#aka the name of t’s third album

[hlficlibrary]

✤ Mpreg Fics ✤

A series of posts with the top five fics of each category by kudos plus five more hidden gems from that category! Remember to leave kudos and a comment on the fics you enjoyed to show your appreciation! You can find our other recs here.

- Top 5 H/L Fics -

1️⃣ Cold Little Heart by seducedbycurls (T, 194k)

Louis is a soft omega with an abusive past and an alpha child A few months after getting a divorce, Louis meets Harry, an ex-military alpha wolf that offers him something -odd.

In exchange for teaching him how to cook, Harry will babysit his son, Abraham Louis really could use the help.

2️⃣ Queen of Arizella by seducedbycurls (M, 277k)

Stealing from Royalty is punishable by death.

Louis starts over, doing his best to keep his hands at his sides but he is hungry and he tries stealing from the wrong Royal.

Harry is King of Arizella, he needs a Queen and who better than an omega on the run from death? Louis will learn to become the perfect Queen -the perfect fake Queen, but only for a few months.

A fake lover, a fake Queen, but a real bond.

3️⃣ we can take the long way home by eleadore (E, 27k)

“Fertile,” Louis says, and then laughs because it sounds stupid to say out loud. He hasn’t ever really thought of himself in those terms. Baby-making terms. It’s just one of those things his body can do, like exercise, or go without tea. Doesn’t mean he will.

or, The band takes a break. Harry and Louis come together.

4️⃣ Perfect by happilylarry (NR, 117k)

Soulmates had only been in the history books for the past few hundred years, so people were still trying to get the hang of it. From what he's read, back then, if you met your soulmate, that was that. You either chose to be with them and be happy, or be with the one you truly loved and suffer.

Sort of poetic, you know, if he believed in that shit.

5️⃣ Kiss me on the Mouth and Set me Free (but please don't bite) by seducedbycurls (M, 42k)

Harry is the CEO of Flora Corp, Louis is his new secretary.

"...Louis wanted him so badly. Wanted Harry to pick him up, bite him, and break him. Make Louis his, make Louis cry, make Louis a beautiful, plump, pregnant omega..."

HIDDEN GEMS:

💎 Know a Trick or Two by @sadaveniren (E, 44k)

The night before Louis is scheduled for a Portkey to begin training with the Vratsa Vultures in Bulgaria he heads into Muggle London for one last night of fun. A few months later he finds out he’s having a child.

Eleven years ago Harry had a one night stand and now there’s a strange man on his doorstep telling him his daughter is something called a wizard and she’s got a place at the British wizarding school Hogwarts.

Aka the one where Muggle Harry and Wizard Louis have a one night stand and get more than they bargained out of it.

💎 My Kind of Rain by @lululawrence (NR, 30k)

Louis Tomlinson is a household name after hitting number one on the country music charts with four songs over the last three years. It's time for his third headlining tour, his biggest yet, while he finishes up his third highly anticipated album.

Personally, though, the past year or two have been rough. He's dealing with the loss of his mother and the fact his long term partner had cheated on him before breaking off their engagement. Despite it all, the stage has always been an escape for him and he's ready to be performing again.

Harry Styles is Louis' opening act this tour and he seems nice enough. His fiancé leaves something to be desired, but overall, Louis can't complain.

Or the Tim McGraw/Faith Hill AU where Louis is Tim, Harry is Faith, and just when Louis thinks he is going to get some rest, his entire world turns upside down thanks to the man with curly hair and the voice that seems to sing right to Louis' heart.

💎 (It's New) The Shape of Your Body by @fallinglikethis (M, 18k)

Taking a deep breath, Louis tears open the packet and holds the test in his hands. Deep down he already knows what it’s going to say. He can feel the certainty of it in his bones but he needs to see it. He needs confirmation.

Movies always make it look like you have to wait a bit to know, like you have to set a timer and give it a few minutes, wringing your hands for an answer. Even the box says it’ll take time, but it actually only takes a second after Louis pees on the strip to see the two pink lines appear that tell him what he already knew. He’s pregnant.

“Oh god,” he breathes, staring down at it. And just like he’d known the test would be positive, he knows now that everything about his life is about to change.

💎 Another One For The Road by @reminiscingintherain (T, 15k)

She looked up at Louis with a smile. "Congratulations Louis. You're pregnant." "Oh fuck," he said softly, before his eyes rolled up into the back of his head and he promptly passed out.

Or the one where Louis' on tour when he finds out the hard way that men can get pregnant too....

💎 save me, call me baby by delsicle / @eeveedel

Louis didn't plan for him and his husband to be pregnant at the same time. Somehow, it works out.

An omega/omega love story in three snapshots.

[jnwakeling]

wwiii??? why and wi knot, october 26th 2023 - day 15,999

Today we have the naming of parts Henry Reed. Tomorrow we have the naming of cats T.S. Eliot

for T.S. with love, thanks and gratitude

. . .

woke, wake and work - the period period period Pulitzer

World War III - Wake up Planet Earth (or press the Woke Sleep Button!) - Quit WORK instead Quommunism?

Knock three times before entering 20th Century???

Rule of thumb: Always keep a spare and always have a third party First Amendment

Dot the i's and cross the t's

. . .

Wakeling: shouldn't this name be on on the C.I.A. Blacklist Walter White?

Wake up humanity?! Global hypnosis warning…question climate change.

I came back with supporting evidence Langley, January 6th, wakefulness and sleep, doctors, death row, rotten row, psychiatry and Mediterranean Medication…

. . .

E.L. Doctorow Dr. Black Knight? "Former President Barack Obama called him "one of America's greatest novelists""

Mind games, mind control techniques and psychological torture Mr./Mrs./Ms. Psychologist-in-Chief, sir or madam…

Let the games begin?

. . .

Wakeling Wakering Walklin Wakeland Wakelin Wakefield Wake up and calm down . . .

Great and Little Wakering

Wakeling St, Philadelphia, PA, USA

Wakeling Rd, Denton, Manchester, UK

Wake Island, Marshall Islands, Pacific Storm cigarettes, Zimbabwe

Wakefield place names globally, Boston Tea Party

. . .

Edgar Lawrence Doctorow (January 6, 1931 – July 21, 2015) aka E. L. Doctorow

References (via Wikipedia):

Wakefield (January 14th 2008, The New Yorker)

Wakefield (2016 movie)

Homer & Langley (2009)

The Book of Daniel (1971)

Daniel (1983 movie)

Bryan Craston (stars in Wakefield, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul et al.)

. . .

Doughnuts and Guitars Richard

Jonathan Livingston Seagull and Dr. David Livingstone

"Dr. Livingstone I presume?" Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

Israel and the Star of David

Biblical story of Jonathan and King David (Old Testament?) and the Book of Jonah?

Taylor Swift?

The Star of David and the Flower of Life, Ancient Egypt?

The road goes ever on and on Frodo and Uncle Sam Samwise

. . .

Biblical story of Jonathan and King Doctor David Livingstone I presume…?

. . .

The Gaza Strip and The Las Vegas Strip? Nude modelling?

. . .

The Great Pyramid of Gaza Strip… Any pyramids in Las Vegas?

. . .

Giza and Gaza old water geezer, sir

. . .

The Las Vegas Strip raises the stakes U2! Achtung Baby (1991 album)

. . .

A top secret map of the Middle East

. . .

A #TOPSECRET map of the #MiddleEast @CIA Mr. President Biden sir.

… Secret Agent Basra Reed Warbler…

#SaudiArabia - mother #Jordan - self #Lebanon - sister #Qatar - father #Israel - brother

#CIA #FactCheck #deadhand #perimeter #nucleardisarmament

Via #NorthKorea Trump

Tweet or twit? Family therapy Virginia Satir.

. . .

Any other business Washington, Langley et al.?

Pulitzer Prize winning journalism Mr. President Biden? War makes no dollars or sense folks.

Play soccer instead Ted Lasso!

Bruce David Grobbelaar and Paul John Gascoigne aka Gazza?

Where to from here and et tu, Brute America?

. . .

Duty period Commitment period MISSION PERIOD

Question mark

More questions than answers Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A.) 🇺��🇺🇸🇺🇸

[c-40]

A-T-3 275 Innovative Communication

A handful of tracks released on the Innovative Communication label from 1983

Bringing electro back to Germany, Walter Bachauer (AKA Clara Mondshine) and the title track from their stunning album Memorymetropolis

Clara Mondshine - Memorymetropolis

B-side of Robert Schröder's single Skywalker. 1983 was the year the third part of the original Star Wars trilogy came out. Schröder would produce the album Universal Ave. in 1986 under the name Double Fantasy

Robert Schröder - Space Detective

DIN A Testbild  - Going Tutu from their third album https://dinatestbild.bandcamp.com/album/programm-3

[newmusickarl]

5-9’s Album of the Month Podcast – Episode 2 out now!

The February edition of the 5-9 Album of the Month Podcast is now live, in which myself, 5-9 Editor Andrew Belt, Check This Out’s Kiley Larsen and Blinded by The Floodlights’ Matthew McLister review five high profile album releases from February, and ultimately name one as our Album of the Month at the end of the discussion.

This month, the five albums we cover are:

Desire, I Want to Turn Into You by Caroline Polachek

Lonely Hearts Killers by Nile Marr

This Is Why by Paramore

Food For Worms by Shame

Heavy Heavy by Young Fathers

If you want to listen to the new episode simply follow the link below, but also be sure to follow 5-9 Blog on Instagram and Twitter for more news and polls relating to the podcast, along with other great content like film reviews, sports articles and more.

Listen to the February 2023 episode here

Album & EP Recommendations

UGLY by Slowthai

The evolution of Tyron Frampton, aka Slowthai, in such a short space of time, has been nothing short of fascinating to witness.

First came his 2019 Mercury Prize-nominated debut Nothing Great About Britain, which was rough and raw at times but also full of this visceral energy that captivated audiences and helped to make him an immediate grime/punk crossover star. However, his career was almost derailed as soon as it had taken off, as a much-publicised interaction with Katherine Ryan at the 2020 NME Awards, in which he made sexualised comments towards her, brought about some very intense but also well-earned backlash for his actions. After making his public apologies and doing some much needed soul searching, he returned in 2021 with his excellent sophomore outing TYRON – an impressive 35-minute double album that showed greater artistic, as well as personal, maturity.

So here we are then just four years on from his big breakout moment and Slowthai has already had what feels like an entire career’s worth of ups and downs. The result of that is that you feel like the pressure cooker has been removed from around Slowthai’s work, making this third album without a doubt his best and most artistically liberated to date.

Opener Yum straps the listener in to the hot seat straight away, with ‘Thai repeating the words “I’ve been lacking motivation, I need an intervention” over an increasingly menacing and anxiety inducing beat. He then starts to describe conversations with his therapist and his drug-fuelled coping mechanisms, as the swirling electronics, distorted vocals and heavy breathing transport you directly into the melting pot of his erratic, troubled psyche. The production from Dan Carey is absolutely mind-blowing, as it ends with ‘Thai repeating the words “Excuse me while I self-destruct, ‘cause I don’t give a fuck” over sharp, harsh synths. It’s an absolutely phenomenal opener, with the intensity and experimental production drawing shades to Yeezus-era Kanye, Igor-era Tyler and Atrocity Exhibition-era Danny Brown all at the same time.

This almost suffocating production continues on recent single Selfish, which remains one of ‘Thai’s strongest tracks to date. Again, the combination of Carey and ‘Thai is awe-inspiring to hear, with a vortex of synths, drums and guitars surrounding Thai as he sings “And we got what we deserve, somehow we never learn – wastin’ lives out on the curb, while we all search for somethin’” It’s simply brilliant.

The high points just keep coming from there with the fantastic Jamie T-inspired tracks Sooner and single Feel Good, before the rhythmic blues of urban love story Never Again. The middle section of the album then brings the album’s two centrepieces, with HAPPY in particular an absolute tour de force. Riding a melancholic central guitar line, ‘Thai confronts his depression head on and sings of how he “would give everything for a smile.” The production is once again stellar, with the song erupting into a full-blown anthem towards the back end as the guitars take flight. Title track UGLY then follows, which is a glorious symphony of grunge as ‘Thai talks about the hideous nature of humanity and today’s world. Again, it’s just a staggering work.

The grunge continues on Falling, with ‘Thai proper flexing his vocal chops as his angsty, pained screams echo and reverberate amidst a spacey, atmospheric backdrop. After the punky Wotz Funny, beauty and ugliness then exquisitely collide on penultimate track Tourniquet, as ‘Thai’s stark vocals bruise the gentle piano and string-tinged instrumentation as he talks metaphorically of hacking away his broken pieces akin to Aaron Rolston in 127 Hours. Acoustic closer 25% Club then brings the album in for a safe landing, ending this rollercoaster journey with a song that is a polar contrast to the opener.

As you can probably tell I’m a huge fan of this record, with Slowthai really coming into his own thanks to a magical partnership with Dan Carey and a host of other great collaborators behind the scenes who help both amplify and finesse his vision. With inspiration from bands like Nirvana and Radiohead also coming through loud and clear too, this has very quickly become one of my favourite albums of the 2023 so far. A big step forward for Slowthai and an absolute must listen!

Listen here

UK Grim by Sleaford Mods

From grime/punk to post-punk now, as scene veterans Sleaford Mods have returned with their urgent new album, UK Grim. The duo of beat maestro Andrew Fearn and fire-spitting wordsmith Jason Williamson hit new heights on their previous outing Spare Ribs, which mixed first-class collaborations and some lockdown-inspired hot takes for arguably their sharpest and best collection of songs to date. Without reinventing the wheel, the duo build on that winning formula on UK Grim with another effort that ranks well within the top half of their stacked discography.  

The title track and lead single remains both immediate and infectious, with Jason Williamson taking no prisoners as he unleashes his sardonic fury on the current state of Tory Britain on this aggressive, electro-driven opener. DIwhy is then a spiritual sequel to Spare Ribs’ hit Nudge It, but this time around Williamson points his finger and razor-sharp tongue at posers within the post-punk scene itself, with quite frankly hilarious results. Force 10 From Navarone remains my favourite Fearn beat on the whole record, as the duo team up with Dry Cleaning’s Florence Shaw for a song that takes place within Jason Williamson’s own inner monologue. Battling feelings of cherophobia and questioning a passive UK public controlled by a corrupt government, it’s the Mods at their most urgent and brilliant best.

Whilst there may be a couple of moments where it feels like the pair are treading over well-trodden ground at this point, these are more than counteracted by some of the record’s highpoints. On The Ground for example may be their poppiest track ever and easily my favourite here, with a super catchy beat and instant refrain of “they’re on the ground and they’re gonna check you.” By contrast Smash Each Other Up sees Williamson look in complete despair at the current state of the country, as Andrew floats a minimalist and mournful electronic beat in the background. Jane Addiction’s own Peter Farrell then turns up for recent single and the album’s most pure punk moment, So Trendy, which comes over slightly irritating at first, but you’ll soon find yourself singing along.

Despite all these great moments, the duo still manage to save two of the album’s strongest moments for last. Tory Kong swings in on a vine made from a rumbling jungle beat, before closer Rhythms of Class marks one of the duo’s very best songs to date. A well-crafted but brutally bleak look at the reality that Britain now shares many of the same social and political problems of the countries the British public can often vilify, it’s a fittingly poignant end.

Overall this is another strong outing from Nottingham’s finest, with Andrew and Jason building on the groundwork they laid in Spare Ribs for another provocative, frequently incendiary yet occasionally funny and oddly catchy, dismantling of (Not So) Great Britain.

Listen here

Radical Romantics by Fever Ray

Elsewhere, Swedish electro pioneer Karin Dreijer aka Fever Ray released their third solo album and their first batch of new music in six years. Other than featuring the most strikingly bizarre album artwork of the year thus far, Radical Romantics is also quite a blissful and dreamy listen with Dreijer pulling together a frequently fascinating collection of synth-pop induced love songs. At just 10 tracks it doesn’t overstay it’s welcome either, with songs like What They Call Us, Shiver, Kandy and Carbon Dioxide as colourful and enjoyable as any they have made previously.

That said though, you might want to leave before final track Bottom of the Ocean, which sees Dreijer repeating various “oh, oh, oh” sounds for seven minutes over an ominous soundscape. One track that promises to go somewhere but just ends up sinking like the title suggests.

Listen here

Life In Miniature (Extended Edition) by Low Island

One of my Top 10 albums of 2022, the second album from Low Island was nothing short of majestic. As the name Life In Miniature suggests, it was a snapshot of the last two years in which frontman Carlos Posada seemed to encounter all of life’s blessings and curses during one quite intense period. From love and loss to happiness and grief, to sad endings and new beginnings, Low Island gifted listeners a beautiful tapestry of treasured memories that, although personal, impactfully resonate out of the audio through lyrical gut-punches and life-affirming sonic uplifts.

If you missed this gem of an album last year then there really hasn’t been a better time to listen, as now to coincide with the end of their recent UK tour, the band have released a new extended edition featuring three previously unreleased album offcuts. It Holds And It Holds is another soulfully cool slice of electropop, whilst Give Me Something To Love is a stunning bare bones acoustic track. My pick of the three however is Second Skin which captures perfectly what this band do best – danceable grooves with a palpable emotional heart.

Listen here

After Hours (Live At SoFi Stadium) by The Weeknd

There are few albums if any that I’ve played more than After Hours and Dawn FM by The Weeknd over the last couple of years. And for two years I held on to my Weeknd tickets for his London show, hoping I would eventually get to hear the songs live after the lockdowns finally came to an end. Although they did end, the bad news was that Abel’s star status had only grown in that time. This resulted in him cancelling his arena tour and upgrading to stadiums, with tickets going from the fairly reasonable £70 I paid initially to the £300 that Ticketmaster’s obscene surge pricing policy decided that’s what people should pay. As much as I love The Weeknd’s music and am desperate to catch his live show again, that is simply not a price I am willing to pay to see any single artist – maybe next time!

Thankfully to ease the blow somewhat, Abel has released this incredible new live album to accompany the HBO Special filmed at his recent stadium show in Los Angeles. Across the breathtaking (pun intended) 31 song setlist, Abel delivers hit after hit, as his vocal performances and superb live band production frequently get the hairs on your neck standing on end. Whilst it may be further evidence of just what a special popstar The Weeknd is, it’s also a shame that I can’t catch the show in person. The end of Live Nation’s monopoly and Ticketmaster’s ridiculous surge pricing really can’t come soon enough!

Listen here

From Nothing To A Little Bit More by The Lathums

“Before the pandemic The Lathums were on the road to nowhere. Then The Charlatans frontman Tim Burgess heard a recording of early single ‘The Great Escape’ and invited them to play a set at Kendal Calling. The rest, as they say, is history. After a couple of years building a passionate fanbase, they’d play the first non-socially distanced post lockdown gig in Liverpool. Six months after that The Lathums struck gold with the small matter of a UK number one album.

So after being in the whirlwind of prosperity in 2021, the storm has settled. 18 months after their debut they’ve returned with From Nothing To A little Bit More: a less immediate effort but one worthy of the time and effort required to leave an impact.

From Nothing To A Little Bit More is a solid return from The Lathums: darker, rawer and more accomplished, albeit without the same high points of their debut. Alex Moore portrays himself as a sensitive soul and the empathy you feel towards him is the album’s main strength. Especially as, like before, the tunes are heart-warming and infectious - the boys from Wigan discover a darker route mixed with moments of light. This is all done without losing the everyman appeal which drew so many to them in the first place.”

Read Matt McLister’s full review here

Listen here

Also worth checking out: Sunrise Bang Ur Head Against The Wall EP by Nia Archives, The Valley of Vision EP by Manchester Orchestra, Brothers & Sisters by Steve Mason, Tear Me to Pieces by Story of the Year

Tracks of the Week

Lean Beef Patty by JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown

The rumours of a collaboration album between hip hop superstars JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown has seemingly been around for years now, but it seems like the long-anticipated release is finally nearing its arrival. Whilst still no release date has been announced yet, we do have the first single which is a sub 2-minute hurricane of hard electronic blasts and lyrical wizardry.

Listen here

Sole Obsession by Nation of Language

One of the best new bands to debut during the lockdown years, new wave duo Nation of Language have quickly earned themselves a cult following off the back of their incredible first two records, Introduction Presence and A Way Forward. Now it appears a new era is on the horizon, with their dazzling new single Sole Obsession a prime example of why people simply can’t get enough of this band.

Listen here

Cello Song by Fontaines D.C.

The legacy of renowned singer-songwriter Nick Drake continues to live on, with a new compilation album in the works featuring covers of his most favourite songs from an enticing artist list that includes Bombay Bicycle Club, Let’s Eat Grandma, Radiohead’s Philip Selway, Feist and more. The first cover from the album to be released though is this brilliant take from Fontaines D.C. of Drake’s iconic Cello Song, with that band managing to pay homage whilst also making it their own.

Listen here

Everytime by Cub Sport

And finally this week, one of my favourite films of all time (for reasons I can’t completely pinpoint myself) is Harmony Korine’s surreal, arthouse summer flick, Spring Breakers.

From the vibrancy of the cinematography to the intoxicating Cliff Martinez soundtrack, to just the sheer hallucinogenic hedonism of it all, I just love everything about it. One thing in particular it does so well is the contradictory marriage between beauty and the beast that lies at the heart of the film, which is captured in no better instance than one certain iconic scene. In this magical moment, James Franco’s Alien plays Britney Spears’ Everytime on the piano, whilst the four girls waltz around him wearing Neon Ski Masks and carrying their shotguns, as montage footage of their dangerous escapades are intertwined. Surreal, completely nuts, but also oddly beautiful.

Now I’m not sure if that scene entered the brains of Aussie synth-pop outfit Cub Sport when they decided to cover this Britney classic, but the vocoder vocals and dazed electronica of this dreamy version of the song took me right back to that cinematic masterpiece. Check out the cover, then check out the film if you’ve never seen it - but don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Listen here

Also worth checking out: Messed Up by Holy Holy featuring Kwame, Line In The Sand by Hot Chip, Brian Eno & Goddess, CooCool by Roisin Murphy, Bloodshot by Enter Shikari, Ache by The Xcerts featuring Sam Carter

REMINDER: If you use Apple Music, you can also keep up-to-date with all my favourite 2023 tracks through my Best of 2023 playlist. Constantly updated throughout the year with songs I enjoy, it is then finalised into a Top 100 Songs of the Year in December.

Add the playlist to your library here

[oh-my-fane]

THE BASICS

Full Name.  Seoirse Rían O'Fannaín the Third Fifth Aka.  Fane Species.  Vampire Birthdate.  September 1, 1709 Age.  Three Hundred and Twelve Appears.  Twenty-One Gender.  Cis Male Pronouns.  He/Him Orientation.  Panromantic Demisexual Occupation.  Owner of Secret Realm, Musician Residence.  Deerhaven, Tennessee

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE

Hair.  Straight Mid Brown Eyes.  Blue Height.  5'9" (176 cm) Weight.  130 lbs. Distinguishing Features. Big blue eyes, Hair that seems to defy gravity Build.  Ectomorph Dominant Hand.  Left Blood Type.  O- Scars.  None Tattoos.  None Piercings.  None Face Claim.  Axel Auriant

PERSONALITY

Zodiac.  Virgo (Sun), Taurus (Moon), Virgo (Rising) Alignment.  Neutral Good Positive Traits.  Creative, Loyal, Kind-Hearted, Calm, Adaptable Negative Traits.  Clueless, Extreme-Altruist, Naive, Impulsive, Obsessive, Mischievous MB Type.  ENFP-T Personality Role.  The Artisan Enneagram Type.  The Helper, The Generalist, The Peacemaker

BACKGROUND

Birth Place.  Carlingford, Ireland Ethnicity.  Celtic Parents.  Seoirse O'Fannaín the Second (Father, Deceased) and Darina O'Fannaín (Mother, Deceased) Siblings.  Ebhlín O'Fannaín (Younger Sister, Presumed Deceased) Pets.  None Education.  Various Degrees Spanning Decades Notable Skills.  Ability to Play Instruments, Vocal Talents, Skilled Lyricist, Adaptable to Most Situations Languages.  English, Irish Gaelic, Spanish, French, German

HISTORY

TW: Death of Parents, Death of Sibling

Born in Carlingford, Ireland, Fane's parents were Jacobites, in Ireland, during the time of the most conflict between the Jacobites and the Williamites. Fane grew up believing the the Jacobite cause, even after his father died fighting the English. He still believed in the cause after his mother died in childbirth. Then eighteen, Fane never even met his sister, but he gave her a marked gravestone next to his parents, inscribing the name his mother intended to name her.

With little time to grieve, within the next month, Fane was pressed into service of the British Navy. He was criminally underpaid (rather he barely was paid at all). But he managed to buy a lute off of another sailor and began playing in ports for spare change. He collected the shillings with the hope of buying his freedom from the ship. Until a day that he met a man, Desmond, from his home country and offered him the thing he wanted most. Freedom.

Fane took the offer, determined to have any bit of freedom he could. All things have a price. And Fane's turned him into a vampire. Despite being told by Desmond the details of such an offer, he saw it as a curse, afraid of what he'd become, but Desmond was there, making sure he truly started to understand. As such, Fane learned to embrace it. Fane realised that by giving him immortality, Desmond gave him both a family again and preserved his music for eternity.

He spent most of his life since near his sire, but a few times over the years, Fane decided to go to school. School was not something he could afford when he'd been growing up, and the idea that he could learn and relearn the world was exciting to him. He moved with Desmond to Deerhaven about five years ago, buying the then-for sale Secret Realm and running the place. He continues to make music and grow as a musician, though he's apprehensive about compiling an album or even an EP.

[petrovna-zamo]

Once you watch Clue, The Witches of Eastwick, Death Becomes Her, Kill Bill and Soapdish you’ll realize that 75% of Katya’s UNHhhh intros are just quotes from those movies lol

[sugar-petals]

SuperM Fluff & NSFW Notes

↳ 🌹aka some of their romantic antics plus random 18+ imagines 👋

warnings ⚠️ rated (super) m, boyfriends hc, porn mentions, partial fem!reader, sex toys

FLUFF

since baekhyun knows how to make scented candles, he creates one for you as a birthday present with your favorite fragrances.

every entry in mark’s diary involves fond thoughts about you.

taemin kisses you more than his cat kkoongie on a daily basis so let that sink in. his smooch obsession is getting out of hand.

lucas, having giant fingers after all, learns how to knit in order to make you a warm scarf. he’s still a bit clumsy with it and had to call kun for advice, but the result is surprisingly proper and quickly becomes your favorite item. it’s a little huge but well, he thinks in his dimensions. lucas’ next project is a beanie.

ten overwhelms you with pet names. in fact, he seemingly seems to come up with a new one each day.

kai is a candlelight dinner, rose petals and music kinda guy. he does every old-school thing in the book.

taeyong can cuddle endlessly in bed. he just doesn’t wanna leave.

lucas gladly shares his sweaters. they’re ginormous so, perfect cuddle material.

baekhyun is already a fool. so — when he falls in love, he becomes an even bigger fool. or, the contrary happens: he becomes dead silent around his partner because he’s so enthralled. he can take this more seriously than you think.

mark likes to write little cards and many many texts to express his love.

lucas is the type who can help you put on your jeans when they were shrinking a bit too much in the dryer. he’s pretty sexy like that and things can get really touchy.

cheesy fucking kai, and there’s only one guy who would do this, has actually lowered himself over a puddle once so you would have a bridge. brushed it off like a daily workout rep.

not one shower missed without baekhyun joining you. yes, it’s not always sexy time, he likes it when you shampoo his hair and whisper sweet nothings. and obviously: it’ll all devolve to a laughing fit.

taeyong is the type who wants to be proposed to.

taemin will get a motorcycle license and take you for a frequent ride. he loves getting those kind of back hugs.

both ten and lucas are great at making bracelets. wayv’s dorm is fully equipped with charms, strings, and pearls, so expect matching ones for you.

we’ve seen it, that one’s his favorite move. kai wraps his hand around your shoulder when you walk together.

mark will ALWAYS share his melon.

making you swoon on a DVD evening is lucas’ favorite hobby. he will buy you the most sugary-sweet romance movies. he will often browse streaming sites to select the latest sentimental plots. all these dramas seem to have a male lead who is suspiciously tall and lanky.

if you allow him, taeyong customizes your white tees with his cute drawings.

since taemin swims in money thanks to his profession as the god of kpop (yes, this is a registered job name because i say so), he can fulfill you any wish. he’s stingy and pouty when the shinee hyungs can pay, and the motherfucker baekhyun is even richer since his albums have been taking off so he opens his mochi wallet when superm is gathered, but you... are a different case. taemin will humbly empty his entire pockets when he overhears you gushing over something. there’s a voice in his mind going: must splurge!!

mark loves christmas, you establish an annual tradition to stage a whole couple evening.

baekhyun likes to play charades and especially do karaoke with you. he’s always cutely wiggling his butt and dances like a drunk uncle. he hits the high notes anyway and makes sure you score 100 points.

taeyong can make out with you while at the same time making sure that the milk doesn’t get burned on the stove. kiss’n’stirr multitask tyong alert. gotta make sure the cocoa is served in time, you know.

all the members enjoy playing board games. yep, imagine the fun and sheer chaos.

lucas has the funniest laugh ever indeed. he’ll react to all your jokes, no matter how lame they might be. intensely reassuring.

taemin’s hand is basically glued to yours.

taeyong and mark are the kinds of boyfriends that spoil their partner with skincare. fancy a nice face massage with a nice fragrant oil?

baekhyun has been baking heart-shaped pizzas ever since you started dating. he just can’t make them round anymore.

mark will join you on anything you’re currently bingewatching. 

kai sometimes — only half-jokingly — goes down on both knees bowing forward with his hands on the ground just to show how much he wants to thank you. in case you didn’t notice: this guy treats you like a deity.

ten usually gets confused glances from the other members whenever he gets the current date wrong: he simply loses track of time with you.

lucas makes a habit of buying you flowers every other week. but on unpredictable occasions, and he arranges them in places you’d never expect.

taemin will build you a weird-looking snowman to make you laugh, and give it an even stranger name. ten will build one that looks like you. kai doesn’t build snowmen, he just stands there challenging you to throw snow balls at him.

mark will hang out with you at the beach constantly bringing his guitar. he’ll serenade you all the time.

returning from three months of touring, baekhyun has once climbed your balcony when your parents were in the other room. yep, he was that desperate to see you. somebody give this man a rope and helmet.

taeyong writes down heartfelt confessions on 365 folded slips of paper so you can open one every day. your reactions will range from ‘awwh!’ to straight-up tears.

ten does regular couple yoga with you. a mildly challenging form, not the circus acrobat version. he’ll do the difficult parts anyway. you can pretzel this guy up, he’ll do anything to make you laugh.

when it rains you hook your arm around his, and lucas always holds the umbrella. even the wildest gush of wind can’t make it turn inside out. you arrive home entirely dry. xuxi is so cute, he’s also a great source of cooling shadow in the summer without even trying.

taemin’s skinship overdrive doesn’t stop with endless hand-holding, back hugs and kisses. he wants to lay down in your lap whenever he can. he looks damn pretty with his hair splaying there. if you work on your laptop, you can pretty much count to ten and he’s already nestled there.

kai does pushups with you on his back. it’s a staple. each time he does one, he says ‘i love you’. he increases his count every day.

NSFW

it’s no secret that taeyong is great at acting or pulling off any outfit and costume. expect roleplay of the finest kind — literally. he looks good in a firefighter uniform. you’ll be burning up pretty much automatically.

taemin can’t keep his tongue in. it’s terrible. he’s always in the mood for head. his sloppy noises are the absolute worst, it turns you on way too fast.

lucas had some major problems finding condoms that fit him.

ten and taemin are so switchy, they have an unresolved power struggle going on. begs for a dominant third party to help them out.

kai owns expensive latex gear.

baekhyun may be the king of vocals and breath technique, but if you push him far enough he does get hoarse.

taemin often jokes how kai will one day break his dick from fucking too hard.

meanwhile, mark’s dick is already falling off – from fucking too often. this guy has some major hormones going for him. no surprise, a guy who can promote in four kpop groups at the same time is a stamina king.

taeyong likes eating pussy with another party involved. three’s a crowd my friend. sometimes it’s taemin who unleashes his spit waterfall power, sometimes it’s baekhyun who preoccupies himself with nibbling at the inner thigh while taeyong digs in.

taemin owns the most underwear.

mark takes valerian drops because he is so nervous in bed. it never really goes away, it’s his nature.

taeyong keeps a lube collection. a different flavor for all occasions. he likes associating certain scents with specific body parts.

kai has a heels kink. he literally goes wild over it.

taemin likes to have sex with favorite glasses on.

taeyong and kai are the most likely to cry during sex. baekhyun as well if you rough him up enough. 

mark gets rock hard the fastest, followed by kai. he’s a grower.

taeyong gets the best inspiration for a song when he gets a casual dick riding.

taemin watches extremely x-rated erotic thrillers and bdsm flicks that are heavy on the plot. he gets more invested in the characters and actors than you think. since his japanese is amazing? of course he also owns a giant 90s hentai collection. 

when he’s jerking off, baekhyun chokes himself. a) because he’d make too much noise otherwise and b) because asphyxiation is his favorite thing.

kai feels pleasure in his every cell. he cums the hardest. and, as you can expect, his body expresses it the most extremely, accurately, passionately. if you’ve seen it even once, you’ll never look at him the same again.

taemin has less experience than his discography claims, but more than you’d think. he researches sexual techniques as well. you can brace yourself.

mark has not just a tiger inside, but a freak inside, waiting to be unleashed.

sex while gaming is a go-to activity for baekhyun.

lucas has the best stamina when it comes to getting head.

taemin throws his head back during sex. and no, he doesn’t T-pose. i’m kidding — of course he does. but only when he’s on his back.

taeyong tends to grip a pillow when he cums.

or he humps one when he’s by himself.

ten has the best taste in sexy time playlists.

baekhyun has the best taste in singing his own playlist along.

oh, the things kai has bought at a gas station at 3AM.

baekhyun sucks strap the best. he can open his mouth the widest, drools a lot, and makes the best noises unsurprisingly.

how to turn on lee taemin? he likes getting slapped.

since he’s the most avid and most diverse eater, lucas’ sperm tastes the best. he’s shove 50 fruits into his system just to give you a sweet experience.

mark is absolutely a starfish. 

kai wears fishnet tops if you fancy it.

curiously, baekhyun out of all people doesn’t announce when he’s cumming. you’ll hear it, though.

taeyong’s dildo collection is one for the books.

taemin has visited a pro dominatrix a couple times. needless to say, he was the #1 favorite client at the dungeon. having fully submerged into a fantasy world, taemin was one whip crack away from falling in love with the mistress. but then covid happened and the venue closed.

mark’s dick looks really pretty.

taemin can grind on the strap at every humanly possible angle. he’s almost always ready to take it. he carries a prep kit.

kai — that fucker — knows how to make you wet the most with his bare hands. prepare for the thigh ride of your life, too.

taeyong, baekhyun, and taemin have the best arches. kai is coming for the top three as well. ten’s arch is so good, it can’t be considered one anymore.

baekhyun knows every adult movie out there. theoretically, nothing can shock him. in reality, he melts in your hands.

taeyong is so sexually active with you, he has quit eating garlic.

kai will exploit your muscle kink in any way he can.

taemin, being a devil, has that one button on his phone that he can press when you go out for dinner. he’s OBSESSED with getting you off. once you head home, it’s basically running down your thighs.

ten has once opened a condom with scissors to scare away a date that grew weird on him by the time it got to the do.

lucas is too tall for doing missionary normally.

this will surprise nobody: mark is great at constantly keeping up the dirty talk.

baekhyun’s car is sort of like a brothel on wheels. he can’t count how many times he got down and dirty in there. he cleans it all up by himself.

kai can technically grip you the hardest but he’s the gentlest and great at caressing the whole body.

taemin has the easiest time saying what precisely he wants. he is also the best people reader — most your wishes he can pretty intuit. taemin observes your interests well.

ten likes his hair pulled and makes angelic noises when you do so.

baekhyun likes camgirls and erotic chats with strangers online. he spends a lot of money for nsfw internet encounters.

[jeonwonhi]

Where can I find me a jeno, a Felix, a Vernon, a soobin, a Jake and a junghwan? ;-;

Also you need to introduce me to ateez because you're starting your cult and I wanna join and not feel left out

Take the first plane to Seoul and with a bit of luck, you might find them ;)

ATEEZ INTRODUCTION TIME!

Kim Hongjoong

Leader, lead rapper and songwriter/producer of the group

November 7th, 1998, INFP

He's the dad of the group

tiny

English king

A true fashionista, he even reforms clothes

In love with Seonghwa but will never admit it

HIT MAKING PRODIGY

Korean Big Minion™

Part of the demon line

Park Seonghwa

Lead vocalist, visual and eldest in the group

April 3rd, 1998, ESFJ

He's the mom of the group

Wants to be part of Woosan, aka Woosanhwa

He failed and Woosan are bullying him ever since just like the rest of ateez

ASMR KING (check out MARS ASMR)

Auditioned as a rapper, but changed into a vocalist his rap is amazing tho

Clean freak

Visual king

Actor (Imitation)

Part of the demon and thot line

Tried to flirt with Lee Know during Kingdom - he managed to fluster him lmao

Jeong Yunho

Main dancer and vocalist of the group

March 23rd, 1999, ENFJ

Learns the choreographies like a piece of cake

Golden retriever and energizer of the group

TALL

HUGE HANDS

Extremely lucky and competitive in games

Actor (Lead Role in Imitation)

News anchor (ANEWZ)

Wholesome bf vibes :(

TWERKING KING

I love him bye

Kang Yeosang

Lead dancer, visual and vocalist of the group

June 15th, 1999, ISFJ (my mbti twin)

Another visual king

The most quiet among ATEEZ - still a crackhead

SAVAGE™

Former BigHit trainee along with Wooyoung

He's friends with Yeonjun and Soobin of TXT

Has been friends with Wooyoung way before they joined KQ

He's really good at drawing

A fried chicken enthusiast

MC at SBS "The Show"

A R M S

Don't let him near the kitchen <3

Part of the thot line

Choi San

Lead vocalist, main dancer and face of the group

July 10th, 1999, INFP

Another english king

DUALITY AT ITS FINEST

ABS FOR DAYS

A total sweetheart

Embarrassingly in love with Wooyoung

He has a plushie named Shiber

King of facial expressions on stage

Iconic killing point in Answer

Actor (Imitation)

He's the cultural ambassador of his hometown, Namhae

Part of the demon and thot line

Song Mingi

Main rapper, main dancer and songwriter of the group

August 9th, 1999, ENTP

Spits fire on stage

Was on a hiatus due to back pain during Wonderland promotions but came back to MAMA 2019 with a mf BANG

TALL

A goofball of energy

Clumsy af but cute

I cAnnOt EngLiShY

Fake maknae

Honorary member of ONEUS lol

Has been on hiatus due to psychological anxiety since 15/11/2020, but he's coming back soon <3

Jung Wooyoung

Main dancer of the group

November 26th, 1999, ESFJ

An amazing performer

Insanely sexy

Underappreciated vocals :(

A whole ass tease

Former BigHit trainee with Yeosang

Embarrassingly in love with San

Besties with TXT Yeonjun, TBZ Juhaknyeon, SKZ Changbin, ASTRO Moonbin

Adopted Felix during Kingdom

A diehard ARMY (ppl say he looks like Jimin)

Mukbang and cooking king

Noisy af

T H I G H S

Part of the thot line

AOTM ON STUDIO CHOOM, GO STREAM

Choi Jongho

Main vocalist and maknae of the group

October 12th, 2000, ESFJ

4TH GEN VOCAL KING WBK

Hits highnotes like breathing air

STRONG AF

Mans can crack fruits with his bare hands

Main reason the rest of ATEEZ are scared of him

Otherwise, a baby <3

Extremely good at aegyo, but he's shy afterwards uwu

He's a diehard Monbebe

Friends with lots of 00 liner idols (TBZ Eric, SKZ Hyunjin, Felix, Han and Seungmin, Golden Child Bomin, ASTRO Sanha, AB6IX Daehwi) + SF9 Hwiyoung (they film Imitation together)

Actor (Imitation)

GIVE HIM A SOLO KDRAMA OST

They debuted on October 24th, 2018 with the mini album "Treasure: All to Zero". Their motto is 8 makes 1 team and their fans are called ATINY (ATEEZ + Destiny). They participated in Kingdom and finished third overall, giving out insane performances.

Songs to check out: EVERY SINGLE ALBUM CUZ THEIR DISCOGRAPHY IS PURE GOLD

[imhereandhistorical]

We doing this, we trucking along

WHEW

Day 4: Music! 

I’m gonna go more in depth with the genres later in the month, but here are some firsts in Black music history! 

Image descriptions will be under the cut!

[Image description: This is an infographic broken up into four smaller images. The background is a shade of light yellow. TItles in the text are set off by bold red type face, while section blurbs are done in black type face. 

First image: The top of the banner for the infographic says “Black History Month: Day 4-Music” in pale yellow text against a red background. 

On the left hand side, a black and white image of a Black woman is shown. She is wearing a dress in a vintage style, while holding a guitar. On the right hand side, the title says “1938, Sister Rosetta Tharpe” with a subheading underneath in bold, black type saying “The Godmother of Rock ‘n’ Roll.” 

Underneath this subheading, it reads: “In 1938, Sister Rosetta Tharpe invented what became known as rock 'n' roll when she hooked her guitar up to an amplifier. She is the basis for most of the early versions of rock music, from Chuck Berry and Little Richard to Elvis Presley.”

Second image: On the left hand side, the title says “August 11, 1973” with a subheading underneath in bold, black type saying “The birthday of hip-hop.”  Underneath this subheading, it reads: “ It's usually difficult to pin down an exact date for the beginnings of a genre, but invitation to a "Back to School Jam" on an index card gives us some hints. The block party itself happened in the Bronx, and is widely accepted as when what we know as hip hop was created.” 

On the right hand side, a color image can be seen. This is an invitation to a back to school party. The invitation is written on lined paper, with a red line across the top. The lined paper looks to be like an index card. The letters are done stylsitically, or in bubble letters and shaded in. It reads as: 

ADJ Kool Herc Party

*Back to School Jam*

Place: 1520 Sedgewick Ave, “Rec Room” 

Date:  August 11, 1973

Time:  9: 00 pm to 4: 00 am 

Admission: $.25 Ladies <3

$.50 Fellas

Given by: Kool Herc

Special Guests: Coco, Cindy C., Klark K, Jimmy T

Below this section, on the left hand side, a color image of a black woman can be seen. She is posing with her hands above her head, while holding a microphone. She is wearing a black top with blue jeans, and silver hoop earrings, bracelets and a large cross necklace. The top text on the image says “Luminary Icon” in blue font, and her emcee name is on the bottom right in script “Sha-rock.”

On the right hand side, the title says “1977, MC SHA-ROCK” with a subheading underneath in bold, black type saying “The first female rapper.”

Underneath this subheading, it reads: “Sharon Green, aka MC Sha-Rock is held as the first female rapper. Born in North Carolina, but raised in the South Bronx, she has been featured on the early mixtapes of rappers like MC Lyte and DMC, from Run-DMC. She was also a part of the first hip-hop group to ever be featured on television- Funky 4 +1.”

Third image: On the left hand side, the title says “1983, Michael Jackson” with a subheading underneath in bold, black type saying “The first Black person to be played on MTV.”  Underneath this subheading, it reads: “MTV first started in 1981, and they spent the first 2 years of their run showing exclusively white musicians/music videos. Michael Jackson was the first Black artist on MTV with his song Billie Jean. This is despite his success in a group act with his brothers in the '60s and his own solo success for nearly a decade before this.”

On the right hand side, a color image can be seen. This image is the album cover for Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean single. Here, Michael can be seen as a young Black man, leaning on his side. He is wearing a bright white suit jacket over a black shirt. The background behind him is plain black, with his name in script by his head. Below his name reads Billie Jean. 

Below this section, on the left hand side, a black and white image of a black man can be seen. He is wearing a jean jacket over a hoodie, and he has the hood pulled over his head. No hair can be see. 

On the right hand side, the title says “1995, Tupac Shakur” with a subheading underneath in bold, black type saying “Tupac pioneers hip hop poetry.”

Underneath this subheading, it reads: “Tupac was a major turning point in how mainstream media saw hip-hop. For most of white America, hip-hop, like rap, and rock and disco before it, was terrible music that was dedicated to worshiping the devil. With the release of his track "Dear Mama," which was dedicated to his civil rights activist mother, Assata Shakur, Tupac opened many people's eyes to the actual poetry and meaning behind the music.”

Fourth image: On the left hand side of the image, is a short list of websites used to get information for this infographic. 

On the right hand side of this image is the copyright.

End image description.]

[kpophours]

a very necessary guide to The Boyz

➥ basic information 

debuted on December 6, 2017 with Boy

currently consisting of 11 members (they used to be 12 members, but Hwall sadly departed from the group in October 2019 due to his ongoing ankle injury)

signed under Cre.ker Entertainment

their official fanclub name is “THEB” (aka deobi)

no official colors yet (we’re waiting, Cre.ker)

they have an official YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and vlive

they had their first win with Bloom Bloom in 2019

discography: four EPs (The First, The Start, The Only, Dreamlike), two Singles (The Sphere, Bloom Bloom), a special Single (White), one full album (Reveal), one Japanese release (Tattoo)

recently won mnet’s Road to Kingdom and should have participated in Kingdom this year, but sadly, the show has been postponed indefinitely

currently preparing for a comeback (September 2020)

... now onto the members!

➥ hyung line: Sangyeon, Jacob, Younghoon, Hyunjae 

▸ Lee Sangyeon - leader, main vocalist

born on November 4, 1996 (a Scorpio and the oldest member of tbz)

(not your typical) leader - he’s not really “the dad”, but truly more of an older brother to the others

often teases and pranks the other members and is one of the funniest members according to their “Who’s Who” video (see: video recs)

writes own songs - super talented and dedicated, a really hard worker

has a beautiful deep, soul filled voice (we’d LOVE to hear more of it @cre.ker) - check out his performance on King of Masked Singer

according to Eric, he’s the member with the best body - really likes to work out and is stacked™

he really, really loves mangos

says he’s not cute but is obviously very wrong about that

has a super cute smile and adorable laugh

looked too beautiful with pink hair (deobi will never recover)

super bad at literally any game - always, ALWAYS loses when it comes to rock-paper-scissors (would be hilarious if it weren’t so sad)

some fun facts: his mbti is ESFP-T (he doesn’t believe in those kind of tests though), he’s good at impersonating others (especially Eric), he has an older sister (who has two sons, Sangyeon is a super cute uncle to them which he recently showed in his BOYLOG - WARNING: extreme cuteness!)

▸ Jacob Bae - lead vocalist

born on May 30, 1997 (a Gemini, but he very rarely shows it)

his Korean name is Bae Joon Young

kinda the mom of the group, but his official title is the angel™ (he literally never gets angry, he doesn’t even curse! how does he do that even his older brother says they never fought while growing up)

is from Toronto and therefore ½ of Canadian and ⅓ of English line - so he’s obviously fluent in English!

really improved his dancing skills over the years and it shows (unofficial member of dance line, fight me cre.ker)

beautiful soft vocals, amazing high notes (see their Mirotic cover)

plays the guitar and composes/writes his own songs

an MC for Simply K-Pop together with Kevin

½ of the superior “MoonBae” ship (aka married to Kevin - they’re super cute together, truly just two halves of the same idiot)

used to play volleyball and basketball and is really good at both, has apparently been working out a lot recently (rip his stans)

some fun facts: his mbti is INFP-T, his family adopted a new dog and named him after him/gave him the nickname “Cobi” ("your family replaced you... with a canine” - Kevin Moon, 2020), has an older brother, is left-handed, used to be the biggest fan of cereal (literally stocked boxes of it inside his room)

▸ Kim Younghoon - vocalist, visual

born on August 8, 1997 (but the most untypical Leo ever - only shows he’s a Leo like, once a year)

tallest member and ⅓ of the so called “Bermuda line” (aka the visuals™)

an under appreciated vocalist - his performance on King of Masked Singer more than showed how amazing his voice actually is (LET HIM SING CRE.KER)

has a “cool/cold look” at first, but is actually the softest, shyest, most precious squish on this planet (and has super soft puppy eyes)

kinda bad at life - needs to be protected because he’s just so clumsy, pouts when he’s about to cry (me, immediately: *cries with him*)

sometimes just randomly zones out and dissociates for a bit

fell down the stairs and injured his collarbone (I TOLD YOU HE NEEDS TO BE PROTECTED) before their Europe Tour and the Reveal promotions and therefore didn’t participate in the choreography

loves loves loves LOVES dogs so much and (his family) has a poodle (we stan Bori in this household)

the softest™ when trying to speak English (I‘m not crying, I‘m just really allergic to his extreme cuteness)

was a model for the Seoul Fashion Week in 2017 (together with Juyeon)

some fun facts: his mbti is INFP-J (there are four (4) introverts in tbz and they all share the exact same mbti), has an older brother, appeared in I.O.I’s Whatta Man music video, was recently cast as the second lead for the drama Love Revolution (his first ever acting role! the world should look out for actor!Hoon), is a BTS fanboy (his bias is Taehyung/V)

▸ Lee Jaehyun (aka “Hyunjae”) - lead vocalist, lead dancer, visual

born on September 17, 1997 (a Virgo)

also one of the tall members and another third of the “Bermuda Line”

an amazing dancer and a great vocalist (had like, 98% of the lines in No Air, so he’s pretty much an undercover main vocal)

an allrounder

seems quiet and chill at first. DO NOT BE FOOLED!!!

he is: l o u d . a bit annoying but also very cute without trying (actually really dislikes doing aegyo). hear someone loud in the background (especially laughing)? yep. that’s him! you found him, congrats.

also very caring and soft, takes great care of the younger members (when he’s not behaving like one of the younger members himself, that is)

also nags them a lot though (at least according to Eric)

the biggest Iron Man fanboy (like, legit wrote a fan letter to Iron Man when he visited the Marvel studios in NYC he’s just so cute)

l o v e s, no, ADORES kids and dogs

also really loves fried chicken

the biggest IU fanboy! very recently covered her song When Love Passes By for their A to BOYZ cover series

MWOHASEYO (don’t ask, just watch)

some fun facts: his mbti is ENFJ-A, he has an older sister, he’s really close with Pentagon’s Kino (they had some very cute interactions during Road to Kingdom), he can spin literally any object (a very weird, random talent tbh), has very skinny legs (so... literally a skinny legend)

➥ middle aka ’98 line: Juyeon, Kevin, New, Q 

▸ Lee Juyeon - main dancer, vocalist

born on January 15, 1998 (a Capricorn)

the last third of the tall and “Bermuda line”

an amazing dancer - he trained very hard to be where he is now (went viral as “the bucket hat guy” from their Bad Guy dance practice with the 1MILLION dance studio)

has a very soft, beautiful voice needs more lines

has very sharp features and beautiful eyes - his personality is very different from his cold looks though, he’s actually very soft, caring and thoughtful

he’s very gullible and innocent (also needs to be protected), therefore often the victim of jokes - most people think he’s a bit dumb thanks to that, but he’s really not: he likes to read, watches a lot of documentaries, and is just more on the quiet side in general, he likes to think before he speaks (unlike Hyunjae for example, no shade)

also very clumsy (never leave him and Younghoon alone together, please)

booked and busy! had like, a trillion photo shoots just this year, and was also a model for the Seoul Fashion Week 2017 

very bad at taking selfies but he tries and we love him nevertheless

can speak Japanese and English, is also a really good cook

an MC for The Show (aka the “JuShow”)

some fun facts: his mbti is ENTP-T, is very flexible (especially for his height), he likes to work out, has a younger brother, was on the show Law of the Jungle (he really likes nature), biggest U-Know (TVXQ) fanboy (legit cried when he met him), likes to play basketball, has gigantic hands (20.5cm a bit excessive but okay)

▸ Kevin Moon - main vocalist

born on February 23, 1998 (a soft Pisces boy™)

his Korean name is Moon Hyung Seo

the other half of Canadian line aka MoonBae (therefore, married to Jacob)

is from Vancouver and fluent in English (⅓ of English line)

yes, he’s the living meme you probably know from all the “funny kpop videos” compilations, quotes vines on a daily basis

SO much more than just the meme-ber though, he’s extremely talented - BIG BRAIN ENERGY, his creativity legit knows NO LIMITS

has amazing drawing skills (that he often shares with deobi on Twitter) - actually designed the group’s logo tbz use for their official Twitter account

can play the piano and guitar (he’s truly just so talented and amazing - STAN KEVIN MOON Y’ALL)

HAS ONE OF THE BEST VOICES EVER AND WE’D ALL REALLY LOVE TO HEAR MORE OF IT ONE DAY, CRE.KER

can cook really well

also writes his own lyrics/songs 

an MC for Simply K-Pop together with Jacob

undercover visual (have you seen his cheekbones?! almost made me cry with his beauty when he had long wavy hair)

“I have no lips” - Kevin Moon, 2020

some fun facts: his mbti is INFP-T, has an older sister, his parents named him after watching “Home Alone” (iconic behavior right there), has a kinda embarrassing past (some of the pictures and videos… uh well, let’s just say he was born a meme legend), he participated in the show K-Pop Star before becoming a trainee 

▸ Choi Chanhee (aka “New”) - main vocalist

born on April 26, 1998 (a Taurus)

literally the prettiest human alive

legit looks like an angel (how is he not an official visual?!), but is a savage (and extremely funny, lowkey judges his members 24/7)

a bit of a drama queen but he’s so cute it’s okay

amazing vocal skills, does most of the ad-libs

looks too cute in a beret, that should be illegal

gets bullied by the other members, which is kinda fair but also a bit (too) much sometimes (#letChanheelive2020)

is a math genius, can calculate extremely big numbers inside his head and FASTER THAN AN ACTUAL CALCULATOR (this is SORCERY)

½ of the other iconic duo beside MoonBae aka “NyuKyu” (together with Changmin aka “Q”) - you heard of dumb and dumber, now get ready for New and Q!

takes the best selfies, holds the official title of Selfie King (according to the others, he takes the most selfies - according to himself, he doesn’t even take that many but just takes them in a very obvious way, so the others always notice him doing so) 

almost breaks his neck taking selfies

used to have a lot of half-time jobs before becoming a trainee

one of the members in charge of cooking (idk why, he managed to melt a spoon once)

doesn’t know how to swim (because - and I quote - ”he’s a CEO’s son”)

puts MILK FIRST, AND THEN CEREAL it’s over, he’s cancelled

some fun facts: his mbti is INFP-T, he really hates tomatoes, he has a tattoo (a cross on his left pinky), has an older brother, lowkey looks like a Volturi, dropped Younghoon’s new sunglasses TWICE which Hoon will never let him forget, he once accidentally ate a plastic fork (don’t ask)

▸ Ji Changmin (aka “Q”) - main dancer, vocalist

born on November 5, 1998 (yep, another Scorpio)

one of the best dancers in the industry (everyone can fight me on this) - went viral for his improvised dance to the Mario music

STAGE DEMON, has one of the best stage presences EVER, goes from 0 to 100 in literally no time

so cute it HURTS and takes the best boyfriend aesthetic pics (all moodboard makers thank him for this)

has dimples he likes to poke when saying “music cue (q)” (me: *cries*)

has a veeeeeeeeeeeeery long neck

can impersonate a giraffe and a pigeon

½ of NyuKyu aka dumb and dumber (WE LOVE BFFS) - they have some very iconic (cooking) vlives together

he’s very - and I say this with all my love - weird 

or, to say it more diplomatically, “unusual”: LOVES horror movies and has had Annabelle as his iPad background for the longest time now (according to himself, they apparently recently broke up though rip our favorite otp), says his favorite beverage at Starbucks are the napkins (???????), literally BEGGED Kevin to let him buy a stuffed pigeon plushie when they visited New York, says the creepy nun from The Conjuring is cute (again: ?????? *whispers* is he okay)

dolphin screams™ (you’ve been warned, turn down your volume)

got lost in New York City together with Kevin (never let them take the metro ever again, at least not... unsupervised)

has a poodle named Ghana and adores him (see this BOYLOG where he just hangs with his puppy, 10/10 recommend watching that)

some fun facts: his mbti is ESFP-T (same as Sangyeon, doesn’t believe in those kind of tests either), has two older sisters, is ambidextrous (but mostly uses his left hand), is really good at playing the piano (won a price in elementary school), his English name is James aka the most generic English name ever (no shade, no hate)

➥ maknae line: Haknyeon, Sunwoo, Eric 

▸ Ju Haknyeon - lead dancer, vocalist, rapper

born on March 12, 1999 (another Pisces!)

he is half Chinese, half Korean and lived in Hong Kong for a while

speaks some Mandarin, a bit of Cantonese and also some English

also one of the allrounders of the group (I SAID WHAT I SAID)

an AMAZING dancer! is really good at freestyling

taught himself how to b-boy

such a rich, amazing, stable voice (*bass boosted* more lines for Hak)

one of the funniest and most random members

very loud, randomly bursts into songs all the time even sings when sneezing

just generally really, really sweet and nice

before debut, he participated in the second season of mnet’s Produce 101 (was eliminated in Ep. 11 and ranked #19) - The Boyz were actually often referred to as “Juhaknyeon’s group” before/shortly after their debut

he’s a very good eater and eats A LOT (FINALLY A RELATABLE IDOL)

his family lives on Jeju Island and owns a pig farm - because of that (and because he eats a lot), one of his nicknames is “pig/piggie”

has a blindingly bright smile and is such an underrated visual

yes, you can probably drown in his beautiful, deep chocolate eyes

he and Hwall accidentally became thieves in NYC (they forgot to pay for their food, but went back later to do so so no jail time!)

some fun facts: his mbti is ENTJ-T, he’s really close with Seventeen’s Seungkwan, he has two sisters (one younger, one older), NOT a morning person AT all (relatable), really good at organizing stuff (as seen during the Battle Trip to Jakarta episodes with Hyunjae), really good and fast at peeling tangerines

▸ Kim Sunwoo - main rapper, vocalist

born on April 12, 2000 (an Aries and his fire sign nature shows)

a flawless rapper, just... truly superb. also an amazing dancer !

actually auditioned to be a vocalist (so he has amazing vocals, too), but became a rapper instead

tbz’ unofficial stuntman (as seen during Road to Kingdom), even though he’s actually really scared of heights

can play the guitar

on the other end of the “lip spectrum” - because unlike Kevin, Sunwoo has a lot of them (lemme just *smooch*)

literally one of the wittiest, most savage people on this planet (GOOGLE SEARCH: HOW TO BE SO FUNNY)

used to drink a lot of juice to keep himself healthy

is really good at soccer and used to play when he was younger

beautiful deep brown eyes that hold every star and galaxy in them 

Mr. Coconut Hair™ (really makes it work though - still, every deobi screams when we get to see his forehead (which is like, once a year if we’re lucky))

a real stage demon but in reality an actual baby™ + scaredy cat needs to be protected at all costs

had a mental breakdown when he had to eat a bug after losing rock-paper-scissors 

always yells “GO AWAY ANNA” whenever someone knocks on his door (especially if it’s New)

some fun facts: his mbti is ENTP-A, has a younger sister (who’s taller than him, he’s really salty about that), he’s really close to some of the other ‘00 liners in the industry, he understands English quite well but doesn’t really speak it, also contributes to a lot of tbz’ songs

▸ Eric Son - maknae, lead dancer, lead rapper, vocalist

born on December 22, 2000 (another Capricorn)

his Korean name is Son Young Jae 

he was born in South Korea, but grew up in Los Angeles and is therefore fluent in English (⅓ of English line)

a great dancer (knows soooo many choreographies, it’s insane)

an amazing rapper (deserves more lines!)

hyper 24/7 watching him makes me tired, where does he get all that energy from

talks fast and a lot. never shuts up. you can’t make him. he tries to tell you one (1) story, but ends up telling 10 different ones along the way.

really good a baseball and loves to watch games

super close to Juyeon and used to go to Ju’s place during holidays as his own family lives in the US (my JuRic heart)

really neat and tidy, loves to clean maybe almost a bit neurotic about it

just generally really, really cute ???

a huge GOT7 fanboy (RELATABLE)

a thot on stage, should not be left unsupervised

close friends with Stray Kids’ Felix (his best idol friend according to himself)

also close to GOT7’s Mark (they’re also really cute together)

performed CPR on a watermelon once (it sadly still died, Eric gets an A for effort though)

some fun facts: his mbti is ENFJ-A, he has an older sister (who lives in New York), does NOT look like the maknae which often confuses people, really good and fast at solving Rubix cubes

➥ former member: Hwall 

Heo Hyunjoon (aka “Hwall”) - lead dancer, lead rapper, vocalist

born March 9, 2000 (yet another Pisces!)

from Busan

such a good dancer, truly incredible

very soft rap tone 

looks a bit like a cat

is very acrobatic

has a “cool” persona, but is actually just a certified babie boy™

used to live in the Philippines for four years and can speak English

the official fashionista of tbz, some of his outfits are truly just iconic

his signature aegyo is to shoot an arrow at deobis’ hearts (Hwall actually means “bow” in Korean)

can get very clingy with some members

had to sit out during D.D.D promotions and decided to leave The Boyz in 2019 (he’s still in the music video though!)

in August 2020, it was announced that he left Cre.ker Entertainment and established his own label called Dia Note

the same month, he debuted as Hyunjun Hur with the song Baragi 

you can follow his official Instagram and YouTube

some fun facts: his mbti is ENFP, he’s still in contact with the other members (said he especially misses Juyeon and Hyunjae *sobs*), his role model is BTS’ Jimin and he actually went to the same dance academy (also knows pretty much all their choreographies/songs by heart)

➥ some videos to watch 

all their music videos of course

all their live stages/performances too

BuzzFeed’s Who’s Who

Metro UK’s Quick Questions

their Billboard interview

their Weekly Idol episode

their Idol Room episode

their Road to Kingdom performances: Sword of Victory, Danger, Reveal, Heroine, Quasi una Fantasia, Checkmate 

their dance covers: Girls Generation’s The Boys + GOT7′s Hard Carry’, TVXQ’s Mirotic, TWICE’s What is Love, EXO’s Love me Right, EXO’s Call me Baby, Super Junior’s Sorry Sorry

Q, Haknyeon and Jacob for the Idol dance cover challenge 

their Billie Eilish Bad Guy stage for KCON 2019 + the dance practice

their dance cover medley

drop the dance at KCON 2019

their performance on Immortal Songs

Q’s Mario dance

their Halloween dance practice for Bloom Bloom

their “Identity Film: Generation Z” videos which show a very different side of each member

my personal emotional support kpop video

The Boyz - The Play “Mafia game” (aka a mess™)

their A to BOYZ cover series (five members have been released so far): Jacob, Hyunjae, Sunwoo, Juyeon, Q

and if you have the time: their whole The Castle concert 

➥ their shows 

The Boyz - Summer Vacation

The Boyz in New York City

Come On! The Boyz

Come On! The Boyz School

The Boyz - Flower Snack (pre-debut)

The Boyz - The 100 (shortly after debut)

The Boyz - Otoseyo (Japanese show)

The Boyz  - The Mission

The Boyz - The Play

there are literally endless videos on YouTube - especially “The Boyz memes” / “funny The Boyz compilations” and so on, but I won’t include those here as you can easily find them on your own !

... and that’s it (for now), if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to send an ask - and please give their new comeback lots of love, they are so talented, funny, dedicated and hardworking, and truly just deserve the whole world 💞

[masterlist] | [requests] 

[dustedmagazine]

Various Artists — Soft Touch Express Vols. 1-3 (Trax Only)

Soft Touch Express Vol. 1 by Trax Only

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: When the pandemic settled in and quarantine kept everyone home, New Orleans-based party promoters Trax Only were left with a lot of time in the space where DJing and socializing might’ve been. The collective — Kathi Kniess, Brett Labauve (Bouffant Bouffant) and Mark Louque (Father Figure/FFigure) — were caught in the anxious state of energy without direction, creativity in fits and bursts but nowhere to put it. There was a lot of napping. 

But as 2020 went on, the idea of a compilation slowly, intriguingly came together. Now, with the release of three mini-albums in March and the delivery of a 90-page risograph-printed zine to accompany them, Trax Only has not just a musical manifesto for its wild nights out, it has a snapshot of dance music’s stalled months, too.

As Kniess says in the zine’s final pages, “the quarantine had a silver lining: There was more time to focus on production. Why not provide a digital platform for this output and bring along other queer producers we love and admire?” After six years of promoting dance nights featuring a mix of names passing through — I recognized Egyptian Lover, Horse Meat Disco, Octo Octa and Rayna Russom at a quick glance of the thank yous at the back of the zine — that took cues from the cities they loved (New York, Berlin, Chicago, San Francisco, etc.) and incorporated them with their own homespun party-making mentality, they now had a chance to give back. 

And how they’ve delivered. Trax Only may be based in New Orleans, but as these compilations show, its reach extends far beyond the bayou: Of the 21 producers featured across these three volumes, only five are based in the Big Easy. There’s representation from locales near (Atlanta, Memphis) and far (Los Angeles, Portland, New York, Berlin), and the ground covered isn’t just in where perspectives or where the musicians are from, either: The sonic territory slowly blooms as you listen through each volume. 

The music centers itself with house in the restrained future cruisin’ of Ruth Mascelli, Olive T, Jacob Meehan, DJ NSA and a deep house queens’ anthem from Love Letters, but it also covers a great deal of ground beyond that broad umbrella. Shaun J. Wright’s “I Pray How My Ancestors Prayed” is an ideal opener for what’s ahead and could easily be envisioned as the opener to any set, a stripped back, drums-forward number with just the barest hint of keyboard and a tense vocal intoning the title. Sappho and Jon Damon Boucher’s “I Want You” is an early highlight, its chorus airing out over a swooning harmony and a surprisingly busy percussive clattering that, once you hear, you can’t take your ears off trying to pick it apart. Bouffant Bouffant’s “Night Blue” is another, featuring piano and what sounds like bongos and a dubbed out melodica. 

Sfireman’s “All Right” that closes out Vol. 1 is one of the set’s more interesting sonic outliers, a 16-bit videogame soundtrack clocking in at less than three and a half minutes that makes for the shortest track here. But it opens things up a bit for the second and third volumes, which feature the malfunctioning robotics of FFigure’s “Self Checkout,” Marceaux Marceaux aka z72.52’s appropriately named light breaks throwback “Time Warp,” the acid of Juana’s “1E Strategy” and Ephemera’s cosmic wandering “Lava Lava.” Indeed, Vol. 3 might be the most eclectic and hard-hitting of the bunch, peak-hours energy exuded by Bézier’s jacking “Vocalise,” the dark techno thumper from Ariel Zetina on “Security Theatre,” the outright fastest bpm of the bunch on Jasmine Infiniti’s “iono” (so fast that the track can’t seem to stop itself, truncating abruptly at the finish), and the sample-happy (Flava Flav most prominent among them)  “People in the House” from Good Xtreme to close. 

Credit is due in part here to the mastering done by Lucia Martinez aka DJ Saskia, a producer in their own right who’s helped forge a coherent vision for the label and, as an added bonus, offers suggestions for a home studio starter kit. Though she has no tracks present on these volumes, their deft touch behind the boards is evident and each track comes through clearly. 

The Soft Touch Express volumes are a cogent representation of club culture’s frustrated id. The biographies, interviews and essays are engaging and enlightening, but there’s no mistaking what’s absent, that raw ache, that irrefutable yearning for the soft touch of another, that desire to commune in what is still one of humanity’s few remaining egalitarian spaces: the dancefloor. Humans funking together is what this stuff is all about, and say what you will about its effectiveness as a motivator for dishwashing, there’s no denying where it belongs — and what’s absent in these songs and across the pages of this zine is, well, us. At the precipice of a possible return later this year, Trax Only has gifted us a moment of reflection, what it means to care about partying and what a better world might sound like amid the sweat and smoke when our bodies finally, gratefully return to one another. 

Patrick Masterson

[winebleeds]

by popular request here’s a look at the spencers’ celebrity verses.

FIRST OFF. certain plots may change the dynamic of the spencers or if the spencers knew your muse(s) as children. aka, if robert ... yeah robert, threw all four kids into stardom without them ever really having a say in it, where maybe he became semi popular at some point before ellesmere gobbled him back up. in this case, the spencers would be use to the spotlight since children & could even be kid stars (like being on d*sney) before molding into the celebrity selves mentioned below. otherwise, everything follows the main timeline, except one (or two, with liz & maddie) of the spencers decide to incorporate themselves in hollywood. here, only the one spencer is well known as the other live normal lives. if we do go with the ‘all spencers were celebs’ verse, then the way that happens can be privately discussed. otherwise, the following are based on the other siblings having normal lives. heck, maddie’s main verse is her trying to go into the music industry, so she main can easily meet other celebs. NOW, onto the individual verses.

ELIZABETH AND MADDIE

but pineapple didn’t you say indi- yes, but these two are integral for their verses. even if the focus for this verse is liz being more popular than maddie, they both influence each other AND are involved in their separate careers, that you cannot separate them in terms of explaining this verse, aka if liz decide to sing songs for a living.

here, instead of asking about how things are fixed, a young liz finds herself interested about how people make music. it’s still building upon broken or new parts, creating songs out of them or learning instruments instead of wrenches. robert, always wanting a high status, sees his young daughter’s interest & upcoming talent as a potential way to climb that social ladder; he may not get her into politics, but she was going to be a star. 

so her free time surrounded in the studios and music lessons instead of horses & books. some of her mix tapes went to producers, robert bought an apartment in nashville for longer stays. around this time, maddie is born, but liz is too busy caught in the whirlwind of the life robert is now forcing onto her, & the pending divorce between her parents. this confusion brought years of writing material down the road. the heartbreak & separation in her personal songs isn’t about lovers people love to interpret. no, it was a broken family that led to the broken persona.

by the time maddie can truly remember, elizabeth had begun a true music career. her first album came out with somewhat success; better than mediocre but nothing too mainstream yet. but the country scene is talking about the teenager becoming a future staple with more practice. so a major producer took liz in as a protégé. her first tour was her being an opening for the z*c br*wn band alongside her first album. (later down the road, a popular video of hers on youtube is a live footage of her covering ‘highway 20 ride’ with them)

& all a young maddie can do is look at awe. she doesn’t really see too much of her older sister, but that older sister showed maddie how to play guitar, how words connect into musical poetry, telling her who was who. even as maddie grew to not like the country genre that elizabeth is heading towards, maddie’s love for music only enhance, deciding to live with robert & elizabeth in when the courts ask maddie where she wants to go. 

but when maddie is of age to tell the courts she wants to live with robert, nowin la, elizabeth had three albums, the second a surprising platinum & on country charts. the closest of high school for her was music videos with the school setting. she captures the teenage spirit while holding herself with a posture of maturity. and that maturity grows with her college third album, departing from country into the top 40 pop. the start of her 20s brought her to la & stardom... but, oh, does she hate it. even more as her father savors in it.

one of her biggest scandals (besides being known as a heartbreaker) comes from a panic attack in front of the paparazzi's around the time of her third album, when her claustrophobia took over. and her claustrophobia still hasn’t gone away; people that used to work for elizabeth know of her tears in bathroom until she was able to recoup. she’s able to hide this better now that she’s six albums & 5 tours in as of 2021. these later album mix her pop & country genres, integrating into folk & the alternative of her actual preference. some of her signatures have been not changing pronouns of covers or singing songs with she/her, alluding to her bisexuality. but people go in depth in interpreting songs they know of her own, with her and another spencer on credit...

because many songs under elizabeth are a joint effort with her sister, the better songwriter but less famous. it has brought jealousy with maddie, knowing the pop status made elizabeth a household name. but maddie is a bassist/songwriter in a band in a niche alternative rock group, & she adores those fans... and maddie sometimes feel lucky, sometimes, knowing the paparazzi are less involved than the panic they bring to elizabeth. and, even though they have enough money to live on their own in the hollywood hills, they live in the same mansion together. even at the surface shows separate lives, they both need each other, wanting to make up lost time of lost childhoods through this common interest of songs. and, seeing how music makes maddie smile, elizabeth may consider her current life is worth it... for her sunshine...

JAMIE 

sadly, i won’t go into the details i did for maddie & liz. but, jamie as four scenarios. first, is the generic actor au where he often plays jocks in earlier shows & more comedic roles (like being frequent on snl) though he wants to break from that pretty boy status with his newfound sobriety. this may play more into the all spencers found stardom.

the next two can fit into the main timeline. instead of getting too injured to play football, jamie does end up in the nfl, where he can mingle with the popular crowds. then, there’s the sports announcer au. instead of fitness training after his downfall, he decides to go into a possible career of announcing the sport he once played or other sports. while not entirely popular here and just gaining a face, he’s a pretty face. might even take a small tv role.

finally, and perhaps the most sought after, is his dancer au. here, dancing replaces football (perhaps br*tney sp*ars had a bigger influence on him), especially if he meets irene earlier and follows her around. this could be him becoming a dancer in a company (aka ballet) or he’s a known background dancer for music videos. so he doesn’t have mainstream status, but known in the industry. most likely to be set up to date someone either in popularity or look slightly more relatable. 

RALEIGH

he’s a director / producer / writer, so he stays behind the scenes. but he does have a grammy under his belt. and while he’s been told he has movie star looks, he doesn’t like being on the camera, just behind it. even for the verses where he was once a child actor. maybe he even started writing / working with medical shows before dramatic movies & even a documentary. 

[abstractanalogue]

Capratone, The Asteroids & The Metronoids (for Beginners)

Tracks & Traces #13: I’ve been planning to write about the music of Capratone, The Asteroids and The Metronoids for sometime and have finally gotten around to it (somehow its been almost 3 years since the last T&T). The link between these bands is Andrew Lyster (now living in Brussels) and as I will explain, he kindly answered some of my questions for this hybrid Tracks & Traces. Since originally publishing this piece Richie Kelly of Capratone has also similarly added valuable information I would never have been able to share otherwise. Usually I just depend on my memory, the records, press cuttings and any surviving notes I took  from the times but as I got deeper into the story there were too many question marks about line-ups (pre-Capratone), the issue of a possible ‘lost’ Capratone album and don’t even get me started about The Metronoids!  At time of writing most of this music is hard if not impossible to find streaming online and I couldn’t even locate any band photos or videos either. Which is all the more reason to write a piece to mark their existence and hopefully spark a revival of interest. When I was putting the finishing touches to the article I did discover there is now at least some music from The Asteroids on YouTube. Not long after I originally shared this piece, Joss Moorkens of Capratone sent me two band photos, the first line-up (L-R: Fiachra, Joss, Andrew) and as a four piece with Richie Kelly (below).  

I first saw Andrew Lyster play (vocals/guitar) when I caught The World of Pugh in a venue I only went to once, Dillinger’s. Like many things from those days it’s long gone but it was a bar with a small stage (up some stairs?) somewhere off Dublin’s Capel St. (18/3/94). As I totally forgot who was in the rest of the band I’ll let Andrew take up the story.

“The World of Pugh was the first group where I wrote songs. I think it started around 1993. Originally it was Keith Swan on drums and a fellow called Brian McEleney on bass. Then in 1994 I brought some songs in and Brian took off to be replaced by Niall Brown (who was also the singer and guitar player for The Moustaches). Niall played bass for World of Pugh in the form where we had songs and did gigs.”

I’m sure someone like Joss Moorkens (then drumming with Tucker Suite) had told me about TWOP and the name had struck me (there was a very cool hand drawn flyer for the gig). They played bottom of the bill with Tucker Suite, Budge and Schroeder’s Cat, all part of a very exciting little scene at the time. Less than two weeks later I happened to see TWOP again on a bill with The Moustaches at a house party on Middle Abbey Street. The Moustaches, who sadly never released anything, were also part of this same scene (in my mind anyway). As I recall, this latter show was on the second or third floor of a semi derelict space in which a friend of both bands was living as a caretaker. Andrew has now told me that he and Keith Swan actually lived there and it was where TWOP rehearsed. I remember sitting on an old mattress and really enjoying the atmosphere (a cymbal was tied to a rafter). I do remember that TWOP had a real sense of humour on stage with some crowd involvement going on. They never had any releases but might well have recorded something (I’ve also heard tell of an unreleased album by The Moustaches!). This would be the last time I saw them play, perhaps it was even their last show? It would be another year before I would see Andrew onstage again.  

While researching this piece I did find an Irish band family tree which shows that Andrew, Joss, Fiachra Lennon and Brian Gough were in a band called Mudshark (1991-92), which was not actually their first band. Again, Andrew gave me some more information which I thought was worth sharing and clarifying about these early days.

“Brian Gough (later in Mexican Pets) had been in an even earlier band than Mudshark with me called The Foots. This band only played one gig in a pub in Dun Laoghaire in 1991. Our friends had to listen to the music from the street because they were too young to get in. After The Foots broke up I think Brian went on to another group called Harvey, and then Tucker Suite with Greg Barrett (later in Joan of Arse) on bass initially. Greg then did Schnorbitz with Joss, and had a cool band called Giraffe Running.”

Andrew’s next band would be Capratone (vocals/guitar) along with Joss on Drums and Fiachra on bass. Regarding song-writing Andrew told me, “For the most part I would write the songs and we would try to make them better by all writing our own parts through rehearsals. One or two were group written from stuff that happened in rehearsal.”  I first saw them in another venue off Capel St. supporting Schroeder’s Cat at Behan’s Bar (previously The Fox & Pheasant) (3/4/95) and again just ten days later at The Plough with (surprise surprise) The Moustaches and Schroeder’s Cat. I would get to see this line-up play quite often on local bills until Sept ‘97 (more on this later). I recall they also played a short tour around Ireland with US band The Make-Up (April ‘97). 

In early ‘96 they tried to record an album with producer Marc Carolan. Andrew told me it was to be called, “Le Plus Roll, because we felt our music was more Roll than Rock. I can’t pin down the exact date of the recording, but my guess is that it was in 1996. We had 2 days in a studio somewhere in Rathgar. It was a 24 track ADAT studio. I think it had a Soundcraft desk. The highlight equipment-wise was an incredible Ampeg bass stack that belonged to some professional band. Its sound was so authoritative and great that by the end of the long first day’s recording, when I had crawled into bed, I was woken up a couple of times by LOUD auditory hallucinations of Fiachra’s P Bass blasting through that thing. Marc, and the three of us all worked really hard for the two days, we did manage to record and mix all the songs we came in with, but I think the short time-frame worked against us capturing the right aesthetic. The means of production were expensive to rent and we couldn’t afford to record even in a project studio like that for more than a day or two.”

Luckily, one of the songs, ‘Homeward’, ended up on the Irish band compilation album, Zip Up Your Boots For The Showbands (1996). I always loved this intricate and explosive song and a whole album like this would have been quite something. The only place online you can hear it now is on a radio show I made for Dublin Digital Radio about bands that played in Dublin’s Attic venue. I must point out the musicianship of Capratone, it may not have been so obvious in the more noisy Tucker Suite but Joss was such an amazing and distinct drummer and both Fiachra and he so easily locked together. They created a lot of space for Andrew’s vocals and guitar for these catchy and very inventive songs to really flow. 

At some point in late 1996 Richie Kelly joined (on right in pic) on guitar and they played as a four piece. At some other point Andrew left but as the band continued things must have been going really well musically. According to my notes the last two times I saw Capratone play was at the start of September ‘97, supporting The Sewing Room and Luggage at Dublin’s Mean Fiddler and then a headline show in The Funnel venue at the end of the same month. This doesn’t mean they stopped playing of course but for whatever reasons I didn’t see them again. Things don’t stay static, I did get really into electronic dance music and clubbing the following year but continued to see guitar bands as well but gigs would clash, allegiances, circumstances and tastes change, choices have to be made. 

At some point this second line-up hooked up with Dublin label Folkrum Records (run by Dan Watson) and they recorded a mini album, The Art of Go, which was released in early 2000 (CD only) and produced by Simon Kenny aka Si Schroeder. At that stage Joss and Fiachra were still in the line-up with Richie and Eric Sexton (on guitar). I wasn’t sure if any of Andrew’s songs survived after his time with the band (on the Capratone page of the old Folkrum website he only gets thanked for the name) so I needed to ask him about it, “I didn’t write anything on the LP called The Art of Go. There was a strange overlapping series of line-ups in Capratone but when I left I think Richie Kelly (who was a recently arrived guitar player joining the original 3 piece) took on the song-writing job. As far as I know those Art Of Go tunes were all of his making. Richie went on to make a few attempts at recording subsequent line-ups of Capratone.” According to Joss’ short biog of the band on Last.fm, by the end of Capratone the line-up had changed completely from the original one. 

Since I published this piece Richie Kelly has been in touch and has kindly provided more detail about joining the band and how his role and the line-up evolved. “I saw Capratone in 1996 and was blown away. Even before the show ended, I wanted to join but that seemed unlikely. It turned out that Andrew’s song-writing was taking a new direction and he had decided to add a second guitarist. We were connected through an extended friend group and apparently word had gotten to him that I was as enamoured with The Beach Boys as he was. We bumped into each other and started talking music and I must have auditioned and joined the band shortly thereafter. At some point I brought a song to the band and we added it to our set (with my vocals). I started contributing more so when Andrew decided to stop playing, we just continued. We added Eric Sexton, a friend and former bandmate. The Art of Go was recorded by Simon Kenny with basic tracking done over a weekend at a large room in Joss’ father’s business. Simon and I continued vocals and overdubs at his flat in Donnybrook.”

Surprisingly none of this music has made it onto YouTube or anywhere else online that I could find. It can be bought on Discogs, which is how I got my hands on it about two years ago. In my opinion it works really well as an EP, with a few really engaging tracks but with some filler too. The best for me would be ‘Clozer’ which sounds like a lost classic and musically is a more full bodied version of the band heard on ‘Homeward’. ‘Free Jazz’ is pleasingly upbeat and cruises along on Beach Boy vibes. They do sound quite American (Pavement and bands of that ilk) at times (as did Capratone mark 1) but this was very much the sound and influence of the times, everything still comes down to the quality of the song-writing. The band broke up a good while later, sometime in 2003 without anymore releases. At some stage Richie Kelly moved to Brooklyn, New York and started a similar sounding band there but with more brass, Sport of Kings. He even re-recorded ‘Free Jazz’ and made a video for it. The influence of Brian Wilson is clear on this song in particular, they cleverly re-use The Beach Boy’s ‘Cool, cool water” line in the song (also present in the original version). Apart from some positive reviews of their only EP, Logic House (2011), there is little sign of the band online either but at least you can check out their excellent video for ‘Free Jazz’ (see below). I did find just one image of Capratone at this time on the Folkrum website, which I have enlarged below. Richie is the golf club carrying member. 

In my original piece I wasn’t sure what happened to Capratone next so Richie can take up the story, “The Art of Go attracted the interest of Shifty Disco, who released all of the Elephant 6 stuff in the UK. We set about making a full length for them which we were calling Aviation High. Simon Kenny was initially set to record but was so busy with other projects, I asked Andrew to do it and he agreed. Drum and bass tracking took place in a studio in Dublin. Andrew and I indulged our love of tinkering at his family home while recording my parts and mixing. The result is a pretty high fidelity Capratone record. Shifty Disco preferred the super compressed Capratone of the previous record and passed. We trudged along with some line-up changes after that. The most stable line-up though was myself, Cian Synnot on drums, Fiachra McCarthy on guitar and Michael Stevens (of Groom and many other excellent bands) on bass. As Joss said, no original members were left by the end of Capratone. I believe we kept the name simply because we couldn’t come up with a new one, apparently I have a problem naming things. When I ended up opening music studios and practice spaces in Brooklyn after moving there, I asked Joss if I could use the name of his label Scientific Laboratories because I loved it so much and couldn't think of an alternative.”

I think it’s well worth including here what happened with Richie’s next band Sport of Kings. “My love of fidelity only increased as the years continued except my focus switched from The Beach Boys to Steely Dan. I because obsessed with doing an indie rock version of their music and Sport of Kings took that direction. The initial line-up was drums, bass guitars and Fender Rhodes and then we added a horn section and a drummer from NYU’s Jazz Program who were incredible and took things to a whole different level.”

“After our Logic House EP, we made a full record (15 songs to be called Queer Theorem) with Michael Leonhart of Steely Dan as producer and occasional synth/horns/vocals contributor. This was essentially a dream come true for me. Initial tracking was done by me at a studio in Brooklyn and painstaking overdubbing, vocals and mixing was done by myself and Michael at his mixing room in the city. Ironically, we recorded yet another version of ‘Free Jazz’ with Michael. I’m not sure why I keep rerecording it but it might have something to do with Andrew and I finding out Brian Wilson used to record ‘Proud Mary’ every time he went into a new studio to check the sonics. I think I now have 4 completed versions!”

“I put an enormous amount of effort into Queer Theorem but it took so long that by the time it was ready, many band members were so in demand by big artists that they had little time to give. Keeping a 7-piece band of amazing musicians afloat proved too difficult and I disbanded the group rather than trying to recruit new musicians. I had also taken that level of fidelity to its conclusion and I returned to looser music after moving to Portland, OR.”

The next ‘band’ Andrew founded was solo project The Asteroids. I don’t think he ever presented it live but there was just one release, an exquisite three track 10″/CD, Moonlight Music For Beginners, which was released on Joss Moorkens’ Scientific Laboratories label in 2000 (the same year as The Art of Go). You can listen to what has to be my favourite song, ‘Nine Lives’ at link below (the other two songs can helpfully be found on the same channel and I’ve linked them here). According to the sleeve notes it took two years to record, with I assume Andrew playing all the instruments and doing the programming etc. I was sure to pick this up on vinyl at the time and have cherished it since. The amazing paintings on front and back were by the artist Niamh McGrath.

‘Nine Lives’ is so laid back, rich in instrumentation but for me it’s all about Andrew’s vocals (Alan Kelly of The Last Post also provides additional backing vocals). The lyrics prove to be the real earworm for me, “Who is the man, who has done this to you?” with an unexpected lyrical twist at the end. The song has somehow burrowed its way into my consciousness and over the past 20 years has been liable to play in my head at any time. ‘Return Of The Moonlightman’ is more sparse and based again around the vocal arrangement, a second deeper voice (John Parkinson) enters the fray about halfway and it goes to another level with a lovely gradual close. ‘The Great Escape’ is dominated by a really warm organ sound that pulls you along. This one in particular reminds me of Brian Wilson, one of Andrew’s touchstone influences. It’s one of those releases which has dated really well in my opinion and is pretty much unknown I think (I don’t know how many were pressed or sold). There was so much promised with this release and frankly it’s something of a shame it was not followed up at the time. If Andrew had been signed or whatever then things might have happened differently but like all of the bands I’ve written about in this series, we’re lucky to have what we have and the music will last forever. You can still find it for sale on Discogs and it can be played and purchased on iTunes and Tidal. There was one other song from this period, ‘Lunar Doo Wop’, released on a compilation CD included free with the first Foggy Notions magazine. I vaguely remember it but can no longer find my copy (the title tells us all we need to know!). 

Sometime in 2005 or later I bumped into Andrew and he gave me a CD from his latest group The Metronoids. It was a two track disc in a plastic wallet (no cover artwork or personnel details) called Petroleum. Today this doesn’t even exist on Discogs never mind anywhere else! Until I asked Andrew about it I wasn’t sure if this had simply been a promo but he told me there was artwork etc. The reason I probably never saw it for sale is that I left Dublin in 2005. For a bit more information I had to dig into the data on the CD itself and found that the track names are simply ‘Petroleum 1 & 2′ and for what it’s worth the genre on iTunes comes up as Blues (not sure how this gets assigned). It’s a pleasant listen (the more spirited second track is my favourite) but it surprised me very much to find it was all drums/percussion and obviously nothing like what he’d done before. This would be the only release under the name, which I imagine is pretty rare to come across.

I obviously had to get Andrew to explain The Metronoids to me, “This was a project I really enjoyed. Done in 2004/5 with Joss and Marc Hayes (drummer from The Moustaches, Boxes). It was always a real pleasure to be in a room with those two guys. I think we did a handful of rehearsals and one recording session. The idea was drum improv within premeditated structures. All three of us played drums. I think I got the notion to do a project that required a different kind of listening from my love of the CD called Guitar Solo by Annette Krebs.” 

I wasn’t aware of this at the time but Andrew, Joss and Fiachra briefly reunited as The Lamps in 2005 but as far as I know while there were some live gigs there were no releases. Since then Andrew has told me he is currently working on two new music projects, “One with Fiachra Lennon is called Fig/Astro, it started in 2018, we should be finished an LP this year. He wrote a bunch of instrumental tracks and sent them to me. At his request I turned the instrumentals into songs, and the productions are evolving from there with both of us working on it via WeTransfer. He is a real natural musician so the songs have  a very solid foundation. It was refreshing to write songs this way from track to song, rather than from song to track as I had always done previously. My own LP has been in the pipeline since 2009 when I wrote a load of songs and set out to record them in-the-box. Some of the songs went through over 20 productions. Working on a finite group of productions over a long period, under the microscope of Digital Audio Workstation has really allowed me to discover how to do my own thing. The work on this solo album takes a lot of focus.” 

After Capratone Joss would go on to play with Joan of Arse and The Dudley Corporation and guest on many other releases, most of these can be found on his impressive Discogs entry. When I was doing my research for this piece I was excited to find an old Souncloud page for The Asteroids I never knew existed, it has two unreleased tracks which date from about 2014 but Andrew said the music since then has been become more abstract. Fiachra meanwhile has a bulging Soundcloud page full of his own demos that is very worth exploring too. Both of them are also on Twitter, The Asteroids and Fiachra. It will have been a long time coming but I’m looking forward to the next new releases from both these artists. 

Sometimes the best things take time.

Stephen Rennicks

[nisrinefm]

oh  my  god  ,  was  that  really  nisrine  bennouna  getting out  of  the  uber  ?  no  way  .  they  must  be  the  splitting  image  of  sahar  luna  .  i  hear  the  twenty  year  old  is  worth  at  least  $40m  ,  and  have  at  least  74m  followers  on  twitter  .  the  singer  has  been  in  the  tabloids  for  years  ,  but  strangely  enough  nothing  but  them  being  purely  vehement  .  i'm  just  waiting  for  their  flighty   tendencies  to  shine  through  .  with  lavishsecrets  out  in  the  open  ,  it's  just  a  matter  of  time  before  redacted  is  revealed  . 

*  hello  beautiful  ppl  !  i'm  fawn  &  this  is  my  first  baby,  nisrine  !  undoubtedly,  this  is  very  haphazard,  but  i  wanted  to  get  something  up  asap  so  i  can  move  onto  writing  a  lil  sum  sum  for  my  second  muse,  elio  !  i  hope  this  paints  a  satisfactory  image  of  nisrine,  regardless,  &  if  you'd  like  to  know  more  lmk  !  if  you'd  like  to  plot,  give  this  a  like  &  i'll  make  sure  to  im  u  !

*   s t a t i s t i c s.

full  name:  nisrine  sana  bennouna nicknames:  nis,  ri. gender  /  pronouns:  cis  female  ,  she/her birthdate:  december  10th. zodiac:  sagittarius. ethnicity:  moroccan,  italian,  spanish,  &  russian. sexual  /  romantic  orientation:  bi. career  claim:  lana  del  rey  ;  circa  lust  for  life,  norman  fucking  rockwell  (upcoming).

*   m u s e    i n t r o s p e c t i o n.

the  bennouna's  are  a  vastly  rich  family,  rooted  in  old  money.  gianna  &  nadim  are  a  prominent  power  couple  within  the  business  world,  and  are  currently  located  in  canary  wharf,  london,  with  their  youngest  son,  adam.  the  bennouna  offspring  are  as  widespread  across  the  globe  as  you  could  imagine  -  with  nisrine  &  her  older  sister,  sabrina,  living  in  the  states,  her  eldest  brother,  said,  in  australia,  &  her  second  eldest  brother,  hamza,  extending  his  gap  year  in  japan.  the  siblings  relationship  is  as  sparse  as  their  physical  distance  -  although  they  unite  for  holidays  &  birthdays,  they  don't  meet  much  otherwise  -  bar  the  odd  snapchat  or  instagram  comment,  or  mention  in  the  cobwebbed  family  whatsapp  groupchat.

her  parents  weren't  particularly  fond  of  nisrine's  career  choice,  nor  are  they  overly  supportive  presently,  much  preferring  her  to  have  followed  an  academic  route  akin  to  her  siblings.  her  career  has  been  at  the  root  of  many  arguments,  and  has  caused  a  slight  resentment  towards  her  older  siblings  as  they  rarely  fight  her  corner.

her  musical  success  is  a  relatively  recent  occurrence,  with  her  fame  piquing  when  she  was  featured  upon  the  great  gatsby  soundtrack  with  young  and  beautiful  (  in  this  hc  the  movie  was  released  later  hehe  like  2  ?  years  ago  ).  since  then,  her  career  sky  -  rocketed,  and  she  is  soon  to  release  her  third  album.

*   e x t r a s.

vegetarian  queenie  <3  loves  animals,  volunteers  &  donates  frequently,  and  replaces  the  void  in  her  heart  after  every  break  up  with  a  freshly  adopted  cat  to  love  (  we're  currently  up  to  four  )

nis  falls  in  'love'  super  fast  &  has  a  reputation  in  the  media  akin  to  taylor  swift.  she  has  had  several  public  relationships,  most  ending  in  a  car  crash  due  to  her  wandering  interest,  aka  she  grows  bored  super  quick  once  the  honeymoon  stage  begins  to  fade  &  things  quickly  turn  toxic.  for  nis,  she  wants  it  all  or  she  wants  nothing.  she  needs  her  partner  to  be  absolutely  infatuated  with  her,  and  is  still  waiting  for  that  person  who  inspires  the  same  in  her.  despite  such  high  expectations,  nis'  walls  are  so  high  she  never  really  gives  anybody  a  chance.

she  runs  purely  on  intuition  -  she  trusts  her  gut  above  all  else,  though  she  is  partial  to  reading  her  horoscope  &  frequent  visits  to  a  tarot  reader.  she  doesn't  posses  much  of  a  boundary  when  it  comes  to  ...  anything,  really,  and  follows  her  heart  over  her  head  every  time.  that  said,  she’s  highly  emotional  -  good  or  bad  thing,  u  decide  !

she  has  a  wild  side  that  appears  every  once  in  a  blue  moon  (  and  runs  rampant  when  it  does  ),  but  she  tends  to  be  more  reclusive  than  most  would  assume.  she  enjoys  her  own  company  a  whole  lot  more  than  the  company  of  others,  with  the  exclusion  of  a  few  close,  real  friends.  she's  never  been  good  at  feigning  niceties  -  sometimes  at  the  expense  of  her  public  connections  &  image.

[lunanight2012]

A Tale as Old as Time? Pt 1

This is a story beween my oc Cindy Luna Charming, twin sister to Chad Charming Jr, and Harry Hook. I know its not that great but I hope you guys like the first part of this story!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I took a deep breath, two days ago King Ben and Lady Mal took down the barrier forever. Now school is back in session and some of those vks were going to be going to Auradon Prep. 

"Including him." I muttered to myself, rushing back to my vanity, organizing what little stuff I had on it. 

Harry Hook. The one VK who, on the day the barrier came down, stole my heart. Yes, I know it sounds cheesy but he did.

"Lu, you coming?" Chad asked, peeking into my room.

"Yes, just grabbing my camera!" I exclaimed, grabbing my Polaroid camera.

Chad Charming Jr. Aka my twin brother. He got the looks, i got the brains. My name is Cindy Luna Charming, but I just go by Luna. 

"Why do you use that old thing?" Chad asked me, gesturing at my camera.

"It's so I can have physical pictures. Plus you know how much I love this camera. It may be outdated but I can get refills for the film online." I explained with a smile.

"Whatever, come on, Audrey is waiting for me!" Chad exclaimed, rushing ahead of me.

Today we welcome the new VKs to the school. Including one Harry Hook. Fixing my light blue skirt one last time I walked outside and towards where Jane and Carlos were. 

"Luna! Good timing! The Limousines are just pulling up!" Jane exclaimed. 

I uncovered the lens of my camera and took a picture of the Limousines pulling up, I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck standing up as the band, led by Doug, started playing.

The Limousines parked and Jay got out of the driver's seat and like a chauffeur, opened the back door.

Placing my first photo inside an album i quickly took another picture of Uma, daughter  of Ursula, getting out. Putting the photo away to develop later, I get ready to take another picture.

Next was Gil, oldest son of Gaston, strong but naive. Jay had mentioned he was going to skip a year of school and go adventuring with Gil. But I think he will do that after graduation next year.

Taking a picture of Gil and Jay chest bumping made me giggle. Putting the picture away I placed my camera to my face to take a picture of the next VK to step out.

Harry Hook. Taking the picture I froze, he seemed to be looking around for someone. I highly doubt it was me. He was probably looking at all the other girls. Pushing up my glasses I quickly placed the photo in my album.

More VKs piled out from the other 2 Limousines. Celia, Dizzy, Squirmy, and Squeaky, the VKs that were invited over before the barrier was taken down came out of the 2nd limo.

From the third limo, I didn't really recognize any of them.

"Who are they?" I asked Carlos, as I took pictures of each VK exiting. 

"That's Diego De Ville, my cousin, he's got a band pack on the isle but I'm sure him and Doug will get along great. And those two are the sons of My mother's henchmen, their names are Jace and Harry. And that last person is Yzla, daughter of Yzma." Carlos explained, waving at the four.

I nodded, I remembered hearing about them, well, their parents. King Ben and Lady Mal welcomed the new VKs to Auradon. I took the chance to take a few more photos, hiding my face every time I saw Harry looking around. Soon I was able to sneak away back to my room to develop the photos. What I didn't realize was that Harry was watching me.

Back in my room, I take a breath and walk over to my small couch and take all the photos out and start to shake them, letting them develop.

I pick back up the one of Him. My face heating up as I realize I caught him looking directly at me.

"No…. It's a coincidence. Nothing more." I explained to myself putting the photo in my photo album.

A strange tapping came from my door. I froze, that wasn't Chad's knocking, and it sure wasn't Jane. 

"Who is it?" I asked, a little nervous.

"Luna! It's Mal, can you come out for a moment?" Mal asked through the door.

I sighed with relief and walked over to the door, opening it up.

"Guys this is Luna Charming. Chad Charming's twin sister. She knows this school inside and out. She can show you to your dorms and you all know your classes! Uma, I shall see you later, the rest of you if you have any questions please ask me, Ben, Evie, Carlis, Jay, or even Luna." Mal explained.

Crud, I forgot I was in charge of showing them to their dorms. Rushing back into my room, stumbling over my bag I grab my clipboard that had all of their dorms on it.

"Luna right? I would have thought Cinderella would've named her daughter a C name." Gil questioned, earning an elbow to the side from Uma.

"Actually my first name is Cindy. Cindy Luna Charming. But everyone calls me Luna." I explained, looking at my clipboard. I could feel Harry Hook's eyes on me.

"This way!" I exclaimed, closing the door to my room. I led the group down the hall, stopping to show where Uma and Celia would be bunking, then letting Dizzy know she would be staying with Evie at her castle, ahem, starter castle. Then we got to the boy's area. Harry and Jace would be bunking together, Diego got a room with the twins, and Harry Hook and Gil were bunking together.

I bowed my head and scurred off before Harry could say anything. I was so embarrassed. I ran to my room and closed the door, plopping down on my bed as I pondered what momma would say. 

"You need to find yourself a good prince." I imitated my mom. 

Sighing I sat up and got ready for my first class, Flora and Fauna, also known as Plants and Animals.

"Maybe he won't be in this class." I muttered hopefully as I headed to class.

Arriving at the class, I was happy to see that Harry wasn't in my class. A sigh of relief escaped my lips as I took my usual seat. Pulling out my notebook and my book, getting ready for class to start.

"This seat taken?" An all too familiar voice asked, causing me to freeze up, I shook my head, keeping my eyes on my notebook.

He pulled out a chair and sat down, setting his hook down on the table next to me as he pulled out his stuff. I took a peek at him. he was wearing black eyeliner and a black pirate vest with buckles going down, and he looked like he has just came straight from the isle. I quickly look down before he could see me.

"Luna right?" He asked.

"Y-yea." I stuttered out.

"Well lass, I believe we met a couple days ago. At that party." Harry explained grabbing his hook.

I could feel goosebumps going down my arms.

I could feel his hook on my ponytail holder.

"I would love to see you with your hair down Luna." He stated.

Before I could respond Chad walked in and rushed over.

"That's my seat Hook." Chad glared at Harry.

"Oh but I am already seated Junior!" Harry taunted.

"Students! Quiet! Chad take a seat next to Doug." Mr Happy, the dwarf explained.

Chad glared at Hook before sitting across from me, next to Doug. Class began, learning about Hook's crocodile. Harry being a tiny bit of a teacher's pet, knowing all about it.

"If ye make tick-tock noises at the crocodiles they will follow you, making it easier to lead them away from a drownin fella." Harry exclaimed.

I took diligent notes, trying my best to not doodle on my notes. The bell rang.

"Alright class, next week we shall discuss the other sea creatures."

I packed up my stuff and rushed out of there, my face red and my heart racing. I got to my locker and switched out books to my Photography and you class.

"What was that about Lu." Chad asked, startling me.

"What do you mean Chad?" I ask, a bit confused.

"The VK! I know Ben and Mal say they can be reformed to be good but I don't trust him." Chad explained glaring down the hall, I turn to see Harry at his locker chatting with Gil and Uma.

"Give them a chance bro. They did help save everyone. And from what Carlos told me, they found you in a closet wanting your mommy. If it wasn't for Harry, Uma, and Gil I wouldn't be here! I'd be a statue still." I explained, poking his chest.

"Fine whatever, but if he hurts you he will not be in a good place." Chad tried to threaten. 

"Behave. I have to get to class. Bye Chad!" I exclaimed as I rushed to my Photography class.

Harry hovered behind Lonnie. "Is she taken?" He asked her, gesturing at me.

"Luna? No, I don't believe she's ever had a boyfriend." Lonnie explained before heading to fencing practice.

Harry smiled a toothy grin before following Uma and Gil to their goodness class.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lunch time finally came around which meant I could go to my room and go through all the photos I took that morning. Smiling at the one of Gil and Jay chest bumping.

"Two bros hanging out." I said to myself, giggling.

My mom used to tell me I got her skills and her laugh, but I never particularly liked my laugh. Too frilly.

I sighed as I added the photos to my scrapbook. Save for the Harry Hook one. I put that one under my pillow. After hiding that picture i went back to decorating my scrapbook. 

A knock on my door startled me but didn't pull me away from my task.

"Come in!" I called.

The door opened, and a male chuckle sounded.

"So this is what yer room looks like lassie, it's nice." Harry exclaimed.

I jumped a good foot off my chair, falling over. Harry rushed over and caught me in a tilted position.

"Ye okay lass?" Harry asked me, a bit of concern on his face.

All I could do was nod. He set me back on my feet. I straightened my skort and my top. 

"So you take pictures eh? But I don't see one of me?" Harry questioned.

I felt my face heat up. "T-the picture didn't come out right! S-sorry!" I stuttered out.

"Oh? What tis this?" Harry asked grabbing the photo of him, that I hadn't realized was peeking out from under my pillow, and held it up. 

My face must've been incredibly red from my embarrassment. I stuttered nonsense, trying to hide my crush on him.

Harry chuckled, setting the photo down on top of my pillow before walking back towards me. The look on his face was that of a predator, and it gave me goosebumps and a bit of adrenaline.

"So my little duckling why did you hide the photo you took of me?" Harry asked, a shit eating grin on his face.

This is where I surprised even myself.

I gave him a smirk. "Maybe I just didn't want anyone to see it." I commented, grabbing the tip of his hook.

Harry went wide eyed for a moment before chuckling.

"Well then. You intrigue me my little duckling." Harry explained as he took his leave.

The moment Harry was out of the room and my door closed, my legs finally gave out and I crumbled to the floor. A shit eating grin on my face.

"That felt amazing." I stated to myself. 

Being around Harry gave me adrenaline. A big smile stretched across my face. And I absolutely love the feeling.

I sat up straight when the bell rang. "Oh no! I'm late for class!!!" I exclaimed grabbing my bag, books, and notebooks and rushed out of my room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fairies 101 was always an interesting class, Fairy Godmother was probably my favorite teacher. Granted I'm best friends with Fairy Godmother's daughter, Jane. Mal was in my class too. This week we were discussing the fairies in Neverland. But I couldn't focus on that. Looking down at my notebook I realized I had been sketching Harry's face.

My face became bright red as I quickly flipped to a new page. He was all I could think of. All I could be thankful for was that there were only two people that knew about my crush. Jane and Carlos. My two best friends. 

As soon as class was over I was rushing to my room, I was done with classes and I wanted to get a head start on my homework and hope a hook wielding pirate wouldn't run into me.

[snowtimeisbesttime]

Thoughts and questions on Pesterquest Volume 6, routes 1 and 2! Aka the one where shit finally goes down.

-!!!! musics from the homestuck albums!!!! more concretely i'd say they’re from Alterniabound; Gamzee's is MiRaClEs, while I can't for the life of me remember how that Vriska theme was called but it's Good.

~ROUTE 1~

-The question of “does alternian seawater corrode humans (/friends)” is left for another day (considering the acid rain. it probably does corrode humans.)

-Gamzee warms up to MC almost immediately; which actually makes a lot of sense considering... later events.

-Why's his hive so shoddy, by the way? He's in the highest landdweller caste and benefits from the miracle of speedy online deliveries (when back in Hiveswap 1, Xefros mentioned that deliveries for rustbloods could take sweeps- then again Hiveswap (/Friendsim) is a very different time period than Hivebent, and one we'll hopefully learn more about soon!). As far as I remember trolls would have their hives built by carpenter drones very shortly after leaving the Caverns... how long has he been eating those pies again?

-what's the thing about MC that makes everybody go “hmm yes I am going to give Funky Chemical Substances to the alien now”. Seriously by this point I'm expecting Feferi to bust out a 6 pack of Drugs (soda) the second we even see her (as we all know, her mom bought them).

-We also get a pesterquest murderstuck!! Though iirc HS's murderstuck happened because Dave sent Gamzee an ICP video, not just because he ran out of slime pies... and here, he says that someone's been talking to him, and that we'll meet him soon...... (he does go for a lot longer without sopor in pesterquest though...)

(-also like. why wouldn't he get a pie's captcha code and alchemize more on the meteor??? like they had at least one alchemiter... were they too expensive?)

-We got the “okay ending” from that post i made yesterday: clown lore!! As well as our memories of Karako, briefly... he did make MC an honorary clown when he took them with him to the Dark Carnival, didn't he? (There's also the blood initiation (murder) they got in Chahut's bad route... i cant believe mc is double cloun)

-Once they remembered Karako, MC tried to zap to him, and ended up... somewhere nobody was ever supposed to see. A tunnel with a light at the end, where we got to see MC themself in third person and some random humanoid figure T-posing at us (though that was more of an A-pose); before getting zapped back to the main narrative, some time after leaving. ...Might Karako, our most baby clown, be dead when Hivebent happens? Highbloods are supposed to be very long lived, but we don't know just how long has it been since Friendsim's time... and of course, we've already seen him die once :(((.

-wait didn't karako also all but instantly befriend MC? As in, the only route of his that didn't end with friendship was the one where the drone took him...

-Somebody does NOT want MC to get their memories back. We also have more limits here than in Friendsim; if MC opens the mop closet instead of Gamzee, the universe straight up crashes, whereas the last time something like that happened it was more gradual (Boldir & Karako's routes)

-most importantly, we did Not get anything similar to the “cursed ending”, thank fuck.

~ROUTE 2~

-Vriska's good route in a word and several images of crying cats with heart emojis: aaaaaaaAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!

-trans vriska real!!!!

-Of course, we open with a callback to Ardata's route.

-MC manages to miss Vriska doing stuff with dice right in front of them and thinks she means a political campaign, but they're happy to help anyways- and Vriska's definitely happy to explain how FLARP works to them!

-Was that a Nepeta hint??? We know she lives in a cave and it seems that houses are very important focus points for MC's powers... blease let me see my daughter soon (also. when the fuck has vriska been to nepeta's hive??????)

-And we get a sweet sweet FLARP loredump, featuring classes and attributes and Interactivity!!! fuck now i wanna make my fantrolls stats

-The weird shit starts early on in this route- see MC's random reluctance to make more friends, the few monochoices before the route's Actual Big Choice, MC briefly thinking this is the first time they've been to Alternia, the actual literal punching of a hole through the fourth wall when they check out the warnings on the options menu (while vriska just waits for them to finish)...

-We get to give MC an actual name we can see in words! In a route where they explicitly have trouble seeing themselves as a distinct, unique entity...

-Vriska tries to use her powers to control MC and give them Epic Sword Skills- but all she can do to humans is make them fall asleep. (also it says that “the seven red dots of her prosthetic” glow- what prosthetic??? her glasses??? did she have a robot eye all this time???)

-Thanks to that we get to meet again with the Best Troll, Boldir!!! Who also speaks about a he who's fucking shit up here. Her presence in MC's mind (and maybe not only there) also helps us remember our friends, finally. Sadly we're separated by the strings way too soon... and immediately transported back to DS the first's house.

-What will you do? That's STILL the best fucking question anybody's ever asked. MC has the power to direct the narrative now, and what they'll do is FIX THIS.

-Not only do we get explicitly stated out that Spidermom's a piece of shit (as seen in the post i made yesterday), but MC also yeets her into Jade's volcano!!!!!!!! Now all Vriska needs to do is break free from all the boxes society's given her... (while her good route's great, both her bad routes are short and sad...)

-Vriska also joins the list of Trolls Who'd Benefit A Lot From Living In Earth C (As We Imagined It Before The Epilogues And All That), which includes Karkat and of course Daraya, amongst others.

-She looks up to Mindfang the rebel, too........