Finally finished! I painted this with a completely different workflow to my usual one - I’ve previously been painting values and then colouring them; in this case, I followed a more traditional method of laying down base colours, highlights, shadows and blending between them. I’m very happy with the results for clothing, less so for faces (but that’s just practice). It makes it much easier to play with subtle saturation shifts, which is a big help. It’s what made this vibrant sunlight look possible.
i told my mum to stop trying to take over my hospital appointments and i was wondering what passive aggressive thing she'd put in facebook about it, and i was not disappointed:
I set a new personal best doing a one-legged press at 265lbs tonight. I'm super proud of that because the maximum weight on the machine is 405 and I can officially press 125lbs more than that maximum. The 30 minute walk home is a killer, though..
Can we pretend that someone requested a drabble where Leslie keeps a pic of Ben’s dick on her phone?
Okay, great. Lets! Because I had it 98% finished and I just found it on my laptop and decided to complete it and post it. Yay!
"I was thinking," Leslie starts saying, as she sits down next to him on the couch after dinner, "that we could plant some roses in back along the edge of the patio. Kind of like it was outside your DC apartment. That was nice."
"I'm not sure I remember. What did it look like?" Ben asks, taking another sip of his beer before passing it to Leslie. She takes a sip and hands it back.
"Oh, I think I still have a photo of your DC place somewhere," she says, grabbing her phone and scrolling through images as Ben looks over her shoulder.
There are so many recent baby pictures and they pause to smile over all of those, and a few selfies of Leslie's not-so-long-ago pregnant belly, Ben making coffee, Ben working, the new NPS offices, various attractions in Pawnee, their wedding at City Hall, so, so many waffle shots, and then the Lincoln Memorial, White House and…a dick?
"Whoa," Ben says, eyes widening. "What was--"
"Oh, that's your penis, babe,” she scrolls back and clicks on the image. “Remember that night we took pictures of each other when I was visiting you, back before we got married?"
"Yeah, but…why is it still on your phone?"
Leslie shrugs. "I don't know, I just like knowing it's there. Don't you still have--"
"Yeah," he cuts her off, setting his beer on the coffee table. "Of course I do. But I transferred it to my laptop. It's not still on my phone."
"Well, sometimes I look at your penis if I need inspiration or something. I have photos of your butt and calves too. You know that."
He did know about the couple of butt shots (also, they are all with pants on), and although the calf-thing is a surprise, it’s not a concern, but seeing the nude, full-frontal cock action on her phone is a bit of a surprise (and a concern).
Ben knows he's kind of looking at her like she's crazy, but he can't help it. Of course he's touched and all, and it's sweet, and he certainly has many, many photos of Leslie on his phone, but they are definitely a bit less…revealing.
"You should be flattered."
"Yeah," he says carefully. "No. I am. It's just that, um, maybe you shouldn't have dick pics on your phone at all? Seeing how you're the director of the Midwest Region of the National Park Service?"
"But you have that photo of me breastfeeding Wesley and Sonia on your phone."
Ben's expression softens. "That's different. It's not just gratuitous, your breasts are…doing something, it’s um, functional. It makes me smile when I--"
"Well, your penis makes me smile. And we used it to make the babies, so it’s functional too."
Ben laughs despite his confusion. "Babe--"
"I have a password on my phone."
She does…using the complex passcode option and everything. It's YG64&ooWq1 (which took him like forever to memorize), so he knows it's a good one. But still…
"And no one has ever seen it besides me." Leslie continues. "Well, okay, except Ann."
"Wait. What?" Ben asks, eyes wide.
"It was an accident. I was trying to show her the photo of the waffle sundae when I got back from DC and I accidentally scrolled right past your penis. But she thought it was very nice."
"Oh my god."
"It's okay. It was a long time ago. I'm sure Ann's even forgotten she's seen it. Besides, she's a nurse, I'm sure she sees penises all the time. Plus, she's seen a lot penis photos from when she worked at City Hall, remember? One more random penis is like any other to her. Of course, yours isn't random," Leslie pats him on the shoulder, nodding, "it's the best penis in the whole world. But I am really sorry about showing it to Ann. I can see how that might be weird. If you want me to take the photo off my phone, I will. Just say the word."
"You really look at it sometimes?" He's still making a face like he's a little confused, but also amused.
"Yeah," she nods.
"But in private, right?"
"Yes. Absolutely. I promise."
"Alright," Ben says, moving a bit closer, relenting. "I guess I don't mind if you keep it on your phone."
"Yay!"
"Maybe I should put your photo back on my phone?"
"Oh really?" Leslie asks and then smiles at him, snuggles closer as he puts his arm around her. "Well, only if you really want to. You know, for inspiration and stuff."
"Or, maybe I should just take a new shot. An update."
"Hmmmmmm, I think maybe that could be arranged."
"Take your pants off," he tells her, as Ben moves back a little and takes his phone out of his pocket.
"Right now?"
"Yeah. The babies will probably be asleep for another hour or so, we have time to do stuff, right?"
"We do," she agrees.
"Well," Ben grins at her, while also helping Leslie slide her pants and underwear down her hips, "get ready for your close-up, babe."
