#also i know barely anything about music theory lol

[synths-and-sensibility]

Trying to think up a creative panel layout for a quantizer and i was thinking of using analog inputs to control parameters for maximally even scales (might revisit this concept if i ever play around with microtonal stuff), but it ends up with a lot of redundacy (ie 6 note whole tone scale only has two modes)

But then I realized any scale that's a subset of 12 note equal temperament can be represented by a 12bit number and the analog inputs can manipulate the bits directly. But of course a one to one mapping would be too easy, so now I'm trying you come up with a clever Gray coding schema or something

(The interface might be totally unintuitive, but I'm hoping to have it be generic enough to be easily reprogrammable)

[heaven-s-black-box]

Notes- Public Eye; Lyney x performer!gn!reader

Return to File

Recovery date: October 20th, 2024

Description: haha i totally agree that lyney and y/n would be the stars of fontaine lol ^^ so uh do u think u could write lyney x reader in the last au? just generic relationship headcanons please!!

-⭐️ anon

Notes: This work was recovered in conjunction with researcher ⭐️, we thank them for their contributions. uh... this got kind of angsty? But it's also fluffy! I Swear! Also, kind of pushing my theory about how Genshin will end.

Back to directory

He hears about you, of course he does

As an entertainer it’s his job to keep up with the industry, both for trends and competition

But you do music, so he’s not super concerned

But family, he’ll keep up with anything for the sake of his family

So when the younger kids want to catch one of your shows, he’s quick to approve

Then he finds out when it ends and he’s not sending a gaggle of barely 10 year olds to the Opera Epiclesis alone

Honestly he says it’s for there safety, doesn’t want them coming back in the dark alone, but really it’s more for the citizens’ sake

Treats them to some front row seats, he’s heard your shows can be a bit interactive

And he’s surprised when they arrive to find the floor packed, no one is sitting and there are more people than chairs

He now understood the rumors of a new, outdoor, stage being built

Loves the showmanship of your performance, it’s a lot like his work and less like the traditional operas of Fontain

He thinks there’s a moment during your performance where you lock eyes and wink at him

The absurd lighting hides his blush, something he’s grateful for

Is this what people feel like when he flirts with them, because he’s pretty sure you could sweep him off his feet and he’d thank you

Nothing comes of this meeting, but when the new stage opens and he’s asked to be its opening performance, he thinks back to you

Decides to ask you to open his show and join him as a special guest

You are ecstatic, you’ve been waiting for that damn stage and you’ll get to be its first performer by opening for Lyney

So you meet up, and write a new song just for his show

Then comes the choreography, and Lyney need some stuff set up right from the start so you incorporate it

The show ends with you making him appear from one of his set ups, and he takes you to reveal Lynette, and then Freminette appears in a water tank

You spend a lot of time rehearsing everything, from your dance number to his show

Even Lynette talks with you during breaks, you end up bonding over tea

Lyney doesn’t realize he’s in love, not for awhile, he’s so used to putting on an act

It’s only Lynette who notices he’s really in love

The subtle things he does, gently placing a hand on your back or arm just because he can, the way he isn’t so secretive about his tricks, among other things

Then there’s the tells like the little twinkle in his eyes when he looks at you, how he just barely stumbles over his words or hesitates

Freminet notices too, but he’s not going to say anything

But with project stuzha looming over them, Lynette won’t tell her brother that she knows

He knows he’s not acting when he starts losing sleep over you, when part of his drive to complete project stuzha is to protect you

Your relationship kind of becomes this unspoken thing, you’re Fontain’s favorite couple but… you aren’t really together

He goes to all of your shows and you go to all of his, he helps you with effects and you put him in touch with your instrumentalist

You have dinner with his family and he has dinner at your place

He drapes a blanket over you when you fall asleep, and brushes the hair from your face to hold back from kissing your forehead

His kisses to the back of your hand are passed off as playful but, he’s stopped doing it for anyone else

But especially since you’re in the public eye already, he can’t put you in that kind of danger

So when the dust finally settles, and Celestia has fallen, when there’s no more danger

He’ll be there, at your front door, with the biggest bouquet of rainbow roses you’ve ever seen and three little words

I love you

The next day you and Lyney are front page of the Steambird “Fontain’s Sweethearts are official”

You still don’t perform together very much, it takes so much effort that it’s only for really special occasions like new years

Or celebrating the fall of Celestia, but only after he recovered

Dates are often very private affairs, with you two slipping out of the city of hiding in your house

Loves to cook with you, it’s so domestic that his heart flutters more than usual

Surprises you at practice, sometimes with lunch and sometimes to walk you home

In turn you’ve surprised him by having Lynette let you in to his workshop so you can hide in one of the many secret compartments

Your relationship is very playful and supportive

I imagine after the fall of Celestia the Fatui kind of disband of shift gears, so Lyney has more time for magic and you

Because of this, Arlechino is quick to accept you

She’s also secretly a fan of your music, but if you tell anyone she will kill you

The Steambird is very respectful about covering your relationship, Charlotte makes sure of it, but other tabloids can be annoying

It doesn’t help that the Steambird naturally gets all the good stuff because you’re close with Charlotte, she makes sure to ask before submitting articles though

But these tabloids seem to forget that Lyney is/was a member of the Fatui, directly under a harbinger and her chosen successor at that

He doesn’t kill the nosy journalists, but they’ll certainly learn to keep their nose out of your lives

[estoniacobaltpayne]

Ranking the Bad Batch Based On How Fun They'd Be To Jam To Some Tunes With

Just something fun to do lol. I'm a musician and sound engineer, so not only am I basing this on what I think they each like to listen to, but also how much interest and knowledge each batcher has in the music making process, specifically music theory and music production, which are major aspects of why a person likes or dislikes certain songs or artists.

I'm totally basing this on my own musical preferences by the way, and since I'm writing this I'm gonna be totally biased towards how I feel about their jammability based on how much I enjoy their music taste, too. Y'all can like whatever music you want, and rank their music preferences according to your own taste.

HUNTER: 5/10 (FANTASTIC MUSIC TASTE, ATROCIOUS JAMMABILITY)

IDK I just feel like Hunter is very "meh?" about music??? Like it's a very passive thing for him.

If I had to guess, I'd say he probably chooses to listen to genres including Latin Pop, Americana, Classic Rock, maybe a little Funk? Within those genres I'd say he likes artists like Juanes, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Fiona Apple, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Maná, Trombone Shorty, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Collective Soul, and the Allman Brothers Band. I'd say his taste in music is the only reason he'd get even a 5/10, he's got an ELITE taste, but he also is just... is not that interested at the same time. He probably talks while it's playing too, like bruh if you have something to say PAUSE THE DAMN SONG AND STOP RUINING THE VIBE

He also has no interest in, or in learning, anything about music theory or production, which as a musician is such a fundamental part of enjoying a tune. Like you could drop a "yo that melodic tritone interval between the flat 3rd scale degree and the 6th scale degree over the dominant IV7 chord FUCKED bro" and he'd just sit there at stare at you and barely give you a shrug?? Bro no. No vibes. Don't bother trying to explain the mix to him either, he straight up doesn't care.

Hunter does not dance, and even if you managed to convince him to, he SUCKS at it. Sure he's got grace, but Hunter wouldn't know rhythm if it slapped him in the face. Plus, he gets upset when he sucks at it, which then just gets him in a pissy mood. 😐

WRECKER: 10/10 (FANTASTIC MUSIC TASTE, FANTASTIC JAMMABILITY)

WRECKER LOVES TO JAM BRO

He can jam to just about anything, but I know for sure he loves the 80's and 90's stuff, like Punk Rock, New Wave, Ska Punk, Anthem Rock, and Classic Rock. As for artists, think Quiet Riot, DEVO, Green Day, AC/DC, Oingo Boingo, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Journey, INXS, Dropkick Murpheys, Bon Jovi, Pat Benatar, Twisted Sister, Sublime, and Styx. Wrecker will enthusiastically sing along to every song he knows (and he doesn't care if he's in tune or not, he's too busy having fun!), and will enthusiastically jam physically to songs he doesn't know. He's always down to listen to new music if it's presented to him, but I also don't think he really goes out of his way for new music either. He knows what he likes and he's good with that.

Music theory in particular escapes Wrecker. You can explain it to him 1,001 times, he just cannot grasp it. But that's ok! He'll eagerly listen to you explain it for the 1,002nd time and every time after that, because he loves listening to music and finds the making of it passively interesting. As for production, once again he finds it passively interesting, so he likes brief, "cliff note" explanations as to why things sound certain ways; he wants to know that the reason that the vocals sound like they're echoing in a concert hall is because they have reverb, but doesn't particularly care about which kind of reverb or how it works.

Wrecker is so down to dance. He will absolutely head bang, and he will absolutely throw DOWN in a mosh pit. Doesn't care at all what he looks like or what other people are thinking of him; when "What I Like About You" by The Romantics pops on, Wrecker pops off 😎

ECHO: 9/10 (FANTASTIC MUSIC TASTE, GREAT JAMMABILITY)

Echo jams for sure. In a different, more chill way than Wrecker, but he's still fun to jam out with!

He definitely had an "emo teen" phase, so he likes Punk, Pop Rock, Alternative, and I'd say he probably likes Neo Soul, Rap and Hip Hop as an adult, too. He's a My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy FIEND; he knows all the songs and will sing along to them when he's with people he's comfortable with. He now also goes for artists like Green Day, Kendrick Lamar, The Struts, John Legend, The Killers, Tai Verdes, Radiohead, Alicia Keys, Crazy Town, Teddy Swims, and Erykah Badu. He's also the kind to keep starting the song over each time you talk, there's a distraction, or just because he loves a song and wasn't "feeling it enough" the first time through.

I feel like Echo would be one hell of a producer, and can and will spend hours in Logic Pro or Ableton making the stankiest beats and mixes, but also falls into the "MuSic ThEoRy KiLLs My CrEaTiViTy" category. Doesn't matter how many times you tell him that, even though he doesn't know how to identify what he's making, he's still using music theory, he'll just blow you off and swear that he doesn't use theory, he "puts stuff together because it sounds good." It's okay Echo, the rest of know it sounds good because it's a I-7 chord to a IV7 chord, just because you don't know your song is in Dorian doesn't mean the rest of us don't 🙃

Echo doesn't get up to dance, but he does the thing where he's "dancing" in his seat and makes, sometimes quite silly, faces. Big head bobber attitude, and if he's really into it, you can catch him unconsciously drumming his hand and scomp along to the song on whatever surface is in front of him. Same, Echo, same.

CROSSHAIR: -10000/10 (ATROCIOUS MUSIC TASTE, ATROCIOUS JAMMABILITY)

First of all, this man claims he doesn't like music, and "prefers to be alone with his thoughts." Bro, that's bullshit and we all know it.

At first, Crosshair would be one of those assholes that claims he likes music that's "actually good" and artists that "you've probably never heard of" like Stevie Ray Vaughan, which is funny because like dude, I don't know a single person who hasn't heard of SRV, but he literally knows one singular song - Crosshair knows "Crossfire" and that's it, and if you listen to the entire In Step album with him, you know you can call BS on him because that's... literally the only song he knows off the entire album. And then you catch him with headphones in for the first time and oh boy, this man jumps through flaming hoops to deny it, but Crosshair is a Swifty, a Belieber, and an Ariana Grande stan, which for me personally, are the absolute LAST artists I'll ever listen to, but hey if that's your thing, Crosshair is your guy to listen to music with. Like there's good pop music out there, but Crosshair will hear none of it and refuses to even try anything else. "Yo Crosshair let's listen to some P!nk or Bruno Mars or Lady Gaga or fun.---" "gO aWaY!" If you really worked hard at it, you could maybe get him to listen to some darker pop like Hozier, Imagine Dragons, and Twenty One Pilots; the angstier the lyrics, the better. Who knows, maybe with time and patience you could even work him him up to some Screamo bands like Asking Alexandria or Falling In Reverse??? 👀

Don't bother trying to explain theory or production to him; he does not care. He just wants to listen to music in solitude.

If you even think this man will bob his head in front of you let alone dance you are sorely mistaken.

TECH: 1000/10 (A LITERAL GOD-LIKE MUSIC TASTE, GREAT JAMMABILITY)

I mean, it's Tech. Golden Retriever boy. He's interested in just about everything, and is always down to try new things, and the same applies to music.

Tech has a very diverse taste in music, and his taste is also always growing. He likes different things for different reasons; he loves Classical, Jazz, and Progressive Rock for their interesting and stimulating use of music theory, and he finds Funk and Alternative and even Salsa inspiring for their arrangements and/or songwriting. This man will whiplash from Coldplay to Duke Ellington to Muse to Earth, Wind & Fire to a literal Gregorian Chant Compilation so fast you won't even have time to process whatever song you just finished, and best of all, he'll show just as much attention and appreciation to the new song as he did the last. He loves Bach and Wendy Carlos' Switched On Bach, and he loves artists like Genesis, Nat King Cole, Elton John, Joe Arroyo, Thelonious Monk, Pink Floyd, Jon Batiste, Seal, Led Zeppelin, R.E.M., and unlike his twin, Tech will absolutely sit down and listen to SRV's In Step with you and will absolutely love analyizing every second of it. He's also an anti-fascist, politically conscious king, so play him songs like "For What It's Worth" by Buffalo Springfield, "A Change Is Gonna Come" by Sam Cooke, "Front Line" by Stevie Wonder, or "Big Yellow Taxi" by Joni Mitchell, and that exceptional mind of his will get super amped up. You'll have a great listening session, and then a great political conversation. And maybe I'm just self-projecting here, but Tech will go absolutely feral for Queen. Everything about them. The music? Stimulating intellectually and emotionally. Brian May is a literal astrophysicist and John Deacon is an electrical engineer, and he finds that so fucking cool. His favorite album is a toss up between Queen II and A Night At the Opera; either way, he loves the thought and intention that go into a concept album, and if you ask him if he wants to listen to one with you, he will definitely say yes.

It's super fun to have listening sessions with Tech, because you can totally geek out with him over what's happening in the music you're listening to, be it theory or mix or whatever; and if you teach Tech even the basics about music theory, mixing engineering, songwriting and arrangement, etc., it will be highly likely that this dude will know more and be 100x better at it than you within days. I feel like he loves mastering, and will always be the one to master Echo's mixes. 🥰

Tech is less a physical jammer and more an intellectual jammer, if that makes sense. Discussing all the various aspects of music is totally a jam, and Tech is the one to do it with. That being said, if you asked him to, he'd dance, but this socially awkward guy would probably think you meant like...ballroom dancing??? instead of just hanging out in the same room and groovin' to some tunes together??? And he'd be super awkward, too, because he's the opposite of Hunter- all rhythm and no grace. But either way, the vibes from this man are immaculate and you will never run out of music to listen to with this man.

Well, hope you all enjoyed my TED Tech Talk :) and I hope you all enjoy listening to music as much as I do lol

[blood-teeth]

hello! just listened to the spotify playlist for "this grave calls you home" and i am SOOO HYPED for the demo release!! how's the progress going so far? awesome music taste btw i'd love to know more; is this your first time developing an interactive story, and how long have you been stirring this idea in your head for? :D reading about it makes me want to rewatch the media it's inspired by lol. esp alien

howdy there!!

AHHH THANK U SO MUCH!! you have no idea how much this ask made my day :') !!! u are so, so sweet!! i try really hard with these playlists lol so i'm soooo glad!!

progress is going good!!! I have all of the prologue coded!! i had the thought just to drop it this week to let everyone have a little sense of the tone of the story, but I do want to add a few more things to it since the pro really is only a page.

i'm wanting to try composing somewhat of a soundtrack for the game, so that'll take me a bit, but the pieces won't be overly complicated because music theory is mine enemy >;(

it is not my first time developing an interactive story!!

Tell Me If There's A Way Home was the first story i ever posted online and something i first started writing in 2019 and posted here on tumblr in 2021. it's, like, literally the story of my heart. so i've spent the better part of 5 years (!!!!) trying to get it right. i reformatted tmitawh from an interactive novel to an actual real life novel that i'm currently trying to query to literary agents. (trad publishing is HELL) while i've been working/waiting on this, i've been doing something stupid and making a game about it (???) idk perhaps more to come on this later. the reality of trad publishing is that your book just may never be sold, straight up. so i'm preparing other ways for everyone to be able to witness this story just in case.

The Mouths Of Elysium is currently my OTHER IF that I'm (still!!) working on. a small demo for this is available here! this was inspired by my terrible brain's obsession with Jim Henson's Labyrinth and also my desire to see women be terrible and twisted because i think it's hot. i am not sorry about this >:-)

This Grave Calls You Home hit me like a lightning strike pretty much immediately after watching Interstellar. in the past, I've also posted something about a post-apocalypse story after humanity fled to the stars, but felt that this too was not right and so I took a break from this to figure out the story a bit better. it came to me 2 years later in the form of this story!! i was compelled by this idea of a lone astronaut. they're literally like cowboys, just in a different setting. loneliness is the singular thing that scares me most in this world, above anything tangible and not. space is the epitome of loss, of loneliness. nothing exists and therefore, you do not exist. i became so very nearly feverish with this idea of an astronaut lost forever in space, the memory only barely surviving the absence and then the implications of this as well.

i also love media where the narrator of the story is not the main character and more of a witness. of course, the MC of TGCYH changes the story based on the choices you make while reading, but in truth The Astronaut is the protagonist of this story. this story doesn't exist without The Astronaut.

a lot (read: all ) of my work revolves around this concept of loss, grief, and then the after. what does it look like when you are a stranger to yourself after these traumatic events. what does it look like when you have to manually pick the pieces of yourself off the ground, hands shaking as you slot them back together in this now fucked up, mismatched picture of who you were before. what happens when you realize you have to start from scratch with all new pieces. is it better to get back what you've lost, or is it better to move on? this question propels everything i write, i think.

[whimsipunk]

river! my beloved!!!!

can i get:

video game controller

violin

100 points

dragon

bagel

for any oc you want! you do not need to use the same ocs for each question <3 have fun <3

Thanks for the ask Azure 🖤💚 This is gonna be a long one so buckle up lol

🎮 VIDEO GAME CONTROLLER — what are three of your oc's favorite hobbies?

Shinju has really taken to photograpy since she started living on the surface. She has an instant camera that she takes almost everywhere with her, and she keeps all of her favourite picture of her and her friends pinned up on the cork board in her dorm room.

Brooks and Ennis both know a thing or two about DIYing clothes. Ennis can kind of use a sewing machine, though they've never made anything more complicated than a set of arm warmers from scratch, but Brooks does everything by hand. He's sewn patches onto bags and jackets, dyed shirts with bleach and turned a bunch of weird junk into necklaces.

Melinda tried crochet once. She made herself one of these things:

She hated every second of it. She gave her hook and leftover yarn to someone she can't stand so they could suffer instead.

🎻 VIOLIN — does your oc play any instruments? what is their skill level (beginner/intermediate/advanced/virtuoso/etc)?

The only other OC in the group who plays an instrument besides Ravi is Brooks. He has an acoustic guitar. He's probably intermediate level with it; he can play songs really well (as long as he can find tabs for them, he does NOT know how to read sheet music) but he wouldn't even know where to start with writing his own music.

He got the guitar from a thrift store, it's not great but it's at least not a nylon string. It already had a couple stickers on it when he bought it, so now he's slowly but surely papering the whole thing with more of them.

💯 HUNDRED POINTS SYMBOL — share three random facts about your oc that others may not know.

I completely forgot to mention in his intro that Isaac is adopted! He has two foster siblings, who have also been trained by Father George to hunt "monsters". They're a little slayer family.

He's had several specialist eye doctors do examinations on him, but none of them can figure out why his eyes are red. The prevailing theory is some sort of weird variation of ocular albinism, but Isaac's vision has always been 20/20 so even that seems unlikely.

He's pretty outdoorsy. Isaac loves hiking, camping & canoeing. He's been known to fish with his bare hands. He still has his old boy scouts sash and would've liked to be a scout leader or camp counsellor if he wasn't always so busy with the whole slayer gig.

3.5: Isaac has wanted a dirt bike since he was a kid, but has never been able to get one.

🐉 DRAGON — what is your oc's favorite mythical creature?

When told the legendary Pokemon don't count, Ennis said unicorns.

🥯 BAGEL — what does your oc's typical breakfast look like? do they usually eat breakfast?

Pym predominantly eats fruit and bugs, so whichever is easiest for them to find will be their breakfast on any given day.

Ask game here, OC intros masterlist here :)

[sweet-but-vicious]

Alright folks get your tin hats on and your delulu glasses ready because I've had some thoughts about the Kiwi music video!

Hello, I don't think we've met. My name is Cass and I have been bestowed with all the letters of the alphabet and my psych meds are messed up this week so you get to be dragged into my barely medicated current hyperfixation fugue, i.e. Larry Stylinson.

Run away now those who fear the truth!

I take that back this is literally my opinion.

It's also not strictly romantic Larry, this could easily also be platonic Larry.

I had some possible realizations about the Kiwi MV and decided I needed to share with the class...

Ok, so first off, I'm of the opinion that Louis had some, if not a LOT of involvement in the writing of the song Kiwi or that H wrote it with a heavy influence of Lou's style. We saw it being worked on while 1D was still together and I think it was either meant for the band or was written for Harry to sing about Louis. All my future thoughts are based on this premise so if you disagree I'm sorry you wasted a click.

I know L isn't credited but that doesn't mean he wasn't involved. Kiwi just sounds so much more like Louis than Haz, add in the fact that L would NOT have been allowed to release anything close to those lyrics nor would it suit L's voice, and we get what we have now, H releasing a banger that shows off his voice but doesn't quite fit in with the rest of his album. I think lyrically it's a proper mix of H's metaphors and L's candor while musically it has L's percussive driven vibe and very long stretches of singing on a single breath that are super common in L's music. So either L helped or H wrote it to sound like L.

OK, so now that we've established the basis for my theory let's move on to the video...

The video is 3:03 min long, and H is not seen until 2:12.

Now because of the matching suits and the hair, we have all assumed that the main young lady is supposed to represent Harry, but what if the girl is supposed to be the focus of the song i.e. Louis?

For the sake of this essay(lol), I'm going to refer to the girl as Lou from here on out.

We first see Lou enter an institutional building holding a plastic box of cupcakes. From the box and the look of the cupcakes we can infer that they are brought from home.

In other words, young child Lou entered the the building/music industry with assets/talents/gifts she already had before she arrived. Also supporting this is the fact that the frosting on the fairy cakes is Louis blue and rustic, implying untrained raw talent compaired to the fancily decorated cakes we see piled in the middle of the room possibly representing all the songs and music or other resources the studio had to offer.

Next we see all the other children/talent/musicians each with their own personal weapon/song/gift getting ready to fight.

For what? Space in the industry? A place on the album? Money? Success? All of the above? We never really see what they are fighting for, just that they are being pitted against each other.

Next we get this spectacular child;

He and this shot are truly amazing. Now the video has a look and a feel that is not super modern, but this child above and beyond the others has a 60's vibe. The clothes and the hair are giving early Beatles while the toothpick is giving gangster. So a "boss" from the 60s? Someone older who is in charge perhalps? Also, note that this child never throws or even HOLDS any cake, and after the initial stage of the battle, he is never seen again.

He quite obviously is challenged by Lou but he doesn't actually throw anything, nor does Lou fire the first shot. We don't actually see what starts the battle but we do see his obvious glee at shots being fired.

Next we see shots of the battlefeild, children throwing cake at each other as well as a few just quietly consuming their own cake which I take to mean that they perhalps gave up and decided not to partake in the fight at all.

Lou Then looks down to find her ammunition depleted, which could be interpretted as being used up or burnt out, and runs to the center pile of cake to grab an armful and crawl back out, she is the first to pull from the pile. Perhalps, she is too tired to walk or is attempting to sneak away with a piece of the "pie"?

At this point Harry finally enters the video, holding a puppy.

So I believe that Harry is playing himself and that the puppies are the fans. Harry has opened the door to the industry and hand carried the fans inside. Then with an epic war cry he unleashes(heh) hell! Sending in a brigade of puppies right when Lou was on the ground looking ready to give up!

The dogs/fans all come running into the room and begin consuming all of the cake/music that has been strewn all over the floor, one going right up to Lou and eating directly out of her hand.

This could be the doorway the boys always tried to give us into how they were treated and what they wanted to do vs what they were told they had to do.

Some of the puppies/fans find other children/musicians and stay protected with them while Harry, Lou, and one puppy hide behind a chair baricade. Harry, like the boss, does not throw any cake. Instead, he hands a cake to Lou for her to throw as a grenade while Harry protects the puppy.

So H is being supportive and helpful while protecting what matters, and allowing Lou to fight for herself. Like maybe releasing a song of words that L would never be able to say himself? Telling the fans the truth in the only way they could?

Next we see more carnage including this genius shot of a presumably dead child being mourned by a friend.

Casualties of the fight? Two boys who appear to be important to each other not surviving the industry?

Finally we end on this;

The survivors, battered(heh) but not broken, standing proud and together after the fight. Harry with his little smirk.

Now I may be stretching here but H is a very expressive person and having seen many of his smirks I feel like this one is giving a little fuck you I just did that and no one could stop me vibe. I definitely see a whiff of "come at me bro" in that smile.

What do you think? Did I just manage to make sense out of one of the most chaotic videos of all time or am I a whackadoodle?

Nevermind, I know the answer lol

PS Did you know that kiwi birds mate for life and that the males incubate the eggs? Just some trivia for you... obviously doesn't mean anything... oBviOuSly...

[seasurfacefullofclouds1]

I get the suspicion around Larry sometimes, but at the same time, alot of stuff out there debunks alot of Larries theories they are hell bent on sticking too. Like the whole marriage thing on the 28th. Yes, I get Louis has an obsession with 28 and there was some twitter jokes from their friends and family on the 28th joking about marriage, but never once did they say it was about Larry specifically. They were also in Australia that day where same sex marriage was def not legal. Also seeing videos from that concert day, Louis was sick and lost his voice & that was also in them tweets, but he and harry barely interacted during those concerts. Not really a good way to spend a honeymoon/wedding day, pretending to not be friends. lol The other thing is the bandana theory. Why do they say its confirmed he wears the blue bandana for Louis or the peace ring for Louis? Where is the proof Louis bought him the peace ring (or Zayn for that matter cause Zarries use it as their proof too). Did I miss where Harry said Louis got him the peace ring? I'm genuinely curious. I know about the bandana project, but the two things could be totally unrelated, yet they tell it as if its confirmed. And if the peace ring meant that much to harry and was basically his wedding ring, why wear it once in a blue moon? Also Harry never acknowledges 28, so is it one sided marriage?

Harry had one cryptic post about 28 that fandom talked about (21 May 2015).

(Looking through his Instagram I also see this birthday cake for Xander from 2015 lmao. Please don’t make me go through his IG again.)

Other than that, no mention of 28, no mention of Louis giving him the peace ring. Neither Louis nor Zayn ever alluded to Harry’s rings or any of his other jewelry. The anniversary/ marriage posts have been debunked years ago (did they get a legal divorce lol).

Neither Louis nor Harry ever referred to each other with regard to the blue bandana. Louis’ color has not been blue since he left the band in 2015— his favorite color is red (is Zayn signaling with his red microphone? No 😂😂😂).

It’s the same thing as the asinine dog bark in Harry’s pandemic interview. As far as I know, Louis’ dog Clifford has never left the UK. Traveling with Clifford during a worldwide pandemic would be fucking stupid. Louis isn’t fucking stupid.

It’s the same thing as the “Umbro shirt.” Pure fetishistic fantasy.

It’s actually very on-brand for Larries to reduce one of Louis’ trademarks, the number 28, to something related to their fantasy ship. Louis can’t have anything for himself. His music has to refer to Larry. His tour covers are about Larry. The way he dresses is either signaling Larry or trying to piss off Larries. Same with his friendships. Louis can’t have a pet that doesn’t involve Harry. Louis’ house is “his stunt house” because Harry isn’t ever there. See the pattern?

[picklewednesday]

HIIIII @maxphilippa IM RLLY SUPER DUPER SORRY I ACCIDENTALLY DELETED UR ASK. anywho super duper happy abt u coming to me abt pickle

so I'm gonna sort this by things that are like. in general abt him and things that might be useful for whatever ur writing.

general

Pickle (despite being labelled "The Idiot") is actually pretty resourceful, and very similair to Lightbulb in the sense that they both 'stumble' into solutions. For Pickle it's best seen in "Seas The Day", where he makes up a stupid plan in a second, however when he takes more than 10 seconds to think, he ends up with a plan that makes Paper really happy.

On that note, contrary to popular belief, he's very social! He can be seen numerous times hanging out with Soap and Cheesy, aside from the s1 contestants (tbf he's not been seen since Seas The Day. so.)

Even so, after S2, Pickle is honestly pretty reserved. He's seen having to build up the courage to talk about what's bothering him, and he's seen by himself throughout s2e7.

Because of this, when people actually take the time to talk or listen to him, he holds on tightly to it and listens to their advice.

He doesn't actually mind thinking about Taco when he decides to think or reminisce about her on his OWN. When it's brought up by someone else, he gets frustrated and upset about having to see or hear about her.

He gets excited very easily, but that's something very obvious about him. Its another thing that can actually be compared to Lightbulb

He seems to have issues trusting others after s1. This is also linked back to why he has so much trouble opening up, even to his closest friends.

He's also depressed!!!!! ougghagghhh my best friend ever :c

He does seem to like spending time with people. Eg. Seas The Day, The Complaint Desk comic, and the episode where he sends OJ, Bomb ans Salt off to get the tree for the team while he ans Taco hangout, when he plans picnics for both Taco and his girlfriend.

He is a SUCKERRRR for big romantic gestures. Big flirt apparently. Loves romantic things.

Applicable stuff

(stuff that MIGHT be useful but idk)

He loves water and swimming :3

He plays the saxophone!!!!! so either he knows music theory or he likes jazz and music theory can fuck off

he has a rubber duck, a book, and a seemingly unlit orange candle in this trash box so. maybe tjay could be useful idk.

he mostly plays multiplayer games, ans when hes playing alone he plays against bots :3

he draws himself as. a little blob.

if theres anything I didnt mention that you think could be helpful pls let me know!!! I'm sure I left a lot out bc I started thinking abt this on the bus like 3 hrs ago lol. a lot of this is me using his crumbs of screentime to explode with joy. if anything else comes to mind I'll immediately tell u

either way have fun!!! write him however u want he's barely ever seen anyway

[xxcandyacidxx]

a flower

P x Eugenie Oneshot

Felt like writing something for them, I think they're criminally underrated. Also bare with me this is the first time I've written like this on tumblr lol

summary: Eugenie thinks about P's existence before he makes a soft gesture to her

warnings: none I think

Days were a lot more interesting for Eugenie with P around Hotel Krat now, especially considering he was such an amazing creation. She couldn’t deny that she liked keeping busy this way, thinking of different ways to improve his weapons and sketching out Legion arm concepts.

Admittedly, the silence around the Hotel, pleasant as it was, might make one bored after staying for days there. Eugenie was one of the first people to have made it to the Hotel when the Puppet Frenzy started. She nearly went at Polendina after she came through the doors with a nearby lamp before Antonia shouted for the panicked girl to stop and explained her butler’s status to her. Interestingly, Polendina had resisted the surge in violence, as if this rage just did not cross his mind.

It made Eugenie think, wondering if the rumors of the puppets becoming more human had some truth to them. Being one of the lucky mechanics to have worked in Geppetto’s Workshop Union, she hadn’t had much hope in the theory at the time. She worked up close and personal with many artificial bodies, and no evidence was found, not by her. Then again, she had only been around the ones in the street that were activated. Seeing how Polendina spoke and interacted with Antonia at times, she could almost see how doting he was, affectionately so. And she knew this was not much of a feature they had put into those creations.

She kept it to herself until P came along. At first, the boy had come in in a soaked white shirt, sheer from rain and a bit of mineral oil, and she had thought that he was merely a newcomer. A split second later, she realized the resemblance he had to Geppetto’s late son. Then the rational conclusion that was true, this was indeed the puppet that Geppetto had mentioned once to her of making in the likeness of his son. And she had never seen anything like him. He was beautiful, accurate down to every freckle on his face. Except she never recalled Carlo having cornflower blue eyes.

Even after their introductions, she never passed up an opportunity to watch him walk down the hallway past her makeshift workshop in the hotel. Hearing him practice on the training dummies outside. If it wasn’t weird, she might have sat him down and closely examined all of his details. Every strand of hair, how his skin felt under her fingers, wondering how he could have been made. He had to be Geppetto’s best creation yet. And even then, she felt he was more than a puppet.

She had heard him playing the piano once, a simple but pretty melody. She wondered if Antonia felt well enough to scoot herself into the bench but when she less than sneakily peeked around the corner and saw P pressing the keys himself, her eyes widened behind her glasses. He played as if he had for years. But that wasn’t it, given some puppets training required piano simply for hand coordination. It was how human he looked. Swaying slightly to the music, eyes closed and a small furrow of the brow as he pressed a different chord. It was mesmerizing, beautiful that he could feel or at least mimic feeling the music in a way that only humans could. It only got more amazing from there.

P would make an effort to bring back vinyl records for the gramophone collecting dust in the hotel lobby, not even knowing how refreshing it was for Eugenie to hear different songs, the fact that P even thought of wanting to listen to music. She’s never seen that in a puppet before, he couldn’t possibly be all artificial.

Eugenie had been comfortably in her seat, sharpening an old blade P dropped off before in the day, admiring her handiwork at the repaired handle. She looked up upon feeling a presence, seeing P walking into the rather muted room.

“Hello, come to pick up your sword? I just finished it.”

She presented it to him with both gloved hands. P’s eyes flickered down, taking the blade gratefully and merely pocketed it into a sheath on his belt. Thinking that was that, Eugenie went back to the various concepts she had been brainstorming for a few days before she realized she didn’t hear his footsteps retreating. She looked back up, seeing his gaze boring into her comfortably. The staring was something she had to get used to but there was no malice behind it, as if he was simply admiring a painting. The thought almost made her blush.

“..Do you need anything else?”

P walked around the work desk, his looming form now in front of her as she turned her chair to face him. His expression stayed stoic as he carefully withdrew a small flower from a pocket in his tailcoat. Metal hand extended to her face, she could feel her own breath nearly catch in her throat as he tucked the stem gently behind her ear. He cupped her cheek, steel fingers lingering on her warm skin and trailing her jaw as he pulled away. There was almost a warmth in his eyes that Eugenie could not look away from.

Swift as a fox, he turned and slunk down the hallway, leaving Eugenie speechless. Flustered thoughts began entering her mind. She didn’t want to take the flower out, for he put it there in her hair himself but oh how she wanted to know what made him want to do that. Perhaps he did the same with the others? Did someone tell him to? Could it have been that lamp, Gemini? And yet no answers came to mind, not quelling the flush enveloping her skin down to her collarbones.

[purplesurveys]

1951

Do you ever have days where you just don’t do anything? That's...what I look for in my weekends now, pretty much. I'm so busy wringing out 115% of my brain during the workweek that when Friday evening rolls around I'm just too mentally exhausted to even think about making plans. Sometimes I'll see friends, but even then I prefer to just hang out at someone's house or mine. In any case, I've taught myself that rest is also productive - so I no longer feel guilty about spending my weekends couch-rotting away.

Have you ever experienced something paranormal? No but it's also because I don't seriously believe in it. I like hearing stories and seeing how creepy people's POVs can get, but gun to my head I don't believe in the whole concept.

What’s the longest amount of time you’ve been stuck in traffic? This is a hilarious question tbh because in the Philippines, everywhere is traffic and it's impossible to gauge my worst record. I just face it everyday. Idk. Maybe the time I tried going to Leni's thanksgiving rally when she lost the elections? For a drive that'd usually take 30-45 minutes, I got to the Katipunan area only after 5 hours. Everyone else and their mothers were headed to the same rally, hence the traffic.

I missed the entire thing so to cheer me up, my friends asked if I was up to go to a bar since it had been a Friday evening anyway.

What museums have you visited, if any? Too many to count. I like museums. I've gone to most, if not all of the ones within Metro Manila + I also make it a point to visit at least 1 museum in my local and international trips.

Have you ever dealt with noisy neighbors or roommates? How did that go? Yes the house behind us has like 1000 fucking kids who do nothing but cry. I've pretty much memorized the way each kid's cry sounds at this point. Filipinos are non-confrontational lmao so the most I've gone is to just furiously bang my window in their direction as a way to tell them to shut up. One time my mom directly went to them and asked them to tone it down, but it fell on deaf ears so it's just pointless.

Have you ever taken a woodshop class? No.

What area of math are you best at? Worst? Fractions and advanced algebra. Statistics can also be on the easy side so long as you have the formulas memorized.

Geometry, trigonometry, and calculus were without a doubt my worst. I barely passed a single exam in high school and I'm still of the theory that my teachers probably just passed me out of pity so that I don't need to take summer classes, lol.

How do you feel when you meet someone with the same music taste as you? It makes me feel good and warm and fuzzy! Specific to my ~fanbase, and K-pop as a whole, Armys traditionally stick up and watch out for one another so it's always nice seeing them out in the wild. Just a couple months back when Jungkook's documentary was in theatres, I instinctively offered my snacks to the fans in front of me even though we didn't know each other ahaha.

Do you believe in luck? Why or why not? Not the good kind. But I do hold a certain level of belief in bad luck because I always seem to hoard it.

Do you ever feel self-conscious when you eat around other people? The only time this happens is if I go to uncommon cuisine-specific restaurants and feel like locals' eyes are on me and judging the way I eat their food. Like earlier; I was at an authentic Korean place and got kongguksu and samgyupsal – two meals that DO NOT go together and Koreans never eat together, lol. But I wanted to try kongguksu and I was craving samgyupsal so I got both. I ended up just avoiding the eyes of the native Koreans who came in to eat there HAHAHA

Have you ever considered going to art school? Not art school but close – I applied for art management in Ateneo, since I had dreams of being a museum curator. I passed the exam, but since I had already also passed UPD at that point, I had to let it go. UP was my prio anyway by an infinitely larger margin.

Is there anyone in your life who consistently angers you? Yes, my closest cousin's dad. Aka my mom's brother/my uncle.

Have you ever had problems falling asleep in class? Never.

Are your parents supportive of you? They are but they are also the practical/realistic kind of supportive. Badly put, if I had dreams to go to an expensive school or travel abroad, they'd cheer me on but they wouldn't give up an arm and a leg to make it happen for me; and they'd also be the first to tell me no, we can't afford it – which I understand and respect.

How often do you take the train to go places? Never.

Have you ever participated in a mock trial, or a real trial? Nope. But Andi brought me to a mock courtroom once, if anything lol.

Do you have the right time set on your microwave? Yup.

Do you have any old newspaper articles? Why? I don't think we do, no.

Do you have a flat screen tv or just a regular box? Yes, flat screen.

Do you have a radar detector for your car? Nope.

Have you ever been arrested? For what? Never have.

Do you know how to change the oil in your car? Ahaha, nope. My dad prefers to do it - or when he's not here, we have a contact if it needs to be done.

Do you like Tootsie Rolls? I don't think I've ever had one, actually.

Are you seeing anybody currently? No.

Do you like it when it snows? I've never experienced snow.

Where do you do most of your shopping? Depends on what I'm shopping for. I take a liking to Uniqlo these days, though.

Do you have a big yard? It's average-sized but considering we grew up in a really cramped set-up, I'm just happy we have a backyard at all.

Do you live in the country or the city? City.

At what age did you obtain your driver license? 18.

What are you favorite kind of chips? Honey butter or baked potato chips!

Where did you go today? I was in Makati for most of the day. Work-wise, I was there to visit a print newspaper for our media rounds; but outside of work I also had a stacked agenda since I needed to buy more gifts for more relatives (it's our Christmas reunion tomorrow so it's procrastination at its very finest, LOL). All in all a very productive day and it also just so happens to be the weekend, so yay!

Are you sleepy right now? I'm getting there but I can still finish this. And maybe take another one? We'll see. I never follow through on statements like this though, hahaha.

What color is your mousepad? I don't use one but my trackpad is silver/grey.

Do you get your eyebrows waxed? Nope.

Has anyone given you flowers recently? Not since April.

Has anyone you know been arrested recently? Not arrested but pulled over for traffic violations - Gabie and Hans.

Do you have more than 1 email address? That I do.

Do you have central heating and air? No.

Are there any plants in your house? Yes, they're all my mom's. I don't really care for plants.

Do you prefer cold or warm weather? Cold.

Do you prefer bar or liquid soap? Liquid. But I don't mind either.

Do you wear any perfumes/colognes on a regular basis? Yes.

Do you have high or low self-esteem levels? It depends; there are so many contexts to self-esteem. I definitely fluctuate.

When was the last time you listened to a song on repeat? What was the song? Not sure, maybe last week? It was the Japanese version of Falling by Jin, featuring Taka from One Ok Rock.

Do you like mint or orange-flavored chocolate? Mintcho is fine. Orange chocolate...I can take it or leave it.

When was the last time you burnt your mouth from eating something too hot? This rarely happens to me because I'm super sensitive to pain and automatically spit something out if I find it too hot lol.

What is your favorite foreign language to listen to? (In music or speech) Nothing tbh but if anything, maybe French.

Do you prefer instrumental songs or ones with lyrics? Lyrics.

Name something simple that makes you happy. Finding a parking slot near the entrance of where I'm headed.

What is your favorite instrument to listen to? Piano.

Pick one: Books, movies or music? Music > movies > books.

What was the last book you read about? It's a collection of history essays.

When was the last time you used a quote from a movie in real life? Earlier. My sister made a White Chicks reference and my instinct was to sing the Guantanamera bit that happens in the opening scene lol

Can you put your legs behind your head? I probably could. I did it a lot as a kid hahaha. I know it will 100% hurt more at 26 but I'm pretty sure I still can.

Do you forget things easily? Yes. :(

The last song you listened to: Did it have a male or female vocalist? 7 boys.

Have you ever had braces? Do you need them? I did and I have them again now.

What does your voice sound like? (Loud, quiet, high-pitched, etc) It's on the deeper side but nothing too deep that I'd get mistaken as a boy. It just doesn't really have that softness that most girls I know tend to have. Idk how else I can explain my own voice, sorry hahah.

What was the last topic you read about on Wikipedia? I looked up Niki cos I just got quickly curious about how she shot up to fame in such a short amount of time.

Have you ever donated money to Wikipedia? No.

What board games did you play when you were growing up? Just traditional/common ones like scrabble, snakes and ladders, checkers etc.

Do you know any sign language? Like less than 10 words, so no.

When was the last time you bought new clothes? What did you get? Earlier! I got this elegant-looking day dress from Uniqlo that I'm planning to wear to the Christmas party on my dad's side.

Do you ever watch streamers on Twitch? Nope.

Has your house ever been broken into? How did you find out? It has not.

What do you usually eat for breakfast? I don't eat anything and just fix myself a cup of coffee.

Are you overwhelmed right now? Not anymore because it's the weekend.

Did you share a bedroom with someone when you were growing up? I didn't even have my own bedroom growing up, so the default answer here is yes. I didn't get my own until I was around 10/11.

How many group chats are you in? Do you participate in them much? So many. GCs are just everyday life for Filipinos. I have more active GCs than active threads with individual people.

Are you still in touch with any of your exes? No.

What do you do for work? I do local PR for the biggest consumer brands in the world that you 100% know about.

Were you upset when you found out certain things weren’t real? (Santa, Tooth Fairy…) I was always a bit of a realistic kid and kind of had an inkling that none of them were real. It was my parents working overtime trying to convince me that they were, hahaha.

Name something you’re proud of. Brag a little bit. I've been sponsoring my family's noche buena and media noche for the last 3 years :) We weren't dirt poor in my growing-up years but we definitely had to save more than we could spend, so it just as well felt like we were poor. Getting to a point where I can ask them whatever they wanted to eat and shush them about worrying about the price definitely feels good.

Which store would you like to win $1000 for? Nike.

Do you pay any attention to celebrity drama? I pick and choose which ones to follow. I'm definitely not, like, chronically online if it comes to things like this.

What popular food do you dislike? Ice cream. I eat slowly, so we're incompatible from the get-go!

Do you have any cats? Yes we have our Maxwell George :)

How many slices of pizza can you eat in 1 sitting? Sometimes 1, sometimes 3.

[theflyingfeeling]

Fourtheenth Day of Gift-Giving: Fun Adventures

Prompt: A group project in school brings some unusual friends together

Yes, it's a high school AU, somewhat inspired by / based off this fic idea I had a while ago! I've never written a high scool AU before so pls be nice, also I've taken some liberties with the prompt again, because there's no group project per se, they're simply in the same chemistry class 😌

Banner made by @kraeuterhexchen again, thanks for suffering for me a bit I love youuuu <3

~

Aleksi muffled his third yawn in a row on his palms. Every single week at this exact time he regretted his promise to his father that he’d take at least four optional courses this school year on top of all the compulsory ones in exchange for a language course in Amsterdam next June. The tragedy was that his schedule was already so full with the compulsory courses alone that he could barely find gaps to fill with anything else at more humane times than at eight o’clock on a Monday morning, which was when his additional chemistry class was held. It didn’t help that none of his friends or acquaintances were taking the same class; Aleksi envied them for their superior life choices.

Chemistry could be alright at best, but in general it wasn’t among his favourite subjects. Rather than reaction equations, Aleksi was much more fascinated by the only other guy in the group he knew by name, who, by the happy coincidence of the two of them both being late to class on the first day, ended up being his lab partner. He didn’t know Olli because they were buddies, quite the contrary, in fact; one of Olli’s friends was still bitter about Aleksi standing him up regarding a music project (which had been but a case of bad communication, of which Aleksi was deeply ashamed, even though in the eyes of his own friends it had been ‘such a big-dick move to put that cocky emo loser back in his place lol’), so Aleksi wasn’t exactly surprised that Olli never replied to his sleepy greeting on Monday mornings. Thinking back to it, Aleksi couldn’t recall the boy saying anything at all during the chemistry classes, so that by now he would’ve started suspecting Olli was mute, if it wasn’t for the times he had seen Olli laugh and joke about with his friends at recess. From the little Aleksi had heard when he had passed by the group in the school corridors, Olli had a soft, quiet voice, often blending under the much louder ones of his friends, which was why Aleksi had set making Olli speak to him as his main ambition for the course, rather than getting a high mark.

“Morning,” he said to Olli like he did every Monday, and like every Monday, Olli barely glanced his way. What made this Monday different from all the other Mondays was that Aleksi could’ve sworn he had seen Olli nod at him this time, sort of in a blink-and-you-miss-it kind of way, although it may as well have been just his tired brain making things up. Nevertheless, it gave Aleksi the spark of hope that had him sit up straight, ready to converse Olli’s ears off in case he finally happened to be in the mood, but before he could open his mouth to ask Olli about his weekend, the teacher started the lesson by shoving hand-outs on their tables.

That day, however, Aleksi was determined to succeed in his plan at long last, even if he had to get a little creative.

While Olli was concentrating on keeping his eyes open as the teacher explained the theory behind the day’s experiments, Aleksi picked up his pencil and wrote on the corner of Olli’s hand-out:

Hi! :)

The anticipation nearly had him tremble as he waited for Olli to react in any way; for the longest time, bordering Aleksi’s patience, Olli did nothing but stare at the letters Aleksi had scribbled. He still didn’t look at him, still didn’t say anything or – god forbid – smile; he just blinked at the single word that had appeared in the corner of his paper.

Then, after a million years in Aleksi’s experience, he grabbed his own pencil.

hi

Those two letters alone made Aleksi feel like a winner already.

How are you?

Still keeping his eyes firmly on the paper, Olli seemed to be pondering his answer for a while.

good

Aleksi wondered if Olli was as terse speaking up as he was in writing.

Great to hear! I’m doing good as well :) Do you have a long day on Mondays?

Exactly like a moment earlier, Olli did nothing but stare at their brief written conversation. Aleksi wanted to believe that Olli was just about to write his answer but was ruthlessly interrupted by the teacher ordering them to walk over and look closer as she’d perform an example experiment for them to later mimic.

They didn’t get a chance to continue their little chat later on in the lesson, and they never spoke during the practical experiments they were asked to do – or rather, Olli never spoke, despite Aleksi’s best efforts to at least have him answer some simple yes-or-no questions, such as ‘do you want to try first?’ or ‘can you pass the pipette?’ or ‘oh fuck, do you think we should tell the teacher?’ when their experiments sometimes failed unexpectedly. The best Aleksi had gotten out of Olli was a suppressed snort when the other day Aleksi had accidentally spilled some red colour additive on his brand-new Off-White t-shirt.

“Quit laughing, or I’ll tell everyone it’s your blood,” he had said in hopes of making Olli properly giggle, but it had seemed to have the opposite effect, for Olli hadn’t let out a single sound for the rest of class after that. Later, Aleksi had wondered if it had been because Olli was scared Aleksi actually might, and to prevent his friends from getting wind of them being lab partners – because clearly he was that opposed to the idea of being associated with Aleksi – he had firmly kept his lips sealed for the rest of the class and all the ones that followed it.

This day, someone must have put something in Olli’s breakfast porridge, however, because when the class was dismissed, Olli spoke in his low, quiet voice, not even directly at Aleksi, but more to his general direction, so that Aleksi knew the words were addressed to him.

“See ya.”

“Yeah, see ya!” Aleksi replied, perhaps a little too eagerly, rolling his eyes in frustration when Olli hurried out of the classroom.

It wasn’t much, but it was a start.

~*~

The next Monday, Aleksi decided to go past formalities and straight to the point to get Olli to interact with him.

Had a nice wknd? :) 

Aleksi was most definitely too optimistic for his own good, but he had a feeling Olli didn’t take half as long to answer this time, even though his reply remained brief.

yup

Literally on the edge of his seat, Aleksi waited for Olli to elaborate on his reportedly ‘nice weekend’ – in vain. He rolled his eyes and picked up his pencil again.

What did you get up to?

Olli flipped pencil in his fingers like one would do with a drumstic, clumsily, almost dropping it on his desk. Aleksi saw an attractive blush slowly spread on Olli’s cheeks and hoped it wouldn’t discourage Olli away from the budding conversation. 

At last, Aleksi’s patient waiting was rewarded.

went to see a gig

Aleksi clenched his pencil into his fist out of sheer excitement. If there was a topic Aleksi could’ve chatted about for hours on end, it was music, his first and (so far) only love. He knew Olli played in a band and was sure that if he only could somehow make Olli lower his walls for him, they might actually find a lot to whisper about to pass the time a bit more merrily on Monday mornings.

So cool! Who did you see?

Olli didn’t keep him waiting for long, which Aleksi decided to take as a sign of Olli also being keen on their current conversation topic.

If only Aleksi knew how to help Olli get out of his shell a little more.

a friend’s band

Aleksi nodded, careful not to appear too enthusiastic or intrusive to scare Olli off, now that he had gotten him to write more than one word at a time.

Any good?

The teacher was just about to have the class gathered around her table again, so instead of a thorough review of the music show, Olli only jotted down a wonky yup in response before hurrying to the front of the classroom. During the whole rest of the class, Aleksi was not given another chance to fish more out of Olli’s weekend.

Well, he sighed to himself, standing up to join his coursemates, another Monday, then. 

~*~

Later that day, sort of by coincidence (of having purposefully lingered around the music classroom on the pretext of asking the music teacher about an upcoming extra credit class), Aleksi learnt Olli’s band had a practice slot in the music classroom on Monday evenings. His plan was not to spy on Olli, but he figured he might as well use this newly-acquired information to squeeze a little more out of Olli in their next chemistry class.

Any plans after school?

Only when he noticed Olli freeze upon seeing the question on the margin of his notebook, Aleksi realised how it must sound like to him, so out of the blue.

Just curious btw :) 

Olli seemed to hesitate before answering.

band practice

Aleksi hid his smirk behind his palm.

Hook, line and sinker, he thought to himself, the pencil in his hand itching to write down all the follow-up questions he had prepared. By the end of the class, Aleksi congratulated himself, for his plan to have Olli blabber about their common interest had worked out splendidly: Aleksi had learnt, for example, that Olli had been playing the bass for seven years already and that their band was actually working on their first EP, which Aleksi was genuinely impressed by. What really had made Aleksi feel like he was on top of the world, however, was when he noticed the smallest hint of amusement on Olli’s face; he still hadn’t managed to lure Olli to look him in the eye, but he had made him smile, which was perhaps even better.

The rest of the week Aleksi spent barely paying attention to what his friends were talking or laughing about in between classes, too busy searching for his chemistry class conversation buddy with his eyes. He did so every day, even though he was convinced the principal granting him the rest of the semester off with no consequences was more likely than catching Olli looking at him.

That was, until he did.

It was only a fleeting moment in time as they passed each other in the canteen and over before Aleksi’s heart could settle back to its place from his throat where it had jumped up to. He couldn’t tell since when his lab partner looking his way had started rousing this kind of reaction in him; then again, Olli had never really glanced his way before, so how could he have known?

Maybe that was also why Aleksi hadn’t noticed the shade of Olli’s irises until now. They were dark grey, he could tell, serious but not cold by any means. He couldn’t wait to take a closer look at them the next time he was given the chance.

Perhaps it was time for Aleksi to change his tactics.

~*~

“Hi Olli,” Aleksi said as soon as Olli walked up to his desk the next Monday. As if surprised to hear his name spoken out loud, Olli looked up at him, and Aleksi was granted another glimpse of those mysterious eyes.

Olli didn’t let him rejoice for too long, though, before turning his gaze to his desk as he sat down.

“Hi.”

And that was it: their first spoken conversation (in which Olli had also participated), despite Olli avoiding his gaze for the rest of the class, as was his right. Aleksi supposed. Even Aleksi himself was too giddy about the interaction to think of anything else to say.

It was almost ridiculous, if he was honest with himself. Yet, for the first time during the whole autumn semester, Aleksi was looking forward to the early Monday morning chemistry class.

~*~

Within the next couple of weeks, their conversations evolved from exchanging casual greetings (‘Hi Olli!’ ‘Hi…Aleksi’) to deep discussions about the current events in their lives (‘How’s it going?’ ‘Good.’ ‘Awesome’), which was equal parts exciting and frustrating to Aleksi. His heart would do the silly bouncing-up-to-his-throat thing whenever Olli blessed him with a quick glance of his dark eyes (Aleksi could swear they were a different shade every time he looked), but the moments only ever lasted for a second or two at a time. On the bright side, Olli would no longer rush out of the classroom to get out of having to perform any more small talk, but instead took his time putting his books and pencils back in his bag carefully, even if Aleksi never managed to open his mouth in time before Olli would make his inevitable escape. Aleksi suspected that it was, indeed, the newfound thrill of being graced with the occasional, fleeting look from Olli that rendered him speechless and caused him to miss his chance of getting to talk with Olli at least until they’d reach the classroom doorway. From there onwards they’d go their separate ways anyway, to their different worlds: Aleksi to one in which Olli was a moody emo kid with no sense of humour (or so Aleksi had been told by Isac who went to the same biology class with Olli), and Olli to one in which Aleksi was probably portrayed as a self-satisfied snob who once did his friend dirty.

The Monday after that, Olli never walked in through the classroom door, no matter how intensely Aleksi stared at it. When the days passed and Aleksi hadn’t caught a glimpse of the boy by Friday, he became worried, to the extent he considered walking up to Olli’s friend group to ask about him. He was almost certain that the one with the short platinum-blond hair might have actually told him, or at least he looked the least intimidating out of them all. One of them was almost two heads taller than Aleksi, so he saw it best to stay out of his way, although his smile – in those rare occasions he did smile – was anything but frightening. The one with the baggy clothes Aleksi had once heard rapping at a house party was tiny in comparison, but something about the angle of his eyebrows gave Aleksi the chills. Joel was obviously out of the question; Aleksi would probably never dare speak to him after The Incident. Joonas, on the other hand (Aleksi knew his name because he and Joel often squabbled loudly, with Joel shouting his name in bewilderment, his obvious affection for the boy poorly masked as annoyance), seemed like the kind of guy who would whisper you the right answer just in time before the teacher’s drill of a stare would bore a hole through your skull.

Taking a deep breath to brace himself, he watched as Olli’s friends were stepping in the Swedish classroom. As if on cue, Joonas was the last one about to walk through the door, and seeing his chance had come, Aleksi zoomed over and grabbed him by his sleeve.

“Hey,” he said once he had pulled Joonas aside, hidden from the disapproving looks of Joel and company.

“Huh?”

“Do you happen to know where Olli is?” Going straight to the point seemed like the best strategy to get anything out of Joonas, in case Aleksi had completely misjudged him and he was about to be punched in the face.

“He’s caught the cold. Why?” Knitting his brows and eyeing Aleksi up and down, Joonas seemed sceptical about Aleksi’s intentions, to say the least.

(It had Aleksi wondering if any of his own friends would act as protectively about him, but that was a matter of concern for another day entirely.)

“Ummmm… I have his chemistry homework for him.”

Aleksi could almost hear the cogwheels turning inside Joonas’ head until his expression brightened.

“Aaah… Right! Yeah, I suppose you would.” (Whatever Joonas meant by that.) “I’m gonna go over later today to see how he’s doing, so I can forward the message for you.”

“Oh, great! Thanks!” Aleksi said, as if he had any clue what they had actually been given as homework four days ago.

Ironically, Aleksi was saved by Joel calling for Joonas from inside the classroom.

“I’ll catch up with you later, alright?” Joonas winked at him, and then he was gone. 

Joonas never did catch up with him, however, and so Aleksi was saved from the embarrassment of admitting he hadn’t been following their chemistry lesson after all, more or less due to the disappointment of not seeing Olli after having spent the entire weekend planning what he’d say to him. Not knowing if Olli would be attending the upcoming Monday’s class either, the weekend went by slower than ever, which normal-Aleksi would’ve embraced; this new, strange, maybe-crushing-on-his-quiet-lab-partner-Aleksi was on pins and needles.

~*~

There it was again, that awful skip of his heart, when Aleksi saw Olli enter the classroom on Monday. So relieved he was that he had no means to tone down the excitement in his greeting.

“You’re here!”

Olli looked up at him but said nothing, his silence a pang to Aleksi’s chest. His joy upon their reunion changed into defeat in less than a second, and Aleksi felt like a right idiot for having thought Olli, too, might have been waiting to see him again.

Suddenly fascinated by the cover of his chemistry course book, Aleksi put his head down to hide his disappointment. He was already settled for staring at the abstract drawing for the next 75 minutes to avoid more heartbreak, but then a slip of paper appeared in front of him.

can’t speak doctor’s orders

On his face, Olli was wearing a kind, small smile. In that instant, Aleksi forgot what he had even been so saddened about. He flashed Olli a smile in return and started searching with his eyes for a pencil; he would’ve felt too weird talking to Olli out loud without him being able to answer. Tragically, it seemed that in anticipation of possibly seeing Olli again after so long, Aleksi had forgotten to pack his pencil case. Noticing this, Olli offered him his own, the same, tiny smile still on his lips.

Shame! You’re usually so talkative

He knew he was taking a risk poking fun at Olli’s quietness, but to his great relief, Olli’s smile widened and his shoulders twitched in a voiceless chuckle. Encouraged by this, Aleksi continued with an equally risky revelation.

I missed you in class last week

Having written down the words, Aleksi could barely look at Olli as he felt his cheeks heaten up. He let Olli take back his pencil from his fingers, as well as the paper slip from his desk.

Olli spent almost a minute writing down his reply, erasing and rewriting, until he finally passed the paper back to Aleksi, immediately directing his face to the opposite side of the classroom.

missed you too

Aleksi had never seen three words so pretty in his life.

~*~

What followed next was an entire week of unexpected encounters between the two lab partners, as if the universe was purposefully making them cross each other’s way to make up for the past seven days of not seeing each other. On Tuesday, their shoulders brushed walking past each other in a crowded corridor. On Wednesday, they were returning their trays at lunch at the exact same time and exchanged brief smiles. On Thursday, they almost ran into each other at the restroom door, which is when Aleksi learnt Olli had regained his voice, mumbling a small ‘oops’ after having bumped into Aleksi.

On Friday, at the last recess of the day, Olli’s friend Joonas grabbed Aleksi by his wrist and pulled him into an empty classroom.

“Wait here,” he ordered, and utterly confused as he was, Aleksi had no choice but to obey.

A moment later Joonas returned, pushing a red-cheeked Olli into the room before promptly leaping back to the corridor, closing the door behind him.

For one long, anxious moment, neither of them said anything, Aleksi because he was still too baffled by the latest turn of events to open his mouth, and Olli because he was… Olli.

“Ummmm…” Olli finally said, his voice a little hoarse, so he cleared his throat and tried again. “I just… ummm… there’s this… band… tomorrow…”

Aleksi had to bite his lip, both at how adorable Olli was, fumbling with his fingers as words fell out of his mouth one by one, as well as to keep himself from blurting out ‘yes’ before Olli even got around to asking him anything.

“And I was just… thinking if… ‘cuz I have an extra ticket… so… I thought maybe you–”

“Yeah!” To Aleksi’s turmoil, his tongue could sometimes be quicker than his brain. “I mean… what?” 

Behind the classroom door, someone clicked their tongue.

“Yeah, ummmm.” Olli scratched the back of his neck. “So yeah. Would you… like to come? To the show? On Saturday? With me? Maybe? I mean, of course you already have plans–”

“I don’t!” Aleksi hurried to say. “I can come. But… will your friends be coming too though?”

Olli shook his head. Aleksi decided not to dwell on what the evident horror in Olli’s eyes was a sign of. It might have been because he, too, thought it was a little too soon for Aleksi and Joel to make amends – or maybe he was just that terrified of being seen with Aleksi in public.

“No, they won’t. I mean, Joonas was supposed to, but he, ummmmmm, he’s going… ummmm…” Olli’s gaze wandered towards the door, as if for help.

“To my great-uncle’s funeral!” the door whispered at him.

“To his great-uncle’s funeral,” Olli confirmed.

“A-ha,” Aleksi nodded. “Sorry for your loss,” he said to the door.

“...Thanks,” the door replied. Holding back his laughter, Aleksi turned back to Olli who, for the first time since Joonas had urged them on the stage of their current scene, was looking at Aleksi, his round eyes expectant and hopeful for Aleksi’s final answer. Aleksi thought of taking a step closer to him, perhaps even gently touching his hand, but decided against it before his brain would command his limbs to make such reckless movements.

“Guess I’ll see you on Saturday at…?”

“At six. At Sandro’s.”

If Aleksi didn’t get a wink of sleep the following night, it wasn’t only because of excitement; the moment he laid his head on his pillow and closed his eyes, his mind was filled with pictures of a boy with twinkling eyes and a bashful smile, keeping him awake until he fell asleep to them.

~*~

Aleksi couldn’t bring himself to care if he looked a little dumb, smiling to himself and leaning his chin on his palm at eight o’clock the next Monday. Even the teacher announcing a pop quiz could not have washed away the dopey grin that had been painted on his lips since Saturday evening.

He was smiling at the way Olli’s eyes had brightened when he had spotted Aleksi in the crowd. He was smiling at Olli’s shy offer to get him a Pepsi. He was smiling at how star-struck Olli had looked when the band had first got on stage and the way he had lost himself in the music, rocking his head and closing his eyes as if to let the bass lines and guitar riffs swallow him whole. The band had been excellent, Aleksi had to agree, but more than half the time, all Aleksi had seen or heard was Olli.

And for the last three minutes of the show, all Aleksi had felt was Olli; more specifically, he had felt Olli’s hand searching for his, fumbling and hesitating until it finally clasped Aleksi’s during the final song of the band’s setlist, a melancholy rock ballad that prompted lighters and cellphone flashlights to be lit. In Aleksi’s eyes, they were all dim in comparison to the glimmer in Olli’s eyes.

Lying in his bedroom later that evening and throughout the entire next day, Aleksi had still felt the warmth of Olli’s hand in his, even though they had let each other go as soon as the stage lights had been turned off.

“Hi.” Olli’s voice brought Aleksi from Saturday evening back to Monday morning. 

“Hi,” he simply answered. There were a million things he wanted to say to Olli, but his sleepy, happy brain was still working on finding the exact words.

The smile on Olli’s face told him he’d have time to figure it out, at his own pace.

In the meantime, Aleksi could always improvise, and so he picked up his pencil.

♡

They both stared at the tiny heart on the corner of Olli’s notebook, and just when Aleksi was about to convince himself he had made a terrible mistake, Olli took the pencil out of his hand.

♡ ♡

[dragonmarquise]

Alr!!! Crews general music tastes??? I know damn well eclipse loves Beyonce

Oh boy, music!! This is gonna be a fun one to get into, at least imo.

So to start off, I like to think that in general they all like the kind of music genres that pop up in the game’s music track already. Also, we know DJ Cyber made the mixtapes besides the one for the hideout (that one being made by Tryce), so bonus headcanon: at least a few of them made suggestions to DJ Cyber for songs to include on those mixtapes.

Now moving on to some specifics!

BRC:

It depends on which individual member you ask, they probably have the most varied tastes between them? Again, besides the game’s existing genres.

There is a small subset who are into Vocaloid/vocal synth songs, mainly thanks to Bel introducing it to them. Also J-pop, again from Bel introducing it to others.

Other than that, not gonna go into further detail, especially since I’d have to think on it a lot more. :u

Actually, before I move on, a bonus headcanon: both Vinyl and DJ Cyber have probably the largest range of music tastes, and are both very knowledgeable about music. They can tell you the name of a song from the first couple of notes/lyrics, knowing when songs were release, explain differences between genres of music and which one is a subgenre/derived from/evolved from what other music genre, at least a brief history of bands/musicians/singers/etc.

One time they competed against each other in a music-focused quiz game (not like, an actual game show or anything like that, it was an informal thing at a party with the other writers). Vinyl just barely won in the end, and she still lords that over DJ Cyber every now and then, lol

The Franks

Tryce mentions at one point in the game that they blast electrofunk music. Some people might think that's something made up for the game, but it is in fact an actual music genre! So I like to think that's their main favorite, along with related genres like funk in general and breakbeat.

I like to think the Flesh Prince got into these particular genres thanks to listening to old CDs and mixtapes his parents had. Not that the Prince will ever admit it to them. :P

Eclipse

Definitely Beyoncé like you said, lol. Also other R&B/hip hop/pop/dance artists in the same vein as Beyoncé: Missy Elliott, Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, Shakira, Janelle Monáe, Lil Kim, Jennifer Lopez, Alicia Keys, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Lizzo, Chapelle Roan, etc.

Okay that list ended up longer than I meant it to be, but you probably get the idea, lol

Cassiopeia (leader, the winter palette for the crew) also has a fondness for orchestra music. Mostly when she's relaxing at home, it helps her unwind after a long day of either working at her shop or being out and about as a writer.

DOT EXE

Old school EDM (especially older disco, techno, and house) in general. Which is perhaps cliche/stereotypical since they're all cyberheads/full-cyber, but whatever lol

Twoson and Fourside also have their Weird Music Tastes that I mentioned back in the big DOT EXE post I made. And then Cueball in particular really likes video game soundtracks, and is a big fan of chiptune music in general.

Devil Theory

Hip hop and rap and related genres! And because of their love of anime, various Japanese songs that have served as anime openings/endings. :P

Sai also introduces the others to reggaetón too! And other Spanish genres related to that. Nunchaku and Bō don't speak Spanish, but they do still understand most of what's in those songs too. Besides, sometimes it's about enjoy the music and the beat, even if you can't understand the words!

Okay, also, I am going to give extra attention to my DT OCs specifically, with some extra particulars for each:

Sai likes salsa music, especially to sing along with, but like I mentioned in my big Devil Theory post, he never sings in front of other people. (Rise is the only exception, hee hee)

Nunchaku likes rock and metal music! And almost every subgenre for these two you can think of, like punk rock and nu metal.

Bō likes old school EDM/disco stuff, though in contrast to most other people, he especially likes EDM songs with a slow tempo. Bit of a contradiction since most people associate EDM with fast tempos and beats.

Daishō likes listening to horror media soundtracks, because of course he does, lol

FUTURISM

EDM in general, I would think. In contrast to DOT EXE, I imagine they're largely into newer songs and subgenres in that giant genre!

---

I would give personal favorites for some of the genres mentioned here, but man, that'd make this post way too long. Hell, EDM in general covers so many subgenres.

Actually, I think I can at least link some playlists I've made? Just 3 (for now?), because I have like 20 something playlists for different music, a bunch of them being for OCs I haven't talked about publicly. But I digress. :P

A playlist of reggaetón songs specifically. Okay actually tbh I think a few of these are of a different but still kinda related genre. If you can't tell by the name, I was planning at some point to pick like 5 favorites from this and make an actual mixtape to mod into BRC. I'm not sure if I'm ever gonna get back to that. :u

A playlist of mostly salsa songs, though like with the previous playlist, I think some of these are actually a different-but-related genre.

A playlist of EDM songs, mostly my favorites from a particular set of music channels! And it covers a lot of different subgenres: house, trap, drum & bass, even a few electro swing songs in there too.

Alright, now that's it! :>

[nuclear-cowboy]

Tagged by @callcenterkilljoy to do 15 questions, 15 mutuals

Were you named after anyone? My first name? No. But my middle name I stole from an actor cause I thought it was cool

When was the last time cried? Like. Earlier today. I will cry tomorrow as well. That's how it goes.

Do you have kids? Absolutely not. Please god no. I am barely a functioning person. Also I'm not old enough for this to be considered

Do you use sarcasm alot? Sometimes? I dunno a normal about? You ask me to hand you something and I will say no while handing it to you. I guess this is sarcasm

What's the first thing you notice about people? I don't know if there is anything in particular I notice? Usually it depends on the person I suppose. I'm also just a pretty unobservent when it comes to people honestly ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

What's your eye colour? Brown. I do have sectoral heterochromia in one of my eyes but it's just a darker brown so it's not really noticeable. It's kinda cool though

Any special talents? I can make bubble sound effects. I can solve a rubix cube. I can bend just the top joint of my pinkie finger. My thumbs bend backwards. Actually useful special talents? no not really lol

Scary movies or happy endings? Happy endings usually. But this is mainly just cause I barely watched anything ever so most movies I have watched I watched when I was a kid. But I do love horror as a genre and I have a whole lot of horror movies I want to watch so my answer might change

Where were you born? Aoteroa

What are your hobbies? A lot of drawing, in theory dnd (but I hardly ever play so mostly its just worldbuilding for fun), playing music, I go through phases of various handcrafts

Do you have any pets? I say i have 3 1/2 cats, They're of varying levels of feralness. Gonzo who was a kitten when we found him is basically just a house cat. Spud will occasionally cuddle but is pretty skittish. Lion you can pat sometimes but he's really scared of people, and Nala is basically a complete wild.

What sports do you play/have played? I did ballet for like 7 years growing up. I played one season of football (soccer if you're american). And then on and off muay thai, mma, and wrestling

How tall are you? 5'3

Favourite subject in school? Drama or history probably. I was a chemistry nerd but I dropped it as a subject. It got to much about the maths for me

Dream job? For the most part I don't have one, I do not dream of labor etc etc. But for the sake of the question I'd like to be a tattoo artist. I dunno I just want a job that I can be a functional person and make art and have hobbies and live my silly little life. And I need to be able to make art in some form or else I will simply die so. whatever I can manage

Tagging the mutuals i hope yall dont mind, obviously you don't have to do this, it's chill either way. You all are really cool and tagging this many people makes my anxious. Hope yall are having a good day (｡•̀ᴗ-)♡

@probablyahazard @horsecursed-cowboy @myc0l0gy @cowboycunt @alittleannihilation @draculagerard @bugfag @transaurus @mtmblid @faithdeans @kentuckycaverats @styxnbones @wormtiddies @shadowgast4t @deadmervsociety

[scorchrend]

I actually don’t know anything about using DAWs… I only know the bare minimum to make music on fl studio LMFAO. Like I don’t know what equalization is, or what limiters and compressors do.💀💀💀

It’s a little embarrassing to say but I’ve literally been being hard carried by my mediocre piano playing and the melodies that come to me in the shower. So then I have to keep humming it over and over until I get out so I don’t forget then I immediately rush to my computer to sketch that thing down also so I don’t forget. Because I have a weaker memory than a goldfish.

I should probably learn that now that i have a project solely to make myself make more music…I learned everything I have so far by messing around lol I did not open more than 3 tutorials. I might be a little nuts???

Anyways if anyone here DOES know what they’re doing. If you have any recommended tutorials on that. PLEASE send them. I’m withering away.

I should also probably learn more theory because I’m slowly realizing my songs sound a little samey. But also it’s not that urgent because I have something else more urgent (college…..)

[khodorkovskaya]

05.09.23

okay so... deep breath...

im barely hanging on you guys. like. i am under so much stress.

so basically i had two exams to retake: probability and functional analysis. and it's the only ones i have left to complete my degree. but, here's the fun little twist! if i don't pass im out! i only have one chance to pass them. and if i don't, thats 4 years of studying down the drain. fun fun fun!!!!!

so the first exam was on the 28th and it was really hard. i studied a lot, made flashcards and everything. and it was like impossibly hard. the thing is, this was a yearly class, so the overall grade is the average of two semesters. i got a 4.5 for the 2nd semester, so i only need 3.25 to pass the year. but the exam was so hard idek if i got 3.25... the prof said that if we only fill out the theory questions, that's a 4. the theory questions counted up to 8 points, so like if i get 8 points overall, that's a pass. but guys... im so scared...

so ive been freaking out a lot. and taking anxiety meds. and when i think about this exam i feel this FEAR in all caps. like. it's so bad. i can't sleep, i can't do anything, my skin is breaking out, it's hell.

then the second exam was on the 4th, so yesterday. and i was this close to losing it like the pressure was too much to handle. i burst out crying right before the exam but i managed to calm down. and tbh i think i'll pass this one. it was also quite difficult but i think i did okay. but still. the FEAR...

like i can't even describe it to you guys. i don't know if i'll even be able to have the courage to open my grades when they arrive. like i went on the university portal yesterday and my hands started shaking and i like had to crouch down bc my whole body became so weak i couldn't stand. it was terrifying.

so yeah... im really not having a good time right now.

in other news, okay, so i wanted to find a video in my whatsapp messages. so i went to "media" and started scrolling and i stumbled upon some things B and i had sent to each other back in the day. and i saw his new profile picture and.... he's in budva.

and okay first of all call me fucking geoguesser. bc the picture is just a selfie of him standing in front of a mountain. and i knew it was budva just from the shape of the mountain alone. and his head in blocking most of the mountain too but i still knew that it was budva right away.

then out of curiosity i checked his telegram profile picture and it's him in the old town sitting on a boulder like the thinker. again, i knew it was budva right away lol. and it's funny bc i saw that he deleted all of our telegram messages. all of them! i wonder when he did it. and why.

and also it hurt bc budva is MINE. like when lucien went to budva i was super jealous. but like whatever, it's a touristy destination, it doesn't matter. but it's strange that B went there. i mean we have so many memories there together. it's like if i went to sarajevo all of a sudden. and i wonder who he went with. his friend from belgrade? his new gonzesse lol? anyway, yeah.

another weird thing is that okay my zurich friend was in town and he asked to hang out and i had to decline bc i was studying for the exam. and then i saw on instagram that he posted this one song to his story. and the story itself was weird, my oxford bestie sent it to me like "what is this? why is he so weird?". it was basically like a blurry photo of a dimly lit street but like whatever artsy.

but yeah, it gave me whiplash because i had posted this exact song to my story exactly a year ago. day for day. like isn't that a weird coincidence.

and usually you know how im very obsessive especially when it comes to music. like if i like a song i listed to it on repeat non stop for days. and because of that a lot of the music i listen to is linked to a certain period of my life. so the song my zurich friend posted is the song of me breaking up with B. that's why it stood out to me so much. it's so strange...

[doyouknowthemossinman]

rambling about sleep token

oaky so as a new fan coming in i'm working off a lot of other peoples' theories instead of coming up with anything revolutionary. (haven't read any for even in arcadia tho lol. so everything i say about that is off the dome.) specifically i really. like this interpretation of the first three albums (the video is also very well put-together which may have a hand in things). specifically i like the idea that not all of the songs are from vessel's point of view and that some of them are from sleep's. i'm going off the story being sleep finds vessel, he becomes infatuated with her, she like barely reciprocates and isn't around much, he starts coming to his senses a little in Tomb, she has like a fight or smth (descending) and vessel really starts to question things and grow a fucking backbone but still loves her so can't get over her, and then eden is vessel really coming to terms with everything and asking sleep to grant him godhood alongside her so that the relationship is more equal (assuming sleep even loves him at all lmfao)

i do think that all of the songs on arcadia are from vessel's pov though. i think we're in like a garden of the gods kind of setting, arcadia if you will, after the ascension that vessel yearned for after coming to terms (mostly)(#denial is a river) with sleep's abuse of him. i think look to windward is him struggling with the transition into godhood and having to ask sleep for help because she's the only thing he knows. the line "you pray for sound and i pray for silence" is REALLY interesting if we interpret higher as being from sleep's pov like in the Exploring the Concept video, where instead the sentiment from sleep would be "And you need a melody, I only need the silence." the roles are not really reversed in this song and further in the album, but vessel would like to think they are. sleep still has plenty of power, as weak as she was in the middle of tomb and onward.

he wants her to change SO BAD. HE LOVES HER SO MUCH AND SHE'S SO BAD FOR HIM. caramel indicates things haven't changed for the better, and like rightfully so based on his feelings in both past self and dangerous, reflecting on her behavior and how he feels around her.

BUT SHE'S GOT A TASTE FOR HIM DOESN'T SHE. she waits for him after the eclipse (metaphorical). i think maybe even in arcadia is the point at which we fully enter the garden, or heaven, or whatever, and everything else was taking place, being spoken/thought in a sort of limbo. now it's a done deal and sleep and vessel are both gods or whatever. seems that even in arcadia she walks beside him still.

i love the comparisons of vessel to the dawn and the flood. taking back things that have been withheld/used to torture him. tomb was entirely about drowning. if the night is sleep's, then fine, he'll own the day. (he wanted it for them both but obviously she's not about that.)

i know damocles (and by extension caramel) is incredibly meta but i want to wrangle a lore interpretation into it. baseline i think it could be read as vessel being overwhelmed by his relationship with sleep and also not knowing what to do now that he's also a god. he needs believers, right? all the live shows are canonical also, so we as fans are his believers and sleep's. he can't have us leaving or he'll fall from grace the same way that sleep did when they first met. boom, meta music wrangled into lore. now i feel bad.

gethsemane is as close as vessel will ever get to moving on from sleep, i think. because let's be honest, i don't think he will ever not love her and want her to change for the better so that they can work out.

infinite baths is sooooo interesting bc of the way that the water (baths) are portrayed as warm and cleansing and comforting where almost every other reference to water has been drowning in this story. in the breakdown he also disparages sleep for her ego while simultaneously asking for help to soothe his inner turmoil (the eclipse). take whatever you want, empty my arteries, but please help me keep myself together (because it will benefit both of us). teeth of god and blood of man. i think that's the eclipse. two very opposite things (godhood and mortality?) in one being. because vessel is still trying to be grounded in his humanity and not lose himself to godhood like sleep did.

anyway!!!!! rambling over i just keep thinking about them. i haven't listened to anything other than sleep token in actual days. help