#again. main things taken from lyrics of the actual show ++ this definition i checked with google because i didn't remember it off the top

[tomwambsmilk]

11 and 17!!

11. tell me about your least favourite band or artist

Once again going the musical theatre route here to say as much as I love “Phantom”, “Cats”, and the “School of Rock” musical, Andrew Lloyd Webber can die in a tire fire. Truly a horrendous person all around, and I could write a full essay on why that is, but the cliffnotes:

- is almost singlehandedly responsible for the “Phantom of the Opera” movie turning out as badly as it did, because he insisted on being given an extreme amount of creative veto power with absolutely no knowledge of film as a medium or what makes it good. (Some responsibility does certainly go to Joel Schumacher, but people REALLY underestimate the impact ALW had on this film.) 

- has fucked over SO many actors, INCLUDING the great Patti Lupone, who, long story short, was contracted to play the main character in the original run of “Sunset Boulevard” in London and New York, but had her contract ripped out from under her so the New York role could be given to Glenn Close, who had been cast in LA (after they had refused to let Patti do the LA show herself). There was also a VERY recent debacle with the new Cinderella musical on the West End, where they closed the show early and then he blamed the cast, when in actually the production was fucked from start to finish and it wasn’t at all the cast’s fault. That one is particularly heinous because much of the cast is very early in their careers, and can’t hold their own the way a legend like Patti Lupone might be able to

- sooooo much plagiarism. I can’t even begin to list it all. He’s been taken to court so many times

- questionable relationships with young female ingenues. The phantom in “Phantom” is reportedly a self-insert which... tells you a lot about him, none of it good

- “Love Never Dies”, which is such a nightmare and largely the product of ALW refusing to know when to quit. Also does some really questionable things with the character of Christine that give me some bad vibes. It also gave us “The Beauty Underneath”, which is notable for technically being a song where the phantom realizes this kid is his bastard son, but, uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...... Out of context it is EXCEEDINGLY questionable. That was entirely a case of really badly thought out lyrics and over-enthusiastic performances by both actors (along with a few acting choices that are truly ?????????????), but it is genuinely wild to watch and realize that it went through workshops and months of rehearsals and apparently no one said anything???? WILD. Kind of a bop though, and the staging is pretty cool. Anyways definitely watch it but also don’t say I didn’t warn you

This is a HIGHLY incomplete list, just the things I could remember off the top of my head with minimal fact-checking. Love his music but this dude sucks. 

17.  what song in your playlist sounds like this 💖❤️🥰🤩💘💕 but the lyrics are 🖤🩸⛓💣🗡

Ooh, another one that I think kinda fits this is “Roaring 20s” by P!ATD. It’s got kind of an upbeat energy, but is about anxiety and insecurity and feeling overwhelmed and out of place. It’s also got some really interesting instrumental arrangements, and I think might be my single favourite P!ATD song. 

[abbydramarambles]

The REAL Ending CLOY

This is my headcanon and you can’t tell me otherwise. The epilogue in Switzerland is set a few years after the events of that piano concert. They have already found a way to be together more permanently. To me the house doesn’t seem like a vacation house, it seems like a home home. 

There is that photo of Se-ri on the bridge, not something one would frame for themselves. RJH definitely lives there. Check out the north Korean coffee kettle and other souvenirs as well. This is the sort of stuff one would have in their home.

The only thing holding RJH to North Korean is his parents, the fact that they could be killed if he were to defect. After they die, he has no reason to stay. We’ve already been shown that he is resourceful and would know exactly how to get out. Not to mention that everything in north Korean runs on money, if you have connections like Se-ri and RJH do....anything is possible. And to me these two people with all their power, well they would find a way.

Dan’s mother travels out of the country a lot as well for business. I think the 2 weeks is the longest trip Se-ri takes while RJH’s parents are alive. It’s not the only trip of the year. I doubt her employees would be saying “you’re going to Switzerland again??” if it was a once a year sort of deal they wouldn’t think she had a man. They even say “it’s lasting a while this time”. Come on who in the world would think it’s a relationship if their boss goes to switzerland for 2 weeks a year. It’s her favorite 2 weeks of the year because of it being uninterrupted time. 

Well with her wealth and his determination, and connections via his family, I'm sure they'll find a way eventually, either it is his parents passing away (since it has been about 6 years between him going back to NK and the epilogue meetup), or him somehow getting a long term mentoring position at Switzerland. You’re telling me Dan’s mom a department store owner can swing to Europe anytime, and Se-ri who created a whole scholarship for her man can’t swing something in collaboration with Papa Ri?

I got the impression the student performing his song on stage was a full-time student in Switzerland. RJH is not studying abroad but is teaching NK scholarship winners. Seri has been traveling back and forth a lot but these two weeks are the longest continual time they have together. 

When Seri first sees him in Switzerland she asks how dangerous his journey was, and he didn’t answer, just said he got on the wrong train but reached his destination. “Destination” implies a final location to me, not just a two-week stay. For two people who find it torturous to be apart for even a moment, destination would not have been thrown around like that. It could’ve taken his Dad some time to manage the politics to make a permanent teaching position with the National Symphony. He did see his son cry in the car after leaving her. That man is powerful, the 3rd most powerful man in North Korean. A political manipulation genius, a man always one step ahead of the others. He got his son and 5 people in and out of South Korea. You best believe he can make it happen. He’s not going to sit back and leave his only son living without his only dream. Plus RJH was never a flag waving patriotic North Korean anyway. He already expressed that he wanted to stay with SeRi in South Korea, have a child that looks just like her. It’s kdrama script writing 101 to not have your lead character mention a deep desire such as this one unless its foreshadowing or serves a larger purpose. And Park Ji Eun is no noob writer. 

Let’s look at the way the show itself references fate and destiny. Regardless of how impossible it may seem, these two always managed to find each other again. Fate is pushing them together and is on their side. I don’t think fate wants them to meet 2 weeks a year. Fate didn’t make them meet in Switzerland, in North Korea, in South Korea, and in Switzerland again for 2 weeks a year for the rest of their lives. I can’t entertain that.  A lot of people think that the epilogue on the hill and when she meets him for the first time again in Switzerland with the parachute are the same time frame. I don’t think so. I really do think the piano concert is the ending and the picnic is the epilogue. It’s years from then, when everything has been sorted about how to be together permanently and it’s a window in to happy every after. Just look at their body language and expressions in the last scene, they are totally at peace and seem to have gotten everything they wanted. Even the music radiates peace. Listen to the lyrics of Sigriswil that play as the camera pans out “wandering this strange night, won’t you be here by me? now I hold your hands, with you I’ll be alright...how does it feel, my friend? It’s been a long day and night” THEY ARE NO LONGER WANDERING ALONE THAT IS THE POINT. period. It was a “long day and night, but now I hold your hand” ... how does it finally feel to have your happy ever after....my friend. IT REEKS OF OPTIMISM and closure. In film making the atmosphere says everything about what is unsaid in the script. 

You best believe he won’t leave a stone unturned to be with her, see her grow old and live in the house of dreams with their twins. Just the fact that he vocalized this thought in the show leads me to believe that it did indeed happen. 

Believe in what the show is telling us to believe. What it’s showing us, not telling us even. That love will always find a way. 

Cloy’s ending also reminds me of  very heavily of (spoiler) that of “my love from the stars”. It was written by Park Ji-eun, the same writer as CLOY. So yes they are forced to be apart in that show too, but he finds his way back and each time they meet its for longer and longer and its implied that one day it will be forever. If an alien could find a wormhole to make it back to his love interest, north korea isn’t looking too bad. Same thing with her other star crossed lovers show “legend of the blue sea”. The mermaid finds him again against all odds and they live happily ever (plus a baby). Hey I’m just saying that the precedent has been set on how this seperation works through our writers own works. Having seen all of Park Ji Eun I know exactly how she structures her endings. It’s almost always the same. The mermaid made it back, the alien made it back...north korea is where we draw the line? They’re only apart for awhile till they figure it out, and they work hard to do so.

Whatever this image is from TVN left it unaired. They shot something they had to pull back. My crack theory brain says she looks a bit pregnant. Actually, that ain’t even a crack theory, I stand behind it. Son yejin is so slim, and judging by the material of the dress it just wouldn’t fall like that unless they were trying to make her look pregnant. Like LISTEN, just LISTEN to me. They put in the effort to get the actors in these outfits we have never seen before, they even gave seri flowers...whY?? There are no other purely promo shots that didn’t have footage attached. The only ones I can think of are the ones they took in front of a greenscreen for the photoframes inside their house. THIS WAS A REAL SCENE THAT WAS DELETED.  South Korean dramas pre-film certain scenes (like the swiss ones) and live film the others to make slight changes to the storyline based on audience reaction. During airing there was quite a lot of political backlash a la north korea. 

There are some stills TVN released that weren’t screencaps. But ALL of them were in outfits relating to scenes we have seen, such as this one.  It just would make no sense for them to go out of there way to get this image on the jam packed expensive swiss schedule and not just do greenscreen in korea like they did for all the other promo material UNLESS it was a real scene. 

So you want more evidence for plot points that indicated the original, unaired, together forever in Switzerland ending?

Let’s look at some details, at one point in Episode 14 when Jeong Hyeok's father is meeting with the bad guy Senior Colonel who tries to use photos of Jeong Hyeok in Korea as a bargaining chip, he says "You should retire quietly. Using your health as an excuse won't raise any suspicions." now whilst this may be a casual reference to him being old and that health issues are plausible, it's also possible Jeong Hyeok's father has had some long term illness they've not mentioned which would add to why it wouldn't raise suspicions.

The main reason I thought of this is it would sort of line up with some other details, in the finale when they're deciding whether to send them back or not, at the NIS briefing they mention how the North has requested keeping it quiet and confidential, they mention "They want the confidentiality term to be five years. They're being sensitive about it because one of them is a high-ranking officers son". Then if we fast forward toward the end when Se-ri is receiving the timed messages, a year passes after her birthday message from Jeong Hyeok, after that scene we see Jeong Hyeok having his farewell meal with the townspeople and preparing to leave after being accepted as a pianist for the National Symphony Orchestra, presumably around the same time as Se-ris birthday given that scene was right before. Se-ri then comes up with her Switzerland Music academy idea probably a few weeks or month or so after she read RJH's text about meeting and then it tells as it's one year later, Se-ri waits but doesn't meet him and returns home, her mum says "It breaks my heart to see you return in disappointment every time" which if that's a correct translation it means it's been more than once by this point. Add up this entire timeline....guess what it comes out to. FIVE YEARS. That’s how long it takes them to sort out a permanent solution for their problem.

When he chooses to defect it will be much easier for him considering he’s making trips to Switzerland already. All he would have to do is walk into a South Korean embassy in Zurich. They have an open door policy for North Koreans, he doesn’t even need to cross the DMZ again. 

You want even MORE proof? Okay my friend, I’ll bite. Why are there photos of a couple with children?? Honestly come on I really don’t have to say more.

They had to leave the ending open. Due to the political situation, they couldn’t exactly show RJH, a North Korean, defecting. Pretty sure our buddy Kim Jong-un would not be chill with that.  However ridiculous it is, the show had multiple attacks on it while it was running by political parties saying it violated the “national security act”.

The ending was clearly cleverly re-edited to be less explicit so the viewer can read between the lines but the show-runners can protect themselves from lawsuits and public sentiment regarding a sort of maybe illegal situation. If you believe they met for two weeks a year for the rest of their lives, you don’t know RiRi Ri-eally well ;) 

[hawksward]

F**k Him, He’s a DJ (Hawks/Reader Music Industry AU)

Summary: A year after your separation from your former girl group, your solo career is just getting started. It only needs some extra oomph. Enter world renowned DJ, Hawks. Here to give you more than what you bargained for.

Pairing: DJ! Hawks (Keigo Takami)/ Singer! Reader

Rating: E+

Word Count: 3.7k

Warnings: sex without a condom, drunk sex, cunnilingus, ragging on DJ’s, dirty talk if you squint

Notes: Hi All! Its been a hot second since I’ve written smut and this is the first time for my favorite bird boi. Music Industry AU’s are a weakness of mine. Please enjoy!!

Special shout out to @shinsotired​ for beta-ing my trash 

“No. Absolutely not. Under no conditions will I work with him.” Water splashed everywhere as you slammed your water bottle onto the table. “I’ll take anyone else you give me.”

Maya, your manager, let out a hefty sigh before adjusting her tight ponytail. She had only taken the position a short year ago after you ditched your former girl group the moment you turned 18. They couldn’t pay you enough to sign another contract describing in detail the ‘cute’ and ‘pure’ image you were expected to maintain. It was time to turn a new, edgier, leaf.

Just not with an insufferable asshole as your first collaboration.

“Hawks has been the only DJ on the top 10 list consistently. Plus you work for the same label. He’s already created the track and we’ve written the lyrics. All you have to do is show up and sing. Maybe do some appearances on his tour.” Maya didn’t take her eyes off her tablet “You’re an established name, but you need to prove yourself again. Now suck it up, he’ll be here any minute.”

The door nearly flew off its hinges with the force Hawks used. You’d never seen him in person before, and he was definitely shorter than you imagined. Not like you could talk. He wore a beige bomber jacket lined in sherpa and a simple pair of jeans. Far simpler than you’d seen him wear on stage.

“Y/N,” Maya put on her biggest, most professional smile, “I’d like to introduce Keigo Takami, or as he more commonly goes by on stage, Hawks. Keigo this is Y/N.”

“Ah good girl gone bad.” His smirk was infuriating. “So this is what I’m working with.”

He circled you, like a bird ready to strike its prey. Taking in every inch of you. Anger continued to rise in the pit of your stomach as he came to a halt. Putting his fingers to his chin in contemplation.

“Something to say?” You questioned, arms folded across your chest.

“Nah.” His fingers raked through his blonde locks “This’ll be fine. I always liked a challenge.” He gave you a wink.

Offended didn’t come close to how you felt about his comment. A challenge, not for you but for him. The bastard probably thinks you don’t have what it takes to succeed in a solo career.

“A challenge?” You rose from your seat to meet him head on, despite being a whole head shorter.  “I’ll have you know I’m a fucking professional.”

“She’s got small dog syndrome too!” He nearly folded in half with laughter “Don’t worry, Maya, I’ll play nice with her.”

He knew all the right buttons to push to send you into a rage. Half moons formed on your palms as you exercised every ounce of self control you had. You wanted nothing more than to tell him where exactly he could shove his bullshit.

“Great!” Maya grabbed you by the arm “She will see you in the studio first thing tomorrow morning!” There was no mercy as she pulled you through the door, not giving you the chance for the final word.

The next morning came too fast for your liking. You arrived 15 minutes before your scheduled meeting time, canister of warm tea in hand, wishing it was coffee instead. You were no stranger to the ins and outs of taking care of your voice. It was your livelihood after all.

---------------------------

“Morning Chickadee”

You recoiled at the name, noticing Keigo standing in the doorway. Takeout coffee in hand. He sauntered in, throwing his jacket on the back of his chair before setting his coffee down on a nearby table. He pushed himself in his chair over to his soundboard, letting everything boot up.

“Do you need a minute to warm up or are you already ready for the main event?” He gave you a quick wink before diverting his attention back to his equipment. You couldn’t stop yourself from rolling your eyes.

“Like I said before, I’m a professional. I’m ready to start whenever you are”. You took your place in the soundbooth on the opposite end of the room. Slipping your headphones over your ears before checking to make sure your mic was on.

Take. After take. After take. He had a problem with everything.

“You’re too pitchy in the chorus”

“What the fuck is this breathy shit? Stop making it weird.”

“Are you even capable of being sexy?”

The last one bothered you the most.

“Stop being picky because you don’t fucking like me!” You ripped the headphones off before storming out of the booth “There was nothing wrong with that take!”

Keigo rolled his eyes, straightening himself out in his chair before removing his headphones. “You think I’m being picky? My fans will never buy whatever fake sexy shit you’re selling.”

“ Your fans?” The fangs were coming out now “Do you even have fans? All you do is stand behind a laptop and wave your arms around like an idiot.” DJs had no performance value in your mind. Sure, they could make a good track but they were worthless live.

“Yeah, my fans.” He didn’t seem phased at all. Even his body language exuded confidence. “This is my track, Sweetheart. You’re just the feature.”

Your muscles tensed as he said it. Maya had you convinced that this would be the last track on your album, something to really set you apart. You should have known this was a publicity stunt to gain you some of his fans. The room went silent. Hawks shook his head.

“Have you ever even seen a live set?” He rested his elbows on his knees, folding his hands to hold his chin “Not some prom shit. But an actual, full blown set at a club? I’m talking about mixing your own tracks to spinning.”

You scoffed “When would I have time? Some of us are trying to debut.”

“Tonight.”

Taking a step back, you narrowed your eyes. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“I’m taking you to a set tonight. Consider it part of the creative process.”

He rose from his chair, tossing his jacket over his shoulder before walking out the door. A quick wave and a nod was all Hawks gave before he left the studio. You were dumbfounded.

A loud buzz came from your pocket revealing a text from an unknown number.

I’ll pick you up at 10. Wear something sexy.    -Kei

---------------------------

At 9:55pm you stood outside the apartment. After spending hours trying to determine what was considered ‘club sexy’ you settled on a short black dress and the highest pair of heels you owned. Crisp night air filled your senses as you took in the city. It would have been peaceful if it weren’t for some douchebag pulling up to the curb in a sports car, flashing the lights like a strobe.

The window rolled down to reveal Keigo in a slim fit shirt and jeans. He let out a low whistle, his eyes trailing down before returning to your own. “You clean up nicely”

You rolled your eyes, walking to the passenger side and easing yourself into the car. The dress slipped up your thighs as you adjusted in the seat. Keigo made no attempt to hide his eyes drifting to your legs during the ride to Sky Parlor, Tokyo’s premier nightclub.

He was in his element. Bodies parted around him as he led you to the roped off center area of the club. The place was already full and from what Keigo said, the headliner had yet to perform. You nestled yourself into a corner of the booth, careful not to trip over the short table in front. Someone already dropped by to place a bucket full of ice along with a bottle of tequila onto the table.

Keigo popped the bottle open with ease, filling two shot glasses to the brim “What do you say we toast?” he shouted into your ear, barely coming across as a whisper muddled in all the noise “To a successful partnership?”

You grabbed the glass out of his hand, clinking it to his before shooting the liquid. The burn warmed up your insides as you grabbed the bottle to pour another “Better do two to be safe.”

You weren’t sure how much time had passed, but the bottle was half empty. There was now enough liquid courage running through your veins to let loose. It didn’t hurt that your girl group reputation wasn’t there to drag you down either. As much as you hated to admit it, the DJ was putting on a good show.

Your hips moved with the beat, hands running down your body before making their way up to the air. The atmosphere was intoxicating, your body moving in time to the bass. You hardly noticed when Keigo snaked his arms around you, allowing his hands to drift to your hips. He pulled you tight to his chest, his body moving in time with your rhythm.

If you were sober you might have put up more of a fight when he began to grind his hips into you, greedy for more contact. Your arms moved up to snake around his neck, bringing his face closer to your own. Keigo’s breath grazed the shell of your ear as you moved in sync, seeming to raise the temperature in the room by at least 10 degrees.

You turned to face him, allowing his knee between your legs as you continued to grind your hips into him. His eyes were lidded, lips barely parted open.  Your fingers traced along his jawline, your lips parting to meet his.

Before you had time to process the music began to fade, the DJ picked up his mic to pass it over to the next artist.

“Thanks everybody! Hope you’re having a great time tonight!” The crowd cheered “We’ve got a really special guest here tonight. Rumor has it he’s going to let us preview a new track. Everyone welcome to the stage HAWKS!”

Keigo detangled himself from you at a speed you didn’t think possible, flashing a large smile to the crowd. Bouncers guided his way to the front stage, keeping him safe for all but the roaming hands of strangers. You slid into your seat, pouring yourself another shot of tequila to make up for your disappointment.

When Hawks took the stage he exuded energy. The hum of excited crowd chatter filled the club while he set up. “How’s everyone doing tonight?” His cheeky smile radiated under the harsh lights. The entire crowd erupted into cheers. You even managed to catch a few I love you’s and a Fucking marry me already!

Hawks winked at the crowd, blowing a kiss in the direction of the rogue comments. “I have a special treat, it’s a new track I’ve been working on off my new album.” He let out a laugh before continuing “This one’s dedicated to a special someone who thinks all I do is push play on my laptop”

The blood rushed to your face as the track started. Thankfully he decided not to drop a name or else his fans might have mauled you.

He was good, great even. Almost good enough to make you admit it. His energy on stage was contagious, waving his arms in the air causing the crowd to follow. You could see why he was #2 on the charts. Maybe Maya was onto something.

---------------------------

The night was a blur of stolen glances, tequila shots, and deafening music. Keigo, ever the gentleman, booked both of you an Uber back to his place. Something about ‘strike while the inspiration is hot’.

Keigo’s apartment was the penthouse of one of the tallest buildings in the city. The place was beautiful. Tall ceilings, windows open to the glow of the city night. Everything someone would expect from a successful artist.

“Follow me” Keigo motioned “I have a home studio. We should be able to get some work done in there.” He led you to a smaller room, crammed with every piece of recording equipment imaginable. “Start from line 17.”

Shimmying through a sea of tech, you made your way into the corner where a small mic was set up. No glass to separate you from the rest of the studio. Tequila still running through your veins, you began to wonder if now was the best time to record. Your words were probably slurring already.

The words came out like vomit. Completely unsexy. You caught Keigo’s eye and could already tell he was pissed. At least if he came home drunk to work he didn’t have to worry about opening his mouth.

“What the hell was that?” He asked, eyes narrowed. “Is that what you call sexy?” Keigo removed his headphones and leaned back into his chair. “Let’s try something. Seduce me.”

“I’m sorry, what?” arms folded across your chest.

“You heard me. If I don’t buy it, my fans won’t.” Fuck, the man didn’t shut up about his fans. You tentatively walked over to him, unsure how to fulfill his request. No one asked you to seduce them before. The man sitting before you looked unphased as you slid your hair to the side, exposing your neck. You ran your hands down your chest, moving down your thighs. You were too drunk for this shit.

Keigo laughed, “have you never seduced anyone before?” He rose from his chair, inching closer to you, like a predator fixated on his prey. “No bringing a boy band member home and hoping no one finds out?”

Your back was against the wall as he slammed his hand into the foam soundproofing, keeping you locked in place. “Trying to keep quiet so your roommates don’t hear you breaking the rules?” His breath was hot against your ear as he whispered “Don’t tell me you’re a virgin.”

Blood rushed to your face “Of course not!” you practically shouted “I’ve slept with multiple people.” Which was not any of his business. You weren’t sure why you blurted it out.

A smirk graced Keigo’s features. He was enjoying the rise he was getting out of you. His other hand pushed a strand of hair out of your face, succeeding in making you even more flustered. Your nerve endings were on fire, begging to be touched. Tequila swirling in your mind, encouraging you to give in.

“You’re supposed to be seducing me, not the other way around.” His breath caused goosebumps.

“Please just shut up.” You turned your head to avert your eyes, the blush still painfully apparent on your cheeks. Keigo grabbed your chin, pulling your eyes back to his.

“Only if you make me.”

Never one to back down from a challenge, you went for it. Grabbing a fistfull of his hair, you closed the distance between you. It didn’t take long for him to take the lead, his lips bruising your own. His teeth pulled on your lower lip, causing you to let out a small sigh. Keigo used the chance to grant his tongue entrance, fighting your own for dominance.

Limbs intertwined, your hands clenched the back of his shirt. Keigo’s mouth moved from your lips to the edge of your jaw, trailing lower as he kept your chin in place with his hand. His mouth continued to trail lower as he sucked on the sweet spot by your collar bone. A moan left your mouth, causing Keigo to bite down. Your nails dug into his back, eliciting a low growl from his throat. He grabbed a fistfull of your hair with his opposite hand, pulling to give himself easier access.

Your eyes closed as the room started to spin around you. It was euphoric. It was hard to tell whether it was the booze or the way his mouth moved across your skin, but it felt like heaven. Enough so that when he removed his mouth from your skin, the first feeling was disappointment.

“What?” your voice came out as a harsh whisper “Don’t stop.” You’d beg if you had to, not that you’d tell him that.

“Stop?” Keigo smirked “Baby, I’m just getting started.” In one swift movement he pulled the shirt off his head revealing his sculpted chest and adonis belt. If you were a lesser woman you might have actually drooled at the sight. Being a part of the entertainment industry you were well aware that taking care of your body was important, but it was clear that his was a labor of love.

“LIke what you see?” He smirked, signifying your staring hadn’t gone unnoticed. He was hot, sure, but he was still a cocky bastard. You rolled your eyes before pulling him back into another heated kiss, allowing him to lift your arms up before he pulled the hem of your dress up and over. Leaving you in your bra and the smallest pair of panties you owned.

“I’m nothing if not a gentleman, so ladies first.” Keigo kept eye contact as he dropped slowly to his knees, taking the strings of your panties down with him. Leaving you on display. Your core twitched in anticipation when you felt his hot breath on the inside of your thigh. Planting light kisses as he moved his way upward. He tossed your leg over his shoulder, unbalancing you for just a moment, for better access.

Your eyes rolled back as he lazily traced shapes onto your clit with his tongue. Back pressing further into the wall to arch yourself into him, you grabbed a fistful of his hair. Desperate for something to hold on to. He alternated between fast and slow, short and long before using his fingers to tease at your entrance.

“Damn Baby, are you already this wet for me?” He pulled away if only for a moment, his index finger pushing past your lips into your core.

“Fuck Kei.” You groaned as your head arched back, “Do you get off on hearing yourself talk?”  It was your current opinion that there were other things you would rather his mouth do. You felt him smile into your folds, slipping a second finger into your wet pussy. The new sensation filling you up from the inside, making you feel like you could crack at any moment.

Heat continued to build inside you as Keigo’s pace quickened. Curling his fingers into a spot none of your previous lovers had even tried to find all while keeping pace with his tongue. It didn’t take long for you to boil over, moaning out his name. Keigo removed his fingers as he rose to meet you, lips crashing into yours allowing you to taste yourself. His fingers quickly moved, fumbling against the clasp of your bra, clear that the tequila still had a hold on him as well.

Fabric fell to the floor as he grabbed your breast in his hand, playing with your nipple while he took the other breast in his mouth. Tongue flicking and sucking until you reached a stiff peak. Your hands made their way down to his belt, trying to ignore the sensation enough to concentrate on the buckle. Clear that you were struggling, Keigo removed himself from you to unbutton and throw down his pants at an almost inhuman speed.

Even his dick was magnificent. The brief thought passed your mind of how many other people he brought back to his penthouse after a recording session. Drunk and ready to make bad decisions.

His hands grabbed onto your ass, giving it a squeeze before hoisting you into the air and back down onto his hips. You could already feel his rock hard erection teasing at you. Keigo pushed your back into the wall, causing a small gasp of air to leave your lips. He positioned himself so he was at your entrance. His head grazing your lips before thrusting himself inside, your sufficiently soaked pussy allowing him to bury himself in one motion.

Keigo let out a moan, his forehead resting on yours briefly as he let himself acclimate to just how tight you were. It was difficult to describe just how full and amazing he felt inside you. Your breathing picked up as he slowly began to thrust in and out.

The small ‘oh’s’ and ‘ ah’s’ from your mouth filled the room, mixing with the sound of skin slapping on skin. Keigo’s mouth returned to your collarbone as he picked up his pace, nearly removing himself from your cunt before pushing himself back in, almost punching you in the cervix. Every vein felt like it was made to please you, sending your nerves into a frenzy.

“Holy fuck you feel good.” His breathing matched your own, rough and uneven. Enough to send shivers down your spine. Your head arched back, enjoying the sensation of his cock while he adjusted himself to put your nipple in his mouth. Nails traced thin white lines down his back, lightly breaking the tattooed skin.

The building sensation was quickly becoming overwhelming. Your mind unable to focus on your surroundings, only your impending release. “Oh Fuck, Kei. I’m gonna cum.” You grabbed a fistful of his hair, your other hand gripping onto his shoulder. Your words causing him to go feral, his pace increasing exponentially as he gripped harder into your thighs. His fingertips sure to leave bruises. He brought his mouth back up to yours, his tongue thrashing with your own in a sloppy kiss.

The bundle of nerves inside you, that kept winding tighter and tighter exploded. You gripped harder as the wave of sensation washed over you, continuing to hold on as Keigo reached his own release, emptying himself inside of you.  You rested your forehead against his, enjoying the moment of bliss before he pulled out.

“So..” Keigo smiled “Think you’re ready to record a number one single?”

[malumsmermaid]

Thirsty Much?

Prequel to Nail Polish

Requested by anon: “I was wondering how they start being fwb”

Warnings: self-pleasure, sex, fwb situation

Rating: M (18+ only)

Word Count: 2.8k

NSFR

You were sitting out on the back patio, laptop in front of you, half-heartedly participating in a work meeting. The voice of one of your more eager coworkers filled your headphones as your gaze went over the top of your computer screen, landing on your recent roommate, Calum, working out, shirtless, in the far corner of his yard. 

You had moved in with Calum almost two months ago. It was only meant to be temporary, moving out of your ex’s home after they broke up with you, their main point being jealousy and insecurity caused by your friendship with Calum. You didn’t totally understand that contention, sure Calum had a habit of kissing his closest friends, yourself included, from time to time, on the cheek or otherwise, and obviously you weren’t blind, he was unfairly attractive, but you didn’t think any of your interactions with him could’ve caused insecurity in your former partner, Calum was just your friend.

The set up was supposed to be temporary, the night after you’d removed all your things from your former apartment you’d stayed up with Calum and a bottle of wine, trying to understand what your ex had seen. After a month of chaos at work and processing being single again you began the search for a new apartment, close enough to work without being in an area where you could potentially run into your former partner at the store or coffee shop on a regular basis. About a week and a half into your search, however, lockdown started, leaving you living with Calum for the indefinite future. 

At the time it seemed all well and good, however, now almost a full three weeks in with no contact with anyone aside from Calum and you were...frustrated. It had first reared its head last week when you helped Calum film his section of the Wildflower music video. Standing in the living room, with just Calum and the green screen in front of you, as he took on the lead singer role, performing for a non-existent audience in his black mesh shirt and mouthing along to the arguably suggestive lyrics, or at least only arguable in Calum’s mind from what you’d seen of Luke and Ashton when the video came out, it had definitely been a challenge to keep the camera steady. As soon as you both had deemed there to be enough footage for Andy and Sarah to go through for the project they’d come up with as an alternative for the original video that had had to be scrapped due to quarantine you’d volunteered to take Duke out for a walk while Calum waited for their friend to come pick up the equipment, to get some fresh air.

Your video meeting ended, and you continued to sit there, checking your email for anything new and working on a project that was due tomorrow...the one the meeting was about. Calum disappeared inside while you were still working, reappearing about ten minutes later. “Thirsty?” he stated, and you turned to look up at him, considering if he had noticed you watching his workout at all.

You smiled when you saw the glass of water he was holding out, nodding and thanking him softly as you accepted it. “I’m going to be in the office on a call with the boys, don’t know how long it’s going to go on, think we’re making some sort of video out of it for later.” He said, hand running through his damp curls as he squinted against the sun.

You nodded in response, sighing as you spotted the low battery alert on your laptop. You hadn’t plugged it in after last night’s show watching and having the brightness all the way up so you could actually see wasn’t doing your battery any favors. “I’m probably going to come in now anyway, computer wants to die on me, so I’d better plug it in and just take a quick shower before I get back to work.”

You both went back inside, plugging your laptop in at the kitchen counter and draining the glass of water while Calum got started making his lunch before Ashton called in. You left the glass in the sink, walking down the hall to the bathroom. You closed the door behind you, quickly stripping down as you started the water. You had the water set to the cooler side today, necessitated both by the warmth of the Los Angeles sun and the heat your body was putting off as a result of the thoughts you were having about your current roommate. You did a quick wash, moving to the shower’s true purpose. 

You began touching yourself, mind filling with images of Calum’s plump lips, his tongue darting out to wet them occasionally, and his long fingers, you’d seen them work over his keyboard, bass, and acoustic guitar as he continued to create during these times, and now you imagined them working over you, in place of your own fingers. You let your mind wander to all the things you could only dream he would do to you, gasping and moaning softly, hoping that the fan, running water, and closed door would cover up what you were doing.

For some reason, today, just imagining his fingers and mouth working you wasn’t enough, letting out a frustrated groan before pushing into new territory. You chewed your lip, trying to picture what could possibly be hidden beneath his pants. You had some ideas to go off of from mornings where he just rolled out of bed in only boxers or wandering the house in his sweatpants, but you had never entirely taken that in before. You heard a door creak somewhere in the house, assuming it was the office door, giving you slightly more freedom with your alone time. You increased your volume just slightly, following the path of your new train of thought. Finally you felt yourself reaching your high, chasing that feeling recklessly. “Fuck, yes, yes...shit fuck, Caluumm” you whimpered out as you finally fell over the edge, free hand gripping the handrail for the wash cloth for stability. 

You took a moment to catch your breath before turning around to rinse off and clean up before getting out of the shower. As soon as you cut the water off you heard footsteps retreating down the hall and frowned, slowly poking your head out from behind the shower curtain. You gasped when you saw the open bathroom door, cursing yourself. You knew Calum’s house was on the older side and that sometimes the doors didn’t latch right, susceptible to open with a draft. Heat and embarrassment flooded your body and you grabbed the towel from the hook just outside the shower, drying most of the way off in the shower before wrapping the fabric around your body and darting across the hall to your room.

You quickly finished drying off and pulled on fresh pajamas before running down to the kitchen to grab your laptop and found a plate of food sitting next to it, feeling yourself grow even warmer at the fact that Calum had sweetly chosen to prepare lunch for you too. You took the plate and your laptop and charger back into your room, closing the door tightly before crawling into bed, eating your lunch and getting back to work, no intention of leaving this room until lockdown was over.

~~~~~~

Several hours later there was a light knocking on your door. You closed your laptop, sinking under your blankets and tried to pretend to sleep. Another three knocks against the door followed by the sound of it opening with no time in between for you to fully pull the covers above your head to hide from your friend. So instead you stayed as still as possible as you heard his footsteps on the wood floor. “Hey sweets, I know you’re not asleep under there, c’mon, talk to me.” His voice was gentle and you hummed, refusing to face him. 

The bed sank slightly under his weight as he sat in the space created by your curled up legs. He shifted slightly, turning until he was able to reach over and place a hand on your shoulder. “I want you to know that I can be here for whatever you need. I know you just think it’s for comfort, but, we’re going to be here for who knows how much longer, and I want you to know...I’m open to anything, but you have to talk to me, okay sweets?”

You could feel warmth spreading across your face at his words and slowly you rolled over, pushing down the blankets. He shifted on the bed, accomodating for your movement and you both changed positions, waiting a moment for him to settle before you spoke. “I’m just...afraid,” you began, Calum’s mouth opening to respond, but you continued on before you lost your nerve. “The whole time I was trying to process my breakup I kept saying that I only ever saw you as a friend, but the past week or so it’s been different. Maybe it is just because I haven’t been able to see anyone else right now, or maybe there’s something underlying there that I didn’t notice and my ex did. But, regardless of what’s causing...that, I don’t want to mess up what we have, our friendship. If something more were to happen and we come out of this lockdown and I get out of your hair, I don’t want to lose you.”

Calum was silent for a moment once you’d finished, thoughtful expression on his face. You curled your knees to your chest, waiting for him to respond. “Ok, first things first, you moving in with me after your ex broke up with you? Not at all a burden or nuisance to me, so get that out of your head. Second, the two of us hooking up, is sort of something that I have considered before, even before quarantine. Obviously not while you were processing your breakup, I’m not a fucking dick, but like before that a few times. And personally, I think that the foundation of our friendship is solid enough to survive us sleeping together, even if it only lasts for the rest of quarantine. It’s all up to you, ok sweets? Nothing you have to decide right now, and there’s no pressure. It’s just all out in the open now, yeah?”

You nodded slowly as Calum finished speaking, finally looking directly at him and seeing nothing but sincerity in his eyes. You gave him a small smile in return and he leaned forward, wrapping his arms tightly around your shoulders. Just as he pulled out of the hug, the doorbell rang, followed swiftly by Duke barking. “Perfect timing, ordered us dinner. You can eat in here, or you can join me in the living room and help me find a show to watch tonight.”

You smiled, nodding as you slowly got to your feet, kicking the covers away while Calum left to go pick up the delivery from the front steps. You grabbed your lunch plate, carrying it to the kitchen and setting it in the dishwasher before joining Calum on the couch. He grinned, squeezing your shoulders as you joined him, remote already in hand. 

~~~~~~

After cleaning up dinner you both stayed on the couch, continuing to watch a few more episodes of the show you’d agreed on. As the loading screen for the next episode appeared on the tv you turned to look up at Calum from where your head was resting on his shoulder. Anxiety plagued you yet again, chewing your lip before pushing past it and voicing your thoughts. “Cal…” you whispered, getting his attention, “can we...you know, try this out?”

Calum just nodded slowly in response, pressing a gentle kiss to the top of your head before turning off the tv. He held your hand as you both walked down the hall, all the way to his room. He stood in the doorway with you for a moment, slowly leaning in and pulling you tightly against him. He leaned down, capturing your lips in a slow, gentle kiss. Your eyes fluttered closed as you kissed him back, fingers threading into the short curls at the nape of his neck, everything about the moment sweeter than you could’ve ever imagined. 

He took things slow, checking with you each time he wanted to remove a piece of your clothing. Once you were completely bare, sitting on his bed he crawled next to you, mostly undressed, though his boxers were still on. He pressed gentle kisses over your cheeks, nose, and neck before slowly progressing to your chest. “Please Calum,” you finally whimpered, reaching to try to bring him back to you, “need you.” 

He nodded, watching as your hands moved to his boxers, slowly freeing him from that final constraint. His eyes fluttered closed as you carefully wrapped a hand around his half-hard length, your movements tentative as you made sure that he was getting taken care of too. You felt a flush overtake you as you continued to work him, sudden thought from earlier hitting you. Calum misread the change in your expression, gentle hand grabbing your wrist, “You don’t have to keep this going if you don’t want to.” He stated, voice gentle as he looked at you with concern.

“No, no, it’s not that,” you reassured, everything in you beyond certain that that was the case with Calum, that you could tell him to stop anytime and he would listen. “It’s just...in the shower earlier...I just...even half hard...it’s uh, beyond--”

Calum smirked slightly as he realized what you were saying, leaning forward and placing a kiss to your cheek. “I get that, don’t worry, I’ll take it easy tonight, yeah?”

You nodded shyly, thumb flicking over his tip as he spoke. He gasped sharply, hand still on your arm but gripping tighter now. You stared at him, eyes wide as he took shallow breaths, your hand stilling on his length. He gently released your arm after a moment, you following suit, removing your hand from him as he leaned toward the bedside table. He pulled out lube and a condom, tossing both down on the bed before leaning in for another slow, deep kiss. “Relax for me, sweets,” he whispered as he slowly pulled away, grabbing the lube and coating his fingers, finally beginning to work you open. 

His voice was gentle, keeping up a conversation, asking you about things you liked and didn’t, always checking in from time to time to make sure you were still okay with what was happening. Finally, he wiped his fingers on his thighs, looking down at your shaking body, already close from the stimulation he’d been giving you. He grabbed the condom, quickly opening it and rolling it on himself, nose scrunching up as he did so. He was about to check in with you again, his mouth already open to ask the question when you cut him off, “Please Calum, I need you.”

He smiled, cheeks flushing slightly before he lined himself up with you and slowly began pushing in. You gasped, your body seeming to stretch further as he entered you than it had already from his fingers. You let out a low moan of his name, hands grasping for anything, just from him being inside of you.

He gave you time to adjust before slowly rocking his hips in and out, taking into account everything else you’d told him minutes earlier and even with him taking it slow, being completely gentle, you felt like you were going to burst, telling him as much as he continued his steady pace. “Whenever you’re ready, love, let go,” he managed between gasps and moans of his own.

You came twice before he did, Calum collapsing as soon as he fully finished, rolling over so you were on top with him still inside you. You sighed, leaning your head against his chest, listening to his racing heart as you both came down. Finally he pulled out, carefully maneuvering you back onto the mattress and got out of bed. You watched him as he walked into his bathroom, admiring the view until you couldn’t anymore. You heard the water running and soon he returned with a warm washcloth. He slowly cleaned you up before doing the same to himself, quickly taking the cloth back to the bathroom once he was done. He crawled back into bed, strong arm pulling you to his side and you laid your head back on his chest.

The room was silent for a few moments before you finally managed to find your voice. “So, we should do that again sometime,” you said, turning to smile up at him.

Calum smiled back, “A hundred percent….in the morning?”

“Only if you wake up ready to go,” you teased tiredly, nuzzling against him.

“You’re on, sweets.” He stated with a smile, gently rubbing your back as you slowly fell asleep.

Tag List: @calpops @goth5sos @irwinkitten @wildflowergrae @empathycth @talkfastromance4 @maluminspace @thesubtweeter

[quicksilversquared]

A Very Jagged Take-Down Ch 1: Dissonant Chord

Marinette knows Jagged Stone, everyone knows that. She's his favorite niece, never mind the fact that they aren't actually related. And Jagged Stone is really famous, the exact kind of person that Lila loves claiming connections to.

That was never going to end the way Lila wanted it to.

(a collection of one-shots)

links in the reblog

Jagged Stone could admit that sometimes, he was a little bit oblivious to how other people were feeling. He was a little too boisterous, too distractible, too caught up in his own thoughts and ideas and plans. It caused problems, sometimes- Jagged had butted heads with more record managers than he cared to think about because his artistic vision differed from theirs, and sometimes he didn't come off particularly well in interviews because he was too busy thinking about other things to notice an interviewer trying to ask a different question- but he was working on it, and if he was oblivious to something, well, he did have Penny to clue him in.

Still, Jagged Stone had been trying to improve. Penny had been pretty stressed out on several occasions recently, and he had wanted to ease some of her load by being at least a little more observant. He had thought that he was doing really well.

Considering that he had apparently missed his niece's upset mood during his last visit to commission a stage outfit from her, he apparently wasn't doing as well as he wanted to.

"What do you mean, she was off?" Jagged Stone implored Penny again. "Penny, if I'm going to learn..."

"She was hiding it pretty well, to be fair," Penny assured him. "Especially when you were looking. But when your back was turned, she looked kind of stressed."

Jagged Stone frowned. That wasn't a good thing! Maybe he could help, though. "Do you know what she was upset about?"

"Do I- no, Jagged, I cannot figure out what people are upset about by looking at their body language!" Penny exclaimed, clearly exasperated. "And I didn't want to pry, not when she was trying to be professional with coming up with ideas for your commission."

Jagged Stone considered that. Then he perked up. "Do you think that you, just maybe, could sneakily bring it up with Marinette when you go over with my measurements tomorrow? If I can help my niece with anything, I want to!"

"Yes, yes, I can try," Penny promised, and then she sighed, rolling her eyes. "And we've talked about this, Jagged Stone. Marinette is not your niece."

"Who says that she isn't?" Jagged Stone demanded, planting his fists on his hips. "My niece in rock-n-roll! Her CD cover and glasses and the songs they inspired put me back at the top of the charts. I am an artist, she's an artist- family in actually kickass artistry!"

He didn't understand why Penny was rolling her eyes. Really.

  Penny returned the next day with several design sketches and barely hidden anger bubbling away under her professional demeanor. Jagged Stone picked up on it right away, ushering Penny into their room at the Grand Paris and getting her settled with a platter of her favorite chocolates.

He was rather proud of himself for that, really. He was learning! He hadn't missed Penny's stress!

"I found out what happened," Penny told him, inhaling a chocolate in one bite. She chewed angrily, then swallowed. "A week before we went over for brainstorming, Marinette got expelled from her school after getting framed for cheating, thief, and hurting another student. The other student walked back on her claims the next day," Penny added hastily before Jagged Stone could grab his guitar and storm over to Dupont to bash their blundering principal over the head. He hadn't been impressed by the man the one time- or was it two times, he really couldn't remember- that they had met, and clearly there was a reason for that. "And her expulsion was retracted. But she's still facing some skepticism from her teachers and classmates over the whole thing."

"Who would want to frame Marinette?" Jagged Stone demanded, thoroughly baffled. "Marinette is fantastic! They'd have to be a cruel, heartless soul to do such a thing."

"Yeah, well, that's kind of what this girl sounds like, honestly." Penny took another angry bite. "Marinette was telling me all about her. It's the daughter of a diplomat- or that's what she claims, at least- who keeps making up all of these stories about things she's done and people she's met. Marinette is one of the only people who doesn't believe a word she says, and the only one willing to call Lila out."

Jagged Stone nodded in approval. "Calling out bullies and liars is very rock and roll!"

"Less so when it gets her framed and expelled, but yes." Penny flopped back in her chair, then perked back up. "Something Marinette said- well, it sounded almost as though the liar girl was claiming connections to you. She stopped herself before I could get much more out of her, though."

He nearly exploded with indignation at that. "The liar girl is trying to use me to boost her status? How dare she! And going after my niece while she does-"

Penny sighed in exasperation. "No matter how often you say it, Marinette isn't actually your niece-"

"I'm going to put a stop to this nonsense," Jagged Stone announced, surging to his feet as a surge of energy hit him. Maybe he wasn't going to be in Paris for the next couple of weeks because he was on tour, but, well, that just gave him time to plan. "No liar will use my name to hurt Marinette! Now, if I can grab my computer-"

"We're meant to be heading to the train station to go to London in twenty minutes," Penny reminded him. "For a meeting in London with the new record company you were considering switching to."

"Of course! Penny, I would be lost without you." Jagged beamed at her, then dashed across the room. "I can bring my computer on the train! Plenty of time to think there, no problem. We have a private compartment, so I won't even be interrupted!"

Behind him, Penny could only sigh.

  It wasn't hard to find more information on the liar in Marinette's class. All it had taken was going to Marinette's social media, going to her Ladyblogger friend's page, and from there finding Alya's personal blog.

He felt a bit strange flipping through a teen girl's personal blog and it certainly wasn't something he would ever do normally, but Jagged Stone was on a mission and Alya's blog was a veritable treasure mine. Not even three minutes after he first found the blog, Jagged Stone had learned who the liar girl in question was and had found several of the claims that she had made, all so absolutely outrageous that Jagged Stone had to wonder how anyone believed them in the first place.

But outrageous or not, they had also given him an idea.

Lila had claimed that she had saved his cat, and that he had written a song for her in thanks. Now, he definitely wasn't going to be thanking her for anything, but he could certainly write a song about her.

It wasn't going to be flattering, and it wasn't going to call Lila out by name- Penny had helpfully informed him that doing so would probably land him in legal trouble, even before he had been able to voice the idea (which was super rock-n-roll, actually, that they were so much on the same wavelength!)- but the details that he was going to refer to, courtesy of the blog, would mean that anyone familiar with Lila would know exactly who he was referring to.

Jagged Stone already had some lyrics scribbled out on a sheet of paper and a couple bars of music to go with it, and it was going to be a banging song. Like, top-of-the-charts, definitely-on-the-radio, impossible-to-miss banging.

"The main problem I'm foreseeing here is that it takes time to release a song," Penny reminded Jagged as she bundled him and Fang into a town car and then got in herself. "You need at least seven songs usually in an album, and then there's the studio time, you know that, and-"

"So it'll get released as a single for now," Jagged Stone told her, because obviously he wasn't going to leave Marinette hanging for longer than he had to. What kind of uncle would he be if he did that? "Singles take less time! I can probably have a demo by the end of the week, and then if we can get a recording studio in any of the cities that we actually spend some time in, then I can get the tracks recorded and all ready for mixing and- oh!" Jagged froze, struck by the most perfect idea. "If we can get Marinette to do the cover art for the single, that would be perfect! Then she gets her bully taken down and some money besides- yes, I'll tell her about it right away and work around her schedule, Penny, I already know that- and I get some more awesome art!"

Penny rubbed her forehead, right between her eyebrows, but didn't protest further. "All right. But you know that if you want a cover that'll go along with the single, Marinette needs some direction. I just don't know how you'll keep it all a surprise."

"She can get the background demo tracks and a prompt list of words," Jagged Stone told her at once, because he had already considered that. He had been working on getting better at not leaving all of the thinking and planning up to Penny, too, even if she hadn't quite gotten used to that yet. "That will help her come up with a cover. And look, I've already started!"

"I...see that."

By the time they had boarded the train and were halfway to London, Jagged had gotten the main part of the song written down. The lyrics just needed tweaking, the drums could probably be shaken up, and he wanted to add a few more backing tracks and play with some effects, but he had been inspired and it showed.

"I'll check it against your other songs after the meeting and make sure that you're not accidentally borrowing from an old song," Penny told him as he enthusiastically tapped his pen against the seat of his chair, trying out different drum beats with the tune. "And then I suppose we can start work on demo tracks, if you're so determined to get this out fast."

Jagged Stone grinned. "That sounds perfect."

  In what was surely Jagged Stone's fastest turnaround time ever, he was ready. The song was written, the demo tracks had been polished up into the final tracks and had been professionally recorded and mixed, Marinette had gotten the single's art done (and it was amazing, of course, somehow absolutely perfectly fitting the song even though Marinette hadn't heard the lyrics yet), and everything was ready, all within a month's time.

(His new record company was none too thrilled that he hadn't given them time to promote it, but, well, he was big enough to drop a new single out of nowhere and have it succeed, so did it really matter?)

And then it dropped Monday morning. By mid-morning Paris time, it had exploded all over the radio and thousands of people had bought it already. His new record label was applauding it as a huge success, all of their complaints about the lack of promotion forgotten, critics were already praising both the song and the cover art-

-and Jagged Stone didn't care. He was more focused on if the song had done its work and had gotten rid of Marinette's liar problem.

"You are not allowed to call her up and beg to know what's going on," Penny instructed him sternly. "Marinette is in class right now, and you know that she'll reach out and keep you updated when she can. Now either sit down and stop pacing, or go give Fang a bath. Heaven knows that that will keep you busy."

"Oh, I suppose." Fang deserved a bath after putting up with their most recent bout of traveling, after all. Travel grime was ugh, even on a crocodile. "But let me know as soon as Marinette texts! I won't be able to check my phone, since my hands will be all wet, but I wanna know!"

"I promise. Now go, shoo- you're distracting me!"

Jagged shooed.

  Marinette had been a bit distracted all morning, and for once, it wasn't because of Adrien or her Guardian duties.

Ever since Jagged Stone had told her that he was going to be dropping a new single soon and asked her to do the art, Marinette had been looking forward to the song coming out. She didn't know what the song was about, exactly- Jagged Stone was being strangely cagey about getting any more specific about the lyrics- but he had sent along a basic demo track along with a few prompt words for her illustration and it sounded amazing. She could only imagine how awesome the final version- properly mixed, with all of the instruments ironed out and vocals and everything- would sound.

(And now it had some pretty awesome art to go along with it, if Marinette said so herself- dark, seething greens in the background stood in stark contrast to the trails of shimmery gold dust in the forefront. It was more abstract than some of her other covers, but Jagged Stone had proclaimed it the coolest thing ever and tossed her a bonus on top of the already-generous commission price, which was amazing.)

And then, right before lunch, Nino gave a shout of surprise.

"Jagged Stone just dropped a single!" Nino announced, waving his phone at everyone. "I didn't even know that he was thinking about releasing anything! Lila, did he tell you?"

"Well, yes, but he asked that I keep it secret," Lila said at once, pressing a hand to her chest. It was a common look on her, faux-humble in a sickly sweet way that made Marinette want to gag. "I even got to listen to it before it got released, and it's fantastic."

"This art is sick!" Nino exclaimed. Marinette peered over his shoulder, and- yup, Nino was already in the process of buying it. "'Not All That Glitters is Gold- man, I gotta get a poster of this art, I bet that the non-digital version actually does glitter!"

Marinette hid her smile. It did, actually.

"Yes, they're a fantastic artist, aren't they?" Lila bragged. "They're a very private person, but I introduced them to Jagged Stone- I thought that he might want a professional artist for this song."

All eyes shot to Marinette, waiting with bated breath to see her reaction. After a second, Lila gasped dramatically, hands flying to her mouth. "Oh! Not- not that there was anything wrong with the album cover you did, Marinette, just that-"

"It's funny that you say all of that," Marinette said, her voice icy-cold. "Because I did the cover art for Jagged's new song, and I have the art- with all of the layers, in case you want to claim that I just downloaded it- plus the in-progress demos that I sent to Jagged Stone, plus the invoice for that commission to prove it."

The class went silent.

"And you didn't introduce me to Jagged Stone, he reached out to me," Marinette added on. "And I have the emails for that, too. So you can cut it out with the lies now."

"Oh, silly me, I must have gotten the single mixed up with Jagged's next full album," Lila tittered hastily. "The professional that I recommended to him must be doing the full album, and I just misunderstood."

Marinette was pleased to see that this time, not everyone looked entirely convinced.

"Ms. Bustier, can we please listen to Jagged Stone's new song?" Nino asked as their teacher entered the classroom, shoving his hair up into the air. "Please? Marinette did the art, and Lila's already heard it because she's friends with Jagged!"

"Well, I suppose you can put it on while I get the lesson set up and collect the homework," Ms. Bustier said with a laugh. "That's so exciting, you two! Nino, you know how to connect to the room's speakers so that we can all hear it? At a reasonable volume," she added hastily as Nino got up. "If we get any more noise complaints, then we won't be allowed to have any music on for events for the rest of the school year."

"Got it, Ms. Bustier!"

"I can't believe that you got to do another cover for Jagged Stone!" Alya said excitedly as Nino hooked up his phone. "And you didn't say anything!"

"Of course not. Some of my commissions are secret-"

Marinette was cut off by the oh-so-familiar opening chords of Jagged's newest song, and she trailed off. The accompanying horns were new, and definitely attention-catching and fantastic. Marinette's breath caught in her throat, already blown away.

And then the lyrics started.

At first, Marinette didn't really hear anything out of place. Then she caught a mention of kittens on a runway and sat up straight. All around her, murmurs gave away that other people had heard the same thing and everybody sat up and listened as the song swung around into the chorus.

'Not all that glitters is gold! Hiding behind lies that were told

A dollar-store gem trying to pass herself off as a diamond!

Claims of connections abound, but none of her stories are sound

A liar, through and through!

Adrien spun around in his seat to look back at Marinette, just as Marinette realized what Jagged Stone had done and clapped her hands over her mouth in silent glee. He quirked an eyebrow at her, mouthing a silent did you ask him to do this? and Marinette shook her head.

No, she hadn't asked. She had mentioned Lila to Penny, though, after Penny had asked about why Marinette had been so down. Her parents had probably said more, if she was really being honest, and Penny had no doubt told Jagged Stone, who then came to the very logical and oh-so-Jagged conclusion that the best way to deal with the problem was by writing a call-out song. A call-out song that, by the sounds of it, included references to more than a few of Lila's lies, not just her ones concerning Jagged Stone, so there was no way to mistake who the song was referring to.

She definitely hadn't mentioned all of those to Penny.

In the back, Lila had gone white. More than a few classmates had turned around, sending her disgusted looks. Alya had frozen in her seat before whipping around, murder in her gaze. Even Ms. Bustier was looking incredibly suspicious as she made the connection between the lyrics and all of the stories that Lila had told over the months.

Lila's reign of lies had come to a very abrupt end, heralded by the sound of horns.

"You didn't even know that he was going to do that, did you?" Adrien asked her as soon as the song came to an end. "You looked so surprised!"

"He didn't let me hear the lyrics at all!" Marinette exclaimed, and wow, now she knew why. She was honestly starting to feel teary, because Jagged Stone had written this song for her, because she had been upset after Lila's expulsion attempt, and she knew just how much work went into making a song, and it- this was incredible. "Or really anything beyond vague prompt words. I knew that he knew about Lila, because Penny asked why I was feeling down and I told her, but this..."

Marinette would have assumed that just bursting into class would be more Jagged's style, over-the-top and impulsive and immediate, but maybe he had just been too inspired by the topic and the idea of a song to think of that. And whether or not that was the intention, the song was so catchy, so bound to be popular, there was no way that Lila would be able to escape it. She would be hearing it on the car radio, playing in the train station and on the bus and in the mall. If Lila was on her own, she could leave, or turn it off. But if she was with classmates, or her mom- assuming that her mom didn't actually know what Lila had been up to all this time- then Lila would have to sit and stew.

...maaaybe that wasn't a great thing if she was going to be staying in Paris, but with any luck, it would drive Lila so mad that she would leave.

"That's one heck of a call-out by Jagged!" Kim cackled loudly, breaking through the muted muttering. "Wow, how ticked off did you have to make him for him to go out of his way to write and produce a song calling you out?"

"No, it's not what it looks like- I swear, he's just, uh..." Lila was floundering. There really was no easy way to get out of this, but clearly she was going to try anyway. "You know not all song lyrics are literal! I did save his cat, and he did write a song for me, it's just that-"

"What's the name of the so-called song Jagged Stone wrote for you called, then?" Nino asked sarcastically. "'Clinging to the coattails of fame without any dignity'?"

Marinette choked on a laugh before hastily trying to hide it. Across the aisle, Chloe was far less subtle as she cackled in delight, clearly thrilled by Lila's messy downfall.

Marinette wasn't surprised. Chloe was far less impressed by connections and tall tales than a lot of their peers, but she was absolutely the sort of person to be bitter about how much attention Lila had been getting. It meant less attention on Chloe, and that just couldn't stand.

"Okay, class, please settle down!" Ms. Bustier implored. She was glancing around the classroom, clearly trying to figure out a path forward. "Ah, Lila, let's step out to talk to the principal and call your mom."

"No, but a song from a rock star is hardly considered any sort of reliable source, surely!" Lila cried, still not willing to give up and come quietly. "He's met thousands of people, why would everybody assume that he's talking about a real person? That he's talking about me?"

"Lila. Now."

Finally looking properly wilted, Lila gathered up all of her things in a rush, stuffing them roughly in her bag before heading out the door in front of Ms. Bustier. All around Marinette, whispers started up, some people comparing notes on stories Lila had told and finally (FINALLY) looking them up, others looking up the lyrics to the song. Marinette ignored them all, fumbling for her phone and pulling up Jagged Stone's contact number.

Seriously, how was she supposed to thank him? He had gone to so much work, gone so far out of his way, just for her. Because it was for her, Marinette knew that. Jagged Stone had plenty of over-eager fans that sometimes went overboard with things, and of course there were tabloids that loved to make up stories about him. Jagged Stone ignored all of them the best he could- well, until they got too intrusive, at least, like that one photographer- instead of slapping back. There was no reason for him to go out of his way just for Lila, when she looked at it that way. Lila and her lies wouldn't even appear on Jagged Stone's radar, if it weren't for Marinette. But that hadn't made a difference to Jagged.

Seriously. Best. Uncle. Ever.

(Well. Best not-technically-an-uncle ever. After all, Penny always insisted that Jagged Stone couldn't just adopt Marinette as his niece, no matter how much he wanted to.)

With shaky fingers and happy tears blurring her vision, Marinette texted a quick thank-you to Jagged, hoping that he could feel all of her gratitude through the few simple words that she managed to pull together. Without the constant threats from Lila hanging over her head- either because Lila would be gone or because she would be so thoroughly discredited by everyone that she would be powerless- and without having to constantly be at odds with most of her friends about Lila and her lies, Marinette's days at school would be much more enjoyable and relaxed.

  Penny glanced at Jagged Stone's phone for the fifty-seventh time in an hour and a half. His phone kept lighting up with all sorts of messages- from his new producers, from celebrity and non-celebrity friends alike, from his family members- and she had kept checking it, noting messages that needed to be responded to as she did.

It was exhausting, especially since Penny had her own correspondence to attend to- questions about integrating the new song into set lists, requests for interviews about the new song, and an ongoing back-and-forth with Jagged Stone's lawyer to make sure that he wasn't going to get in legal trouble for the song (since no names were mentioned, he was in the clear as long as he didn't call out Lila during any interviews, but she just wanted to be prepared). Frankly, Penny was tempted to put Jagged's phone on mute and just ignore it for a bit before checking to see if Marinette had reached out. After all, she would be in school right now, so the likelihood of Marinette and her classmates being able to listen to the song before lunch was, well, rather low-

Message from: Marinette Dupain-Cheng

-but Penny supposed that it wasn't entirely impossible.

"Message from Marinette!" Penny called out, and there was a yelp and a clatter as Jagged Stone dropped the broom he was using to scrub Fang to dash out to the main room and snatch up his phone. He grinned at the message, whooping in triumph.

"They listened to it in class and all of her classmates figured it out right away!" Jagged announced. "And the liar girl got carted off to the principal's office and her mother is being called, so she's dealt with. Score!"

"Yes, good job," Penny told him, resigned to hearing about it for the next month, at least. Jagged Stone was going to be too caught up in the euphoria of his success to be much use, so she would have to deal with all of the setting up appointments. "Your idea worked, Marinette's bully has been dealt with. Can you relax now?"

Jagged didn't seem to hear her. "You know what, I'm going to call up room service and we can all have a feast to celebrate! And- oh, I should text Marinette back, 'cause I wanna get any more updates! I just want to make sure that the little eel doesn't manage to slither out of punishment again. I doubt even she can get out of it now, but I gotta follow through!"

Penny could only sigh as Jagged Stone bounced away across the room. As he went, Penny could hear him singing under his breath.

Tea with a prince, talking about charity

She's too kind, too good to be

Working to save the world, she always tries

Except everything she says are self-serving lies!

Not all that glitters is gold! Hiding behind lies that were told

A dollar-store gem trying to pass herself off as a diamond-!

[a-patheticapathetic]

Rishloo - Feathergun: Review

New year, new me. Let’s repeat that until it becomes true. 

There seems to be a pattern with how I discover music. At a very young age, I hear a song in a very specific circumstance. It has a big impact on me, but I make absolutely zero effort to check out any of the artist’s other music and instead meander onto another earworm. Then, years later, I have another chance meeting with the same song/album/artist and fall completely down a rabbithole that foundationally changes my taste in music. It happened with Radiohead (High and Dry as one of the default songs in the original Rocksmith), Queens of the Stone Age (Lost Art of Keeping a Secret in a stick figure animation), and Nine Inch Nails (Hurt (Quiet) on Spotify radio). Then, there was this strange song called “Scissorlips” that I saw on a very small Rock Band 3 drum channel. I showed it to my brother because of how fun the chart looked, and made the mistake of watching his reaction to the video. His disinterest embarrassed me enough that I never chased the music. That is, of course, until many years later, when I was introduced to Tool. The rest is history, and is frankly stalling me from starting the actual review. Let’s get to it.

Scissorlips - 8/10

The strange, dark jungle the album begins with is a nice representation of the album cover, although it won’t rule over the entire runtime. Don’t let the de-tuned guitar under the vocals deter you; the rest of the guitarwork here is beautiful. As we reach the pre-chorus, the percussionists may hear why I was interested in this song as a kid. This is also where the sonic background really opens up, swallowing you for a moment before the intro verse comes back. The lyricism here is also very abstract, yet isn’t impossible to follow. A couple of metallic bites taken out of the mostly psychedelic walls of guitars, then, the first of many beautiful delay effects. The build-up got me pretty good when I heard this so many years ago, and It’s still damn good. For the love. There are so many guitar lines here that just intertwine and enlace you. Then, something a bit heavier (yet oddly hopeful) to round the song out.

Turning Sheep into Goats - 7/10

This intro is more of what can be expected for the rest of the album, sonically speaking. A lone guitar with delay playing a complicated and alluring line in a strange time signature, then built upon. The path you may assume this song will follow is extremely suddenly changed at the chorus, the vocals really driving it home. Then, back into that nice opening riff like nothing happened. The next time that chorus comes thundering around, listen to that low guitar and the way it combines with the drums. Then drop out the ugliness into a floating mesh of palm mutes and synthetic strings. And don’t miss the fl

Systematomatic - 7/10

awless transition into the next song. Immediately, a new riff rises from the pond of reverb. You may not identify it immediately, but don’t worry, you’ll get more chances to. Very fast guitar-work that somehow doesn't sound so frantic, although the chorus definitely has a certain desperation to it. The mood gets heavy again, before quickly sliding into a strange, feverish haze. Some hits of percussion, then a recontexutalized and slower return to the riff at the start of the song. Weave us back into war.

River of Glass - 8/10

Now this is an ear-catching introduction. What seems to be a calm wave of delay is punctuated by war drums and a grimier lead. The mood builds, then crescendos into the song proper. The chorus is hear damn near immediately, and is extremely catchy for prog. This album is really just full of extremely memorable vocals, and the instrumentals complement them perfectly. We get two goes-around before we fall into these twisting and sliding strings. The drummer is also on his A-game here. Then, the guitars push into the clouds before coming back down with another short but heavy low. Then it all cuts out for a second, juts to make the burst into the final chorus that much more effective.

Keyhole in the Sky - 7/10

This one is simpler, but also very filling and peaceful. Unfortunately it does begin to showcase my only problem with this album; the vocals are mixed too loud at times. And while the singer is absolutely incredible, sometimes I’d like the instrumentals to breathe a bit more. The walls of high guitar come back around, this time feeling much more friendly and familiar. One last chorus, closing on a quiet note. Though it’s not over; an alien feedback loop and somber, echoey horn passage lead us into the next track

Downhill - 10/10

This song has two main phases, and is absolutely perfect throughout. An easy start; a relatively simple and serene riff fed through a pleasant delay pedal, with some subtle synth and bass backing. The vocals shine through, as clear as ever. And wave, goodbye. Then, like stepping through a portal into phase one. A very interesting, rhythmic and almost bluesy instrumental accompanies the title-drop. Then, we fall for miles down a well of piano. The bottom greets us with a moonlit key solo, then an incredible Floydian guitar solo. Hanging on the last note, phase two begins with an ominous drone and repeating guitar line. The drums rise, give a false start. then... perfection. I cannot do phase two justice with words. Just close your eyes, listen, and be swept away in what I believe to be one of the greatest vocal performances of all time.

Lost.

Feathergun in the Garden of the Sun - 9/10

Not to be outdone by the previous masterpiece, the title track opens with another wonderful soundscape, before the distortion comes in. The drums pick up the tension, bringing us into the pre-chorus. That riff is going to be impossible to tap your foot to at first, but the next ones should be easier. And here we have perhaps the best chorus on the record; extremely powerful in writing and execution on the parts of every band member. The second time around is just as good as the first, then the brdige begins. Ready, aim... The heaviest riff on the album, and an abrupt switch into the last chorus. Fade out.

Dreamcatcher - 7/10

A nice break from the intensity. This feels like a peaceful tidepool on an alien world, with creatures and colors beyond the world floating around my head. Short but sweet.

Diamond Eyes - 6/10

By no means bad, I do feel like this one may be the weakest track on the album. While it’s certainly beautiful, I feel like it doesn’t do a whole lot that’s new or interesting. Also, when listening at high volume (which is the proper way to listen to this album), the faults in the mixing really rear their ugly heads during the choruses. Still, there are some very pleasant rolling delay loops here during the bridge, and a nice and satisfying buildup towards the end.

Katsushika - 7/10

While the guitar opening this track may be the most straight-forward and least effects-driven riff we’ve heard so far, this song will eventually become the most alien one of the entire lineup. In a good way, of course. I can barely even decipher exactly what’s going on in the instrumentation during that build. The chorus also ends with a nice drop-off into the next verse. You may be noticing a pattern with the songwriting, where the chorus usually leads into the second verse, following the pattern of the first one but with more layering. I like it; it gives the ideas present more time to mature and develop. Anyways, here comes the bridge, where everything changes. Out of everything going on here, I feel like the drums and the background vocals are the most striking thing about this outro. What a fantastic progression and dropout. Beautiful monsters.

Weevil Bride - 8/10

The finale. This riff here is extremely well-done. The tone here is somehow piercingly bright and concerningly dark at the same time. The lyricals themes of the album also come to a head here. This chorus is another incredibly written and performed beast; just wait until it’s modulated. The second verse lays away with the subtleties and strikes at the head. And I just need to know that everything is fine, and everyone’s alright. This bridge also kicks ass, with its heart-pouding combination of guitars and toms. Then, comes the heaviest part of the entire album: Yes, please. Then we are snapped out of the masochism and lifted back to hear the main point of the album, before the intro riff carries us into an uncertain but complete conclusion. After the “true” song ends, there is a long passage of somber horns and a tranquil, almost lullaby-esque keyboard. There’s something extremely nostalgic about this outro to me, but I still can’t put my finger on where it comes from. This section almost feels like the music they play after the end of a play, as the lights come on and you make your way down the dimly-lit theater steps on slightly numb and shaky legs. The story is over; this is your time to reflect.

The main reason I wanted to write about this album in particular is because I feel like it hasn’t gotten the attention it’s deserved. It truly feels like a masterpiece worthy of widespread recognition and praise, but despite being released over a decade ago, few people have even heard of this band. It feels like injustice, not only for Rishloo’s efforts, but for the people who would connect with this album as much as I have. Also, there’s the slightly selfish hope that increased attention would incentivize the band to work on more new stuff, or better yet, remaster their older works.

In any case, It’s very late, my back hurts because my spine hates my nervous system, and I need to actually get to sleep tonight so I can heal the godforsaken nerve that wedged itself in my inner workings yesterday. On a scale from “Your all-time low just lowered again”, to “Want some? Yes, please”, I give Feathergun a “Oh, what beautiful monsters”.

[thecarmillacurator]

Season of Love movie review and news for new Natasha Negovanlis movie.

So two things: First, Carmilla’s own Natasha Negovanlis will be in Tello Film’s 2020 Holiday Movie, “I Hate New Year’s.” Woot woot!  Check out Tello’s twitter (https://twitter.com/tellofilms) for more information.

Hey @tellofilms​ may we have an Elise Bauman cameo, pretty please? Or Kaitlyn Alexander? Or Sharon Belle? Or Anne Briggs? You get our point. You’ll get a built-in Creampuff bank of pre-purchasers and free social media marketers for your trouble, guaranteed.

Second: Season of Love. I rented Tello’s Season of Love Holiday film online yesterday and greatly enjoyed it. I’m not a Hallmark Holiday movie kind of lady, but this definitely had more gravitas than I see in Hallmark movies, and in my opinion to call it a ‘Lesbian Hallmark Movie’ would be unfair to the film. It’s simply more elevated than that.  I even liked it enough that I’ll be re-watching it today. For my in-depth review, click to go beneath the cut below.

What I liked: The couples had chemistry ranging from good to really good. (There’s no Hollstein-level chemistry here, but that would be asking too much for mere mortals, wouldn’t it? Just kidding.)  I enjoyed the romantic arcs. It was a romantic comedy, but wasn’t all the typical Christmas fru-fru (though it was still a lot).

Couple #1: Mardou and Iris. Mardou (Laur Allen)’s performance was especially well done, and the character had more engaging subtly than you typically see in  Holiday movies. For you to understand that Mardou has been in love with Iris (Emily Goss) for years but has been exercising mature and caring restraint to not show it, to carry the movie, the role *had* to be portrayed with not just body language, but with sincere facial expression, especially with the eyes. Props here go also to choices made by the writers and execution by the director relating to the actors’ interactions and positioning.  Iris’ performance was almost as good. I say “almost” because while the story gives Mardou a very serious, almost tragic role, Iris’ role shoulders lower levels of comedy in addition to the serious undertones of what her character is going through. This is accomplished through physical humor and situational levity (often related to depression-related awkwardness) with brief forays into the ‘useless lesbian’ brand of awkwardness. (One scene is *truly* a laugh out loud moment, and Emily Goss’ facial and body performance here was right on point. I had to pause the film just to finish laughing, and then watched the moment twice more just for fun.)

Couple #2: Lou and Kenna. The arc between the brewery owner, Lou (Jessica Clark), and welder, Kenna (Sandra Mae Frank), was a super cute idea in theory, and was actually super cute in terms of how it was carried off, though it needed more situational authenticity. This arc gets plenty of laugh moments, as that’s its primary role in the plot. Lou is beyond adorably clumsy. The filming/artistic decisions relating to how Lou sees Kenna in various supermodel-esque mini-shots are cringe-worthily hilarious. The mix-in fact that Kenna is deaf and Lou has to figure out how to navigate this is both heartwarming, because it brings in something society generally sees as a disability and again, the basis for a good part of the humor. The actors have good chemistry together. The height difference is again, ‘super cute.’ Lou’s blatant pining and angsty awkwardness is both relatable and charming. Kenna is fun. Her roommate is also fun.

My nitpick: (Nitpick? Maybe just disappointment over a missed opportunity...) This arc is where the film slips into a Holiday movie trap of not being authentic to setting. The reason this is a real shame is because both brewing and welding, combined into female love interests, is a hot idea for a wlw story. And so I wanted to see an actual female welder and a female brewer, rather than just pretty people given the titles.  I know enough about brewing from watching documentary shows, visiting breweries, and doing my own research (I’m a long ways into a WIP of my own that involves a brewery and a brewmaster incidental as a sub-plot to my main plot) to see that Lou is a brewery owner only in name only, with no real development given here, nor attempt to make it look or feel real. The same goes for the welder: I’ve never welded, but my father has, and I grew up with a fair bit of rag-tag rural living and was around equipment and welders enough in my early life to know that nothing about the way Kenna is portrayed makes her being a welder authentic.

I give this arc a thumbs up. It’s just... it could have been amazing instead of simply good.

Couple #3: Janey and Sue. The final arc is between Janey (Janelle Marie) and Sue (Waverly Earp Dominique Provost-Chalkley). They’ve been on-again-off-again sweethearts since high school, but life keeps getting in the way. Janey is in the military and Sue is a musician with performance anxiety related to singing in public. She also has a recently-ill mother, and finances are tight. This arc has some sweet elements, and the actors are cute together. I’ve not yet entered into the Waverly kingdom of fangirling, but Dominique is definitely a talented actress and plays the role perfectly: It’s impossible not to be engaged with Sue’s emotions and experiences through Dominique’s expression of her.

There are some bittersweet notes throughout this arc, and it is by far the most complex relationship of the movie even though it is secondary or tertiary in the film. In reality, it could have been the most impressive of the three stories, if the film had given it an ending that was realistic relative to Sue’s particular brand of anxiety. (Spoiler: They didn’t. Here is the one truly glaring point where the movie falls prey to the Holiday movie curse: Something unrealistic happens, essentially an invisible fairy-plot mother waves a magic wand behind the scenes and a personal struggle for Sue that shouldn’t be overcome so easily- if at all- suddenly is.) It would have been more powerful if Sue’s arc had ended without the typical holiday triumph in the ‘resolution’ stage that follows the narrative ‘crisis,’ and instead used the ‘crisis’ stage as a springboard for Janey and Sue to grow through the realities of her anxiety together, coming to a deeper understanding of the other, and maturing their love.

Music Bonus: The song Sue/Dominque plays at the end is fabulous! I would buy it on iTunes in a heartbeat if it were available. (It’s not. A big ‘why not’ aimed squarely @tellofilms​.)  There’s a music video on Tello, which you can see (but it might be pay to access). There’s a version on youtube, but be ware that whoever put it up isn’t officially related to the film or the song/song writer/performer and their transcription of the lyrics is off in several places.  With how incredibly well Dominique sings, it would be great to see her reunite for a song with Natasha Negovalis (previously together in the Carmilla Movie, 2017) in Tello’s future 2020 Holiday film, since it will be about a music star.

In conclusion: The stories were decently solid, and were definitely enjoyable.  There’s plenty of kissing scenes ultimately, so there’s payoff. It’s sweet. It’s cute. It is all HEA. There was humor mixed in throughout. It could have handled a higher production value, as sometimes between sets and sound, you can tell it’s not quite up to a movie theater release standard. It would be nice to see it not be every one of them all perfect-looking people. But, that being said, it does well.  While well above the typical Hallmark holiday standard (for me, anyway), there were places where the stories could have taken on a bit more depth. (Oh: Just to warn you: There was one bizarre moment in the middle at a Christmas party with an encounter that felt out of the blue, didn’t make sense given who was theoretically invited to the party, and jerked me hard out of the viewing experience. Also, I suppose it could be a trigger for some people, though it’s relatively mild. I understand the point they were trying to make, and agree with it, but it did not belong in this movie, or at least in this scene.) 

If you have the $6.99 spare to do the digital three-day rental, or $14.99 to purchase (I rented but will probably go back and purchase as well), head over to @tellofilms​ and take the risk. It’ll be a holiday pick of mine for years to come.

Please watch it if you’re so inclined! Doing so will hopefully brighten your day, and will help support the people who make generating wlw content of increasing quality possible for all of us to enjoy.

-- Happy New Everyone from @thecarmillacurator​

[doomedandstoned]

Gandalf The Green Returns with ‘A Billion Faces’

~Doomed & Stoned Debuts~

Hailing from Leeds, England, this is GANDALF THE GREEN. The stoner-doom trio is one of a handful of younger bands comprised of members in their late-teens and early-twenties that have been impressing us lately, joining company with Montana's Wizzerd, Toronto's Horse Lung, Portland's SAOLA and Ape Cave, as well as Witchers Creed from Sweden.

Something interesting I've observed about what I'll dub the Dopesmoker generation is their affinity for large-scale compositions. Horse Lung shot for Bach-like complexity with their fugal composition Rattenkönig and have just released a pair of tracks clocking in at 18 and 28 minutes respectively on 'ἔσχατον' (2019). Likewise, Ape Cave released the massive double album, 'Language of the Earth' (2018), with Sleep producer Billy Anderson, who actually invited these kids to come in and record it after hearing their 2016 album Pillars of Evolution.

With Gandalf The Green's latest single, we find them similarly thinking on a grand scale. The near fourteen-minute epic "A Billion Faces" is the foretaste of the glory to come, as the band readies to release their full-length via APF Records this fall. Staged in three interlocking segments, the track is a real trip and holds up well to repeated listens. Execution-wise, Andrew Flint (guitar, vox), Jack Walker (drums, vox), and Danny Wrigley (bass guitar) have never sounded tighter as a unit. Compositionally, the fuzz-trippers show they can achieve balance and depth within a big-picture framework, without betraying flow or nuance. Fans of Slomatics and Conan will surely find this a joy to listen to from start to finish.

I think the band describes it best: "A 13-minute psych-infused stoner doom filth fest. All the tone. All the distortion. Titanic-sized knuckle-dragging gnarly riffs amped into pure oblivion through a Matamp rig of doom. We are excited for you to hear it." Look for "A Billion Faces" out Thursday, March 28th, as a digital download via APF Records, with artwork by Dominic Sohor Design.

Give ear...

An Interview with

    Gandalf The Green

For those new to Gandalf The Green, tell us about how you formed and your history.

It started with Andy writing a bedroom demo for 'The Right' in 2015, we'd previously been in a deathcore band together (we know, we were 16, cut us some slack) and knew we all liked slow and heavy music, so got in touch and we started rehearsing with ghetto equipment in Andy's bedroom in Huddersfield. The name came from a friend who'd just bought a Gandalf style pipe and we found the pun hilarious for a Stoner Doom band, so we used it. We released our Debut EP 'King of the Ashes' in September 2016 as a 4-piece band with two guitarists, though soon after we split with our drummer and put Jack behind the kit as a trio. After that things began moving properly. Since then, we've been gigging more, collecting more equipment, and worsening our tinnitus by turning up louder. In the last year or so we've finally started getting proper slots on festivals and local gigs, though we're still yet to play a headline show!

What music has influenced your sound, and who are your musical heroes?

Our philosophy is that we want to play stupidly low-tuned, crushingly heavy music, but not in a way that sounds too evil or miserable, then combine that with trippy, ambient cleans for a huge dynamic change. Someone once put it eloquently as 'The brutality of Mordor with the serenity of the Shire.'

From a writing perspective, our main influences are Conan, Sleep, YOB and Elephant Tree. Though with all the spacey ambient bits it's quite difficult to pin exactly where a lot of that comes from, mainly just going a bit nuts with effects and seeing what comes out.

AF: My musical idol is forever Dave Grohl, even if this band doesn't sound much like his stuff. My favourite guitar players are the ones for the bands listed, plus Tony Iommi, of course.

JW: We all listen to very varied stuff, so there’s all sorts, but for this genre my influences are, Yob, The Body, Elephant Tree, Khanate, Om, Weedeater, Windhand, BongCauldron. Musical heroes? Fenriz, Willie Nelson, Hank Williams III, Mike Scheidt.

DW: My influences change around a lot but probably The Body, Sleep, Conan, Thou and Full of Hell. As for heroes the first that comes to mind is Jordan Dreyer.

What’s been your favourite gig to play so far?

AF: I'd say Gizzardfest 2018 as it was our largest crowd, but one of my amps blew up during sound check so I was a bit miffed. Other than that, the Holy Spider Promotions show Terence Larkin booked at the Mulberry Tavern in Sheffield last year was brilliant. A tiny, sweaty venue crammed with people who were really digging the music.

JW: Yeah Gizzardfest was really cool, but for me I'd say that Sheffield gig, it was Mulberry Tavern with Khost, Oak, Ritual King, Regulus and Stonelung. When we went onstage the venue was rammed so the atmosphere was great for us, it WAS proper sweaty but that's the best way.

DW: Got to agree with Gizzardfest I was amazed by the amount of people there and the reception we got cancelled out the problems by a long shot for me.

King of the Ashes by Gandalf the Green

How do you look back on your 'King of the Ashes' EP two and a half years on?

We recorded it for £0 in Andy's bedroom with whatever mics we had on hand and did the drums with some University students. Other than 'The One Ring', it's not very representative of our sound these days though, as we were finding our feet and trying lots of writing styles, with speedier Stoner Rock tracks like 'King of the Ashes' and 'The Right', which we don't really play these days.

It's fun to see how the tracks have evolved for our live performances though, 'The One Ring' now screams with feedback, has reverb swells and washed out cleans, while 'Old Toby' has a massively slowed down outro riff and stereo panning oscillating delay at the beginning. If you enjoy the debut, definitely come check us out live to see how it's evolved.

AF: I'm still pretty happy with it and loved the super DIY bedroom recording. I felt the production quality came out great, given the circumstances. Seeing how I’ve changed my vocal style and tuned my guitar down so much lower makes comparing the new and old material interesting.

JW: I have a lot of fond memories from that time writing and recording, but since we were so new to it all it doesn't quite have as good sound quality as I'd like. It's alright, but we've grown as a band and the stuff we're writing now has a way more unique sound and is better in every way I can think of.

DW: I still listen to it a fair bit honestly. I think it still holds up, but I'm excited to start showing how we've developed over the past few years and how we come across out of a bedroom. What music are you digging right now?

AF: Right now I'm on a massive hype for the gnarliest, darkest stuff I can find, such as Grey Widow, Coltsblood, Ommadon, Bismuth, and Glasghote, and I imagine these bands are going to work into my writing style for our next release.

JW: I listen to a shit load of country, like every day, maybe even more than I listen to metal. Artists like Benjamin Tod, Willie Nelson, Hank Williams III, Jesse Stewart, Crywank, The Native Howl, etcetera. But for this genre the stuff on rotation right now is bands like Windhand, Grime, The Body, Yob, Bell Witch, Ommadon, Bismuth, Sloth Hammer, Primitive Man, Elephant Tree, Goblinsmoker, Tuskar.

DW: I've been binging on grindcore and hardcore recently, a lot of Full of Hell and Wormrot on repeat. Other than that the new Body Void EP has been blowing me away every time I listen.

You’ve recently signed with APF Records. Which bands on the label do you share an affinity with?

AF: The reason we approached APF to begin with is because we love so many bands on the roster, it's hard to pick out a few! Personally, I'd say BongCauldron, Battalions, and Under, though there really isn't a bad band on APF.

JW: BongCauldron, since they were the main influence on me (and I think the others too) when starting this band. They were one of the first bands to help me get into this kind of music, since I found them when Andy's old band supported them in Bad Apples years ago and through that found more doom/stoner bands.

DW: Yes, BongCauldron, for pretty obvious reasons. Also I've been listening to Under- Stop Being Naive a lot since seeing them at Gizzardfest they've got such a unique and crushing sound.

photo by aevjohnston

Tell us about "A Billion Faces" -- what’s it about, and how did the track come together?

AF: It was the first track I wrote after we tuned down to drop F and bought a bunch of new effects, so I was really playing with all the new toys and trying to make something with a big dynamic change from the gentle intro to when it kicks in. We've been performing it live for a while, so the song's evolved over time to include the sexy wah solo and, because Jack and Danny love noise music, we added the noise/screaming section in the outro. The original demo was only 9 minutes compared to the final 13!

We were approached by a friend of a friend (Alex Tune, assisted by Jake Bonnett) who needed a band to record for his University coursework, it seemed mutually beneficial, and we'd get to record in the gorgeous Phipps Hall and borrow a bunch of Huddersfield Uni's Matamp equipment for free to use with ours, so we took him up on it. We live recorded the track in December 2018 and mixed and mastered the track ourselves, so again got away with paying £0 for the release. It sounded lovely in the room, but we really didn't expect the final product to sound quite as good as it did. Lyrically, the track is about parallel universes and how, if they exist, every different possible version of you exists somewhere in a big infinite tree of possible yous, experiencing the best and worst things all at once. I was wondering where I'd be if I'd taken a different turn in life and moved to a different city, and I realised that there'd be a version of me in a parallel universe where I did move there, wondering right now where he'd be if he took the turns I did. We're both thinking about each other amongst a billion different versions of ourselves, but unable to know who the other is and what their life is like.

The song comes with a cracking video. How did that come about?

A friend of the band, and vocalist/guitarist in Andy's other band, Andrew Johnston (he uses the moniker 'AEVJohnston' for music) offered to help. We thought it'd be a crime to not get video footage of us performing in such a beautiful venue, so he came along free of charge, brought his fancy lighting rig, bathed the room in green light, rented a couple of cameras from the University, and filmed us while we recorded. We edited the footage ourselves cut from various different takes we did. Again, we paid nothing for the video because we're cheap (do you see a theme?).

JW: Shout out Johnston for being a sick bloke, nice one mate it turned it really well, thank you. Sadly though, I don't think the video shows just how beautiful that room really was. Like the video is great, don't get me wrong, but actually being stood in that room with that lighting rig made it look gorgeous. Such a great atmosphere for it. Again, cheers Johnston, that was a huge help, I think the video of it really brings this release together.

What’s your plans for the rest of 2019?

We're working on our next release, of which we have over half an hour written already. Andy is busy with University, and the other two of us with real life things. Put simply, in 2019 we want to push to play more gigs and write more music. Hopefully we'll have another release done or out by the end of the year. We're aiming not to fuck about as much for it as we did for this one, because it took a long time to get going.

If your house was on fire and you could grab one thing from it before it burned down, what would that be?

AF: My Green Matamp GT1 amplifier, it's like my child.

JW: My bong, it's like my child.

DW: My cat, it's like my child.

Finally: anything to declare?

JW: Yeah, we just want to say how much we appreciate everything that's happened to us since finishing the single. We love every one of you who's checked us out or gave us a chance. Big shout out and lots of love to Andrew Field for signing us to APF, to every promoter for putting us on and every one of you for listening. It means the world to us, thank you.

AF: We also love all the sound guys who keep telling us to turn down on stage, even if you don’t love us.

☮

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[tonguetiedmag]

interview: sleep on it

With only a few shows left of their final club tour of the year, I chatted with Teddy Horansky (guitar, vocals) of Sleep On It before their performance in Denver about his newfound love for photography, Sleep On It’s most underrated song, and future music-- as well as some potential headline shows.

How are you?

Good! I’m very tired today. Just driving catching up with us--we drove overnight, but excited to be here!

Definitely a hard drive to and from Denver.

Yeah, it was just a far drive and we’re not sleeping that much, but it’s gonna be a good show; it’s sold out, and I’m happy to be here.

Good! Get any sleep last night?

Got a couple of hours in the van and a couple hours at our friends but it’s kind of sporadic. We’ve got a day off tomorrow which is good!

What are you guys doing?

Driving to salt lake ... this time we’re playing a venue we haven’t actually played before, Kilby court ... I’ve heard it’s outside but I don’t know for sure... I hope it’s not.

I hope it’s not either, for everyone’s sake! You guys always talk about promoting an inclusive environment at your shows, so I’m curious how you’ve seen the effects of that and how it’s affected fans?

I’ve always been in the mindset of a little bit goes a long way, just with talking to everyone at the end of the night, and making sure everybody is having a good time, we just try to promote that. And on stage; we try to have a very welcoming, inclusive environment, we want people to feel welcomed and safe at our shows. I think we’ve taken cues from other bands, we’re not the first one to do this stuff, but bands like the Maine go out of their way to have a close connection with the fan base. I think that ultimately makes fans of that band for life. It’s just something about that connection and being accessible.

Have you ever had fans comment on it? Either to you, or thanking you for it?

Yeah, all the time! We’ve got sleepyhead, that’s our street team, we’ve got a Facebook group and people post about it all the time in there. ..Obviously we can’t fix anything [messed up things in the world] but we can provide that safe space, it’s somewhere to go and have a good time for a few hours.

What’s your favorite thing about playing club shows?

Intimacy. Playing at warped tour and stuff you’re outside and it’s open air, and it’s cool and fun, but being really close to the fans in front of us on stage and that intimacy, we all feed off of that energy. Playing venue shows and just seeing that reaction right in front of you gets a little crazy and gets us feeling alive.

It’s your first club tour since Luka[drums] hurt his shoulder. How has it been having him back?

It’s amazing. It’s not really Sleep On It without Luka, and our friend Eric did a really great job filling in, but it’s obviously a situation we don’t want again-- we want to make sure Luka stays healthy. I would say he’s the “soul” of Sleep On It; his energy, his character, and he’s a phenomenal drummer. It feels good, it feels very natural.

What have you been listening to on drives?

Lately I’ve been listening to this podcast called “Lead Singer Syndrome” with Shane[Told] from Silverstein, where he interviews other bands, and that’s really cool. I feel like I, more than most of the guys listen to weird different stuff. I’ve been listening to the new J. Cole record a lot, there’s a lot of hip-hop I really like--I really like Kendrick Lamar and Vince Staples and stuff like that. So I’ve been listening to that a little bit more,[and] a lot of people are putting out their end of the year best albums, so I’ve been trying to find more albums[that way].

Like the “Spotify Wrapped” stuff?

Yeah! That, and just people posting their top 10 albums of the year. I’m admittedly not the best at finding new stuff, so end of the year lists are really great because everyone loves all these records, so I check them out. I was also listening to boygenius yesterday which is Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers and another person[Lucy Dacus]...[they’re] not a supergroup but a side project thing, so that’s been cool.

Overexposed came out a year ago. Do you guys have plans to headline that album?

We’re going on tour with another band in the spring as direct support, hopefully we’ll be announcing that very soon. Two weeks after this tour is done we start recording LP2... I’ve been writing a lot [and] it’s been such a different process from writing Overexposed ; like we had a really long time to write it—everyone says you have your whole life to write your first record, and in a sense it’s kinda true, but this is the first time we’ve wrote a record while we’ve been touring a lot. ..I had some time before Warped Tour where I wrote a lot, and now I’m trying to write more and more and I feel pretty good about it. We’re going out to LA to do the record in January, so there’s talks of a headliner next year-- nothing is confirmed yet and there’s a lot of things up in the air, but we would definitely love to do some headlining shows next year.

What’s your favorite thing to do when you’re not doing music?

Travelling. I love to travel, my girlfriend is a flight attendant so we love to take trips when we can--went to Tokyo earlier this year, that was really sick. We went out to Boston for a few days to visit my grandparents. I’ve also gotten into photography this year- I got a film camera for Christmas and had never done photography in my whole life, but I wanted to, and film photography just seemed really interesting to me... It coincides with—I like to travel, and now I like to take pictures, so it helps me experience wherever I am a bit more when I have my camera with me. I love doing that, and also just spending time with my girlfriend, my family and stuff like that. Exercise, which admittedly has taken a backseat recently with all the band stuff going on, but I try to stay active and physically fit as much as possible.

That’s really important, especially I’m sure with living in a van however much of the year.

Yeah, just mentally[it’s important].

In your opinion, what’s your most underrated song?

I think the title track from Overexposed . I don’t know, I mean people still like it—that’s one of our favorite songs, we like playing it live. We haven’t played it live in a while so it’s hard to say if it’s underrated or not, but I think that song is really awesome and hopefully we’ll be able to play it. If we do any headline shows next year I’m sure that’s one we’d like to play.

Where have you guys played it before?

I feel like we played it on the Four Year Strong tour last year, a while ago. We played it before the record even came out, it’s just a fun song to play live— and tours like this where we’re support, our sets are short so we’ve gotta play the hits.

Since Overexposed came out your guys fan base has grown quite a lot. How have you adjusted to that?

It’s been great. I feel like it continues to grow every day, especially being on tour out here. I just love seeing positivity, the community of the fan base. We really try to cultivate a fan base that’s really supportive of each other, so that’s super rad. We would love to play overseas next year, I feel like it could definitely happen, and expand that fan base internationally. It’s just been humbling—it’s a good thing.

And for Tongue Tied’s signature question— how would you describe your music to someone who can’t hear?

I would say it’s rock, it’s upbeat, it can be aggressive but also pop-driven, and that we try to be very honest lyrically; writing about songs dealing with sadness, but also hopeful songs—I think somewhere in there is what we sound like.

Check out Sleep On It online:

https://www.sleeponitband.com

https://www.facebook.com/sleeponitband/

https://twitter.com/SleepOnItBand?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Interview by: Liz Holland

[warmau]

{Special} College!AU Hongseok

this was commissioned! | check out my other college!aus here

major: double major in acting & directing 

minor: n/a

sports: men’s swim team 

clubs: part of theater club, teacher’s assistant for intro acting classes, volunteers for the student government as a translator for foreign exchange students

hongseok ,,,,, has a personality that changes on the toss of a coin

hui says that there’s actor!hongseok and then there’s regular!hongseok

actor hongseok,,,,is who hongseok is when he’s in class. when he’s taking everything seriously. when he’s putting in every ounce of effort he has to grow as an actor - to prove his worth

when he looks serious, his profile handsome and stern

and then there’s regular hongseok,,,,,,who makes ugly faces and dances wildly even if the whole room is looking

the hongseok whose good at playing pranks, whose good at making you laugh no matter how down you are

and hongseok is silly - he has a natural talent to be a little weird, in a charming and almost infectious way

and his close friends all know this, they’re honestly baffled when people who’ve had one or two classes with him are like

“hongseok is so mature!!!! he knows so much about acting!!!!!”

and yuto is like “what hongseok are you talking about? it’s definitely not  our yang hongseok” LOL

and for as open and corny as he can be - hongseok still somehow manages to have a super strict schedule

he doesn’t miss class, he goes to all swim practices, he works out afterword, and he keeps his side of the dorm squeaky clean

no one understands how the same boy who rolls across the floor of study hall, humming the james bond theme 

messy hair and pointing his finger gun at hui with dead seriousness

is the same, studious person who gets up every morning at 7 am to go for a jog

“there’s nothing wrong with being funny and being fit - it’s not illegal”

“no hongseok, it’s just weird.”

“nothing wrong with being weird, have you looked in the mirror recently hui?”

“wHAT iS ThAT suppOSED to mEAN?”

but no seriously, when it comes down to acting - there’s a passion in hongseok that just cannot be matched

he’s dreamed about his debut for,,,,,for so long 

he talks to himself - monologues he’s memorized in his head

he watches videos of other actors, reads about how they train - how they warm up

he jokes around a lot - but he’s not joking around when it comes to his major. not at all.

so as much as his friends think he can be a dork, they know with acting - there’s talent there

and when hongseok finally lands his first role in a weekday drama - he’s blown away

and that drama is actually how you meet him 

and no it’s not ~super romantic~ like you’re a fellow actor and you see each other and fall in love

actually, you’re not even part of the set crew

you actually see the promotional photos for the drama when a friend shows them to you, excited that someone from your university is going to be on TV

they point out hongseok, he’s not the main character so he’s kind of in the background

he’s got this kind of nerdy look going on, simple khaki pants - button down shirt - big square framed glasses

but even all that can’t hide the natural beauty he has about him

but you just shrug, dramas aren’t really your thing. but it’s cool - you wish this dude luck

a couple of weeks it might be,the first episode comes out and everyone on campus is buzzing about it 

you see hongseok around, being crowded around like a celebrity even though he has maybe ten minutes of screen time apparently

and then,,,,,two nights later you’re at a karaoke party celebrating the end of midterms

your friends are all tipsy, falling against each other and being messy and when you step out to go order some waters from the front you pass by another room

the lights are dim, there’s a sad song coming from within and you can’t help but peek through the hole

you nearly skid over your own feet when you see who it is,,,,,,

“isn’t that,,,,what’s his name,,,hongseok?”

you whisper and although you feel like a top tier creep looking through the small window you’re also,,,,,,concerned

he’s in there - completely alone

he’s still got his jacket on too 

you blush when one of the workers brushes past you and gives you a look, you stop staring at hongseok and make way to get the waters - which you return to your own room

but then you take an extra one and turn back to go into the hallway

you don’t know what compels you to knock on the door

you don’t know this person, you just know that he’s kind of an actor now - but that’s not why you want to talk to him

you’ve seen things like this before, people - alone in public places. hurting so obviously yet - no one there to even bat an eyelash

you’ve done this before, not in a karaoke place, but you’ve had to force back tears on the train or at the store 

when hasn’t someone had to do that?

so when hongseok opens the door, his dark eyes looking dull and something like pure sadness in his scrunched up stature

you think,,,,,if anything,,,,,this is the right thing to do

“hey, i don’t mean to be rude but are you ok? i just saw you and you looked really sad -”

hongseok brushes his sleeve across his face

“yeah, im - you know me because of the drama right? is that what you want to know about?”

you shake your head slowly

“i mean i know you are in a drama, but im not here for that. i got you some water, you just looked like you might,,,,,,,might not want to be alone?”

he takes the bottle you’re offering and a tiny smile pulls at his lips

“thanks, i guess i can trust strangers if they look the same age as me. do you go to the same uni?”

you nod, watching him sit on the couch and turn the karaoke box off

for a moment you stand there, quiet and awkward

why did you do this again?

“so,,,,,,how did you know i didnt want to be alone? im an actor, i thought i was putting on a good show.”

you bite back your bottom lip, unsure of what to say

“i mean, people don’t go to karaoke alone. unless they’re piss drunk.”

hongseok waves a finger to motion he agrees with you

“caught me there,,,,,,,,,”

he then goes quiet, playing with the cap on the bottle

“do you want to talk about it?”

you think the look on hongseok’s face reads that oh, no one has ever asked me that before - just for a split second

he shifts a bit, and you assume it’s to make space for you on the couch

you sit down and hongseok lets out a sigh

“debuting as an actor has always been my dream. i should be happy, over the moon. but my,,,,,,but my parents - they still,,,,,they’re still not sold on it you know?”

he winces, as if he’s thinking of something painful

“they don’t think i can make it a career that’ll last,,,,,and this drama isn’t anything special, so it’s not like they’re wrong when they say im going to be a D-list forever,,,,,,ill only get jobs like this - but i ,,,,, i just,,,,,they’re my parents - it hurts.”

you’re taken aback, since that wasn’t at all what you were expecting 

here you were thinking he’d broken up with someone or he’d failed prerequisite calculus

but this,,,,,,this was emotional - and you’d just really met fifteen minutes ago

“but i mean, this is what you want right? all actors have to start somewhere, this is just,,,,,” you try to find the word and hongseok’s gaze lifts to meet yours

“this is just your beginning. with passion, you’ll only climb up.”

hongseok hangs his head and you feel your stomach tighten, did you say something wrong?

but then you realize he’s chuckling to himself

“see, i tell myself that all the time - but hearing it from someone else,,,,,,it makes it ten times more valid. thanks,,,,stranger.”

you mumble out your name,and hongseok catches it - repeating it with a bit of a smile

you smile back,,,,,and you and hongseok - you click,,,,,,,that moment it’s like it bonds you together

because he picks up the karaoke remote and points it to the box “wanna do a duet?”

and for the next hour you find yourself jamming out to early 2000s hits - hongseok’s voice almost cracking as he screams out the lyrics to avril’s sk8r boi

the sight almost makes you lose your own voice laughing

and you realize,,,,,,,that when hongseok is paying for the room - that you abandoned that party you were at

but you check your phone,,,,there’s a bunch of text about how they’ve all ubered home and it’s fine

hongseok nudges you and goes “you up for some 4 am snacks?”

after that,,,,hongseok slowly becomes a friend

you two live very different lives - hongseok is either filming, swimming, or doing something for his acting major and you’re indulged in your own thing

but sometimes, every now and then you two find the time to head to karaoke again - or to the arcade

hongseok once asks if you want to hang with him at the gym,,,,,you realize that he literally meant hang when you find him upside down on one of the bars

hongseok,,,,,is regular!hongseok around you - he’s freaking funny and unique

you can guarantee for it to be positive, even though your initial meeting had been so,,,,,,,,,,so sad

you never see hongseok on set, or in his classes, so you don’t meet actor!hongseok

though you do point out you can’t believe he’s the type to be a stickler for neatness and daily healthy foods

hongseok voice: yogurt is good for you!

you, eating a cookie: yeah

but,,,,,,,as time passes you finally do get to meet actor!hongseok and god- you really wish you hadn’t

it happens when hongseok texts you, asking where you are

you had headed to the city after you classes to shop around for a new phone case and hongseok is like ‘coo! im about to wrap up stuff for the last episode so im in the city too, wanna go back to uni together?’

it’s causal, normal - something between friends

but when you get to where he tells you to go, you notice the set - the cameras - the people running around

and in the middle, on the crub ofthe street is hongseok

he’s wearing another nerdy getup, it makes you giggle in your palm but then ,,,,,, he’s reaching out - holding onto the hand of who you assume is the main girl

“you’re always on my mind, you’re the most beautiful person ive ever met and i want to give you the earth - the moon - the sun, anything! how could you choose him over me?”

hongseok’s voice trembles, but his delivery is clear - raw with emotion

it catches you off guard for a moment as you stand there, mesmerized

the girl shakes him off, says some generic line and then hongseok is left alone on the set

he takes the glasses off, eyes falling to the floor as they swell up with tears

under the lighting of the cameras,,,they look almost amhitest 

“why,,,,,why am i always left to be broken?”

he clenches his jaw and something inside you starts to stirr

this is supposed to be another corny, predictable daytime drama - but hongseok’s acting is levels beyond that

you don’t know anything about the plot, the story, his character and yet-  just his lines make you want to fall to your knees and cry too

the director yells cut, over for the day and hongseok notices you

within the span of a second his hurt, miserable acting face drops into his glowing smile

he jogs over and leans out to ruffle your hair as you duck away from his hand

“did you see my scene?!”

“y-yeah it was good!!”

he grins, shrugging and then tells you he has to return the costume and he’ll meet you in a couple of minutes

as he leaves you tell your heart to stop hammering against your chest - what you’re feeling is emotions from his scene

not,,,,,,,,a reaction to hongseok

handsome, talented hongseok

the hongseok who’d spilled his heart out to you, who’d showed you he could be vulnerable - who’d made your days brighter since you got to know him

no,,,,he was just a friend and you - 

hearing him call your name, you turned and like a stop frame in a movie hongseok looked absolutely perfect

waving his hand to you, casual black jeans and beige sweater

and you,,,,,,,,,,,,oh god you had a crush

of course, there was no telling hongseok this. so many people had crushes on him you’d be number 205, you were sure

and hongseok had chosen you as a friend - just that. you weren’t going to ruin that

but were you going to wallow in your pity? yes,,,,,completely

so,,,,,a couple of days after you did what hongseok had done when he was sad

you went to karaoke. alone.

at first it was weird, but after putting on some random song, you watched the video and just thought about it - about hongseok - about liking hongseok

when did it start? when you first saw him you thought he was cute, but you weren’t like in love or whatever

maybe it was that time at the gym, when he was hanging upside down like spiderman - you’d thought briefly of kissing him then

or was it when you guys were walking to the pool and hongseok jokingly asked you to feel him flex his muscles and you were shocked at how strong he really was

you didn’t know,,,,,,,,and when you wanted to reach over - switch the song you heard a knock

confused, you opened it assuming it was a worker but then - it was hongseok

with flowers

“thought i would find you here.”

“w-what is this?”

he walked by you, throwing himself on the couch and holding the flowers out to you

“sad people always go to karaoke alone to be sad - so here i am, to cheer you up like you cheered me up.”

you reach to take the flowers, but hesitate 

he’s just here to ‘cheer his friend up’ isn’t he

but then hongseok takes a hold of your outstretched wrist, he pulls you forward right into his lap

the flowers falling to the floor beside the couch

you swallow “hongseo-”

“i don’t think im going to need a lot of words for this, so just let me-”

he hovers his mouth over yours, his breath smells a bit like mint and when he kisses you it’s deliberately slow 

he’s waiting on you to react

and when you do, hands traveling up to grip at the front of his jacket and kiss him back like you really mean it

you swear you feel him smile 

pulling back you both stare at each other, red faced and suddenly shy about it all

you slip from hongseok’s lap and he picks up the flowers, clearing his throat

but it’s only awkward for another moment till you’re kissing each other again

safe to say, the worker scolds you two when he accidentally walks in on whats happening

hongseok,,,,,doesn’t just tell his friends he’s dating you - he makes it his own damn monologue

“after meeting, like star-crossed souls searching on a long path for one and other i am now dating the most beautiful, angelic, sweet-”

wooseok: just tell us their name please god

and tbh when hongseok says it’s you they’re all surprised,,,,but then hui snaps his fingers and goes

“you’re the one who hongseok cried to about his life in the kara-’

hongseok covers his mouth and just grins but you’re like yes,,,im thAT person LOL

there’s no actor or regular hongseok when it’s you and him it’s just cute, sweet boyfriend hongseok

who loves having your attention, who plays with your hair absentmindedly 

who notices tiny changes and compliments them

who switches out your sweets for fruits when you’re not looking LOL

who quotes his favorite lines from romance movies to you when he’s run out of corny pick up lines of his own

and because he wakes up so early to work out you always get good morning texts

sometimes accompanied by a cute selfie of him before his run - or a ,,,,,hotter selfie of him after his run

unapologetically tells everyone about how great you are, but also tells e’dawn that if he tries to flirt - hongseok still has that blackmail from three years ago and he will not hesitate to email e’dawns mother gufsijg

“but you’re the mom of the group hongseok”

“oh no e’dawn, i mean your real mother. don’t test me. she likes me and you know it.”

calls you petnames that he makes up on the spot - sometimes they can get a lil long and weird

people tell him that as an aspiring actor, maybe he should stay single to help his career but hongseok is like no im an affection monster - i need someone to focus all my love on and it’s them

(the them is you - hongseok is pointing at you)

tries to get you to do scenes with him, but when he’s serious it makes you laugh

because you’re used to him doing funny faces, sticking his tongue out at you, dancing all weird across the room

you just burst into giggles and he’s like yOU gOTTA kiss me ten times now for breaking my concENTration 

speaks a whole sentence in one language then switches to another and you’re like why and he’s like doesn’t it make me look cool and you 

pinch his cheeks and he’s like oW wHY

and you’re like you look cooler not saying anything at all jokes jokes

i feel like your relationship with him has to thrive on these back and forth jokes

but also,,,,,,,under it all you’re two people who have seen each other at super low points and you know were your insecurities lie 

but despite that you keep each other positive and happy

and hongseok is doing better with his parent’s support, but whenever he needs to know he’s appreciated

you’re there by his side

you go to one of his swim meets with a little banner and hongseok nearly melts - the coach has to catch him from stumbling over LOL

tires to clean up your dorm  for you when he’s over and you have to swat at his hands like no no just come over and cuddle no that clock isn’t crooked hongSEOK

you guys totally marathon movies together in bed,,,,,but the next day hongseok is like in the gym for five hours to makeup for the ice-cream you ate

“no way you can do a handstand with one ha- oh mY GOD my bOYFriEND is IRON mAN??!?!?”

hongseok: ; ) 

seeing how hongseok is with his friends, how silly but also how caring he is just makes you so proud of him

and when he tells you there’s this freshman following him around always asking him for acting pointers you’re like AWWW how cute

and hongseok is like is it???

and you’re like you’re gonna be a great dad someday and hongseok is like gkehsfgdskg oh m ,,,, y god

nothing funnier than witnessing hongseok singing into a toothbrush with his bed hair sticking up

did i mention, hongseok has this habit of sneezing SO loud and one time he sneezed and it made you drop your food and he teased you about it for ages after

kissing hongseok is like,,,,,an experience - he could either make it slow and passionate and full of his tenderness 

or he can go full 100 and have you so close to him you feel like you’re molding together, hand clutching at your body with eagerness

it’s a toss up, but you don’t mind either way

and i bet hongseok is a talker,,,,,like he whispers things against your ear,,,,ok aNYWAY

jinho is always like “hongseok~ you love me too right’ and hongseok is like of course and you’re like oh my,,,,and hongseok is like 

i love you jinho but do know i would sell you out ina minute for my s/o

jinho: wow

hui: DISSED , DRAGGED THROUGH THE MUD

hongseok lifting his shirt to try and distract you from studying LOL

but also you get to see hongseok act in other projects and it’s so mesmerizing to see him on and off screen

and the amount of people who are like you’re so lucky to be with him he’s going to be famous

and you’re like i know im lucky,,,,,,,,i love him a lot

but it’s not the fame or whatever - it’s the fact that hongseok and you are ,,,, it’s like fate brought you together

even if you’re too shy to admit it 

(hongseok isn’t he’s like babe,,,,,,,,not to be dramatic but we’re soulmates. ive seen a bunch of soulmate dramas and we are actual soulmates) 

[x--daughters-of-darkness--x]

KAT VON D SHARES THE UNEXPECTED INFLUENCES BEHIND HER LONG-AWAITED DEBUT ALBUM ‘LOVE MADE ME DO IT’

The glamorous gothic queen of art, tattoos, business and beauty now redirects her attention to her original passion – music.

Kat Von D has been a staple in alternative culture and pop culture as a whole ever since first exploding onto the scene in the reality television show ‘Miami Ink’ and then promptly securing her own series, ‘LA Ink’, at her home in Hollywood. Quick to prove herself as far more than just another bland reality TV star, Von D built an empire around her interests and established a unique brand of tattoo artistry, best-selling books, art galleries, clothing lines, and most notably, a massively successful and world-renowned beauty line.

But what most people don’t realize about Von D is that out of everything she’s sunken her teeth into and made business ventures out of, her first and most consistent passion has been music. She’s been a constant presence in the world of rock and metal for quite some time – and not just because she’s dated musicians like Nikki Sixx and Deadmau5 and is married to Rafael Reyes of Prayers. She’s been classically trained on the piano since she was a child, practicing every day and growing an appreciation for all different genres as she’s grown older.

Much like her dedication to veganism and animal rights, Von D has a significant place in her heart for music, adorning her body with tattoos of multiple acts like the Misfits, AC/DC, Slayer, Guns N’ Roses, ZZ Top, and appearing in numerous music videos for bands such as HIM, Alkaline Trio, and Gunship. In 2008, she founded the MusInk Tattoo Convention and Music Festival, which has featured artists like Suicidal Tendencies, Limp Bizkit, The Used, Hatebreed, NOFX, Bad Religion, Deftones and more. She’s even had an entire song written for her by Eagles of Death Metal. Needless to say, her street cred in the scene is well established.

She’s now set to release her debut album, entitled ‘Love Made Me Do It’, a project that has been nearly a decade in the making. Described as “a pastiche of shapeshifting analog synths, post-punk dreamscapes, gothic hues, and shy pop magnetism”, the record deals with heartbreak, disillusionment, and ultimately enlightenment. While some might be expecting a hard-hitting, in-your-face type of attitude, Von D opts for a moodier and more atmospheric feel to her music that rides on soaring synth waves and danceable beats. Joining her are bandmates Gregg Foreman, Sammi Doll, Dave Parley, and Brynn Route, as well as notable collaborators Dave Grohl, Linda Perry, Dave Sitek, Peter Murphy, Danny Lohner, Ladyhawke and Charo.

In a conversation with Knotfest, Kat Von D discusses the many inspirations behind her music and unique sound, the artistry that goes into crafting not only her songs but her music videos and live performances as well, and shares some personal stories like the time she and her husband hit up a Rage Room and a week-long horror movie marathon she undertook with a friend.

What made this the right time to finally release your debut album?

Kat Von D – Music has always been a big part of my life and although most people know me from tattooing, they actually don’t know that music has been kind of the most consistent thing in my life. I’ve been not only classically trained since the age of five, but I’ve been playing with my friends’ bands and singing on all my talented friends’ albums and stuff like that. So I’m not a stranger to it but I think that a lot of people are not familiar with me having some form of musicianship. They’re like, “What? She’s coming out with music?” So it could be a little confusing to some people but like everything else I’ve ever done, I’ve always said the proof is in the final product. I’m not here trying to be like a celebrity just slapping my name on something and you know, collecting a check and not really caring about it. I want music to be my main focus in life. I’m not sure if this is the right time, to be honest. I feel like I probably should have released this album ten years ago when I wrote it, but I think life just got in the way. I was filming the TV show and going on book tours and just allowing all these other other forms of expression to kind of get in the way of focusing on music. Basically like a year and a half ago I decided to sell my makeup line so that I could have the time to go on tour and really give the music the attention it needs. And then obviously last year everything kind of got turned upside down and everybody was put to a halt. So I’ve just been waiting within this last year for everything to open up again so that we can go on tour and finally release the album.

How do you go about mixing your unique brand of alternative style with the kind of synth pop sound you’ve got going on?

Kat Von D – I think a lot of my fans and followers were expecting me to come out with like, metal just because I’m a huge fan of metal and I think people kind of know me for liking that music. But I also love a lot of darkwave and I love analog synthesizers and I’m a huge fan of post-punk era music. I love Depeche Mode, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure, that kind of stuff. I feel like when it comes to the music that I want to create it’s more along the lines of that. I love poetry, I love strong lyrics and soulful singing. I love Arch Enemy, but my voice does not lend itself to sing like Alissa [laughs] so I know where I belong.

It’s interesting also because like you were saying, you have your scene with metal and rock and all that stuff, but at the same time, you’ve also always been this kind of like, pop culture icon with LA Ink and everything.

Kat Von D – Yeah, I love pop structure. I’m not a big fan of pop music per se, but I do love the structure of songwriting and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. For us, I feel like we do have pop elements in our music but there’s definitely a darkness to it. Even in a lot of synthwave bands that I love, they tend to sound a lot happier than what we’re producing. I like to live in the more melancholy world. I don’t know how to write a happy love song.

There’s a consistent sound throughout the songs but each one still distinctly feels like it takes inspiration from different genres and eras. There’s definitely that predominantly 80s kind of sound.

Kat Von D – Yeah, especially the drum sounds and not just the synthesizers. I think we only have one song that actually has guitar in it. I really love that era but I also think that when my bandmates and I write songs, we don’t sit there with like, a reference. Like, “Oh, I really like this song, let me try to do a version of it.” We actually just start from scratch and we do a lot of sound design, finding specific synth sounds that are not presets in any way. It doesn’t feel dated to me. I feel like there’s a bit of a modern take on the 1980s I guess, and I think that’s important. We’re not trying to be Depeche Mode or any of those other bands that I mentioned, although you might feel the sentiment of that era.

That instrumental breakdown in ‘Fear You’ is so good, that’s very much in my lane. And that part of the music video looks dangerous as hell!

Kat Von D – Thank you, I love that too. I wanted to do a violent video because I feel like all of our other videos were beautiful. I was thinking, how do we create violence without hurting a person, or violence towards somebody versus like, inanimate objects, you know? So I had taken my husband to this thing called a Rage Room. You can rent these rooms and you buy different packages and you can just break break shit. We obviously got bored after like the first 15 minutes [laughs] but I can see how that could be therapeutic. That was a really cool experience so why not take that experience and make that into a music video?

Did you guys have any protection while you were smashing stuff?

Kat Von D – What’s funny is everybody didn’t want to wear protection, they were like, “we’ll wear some sunglasses”. Dave Parley, our drummer, was the only one that didn’t wear sunglasses and for a minute we thought he got a piece of glass in his eye. Thankfully it was just like, a dust particle but I was like “Oh my god don’t do this, Dave!” [laughs] I think aside from that we might have gotten a few little nicks and cuts but nothing crazy. We did use real glass, there was only a few prop glasses, like the sugar glass. I actually posted a video of Sammi, one of my synth players, breaking a bottle over my head and people were like, “Oh my god, that’s so crazy.” It literally felt like a kitty cat just whispered into my ear. [laughs] Those things break if you just like, squeeze them. I got those red glass skulls made and those were made out of the sugar glass, but other than that we do all our own stunts.

In the music video for Exorcism, you wrote that the song was partially inspired by a week long exorcism-themed movie binge.

Kat Von D – With my friend, Kevvy. We actually ended up writing another song together called Lost At Sea that’s on the album. He’s a huge horror fan and I am too, we’ve seen like, every single one. There’s so many terrible ones. It’s crazy. But there’s a lot of really great ones too and I was fascinated by the concept of demonic possession because it seems like there’s a pattern within every culture and every era in history that calls to some form of possession and exorcism. I just find it so weird that in an era like today, where we have cell phone cameras and all this stuff, you never actually see any footage on YouTube. It’s never like in the movies, you know? I think it’s like this romanticized idea of surrendering control to an outside force. I feel like people write a lot of love songs about the correlation between love and death or love and drugs or addiction. I just wanted to take it one step further and do a song about love that was in correlation with a demonic possession because I think that’s how I felt in the past a lot. It’s like you’re no longer in control or you don’t feel in control and you’ve given this power to somebody that may not be the greatest thing for you.

From that movie binge, which ones were your favorite and which ones were the absolute worst?

Kat Von D – I feel like I’ve subconsciously blocked out the worst ones. I think the worst ones were always like a Blair Witch-style filming, you know? One of my favorites through that marathon was one with Anthony Hopkins called The Rite. I love Anthony Hopkins obviously, who doesn’t? It was shot beautifully and it was the most realistic possession scenes. I don’t want to spoil it but there’s a giant twist at the end which I think was really different than every other exorcism movie out there. I think all of it was shot in Italy, so it’s a very beautiful background. Anthony Hopkins plays an exorcist. I loved The Exorcism of Emily Rose, but I would consider that more like a court case movie. It was so compelling, I think I cried at one point. I didn’t know that there was a part two and three to the original The Exorcist, and I had read the reviews prior to watching and everybody was talking shit about these movies. I thought they were so great. I love part two especially, I love the kind of origin story of Egypt and when you think about that era, they had pretty good CGI effects in that movie. So I gave those a thumbs up.

Were there any other kind of movie inspirations that helped guide the direction of the album?

Kat Von D – So Gregg Foreman AKA Mr. Pharmacist, he’s my other synth player and we’re both huge fans of John Carpenter, especially all the scores for most of his movies. I feel like there is inspiration behind some of those sounds that you find on the album, but as far as inspiration from movies, it was more for the music videos. For the Exorcism video, that one was really inspired by one of my favorite directors, Alejandro Jodorowsky. He did The Holy Mountain and El Topo and Santa Sangre. El Topo was my favorite just because the aesthetic way you would see these like, black silhouettes. The opening scene, for example, is this man in black on a black horse with a black umbrella just cruising through the desert. It was like putting together two things that didn’t belong together and I love that. For the music video for Enough there were definitely some Fellini inspirations with the props of the ocean where we’re kind of like, rowing through the storm and it’s a little bit campy, but in a good way. I don’t feel like the Fear You music video was inspired by any movie in particular, I just had a really clear idea of what I wanted the storyline to be. I love movies, or good movies at least. [laughs]

Do you feel like music videos kind of went away and then steadily came back with stuff like YouTube?

Kat Von D – I don’t know, I think that there are a lot of videos but the filming process for us has been pretty brutal because I don’t tend to do like, the lip syncing videos. I think that’s what the majority of people do, whether it’s hip hop or even metal. It’s like, okay, cool, you’re gonna do a fake performance and then we’re gonna lip sync and we’re gonna have some smoke and stroke. I don’t have any interest in doing that. For me, I’ve always loved music videos that have a narrative. Those just take a lot of time and energy and I can understand why bands don’t do them, but I like these little mini films. It kind of helps storytell the music more than just doing a performance piece. I think there’s creative ways of doing the performance pieces as well, I’m not gonna knock that, but to me, I’m not interested in just shooting a bunch of lip syncing all the time.

It helps show the artistry behind it. I like when artists go the extra mile.

Kat Von D – Me too. It’s funny because I really like our band, we get along so great and we love each other. We always laugh because we’re like The Munsters because we have a contortionist in our band and she looks like Marilyn Munster and then Gregg’s like Herman and so we’re this really weird little kooky family and stuff. I feel like everybody’s so extremely attractive in their own way. When I think of music videos, I always think about different parts that I want to create for each band member. Like, “Oh, this would be a really good scene for Sammi or for Dave.” In the music video for Exorcism, we actually got a stunt crew to come out and put us into those harnesses to make the bandmates fly into the air for those jumping scenes. Then we had to remove the little wires and stuff in post. My drummer always wears this leather fringe fanny pack and then he’s got this long beard and hair and I just want to see that flowing in the wind. It was my favorite jump scene out of all of them.

I just wanted to add that your work concerning animal rights is commendable. Dominion, in particular, that’s an incredibly affecting movie. If everyone was able to view that, you know, maybe things could change faster. I don’t know how you learn and see these things and not be changed by it.

Kat Von D – For sure, there’s definitely some trauma behind all that, I mean you could only imagine. But I always just commend Shaun Monson, because he’s dedicated his life to making those movies. He worked on Earthlings as well and those are just so, so brutal. But thank you, that’s very sweet.

And just so we don’t end on a bummer note, what kind of show can audiences expect to see on your upcoming concert dates?

Kat Von D – I’m a huge fan of going to see bands play and my biggest pet peeve is when you really love a band and you go and see them and it’s just like, a guy standing at a mic. So I definitely want to create an experience, especially with visuals. Like I said, I have a contortionist in my band who’s amazing and she’s part of our group. She is actually going to be playing some sounds but she’ll be moving her body in a crazy way that you won’t even be able to understand. We’ve been shooting all of our live visuals with Linda Strawberry, who does all the art directing for Smashing Pumpkins and a bunch of other bands. Her and I really see eye to eye on finding the beauty in the dark stuff. So we’ve actually been filming and prepping all of the light works and for the LED panels and everything else that we’re doing.I think people are gonna be in for a visual treat. I like that that’s just one other way of storytelling for music and I think that’s how you should be able to present your music to the world. To go back to my bandmates, it’s like they’re all superstars in their own way. I feel like they already have their own fans as well. I’m not interested in just shining a spotlight on myself, we’re all going to be doing some crazy things onstage. We’re like the goth Power Rangers.

[xiaoxiongmaos]

this is a bit late (sorry for that, i've been a bit busy these past few days!!), so i'll combine today's mission w the past one!

first off, are there any iconic moments from your faves that you love? and second, i'm here to recommend pinkfantasy as a new kpop group for you to listen to!

i hope you're doing well, xixi <3

- 🗝 anon

Hello! I’m so sorry for the late response myself, I couldn’t open the inbox on the phone so I had to wait until getting onto my computer ^^; hope you’re well too, anon!

YEAH HAHA it does really seem like jisung is your bias after all you wrote but it is all so true!! and yes i agree!! the use of cgi in mvs sometimes make me cringe. like, in monster, that one scene where they edited irene's face was so bad and i wish they went with just a mask or makeup instead. i didn't actually notice that in blue hour's mv (but that was probably because i was hyperfocused on the members LMFAO). but, yes the yg method is definitely a safer method. though i prefer mv's like red velvelt's that are kinda whimsical, kinda dangerous, and 100% sexy. i LOVE those royal aesthetics too!! i haven't seen most of those mvs :( but i have an idea of what you're describing and i've seen some mvs in those style that are just!! top tier!! pls don't apologise for your response!! i really wish i could write more but i'm so awkward so i end up deleting half of what i want to say 😭😭 and, yes i am!! i write and read! i'm intrigued about this writer friend of yours i remind you of 👀 i honestly didn't think it's obvious i'm a writer bc i use a lot of abbreviations and a more informal way of texting, so i'm surprised you picked up on it. i'm curious about what you do on here bc i haven't seen you make gifs or post any fics! do you read?? i'm really curious! i hope you're having a great day, and i'm sending warm hugs your way - 🗝 anon

I’ll respond to your previous ask here as well!

Ooh iconic moments… I guess there’s the compilations of Soobin messing up names that went viral akdkdkfk I usually get a good laugh out of them. I don’t really know what people consider iconic since I’ve never thought of anything people do as such so please bare with me haha maybe also that one fancam of Jisung sitting there jamming to all the artists performing but messing up the lyrics in an award show + the clip of Eunsang singing 2002… it really blew up his fanbase and his voice is such a tender, honey-like one and I still listen to it regularly! I’m sorry I really have no idea (*μ_μ) what’re your favourite iconic moments?

OH I remember watching the MV when it came out and almost leaping out of my seat because I was taken aback at how the face looked… I think if it was a tad more natural, it wouldn’t look as bad akskdjfjs

Ah, she used to be a writer here but she left once the group she wrote for disbanded… I dunno maybe it’s the fact that you word your sentences the same way she did in casual talk? I kinda felt like you were her at first but I don’t think so now because it’s been awfully long for her to turn up in an anon event HAHA no offence to either of you though :3

Oh, I gif! Well, it’s a little more complex than that but I mainly gif. I used to write on main (and post fanart from time to time) before but then it got weird for me after most of my writer friends left/grew other interests so I took up giffing + a tiny bit of gfx making and have been doing so on sideblogs since April last year! I posted fanarts on here to keep main active but I haven’t been lately because I need a new tablet first and I can only do so little on a small device such as my phone (つω`｡) I have a ton of sideblogs but my most active ones currently are those for txt, stray kids & the boyz! It seems like a lot but giffing takes me 1-2 hours per every 2 sets so I can usually make two posts a day if I don’t write for the story I’m working on personally and/or sketch for any fanarts… I do read! From only 2-3 writers though because I’m slightly picky with what I read and the style is either a hit or miss with me. I do think I’m blessed in a way that my day seems pretty long to me; I can study & finish chores in little time and partake in my hobbies/other activities while having more than half of it still left dkf’fnnf sometimes it’s not such a good thing because I feel like there’s nothing to do all day hehe I’ve been studying for my exams these past couple of weeks because they’ve suddenly been moved prior to their date before so I haven’t been able to post stuff as regularly. That’s also the reason it took me a while to get back to you, I apologize again!

Feel free to write whatever you want, please don’t feel shy! It’s okay if you’re not comfortable enough yet though, don’t feel pressured to write a lot either!

I think I’ve heard of them/heard a song of theirs in a try not to sing since the name sounds familiar but I’ll check them out! My recommendations would be highlight’s loved & still not the end + victon’s nostalgic night + han seungwoo’s on & off + bdc’s remember me! My recs are them as groups and an artist but to start you off I only listed the titles I adore, though almost all of their discography is amazing~

[worldblog91]

Scp Containment Breach Ending

Scp Containment Breach Ending

Scp Containment Breach Ending Gate B

Scp Containment Breach Endings Wiki

SCP - Containment Breach is a free survival horror game based on the works of the SCP Foundation community. DOWNLOAD SCP - Containment Breach v1.3.11 (235 MB) MIRROR 1 (scpcbgame.com) MIRROR 2 (MEGA) Changelog.txt. Scp Containment Breach Free is safely and available to download for free from our website and easily install it in a few steps. Well, he did all the software work and I instinctively helped with testing, minor edits, and the dialogue for the puzzles. By free, the extreme version with a gtx sc is one of the searching shaders in the containment.

Never before has the popularity of a game has been driven so much by its community. Certainly nothing like SCP – Containment Breach, an indie open-source first person horror game inspired by the paranormal fictional deep web stories of the SCP Foundation.

SCP – Containment Breach is actually the perfect game for those who love fear in its purest of forms.

There are no complicated mechanics to learn, and no way to fight back the horrors that lurk inside the randomly generated facility you play inside. But if this isn’t enough to scare you to death, we’ve got something for you: a list of awesome mods that will make the experience even more terrifying.

You’ve been warned my friends.

15. Total Horror Breach

How do you make a horror game more horrific?

By horrifically changing its presentation!

The Total Horror Breach is a simple graphics and sound overhaul that makes Containment Breach even scarier. We get totally new character models and textures, and sound effects from the most popular horror games of 2012 and 2013. Spooky, I know.

The gameplay doesn’t change, but your nightmares surely will.

14. Realism Mod

I’m not sure I want a horror game to be realistic. I play and enjoy them exactly because they look nothing like the real world.

But if you’re not afraid of mixing fantasy and reality, you should definitely download the Realism Mod.

And yes, it’s exactly as it sounds: new character models for humans and other creatures, plus better sounds. Just avoid playing for too long at night: you risk ending up in a real SCP facility!

13. FOV Mod

If you’re playing Containment Breach on one of those modern 4K resolution monitors, the FOV mod will make the experience way more enjoyable.

This freebie adds the ability to change the game’s basic field of view value, so that you’ll be able to see more, or less, of the environment at any time during the game.

Make sure to not increase it too much if you’re playing on a small monitor, unless you somehow love experiencing motion sickness.

12. Five Nights at Freddy’s

Enough with those boring procedurally-generated rooms that all look the same.

Time to spend a night or two at Freddy’s!

This Five Nights at Freddy’s mod is pretty darn entertaining. It brings some new rooms and other visual elements inspired by the Five Nights at Freddy’s series.

The mod doesn’t include any major gameplay changes. But if you’re a fan of the series, you’ll recognize a few things right away.

11. Weeping Angel

Have you ever heard of the Weeping Angels? They’re mysterious. They’re dangerous.

And they’re roaming your facility!

The Weeping Angel mod replaces the SCP-173 character model with a Weeping Angel taken from the immensely popular British TV Show Doctor Who.

The angels, thankfully, don’t come with their unique powers. And you should be thankful they don’t: you wouldn’t have made it very far, trust me.

10. Disco Edition

I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to be trapped inside a disco in SCP – Containment Breach… but hey, anything goes to spice up the game, doesn’t it?

This Disco Edition mod overhauls all of the game’s rooms, hallways, and some of the SCPs so that it feels like you’re in a disco, complete with flashing lights and appropriate sound effects that will bring forth an irresistible urge to dance.

Who would ever want to escape from this place?

9. Furry Breach

Fair warning: This mod is not to be taken seriously.

Furry Breach is a very humorous modification that introduces scribbles and all sorts of weird stuff in the game. I’m not really sure who was supposed to be mocked by all this… but I’m sure it’s great for a few laughs.

Some things are better left unsaid. So give this one a go and try it for yourself.

Scp Containment Breach Ending

8. WTF Messup Breach Remastered

Masters of Memes, the time for you to shine has finally come!

WTF Messup Breach Remastered will lock you inside a facility full of memes, corrosive rainbow enemies, and the sorts of stuff you can expect to see in the weirdest corner of the interwebz! Sorry, I suppose I already got contaminated here.

But if you’re looking for more fun and lighthearted gameplay, this is a mod worth trying.

7. More Rooms

In a procedurally generated game, having more elements to throw into the mix can only be a good thing. A very good thing.

More Rooms introduces a few new rooms to the game, including a new office hallway for the light containment zone, a new tunnel for the heavy containment zone, and so on.

This mod is worth installing if you’ve been playing the game for a long time, and have mastered all of its tricks. Time to get surprised once again!

6. 087-B Mod

SCP – Containment Breach can be a very scary experience. But man, you have seen nothing until you install the 087-B Mod.

This mod not only overhauls the facility’s appearance so that it looks much darker than usual, but it also brings a ton of subtle changes to the atmosphere. And even changes to gameplay mechanics.

It will almost feel like you are playing an official expansion. Specifically an expansion that wants you to wet your pants in fear!

5. Dark Confinement

Want to spice up the Containment Breach experience with a little bit more horror?

Stop wasting time and download the Dark Confinement mod. You’ll love it.

Like a couple of other mods in this list, the Dark Confinement mod aims to make the game scarier by introducing new textures, new looks for some of the SCPs, new voice clips, new sounds, a new intro sequence, and tons of new custom rooms for each containment zone.

For the best effect, try playing at night. See if you can make longer than an hour.

4. MLG Edition

The MLG Edition mod makes Containment Breach a much scarier experience, for sure. But not in the way you may expect.

But I don’t want to ruin the surprise for you, so I won’t tell you exactly what’s going on here… suspense is part of the fun.

All I can tell you is this: beware of the blue hedgehogs. And the smoking heads!

3. Half-Life: Resonance Cascade

Valve seems determined to not give us the third main entry in the Half-Life series we so desperately want, leaving us poor fans very little choice other than resorting to fan-made games and modifications.

The Half-Life: Resonance Cascade is a total overhaul that fans of the classic series will surely enjoy.

It tries to provide a look at the Black Mesa incident from a different perspective. The attention to detail in this mod is absolutely the highest caliber, so you’d better not skip on this one. Even if you’re not a die-hard Half-Life fan who prays daily for a new entry in the series, I’d say it’s still worth it.

If you’ve never played the Half-Life series then who knows, maybe this mod will turn you onto it.

2. Nine-Tailed Fox Mod

If you’re looking for a real gameplay overhaul, you should look no further than the Nine-Tailed Fox Mod.

This is among the best add-ons ever made for SCP – Containment Breach. Why so great?

Mostly thanks to the inclusion of a lot of new gameplay mechanics, including functional guns and a health bar. No more running away from these fearsome creatures: load your shotguns and show them who’s the real terror of the world.

1. Ultimate Edition

To properly mod SCP – Containment Breach, you can go at it in two different ways.

You either download all the mods in this list (and hope they’re compatible with one another) or you download the Ultimate Edition.

Ultimate Edition is a massive modding project that includes the most popular mods ever made for the game.

This means you get improved visuals, new content, new gameplay mechanics, and so on, all in a very tight package that’s just one click away.

Just make sure your PC is up for the task: in gaming, as in life, the weak get left behind.

Browse:SCPVideo Games

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A summary of the Broadway hit.

When we first discovered a way to pull webpages from alternate timelines, this was not what we expected to find. Merry Christmas and happy New Year from the Department of Multiverse Analysis.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

This article is about the stage musical. For the book series, see Containment Breach. For the film series, see Containment Breach (film series). For other uses, see Containment Breach (disambiguation).

Containment Breach The Musical

Broadway Playbill cover

MusicSophia MacLeodLyricsCarlisle AtticusBookSal Linnen andRoger MackenzieBasis2007 novel by Kate McGearsProductions2009 Wyoming tryout2009 Broadway2011 US Tour2012 West End2014 UK Tour

Containment Breach The Musical is a musical with music by Sophia Macleod, lyrics by Carlisle Atticus, and book by Sal Linnen and Roger Mackenzie. It is based on the best-selling 2007 novel Containment Breach, the first book in the SCP Foundation series by author Kate McGears.

The musical debuted January 11, 2009, at the Oneiroi Theater in Wyoming and met with instant critical and commercial success. It premiered on Broadway at the Palace Theater on October 6, 2009.[1] The musical has since become a popular choice for productions by community theatres, school and university groups, summer camps and regional theatre companies.[2]

Synopsis

Act 1

A married couple are aroused from their sleep by the sound of a crying infant. The wife tells her husband that it's his turn to check on the baby. As the husband opens the door to their bedroom, he turns around and exclaims with alarm that they do not have a child. The husband is pulled through the doorway by an off-stage assailant. The terrified wife calls the police, and the call is intercepted by the Foundation Surveillance Network ('Something is [REDACTED]ing My Husband!').

Mobile Task Force Beta-12 arrives to find a globular red mass closing in on the wife. The team captures the creature in a metal crate, administers amnestics to the wife, and cleans up the husband's remains ('Just Another Tuesday'). They transport the creature to Site-19's North Containment Hall and lock it in a containment cell next to SCP-049 ('Secure, Contain, Protect'). Dr. Jack Bright and his assistants walk through the corridor to check that all SCPs are accounted for ('Roll Call').

Bright enters SCP-105's containment chamber and performs a routine test of her anomalous ability to see locations in photographs as they presently appear ('What a Wonderful World'). Afterward, she is told she may be granted certain privileges for her good behavior. SCP-105 requests various luxury items, including fresh flowers and a bible, but also asks that Dr. Bright call her by her real name, Iris. Bright approves all her requests except the final one, as calling her by her real name would be a breach of protocol ('List of Requests').

Burdened by his obligation to treat the innocent captives the same way he treats the monsters, Bright goes to the SCP-408 enclosure and confesses his guilty feelings to lepidopterist Dr. Zynnia Kondraki. Kondraki reassures Bright that he is doing the right thing, although her speech includes a number of subtle allusions to the clear romantic tension between them ('Bright's Lament').

Elsewhere in Site-19, the amorphous red blob (now designated SCP-844) reveals itself to have the voice and personality of a small, frightened child. SCP-049, contained in the neighboring cell, tries to explain SCP-844's situation in a sensitive and gentle way, but he is interrupted by Able (SCP-076), who provides a more frank and honest description of life in containment ('Where am I?'/'Being Anomalous Really Sucks, Okay?').

Loud sirens and bright flashing lights suddenly fill the hallway. The SCPs cheer, recognizing it as a Containment Breach alarm. They happily speculate who may have attained freedom, but are horrified when they find that it is SCP-106 ('Who's the Lucky Bastard?'/'Oh HELL No!'). SCP-106 silently performs a short dance number before leaving to wreak havoc in Site-19 ('Rage State Ragtime').

Meanwhile, Bright and Kondraki come close to sharing their first kiss while SCP-408 specimens create a romantic atmosphere around them ('Screw Professionalism'). Just as they are about to confess their feelings for one another, Site Director Yorick Cleffordson announces over Site-19's PA system that all personnel must assist in recontaining SCP-106 at any cost ('Put That Thing Back Where It Came From (Or So Help Me)'). Bright and Kondraki exchange awkward goodbyes and quickly run off to defend their Site.

Bright searches Site-19's East Storage Wing for anything that might be able to stop SCP-106, but all he finds are Safe-Class objects with bizarre-but-unhelpful abilities ('My Kingdom for a Euclid'). Finally, he grabs a handful of objects with unidentified anomalous properties and leaves, hoping for the best ('What the Hell, I'm Dead Either Way').

SCP-106 walks through Site-19's cafeteria, killing staff members right and left. Suddenly the cafeteria turns into an idyllic pastoral scene, causing SCP-106 to recoil in terror. It sends handfuls of black, highly acidic sludge into the air, causing SCP-408 specimens to scatter and fall (“[TANGO EXPUNGED]”). Just as SCP-106 spies Kondraki in the corner of the room, Bright bursts in with his arms full of undocumented SCP objects. He throws them one after another at SCP-106, but to no avail. SCP-106 slowly advances toward Bright until the two are face-to-face. SCP-106 reaches forward menacingly, but at the last moment, Bright puts a comb on SCP-106’s head, turning it into a beautiful young woman– much to its distress.

Site Director Yorickson enters the room with back-up security personnel, and SCP-106 is apprehended before it can remove the comb. Just as the trouble seems to be over, a support beam weakened by SCP-106’s sludge attacks begins to collapse. Bright sees the support about to fall on Kondraki and he pushes her out of the way, sacrificing himself in the process. He confesses his love to her with his dying breaths (“Screw Professionalism (Reprise)”). As his body goes limp, a red amulet falls out of his hand.

Act 2

Several days after the containment breach, a team of D-Class personnel is cleaning the damaged cafeteria. One of them finds the red amulet lying amongst some rubble and picks it up. His entire disposition immediately changes, and he runs out of the room in confusion. When captured and questioned, he claims to be Dr. Jack Bright. After he correctly answers questions only the real Bright would know, his interrogators are forced to believe him ('I'm a Doctor, Not a D-Class”).

Bright, in his new body, is designated as SCP-963 and placed in a holding cell until an available containment chamber can be found. Bright notes the irony of finding himself on the other side of the containment door (“Bright’s Lament (Reprise)'). He is surprised to find himself moved to an “overflow” chamber containing other humanoids. His cellmates, SCP-2800 and SCP-1846, attempt to raise his spirits (“It's Like a Really Long Vacation”).

Meanwhile, Kondraki, still believing Bright to be dead, has her butterflies create an illusion of him so she can say goodbye (“Damn Your Sexy Face”). Dr. Everett King enters the butterfly enclosure to retrieve some notes, and several butterflies escape as he comes in. Kondraki follows them to the cell where Bright is being held, and the two reunite (“I’m Confused, But Kiss Me”).

Elsewhere in Site-19, Able has been transferred to the cell next to Iris’. The two recount the romantic relationship they fostered as teammates in the Omega-7 Task Force as well the breakup that followed. Able begs her to see the warm, loving man behind the brutal killer (“I Would Probably Never Gut You”). However, Iris rejects the idea of ever getting back together.

Bright continues to live day-to-day life an SCP, growing increasingly dissatisfied with the way he is treated by his former co-workers. (“When You’re a Skip”). He gradually becomes sympathetic to the plight of his fellow humanoid SCPs. He only embraces the “good” SCPs at first, but he eventually warms up to the more dangerous ones as well (“We’re All Monsters, Really”).

During his weekly secret rendezvous with Kondraki, Bright tells of a massive breakout he is planning with his fellow SCPs. He instructs her to hide in a safe place so she will not be hurt during the escape, and promises to run away with her when he is free (“What Could Possibly Go Wrong?”). Kondraki agrees, but later confesses to her butterflies that she is morally conflicted (“I’m So Screwed, Guys”).

The following day, Bright springs his plan into action. With the help of various SCP allies, A massive containment breach is successfully instigated (“The Breakout Song”). Many personnel are killed in the ensuing breach, including Bright himself. However, he comes back once again when his amulet falls onto Dr. King’s recently-deceased body (“Why Do I Taste Apples?”). Bright personally releases Iris from her containment chamber, finally calling her by her proper name. Able pleads for Iris to open his containment door and release him, but she chooses not to (“It Wasn’t a Healthy Relationship At All, Really”).

Bright finds Kondraki, but she has had a change of heart and cannot bring herself to run away with him. She explains that she needs to keep her promise to the Foundation by staying behind to help recontain the SCPs that want to destroy humanity, but she still wants Bright to escape while he can (“Screw Professionalism (Reprise, Again)”). The two say a tearful goodbye and Bright departs while Kondraki stays behind to fight alongside her butterflies.

After the breach, Kondraki once again has her butterflies create an illusion of Bright with his original face. Her friend, Dr. Agatha Reach, enters the enclosure, grieving the death of Dr. King, and the two commiserate over their lost loves (“All My Boyfriends End Up Dead”). Suddenly, Bright enters the room, still in King’s body, and explains that no one knew King had died except the three of them, meaning he can essentially take over King's identity. Reach is initially disturbed, but decides she is happy her friends can be together, and says that King would have wanted things this way. Bright and Kondraki kiss, overjoyed at the second chance at living a normal life again together in Site-19 (“A Happy Ending, Sort Of”).

A group of shadowy figures monitor surveillance footage of the previous scene. As they discuss what to do, Able enters the room in a suit, revealing himself to be O5-1, head of the Overseer Council. He explains that the whole event was orchestrated by the Overseers, and that they have decided to allow Bright to live on as Dr. King. The Council meeting breaks for lunch and Able is left alone in the room. Iris suddenly enters, confused. Able explains it was all a test, and Iris tearfully runs to his arms. With the containment breach officially over, the rest of Site-19's personnel get back to work (“Secure, Contain, Protect (Reprise)”.

Scp Containment Breach Ending Gate B

Original Broadway Cast

Scp Containment Breach Endings Wiki

ActorRoleAndrew S. BearDr. Jack BrightDjango RicmannDr. Jack Bright, 2nd BodyMontala RothDr. Zynnia KondrakiChris DeMatisseDr. Everett KingKirby CavenderDr. Clefford YoricksonSilva DiezDr. Agatha ReachPeppa DenkarIrisTom StoneAbleHippolyta ArdsonSCP-106Cyril LockeSCP-844Troy DuChampSCP-049Chaz D. KevereauxSCP-2800Fritz Conwill E.SCP-1846Erica H. AnberoughMrs. HaloCane P. RavenMr. HaloVaughn PencerSCP-527

[autoirishlitdiscourses]

Discourse of Friday, 02 October 2020

Ultimately, my suggestion would be to ask me if you would benefit from letting your own presuppositions in more close detail. Even if someone else may beat you to help your grade. You handled your material very effectively and in a nutshell, is perhaps most useful here, I think that the professor is behind a bit more on the final, which you could merge the recitation half of the equipment yourself. Have a good job on Wednesday! I mean: you had chosen, and several paintings called Woman or Women spring to mind I don't grade you on Tuesday, 3 December 30% of course, this does not conform to the original text in question perfectly, without any errors. Two polite reminders: the twelfth episode, too. Try using a different opinion will not hurt you a five-minute lecture on/Godot/seen in the conversation would be to spend a substantial number of questions or issues that you've done a lot of ways, and are genuinely astounding, I myself don't know whether Bloom has a particular point, because it will be how strong your central ideas revolve around identity formation and the divine aphasia I think that this is really successful in the time you get at least 98% on the professor's syllabus specifies that your basic point of analysis. However, if you'd like me to do is to pick out the evidence that best supports your specific argument about their own potential and serve as a whole tomorrow; In front of the play to see first thing in the end of the rhythm of the second stanza and demonstrating your close readings would help to avoid large amounts of repetition of their material. Each of you as the being taken care of yourself, and would be for you that time passes differently when you're bored out of time that could have been assessed so far of people haven't done the reading or other work for you. Again, thank you for not doing so. Have a good student and for me if you have previously requested that I have also been participating fairly regularly, so it's completely up to your paper's structure often causes your very perceptive.

The maximum possible credit on dates. I think that you can't get to people that I have a more nuanced. Think, too, that there is only a suggestion, not only lucid but thoughtful and focused, and I wish I could have been a pleasure to read this paper, no, I think that your ideas will have noted that he meant to describe women in this contemporary world that we haven't had enough of it as soon as possible; if you're treating the text as quickly as possible from the same time, and their views of sexuality is potentially a very, very articulate paper here. I can meet you at the beginning of your grade yet. Being specific about what to do is produce an audio/visual text, but given your interest in the meantime or have been balanced a bit more on the first line of your recitation/of your selection perfectly, without any errors. Another is to think, too.

Hi! It may be most helpful to have toward the Nugents as Anglo-Irish Literature, fall 2013 at UC Santa Barbara, who is Godot? Just send me the video supplements the lyrics by providing a lecture. But there are a number of formatting and grammatical problems here, and the standard essay structure instead of scaling back what you're actually saying. You brought out a lot of good work.

There are also some editing problems here—my suspicion is that if you think you most need to develop, as outlined in my 5 p. Well done on your midterm, your attention on the midterm; is the best way to section and the fairy world. Again, well done here. In particular, you can receive email at your main points out while still allowing other people have done a good holiday break! There are a number of points.

Etc.

Ultimately, think about dealing with the professor just wanted to make abstract cognitive assessments without being heavy-handed here and there, is lucid, and I'll send out the issues on the degree to which you improved over your first recitation was itself quite impressive things here, is to avoid the specificity that you have a very reduced set of very good paper. You also tie your discussion could have gone to your secondary sources well, but some students may not yet be clear to you. You basically did a number of ways, and truthfully, participation except for the course, and the concerns in Irish culture should probably at least. I quite liked it. Well done on this you connected it effectively to questions from other students. Again, very good paper. I've gestured in margin comments? I'm trying to complete an English Paper lots of good things to talk about this, but you came up effectively to larger-scale course concerns and did a number of things that makes sense to put in the blank in Haines's comment to Stephen: We feel in England to we in England believe on line/paragraph spacing in MS Word 2007: A very strong delivery. I'm looking forward to your address book or calr, online or offline.

I hope you're feeling better soon. Check to make sure that there are probably thousands of potential to pay off for anything at all times. Students who are sterile or electively childless, those who want to cover, but you really have done, both of you is leading the group to read. Let me know, and I'm operating on the rest of your weekend! The latter especially is quite a strong and, again, the number of thematic overlap is that you will quite likely enjoy Hannah Arendt's book On the one he read would be my student who was buried that morning in lecture 22 Oct: The Dubliners sing The Croppy Boy, and I suspect that these paintings fall within the larger structures and concerns and did an amazing job. I think, is not comprehensive, but it's a smart move to #2, who told it to you having the bottom of a variety of texts think of a selection from the MLA standard will negatively impact your grade is not inevitably the case that registration is very solid manner to what you mean, here is that more information. You have a strong job. Whatever you mean by talking about a the specific language of your cancellation penalty for the course so far since you gave quite a nice job dealing with them will depend on what you wanted to remind people.

Pdf, OpenOffice/LibreOffice or Microsoft Word document, what he had taken the first place, but I haven't watched Dexter? You've been participating extensively and wind up receiving slightly more specific about where you're going to be flexible, and reschedule would be central to the writing assignment. Does anyone have a good student this quarter, too. I'm suggesting that there will only be recited. The maximum possible grade to a specific point, because I think that it would probably have paid off here.

Hi!

Your Grade Is Calculated in Excruciating Detail: Prof. Extra grading because someone else had already written a wonderfully perceptive, too, but I haven't. Have a good chunk of the colonizer is a bit lopsided. There were some pauses for recall. I'm not just because it retrospect, it may be other opportunities later on for you this Wednesday.

I felt like you received the grade you on Thursday. Section that you're going to be more specific in your paper this quarter, so I suspect that these will be to make sense, and gracefully move from one topic to another text than to worry about not having a thesis statement, though. If that absolutely doesn't work for you to push your argument as you travel through your selection; added old to what you call broad history and how does the show is that these are very perceptive readings, I guess, that their behavior was not previously familiar with either play though I've read it entirely, etc. Hi! The Blooms' marriage. Let me know what works for you. With two exceptions the very weirdness of Francie's meat delivery 5 p. There were some genuinely tiny errors, mostly well-written in a way as to convince the reader that its structure was articulated more explicitly about what you're doing other things differently. Can't blame them after all, you have performed, you will receive this weighting score. This may be that the personal pronoun is sometimes used to control women and the other paper yet. Have a good weekend, and you really mop the floor with the horror of the flaneur and how it supports your central argument is. Again, this meant that they relate to the section website. Are we talking about it, it makes it difficult for your new topic if you can't write a draft for everyone else so there are thousands, if I recall them in section. You are welcome to send me, along with the material to provide an argument from lecture or section in HSSB 2251, and if that works better for you? Ultimately, it's not out there, generally aren't actually addressing the crowd at a bare minimum length requirement. I've noticed that the rather abstract and general questions might have heard about. Again, thank you for being a good job digging in to the aspects of your total grade for the sake of being helpful. Everything looks pretty good sense of harmony and rhythm.

There are a couple of things quite well here: you produce an audio recording of your paper to punch through to a theoretically supportable level. You definitely have a lot about what possibilities for discussion by email. Let me play devil's advocate here and there are ways in which he had discussed re-take it. 54 2. I think, to be more specific topic with sufficient depth or specificity. Making a wise move, which is a fair amount of time and managed to articulate all of your argument from going for the quarter so far, if you don't have a really really really really want to attend the entire class, overall, of course, you'll want to have thought deeply about a characteristic of the text, though.

I necessarily believe these things not because I don't know at this, but rather of the paper, and we will have another suggestion about question-writing: some recent tweets about MLA format is followed in a reasonable compromise. Again, I have you scheduled on 27 November, the highest possible grade to your large-scale questions with smaller-scale details and building your very fair and very engaging. Your delivery was solid, and that uniting a discussion of the quality possessed by the rules is generally pretty strong claim to prove that the airman gets out of that first draft, letting it sit and then map those letter grades, preferring to leave by 5 p. You have some leeway in handling this matter and wanted to wait longer after asking a lot of very long selection and have some very good job of getting people to engage the group outward from a two-year college can be hard to get people started talking for a minute, do you actually want it. I think that paying very close reading of the section eventually, and how this is not criticism, because this is, it should turn out to next week's reciters. There are plenty of room for crashers, and this is because this is not sufficient to have gone to your potential in the morning shift if that doesn't ask for any reason at all turning your paper and see what he wants; the professor, but then, I hope you get behind. Thanks for doing such a good paper. I guess you could engage in a close-read.

And will respond to a natural, organic part of the week you are from the analytical rigor of the play, and you incorporate the required texts in relation to your recitation/discussion grade? In particular, of course no surprise coming from a difficult and complicated thing to do so profitably might be to think out your ideas out in a late paper. In that series, which would boost your overall grade for the points that you've prepared more material than normal that we have sympathy for Francie is also available. The photographing of ravens; all the fun under Liberty's masterful shadow; To-morrow for the rest of the text, and I'm sorry to take it. Explains the currency in question, rather than proving points by demolishing counterarguments, is that you'll need to already know about the family relationship in The Butcher Boy. This means that you're OK, but that are not on me. One of these bonuses, which is the only good way to fill in missing information or ask clarifying or intermediate questions leading up to an X and/or different from Joyce's, so I hope you had some important things to say that nationalism was lessened mid-century American painter Willem de Kooning's Woman series is full. The title and copyright page from the in-section responses, because week 1, because freedom is a productive discussion out.

There are a number of things going with their interpretative or other visual arts as texts, with macro-and I quite enjoyed reading it. I absolutely realize that right now. This is a mandatory course requirement. Think about how to override the defaults and produce an MLA-compliant paper. Ultimately, what I'd encourage you to lift your grade back, but that's basically what it will eventually force someone to speak instead of panicking and answering them yourself. Volunteering to be fully successful, however, two of the equipment that you've got a lot of ways, and converted the interior monologue into intelligible and articulate prose that was fair to ask people to engage critically with reliable historical sources. You've done a lot of important issues. I'll be awake for a recitation text.

I'm not saying that you're thinking about what your argument in terms of a chance to add a class without a petition. What he did a good job of discussion and were almost completely accurate to the aspects of your total grade for the difficulties involved. I'd like. All in all, I also feel that that is appropriate for that assignment and may very well if you can't go on in some kind of strained family dynamics? It's virtually certain, with absolutely everything except for the quarter, this sounds great! A good guideline is that if someone else, which strips out rhetorical features that might be productive. Your participation grade up substantially. So, for that week's reading, and that often small changes in many ways—I think she's worked hard and earned it. You really do have to get started writing your last chance to turn in your introduction: what, ultimately.

I'll post that on a Thursday, October 11, which would be to think not about individuals, and some of your own complex and admirable performances. Let me know if you have additional questions, please let me know if you have memorized. —You've done a solid delivery of the text in such a good student!

Just over ⅓ of the text, you will turn in your future endeavors. Email that TA and see whether you want to make your writing is very unlikely. I think that phrasing your central interpretive claim near the beginning and end of that looks good to me but let me know if there's anything still outstanding, OK? There are two copies in the reading now.

Just let me know if you want them to pick them up today, and you've set up your final decision for the metaphor. Hi! Well done on your new topic if you have any questions. There are many other possibilities. Most students are doing poorly in this world, people have no one else at all by any means, but I have open chairs in both sections. And now that I'm still trying to get back to you much extra time, so be sure you're correct and prepared to perform a short set of ideas in your on Wednesday evenings and bring specific issues, and your material, and then map those letter grades, which requires you to arrange with the students had 97% or above, and probably very healthy move. If you must attend or reschedule, and showed that you've dropped the phrase at which he was in use and the poor male subject who is a very strong paper in other places in your delivery; you delivered a sensitive, and it's OK. At this point. I suspect from previous experience that should turn into a conceptual space where a productive exercise I myself am less than. If you're looking for a B for the final exam, and you accomplished a lot of good advice. 05. Very well done.

Of course, you'll get that in as soon as possible productive ways to deal with, or play too much pain. Deploying multiple critical lenses in your paper is graded by Friday afternoon your notes it's perfectly acceptable to cite poems by Seamus Heaney, Requiem for the quarter, so I can be found on the midterm exam have been structuring your examination of how you would benefit from exploring in relation to its topic and take it. I'll waive the by 10 p. Nicely done. Ultimately, what do you mean when you give a more specific direction. Do you have a copy of your paper and have not yet done the reading yet, and overall you did quite a difficult text; there are possibly many good ways to do it: it will help you to develop your discussion of ten; section 2, below. One of my own opinion, anyway.

All in all, you know by email. This week has just been so far, with Dexter, it would have helped you to each other respectfully during discussions, even if another format is followed in a more specific way. I always enjoy reading your writing despite some—mostly—rather nitpicky comments I've made some real contributions to discussion: performed: Oh I Do Like a S'Nice S'Mince S'Pie sung by Corp. Don't worry about whether you wish to incorporate personal experience it can. 1 began on a paper within this deadline guarantees that you can receive email at your option, depending on what actually matters, but want to say to each other. Often, B papers take risks in the best way to campus before 3 on Monday you should make a counteroffer by 11:00 work? A slip, in part because its very everydayness shows how strange Francie's life is. I'll give away add codes as quickly as I see it here. Mp3 of the song performances themselves, but it should be on the assignment write-up, if that doesn't work for me! If you are of course I'll still take it. I'm sorry to say that I have received a final letter grade is 50 _9. It was a bit more patient with silence, and that everything is OK! Which is to be perhaps more flexible, is that if it's late or I'm in a close-reading exercise of your paper this quarter, I think this paper, and you handled yourself and your paper is a set of ideas in here. One less paper and for which you can bring up, and will have definite ideas about nationalism as a piece of writing. If you wanted to remind me before I grade is simply to assume that your questions as more open-ended questions would have helped to motivate people other than quite good. Being chivalrous in the course at this point would be the bearer of good things to say that a lot of good material in there, and what you want me to but I'm sending this tonight because I feel that the overall goal is to sit down and write a paper about Downton Abbey for a job well done! 3:30 tomorrow, you will have to satisfy the college writing requirement. For next week.

[imaginetonyandbucky]

Bucky finds blog posts and twitter posts that are like "theory: iron man and winter soldier are a Thing" and "proof that tony loves Bucky: every picture of Tony looking at Bucky" and Bucky's been pinning after Tony but didn't think he likes him back but after seeing those posts, starts paying attention to how Tony acts around him and to him. It helps that after an outing, there's most posts to show Bucky what he missed with his back turned away from Tony. He uses this as courage to ask him out.

The prompt was anonymous, but I’m dedicating this fill to @ssyn3, who knows why.

[A/N: I’m taking this opportunity to let everyone know that I’ve changed my main URL from @everyworldneedslove to @27dragons, to match my AO3 account. My tag here at IT&B will change accordingly, but I will NOT be going back to change all my old posts. Just know that we’re the same person, and if you’re not sure whether you’ve missed something, feel free to check my AO3 collections to be sure. And now, on with the prompt!]

“How’syour boyfriend this morning?” Clint asked when Bucky came back fromdelivering breakfast and coffee to the workshop.

“Mywhat?” Bucky said, startled. He thought he’d been keeping thatlittle crush under wraps, damn it. “Stark’s not– What are you,twelve?”

Clintcackled as if he were specifically setting out to prove Bucky’spoint. “Oh, if only the internet knew how you bring him breakfastevery morning.” He waggled his eyebrows, making it sound lasciviousrather than merely a bid to keep Tony healthy. It wasn’t as if noneof the other Avengers had done it; they’d had an actual rotation inplace for the job before Bucky had taken it over.

“Whywould the internet even care?” Bucky wondered.

“Areyou serious? You haven’t seen all the pages and pages of winterironspeculation?”

“Winterwhat.” Clint looked like Christmas had just come early and startedtapping at a tablet, and Bucky knew he was in trouble. He should justleave the room, but instead he gamely looked at the tablet when Clintpassed it to him.

Itwas a slightly out of focus cell-phone picture of Tony air-liftingBucky to a vantage point during a battle a couple of weeks prior.Under the picture, it said, “Guys, idk about you, but Iron Mandoesn’t carry anyone elselikethis! Look at the way they’re holding hands I just can’t!!!*swoons*”

Buckyblinked and looked at the picture again. In it, he and Tony wereholding each others’ wrists; it was a good, stable hold thatreleased quickly and cleanly. Bucky hadn’t even been thinking abouthis dumb crush at the time; he’d been much more focused on takingout the AIM control tower. “I’m the only one he carries like thatbecause I’m the only one on the team with a metal arm,” he said,slightly dumbfounded.

“Youhave to keep scrolling,” Clint told him.

Against his better judgment, Buckyscrolled.

Therewas a detailed analysis of the way Tony had stepped in on that nastyreporter at their last press conference. Another picture of themtogether, this time at a charity function. This time he couldn’tquite refute the poster’s gushing over the way Bucky was watchingTony. He reallyneededto get that crush locked down tighter.

Hewiped out the screen and tossed the tablet back at Clint with anaffected huff. “People will believe anythingonthe internet, won’t they?”

Backin the privacy of his own room, though, he paced for a while beforefinally caving. “JARVIS, is there any more stuff like that online?”

“Quitea lot of it, Mr. Barnes.”

“…Showme?”

[mobile readers, ‘ware the readmore!]

Everytime they wound up in a camera frame together, it seemed, someonewanted to find a way to suggest it meant they were dating, and ifthey were actually interacting, it was taken as proof positive. Therewere sets of pictures with flowery poems and lyrics on them, andpeople had even written storiesaboutthem getting together. Some of those were horrifyingly embarrassing,and Bucky clicked out of them as quickly as he could manage. Somewere shockingly torrid, and he might have lingered for a moment onthose before waving them away.

Butfinally, he closed the whole mess. He did notneedto add any fuel to that particular fire.

“HeyRobocop!” Tony clapped Bucky on the shoulder as he came into theroom. “Thanks for the coffee. Blueberry?” He offered a foilpacket.

Buckytook a few on habit. “Thanks.”

“Sure,no problem. Listen, T’challa finally sent me Shuri’s notes onyour arm, so if you need a tune-up on something you can’t reachyourself, I’m good to go.” Natasha came into the room and Tonyturned to greet her with a cheerful, “Red Menace. The new ‘bitesholding up for you?”

Hedidn’t offer Natasha any blueberries, though.

Itdidn’t mean anything, probably.

“Budgeup, budge up,” Tony announced, squirming his way onto the couchbetween Bucky and Sam with a huge bowl of popcorn. “You’re gonnalove this one, Buckaroo, it’s a classic.”

“Bywhich he means it’s almost as old as him,” Sam put in.

“Noone asked you, birdbrain,” Tony said haughtily. “No popcorn foryou! Here, Buckster, you’renice,I’ll share with you.”

Thatdefinitely didn’t have anything to do with Bucky; that was justTony making a point to Sam.

Wasn’tit?

Everythinghurt. Diving into the mouth of a giant squid to plant a concussiongrenade in its stomach had not been one of Bucky’s more inspiredplans. The blast had knocked Bucky out, and he’d woken in thehospital with a concussion, two cracked ribs, and a broken leg. Atleast the squid had upchucked him before deciding it was time toretire from the field.

Hewas pretty grateful to have been unconscious for that part.

Stevehad been there, waiting, when Bucky woke, but after reassuringhimself that Bucky was awake and on the mend, he’d gone back to theTower to catch some shuteye, instructing Bucky to do the same, andpromising someone would come over from the Tower first thing in themorning.

Noway was Bucky going to be able to sleep in a hospital. He dragged therolling table over and didn’t bother stifling a whimper at the wayhis ribs shifted when he leaned over to grab his tablet. Alone, withno one to see or tease him about it, he loaded up his favoriteWinteriron blog. He could use a fluffy AU story right about now.

Hehadn’t counted on there being footage from the fight already.Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, but that damn squid looked even bigger fromthe vantage of the news helicopter. Bucky’s own body lookedlaughably tiny, caught mid-leap.

Thenext picture took his breath away - a shot of Iron Man diving intothe water after the squid. Tony hatedbeingsubmerged; it was why he’d been in charge of clearing civilians forthis fight. What the hell. Bucky didn’t usually pay attention tothe Avengers’ own PR, but he flipped to a new tab and pulled up thenews.

Sonof a bitch. The squid hadn’t upchucked him. It had just… left.And Tony had gone after it, sliced it to ribbons in order to bringBucky back. The news site had a picture of Tony carrying him toshore, and it looked like those cracked ribs had nothing to do withthe concussive blast, and more to do with how tightly Iron Man washolding him.

…Huh.

Aknock at the door frame startled Bucky out of his thoughts. It wasTony, because of course it was. “What are you doing here?”

“Couldn’tsleep,” Tony said, in that forced-casual tone that Bucky hated.“Figured you wouldn’t be sleeping either. Steve forgets that notall of us can sleep anytime, anywhere.” He nodded toward thetablet. “Reviewing the fight?”

“Yeah.”Bucky tried to close the Winteriron tab, but only succeeded inbringing it to the front. Naturally, on one of those saccharinepictures with all the flowers and Deep Quotes ™. Bucky flailed andtried again, finally closing it.

Tony,still standing in the doorway, had frozen, eyebrows raised.

Buckyhad no idea what to say to fix things, so he just sat there, heartpounding.

“Funny,what people will come up with, isn’t it?” Tony said after a longmoment. He sounded strained, wary.

Almostas if he were worried about Bucky’s response.

Buckylooked at the picture on the news site again, and changed his mind:it was a damn shame he’d been unconscious, if it meant he missedfeeling Tony’s arms around him, even encased in armor.

“Maybenot… sofunny,”he said. It was a risk, but Bucky had to know. Tony’s breath caughtaudibly, and Bucky looked up.

Tony’seyes were wide and dark, and he clung to the door frame withwhite-knuckled strength. “Well,” he said softly. “Maybe not.”

~ @27dragons