#and I love (ha) when folks obsess over what color to paint their walls or what flavor croissant to buy at the bakery

[magnificenteggsfarmpeanut]

Abandon Them Like You Abandoned Me

Immysan

Summary:

Jaime was lord of Casterly Rock for two years now. His confusion on why he was lord and not imprisoned by King Bran had settled a few months ago. Jaime mostly spend his days listening to petty squabbles between common folk, enjoying wine and feeling like shit for being alive. That was until he saw her, Brienne of Tarth, holding a small boy. She greeted the king with a smile so innocent, Jaime could feel himself melt from so far away. She easily walked with her father to their seat near other Stormland lords. They had a very nice view of the field. “Who is that child with lady Brienne?” Jaime asked the man sitting next to him. Tyrion nonchalantly shrugged at his brother. “Tyrion, I only saw a glimpse, but he looks golden.” “Hush, I am unsure what Lady Brienne has done during the two years of peace. It’s the first time since the war I have seen her on the mainland.” Jaime looked over at Brienne. She was lovely. Her hair still straw colored, her shoulders broad and those big hands holding the small boy, taking him from her lap and onto his…. “Who is that?!” Jaime whispered sharply.” “Ah, except that time she went with her lord husband to the wall.” “Husband?” “Peace helps people heal”

——

I as an writer an imploring anyone WHO CAN WRITE BRILLANTLY TO TAKE THIS STORY AND WRITE IT. This is WHAT I WANT TO WRITE AND WILL ACTUALLY STRUGLGLE WRITING AAAAAA

Brienne foolishly gets pregnant by Jaime after. Wanting her child not to be a bastard she agrees to marry someone and goes back home with her husband. Jaime does not KNOW.

Skip two years.

Jaime pov

Jaime is at a tourney waiting for the box to fill with all the invited nobles when he spotts Brienne walking in with her Tarth contingent. Jaime focuses on Brienne who was wearing breeches. She greets King Bran, notices the small golden lion that looks like a younger Tywin, because of paintings and when Genna makes mention of the child being lion like in whispers Tyrion tells them to shut up rudely. Jaime with new found desire for Brienne tries to think up a way to talk to her without making it obvious and giving attention to the child. Tyrion says Tormund is ginger maybe it’s his kid and Jaime scoffs then asked what she married that brute . Jaime finds a moment to talk to Brienne when she is alone coming from the privy and questions the child and she gets annoyed says I have no reason to talk about my child with a stranger or someone who is not family. He says he has rights to his son in a whispers which pisses her off more and she leaves. Mind you I will find a way to have them argue and kiss because they king of cuckolding is Jaime. I am obsessed with Tragedy too. Anyway the first day ends well. In this story lords stay in tents on the grounds during tourneys. Jaime is pacing and angry at everything then sulks that he wants to hold the kid. He never gets to hold his children and it sucks. Tyrion shrugged nonchalantly and uncaring, while Genna insult and gasses Jaime up. There is another talk between Jaime and Brienne which ends bad and she says do not speak to me in private lest tongues wag. Jaime tries to get Sansa to talk but she is also extremely nonchalant like Tyrion, both besties in gaslighting.

Jaime pov

The next day Brienne joined the melee and wins making everyone amazed and Jaime gets hard. He and Tyrion talk in whispers about how great she is. Jaime and Tyrion. Sansa comes to sit with them and gaslights the fuck out of them and mentions how good a mother Brienne is and Tormund is a great father. Which pisses Jaime and he goes to talk with Brienne in the tent that does go good. Jaime is bad with words and was a loser for two years. Brienne tells him you abandoned me not once, but twice. You left me for Cersei then refused to find any information about me. I would have taken you back as foolish as I am I would have, but not now. Leave me. Leave Galladon. She goes away and sits with Tormund who tells her something. A servant comes to tell her something which makes Brienne freak out and Tormund follows with Galladon in his hand. A group of stormland nobles sitting behind Jaime start talking about Brienne. “Ah, her last pregnancy was horrible I heard. Thank the lords, lord Tormund was there with her. He went all the way to the free world for a midwife. Such a good father.” “I am so jealous. If only my husband was as kind.” “Neither of her children look like the good lady.” Jaime ears perked up, then he asked Tyrion. “She bore the beast children?” “Twins I heard.” Jaime groaned. How the fuck was he supposed to win her over when she is mother of two children.

He catches her again and they talk and she is like then WHY DID YOU NOT CONTACT ME DURING THE TWO YEARS?! Gods, Brienne, how was I supposed? Say hey sorry for abandoning you, want to marry me? My sister dead, marry me? I Did look for you, but heard from Sansa you were in Tarth and doing good, nothing more. I thought about sailing to tarth, but again what was I supposed to say? I was crippled, sad, berated and had to pay my dues during the war. That is all my fault...

Okay so rereading on the seventh on Aug I think the starks scheming to get Brinne and Jaime together is bad writing, so that is completely dropped. I will just write it as luck and Sansa being mean, petty and Bran being petty to Jaime. Tyrion wanted to be annoying to Jaime for letting such a good women go, but regrets it when he sees the young child. Hears how  Galladon looks like a really young Tywin with sapphire eyes. It's baffling to Genna and she wants Jaime to find away to get their heir back. 

It's peace time so you'll hear no drama, war talk or some nonsense about angry nobles. I might talk about grains, spring however I never experience four season. 

Jaime pov

Day three: Tormund and Brienne are absent from the tourney. Jaime heard from ser Podrick how one of the twins is sick. Sansa says she didn’t know they had children and that Brienne and Tormund barely talked about their private life. They only came here because after this they would head to Winterfell . To Tormund’s childhood home. She asks Jaime do you still like or love Brienne and he doesn’t reply. He thinks then says yes he does love her. Maybe taking that approach would get him back in her head. Sansa says well stay away from her, Brienne looks happy.

Brienne pov day one. 

She greets King Bran and shows him Galladon who eagerly tells him he always wanted to meet a king. Selwyn is older with eagerness. Maybe I should remove Selwyn from the story. Tormund greets him with a bow and very kind nobly words. She says Galladon is weirdly wordy refuses to keep his mouth shut. She takes her seat with the nobles and tells Tormund how boring Tourney’s are when you do not compete yourself. Later she excuses herself meets Jaime and shares her desire that sparked when they argued. She sits with Tormund and listened to the next group. They gossip, mostly her telling him who is who and him adding a catty remark that gets an equally mean reply.

Brienne pov day two

Brienne and Tormund talk at night in the tent about Jaime and how someone saw them arguing. Brienne’s reaction to her daughter getting sick, an old sickness comes back and she wants to leave. Tormund says take the horse and he will follow later with Galladon. It’s only right he tells the king then leaves.

Brienne pov day three 

Brienne is worried about her daughter sickness getting worse. The journey to the mainland she was fine, but a little weak, but she survived the journey, She tells Tormund they should have stayed. He says we should have brought Ygritte with us, but curse her and her stupid.. Tormund, it is her wedding month, let her be. He sighs saying he knows, but he got her here incase he or the kids got sick, so she should stay a single sphincter. Brienne laughs at his words and frowns. The maester ensures everything will be fine and it is just a mild cold from the heat. Keep her hydrated, so Brienne does. Brienne waits until the maester is gone to tell Tormund, I always thought Talysanne would get sick first or often, as she does latch on my breast. Tormund shrugs and sits next to her. He takes her hand and says most of the children in this one village never latched they drank horse milk and were very healthy. I am sorry I can't do much. Brienne lowers her head. You did more for me than anyone during the two years. Because you refuse help. He joked kissed her and hand and they get up to care for Talysanne. Do you believe names have curses? Tormund asked suddenly. No, I pray no.

I literally fell asleep writing. Got so tired from the heat.

Jaime pov

figuring out how to see and hold Galladon, so he walks around their wings sometimes, the yards and throne room, when he finally gets the change it is by seeing a Galladon holding a wooden sword and fighting against a tree. Tormund is with him showing him which moves he can use. Jaime comments that the child is adorable to which Tormund replied he agrees. Tyrion appears and comes to watch the kid who then stops and smiles. Tormund tells them if you wanna touch him you can. Jaime gladly touches the kid, rubs his hair and asks if he can pick him up. They talk about children and how they should be raised and Tormund surprises them he has no kids, wanted to raise Galladon like a wildling, but Brienne doesn’t.

Brienne pov

She is caring for her sick daughter with the maester. She had sent Galladon away with Tormund. She knew she should have not brought the twins at barely one years old. She sighs and weeps when suddenly her other baby cries and the servant quickly soothes her. Brienne goes to her daughter and asks what is wrong. She tells the servants to care for the sick one and leaves with her daughter then meets Genna outside by the stairs. She asks if she can walk with her. She agrees reluctantly and they talk about her daughter and asks how it came to be she has twins in a sly way which Brienne says are a husband and wife not supposed to fuck. Genna laughs walks after her and says I just thought he had the decency to know about his child. Why keep it a secret? Why have another set of children when you could be lady of the rock and live happy. Brienne turns and says hurt why does everyone assume I am unhappy in my marriage? Brienne walked up when she saw Jaime holding Galladon in the air. They looked a like and panic soured to her. Galladon was truly a fierce lion reborn. Slowly more familiar faces came into view and Brienne felt awful. This could have been Jaime’s life, him as a father, but here I am no good as Cersei depriving my love of his child. His only heir. Genna and Brienne stepped into the circle. Brienne walked to Tormund side and gave him a nasty look which got a wide eye response from him. “Mama, hold me mama.” Galladon says and Brienne gave little Tarianne to Tormund and took Galladon from a sulking Jaime. “Does Galladon not like me?” Jaime teased the child. “I like being in mama’s arms, people must look up to me when I am in my mama’s arms, like the little lord I am.” That made everyone laugh and Genna whispered to Jaime “just like Tywin.” “When was he born?” “August 6th.” Tormund answered. “Oh my, my brother was born in august.” Genna replied delighted. “He should have been named Tywin.” There came some laughter, little awkward. Tarianne fussed and giggled, she pulled her fathers beard and giggled louder. Tormund asked if she was sleeping earlier? No, her nanny was playing with her. Tormund leaned closer and Brienne listened ignoring the others for a moment then smiled. I agree, you can. King Bran said “His name day will be in a 3 months. Will you celebrate big and invite us?” “Of course, we’ll be north by that time, your majesty.” Tormund said. “It’s been planned since the twins birth.” Brienne nodded. “Only if Talysanne feels better will we travel. For now we can only wait.” “She is a strong girl, she’ll be fine.” Sansa reassured. “I trust the maesters will help as best they can.” “Tsk, a wildling can cure children illnesses better.” “Not again.” Brienne replied. “Later we can argue all you want.” “Tsk tsk tsk, it’s not arguing when my advice can have our girl healed quickly.” Brienne looked away. “The maesters won’t fail us, Tormund.” “Indeed, I have the best maesters in the castle right now. All of them are looking over your daughter now.”

The group goes to eat their last meal of the day together. Brienne and Tormund head to bed and talk about their day then daughter. She gives him a smile then leaves for her chambers. Tormund goes to his. Brienne lies awake for an hour Pickering about her daughter then sits by her bed and ask servants to watch her well.

Jaime pov

Okay so Jaime thinks up ways to see Brienne alone and the perfect opportunity arrives when Tormund is busy with hears of Arya sailing here. Tormund leaves with Sansa to the harbour. Jaime, Tyrion and Brienne talk about the peace and being lords. Galladon is playing with a sword. He calls his mother to look at him often. Podrick joins them too and they start reminiscing about the past fondly. The past and future were good. Podrick is like I am glad you got to fulfill your wish. Jaime agrees and reaches for her hand and says he never meant to hurt her. Galladon shouts and walks up the group and berates them for not watching him beat his opponent. Brienne pulls her hand away. Jaime asked if Galladon if he saw his mother fight often and he says she doesn’t beat anyone. To which Jaime says I beat her many times. Galladon says proof it. Brienne smiles says I stopped holding back since Galladons birth. Tyrion comments with laughter and Podrick says you were a strong force before! They spar and sparks fly. Jaime is sure she still likes him and asks for just one conversation in private. Brienne refuses, takes Galladon and excuses herself. The twins need her. Brienne’s heart races. The journey was a bad idea. She checks on the twins, sits with them for hours then goes to eat supper. She hears Tormund’s voice booming and meets the Starks. They exchange pleasantries. Arya says she wants to see the babies. She can’t believe they never said anything about babies. The women go to her room and meet the children. They ask her point blank why she hasn’t even invited them for the twins, why the secrets and Brienne blushed says I forgot. Tormund wanted to say something but left it to me and I just forgot. Raising children is heard, even with help! Later that night Tormund sits on her bed and they talk about how big Arya became and he starts commenting about Galladon future, saying he won’t mind where the child goes and suddenly says if you wanna divorce me I won’t mind. This makes Brienne’s smile falter and she remains quiet. Tormund says Brienne? Again, again, then stops asking. He gets up and bids her goodnight and leaves. The next day Brienne breaks her fast with Galladon says little Tarianne is still sick and she does not get why. She never dealt with sickness like this. Usually it takes a few days to break. Sansa comforts her. When Tormund walks in she stiffens looks away, but he just comes to her side greets everyone nicely and takes a happy Galladon shrieking for his father. He says the boy should finish his meal with his father. Sansa says he is making things up to spend more time with Galladon and Brienne says you should him at home with Galladon. A spoiled brat of a father. Jaime strolls in with a fuming Genna and they see Galladon. Genna greets the boy quickly while Jaime greets everyone then Brienne, Sansa, Tormund and Galladon. He asks about the sick girl and they both say it’s not going as well as they hope.

NOW HOW DO I GeT JAIME AND BRIENNE TOGETHA?

Why is Genna angry? Genna invites Brienne to teatime with Sansa, and Arya in the garden at ten am. Brienne agrees against better judgement. The teatime goes. Jaime watches from a far for a moment trying to listen but gives up and goes to look for Tyrion and asked what he thinks of everything happening right now. The child that should be his heir and future lord of the house. Tyrion says he knew she had a child, but no one but people on Tarth saw him. They called him the sun's son, but that was all. They boy was not his to claim and you, Jaime were so sad about your love's death,  your children's death, the broken heart from leaving Brienne, I could not go and talk to you about rumours. I could not go barge into Tarth demand to see the child, hidden away from everyone, even King Bran, Queen Sansa and Jon snow. What rights did I have? What rights do I have now when he has a father. Jaime groans. He should be calling me papa, Tyrion, He should come to me for sword advice, be in my arms and demand the lords bow to him, make stupid idioms of lions being brave. I have nothing now. Tyrion laughs. You choice nothing, Jaime. You choose nothing for two years. Jaime groaned he had no choice in choosing. It was the baby in Cersei or the woman he loved who could have been killed. Could have could have been. There was a different presence now. 

Brienne pov

Genna jumps Brienne with the why's and how she deprived the small child of a very amazing title, he would be the future lord of casterly rock. Brienne scoffs, so I should have carried the tittle Kingslayers whore and bastard mother for two years?  Genna says not what I meant. You could have told Sansa or me about the pregnancy and I would have definitely gotten you out of the war, brought you to casterly rock and a lady, Jaime's fiance. For so long we waited for Jaime's marriage. I can see how your eyes drift to him. You still love him, so why do you torture yourself and your son. Brienne does not reply. Sansa said I heard rumours your marriage with Tormund was bad, but seeing you two interact I see something differnet. Brienne are you truly happy? Brienne looked over to the flowers and still remains quiet. Genna scoffs. You will age horribly if you keep all your emotions pent up inside you. At least share with me why you are stealing Galladon's future? Brienne looks back. I am stealing nothing. Nothing was offered duting my pregnancy. I want for nothing. although Tartth is not rich, it has done well for nearly three years, Galladon is the future evenstar, lord of Tarth and ship guide for every ship that sails. He is happy and I am happy. Tormund is trying. He adapted and I should not talk about my husband behind his back. What can you or Jaime offer that I do not already have? Nothing, lady Genna. Lady Sansa, forgive me for not keeping you updated as I promised, but I was scared someone would intercept the letters and tell Tyrion of Galladon's birth, of when he was born. I have grown so accustomed to privacy I forgot sharing news of my twins. Tormund wanted to travel to winterfell earlier, but I hesitated, until the summons for a tourney. We will visit your wonderful kingdom later this year. Genna frowns is there nothing that will make you change your mind? Brienne shakes her head and remained quiet.

Later that night Brienne pressed onto her fingers onto hard flesh, rubbed a line down till she touched his upper elbow. "In your culture this is erotic, is it not?"

Tormund nods. "It is, my lady. Mayhaps, you should not touch unless you are wanting a match?"

"You've never won against me, my lord." Brienne replied. 

They talk about their day and she confesses that Jaime is a problem in her heart and Tormund again offers a divorce, but say I will say no the first time. I don't want to letyou go, but I want you happy. Brienne gets annoyed, she can't pretend to be asleep and says I will not abandon our family like Jaime abandoned me. To which Tormund whispers brokenly It is only me, the twins I can visit, can I not?

Brienne gets out of bed. Checks the twins and stays there. Tormund groaned and keeps his eyes shut.

Jaime pov 

Jaime says it would be nice if there were no other kids and she could easily divorce the her husband, then with no problem I could make her my wife. Tyrion agrees it would be nice, the young boy is too much as a lion to be growing up under a brute Northman. Jaime is not classist, he's just jealous. When he hears the child is still sick he wonders if it is his negativre thoughts that manifested the sickness so he shuts up.

It's been nine days since the tourney. The child is still somewhat sick, therefore Jaime rarely sees Brienne with Galladon. He was sitting wiith Tyrion on a balcony overlooking the western garden when he saw Brienne walking out of the building holding a baby. A baby. Tyrion says ah, that must be Tarianne  She stands in the sun with the child. Galladon walking behind holding her dress and speaking. They stand for a long time soaking the sun. Jaime says she might never give this up for me.  Tyrion thinks the humans are strange and will do anything for love, maybe like you she can break their marriage oath, what is a man who worships the old gods?

He meets Brienne by chance in the hallway, she is staning by a window, taking in the view and sighing. Jaime comes by her side and asks if they can talk, so they do. Jaime walks with Brienne to her room and they talk about sword styles, fighitng, his hand and how it is to be a lord. She suddenly smiles proudly that tarth is doing great. He goes in, she continues talking when the door closes and Jaime and Brienne look at each other in shock. "Ah, it is not what I wanted, Entering your chambers without permission is not what I wanted."

They kiss by sheer attraction, fiercely and Jaime sees how she becomes red, tells him to go and Tarianne is still sick. Jaime goes, hoping no one saw him. The attractoin is there, so it might work. They might fight against their feelings, but attraction, desire and pure human emotions can't keep them apart.

Brienne pov

She tells Tormund about how Jaime and her kissed and he looked at her completely taken back and then he laughs saying ain't nothing he did not expect and Brienne is offended. He says he was wondering why his room and hers were seperated. It was not like other stormland nobles had seperate rooms, some shared one chamber and them knowing they were married should have given them the same room and he wonders if maybe someone is hoping she goes back to Jaime. If she wants Jaime then he is fine with her, it might be the insecurity talking but Brienne I don't mind much, I want you happy and Brienne gets so angry at him. She says stop trying to save me, Tormund. Stop assuming I still need savng from my emotions, from the craven me I was two years ago. I won't do anything to horrible to Galladon, to our twins or you. Tormund stands holds her hand and says I am not saving you, I am offering you a choice, one that was not given to you two years ago./ I assume he regrets it. I assume by the looks that he throws your way that he regrets everything, that it is eating him up and I know hi-

And me, Tormund? Where do I falll in your speech of  choice?

I am getting there. I know his name is still on your lips as you say your prayers to the seven. Brienne, Gods my lovely Brienne, all I desire is your happiness, your true happiness and I think i can only achieve seeing you happy with Jaime. He would raise the twins as his own, just like I would. You could always send them my way.

You and him are both fucking selfish bastards. Sleep in your own bed, Tormund, I want you far away.

Tormund said he doesn't want to, but he will. He leaves.

Brienne angrily cries and is sure everything is this stupid castle fault. She chekcs on her kids sees them still sleeping and goes too bed. 

There comes good news the maeter says the girl is doing good and the sun has done her good, some color in her skin. Brienne is glad, she enjoys silence in the gardens with the three kds and the nanny, when sansa strolls up with Tyruin and they talk.  Arya is sparring with some knights in the yard and beating them. Tyrion and Sansa say they can take Galladon to watch but she says no. Do not take my son anywhere. Sansa is taken back the vicicousness and asks if she is okay and Brienne is like sorry, Galladon do you want to go see them spar? She takes his hand and carries her daughter to the yeards where they watch in the shade. She sees Jaime sparring too and it brings fond memories back. God, never deprive yourself of a person when they feelings were hatred, you will focus to much on it and when you see them again it is love. Jaime stops walks over and greets Galladon with smiles and asks if he wants to fight too. Brienne says stop asking him to fight. 

Galladon agrees and plays with Jaime and Brienne grows annoyed by everything. how stupid, make it obvious I carried a bastard and pawned him off to another man. She turns to the septa and whispers for her to take the twins. THe septa does and she calls Galladon back. Offers him a toy and leaves, Jaime follows and says he will be leaving two days later, escorting Genna back and he needs to do some lordship things. When are you leacing? When mt daughter feels good. I think when the weather is good.

Jaime nods and leaves her be talks to Tyrion. 

Jaime pov

Jaime prepares for his leave, escorts Genna halfway, meets his advisor and tells him his words, signs a letter and goes back to the castle with high hopes. Foolishly high hopes.

When he arrives it is Sansa and Tyrion waiting for him. They bring him somewhere quiet and tell him the child Tarianne passed away, so he must keep his words less and watch what he says./ Brienne is mourning and Tormund is in a foul mood terrorizing the squires in the yard. They are waiting for John. They go back to the gates and see John approaching. He hugs everyone and they tell him what happened. Jaime asked if Tyrion did anything or someone poisoned the kid, but no none of that. Children fall ill then grow sick fairly quickly. Brienne and Tormund are arguing in their room when they knock and he hears them talking about how the funeral should proceed. Sansa says Brienne wants the burned in Tarth, while Tormund wants her buried in the north with his ancestors. Sansa knocked and they crowded in. Tormund leaned against the wall near the window and Brienne was standing holding a necklace in her hand, she rubbed the bead of the necklace and asked what they wanted. 

They noticed Bran in the room with a solemn smile. He said he came with an option for them, but they are arguing so much he barely had time to say his piece. something like that. 

They give their condolences. Bran whispered to John they agreed to let me adopt Tarianne as my daughter and have her buried here, but are fighting for no other reason than throwing the blame at someone. 

Brienne pov 

The funeral happens and Brienne is crying in Tormund's embrace and he has tears tolling down his face. Galladon is talking to Bran. Talysanne is asleep i her septa's hands. 

Okay where should I go with this story now? Hhmm maybe a sweet moment of Brienne crying to Jaime and telling him how much she missed him in a moment of weakness.

how she would have dropped everything for him. She tells him she hated leaving Galladon alone, hated leaving him with Tormund too, it was when he was sick and cared for him, brought Ygritte a witch that helped remove the slime out of his throat that she felt she could trust Tormund.   here Jaime is giving me sweet words, telling me of a future that could have been. Everything could have been, Jaime. You could have died many times, been a father many times, I am sure you would, but no, you aren't because of choices. I am a mother of three. All three were unplanned, but I kept them because I wanted to be a mother, I wanted to give them a chance and see myself happy as a mother, show my dad  his heir. Did you ever see me as your wife, Jaime?

I did I saw you as my wife many times, beofre I knew of the baby and I hated how I left you alone, i was a coward, thinking hightly of myself, thinking there was only one way to protect you. Clearly there were more ways, options, but I was a fool. gods, Brienne how can I rectify my mistake? How can I get you and your children back in my life?  I don’t know, Jaime. I don’t know.  she gets up from her seat next to him, wipes her tears and leaves. 

John pov. 

John is with Tormund sitting on the balcony overlooking the city. He sighs and holds Talysanne carefully and looked over at John sulking.  “will you stop being so sad, John?”

”I can’t help it. The first time I hear and meet my niece is when she is being buried. I am sorry, I was insensitive.”

”no, I understand. I get… my god I should have never waited to tell you or any stark. Even my brothers do not know about my children.”

”why?”

”I saw the fear in her eyes during Galladon’s growth. BRIENNE was paranoid, someone was out to get Galladon, yank him away from her and it was a fear coming from Jaime demanding the son he did not know about. You think she will leave me?”

”no. Should BRIENNE?”

”God, no. I ask, because I told her two times she can.”

”Talysanne?”

”Gods, I am unsure. I see her sad eyes and just want to see them turn bright once more. I am in love, John. So foolishly in love I would let my love choose hers, just so I can see her happiness. She called me selfish. A pig and fool.”

I really think killing Tormund is weak so prepare for a separation so cruel you will hate me for it. 

Brienne pov

Brienne smiled at her reflection in the mirror, she was practicing for when she met the others. It's the second day after the funeral. She was sitting in her room, tear stained. Big muscular hands wrapped around her shoulders and she felt a kiss on her cheek. Tormund's beard tickled her and she made a comment of it. "How are you feeling, my lady? Don't answer. I wanted us to eat supper on the beach, but when I went to see what the beach is like here I was agash by the filthy smell, so no beach for us. I told the staff to prepare supper on a boat. But that would take to long and we'd grow hingry."

"How sweet of you, Tormund. I pray you have not let our food become cold by planning."

"I have!" He turned her towards him, kissed her on the lips, then said. "I hope you don't mind it's just the two of us."

"Who will care for our children? Surely you can't expect to leave them alone?"

"I asked John if he'd not mind."

Tormund brought Brienne to the gardens where they would eat their supper. It was lovely and he stood while she sat, kissed her hand, said how he loves her, enjoys her, wants her to be happy and more. He makes mention that Galladon and Talysanne will become fine nobles, because of his teaching.  

Brienne squezes his hand and says you are leaving me. I know you are, so say it, instead of talking about love!

#Tragedy #romance tragedy #brienne of tarth #jaime lannister #jaime x brienne #Jaime x Brienne fanfic #Marriages #Forced marriage #bastard child #Brienne is a mother #Draft for a story

[hawnks]

bakugou being forced to go be social with his friends and when he comes home, social battery drained, he just silently pulls you into a big bear hug that lasts forever so he can recharge

#hello it’s 4am owo #I’m that song from the spring awakening #u know the one #I stg I need someone to beat me with a stick until I go to bed some nights #I found a bag of chocolate peanuts and it was game over lads #destroyed that thing #didn’t have a chance 😔✌️ #I’m just eating peanuts and thinking abt.....love? #or the way we live our lives surrounded by the possibilities for it #and how we can be accused of caring to much of feeling things too deeply #but you know what #big love is beautiful and important #but little love happens everyday and it matters so much #and I love (ha) when folks obsess over what color to paint their walls or what flavor croissant to buy at the bakery #I love inside jokes and knowing peoples favorites #i love big hats and ink stains on hands and understanding another person just with a look #a million little things that make up a life #you could hold them each in the palm of your hand like coins for a beggar #you could kiss them all goodnight #and wake up for coffee with the residue still on your lips

[afro-elf]

fine, i’ll elaborate on my thoughts about tylor sift but they will be disorganized

disclaimer: i know a few people will read this and be like “op is a hozier fan can she really talk about the cultural obsession with mediocre white art?” and the answer is yes because a) i’m black and i have an english degree so can do whatever i fucking want, b) hozier is a better artist than taylor objectively, like his mediocre tracks would be considered her great ones, and c) the comparison of taylor to hozier is part of the problem Genuinely because i don’t even think white people like half the music they listen to, they just don’t wanna be left behind, we’ll get into this later. i’m sorry to everyone who is tired of hearing about him but hozier will be returning later in this post jsfglsjlgldsjlfd

second note: read this

i don’t just dislike taylor because she’s white. i don’t dislike taylor because she’s a woman. i don’t dislike her because she writes mean and petty lyrics about past relationships and people who wronged her. i don’t dislike taylor because her public circle of friends is almost exclusively blonde white celebrities with their own laundry lists of issues that includes ryan reynolds and blake lively who are poster children for white privilege and pseudo-excellence if i’ve ever seen them. i dislike taylor because the amalgamation of all of those things is so exemplary of a huge problem i have with the music industry in general but also like american society

fuck it, numbered list!

1. taylor swift consistently releases the same mediocre album but in different colors. every album is the same lyrically and tonally. her body of work rarely goes very far above “good for taylor swift”. folklore as both title and musical aesthetic is irrelevant to the actual content of the album, which is just every taylor swift album except set to folk pop and with a bit more cussing, congrats for baby’s first swear. i’ve seen folklore compared to much better bodies of work and even propped up by stans as album of the year, a distinction that rina sawayama and chloe x halle will be battling it out for if there is any justice in the world at all. the fact that she is allowed to do this and still be considered great when this is something that even white male artists are butchered critically for... astounds me. like we all know how well received all of coldplay’s similar sounding albums are.... Come on. 

2. i don’t think taylor or her work is particularly feminist and yet for some reason every time she frowns an army of white women brings her kleenex. i’m not saying taylor’s anger has always been unjustified, but her feminism to me has always felt like “i can do whatever a man can do” feminism, which is utterly fucking useless to me as a black woman. it’s only useful to her because as a wealthy, white, straight, cis white woman her ONLY obstacle in life is her gender. and if she just didn’t have that tricky little bitch then maybe people would take her seriously. like, just think about her music video for the man... what was the thesis of that? what was the point of that? with all of her privileges she’d just be gaining a single extra privilege. she’s a blonde blue eyed thin white girl, the world kisses her feet. i have no interest in proving myself any better or any worse than white men, they are not the standard for how a person should be treated, they’re cautionary tales, and white women are too. i think taylor capitalizes off of white woman victimhood, and it’s all over her writing style. even when she’s trying to be empowered, like in mad woman for example, there is this tone to it of victimization, poking the bear, unleashing the beast if you will. she invokes the imagery of salem witches and even more boldly chooses a noose to write about in the song which is..... surely going to be a white tumblr staple for many gifsets to come but holy shit is it hollow. she also tends to come back to teenage memories in her music and she’s thirty. i don’t think about being seventeen unless i’m being held at gunpoint but she seems to think about it All The Time. and part of this is to keep herself young, at least in her music, which only further ingrains this image of fragile teeny bopper taylor into the mind of the listener, fueling her victim image. this imagery and language means nothing because the world always rallies around taylor. even when she was the butt of jokes for not being beyonce (which she is not and never can be) and writing about her exes (which she does), she was largely supported by the industry and by critics. look at how many fucking awards she has!

3. folk and indie and alternative music is in a moment of transition, where musicians of color are getting the chance to really speak about how they’ve been treated in these overwhelmingly white circles and create their own standards and their own voices. and for taylor swift to swoop in with aaron dessner and jack antonoff fantano and almost reassert that mid-2010s indie sound as The Sound of folk pop in the popular consciousness.... it makes me violent! it! makes! me! violent! 

4. back to hozier! finally, i wanna talk about white standom, fandom, bandom, and womandom. i often see these very superficial comparisons between hozier and taylor (and hozier and florence and hozier and stevie nicks and hozier and whatever other white woman in fashion) and they frustrate me for more than one reason. i know that hozier has met taylor and said she’s cool, which is nice of him and he’s a nice man, but i’m not a nice man so i’m going to just say it: none of the people who have made those posts have listened to more than four hozier songs and it shows. the reason why this matters is because these posts catch on and create an image and preconception of hozier’s music that is divorced from reality and divorced from his influences and most importantly divorced from the deliberate and reverent blackness of his musical style. hozier has his white male privilege in the industry for sure but he’s not as towering of a giant as taylor and taylor’s music is an unsalted chicken, plain oatmeal, white paint drying on a white wall, a stick of unflavored gum. her music is so white it told me that its dad is a cop. i am, as a black hozier fan, exhausted with having to share space with white women who don’t know why hozier’s music kicks me in my lungs sometimes and think that taylor mentioning a tree ONCE in her 3 minute acoustic guitar slog about whatever suburb is the same when it simply is not. i swear some of you are pretending to love taylor because your friends love her and you don’t wanna be left out of the hot new musical discourse but she’s only the hot new musical discourse CONSTANTLY because she’s a white woman, she’s almost the Perfect white woman. like if someone asked me to describe a white woman, it would be taylor swift. her position at the top of the musical pyramid among people who eclipse her musically, vocally, and lyrically is only allowed because she’s The Perfect White Woman. she’s an ideal. white girls relate to her immediately because of it and now we have this unshakable mob of unbearable white women who think that the world has wronged someone who literally wrote fanfiction about the rich oil heiress white woman who owned her rhode island mansion before her aklghlghdhlgs it drives me fucking NUTS 

anyway that’s all. if you made it this far, listen to adia victoria, kaia kater, samantha crain, valerie june, kelsey lu, corinne bailey rae, brittany howard, kimya dawson, japanese breakfast, cold specks, left at london, rhiannon giddens, aisha badru, shea diamond, nadine shah, xenia rubinos, karen o, mirel wagner.... Anyone

#me #taylor swift meanie hour #long post

[forlove2020]

Day 2 - No Vacancy

It is the last day of November and no one wants to buy any more pumpkins. 

Halloween has gone by, and Thanksgiving has blown past too. The people of Lebanon, Kansas have had their fill of the bright orange gourds - for more than two months they've displayed them on their front porches, carved them into jack-o-lanterns, and added them into every kind of dessert and frothy little drink imaginable.

And that is why, on November 30th, Dean decides his family is going on a field trip to the Lebanon Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch.

Things have been good lately. No, scratch that. Life has been freakin' awesome. It has been just under two weeks since he rescued Cas from the Empty and a week since Jack came home. Dean is over the moon; radiating happiness in a way he never has before. They're all together, alive, and no Big Bad hovers menacingly on the horizon. Dean's not one to believe in a 'best case scenario,' but hell if this doesn't feel just like it.

The farm is about a twenty-five minute drive from the Bunker, and Dean, Cas, and Jack pull up in the Impala at the same time as Sam and Eileen arrive in Sam's CR-V. 

(Dean had teased him mercilessly about his new ride until Sam looked him dead in the eye, placing his hand protectively on Eileen's protruding belly, and insisted "Honda gets really good safety ratings, Dean." Dean, wisely, had shut up after that.)

Claire and Kaia are already there waiting, leaning up against Claire’s car, hand in hand. Jack leaps out of Baby as soon as Dean puts her in park, barreling toward the girls so he can nag Claire about his latest obsession: TikTok. Even from a distance it’s clear she’s rolling her eyes at him, but smiling despite herself

Dean and Cas get out of the car at a more leisurely pace and survey their surroundings.

What had been a busy festival complete with a lush corn maze, vibrant pumpkin patch, and stalls selling kettle corn and caramel apples two months ago is now a dismal scene. The corn maze has dried out and shriveled up, and the stalls are unmanned. Technically, there are still pumpkins aplenty in the field, but they're the ones that have been forsaken. The remaining pumpkins are leftovers that were considered either too skinny, too fat, or just too misshapen and lumpy to have been picked as the cream-of-the-crop.

Dean looks over at Cas. He’s squinting at the scenery in the dim autumn sunlight, and the nippy breeze has swept through his dark hair, making it seem more tousled than usual. Not for the first time, Dean thinks that he is gorgeous.

But now, he can actually tell Cas what he is feeling in these moments. There are no more half-truths or lies between them, nothing secret. After years of pining for one another without any hope of reciprocation and hiding the pains of longing, they’ve finally broken down the walls that kept them apart. They love one another fiercely, and while their relationship is new, it is not tenuous. 

So, Dean turns to him with a crooked grin.  “Hey, handsome.”

Cas blinks, and then a little smile curls the corners of his mouth. “Hello, Dean.”

Dean moves closer until their shoulders are brushing and he can feel the warmth of Cas’ body through both of their jackets. “You think Jack’s gonna be disappointed?” he asks quietly, watching their kid practically tackle Sam with a hug as Eileen signs something Dean can’t quite make out from the other end of the parking lot. “I mean, this isn’t exactly the ‘autumn glory’ we were promised on those fliers earlier this month.”

Cas doesn’t even hesitate. “No. I think Jack just appreciates having a normal...uh, sort of a normal life again. He’s excited to be here picking pumpkins, especially with Claire and Kaia, and Sam and Eileen joining us. This was a nice surprise you planned for him, Dean.”

It’s a simple compliment, and not even particularly saccharine, but Dean flushes from head to toe anyway. He’s working on believing the good things Cas says about him; he’s really trying, but it’s always been difficult for him to take a compliment about anything other than his good looks or hunting prowess. Instead, he meets Cas’ eye, and nods silently. And then, remembering he is allowed, takes Cas’ hand in his own, twining their fingers together.

They walk hand-in-hand to join Claire, Kaia, Jack, Sam and Eileen at the front gate. It’s hanging wide open, and no one is standing there to charge them an entrance fee. However, the sign does make a point to state that the maze is open until December 1st. Eileen shrugs, and so the seven of them wander down the path towards the pumpkin patch and the entrance to the maze. 

“Kaia! I’ll race you to the end!” Jack shouts, and laughing, Kaia chases him into the maze, dragging a grumbling Claire along behind her. 

“Let’s see if we can find anybody still working,” Sam suggests.

Eileen points at a worn down farmhouse tucked mostly behind a newly-painted red barn. “Someone must be home,” she signs pointedly, gesturing to plumes of smoke exuding from a grey chimney stack.

Dean ends up knocking on the door. He leaves Sam, Eileen, and Cas at a nearby picnic table, debating in Sign Language about the best flavor of cotton candy and whether or not the color of the dye changes the taste. 

 A minute or two later, an older man swings open the squeaky screen door to the house. He’s scowling, wearing muddy overalls, and chewing on a thick cigar. “Yeah?” he asks shortly. “Whaddya want?”

Dean raises his eyebrows at the farmer’s bluntness, but manages to respond politely. “My family and I saw fliers for this place a few weeks ago. We were hoping to buy some pumpkins and candy apples. What are you charging”

The farmer’s scowl grows deeper, and he looks past Dean to Sam, Eileen, and Cas relaxing on the bench, then narrows his eyes at the corn maze, where shrieks of laughter can be heard as the younger adults chase one another through the thinning stalks.

Getting impatient, with the man’s surly silence, Dean prods, “And…? It’s a yes or no question. Are you still selling pumpkins?”

The old man pulls the cigar out from between his teeth. “My wife and daughter run this hokey shit,” he grunts. “They went into town today ‘cause folks already came through here earlier in the month. They like customers. We haven't had anybody else stop by since before Thanksgiving.”

As his temper flares, Dean turns his grit teeth into a sharp smile. “Well, then it’s your lucky day! Here we are,” he says mockingly, sweeping his arms wide. The farmer mumbles something insulting and covers it with a hacking cough. Dean pretends not to hear him, “Fine. I take it from your sunny attitude that there will be no popcorn or apples today?” 

The man scoffs, “Enjoy the maze, boy-o. Free of charge.” He turns to lumber back inside, but Dean grabs the screen door before he can try to disappear.

“Hey!” the hunter barks. The farmer pauses, his body tensing for a fight. “Are you gonna sell me the goddamn pumpkins or not?” 

Cas has wandered to his side, either noticing the commotion, or simply because he wanted to be closer to Dean. Now, he interrupts casually, “You still have quite a few squash left in the fields and there’s going to be heavy frost two days from now, overnight. It’d be a shame if all of these pumpkins rotted, and you wasted the rest of your harvest.”

He has, quite deftly, snared the salty old farmer’s attention. Money is the man’s language; he might not enjoy having customers on his property so late in the season, but he certainly likes having the funds to maintain his land.

****************************************

“A hundred.”

“A hundred?” Sam sounds insulted. “You’re gonna pitch all of these in a couple days. There’s no way we’re paying a hundred. Try twenty-five dollars.”

The farmer rolls his eyes dramatically. He is in his element; the thrill of making a good deal and bartering his wares on the last day is an unexpected but welcome surprise that has put him in high spirits. “You’re cute, kid. I know my produce is worth more than that. I’ll go down to eighty-five, and you can take whatever you can carry in one trip.”

“Thirty-five,” Sam shoots back.

“Eighty.”

“Forty-one.” Once, Sam was going to be a lawyer. He’s got the upper hand in this situation and he’s going to crush his opposition. One more price reduction and they’ll have dozens of pumpkins to take home, way below the original asking price.

“Sevent…”

“Sixty-five, and we fill up all of our cars,” Dean interrupts, and Sam looks at him, utterly betrayed as the gleeful farmer shakes on the deal.

As Cas, Jack, Claire, and Kaia help carry the pumpkins to Sam and Claire’s cars respectively, Dean just claps Sam on the shoulder and tells his brother, “It’s still a cheaper family outing than going to Disney.” 

“Yeah, I guess,” Sam says mournfully, and sulks over to help Eileen, who is supervising the influx of pumpkins that are being loaded into their vehicle.

Dean chuckles, and scoops up a few pumpkins. He’s got some recipes he wants to try out, plus he’s excited to teach Jack to carve ‘Jack’-o-lanterns. The kid seemed to want to learn how to do everything the human way now, and Dean is more than happy to teach him.

One by one, Dean places eight pumpkins in the backseat of Baby. One is tall and oblong with lots of stringy stems, matched with the only short and well rounded pumpkin he sees in the field. Between those two he sets a teeny tiny baby-sized pumpkin. Then, there’s a pumpkin that is half-green half-orange. It seems like it must have grown too fast because it is still quite young despite its size. Next, he adds two medium pumpkins that are also young, but growing strong. And last but not least, he picks up two more pumpkins. They are both a bit damaged - one is bruised and discolored, the other looks like it might have grown sideways. But Dean picks them because they lean against one another in the field, steady despite their flaws, despite what they’ve been through. 

He sets them all up in a long line along the backseat, and when Cas sees what he chose, his eyes go soft and warm as he looks at Dean.

“Let’s go home,” he breathes out, and takes Dean’s hand again.

Everyone gets in their cars - Dean in the driver's seat and Cas taking shotgun, as before. Jack tries to get in the Impala, then looks in the back window, and starts laughing. 

“Dean! There’s nowhere for me to sit.”

Cas chuckles quietly beside him, as Dean grins. “Aw, tough break, kid. Guess you’re walking home.”

“Hey, no fair- Dean! C’mon! Cas! Tell Dean he has to -”

Dean starts to roll up the window, laughing loudly as Jack knocks on the window pane.

“Sorry! No vacancy!” he hollers. Jack is nearly doubled over, hilarity spilling from him in peals of laughter.

Claire honks her horn loudly, and throws open the back door to her car. Jack straightens, and scrambles to join her and Kaia, shooting Dean and Cas a bright wave goodbye.

Sam and Eileen also wave as they leave the parking lot, wheels sending gravel spinning in their wake. Claire and Kaia follow, and Jack rolls down the window as they pass, and calls across to Cas and Dean, “This was the best family trip ever!”

They too are soon gone, headed for the Bunker to drop off dozens of pumpkins which will decorate every room until they end up decaying or until Dean cooks them. 

Dean and Cas wait until the others have left, and then Dean leans over and kisses Cas, long and sweet. When he pulls back, Cas traces his cheek, and says thoughtfully, “We could take the backroads home today….”

Dean is so gone on him. He kisses Cas once, twice more, and then puts the Impala in drive, and they’re on the road, taking the long way home.

**********************************

I enjoyed adding a little Day 1 ‘Harvest’ flare to Day 2!

My goal is to make most of my Suptober fics one-shots that are in some way related to my multichapter fix-it that is still a work in progress (Dean/Cas, Sam/Eileen, etc, post 15x20).

Thank you for reading!

-V

#suptober21 #Destiel #saileen #Jack Kline #claire novak #kaia nieves #found family #bunker family #team free will 2.0 #fix it fic #100000 destiel fics #post-15x20 #post finale #they all deserved to be happy #they all deserved so much better #othervorld writes

[gxldenflower]

Random Bruce Banner Headcanons

NOTE: Originally posted on my ao3, supposedly_archer, on December 3rd, 2020. Both the summary and A/N are copied & pasted

Summary: An eclectic assortment of different headcanons that I have for Bruce Banner

A/N: I'm in love with Bruce Banner. That's all folks.

Warnings: Brief mentions of anxiety and mental health

Tags: @9zoria9,  @thebookbakery

Word Count: 994

•He has no clue how to put contact lenses in

•He doesn’t want to either, because turning into the hulk while wearing contacts sounds like a fucking nightmare and a half

•His hands are. So soft????? It makes zero sense because he’s always working with his hands and it’s just kinda jarring to everyone

•He always has a small thing of lotion from Bath and Body Works on his person. If you need emergency peppermint-scented lotion, he’s your man

•Stretch marks all across his body. He’s pretty insecure about them but he’s bonded with Nat over their shared insecurities

•He has a soft little tummy. He used to be insecure because he knows he’s being compared to his teammates who look like they inject steroids every four hours, but when Thor drunkenly told him that, “it was the cutest thing he’d ever seen,” he decided that he could care less about his stomach.

•Cute little tummy with stretch marks

•Dad jokes 24/7

•Tony’s lost count of the number of times he’s wanted to bang his head against a wall because of Bruce’s stupid fucking jokes

•Bruce laughs at his own jokes as well

•He’s also the friend who laughs at your joke when no one else does

•A literal Walking Human Space Heater

•And he’s not like. Sweltering hot. It’s like a blanket on a chilly fall day kind of warmth

•Bruce is a cuddler. Literally clings to anything and anyone he can find when he’s sleeping

•Will sometimes sleep with a stuffed animal that Thor got him for his birthday one year

•Speaking of Thor

•This man clings to him like a goddamn koala while he walks around

•Thor will just be sipping his coffee in the morning and Bruce will just be hanging off of him

•Occasionally does it to Steve as well

•And a couple of times with Nat when they got drunk together one night

• Both Bucky and Sam have allowed him to do it as well but neither will admit it

•He’s fluent in ASL and is constantly bickering with Clint about the smallest things

•Doesn’t like coffee that much

•If he drinks it, it has to have as much cream, milk, sugar as possible

• Idk how coffee works I’m like 80% sure that’s what you put in coffee

•Prefers hot chocolate

•When his hair gets long enough he’ll let Nat and Thor braid small pieces of it

•This man has the softest hair in the world. It’s a perfect mixture of silky and soft and no one knows how he does it because of how damn curly his hair is

•Has an odd obsession with squirrels

•He’s basically a Human Squirrel Factoid Machine

•No, I will not elaborate

•Has a damn good sense of style

•I mean the purple shirt and those pants in Avengers 1????? That says it all folks

•Has the dirtiest glasses known to man

•He cannot remember the last time he cleaned them

•Tony has no clue how he’s able to see

•He can’t help it. If you’re bisexual and wear glasses, they are always going to be dirty. That’s just how it be

• Tony’s an outlier

•Oh yeah Bruce is most definitely bi

•This is not me projecting, it’s canon. Taika Watiti told me himself

•Basically has a whole closet full of different weighted blankets

•Fireworks set off his anxiety and will sometimes cause panic attacks

•Goes to weekly therapy because he’s an icon who does his best to work on his mental health:)

•Meets up weekly with Stephen Strange to have tea together and gossip

•Basically has a crush on all of Avengers & Co. because he’s a Bisexual Mess (tbh same)

•Both him and Wanda do their best to work together and keep a healthy friendship

•While it’s definitely not the best, they’re both trying and it’s getting better slowly

•He has the singing voice of an angel but can’t play the piano to save his life

•Tony tried to teach him once but it ended with a loud bang of a head against the piano keys

•Hums different lullabies as he works

•Is the type of person who puts up his Christmas decorations as soon as November 1st hits and doesn’t take them down till the end of January

•Likes to paint his nails

•There’s this pretty blue color that he borrows steals from Nat a lot

•Knows how to run in high heels

•He refuses to disclose how he knows this

•Barely knows how to use his cellphone

•He owns an iPhone 4 and refuses to upgrade no matter how many times Tony begs him to

•Is constantly taking blurry photos of everything happening in the compound

•Has a photo of Sam chasing Bucky in nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist

•Don’t ask

•Can’t swim and gets nervous when he’s near a large body of water

•The Avengers Local Taylor Swift Enthusiast

•Knows all of her song lyrics by heart and sings them very loudly in the shower

•He got Thor hooked on her music as well

•They’ve drunkenly sung a karaoke duet version of “Love Story” together

•Ended with a kiss make out session behind the karaoke stage

•His favorite Taylor Swift album is Speak Now

•Has a tattoo of a rose on his hip

•Owns Hulk boxers

•Tony once called him a “funky little science man” when he was drunk and Bruce burst into tears because he just loves Tony so much

•Very good kisser. Can be confirmed by Thor

•Gets along with Vision really well and goes to bookstores with him a lot

•Once called Fury “Patchy the Pirate” to his face and saw his life flash before his eyes

•Clint started choking on his sandwich as a result and Nat had to perform the Heimlich maneuver on him

•In conclusion. Bruce Banner is a funky little bisexual science man who’s in love with all of his teammates (but mainly Thor.) And he’s cute.

#bruce banner #do not be fooled by the title this is basically just thorbruce headcanons #thorbruce #marvel

[purity-town]

Little late getting to these -- that's fully the fault of a class project I spent all of Monday/Tuesday and most of Wednesday working on -- but I finished my project and wrote up some long replies to these!

(Apologies for any funny formatting -- I'm trying out the beta for the new post editor!)

Absolutely not.

Nope! There are a few people who do know (other guides Andrew's met before, the Dryad, and I'd imagine the Witch Doctor knows something's up even if he doesn't know why), but none of them live in Purity Town proper, and the Dryad and Witch Doctor aren't the kind to participate in rumors or spread what isn't theirs to share. The old man is also aware just because he and Andrew have talked about their curses, but he's 1) not currently in town and 2) not going to share even if he were.

Most folks don't know much about Andrew in general; Becca probably knows the most out of the townsfolk, knowing a little bit about his family and where he's from (he has some pretty specific skills as a hunter that betray this, but he doesn't talk about his exact town of birth), but no specifics and certainly not time periods.

Andrew is good at keeping things quiet; he has to be.

I would actually appreciate if you didn't post to Pinterest -- usually I'm fine with people reposting with credit (several of the things I've posted to my DeviantArt have found their way to Instagram, for example) but Pinterest has something of a reputation for stolen art (things being reposted from another Pinterest post without credit this time, or credit being hard to view for users not logged in or just viewing through Google). So reposting elsewhere is fine (though if you repost to Reddit or Instagram, tag me at u/Ariibees or @Ariibees)! I'd just prefer my works stay off of Pinterest.

The terminology related to The Guide/Andrew/The Guardian/The World’s Core/The WoF is all confusing because on some level, they’re all the same being. Kind of like trying to talk about Jekyll and Hyde -- same guy, different looks/actions, haha.

For all intents and purposes, references to the WoF being the barrier/core/whatever behind or within which the spirits of light and dark are contained is equivalent to saying “these spirits are held trapped by the magic of the Guardian, who when summoned appears as the WoF.” I do break slightly from the official lore in how the WoF/Guardian/thing holding back these spirits works (mostly because I don’t really like the idea that the Hallow is a “temporary guardian” or whatever), but the basic concept of “these are trapped by [thing that makes up the WoF]” remains unchanged.

If “loony cultist” is a reference to something, I’m so sorry, but I’m lost on it. If you’re just talking about the lunatic cultist in a funny way, then yes, they’re in here as a very plot-significant character!

I had to google what meme you were talking about, but it did make me laugh.

Andrew’s most annoyed by the nickname because people do like to call him Guide, and for someone who’s dedicated his whole life to his role, it can get tiring. He doesn’t really *mind* being called Guide -- it’s fine, that’s what he is and as long as people are respectful of his job he’ll take what he can get -- but at the same time, he’d like for people to stop thinking “Aah! Monster!” or “Weird academic know-it-all” and just...treat him like a normal person sometimes. So he fights to be called Andrew. And...Malik comes along and gives him a nickname that he doesn’t like and doesn’t allow others to use, save for maybe a small group of people of which Malik is not a part. So, not cool, man!

People love to overcomplicate explaining shading/lighting, and if you wanted to you could certainly go on and on about reflections of light off the ground and shading colors and all sorts of things, but as I’m writing this at 1 AM I don’t really care to.

If you really want to get into shading, I see nice ones on DeviantArt or Tumblr from time to time, or you can always watch a YouTube video on it. Really, though, just keep at it, think about how the shadows should look and work, and you'll get better at it eventually and pick up new ideas on how it all works. (And this is coming from someone who is new to making comics and actually started as a painter.)

Purity Town’s shading comes down to this: simplicity. As much as I’d love to spend hours and hours redrawing the panels I don’t like and carefully shading every fold of fabric and painting detailed backgrounds, I’m a full-time college student and will be working full-time over the summer -- I don’t have the time. So, I cut corners: I reuse backgrounds or use brushes (see: bricks, trees, clouds) that make certain details easier, and I try not to obsess too much over panels I’m not fully happy with. Shadows go where they feel right, and light on the opposite side.

For shading, this comes down to making things quick and easy. For these last few pages, character shading/lighting has only been five layers. One hard light layer for the bluer soft shadows, one overlay layer for darker soft shadows, one linear burn layer for hard shadows, one soft light layer for soft lighting, and one overlay layer for hard lighting. I’ll often also make use of glow dodge layers for lighting, or change the color balance or add more hard/soft light layers if there’s a very heavy color filter on the scene (such as a celestial event, blood moon, or outdoors at night).

Using all the different layer types is essentially a cheat code to fancier lighting -- don’t want to use flat black? Boom, hard light or overlay or burn will give you colored shadows. Want to make your light brighter? Glow dodge will make it burn your retinas.

Sorry that this isn’t a very comprehensive guide, but in my mind, shading and lighting is really something that you pick up over time and it’s hard to sit down and write a guide for it without making it into a massive essay on art theory that I don't even know proper terminology for because I'm not an art student. Of course with some googling you’ll find *proper* guides for this sort of thing from art majors and the likes, and those can be super helpful and technical! But for Purity Town, I just sort of go with what feels right and what's easy to replicate.

Firstly, I’m happy to hear you’re liking the comic!

Secondly, those buttons are actually there due to the theme! (For those on mobile who can’t see it, I have the theme set to only display on desktop as I prefer the current mobile layout on phone.) I’m using the simple webcomic theme (a quick Google should tell you how to install it for yourself) -- except I’m not actually using it for the webcomic features; rather, it’s a case of “this is the most simple, nice-looking non-default theme I could find.”

The previous/next buttons are added by the theme with the intent that the blog is being used as a typical webcomic website, with nothing but comic pages being posted. However, I post asks and other art here too, and I do so with the intent that people looking at #Terraria or their dashboards in general will see it. So...I use html formatting to make the first/previous/next/last links, along with an index and chapter-by-chapter viewing (using /tagged/chapter##/chrono) so that no matter where you’re coming from, you can still navigate just the pages!

If you want to add just the previous/next buttons, I can’t really help you -- web development is not my area of study in the slightest. But you can check out the theme that they come from and if you want to install only them, you can surely find a tutorial on it somewhere!

(As a side note, the comments section is not from the theme, it’s from a site called Disqus. I don’t expect many people, if anyone, to leave comments, but since I link back to this site a lot and many folks don’t have Tumblr accounts, it’s an option I like to make available.)

Hiya! My hike was pretty nice; it was a short and easy one, but that was quite appreciated as the trail is unmaintained from November to April, and the trail was covered in fallen trees and quite rocky. Still had fun, though!

And for backgrounds, it depends! For indoors scenes (or outdoors scenes with buildings) I don’t tend to use references, outside of looking up things like “which side of a door is the handle on.” I will, however, integrate real-life textures (see: the quilt and rug in Guide’s house, the wood walls on the building in the background of this week’s page), and paint over paintings from the Terraria wiki.

For outdoors scenes, for simple backgrounds (such as foliage-heavy) ones, I typically don’t need references. I like the difference between detailed, lined indoor/man-made object scenes vs. painted, messy outdoor scenes. But for things like mountains, I do sometimes look up references to help with color choices and the likes.

The town’s layout is a bit strange in that depending on the scene, the background could be drastically different. One side of town faces more mountainside, one side faces the orchards/open hillside, and the other two sides face various degrees of open space and more mountainside/forest. References taken on top of mountains are helpful to get an idea of what degree of foliage I should include between the characters and the sky.

Though this is very specific to the town of Purity -- other towns/villages will have significantly different-looking backgrounds, even the foliage-heavy ones.

That said, what's even more helpful than looking at photos is looking at paintings. Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron is really good for getting an idea of how to draw grasslands and distant mountains, plus Studio Ghibli movies in general!

#purity town #pt asks #terraria #not an update

[cheatdeathsarchive]

Her dress is the color of the sunset when it’s warm and bright and paints the world that pretty orange-gold. It goes well with her hair, her freckles, her eyes, her smile, and Six likes how light it all makes her feel. It’s not like Benny, not like House. She laughs and giggles and they walk arm in arm down the lit up streets. Six thinks about how Ronnie was in love once and wonders if it felt like this.

Cause she thinks she feels it, thinks she gets it. If love is a color maybe it’s orange. The dress catches the light in a way -- from orange to yellow to gold, and it’s better than any sunset, she thinks. She wants to tell Ronnie, too, but the butterflies in her stomach fly into her throat and she doesn’t know how to rightly say it yet. There will be time later.

There’s an... what’s the term? An Ellie Fant in the room. Six doesn’t know who that is or why her presence is so big, but she’s here and it is. Ellie is one they’ve both been happy to ignore. There were dresses to buy, drinks to be had. There was music and dancing and pretending like things were alright for a day. There was soft hair to rest their cheeks against, and the teasing of fingertips at calloused knuckles and sheepish glances that were safe from wry comments.

They paint the town red like Jane likes to say. They out-party the NCR troopers, watch people come and go and give them all a story which is usually the opposite of how Six likes to daydream. This is fun too, though -- to have a face and to wonder about all that is behind it. The sun is still waiting for its debut, but the horizon is turning a pretty light purple, and Six thinks that would be a pretty color on Veronica Santangelo, too.

Robert House is livid, still so livid, but Six still has run of the Lucky 38. Probably as an incentive. Probably because he knows she’ll go through with what he demands. Not on his terms, she thinks, Not when I’ve learned from Benny and fooled the Legion. Not when I could talk a dying man out of his last drop of water.

Her plan will work. It has to work. They sneak quietly down the hall in case any of their other companions are spending the night in their rooms. No doubt though their exaggerated whispers and giggling are louder than they think. Nobody bothers them all the same. Six turns the radio in her suite on, and Veronica looks around like she’s never been in here before even though she has.

Six loves that -- she does it too sometimes. One time they found a whole mess of old world coins in the couch cushions. Another time they found a time capsule of old world treasures hidden under a mattress. It’s fun to explore the places people haven’t gotten to in ages. Their party could keep going, but Ellie Fant is here and waiting, her arms crossed and Veronica is sick of her presence, too.

“Have you decided?” She asks with a conviction in her voice that Six is immediately aware that she’s practiced, “About what House said, I mean... you’re not going through with it, are you?”

Pretty brown eyes are staring her down. Six replies with a smile, though it’s demure. The Brotherhood’s got her all kinds of conflicted. She can’t imagine how much worse it is for Veronica.

“I don’t wanna kill your family, Ronnie. Family’s all we got out here.” That seems to put her at ease, “But Mr. House ain’t willin’ to listen to me. I tried. I’m thinkin’... I could talk to some caravans, get ‘em set up for supplies... There’s a whole mess of space between here and Tucson.”

Ronnie picks it up, and her appeasement shifts into a cold realization. Six bites her lip, gives her the best helpless look she can muster. Ronnie doesn’t bite.

“That’s not an option,” Veronica replies with a very pointed frown. There isn’t anymore happiness in her face even though it hasn’t been anything but fun this evening. Six sighs. Ronnie insists, “That bunker is our home, Six. It’s hard enough when we get sent out for supply runs under cover. Nobody’s going to help supply an entire chapter of the Brotherhood.”

That makes Six shake her head -- she has favors she can call in, but it’s time for a new approach, “Mr. House won’t listen to reason -- your Elder might, Ronnie. Maybe this is the push they need to adapt.”

“By making them homeless? By taking away the one place we can hide from the NCR, the Legion? By making them all open targets?”

“Better than all dead without a fightin’ chance,” And maybe those are the wrong words. Six takes a breath, “I wanna help you Ronnie, I do... but Mr. House, he --”

“Saved your life, I know. You know what else I know? That you’ve done whatever you had to do with that weird little poker chip he’s so obsessed with. You did your job. He might have saved your life, but why can’t you live it for yourself?”

'Cause she loves him is why. 'Cause she believes in him. Six keeps her mouth shut. She loves Veronica, too, misses the wrinkle in her nose when she laughs. Veronica continues.

“So what?” She fishes, and Six fidgets. Six can hear Benny tutting from whatever hole he’s crawled into, “You want my permission to... to banish the Brotherhood from the Mojave? Because your boss is a megalomaniac dictator?”

Elder McNamara is so much better, Six wants to say, Most the folks down there don’t like your attitude Ronnie, that’s another. Neither are kind, so she opts to say neither at all.

“Autocrat,” Six argues, steeled and frustrated and suddenly stone cold sober. Veronica can’t even look at her right now, “What he can do for the Mojave Ronnie... it’s a hell of a lot more than livin’ underground and hoardin’ weapons you don’t trust people with like you deserve the authority of who gets to have ‘em. It’s resource guardin’, it’s not safe, it’s --”

“Shut up,” Veronica mutters, “just... shut the fuck up.”

Six swallows. Bites her lip so hard she thinks it’s gonna bruise, and takes ten deep breaths. Veronica doesn’t say anything else. Six takes that as permission to speak again, “...I’m gonna get a drink, okay?” Veronica doesn’t answer. She’ll take it as permission, “...I’ll figure somethin’ out, alright? I promise. Nobody’s gotta die.”

Still, nothing. Six hesitates, a small step backwards before finally peeling her eyes away from that pretty orange dress and the woman wearing it. She moves to the kitchen. The medic in her knows water is what’s good. The hedonist in her reaches for a Sunset Sarsaparilla instead. the cap gets popped off and she takes a sip. The vice tastes good, but it’s not enough to make her smile. She’s gotta rethink her plan now.

The sounds of a pneumatic gauntlet rev up behind her. Six knows she can either turn around or duck, and she chooses to duck. Veronica cracks the door of the fridge so deep Six can feel the cold slipping through the crack where the door doesn’t line up right anymore.

“Ronnie --” Six gasps, turning around to see her winding her fist back up. Punches -- the gift that keeps on giving, “Ron, please, hang on. Please, don’t --”

“Shut. Up!” Ronnie screams, and Six is so afraid that someone who isn’t either of them can hear the shouting and the sounds of combat, “I won’t let you.”

The second swing comes, and Six feels it hit her hair just barely as she somersaults out of the way across broken glass and spilled soda and scrambles to her feet. The tiles on the floor shatter. She’s got a silenced .22 under her dress and it shouts at her in Benny’s voice -- never go into a casino unarmed, pussycat. You really fucked this one up, didn’t you?

“Please,” Six begs, and she can only turn around before Veronica tackles her, pins her down. Six kicks, tries to scramble backwards, tries to beg to get Veronica to listen. Veronica grabs her shoulder and sits on her, her gauntlet reeling back. Six struggles more as the first punch lands. She tastes iron, feels the hot sting of skin split open above her left eye. Veronica pulls her fist back and she paints the room red. Her grip loosens just a touch and Six isn’t sure when the gun made it to her hand, but it’s there and she pulls the trigger. Later she finds out it’s right through her heart.

“Don’t --” Veronica Santangelo says, and it’s her last word. There are a million things on her face. She looks... scared. Shocked. Confused. Scared. Scared, scared, so scared. Six gasps, and before Veronica falls on top of her entirely she pushes the still warm corpse to fall beside her instead, rolling away to rest her head against cool tile, and she closes her eyes. Just for a second, she thinks, but when she opens them again Boone is here and so is Victor. The sun is out and pretty shades of yellow and orange shine through the windows.

“Don’t touch her,” Six snaps, her head aching from the hangover. She spits blood out of her mouth.

“We’re just wantin’ to help you clean up a bit, Sugar,” the robot says, very placating, and when Six rolls over she sees he’s holding the body of Veronica Santangelo like a baby. Courier Six screams bloody murder. Boone helps her up. Walks her to the bathroom. Six can’t stop screaming.

She doesn’t know where Victor’s taken her as the sniper cleans her wounds. She never bothers to ask. She doesn’t know when she stops screaming, doesn’t know why she can’t cry instead -- probably because Boone is staring her down behind his aviators and she’s pretty sure she knows just how he’s watching her.

She blames the Brotherhood and slips on her vault suit. Blames them as she goes into Ronnie’s room to slip her scribe robes on top of her outfit. Six blames them as she walks to the Hidden Valley and slips in with the utmost care to be a shadow on the wall. This is a family and they know their people. The disguise doesn’t work if she stops, so Six doesn’t stop. Her head is down and she blames every single person in here for being so rigid, so stuck in their ideals.

It’s their fault that Veronica became disillusioned with them. It’s their fault they are not willing to bend. It’s their fault they are ruined. She sprints out of the Bunker as the sirens go off, throwing the caution and stealth she had been using to the wind along with the burlap hood and robes. The ground rumbles, and she can’t blame them anymore.

It’s not their fault. It never was.

It’s hers.

#here is an early bday gift for six :') #happy birthday bitch u ain't allowed to be happy #drabble tag pending. #tw violence #tw gun mention #tw gun violence #tw blood #tw death #pls ask for additional tags i am sure i'm missing some! #( ic. ) resume save file. #( arc i. ) war never changes; men do through the roads they walk / main.

[austennerdita2533]

I'm so happy that you love Folklore too! It's not just my favorite Taylor Swift album, but easily one of by favorite albums, full stop :) Here's a fun challenge: which Folklore songs remind you of a certain ship? So is there a Folklore song that makes you think of literati? Another one that makes you think of a Grey's ship? A third that makes you think of Elizabeth/Darcy? A fourth that reminds you of Klaroline and - I'll shut up, you get the idea :) Pick any Folklore songs/ships you want!

Taylor Swift’s latest album is a masterclass of musical poetry and storytelling. Rarely do I download every song a musician puts out on a new album (I tend to pick and choose), but I can genuinely say I never hit DOWNLOAD so fast in my life before than I did with Folklore! I love all sixteen tracks! I’ve been listening to them on a loop for two days straight and I imagine that’s likely to continue for the foreseeable future.

Also, YASSS! That is a fun challenge! It’s also one I can manage because I’ve been thinking about how certain songs/lyrics apply to many of my ships since I first started listening anyway. Prepare yourself. This is gonna be long. 😁

Okay SO, for Literati... 

If I’m angling to lean into s3-s6 angst that was Rory and Jess at that point in the OG series, then I’d say the 1 is a good fit. That song has the same energy as someone who’s writing a goodbye letter to a loved one that will never be sent. It’s cleansing. Cathartic. An exorcism of feeling. It absolutely reeks of regret and longing with just a touch of look-back-over-your-shoulder-and-wish, just wish, that things could have been different:

“But we were something, don't you think so?”

“And if my wishes came true It would've been you“

“But it would've been fun If you would've been the one”

However, if I’m in more of a They’ll Come Back to Each Other mood with Literati then I think this is me trying screams Rory and Jess. That song emanates nostalgia! It’s haunting in tone (with the echoes, with some slight vibrato). The lyrics bleed with feeling, with emotion that should have rusted long ago but hasn’t. Love is still as red as it was at the beginning of everything only now...only now there’s realization and an attempt at atonement for past mistakes...

“I didn't know if you'd care if I came back I have a lot of regrets about that Pulled the car off the road to the lookout Could've followed my fears all the way down And maybe I don't quite know what to say But I'm here in your doorway“

It's hard to be anywhere these days When all I want is you You're a flashback in a film reel On the one screen in my town (the town, of course, made me think of Stars Hollow)

I just wanted you to know That this is me trying At least I'm trying

For Darcy and Elizabeth, I think seven works well for them in spots. If you listen to the song, there’s a little bit of an echoey timber to the way Taylor sings it and that gave me the sense of how classic love stories/literature kind of ripple across time, you know? How the pages may crinkle or yellow over the years, but they still leave their mark. Plus, there’s also the piano in the background. Almost feather light. It mixes with what sounds like violins in places. Idk, it has a slight P&P 2005 vibe about it to me:

“Please picture me in the weeds Before I learned civility” >> (Because did Darcy learn civility before or after Lizzie eviscerated him mid-proposal at Rosings? Did Lizzie learn to temper her prejudice before or after Lydia ran away with Wickham?)

“Passed down like folk songs Our love lasts so long“ >> (Elizabeth says herself she’s going to be happier than Jane because “[she] laughs; [her sister] only smiles.”)

I have a couple for Klaroline, too. hoax jumped out at me for them first because it’s layered with darkness and angst. The imagery pops. It’s all smoking guns and eclipsed suns and screaming on cliffsides; which, for a pair of supernaturals, and for an Original who has a history of leaving blood in his wake, I think some visuals of misery and violence are a fitting thing. I’m also obsessed with the piano in this. The way she strokes her fingers over the keys - quick tap, tap, taps then a slow one or two in places - gives you a sense of running. It’s a great parallel to her lyric about “sleepless nights.” Here are some other Klaroline-heavy lyrics in this song:

“You knew it still hurts underneath my scars From when they pulled me apart But what you did was just as dark Darling, this was just as hard As when they pulled me apart” >> (This whole section just booms with “I’ve shown kindness. Forgiveness. Pity. For you, Caroline It was all for you” energy.)

“Your faithless love's the only hoax I believe in Don't want no other shade of blue But you No other sadness in the world would do“

peace is the other song that had me crying in Klaroline. I like the softness of it, the vulnerability. I imagine it more from Klaus’s perspective, though, because it strikes me as more confessional in nature. Like it’s a revelation that’s being dragged across his teeth and he wants to scream. Almost as if these aren’t necessarily feelings he wants to share, or wants known, but there’s just no holding them back now. He’s thrown off the lid. Caroline needs to be able to walk toward him with her eyes wide open, so he only speaks truth, he only speaks honesty now. Similar to hoax, this song has darker imagery as well. There’s fire and fences and trenches and all that jazz:

“Your integrity makes me seem small You paint dreamscapes on the wall“ >> (Same energy as “you’re strong, beautiful, full of light.”)

“And you know that I'd Swing with you for the fences Sit with you in the trenches” >> (basically a promise that he’d fight FOR her and WITH her)

“But I'm a fire and I'll keep your brittle heart warm If your cascade ocean wave blues come All these people think love's for show But I would die for you in secret“ >> (THIS IS THE PART THAT HITS ME THE MOST BC so much of Klaus’s love is shown not spoken, so yeah, he dies for her in secret all. the. time. already. There are 5 other ways I could interpret that as well. But I will spare you haha)

“The devil's in the details

“Would it be enough If I could never give you peace?” >>With supernatural enemies everywhere, there won’t be much peace, will there?

I get walloped with Braime/Jaime and Brienne feels every time I listen to epiphany. Like, it’s actually rude how much this song makes me think of them. I can close my eyes and hear their swords clanging, taste the blood of their injuries on my tongue; feel the ash claw their throats, sting their eyes. Just--ah! The two of them serving, fighting back-to-back, two knights with an unspoken oath to protect a love they haven’t even voiced out loud yet...*cries*

“Only twenty minutes to sleep But you dream of some epiphany Just one single glimpse of relief To make some sense of what you've seen

“With you, I serve With you, I fall down Down Watch you breathin' Watch you breathin' out Out“

invisible strings makes me think of Shirbert/Anne and Gilbert. I love the pluck of guitar strings and how it has this air of innocence and sunshine and green grasses about it even though it’s being told/sung from a hilltop of experience. There’s so much imagery in this song, so much color and figurative language, that I can’t help but think it’s perfect for our imaginative dreamy-eyed girl and the boy who’s adored her since he first tugged her pigtails and called her Carrots in that schoolroom:

“Green was the color of the grass Where I used to read at Centennial Park >> (Can’t you just picture Anne lying in the grass, a book in her hand, flowers in her hair?) I used to think I would meet somebody there Teal was the color of your shirt When you were sixteen at the yogurt shop“

“Time, curious time Gave me no compasses, gave me no signs Were there clues I didn't see?“

“Wool to brave the seasons One single thread of gold Tied me to you“ >> (Love the warmth and vibrancy of this. The wool makes me think of Avonlea blanketed in snow; the gold has me drinking sunshine, smelling goldenrod in October)

“Time, wondrous time Gave me the blues and then purple-pink skies“

“And isn't it just so pretty to think All along there was some Invisible string Tying you to me?“ (Love the idea of the string representing their friendship, how it never snipped. How it only braided together, growing tauter, closer, all the time.)

august hits me with a waterfall of Darvey/Donna and Harvey feels. There’s a wistfulness about this song that settles in my gut, twisting it with longing, with musings of all those Almosts in relationships that were so close to coming to fruition then never did. It’s so incredibly reminiscent of how Donna and Harvey toe the lie between friends and almost lovers who-are-nearly-there-but-not-quite for 12 years. IT HURTS SO GOOD.

“Back when we were still changin' for the better >> (THIS IS SO EMOTIONALLY RESONANT IT HURTS) Wanting was enough For me, it was enough To live for the hope of it all Canceled plans just in case you'd call”

But I can see us lost in the memory August slipped away into a moment in time 'Cause it was never mine And I can see us twisted in bedsheets August sipped away like a bottle of wine 'Cause you were never mine >> (Obviously I’m swimming in the angst of this until my fingers get all pruny.) 

Finally there’s mirrorball which is Jisbon/Jane and Lisbon all the way! It’s funny because when I first listened to Folkore I thought that’d be one of the last songs I’d pair with a ship?? YET HERE I AM. Jane was in the carnival circuit growing up and I cannot, for the life of me, stop attaching him to all the descriptions of the circus/revelry. So much of his schtick throughout the show comes down to trickery and observation, which he uses to size people up, and sarcasm, which he often employs as a defense mechanism to keep people at an emotional distance. I like the theme of this song for him and Lisbon. As the mirrorball, he’s shining his true self only for her. She’s the only person who sees his “shattered edges”; she’s not distracted by all his “glistening.” Here are my favorite lyrics that are applicable to them:

“I'm a mirrorball I'll show you every version of yourself tonight

“I can change everything about me to fit in You are not like the regulars The masquerade revelers Drunk as they watch my shattered edges glisten” >> (Okay, so this makes me think Jane’s on camera confession to Erica Flynn: “I’m looking for someone who…uh, someone I can trust. Someone strong. Someone at peace with themselves. Someone better than me. Someone who knows the…worst side of me and still loves me.")

“And they called off the circus, burned the disco down When they sent home the horses and the rodeo clowns I'm still on that tightrope I'm still trying everything to get you laughing at me”

“I'm still on that trapeze I'm still trying everything to keep you looking at me“

I will stop there because otherwise I could sit here analyzing songs and ships for the rest of my life, boring you to tears haha. Thanks for this, lovely! (And obviously I’d love to hear some of your song/ship matchups as well!) xx

#what-would-jane-austen-say #replies #the loveliest of lovely people #ashlee bree talks folklore and ships #i didn't do all 16 songs #but i covered a good number of them #from literati to darcy and elizabeth #from klaroline to jaime and brienne #from shirbert to darvey to jisbon #not bad for a day's worth of obsessive music analysis and listening i think!

[houseofvans]

SKETCHY BEHAVIORS | INTERVIEW WITH CHRISTIE SHINN

With the sharp-edged graphic feel, high contrast color palette, and a modern twist on traditional Hawaiiana, artist Christie Shinn’s paintings offer a fresh interpretation to life in Hawaii. Her beautiful works have not only appeared as a Vans shoe design, but also as the artwork for the Vans 2013 Triple Crown of Surfing event. Not only one thing, Christie is also the art director and collaborating artist at Surfer Towel, where her two towel designs will be released this summer.  Find out more about Christie’s artwork, inspiration, and favorite collaboration by taking the leap below! 

Photographs courtesy of the artist. | Portraits by Joel Terron Photography

Introduce yourself?   My name is Christie Shinn. I’m a resident of the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii.  I’m Canadian but I’ve called Hawaii home for over a decade. 

What kind of work do you create? What medium and what would you say it is about?  I work in acrylic paint on canvas, wood, leather.. really, anything the paint will stick to.  

I’d say the style of work is a modern version of traditional Hawaiiana (Hawaii-inspired art/craft).  

I taught myself to paint, and my favorite art at the time was early skate graphics and silkscreened concert posters so I think there is a sharp-edged graphic feel to my work because of that.  I like to go high contrast with color and pick subjects that are a little off-typical.  I live in a place that is so familiar to people all over the world, even if they’ve never been here.  I feel like it’s my job to find a fresh interpretation of life in Hawaii. 

How did you start from doodling and drawing to what you do now? Where did your love of drawing and creating stem from?  My grandma taught me how to paint when I was a kid.  I remember being fascinated with making marks on a canvas. It starts off blank, then it’s something and each choice is totally up to you.  Some are good choices, some aren’t, but they’re all yours.  I still love that about making art.  I get to sit at my easel and create a thing that did’t exist before I thought of it.  So cool.  

Who and what were some of your early artistic influences?  My favourite artist as a kid was Henri Rousseau who created massive tropical themed paintings, even though he’d never been outside of France. He created an entire lifetime of artwork exploring his tropical fantasy world.  His work is so weird and wonderful.  

When I started getting serious about art, my absolute favourite artist was (and still is) Andrew Pommier.  I love his characters, I love his style.  I feel like I can look into the eyes of one of his characters and see an entire backstory.  One of his pieces is on my studio wall for both inspiration and as a barometer for my own work. Even though we have different styles, I try to make sure each new piece that leaves the studio is worthy to be hung next to the Pommier. 

What are some things that inspire the drawings you make now? What are some of your favorite things to draw? What about them makes them something you just find yourself re-creating or re-capturing over and over again?  I’ve spent a lot of years living on the North Shore of Oahu and about 4 years ago I met my boyfriend who lives on the South Shore. His place is an hour drive , and it’s like a whole new island visually.  The colors are different, the ocean is different, the sunsets…everything is new and fresh.  I think a lot of my work over the past 4 years has been inspired by the contrast between the two shores.  

Take us through your artistic process? What’s a typical day in the studio like? I wake up at 7:30am, get some cuddle time with the cat, make coffee and wait for my assistant to come over.  He packs orders while I paint. Usually a friend drops by at some point because I live on a property with several houses and my neighbours are all friends.  If it’s a surf day, we break for a surf.  The afternoon is a mix of planning out new pieces, answering emails, prepping orders and generally taking care of the business side of art.  I’ll do an evening beach run if I’m feeling energetic.  Watch the sunset.  Usually with a beer.  After dinner, I’m back at the easel until about midnight.  Nighttime is my favourite time to paint because there are no distractions. 

I always take weekends off to maintain the work/life balance.  It can get obsessive, especially when I’m struggling with a piece.  Mandatory time off helps me reset.  

What art tools will we always find in your creative space? Is there a medium you want to try that you have yet to get your hands on?  I keep it pretty minimal when it comes to materials.  I have one large brush for lay in, 3  flats and 2 liner brushes.  I always have several blank canvases hanging at all times.  Since inspiration is hard to control, I think the key is to be ready for when it strikes.  

I’ve always been fascinated with screen printing.  I’d love to dabble in that one day.

What’s been one of your more rewarding collaborations or projects? What about it was so rewarding? What would your dream collaboration be?  I first worked with Vans in 2013 as the poster artist for their Triple Crown of Surfing event here on the North Shore.  I did a bonus design that they turned into a limited edition capsule collection. It was on button up shirts, bags, hats, towels.. I didn’t know any of this until I opened up the box of samples. It was so unexpected, I actually teared up a little. What a crazy feeling to see your art on a Vans product.  That moment really made a lasting impact.  After that, I started to really believe it was possible to have a career doing something I was good at and that I loved.  I owe a huge debt to the Vans design team of ’13.

A few years later I got to collaborate with Vans again on a shoe design for the Japan market.  It was my favourite collaboration to date because they let me customize everything: the shoe, the insole, the box and even the tissue paper!  

A few months later I’m in Tokyo doing a signing event next to a wall of my shoes.  It was surreal.

I think my dream collaboration would be collaboration shoe for Vans USA. I love to hand-paint Vans and I have a couple favourites from the hand painted series I’d love to see as a production shoe.  Also, the Japan sizes were so small I never got a pair I could actually wear myself! 

What do you do when you’re not drawing or working on projects?  When I have a lot of down time, I love to travel. Japan is my favourite destination right now.  When I have a little space in the day, I’ll log some hammock time, go for a surf, run, take photos…not in that order. 

What’s the art community like where you are? What kind of avenues are there for artists in your area or is it more of a DIY type of thing?  Hawaii is a great place for artists.  We have a lot of galleries, local shops and businesses that feature the work of local artists.  There are so many interesting opportunities outside the gallery scene too. For example, some big hotels in Honolulu have been doing rebrands over the last few years and nearly every one has hired a local artist to help refresh their look.  There is also a lot of love for Hawaii in Japan which has lead to some really cool collaborations between local artists and Japanese companies.  It’s a really great place to be an artist because there is no one measure of success. There are so many ways to have an art career here. 

What’s your art tip that you want to share with folks?  I try to keep the usual stuff in mind as I work: contrast, energy, balance.  If there is a lot of warmth, add a splash of cool. If you go high-detail, balance it with some negative space. Dark/light etc… 

My favourite pieces are the ones that still have the energy of the first strokes when they’re finished.  Overworking is so easy to do.  I try to take breaks and walk away or put it away for a while. I usually have several pieces going at the same time for this reason.

What are your favorite style of VANS? My favourite Vans are Slip-Ons.  It’s customary to take your shoes off outside of homes and some offices in Hawaii. I take my shoes on and off a lot in a day so the slip-ons are the way to go.  Also, they have more surface area to paint on, so they get an extra point for that as well. 

What do you have coming up that you can share or are super stoked about?  My newest collaboration is with Japanese airline ANA and LeSportsac.  I created a series of bag designs for LeSportasac that will be available exclusively on ANA flights.  I’m on my way to Japan in May for an art festival so I’ll actually get to see the bags on the flight.  

I’m also pretty stoked on 2 new towel designs I have coming out this summer for Surfer Towel.

FOLLOW CHRISTIE | WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM 

#Art #Vans #Vans Art #Vans Girls #Vans Surf #Christie Shinn #surfing #painting #acrylic #SKETCHY BEHAVIORS

[fruit-teeth]

More TF2 OCs: the children

Okay, so...this is the result of me realizing that I have a lot of TF2 OCs who are children of various characters, and I wanted to just like...gush about them, I guess?? I haven’t made a post like this in a while and no one asked for it but I just wanted to have it here. These are in no particular order, and I may add on to the list but I’m not sure yet. There’s a lot of kids, and this took me a while to complete, so...yeah. Also, if you wanna see stories involving these characters, uhh let me know! I love writing for these little folks. 

Dee-

First appearing in my story Dumpster Diving, Dee is Sniper’s adopted daughter who he found abandoned inside a dumpster. Dee didn’t find out she was adopted until she was five years old, when Sniper showed her a picture of her birth mother and explained what happened. She wasn’t upset to find this out, and she’s never shown any interest in finding her biological family. While Sniper adopted her, Dee sees Scout as her other parent, as Sniper and Scout began dating when Dee was still a baby.

Dee loves nature, she’s very good with animals and she’s also very interested in marine biology. She has a bunch of books all about animals, and every Saturday she gets Sniper to drive her to the library to check out more books. She gets along well with other children but she’s somewhat introverted and prefers her alone time.

AJ-

AJ showed up for the first time in my story Avalanche, where he’s born. He came into the world very unexpectedly, but Sniper and Scout immediately accepted him despite everything. They raised AJ alongside Dee, and since then they’ve always seen each other as brother and sister.

AJ and Scout have always been very close, ever since AJ was born, and as a result, AJ developed a lot of interests like Scout’s, such as baseball, drawing and even Tom Jones. But AJ also took an interest in movies and movie making, and seeing this, Sniper bought him a video camera for his birthday. AJ loved it, but it got him into some trouble when he secretly filmed Spy (his grandfather) sleeping and then played it on the projector during their movie night.

Titania-

Titania has only appeared in maybe 2 stories of mine, but she was first mentioned Hiccup (though she’s unnamed in that one). Her parents are Heavy and Medic, who both treat her like a total princess. While she isn’t considered spoiled, it’s not a secret that her parents would move Heaven and Earth for her.

Titania is very well-behaved, she always seems to be in a good mood, and she’s also very social and talkative. She speaks three languages (German, Russian, and English), and she’s known how to use weapons from a young age, mainly for protection purposes. She spends a lot of time playing piano and generally has a fondness for music, which likely comes from Medic constantly playing records of all kinds around her as she’s grown up.

June-

I can only say so much about June, because if I gave every detail about her then I would spoil parts of my current story In the Wall, in which June appears. June is Miss Pauling’s daughter, born illegitimately and under very strange circumstances. Pauling cared for June when she was a newborn, but due to time constraints and her demanding job, Pauling eventually was forced to put June in someone else’s care. Luckily and seemingly out of the blue, Spy offered, and he took June in to care for her while Pauling got herself sorted out. June still sees Pauling regularly and knows that she’s her mother, and while the two are close June prefers spending time with Spy since she’s used to him.

June is very quiet and keeps to herself, although she’s known for being quippy and funny when she does talk. She always had difficulty making friends, but she eventually bonded with Dee over their shared love of animals. June likes Dee, although they don’t always get along due to June’s reserved nature. June’s ‘best friend’ is a tiny doll that she sewed herself and affectionately named The Denzel, and she’s often seen talking to it. This makes Miss Pauling very nervous, and she tries to convince June not to carry around the doll anymore, but June just ignores her. Spy doesn’t see anything wrong with it and thinks she’s just playing, but he keeps on eye on the situation.

Abraham-

Abraham (called ‘Abe’ for short) and his twin sister haven’t appeared in any stories of mine, not yet anyway. He’s the older twin child of Soldier and Zhanna, and although he’s always been somewhat small, this has never stopped Soldier from training him for warfare ever since the day he was born. Much like his sister and his cousin Titania, Abe has known how to use a gun ever since he was a toddler, although he can only use smaller guns since the recoil of a bigger one could possibly hurt him.

Abe is a very loud and rambunctious child, although he doesn’t always mean to be. Despite his vibrant nature, he’s actually very sweet and cuddly with everyone, especially his mother. He loves both of his parents but he’s very clingy with Zhanna, and while she didn’t mind this at first she’s starting to become a bit sick of it the bigger he gets.

Abe is obsessed with comic books and loves superheroes, to the point where he creates little stories about his favorite heroes and talks about them to whoever will listen any chance he gets. He even has a notebook, which is just full of pages upon pages of his stories and his superhero drawings.

Aleksandra-

Aleksandra (called ‘Sandra’ for short) is the younger twin of Soldier and Zhanna, and she’s the physically stronger one as well. Sandra really took after her father, immediately taking a liking to firearms and developing a strong love of America. Although Soldier encourages her and her brother to be as American as they can, Sandra and Abe are both bilingual, as they are fluent in English and Russian.

Sandra loves wrestling and watches it all the time, but as a result, she’s very pugnacious and prone to violence. It got to a point where she was just too rough with the other kids and accidentally ended up injuring AJ during a play-wrestling match, and afterwards, Zhanna had to scold her about it. Sandra tries to be more careful now, but it isn’t easy as she’s not a small girl at all. Despite her rough nature, Sandra does play with the other children but prefers to spend the most time with Titania, her cousin, who she considers her best friend.

Maria-

Maria has not appeared in any of my stories, although I plan to write about her at some point. Her background is very troubled, and she wound up in the Teufort Orphanage where she stayed until she was twelve years old. At twelve, she ran away from the orphanage but ended up meeting Engineer in a gas station. Engineer pitied her and eventually convinced her to go back to the orphanage with him, but when he saw the appalling conditions she was living in, he ended up adopting her. Maria didn’t like him at first since she felt like he was too intrusive, but eventually, she grew a fondness for him and now she’s just accepted him as her father.

Maria appears to have a rather hostile nature at first, but she’s really very loyal and kind. She’s also incredibly smart, namely in the areas of math and literature, although she doesn’t always show her intelligence off. She has a hard time fitting in with the other kids, as she’s significantly older, but she became a sort of big sister to them and helps them with their homework from time to time.

Cora-

Cora’s backstory is still a bit fuzzy, but I plan to write more of her in the future. Cora spent the majority of her life alone in the rural areas of Scotland with her ailing mother, but when she was six years old her mother died very suddenly. Cora, however, was found to be related to the DeGroot family, but when most of the family either wasn’t able to care for her or couldn’t be bothered to, Cora was sent to live with Demoman. Even though they were related, the two had never met and Cora was rather afraid of him at first and would hide from him a lot. Demo managed to win her over, though, luring her out of her hiding spaces with food or toys or funny jokes. Now, Cora looks up to him and follows him everywhere, and his influence helped her develop a better sense of confidence and self-esteem.

Cora discovered her love of explosives after spending time with Demo, although her interests lean more towards fireworks or an explosion that has vibrant colors. While Demo encourages her interests, Cora has been reprimanded several times by the other mercenaries for setting off her fireworks, since her fireworks would result in either disturbing the wildlife or destroying property. Cora found a different, colorful outlet, though, in watercolor painting, as she can be as colorful and wild with painting as she wants. However, fireworks are really what she prefers, and the Fourth of July quickly became her favorite holiday after she moved to the US. 

#this is all i got for now but #hope you like them #im gonna draw them at some point too #writing #my writing #long post #tf2 #tf2 sniperscout #tf2 heavymedic #tf2 soldierzhanna #tf2 ocs #so many kids #damn #my ocs

[evermorepeyton]

LOVER IS INCREDIBLE

TS7 snapped I AM SO GIDDY AND HAPPY AND PROUD OF YOU @taylorswift

I forgot that you existed: LOVE THIS ONE! a great opening song omg !!! the way she speaks the word “indifference”. i think it’s just perfection, and the beat is SICK. THE WAY SHE CLOSES THE SONG WITH A “SO..... YEAH”

favorite lyric: “and i would’ve stuck around for you. would’ve fought the whole town, so yeah. would’ve been right there, front row even if nobody came to your show” THAT IS SO RELATABLE WHEN YOU ~WOULD HAVE~ BEEN THERE FOR SOMEONE BUT THEY HAD TO FUCK UP.

cruel summer: ONE OF MY FAVORITES! the perfect pop song, i wish it had been the lead single or the second single. her vocals are incredible. the lyrics are so good i am literally so in love, she did it again, mesmerized me with her lyricism !!!

favorite lyric: (literally the entire bridge but) “and i screamed for whatever it’s worth “i love you”, ain’t that the worst thing you’ve ever heard?” ALSO HONORABLE MENTION TO THE HE LOOKS UP GRINNING LIKE A DEVIL LINE PLS !!!! AND TO “devils roll the dice, angels roll their eyes. what doesn’t kill me makes me want you more”

lover: WE KNOW THIS ONE! STILL PERFECT! MY WEDDING SONG EVEN THOUGH I AM SINGLE! I WANT TO FALL IN LOVE JUST TO RELATE!

favorite lyric: THE ENTIRE BRIDGE OH MY GOD !!!

the man: THIS IS MY FAVORITE ONE 100% SHE SPILLED !!! i am so proud of her for making this song that not only is it something she can relate to because of how women are treated in the industry BUT ALL WOMEN CAN RELATE TO BECAUSE SOCIETY SUCKS ALL AROUND THE WORLD !!!! and “wondering if i’d get there quicker if i was a man” can also apply to 9 to 5 jobs that are really competitive and for some reason the men always get the positions of power no matter what we do lmao. ANYWAYS I LOVE IT SO MUCH IT’S PERFECT!

favorite lyric: (all of it but) THE ENTIRE BRIDGE! AGAIN! “what’s it like to brag about drinking and dollars and getting bitches and models? (...) if i was out flashing my dollars, i’d be a bitch not a baller, they’d paint me out to be bad SO IT’S OKAY THAT I’M MAD” GIRL !!!!!! THIS TEA !!!!!! i am so proud of her :’) also i love the line “i’d be just like leo in saint tropez” because she has dated like a normal person in their twenties but somehow got slut shamed for it her entire career BUT IF SHE WAS A MAN SHE WOULD LITERALLY BE LEO AT SAINT TROPEZ NO ONE WOULD SAY A GODDAMN THING AND IT WOULD EVEN BE FUN !!!! AND SOMETHING TO APPLAUD HER FOR !!!!!

the archer: have always loved this one wbk <3 so relatable, so vulnerable, i love it still and forever will.

favorite lyric: “all the king’s horses, all the king’s men, couldn’t put me together again. cause all of my enemies started out friends” literally the most heartbreaking thing ever. and i feel for her. having friends become enemies is the ~worst~ because if you make an enemy from the beginning that’s okay, they don’t know you, if they don’t like you that’s none of your business! but having FRIENDS, people who KNOW you completely and have seen you at your best and worst...... and suddenly decided that they don’t like you anymore, when they have seen every part of you..... that makes you feel like shit. you KNOW me, and you didn’t like me enough to stay. :((

i think he knows: A BOP !! literally such a summer bop to listen to in the car in the sunshine omg. i like it so much.

favorite lyric: “he got my heartbeat skipping down 16th avenue.”

miss americana and the heartbreak prince: WHAT IS THIS EVEN ABOUT I DONT KNOW BUT THIS ONE IS ACTUALLY PERFECTION. i picture this really creepy weird high school in my mind, the aesthetic i see in my head i am obsessed. one of the best in the album 13/10.

favorite lyric: “i’m feeling helpless, the damsels are depressed. boys will be boys then, where are the wise men? darling i’m scared” BECAUSE !!!!! and i am also obsessed with “voted most likely to run away with you” + THAT BRIDGE !!!

paper rings: the lyrics are really soft BUT THE SOUND OF IT !! it’s a literal rollercoaster, again! such a fun summer song, i love it.

favorite lyric: “i’m with you even if it makes me blue. which takes me back to the color that we painted your brother’s wall. honey without all the exes, fights, and flaws we wouldn’t be standing here so tall.”

cornelia street: THIS ONE MADE ME CRY! it’s so personal and it’s crystal clear how much taylor cares about her relationship, it made me emotional for some reason. i really like it and it’s not what i expected AT ALL, but it is so beautiful. her voice right after the bridge AHHH I SCREAMED.

favorite lyric: “i hope i never lose you, i hope it never ends. i’d never walk cornelia street again. that’s the kind of heartbreak time could never mend” literally the chorus but i love it <3, also “barefoot in the kitchen, sacred new beginnings that became my religion.”

death by a thousand cuts: I THINK THIS ONE WAS INSPIRED BY SOMEONE GREAT AND THAT MAKES IT SO EXCITING TO ME BECAUSE I LOVE THAT MOVIE <3 i wish it had a bridge because i love bridges but the perfect second verse makes up for it !!

favorite lyric: THE SECOND VERSE, ALL OF IT, GOODBYE.

london boy: LOVE THIS ONE 1) A BOP 2) ALL THOSE ENGLISH REFERENCES REALLY MADE IT PERFECT OH MY GOD!!!! i love it 100%

favorite lyric: “show me a gray sky, a rainy cab ride. babes, don’t threaten me with a good time (THE WAY SHE SAYS THIS) they say home is where the heart is. but god, i love the english” also THE BRIDGE ! + taylor saying “mates” PLEASE THIS IS ALL I HAVE EVER WANTED!

soon you’ll get better: beautiful. sending so much love taylor’s and andrea’s way. it’s so personal and all i could ever do is thank her for sharing. i cried, a lot. it’s very real and emotional.

false god: this one is so good, it’s not what i expected but i love it !!

favorite lyric: “i know heaven’s a thing, i go there when you touch me honey. hell is when i fight with you but we can patch it up good.”

yntcd: WE KNOW THIS ONE! I STILL LOVE IT!

favorite lyric: “and we see you over there on the internet, comparing all the girls who are killing it. but we figured you out, we all know now, we all got crowns” AND “SHADE NEVER MADE ANYBODY LESS GAY” OF COURSE.

afterglow: another beautiful song sonically, the lyrics make me a little sad but i also know relationships be like that sometimes :/ i love this one!!!

favorite lyric: “it’s so excruciating to see you low, just wanna lift you up and not let go” because this is so real, fighting is hard when you don’t want to hurt the other person BUT YOU KNOW THAT YOU ARE DOING IT AND YOU WANT TO MAKE THEM FEEL OKAY BUT YOU ARE ALSO GOING THROUGH IT !!!!!

ME!: a cute bop but WHEN I PUT IT NEXT TO THESE OTHER SONGS IT’S NOT AS GOOD :/ still love it and i will forever scream it at the top of my lungs while having fun in the car, it’s all about the memories we are building with this songs folks!!

favorite lyric: “living in winter i am your summer.”

it’s nice to have a friend: this one is a little weird, i am still not sure what it’s about and the production is a bit weird. i am not sure, it’s not a favorite.

favorite lyric: “light pink sky on the roof, sun sinks down, no curfew.”

DAYLIGHT: this one is a literal pink sky, you can’t change my mind, i love it so much. it’s really soft and emotional for me. i hope this turns into my life, all i could ever hope for. LOVE LOVE LOVE IT <3

favorite lyric: “threw out our cloaks and our daggers because it’s morning now, it’s brighter now” I FEEL THAT IN MY LIFE RIGHT NOW AHHH.

“i once believed love would be burning RED but it’s golden like daylight” THE PERFECT LINE !!! THE BEST LINE !!!!!!!!!!

“you gotta step into the daylight and let it go” I JUST LOVE THIS ONE BECAUSE I’VE BEEN OBSESSED WITH THIS QUOTE FOR MONTHS AND REVOLVED MY LIFE AROUND IT ALL THIS TIME AND WHEN I HEARD IT I SCREAMED !!!!

“i just think that you are what you love” a perfect closing line. this woman’s mind is out of this world.

overall i am obsessed with this album, the soundtrack of this new chapter of my life and i could NOT BE MORE GRATEFUL.

top 5

1. THE MAN !!!!

2. miss americana and the heartbreak prince

3. cruel summer

4. i forgot that you existed

5. i think he knows (or london boy I AM NOT SURE) (also cornelia street is probably what follows this list very closely sooooo)

@taylorswift i love you thank you for writing the perfect album.

#taylor swift #lover #LOVER OUT NOW #cruel summer #the man #ts7 #taylor nation #taylurking #swifties

[erinthewriter-blog]

3 Hacks for Character Creation

We begin a story for the plot, but we stay for the characters. Creating personalities that don’t feel wooden or ridiculous is difficult and often ends with me smashing my head against the keys until the obvious solution comes to me. There is no magical one-size-fits-all approach to characters, but here are three easy hacks that have completely changed my writing process and hopefully they help you too!

If you’d rather watch my video on this, click here.

A good way to study the craft (aka listening to writing podcasts while I workout) is to learn your creative hero’s process and then try it on for size. I learned this first one from Guillermo Del Toro when he was talking about his process for writing The Shape of Water and let me tell you, it has changed the game.

1.     The Family Tree

Write your character’s grandparent’s entire life history, the characters parents’ entire life history, and what happened to your character up until the audience meets them.

I know me saying that sounds like a slog, but we’re only putting down the essentials, highlights, and what changed and shaped them as a human.

Examine the grandparents and parents. How did their upbringing effect the way they show or don’t show their emotions? Did they grow up watching their parent’s expressing their anger in an explosive way where they break things and hit each other and now your character does that to? Or are they so traumatized from that physical abuse of power that they only use their words when they’re angry? Or now they only use their words, but they border on verbal abuse and now their kid is really drawn in because of it.

·        Maybe they lock themselves away? Or cut people off? Or they’re passive aggressive? Or want to have revenge? How people react when they’re angry says a lot about them.

Examine how they show affection vs. how affection or a lack thereof was shown in their household.

Where their lots of hugs and kisses and verbal affirmations? Did the parents do the thing where after an argument they demanded a hug out of that character or a kiss on the cheek whether they wanted it or not?

·        How did this effect their capacity for intimacy and the ways they went about fining a partner?

Everything stems from something, folks! Parents or guardians set up how you view the world. They let us know what is appropriate and what is not. They set up the way you are allowed to be treated and what love looks like whether it is healthy or not. That is that character’s normal!

2.     Become your own set designer!

Figure out what is in their current and/or childhood bedroom. In a childhood bedroom we can really see the evolution of a person. We can see what phases of interests they went through and what they hide from the world. It’s more than if they’re messy or tidy.

Its hidden gems like:

·        Posters of obscure time travel films from the 40’s

·        Well-worn books on anatomy and disfigurement with colorful tabs sticking out

·        A whole shelf for self-care because they get stressed out easily

·        One wall is a Van Gogh painting

·        They call another wall “The Murder Wall,” but really its just books shelves of crime novels.

Example 1: In the Truth Weekend screenplay, Skye is a guarded character with a party girl persona, but her room shows her softer side and how much of a dork she secretly is.  

Example 2: In the movie Lady Bird, the main character writes the names of boys that she likes on her walls and at the end of the movie she takes down all the posters she has and paints over the names like a symbol of a new beginning as if what those boys did, didn’t matter anymore.

·        You can also make charts and mood boards for their clothes with color schemes that you want to stick to if you’re feeling arty.

 3.     Themes!

Every time I think of a new story, its always tied to this theme I’m interested in exploring. I’ve got something on my mind that I need to hammer out or there’s something I need to say and what better way than through my characters?

Example Themes: the fear of failure, having to grow up too soon, the obsession with youth, the obsession with constant happiness, the desire to numb yourself, ect.

Once I have my themes, I try to figure out how I can show different viewpoints of these issues and different ways it can manifest in these characters and sometimes each character gets their own theme. This creates goals, mental and physical obstacles, and GIVES YOU BUILT IN PERSONALITY TRAITS.

Example: Say I have a story that explores the need for approval from others. Then I would make one character struggle with perfection, another character has issues self-control, and the other struggles with setting boundaries and not being able to recognize when they are being manipulated or when there is coercion involved with making a decision.

How do characters react to these traits? How do they react to one character’s inability to apologize or admit they’re wrong vs. the other blaming everything on themselves and being a martyr? Use these traits to your advantage!

Those are all my tips! Happy writing :)

#WIP #hacks #writing #screenwriting #script #screenplay #creative writing #writblr #booklr #youtube #author #books #authortube #aspiring author #booktube #book writing #bookworm #bookstagram #writers #writers block #nanowrimo #nano #CAMP NANOWRIMO #camp nano #camp nano 2018 #camp nano april 2018 #excerpt from a book i'll never write #wlw books #diy #diverse books

[despairingvacation]

EXECUTION [6]: PATRICIA WATSON

The debate over who the mastermind could be raged on for some time. With all of the clues the survivors found, they tried to pinpoint who fits every clue. It had to be one of them! As they got to the last clue, Peacock was already suspected, but they were stuck on one thing: the glasses. How could that link to her?

“Oh, that’s easy!”

The tween speaks up, and all eyes were on her. Leaning forward on the podium, she smiles, saying, "It's because I got a fuckton of eyes, idiots. Y'done playing detective yet?"

Shock fell over the room. Even as they tried to calm her, saying they weren’t necessarily accusing her, she laughed. “I'm just fuckin' bored of waiting fer you all to figure out the obvious! It is me, bastards!”

Survivors and viewers alike almost couldn’t fathom it. Peacock? The mastermind? Many wanted to deny that was true, but donned in her new outfit, she can’t help but continue to keep that smug grin plastered on her face. Already asked to explain, she keeps leaning on her podium, a childlike quality now more apparent in her true persona. Her explanation begins:

Even as a child, she’s felt different from the other kids in her class. Shitty childhood aside, even the love everyone had shown her didn’t bring her comfort. Patricia Watson had a hard time feeling anything besides one thing and one thing alone: despair. It was her one way of taking control over a life that didn’t allow her to make her own decisions--in this killing game, she was the queen, and everyone was at her mercy, even if they didn’t realize it.

Hope’s Peak was boring as is. It was time to have a little fun at everyone’s expense.

Bendy, she says, was the easiest to convince to help her out. All she had to do was promise him fame and fortune, and he was in the palm of her hand. His obsession with her, however, was excessive, and the way she speaks illustrates just how disgusted she was with it all. It was all an act, she insists, saying she didn’t feel much for anyone on the island. Why would she? She’s going to have them all killed anyway, so what’s the use with getting attached?

One person, however, stood out in her explanation: Marie.

All Patricia wanted in her life was the chance to kill her best friend, but that was taken from her. It filled her with despair, sure, but it definitely wasn’t the same.

Angered by the state of things thus far, Akihiko punches her in the face. Patricia only grins, asking him to do it again. He backs down. Being promptly disowned by Totoko, she can hear Tohru say he doesn’t hold anything against her, but she staunchly ignores it. She isn’t sure what to make of that, so not acknowledging it is for the best.

Finally, she reveals one last key bit of information: she only acted accordingly with how she thought the audience would like it. The way she responded to people, the amount of emotions she showed, expressing anger and sadness at the right times… It was exactly what the viewers wanted, and they ate that shit up. She seems smug when she talks about, actually, much to the anger of the others. If she hadn’t been the cause behind everyone’s deaths, some might even call her manner of speaking cute! The cuteness is gradually replaced by confidence, seemingly not regretting a thing she had done.

Even as she explains how the audience projects on everyone that’s been involved, she’s cheerful when she mentions how she didn’t have to push anyone to develop. It was their own doing, and it was pretty entertaining!

"You know what’s better, though?"

Silence falls over the room. The mastermind is pausing for dramatic effect, and surprisingly, nobody interrupts.

"A plot twist no one saw coming. This is it! Me, the beloved comic relief, one of the fan favorites, was actually the showrunner the entire time! Boy, I bet people seeing this are screaming right now! I’d love to be able to hear it.”

Nobody else seems as amused as she does. The tween frowns, a bit disappointed. This wasn’t unexpected, but she wishes they were as easy to force into despair as Bendy was. Guess he was the traitor for a reason, eh folks?

As a vote is called, she is unsurprisingly voted the mastermind. That part wasn’t an act, at least! Peacock, Ultimate Despair, the mastermind behind the whole killing game, has been revealed to a worldwide audience, and she couldn’t be happier with the results. The grin that’s been on her face refuses to leave, and she clasps her hands, having one last thing to say:

“Well, y’know how the sayin’ goes: That’s all, folks!”

> GAME OVER

> PATRICIA WATSON HAS BEEN FOUND GUILTY.

She isn’t scared. In fact, she was prepared for this the entire time. Instead of being dragged to her execution, Peacock smiles, bowing and waving before her surviving classmates before walking to her execution.

It’s as if she’s been prepared for this the entire time. Is she… Looking forward to this? Why does she seem so smug?

> TIME FOR THE MASTERMIND’S ULTRA DESPAIR-INDUCING PUNISHMENT!

TW: Body horror, blood, gore, fire, car crashes, implied drowning and impalement, guns, knives, unsanitary, mentions of dismemberment

As everyone stands silently, they notice a projector--which had been present in the trial room all this time, funnily enough--springing to life, displaying a black & white scene before them. Jolly, happy music plays in the background, and nothing about the spectacle seems real. It’s like some poor rubber hose animator painstakingly drew this scene from scratch, and boy is Patricia living it up!

It’s fairly reminiscent of Bendy’s execution: a cartoonized Peacock exists in a toon world, her dark eyes seeming more natural in this setting than in real life. However, what seems extra familiar about this area is… She’s on a talk show? Sitting on a couch, she seems to be talking merrily with a cartoon version of Goro Akechi, who sits at the typical talk show host desk, stained with blood. The pink on his black and white attire really stands out, actually.

Smiling, Goro pushes a button, strapping Peacock to the couch she’s been talking on, but she doesn’t seem bothered. As the camera pans away from the setup (revealing it’s actually in an aquarium tank), pink fluid can be seen filling the tank from the bottom up. Goro doesn’t seem bothered in the least, looking quite amused as the area begins to fill with blood. The mastermind grins, and the footage immediately cuts away to another scene.

Standing on another stage, Peacock stands besides an impaled Hibiki Wataru, looking a little worse for wear. The tween, however, still seems as intact as ever, and possibly even more excited than before. Wataru begins to attach familiar restraints to the girl’s body, but nothing about it is forced--it’s as if he wants to do this to her. As she watches the contraption hang precariously above her, the magician pays no mind to the timer counting down before them, insisting on pulling the lever as soon as he’s able to. The girl’s laugh can be heard right before it comes crashing down onto her, and again the footage skips to something different.

Although dressed more extravagantly than the other prisoners, Peacock stands idly in her jail cell, swaying back and forth as she waits for the horn to sound. Even while restrained to a ball and chain, the mastermind has a slight sway in her step, as if she’s manipulated the ball enough to not tie her down. It’s a cartoon, remember? Jeez, keep up! Or maybe Tougou Hajime should? He’s not trailing too far behind her, bullet holes and stab wounds covering his entire body while holding a knife in his only attached arm. The thrill of the chase is one thing, but seeing reanimated cartoon versions of her classmates holding guns in her direction? That’s just absolutely despair inducing!

Like the other scenes, of course, it cuts away right before one of them gets to her. It’s difficult to tell if Tougou got to her or if one of her classmates did first.

Tied to a firetruck ladder, Peacock’s being driven by none other than Clive Dove himself! He looks worse for wear, burn scars and his half dead self apparent even in this Toontown setting. A cartoon version of Hope’s Peak is already burning to the ground, various helpless nameless students running from it. Is the mastermind taking any of this seriously? No, not really. It’s hard to tell if she even catches on fire or not considering this short clip skips right before the truck makes an impact.

Now, the scene doesn’t seem as familiar--unlike the other scenes, this one is more realistic and in color. With her feet on the dashboard, Peacock leans back in the passenger seat, grinning deviously as a half melted Bendy is taking the wheel in what appears to be the mastermind’s car. Speeding down route 66, her grin only grows wider, yelling at Bendy to “go faster!” every so often. She sits up, practically standing her seat as soon as the speedometer is well over 100 mph. They’re approaching something in the distance, and Peacock, as confident as ever, lights one last cigar as the upcoming obstacle gets closer and closer.

It appears to be a brick wall, but with one thing off about it: a comical black hole placed, as if Bugs Bunny himself placed it. Unbothered, she simple keeps standing in her seat, looking toward the hole with determination in her sick, sick eyes. Is she trying to escape!?

Yes.

She was.

It’s not until they’re mere seconds from collision does she realize it’s painted on.

If the survivors look hard enough, they can see slight fear in her eyes. Real, genuine fear. This isn’t a cartoon anymore, Patricia.

Right as the car collides with the wall, a loud, sickening splat is heard. Unlike the other times, the film reel doesn’t cut away, revealing a smashed car, ink, and a hell of a lot of blood. It’s hard to tell where Peacock even is anymore amidst the wreckage, but one thing can be said for sure: the mastermind is officially dead, and this nightmare of a killing game is over.

Finally, the presentation stops. A soft click can be heard behind Peacock’s podium, and if anyone goes to investigate, they’ll find a boat engine.

4/18 REMAIN....

#chapter 6 #execution #execution [6] #dv update #HOOOOOOO #ITS OVER #DV'S OVER #dv1

[sjrresearch]

Debunking Myths About Historical Wargaming

This article is intended to debunk myths about the hobby and practice of wargaming. It’s a bit of an opinion piece, so I don’t expect that everyone’s personal bugbear will be addressed in this article (that and I only have so much space for my editor to work with). I do want to say this before we begin. Wargaming is a hobby that’s gotten a bad rap over the years in some circles. I think in many ways, undeservedly, and I want to address some of the more common myths I have heard on my own. Much of this debunking will be anecdotal evidence, but the fact is, like any hobby, it takes all kinds.

Wargaming encourages war, or makes it more acceptable

To me, this is one of the more laughable accusations I’ve heard over the years. The truth is far from it. Some of the biggest pacificists I’ve known outside of the military are wargamers. You might ask, “why is that?” I mean, our hobby is gaming out the worst day in someone’s life. Well, that’s exactly why. When you game and read about this stuff, eventually, it will sink through to even the densest person that the reality of war is quite different than wargaming. This is doubly so if you’re a historical wargamer. 

To quote Sherman, “War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it; the crueler it is, the sooner it will be over.” And that’s the paradox in a nutshell of being a wargamer. War is cruel. But we turn it into a game. And it allows some clarity and an ability to gain some hindsight from a rather cruel and chaotic enterprise. Many of the veterans I know in the hobby play because, in some way, I think they seek that hindsight. This is especially true with the most recent conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq (quite a few veterans of that conflict are wargamers, either playing some form of science fiction game, such as 40K, or historical miniatures). 

Does it make war more acceptable or encourage it? No. I’d say not. What it does encourage is a deeper study of history. I know history has a lot of baggage these days. I would say this: Don’t let modern sensibilities seek to derail a lifetime effort to understand. I don’t, and I won’t. And I don’t sit there and go, “Yay, another war to game out!” We’ve got quite a few already, and I would be happy if war as a concept was banished to the gaming tables. Sadly, I don’t think that’s happening anytime soon. 

Wargamers are anti-social weirdos

Ok, this one makes me scratch my head. Look, this hobby can turn obsessive for a lot of people (personally, I think most wargamers are repressed megalomaniacs who express it through the size of their gaming collections! We do suffer from an “Ooh Shiny!” when the latest thing comes out!) But the fact is, we come from all walks of life. I’ve known soldiers, professors, venture capitalists, writers (we’re actually overrepresented in this hobby), cops, and doctors (the latter came in handy when I had a seizure at a convention one year!), and everything in between. I will admit this is an overeducated hobby. Wanna feel dumb? Be the guy with only a BA in History in a room full of guys with Masters and PhDs at a wargaming convention trying to keep up in a discussion about just how realistic the “pasta rule” in SPI’s Africa Campaign really was? 

Look, there is always “that guy” in the hobby who’s maybe got a few screws loose and could use a better acquaintance with a bar of soap. All of us in the hobby have known or do know people like that. The truth is, those folks often attend one or two games and then get told not to come back. And to be blunt, those folks often have more going on in their lives than just the fact they are wargamers. But most of us are social, love to hang out, and are lively inside of said circles. It’s just outside of those circles, we tend to be a bit “close-mouthed” about what we do for fun. Why? See Myth #1. A Facebook meme I saw and barely remember had something to say about that. It went like this: “You show up in the freezing cold stripped to the waist, painted in the loudest colors imaginable, and yell your heads off rooting for a bunch of overpaid players running a ball around, and we’re the weird ones?” That’s what wargamers (and most gamers in general) think of the outside world. For the record, I am a passionate baseball fan. 

So no, most of us are not anti-social weirdos. We tend not to really talk about the hobby to those not in it. It’s a learned habit.

Wargaming is an absolute predictive tool?

Yes, and no. Many organizations, both military and civilian, such as the Naval War College (which is one of the biggest deans of wargaming in this country) and the Rand Corporation, have used wargaming to figure out what might happen in a future conflict. Nimitz once famously said about the gaming at the former institution was such that “nothing that happened during the war was a surprise . . . except the kamikaze tactics.” That’s what happens when wargaming is done right. 

Sadly, when wargaming is done wrong, it can fail miserably. One of the most egregious examples is the Imperial Japanese Navy’s wargame just before the Battle of Midway. What occurred was that the “American” player ambushed and “sank” three out of the four Japanese carriers, which is exactly what happened in real life. The Japanese players complained, stating that surely, that couldn’t happen, and two of the carriers were resurrected. This was a lack of fidelity in the simulation that cost the Japanese dearly at Midway. 

Professional wargames have many values. They can allow tactical concepts to be tested in an abstract form before they are run in the field where you are spending real money on fuel, food, and other consumables in an exercise. You can familiarize players with the ground they will fight over, and you can teach young officers the art of thinking tactically, operationally, and strategically. That is the biggest value wargames have. Wargames aren’t predictors of the future. If they were, we’d have fought the Soviets at some point in the 1980s just judging by the number of “Cold War Gone Hot” games that hit the market at that point and time. But, nobody thought the Berlin Wall was going to come down either? 

I hope this article has addressed some of the myths swirling around about the hobby and debunked them. Epoch Experience is in the business of history and the facts. And we’d like to make sure that in any aspect of the study of history, including Historical Wargaming, the facts are available for all to consult. 

--

At SJR Research, we specialize in creating compelling narratives and provide research to give your game the kind of details that engage your players and create a resonant world they want to spend time in. If you are interested in learning more about our gaming research services, you can browse SJR Research’s service on our site at SJR Research.

--

(This article is credited to Jason Weiser. Jason is a long-time wargamer with published works in the Journal of the Society of Twentieth Century Wargamers; Miniature Wargames Magazine; and Wargames, Strategy, and Soldier.)

#wargaming #wargames #myths

[kunsart]

I am the least constant, most confused person outside my safe rectangle of canvas. Safe because it is mine, my world, my rules, my flat Earth. ~ Steven Beercock.

Steven Beercock with his painting, Whoosh, on the easel.

Seeing his work is like finding your uncle’s paintings in a shed; then noticing how weird they are and how eccentric he is; and then slowly realizing they are really, really good, and he’s a genuine artist.

When I first encountered samples from Steven Beercock’s “Tall Man” series of 30 images, while swiping through my Instagram feed, I thought they were the wacky, oddball paintings of an amateur, folk art, surrealist painter. I said to my girlfriend, “What’s with the long-legged, big feet paintings?” Though I certainly liked them, literally and figuratively, I hadn’t recognized how complex and interesting they were, especially taken together, both technically and thematically.

#15, Shweep. Tallman leads the smallest sheep home, who is not a black sheep, but a white sheep covered with soot from being a chimney sweep.

The Artist:

He also does the occasional realist nature painting.

Steven Beercock is an English, 60 year old, self-taught artist, living with his Italian wife in Sicily. He only started painting in 2014, but has remarkably completed over 250 paintings so far. His original motivation was simply “the strange idea of filling the bare walls of his new home with his own, non-existent paintings,” but there was a deeper, underlying impetus:

I think the real reason I began painting was the desperate need for dialogue with the world. My – chosen – physical world is far too small and suffocating. Nobody wants to dream alone.

In my written correspondence with Steven, he expressed core ideas about art I happen to agree with. Painting is a means of communication, of sharing one’s inner vision, and of manifesting it in visual form within the rectangle of the canvas. The canvas, or “flat Earth” as he described it, is a place where one can recreate the world and the heavens, and is the only place where one has real freedom and control.

In these deceptively simple paintings, Steven realizes a dreamy, cinematic vision in which benevolent, headless giants roam the landscape performing bizarre but generous acts. The result, as unlikely the source and medium, is a unique and relevant vision of contemporary art.

The Tall Man Paintings:

Do you remember those wonderful scenes of Richard Dreyfuss in Close Encounters sculpting the mountain out of his mashed potatoes or shaving foam? I feel a bit like him. I see tallman everywhere in everything, like I have been “visited.”~ Steven Beercock.

The artist’s own analogy for focusing on the tallman theme also captures one of the most appealing aspects of his work. It has that quality of someone working obsessively, as a bit of an outsider, and in his own way, for the intrinsic worth of doing so, and out of a genuine love for painting. He’s had neither the benefit nor the limitations of a contemporary art education, and so he does something that’s anathema to it – he paints personal images from his imagination. It’s a direct and honest approach that one has to be naive, oblivious, or in defiance of the dominant art narrative in order to practice. His work is un-corrupted by the ideological excesses of contemporary art theory; postmodernism; conceptualism; and the anti-art legacy of Duchamp…  He made these paintings as if he didn’t know he wasn’t supposed to, and not even supposed to be able to. In that sense they are refreshing, honest, and innocent.

On first glance the tallman reminded me of Robert Crumb’s famous “Keep on Trucking'” cartoon of the late 60’s

Robert Crumb, Keep on Truckin’ comic, as published in Zap Comix, 1968.

This, however, is misleading. If we haven’t seen something before, we grasp at the first association. Crumb’s characters are goofy, groovy, nonchalant, self-satisfied, and strutting’. Beercock’s tallmen are benign behemoths making minor miracles only witnessed by birds, slugs, moths, sheep and fish…

Stories:

Each painting tells a story, if we can tease it out, though it doesn’t need to make sense in consensual reality.

Flightful

#16, Flightful.

In Flightful, above, ostriches, penguins, dodos, and kiwis go on a carousel ride for flightless birds, in which they are able to experience the sensation of flying for the first time. The realistic rendering of details in places is a bit rough, but more than adequate to tell the story, while the anatomy and various poses of the birds are rather elaborate. The idea is endearing, but the painting crystallizes it into memorable imagery. Perhaps only a headless person would think to give flightless birds the experience of soaring.

The Milky Way

#4, The Milky Way

The Milky Way is one of my favorites, but I can’t beat the artist’s own description of the painting:

I put it (the milky way) on canvas, stared at it like that night and was overwhelmed with a feeling of the need to express my love and appreciation of my amazing wife. I imagined him (me?) extracting milk from the milky way and filling an old copper bath. (note the pipeline to the stars) Then I thought her bath would need rose petals. So he suggested tickling the stars and they fell…as rose petals, of course. ~ Steven Beercock

Scoop

#5, Scoop.

The tallman gives a microphone to a chicken in order to give it a voice and let it tell the world its humble story. But more particularly, the tallman’s trying to, as Steven put it, “get the scoop of the century (if not centuries) and finally ask the damned creature why the hell he’s crossing the road!”

Debut Flight

#30, Debut Flight.

Multicolored slugs become airborne, floating in puffy individual clouds after scaling tallman’s legs, in Debut Flight. More naturalistically, we also witness “the flight of the fledgling song thrush with her parents.”

Blackpool Rock

#2 Blackpool Rock

In Blackpool Rock tallman gives treats to the gulls, but the one in the foreground takes advantage and makes off with a credit card. In the background Black Pool Tower mirrors the shape and color of tallman’s trousers. Several of his paintings so far feature sites from where he grew iup, and manifest a quality of longing for the lost world of his childhood.

Blackpool Tower in Lancashire, England. Constructed in 1894, and modeled after the Eiffel Tower, it was at the time the tallest man-made structure in the British Empire.

Black sheep just wanna’ have fun

#14, Black sheep just wanna’ have fun.

The black sheep in Black sheep just wanna’ have fun descend the hill in unconventional ways for sheep. A couple sheep parasail, one hang-glides, one can be seen careening down in a shopping cart; one does a back flip on a skateboard, and still another has made the trip in a tire… Here, the tallman is based on chalk figures in the hills of England.

The Long Man of Wilmington on the slopes of Windover Hill, near Wilmington, East Sussex, England. [Photo by Linda Sgoluppi]

The underlying meaning, and why tallman is headless.

I have always (drowned myself and others in a swirl of meaningless words. Was it Hopper who said something like, “If I could explain it, I wouldn’t have to paint it”? ~ Steven Beercock.

Not all the painting are as whimsical or charming as the ones I shared above. Some are more somber or have political undertones. All are tied together with the presence of the headless entity. While I was pleased with the variations on a theme the body of work presented, I was also drawn to the mystery of what the recurring figure represents. Surely he is a metaphor for something: an underlying philosophical orientation, psychological state, or spiritual dimension…

#29, Saturday Matinee. “My fetish for high redbrick walls; yearnings for home and childhood, I suspect; Current reflections on liberty, imprisonment, contrasts between 1st and 3rd world “values.” ~ Beercock.

An artist doesn’t make 30 images of such an unusual subject without there being a compelling reason, and in this case it’s an artist who’s produces over 250 images in just 6 years (which is about a painting a week). I asked him point blank, a couple times, why tallman is headless, and I don’t think he really knows, or hasn’t yet figured out precisely how to verbalize it. Perhaps that’s why we have 30 paintings so far.

Headlessness and exacting abstract language don’t appear to go together. Can we even expect language to be able to encapsulate everything? It’s one of the dire mistakes of the late 20th century art paradigm to reduce all art to ideas, when visual art is its own language that takes place outside of linguistics. Unlike written and spoken language, an image doesn’t unfold in time, but is eminently still. It’s a different kind of communication, which can leap the over usual language barriers, and communicates a unique terrain of substance that may not be expressible via any other means.

Art has freed my from the shackles of constantly expecting or even needing a explanation for everything. The great thing now – perhaps it’s my age – I no longer care two pennies about whether it “makes sense.” Paradoxically, this frees up my imaginative flow. Basically, anything goes. I can wait to find out why – if ever – it went.

That was a long-winded way of saying “I am now trusting my instinct.” 🙂 ~ Steven Beercock

All that said, I’d still like to make of go of it, and try to hammer out some sort of interpretation. The artist, while he may not be able (or perhaps willing) to nail down his tallman, can tell us how it all started, and that’s with the painting, Swift.

#1, Swift.

The series began here. Most of this scene is my recollections of a dream from the previous night. I dreamt I was flying through the tiny Yorkshire village of my childhood, Clifford, I was zooming along, at knee level when I came across something like this guy. I can’t say whether he had a head or not as it was misty, but there were hundreds of swifts zooming, a bit like me, and they seemed to be coming out of where his head should have been. What I have gleaned till now from my own reflections and from the feedback of many others who’ve seen it at some of my shows is that (wait for it, wait for it…the pretentious Freudian bit) this was myself as a child looking at myself today – hence the particular perspective. I get the feeling that I am telling myself what has happened and is still happening to me since I began to paint. My view of the world and of my place in it has changed dramatically. Moreover, art has made feel somewhat proud of myself for once. Walking tall at last, maybe.Basically. little Steven is looking up at (or to, I hope) big Steve.

One thing that is clear is that Steven has discovered or realized himself through, and in, painting. The Freudian business aside [ I think Freud is too concentrated on everything being sexual, and that’s only when he gets past anal fixations] I see escape here: not escapism, but liberation.

I lean strongly towards the idea that through art I have managed to trust my first impressions/thoughts/feelings and he is the standard bearer of this approach; the only approach that gets me as near as I can to the stars. I don’t need a head and eyes, I know they are out there. I can feel ’em.

Beauty, mystery, wonder and echoes of our childhood, the primitive are inside *us*, not just in our heads. Irrationality scares us socially, it is a must for me artistically in many moments. We have in our spontaneity, intuition, gut feeling and wildness those fabulous echoes.

As the birds are freed from the container of the body, the mind is unfettered by limiting concepts of self — especially as defined by others — and from the constraints of reason and even linguistic thought. The eruptions of the birds is the release of bottled up creative energy. The closest bird, almost threatening, is the picture of “spontaneity, intuition, gut feeling and wildness”. I counted over 300 birds, and these could represent the paintings the artist would make.

Outrageous Perspective

Steven’s rendering of certain details are sometimes a little vague or unpolished (hands, shoes, folds in clothing). This gives his paintings a deceptive resemblance to folk or outsider art, but other elements are very sophisticated and serve to elevate the paintings above the amateur. He repeatedly uses a picture-plane-busting device of extreme foreshortening, and the illusion of objects, including birds or the tallman’s feet, coming bursting through the canvas.

#28, Bananas.

Bananas is a perfect example of these curious, and dramatic pictorial strategies. Notice the charming yellow slug on the bottom left, and that his underside is as if sliding on the inside of the picture plane. Our point of view is similar to the slugs. The rows of corn and sunflowers converge on the horizon line at the vanishing point, creating an inverse V shape. At the same time, however, the tallman’s legs create a much higher vanishing point, and second suggested horizon line. This is a peculiar distortion, because we couldn’t be both looking up at the giant, and back towards the horizon, and way down at the slug at the same time. Further, the rightmost banana has been tossed through the picture plane.

Another recurring device throughout his paintings is a convincing array of positions or poses of objects and animals. Each bird in the flock in Swift took a different pose, and the same occurs here with the configurations of bananas.

Some people will see phalluses, — that’s inevitable, — but hopefully we can muster up enough brain power to go beyond our first knee-jerk reaction. This painting is about YELLOW.

I felt I had neglected yellow over these years and decided  to make up for it. Tallman acquiesced understandingly.  I basically went bananas.

Tallman is flinging the gift of yellow, in a field of yellow, and the extravagant display is all for the benefit of one, lowly, admiring, yellow banana slug.

#18, Bungeeee

The same compositional forces are at play in Bungeeee, in which small animals plummet down towards us, getting the thrill of their lives.

#3, Fish Leaves.

In Fish Leaves, our tallman brushes the tops of trees with his fingers, changing leaves into fish.  As with the other canvases, tallman’s legs make the large triangle, and the largest of the fish leaves swims through the surface of the picture plane.

Tallman’s adventures continue

There’s already one more painting in progress, and it’s coming along very nicely, though the artist reports he’s struggling to pull it off. Here’s we can see the progression, so far, in 5 stages:

We can already see that the split streams of the waterfall echo tallman’s legs, we have our flying birds, and some sort of rainbow emenating from a dog in the foreground.

The artist and his painterly, lucky doppelganger persist in making magic happen in the visual realm. When blue chip artists art spend millions to employ others to make their grand spectacles for them; and contemporary art is thought to be found in the radical, conceptual, and necessarily political works of young artists, I find these warm and whimsical, hand-painted images by a self-taught, 60 year old artist more engaging and enduring.

I feel better about the world knowing tallman is roaming out there, and his gifts to birds, slugs, leaves, and sheep are really presents for the collective visual imagination.

The Complete Series of 30 Paintings

The images are in chronological order, and each painting has a caption, supplied by the artist himself, to give a a clue as to what they are about.

“the dream that opened the door to the series.”

“Despite his efforts to give the gulls a nice day out, there’s always one.”

“How many times I’ve wanted to be able to do this. Turn leaves into fish? Why not?”

“Milking it, tickling the stars while caressing the moon. All for his loved one.”

“So, what’s the big deal about roads?”

“Why you should always take a baseball bat when camping.”

“I just can’t explain this one, Eric, sorry.” (Sometimes the artists doesn’t even know.)

“Here, he is lost, lonely and hoping his letters arrive, like the young WW1 soldiers in France and Belgium.  Tallman is a bit of a Zelig at times.”

“Note that it’s the only one which features human beings. I think he not only wanted peace, but company too. I think the elephant also served that purpose ‘wanting peace and company’. Sounds about right to me at least.”

“Tallman gets a little muddled at times and decides to chase the butterfly chaser.”

“ideas come to him like lightning. Handy ones at times.”

I think this was my dad in front of the fire warming not only his hands 🙂

“Crows can see right through him. They ain’t goin’ nowhere.”

“the well-worn track of the average sheep probably forced the black sheep to think up a better way of getting around the hill. The tall white man was inspired by the chalk figures on hills in England , one being ‘The Long Man’.”

“tallman is in an  industrial town in my home county of Yorkshire as a chimney sweep. As always, he is very resourceful and there are millions of sheep.”

“fulfilling the ultimate dream of the flightless.”.

“Tallman may have been born when I visited Stonehenge at the age of 5. The looked like giant’s legs, still do. So I made them do what legs so best.”

“Animals rights.? Yes, even to bungee jump. Tallman got it sorted.”

“Dare, care, share! Fear is our only prison keeper. Tallman welcomes strangers sharing his apple.”

“allman, once more in stone, in his own world, in his headless mind. I see him everywhere.”

“‘Umbilicus Sicilae’ What the Romans called Enna, the town in central Sicily where I have lived for the past 30 years. Here,  I was looking at tallman from my weekend spacestation.”

“a sealife, copycat  chain reaction after a meteor passed by and tallman momentarily flipped and did the Fosbury flop in his flipflops over  its smoke trail…if you know what I mean, hahah!”

“A fly-by Chinese perspective on how the US and western economies are dawdling and tallman takes it upon himself to give them a ticket.”

“Laid back trip, quick thinking and a friendly swift kick up the backside of a porcupine who refuses to follow road safety rules.”

“Tallman saves Sicilian towns from Mount Etna eruption with quick thinking moondrop tactic, Local wildlife is impressed.”

“Everyone wants to join in when tallman is having fun. Barefoot water skiing being a favourite pastime.”

“‘Everyone  has a book in them’ – my father, Eric Beercock.  Every old person is a library. That was Grandad Pop, his father Victor Beercock. All children should learn from and about their own Grandad Pop.”

“Tallman can make anything fly, so he does…even bananas. Why not?”

“Tallman can see way over the walls of fear and exclusion and bring some joy to those most in need.”

“Yes, slugs dream too. A home, maybe a chance to fly now and then. Chase song thrushes, even. Tallman brings it on.”

You can follow Steven Beercock and the tallman’s journey on IG: https://www.instagram.com/steven_beercock/

and on FB: https://www.facebook.com/stevenjbeercock/

~ Ends

  And if you like my art or criticism, please consider chipping in so I can keep working until I drop. Through Patreon, you can give $1 (or more) per month to help keep me going (y’know, so I don’t have to put art on the back-burner while I slog away at a full-time job). See how it works here.

Or go directly to my account.

Or you can make a one time donation to help me keep on making art and blogging (and restore my faith in humanity simultaneously).

The Long-legged, Big-footed, Headless Giants of Steven Beercock I am the least constant, most confused person outside my safe rectangle of canvas. Safe because it is mine, my world, my rules, my flat Earth.

#art #art criticism #contemporary art #painting #Steven Beercock #Surrealism

[greg38mcall]

Our HGTV Urban Oasis Experience

Did you all see that this year's HGTV Urban Oasis giveaway house is located right in my backyard? That's right! This year it is located in Minneapolis, MN and you are going to want to hurry and enter to win this beauty!

Photo Credit: Tomas Espinoza for HGTV

I know many of you come here for our organizing and house projects, but this quick story is just too great not to share! And I would be beyond thrilled if one of my readers happened to win this amazing home.

I have really gotten to know designer Brian Patrick Flynn over the past few years, and he is one of the most generous and kind humans I have ever met. He is ridiculously encouraging, really supports independent artists and small businesses, has an impeccable design eye, and can find beauty in just about anything.

Brian is the designer of the HGTV Urban Oasis home and he asked ME to be the organizing stylist! Organizing a house that no one actually lives in is slightly different than my typical duties; it has its own set of challenges but it is a bit of a dream at the same time. You have to work within the parameters of specific sponsors and design styles and be sure it is editorial, while also being able to use beautiful props. The ideas still have to be relatable and sensible, which of course is my favorite part! I wanted the folks that are entering the giveaway to be able to see the organization as possible solutions that they would be able to incorporate into their daily lifestyle.

Photo Credit: Kelly Christine Photo for HGTV

After the organizing was complete and the Urban Oasis was being prepped for media, Brian asked me back again. This time he had me bring my crew to be photographed enjoying the Hygge lifestyle at the house! My oldest son had college prep and work so he couldn't be there, but my younger boys were absolutely thrilled to take part of a really fun HGTV photoshoot. These pictures were such a treat and we will cherish the opportunity forever. Kelly Christine was the photographer behind the camera and she did such a great job of capturing us as a family pretending to live our best Minnesotan lives. As you can see, they definitely wanted to show the relaxed, comfortable, family-friendly lifestyle that this home provides. My son couldn't believe that he had a once in a lifetime opportunity to jump on a sofa and get away with it!

Photo Credit: Kelly Christine Photo for HGTV

This year's Urban Oasis is a Modern Scandanavian Farmhouse, which is an extremely popular design aesthetic around here. It is not necessarily my personal style (I lean more colorful and traditional), but I was still able to find so much inspiration throughout the entire home. It instantly hugs you when you walk through the front door and the entire place feels like a cozy nordic sweater. It is layered with plush and textural textiles and has art sourced from really incredible talent. And don't even get me started on the finishes and hardware and oak kitchen cabinets... #sigh

Photo Credit: Rustic White Interiors for HGTV

You can tour the entire house here, and enter to win here (GO DO THAT NOW!). Although this post is somewhat of a "check out this cool home and our awesome experience", I also wanted to share some images of my favorite no-fuss organizing tips that anyone can incorporate into their living spaces.

__________

As soon as I was hired, I searched Overstock.com (the sponsor website) to recommend some of my favorite organizers ahead of time and crossed my fingers that everything would be fluid enough to work when I was finally able to see the home in person. My first day on location everything was a blank slate of freshly painted walls and empty cabinets and drawers. It was an experience in itself to watch the house transform as the team worked to install and style all of the rooms. TIP #1:  SELECT VERSATILE ORGANIZERS

Photo Credit: Tomas Espinoza for HGTV

My biggest money-saving tip is to try and source products that are versatile enough to work in a variety of spaces and can move and evolve right along with you. I knew I would be tasked with organizing the master bedroom closet and bedroom, the studio armoire, and many of the kitchen cabinets/drawers. The key items I sourced were a mixture of wire and woven baskets, spring-loaded drawer dividers, clear bins, wooden hangers, and glass jars. I was able to mix and match these items in each area that I touched, which made my job much easier in the end. I do believe in measuring and purchasing storage that makes sense for each project, but by selecting items in basic and natural finishes, you are guaranteed that they will stand the test of time. TIP #2:  SPRING LOADED DRAWER ORGANIZERS ARE AMAZING

Photo Credit: Rustic White Interiors for HGTV

I have mentioned before that sometimes I am the last to hop on any trend train, and for some reason I wasn't quick to take advantage of spring-loaded drawer dividers. This experience flipped me completely. I am IN LOVE. I used the dividers throughout the kitchen and I now want to be the poster child for these special organizing tools. They were so easy to use (ANYONE can install them in a jiffy), and they instantly created flexible drawer dividers for all the things.

I used them for the maintenance drawers, utensil drawers, and even to hold pots, pans, and lids in place. A bonus is that the natural finish of these particular dividers fit right in with the custom wood drawers. Swoon. TIP #3:  FILE YOUR CLOTHING

I know that most of you know this by now but it is always worth mentioning. File your clothing. If your clothing is filed, it is always easier to see exactly what you have. It is also infinitely easier to take clothing out and put it away.

BONUS TIP: Use small bins and baskets inside of your drawers to corral the little things like undergarments and accessories. Sometimes the most obvious ideas are the most helpful. TIP #4:  MATCHING HANGERS

Hangers have come a long way over the years. Wooden and velvet options are both readily available and are fairly inexpensive in bulk. Anytime you can, swap out all of your mismatched hangers for ones that match. It will instantly take your closets up a notch and help them feel more uniform and calm. BONUS TIP: Color blocking the items hanging in your closet will have a similar effect. I like to hang items in order by type first (jackets/cardigans, long sleeve, short sleeve, sleeveless), and then color within each category. TIP #5:  USE DEEP BINS IN DEEP CABINETS

Organizing deep cabinets and pantries is always perplexing. It is truly wonderful to have all of that extra space, but making sure items are not being lost in the back can be a major problem. It is my goal to find the deepest bins possible in this situation because they turn into instant drawers. These bins not only categorize everything, but they also take items from the back to the front in a single motion. Also, whenever possible I like to organize from shortest to tallest. If space permits I will also add lazy susans to the mix.

Photo Credit: Rustic White Interiors for HGTV

Another tip is to place your small appliances inside of the deep cabinets and relocate your more frequently used items and foods into your standard cabinets and drawers. Small appliances are generally only used on occasion, so it may make more sense to store them in places that aren't as easy to access as the items you use every day.

TIP #6:  A+ ARMOIRE

This house didn't have closets in the two main bedrooms (one styled as an office, another as a guest room), so armories were added in their place. We use armoires in our own home where we are lacking in built-in closets also, and I love that they can offer customized and space-saving storage opportunities.

I especially appreciate the option of adding them to a home office, as they are an ideal way to conceal anything from printers, electronics, and craft supplies, to cozy sweaters and work totes. A clear workspace translates to a clear mind.

TIP #7:  CLEAR SOLUTIONS

Speaking of clear... I love a good woven basket when I am actually trying to conceal and streamline visual clutter, so I find they are a great option for open shelves and in open areas. But when it comes to organizing behind cabinet and fridge doors, I say the clearer the better. Anytime you can quickly see what you have on hand, you are one step ahead of the game. It also allows you to identify items without the need for fussy labels. Heading to the grocery store? Clear jars and bins will give you a quick look at what you have and what you may need. TIP #8:  PRETTY AND PRACTICAL AT THE SAME TIME

Photo Credit: Tomas Espinoza Interiors for HGTV

If you are limited on space, or even if you just love to keep things right within reach, find creative ways to use the walls as both decor and storage. Just off of the mudroom, Brian installed the most darling rail system and I was absolutely obsessed over how it was used to display and organize the ordinary in such a beautiful and organic way.

TIP #9:  ENTERTAIN THIS IDEA

Dedicate a spare cabinet or drawer to entertaining essentials. Our homes are best when filled with folks we love, so be ready to entertain at a moment's notice by keeping a drawer stocked with your favorite linens, candles, vases, napkin rings, serving dishes, etc...

This eliminates the stresses that come with hosting last-minute dinner dates and happy hours, or at the very least, quickly and easily elevates the setting for a nice mood boost. TIP #10:  DRAWERS ALWAYS GET MY VOTE

I was recently having a discussion with a friend about kitchen planning and storage and whether she should install lower cabinets or drawers. Drawers always get my vote if there is an option between the two. I typically find that lower base cabinets are a recipe for that deep and dark area of doom (standard depth is around 24"). Sure, you can add pull out drawers and mechanisms inside of the cabinets, but you have to open the cabinet doors all of the way, navigate around them, and then pull out the contents. A drawer is a quicker way to access everything while ensuring nothing is getting lost. Drawers are also much easier for kids to use and maintain while maximizing overall space (no need to install any extra components).

__________

Last but not least, let's just celebrate this amazing backyard moment. I am so envious of this year's lucky winner!!

Photo Credit: Kelly Christine Photo for HGTV

Photo Credit: Rustic White Interiors for HGTV

Photo Credit: Kelly Christine Photo for HGTV

ALL STORAGE SHOWN WAS PROVIDED TO URBAN OASIS BY THE SPONSOR OVERSTOCK.COM. IN THE EVENT OVERSTOCK NO LONGER CARRIES THE SPECIFIC ITEM, I SOURCED A SIMILAR ALTERNATIVE

!function(w,i,d,g,e,t){if (!d.getElementById(i)) {element = d.createElement(t);element.id = i;element.src = 'https://widgets.rewardstyle.com' + e;d.body.appendChild(element);} if (typeof w[g] === 'object') { if (d.readyState === 'complete') { w[g].init(); }}}(window, 'shopthepost-script', document, '__stp', '/js/shopthepost.js', 'script');

JavaScript is currently disabled in this browser. Reactivate it to view this content.

ENTER TO WIN THE GIVEAWAY HERE

TOUR THE ENTIRE URBAN OASIS HOUSE HERE

SEE MORE OF OUR FAMILY PHOTOSHOOT HERE

Brian and I had such a great time working together that he invited me to take part in another HUGE project last month. I can't wait to share more!

from IHeart Organizing http://www.iheartorganizing.com/2019/11/our-hgtv-urban-oasis-experience.html