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imagine-that-100 · 6 years ago

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Conversation | Part 2 |

Description of Part 1: Matty Healy x Reader (Female) | You are a photographer, who lives in Manchester, that’s trying to make it down to London for your latest job. Your hectic morning leaves seconds to catch your train and luckily for you the 2 hour journey goes a lot faster when you have someone to make conversation with.

Word Count: 7.5k

A/N: If you haven't already guessed Matty doesn't have a girlfriend in this series. Just wanted to clarify that one. Don’t worry there will be many more parts to come after this, I’m thinking lets make it 10 parts! I really hope you all enjoy the latest part and I’m so excited for you all to read it! Feedback is appreciated and thanks so much for reading. Love you all x

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When Matty told you on Friday that the train home was going to be busy, you’d really underestimated how busy it actually was. You’d managed to get to the train station for 9:45am not chancing being late home, partly because you couldn’t afford it and partly because all you wanted was to be back in your own bed.

Your Premier Inn single bed didn’t compare to your double with a memory foam mattress back at your flat. You practically lived in bed when you were editing your photos and you planned on doing just that when you got back home.

Euston station was just as busy as Piccadilly was because of the amount of people stood gazing up at the announcement boards, checking if their train was on time or delayed. The crowd made you feel suffocated and you couldn’t stand it, so to waste some time before your train was boarding, you went to the shop. You bought yourself a meal deal consisting of a sandwich, a chocolate bar and a bottle of Coke.

You had a sweet tooth and couldn’t think of a life without the fatty foods you consumed almost daily. A life without chocolate really wouldn’t be worth living.

On your way back over to the platform gate, your senses were overwhelmed. The screens around you were constantly changing to different advertisements and the floral scents filled your nostrils when the Body Shop doors opened and closed. The smell was quickly replaced with fresh chips and other fatty foods from Burger King.

Surprisingly, no-one had barged into you during your morning here, so you were in a good mood. You’d had a really nice weekend. You had taken some really good pictures on Friday and had a lovely day sightseeing yesterday.

When your train changed on the screen to boarding, you made your way over as best you could, trying to avoid hitting anyone with your bags. This had proved to be difficult though because of the bag on your back and the one on your front.

When you got to the end of the queue, you looked down at the yourself to see if you were still presentable. You hadn’t slept well the previous night which lead to you waking at 6am meaning you had 3 hours to chill out in the hotel as you slowly got ready to leave.

This morning you’d had time to put your usual effort into your make up which you were thankful for, because when you got to your hotel on Friday, you thought you’d look like a wild animal. Today you’d gone for a natural eyeshadow with a sleek winged eyeliner, and on your travels around London yesterday, you'd gotten yourself a nude matte lipstick which your adored.

You were wearing the same black boots that you arrived in, with blue ripped jeans and a black skull top that was stylishly torn, showing a fair amount of cleavage. You had your leather jacket on as well and your hair was now straight. You had Queen blasting into your ears, and you nod your head along to the beat of ‘We Will Rock You’ smiling to yourself feeling content with life.

Thankfully the queue had started moving so you slowly took steps towards the gate whilst only paying close attention to Freddie Mercury’s voice. In fact, you paid so close attention to the music in your ears that when your earphones were tugged out of your ears it made you jump.

You look to the side to see a familiar face, that was partly hidden by sunglasses, and a smirk also graced his lips.

The now curly haired man says, “Fancy seeing you here?”

“Are you stalking me?” You ask him, looking at him up and down in disbelief that he was actually next to you again.

Matty was wearing a white top, black skinny jeans with holes at the knees, and some black boots. He had his leather jacket on over the top and the only major difference was his hair being wild and curly.

“No, not stalking. I saw you in the queue and I wanted to get on the train quicker” He told you with a smile and you laugh.

“So, I’m a fast track then?” You question pretending to be slightly offended.

He replies with a grin, “Essentially, yes”

“Ouch” You say faking your heart breaking at his comments. “How was your weekend?” You ask.

“Decent actually. I quite like my flat in London, so it was nice to be back again” He tells you.

“Did your people fix your hair for you?” You question with a smirk and Matty grins at you.

You both get to the gate and show your tickets to the staff members and they let you through. Both of you then walk slightly faster towards the train.

Matty asks you, “How was the ballet?”

You tell him, “It was really good! I think I got some great shots of them and they were brilliant to watch as well”

You had an amazing weekend starting off with your bizarre train journey and you had a surprisingly fun time taking photos of the ballet dancers. They were so kind, and you tried your best to get an image of each of them before you had finished what you had been employed to do.

You had also been astounded by their incredible talent. The best you could dance would be jumping up and down at a gig or a party in time with the music.

“Well, it was good to see you again” You tell him as you see that the first-class doors coming to an end.

“Yeah, see ya around Y/N” Matty said before he made his way onto the train.

You slipped your other earphone back in and made your way to carriage E as quickly as you could, hoping that your seat would be empty. You really didn’t have the energy to awkwardly ask someone to move.

Luckily your seat was empty and once your bags were up on the shelf you took your seat. You looked over to the seat that Matty had been in a few days ago and smiled to yourself. You don’t think that you would be forgetting any of the memories you had of him on that train journey for a while yet.

Thanks to Matty, your Instagram account had nearly a thousand more followers and you had read some of the loveliest comments about your work from people all around the world. You would be eternally grateful to him for his kindness.

The train had quickly started filling up around you and the sunlight was now streaming through the window right into your eyes. You luckily had your new sunglasses in your pocket and put those on to shield your eyes.

They were big and gold and very feminine, they made you feel like you were on Love Island doing a brand deal, but they were the nicest ones the shop had to offer. They were also mirrored so they also came in handy for you checking to see if your make up was still okay.

When the train eventually set off, you were cornered into your seat by the man that was sat next to you. He was reading his newspaper and loudly flapping it around when he turned the page.

The man sat opposite you was typing away loudly on his laptop and staring angrily at the screen. The woman next to him looked like a flight attendant crossed with an office worker and she was chewing her gum loudly.

Thankfully, you had your phone charging and were listening to Queen on full blast through your earphones now, drowning out the world for your journey back home. You rested your head against the window and looked out of it until your eyes began to close.

When you lent your head forwards, you felt your hair cover your face and it was then that you accepted that you were going to be catching up on your missed sleep whilst being on the train. As bad as it sounded you were never up this early on a Sunday morning, as it was usually your only day off most of the time.

Due to photography not always being stable, you also worked in a bar a few nights a week. You usually did a longer shift on Saturday nights, meaning that your Sunday morning were essentially for you to catch up on missed sleep.

You felt the train rock from side to side as your eyes grew heavier, but that unfortunately didn’t last long. Freddie Mercury belted a note through your earphones which startled you out of your drowsy state.

Your heart started beating faster from the shock and you felt your tiredness dissipate. You turned down your music to about half way so it kept you entertained but wouldn’t startle you again if you dosed off.

After about 15 minutes of being on the train you were holding your head up against the window and you were losing the will to live. There were 4 loud girls sat on the table opposite your own, where you and Matty had sat last time, and they were annoying you so much.

They hadn’t stopped squealing and giggling for the past 15 minutes and you wanted to slap them for it.

You’d been in such a good mood this morning and seeing Matty again was nice. It was a shame that the trip home wasn’t going to be keeping your good mood going.

The sunlight continued to stream into your eyes because unfortunately your sunglasses weren't very good ones. You just squinted as you looked out of the window hoping that watching the passing scenery would make the time fly faster.

A few minutes later, you were yet again startled but this time by the drumming of hands on your table. You, and everyone else seated at your table, turned around quickly and saw a skinny, curly haired man with familiar sunglasses on looking down in your direction.

You took your earphones out and wrapped them around your phone, as a smile made its way onto your face. You chuckled to yourself moving your glasses down your nose, so you were looking over them at him.

“Hey Matthew” You say with a smile on your face.

He smiles back at you before reaching up onto the shelf and your just watching as he brings them both down. You look at him confused and half ask what he was doing, but a second later he reached over the man to the side of you, holding his hand out for you to take.

You shoot him a questioning look but Matty just moves his hand closer to you insisting you to take it. After a second you take his hand and he tugs at it, wanting you to get up.

You don’t ask questions, instead you just unplug your phone charger and say, ‘Excuse me’ to the man next to you. He politely got out of his seat to let you out all while Matty still held onto your hand.

“Where are we going?” You asked him, grabbing your carrier bag off the table.

Matty then let go of your hand and started walking up the train with your bags over his shoulders. You let out an amused sigh and followed him.

You noted that Matty no longer had his jacket on and you could see the tattoo’s that littered his arms. It was amazing seeing those tattoos so close, especially when you’d only seen pictures of them for years.

“Matty, where are we going?” You question him as you reached a slightly quieter part of the train.

“You’re following me” He tells you without looking back and you just rolled your eyes.

You weren’t leaving your bags, which meant you weren’t leaving him. As you came to the first-class doors, Matty just walked in but you grabbed his shoulder causing him to turn towards you.

He looks at you with his eyebrows raised and you say, “I can’t sit in here, I have to pay for it”

“Don’t worry I upgraded you… It’s sorted” He tells you as he continued up the train.

You looked at him shocked and said, “You can’t make that decision, I really don’t have to money to pay you back for it right now”

You had spent most of your savings in London yesterday, treating yourself and now you regretted doing so.

“Well it’s done now, so you don’t need to worry about it” He hushes your worries in a flat tone as he reaches what you assumed to be his seat which was across from an older lady.

“The company is payment enough” Matty tells you with a smile.

He then proceeds to playfully push you into the seat near the window. As you sit down in the slightly wider and more comfortable seat than the one you were previously in, you smile at the lady across from you.

She politely smiles in return and then her gaze fixes on the book in front of her. You look back towards Matty as he shoves the last of your stuff up on the storage shelf above and he smiles at you once he sits down.

“Hey” Matty says nonchalantly, as if he hadn’t just dragged you up the train and payed for you to sit with him.

“Hi” You say back at him laughing.

“You really couldn’t last half an hour without speaking to anyone?” You question him and he just laughs sarcastically.

“I like these by the way” He points towards your sunglasses and you say a small thank you.

He takes them off your face, but they get caught in your hair. You let out a whine followed by a half angry stare as he untangles strands of your hair from. Matty just smiles and takes off his own, replacing them with yours.

You pick up his glasses and put them on and you look at each other. It was like you were both 5 years old and playing dress up.

“They suit you” You tell him, holding back a smile.

“I suit everything” Matty says confidently with a cocky tilt of his head.

You don’t scorn him for it though, because it was true. You smile, “Fair point”

“I think I wanna keep these” He announces as he takes them off and looking at them in his hand.

“You can have them if I can keep these” You jokingly offer, gesturing towards the ones you were wearing.

Yours had cost you like £5 from some shop you had gone in to buy yourself some food the day before. His would probably cost you 2 days wages.

“Deal” He says, and you shake your head in disbelief.

“How was the promotion stuff you had to do?” You asked him, taking the glasses off and putting them on the table along with your carrier bag that contained your meal deal.

“T’was alright I guess… Just the usual… Good to go back to London though before the American tour” Matty informs you and you slipped into an easy conversation with him.

After about 20 minutes Matty took your glasses off and you took your phone out of your jacket pocket. You realised your music was still playing through your earphones, which was something you accidentally did all the time.

“Are you listening to Queen?” Matty questions looking down to your phone.

You pause the music and nod, saying, “Yeah”

“Let me see what music you like?” The brunette asks and you happily hand him your phone not having a problem with him having a look.

He presses the home button on your phone and the password screen comes on. Matty turns the phone towards you and you give him a look.

“Believe it or not, you already know my password” You tell him and he looks at you confused, then stares back at the phone.

Matty thinks for a few moments about a 4-digit password when it becomes clear to him. He asks disheartened, “Are you really that basic?”

You nod grinning as he types in 1 9 7 5 and he just laughs shaking his head in disappointment. “It’s just easy to remember” You defend yourself but he still just shaking his head.

Instead of gracing you with a response Matty clicks onto your Spotify and he goes on your playlists. You have a few different ones there, either dedicated to old classics or new release, even a party playlist. Different genres of music all seemed to come up too and you had some for your favourite bands and solo artists.

However, you forgot why you never usually let people on your phone because you see him tap on a playlist that starts with: Matty Healy can...

“What’s this?” He says as the screen loads, and you try to take your phone back out of his hand.

“Matty no” You say half leaning over him trying to get it back.

But Matty just extends his arm further out and pushes you away with his other, making you unable to get it.

When it eventually loads, he reads the title that says: Matty Healy can fuck me senseless 👅

Matty’s laugh rings out around the carriage causing the older woman in front of you to look at him. You move back into your own seat and rest your hand over your face.

‘For fucks sake’ You thought. How many times could you embarrass yourself in front of this man?

“That’s adorable” Matty laughs looking through the playlist that’s just full of his band’s songs.

After a minute, you look back at him with your cheeks red hot and he just looks at you humorously. He puts a hand on your arm and rubs in slightly, as if easing your embarrassment when he says, “It’s okay, everyone wants me to”

You sit back and say, “I named it that before I met you and realised you were a twat” with half a smile on your lips.

Matty then looks towards you, without any emotion on his face. His blank expression on his face somehow made his dark eyes lifeless as he stared at you, evidently unimpressed.

After a moment, he blurts out, “Don’t fuck with me Y/N, you already knew that before you met me”

He just smirks at you when you raise your hands jokingly in defeat and say “True”

“How old are you anyway?” He asks you curiously, still looking through your Spotify, silently judging your taste in music.

“Twenty-two” You tell him, and he nods his head as if agreeing with himself.

Matty then looks you up and down and you catch him doing so, and you widen your eyes at him. You raise your eyebrows too, and that seems to prompt him to reply to you.

“What?” He asks, “You’re in my age range” He says, resting his free hand on your thigh.

You roll your eyes at that. He really was quite the flatterer.

“Keep your hands to yourself Healy” You laugh, slipping his hand off your leg, pretending like his touch hadn't just set you on fire.

Matty hands you your phone back a minute later and you both start talking about which artists you both like, and your favourite songs of theirs. Matty creates a new playlist and adds some more music that you haven’t yet listened to.

“It’s fucking boiling in here take the jacket off... You’re making me feel uncomfortable” He instructs you, and he likes when you roll your eyes dramatically at him.

“Stop trying to get me undressed you psycho. We’re on a public train” You say whilst slipping off your jacket, only now noticing how hot it was.

You get your charger out of your pocket and plug it in. You needed to charge up your phone as when you got back, you had a lot of editing to do and you would need the music to pass the time.

As the cool air hits your arms, you instantly start to cool down. You release a sigh of relief just before Matty lets out a loud gasp.

“You actually did it!” Matty gasps and you look at him confused.

But you completely understand once Matty takes your right wrist into his hand.

“You actually got the tattoo” Matty said excitedly.

You grin at him as he studies, which was something that you did all day yesterday after getting it done. It was really sore and red, but you still loved it.

“It looks sick” He said looking at the detail of it.

You’d gotten the box tattooed on your wrist with two roses over the top right corner and the bottom left corner. The roses were beautiful, they had so much detail in them and you were happy you had such beautiful artwork on your body to look at every day.

“Thanks” You say, and you watch as he traces the edge of it with his fingertips. You let out a small hiss of pain when his touch becomes too much, and he apologises to you.

“It’s alright” You laugh. “It’s just tender… And really warm” You say as you look at the black and white tattoo.

He let’s go of your arm and he says “I can’t believe you actually did it... I well thought you would pussy out”

“I’m hard as nails me” You laugh and Matty does too.

“I already want another one” You tell him excitedly.

“Addicting, aren’t they?” Matty says and you nod in agreement.

He then proceeds to ask you why you didn’t get the roses coloured in. But before you can answer, you get a snapchat of your best friend.

Both you and Matty look towards your phone and when you retrieve your device and open the message, it’s just a picture of her face really close up with the caption:

Please come and save me from work x

You smile at your phone and take a selfie to start typing your reply. Just as you’d taken it though you see Matty trying to get into the picture as well.

You start laughing at his disappointment when it doesn’t include him, and he tells you to take another one. You just keep the original one and type your reply: Sorry stuck on a train 😪x

Once that’s been sent though, you angle the front facing camera towards Matty instead of yourself and take a picture of him as he pulls a face. You save it quickly and send: With this guy again 🙄

“Don’t act like you aren’t thrilled by my presence” Matty grins, nudging you with his shoulder.

“I was on Friday” You tell him honestly.

“But by the end of that trip, I guess I just realised you’re just like me and my friends...So the shock of you being you wore off...” You continue and he just looks towards you and with a hurt facial expression.

After a moment it changes, and he says, “I’m only joking... I get it, it happens with any fans that we meet for a while.”

“Like No Rome?” You ask and Matty looks smiles at you.

“Yeah, Rome’s fucking awesome” He tells you and you tell him how much you liked his stuff at the concert.

You get interrupted by your best friend’s reply which was almost immediate. If there is anything that you friend loved to do, it would be to get paid to be on her phone.

Matty picks your phone up when he hears the notification and unlocks it.You watch as he manoeuvres through your apps until he finds snapchat.

When he opens it, you’re both greeted with a beautiful picture of your friend. Her face is completely shocked, and her mouth is wide open.

You knew you’d be having an hour-long phone call like she had done when Matty left your side on Friday. Not that you minded, meeting a celebrity didn’t happen to you every day and you had to fangirl with her about it, even if he was just as normal as the two of you. Her being excited caused you to be as well.

Matty leans his head on your shoulder and you smile at the camera as he takes a picture of you both. He types back Hello beautiful x and sends it back to her but not before saving the picture.

“You’re such a tease” You tell him, and he just keeps his head on your shoulder waiting for your friends reply. You feel his curls against you neck and you have to have to restrain yourself from playing with them.

“I’m a perfect gentleman… Don’t be jealous, you’re beautiful too” Matty retorts and you let out a laugh although you feel your cheeks heat up slightly.

You friend replies after a few minutes with a completely different picture from beforehand. You could tell that it had taken her about 5 attempts to get the right angle she wanted, and she was definitely trying to impress.

Hey handsome x was her message and you just giggle.

Matty takes another selfie of you both but this time he rests his chin on your shoulder and he’s looking at you when he takes the picture. You watch him save it and smile to yourself.

It was a really cute picture actually and you were glad you could keep it.

Messages kept going back and forth between them and you didn’t intervene. Matty kept saving the selfies he was taking of you both and you watched as he started to troll her saying things about the two of you.

For example, the last message he sent was a picture of you smiling looking down at his head resting on your shoulder again and he was pouting at the camera. Matty had sent the picture with the caption:

Did Y/N tell you about our eventful night? x

You rolled your eyes when he sent that and let out a sigh. You were actually intrigued to see what he’s going to say and when she replies with a shocked face asking, What?!?!?!

Matty picks his head up off your shoulder and says a low, “Be cool” into your ear.

Whilst controlling your body not to shiver in response to that, you were about to ask him what he was talking about. But then you felt his lips on your cheek.

You stay silent and feel your heart rate increase as you watch your phone capture him kissing your cheek with his eyes closed. You see him take the picture, he removes his lips, then saves it before he types out:

Lots of naughty things! Can’t believe she didn’t tell you…

Once it’s sent you look over to him questioningly, as if to say, ‘what do you think you’re doing?’ Matty just sticks his tongue out at you and you laugh, “Put that away”

Before he can reply your phone goes off again and your friend sends a blurry picture of herself, more than likely freaking out, and her message says:

Omg! What naughty things?!?!?!?!?!?!!!!

You snort trying to hold in your laugh and Matty sniggers at her messages. Matty then acts quickly, he licks up your face where he’d previously kissed you and takes the picture before you pull away in disgust.

“You’re actually fucking vile Matthew” You say wiping your cheek aggressively.

You couldn’t believe he just did that so you shove him away from you playfully. Really was a strange thing for him to do when you’d only met him twice. He then started laughing at your reaction whilst he replied:

Y/N’s favourite tongue was involved quite a lot…

You roll your eyes continuing to clean your face and Matty just kept leaning and nudging you with his shoulder. He was fucking good at trying to get under your skin, you would give him that.

“Shouldn’t you be avoiding rumours? Like the ones you’re making right now” You ask Matty and his dark eyes find yours instantly.

You can feel the heat on your cheeks but hoped he couldn’t tell how you were reacting to him.

“Just a bit of banter ain’t it?” Matty says with a cheeky smile on his face then he sticks his tongue out at you again.

Your eyes go wide, and you move away from him when he starts moving closer to you pretending he was going to lick you again. Luckily your phone goes off, distracting him and Matty opens the message immediately.

The picture was an entire blur and you just laughed to yourself. She would be a mess in work now because she would be trying her hardest to stay calm but internally wanting to scream the place down.

Y/N Y/L/N!!!!!!!! WTAF!!!!! You go gurl! Did you make him do the balaclava thing?!?!?!? btw I just threw my phone and cracked the screen… fml x

Your eyes went wide when you read the message and internally sighed. Matty turned to look at you with a smug face, “What balaclava thing do you want me to do Babe?”

You know he’s not going to let it go, so you decide telling him would be easier.

“When I was younger, I thought it was very attractive when you kissed the girl in the Robbers video with your balaclava on… Like ten outa ten relationship goals…” You mumble.

Matty smirks at you and bumps your shoulder with his again. You release a small laugh and then say, “In my defence, I was young and impressionable watching your music videos… So if we think about this… it’s really your fault”

He sends a picture back to your friend of him giving you a knowing look and you looking back at him trying to conceal your smile but failing. His message said:

Not yet, but dreams do come true…

“I’m sorry I don’t have one on me right now or I could make your fantasy about me come true” Matty said raising his eyebrows suggestively and you shook your head looking away from him feeling embarrassed.

“I was like Seventeen, okay… That was a long time ago” You say peaking back over at him.

The curly haired man didn’t reply to your comment until you were facing him again, and when you did, he bopped you on your nose with his finger, saying, “It’s alright babe, you’re allowed to fancy me”

You shake your head at him whilst smiling and he lets out a small laugh. Matty’s attention was then directed towards your phone again when the snapchat notification went off. Your friend had replied:

I can’t believe it x

Matty let out a light laugh which was adorable and double tapped on her name to reply. He wrapped an arm around your shoulder, his hand dangling around your neck.

He pulled you towards him and he kissed your temple. You let your eyes fall closed as he did so and opened them again when you heard him take the picture.

To say it was adorable would be an understatement, you looked happy and content with a smile on your face leaning into him and Matty’s eyes were closed as he pressed a kiss to your head. You smiled seeing the photo and Matty did too. Matty saved the picture to your memories and typed:

She’s mine x

“She’s going to fucking lose it” You say smiling at him and he looked back towards you with amusement evident on his face.

Matty’s arm was still around your shoulder and he pulled you into him. You let out a soft screech as you fell into his chest and then start laughing when he ruffled your hair up.

You reach up and get him back though. His hair was softer than you imagined it would be and your fingers ran through his curls easily. When you sat back up Matty was holding your phone expectantly and eager to carry on the ruse.

He looks gutted when your phone loses signal because he can’t get a reply. You try and think of a new topic of conversation not really wanting to sit in an uncomfortable silence with him.

Matty lets go of you and lets out a loud yawn, which causes you to yawn too. “I’m so tired” You tell him and he frowns a little.

“How come?” Matty asks.

“Always am” You laugh. “I don’t sleep till late in the night anyway and the hotel bed was crappy, so I ended up waking up at six this morning” You tell him.

“Sounds shit” Matty tells you and you nod in agreement, yawning again. He rests his head on your shoulder again and says, “I’m tired too”

Matty feels you lean your head against his own and he smiles at how normal it feels. He trusted you and he didn’t even know you that well, he hadn’t felt so easy around someone new in a long time.

Being his playful self, he flirted with you once more, saying, “Maybe you should have stayed at my flat? Least my bed is comfy”

You shook your head in disbelief at that, and Matty smiled feeling you do so. He’s surprised to hear your forwards reply though, “I have a feeling that even if I did I would have got the same amount of sleep”

Matty chuckles then. He liked that you were playful back. Yeah making someone blush and go quiet was fun, but Matty also liked someone who’d play along or give him some back.

You really were an intriguing one to him.

“Still be just as tired, wouldn’t we?” You say a little softer and Matty softly nods so he doesn't disturb your head.

After a minute of you both peacefully resting on one another like that, you watched as Matty unlocks his own phone this time and snaps a quick picture of you both like that. He then does the same on yours and then asks if he can put his thumbprint on your phone, so if your friend replies he can get to it quicker without worrying about losing signal.

You tell him it’s fine and watch was he fails to do it twice and you chuckle to yourself each time it doesn’t work. When he eventually completed his mission, you feel the vibration of him saying a low ‘yay’ when it works on the third try.

You smile contently feeling his curls on your cheek and your eyes close for a second until you feel your stomach start to ache, begging you for food.

You pick your head up off his and say, “Oh, I have a present for you”

Matty jerks his head up and exclaims an, “Ooo” looking over to you excitedly.

You pull out the chocolate bar from your carrier bag and toss it towards him. He catches it, looks at it then smiles. “Awh, aren’t you cute” He tells you and starts to open it.

“I’m fucking amazing, I know” You tell him with a laugh and open up the rest of your meal deal.

You open your sandwich and take a bite out of one of the halves. As you both eat, you sit in a comfortable silence, which it only broken by your gasp when Matty picks up the other half of your sandwich and takes a bite out of it.

You swallow the food in your mouth before saying, “Are you joking?”

“Evidently not” Matty replies with a full mouth and then takes another bite.

To get your revenge, you pick up the rest of the chocolate bar and start eating it.

“Hey! That was my present” Matty tells you and you give him a look.

You defend yourself with a cocky grin, “Well my meal deal was a present to myself… If I have to share, you do too”

Matty shrugs his shoulders and continues to eat your sandwich. You end up sharing your drink with him as well, not that you minded at that point.

When everything was finished Matty briefly got up and put your rubbish in the bin and when he sat back down Matty asks, “Can I see some of the pictures you took by the way?”

“Erm… Yeah sure, they haven’t been edited yet but I can show you them.” You tell him. “Am I alright to get up and get my bag please?” You ask him, but Matty just gets up and passes it down to you.

“Thank you” You say to him with a gracious smile and Matty watches as you get your camera out.

You quickly turn it on and go onto preview. Matty watches as you flick through a few different photos to find the best ones to show him. You come across a picture of the silhouette picture of a ballerina that you’re fairly pleased with.

“I got this one” You tell him angling the camera towards him and he leans towards it trying to look at the detail. “When I get home, I can edit this by making the background lighter, so she is completely dark and a perfect silhouette.”

You flick through some more and Matty listens to you intently. All the pictures that you were showing him, he was astounded by. To him they looked perfect and didn’t need anything doing, but you kept telling him how they could be improved.

“They’re really good” Matty says and you flash a shy smile back at him. He continues, “I can tell you really enjoy doing it”

You chuckle at that, “Yeah, well, I wouldn’t have sat through the degree if I didn’t want to do it for the rest of my life”

“Not that I remember much of it though” You tell him and Matty lets out a laugh.

“Ooo, were you a rebellious one in Uni?” He asks.

You shrug your shoulders as if you didn’t know yourself, as you say, “Let’s just say I either didn’t go to the morning lectures or I was very hungover”

Matty laughed at you and said, “I don’t quite believe it, you don’t seem like a party animal”

“Well that’s because you’ve never been on a night out with me… And, for the record, I’m not like that anymore” You tell him and Matty shoots you a look of disbelief. “Alright, not every night anyway” you correct yourself and Matty laughs.

Matty starts telling you about a night out that he had after the UK tour had finished. You listen intently to him and laugh at the band’s antics. You didn’t realise that the train had slowed down for its final stop until Matty looked out of the window and sighed.

The journey seemed to have gone faster than it did on the way there despite having a few more stops. You were really enjoying Matty’s company and it was disappointed when the train stopped in Manchester Piccadilly.

You let out a big sigh as your pull you jacket on and stuff your charger in your pocket. At least your phone was fully charged now.

“Yay, I get to be barged into by about fifty people on my way out now” You smile at Matty with sarcasm dripping from your voice.

“You’ll be fine, I’ll protect you” Matty says copying your movements and getting his own jacket off the floor and putting it on. You roll your eyes at his comment and you picked up both of your sunglasses off the table and handed Matty his back.

He takes them from you, unfolds them and then puts them on your head and you giggle. He takes yours and puts them on himself and strikes a pose. You quickly take a picture of him like that and laugh at it when you show Matty.

He takes your phone and pushes his face up against yours, you laugh when your glasses knock together and Matty takes the picture. When Matty taps on it, you both start laughing loudly.

Matty has his tongue pulled out on the picture and you are genuinely laughing in the shot.

“Sorry I have to have this one” Matty says as he starts to airdrop it to his own phone.

“It’s fine” You say running your hand through his hair again, attempting to annoy him.

As he accepts the photo on his phone, he gives you a look, but all you can see is your reflection in the gold glasses. He looks adorable with them on and you can’t help but giggle at his grumpy face contrasting with the bright glasses.

“Sorry to interrupt you both” The older woman who’s sat across from you reading for the entire journey says, grabbing your attention.

You and Matty look at the lady and she continues to say, “I just wanted to say that you’re both adorable together. You remind me of me and my husband when we were your age, always joking around and messing about. It’s lovely to see that love like that still exists”

“Oh w-” You start but Matty interrupts you.

“Thank you so much. Just glad I found her” Matty smiles back to the nice lady, before pulling you back into his side again.

She smiles brightly at the two of you before standing up and getting her bag from the empty seat that was beside her. “You’re certainly a lucky man...” She then looks to you as she begins to pass the both of you to get off the train, “Make sure he remembers it Sweetie”

“I will” You smile and offer her a little wave as she walks down the carriage leaving you and Matty on your own.

Matty’s head immediately looks towards you and he scoffs, “I cant believe you were going to destroy her vision of love then Y/N” He jokes, “I’m appalled”

“I just don’t like lying to people” You say as you slip out of his grip.

“So... She was old, probably be dead soon, and you could have destroyed her last glimmer of hope that real love still exists” Matty scorns you trying to make you feel worse.

You’re too busy gasping at him saying she’d be dead soon though. You scorn him shaking your head disapprovingly.

He’s persistent with his argument though, so you just end up saying, “I played along in the end, didn’t I? Shut it Matthew”

“Don’t call me that” Matty pouted.

“Don’t be a diva, then I won't have to full name drop you” You grin a little.

After that, Matty gets up and passes you both of your bags and you put them on quickly as the queue to leave the train was thankfully dying off. Matty gestured to you to walk in front of him and you thanked him as you moved past him.

When you step off the train you were greeted with a hectic platform and freezing cold air compared to London’s hotter weather. Immediately, Matty slung his arm around your shoulder as you both start walking to the end of the platform.

He smiles towards you when you look over at him and shake your head when he smirked at you. You both move over to the opposite side of the platform, so it was slightly easier to manoeuvre through the crowd.

Once you’d both got through the ticket barriers, Matty puts his arm around your shoulder again and you start walking towards the exit. You look at the chaotic crowd surrounding you but for some reason you don’t get barged into this time.

“I think I need you every time I’m in this station, everyone always runs me over” You tell him and Matty laughs.

You get your phone and earphones back out with your hand that isn’t trapped against Matty’s side and tap on your Spotify.

“What’s your final opinion for me Healy? What playlist shall I listen to on the way home?” You ask handing the phone over to him just as your about to exit the glass doors.

Matty scrolls through them and chuckles when he sees his self-titled playlist and you roll your eyes again. You get slightly embarrassed again and Matty just pulls you closer.

“You listen to the best band in the world on your way home” Matty instructs as you walk over to the bus stop just down the road from the station.

“Shall do” You tell him. “I’ll have to change the name of that playlist now” You say as you reach the bus stop and you can see your bus in the distance.

“Definitely not” Matty says with a smirk, before following up with a knowing look, “If I find out you changed it, I’ll just change it back… I know your password”

“Yeah yeah…” You say as you wave your bus over. You look back over to Matty and smile.

“It was great to see you again Matty” You tell him with a genuinely happy smile.

He grins and says, “Same to you... Thanks for the new specs”

Matty then pulls you into him and you wrap your arm around his side because you couldn’t give him a proper hug because of your camera bag.

He lets go of you when your bus comes to a stop and you wave saying, “Bye” before the doors open.

“By the way Y/N… I’d fuck you too” Matty says with a smirk gesturing towards your phone in your hand now blaring out The 1975 songs despite your earphones not yet being in.

You shake your head, feeling your cheeks grow hot again and step onto the bus. You tell the driver where you’re going and pay for your ticket on your card.

When you turn around Matty is standing with a lit cigarette in between his fingers, you say a soft “Bye” again and you quickly go and take a seat.

Matty stands and watches you take a seat on the bus and he lets himself be retrospective.

On Friday, he was quite annoyed at himself because he forgot to take his AirPods with him to London which had really frustrated him. But now he was grateful that he’d gotten so bored that he started a conversation with you.

As he inhaled the smoke, he felt satisfied with his trip and when he blew the smoke out and smiled at you when the bus started to move away. He saw you take one last glance at him and you both shared a little secret smile, both catching the other looking.

Matty stayed stationary for a second until your bus had gone further down the road. It was only then he started walking through the streets of Manchester back towards the studio where he was meeting the rest of the boys for a quick recording session.

He also found himself excited to show you off to them. Even if it was through the silly pictures you’d taken.

~*~*~*~

When you got back to your flat, you jumped in bed and immediately started editing your photos. Your 1975 playlist was on full blast in your ears and before you knew it 3 hours had passed by.

You only stopped working to get yourself a drink and a snack from your kitchen. You didn’t even bother greeting your flatmate because he was a bit of a twat, especially when he’d been working.

When you lay back down on your bed, you put your playlist on repeat so you wouldn’t be distracted about what music to listen to next. You wanted the pictures edited today so you could rest tomorrow.

However, it was proving difficult because your freshly tattooed wrist kept causing you pain as it lent on your laptop. But you tried to power through and not let anything distract you.

Your phone was on aeroplane mode and you were in the zone. So much so, that when you eventually got through the best of your photos, you looked at your clock to find it was 9pm.

You closed your laptop with a sigh of relief and rubbed your eyes. It probably wasn’t healthy looking at a screen for almost 8 hours but at least you had tomorrow to completely rest your mind after a bizarre but brilliant weekend.

You just felt so satisfied that you'd got the work done. You felt like you could rest easy now.

When you took your phone off aeroplane mode, your phone started to blow up. You were receiving about 20 snapchats from your best friend and she was also texting you. Your stomach dropped though, when you saw the 10 missed calls from her.

You immediately rang her back praying everything was alright and that something terrible hadn’t happened. As the phone continued to ring you felt your heart rate increase, and were beginning to panic that something really bad had happened.

After a few more seconds, she answered the phone.

“Hey, is everything alright? I’ve just seen all the missed calls, are you okay?” You ask in a rush.

“Hey, yeah, I’m fine” She says, and you release the breath that you had been holding.

You then began to calm down and you sighed a, “Thank god... I thought something bad had happened”

“Nah, nothing bad” She told you, “Have you seen the picture?” She asks excitedly.

You furrowed your eyebrows, confused as to what photo she was referring too. “What picture?” You ask.

“I can’t believe you haven’t seen it yet… Go on Instagram” And you do as you are told. You quickly put her on speaker and flick through your phone until you find your Instagram.

You look through it and nothing out of the ordinary seemed to have happened since Matty had followed you the other day. “What photo are you on about?” You ask again and your friend releases a sigh.

“Go on Matty Healy’s profile now!” She tells you and you do. You tap on his account and you click on his most recent picture.

“What the fuck?” You gasp covering a hand over your mouth.

“I know…” Y/B/F says and you can hear how excited she is in her voice.

You smile to yourself as you study the picture on your screen.

The picture shows you sat on a train with your messy Y/H/C hair covering your face as you looked out of the window. You had your leather jacket on, and you looked blissfully unaware causing the photograph to be perfectly anonymous.

You realise he must have taken this picture of you before you’d even noticed who he was.

“That’s you, isn’t it?” Your friend asks.

You murmur a, “Yeah” with a smile on your face.

It was a beautiful photograph and you loved it. You double tap on it and smile to yourself as you read the text at the bottom.

London Babyyy x

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Taglist: @the-girl-before @14-bees @fairyyyfloss @murderousginger @siwiecola @grungegunnulfsen @colette2194 @hottie-chocolatie @darling-i-read-it

Let me know if you want to be tagged x

#conversation #matty healy #matty healy x reader #matty healy imagine #matty healy x you #matty the 1975 #the 1975 #the 1975 imagine #Matty Healy fanfic #Matty Healy fluff #Matty Healy blurb #the 1975 blurb #the 1975 fluff

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thebloodychampion · 6 years ago

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Mass Effect Muses Master Post

Name: Irius Sparatus Trope: Deadpan Snarker Age: 43 (in 2186) Race: Turian Height: 6′8″ Occupation: Turian Councilor Sexual Orientation: Bisexual Face Claim (Human): Jeffrey Dean Morgan Voice Claim: Alastair Duncan

Name: Karnesh Trope: Knowledge Broker Age: 624 (in 2186) Race: Krogan Height: 7′5″ Occupation: Shadow Broker Agent Sexual Orientation: Demisexual Face Claim (Human): Hugh Laurie Voice Claim: Rory McCann

Name: Clavius Tarxis aka Irelius Draxas Trope: The Oathbreaker Age: 51 (in 2186) Race: Turian Height: 7′2″ Occupation: Bodyguard, Ex-Blue Suns Lieutenant Sexual Orientation: Homosexual Face Claim (Human): Benedict Cumberbatch Voice Claim: Kristofer Hivju

Name: Renius Sparatus Trope: Old Soldier Age: 73 (in 2186) Race: Turian Height: 6′7″ Occupation: Blackwatch General Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual Face Claim (Human): Donal Logue Voice Claim: Charles Dance

Name: Torana Sparatus Trope: Sassy Black Woman Age: 30 (in 2186) Race: Turian Height: 6′0″ Occupation: C-Sec Officer Sexual Orientation: Bisexual Face Claim (Human): Aja Naomi King Voice Claim: Claudia Black

Name: Jurdon Madadh Trope: Badass Grandpa Age: 1383 (in 2186) Race: Krogan Height: 8′3″ Occupation: Freelancer Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual Face Claim (Human): Travis Fimmel Voice Claim: Steven Hartley

Name: Ganar Drealav Trope: Big Bad Age: 810 (in 2186) Race: Krogan Height: 7′10″ Occupation: Blood Pack Leader Sexual Orientation: Asexual Face Claim (Human): Rory McCann Voice Claim: Ellen McLain (Info Drone), Anthony Skordi

Name: Raik Cagar Trope: Super Doc Age: 400 (in 2186) Race: Krogan Height: 7′2″ Occupation: Doctor Sexual Orientation: Homosexual Face Claim (Human): Lupita Nyong'o Voice Claim: Denise Gough

Name: Haral Nyras Trope: Retired Badass Age: 78 (in 2186) Race: Turian Height: 6′9″ Occupation: Ex Blackwatch Navigator Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual Face Claim (Human): Andrew Lincoln Voice Claim: Anthony Howell

Name: Oswin Shepard Trope: Loyal To The Position Age: 32 (in 2186) Race: Human Height: 5′3″ Occupation: Commander of the Normandy Sexual Orientation: Pansexual Face Claim: Chyler Leigh Voice Claim: Jennifer Hale

Name: Noah Shepard Trope: Papa Wolf Age: 32 (in 2186) Race: Human Occupation: First Human Spectre Sexual Orientation: Bisexual Face Claim: Michael Malarkey Voice Claim: Mark Meer

Name: Maron Hinom Trope: The Cynic Age: 35 (in 2186) Race: Salarian Height: 5′5″ Occupation: Ex STG Sexual Orientation: Aseuxal Face Claim (Human): Phoebe Tonkin (female), Iwan Rheon (male) Voice Claim: Antonia Bernath

Name: Shaela’Riel Vas Tonbay Trope: The Engineer Age: 26 (in 2186) Race: Quarian Height: 5′6″ Occupation: Navigator Sexual Orientation: Bisexual Face Claim (Human): Ksenia Solo Voice Claim: Eve Myles

Name: Lorik Qui’in Trope: Pretty Boy Age: 58 (in 2186) Race: Turian Height: 6′7″ Occuaption: Adminstrator of Port Hanshan on Noveria Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual Face Claim (Human): David Guintoli Voice Claim: Peter Jessop

Name: Marius Nyras Trope: Identity Amnesia Age: 74 (in 2186) Race: Turian Height: 6′9″ Occupation: Former Shuttle Pilot/Repair Man, Accountant Sexual Orientation: Homosexual Face Claim (Human): J.R. Bourne Voice Claim: Craig Sechler

Name: Andrew Ryder Trope: Hope Bringer Age: 22 (in 2185 (start of the Andromeda journey)) Race: Human Height: 5′9″ Occupation: Pathfinder Sexual Orientation: Pansexual Face Claim: Dominic Sherwood Voice Claim: Tom Taylorson

Name: Tayus Draxas Trope: Not Good With People Age: 41 (in 2186) Race: Turian Height: 6′8″ Occupation: Mercenary Sexual Orientation: Homosexual Face Claim (Human): Jude Law Voice Claim: Michael Maloney

Name: Tachyus Nyras Trope: Overshadowed By Awesome Age: 21 (in 2186) Race: Turian Height: 6′9″ Occupation: Unemployed due to Corpalis Syndrom Sexual Orientation: Pansexual Face Claim (Human): Torrance Coombs Voice Claim: Paul Thornley

Name: Macen Barro Trope: Badass Gay Age: 61 (in 2185: Start of Andromeda) Race: Turian Height: 7′1″ Occupation: Former Pathfinder Sexual Orientation: Homosexual Face Claim (Human): Richard Armitage Voice Claim: Daniel Riordan (voice actor unknown, god damn it)

Name: Yaora V’Loar Trope: The Muse Age: 301 (in 2186) Race: Asari Height: 5′3″ Occupation: Consort Worker Sexual Orientation: Pansexual Face Claim (Human): Astrid Berges Frisbey Voice Claim: Moira Quirk

Name: SAM (Simulated Adaptiv Matrix) Trope: Benevolent A.I. Age: Unknown Race: Artificial Intelligence Height. 5′10″ (as human) Occupation: A.I. Sexual Orientation: Demisexual Face Claim (Human): Will Tudor Voice Claim: Alexia Traverse-Healy

Name: Yandra Nyras Trope: Proper Lady Age: 21 (in 2186) Race: Turian Height: 6′9″ Occupation: Embassy Worker Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual Face Claim (Human): Alexandra Daddario Voice Claim: Elle Newlands

Name: Quentius Zuris Trope: Bizarre Alien Biology Age: 50 (in 2186) Race: Turian Height: 7′0″ Occupation: Former Blackwatch Mediator Sexual Orientation: Asexual Face Claim (Human): Hugh Dancy Voice Claim: Steve Pirot

Name: Urdnot Wreav Trope: Even Evil Has Standards Age: 1300 (in 2186) Race: Krogan Height: 7′10″ Occupation: None Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual Face Claim (Human): Joe Manganiello Voice Claim: Jim Cummings

Name: Adrien Victus Trope: Unexpected Successor Age: 67 (in 2186) Race: Turian Height: 7′1″ Occupation: Turian Primarch Sexual Orientation: Bisexual Face Claim (Human): Hugh Jackman Voice Claim: Daniel Riordan

Name: Bautas Wrenkus Trope: Insistent Terminology Age: 37 (as of his death in 2186) Race: Turian Height: 6′4″ Occupation: Blackwatch Communication Specialist Sexual Orientation: Pansexual Face Claim (Human): Dylan O’Brien Voice Claim: Troy Baker

Name: Maxius Naeryas Trope: Ace Pilot Age: 40 (as of his death in 2186) Race: Turian Height: 6′7″ Occupation: Blackwatch Pilot Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual Face Claim (Human): Elliot Knight Voice Claim: James Horan

Name: Radim Queriak Trope: Dare To Be Badass Age: 43 (as of his death in 2186) Race: Turian Height: 6′8″ Occupation: Blackwatch Engineer Sexual Orientation: Pansexual Face Claim (Human): Tom Hardy Voice Claim: Ray Chase

Name: Lartis Queriak Trope: Not So Different Age: 43 (as of his death in 2186) Race: Turian Height: 6′8″ Occupation: Blackwatch Engineer Sexual Orientation: Homosexual Face Claim (Human): Tom Hardy Voice Claim: Keith Szarabajka

Name: Nymeda Ventas Trope: Amazon Brigade Age: 39 (as of her death in 2186) Race: Turian Height: 6′2″ Occupation: Blackwatch Medic Sexual Orientation: Bisexual Face Claim: Katerina Graham Voice Claim: Danielle Rayne

Name: Deros Maetos Trope: Honor Before Reason Age: 46 (as of his death in 2186) Race: Turian Height: 6′5″ Occupation: Blackwatch Logistics Sexual Orientation: Pansexual Face Claim (Human): Matt Bomer Voice Claim: Clancy Brown

Name: Haeris Tykis Trope: You Killed My Father Age: 40 (as of his death in 2186) Race: Turian Height: 6′7″ Occupation: Blackwatch Weapons Specialist Sexual Orientation: Demisexual Face Claim (Human): Ansel Elgort Voice Claim: Crispin Freeman

#masterpost #mass effect #muses

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dailyrugbytoday · 2 years ago

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Rugby Ireland Six Nations Championship Guinness 2023 Fixtures and squad

New Post has been published on https://thedailyrugby.com/rugby-ireland-six-nations-championship-guinness-2023-fixtures-and-squad/

The Daily Rugby

https://thedailyrugby.com/rugby-ireland-six-nations-championship-guinness-2023-fixtures-and-squad/

Rugby Ireland Six Nations Championship Guinness 2023 Fixtures and squad

The Ireland Coaching Team have named a 37-guy squad for the upcoming Guinness Six Nations Championship, which kicks off with an away ride to Cardiff to stand Wales on Saturday, 4th February.

In Round 2, Ireland host France at Aviva Stadium looking to relaxed their first victory over Fabien Galthie’s facet on account that 2019. There turned into just six points among the two aspects last 12 months in Paris and France emerged the victors once they closing faced off in Dublin the previous year, triumphing 15-13.

In Round 3, Ireland travel to Rome to face a resurgent Italy who have recorded wins over Australia and Wales inside the past year.

Round 4 sees Andy Farrell’s facet tour to BT Murrayfield to face Gregor Townsend’s Scotland and 6 days later, in the very last game of the Championship, Ire play host to England at Aviva Stadium.

Both of Irelnd’s home video games against France and England are sold out and all of Ireland’s furniture can be broadcast stay on free-to-air television and radio across RTE, VIRGIN, BBC, ITV, RTE Radio and BBC NI Radio.

Ireland finished 2nd to France in ultimate year’s Championship with 4 wins and 5 bonus points for a total of 21 factors, claiming the Triple Crown for the first time since 2018.

There is one uncapped participant named within the squad, Leinster’s Jamie Osborne. Osborne was first included into the Senior squad in November 2021 as a Development Player and has because featured for Emerging Irish.

Ireland Head Coach Andy Farrell commented: “The Six Nations is a huge opposition for us and any other possibility for us to develop as organization. 2022 changed into a hectic yr as we got to work with a bigger organization of gamers as we endured to construct our squad intensity and opposition for locations.

Andy Farrell’s Ireland! 🟢#TeamOfUs | #GuinnessSixNations

— Irish Rugby (@IrishRugby) January 19, 2023

Ireland Squad, 2023 Guinness Six Nations

Backs (17):

Bundee Aki (Connacht/Galwegians) 41 caps Ross Byrne (Leinster/UCD) 14 caps Craig Casey (Munster/Shannon) 7 caps Jack Crowley (Munster/Cork Constitution) 2 caps Keith Earls (Munster/Young Munster) 98 caps Jamison Gibson Park (Leinster) 23 caps Mack Hansen (Connacht) 8 caps Hugo Keenan (Leinster/UCD) 25 caps Jordan Larmour (Leinster/St Marys College) 30 caps James Lowe (Leinster) 15 caps Stuart McCloskey (Ulster/Bangor) 9 caps Conor Murray (Munster/Garryowen) 100 caps Jimmy O’Brien (Leinster/Naas) 3 caps Jamie Osborne (Leinster/Naas) * Garry Ringrose (Leinster/UCD) 47 caps Johnny Sexton (Leinster/St Mary’s College)(captain) 109 caps Jacob Stockdale (Ulster/Lurgan) 35 caps

Forwards (20):

Ryan Baird (Leinster/Dublin University) 8 caps Finlay Bealham (Connacht/Buccaneers) 27 caps Tadhg Beirne (Munster/Lansdowne) 36 caps Jack Conan (Leinster/Old Belvedere) 33 caps Gavin Coombes (Munster/Young Munster) 2 caps Caelan Doris (Leinster/St Mary’s College) 23 caps Tadhg Furlong (Leinster/Clontarf) 63 caps Cian Healy (Leinster/Clontarf) 121 caps Iain Henderson (Ulster/Academy) 68 caps Rob Herring (Ulster/Ballynahinch) 31 caps Ronan Kelleher (Leinster/Lansdowne) 18 caps Dave Kilcoyne (Munster/UL Bohemians) 48 caps Joe McCarthy (Leinster/Dublin University) 1 cap Peter O’Mahony (Munster/Cork Constitution) 89 caps Tom O’Toole (Ulster/Ballynahinch) 4 caps Andrew Porter (Leinster/UCD) 48 caps Cian Prendergast (Connacht/Corinthians) 1 cap James Ryan (Leinster/UCD) 48 caps Dan Sheehan (Leinster/Lansdowne) 13 caps Josh van der Flier (Leinster/UCD) 45 cap

2023 Guinness Six Nations Fixtures:

Wales v IRISH Saturday 4th February 2023, KO 14:15 (IST)

IRISH v France Saturday 11th February 2023, KO 14:15 (IST)

Italy v IRISH Saturday 25th February 2023, KO 14:15 (IST)

More News :: Super Rugby fixtures

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strangledeggs · 7 years ago

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The 1975 - A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships

Who’s comparing this to OK Computer? Who’s calling it “political”? If you want politics, Parquet Courts released a whole concept album about being “woke” earlier this year. No, this album is about one subject over all: Matt Healy. Everything else, all the quoted tweets, the internet “critique”, the so-called “politics” - it’s all just a backdrop, a stage on which Matt Healy can dramatically perform at his Healy-est for us, the audience/internet.

Needless to say, if the title didn’t give it away, there’s a lot of conceptual fuckery going on here. Or is there? Are we to believe that all the open-heartedness of the grandiose production is inviting us to believe that we’re getting some kind of confessional affair here, getting to hear the “real Matt Healy”?

The answer is obviously “no”, or he wouldn’t need all the conceptual smoke-and-mirrors. So that means this album is primarily a formal exercise, one in which Healy performs some version of what he thinks we want to think of him and hopes that we’ll focus on the performance rather than the man behind the curtain. The play’s the thing. It’s actually a bit reminiscent of David Foster Wallace’s unfinished posthumous novel, “The Pale King,” which I happen to have been in the midst of reading when I decided to take a break to give this album a first listen; both writers employ similar techniques of “decoy” autobiographical details, “false selves” displayed to psych the audience out by luring them into a false sense of familiarity with what they believe to be the artist. Very “meta”.

Except unlike Wallace, Healy has chosen to stage his play in a medium that people actually expect to be enjoyable - pop music, rather than a novel. So the question that’s on all our minds isn’t so much “How clever is it?” as it is “How does it sound?” And the answer to that question is no more easily determinate than the answer to the former.

For one thing, it’s a general truth that a strong singer is often what marks the dividing lines between the territories of “upstart punks” and full-on “pop music” for a band with the 1975’s ambition. But Healy’s not exactly a “strong” singer - he’s got two modes: breathy to the point of intangible, and belting it out in his best Bono impression (which, I’ll add, isn’t nearly as dynamic). He seems to catch on to this himself and piles on the vocal production, auto-tune, choral backups and everything to disguise his weakness.

Or is this part of the “meta-performance”, another “false self” by way of obscured vocals? This kind of thing was annoying enough in “The Pale King”, and it’s not necessarily alleviated by Healy’s tastes in production, which are...intriguing, to put it politely. For one thing, it sounds like he picked up the band from Chance The Rapper’s Donnie Trumpet sessions, particularly on the trumpet-heavy “Sincerity Is Scary”. Everything’s drenched in a sort of “lite”-sounding production, drawing from soft rock, the more bombastic end of new wave and ‘’’the 80s’’’ (as filtered through the 2010s’ increasingly warped understanding of what that means). This could bore quickly, slipping into “easy listening” or “muzak”, except for the fact that Healy’s written some really killer hooks in here; I wish Prince were alive to cover “It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You)”, which has a Purple Rain-worthy riff, and “Love It If We Made It” makes a convincing bid for song-of-the-year with an excellent chorus interpretable from at least three different angles. “TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME” (yeah, I know) manages to make an impression over its artless dancehall-lite groove on its sheer playfulness.

But Healy doesn’t know where to stop, and the album is at least four songs longer than it needs to be. Paradoxically, as the production is stripped away on some of the (ugh) “ballads” and we hear more of the “real” Healy (“Healy Unplugged”), the hooks disappear and the music becomes forgettable; “Be My Mistake”, “Surrounded By Heads And Bodies” and “Mine” are all total wastes. On the other hand, the album’s weirdest experiment, a two-part electronic Burial/Radiohead-impersonation called “How To Draw / Petrichor”, is mostly memorable for its weirdness rather than for any substantial songcraft or sonic flourishes; it was probably Healy’s idea of something to “challenge” listeners, but it ends up more like a chance for them to space out.

Even if we forgive these mis-steps, not everything that works is as successful as the aforementioned earworms. The dramatic closer “I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)” (again - I know) veers a little too close to Coldplay for my comfort. Opener “Give Yourself A Try” has some obnoxiously inconsistent phrasing and a riff stolen note-for-note from Joy Division’s “Disorder”, which is again one of those things that’s almost clever, but more annoying the more you think about it. Not to mention cloying lyrics that cast Healy as a “man who’s been there and knows what’s up” in the most self-deprecating postmodern way he’ll later mock in the opening lines of “Sincerity Is Scary”.

About those lyrics: there are spots where they really shine. “Love It If We Made It”’s headline-pastiche is one obvious spot, even if it also comprises a vague nod toward “We Didn’t Start The Fire”. But “I Like America & America Likes Me” also has some of the most genuine-sounding lines on the album in its chorus, begging listeners to “please listen” and “believe in saying something”, even when it doesn’t know what exactly to say itself. Likewise, “It’s Not Living” is an honest account of addiction that manages to tie Healy’s romantic drama into it as well. “I Always Wanna Die Sometimes” has one of my favourite lines on the whole album: “Am I me through geography?”

But it also has the lines “You win you lose, you sing the blues”, and this reminds me of the fact that lines like the ones I was so impressed by comprise maybe only 30% of the album. The other 70% is partly smoke-and-mirrors, but largely worse: it’s just plain filler and cliche. So the real best line on the album goes to “I Couldn’t Be More In Love”, the best ballad on the whole thing, in which Healy temporarily transcends his vocal limitations to deliver an emotionally charged chorus: “What about THESE FEEEEEEEEELINGS I’ve got?” No, that’s not the best line; the best line is in the second verse, when Healy sings “I could’ve been a great line, I could’ve been a sign, / Overstayed my time, say what’s on your mind”, because I’ll be damned if that isn’t the whole album in a nutshell. Until he learns to edit down some of his pretentious impulses and filler-y dreck, I can’t see myself re-visiting this album in full anytime soon.

That being said, it’s the streaming age, albums have never meant less, and I’m not above distilling this unwieldy thing down to a fully-listenable playlist. So skip the intro, skip the ambient electronica, skip the ballads, and maybe leave in that joke-y Her/Radiohead parody in the middle if you still find it funny after a few plays and Give This Tracklist A Try:

1. Give Yourself A Try

2. TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME

3. Love It If We Made It

4. Sincerity Is Scary

5. I Like America & America Likes Me

6. The Man Who Married A Robot / Love Theme

7. Inside Your Mind

8. It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You)

9. I Couldn’t Be More In Love

10. I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5hp63LWKr3Kfkdwvq9pCrw

#Music #Music Criticism #A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships #The 1975

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squareallworthy · 7 years ago

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Taking UBI seriously, part 4: Torry

This is the 4th in a serious of posts looking for a serious proposal for universal basic income. Previous posts:

A Budget-Neutral Universal Basic Income by Jensen et. al.

Basic Income – Why and How in Difficult Economic Times: Financing a BI in Ireland by Healy et. al.

Andrew Yang’s proposal as part of his presidential campaign

In this post, I will look at A variety of indicators evaluated for two implementation methods for a Citizen’s Basic Income by Malcolm Torry. Torry is a Visiting Senior Fellow at the London School of Economics and the director of the Citizen's Basic Income Trust.

In the paper, Torry analyzes two approaches to achieve a universal basic income in the UK. The first grants a weekly Citizen's Basic Income (as he prefers to call it) to all citizens all in one go. The second scenario would roll out CBI on a gradual basis, and would exclude everyone who is 20 years of age or older at the start of the program. It's less effective and more politically problematic, so I will be ignoring it and commenting only on the first approach.

tl;dr: Finally, someone who has done their homework. This plan is arguably affordable and politically feasible, and sufficiently detailed to tell where the money goes to. But can we really call an income “basic” if it's less than a third of the poverty level?

The UK already has a Child Benefit program for children under 16, which Torry would increase by £20 per week per child, and then grant a CBI to citizens 16 and older. I have converted the CBI to an annual income below:

The existing Child Benefit extends to 16 to 19 year olds if they are in full-time education, and Torry would continue this, so in this case full-time students would not receive a CBI. The existing National Insurance Basic State Pension would continue as-is for seniors.

On the revenue side, Torry proposes to change existing payroll and income taxes. The current Nation Insurance Contribution rate on wages is zero for low earners, 12% for most income, and 2% for income over a high threshold. Torry would abolish both upper and lower limits to make the tax a flat 12% in all cases. Income taxes are adjusted "as required in order to achieve revenue neutrality," and Torry uses a number of simulations on a population model to come up with a rate increase of 3%.

The same population model allows him to calculate the effect of the program on households at various income levels, summarized along with new Income Tax rates in Table 1 (p. 6).

As you can see, Torry is mainly concerned with determining if any of the poorest households are worse off. For a rough system, this is not too bad.

He also calculates some other measures, most of which I will skip, but the effects on poverty and disposable income are worth looking at.

Note that those are proportional increases, not absolute, and a 6.4% increase for the 5th decile may be greater than an 8.4% increase for the 2nd decile. Torry doesn’t provide any figures for absolute gains.

On pp. 10-14, Torry looks at effects on marginal effective tax rates. The analysis is complicated, so I won't go into details. His proposal improves the situation but does not wipe out the problem of high marginal rates, with some people still facing marginal rates above 100%. That’s more a criticism of the UK’s existing welfare system than Torry’s plan.

So, is this a serious proposal? I thnk so. It's clear on where the money comes from and goes to, and offers good evidence for its projected effects on poverty, the primary concern. He’s not explicit about the absolute amount his proposed tax increase amounts to, nor the amount of money it directs to families who are not in need, which is a weak point, but I don’t think a fatal one. The increase in Income Tax is arguably affordable and politically feasible. That doesn’t mean that it’s a good idea, but there’s enough meat on the bones to begin evaluating it.

But let's be clear on what this proposal does not do. It doesn’t provide nearly enough income to lift everyone out of poverty. Median income for a single individual in the UK in 2017 was £17,200, and for a couple with two children it was £36,000 (see this government report, p. 5). Using the usual measure of 60% of median income, here is how Torry’s benefits compare to the poverty threshold if the adults are in the 25-64 age range and the children are under 16:

A single person’s CBI is less than a third of the poverty level. For families with children, where poverty is concentrated, the results are better, but CBI is still less than half the poverty level for the example family above.

Another thing that Torry’s proposal does not do is provide a greater individual income for most working people. Torry puts this in a footnote on p. 4, and I will just quote the whole thing here.

The calculation is as follows: Income Tax Personal Tax Allowance in 2015/16 was £11,000. Removing the allowance would mean additional Income Tax of 11,000 x 0.2 = £2,200 being paid. The Primary Earnings Threshold for National Insurance Contributions was £155 per week. Reducing the threshold to zero would mean additional National Insurance Contributions of 155 x 52 x 0.12 = £967.20. The total additional payment would be 2,200 + 967.20 = 3,167.20, which translates as £60.90 per week: so a Citizen’s Basic Income of £61 per week would more than compensate for the loss of the Income Tax Personal Allowance and the reduction of the Primary Earnings Threshold to zero.

So if you have a job that pays more than £11,000 per year, then by Torry’s calculation the higher taxes are offset by your CBI and you come out ahead by £0.10 per week. Ten whole pence a week is not much of a basic income, and Torry should be embarrassed for trying to bury this in a footnote.

But it’s worse than that. Torry has miscalculated here, because he’s using the current Income Tax basic rate of 20%. His proposal raises the basic rate to 23%, so the additional Income Tax should be £11,000 x 0.23 = £2,530. Added to the increased National Insurance Contribution of £967.20, that comes to £3497.20, or £67.25 per week. Contrary to his claim, the CBI of £61 per week does not more than compensate for the additional taxes.

(And that’s only counting income up to £11,000 per year. Torry’s sloppiness here does not give me a great deal of confidence in the rest of his analysis, but I’m only asking for a serious proposal, not a perfect one.)

How to square this observation with Torry’s figures showing net increases in household income up to the 7th decile? Well, the math above applies only to single working individuals, or households where all the adults are fully employed and there are no children. Adding a child or unemployed adult to the household brings in additional CBI, but no additional taxes. Torry’s system preferentially aids households with children or unemployed or underemployed adults at the expense of other households.

I don’t want to overplay my criticism here. If you are mainly concerned with poverty, your antipoverty program should be directed toward children and people who are not in the workforce, because that’s where poverty is concentrated. That’s what Torry’s proposal would do, and as an antipoverty program, it looks pretty good. If his predictions shown in Table 4 are accurate, child poverty would drop by a third, which would be fantastic news. It looks a lot better than other things that are done in the name of fighting poverty.

But this is a far cry from what proponents of universal basic income usually claim they are proposing. Typically, they say they’re going to wipe out poverty, put $1000 a month in everyone’s bank account, or free people to give up their boring jobs and become artists or caretakers or something. Torry’s plan does none of that, nor does it pretend to.

Conclusion: Torry provides a proposal that is sufficiently detailed to allow a serious discussion of its merits, and it’s not obviously fatally flawed. But if this is as good as UBI proposals get, then proponents need to stop pretending that UBI can be more than a partial fix for poverty.

#ubi #universal basic income #cbi #citizen's basic income #citizen's basic income trust

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wedoyouressays195 · 5 years ago

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Impact of Illegal Drug Use Among Teens

For more than one hundred years, the United States has been managing the utilization and maltreatment of illicit medications. The central government has burned through billions of dollars since 1906 attempting to stop the creation, circulation, ownership and utilization of medications. The war on drugs has been long and exorbitant with negligible advancement made. In spite of the fact that the utilization of unlawful medications among adolescents has decreased, their maltreatment of physician recommended drugs has risen generously. Medication use is an intense issue among young and school age people and is available on each grounds over this country.Even however the war on drugs is continuous, the governmentâ€™s endeavors to decrease tranquilize dealing has had little impact on the utilization or maltreatment of illicit medications among adolescents. Medication misuse proceeds to plaque our country, causing obliteration along its way, there is by all accounts no way out from this disturbing pattern. The most significant test for medicate strategy is to invert these risky patterns. Unlawful medications are effectively available; they are in our homes, schools, organizations and even in the correctional facilities and penitentiaries. They influence the vast majority in this country in some structure or another, in the case of manhandling them themselves or knowing somebody who does or has mishandled them.The utilization of medications right on time among youngsters is particularly hazardous, and regularly lead to useless, undesirable conduct. Inclusion in criminal equity framework, adolescent misconduct, untimely sexual action (which opens them to explicitly transmitted maladies and increment the danger of undesirable pregnancies), are totally connected with the utilization of illicit medications. The stunning expense for pointless social insurance, car collisions, wrongdoings coming about because of medication use and additional law implementation has caused considerably more harm to a previously fizzling economy.If the administration is to push ahead in its endeavor to battle the war on drugs, it needs to make viable medication arrangements and grow better projects to stop the beginning of starting medication use. Educating todayâ€™s youth about the risks of illicit medications will demonstrate definitely more gainful than basically utilizing alarm strategies with harsher punishments. A key segment in the battle to spare the youngsters from drugs is viable medication training. The Narconon medicate educational program will show them why they should state â€œNOâ€, by helping them comprehend the enduring harm of drugs.In handling the high school tranquilize issue, first, we need to figure out what a portion of the hazard factors are that may have driven them down that way from the earliest starting point. How a kid connects in different settings like at school, with instructors, their companions, kin, guardians and in their neighborhood can assume a urgent job in their enthusiastic, social and psychological turn of events. On the off chance that they start to carry on in the class, bomb classes, have poor social adapting abilities, start to connect with an inappropriate group and change in generally speaking discernment about things they know aren't right similar to lying, drugs, violations, etc.These are for the most part warnings and ought to be examined and tended to right away. You need to take a stab at chatting with them or taking them to see an expert to discover what's up, if conceivable, change their condition, place them around positive companions, get them engaged with sports, church, social clubs. Take the necessary steps to keep things from spiraling crazy, use every one of your assets. Attempt to tell the youngster you are there and that you care about what they are experiencing, this could have a significant effect, in whether you reach them.If guardians read, instruct themselves of the risks in utilizing medications, at that point and at exactly that point will they have the option to show their kids how to engaging in tranquilize use. To arrange enough exploration for a balanced paper destinations like; the Office on National Drug Control Policy, National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Internet, ProQuest, and the Ashford Online Library were utilized. These locales alongside others sources contained a plenitude of data, enough information to make an instructive paper.This research called attention to the social and wellbeing cost of illegal medication use, and further distinguished that sedate related disease, demise and wrongdoing, cost the country more than one hundred billion dollars per year. The Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) reports, of the 263,871 crisis office visits by youths age 12-17, about one tenth (8. 8 percent) included self destruction endeavors, just about three of each four (72. 3 percent) were females. Of the 95. 4 percent sedate related suicides pharmaceuticals were included and more than three-fourths (77. 0 percent) finished with follow-up care (SAMHSA, 2008).The most noteworthy expense of all medication misuse is paid in the lost of human lives, either legitimately through overdose, or medication misuse related maladies, for example, tuberculosis, (AIDS) and hepatitis. (NIDA and NIAA, 1992). It was imperative to lead this exploration to make perusers mindful of exactly how awful society is bombing the young people of this country. The United States government can't do it without anyone else. This is a national issue and it will take a country to settle it, everybody needs to help or this battle will be always lost.After a right around ten-year decrease, maryjane is on the ascent again among youngsters. Secondary school seniors announced that they smoked pot more than cigarettes as per the National Institute on Drug Abuse ongoing â€œMonitoring the Futureâ€ overview. While 21. 4% confessed to utilizing maryjane over the most recent 30 days, just 19. 2% smoked cigarettes during a similar time span. This was the first run through since 1981 that pot was utilized more than cigarettes in that age gathering. In spite of the fact that the general wellbeing efforts to decrease cigarette smoking among teenagers think about this as a triumph, its decay can fundamentally be added to the ascent of cannabis use.Many kids appear to feel that smoking pot is just â€œnot that large of a dealâ€, all things considered, it is just pot; even eighth graders don't accept the hazard is that extraordinary. This sort of demeanor clarifies why there is a 1% expansion of every day use for eighth graders and a 3% expansion for tenth graders and means that weed use will probably keep on moving as these children draw nearer to graduation. Around one out of four seniors and one of every four tenth-graders said they smoked maryjane in the last year.Obama administrationâ€™s tranquilize despot, Gil Kerlikowske, accuses state clinical weed estimates like Californiaâ€™s Proposition 19 for causing pot to appear to be less perilous to youthful Americans. â€œCalling maryjane â€˜smoked medicineâ€™ is totally mistaken, youngsters have taken an inappropriate messageâ€ (Healy, 2010, p. A-10). As indicated by the executive of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Dr. Nora Volkow, in light of the fact that teenagerâ€™s cerebrums are as yet building up the expanded day by day utilization of cannabis is especially upsetting, since it has been known to cause learning and memory damage.The truth that they use pot all the more oftentimes puts them at a more serious danger of getting reliant on it and different medications. The utilization of the club medicate Ecstasy has expanded among eighth-and tenth graders yet not all medications indicated an expansion. The maltreatment of the solution torment prescription Vicodin was down to 8% contrasted with 9. 7% in 2009 and the illegal utilization of narcotic painkiller OxyContin rose among tenth-graders however stayed consistent with twelfth-graders. The utilization of medications recommended for a lack of ability to concentrate consistently scatter, (ADHD) for non-clinical reasons in the most recent year among secondary school seniors is 6. % and is about the equivalent for amphetamines use (Healy, 2010). One of the most recent developing adolescent patterns, which focuses on the inspecting of an assortment of physician endorsed medications and afterward drinking liquor is causing a lot of concern. Children feel that physician recommended drugs are more secure than road drugs, since they are endorsed by a specialist and are typically bought in a medication store.This is basically false; they really are all the more remarkable which makes them much increasingly perilous particularly while adding liquor to the blend. Nora Volkow, says, â€œKids are not pharmacologists, they may state, Fentanyl OxyContin-whatâ€™s the distinction? So they take a lot of things and may consolidate them with liquor, that is a dangerous miscalculationâ€ (Jetters, A, 2010-2011, p. 146). To accomplish sentiments of happiness, the measure of narcotic painkillers required is so near the sums that can kill you. In the event that you include liquor or sedatives like Klonopin, Valium, Xanax, which likewise discourages the minds respiratory focus. Only one gin and tonic joined with a 40 mg methadone pill can be lethal. They are playing a risky round of Russian roulette, one that they obviously don't understand.When you consider medications and how they got into the United States, the majority of us consider them originating from another nation, as perhaps Mexico or some place in South America. In any case, more now than any time in recent memory we need look no farther than our own medication cupboards. The times of taking an anti-inflamatory medicine or Tylenol for a cerebral pain, spinal pain or toothache are a distant memory. We would now be able to glance in our medication cupboards and look over an assortment of incredible extra painkillers recently endorsed to us for different a throbbing painfulness. For in the course of recent years, multiple times the quantity of narcotic medicines was written.Doctors recommended them at a pace of in excess of 180 million every year. By giving patients enough medicine to facilitate their torment, specialists trust it helps in the mending procedure and permits the patient to concentrate on recovering and not on the torment. This kind of basis may have made specialists over cure, consequently recommending painkillers for even the smallest torment. Painkillers like Vicodin, OxyContin, and Percocet are even recommended to youngsters that have scarcely arrived at puberty. This may clarify why they are the most mishandled pills among 12 and 13-year-olds (Jetters, A, 2010-2011, p. 148).Dentist and oral specialists are endorsing narcotic for straightforward systems like molar extractions. Moreover, the children are being sent home with much a greater number of pills than they need. Indeed, kids feel

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almitarenee-blog · 8 years ago

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Matt Healy: A Man of Idea and Change

Other than being handsome (and hot!), Matthew Healy, or Matty, as his fans like to call him, is best known for being the lead singer and guitarist of the hit Manchester-based indie rock band The 1975. Matty is born on the 8th of April 1989 (currently 28 years old), to soap opera actress Denise Welch and television actor Tim Healy in Manchester, England. When he was young, his parents lived a fast life with lots of socialising amongst actors and musicians. Healy started playing the drums with his father at the age of four and developed a liking for music. He met his fellow band members Ross MacDonald (bass), Adam Hann (lead guitarist), and George Daniel (drummer) in high school. They began to play music together in 2004, beginning with punk-rock and pop covers before beginning to write their own music. Their band went through different names as their music career progressed. They performed under the names ‘Me and You Versus Them’, ‘Drive Like I Do’, ‘TALKHOUSE!’ and ‘The Big Sleep’ till they settled for the name ‘The 1975’, which they got from a book given to Matty, that had been used and used as a diary with the dates scribbled “1st of June, The 1975.”

From jamming with his friends in college and playing in local pubs, Matthew and his band have made a name for themselves by making a number of live performances and releasing three hit albums in the UK. Their group are mostly famous for their indie rock music and how they experiment with such. Matthew is the main songwriter of his group that produces a variety of music in different styles. They have toured Europe and USA and performed in the Royal Albert Hall in London. Their self-titled debut album was released on 2 September 2013 through Dirty Hit/Polydor, which was shortly reaching to number 1 in the UK Albums Chart on 8 September 2013.

The songs of The 1975 that are well known today which also made them famouse are: 1) Somebody Else, 2) The Sound, 3) Chocolate, 4) Robbers, and lastly, 5) Girls. Today the band has a large following of young fans and has been recognised by being awarded at UK’s annual music ‘Q’ Awards and the ‘Brit Awards’. Healy as an individual is a strong supporter of the British Humanist Association and is active on social media with a large following. His unique style makes him stand out from contemporary artists and has been the driving force behind the success of his band.

On June 1, 2015, The 1975 set their fans, and the internet ablaze by their publicity stunt, which was all for the reason of kicking off a new sound. Everyone thought the band had finally broken up; the band's official Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, and Instagram all appear to have been deleted, as well as the boys' personal Twitter accounts. After riling up the internet, twenty-four hours after they went dark, the 1975’s social media accounts were reactivated, only that they brought in a new image with them: starting out with a black and white motif, their band has now embrace the new color of pink and white, a new color indicating a change in the band’s style. The 1975 is a band making music not only for the sake of music but for the sake of change in the things in life they deem senseless or absurd. Their band aims to whiplash the reality occurring within the society through their music.

Matt Healy’s love life isn’t really that much talked about. Although he was rumored to have been dated Taylor Swift, to which he denied. He was in a longterm relationship with model Gemma Janes until they split in 2014. As of now, Matty is currently dating Gabriella Brooks, a model.

People suggest he’s just the pretty singer of a boyband to which I strongly oppose to. Matt Healy is a man of will and wits. He is a man of principles. He’s a patron of the British Humanist Assocation; he’s tweeted often about the perils of organised religion, about freedom of speech. He gives interviews in which he doesn’t shy from talking about a hedonistic lifestyle. Despite being someone who performs at concerts drunk (and is always bringing a drink with him despite performing), he knows what he believes in and fights for, making him an individual that is more than rumors and gossips.

More on Matt Healy by Matt Healy himself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLSpLfVFUpk

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makingscipub · 8 years ago

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Collision, collaboration and communication

The other day I read an article on why academics are losing relevance in society. I noticed that it contained a picture of a celebratory cake with the inscription “Here’s to the first direct detection of gravitational waves” (after two black holes collided). This event happened in 2016 and was widely celebrated around the world, mainly I suppose by scientists and science enthusiasts. The article says nothing about this event or why this picture was chosen for an article talking about the loss of relevance of science in society.

I read this article just a week after another, even more spectacular announcement relating to gravitational waves. I am not talking about gravitational wave researchers being awarded the Nobel prize for physics this year on 3 October, but about the announcement of the detection of a binary neutron star merger resulting in a gamma-ray burst and emission of gravitational waves. This was observed on 17 August and announced on 16 October.

Although in terms of astronomical distances, this collision of stars happened in our backyard, has this got any relevance to society here on earth? In some sense it hasn’t, in particular to those people living with war, hunger, illness and poverty or the aftermaths of hurricanes, floods and wildfires. People caught up in these situations certainly won’t find comfort in knowing that distant neutron stars have collided.

So, can one make a case for these findings being in any way relevant to society? Perhaps yes. Just like the 1968 picture of planet earth sent back from space, they allow us to see things differently. Seeing things differently might lead to acting on the world and on each other differently.

And despite everything, these findings may also bring some solace to us in dark times. As J. K. Rowling said in a tweet, referring to an article in The Independent: “Following space accounts on here is good for your mental health. Soothing glimpses of vastness, beauty & mystery.”

Collision

What am I actually talking about? I am talking about the observation (‘sight’ and also ‘sound’) of two neutron stars slamming into each other and shaking the fabric of the universe. Lots has been written and said about this discovery and I won’t go too deeply into the science as such.

Hannah Devlin has written a good overview for The Guardian and an article published by the ‘Inside Science News Service’ adds a human dimension to the story. It shows how news of the neutron star collision rippled round this planet and woke up hundreds and hundreds of scientists; like this one for example:

“Aug. 17, 2017. It started as an ordinary morning in southern Louisiana. The air was hot and humid as the sun rose above the Mississippi River. Brian O’Reilly, one of the lead scientists at the Livingston location of the gravitational wave detection facility known as LIGO, was just beginning his day. It was barely 8 o’clock when his phone rang. ‘I have twin babies — they’re a year and a half — and I was actually changing my daughter at the time,’ said O’Reilly. ‘That’s when my phone started beeping in my pocket.’ Minutes later, he was in a phone conference with fellow astrophysicist Gabriela Gonzalez from Louisiana State University, as well as scientists thousands of miles away at LIGO Hanford in the state of Washington.” … There are many more such human stories out there.

This feat of scientific detection was only made possible through extensive collaborations between human scientists across the world.

Collaboration

The scientists involved were spread across continents and worked at numerous institutions and installations, most importantly perhaps LIGO and Virgo: “LIGO and Virgo comprise more than 1,500 scientists, all of whom are working towards a single goal: to capture signs of gravitational waves and decode their meaning. The data gathering happens at massive observatories in the US and Italy, but the analysis is done in countries all over the world.”

As Kieran Healy tweeted: “One of the new LIGO papers has 4,500 authors at 910 different institutions—about a 1/3 of the world’s astronomers.” To which Nathan Oxley replied: “It can stop you in your tracks to think about the level of cooperation and coordination of resources and people needed to achieve this.”

It is therefore not astonishing that the news was greeted with great excitement by a new initiative that has just been launched, namely “Together Science Can”, which is supported by the Wellcome Trust and many other organisations (see here for tweets).

Jeremy Farrar, Director of the Wellcome Trust and supporter of this initiative, wrote an article for The Guardian about scientific collaboration before the neutron stars announcement. Some of what he wrote is worth quoting in the context of our search for ‘relevance’ of science in society:

“We need to celebrate […] collaboration more than ever, because it doesn’t happen on its own. It needs an environment that encourages researchers to build international and interdisciplinary teams, to work in different countries, to attack problems that no one person, or nation, can solve alone. […]

It’s up to people who, like me, believe in the power of science to speak up for the systems and principles that make collaboration possible. It means making the case for flexible, welcoming immigration that allows the movement of talented people and teams across borders in order to take global action against global problems.”

The discovery of the neutron star collision was a great example of collaboration in fundamental science. We need to nurture, not restrict and obstruct, such collaborations, also beyond fundamental science. They are ‘relevant’ for society as a whole, as they show what humans can do when they work together.

Communication

As Philip Ball has recently pointed out, science communication is difficult. On the one hand, one wants to a serious job, not just rave and enthuse about science; on the other one has to grab readers’ or listeners’ attention and engage them in discussion and dialogue. In the case of this discovery it was difficult not to be enthusiastic.

Adam Rutherford, an experienced science communicator/writer, introduced a report about the neutron star collision for the BBC Radio 4 programme Inside Science in the following way: “… it’s our job on Inside Science to get behind the headlines and more importantly to undo the hype and give a real cool-headed scientific analysis of landmark new discoveries. So let me begin by saying that this is freaking awesome”. If you know how awesome this was in terms of science and collaboration, please listen to the podcast.

The language used when communicating about this discovery was certainly colourful and would deserve a more detailed analysis. The Independent spoke of an ‘alchemical explosion’, a headline that was retweeted by Scientists for EU in the following way: “’An alchemical explosion’. Beautiful! Two neutron stars just seen colliding – disrupting spacetime & spewing… gold”.

And with gold we get down to earth, away from abstract notions of gravitational waves and neutron stars. Some people said that scientists had indeed struck gold! And one tweeter replied to the Scientists for EU tweet by saying: “Where’s ma mule? I’m a gonna get me some o’that thar gold.”

More seriously, we can now begin to find out where the heavy elements, like gold, on the periodic table come from, where they are ‘forged’ in the universe. Does this make it ‘relevant’ to people? Perhaps not, as this tweet shows: “Gogglebox is hilarious. ‘Two neutron stars collided 130 million years ago’ ‘Why are they bringing it up now then?’” Ok, so not everybody is interested in space and astronomy; even some big science writers aren’t!

However, what really cheered me up was that this event was not just ‘communicated’ by scientists and professional science communicators. It was also talked about by people who are just good communicators (with a background in science), such as Mike Galsworthy, of ‘Brexit communication’ fame. Listen to his talk about how scientific collaboration is turning our planet into a listening super-organism; a great example of good science communication!

Conclusion

The picture of Earthrise sent to us from space in 1968 changed some people’s perceptions of our planet. Seeing our planet as a listening super-organism based on international collaboration might perhaps change how we see ourselves as a collaborative species. I find this quite inspiring and relevant for society.

In any event, it is really important that we talk more about collaborations beyond borders in science and also society; and not only talk; let’s provide the best conditions for this to happen, rather than putting more and more obstacles in the way.

Epilogue

When the announcement was made on BBC Breakfast on 16 October, I was, yet again, in Eye Casualty. I saw and listened to it over and over in the course of two hours and the whirr-plop sound of the collision will stay with me for ever. Did it cheer me up, give me ‘perspective’? No! However, the thought of someday perhaps going back to all this and looking at this more deeply, even just to distract myself, did give me something to hang on to, at least for some of the time. So I tucked away some tweets while I waited…

Image: Illustration of a binary neutron star system in the process of merging. The remnant formed by this merger could be either a neutron star or a black hole, determining whether it launches a gamma-ray burst. [NASA] (Los Alamos National Laboratory)

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