The Wedding Of Simon Riley [ Ghost ]

the wedding of simon riley [ ghost ]

WARNINGs: mentions of abusive injuries, abusive domestic behaviour

Being in the SAS was a lonely practice, well, that’s how Simon Riley saw it. Though, his existence was one of violence and he didn’t want his family being dragged into another volatile situation or any other innocent soul.

That’s why he was alone, that’s why he didn’t date anyone and that wasn’t going to change. Until it did…

A shout, “He’s got my bag!” And he started running after the vandal, catching him quickly and with precision. Face mask up as was his hood. Racing steps behind him… and there you were, your hands scraped and tights ripped at the knees. “Thank you so much…” Your eyes sparkled almost at him, curious what your saviour’s face looked like.

He simply handed you the bag- you noticed gloves… not paying much attention, “It’s nothin’…” Gruff and unbending, you could tell then that he was a hard ass as he turned his back to you.

“Lemme get you a coffee or something?” The stranger’s head shook, walking away. His eyes a stark contrast when your hand wrapped his tattooed wrist. Almost as if it were a trigger point and you removed it as soon as you had touched him. “You didn’t have to get the bag… please let me get you a coffee, a tea… a vodka?” A teeny tiny smile beneath the mask.

That’s how you ended up in a tea shop, in completed silence. Was he trying to scare you off? Maybe but you happened to be very persuasive and chatty. His worst nightmare.

Finding out his name was Simon, and he was in the military. And he didn’t do well in social situations, or at least with you. Speaking enough to realise he didn’t have many acquaintances let alone friends. Probably of his own doing…

Taken aback when he asked to walk you home- to avoid anymore attempted muggings. Not normal for you to let someone do that but he didn’t have to return the bag. “This is me…” Pointing to the house, “Thank you for all your help, Si-,” Then your red door opened, revealing the familiar figure.

“You were gone longer than you said…” The tone was wasn’t one of worry or concern, Simon knew that feeling in his gut. But it was your life, and he was probably wrong. So he waved it off. “Who’s this, babe? He bothering you?” That instinct in Simon flaring more. Especially the crazed look in his eyes.

Until he looked to you; bubbly and extroverted while on your own, now a husk. Silent and woven inwards. That sparkle dimmed. “I got mugged… he got my purse back for me…” You couldn’t even reach Simon’s eye line. While fists clenched at your partner’s sides.

“She’s helpless, mate. I always clear up her messes, thanks,” Simon had never despised being patted on the shoulder as much as he did in that moment. But what had him more on edge was how he never noticed bruises on your wrists, and how forcibly your boyfriend held you around the shoulders and was leading you up the stone walkway to the normal house.

Hearing a shout and then a slap when that door closed. Simon had a choice… leave and pretend like you never existed… or what he did next.

Not bothering to knock, finding you on the floor- tears streaking down the face you held. Before gunning for your partner, a perfectly taken frame photo crashing to the wooden boards as his large frame smashed your partner into the wall. “I’ve met men like you before… you are going to pack a bag and leave Y/N alone…” That was until a small hand held Simon’s shoulder, his eyes softened.

“Dave, just leave… go to Chris’… just go…” You didn’t know if you’d had the strength to do that, but having a military man beside you made it easy as he held your partner against a wall. Then Simon dropped him, shattered glass at his palms. “I will call the police, David… I’ll deliver your shit to your mums.” Time slowed for you while moving too fast and David was gone. His car unblocked your driveway with music blaring down the street.

Managing to lock the door- letting out a sigh… Feeling drained, “Thank you…” Is all you mustered, before collapsing into a flood of tears. Trying to splutter out an apology, but this relative stranger just stroked your hair letting you lean against him. Thoughts racing, never finding a moments peace in four years of being with him. But able to find a speck of hope in a man you had only met about four hours ago… “You can go, you’ve done more than enough good deeds for the day…”

Standing up from the sofa, heading through to the kitchen. The kettle clicked, Simon was impressed you didn’t pick yourself on the vodka you’d offered him earlier in the day. Instead he found you, elbows finding balance on the countertop.

You asked him to the stay in the house- maybe trauma clouded your judgement. You slept in the guest bedroom, not capable of blocking out the atrocities that occurred in your own. With a stranger downstairs.

When you woke up, the glass had been clean up and the smell of breakfast wafted. Mask still covering his nose and lips. “I thought you’d have left. You didn’t have to cook, bless your heart…”

Something knocked Simon from his daydream. The only face he wanted to see on the daily right in front of him. Forgetting where he was for a split second, his hands holding your tiny ones in comparison. “Simon Riley, do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?” Part of him focused that his Captain was officiating his wedding, while all of him focused on you. The woman he hadn’t left, the person who had remained loyal to him when he came home bloodied and dirty.

Every second of each mission, he wished he could have you in his arms. Even when you weren’t his to hold. Fearing that you’d have forgotten about him in two months, only for you to turn up at his apartment with some chocolate and a ‘welcome home’ card.

Each and every time he returned back in British soil.

You didn’t complain about the terrors he shouted at in his nightmares- holding him when the muttering started and pulling him awake. Never judging him for the pills he swallowed to balance him out again. Simon looked down on himself while you only ever looked up to him.

No attempt to lift the mask until he did it himself. You’d been friends after that first incident for two years until you made the move. And six months after you were stood at the alter in front of not even ten people.

The people he felt comfortable with: his squad members, his mum, his brother and sister in law… whatever family you were close with enough to know what laid under that mask; a cheeky grin whenever he taunted you or… did other things to you…

There would be no announcement in the local newsletter on marriages and funeral directories, no posts on social media. But you knew that when met him… nothing high-key.

With all that in mind, you looking angelic… just wanting to kiss you… “I do.” And before Price could speak, his lips were on yours. Cheering from your nearest and dearest. His hands held your growing stomach, holding his future.

“I love you,” Foreheads together, smiling while you knew Johnny was taking cheeky snaps of you two. “Mrs Riley…”

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jaycee rbs men. (call of duty)

Touhou Design Phylosophy Study and OC Tips and Tricks

I see many people struggle with creating Touhou OCs so I figured I would try and analyze ZUN’s character designs and briefly explain what makes them stand out. If you have any other observations or corrections perhaps, don’t be afraid to message me.

Silhouettes

What most people remember about Touhou designs are the elaborate or strange hats. That however often gets mistaken for the thing that’s most striking about each character, which is their silhouette. Notice how two of the characters below don’t have any headdress at all, yet their design is easy to recognize.

Knowingly or unknowingly, ZUN understands, that fun character designs have strong silhouettes. He even utilizes shape language to convey character through looks.

Circles - Charisma, safety, friendliness, charm, cuteness and innocence

Rectangles - Conformity, uniformity, balance, stability and reliablility

Triangles - Unpredictability, danger, malice, cunningness, and dynamism

These shapes help comunicate very key character features in Nazrin’s Eiki’s and Seija’s looks. I chose them for these examples because they mostly consist of one shape.

For more complex designs, using two or three shapes is recommended, though only one shape being used doesn’t mean a character is less complex, it simply highlights their main characteristics that much better. Nue here for example is overwhelmingly triangles with a few small circles to convey her largely mysterious but otherwise laid back and fun loving personality.

I noticed that most Touhou characters actually have triangles in their design, I’m assuming solely because most of them are super-powered youkai.

Colors

When it comes to colors, ZUN is known to use very saturated colors, however that’s only a fraction of what makes Touhou designs special.

The most commonly used color palettes in art in general are

Complementary palettes - Using two colors on the opposite side of the color wheel

Analogous palettes - Using 3 or more colors that stand close to each other, creating sort of a gradient-like palette

Triadic Palette - Using three colors that are evenly spaced on the color palette

He mostly uses either complementary or analogous color palettes, and even when he uses the latter he likes to put in one extra color that complements one that’s already there.

Triadic palettes are the rarest out of the three in art, and in Touhou as well. The only examples I could say are Nue, and Okina Satono and Mai if we consider them a single entity (which fun fact in actual myth they are).

Triadic palettes generally have a chaotic, whimsical feel to them so it’s fitting that it’s these characters that got them.

Aside from color theory, ZUN doesn’t only choose colors because they look nice. In many character’s cases they have symbolic value as well.

Eiki’s palette might seem overwhelming at first with how much colors there are. It’s usually advized to use around 3 colors on one character and yet her design contradicts that by making it twice as many. This however has a reason as these colors correspond to the six colors of Buddhism. They can mean many things depending on the context, but in her case it probably references the six realms of existence.

Shou, despite being a tiger youkai has a hair color that hardly resembles a tiger’s fur that even in sunlight is distincly orange. The reason for that is that she isn’t based on actual tigers, but the idea of a tiger conveyed by people who have never seen one in their life.

Kanako is mostly red and white, both these colors being very important in Shinto; red is the color of vitality, prosperity and keeping kegare and tsumi away, while white is the sacred color of kami. Her hair is purple, which is associated with nobility in Japan.

Details in Design

In ZUN’s designs, even if colors and silhouettes are important, I think what make or break them are the details. Even if those two are in place, the description of a girl with one red horn, long blonde hair, white t-shirt, blue skirt and a geta holding a red sakazuki can only get you so far.

I drew Yuugi in an intentionally crude fashion with a mouse in less than 3 minutes to illustrate that Touhou designs look distinct and recognizable no matter the art style specifically because of the easy to parce and distinct details they have.

Again the details are not only aesthetic in nature, but symbolic as well.

There’s a feng huang (also known as Chinese phoenix) on Junko’s tabard because these birds symbolize empresses or generally female rulers or feminine power.

Aunn has a heart symbol on her shirt not only because of the western connotations of the heart shape being cute and symbolizing affection, but because it’s the same shape as an inome. Inome, also known as boar eyes are built into shrines, and even weapons because this symbol is thought to carry with it the fierceness of a boar and thus would keep malicious entities away. This duality in the nature of the heart shape encapsulates Aunn’s identity as a komainu perfectly.

They of course don’t have to be lore inspired all the time. Satori and Koishi have little to do with actual satori youkai despite that part of their identity being important in their characters. They were mostly inspired by the painting The Two Fridas by Frida Kahlo.

More interesting details are how their designs have the opposite color palette or that both of them have one eye closed even if it’s a fact that’s only pointed out in Koishi’s case.

Thematic quirks like that just make designs interesting and memorable.

Lore and Inspiration

What I noticed is that ZUN prefers to put a twist on his characters, even if they would stand out without said twist. They are pretty much never just some guy or “an average [youkai/kami etc]”.

Even though lore is not always mentioned, the knowledge that Keine for example is a hakutaku, just makes her that much richer as a character. I feel that ZUN’s characters too only are half original and in all honestly I see nothing wrong with that. It’s a common anxiety to have that your character is not original enough, but while he prefers to make his characters quirky, don’t feel pressured to make everyone 100% original.

Touhou games were heavily inspired by Kiki Kaikai, along with Reimu who originally was barely different from that game’s protagonist. Later of course as he made more games and developed her further, Touhou started getting its own identity, but my point is that wearing your inspiration on your sleeve is nothing to be ashamed of.