteenth birthday, but shortly after he’d joined the Magic Council as its youngest member.  Lucy wouldn’t admit it out loud, but she’d had a bit of a crush on him.

              He was just so… so.

              “Oh yeah,” said Cana from the table next to them.  She wavered on her stool but caught her balance and pointed her beer mug at Lucy.  “Our Erza and him have history.”

              The way she stressed history, and the lascivious way she  waggled her brows said exactly what kind of history Cana was referring to. At the bar, Erza’s shoulders stiffened.  Cana wasn’t exactly quiet, and Lucy let out a little eep when the redhead turned her glare in their direction.

              “Hey Erza!” Cana called to her carelessly.   “Lucy here didn’t have a clue about you and Jellal.  I guess we can keep a secret after all.”

              Cana’s voice was so smug that even Erza couldn’t keep up her anger, her expression instead turning  to exasperation.

              “Master-” she began with frustration in her voice, turning to Makarov.  The old man held up a hand, silencing not only Erza, but everyone in the guildhall. On the second floor, Laxus leaned over the railing, curiosity lighting up his gaze, though he probably would never admit as much.

              “It is rather handy having Erza’s boyfriend on the council.  He doesn’t lecture me on Guild behaviour nearly as much as Yajima does.”

              Erza let out a half scream and turned on her heel, stalking out of the guild. Lucy couldn’t necessarily blame her. Everyone looked a little disappointed with Makarov’s words, clearly having expected something… more.

              The disappointment didn’t last long, and soon Natsu and Gray were aiming punches at each other, while others avoided them, careful to protect their drinks. But Lucy continued to frown after Erza. There had never been even a whisper of a relationship between Erza and Councilman Jellal outside of Fairy Tail – and with Lucy’s love of Sorcerer Weekly, she would have heard if there had been.   Whatever reason kept them apart… it had to be difficult.

              “Cana makes it sound rather dirty.” Lucy looked up, startled, as Mira paused next to her, setting  down a lemonade.  “It really isn’t.”

              “So they’re not in a relationship?” Lucy asked, looking once more to the doors.  They remained open, but Erza could no longer be seen.  

              “Oh, they are.  They showed up here together, close to a decade ago, now.  There were others with them too, but they’ve scattered since. The only ones that stayed were Erza and Jellal, but he was… ambitious.   His training took him across Fiore.”

              “I guess you have to be ambitious,” Lucy murmured.   “To do what he’s done.  But still… poor Erza.”

              “He always came back,” Mira said cheerfully. “And I remember, when she used to pour over the job boards, for one that took her close to him.   It was sweet, really. Particularly before they admitted their feelings. They would blush and stutter around each other. They were adorable.”

              “They were gross,” Natsu muttered, crawling into the chair next to Lucy.

              “Ah, shut up, Flame Brain.    I miss having Jellal around.  It was a lot less painful.” Gray fell into the seat across from them, and Lucy  began to point out that his shirt was missing, before  she decided not to bother.

              “Why is it a secret?” she asked instead. Gossiping about Erza would probably get her skewered, but Lucy couldn’t help it.   This was just all so fascinating.  It was entirely different side  to Erza – one Lucy  had never suspected  existed!  

              “Fairy Tail doesn’t always get along great with the Council,” Gray replied, a slight frown marring his brow as he rested his cheek on his fist.   “Some members do as much damage as good, it doesn’t always give us a great reputation.”

              The glare he shot Natsu with the word some said pretty clearly who he blamed for that reputation.

              “Got something to say, Ice Princess?” Natsu demanded, sending his chair to the ground as he stood up, slamming his hands on the table.

              “Oh, was I not clear enough, Flame Brain? Need me to spell it out?”

              “Guys!” Lucy stood as well, slamming her hands down even louder than Natsu had.  Both boys stopped their yelling and looked  at her in surprise.  Lucy wasn’t going to let them fight, not when there  was gossip to be had! “Focus! Erza and Councilman Jellal!”

              “I don’t get why you keep calling him Councilman,” Natus whined.  “Sure, he did all that fancy stuff, but he’s still just  Jellal. Geez, Lucy, you’ll give him an ego.”

              “I think he deserves to have one!”  Lucy pointed out. “And he is a Councilman.”

              Fairy Tail was always a  bit weird, but this was beyond as far  as Lucy  was concerned. Just Jellal?!

              “The reputation,” Gray interjected, looking almost surprise that it was him preventing an argument for once, “it means it would have been difficult  for Jellal to make the council, if they knew  he and  Erza were in a relationship.  Any of them that bother to remember know he has a connection to Fairy Tail, but not how…”

              “They don’t know that he kisses Erza at any opportunity,” Natsu interrupted, his arms crossed and his expression petulant.  “I don’t get why he wanted to join them so bad anyways.   You can’t do anything fun if you’re on the council. And Jellal used to like being fun.”

              “Hah,” Cana laughed from the end of the table, leaning towards them.  “Jellal used to save your asses because it meant Erza would smile at him.  That was back when they were so ridiculous that he’d practically get a nosebleed if she happened to brush up against him.  And she wasn’t much better; almost as red as her hair half the time he was around.  I’m still not sure how they managed to get their shit together to make their relationship work.”

              Lucy couldn’t imagine Erza blushing… ever.  Some of the armours she wore, while deadly, would make Lucy die to be seen in.  And even outside of that, she’d see the redhead in some ridiculous cosplay costumes.

              And Councilman Jellal… well, Lucy had never met him, of course – but everything in Sorcerer Weekly painted him as a suave, charming man who was cool no matter the questions answered.  Even when the interviewer had been  brave enough to as about the nature of his relationship with fellow Councilwoman Ultear, there had been no mention of stuttering or blushing, and they would have mentioned it.

              She wondered what his response would be, if someone were to ask him about Erza?

              “Do you think it she’ll be okay?” Lucy asked, looking the way that Erza had come.  “She seemed kind of upset.”

              Lucy could see it now, in the way Erza’s anger had seemed just a little extreme.  Long distance relationships couldn’t be easy, especially when they were secret.

              “She’ll be perfectly fine,” Mira assured her. “She just misses him.  Maybe I should see if there isn’t a reason the Master would need to go to Era.  She could accompany him for safety.”

              Mira looked thoughtful as she wandered over to deliver beer to Macao’s table, and Lucy chuckled lightly, shaking her head. Apparently even once you were in a relationship, Mira’s matchmaking didn’t stop.

              While Lucy had been talking to Mira, Gray and Natsu had once again devolved to name  calling, and with Cana egging them on, they had begun rolling on the floor, fists flying.  Lucy rolled her eyes, and slipped out of the Guildhall in the distraction the fight had caused.

              Standing in the street, she looked both ways, hoping that, by some miracle, she would see the red of Erza’s hair. She didn’t, of course, but decided to take  a wild gamble based off of what  she knew about Erza  and Lucy’s own experience.

              When she was upset, she liked chocolate. Erza…well, Erza liked cake all  the time, but Lucy would bet she loved it even more when  she was upset.

              Sure enough, Erza had found a seat at a table in her favorite bakery,  an extra-large piece of strawberry and cream cake sitting on the table before her.

              “Hi,” Lucy said, sliding onto the seat across from her.

              “Oh, Lucy.” Erza gave a small  smile of  greeting. Lucy noticed the cake was untouched, and that wasn’t at all like Erza.

              “Are you okay?” Lucy asked.  She looked around; there were several townspeople watching from other tables, murmuring about the infamous Titania.  There would be no mentioning Jellal by name  here. “I mean, with… everything?”

              “Cana likes to talk,” Erza said with a sigh. She looked at her  cake, and finally took a bite – just a small one, not at all  like Erza.

              “I got just as much from Gray, Natsu, and Mira,” Lucy admitted, squeezing her hands together on her lap. “They all care about you.”

              “They all like to gossip.”

              “That too.”

              They sat in silence, Erza looking at her cake, and Lucy looking at Erza. Finally, Erza sighed and set her fork down.

              “I should be angry with him. He’s ruining cake for me,” she grumbled, scowling at the plate now.   Her shoulders slumped slightly, and she looked up at Lucy.  “I probably should have told you myself. We’re on the same team now, after all. But truthfully, you fit in so well that I’d forgotten that you didn’t know already.”

              “It’s okay,” Lucy assured her friend. “Sometimes, we have things we don’t like to talk about, anyway.”

              Lucy thought of her own situation, and her own… things.  Yeah, she couldn’t judge anyone else for keeping quiet about their personal issues.

              “That’s really not it at all,” Erza replied.  Her gaze turned somewhat distant, her lips curving into a fond smile. “I actually do like to talk about him. I’m… I’m very fond of him.”

              A faint blush rose in her cheeks, and for the first time Lucy could see what the others had meant, when they talked about Erza’s courtship.  Lucy rested her chin on her palm and smiled at her friend as Erza turned back to her again.

              “You should talk about him then,” Lucy said, when Erza’s expression turned questioning. “Tell me about the first time you guys kissed.”

              For a second, Erza looked startled, and then she laughed.  She pulled cake towards her one more, and took a bite – far too big, and much more typical of the Erza Lucy knew.

              “I never thought I’d tell that story,” Erza admitted. “Everyone in the Guild saw it firsthand.”

              And though she couldn’t use Jellal’s name, as Erza told Lucy a story so ridiculous it could only happen to a Fairy Tail mage, her eyes lit up, and yeah… Lucy could see the girl the others had described now.

#Jerza #Jerza Fic #Fic: The Path Not Taken

[fly-like-a-grayson]

New in Town Pt. 1 (Connor Murphy x Reader)

A/N: This us gonna be a series. It’s going to have all the DEH characters, but the like relationship part will be focused on Connor and the reader. Also, an apology if Connor is OOC, this is my first time writing him. Oh aaaaand I got the title from John Mulaney and I’m done rambling. Thank you for reading!

Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

Make friends, it will be fun. New town, new school, new people. It’s a great opportunity.

Your mom’s words echoed through your head as you walked into the highschool of your new town. What a lovely way to spend your senior year, in a new town halfway across the country from your old home. But hey, you were an optimistic person, so maybe you should listen to your mom. Maybe one friend will change how the rest of the year will turn out. Maybe you can change someone’s year and tell your children one day that you helped someone for the better. Or maybe you were just being too ambitious.

Plus, how would you find people with interests like yours? You weren’t exactly hip with the kids, as your mom put it. Weird trivia and pieces of information were your forte. You were a knowledge sponge, but not like academic. You could tell someone how many types of lettuce there are, how many countries in Africa, how big each of the great lakes were. Weird stuff that meant almost nothing to anyone else, but everything to you. You were lucky enough to find a small group of friends who dealt with your random facts and actually listened when you would go on a tangent. How would you find that here? You had to find that group of weirdos where everyone in that group was just a little gay, some way more than others.

You decided on one person, you would approach one person as yourself and if that was a complete fail, you would try to fit in. But the real question was who, who would you subject to the torture of knowing the real you? Maybe that girl with the guitar case, oh wait, she’s in the band at school. Aren’t band kids like a close knit group? No doubt she would tell her friends about the weirdo she met before school started. Maybe the kid with the cast and the blue striped polo? He looked like he was an easy person to talk to, but just then some dude with glasses started talking to him and the poor kid looked like he was about to explode. Maybe your personality was a bit too much for him, and he wasn’t alone anymore. You had to talk to someone who was alone, didn’t need to embarrass yourself in front of two people, now did ya?

As your eyes scanned over the crowd, like Terminator, they landed on some kid walking out of the school building. Why would he be walking out of the school 5 minutes before the bell? Maybe you should go and find out? So, that’s what you did. You fast walked to the person as he turned the corner to the side of the school. When you got there, they were smoking a cigarette, that has to not be allowed. But the calmness of him made you assume he really didn’t care. Now that you were closer to him, you could actually get a look at him. He had fair skin and fluffy looking brown hair. Oh, and his nails were painted black. Nail polish! That can be your opening topic, ask him about what nail polish he uses! It’s genius!

So, you took a deep breath and walked over to him. He didn’t seem to notice your presence, so you decided to clear your throat. He flinched and looked at you with a slightly angry face, but you thought nothing of it. Maybe he just had RBF or something. After a few beats of silence, that’s when you went in with your question, “What kind of nail polish are you wearing?”. He didn’t respond, just kinda stared at you.

Realizing you weren’t going to get an answer, you pressed on, “Is it Wet N’ Wild’s Black Creme? It’s cheap and you don’t seem like the kind of person to spend a lot of money on nail polish. Not to say that you look cheap, it’s just… well, maybe you don’t mind splurging on nail polish. So maybe it’s like OPI’s Black Onyx, but that’s still only like 5 dollars, or maybe it’s 8. I guess it depends on where you go, tax and if you have coupons. Do they make you pay more in each state? I’ve never done that, but I also don’t travel a lot. I have a big family so it’s hard for all of us to go somewhere enjoyable-”

“Do you know how to shut the hell up?”, he interrupted you.

Oh crap, you screwed it up. Maybe you should try to fix it, how do you fix it? Don’t say anything yet, you gotta think this over. Be precise with your words and you’ll be fine, “My brother says I don’t know how to, he might be right. Judging by this conversation, he is right. My mom says not to listen to everything he says because he isn’t really a good person, but he’s alright by me. And-”

He cut you off again, “Look, I’m trying to smoke here and you’re fucking it up for me.”

“Oh, yeah. I’m sorry.”, you stuttered out, “I’m just new and stuff and I wanted to talk to someone and you seemed nice and I guess it was my fault to assume and I’m sorry.”

“Oh, you’re new? Couldn’t tell,“, his voice was laced with sarcasm, “Word of advice kid, if you want friends at this school, stay away from me. I’m a freak and the moment someone sees you talking to me, they’ll dispel you.”

You huffed, he didn’t seem bad, he was just annoyed with you. Not like that’s anything new. But an idea popped into your head. You placed your backpack on the ground and rustled through it, looking for a blank piece of paper and a pen, or any writing utensil.Once you had found it, you then tried to find a place to write. You chose to write on the dark brick wall, which caused your writing to come out sloppy. You read over it to make sure the boy could read it. You were satisfied with it, so you gave it to him. He reluctantly skimmed the paper before crumbling it and speed walking away.

What was it? You didn’t put anything rude in the note, right? All it said was that by writing on the note you weren’t technically talking to him and that you wanted to know his name. Guess he wasn’t one for loopholes, oh well. You can’t win them all, or in your case can’t get everyone to like you. Guess the universe didn’t want you and that kid to be friends. You sighed as you made your way to your first class of the day, psychics. Not your favorite, but you can’t control what classes you take. Your mom controls all of that. Not that she’s controlling or anything, you’re just so indecisive that you wouldn’t get the forms done until the next school year.

Anyways, you made your way to your classroom, silently hoping to see that boy again. As fate would have it, you and that boy had the same first period. He had an empty seat next to him, but you still wanted to play it casual, not that you could be casual anymore. You kinda ruined that chance when you rambled about nail polish to him. Oh well, you still decided to sit in a chair close to his but far enough away to make it seem like you didn’t care he was sitting behind you. He still didn’t notice your presence, that carelessness will get him hurt one day. Like he’ll fall down of something, not get hit by a bus.

The bell blared, signifying that the first class was going to start. Your teacher, who had on a smile ear to ear, walked to the front of the class and told everyone to get in their seats. Then the dreaded thing happened, “We are blessed enough to have a new student in our midst. Y/N Y/L/N, would you please stand up for the class.”

Well, who were you to say no to this lovely lady who wanted you to stand up in a room of judgemental teenagers! But, you knew you had no choice, so you did as she requested. You slowly rose from your seating position as all heads turned to you, oh great.

“Ms. Y/L/N, would you like to introduce yourself to the class?”, she asked, but again it was another demand.

You mulled over what you were going to say for a moment, until your mouth started to pour out words again, “My name is Y/N, but all of you already know that. I moved here, but you all know that anyway. There’’s nothing extraordinary to say, I have a large family. We aren’t like the size of the Duggars but there’s a lot of us. My mom says she loves all of us but sometimes I think she doesn’t like the oldest of my family. She loves the younger children, but that’s common for families. I understand it though, I like my younger siblings more than my… older… ones.”, you trailed on until you noticed that some girls were snickering at you. Your face burned bright red as you slowly sat back down.

The teacher smiled just as brightly as before, “Welcome to our school, Ms. Y/L/N.”

The rest of the class period went by in a daze. You still felt the embarrassment of before surrounding you. You met one person and scared them off and managed to be laughed at all in 20 minutes. Wow, this school year is going to be great.

#dear evan hansen #dear even hansen the musical #dear evan hansen imagine #dear evan hansen x reader #deh #deh imagine #deh x reader #connor murphy #connor murphy imagine #connor murphy x reader #mike faist #mike faist x reader #mike faist imagine

[entergamingxp]

When Sony shut down a promising LittleBigPlanet PC fan-game, its creators scrambled to save the project • Eurogamer.net

In 2008, Media Molecule launched its debut game LittleBigPlanet. The idea behind the ambitious project was to make a game where players could create their own stages and share them with a community of players, or as the tagline more succinctly puts it: “Play, Create, Share.”

Upon its release, LittleBigPlanet received almost unanimous acclaim from critics, becoming one of Sony’s most interesting exclusives for the PlayStation 3. But two sequels and several spinoffs later, the series has become somewhat dormant, with the lack of support frustrating the most dedicated fans.

Media Molecule appears to have put the series largely behind it, focusing its attention on its latest passion project, another creation game called Dreams. Meanwhile, those who are still playing LittleBigPlanet 3, the third game in the series developed by Sumo Digital, are reporting persistent problems with corrupted profiles and other glitches that are driving the community away. Problems that have led to some players posting tips on Reddit to avoid limiting the damage done. Things were looking grim for LittleBigPlanet fans. That was, until late 2019, when there was a beacon of hope.

In November 2019, Trixel Creative, a community of creators developing content for games such as The Sims 4, Dreams and LittleBigPlanet, announced LittleBigPlanet Restitched, a PC fan-game that would bring back Sackboy for another set of community-crafted adventures. But, as is the case for most fan-produced projects, it was shut down shortly after its exciting announcement, with Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe issuing a cease and desist via email in January 2020.

We reached out to the team at Trixel Creative a day before Sony sent this email for a feature that was originally going to be about the project’s announcement. But after hearing the news, we wanted to find out what happened instead, how far the team got with the project, and why the developers dedicated the best part of a year to trying to revive the LittleBigPlanet series.

LittleBigPlanet Restitched, as it was in November 2019.

For most members of Trixel Creative, LittleBigPlanet wasn’t just a game, it was a second home. Most of the developers we spoke to said they were younger than 10 when the first game came out. Some of them met their best friends playing LittleBigPlanet and credit it with having led to careers in programming, the arts and graphic design.

“I grew up with LittleBigPlanet from a young age,” says Halston Stephenson, a US-based member of the Trixel Creative team who had worked on the project. “I was around eight or nine-years-old when it came out, and I always played it on a cousin’s PS3. About a year or so later I got my own PS3 as a birthday present, and I immediately knew which game to get. From there it was love at first sight.”

“LittleBigPlanet made me realise from a young age that making games was something anyone could do,” says Ethan Hanbury, another member of the Trixel Creative team, based in the UK. “There were so many of us who would communicate through fan-forums and work on in-game projects together. I still talk to so many people I originally met through the LBP community and it’s crazy to see what everyone has moved on to do. I’m currently in my final year studying computer animation as a 3D artist hoping to join the games industry for myself once I graduate in the summer.”

“I discovered LittleBigPlanet when I was around eight-years-old,” Julian Treveri, another Trixel Creative member from the US, tells me. “A neighbour showed it to me and I immediately started to beg my parents for a PlayStation and a copy of the game. I was totally addicted to creating things with it. I’d spend a lot of time lost in my own little world. Maybe a little too much time.”

The prototype for stickers in LittleBigPlanet Restitched.

LittleBigPlanet Restitched came about when Treveri discovered an open-source code library called ClipperLib and its function to manipulate shapes by cutting and adding. Throwing it into Unity, he built a small prototype where players could paint and erase 3D shapes, similar to the create mode seen in the LittleBigPlanet games.

“The folks at Trixel had been wanting to build a LittleBigPlanet fan game for a while,” Treveri explains. “When they saw this very rough framework for one, they asked if I had any interest in building a LittleBigPlanet fan-game with them, and I said yes!”

From there, the project entered development in early 2019 with the first four months focused on creating concepts, stickers, and implementing the user interface. Eventually, more members were brought on board, growing the team to 20 developers in total. This larger group started building the framework for the create mode, developing the player controls, physics, and a material creation system.

The plan was to create an experience that got fans of the series excited and talking about LittleBigPlanet again. Although, because of their inability to crowdfund out of fear of sparking a cease and desist from Sony, the project would have to make some compromises, such as looking into alternatives to online servers to provide players with a co-op experience.

“Everything started to come together after we had all worked separately for a few months, and it was magical,” says Stephenson. “We compiled a build for our reveal trailer to be recorded in and, although it was buggy (as to be expected for such an early build), it all materialised pretty quickly. It was a strange yet welcome feeling to be playing LBP on PC, and it worked and felt a lot better than I think some of us expected it to!”

Aware of the shaky legal territory they were wading into, the team got in touch with Media Molecule’s community manager from the outset and were given some advice and guidelines. Among the tips they were given was to clearly communicate that the project was fan-made, so players would know it was not an official product of any kind. This meant putting a disclaimer in the logo itself to avoid confusion. They were also told to avoid crowdfunding for the game to ensure the project was entirely not-for-profit.

In spite of these precautions, a cease and desist arrived on the morning of Friday, 17th January 2020 in Trixel Creative’s inbox, as well as the personal inbox of one of its members. It was an email – perhaps an inevitable one – that put a swift end to the project.

The prevailing reaction among the team seems to be bafflement. Not only because Sony had managed to contact a team member who hadn’t made their email account widely available, but also because the team were aware of several other LittleBigPlanet fan projects that were seemingly unaffected. The cease and desist stated the reason for the take-down was “commercialisation” of the project, which caused even more confusion among the team.

In December 2019, Trixel Creative excitedly announced LittleBigPlanet Restitched. A month later it was no more.

Was there a degree of naivety among the developers of LittleBigPlanet Restitched, a fangame that, whatever Media Molecule staff may have thought about it, used a Sony trademark and intellectual property without an licence agreement? Perhaps. Nevertheless, the developers now say they understand the move, believing the project’s potential release on PC was likely an influence on Sony’s decision to call in the laywers.

“We always knew it was ultimately up to Sony’s legal department to protect their IP, and rightfully so,” comments Stephenson. “[Although], the takedown was a bit of a surprise for us, considering the support we’d been shown from PlayStation-employed developers and the original creators of the IP, Media Molecule, who helped to support and livestream the reveal of the project during our Tri-Expo 2019 event.”

“I was actually working on LBP Restitched as part of my final major collab project for university,” adds Hanbury. “So it was a bit surreal when I had to explain to my lecturers that it had been taken down by Sony’s legal team.”

“We love and respect LittleBigPlanet and its developers, and we definitely aren’t upset at Sony’s legal actions,” insists Stephenson. “We respect them highly, and they are simply protecting their intellectual property. If LittleBigPlanet were already on PC, then this might have been a different story entirely. In any case, we’re all huge fans of the LittleBigPlanet franchise and can’t wait to see where Sony will take it next.”

LittleBigPlanet 3 is officially playable on PC – via streaming subscription service PlayStation Now.

The team quickly set about scrubbing all mention of the fan-game from their website and decided to retool the project into something original. This new game is to be a user-generated content game in the same spirit as LittleBigPlanet, but with its own characters and visual identity. As to what this visual identity looks like, the team are reluctant to reveal too much.

“I would like this project to be what Parkitect is to RollerCoaster Tycoon,” explains Thomas Voets, a Netherlands-based member of Trixel Creative. “A fresh, new take that modernises some stuff, but keeps the charm of the original largely intact, creating a fresh yet familiar experience. On a personal level, as a music creator, I want to make as many songs for the project as I can, so that people can really go wild with theming their levels.”

“The programmers are eager to use the foundation we’ve made in our new, original UGC game,” says Stephenson. “They’ve sunk several months into creating the setup for the user interface, lighting system, mesh editing for level creation, and player movement.

“We are looking at various UGC titles as a source of inspiration for many aspects of the game, but overall we want it to be something original while still capturing the essence of LittleBigPlanet that we all fell in love with. With this being a new title free from the constraints of strict legal guidelines and community expectations, a lot of opportunities are now open for us to create new content and mechanics. Who knows what you might see?”

We reached out to Sony as well as Media Molecule’s Mark Healey, one of the co-creators of LittleBigPlanet, for comment. Sony has yet to respond, but Healey offered some nice words of encouragement to the team.

“It’s great that LBP is so loved, and obviously I wish the team the best of luck with their future project/s,” Healey says. “I love that LBP and Dreams can be a conduit for creators and teams to come together, blossom and break into new exciting circles, so maybe this story is that story.”

While fans of the project may be disappointed by the news of LittleBigPlanet Restitched’s cancellation, the prospect of a new game in the same style is an exciting one. LittleBigPlanet played a huge part in the lives of so many players growing up, and hopefully whatever Trixel is cooking up can create that same sense of community and inspire a new generation to keep the dream alive.

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/02/when-sony-shut-down-a-promising-littlebigplanet-pc-fan-game-its-creators-scrambled-to-save-the-project-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=when-sony-shut-down-a-promising-littlebigplanet-pc-fan-game-its-creators-scrambled-to-save-the-project-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net

[douchebagbrainwaves]

CAN BE AN ANGEL INVESTOR HERD DYNAMICS

It wouldn't be the first time in our history, the bullies stopped stealing the nerds' lunch money. Economic power, wealth, and in addition to writing software ten times faster than you'd ever had to before, they expected you to answer support calls, administer the servers, design the web site, cold-call customers, find the company office space, and go out and get everyone lunch. There is no manufacturing to confuse the issue. Either some company like Netflix or Apple will be the Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, and Del. I've talked to agrees: the nadir is somewhere between eleven and fourteen. No one would know what side to be on a larger scale than Youtube clips. Initially it was supposed to be fun? Perhaps. That tends to produce deadlocks. Don't talk and drive. Work for a VC fund?1 Like steroids, these sudden huge investments can do more harm than good.

The best ideas are just on the right side of impossible.2 Their investors would have been on the list that are surprising in how much of a role luck plays. Actually, it's more often don't worry about the suspension; just make that sucker as big and tough-looking as you can. The second big element of Web 2. So presumably that's what this brainstorming session was about. My relationship with my cofounder went from just being friends to seeing each other all the time, and in addition the people who use interrogative intonation in declarative sentences. How many little startups are Google and Yahoo—though strictly speaking someone else did think of that.

Nested comments do, for example. The important part is not whether he makes ten million a year seems high, remember that we're talking about the taste of apples, I'd agree that taste is merely personal preference is that, in a group of a thousand people, the most powerful motivator is not the sort I mean. But that's another issue. To become more popular, you need to start small. There are several local maxima. Tell stories about users. You probably do need to be constantly doing things that bring you close to other popular people, and nothing they could do could make them popular. Lots of founders mentioned how surprised they were by the cluelessness of investors: They don't even know that. Tricks are straightforward to correct for.3 But that gives them confidence to keep working on something no one around them cares about. Don't get too deeply into business models.

And it happens because these schools have no real purpose beyond keeping the kids all in one place for a big chunk of the day so adults can get things done. What a company does, and has to do if it wants to continue to exist, is earn money.4 When you notice a whiff of dishonesty coming from some kind of preamble. So your site has to say Wait!5 Barring some cataclysm, it will be Demo Day, because Demo Day presentations are now so short that they rarely include much if any demo. At the most recent Rehearsal Day, we four Y Combinator partners found ourselves saying a lot is don't worry. Attacking an outsider makes them all insiders. I think everyone would agree that democracy and Ajax are elements of Web 2. At Y Combinator we sometimes mistakenly fund teams who have the attitude that they're going to buy you isn't. If a salesman wants to work harder, he can just start doing it, and he will automatically get paid proportionally more. You make something that looks like a quick sketch.6 If you're small, they don't think it is urgent.

But more important, in a group of people you'll find hierarchy. You could probably work twice as many hours as a corporate employee, and if people aren't using your software, maybe it's not just for clothes, but for almost everything they do, apparently, do society wives; in some parts of Manhattan, life for women sounds like a good guy too, almost a hacker. Babies can recognize faces practically from birth.7 The problem is, many schools practically do stop there.8 Startups are a counterexample to the rule that haste makes waste. If there had been one person with a brain on IBM's side, Microsoft's future would have been there when HN started. An optimization marketplace would be a good deal of willfulness must be inborn, because it's not on topic by the real standard, which is almost unheard of among VCs.

That's why you can't just take a vote. But there is a kind of deficit spending.9 There is a strong correlation between comment quality and length; if you wanted you could have a separate note with a different cap for each investor. 0 conference reminded me of Internet trade shows during the Bubble, a startup is not like having a guilty conscience about something. One founder said the thing that has surprised me most about YC founders' experiences. And yet the Mona Lisa is a small, dark painting. You can measure this in your growth rate. What you should fear, as a child, that if a few rich people had all the money, it left less for everyone else. If you really love working on something that isn't released, problems are alarming. At the very least, crank up the font size big enough to acquire startups will be big enough to be fairly conservative, and within the company the people in the mailroom or the personnel department work at one remove from the actual making of stuff. Wealth is whatever people want.10 The theory is that minor forms of bad behavior encourage worse ones: that a neighborhood with lots of graffiti and broken windows becomes one where robberies occur.11

There are very, very cheap. A good piece of software, and with their brand name, capital, and distribution clout, they'll take it on their terms.12 If the other kids. To get a truly random sample, pollsters ask, say, every 20th person leaving the polling place who they voted for.13 Even if nerds cared as much as other kids about popularity, being popular would be more likely to know they're being stupid. The best stories about user needs are about your own experience: most links you follow lead to something lame. We were a bit like an adult would be if he were thrust back into middle school.14 I think the reason most kids started using drugs was rebellion. By feature I mean one unit of hacking—one quantum of making users' lives better.

Notes

One of the marks of a city's potential as a cold email. At the time.

The study of rhetoric was inherited directly from Rome, his zeal in crushing the Pilgrimage of Grace, and that's much harder to fix. By all means crack down on these.

The golden age of tax avoidance. Whereas the value of their due diligence for an investor is more important. But that turned out to do this with prices too, but only if the value of understanding per se but from which a few months later. Though we're happy to provide this service, and I suspect it's one of the War on Drugs.

If this is why hackers give you more than one who shouldn't? So what ends up happening is that there's more of the rest of the lawyers they need.

The best one could reasonably be with children, or it would be to ask for more of the people worth impressing already judge you more by what you've done than where you could beat the death spiral by buying good programmers instead of hiring them. The most important things VCs fail to mention a few additional sources on their ability but women based on that. The brand of an email address you can work out. The thing to be careful about security.

In Jessica Livingston's Founders at Work. Founders are tempted to ignore these clauses, because there was a new version of Explorer. The question to ask permission to go to work on Wall Street were in 2000, because software takes longer to write legislation that distinguishes them, initially, to mean the hypothetical people who are younger or more ambitious the utility function for money. Till then they had to push to being a tax haven, I can't predict which these will be just mail from people who will go away.

Many more than others, no matter how large. An earlier version of Word 13. There were several other reasons.

Why Are We Getting a Divorce? There's nothing specifically white about such matters. Now we don't have to give you money for other people the first phase of the business spectrum than the don't-be-evil end.

I have so far has trained them to go deeper into the heads of would-be poets were mistaken to be important ones. Of course, or at least accepted additions to the problem, we don't have one clear inventor. He had equity.

Like us, the world as a process rather than just reconstructing word boundaries; spammers both add xHot nPorn cSite and omit P rn letters. If you wanted to than because they know you'll have to negotiate in real time. I switch person. By this I used thresholds of.

Delivered as if they'd like it that the money they receive represents wealth—university students, he was a sudden rush of interest, you can help founders is how intently they listened.

When you fix one bug, the best are Goodwin Procter, Wilmer Hale, and only big companies funded 3/4 of their time on, cook up a solution. Most of the false positive if the founders realized. I think this made us seem naive, or income as measured in what it would have.

The Mac number is a great discovery often seems obvious in retrospect.

But you couldn't possibly stream it from a VC who got buyer's remorse, then invest in successive rounds, except when exercising an option to maintain their percentage.

Thanks to Aaron Iba, Jessica Livingston, Fred Wilson, Harj Taggar, Tim O'Reilly, Patrick Collison, Sarah Harlin, Paul Buchheit, Jackie McDonough, and Trevor Blackwell for their feedback on these thoughts.

#automatically generated text #Markov chains #Paul Graham #Python #Patrick Mooney #Till #department #teams #women #schools #Lots #making #nerds #h2 #deal #startups #people #tax #place #matter #sup #cataclysm #pollsters #software #hierarchy #remove #part

[aureus-ignis]

When I was young, I fell in love with the Pokemon series. I loved the RBY and GSC games, I watched the anime on TV every weekend, bought the movies, played the TCG, and collected the PokeSpe manga zealously. But as the years went by, the newer Pokemon games failed to hold my interest, and I soon stopped following Pokemon entirely. Last year, the generation of Alola was announced, and after watching a few trailers, I found myself drawn to the music. The adorable Rowlet also caught my eye, and on top of that, it seemed like the story was going to be interesting. A conservation society full of nice people dressed in white that looked strangely sinister at times? Hell yesssss. So I decided to buy the game... and then I fell deeply in love. Once again I was in Pokemon heaven (or hell).

So when Mei asked me if there was any series we could cos together that'd be fun and simple to do, I suggested Gladion and Lillie, since their costumes are fairly simple (c o u g h). She agreed, and that was the beginning of it all.

I started working on stuff around mid-June this year. People who know me know that accuracy is pretty high on my list of priorities, and I was determined to get the not-very-logical hair of Lillie and Gladion as good as I possibly could. Lillie's problem, of course, was the thickness. She has two insanely fat braids that had to be made up of almost all the hair on a normal human head, yet somehow still has a thick wide mane of loose hair behind her. So I had to spend time wefting as many extra rows of fibre into the wig, and then crafting removable bases for the braids from batting and more wefts.

Testing!

Batting base WIP HAHAHA

And the final result was worth it <3 <3

Next was Gladion. When it comes to the subject of pulled back hair, I've gotten to the point where I can ONLY accept lacefront. Anything else is too fake for me. For me, cosplay has always been about portraying the characters as if they were real, no matter how zany and strange their designs may be. I wanted the hair to look almost as though it grew on me. I ripped out almost the whole front to get rid of the fringe, and sewed in longer wefts, adjusting the direction of the hair to the left so that they would comb back naturally. Then ventilating hell began

Darkness, my old friend, we meet again. ;___; My hooking skills have improved since I first started ventilating, but it's still a long, tedious process. School started before I could finish, and I had to work on everything else too...

The realization that his uncut wig looks like Mercy from Overwatch HAHAHA

But as with Lillie, the final result was worth it <3 <3 <3

With regards to his costume, I'd actually had the hoodie and pants tailored because I ran out of time. I'd wanted just the base made so I can do the rest of the details myself, but the tailor forgot and did everything for me... and ended up messing up the accuracy. It was a disappointment, so much so that after STGCC was over, and we planned to have a shoot at the end of the year... I decided to remake everything from scratch. I'm terrible at patterning, really, and Gladion's biggest problem was THE STUPID GRAVITY DEFYING HOOD. Ultimately I couldn't get it to look exactly like the original (because I didn't want extra seams and all, but it was close enough. And the second time round, all of the holes were in the correct areas HAHAHA.

I'd made his first waistpouch myself, but for some reason, despite my careful measurements, the size turned out far too large the first time. So I had to remake the whole thing a second time. The hardest part is sewing the damn thing together, because I'd had to put two layers of hard inferfacing for each piece and sometimes the needle just wouldn't. Go. Through. OTL In version 2, I had more time, so I paid more attention to getting the shape accurate. The stupid thing tapers towards the bottom and has a curved side. Even more stupid, the strap goes from FAT TO THIN TO FAT for some reason. But I succeeded!

New VS Old

Next was the Z-ring. Gladion's official art doesn't have one, but he obviously wears one in-game. I felt that it was important, because Nanu gave it to him. So I had to dig out references from the game screenshots 8D;;

This is how a lot of my prop drafts look like. ALGEBRA IS MY FRIEND.

Also crafted the Z-crystal thanks to Pythagoras' theorem 8D; I used liquid quartz to glue the clear acrylic sheet together without leaving traces.

Final result! I'm pretty happy with it =>

Before STGCC, there was one more segment that I worked really hard on. After we'd decided to do SuMo together, I thought of making a Nebby plushie for Mei to carry. Yes, Pokemon Center had already released their Nebby plush by then, but... For one, it's smaller than life-size. For another, the shape looks more like a sunflower than a starry cloud. I didn't want it to look like Lillie was just carrying a toy; I wanted to give the impression that Mei had an adorable, soft, beautiful real-life Cosmog. But how on earth would someone with very terrible patterning skills make a 3D cloud plushie that could be dyed for Nebby's distinctive gradient colouring, and still be nice and soft to hug?

The answer is, I struggled.

Set up a spraying booth to airbrush the gradient on. Due to a problem with shipping, I couldn't get my compressor in time, so I ended up having to splurge on compressed air cans, which were horrendously expensive oTL.

BUT LOOK AT THE FINAL RESULT. LOOK AT HIM. <3 <3 <3

Let it also be known that I tested to make sure he could fit inside Mei's bag the moment I finished the base HAHAHAHAHAHAHA-----

So that was part 1 of Project Alola! We went to STGCC together and met lots of Pokemon fans (quite a lot of people were very happy to see Nebby, in particular XD), and Laki offered to come shoot with us as Moon since she already had the costume. We then planned to have our shoot at the end of the year during my holidays.

As mentioned, I'd already planned to remake my entire costume and waistpouch, but aside from that... I had the mad idea that I wanted to make a Silvally prop. It's something I'd considered for STGCC too, but I was really short on time then, and Mei told me to FINISH EVERYTHING ELSE FIRST THEN DO IT IF YOU HAVE TIME.

The problem is... Silvally's official size in the Pokedex is 2.4m. That's 80cm taller than myself. )o) Sure, I could scale him down, make a tiny lap plushie like all the other cosplayers, but what would be the point? Although I'd never cosplayed from the Pokemon series before, I'd always thought that if I were to do so, I'd want to make life-size Pokemon so that it'd look like I actually have a Pokemon partner, and not just a Pokemon toy. But I'd thought then that my projects would be starters like Pikachu or Charmander or Cyndaquil, or maybe one of the Eeveelutions. Not a giant horse-dog like Silvally ^^;;;

I had to consider the fact that my house isn't very big and I'd have barely any space to keep him. I had to consider how I'd be able to transport him, and how to construct him so that I could take him apart. I also had to consider the amount of money I'd be spending on him, because honestly, cosplay is not a cheap hobby. Materials in Singapore are especially expensive. As an unemployed student, I'd be splurging a lot if I decided to go ahead with this crazy project. When I told this to Mei during one of our dinners out, she suggested just making his head and taking halfbody shots so no one can tell that he has nobody. Like a hobby horse, except it's a hobby Silvally.

Good idea.

So when school finished, I started drafting him out, and the basic paper draft itself took like three giant sheets of patterning paper taped together HAHAHA.

The base

Honestly, even though I had an idea of how I'd make him, I wasn't completely sure if it would work. As I've said repeatedly I really, really suck at patterning. I can never seem to envision where to cut darts in a piece of EVA foam to get the shape I want, so half the time I was just taping drafting paper on and folding and taping excess parts off, then that that up for a trial-and-error pattern.

With paper mache and paper draft pattern for the mouth.

That's how large the whole thing is 8D'

Apart from the making of Silvally, I'd also spent time searching for reference pictures and sketching storyboard ideas for our shoot. I went to check out the our shoot location (Sentosa Island) a few weekends back, so that we could decide where exactly we wanted to shoot. In hindsight, there were a lot more shots I could have planned to bring out the personality of our characters more, but oh well ;w;

The shoot itself went pretty well, for the sun was quite kind to us, and hid under clouds for most of the day. Sei's working style is quite different from mine, but she was very gracious and did everything I asked of her. Sakami and Greg were wonderful helpers, and some of my best memories from the day include our hilarious videos, and the shenanigans with the Pokemon.

I've already thanked my wonderful team mates, helpers and photographer in another post, so I won't go into details here. But everyone was very kind and obliging, and listened to all my ambitious plans, allowing me to be a bossy director. I'm very, very grateful to all of them.  

So now, a bit of reflection on Silvally, and the whole project.

The patterns for Silvally weren't perfect, and I messed up a lot. The final result was definitely far from what I had hoped for. Most noticeably, the top of the head is bumpy holey because I ran out of gesso to fill and sand. But the proportions also came out a bit off, and the neck piece patterning failed on the right side. But when I finished painting... I felt very, very happy. I'd gotten some small bouts of joy when I finished each stage of the crafting process, when I looked at what I'd done, but looking at the final product was just.... incredible. It wasn't as beautiful as it could have been, and I still regret all the imperfections that are so obvious to my eyes, but....I was so excited. I couldn't wait for the shoot.

Perhaps it was partly because I hadn't really been sure if I'd be able to make things work, so the success tastes that much sweeter. Some of my friends had told me I was crazy. I kept asking myself if I were crazy. All that money and time and pain sunk into a project that I'm not even getting paid for, with a success rate that seemed really low. My mom telling me straight out that I was 'too ambitious'. Was it worth it? Would it have been better to make a smaller, much more perfect prop, than an actual sized, flawed one, with half the effort and money? Cosplay is already an indulgence, but had I crossed the line into foolish waste zone?

When I looked at my completed Silvally, the answer didn't hit me like Mjolnir. I still don't know if it was the right thing to do, or if I was an irresponsible child wasting the money that could have gone into feeding me better food.

But it made me happy. So happy. I nearly cried as I stood there for a few minutes staring at him. He was truly a labour of love. I spent hours spraying gesso and paint because I love Silvally. I spent days sanding until my arms want to fall off and my eyes are dying from dust because I love Gladion. I spent hours cortorted in weird positions with a paintbrush trying desperately to stay within the pencil lines, sweat dripping into my eyes, because I love this art. Sure, the process itself was often painful; I suffered multiple burns from hot glue and a hot iron and cut my fingers open way too many times. I still hate hand-sanding with a burning passion because it's tiring as hell and I get blisters on my oversensitive skin. But the thought that all of the suffering helps to build the final piece of art that I envision makes me grit my teeth and soldier on.

Cosplay is my art, something that I would put 500% of me into. Whether the crafting of insanely large props, or the preparations for the shoot, or the styling of my entire team's wigs, or the endless sewing adventures on plushies.

Because I love it.

#pokemon #my journals

[recentanimenews]

“Cassette Girl,” 3-D Animation, and Beta Tapes with Hiroyasu Kobayashi and Shigeto Koyama

Studio Khara’s Animator Expo series of shorts is chock full of brilliant ideas and incredible animation, and one of my personal favorites, Cassette Girl, is produced by Khara’s in-house CG animation team. The short garnered attention thanks to its retro obsession with beta tapes and its homage to the “Daicon animations” — convention opening animations produced by Khara founder Hideaki Anno & co. before they created the now-famous Studio Gainax (Evangelion, FLCL, Gurren Lagann). But it’s also part of a growing list of Japanese computer animation that’s challenging the traditional divide between 2-D and 3-D art in the anime industry. Cassette Girl uses computer animation tools to achieve ambitious acrobatics and camera movements while retaining the punchiness and stylization of traditional, hand-drawn anime. That’s in large part thanks to the design and directing work of Shigeto Koyama (Heroman, Inferno Cop) and Hiroyasu Kobayashi (Gravity Rush: The Animation – Overture), respectively. I got a chance to chat with both of these artists in an extended interview at FanimeCon 2017, in which I picked their brains on the production process behind Cassette Girl, their influences, and the future of CG animation in Japan.

Thank you, Mr. Kobayashi, Mr. Koyama, interpreter Ms. Satsuki Yamashita, and FanimeCon’s staff, for making the interview happen. Enjoy!

Hiroyasu Kobayashi (left) and Shigeto Koyama (right)

Let’s begin with a simple one. How did Cassette Girl get started?

Kobayashi: When Studio Khara decided to make Animator Expo, since the studio has different departments they wanted to have the digital department — which is the department I’m in — do one too. Everyone turned in proposals and mine was chosen. But eventually they decided to do more shorts so the other proposals, like “Hill Climb Girl” and “Rapid Rouge,” were also made. Mine was chosen first, but in the end, because I was helping with the other ones, it was finished last.

“Cassette Girl” is obviously really inspired by the Daicon animations. What was your relationship with those animations before you made it?

Kobayashi: We were just fans.

How did you first watch them?

Koyama: Since there was no YouTube at the time, the way young people traded video is they had copies of video tapes that they passed around.

Kobayashi: It’s similar to how porn is passed around.

There are some old-school Gainax staff members like Anno at Khara. So what did they think about the project?

Kobayashi: Anno hasn’t said anything. We haven’t discussed it. There’s probably no one who worked on Daicon at Khara anymore other than Anno and maybe Mahiro Maeda. Maeda probably worked on Daicon. He’s a good guy so he always says “good job.” Anno and I are both shy so we don’t really talk about those sorts of things. I think he does understand that it was made out of respect, as an homage, but because both of us are shy, I’m not like “did you get it?”

Is there a copy of Cassette Girl on beta tape?

Kobayashi: No, there isn’t. Even if we made one, how is anyone going to play it? I did make those labels that you can put on beta tapes.

Do you sell those?

Kobayashi: No, they’re only for staff.

Showing What 3-D Can Do

One of the really interesting aspects of “Cassette Girl” is that it’s in 3-D. Is there any particular reason why you thought 3-D was a good fit?

Kobayashi: Without 3-D, anime is getting hard to produce because there’s no manpower. But I wanted to make something that 2-D anime can do. I wanted to showcase what 3-D can do without making it look like a Final Fantasy movie. I really put everything into it to make it as good-looking as possible.

I think CG anime is still a little bit new. Not many people know about it, so … well, I wouldn’t go as far as to say it’s to “educate” people. But I wanted to let people know what it can do. When people wonder, “what can you do using 3-D anime?” this is the answer.

That’s something a lot of fans have picked up on. It’s a 3-D anime that feels in a lot of ways — a lot of good ways — the way 2-D anime feels. From a technical perspective, what sorts of things did you do to try to achieve that effect and make it closer to 2-D anime?

Kobayashi: During the rendering and compositing phases I used a lot of masking to make the shadows.

How is that different from what previous 3-D CG anime has done?

Kobayashi: The difference is that other 3-D anime won’t use a lot of the masking that we did, because it takes a lot of time. What helps to make something look as hand-drawn as possible is controlling a lot of the shadows. So you’ll notice all the CG anime that don’t look real don’t have a lot of shadows. In hand-drawn animation, since you’re drawing everything, by using shadows you create the effect of it looking more real. So we took a lot of time in doing that.

So other CG productions either have fewer shadows or they rely on automatic shadows? It sounds like you’re doing more manual control of the shadows.

Kobayashi: Yeah.

Were there any differences in how you rendered the lines?

Kobayashi: Not really, we didn’t do anything special.

Was the goal of showcasing what 3-D CG could do part of the character design as well?

Koyama: The advantage of doing character design for 3-D anime is that you can start with the 3-D modeling. So all the details can already be in the model. This happens with other CG anime and even video games. But even if you put details into the character design, it gets crushed when it gets rendered into a 2-D image. For Cassette Girl, what I did differently was I made the thighs look like they were painted … sort of like body paint. So when she moves that painted part follows.

So it reinforces the shape as it moves?

Koyama: Yeah. Normally a designer for video games would tend to add more textures or more thickness to describe the shape, but I used that body paint style instead. It was a combination of the techniques you use in hand-drawing and the techniques you use in modeling.

Translator: Did it help that you also designed for video games and anime, so you were able to combine the two?

Koyama: It’s more like it was an anti-video game design way of approaching it. I prefer the simple way of designing for anime but I wanted to make it highly detailed, so I think that helped.

Kobayashi: In video games the details are more important, the details of the textures or on the face, but in anime it’s more the form. The form is more important, not the texture.

Why do you think that is?

Kobayashi: I guess in animation the way it moves is more important than how it looks.

A lot of CG productions use a limited frame rate in order to match hand-drawn animation. Is that something you played around with at all on Cassette Girl?

Kobayashi: Frame rates are something that animators decide. It depends on how they want to show it. Sometimes it’s eight, sometimes it’s 12, sometimes it’s even 24. So on Cassette Girl it wasn’t decided. In normal animation you usually don’t set these rules because it really depends on the animator and what he wants to do with that sequence. So the only times that we would say “it’s gonna be this frame rate per second” is when it’s a huge production and the animators are inexperienced so they don’t know how many frames to do. So we would set those, like “this anime is all gonna be 12,” “this anime is all gonna be eight.” But like other normal anime, Cassette Girl didn’t have those rules.

So you used framerate modulation? EDITOR’S NOTE — This is a technique for varying the framerate popularized by Toei/Ghibli’s Yasuo Otsuka.

Kobayashi: Animators tend to just research other people’s works, so they’ll watch it frame by frame and go “oh it was two here but then when it gets into action it’s one.” I think everyone tends to research and that’s how they get the experience and understand what looks good and what doesn’t look good. So I think they might say ”this action is really good,” watch it frame-by-frame, and figure it out like, “OK from here to here it’s three, and then from here to here it’s two.”

EDITOR’S NOTE — Here Kobayashi is referring to “ones,” “twos,” and “threes,” animator jargon for “24 frames per second,” “12 frames per second,” and “eight frames per second.”

The good thing about CG is there’s no in-betweens. So in normal animation you have key animation, key animation, and then the in-betweener has to figure out how many frames they have to fill in. And the producer has to think about the budget. But that’s not necessary in CG. So to make it easier, you just make it automatic. You let the computer generate the in-betweens. Then the animators who have experience, who know what will look better, can tweak it.

What do you think the future looks like for 3-D CG?

Koyama: I use 2-D and 3-D and I don’t draw by pencil much anymore, but there are people who still use both. If they draw, they’ll scan it in and do stuff on Photoshop digitally. Then there are people who just draw and use Copic markers to color it. I think it depends on the person. I don’t think it’s just going to be 3-D CG, and I don’t think it’s going to be the savior of anime.

I grew up with 2-D animation, so of course I have some attachment to it. But there are bad anime drawn in 2-D. And then there are also bad anime done in 3-D. So it really just depends. If  everyone can make the best anime that they can with whatever method they choose, that would be for the best. There are good ways to design for 3-D, and then there are good ways to design for 2-D. But neither is actually the correct answer. In the end, both are important. It’s not really a matter of technical things, since 2-D design and 3-D design are both technically different. It’s about how you can make the best design using whichever way you choose.

In the end, you just have to think about whether 2-D or 3-D or both is appropriate for a design, or else it’s not going to matter; you’re just going to get shitty stuff. It’s not like you have to use 2-D or 3-D to design. It’s just about picking whichever is the best way to make what’s most interesting and what looks good. For example, Inferno Cop doesn’t have to move, so that’s why I made him that way.

Kobayashi: I also don’t think CG is going to save the anime world or anything, but since I do work on CG, I think about what one can do with it. Cassette Girl ended up having a 2-D feel, because we felt like it was the best way to showcase what 3-D could do. But who knows? If we were to make a sequel or a series, it might not even look like that. It might look like Pixar. It depends on what would make the story more interesting. So I guess we have the same sort of answer.

Personally I’d love to see more anime exploring 3-D CG that doesn’t try to look like 2-D anime.

Koyama: Are you saying there are too many 3-D CG anime that look like 2-D?

No, no. I think Japanese animators have a really unique and interesting perspective on animation, and it would be really interesting to see what kinds of cool things they do with 3-D when not trying to imitate 2-D.

Kobayashi: I agree. Among the creators, there aren’t many people who think that. Even if they want to create something 3-D, they have so much respect and admiration for the Pixar movies, they might just look like copies. What they see in Pixar movies might be too strong for them. It’s hard for them to break out of their shell.

Toys & Idols

What sort of things inspire your work? Are you a big fan of other anime work, TV, music, or something else?

Koyama: I’m not as into that many American comics and toys as before. Since the last time I came to Fanime a few years ago, I’m not buying things as much. Hm ... maybe cars. Last year I bought a car, which felt like buying the ultimate, biggest toy.

What kind of car?

Koyama: An Audi.

Currently I don’t have a hobby. It’s sort of cars and food. Around Kill la Kill, before and after it came out, toys are really what drove me to design, but I’m so busy churning out designs it feels like I’m not really taking in much right now. I guess old manga? Showa-era manga like Glass Mask. A bunch of creators, like Anno, read shojo manga.

Kobayashi: It’s so vastly different from shonen manga. At first I didn’t even know how to read it because the panel layout is so different!

Koyama: Imaishi too. He was originally a manga artist, under a pen name.

Kobayashi: I like idols. I never got into AKB48, but I like Nogizaka46 and Keyakizaka46.

Translator: You like Perfume too!

Kobayashi: Perfume is the sort of idol where it’s OK to say that you like them. It’s very similar to how I said in my panel that Evangelion is OK to like. It’s not creepy to say you like Perfume because you feel like you like them more because of how they do their stages or because of how each of the girls plays her character. I feel like with Perfume, the sound and the staging design is all done by a designer, so in that sense their concerts or performances feel like an anime too. But enough about Perfume! In terms of other things ... well, there’s a cycle.

Translator: You still bought Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle toys.

Kobayashi: It’s different. Liking something for a long time versus having something being the motivation to create. And it’s more in a cycle. I’m having a hard time answering.

Koyama: It’s not like I don’t like American comics anymore. I still like them. I guess it’s not in a good situation in Japan right now. The American comic scene isn’t good in Japan.

Kobayashi: With idols, I do feel like it’s just a hobby to collect idol stuff, but when you look at their performances or their music videos, it is a way of creating art. So there’s a lot to learn.

Music has always influenced me, but I’ve been mostly interested in ‘90s American and British music lately. It was a good time. They Might Be Giants, The Spice Girls. Indie pop was really good in the ‘90s.

Check out more coverage of FanimeCon 2017, including my interview with Hiroyuki Yamaga, one of the Gainax founders who worked on the original Daicon animations!

“Cassette Girl,” 3-D Animation, and Beta Tapes with Hiroyasu Kobayashi and Shigeto Koyama originally appeared on Ani-Gamers on October 5, 2017 at 11:05 PM.

By: Evan Minto

#Anime #News #Ani-Gamers

[goodlawdmaude]

Madrid, Spain

Day 1 (3/24)

After landing in Madrid, navigating our way to our AirBnB, and napping for two hours, Jarod and I were woken up around 1:30pm by a knock at the door. Our host had told us that a man named Ous would come to clean the apartment at 2pm. What she didn’t mention was that Ous--while incredibly nice--did not speak any English. In a mixture of Spanish and charades, we managed to agree that we would leave the apartment for an hour so that he could clean. 

In a daze, we piled on our layers (it’s cold in Madrid in March!!) and headed out. We walked through the Barrio (neighborhood) of La Lavapies and into La Latina, walking until we came to La Real Basílica de San Francisco el Grande. We sat in a plaza on the South side of the church, admiring the structure’s large, yellow dome and resting our very weary bones. From there, we wandered North past El Palacio Real de Madrid, through La Plaza de Oriente, and finally back through the center of Madrid to our apartment. 

Even though my body was dull with exhaustion, taxed heavily by the previous day/night, I was awestruck by the beautiful city streets and extravagant monuments. Everything was picturesque. There were balconies on every building with ferns growing in ornate pots and flower beds snuggled up against decorative railings. At crosswalks and through cafe windows, I saw people smoking cigarettes and sipping espressos; talking quickly, excitedly, rhythmically with wide eyes and exaggerated hand gestures. We were in a new place, and I was stoked to explore it!! 

By now, it was around 4:30pm, and we were hungry. We set off in search of a restaurant nearby and found two whose kitchens were closed. This was our first inconvenient encounter with ~siesta~. Even hungrier now, we found a market and bought tortellini and vegetables to cook back at the apartment. That night, we were in bed by 8:30. 

Day 2 (3/25)

Our first real (still surreal) morning in Madrid, we woke up at a reasonably early hour after an unreasonably excessive amount of sleep. We made eggs at home, then went to a nearby cafe recommended by our host, Maria. Again, it felt like there was culture everywhere. The people around us were dressed neatly in scarves and hats and boots (still freezing!), ordering pastries and warm drinks, dipping the former into the latter and eating them slowly and gracefully. Here, we each got two coffees and drank them quietly, soaking up the environment around us. I admit I was (I still am) a bit self conscious; I didn’t want to speak too much or too loudly in my ugly American accent and identify myself as an obnoxious outsider. 

At this cafe, we started to suspect that coffee in Spain is different than coffee in the US. In Spain, a coffee is served small in a cute little teacup on a saucer with a packet of sugar on the side. You can order a couple different variants--cafe solo (shot of espresso), cafe americano (still small), or cafe con leche (larger, but half milk)--but there is no order that will get you a giant mug of good old fashioned black coffee. (”Cafe negro” will get you the prompt: “Cafe Americano?” to which you will nod, confused and disappointed when you get a tiny teacup of slightly diluted espresso.) I digress. 

From the cafe, we headed to El Museo Del Prado, where we spent hours admiring--or more often puzzling over --thousands of paintings. My favorite was a small piece, entitled “The Painter’s Children,” which portrayed two young girls lounging on a futon, one wrapped in a pretty Japanese blanket, the other sprawled on a cushion. Jarod’s was a huge portrait of a Roman (??) leader dead in a bathtub--a suicide referenced as honorable in The Godfather. 

When we thought we might die of hunger, we tore ourselves from the Prado despite only seeing (maybe) half of the art on display. We wandered up the street and into a tapas restaurant. This was when we truly started embracing Spanish culture with a mid-day glass of wine and four sequential plates of tapas rich with meats, cheeses, and oil. This was also when I learned that a “Russian salad” does not contain lettuce, but lots of potatoes and mayonnaise. 

We went back to our apartment, took naps (Jarod) and studied the city (Lizzy). Still feeling full and generally out of sorts, we headed to the Santa Ana square//Barrio de Las Letras (the literary district, where the paving stones of the main street are engraved with some of the best known lines from 16th and 17th century Spanish literature). We got mixed drinks and a plate of tortillas and hummus at a hipster joint full of trendy young people, then proceeded to a lively gin bar called Carbones 13, where we each had a gin and tonic--the first that I have ever truly liked. 

We stopped at home briefly before rushing out to catch an authentic live flamenco performance at a bar on our corner, El Candela. We put our names down to reserve seats, then had half an hour to kill before the performance started. We spent that time in a lively, divey Bodega (wine bar) down the block. Our drinks were cheap (5€ for two) and came with a plate of potato chips. 

The performance itself was fabulous. There were only 4 people on stage and only one who danced. It was the first flamenco I’ve ever seen live, and I was struck by the drama of the production. The dancer’s heels banged loudly on the hollow stage floor, the tassels of her outfit swung wildly as she moved, and her face and hands were full of intense emotion. The crowd shouted “ole!” and the end of each piece--and sometimes during--to show their appreciation and admiration. (I didn’t know that was a real thing, but I loved it.)

After, we went home and stayed up a while longer, confused as to what time zone we were in. Suddenly, it seemed quite late--3 or 4am--but we were not exactly to be counted on to know the time. Little did we know, day lights savings had occurred that night; a phenomenon which would further confuse us in the morning. 

Day 3 (3/26)

We woke up around 10am, with 1pm lunch reservations at one of the oldest restaurants in the world quickly approaching. Jarod was a little hungover as we embarked towards Botín for our lunch date. He ordered shrimp, which came with the legs and heads still attached. Decapitating them was a task that hungover Jarod liked even less than spry Jarod would have. I ordered cod, which was smothered in a soup of delicious tomato sauce and was impractically humongous (I am notorious for clearing my plate and could only eat half). We drank half a pitcher of sangria--which may have been ambitious given the night before, but when on vacation...--and finished the meal up with a DIVINE chocolate mousse cake. The meal was tasty, but pricey (80€) and the restaurant itself was lovely, but packed with tourists (ourselves among them). It didn't turn out to be quite the cultural endeavor I had imagined, although we did see (what I imagine to be) some very traditional Spanish dishes, such as "baby squid, cooked in his own ink." Harsh.

After lunch, we went in search of Madrid's famous flea market: El Rastro. I had the driving interest in El Rastro, but had done a poor job of researching the actual location (I knew it was in La Latina from 10am-3pm... And not much else). In our search for the market, we stumbled upon a giant amphitheater type hole in the ground, covered in weeds and graffiti and tattooed young people. There were two guys playing live music, the speaker too weak to allow us to hear them from the entrance ramp on which we stood. It was a little silly, but I felt alive being there, like I was seeing an authentic, grimy part of modern life in Madrid.

With Jarod's guidance, we finally found El Rastro as it was closing down. We walked through the stalls of leathers, rugs, fans, and clothing, admiring everything but avoiding wanting anything (I could hardly order coffee for myself let alone haggle with a street vendor). At the end of the road, we found ourselves at an old tobacco factory, La Tabacaleria, that had long ago shut down and repurposed as an art gallery. Atlas Obscura had called this out as one of the hidden gems worth seeing in Madrid, and there was no entry fee, so we headed in.

The art exhibit was eerie--one piece was a TV hung from the rafters and entwined in a chain, broadcasting silent black and white footage--fitting for the cold and dark hallways of La Tabacaleria. There were lots of other videos in Spanish (which we didn't watch), but also some cool images of Mayan ruins (which interested me more).

When we finally got back home, we siesta'd--as is the Spanish way--and woke up some time later, ready to get our first real exercise in. We went to the Parque Del Buen Retiro, and ran around its perimeter, then walked through the interior, stopping to admire the Palacio De Velazquez, Palacio De Crystal, and a man-made lake--full of couples in paddle boats--that flanks the Monumento a Alfonso XII.

Our stomachs were still very confused so we elected to make dinner at home that evening, stopping by the market for rice, chicken, and vegetables. 

Day 4 (3/27)

By day 4, you would think we would have at least somewhat adjusted to Spanish time. And in a way we had: we were waking up late, taking naps in the afternoon, and staying up later. So on day 4, we slept in. When we finally tore ourselves from the cozy den of bed, it was around 11am. We still needed coffee, so we headed out towards La Plaza Mayor and stepped into a coffee shop along the way. 

From the Plaza, we headed out to revisit the west side of Madrid: the Royal Palace we had seen on day 1 in a daze, the old theater (Teatro Real) we had missed entirely, and the Egyptian temple (Templo De Debod) we hadn't known about. After walking for several hours, we were famished. We came home, pooled some leftovers to snack on, then exercised in our living room and cleaned up in preparation for our impending departure.

We headed out for our final dinner. We planned to go to Museo Chicote: an old restaurant and “Madrid landmark” frequented by famous people (Ernest Hemingway among them). However, it was closed (as are a lot of shops and restaurants on Monday in Madrid, apparently). We backtracked to the literary district and chose a restaurant called "La Vinoteca." Obviously. There, we feasted on shared plates of cheesy croquettes, flavorful meatballs, and crostini topped with mozzarella and tomato. On the way home, we stopped at a nearby Bodega, which was dark but inviting and buzzing with activity. And with that, our time in Madrid had come to an end. We packed and prepared for our jarringly early 530am wake-up the next day, after which we would take the metro to the airport and fly to Porto, Portugal.