#I’m listening to Depeche Mode again

[yooo-lets-go]

Tell me (the meaning of love)

[ladykailitha]

Grief (A Friend Indeed) Part 5

Thank you for all the great responses to this story it really means a lot.

Now they are doing a singing thing in this chapter, it's not that chapter yet. This is a prelude to that. Plus, I wanted to have Steve sing "Somebody' by Depeche Mode off the same album him and Lauren were talking about in the last chapter. Change the pronouns and it's definitely about all things Steve loves about Eddie.

I also added Lauren singing "Here Comes the Rain Again" from the suggestion in the poll because it's such a great song.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

***

Steve questioned the wisdom of going out to a bar their first day in Ashland, tired as both Eddie and he were. But at the same time it was also nice to get out and just have fun.

Apparently Danny’s brother Hal ran the joint so Lauren, Eddie, and he could come in. As long as they didn’t try and get booze they were fine to do anything else. Pool, darts, and even a little stage for people to sing.

Hal told them that he tried to get one of those newfangled karaoke machines but that they were on back order until Christmas. But they were more then welcome to sing their heart out to jukebox in the corner.

Lauren got up there and sang Here Comes the Rain Again by the Eurythmics.

“Falling on my head like a new emotion,” she crooned, just as low and melodic as Annie Lennox. “I wanna walk in the open wind. I wanna talk lovers do. Want dive into you ocean, is it raining with you?”

“Are all you Munsons talented in the music department?” Steve asked Eddie as he watched Lauren continue to belt out the song.

Eddie laughed. “No. I don’t know about my dad, but Wayne can’t carry a tune to save his life.”

“Maybe he’s talented in other ways,” Steve said with a wink. “Who taught you how to play guitar?”

Eddie ran his tongue over the top row of his teeth. “He did.”

“Uh huh,” Steve said with a grin. “And who bought you your first guitar?”

He sighed. “He did.”

“Sounds to me like he’s a good teacher if nothing else,” Steve finished with a grin.

“God you’re so annoying when you’re right,” Eddie huffed.

“That’s because I rarely am and so when that happens, I get to gloat.”

Lauren came bouncing back to the table. “Who’s next?”

“Toss you for it?” Steve said.

“You’re on.”

Eddie pulled out a quarter. “Heads or tails?”

“Heads.”

Steve watched as the coin sailed into the air and Eddie deftly catch it in his large hand. He slapped in on the top of his other hand.

“Tails!’ Eddie crowed. “You’re next, pretty boy!”

Steve leaned over and looked at the coin. He rolled his eyes and marched over to the jukebox, beginning to pour over the choices. He picked one and walked up to the stage.

He grabbed the microphone as the first notes came through the tinny jukebox speakers.

Eddie watched in awe. He had never heard Steve sing. Not really, fooling around in the car and being annoying for the kids wasn’t the same as what he was seeing in front of him.

“Did you know he could sing like that?” Lauren asked, not taking her eyes off the stage. “God, he could make money off that voice.”

Eddie could only agree. “I’ve never heard him like this.”

“She will listen to me when I want to speak about the world we live in and life in general,” Steve sang, his eyes half closed as he leaned into the microphone, one hand raised. “Though my views may be wrong, they may even be perverted she’ll hear me out and won’t easily be converted to my way of thinking. In fact, she’ll often disagree, but at the end of it all she will understand me.”

Lauren looked over at Eddie. “You know this is on that album him and I were talking about earlier. The Depeche Mode one.”

Eddie turned to her. “The one with the song he listened to a billion times?”

She nodded. “It’s called Lie to Me. It’s where the album title comes from. That girlfriend, the one with the dead friend, she really fucked him up, didn’t she?”

Eddie sighed. “I wasn’t there for that. We didn’t become friends until way after that. But yeah, I’m beginning to see exactly how much she fucked him up.”

She looked up at Steve crooning the last lines of the song. “Do you think if the world was different he would have changed the pronouns of the song?”

Eddie looked back at Steve as he bowed to thunderous applause. “You know, think he just might have.”

He stood up and greeted Steve with a hug. “Holy shit, man. That was amazing. Where did you learn to sing like that?”

Steve just blushed. “It’s your turn now.”

He went up to Hal and whispered something to him. Hal nodded.

Eddie got on stage and Hal came from behind with a small amp and a black-bodied electric guitar. He handed the guitar to Eddie and then began fiddling with the amp.

“Hey, guys,” Eddie said into the microphone. “Some of you might remember me, I’m Hal’s nephew, Eddie and I play metal.”

He started the opening riff to Run to the Hills and belted out the lyrics. Everyone was on their feet in an instant, Steve and Lauren with them.

Steve was cheering and laughing. It was nice to see Eddie play again after that horrific spring break from literal hell.

As soon as he was done he handed the guitar back to Hal and stepped off the stage.

“You are a beast, Eddie Munson,” Steve said, pounding him on the back when he got back to their table.

Eddie shoved his hair into his mouth to hide his blush. “Thanks.”

Steve ordered another round of sodas for them as they got to talking about their musical influences and who they would love to meet.

It hit ten o’clock and Hal was ushering them out as well as couple other under-aged kids who were there playing darts.

Once they hit the pavement Steve asked about it.

“Anyone under twenty-one always gets kicked out at ten,” Lauren explained. “It’s always been one of Uncle Hal’s rules since he bought this place when I was ten.”

Eddie nodded. “He doesn’t want anyone getting hurt for when the alcohol really starts flowing.”

“Too bad the funeral wasn’t next week,” Lauren said, shoulder checking him. “Then you could’ve stayed later.”

“Your birthday is next week?” Steve asked. “Why didn’t I know that?”

Eddie blushed.

“Because this weirdo doesn’t like to celebrate his birthday,” Lauren teased.

“Look,” Eddie said, “having a summer birthday sucks, okay? Especially if all you have is school friends who don’t give you their phone numbers or their addresses so you can invite them. And by the time you get old enough for that not to be a problem, you just don’t care anymore.”

Steve nodded. “I can understand that. My parents never really celebrated birthdays and by the time I got friends that wanted to celebrate, I learned very fast that it was for my big house and the expectation of an even bigger party.”

“Ouch,” Lauren said with a wince. “Maybe you two should pick a date to be your birthdays and celebrate whenever you want. It doesn’t have to be the actual date you were born. A lot of people that have birthdays on holidays and on leap years do it that way.”

“Oohh,” Steve said to Eddie, “yours should be March 27th.”

Eddie threw his head back and laughed. “Then when would yours be?”

Steve thinks about for a moment. “Either 3rd or 12th of November I guess.”

“Why those dates?” Lauren asked looking between them in curiosity.

“The third is when I chose my found family over a life of peace,” Steve explained.

“And the 12th?” Eddie asked.

Steve scoffed and shook his head. “That was the day I knew I was meant for more in life then dodging bad parents, letting my friends be assholes, and smoking and drinking my life away. I didn’t realize it then, of course. But yeah, that day means a lot.”

Eddie closed his eyes. “Steve...”

He shook his head. “It’s fine. I don’t miss who I was.”

Lauren was even more confused because they seemed to be talking about something deeper than what was actually said.

“This has to do with all the bullshit Hawkins went through, right?” she asked. “The lab, the gas leak, the earthquake. That’s what you’re talking about?”

Eddie and Steve looked at each other and nodded.

“Something like that,” Eddie confirmed.

*

The next morning while Steve was on the phone with Robin, Lauren dragged Eddie into her room.

“Look, you don’t have to like the music,” she explained handing him a cassette tape.

Eddie looked at the tape. Some Great Reward by Depeche Mode, he sighed.

“But at least listen to it,” she said. “I have it queued to that song he mentioned, Lie to Me. Even if you don’t listen to the rest of it, I think you should hear that one. I think you’ll learn more about your friend.”

“Laurie...” he said with a sigh. “If he wanted me to know, he would have told me, don’t you think?”

“That depends,” she said. “Do you like his ex?”

Eddie reared back is head with a frown. Did he like Nancy? He guessed well enough. He had come to respect her, at the very least. He liked Steve more, sure. But yeah, if she called to go see a movie, he wouldn’t turn her down.

“Yeah, I guess.”

Lauren grabbed him by the arms and maneuvered him to sit on her bed. “I have known Steve for less than twenty four hours and I can already tell he’s the most self-sacrificing idiot since Jesus fucking Christ.”

Eddie opened his mouth to protest, but she raised an eyebrow and he was forced to concede her point, waving his hand at her.

“So believe me,” she continued, “when I say that he hasn’t told you shit about what went down with his ex is because he doesn’t want to ruin things between you and her.”

Eddie nodded. “I know it’s a big fucking ask...” he sighed. “But see if you can find out what happened, maybe he’ll tell you and you can at least give me advice on how to navigate that mine field so I’m accidentally blowing up shit.”

Lauren nodded. “I can’t guarantee shit, but yeah, I’ll try.” She sat down next to him and leaned around to look him in the eyes. “He means a lot to you, doesn’t he?”

Eddie clasped his hands together and nodded, pursing his lips.

“Does he know about your…certain proclivities?” She looked up at the door to make sure no one was around.

He did the same and then nodded again, not trusting himself to speak.

“And he’s okay with that?” Lauren pressed.

“His best friend is gay and encouraged me to come out to him, too,” Eddie said. “He’s a really good dude.”

Lauren pressed her lips together and thought for a moment. “Are you in love with him?”

Eddie sighed. “Yeah, yeah I am.”

Then they heard running up the stairs and suddenly Steve was the door.

“Hey guys,” he said. “Penny told me to come get you both, she needs help preparing for the wake tonight.”

Eddie and Lauren shared a glance.

“We’ll be right there, Stevie,” Eddie said with a smile.

Steve nodded and dashed back down the stairs.

“Do you think he heard?” Lauren asked, staring at the place Steve was once standing.

Eddie just shrugged. He couldn’t have, could he? They heard him come up the stairs, after all.

Right?

***

Pt 6|Pt 7|Pt 8|Pt 9|Pt 10|Pt 11|Pt 12

Some people love having a summer birthday. Growing up, I most certainly did NOT. As for the dates Steve brings up Nov. 12 1983 is the day he chose to run back inside the Byers house and battle a demogorgon. Nov 3rd 1984 is when Dustin intercepts Steve's apology to Nancy to help him find Dart. Both are very significant to Steve in his journey to be a better person.

Tag List: @spectrum-spectre @estrellami-1 @zerokrox-blog @artiststarme @swimmingbirdrunningrock @gregre369 @pyrohonk ​@a-little-unsteddie @chaosgremlinmunson @chaoticlovingdreamer @messrs-weasley @goodolefashionedloverboi @maya-custodios-dionach @val-from-lawrence @i-must-potato @danili666 @carlyv @rozzieroos @emly03 @wonderland-girl143-blog @justforthedead89 @bookworm0690 @itsall-taken @bookbinderbitch @redfreckledwolf @vecnuthy @littlewildflowerkitten @scheodingers-muppet @mira-jadeamethyst @cinnamon-mushroomabomination @gutterflower77 @genderless-spoon @hel-spawn @ellietheasexylibrarian @anne-bennett-cosplayer @mamafaithful @yikes-a-bee

[satansapostle6]

X

Josh Futturman has always had a crush on his beautiful coworker, the sharp, sexy scientist he thought he could only dream of talking to.

Warnings: Mature themes/language. Sexual content.

Part One

Part Two: Sensory Processing

Josh Futturman was actually excited to go to work. This rarely happened, but the prospect of Brynne Johansson made it happen. All day, he had done all of his work as a janitor and Kronish Labs as quickly as possible, hoping to see her by the time he got to her office.

Of course, his closest work friend, Ray, had noticed this upon seeing Josh pass Brynne Johansson’s office as slowly as possible.

“Aw, come on! Not you, too!” Ray exclaimed.

“What?!” Josh said defensively.

“Man… I’ve been trying to woo Dr. Scarlett Johansson with my security guard charm fiancé I started here! I swear, I’ve seen half of the other security guards pretend to hear about ‘situations’ near her office,” he frowned.

“I’m not spying on her!” he promised, going about his work. “And she does kinda resemble Scarlett Johansson…”

Ray just shook his head, leaving him to whatever he was doing. Josh quickly took care of cleaning the floors, anxious to peer into Brynne Johansson’a office. Luckily, she appeared to be in at the moment, peacefully filling out paperwork as she listened to music on her headphones.

Josh remembered the first time he ever came near her office, surprised to see that she was a music person.

“Hey,” Josh spoke up nervously.

Brynne took off her headphones as she looked up, surprised to see him. “Hi,” she said.

“What are you listening to?” he asked her out of curiosity.

“Depeche Mode,” she replied, before her one-track mind kicked in, “What’s going on, did something happen in the lab?” she asked automatically.

“What? Oh. No,” he responded quickly, “Sorry. I just… had something to give you,” he said sheepishly.

The young woman looked up curiously, not understanding.

“I, uh… Got stuff for a couple people around the office. Christmas, you know?” he asked awkwardly.

“Oh. That’s thoughtful of you,” she replied.

“Yeah, it’s just small stuff, you know? I got Ray a gift card for that sandwich place he likes, and I got Kronish one of those candles he likes. Mostly because Dr. Camillo hates that he burns them in the office,” he admitted.

Brynne smiled. “I got him one too.”

“Really?” Josh laughed as she just nodded.

He nervously reached into his pocket, pulling out a small box of chocolates, with a small note attached.

“Anyways. Kronish said you liked these, so I thought I’d wish you an early… whatever you may or may not celebrate,” he concluded.

“Oh, wow. Thank you,” Brynne said kindly. “I appreciate it, a lot. And as for celebrating, you could say Christmas, but I honestly don’t really celebrate apart from doing stuff for other people,” she confessed.

Josh nodded understandingly.

“But thank you, wow, this is perfect,” she told him, opening the note in front of him.

Josh watched her in fear, hoping she wouldn’t think he was weird and hate him.

“‘To Dr. Johansson. Thanks for letting me take out your Redbull cans and chicken Caesar salads. From, Josh’,” she read in amusement. “Wow, my garbage sounds sad.”

“Personally, I think it’s pretty cool garbage,” Josh joked.

“Well. Thanks, Josh,” she remarked. “You can just call me ‘Brynne’, by the way.”

“Right. Brynne. Sorry,” he nodded quickly.

“Thanks again, for the chocolates,” she said softly. “That’ll probably be my lunch.”

Josh stopped for a moment, remembering what Kronish had told him the day before.

“It—It doesn’t have to be!” he offered without thinking.

“Hmm?” she questioned.

“Uh… I was actually just about to head to that Indian place across the street for my break… if you’d rather do that,” he stumbled over his words, praying she wouldn’t think he was creepy.

“Oh. Yeah, that sounds fucking great, actually,” she nodded, looking down at her designer watch. “Ten on the dot. Let’s do it,” she nodded.

“Great,” Josh blurted out, holding in his screams of excitement.

He was shocked she actually said yes, following her as she walked out of the office.

“I haven’t actually gone out for lunch in months,” Brynne sighed as she took off her lab coat.

As the two of them left the building, Josh felt as if his going to lunch with the Dr. Johansson should’ve been illegal. He saw Ray’s suspicious glance at him as they left together. Josh walked out of the building feeling like he had just committed some sort of heist.

“Have you ever been here?” Josh Futturman asked her as they reached the restaurant.

“Yeah, it’s kind of my go-to whenever I leave the office for lunch,” she explained. “Have you?”

“No,” Josh said truthfully, “I’ve actually just been meaning to try it out.”

They entered the restaurant, a couple of the men in the room naturally turning to look at Brynne. Josh felt incredibly out of place, standing next to her in his janitor’s uniform. He silently cursed her perfectly fitted black dress.

“What do you want?” Brynne asked as they approached the cashier.

“What should I get?” he asked her, never actually having had Indian food before.

“Most people tend to get the butter chicken,” she explained, “With the garlic naan.”

“Sounds great,” Josh nodded, turning to the guy at the counter. “I’ll have the butter chicken with the garlic naan. What about you?” he asked her.

“I’m getting the same,” she responded.

“Two of the butter chicken with garlic naan, then, please,” Josh said as he handed over his card.

“Are you sure?” Brynne asked him, surprised.

“Yeah,” he said kindly, “You want anything to drink?”

“Uh, just a Coke,” she told the cashier, “Thanks.”

“Two Cokes, please,” Josh smiled as the guy took his card.

“Thank you,” Brynne said, pleasantly surprised.

“No problem. My treat,” he said nonchalantly, “You haven’t eaten out of the office in a while.”

“True,” she nodded as they sat down at a table with their drinks. “So,” she began, making him nervous.

He panicked, and couldn’t stop staring into her pretty brown eyes. Josh couldn’t think around Brynne Johansson, mostly because being around her heightened and engaged his senses entirely. The perfection of her face, and the beauty of her body, and the distinct smell of her perfume captivated him.

She was like no woman he’d ever met before. She commanded respect from people in a way that explained why she was the head of her department. Something about Brynne made the hair on Josh’s arms stand up, and something told him it really had nothing to with her job title.

And many other male employees at Kronish Labs, including Ray, would’ve said she also made something else stand up.

“What do you do in your free time, Futturman?” Brynne asked as she sipped on her soda.

Josh had no idea how to answer that question. He had no real hobbies; all he really did was wake up, go to work, play video games, and then sleep to do the exact same thing all over again.

“Uh… I don’t know, I like playing video games,” he shrugged nonchalantly, hoping he wasn’t coming off as too pathetic.

“Oh, that’s cool. I wish I could’ve gotten into that sort of thing,” she admitted. “I don’t really do much outside of work.”

“At least you’re a scientist,” Josh provided kindly, “That’s pretty impressive.”

“In a way,” Brynne shrugged nonchalantly.

“What’s that like, in the dating world?” Josh wondered, although simultaneously trying to seduce for himself whether or not she was in a relationship. “I’m sure that’s definitely a talking point.”

“You’d think so, but saying that you work for an STD treatment center isn’t exactly as sexy as you think,” she pointed out.

“Hmm,” Josh nodded, frowning as he realized he wasn’t exactly being flattering.

He figured at least he knew she was probably single. He watched as she thanked the servers for placing their food on the table in front of them. Josh realized that no matter what she did, no matter how simple or mundane it was, Brynne always looked beautiful doing it.

It was something about the way her lips moved when she smiled, and the way her eyes moved in her head. Josh couldn’t quite explain it, but he was taken with her.

“What do you do outside of work?” he asked curiously. “I mean… I know you probably don’t, like, rescue pandas, or anything, but… I don’t know, do you have any interests?” he rephrased.

“Mmm…” she considered the question, her face appealing to look at even as she thought. “I used to do photography,” she told him.

“Oh, that’s so cool,” Josh commented in surprise. “What did you take pictures of?” he asked as he ate.

The food was spicier than he’d expected, but he held in his reactions as best as he could so as not to seem like a child in front of Brynne.

“I picked up photography from my uncle,” she explained. “He was a big car guy; belonged to a car club and everything. I mostly did cars, and motorcycles.”

“That’s awesome,” Josh said in awe, not expecting that from her.

He knew he should’ve realized she was a huge car person. He’d seen her get out of her car in the building’s parking lot before. It was a beautiful classic car, some kind of black Impala or something from the 60’s. It was in perfect condition, and always seemed to shine, not unlike its driver.

“I wish I got into cars,” he confessed. “As a guy, I kinda feel like that’s something I’m supposed to know about.”

“It’s never too late,” Brynne pointed out. “It’s good to know about cars.”

“Your car, it’s that black one I always see in the parking lot, right?” he asked. “The classic car?”

“Yup,” she nodded.

“It’s nice,” he complimented her, “Really nice. What is it?”

“It’s a ‘66 Impala,” she responded. “It was my dad’s.”

“Cool,” he remarked.

He didn’t mean to, but he watched her as she ate. He’d been talking to her for at least ten minutes now, but he still couldn’t get over her; he couldn’t get over the fact that he was actually having a conversation with Dr. Johansson, let alone having an early lunch with her.

Then, she said the worst thing possible.

“Are you staring at me, Futturman?”

Josh froze in disbelief. “I— Uh…”

“It’s okay,” she said coolly, her eyes dark with mischief. “I don’t mind.”

Josh felt himself falling apart as he struggled to explain himself. But ultimately, he realized he couldn’t.

“You make me nervous,” he smiled awkwardly, embarrassed at himself.

“How do you think I became the head of my department at twenty-four?” she raised an eyebrow playfully.

Josh watched her as she just continued on as if everything was perfectly normal, realizing she hardly considered the effect she had.

-

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Part Six

[martinsharmony]

In defense of RP Shipping and RP Fiction

I don’t normally come out and give my opinion on things like this so plainly about such controversial things. I tend to shy away from confrontational writing such as this. However this idea has been brewing in my mind for some time now so I had to write it.

I am a Real Person Shipper.

I’m seeing people talk a lot more about RP shipping (and the hate towards it) since David Tennant and Michael Sheen appeared smiling at each other in a photo after David's appearance in Macbeth.

RP Shipping is not a choice.

When I caught the shipping bug, it hit me like lightning. It occurred to me one night as I lay in bed next to the husband with which I had a deteriorating relationship: “are there stories about Dave Gahan and Martin Gore…being together??”

Dave Gahan/Martin Gore (Gahore) are in Depeche Mode. They were my 1st ship as an adult. You can read about it here. Obviously Depeche Mode is a band so there is no fictional narrative anywhere to follow. I quickly learned that RP shipping was taboo. However in my shipping community we all shipped the band so I was more or less insulated from it.

I dove in headfirst. I literally couldn’t not do it. It was something my brain needed. Sure I could have forced myself to not go look for it because of some kind of moral (?) imperative which I wasn’t even aware of at the time, but even if I stopped myself, that would not stop my brain from wanting it. Making up stories and scenarios. Finding evidence in videos, songs, interviews, etc. I shipped these two people because of what I had observed between them.

I saw love. So did my shipping friends. We all saw it. I needed to experience it. My life lacked it.

My next RP ship was Martin Freeman and Benedict Cumberbatch (FreeBatch). First I fell in love with Sherlock and John, obviously. But then as I started to follow the fandom, I started noticing the same things that others noticed. My brain just went there. I literally had no choice. It’s not as if I could tell my brain “don’t do that”. It would not listen. You can’t tell a starving person to not think about food. In fact telling them that probably makes it worse.

In my personal life, I had been through a breakup with the man I dated after I got divorced, and then I began dating a woman for the 1st time. I really started to relate what I was seeing on the screen and reading on Tumblr and in fic to my own life. I was starting to process my own bisexuality. I started to notice things about Martin and Ben that other people were noticing too. Shipping them helped me navigate that time in my life because I saw myself in it. I related to it. But it wasn't a choice. My brain just went there. Maybe I was Baader-Meinhoffing but even if I was, that doesn’t mean it’s something I didn’t need to explore, work out in my mind, and discover.

Shennant (Michael Sheen and David Tennant) is my 3rd RP ship. Yes I fell in love with Aziraphale and Crowley of course, but again, as I started to follow the fandom and David’s and Michael’s careers specifically, watching interviews, watching Staged, etc, I started noticing the same thing that many others noticed. I literally couldn’t help it. My brain, again, just went there. Also in Staged of course, they play themselves. I have to say that my RP Shipping really took off after I watched them in that. They play themselves. Their actual partners are in it. If one were to write Staged fic, is that not RPF? Where is the line between what is supposed to be okay and what is not?

Again, with this ship, I had big things going on in my personal life. Dad passed away almost a year and a half ago, and now I'm taking care of my elderly mom long distance. It's a huge emotional burden. I'm not dating anyone right now mostly because of that but also because I was in a poly relationship with the male half of a het married couple (longtime friends of mine) that ended extraordinarily painfully (so this was V or chain-style poly not group-sex poly). Since then I've been alone for more than 2 years. I'm still getting over it.

The love I see between Michael and David feels unconditional. I see adoration. If they are indeed in a healthy poly relationship, my god, how on earth did they do that? Even while navigating fame? It’s certainly a lot more difficult than my own situation. I can explore it: What kind of person feels safe to me the way I believe David feels safe with Michael? What kind of relationship can withstand the kind of obstacles they (and I) might face? What would have had to actually happened for them to be as happy as they seem to be? What discussions were had? What agreements were reached? How does one do this the right way? What does that tell me about my own relationship and what went wrong? What should have happened?

This is, in its most academic sense, a tool for my brain to heal and to discover what kind of a relationship I want. And my brain knows it. That’s why it ships. My heart doesn’t know that. It just knows I love seeing them happy together. This is the magnet that drew me.

RP Shipping helps us to work shit out in our personal lives.

I bought Spark edited by Atlin Merrick recently. One of the essays by Angela Nauss, LMFT (Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist) really stood out to me is titled Sympathy for the Devil: Attachment Theory and FanFiction.

The article is about fanfiction authors, however I would extrapolate this to include readers and RP Shippers as well. RP Shippers are authors of narratives in their own mind, even if they are not always written down.

From the book:

“Fanfiction authors process attachment wounds using fictional characters as proxies…to process and understand the origin of the problems encountered during adolescence.”

“Some authors write fanfiction to humanize uncomfortable aspects of their identity, grieve and repair damaged relationships, and process attachment wounds…by exploring how the character would behave in adaptive relationships.”

“Fanfiction authors project their unconscious trauma onto the characters.”

“The characters gain insight into their behavior and no longer feel responsible for their childhood attachment wounds. Through their writing, the author incorporates repressed trauma and attachment wounds into their conscious experience and achieves catharsis.”

“Writing fanfiction is a valid form of therapeutic self-exploration.”

I’ve been in therapy for several years, In fact the poly relationship I was in is why I seeked out therapy in the 1st place. I know that shipping these people, exploring aspects of that, is helping me to heal attachment wounds and the trauma caused by past relationships.

As part of my healing from this poly relationship I was in, I intend to write a meta and/or a fic about David and Michael. I know it will aid in my healing. I may or may not post it.

Also, even Shakespeare wrote RPF.

I’m seeing people say that we RP Shippers are terrible, immoral, disgusting, gross people and that we want David and Michael to leave their partners. That we want to break up their families. Let me be clear that I want nothing of the sort.

There are people out there that want to "protect" them from this “immorality” by shaming us, berating us, calling us names. Even sending certain blogs directly to Georgia and Anna! This is the exact opposite of what actions like this are actually doing. This does not protect them from harm. It creates it.

There is no such thing as thought crime.

Not only is it impossible for me to choose not to ship these people, but I also get the sense that even thinking about it is supposed to be wrong. That it makes me an immoral person.

Something I keep seeing is that people are so upset that we RP Shippers are doing this. Like, why don’t we just, stop. Just look at all the other appropriate characters that are out there to ship! Or just never start in the first place. As if this was a choice we are making to consciously ship real people.

When shippers ship a couple, do they choose that couple consciously? Do they say, hmm, I'm going to ship X person and Y person because it's...logical? Or for whatever consciously thought of reason? I'm going to go out on a limb and speak for mostly all shippers and say no. Shippers ship because we see something in those 2 characters that we are drawn to like magnets, for whatever reason. Real People included. If you're on Tumblr for a fandom and read fic, you know what I'm talking about.

Male/Male relationships is a fetish, or a kink, for me. And by extension, RPS/RPF as well. I do enjoy thinking about what might be the "reality" behind the curtain that we are shown as part of their public personas. This is part of the ingredients to this fetish, or kink, for me.

Kink is defined by Wikipedia as “the use of non-conventional sexual practices, concepts or fantasies. The term derives from the idea of a “bend” (a “kink”) in one’s sexual behaviour, to contrast such behaviour with “straight” or “vanilla” sexual mores and proclivities. It is thus a colloquial term for non-normative sexual behaviour.”

A fetish is defined by Wikipedia as referring “to any sexually arousing stimuli, not all of which meet the medical criteria for fetishism. This broader usage of fetish covers parts or features of the body (including obesity and body modifications), objects, situations and activities (such as smoking or BDSM).”

Generally, modern sexual health thinking seems to say “So long as your fetish doesn’t get in the way of your own well-being, the safety of others, and your partners participate enthusiastically, there is nothing wrong with it.”

It seems to be another taboo to claim gay (or bi/pansexual) men as a fetish, or a kink. There are some who claim that it’s objectifying the very real experiences of gay men. I struggle with this because I can't deny that I enjoy it but I also don't want to hurt anyone.

I am not a gay man. I will never be a gay man. I am a cis bisexual woman. I can never know what that experience is like. This is, in essence, the core of the fantasy. It can feel as good and perfect and romantic and loving as I want it to be because I don’t have the parts or experience to know it first hand. Therefore I've come to the conclusion that my thoughts in my head and anything I write down in a safe space does not hurt anyone. For me personally, it’s a way to disconnect from myself. People enjoy fic for all sorts of reasons. I shouldn’t have to prove that my reasons are "wholesome" to be allowed to enjoy it.

I don’t enjoy reading het fiction for reasons I won’t go into, however they are probably not individual to just me alone. Hoards of women like me also enjoy the same thing.

So yeah. To the surprise of absolutely no one, thinking about Michael and David, or Martin and Ben, or Dave and Martin, or men in general, kissing or having sex or a romance with each other – turns me on. That leads me to state the following:

Anti-RP Shipping and Anti-RP Fiction is kink shaming.

When I say "Anti", I'm referring to those who loudly object to it. Not those who (thankfully) say "that's not for me" and move on. Just like I would with say, Omegaverse.

Because my interpretation of these real people is in reality, “fiction” in my own head, then by definition all RP Shipping is RP Fiction. It cannot be reality because I don’t know them. Therefore any stories, speculation, comments, analysis, conclusions, art, etc, IS ALL FICTION.

Real people are characters to your brain.

Obviously I don’t know them personally, so anything that I were to believe or create in my head about them is by definition, fiction. My brain makes it up according to what I’ve seen, read, heard, observed and drew conclusions from. This creates a fictional reality for my brain to consume. It can’t be reality because I don’t know them.

Wikipedia says RPF writers are “building a fictional universe based on the supposed real-life histories of their idols. Information from interviews, documentaries, music videos, and other publicity sources are assimilated into the stories. It is also very popular to write fiction about celebrity couples. Communities of writers build collective archetypes based on the celebrities' public personas".

I would never, under any circumstances, present any RPS/RPF questions, stories, insinuations, or even mention it at all directly to the actors/musicians/personalities or their partners or even anyone associated with them. I would be beyond embarrassed to do so. Even though Michael himself seems to be accepting of it, I would never present it to him. Never. (I mean it’s not like I could really anyway but still).

I believe that 99.9% of RP Shippers would do the same. It’s the .01% that have done so (and unscrupulous “journalists” looking to shock by asking questions/showing them the RPF, and those people claiming to prevent harm by sending it directly to them “for legal action” or tattletale “look at what these terrible people are doing” and blaming the RP shippers for creating it – wow talk about projection) -that make a bad name for us all. Showing it to them and asking them about it IS a choice.

If RP Shipping is not a choice, a way to work out personal mental health issues, is fictional by definition, and a non-pathological aid to sexual excitement that hurts no one if it is contained within safe spaces such as fic sites and Tumblr, then what exactly is the harm?

Tumblr is a safe space.

Why is there such vitriol against RP Shipping and RPF? You claim to be protecting the actors or people in question, but by raising your voices so loudly in various ways, you are harming the very person you claim to be protecting. I think you have to ask what it is within yourself that makes you so aggressively hate this? Why can't we just say "that's not for me" and move on?

Don't we on Tumblr and on AO3 celebrate non-mainstream ideas such as this? Or if not celebrate, at least live and let live. The fact is that Tumblr is supposed to be a safe space. I should feel safe speaking my mind here. I know quite a few RP shippers follow me so I don't feel completely alone, but I don't feel entirely safe posting this.

My morality is not yours to police.

I strongly doubt I’ll be changing anyone’s mind with this. If you’re Anti RP shipping and Anti RPF you’re probably going to stay that way.

Don’t like, don’t read.

You can unfollow, block people, block tags, filter tags on AO3...any number of things. Think of it like a trigger. Just please don't spew hate.

[corviisquire]

Creatures have colors!!

Left to Right: @moonchild-in-blue @leonsleftbicep @ghxstly-death

@pear-island

Left to Right: @a-s-levynn @foundationsofdecay @polteergeistt

They have been colored along with making some minor adjustments. If anyone wants anything changed please let me know! These creatures are yours so name them whatever you want, develop lore if ya want, and do whatever you want with them. Possible next batch will probably be made later next week.

Art notes under cut :D

I put some music drops because music inspires me too much.

Moonchild-in-blue: The blues and purples!! Opals and the insides of muscle shells inspired me a lot with the coloring (particularly the stars and moon). There’s another shell that has that shiny blue and green lining on the inside but I can’t remember the name of it. It was a full moon last night but I forgot to take a picture! Thought of you but anyways I loved coloring the lady. It was fun but I first I struggled on deciding if I wanted more blue or purple.

Some songs I listened to a lot while coloring this:

Sweet Disposition - Temper Trap

Moon Child - F16s

The Night Does Not Belong to God - you know who

Leonsleftbicep: Colors go crazy! Idk what your favorite colors are but I chose The Blue. I also incorporated some red (for yummy contrast and complementary colors). I realized this looked very vampire media core. EyAH enjoy the critter!

Some songs I listened to while coloring this:

Blue Monday - Orgy

Military Fashion Show - And One

The Apparition - do I really need to say who?

Ghxstly-death: Per your request, red and black was incorporated! Was inspired by Mohg, Lord of Blood, from Elden ring cause he has cool robes and a trident thingy. I really like how it turned out. Like I’ve been doing with every design is adding the bling and I felt gold would work well.

Was resisting the urge to put the entire One EP right here:

Get The Balance Right! - Depeche Mode

Mascara - Deftones

Jaws - Slep tonka

SEVEN HOUR SHITTER (pearisland/perryisle): You use bright colors in your art all the time so we got the colors goingggg. Little guy reminds me of Pumpkin Patch protagonist or Hollow Knight. Idk. Not much to say except TRIPLE DEATH SLIME BARRAGE!!!

No normal music for you. only Kevin Macleod and Pizza Tower ST.

A-s-levynn: More Dark Sun Gwyndolin inspiration… (you can tell I have my dark souls art books open next to me right now). As requested, tendrils/tentacles were added! I think it improved the design a whole lot because it was originally very symmetrical and the tentacles added just the right amount of asymmetry to balance out the overall look. I’m a huge fromsoft fan (playing Elden Ring, waiting for new DLC, have dark souls 1 remastered but haven’t started it yet, have bloodborne Elden ring and DS1/3 art books) so lots of my art has elements from Fromsoft games (neutron activation).

And just like everyone else, some music for the soul:

Too Late - 311

Scared Together - Silversun Pickups

Dark Signs - eepy coin

Foundationsofdecay: Again, taking more inspiration from your blog, colors and stuff. The design had subconscious influence from the game sky: children of the light. Had lotsa fun coloring it. I don’t know much about you like favorite colors or flowers but I tried my best!

Songs that inspired me:

Let It Happen - Tame Impala

Flux - Bloc Party

Rain - tired currency

Polteergeistt: The oarfish colors… A lot Of these characters have cool blues so I tried to use some teal blues to contrast the red/pink(?). “Nintendo switch core” I’m sobbing. I fixed the feet. Now my Pinterest is filled to the brim with fish images (specifically oarfish, sea jellies, and blue lobsters).

The music!!!!!:

UNDERWATER BOI - Turnstile

The Illness (Teenagers Remix) - GoodBooks

Descending - exhausted dollar

Thank you so much. All of you are such lovely people. 🫂💕🫶

[specialinterestshows]

Wind down after a long session with your girlfriend in the latest chapter of my Rhea Ripley x lady!reader fic, Absolute Smokeshow.

Warnings for this section: None!

Song for this section:

-

Absolute Smokeshow (Part 59): Pillow-Talk Lullaby

“Are you going to fall asleep on me, baby?”

The cadence of the gentle words told you just how amused your girlfriend was that you were drifting off, your head resting on her warm thigh, the rest of your naked body curled up on the floor between her legs. Half-awake, you hum quietly - too tired to even try to open your eyes.

“Ah, that’ll do it,” Rhea said, presumably checking the time, “It’s been hours.”

“Mmhmm,” you agree - it hadn’t seemed like hours while it was happening, but your body knew better. It was as though every single muscle had been pushed to its limit and refused to do any more work.

At least the feeling that your arms and legs couldn’t hold you up for the time being was accompanied by a sort of serenity that covered you like a weighted blanket. Recalling the highlights of the last few blissful hours, you chuckled to yourself softly.

“You’re so cute when you’re sleepy,” Rhea muttered, fingers gently running through your hair. The feeling was so comforting, you couldn’t help but smile wider. Today had been full of surprises, all of which had turned out wonderfully. The anxiety that had been itching at the back of your mind about Rhea’s jealousy had dissipated - it was difficult to think of anything right now except how lucky you were.

Still unsure how long she was visiting or when you would see her again once she left, you tried your best to stay awake despite the relaxing feeling of Rhea’s nails running gently across your scalp again and again; even if you couldn’t open your eyes, you didn’t want to miss a moment.

“Looks like it’s bedtime, gorgeous,” Rhea whispered, shifting her weight underneath you and stopping when you groaned in displeasure, “Shhhh, don’t worry, I’ve got you.”

With those words, you felt your girlfriend envelop you in her arms before slowly lifting you off the ground. You nuzzled your face into Rhea’s shoulder as she strode over to your bed and gently planted a kiss on her neck before she set you down on the mattress.

“My sweet girl,” she muttered, kissing your forehead before tucking you in.

The moment you made contact with the bedsheets, you wanted nothing more than to fall asleep in Rhea’s arms - so you grabbed her hand insistently when she brought the blanket up to your chin.

“Don’t worry, baby,” Rhea said, giving your hand a reassuring squeeze, “I’m going to change and get us some more water and I’ll be right back to cuddle with you.”

Reluctantly, you let go and shift slowly under the covers as her gentle footfalls retreat. It’s quiet for a moment until, suddenly, you hear faint singing.

It takes a few bars of unintelligible lyrics before you notice that it’s a familiar tune and you strained your ears once you knew what to listen for.

“I feel you, my heart it sings

I feel you, the joy you bring

Where Heaven waits, to golden gates and back again

You take me to and lead me through oblivion

This is the morning of our love

This is the dawning of our love

I feel you, your precious soul

And I am home”

You didn’t think those were quite the lyrics, but a feeling like flowers rapidly blooming in your chest overtook you all the same as you listened. Casually, you began to wonder how many others were lucky enough to have heard her beautiful, somewhat smoky singing voice.

This led to an image in your mind of every member of The Judgment Day singing along to the music on their road trips between shows. It wasn’t until you thought about it and felt something like a tug deep in your chest that you realized you wished you could join them. All the time. Every trip.

Rhea had switched to humming instead as she walked back into your bedroom. You heard the sound of two glasses being set down nearby as your girlfriend grew quiet, crawling under the blanket and putting her arm around you.

“I love you, pretty girl,” she whispered before kissing the back of your head softly.

“Mmm,” was all you could reply as you grew more and more relaxed.

“You deserve the world...”

You weren’t sure if it was because she thought you were asleep or not, but she kept going.

“… I’m doing everything I can to try and be better. For you. For Dom… It’s just so difficult when I know one of you is with someone else. Something takes over and it’s like I can’t think.”

You were glad she was trying to be self-aware, but couldn’t personally relate - until the last thing she said:

“I just don’t want to lose you.”

[end part fifty-nine of ?]

Part 60: https://www.tumblr.com/specialinterestshows/739450765767262208/absolute-smokeshow-part-60-of-working-out

-

Tag List (thank you!)

@littlemiss-fanficlover , @babybatlover , @girlofpink , @kagome2909 , @domripley , @wiccanpriestess , @falloutboy-lover , @aut0luminescence

[mike-wheeler-hater]

Songs i want to see Byler edits to when they’re canon

The Great War - Taylor Swift

Flawless - The Neigbourhood ( use the bridge it’s the best part of the song)

Don’t Blame Me - Taylor Swift

Set Fire To The Rain - Adele

Softcore - The Neigbourhood

Seven - Taylor Swift

Back To The Old House - The Smiths

Yellow - Coldplay

Wildest Dreams - Taylor Swift

You And I - One Direction (lmao)

The Beach - The Neigbourhood (love this one)

Baby Come Home 2 / Valentines - The Neigbourhood (was once my favorite song)

The Night We Met - Lord Huron

Cinnamon Girl - Lana Del Rey

This Love - Taylor Swift

Somewhere Only We Know - Keane

Midnight Rain - Taylor Swift

Mistakes Like This - Prelow

We Fell In Love In October- Girl In Red

Baby I’m Jealous - Bebe Rexha ( ~I stole your man~ idk it would be funny but mean )

Bellyache- Billie Eilish

Me And Micheal - MGMT

The Most Beautiful Boy In The World -The Irrepressibles ( requested by @jazz-penguin 🫶)

Sweet Disposition- Temper Trap ( requested by @are-friends-electric-7 🫶)

Forever & Always - Taylor Swift

Style - Taylor Swift

I’ll call you mine - Girl In Red

Heroes - David Bowie ( requested by @themidnightpoetsociety 🫶 thank u , I can’t believe that I forgot )

The Story - Conan Gray

Everything Has Changed- Taylor Swift ( requested by @byler-solos 🫶)

You Get Me So High - The Neigbourhood ( ~you’re my best friend I’ll love you forever~ fits them somehow)

Heather - Conan Gray ( requested by @violetbaudelaire15 🫶)

Video Games - Lana Del Rey ( requested by @ilsrj 🫶)

Everlong - Foo Fighters ( requested by @daydreams-in-the-moonlight 🫶)

Wicked Game- Chris Isaak

Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division

Just Like Heaven - The Cure

Lovesong - The Cure

Never Let Me Down Again - Depeche Mode

Are ’Friends‘ Electric ? - Tubeway Army

Apocalypse- Cigarettes after sex

Starlight - Muse

Enjoy The Silence - Depeche Mode

There Is A Light That Never Goes Out - The smiths

Ordinary World - Duran Duran

Supercut - Lorde

When We Were Young - Adele

After Dark - Mr Kitty

You Are In Love - Taylor Swift

Daylight - Taylor Swift

It’s Nice To Have A Friend - Taylor Swift

Out Of The Woods - Taylor Swift

Afterglow - Taylor Swift

Still Into You - Paramore

The Only Exception- Paramore

All I wanted - Paramore

Iris - The Goo Goo Dolls

Head Over Heels- Tears for fears

Sparks - Coldplay

Fix You - Coldplay

New Person , Same Old Mistakes- Tame Impala

Die For You - The Weekend

Breakdown - Tom Petty and the heartbreakers

About You - The 1975

Wonderland - Taylor Swift

Lover - Taylor Swift

Long Long Time - Linda Ronstadt

I Love You - Billie Eilish

I Want To Know What Love Is - Foreigner

Can’t Fight This Feeling - REO Speedwagon

Keep On Loving You - REO Speedwagon

Crazy Little Thing Called Love- Queen

Who Wants To Live Forever - Queen

Time After Time - Cindy Lauper

True Colors - Cindy Lauper

Take On Me - A-Ha

True Love - P!nk

Who Knew - P!nk

Someone To You - BANNERS

Someone To Stay - Vamcouver Sleep Clinic

Don’t You ( Forget About Me ) - Simple Minds

Reflections - The Neigbourhood

Compass - The Neigbourhood

Stuck With Me - The Neigbourhood

Scary Love - The Neigbourhood

Void - The Neigbourhood

Nervous - The Neigbourhood

Honest - The Neigbourhood

Sunsetz - Cigarettes After Sex

505 - Artic Monkeys

I Wanna Be Yours - Artic Monkeys

Wonderwall - Oasis

Don’t Look Back In Anger - Oasis

Dandelions - Ruth B

I Follow Rivers - Lykke Li

Don’t Speak - No Doubt

Listen To Your Heart - Roxette

Right Now - 1D

Infinity- James Young

It’s My Life - Talk Talk

Chasing Cars - Snow Patrol

Open Your Eyes - Snow Patrol

Duvet - Bôa

Fade Into You - Mazzy Star

You’re My Best Friend - Queen

Clocks - Coldplay

Till Forever Falls Apart - Ashe

Cherry- Lana Del Rey

Say Yes To Heaven- Lana Del Rey

Without You - Lana Del Rey

If I Lose Myself - One Republic

Secrets - One Republic

What You Wanted - One Republic

Electric Touch - Taylor Swift ( requested by @cultofsheep 🫶)

I Think We’re Alone Now - Tiffany

Fuck It I Love You - Lana Del Rey

American Money - BØRNS

Message In A Bottle - Taylor Swift

Boys & Girls - Conan Gray

Now That We Don’t talk - Taylor Swift

You’re On Your Own Kid- Taylor Swift

( all 4 recent song requested by @martyconansversion 🫶)

( thank you @toria-hanny for all your requests 💗💗💗. I’ll make sure to find them all once Byler is canon . And btw your music taste is awesome 🫶)

I’ll keep updating this because I want to 👍🏻😀 If you have any ideas or something feel free to tell me please !

[lunajay33]

Enjoy the Silence🌪️Part.3

Summary: Things in your past has driven you to be silent but will someone be able to break that shell, will someone finally listen to you(might make this into a series!)

Part.2<-

•Masterlist•

After poring my heart out to Daryl, which was about a week ago, he’s been slowly helping me let go and move forward, he would stay with me some nights to help with the night mares or he’d hear me scream at night and come over from his room to settle me, comfort me

I woke up seeing him laid on the couch by my bed still deep in sleep, he was so handsome, I don’t know what it is about him but he was breath taking to look at, as I looked at him that tingly feeling in my chest happened, still not knowing what that was I decided to maybe talk to Michonne about it later when I got the chance

I decided to let Daryl sleep more knowing he barely ever got a full nights rest, I placed another blanket over him and went to get ready in the bathroom, then going upstairs seeing them eating breakfast as usual

“Morning y/n!” Rick said smiling

“Morning” I said quietly as I sat down and started nibbling in a piece of toast, over this week I’ve been able to open up more with the people in the house I felt safe here

“Where’s Daryl?”

“Still asleep, I woke him up again” I said as I felt my cheeks heat up

Everyone went back to eating when Daryl came up rubbing his eyes groaning as he sat next to me

“Why didn’ ya wake me?”

“I wanted you to sleep” I said smiling feeling that overwhelming joy just being around him

He squeezed my shoulder before he dug into his plate of food

“Well we gotta head out on our run soon so when your done Daryl meet me outside” Rick said as he got up and left outside after he kissed Michonne

Daryl finished, got his crossbow

“Be careful” I said and he returned it with a little smile before he left

“I’m gonna go out with Enid so I’ll see you guys later” Carl said leaving just me Michonne and Judith

“Sooo how’s things going with Daryl?” Michonne asked as soon as everyone was gone, with a wide smile

“Umm good, I was meaning to ask you something” I said picking at my nails feeling those nervous bubbles in my stomach

“What is it sweetie?” She asked as she bounced a giggling Judith

“When I’m with Daryl, I get this feeling in my chest, like my heart starts beating faster and my stomach feels weird, even thinking about him I feel it……..but I don’t know what it is, what does it mean?” I asked feeling stupid

“Oh honey, you like him”

“Ya I know that I like all of you”

“No this is different you wanna spend all your time with him, be his girlfriend, share private moments together, you love him y/n, like how I love Rick” I was shocked

Is this what love feels like cause if it is I never wanted it to go away, he made me feel so special, so important, he never made me feel like I was doing something wrong or that I was a burden he made me feel…….feel loved

“Love….i love him?” I felt like I was floating but I quickly came back down at the realization that he might not feel the same

“But what if he doesn’t love me? I’ve never had that before so why would he?”

She gave me a sad look but her eyes were happy

“I know Daryl, he’s hard to read but I can tell by the way he looks at you, the way he gets you things because it reminded him of you, take your chance and tell him because we never know what’s gonna happen tomorrow” she said getting up patting my shoulder before she went to get ready with Judith for the day

As I worked in the gardens all day I kept thinking about Daryl, how do I tell him I’m not the greatest with words obviously, or how I’m feeling but then again when I’m with him it’s easy to talk to him about things

Michonne is right though, I don’t know what going to happen and if something happened to him or me and I never got to tell him, I’d regret it so I’ve decided next time we’re alone I’m telling him what’s the worst that’ll happen he doesn’t love me? Then atleast I have a friend still…..hopefully

The sun was starting to set and usually they would be back by now maybe they just got more supplies this time, I went back home bringing back some fresh tomato’s for Rick like he asked and placed them in the fridge, Michonne poured me a glass of wine and we sat on the couch waiting for them

“It’s been a while do you like they’re okay” I asked biting on my lip

“It’s Daryl and Rick I’m sure they just had to stay some where but I’m sure they’re fine, probably will be back by morning” she said as she took a sip of her wine

“So how are things with Rick?” I asked trying to make the subject not as gloomy

“Good, great even, I was able to calm him down a bit but I kinda like his crazy side, specially in bed” she said making me choke on the wine as my cheeks turned red

I never really talked or even thought much about that kinda stuff atleast I tried not to so I wasn’t sure even how to respond

“Sorry, do you not think of that stuff about Daryl? Nothing about him turns you all gooey” Of course I saw him as beyond handsome with his strong arms and the way he turned golden in the sun, or the way his voice would get deep in the morning made me feel a certain way but I didn’t know that was a turn on thing

“I mean I guess thinking about it everything about him makes me tingle and my head all fuzzy”

“Y/n you think he’s hot, that’s what being attracted to someone is”

“I’m learning so much I feel so far behind” I said embarrassed

“Don’t push yourself if this is all new take it at your own pace”

After we finished drinking and eating we said our goodnights and went to bed, I laid up thinking about Daryl missing his presence on the couch, I decided to sleep on the couch and when I laid down his smell was there making me feel comforted

I woke up early from another nightmare and without Daryl I couldn’t go back to sleep so I walked out the front door and sat on the porch steps enjoying to cool morning breeze as the sky was bright orange and pink from the sunrise that’s when I heard the rumbling of a car pull up in front of the house and out came Rick and Daryl

Before I could even think I got up and ran into his arms holding him tight as I felt his arms wrap around my waist

“I was so worried are you okay?” I asked as I pulled back to look at him, he was a little dirty but that was normal other than that he seemed fine

“ ‘m okay, got blocked by walkers couldn’ risk it” he said squeezing my hips

“I have to talk to you……alone” I said as I saw Rick watching us smiling

“I’ll just go seeing Michonne and the kids” he said as he threw a bag over his shoulder and going inside after he patted Daryl shoulder

“So what goin on?” Daryl asked as we sat on the porch steps

“I was talking to Michonne…….i needed to ask her what this feeling was when I’m around you and she told me I should tell you because this world is never guaranteed so I’m just gonna say it and if you don’t feel the same it’s okay so here goes…….Daryl I love you, a lot” his eyed became squinted and he didn’t say anything making these nerves even worse

Before he said anything Carol came walking up the sidewalk interrupting us

“Hey Daryl you’re back how was it?” She asked, I was so embarrassed I wanted to shut myself off again so I got up and went inside leaving them alone to chat, Rick and Michonne were standing there smiling which only made the tears build up more as I ran downstairs to my room closing the door

I knew it, this was a mistake

Taglist: @deansapplepie @in-this-minute @pollito-chicken

Part.4

[iheartchv]

hi!! i hope you’re doing well! i don’t know if ur still doing match ups or not, but i thought id give it a shot?

i’m 5’3, pale and petite (also flat but i *kinda* got an ass.. this was weird to type lol), but i don’t have the prettiest smile. i’m also blonde with blue eyes!

i listen to kpop, but i like music from all sorts of genres and styles. ex: depeche mode, nickelback, ashnikko, mitski, etc. if the song is good then i’m listening!

i’ve recently been sketching at work to pass the time, but other than that i don’t really have any interesting hobbies. i play video games, watch youtube and movies— but i want to do more stuff! i’d love to travel the world and take part in different cultures. i know id want a career in something creative.

i’m pretty shy, i only really talk to people i feel comfortable with but i get along with most people! i’m pretty awkward though, i stumble over a lot of words and talk fast when i get excited (my mouth moves faster than my brain). but i love to laugh and make other people laugh!!

sorry i just unloaded all of that on you good lord 😭 again, don’t feel obligated to respond or anything!! have a good day!! mwah

🤔 I match you with...

Johnny "Soap" MacTavish 🧼

I think Soap would be a match for you

I feel like he would help you out of your comfy space, so to speak

He finds you cute overall

You don't have a pretty smile?

He thinks so

"Aw, come on. O' course ye do"

He'd flirt with you, trying to get something out of you

But if it's a smile, he'd grin even bigger

"There ye go. See? You look so pretty... so perfect..."

Soap is so sweet to you

He always talks and saying that he'd go out with you

Well... this time he's serious

He wants to go out with you, he wants you to be his

"What do you say, hm?"

Your heart raced whenever you were around him

And yeah you did have a crush on him so...

"Yes, I'll go out with you"

He's over the moon

This man will treat you like royalty

And now that you 2 are dating his flirting will be more teasing, more spicy

just let your imagination go wild okay?😜

If you just want to stay home and play a videogame or watch something, he's down for that, as long as he gets to have you close to him

And give you kisses on top of your head, on your neck and shoulders

He'll go even further if you wish...

You're his world, his everything

[johannesviii]

Top 10 Personal Favorite Hit Songs from 2023

What a weird year for pop music, full of strange trends, confusing garbage and unexpected hits. Once again, even if the charts don’t always reflect it, music as a whole is currently very interesting to follow closely.

Disclaimers / Rules:

I’m using both the year-end top 100 lists from the US and from France while making these lists. There’s songs that charted in my country way higher than they did in the US, or even earlier or later, so that might get surprising at times.

No song that I already put on a previous list is elligible.

No old hit song that is re-charting due to a holiday or a trend is elligible either.

Of course there will probably be stuff in French somewhere on this post. We suck. I know. It’s my list. Deal with it.

My musical tastes have always been terrible.

I have sound-to-color synesthesia which justifies nothing but might explain why I have trouble describing some songs in other terms than visual ones.

A lot of bad stuff happened to me this year (several accidents in a row, and also my cat died) but some good stuff too, thank goodness. I only went to two concerts this year (Bloodywood and BMTH), but they were both absolutely amazing. Pretty sure the Bring Me The Horizon one was the best concert I ever went to, actually, and there's a lot of competition considering all the great ones I went to in 2022. I'm just sad 100 gecs had to cancel theirs, I was really looking forward to it. Oh well.

Let’s start with the good or interesting albums that came out in 2023, and oh my, that's a long list already.

Albums

Starting as usual with stuff that disappointed me: Depeche Mode's Memento Mori was... actually it was all right, but I miss the days when I could get excited about a new Depeche Mode album, I really do.

Pink Tape by Lil Uzi Vert was a giant fucking mess. There's some absolute bangers on it, and then you get to the next track and it's the worst thing you've ever heard. Which makes for an interesting listening experience, for sure, but one I'm in no hurry to repeat. At least it's never boring.

After the Magic by Parannoul isn't exactly my cup of tea, but you should definitely listen to it once, I think. It's something special. It might grow on me, though, because I only listened to it for the first time last month.

On the other hand, I listened to Scaring the hoes by Jpegmafia and Danny Brown a while ago, and while this one is definitely not my cup of tea, it's also a ton of fun and I don't feel like a single second of my time was wasted on it. You should listen to it for the samples alone, and just out of sheer curiosity if nothing else.

A kiss for the whole world by Enter Shikari is a weird beast, because the singles are absolutely incredible, but then the rest is a big pile of nothing (at least in my opinion). But the singles, man. I really don't know how to judge it as a whole, the quality is on a rollercoaster.

Kind of the same thing happened with Electric Sun by VNV Nation, one of my favorite bands of all times if not my favorite, if you recall. Some tracks completely floored me, the rest was meh. Oh well. Noire was so incredibly good that I can live with an average VNV album dropping after it.

Fanfare by Dorian Electra was full of absolute bangers but... I don't know, there's some of the madness of the previous record missing. And yes, I'm saying the album containing the minion line (you know the one) is more serious than My Agenda. Go figure. But it's still very good!

Two different friends told me to listen to 4D by Blank Banshee, so I did, obviously. Great electro album. Send tweet

I'm not entirely sure what to think of Atta by Sigur Rós. I cried several times while listening to it for the first time and it's a genuinely impressive series of tracks, but it's also so devastating I've only relistened to it twice since then.

I only discovered Svalbard a couple of years ago, and this year they dropped The weight of the mask, which might be even better than their previous album. It's mostly about depression and trying to fake normality while being depressed. Not a very pleasant topic, and yet this is full of energy and... hope? Everything sounds unbearably bright and between the screams, you feel like everything will be better eventually. Great stuff.

Speaking of depression, there's also No joy by Spanish Love Songs. If you recall their previous album was my album of the year a few lists ago. Their sound changed slightly, and at times it almost sounds like The Killers, but not in a bad way. There's a couple of tracks I don't like very much, but the writing is still on point, and some tracks are among my faves I put in the "unelligible songs" part.

Census Designated by Jane Remover, on the other hand, came out of nowhere just to kick me in the face. I don't even know what to say about that one. Go listen to it.

I found Gunship almost by accident a few months ago, and they immediately dropped a new album, called Unicorn. It's just a huge pile of great synthpop through and through - if you don't mind a couple of really stupid lines (godddd that third track is full of them). The other downside is that it's way too long (more than an hour), and if it was up to me, I'd remove at least four tracks from it. Unlike...

...10000 gecs by, who else, 100 gecs. It's less than half an hour long and it's so fun and so varied in its sounds and so stupid while still being incredibly well produced. For the longest time I couldn't decide which one of the last five albums on this list was my favorite, and then I relistened to all of them in a row and felt compelled to play this one a second time after I was done. Definitely worth the wait.

Unelligible Songs

This is kind of a non-hits rec list of sorts, but you know the drill. I also have to mention that two songs from previous lists (The Magic Key by One-T and Dernière Danse by Kyo 2003 represents) recharted this year for some unfathomable reason.

Gonna start with my fave tracks on some of the albums I already mentioned. Because why not.

The only song I consider great on the Depeche Mode album was People are good which sounds like character development considering People are people also exists

Speaking of Depeche Mode, one band arguably out-depeche-moded them this year so let me introduce you to ††† (Crosses) with Ghost ride, Invisible hand and Holier

Lil Uzi Vert is next with Suicide doors and its deranged intro immediately followed by FUCK YOU, AND FUCK YOUR BITCH then Uzi following that by stating they're the Crow. Yes, really. Also there's Werewolf, literally a Bring Me The Horizon song with Lil Uzi Vert on it, and if I had a nickel every time that happened this year I'd have two nickels, which isn't much but-

Wait let me interrupt this list with another song called Werewolf which I've listened to WAY too much this year. It's the kind of song you listen to ironically at first but after the tenth time that happens you realise it's no longer ironic and you love it for real. Seeing Motionless In White live kinda helped, not gonna lie, but still

For Enter Shikari, we have A kiss for the whole world, Bloodshot, and especially [pls] set me on fire, which might be one of my most listened to tracks of 2023, actually

VNV Nation had Wait, Invictus, and Artifice, which are all absolute bangers in my opinion. Ronan is angry and we love to hear it

By the way this year Pink released an extremely VNV-like song called Trustfall and it's very good but also uncanny

Kylie Minogue is also doing something vaguely similar with Hold on to now but in a more mainstream normal way btw

And then for something completely different, we have Dorian Electra singing about obsessive fans on Symphony, fame on Wanna be a star, and most importantly writing anon hate and immediately deleting it on anon

Run is the first track of the Blank Banshee album I rec'd and it's only one minute long so listen to it maybe

Technically I can recommend Gold if you want some taste of the Sigur Rós album but you need to listen to the entire album to get the full crushing effect

Svalbard isn't going to lighten up the mood with How to Swim Down and Faking it

Neither is Spanish Long Songs with Clean-up crew, Marvel, Here you are and Lifers, the last one being notable for having what's possibly my fave bridge of the entire year, and all of them for being endlessly quotable. Stay alive out of spite everyone

Also not lightening up the mood is Jane Remover with Census Designated on the album also called Census Designated

But what's this? It's Gunship with a steel chair trying to punch some joy into this list with Holographic heart, Nuclear Date Night, Taste like venom and Monster in paradise!!

And the gecs with a second steel ch- wait no it's a plastic chair shaped like a frog. Anyway here's Dumbest girl alive and Hollywood baby, and both of them go wayyy harder than they have any rights to

ok that was a lot of songs already. Here's Everything goes on by Porter Robinson as a palate cleanser

Also the first reggaeton song to ever end on one of my playlists, Sci-fi by Tainy and Rauw Alejandro

Also I'm gonna put a gif here otherwise Tumblr won't let me post something with such a long uninterrupted list in it

Ok back to the list of recs

Let's get the humiliation out of the way and say that this year I listened to Raining blood but it's super emo more than I ever listened to Raining blood in all my years combined

Oh yeah and Linkin Park released some old (finished and unfinished) tracks from the Meteora era and I'm kinda pissed off cause Lost missed the year end list. Fighting myself is excellent too, and if you want a really heartwrenching unfinished track, Resolution has a giant Chester-shaped hole where its chorus should be and the lyrics make it even worse. You're welcome

Possibly the most mainstream song on this entire rec list but I'm also pissed off Bad Idea right? by Olivia Rodrigo didn't chart enough to count for my top ten hit songs

I can offer you Eat the acid by Kesha if you want an awesome but mildly disturbing listening experience

For some electro/future pop here's Head over heels by Solitary Experiments

Wait there's also Bring the noise by Neuroticfish

Over is there if you need some Chvrches doing some Chvrching

Justice for Gladiator by Jann

Pointing at Even Jesus got the blues by Gabe Lee and saying I would listen to more country if it sounded half as good as that song, not like anyone cares

Holding on to nothing by Sierra. Send tweet

Northwind + Sky-colored dream by Strawberry Hospital and Parasite Heart is just seven minutes of cool pastel screams

And for an absolute goth banger everyone collectively decided to ignore here's Train to Harlem by Korine

I can't get enough of Nosebleeder by Lil Lotus and that's probably mildly embarrassing at my age but I've decided to stay mildly embarrassing forever

kisses by Slowdive if you want vibes and vibes only

Blood and sugar by Boys Like Girls if, like me, you want something that sounds exactly like The 1975

Choose your fighter by Ava Max if you want something that sounds exactly like Barbie Girl

I really wish I could explain what my feelings are every time I listen to The King by Anjimile but the only thing I'm sure about is that I'm feeling something a LOT and that it's terrifying

On a lighter note here's Mall rat by Durry, a very upbeat pop punk song about mall goth teenagers having fun and it's extremely good, listen to it immediately if you're having a bad day

And as some of you might have expected because of that previous gif, we're gonna finish with some Bring Me The Horizon, who have joined my list of favorite bands alarmingly quickly (that new album can't drop soon enough), and let's just say LosT and especially AmEN! were some of my absolute fave non-hit songs this year. Seriously. What the fuck was that.

And now, some elligible hits that didn't make the list.

Honorable Mentions

Tiki Taka (Vacra) - Afrobeats is the best thing that happened to the charts in recent years.

Shining Light (Aime Simone) - I wish I liked that artist more.

Unholy (Sam Smith & Kim Petras) - At first I didn't like this one, and then I headcanoned Kim Petras as a girl in a confessional and Sam Smith as the priest on the other side looking concerned but also weirdly into it, and suddenly it was a really funny song.

Dance the night away (Dua Lipa) - I'm pretty sure that's the song Chained to the Rhythm by Katy Perry is talking about

Casanova (Soolking) - This is a borderline guilty pleasure, and also it sounds like Magic System. Which is a bonus, by the way.

Calm Down (Rema) - Afrobeats is the best thing that happened to the charts in recent years 2: the sequel

Rush (Ayra Starr) - Afrobeats is the best thing that happened to the charts in recent years 3: the sequel to the sequel

Strangers (Kenya Grace) - Very good low-key track to play when you're driving at night

Bloody Mary (Lady Gaga) - What can I say. It's Lady Gaga. It's good.

I remember everything (Zach Bryan) - And for "songs that would be on the list if I had good taste-"

Going going gone (Luke Combs) - The last cut from the list. Great earworm, good writing.

THE ACTUAL TOP TEN LIST

This is a very solid list, actually. All of these things are still on some of my playlists to this day.

10 - Bad Habit (Steve Lacy)

US: #39 / FR: Not on the list

This was the last cut from my 2022 top 10 and it was a painful one, so imagine my joy when I saw it was elligible for this year's list too! Welcome back, Steve Lacy, your little song is still an earworm and a half even after all this time.

9 - Cruel Summer (Taylor Swift)

US: #18 / FR: Not on the list

I have no idea how a song that rhymes "oh woah oh" with "summer" can sound so good. Well played, madam. Well played.

8 - Star Walkin' (Lil Nas X)

US: Not on the list / FR: #67

Not the best Lil Nas X song by a mile, and still quite good! It plays a lot at the gym for some reason. The hype is real, even after hearing it pretty much every hour on the hour. And despite that weird, weird line about his dad.

Very surprised it's not on the US year-end list, by the way.

7 - Vois sur ton chemin (Bennett)

US: Not on the list / FR: #69

If you're creeped out by the AI-generated kids in the music video, I think that's kind of the point, which is why I can tolerate it for once.

Anyway, this is a remix of a choir song about lost kids, originally from a retro movie called Les Choristes which came out back when I was a teenager. And now it's been turned into a somewhat creepy techno remix of itself, and you know what's bad about that? Not a single thing actually. Play it again.

6 - Fast Car (covered by Luke Combs)

US: #8 / FR: Not on the list

If you remember correctly, Fast Car was the number one song of the very first list I made in this series (1988). And since this cover is so similar to the original song, I considered making it non-elligible for this list. I counted it in the end but put it kinda low compared to the original. It's only fair.

5 - Anti-hero (Taylor Swift)

US: #4 / FR: Not on the list

I was pretty indifferent to this one at the beginning of the year, but it slowly but surely grew on me. Everything has already been said about this song. So yeah, it's very good. I like it. It's on the list.

Moving on!

4 - Substitution (Purple Disco Machine x Kungs)

US: Not on the list / FR: #56

Some songs just make you want to move every single time you hear them, without fail. The thing is, this one plays a LOT on the radio in public settings, so catch me dancing in the aisles of the local supermarket every time it's on. It's like some memetic SCP bullshit.

At this point, it should be possible to make a great playlist with all the best retro-sounding hits we got in the past five years or so - and yeah, put this one on it too, for sure.

3 - Miracle (Ellie Goulding, Calvin Harris)

US: Not on the list / FR: #51

At some point this was my number one, and can you really blame me? An Ellie Goulding song with a drop that sounds exactly like a Robert Miles track? Really?

Then I realised I loved Robert Miles' tracks because of that dreamy piano/synth melody they all have, and that this song only had a drop/musical chorus that sounded like that, so something was missing. Oh well. Still a fantastic dance track, though.

2 - Escapism (Raye)

US: #48 / FR: Not on the list

Welcome to the other side of most of The Weeknd songs, I guess, but that's also what makes this track so compelling. The intro sounds like anxiety, and even when the song gets more pleasant to listen to it just never goes completely away - just like in the lyrics, in fact. Well written, well produced, everything is on point and if I had better taste it would probably be number one on this list.

Alas, I am what I am.

1 - Just wanna rock (Lil Uzi Vert)

US: #28 / FR: Not on the list

At some point, this was the third song on the list. Why shouldn't it be? It's so brainless compared to Escapism, and laughably short compared to Miracle. It's just a fragment of a song. It sounds like the intro of a track that will never start.

It's also by far my most replayed hit song on this entire top ten list and I can't justify that in any way. So yeah, putting anything else here felt like lying to myself. The fact it never really starts also means the hype never really ends. Going "daaaaaaaaaaaamn" along with Uzi's distorted vocals is so satisfying.

I just wanna rock, man. What a vibe. See you next year!

[lil-melody-moon]

Hello Mel! I hope you’re doing well 🥰 I’ve seen that you reblogged the album ask thingy. I’m not sure if I have to give you the name of the album and a number or just the album and you answer all of the questions. So, If it’s not too much to ask, can you answer all of the 10 questions about Quadrophenia? I know how much you love that album and I’d like to know your thoughts on that one❤️ Also, you know how much I love to see your posts talking about the music you love hehe. Love ya <3

Hello, I've been doing so so but thank you for asking <3

The thing for it is to give a name for the album and some numbers, but what you ask for is perfect! I was hoping for someone to asking about "Quadrophenia", thank you that it was you! So without further ado.

1. Favourite and least favourite track?

Oh Gosh this will be difficult.

"5:15" is my favorite track of the whole album because of a few things. First being the fact that this was the first song I heard from this album. Funny story, mom wrote down a Depeche Mode song called "Little 15" and she wrote that it is a The Who song so I typed it in and "5:15" came up so we've listened. Mom didn't like it very much, but I fucking vibed - you can imagine my sheer surprise when I've found the album where this song was. Also, The Who's compilation CD I have has three tracks from "Quadrophenia" and "5:15" is one of them. Those three are never played quietly on dad's stereo system, never.

Now to the least favorite I actually don't know if I have one like that. I literally love every track on this album, but maybe I'll go with "I Am The Sea" because it's only an ambient of waves - which is very nice as an opening, considering how the story on album opens with "The Real Me", but ya know. Almost no music.

2. Side A or B? (for later releases: first half or second half; for doubles: A, B, C or D?)

This is a double so I have to choose between C and D - A and B are good too, but the rest of the tracks after "5:15" my beloved <3

And I think I'll go with C so that would include: "5:15", "Sea and Sand", "Drowned" and "Bell Boy". There's just something in those tracks that makes me get lost in music each time I hear them. I'm always missing the point where "Sea and Sand" ends and "Drowned" starts. Either it's so smoothly going from one to the other or I'm just so lost between notes. Plus there's "Bell Boy" come on, how could I not pick this side? XD

3. Thoughts on the cover art/packaging?

Just look at this beauty! Washed from colors, depressing with only Jimmy on the cover while the rest of the band is seen in the side mirrors. The cover speaks for itself. The first time I saw it I just felt I was up to listen to something good and damn, I wasn't wrong. I love the cover so much that I would be glad to have it as a poster in my room. I'm not joking, I even saw a similar big flag to buy and if I had money and space in my room for it, I would buy it - this album is my religion <3

4. Are any of the tracks important/meaningful to you? Why?

Oh God, the whole album is important, but if I have to narrow it to a few songs... I will talk about very personal stuff here.

"Cut My Hair" Now this is like an opening track to the beginning of the story, to see how Jimmy feels emotionally, but the tone and the entire setting of how his life looked, now that is what brought my attention right from the beginning. The guy just doesn't fit in, feels like an outcast and this verse right there:

Why do I have to be different to them? Just to earn the respect of a dance hall friend Have the same old row again and again Why do I have to move with a crowd Of kids that hardly notice I'm around? I work myself to death just to fit in

It reminds me of my days when i tried to fit in the society I live in. Now, I literally don't care how other see me, but I can see that with my clothing, interests, way of thinking I just don't fit in and I probably never will. But I gave up on "moving with a crowd" long time ago. And from here, my dear friend, things started rolling.

"I'm One"

This one is a simple matter, first verse bringing this in:

Every year is the same And I feel it again I'm a loser - no chance to win Leaves start falling Come down is calling Loneliness starts sinking in

Describing the loneliness Jimmy feels is very personal. I might not show it, but I'm a really lonely person, not being able to find the second half, searching for some understanding on that matter. I have the luck to have my mom who understands me because she was going through the same, but ya know. It ain't the same as having a boyfriend. Plus I just love how the last three lines of lyrics in this verse creates that autumn vibe <3

"Drowned"

Just because of the general tone and a call for freedom. The only ones truly free in this world are birds, we as humans are not. This chorus:

Let me flow into the ocean Let me get back to the sea Let me be stormy, let me be calm Let the tide in and set me free

Speaks exactly about it. Just to be free as the ocean's waves, it just sounds so nice <3

"Love Reign O'er Me"

I see this song as a call/prayer for love, for some understanding and affection. On top of that, it's also the emotional conclusion of the whole story, chaotic one, but so good to listen to every time. I think the most beautiful verse in this song is this one:

Only love can bring the rain That makes you yearn to the sky Only love can bring the rain That falls like tears from on high

I had the luck to discover this album and get first stage obsessed with it after watching a documentary talking about Keith Moon's death. I had the luck to fall in love with this song at that time and this verse which I quote here is exactly how I felt back then about it. Doesn't mean I feel differently about this song now, oh no, actually this song is the most meaningful to me from the few I've mentioned. I will sound insane now, but lonely heart searches for replacements and mine found such a one in this lunatic. Yep, I'm in love with Keith Moon. Can't help it, just like I can't help it but connect this song somehow to this weird situation.

5. When did you first hear the album?

UMN... September last year, I'm sure of it. Second The Who album I've listened to, wait a bit. ...23rd of September actually (month after Keith's birthday, can my discovering of The Who and him somehow become even more weird?). I had this album wrote down to listen to later after discovering "5:15" by accident as I've described above. I remember this day clearly.

I was fresh after lunch, excited actually just by seeing the cover. Listened to it once and then it went on repeat. I had to listen to it three times to have enough for one day. And it played for the entire week without breaks. This was just the beginning of my obsession with it tho XD

6. Have your thoughts on the album changed since you first heard it?

Yep they did. From first: "This is great" to the now "Favorite album of the 70s" I had like three stages with this one.

First stage obsession was the first week that it played each day.

Then came the second stage at the beginning of this year, just after I've watched the movie.

To then come to the third stage when I'm playing this album whenever I feel bad or songs from it are stuck in my head. A religion, you should understand XD

7. Are you a fan of other works by the artist/in the genre?

Of course! I will not rank The Who's albums here, but every single one of them has something good in it. Every single one is somehow different. I don't know how did they pull this off, but they did and OH am I so glad for that!

Also, I can kind of call myself a fan of Pete Townshend, especially if it comes to lyrics, I fucking adore how he writes and honestly I can't wait to have free time to get to his solo albums <3

8. A lyric you like from the album

I actually talked about this one in The Who ask, but here, a fragment from "Bell Boy":

Some nights I still sleep on the beach Remember when stars were in reach Then I wander in early to work Spend my day licking boots for my perks

Love Keith's soft voice in this one, I adore it. There are no words that could describe what I feel when I hear him there.

9. How did you discover the album?

Like I've said, through my mom's mistake, but it was a day after I've listened to "Who's Next" that I went to see other songs by The Who and "5:15" started playing randomly. I recognized it immediately and I wrote down the name of the album, just to give it a listen a few days later.

10. Do you own/would you like to own a physical copy of the album?

I don't own a physical copy of it, but I want it, I really want it at home. It's as important to me as getting "Help!" and "Abbey Road" by The Beatles and those two were a must at home. Same with "Waiting for the Sun" by The Doors. All three mentioned are at home already, "Quadrophenia" has to be here as well.

But I will say this. I will feel sorry for my neighbors once I get it. I can't play the three tracks quietly, let alone the entire album XD

[iiigris]

songs with some of the best guitar intros ever made in my opinion, in no particular order, a comprehensive (& continually updating) list:

Crazy Train (Ozzy Osbourne); I don’t care how you feel about the rest of the song, the intro fucking slaps and if you deny that you’re lying. to yourself and everyone else.

Smoke on the Water (Deep Purple); literally iconic. the intro reaches a part of my soul no other song does, besides maybe the cinematic cover version by 2wei

I Don’t Wanna Stop (Ozzy Osbourne); I feel like this is probably in a Tom Cruise movie somewhere. self explanatory. I’ve had this song on repeat for two days

Personal Jesus (Depeche Mode); again, SO iconic. if I could inject a song into my veins like drugs it’d be this one

(Don’t Fear) The Reaper (Blue Öyster Cult); maybe I should start keeping track of how many times I say “iconic” in this list. not only the intro, but the instrumental bridges throughout the song, ESPECIALLY the one after verse 2 and the second chorus… 🤌✨

For Whom the Bell Tolls (Metallica); *slaps track name* this bad boy can fit an intro that is SO LONG. and it ALL FUCKS.

Kickstart My Heart (Mötley Crüe); there should be some sort of warning feature installed that doesn’t let you listen to this song if you’re driving bc if you do you WILL get a speeding ticket. altho it does sound better if you’re driving tbh. but watch for cops

Welcome to the Jungle (Guns N’ Roses); see my notes on Crazy Train above

New Divide (LINKIN PARK); ok honestly this one’s a nostalgia trip for me but also just objectively I feel like it goes pretty hard regardless of what scene you were into during the 2010s and how many amvs you watched

Everlong (Foo Fighters); I mean come ON. do I even have to say anything

Panama (Van Halen); sets the hype tone for the rest of the song right away, also this is another one that’s so much better while you’re driving for some reason. whole song fucking slaps too

Whispers in the Dark (Skillet); it’s not right at the beginning like most of these other ones are but just. just give it 20 seconds I promise it’s worth it.

Monster (Skillet); while we’re on the topic. imagine trying to fight the weird kid allegations and then these two songs come on back to back. lol. couldn’t be me..

Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana); ICONIC. changed the game forever and ever.

Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy) (Big & Rich); this one’s mostly just here for that drop at the beginning cuz it’s actually pretty dope

The Adults Are Talking (the strokes); I can’t explain how this one makes me feel. but boy does it make me feel

Thank You For The Venom (My chemical romance); LITERALLY SO GOOD. sometimes I’ll listen to this song just to headbang to the intro and then skip the rest

Scotty Doesn’t Know (Lustra); this is embarrassingly near the top of my “songs I recognize within the first 0.1 seconds” list. we don’t need to talk about that tho

Headstrong (Trapt); even if you don’t know the name of this song you would recognize the intro, I’m sure of it

Puppet (Thousand Foot Krutch); this one had 14-15 year old me in a CHOKEHOLD OKAY and it still fucking slaps. I love this band.

Are You Gonna Be My Girl (Jet); fun fact the first time I heard this song was in the movie Flushed Away so now I always associate it with that 💀 but yeah this song bangs

Supremacy (Muse); gosh this whole song is just. like. RIDICULOUSLY good imo, the vocals the strings and drums combo,, the intro part lays the foundation tho. easily one of my favs out there

Iron Man (Black Sabbath); NO SHUT UP BC THE WAY IT SOUNDS LIKE A HEARTBEAT AND BREATHING ARE YOU KIDDING ME

Immigrant Song (Led Zeppelin); see notes for Crazy Train and Welcome to the Jungle

Living Dead Girl (Rob Zombie); gets stuck in my head a lot.

Something In Your Mouth (Nickelback); yes, I listen to them unironically and yes, this song made the list

Square Hammer (Ghost); honestly I listen to this song pretty much solely for the guitar track in it

Let It Happen (Tame Impala); I don’t know what instruments those are at the beginning but one of them sounds like a bass and regardless, the thing slaps so I’m including it bc I want to

link to the spotify playlist! (updated 2/23/24)

[pullman-lewis]

when you get this, put 5 songs you actually listen to, then publish. Send this ask to 10 of your followers (positivity is cool)

oh gosh, ok here they are! these are the songs that i’m currently listening to over and over again 😂

1. tell it to my heart - taylor dayne

2. inner smile - texas

3. jackie and wilson - hozier

4. nothing matters - the last dinner party

5. enjoy the silence - depeche mode

[vladdyissues]

HellO, I’m bothering u again.

Ok so, one thing I rlly love about Familiar is the songs u include. Partly bc I just love headcanoning characters with certain music tastes, but alSO bc they go so well with their personality traits. Danny being a Green Day kind of boy is sooo appropriate, there’s no fucking way he would enjoy straight modern pop. And VLAD, GOD, u are so genius for making him an 80s pop/goth individual. It’s something I’d never considered about him, before reading ur fic. Of course he would listen to the Smiths, he fucking grew up with them. He was a GOTH in COLLEGE!!!

That said, I’ve been slowly constructing a playlist of all the songs from Familiar, plus some of my own personal choices 🤌 One song I can’t get over is Peach by The Front Bottoms, (ik its a terrible band name 😂) but there’s this section of lyrics that I just hdhdhdhdhjfjshdh:

“One day, you will find someone who will love you like you deserve

But tonight, I'm the only one left, And I'm bettin' it's a fact that you will never learn

Once I sink my teeth, your skin's not so tough

I'll leave a tiny cut, there'll be a lot of blood, But once you wipe it up, you will feel better about our entire situation.”

FUCKING KILLS ME. THATS THEM!! THATS FUCKINF THEM UR HONOR, U CANT TELL ME OTHERWISE!!!

They make me feral. I feel like Vlad, for all he says that he and Danny deserve each other, is still insecure about it. He doesn’t truly believe it, deep down in his soul, bc how could Danny ever love someone as fucked up, and old, and passive aggressive as Vlad?? But he is the only one left in Danny’s life, and Danny needs to understand that.

AND THE BLOOD DRINKING IMPLICATION IN THE LYRICS, FUCKING FUCK THAT VAMPIRE MAN.

Ok cool I’m done, that’s all I needed to say, byyyyeee~

YOU CAN'T BOTHER SOMEONE WHO CRAVES ATTENTION 25/8, BONES I mean uh—pshaw, you're no bother.

LOL I tend to project my music tastes onto my blorbos (I'm sure all of us do), and Danny is no exception. But I also try to be realistic for the character or the time. An all-American high school boy in the early aughts? Steady diet of rock, alt rock, pop punk, post-grunge, hip hop and nu metal. Vlad I actually had to do research on, which is why my top artist for Spotify Wrapped this year was Depeche Mode 😆 In any case, I'm just happy you're enjoying the music selections!

You're right, The Front Bottoms is an absolutely terrible name for a band, but those lyrics 😮 holy shit. I have an all-purpose Pompep playlist myself, and this track is the newest addition. Thank you!

[hollowknightinsanity]

Holly’s music taste bc im bored <3

First of all!! They love calm, soft indie music. Absolutely adore that stuff.

Second! Lofi music!! Very calming to them — they have bad anxiety, and quiet, soft lofi really helps them relax

Third! They really like folk music (thanks to @alaskaartz’s AU Hollow for putting them on that (sorry for the tag ghhghghghg)). Acoustic <3333

Fourth, goth music. Trad goth music. Softer stuff. The Cure is actually one of their favourite bands!

Fifth, they really like musicals. You can thank Grimm for that one.

Sixth, finally, and probably most unexpected, symphonic metal. Obsessed with that shit. Good lord, the VOCALS

Other stuff under the cut bc this got a bit long hh

Now for the bands/musicians they like!!!!

Lana Del Rey

Dodie

Clairo

Hozier

Flatsound

d4vd

Of Monsters and Men

Eyedress

Conan Gray

Adele

Mitski

w00ds

really, any lofi musician

The Crane Wives

The Arcadian Wild (thanks, Hollow!)

Poor Man’s Poison

Johnny Goth

Camlann

IAMX (idk if theyre a goth band, but Holly likes ‘em)

Mephisto Walz

Depeche Mode

The Cure

Delphine Coma

Black Angel

Siouxsie and the Banshees

Evanescence

Nightwish

Epica (thanks dad)

Within Temptation (one of my fav bands, has been since i was like 5)

Moonlight Haze (again, thanks dad)

Apocalyptica

(I’m a little biased ngl)

Uh yeah that’s mostly it?

They have a vinyl collection. My sona likes visiting the Empty Promises universe, and since record players are a thing in hallownest (bc i said so), my boy decided to get Holly a BUNCH of vinyls for the bands they listen to

They’re a total sweetheart with a based ass music taste and also know all the lyrics to every song in Phantom of the Opera

(Let them ramble about their fav bands to you. Trust me, seeing them happy is one of the most wholesome things in existence bro:

[moonlight-fan2008]

I’m back, took a little hiatus longer than intended but I’m back to making Moonlight content.

This time it’s the Music of Moonlight all the songs (or at least to the best of my abilities) featured in the show. Using Shazam app to get most of the songs but the apps not perfect and can’t always get them.

Part 1 of 2? (Might make it 3 parts)

Music featured in Episode 1: No such thing as Vampires (in order of appearance)

My immortal by Evanescence (featured at the end of the episode where Beth remembers Mick saved her as a child)

Music featured in Episode 2 Out of the past: (in order of appearance)

Hungry like the wolf by Duran Duran (featured in the middle of the episode after Mick beats up Lee Jay for the first time and goes to the vampire club with Josef)

Forever and ever amen by 8mm (featured towards the end of the episode after Lee Jay is killed)

Music featured in Episode 3 Dr.Feelgood: (in order of appearance)

Catch my fall by the Elliot’s (featured at the beginning of the episode during the murder in the convenience store)

Easy as you’re waiting by Los Halos (featured in middle of episode Pollock the rouge vampire’s wife is listening to the song when she drives home)

All the world by Fauxliage (featured at the end when Beth and Mick are sleeping in bed followed by Mick confines in Beth about his turning)

Music featured in Episode 4 Fever: (in order of appearance)

Vanished by Front line assembly (1st featured in the opening sequence where Mick is having his fever dream dying in the desert and then again when we are caught up to the events that lead there)

Side note: Mick: “Not like this!” Me: “So you’ve thought about this before? 😉”

Into Dust by Mazzy Star (featured at the end when Beth tries to see Mick after the events in the desert)

Music featured in Episode 5 Arrested Development : (in order of appearance)

Believe by the bravery (featured at the beginning of the episode when the vamp killer is searching for his next victim)

Side note Josh’s face when Beth quickly said no to marriage is like “🥲 oh okay then” lol

Bird and the Worm by the used (featured in the middle of the episode when Mick and the killer are fighting on the roller coaster)

Sleep by Meiko (featured at the end when Beth and Mick kiss for the first time)

Side note: whoever did the casting for the parents of Cherish did a good job. They really look like they could be related.

Music featured in Episode 6 B.C : (in order of appearance)

Bounce with me by Kreesha Turner (featured at the beginning of the episode during the fashion photo shoot)

Fallout by Johanna Boberg (featured in the middle of the episode when Beth and Mick meet up at club Valis)

Let it go by Fauxliage (featured in the middle of episode when Beth is high on black crystal and Mick is trying to sober her up)

Devils got a holda me (ep version) by the colour (featured in the middle/end of the episode when Mick is raiding Lola’s warehouse)

Under by under (featured at the end of the episode and closes it out)

Music featured in Episode 7: The Ringer (in order of appearance)

The collapse by Kill Hannah (featured in the beginning of the episode when Mick is watching the Franklin fire)

The Mating Game by bitter sweet (featured in the semi middle when Beth and “Morgan” go to Mick’s place)

Ain't That Just Like a Woman by Louis Jordan & The Tympany Five (featured in the middle when Mick is at Morgan’s house investigating the “break-in” and has a flashback to when he first met Coraline)

Star Eyes by Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra, Helen O'Connell, & Bob Eberly (featured in the middle when Mick is having a flashback to his days of dating Coraline)

Kingdom by Dave Gahan (of Depeche Mode) (featured at the end of the episode when Morgan reveals she actually was Coraline all this time)