#because i didn't have any spooky snippets ready to go

[laminy]

I figured today I'd post an ITBASM snippet I'd had written because my goal/plan is to be working on NaNoWriMo for all of November, so my mind will be on that instead.

Happy Hallowe’en, even though this very much has nothing to do with Hallowe’en.

“Baba!”

Rami looks up from the sink, confused. “Did you forget something?” Sami and Joe had just left the house to take Sami to school. So he really wasn’t expecting him back so soon.

Sami runs into the kitchen, bouncing up and down. He’s still wearing his jacket and hat and boots, and he has a huge grin on his face.

“Hello,” Rami says, drying his hands. “Did you forget something?” he asks again. 

“No!” Sami hops up and down a couple more times. “I’m not going!”

“Not going where?”

“Papa said the car can’t go!” Sami squeals and starts running around.

Rami walks over to the kitchen window, looking outside. Joe’s got a shovel, and is struggling to dig out the drive. He taps on the window, and Joe looks up.

“Can’t get out!” Joe calls. “Snow day!”

Rami sighs, and looks back at Sami. It’s not that he doesn’t like spending time with him, but he also wasn’t planning on entertaining him today. “What are we gonna do with you?” he asks.

“Can I play outside?” Sami asks.

“Let’s get you changed into something a little comfier,” Rami says. He looks over at Rosemary, who’s happily chewing on her bib in her bouncer. “Come along.” He picks her up, and follows Sami up to his room. He gets him out of his school uniform and into some play clothes, and then he bundles him up in some snowpants and his jacket. Rami leads him downstairs and opens the door, and Sami practically throws himself outside.

“Papa!”

Joe sets the shovel down, and wipes his brow. “What’s going on, kiddo?”

Sami stumbles in the snow, and pushes himself up. “Baba says I can play.”

“Be careful,” Joe says.

Rami shields Rosemary from the cool wind, and sticks his head outside the door. “Joe!”

“Rami!”

“Put the shovel down,” Rami says. “We’ll deal with it after the plough.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Joe says, and he tosses the shovel to the side. “Snow day!” He runs over to Sami and flops down in the snow.

“Your jeans are gonna be soaked,” Rami says.

“I don’t care,” Joe says, though he does kind of immediately regret it. He’s dressed for taking Sami to school, not for playing in the snow. 

“I’m gonna build a snowman!” Sami says. “Papa, help me.”

“What about you, Baba?” Joe asks.

“It’s a little chilly for Rosie,” Rami says. “But I’ll watch from inside for now.”

“I’ll make it by the window!” Sami says, and he hurries over to the sunroom— as fast as he can go with snow up to his knees, anyway.

“Call my besties!” Joe exclaims, as he follows behind Sami. “This is a great spot, kiddo.”

“I’m sure they’re working,” Rami says, but he goes inside anyway, and finds his mobile. Surprisingly, Gwil is off (Ben is attempting to work from home). Not surprisingly, they’re snowed in for the moment as well, but they’re working on getting out. 

Rami tosses Joe a hat and some gloves so he doesn’t freeze, and then he settles into the sunroom with Rosemary. He watches Sami and Joe through the window, smiling and waving whenever Sami looks up. When Rosemary’s older, they’ll be outside with them. Rami can’t wait. Right now, she’s still too little and it’s just a little too cold.

The snow plough comes by, and Joe holds on tight to Sami’s hand so that he doesn’t run closer. “Papa, look!”

“Oh, I see,” Joe says. “Cleaning off the road, helping us out.”

Sami waves eagerly at the snow plough driver, who honks the horn and waves back.

“C’me here,” Joe says, and he swoops down to pick Sami up. “You wanna keep watching or can we go warm up for a minute?”

“I wanna watch,” Sami says.

“Okay,” okay.”

They watch for a couple minutes longer, and then Joe takes Sami inside. Their snowman is a little rough looking, but Joe’s feet are cold, and he wants to see Rami and Rosemary.

“Who wants hot cocoa?” Rami asks.

“I do!” Joe says. 

“Me too!” Sami says.

“Let me see Rosie,” Joe says, and he walks over to her crib where she’s napping.

Sami gets out of his snow gear and climbs up onto his chair, watching Rami make their drinks.

“How is it outside?” Rami asks.

“Huh, cold."

“But fun?”

“Yeah, a lot."

“Good.”

“Baba, can I have marshmallows?”

“Oh, I think so,” Rami says. “A snow day treat.”

“Can I go out again?”

“Later, once you’ve warmed up,” Rami says. 

They’re all in the living room, drinking their hot cocoa, when there’s a knock at the front door, and then the heavy stomping of feet.

“Brr!” Gwil calls out. “It’s chilly!”

“My bestie!” Joe exclaims, and he smiles happily at Gwil when he joins them in the living room.

“Tell me you didn’t walk here,” Rami says.

Ben pops his head around the doorframe. “I drove.”

“That’s even worse,” Rami says. “Are the roads clear?”

“They’re not bad,” Ben says. “You wouldn’t let us stay if we got snowed in?”

“We don’t have any room,” Joe says. 

“Would you like a hot cocoa?” Rami asks.

“Shouldn’t you be working?” Joe asks.

“The office closed today,” Gwil says.

“I am working, sort of,” Ben says. “I’ll look at my research later. But yes, I would love a hot cocoa. I can make it myself.”

“I’d love one too, love,” Gwil says. “Thanks.”

“I’ll help,” Joe says, and he hops up to follow Ben into the kitchen, probably to steal more marshmallows.

“How are the roads, really?” Rami asks.

“We could’ve stayed home,” Gwil says. “Little rough getting off the hill. But the main road is fine.”

“We’ve got to shovel,” Rami says.

“No, I recommend just staying home until it melts,” Gwil says.

“Uncle Gwil?” Sami asks, turning in his seat to look up at him.

“Yes,” Gwil says, leaning down over him.

“I made a snowman, do you want to see?” 

“Oh, of course I do,” Gwil says.

“I’ll show you.” Sami carefully climbs off the sofa and leads Gwil into the sunroom.

“Oh wow,” Gwil says, looking out the window. “Lovely, that. Brilliant job.”

“Do you want to play outside with me?” Sami asks hopefully.

“Can I have a hot cocoa first?” Gwil asks, and Sami nods eagerly, so Gwil leans to pick him up. “Let’s go bother Uncle Ben, then.”

“I don’t wanna be mean!”

Gwil chuckles. “You’re right, you’re right. Very bright old chap.”

“Can I have hot cocoa?” Sami asks.

Gwil glances back at the living room, confused. “Weren’t you already drinking one?” he asks.

“Yes, I was,” Sami whispers in Gwil’s ear. “But can I have more marshmallows?”

Gwil grins at him, and presses a playful kiss to his cheek. “It’s a snow day, Sami. I think we can all have extra marshmallows.”

[jadejetts]

feel like i should finally post the few bits of music related to astrothrill i've made in the few years past. its been long enough that i feel comfortable in doing so :]

most of the stuff i did in this time was with LMMS, which, a bunch of vsts are a buggy mess in!! genny vst is what i primarily used (with the SEGAudio soundfont later on), along with spooky keys as a theremin- the former randomly putting sustain on a note even when the entire song is turned off, forcing you to restart the program and keep trying to export until it decides to work fine, and the latter's wibbly-wobbliness is just. gone in newer versions. songs with spooky keys made in older versions will keep their wibbly-wobbliness, but placing any new notes is a no go!! in learning all this, I don't recommend LMMS to anyone unless it's a last resort- unless things have changed since i last used it!!

this here is my oldest piece of my astrothrill stuff, circa 2021. i had an imagery of a scorched hill with a once-abandoned base sitting atop it,, with it's new resident of Sairen-X9. WAY too depressing in hindsight for the main style I wanted to go for.

i eventually re-arranged the melody into something a lot faster and action-oriented. the first half of this was done in a few weeks after, but the second half was done a couple years down the line into 2023 after being stuck for ages. a fair bit better to what i thought i wanted!! nowadays i still feel it's not "bright" enough, this still feels like something you'd hear in the later half of whatever AstroThrill's gonna end up being, rather than something that sets the overarching tone of fun cartoony sci-fi yknow?? this only says final because i'm done iterating on this particular version rather than me feeling like it's ready- ill get it there eventually :]

onto another song now! this one's just a snippet, didn't get too far- but i feel like what Is there is quite close to what i want!! i've always enjoyed marches with that rolling drum sound (looking at astro blaster's queue music) and i did want to try and pull something like that off eventually!! the inspiration that gave me the spark for this was one of the final bits of music in fortnite's collision event- specifically when you're shooting down a bunch of spikes right above the zero point (shoutouts to Phill Boucher [pronounced boo-shay] who's music is too good for that game)

and then i experimented with it again, probably going "what if i cut it down or something. jazz jig rhythm for no reason" and it just kinda. formed into This. i am SO shocked and happy with how this little jingle turned out- i wanted it to feel older than the rest of the stuff i had, like late-70s to mid 80s, and sustaining the notes gave it that little extra flair that feels Perfect. instrument-wise can still be improved by going for actual old synths and not SEGAudio but it's what i got and used ghsCXLKH

this last snippet here goes back to sairen's theme- i just had another jolt of inspiration of the beginning melody in this song during a particularly tense game of capture the flag(? maybe it was infection) in halo infinite ghscvklhcklv after making this it made it very clear that what comes really easy to me music-wise is dramatic stuff darker in tone than the music AstroThrill needs, but this is still probably my second favorite piece i've done right behind the gamma co. jingle from an "instrumentation completeness" standpoint

i haven't fiddled around with music for a while and i definitely gotta get back to it!! these here are some of my favorite pieces of art i've ever done, mostly because music is so utterly special to me. not that other forms of art aren't!! but music is like. insane. shoutouts to micheal giacchino, mike morasky, tee lopes, a TON of people who've worked with nintendo (jun ishikawa, hirokazu ando, megumi ohara, yuuta ogasawara, ryo nagamatsu, shiho fujii, and naoto kubo to name a few), tony grayson and john "joy" tay for being some of my absolute favorite musicians and gigantic inspirations to me not just music-wise but art-wise as a whole