heart: talk about your crush

He has powerful-looking hands and I hate that I like them. But there’s something brittle in his eyes.

How easy or difficult is it for your character to say “I love you?” Can they say it without meaning it?

tw: borderline mentions of abuse and rape, forced marriage

“Do you love me?“ 

 He asks it a few months after the wedding. Leta is trying to sleep, but she forces her eyes open and finds Amalric leaning over her, eyes glittering in the dark of the bedroom. She reaches out a hand, and the candles flicker to life. 

Thank you so much anon!! I have to be a little bit cliche first and say with photoshop, lots and lots of practice, and a huge collection of resources that I've found over the years. After looking at a bunch of tutorials over the years, I think I do my gifs slightly differently. But here's some resources that I use with most, if not every single gif or graphic I make:

GETTING CONTENT ! ✦ YouTube, for finding music videos. ✦ YT1s, for downloading the video, select MP4 format and download the highest resolution available. (This is the best I've managed to find, but I'm 100% open to suggestions for other options!) ✦ PotPlayer, for getting caps to gif with.

GIFMAKING ! ✦ This Sharpening Action by @daenerys-stormborn, I use this on basically every gif I make. I think my current graphics used the sharper blur option. ✦ I have a set of gif prep actions, curtesy of @antoniosvivaldi, that I got by being part of the @pscentral discord group. I haven't been active there for a very long time, but the experiences I had on there are very important to me and it was / sometimes still is a very valuable resource. The people are also amazing! So I would 100% recommend joining.

bend  the  knee  !

❛  AURORA  —  ❜   kaia  shakes  her  head,  an  unpleasant  feeling  stirring  in  her  stomach.

aurora  does  not  belong  beneath  her. 

so,  kaia  falls  onto  her  own  knees  in  front  of  her,  reaching  out  and  taking  the  unseelie  queen’s  hands  while  offering  her  a  gentle  smile.     ❛   aurora,  you  are  the  one  person  in  any  realm  that  is  truly  my  equal.  we  are  equals.  neither  of  us  ever  need  bow  to  the  other.   ❜     she  says,  and  she  never  really  realized  how  true  those  words  were  until  right  now.     ❛   we  were  created  as  equals,  as  beautiful  compliments  of  one  another.  we  are  very  much  like  two  halves  of  the  same  whole.   ❜

two  sides  of  the  same  coin.  the  greatest  queens  both  of  their  courts  have  ever  seen.  put  in  place  now,  come  to  rule  at  the  same,  perfect  time  for  the  purpose  of  uniting  their  kingdoms  and  bringing  peace  to  their  realm.  it  was  designed  so  elegantly  to  have  them  be,  have  them  exist  at  the  same  time  because  no  other  seelie  and  unseelie  queen  could  ever  come  together  as  they  have. 

a  kiss  !

SHE’S  SO  SHOCKED  BY  THE  KISS,  that,  at  first,  all  she  does  is  stand  there,  eyes  still  open,  hands  hanging  numbly  by  her  sides.  what’s  happening?  is  all  kaia  can  think,  over  and  over.

but…  aurora’s  lips  are  so  warm  and  welcoming  against  her  own,  and  she  feels  as  if  she’s  being  pushed  towards  her,  as  if  she’s  been  being  pushed  towards  her  since  before  either  of  them  were  born.  like  this  is  right.  no,  it  feels  more  than  right.  it  feels  like  their  destinies  unfolding  in  a  kiss.  and  somewhere,  the  gods  are  rejoicing  as  their  carefully  plotted  scheme  has  come  to  its  climax.

and  who  is  kaia  to  deny  the  gods  their  long  -  awaited  crescendo?