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unicyclehippo · 2 years

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I've been on a palindrome kick lately so how about "tenet" for a prompt?

definition—tenet: n. a principle or belief, especially one of the main principles of a religion or philosophy

The rumour that the Dreamscape Theatre was haunted had been around ever since its construction began.

The actual story changed depending on who told it—older folk who had been around when it was going up solemnly shared the story of the poor tradesman who had been pouring the basement cement when they were killed and buried beneath the floor by - and here they would tell the best story they could - the scorned wife, the betrayed best friend, the jealous lover, or the wicked boss; the younger crowds, meanwhile, whispered about the girl rejected by her highschool crush who hung herself from the cinema balcony, or the bassoonist crushed by a wayward curtain weight, or the kid who tried to swim in the popcorn machine and got cooked—but while the narrative changed with the generations, the persistence of the rumours never did.

That could be blamed, perhaps, on the fact that it looked the sort of place that ought to be haunted.

The Dreamscape was beautiful, in a spooky sort of way. She was tall and turreted, with a black-tile roof that rose in angular spires, each topped with an iron spike; the same ironwork caged the windows with bars and continued throughout the interior of the building used in graceful, ornate bannisters and guard rails. She looked more like a small Gothic cathedral than a theatre, all fashioned from light sandstone that at once seemed brutish and artful. Along the length of the front wall, the bricks were carved with hundreds of masks, each showing a different emotion—anguish and delight, joy and anger, jealousy and love, laughter—and all turned to watch the entrance to the theatre, a tall and heavy arched door with gleaming bronze handles. Above the entranceway crouched two stone gargoyles. On their shoulders, they carried a big sign that read, in tall red letters,

DREAMSCAPE THEATRE—NOW SHOWING

The space beneath that was blank, as the movie titles were taken down late on Sunday night and now, early Monday morning, they hadn't yet been put back. That was the job of Imogen Temult, who was late.

Again.

Imogen Temult, part-time worker at the Dreamscape, was late to work and fretting about it.

Neither lateness nor fretting were particularly uncommon states for her, something that her manager—Mike Hunt, a boy who almost deserved all the bullying he got for his unfortunate name, and who wore his plastic Manager's pin on his chest like it was a medal of honour, and who was terribly smug about the fact that he was the manager and not her, even though he was a full two years younger than her—took great care to note down in his little snitch book. He'd do the same today, she knew it, she just knew it. He'd stand at the front of the theatre waiting for her instead of getting on with his own work and he'd note down how many minutes late she was, and he'd click his tongue at her, and she would somehow have to keep from murdering him in any of the myriad ways she dreamed of doing when he was being particularly smug, or when he sent her off to clean the toilet stalls after a busy Saturday shift.

She was hurrying as best she could, but the rain and the pavement, slick underfoot, were conspiring with the steep hill to drop her on her ass (again) if she went any faster than a dedicated power walk. So she hurried—cursing the rain and the hill and the damn heat and the damn mist that meant she couldn't see further than a few metres ahead of her—and hoped that Mike was distracted enough that she could creep past him to the backroom and pretend that she'd been there for ages.

Ahead, the Dreamscape sign shone bright and even her strained relationship with Mike couldn't stop the wash of calm that travelled through her, the sign like a beacon through the mist.

In the very moment she sees the sign, her attention is caught by a voice—soft, gentle—from the alley that ran parallel to the Theatre. Barely a whisper. Head snapping toward the sound, Imogen caught a glimpse of a girl in a ragged dress, barefoot, holes where her eyes should be before she stepped back and dissolved into the mist.

'What the—fuck. Fuck, shit, fuck.'

Imogen flipped her wrist to check the time—still resolutely late—and gnawed at her bottom lip. The theatre beckoned but... If she had seen the girl, someone else might have as well. There was no sign of Mike outside the entrance so, swearing again under her breath, Imogen turned on her heel and slipped down the alleyway after that vanished spirit.

'Hey,' she hissed, loud as she dared. 'Are you in here?'

No answer.

Imogen squinted into the dark shadows deeper within the alley. Did they move? Did they seem darker than normal?

'We talked about this. You can't make visions were someone might see them.' Imogen glanced at her watch—late, late, late. 'I don't have time - just, please, no more visions. Okay?'

No answer. Imogen sighed.

'I'm sorry,' she added. 'I know I promised to get here before my shift but I got held up.' She glanced nervously back over her shoulder—it wouldn't do for anyone passing by to see her talking to nothing—and turned back to find herself face-to-face with an enormous rat. A rat man. A tuxedo-ed rat man.

'What did I just say? Cut it out.'

The rat man gave a deep bow. His tail—greasy and grey—flicked around from behind him to curl around her ankle; where it touched, Imogen felt a little tingle of cold air, like the mist had wrapped its creeping fingers around her ankle - except, of course, that the mist here was humid, nothing chilling about it - and then the image faded like a dream upon waking, details growing hazy and then gone entirely.

From the depths of the alley, within a spot of shadows Imogen was vindicated in thinking had been a little too dark, came a voice so bright it could have been made of sunlight.

'So. You're not afraid of rats. Interesting.'

'This again? No, I'm not scared of rats—I grew up on a farm, remember? We had heaps of them.'

'Proximity does not necessarily mean familiarity or fondness.'

Imogen conceded that point easily, remembering the way her father always shuddered when he saw one. 'I guess not. But no, they don't bother me. Never seen a rat man, though—but that's not the point!' she reminded herself sharply. 'You can't - I don't want to spend all day worrying about if you're out here spooking people and drawing attention. I don't want - I don't want to come out and find that you've been...' She trailed off, not wanting to finish her sentence. There was no need to, either. They both knew what would happen if she were to be discovered.

'You're right, of course,' the shadow said and, much diminished, much dimmed, added, 'I'm sorry, Imogen.'

Imogen shook her head. 'It's not you, Laud. You're - you're amazing and your visions are so good and getting better every day. That girl, in the alley? She made me jump two feet straight up, I swear.' The delighted laugh that earned her soothed the tattered edges of Imogen's worries. They would grow ragged again, but for a second she melted, smiling into the dark. 'It's everyone else I'm worried about. Just - promise me you'll stay in the attic? And wait for me? Please.'

The shadows burbled like someone was blowing bubbles into ink. Then,

'I will stay in the attic and wait for you,' the shadow promised, repeated. 'And -'

'No more visions.'

'And no more visions.'

'Okay. Okay. Good. Thank you.'

The heavy doors to the theatre groaned as Imogen opened and closed them behind her, hinges sticking in the humidity. She was braced for one of Mike's famous, irritating scoldings but the entrance was empty of staff. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, she strode across the foyer to the service door, steps muffled by the thick carpet. Though she passed it every day, she stopped when she reached the ticket hub, eyes drawn to the glossy sign stuck to its window.

NO SHOES, NO SERVICE NO ANIMALS (SERVICE ANIMALS EXCLUDED) NO ABNORMALS

Imogen lifted a finger, tracing the letters. She thought of her friend outside, hiding in the shadows of an alleyway that smelled faintly of urine and wet paper; she thought of a train thundering past fields of tall corn, the smell of hot iron wheels threw up sparks, the way dirt coated her throat, stung her lungs as she panted, running as fast as she could, pushing Laudna up first onto the car and throwing herself after. Heat crackled under her skin and, in the reflection of the window, she watched her eyes flash with purple light.

She flinched. Pulled her hand away, fingers curling into her palm, and fled into the service hallway. Behind her, the smell of melted plastic lingered in the foyer, acrid, and would for most of the morning.

#prompt fill #tagging my stories #imodna mutant au #cr tag #imodna my beloveds

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weirdmarioenemies · 4 years

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Name: Picross 3D Host

Debut: WarioWare: Snapped! (no not really. It is Picross 3D)

Hello! I feel like we have not had Funky Friday in kind of a while. But that doesn’t matter because here’s one right now! I feel obligated to announce when it is Funky Friday so we don’t have another incident where someone unfollows us because we posted about Pico Pets.

I love Picross a lot! It is great. It is fun and satisfying and leads to wacky discoveries like GRAND GOOMBAS, and pretty much ALWAYS has a Mola mola puzzle somewhere! And that is in fact what made me interested in Picross 3D!

When I learned that THIS was in Picross 3D, I just had to play it. It did not matter if I was overwhelmed at the implications of Picross in a whole new dimension. I was ready to brave anything for my dear Mola!

And when I started playing... I was met with a new, never-before-seen dear!

This little creacher, on the top screen! What a creacher this is! A common response when seeing it is for the brain to jump to the conclusion of “duck”. We see an eye on a yellow shape, and a connected orange shape, with a “nostril” on it. That's Duck! However... it is not! This is no duck whatsoever! First and foremost, it is a cuboid creature, with floating cube hands, and what appears to be a bill is actually a depression in the face itself, the bottom surface sometimes emoting like a mouth! And finally, that’s no nostril, it’s a second, mismatched eye! This creature is a beautiful, absolutely splendid piece of abstract art, and I have even better news... it is our gracious host!

I’ve seen this creature referred to as the “mascot”, but I don’t think that’s right. The mascot is the blocky puppy on the game’s cover and cartridge. THIS creature greets us, invites us into the world of Picross 3D, teaches us how everything works, constantly supervises us, and tells us fun facts about the puzzles we complete. This is no mere mascot, but a kind, smart, and capable host!

I have already said a good deal about it, but I am just getting started, for I have thoroughly analyzed everything I absolutely could about this very creature. I have learned about its anatomy, its abilities, its personality, its likes, its dislikes, its fears, and its favored palindromes. And I will share some of my favorite points from the long list of things I have learned!

Firstly, we shall discuss its anatomy. Despite its sharp and blocky appearance, our host is quite soft and flexible, able to contort and twist in all sorts of ways! It can even transform into forms such as a mermaid and a wrapped present- in which form it even changes color! Could it perhaps be the very essence of blocks given life, allowing it to become any part of this block-based world?

Whatever the case, it is most certainly MADE of blocks! Maybe that is obvious, but I feel I should mention it anyway. When it is hit in a certain manner, individual blocks may fly out, able to be played with and shoved back in! This seems painless and purely recreational, but what may NOT be painless is when a puzzle is failed and the host “dies”, collapsing into an inert pile of blocks! Perhaps, however, this is all an act, adding to the spectacle of the game. What a good host!

Next we analyze: the floaty hands! THESE floaty hands are particularly versatile. They can roll like wheels, propelling the creature at higher speeds, and they can spin around, allowing it to fly! Unlockable animations even give insight into the nature of such limbs, showing that they can in fact be separated from the main body if the creature is caught off guard!

Even with such an innovative body plan, though, our host doesn’t quite have it all. It muses about wanting a tail when explaining how versatile a fox’s is, and it can’t lift twice its own body weight. Also, it has blood! It is quite scared of bloodsucking bats, evidently because it has something they want. Blood!

And now, we move from a biological to a psychological analysis! The menus and descriptions are all given in first person with our darling creature in the corner of the text box, and that clearly indicates that it is meant to be the one speaking. So what have I discovered? That it is pretty much a perfect being! The Host is kind and nurturing, values creativity and positive thinking, and cares deeply about the environment. It thinks squirrels are cute, sea stars are amazing, and waterwheels are quaint. Above all else, it loves to rest and relax. And to think some players call it creepy!

That’s not all there is to this creature, though. That would be unrealistic. Did you really think the character dancing on the top screen of this puzzle game would be just a one-dimensional goody two shoes? Well, it’s THREE dimensional! Capable of sarcasm and cheekiness and that sort of stuff! For example, it’ll reveal an incredibly obscure term, only to follow up with “I can’t believe you knew that!”, or “but you already knew that, right? (wink)”.

Our host also has some rather particular thoughts on what is and isn’t cool, so if you want to impress it, you’d best listen closely here! It thinks that the act of riding a unicycle looks quite cool, but that snorkel goggles do NOT look cool. As such, we can assume that someone riding a unicycle while wearing snorkel goggles appears as average as average can be!

There is still so much to talk about with the delightful host of Picross 3D, but this post must end at some point, so it will here. I hope you have a newfound appreciation for this fascinating creature you likely had never seen in your life! But one last thing...

Much more well known than our host is Dr. Lobe, of Big Brain Academy! I mention him because not only is he also wonderful, but they have quite a lot in common! Both their games are part of the Touch! Generations label, and with all the fun facts the Picross 3D host provides, it’s clearly an intellectual. These two should be friends! They probably already are!

#picross 3d #picross #picross 3d creature #picross 3d host #mod chikako #funky friday

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semper-legens · 3 years

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184. Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

Owned?: Yes Page count: Unknown/not numbered My summary: Someone is hunting the Watchmen. Costumed heroes were outlawed years ago, and yet the ex-heroes are being attacked, one by one. War looms on the horizon, and the world seems to just be getting worse. There’s something here, something big on the horizon. But when the dust settles, what world will be born? My rating: 3.5/5 My commentary:

Every few years or so, I have a lingering itch to reread Watchmen. If you’re a comic book person, I’m sure I don’t have to explain the legacy of Watchmen to you. It reshaped comics at the time into the edgy anti-hero focus of the 90s, seeking to deconstruct the superhero comics of the day and provide a more real, politically charged world. The result is...something I used to unequivocally love, but on this reread I’ve found myself less enamoured, and I’m trying to unpick why. I mean, it’s still a masterpiece of a comic! Just wasn’t hitting as much as it did, I suppose.

I think a part of my reaction to Watchmen lies in its deconstructive thesis. I’m not really a comics person - not in terms of superhero comics, anyway. I’ve never read a single issue of any superhero comics to my recollection, and while I’ve seen some movies, I’m way less familiar with the genre. This was written to pick apart the tropes and narratives common to superhero comics of the time, and I know that because I read it somewhere, not because I’m familiar with the genre. As such, a lot of its subtleties, I’m sure, just fly on past me.

And this is a nuanced narrative! For what little plot there is (that’s not a criticism, just an observation about how this book is mostly flashbacks and character work more than straightforward plot happenings) it’s jam packed full of symbolism and meaning, artfully conveyed through both word and illustration. Manhattan’s flashbacks are wonderfully constructed, giving the reader a unique insight on what it would be like to be removed from time as he is. There’s a chapter that’s a palindrome in terms of the scenes it shows, there’s a lot of interesting mirror imagery, plus its use of media to further the plot. A pirate story runs parallel to one part of the story, providing insights into what’s happening. There’s dense mythological/historical symbolism, particularly where Ozymandias is concerned. Sure, some of these mythological nods or imagery aren’t subtle (Rorschach’s mask being black and white with no room for shades of grey springs to mind) but they work well.

Speaking of, Rorschach is far and away the most interesting character. He’s terrible! He’s a bigoted, hateful, disgusting little man, but he’s also arguably the main focus character through most of the comic (he’s certainly the first whose POV we see) and he gets a lot of development as to exactly why he’s like that. He’s also got some nuance - we see him pausing and ultimately leaving alone his former landlady who trashtalks him on the news, because of her kids, who remind him of himself at that age. He’s incredibly compelling and really interesting to read about, even while being literally the worst. His story is a tragedy of a hateful, bitter man being unable to compromise even in the face of the worst of human existence.

Characters I enjoyed far less this time were Manhattan and Veidt. I don’t know what it was - well, okay, I do. I hate the Hollywood Scientist sort of character, detached and rational and unwilling to see any beauty in the world or human existence. Sure, Manhattan’s narrative does work to analyse and contextualise this behaviour, but overall the entire trope just annoys me, and those characters were pretty much just that trope personified, so. Naturally I wasn’t all that interested. I don’t know, give me regular human beings who aren’t mega-geniuses or literally God or whatever any day.

That’s all here - next time, this blog gets a bit spooky. Who wants a ghost story?

#Watchmen #Alan Moore #Dave Gibbons #bookblr #book blogger #3.5

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seaweed8rain · 4 years

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Which One of These Three Time-Traveling Films is the Best?

Written by Rayhan Abrar Rizkan

Writing this comparing and contrast piece has been a challenge for me, the biggest challenge is to pick what topics do I really want to discuss. The runner ups are : Star Wars, the Ocean’s franchise, and even down to which is the best girl in Chainsaw Man. Other references aside, this one is my pick, due to my fascination towards Time-Traveling films. For this piece, I narrowed down the nominations into these three : TENET, Avengers: Endgame, and Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

I picked TENET because of my personal bias. I picked Avengers: Endgame because you all have probably seen it. And I picked the second Terminator movie because it is one of the most quintessential, monumental, and an absolute classic to set the pop culture we know today. I could have picked Back to the Future, but I can’t, or won’t, pick one. Let us begin with the first point of comparison : The Story.

The most important thing to a film is the script, the writing that you sell to the studio or anyone you want to work with. It goes without saying, it has to be good. A Movie has to tell a story, to follow a character, and/or to set a specific goal in mind. It is the easiest and the first thing people say when they are describing a movie, for example, “It’s the one where they have to carry a ring to the volcano.”, “There’s wizards, magic, and they have to defeat a snub-nosed villain.”, “So there’s this guy, and he got bit by a radioactive spider....”. Case in point, you can probably guess those movies just by the plot or the premise, that is set by the script, that is how powerful a story could be if written properly.

TENET has a simple story. Calling it complicated is an understatement, but if you finally opened your third eye somehow while watching this movie, it is simple. TENET is a lot of movies stacked into one, it is a spy movie, a heist movie, a sci-fi, and action. TENET follows the Protagonist (That is how you know this movie is beyond awesome, they do not even bother naming the lead) to find pieces of an advanced weapon algorithm with secret battles coming from the past and the future to stop World War III from the hand of the main villain, Sator. See my point here? It is simple..... but I did leave out the whole time-bending plot to see it all in one straight line. . But when you see all things unveil, especially during the second watch seeing that it is how Nolan makes his movies, you can truly appreciate TENET for what it is, cinema.

Avengers: Endgame, you already know the story. After their massive defeat in Infinity War, the original members with the help of few others tries to undo what Thanos did and return those who are lost. This movie is plain and vanilla yet the perfect closing for this symphony of Marvel’s ensemble cast in comic book movies, you do not have to follow all 21 MCU movies to watch the adventures that they went through to understand the main story, but they will reward you if you do, as there are tons of fan service and easter eggs to get excited for.

For Terminator 2, maybe I should explain on why I chose this instead of the original, and it ties in to the story. In the first Terminator movie, Skynet, to put it simply is a future-evil-internet-robot-brain programmed to eradicate humanity and enslave those who survived in the purge. Skynet sent a robot assassin with the face of Arnold Schwarzenegger to kill Sarah Connor from giving birth to John Connor, the future leader of the resistance that will defeat Skynet. So the John Connor in the future sent Kyle Reese, one of the member of the resistance to protect his mother Sarah from the Terminator Model 101. Kyle eventually stopped the Terminator and somehow fathered John Connor in the process. To recap the first movie, John sent his own father to protect his mom from the past. Now, the second movie is where they did a twist. Instead of just having another advanced Terminator to the past sent by another version of Skynet, the resistance also sent another reprogrammed Terminator to protect the target that is (kid) John Connor. If this is done now, the twist is completely overdone and seen as nothing but a gimmick. But for a movie in the 90’s? this is revolutionary. Its like having Jason Krueger as your ally in the sequel, but replace that with an Arnold Schwarzenegger looking killer robot despite the lack of his trademark of making unintelligible noises. Because of the same face, the Terminator has to convince Sarah that he is not the Terminator she once knew in the first movie, but a reprogrammed one set to protect them, this interaction of not trusting one another and always be on guard sets up the movie very well. The flick is a staple of action movie back in the day, having two indestructible killing machines squaring up against one another, how can anyone top that at that era?

Now that we are all caught up with the story, it is time to discuss the soul of these movies have in common, the Time-traveling aspect, the main plot device, the cause or the breaker of movie retcons. In this short list, Terminator has to be the simplest in terms of the mechanics of the time-travel story. The time machine is one time use only, as it can only be used in the future where such things exist. So once you go back in time, the only way to go back to the future is to wait, just like everyone else. And what you did in the past will instantly affect the future accordingly. The time machine in Terminator movies has to be the one with the weirdest mechanic, where you can only send things with living tissues and no other, now that the fact is laid out on you then yes, everyone who went back in time has to be naked. So they have to find new clothing when they arrived. At least that is their explanation on why the Terminator has to be wrapped up in synthetic human skin, not to show off Arnold’s five hours a day of intensive muscle toning in six months with the help of a big pile chicken breast and a year supply of protein shake, not at all.

Avengers: Endgame has the most flexible machine out of all, where you can set the time and place of where you want to be, as long as you have enough supply of Pym particles to go subatomic and travel a safe passage through the fabric of time. But with multiple journeys with different groups you will run a risk of creating an alternate timeline, but they simply nullify such possibility with having Hulk said that they will go back in time after the final battle is done, and return the things they took in the past back to its place and time so nothing will inherently change. The time traveling part of the movie is the charm of Endgame, where we get to re-visit the characters, places, and events we have seen in the previous films in a different perspective that is canon to the universe.

Now, this is where it all gets tricky to explain, because the time-traveling of TENET is not the same as any other movies I have seen. Calling it a time-traveling is not even entirely accurate, but the mechanic of how it works calls for more of a “Time-inversion”. The time machine in this film is very rustic, where you go into this big turning door that leads to the other side of the room, but once you are “inverted”, you move forward in time, but the world around you goes backwards. You cannot choose which time you want to go to, if you want to go back in time for 10 minutes, you have to wait it out while being inverted for 10 minutes, that is why the palindrome suits with the whole movie. This makes amazing visuals when combined with action sequences, imagine reverse car chases, bullets were caught to the gun instead of being shot out of, punches were pulled instead of thrown. In other words, if you see a sequence of two people with one of them inverted, they can both win or lose at the end depending on which point-of-view you choose.

The time inversion in TENET is not only treated as a plot device, but also the philosophy that is abided by the movie, as there is only one timeline that exist in the movie. This is made clear in the story that no matter what you do, you cannot change the outcome of the future, as the present is set with the human’s free will, and even though they are randomly generated, it happened anyway. “What’s happened, happened” said Neil, one of the main characters in the movie explaining how time inversion works to the Protagonist. It is not a battle to change the outcome, but to gain a perspective for what’s to come. Whatever happens, happened and will happen all at the same time. With the limited mechanic of time-inversion that TENET has (or had, or will have, this is confusing even to me now), it is amazing what it can achieve in terms of storytelling, how the story we see in front of us is one enormous temporal pincer collision of the past, future, and present in one sitting (or collide, collided, will collide, I do not know what is happening). From my standpoint, clearly I prefer TENET above all else, but do let me know what’s your pick out of these three! Better yet, what is your favourite time-traveling film?

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chaoartwork · 4 years

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Multivoid: Prologue

A fanfiction revolving around 2K, Palindrome and the alternate Zims in the aftermath of the Battlevoid arc.

Based on Invader Zim comic issues 46-49.

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The bright green light of the Zapper can be seen from the distance, standing tall and mighty for six months, while the green vortexes are shown in the sky. Distant explosions can be heard growing louder and louder. A highly advanced voot cruiser zooms by, tumbling about with smoke coming out from one of the engines. Within the voot cruiser, sirens were going off, the monitor blinking a sign that said “ENGINE FAILURE: ENGAGE NEW ENGINE”. Palindrome frantically looks about all the complicated buttons that were barely ever in his original cruiser.

“Come on, come on, which one! If that Zib really is half of me, where would he put that stupid button-?!”

Just as he was searching, the voot’s communicator turned on.

“Pal...PAL! Can you hear me?!”

There was no doubt on mistaking that loud child-like voice. Palindrome immediately turned on the speaker,

“I’m going down! There’s a monitor telling me to engage a new engine, but I don’t know how!”

“Well I don’t know, try anything! Maybe try the big yellow one on the right corner of the controls!”

He knew that he shouldn’t hesitate and hope for the best. He slammed his fist down on the big yellow button, and heard a bam sound at the back of the ship. For a moment, he thought that he would explode to bits until he saw the sirens go off, indicating that the damaged engine ejected out and was replace with the new engines that was within the ship. He gripped on the pilot handles and yanked it back.

The voot cruiser flicked back to its normal position and the ships’s fall softened to a stop right before it can even hit the ground. Palindrome took a moment to rest against the seat and sigh in relief.

“Ok,” he told the speaker, “I’m good.”

A sigh of relief can also be heard from the child-like voice.

“Well that’s good. Yeesh, you almost gave me a heart attack...”

“Heh...now you know the feeling I get every time you run into danger.”

Palindrome took a moment to calm and then looked out from the horizon. Thousands of voot cruisers can be seen swarming the now damaged castle, with a huge mechanical Zib looking robot standing on top of it. He watches as the robot keeps shooting down the cruisers and knocked out any that tried to charge towards him, making them tumble down into the ground. Each Zims were able to eject themselves out of the ship safely before it hits the ground and exploded. With nothing else for them to do, they look up at the remaining ships still flying and started rooting for them to win.

At this point however, Palindrome know that Zib will win unless they try forming a battle plan.

“He’s stronger than expected, 2K. If we’re going to win this, we have to find a way on getting to him without being blown to bits-“

“Yes yes, I’m aware of that, let me think!”

“Well try not getting yourself killed while you’re thinking.”

The communicator remained quiet. Not wanting to do anything else unless the smeet forms a plan that he might take part in, he looks out again at the battle field. Even though there were thousands of ships flying about, he was able to easily detect 2K’s ship. It was like his normal cruiser, but with two missiles on each side of the ship. Although it did not look as powerful as the other ships, it did not stop the smeet from sharply steering the ships through each of Zib’s attacks and even attempting to shoot back on the gigantic robot.

It was a great reminder that this is what his best friend really is. Someone who is willing to strive forward no matter what obstacle. Not even the fact that his body was de-aging little by little didn’t stop him. He may not be as strong as Palindrome, but his determination and confidence is something that can never be beaten down. The fish hybrid’s smile crept again. As long as he’s like this, then Palindrome, not even the others who have spent months in this asteroid planet, are going to give up. They are so close to going home.

Palindrome’s attention to 2K’s ship however was distracted when he noticed something off about the vortexes. Within the center of them, a red color swirled out until the green vortexes were now completely seen with a sort of reddish and pinkish color. Palindrome blankly gazed at them.

“....Thats new.”

He spoke through the speaker again.

“Hey 2K, the vortexes just turned red all of a sudden. Do you know what going on with them?”

“Red vortexes?” 2K asked before having a moment of pause, indicating that he was possibly looking at them.

“...Huh,” the smeet responded with a tone of wonder, “that’s new.”

“Exactly what I said,” Palindrome looked back up at them. As he’s doing so, he can hear 2K hum as he ponders about it.

“...Wait!” His tone lits up, “maybe the Elder was able to successfully alter the vortexes. We should be able to get back to our timeline!”

Palindrome blinked,

“You really think he was able to do it?”

“Why not?! He’s a Zim, so he should accomplish anything! Well not as much as me and you, but you get what I mean.”

Palindrome’s ear fins raised up a bit in interest, remembering the time before they left the Elder, he told them that he would find a way to go to the Zapper and try altering the vortexes that should give the Zims access back to their home timeline. He did however say that he was going to try releasing the captive Zims first. And given that there are two thousands of them, he would be surprised with the fact that he was able to do it that fast.

Though there can be a chance that as he was freeing them, more helped out. Palindrome glanced at the huge glowing device, his eyebrows furrowing.

Altering the Zapper’s device was a task that I was completely against. Given the fact that we barely know how to use it and what available functions it may have, was he really able to do it? Will these altered vortexes really take us back home? And more importantly, how will the Zims that lost their ships be able to travel back?

“....Wait!” 2K spoke you again, “I think I have an idea!”

“You do?” He looks back at the speaker.

“Yeah! It’s kind of crazy but then again, that what makes me so awesome!”

Palindrome knew what he meant by this and narrowed,

“You better not get yourself killed.”

“Well were all gonna get killed anyways if we can’t think of anything else!” 2K argued.

The fish hybrid went silent. At this point, he can’t convince him not to do whatever he was going to do. They might die either way by this fused creature. There is no other option but to do whatever must be done to win.

“Oh! And Pal?”

Palindrome took a moment to snap out of his pause,

“Yeah?”

“I am very very certain I will make it out of it. But just in case that extremely rare occurrence does happen, I want you to take my place. You got that?”

He already had an idea on what he meant by that too. He took a deep breath.

“Alright. But come back alive, ok?”

“Got it! Alright, I’m going in!”

He watches 2K’s ship make another sharp turn, heading straight towards the mouth of the robot. However, right before 2K entered the mouth, Palindrome far off saw Zib, sitting on top of the head of the robot, took notice of the a boot cruise charging in. Without hesitation, Zib quickly controlled the arm to quickly grab the ship and crush it. His heart sank, his body feeling cold.

No...no no no no....

He quickly turned on the speaker again.

“2K. 2K!”

There was no response.

His body started to quiver, his eyes glued on the crushing boot cruiser that his partner is in. His teeth clenched.

“2K!!”

The communicator remained silent. His sat there quietly. Grief was starting to set in. And so did grudge. His eyes flared deadly at the creature that was controlling the robot.

“I want you to take my place.” The voice of his friend echoed in his mind.

His hand slowly and shakily grabbed unto the control handle. He was about to be the one to charge in next.

However, a sound of broken glass can be heard from the crushed voot cruiser, along with a small being flying right out of it and then falling onto the the mouth of the robot. He was hanging onto the edge, his body quivering and struggling, until he built up strength to climb inside of it and disappearing. Zib can then be seen looking in shock and anger before shouting something that was too hard to hear from far off. He turned and was about to hit another button when something caught him off guard. His eyes immediately turned to the monitor with shock and confusion. He took a moment to hit a button that caused a force field to surround the robot, preventing itself from getting damaged by any of the cruiser’s attacks. Zib then glued his eyes back at the monitor, pressing many buttons that didn’t do anything.

Even though the force field was on, the robot was no longer moving.

A new communication picked up,

“You! Scuba Diver! I cannot pick up signals from from the baby! Where is he?” One of the Zims asked.

“I saw him go inside Zib’s robot,” he answered.

“Why did he go inside the robot?!”

Another Zim joined the communication.

“BIG ZIM CANNOT SHOOT FAKE NUMBER 1!” Another voice spoke, “BIG FAKE NUMBER 1 ROBOT WONT GO DOWN!”

“There’s a force field in the way,” another voice spoke, “and I can’t communicate with the baby on what we should do next!”

More and more voices chimed in. Wow. How can he even go through here? He never expected to take a solo leadership duty.

Collecting his thoughts on what to say, he turned the speaker on again.

“Listen, Zims! Hover over the head. You can try to continue shooting the force field to see if it could break. But I think we should also let 2K handle this. I think he might be onto something.”

“Did he tell you what it is?” One of them asked.

“He didn’t tell me,” his eyes traced back at Zib. “But something tells me he’s going to confront him in person. Maybe the weaker Dib can join if he sets him free.”

He looked out, seeing Zims within the cruisers glance about each other. Possibly uncertain. But they looked back into their controls.

“Sounds good.”

“If theres only one Zim here that can get to him, we’re gonna have to rely on him.”

“Hmph. I would have charged in that mouth first.”

Palindrome sighed in relief. Maybe this leadership thing is not as bad as he thought.

“Wait! I see him!”

His eyes opened again,

“Who?”

“The Zim Baby! He’s right over there!”

Palindrome looked to see. There, 2K was seen climbing out of the mouth again, his head raising up to look at the head. Glancing about for few seconds, he found an area he can climb on as he hopped right onto the wall and started climbing.

Palindrome gazed at his friend for a short while. He turned to the speaker again,

“Start hovering over the head.”

Just as told, the ships hovered up before positioning and aiming right at the distracted Zimvoid leader. Palindrome was the last to join the army and aimed as well. Despite his aiming, his eyes still focused on the small Zim. His climbing showed to be weaker than usual, most likely because of how much his stamina was easily running out. Even so, it did not make the child give in. Palindrome sat there silently.

Come on. Come on. We trained all these months for this. Come on.

2K finally manages to get on top of the head, holding onto one of the giant antennae to keep him standing after such an exhaustive climbing. He can see him communicate with the captive Dib, the kid looking at him in confusion when responding back. Zib has now turned his head to look at the alternate version of his enemy. 2K spoked something to him. Palindrome grabbed his handle again, his finger resting on his trigger for the right moment.

2K looks back at the Dib. He speaks to him again while he walks fast paced towards-

A harsh groan escapes from the fish hybrids when an unexpected and heavy uncomfortable sensation quickly raced throughout his body. It was a feeling he never felt to the point that he couldn’t even describe it. Was it pain? He didn’t even know if he can describe it as pain. But it was as though his entire body was beginning to weigh down and grow numb inside and out. He almost lost control of the ship and it was about to make a nose dive to the ground, but Palindrome still felt conscious enough to pull the handle back, stabilizing the cruiser from falling. At least for now. But it did not stop the feeling that he was experience and it almost immediately got to the point where it felt like his mind was starting to get distracted by something else, yet he can’t remember what it is that he should think about.

Whatever it was, the awareness of his surroundings were starting to deteriorate. He groaned again, his eyes squeezing shut, and placed his hand on his bowl,

“Why do I feel...more...stupider...?”

His eyes opened, feeling the numbness on his hand getting stronger. He pulled it away and looked to see why he was having trouble feeling his hand.

He noticed that something looked strange about it. Then something came out of his hand that looked what appeared to be floating goo as he watched it turn into a darkish green color. More and more came out and he realized that his hand was look thinner. Wait....is his hand-?

Screams and shoutings were suddenly heard outside, causing him to flinch and snap his gaze away from his disappearing. He looked out. What he saw was something he did not ever expect to see.

All the ships were falling. No. They’re not just falling. They’re dissolving. Their dissolving. The screams and shoutings were so loud that he can actually hear them:

“BIG ZIMS DOES NOT FEEL LIKE BIG ZIM SELF! BIG ZIM QUESTION BIG ZIM’S INDIVIDUALITY!”

“What’s happening?! Why am I....?”

“Make them stop!”

“Everything I am is a lie!”

It didn’t even take long before he saw green goo shoot out of each of the ships, getting sucked on by the vortex that were getting stronger. His breathing grew heavy in horror, eyes tracing about everything he was seeing. It’s not just him.

The ships. Everyone. But.....why?

He looked at the Zapper. He realized something looked off about it. It looked brighter then....

He froze up in realization.

Oh no.

He was caught off guard by his body growing heavy again, each of them being worse than the last to the point where he feels like he can barely sit up straight or even concentrate on driving the ship. He tried to catch his breath again, fighting to keep his mind as much as he could as he can feel it deteriorate even more. There were even moments where he almost forgotten why he was here. Wait...where was he? What is he doing? He’s doing this for somebody. Someone...

Something urged him to shakily look up, doing his best to ignore the dizziness. His eyes finally trailed back to the head of the robot. He can only see a Dib who is captive until he saw some small being nearly fly past him and started to grip onto his hair strand. At this point, the smeet’s body was already starting to dissipate.

His mind sprung back to life for that moment. His eyes widening to gaze at him. He quickly grabbed the handle and started dashing right towards him. Along the way, he needed to dodge anything that would stop him from reaching him. With every ships that soared passed by. Every ships that almost hit him. Every sharp turns he need to make in order to avoid getting hit. The debris of the robot. Everything.

His dissipating eyes never let go of the child, his ship continuing to speed right close to to where he was at, despite it shutting down on him. The ship’s glass dissipated, making him feel the strong wind and yet could no longer feel the coolness of it. The kid was only using one hand to hold onto the hair strand, his other hand already completely gone and his dissipation worsening. He did not have any time. His mind thought of the name he last wanted to think of. The very last thing he could remember besides all the other new memories that was that was replacing his original memories. He sharply filled in to what now felt like his lungs instead of his gills, almost as if he was regaining them.

“2K!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

The child froze. He instantly turned to the source of the voice. The alternate Zim stiffened in horror.

His face. His face is almost gone. The child nonetheless still saw him, gazing at him with a dead expression. Even though there was barely any expression on his face, Palindrome can sense him trying to comprehend what was happening. But that he knew that whatever was happening, he knew that he should terrified. It had to keep hitting the fish hybrid with the conclusion that he never want any of them to believe. But it seems the worst really was happening.

They failed. They failed to defeat Zib. They failed to go back home. They failed to continue living their normal lives on their timeline. They failed to survive this void. They failed...They failed....

I failed....

He started to feel choked up, not sure if he was even able to produce tears.

I failed you.

“2K!!!!!!!”

He screamed out again, quickly climbing out and leaping out of the ship at the right moment, his arm reaching out and hoping his body can get to him on time. 2K however remained frozen. His mouth moved, seeing how they formed to say his friend’s name, even if it was just a whisper. His eyes grew heavy. Palindrome’s consciousnesses started to rapidly deteriorate.

He just needs to get to him. Just to be with him for just a...

2K lost complete grip and flew off, his body fully coming apart. Palindrome instantly lost conscious the moment it happened.

#zimvoid #2k #palindrome #iz 2k #iz palindrome #zim palindrome #zim 2002 #zim 2000 #zib #zib membrane #invader zim

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dustedmagazine · 4 years

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Dust Volume 6, Number 12

The Flat Five

It’s November, and the culture is telling us to be thankful again, at least from a distance. We’re a prickly, argumentative bunch here at Dusted, but I think we can all agree on gratitude for our health, each other and the music, good and bad, that comes flooding in from all sides. So while we may not agree on whether the best genre is free jazz or acid folk or vintage punk or the most virulent form of death metal, we do concur that the world would be very dull without any of it. And thus, seasonably overstuffed, but with music, we opine on a number of the best of them once again. Contributors this time include Bill Meyer, Andrew Forell, Tim Clarke, Ray Garraty, Jennifer Kelly, Mason Jones, Patrick Masterson, Jonathan Shaw and Justin Cober-Lake. Happy thanksgiving.

Cristián Alvear / Burkhard Stangl — Pequeños Fragmentos De Una Música Discreta (Insub)

Pequeños fragmentos de una música discreta by CRISTIÁN ALVEAR & BURKHARD STANGL

The acoustic guitar creates instant common ground. Put together two people with guitars in their hands together, and they can potentially communicate without knowing a word of each other’s language. They might trade blues licks, verses of “Redemption Song,” or differently dire remembrances of “Hotel California,” but they’re bound to find some sort of common language. This album documents another chapter in the eternal search. Cristián Alvear is a Chilean classical guitarist who has found a niche interpreting modern, and often experimental repertoire. Burkhard Stangl is an Austrian who has spent time playing jazz with Franz Koglmann, covering Prince with Christoph Kurzmann and realizing compositions that use the language of free improvisation with Polwechsel. This CD collects eight “Small Fragments Of Discreet Music” which they improvised in the course of figuring out what they could play together. Given their backgrounds, dissonance is part of the shared language, but thanks to the instrumentation, nothing gets too loud. Sometimes they explore shared material, such as the gentle drizzle of harmonics on “No5.” Other times, they find productive contrasts, such as the blurry slide vs. palindromic melody on “No6.” And just once, they flip on the radio and wax melancholic while the static sputters. Sometimes small, shared moments are all you need.

Bill Meyer

Badge Époque Ensemble — Self Help (Telephone Explosion Records)

Self Help by Badge Époque Ensemble

Toronto collective Badge Époque Ensemble display the tastefully virtuosic skill of a particular strain of soul-inflected jazz-fusion that politely nudged its way into the charts during the 1970s. Led by Max Turnbull (the erstwhile Slim Twig) on Fender Rhodes, clavinet and synthesizers with members of US Girls, Andy Shauf’s live band and a roster of guest vocalists, Badge Époque Ensemble faithfully resurrect the sophisticated sounds of Blue Nun fuelled fondue parties and stoned summer afternoons by the pool. Meg Remy and Dorothea Paas share vocals on “Sing A Silent Gospel” which is garlanded with Karen Ng’s alto saxophone and an airy solo from guitarist Chris Bezant; it’s a track that threatens to take off but never quite does. The strength of James Baley’s voice lifts the light as air psych-funk of “Unity (It’s Up To You)” and Jennifer Castle does the same for “Just Space For Light” during which Alia O’Brien makes the case for jazz flute — Mann rather than Dolphy — with an impressive solo. The most interesting track here is the 11 minute “Birds Fly Through Ancient Ruins” a broodingly introspective piece which allows Bezant, Ng and bassist Giosuè Rosati to shine. Self-Help is immaculately played and has some very good moments but can’t quite get loose enough to convince.

Andrew Forell

Better Person — Something to Lose (Arbutus)

Something to Lose by Better Person

Like any musical genre, synth-pop can go desperately awry in the wrong hands. The resurgence of all things 1980s has been such a prevalent musical trend in recent years that it takes a deft touch to create something that taps into the retro vibe without coming across as smug. Under his Better Person moniker, Berlin-based Polish artist Adam Byczyowski manages to summon the melancholy vibe of 1980s classics such as “Last Christmas” by Wham!, “Take My Breath Away” by Berlin, and “Drive” by The Cars, reimagined for the 21st century and set in a run-down karaoke bar. This succinct and elegant half-hour set pivots around atmospheric instrumental “Glendale Evening” and features three Polish-language tracks — “Na Zawsze” (“Forever”), “Dotknij Mnie” (“Touch Me”), and “Ostatni Raz” (“Last Time”) — that emphasize the feel of cruising solo through another country and tuning into a unfamiliar radio station. There’s roto-toms, glassy synth tones, suitably melodramatic song titles (including “Hearts on Fire,” “True Love,” and “Bring Me To Tears”), plus Byczyowski’s disaffected croon. It all creates something unexpectedly moving.

Tim Clarke

Big Eyes Family — The Disappointed Chair (Sonido Polifonico)

The Disappointed Chair by Big Eyes Family

Sheffield’s Big Eyes Family (formerly The Big Eyes Family Players) released the rather fine Oh! on Home Assembly Music in 2016. Its eerie blend of folk and psych-pop brought to mind early Broadcast, circa Work and Non Work, before Trish Keenan and James Cargill started to explore more experimental timbres and themes of the occult. Bar perhaps the haunted music box instrumental “Witch Pricker’s Dream,” Oh!’s songs cleaved along a similar grain: minor keys, chiming arpeggiated guitar, spooky organ, in-the-pocket rhythm section, plus Heather Ditch’s vocal weaving around the music like smoke. The Disappointed Chair is much the same, enlivened with a touch more light and shade, from succinct waltz “(Sing Me Your) Saddest Song,” to the elegant Mellotron and tom-toms of “For Grace.” “From the Corner of My Eye” is stripped right back, with an especially affecting guitar line, plus Ditch’s vocals doubled, with the same words spoken and sung, like a voice of conscience nagging at the edge of the frame. It’s a strong set of songs, only let down by the boxy snare sound on “Blue Light,” and on “The Conjurer,” Ditch’s lower register isn’t nearly as strident as her upper range.

Tim Clarke

Bounaly — Music For WhatsApp 10 (Sahel Sounds)

Music from Saharan WhatsApp 10 by Bounaly

The tenth installment in Sahel Sounds’ Music For WhatsApp series introduces another name worth remembering. In case your attention hasn’t been solely faced on the ephemeral charms of contemporary Northwest African music in 2020, here’s the scoop: Each month, Sahel sounds uploads a brief recording that a musician from that corner of the world recorded on their cell phone and delivered via the titular app, which is the current mode of music transmission in that neck of the woods. At the end of the month they take it down, and that’s that. This edition was posted on November 11, so set your watch accordingly. Bounaly is originally from Niafounké, which was the home of the late, great Ali Farka Touré. Since civil war and outside intervention have rendered the city unsafe for musicians of any speed, he now works in Mali’s capital city, Bamako, but his music is rooted in the bluesy guitar style that Touré championed. Accompanied solely by a calabash player and surrounded by street sounds, Bounaly’s singing closely shadows his picking, which is expressive without resorting to the amped-up shredding of contemporary guitarists like Mdou Moctar.

Bill Meyer

Cash Click Boog — Voice of the Struggle (CMC-CMC)

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Last year, Cash Click Boog made a few very noticeable appearances on other people albums (especially on Lonnie Bands’ “Shred 1.5” and Rockin Rolla’s First Quarter) but his own Extras was a minor effort. This Californian rapper was always a dilettante at music, but that was his main appeal and ineradicable feature: you always knew that he’s always caught up in some very dark street business, and he appears in a booth once every blue moon, almost by accident. He is that sort of a player who always on the bleachers, yet when they let him on the field he always does a triple double or a hat trick (depending on a kind of sport).

Voice of the Struggle was supposed to be his big break, the album in which he would expend his gift for rapping while remaining in strictly amateurish frame. Sadly, Boog has chosen another route, namely going pop. He discards his amateur garbs almost completely and auto-tunes every track. If earlier he was too dark even by street standards, now almost all the tracks could be safely played on a radio. The first eight songs are more or less pop-ish ballads about homies in prison, tough life and the ghetto. By the time we reach the last three tracks where Boog recovers his old persona, it’s already too late. The struggle remains but the voice is gone.

Ray Garraty

The Flat Five — Another World (Pravda)

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The Flat Five musters a great deal of Chicago musical fire power. Alt.country chanteuse Kelly Hogan, Andrew Bird collaborator Nora O’Connor and Casey McDonough sing in Andrews Sisters harmonies, while NRBQ mainstay Scott Ligon minds the store and Green Mill regular Alex Hall keeps the rhythm steady. The sound is retro —1930s radio retro — but the songs, written by Ligon’s older brother Chris, upend mid-century American pieties with sharp, insurgent wit. A variety of old-time-y styles are referenced — big band jazz, country, doo wop and pre-modern pop — in clean, winking style. Countrified, “The Great State of Texas” seems, at first, to be a fairly sentimental goodbye-to-all-that song, until it ends with the revelation that the narrator is on death row. “Girl of Virginia,” unspools a series of intricate, Cole Porter-ish rhymes, while waltzing carelessly across the floor. The writing is sharp, the playing uniformly excellent and the vocals extra special, layered in buzzing harmonies and counterpoints. No matter how complicated the vocal arrangements, no one is ever flat in Flat Five.

Jennifer Kelly

Sam Gendel — DRM (Nonesuch)

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Normally, Sam Gendel plays saxophone in a classic jazz style. You might have caught him blowing dreamy, airy accompaniments on Sam Amidon’s last record, for instance, or putting his own spin on jazz standards in the solo Satin Doll. But for this album, Gendel experimented with ancient high tech — an Electro Harmonix DRM32 drum machine, some synthesizers, a 60-year-old nylon-string guitar —t o create hallucinatory fragments of beat-box-y, jazz-y sound, pitched somewhere between arty hip hop and KOMPAKT-style experimental electronics. “Dollars,” for instance, laces melancholy, Latin-flavored guitar and crooning with vintage video-game blips and bleeps, like a bossa nova heard dimly in a gaming arcade. “SOTD” dances uneasily in a syncopated way, staccato guitar runs paced by hand-claps, stuttered a-verbal mouth sounds and bright melodic bursts of synthesizer. “Times Like This” poses the difficult question of exactly what time we’re in—it has the moody smoulder of old soul, the antic ping and pop of lush early 00s electronics, the disembodied alien suavity of pitch-shifted R&B right now. The ringer in the collection is a cover of L’il Nas’ “Old Town Road,” interpreted in soft Teutonic electro tones, like Cluster at the rodeo. It’s odd and lovely and hard to get a bead on, which is pretty much the verdict for DRM as a whole.

Jennifer Kelly

Kraig Grady — Monument of Diamonds (Another Timbre)

MONUMENT OF DIAMONDS by Kraig Grady

The painting adorning the sleeve of Monument of Diamonds is entitled Doppler Effect in Blue, and rarely has the cover art’s name so accurately described the sound of the music paired with it. The album-length composition, which is scored for brass, saxophones and organs, consists almost entirely of long tones that Doppler in slow motion, with one starting up just before another peters out. The composer, Kraig Grady, is an Australian-based American who used to release albums that purported to be the folk music of a mythical land called Anaphoria. Nowadays he has no need for such subterfuge, since this lovely album holds up quite well on its own merits. Inspired by Harry Partch and non-Western classical music systems, Grady uses invented instruments and strategically selected pitch intervals to create microtonal music that sounds subtly alien, but never harsh on the ears. As the sounds glide by, they instigate a state of relaxed alertness that’ll do your blood pressure some good without exposing you to unnecessary sweetener.

Bill Meyer

MJ Guider — Sour Cherry Bell (Kranky)

Sour Cherry Bell by MJ Guider

MJ Guider’s second full length is diaphanous and monolithic, its monster beats sheathed in transparent washes of hiss and roar. “The Steelyard” shakes the floor with its pummelling industrial rhythms, yet shrouds Guider’s spoken word chants with surprising delicacy. “Body Optics” growls and simmers in woozy synth-driven discontent, while the singer lofts dreamy melodic phrases over the roar. There’s heft in the low-end of these roiling songs, in the churn of bass-like synthetics, the stomp of computer driven percussion, yet a disembodied lightness in the vocals, which float in pristine purity over the roar. Late in the disc, Guider ventures a surprisingly unconfrontational bit of dream pop in “Perfect Interference,” sounding poised and controlled and rather lovely at the center of chiming, enveloping synthetic riffs. Yet the murk and roar makes her work even more captivating, a glimpse of the spiritual in the midst of very physical wreck and tumult.

Jennifer Kelly

Hisato Higuchi — キ、Que、消えん？ - Ki, Que, Kien? (Ghost Disc)

キ、Que、消えん？ - Ki, Que, Kien? by Hisato Higuchi

Since 2003, Tokyo-based guitarist Hisato Higuchi has quietly released a series of equally-quiet albums, many on his own Ghost Disc label, which is appropriately named. Higuchi's work on this and the previous two albums of his "Disappearing Trilogy" is a sort of shimmering, melancholy guitar-and-vocal atmosphere — downer psych-folk in a drifting haze. His lyrics are more imagery than story, touching on overflowing light, winter cities, the quiet world, and the transience of memories. As the guitar floats slowly into the distance, Higuchi's voice, imbued with reverb, is calmly narcotic, like someone quietly sympathizing with a friend's troubles. These songs, while melancholy, convey a peacefulness that's a welcome counterbalance to the chaotic year in which we've been living. Like a cool wind on a warm summer evening, you can close your eyes and let Higuchi's music improve your mood.

Mason Jones

Internazionale — Wide Sea Prancer (At the Blue Parade) (Janushoved)

Wide Sea Prancer (At The Blue Parade) by Internazionale

It’s been nearly half a decade since Copenhagen’s Janushoved first appeared in these annals, and in that time, a little more information — and a lot more material — has cropped up to lend some context to the mystery. The focus, however, steadfastly remains with the music — perhaps my favorite of which among the regular projects featured is label head Mikkel Valentin’s own swirling solo synth vehicle Internazionale. In addition to a reissue of 2017’s The Pale and the Colourful (originally out on Posh Isolation), November saw the release of all-new songs with Wide Sea Prancer (At the Blue Parade), 14 tracks of gently abrasive headphone ambient that carry out this type of sound very well. Occasionally there is a piano (“Callista”) or what sounds like vocals (“El Topo”), but as it’s been from the start, this is primarily about tones and moods. Notes for the release say it’s a “continuation and completion of the narrative set by the release Sillage of the Blue Summer,” but it’s less the narrative you should be worried about missing out on than the warmth of your insides after an uninterrupted listen.

Patrick Masterson

Iress — Flaw (Iress)

Flaw by Iress

Sweeping, epic post-metal from this LA four piece makes a place for melodic beauty amid the heaviness. Like Pelican and Red Sparrows, Iress blares a wall of overwhelming guitar sound. Together Michelle Malley and Alex Moreno roust up waves and walls of pummeling tone as in opener “Shame.” But Iress is also pretty good at pulling back and revealing the acoustic basis for these songs. “Hand Tremor” is downright tranquil, with wreathes of languid guitar strumming and Malley’s strong, gutsy soprano navigating the full dynamic range from whisper to scream. “Wolves” lumbers like a violent beast, even in its muscular surge, there’s a slow, anthemic chorus. Likewise, “Underneath” pounds and hammers (that’s Glenn Chu on drums), but leaves space for introspection and doubt. It’s rare that the vocals on music this heavy are so good or so female, but if you’ve liked Chelsea Wolfe’s recent forays into ritual metal, you should check out Iress as well.

Jennifer Kelly

Junta Cadre — Vietnam Forever (No Rent Records)

"Vietnam Forever" (NRR141) by Junta Cadre

Junta Cadre is one of several noise and power electronics projects created by Jackson Abdul-Salaam, musician and curator of the long-running Svn Okklt blog. As the project’s name implies, Junta Cadre has an agenda: the production of sound that seeks to thematize the ambiguities of 20th-century radical, revolutionary politics. The project’s initial releases investigated the Maoist revolution in China, and the subsequent Cultural Revolution of the late 1960s and 1970s. Vietnam Forever shifts topics, to the American War in Vietnam, and tactics, including contributions from other prominent harsh noise acts and artists: the Rita, Samuel Torres of Terror Cell Unit, Leo Brucho of Controlled Opposition and others. Given those names, Vietnam Forever is as challenging and rigorous as you might expect. Waves of dissonant, electronic hum and fuzz accumulate and oscillate, crunching and chopping into textured aural assaults; wince-inducing warbles and needling feedback occasionally assert themselves. Abdul-Salaam’s harsh shout cuts in and out of the mix. The tape (also available as a name-yo’-price DL on Bandcamp) presents as two side-long slabs of sound, both over seventeen minutes long, both completely exhausting. At one point, on Side A, Abdul-Salaam repeatedly shouts, “Beautiful Vietnam forever!” It’s hard to say what he means. An affirmation that Vietnam survived the war? That its people and culture endure? Or that the U.S. can’t seem to shake the war’s haunting presence? Or even a more worryingly nihilistic delight in the war’s carnage, so frequently aestheticized in films like Apocalypse Now (1979), Full Metal Jacket (1987) and Da Five Bloods (2020)? The noise provides no closure. Maybe necessarily so.

Jonathan Shaw

Bastien Keb — The Killing of Eugene Peeps (Gearbox)

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The Killing of Eugene Peeps is a soundtrack to a movie that never was, a noir-ish flick which winds restlessly through urban landscapes and musical styles, from the orchestra tremors of its opening through the folky group-sing of “Lucky the Oldest Grave.” “Rabbit Hole” wafts by like an Elephant Six outtake, its woozy chorus lit by glockenspiel notes, while “God Bless Your Gutters” conjures jazzy desolation in piano and mordant spoken word. “All the Love in Your Heart” shimmers like a movie flashback, a mirage of blowsy back-up singing, guitar and muttered memories. “Street Clams” bristles with funk and swagger, an Ethio-jazz sortee through rain slicked streets. What’s it about? Musically or narratively? No idea. But it’s worth visiting these evocative soundscapes just for the atmosphere. It’s a film I’d like to see.

Jennifer Kelly

Jesse Kivel — Infinite Jess (New Feelings)

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Nostalgia haunts the new solo album from Kisses guitarist/singer Jesse Kivel. Infinite Jess is full of that knowing melancholy of The Blue Nile, Prefab Sprout and The Pale Fountains that was so magnetic to a certain brand of sensitive young thing seeking to articulate their inchoate visions of a future steeped in romance and adventure. Think wistful mid-tempo songs wrapped in cocoons of strummed guitars, shuffling percussion and wurlitzer piano fashioned into a catalogue of adolescent radio memories. These tunes are topped by the understated sincerity of Kivel’s voice and lyrics which effectively evoke the place, time and emotion of his vignettes. The production suffers occasionally from a distracting reliance on too perfectly rendered tropes — overly polite drum programming, thumbed bass, blandly smooth electric piano — but the overall effect is oddly beguiling. Infinite Jess closes with a charmingly wobbly instrumental cover of Don McLean’s “Vincent” played on the wurlitzer that captures the poignancy of the melody and serves as a fitting epilog to the record.

Andrew Forell

Kyrios — Saturnal Chambers (Caligari Records)

Saturnal Chambers by KYRIOS

The corpsepaint-and-spiked-codpiece crowd are still making tons of records, but fewer and fewer of them are interesting or compelling. The retrograde theatrics and cheap pessimism can be irritating enough (I’d rather be reading Schopenhauer, thanks); it’s even more problematic when the songs can muster only the vividness and savor of stiff leftovers from the deep-freezer’s darkest and dankest corners. Still, every now and then a kvlty band that follows the frigid dictates of black metal’s orthodoxy creates a set of songs worth listening to. This new EP from Kyrios is super short, comprising three tracks in just under 10 minutes that pull off that neat trick: when it’s over, you want to hear more. Sure, the dudes in the band call themselves silly things like Satan’s Sword and Vornag, but the tunes are really good. Check out the churning strangeness of “The Utterance of Foul Truths.” Kyrios claims Immortal, Enslaved and Dissection as primary influences, and the band recognizes the stylistic debt they owe to Deathspell Omega (let’s hope Kyrios digs the twisted guitars and weird-ass time signatures, but passes on the National Socialism declaimed by that French band’s vocalist). Stuff gets even more engaging when bleeping and blooping keyboards vibrate at the edges of the mix, giving the songs a spaced-out vibe. “Saturnal Chambers”? Maybe Kyrios has met the astral spirit of Sun Ra somewhere along their galactic journeys into the heavenly void. He liked bleeping, blooping noises and gaudy costumes, too.

Jonathan Shaw

Matt Lajoie — Light Emerging (Trouble In Mind)

Light Emerging by Matt Lajoie

The second volume of Trouble In Mind Records’ Explorers series is, like its predecessor a cassette that comes concealed within a brown slipcase. Like many other discretely wrapped products, the fun is on the inside. This time, it’s a tape by guitarist who understands that toes aren’t just for tapping. At any rate, I think he’s managing his pedals with his feet. Most likely Lajoie has spent some quality time listening to mid-1990s Roy Montgomery. But since a quarter century has passed, he doesn’t just stack up the echoes. Sped-up tones streak across the surface of this music like swallows zooming close to that sheet you hung on the side of your barn the last time you had everyone over for a socially distanced gathering to watch Aguirre, The Wrath of God. Wait, did that really happen? Maybe not, but if someone were to make a fake documentary about the hanging of the projective surface, this music is suitably epic to provide the soundtrack.

Bill Meyer

Lisa/Liza — Shelter of a Song (Orindal)

Shelter of a Song by Lisa/Liza

Lisa/Liza makes a quietly harrowing sort of guitar folk, singing in a high, ghostly clear soprano against delicate traceries of picking. The artist, real name Liza Victoria, inhabits songs that are unadorned but still chilling. She sings with childlike sincerity in an ominous landscape of dark alleys and chilly autumnal vistas. She wrote this album while chronically ill, according to the notes, and you can hear the struggle against the body in the way her voice sometimes wavers, her breath comes in sudden intakes. But, as sometimes happens after long sickness, she sometimes strikes clear of the physical, achieving an unearthly purity as in “From this Shelter.” A touch of plain spoken magic lurks in this one, in the whispery vocals, the translucent curtains of guitar notes, though not much warmth. “Red Leaves” is earthier and more fluid, guitar flickers striking out from a resonant center, and the artist murmuring dreamily about the beauty of the world and its transience.

Jennifer Kelly

Keith Morris & The Crooked Numbers — American Reckoning (Mista Boo)

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It's easy to imagine Keith Morris as perpetually frustrated. His last album, after all, took on psychopaths and sycophants, and the title of his new release American Reckoning doesn't suggest happy thoughts. There's plenty of bile on these five tracks, of course, but Morris approaches the album like a scholar. The opening verse describes the US as “Machiavellian: the mean just never ends” before referencing Othello and Yo-Yo Ma (the latter for a “yo mama” joke). If Morris and the Crooked Numbers just raged, they might be justified, but they'd be less interesting. Instead, they use a wide swath of American musical styles to thoughtfully consider racial (and racist) issues in our contemporary society. “Half Crow Jim” turns a Southern piano tune into a surprising tale about the fallout from slavery. It's a sharp moment, and it highlights that the only disappointing part of this release lies in its brevity. Morris has said he has more music on the way, and if he continues to mix styles, wordplay, and cultural analysis, it'll be worth a study.

Justin Cober-Lake

Tatsuya Nakatani and Rob McGill — Valley Movements (Weird Cry)

Valley Movements by Tatsuya Nakatani / Rob Magill

In most percussion ensembles, the gong-ist is a utility player, charged with banging out a note once or twice per composition for drama and ideally not screwing it up. Tatsuya Nakatani works on a wholly different level, transcending the possibilities of this ancient, archetypical instrument with vision and an unholy technique. More specifically, his set-up includes at least two standing gongs, each about as tall as he is himself. He plays them with mallets, standing between, in blur speed rolls that range all over the surface of the instrument. The sound he evokes is distinctly unpercussive, more resembling string instrument glissandos than any form of drums, a full-on high-register wail of sound that he sculpts and roils and coaxes into compositions of incredible force and complexity. He also plays a bunch of other percussion instruments, little drums and cymbals which he layers on top of each other so that when he strikes one, the others resonate. It is quite an experience to see him at it, and if you ever get a chance, you should go. Here, he works with the saxophonist Rob McGill unfurling a single 40-minute improvisation at a studio in the appealingly named Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. McGill is an agile player, laying alternately lyrical and agitated counterpoints onto Nakatani’s rhythms, carrying the tune and threading a logical through line through this extended set. He finds frequencies that complement Nakatani’s antic, nearly demonic drum sounds and knows when to let loose and when to let his partner through the mix. The result is a very high energy, engaging adventure in sound that evokes a rare response: you wish you could hear the drums better.

Jennifer Kelly

Overmono — The Cover Mix (Mixmag)

Mixmag · The Cover Mix: Overmono

It’s a really weird time to be advocating for club music of any kind, but Overmono’s Everything U Need EP out recently on XL again showcases what the fraternal duo known better as Tessela and Truss do best: melding thoughtful percussion patterns with these airy, gliding synth melodies that work at home just as well as in the club (theoretically, anyway). It’s not just original material they do well, though; whether it was the Dekmantel podcast a few years back or their live cassette from Japan or this mix for Mixmag, Ed and Tom Russell also have a knack for pacing in their sets. This one features stuff from the new EP as well as three unreleased tracks (not counting the Rosalía remix, which remains one of the year’s most addicting) and names both old and new — listen for DJ Crystl’s 1993 jungle jam “Deep Space” sidled up next to Smerz’s new skyscraper “I Don’t Talk About That Much.” If that sounds like everything you need, lock in and let Overmono do the hard work. Truly, they do not miss.

Patrick Masterson

Pole — Fading (Mute)

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As Pole, Stefan Betke’s work has always been both comforting and disconcerting. The amiotic swells and heartbeat bass frequencies generate a warm human feel in his music despite their origins in serendipitously damaged equipment. Fading, his first album in five years explores Betke’s reactions to his mother’s dementia and reflects on the nature of personality, memory and soul. Building on his trademark glitchy beats and oceanic bass tones, the eight tracks echo a consciousness unmoored by the fog of unfamiliarity that smothers and distorts but never completely submerges awareness. “Tölpel” (slang for klutz) evokes impatient fingers tapping out the guilty resentment of the forgotten and the frustration of the forgetful. The title track closes with a woozy waltz punctuated by recurrent sparks. Fading is a deeply felt work; somber, reflective, stumbling towards understanding and acceptance, alive to the nuances and petty nettles of grief and above all beautiful in its ambivalence.

Andrew Forell

Quakers — II: The Next Wave (Stones Throw)

II - The Next Wave by Quakers

After eight years of silence following 2012’s self-titled debut, Stones Throw production trio Quakers (Portishead’s Geoff Barrow as Fuzzface, 7-Stu-7 and Katalyst) dropped the 50-track beat tape Supa K: Heavy Tremors out of nowhere in September and now, just two months later, are back with another 33-track behemoth that allows a litany of emcees to shine. Calling this The Next Wave is a bit of a stretch when you consider many of the voices on here are from guys who’ve been in the game for years or even decades (Jeru the Damaja, Detroit’s Phat Kat and Guilty Simpson, Chicagoan Jeremiah Jae, etc.), but even so, the dusty grooves and Dilla loops prove perfect foils for many of those who hit the mic. My favorite might be Sageinfinite slotting in with the organ grinder “A Myth,” but even if you don’t like it, everyone’s in and out quick. If you’re burned out on Griselda, give this a go for 1990s vibes of a different kind.

Patrick Masterson

Rival Consoles — Articulation (Erased Tapes)

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There are deep pockets of silence in “Articulation,” ink black stops between the thump and clack of dance beat, sudden intervals of nothingness amidst limber synthetic melodies. London-based producer Ryan West, who records as Rival Consoles, layers sound on sound in some tracks, letting the foundations slip like tectonic plates on top of one another, but he is also very much aware of the power of quiet, whether dark or luminously light. Consider, for instance, his closer, “Sudden Awareness of Now,” whose buoyant melody skitters across factory-sized fan blasts of whooshing sound. The rhythm is light footed and agile, pieced together from staccato elements that hold the air and light. Like Jon Hopkins, West uses the glitch and twitch to insinuate the infinite, chiming overtones and hovering backdrops to represent a gnostic, communal state of existence. “Vibrations on a String” may jump to the steady thump, thump, thump of dance, but as its gleaming plasticine tones blow out into horn blast dissonance, the cut is more about becoming than being.

Jennifer Kelly

Sweeping Promises — Hunger for a Way Out (Feel It)

Hunger for a Way Out by Sweeping Promises

The title track bounds headlong on a rubbery bassline, picking up a Messthetick-y blare of junk shop keyboards. All the sudden, there’s Lira Mondal unleashing a giddy screed of angular pop punk tunefulness, her partner in Sweeping Promises, Caulfield, stabbing and stuttering on guitar. In some ways, this band is straight out of late 1980s London, jitter-flirting with offkilter hooks a la Delta Five or Girls at Our Best. In others, they are utterly modern, lacing austere pogo beats with lush, elaborate vocal counterpoints. “Falling Forward” is a continuous rush of clamped in guitar scramble and agile, bouncing bass, anthemic trills breaking for robotic chants; it’s a mesh of sounds that always seems ready to collapse in a heap, but instead finds its antic balance just in time.

Jennifer Kelly

Martin Taxt — First Room (SOFA)

First Room by Martin Taxt

Sometimes a room is more than a room. In the matter at hand, it is a space that proposes a state of mind and a consequent set of experiences. It is also the score for a piece of music that extrapolate that state into the realm of sound. The cover of First Room depicts a pattern of tatami mats that you might find in a Japanese tea room. Martin Taxt is a microtonal tubaist and also the holder of an advanced degree in music and architecture (next time someone tells you that some good thing can’t happen, remember that in Norway you can not only get such a degree; you can then go ahead and present a CD that shows your work. The fault, dear Brutus, is not in the stars, but in our society.). This music takes inspiration from the integrated aesthetic of the tea ceremony, using carefully placed and deliberately sustained sounds to create an environment in which subtle changes count for a lot. The album’s contents were created by mixing together two performances, one with and another without an audience. Taxt and accompanist Vilde Marghrete Aas layer long tones from a tuba, double bass, viola da gamba and sine waves. Their precise juxtapositions create a sense of focus, somewhat like a concentrated version of Ellen Fullman’s long string music, and if that statement means something to you, so will this music.

Bill Meyer

Ulaan Janthina — Ulaan Janthina II (Worstward)

Ulaan Janthina (Part II) by Ulaan Janthina

Part two of Steven R. Smith’s latest recording project echoes the first volume in several key aspects. It is a tape made in small numbers and packaged like a present from your favorite cottage industry; in this case, the custom-printed box comes with an old playing card, a hand-printed image of jellyfish, an old skeleton key and a nut. And Smith, who most often plays guitars and home-made stringed instruments, once more plays keyboards, which enable him to etch finer lines of melody. The chief difference between this tape and its predecessor is the melodies themselves, which have begun to attain the evocative simplicity of mid-1970s Cluster.

Bill Meyer

Various Artists — Joyous Sounds! (Chicago Research)

Joyous Sounds! by Various Artists

It’s been less than two years, but Blake Karlson’s Chicago Research imprint has already made its presence known both in the Windy City and beyond as fine purveyors of all things industrial, EBM, post-punk and experimental electronics. There were two compilations released within days of one another toward the beginning of October, and while Preliminaries of Silence veers more toward soothing ambient textures, Joyous Sounds! is more upbeat and rhythmic (Bravias Lattice’s “Liquid Vistas” is a beautiful exception). My favorite track is Club Music’s “Musclebound” (not a Spandau Ballet cover, as it turns out), but the underlying menace of Civic Center’s “Filigree” and Rottweiler’s pummeling “Ancient Baths” sit alongside merely unsettling fare like Lily the Fields’ “Porcelain” well. If you’re not already aboard or just have a Wax Trax-sized hole in your heart, you have a lot of work ahead of you with this label’s consistently superlative output.

Patrick Masterson

Kurt Vile — Speed, Sound, Lonely KV (Matador)

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Given John Prine's passing from COVID-19 this year, the new Kurt Vile EP might be received as a tribute to the late artist, with extra significance coming from Prine's appearance here. Four years in the works, Speed, Sound, Lonely KV offers more than just tribute, though. Prine's guest spot (if you could call it that) on his own “How Lucky” certainly makes for a moving highlight, the two singers fitting together nicely as Prine's gruff tone balance's his partner's smoother voice. Vile also covers Prine on “Speed of the Sound of Loneliness,” and he adds “Gone Girl” by Cowboy Jack Clement as he takes further cosmic steps.

His two originals here complete the record, and, mixed in with the covers, draw out the lesson. Vile's entire EP blends the country influences with his more typical dreamy sound, the guitar work bridging the gap between a songwriter's backing and something more ethereal. Nashville, it seems, has always suited Vile just fine, and hearing him embrace that tradition more immediately adds an extra layer to his work. Putting a cowboy hat on his previous aesthetic puts him opens up new but related paths for him, and the five tracks here could play on either a Kris Kristofferson mix or a laid-back indie-rocker playlist. Either way, they'd be highlights on an endless loop.

Justin Cober-Lake

WhoMadeWho — Synchronicity (Kompakt)

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Danish trio WhoMadeWho — drummer Tomas Barfod, guitarist Jeppe Kjellberg and bassist/singer Tomas Høffding — make enjoyable indie dance music that suffers somewhat from lack of personality and a tendency toward a middle ground. That may be due to an effort to accommodate a roster of Kompakt-related collaborators including Michael Mayer, Echonomist and Robag Wruhme. While there’s nothing bad and some pretty good here, the individual songs flit by, pausing briefly to set one’s head nodding and feet tapping, before evaporating from the mind. “Shadow of Doubt” featuring Hamburg’s Adana Twins has the kind of driving bass that anchored New Order hits but also, unfortunately, the unconvincing vocals only Bernard Sumner could get away with. More successful moments like the eerie piano riff and jazz inflections of “Dream Hoarding” with Frank Wiedemann, the arpeggiated house of “Der Abend birgt keine Ruh” featuring Perel and miserablist Pet Shop Boys inflected closer “If You Leave” do stick. Synchronicity might work well on the dance floor, but it doesn’t quite sustain at home.

Andrew Forell

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softspiderling · 5 years

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swanky fortune - teaser part four | t.h.

Summary: you’ve gotten yourself in quite a pickle. The question is, how do you solve it?

Pairing: Tom Holland x Reader

Author’s Note: HEY HEY I’M BACK guess what? By the time part 4 of swanky fortune (or swanky fucking fortune as @afangirlwashere has dubbed it) drops on Thursday, homegirl is FREEEEEE until then, enjoy this sneaky lil teaser

Warnings: cursing, I think

Masterlist

COMING THIS THURSDAY (25TH OF JULY) 12 AM CET!

“Are you really sure about walking to the restaurant?” you asked as you walked towards the doors of the hotel.

“Yes. We’ll be fine,” Tom assured you, glancing at his phone when it beeped.

“Wait, Y/N-“

“Whoa, looks like there’s a crowd out there,” you muttered as you opened the door, greeted by a screaming crowd and several flashes.

Someone grabbed you by the elbow and luckily it was only Tom, pulling you closer to him.

“I thought you said we were going to be fine!” you yelled over the screaming and he shot you a panicked look.

“I’m sorry! My manager texted me a few people have seen me enter and leave this hotel today and they must have leaked the information. But don’t worry, we’re going to be fine,” he said as he pointed to the broad men who were keeping a check on the screaming fangirls, waving you towards a car that was standing by the curb.

With a hand on your lower back, Tom pushed you towards the car gently, letting you climb in first, before following swiftly, the car taking off as soon as the door shut close.

You leaned back in the seat and clutched the door handle, closing your eyes and listened to your erratic heartbeat, before it slowed down to its normal pace.

“… Are you okay?” Tom asked you gently and you peeked an eye open to look at him. His brows were furrowed and he looked a little bit worried. It was cute.

“Yeah, I’m fine now,” you nodded and sat up straighter, composing yourself. “Sorry, I’m just- I’m not a fan of big crowds.” There was something terrifying of being surrounded by so many people who didn’t take regards of other peoples’ personal space. It made you feel like suffocating, you wouldn’t want to picture your life being like this every day.

“It’s definitely one of the less glamorous aspects of being me,” he admitted and you nodded.

“Definitely not very glamorous.”

A/N: Leave a comment?

Add yourself to my taglist here!

Bolded means I couldn’t tag you for some reason. Message me, so we can figure it out!

Taglist: @littleraton // @kingjvngins // @fangirlingisajob // @yourbiggestspiderfan // @fandomdarlings // @jeffsbarbershop // @americasmarauders // @yourwonderbelle // @noobmaster63 // @eridanuswave // @incorrect-things // @purple-storm // @skyfall8600 // @thollandx // @lala-florez // @theefactorygirl // @ixdaughterofthemoonix // @sweetdarlingholland // @arichella // @let-me-luve-you // @cxtetxm // @pmvelez97 // @monjvn // @boughs-of-hollie // @procrastinatingismybiggestflaw // @gotmyhandonmyheart // @tapptaptap // @thorsvotary // @dah-knee-cuh // @1-800-back-off // @milkandpepsi // @sunflowercth // @thatphandomchick // @psychicforest // @llamasaurousmaddie // @jackiehollanderr // @fandomdarlings // @unfortunateshelby // @yeahimcrying // @spideys-gurl // @one-big-fangirl // @imagine-lovebug // @professionalphangirluniverse // @zabdisamor // @palindrome-teddy // @axa-vega // @angelicshinigami // @mrsfortune1306 // @spicy-mango626 // @bangtanot7only

#swanky fortune #tom holland #tom holland fanfiction #tom holland fanfic #tom holland fic #tom holland imagine #tom holland x reader #peter parker #peter parker imagine #peter parker fanfiction #peter parker fanfic #peter parker fic #peter parker x reader #own work #teaser #softspiderling

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krizaland · 5 years

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Song of the Sea

Ok so I fell in love with AURORA’s cover of Into The Unknown from Frozen 2.

So I was inspired to write a fic based on my theory of how Palindrome grew gills!

I’m not sure if I’ll turn this into a full fic but feel free to let me know what you think!

Ever since Palindrome landed on Earth, he always felt strangely drawn to the sea.

From its deep blue waters to its fascinating wildlife, Palindrome just couldn’t get enough of the sea.

Whenever he was having a bad day, Palindrome knew he could always find comfort in the crashing ocean waves.

He would sit on the beach for hours, letting the sounds of the crashing waves wash his cares away.

If he wasn’t an Invader, Palindrome would’ve considered building a base on the beach and spending his days exploring the sea.

Alas, he had a job to do! As much as he hated to admit it, Palindrome had to destroy the Earth, the beautiful ocean included.

Thus, Palindrome decided to cut off ties with the sea and chose to avoid it at all costs.

While things seemed to go fine most days, Palindrome would still crave the ocean every so often.

Despite his urges, Palindrome was able to focus his mind back onto his work.

Most of the time anyway.

Everything changed the day he heard a mysterious voice in the distance.

“Oooh-Oooh.”

Palindrome nearly dropped the gadget he was working on.

“Oooh-Oooh.”

“Eh?! What is that noise?” Palindrome yelped as he looked around the room.

“Oooh-Oooh. Oooh-Oooh.”

“GIR! Come to my scheming lab!” Palindrome commanded as he turned on the intercom.

“Yeees?” His GIR cooed as he poked his head through a small hole in the ceiling.

“Can you please keep it down? I’m trying to work here.” Palindrome chided as he gestured to the gadget he was working on.

“But I didn’t say nothing!” GIR whined.

“You weren’t saying anything but you were singing! Please keep it down!” Palindrome snapped as he shook his fist.

“I wasn’t singing nothing either.” GIR whimpered.

“Really? So all the ‘oooh-oooohs’ weren’t your doing?” Palindrome asked as he titled his head to the side.

“Nope!”

“ Must’ve been a figment of my imagination. Well, go back to…whatever it is you were doing, GIR!” Palindrome hummed as he shooed GIR away.

“Okie Dokie!”

And with that, GIR rushed back to what he was doing.

Palindrome tried to continue his work when

“Oooh-Oooh.”

“ACK!” Palindrome nearly fell out of his chair!

“Oooh-Oooh.”

Palindrome peeled himself off the ground and tried to resume his work.

“Oooh-Oooh. Oooh-Oooh.”

“I can hear you, but I won’t. Some look for trouble, while others don’t,” Palindrome sang softly as he tried to focus on his gadget, “There’s a thousand reasons I should go about my day and ignore your whisper which I wish would go away, Oh-Oh.”

“Oooh-Oooh.”

Palindrome soon found himself entranced by the voice as he sang back to it.

“Oh-Oh.”

“Oooh-Oooh. Oooh-Oooh.”

Palindrome shook away his enchantment and cleared his throat.

“You’re not a voice! You’re just a ringing in the air! If I heard you, which I don’t! I’m spoken for I fear.” Palindrome sang as he made his way to the nearest window.

“Everything I’ll ever need is here within these walls. I’m sorry secret siren but I’m blocking out your calls.” Palindrome sang as he gestured to his base.

“I’ve had my adventure. I don’t need something new. I am afraid of what I’m risking if I follow you.” Palindrome sang as he threw open the window.

“Into The Unknown! Into the Unknown! Into the Unknoo-oo-n” Palindrome’s voice melted into the cool night air.

“Oooh-Oooh. Oooh-Oooh.”

It didn’t take long for Palindrome to notice the waves crashing upon the beach next door.

Without thinking, Palindrome jumped out the window and ran towards the beach.

“What do you want? I have an important thing to make. Are you here to distract me so I’ll make a big mistake?” Palindrome huffed as he stared out at the sea.

“Or are you someone out there who’s a little bit like me?” Palindrome stared into his reflection in the water for moment, “Who knows deep down I’m not where I’m really meant to be.” Palindrome shook his head as his reflection turned fish-like.

“Every day’s a little harder as I feel this power grow. Don’t you know there’s a part of me that longs to go…” Palindrome climbed onto the tallest rock he could find.

“Into The Unknown?! Into the Unknown! Into the Unknoo-oo-n!” Palindrome’s voice seemed to echo as the waves crashed around him.

“Are you out there?! Can you feel me?! Can you show me?!” Palindrome called out as he ran out further.

SPLOOSH!

Palindrome slipped and fell deep into the water.

However, instead of drowning, the water swirled around him as he and the mysterious voice begun to sing in harmony.

“Oh-oh-oh!”

Palindrome raised his arms into the air.

“Oooh-Oooh.”

Fins begun to sprout from his elbows and in-between his fingers.

“Oh-oh-oh!”

Palindrome kicked up his feet.

“Oooh-Oooh.”

More fins sprouted on his thighs and between his toes.

“Oh-oh-oh!”

Palindrome lifted up his head

“Oooh-Oooh.”

His antennas morphed into fins as his skin turned bright teal.

The bubbles gave off a bright glow as Palindrome’s voice slowly begun to merge with the mysterious voice.

“I am finally home…”

“You are finally home..”

“I am finally hoooome…”

The bubbles swirled and swirled until

FSHHH!

POP!

Palindrome emerged part fish!

Palindrome’s eyes remained shut as he savored the ocean’s peaceful embrace.

POP! POP! POP!

The sound of the last few bubbles popping woke Palindrome from his thoughts.

Palindrome blinked as he shook away his trance.

The moment his mind processed what had just happened, Palindrome let out a gasp!

He had just dove into the sea!

He begun to panic and thrash about until he realized that he could breathe just fine.

“Strange…I thought I was supposed to drown….Am I…Dead?” Palindrome looked down and gasped.

His superior Irken body had mutated!

His arms and legs had sprouted fins! And there were gills on the sides of his neck!

Palindrome frantically patted around his head and discovered that his antennas had morphed into fins as well!

“What happened to me?! What has this infernal sea water done to me?! And…Why does tis feel so…natural…”

Palindrome swum around as if it were second nature to him!

Palindrome had no idea what had happened, but one way or another, he was determined to find out!

#invader zim #invader zim palindrome #zimvoid

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spnjediavenger · 5 years

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Feel My Dreams Part 3

Title: Feel My Dreams Part 3 (boys x sister figure!reader)

Type: sequel

Warnings: general SPN violence, slight torture description, injury description

Spoilers: none

Disclaimers: I don’t own supernatural or its characters

Baku lore: Baku = Mythological Creature Who Eats Nightmares, Protects ...https://www.onmarkproductions.com › html › baku

Witch lore: witch_protection.html protection-against-witches-how-ornaments-used-to-ward-off-evil-spirits

Part 1, Part 2

“You weren’t able to get anything?” Dean asked Rowena incredulously.

Rowena shrugged with a sympathetic smile on her face. “Arcadia has kept her tracks covered and trained her coven well. Seems she’s not as dense as she was when we were both part of the high coven. I’m sorry, dear,” she finished, looking at Y/n.

“There has to be something else we can go off of,” Sam said hopefully. “Rowena, is there any kind of spell you can use to track her or anything?”

“Not without a piece of her, I’m afraid.”

“What about me?” Y/n asked, looking to Rowena.

“What do you mean?” Dean asked her, crossing his arms.

“You said Arcadia would have had to bind herself to me somehow. If she’s able to get to me, there must be a way I can reach the other way and get through to her,” Y/n explained.

Rowena thought for a moment, then closed her eyes and frowned. “Ay, maybe it could work, but…”

“But…?”

She sighed and glanced at the boys. “If we risk a connection to Arcadia, there’s a chance she could pull Y/n into another nightmare. And it seems each time she’s done so in the past, her bond strengthened. This could work to track down Arcadia but only by putting Y/n at risk.”

“Let’s do it,” Y/n said without missing a beat.

“Y/n-”

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” Sam said, interrupting his brother.

Y/n sighed. “Guys, these nightmares are only going to continue getting worse. Arcadia almost killed me last time and I know she’s going to keep trying until she succeeds. So we’re not losing much by trying to beat her before doing it.”

“And what if this is giving her the chance she needs?” Dean asked.

Another sigh. “Like I said, she’s going to try again anyway.” Y/n turned her attention back to Rowena. “Ro?”

The witch sighed as well. “Alright. But we’ll have to take precautions before any of this. I don’t want this backfiring on you if I can help it.”

Y/n smiled a bit and gave Rowena’s hand a reassuring squeeze before turning to the boys to try and come up with a plan.

~ ~ ~

After Cas came in and was caught up, the group hit the books. Everything Rowena brought, anything in the bunker the boys could find on witchcraft, and all the research Y/n had in her journal from the past. Rowena was trying to figure out a spell to allow Y/n to see through Arcadia, and the others were trying to figure out ways to keep Y/n safe in the meantime.

“Amulet?”

“No.”

“Hagstone?”

“No.”

“Silver dime, penny, salt, horseshoe, urine??”

“None,” Rowena said again, a bit exasperated. “I’m sorry, dear. If it was a lower-level witch, those would impair them a wee bit but they won’t do a thing against Arcadia.”

Y/n let out a big sigh and ran a hand down her face.

“Wait, guys,” Sam spoke up from his corner of the table. “I think I may have found something.”

“What?” Y/n asked, walking over behind Sam to wrap her arms lazily around his shoulders and rest her head next to his to look at his laptop. He smiled a bit, loving when his sister-figure got close.

“So get this - in Asian folklore, there’s a creature called a ‘Baku’; it’s what they call a ‘dream-eater’. When children would wake up from nightmares, they would call it three times and it would come to feed off their nightmares so they could go back to a peaceful sleep.”

“Ok great but we need to stop them before they happen,” Dean argued. “We can’t wait till after.”

“Let him finish, De,” Y/n said.

“There’s supposedly a palindrome that can be sung three times before going to sleep that’s said to ‘ward off bad dreams and ill omens.’”

“What’s a palindrome?”

“It’s a verse that reads the same forwards and backwards,” Y/n answered, earning a small but proud smile from Sam.

“Now, it doesn’t specify anything needed besides the palindrome to summon one but most people keep a baku talisman by their bedside. Maybe worth a shot until Rowena can figure out a spell?” Sam questioned, looking at the rest of the room’s occupants.

A round of head nods confirmed and Dean stood up to look at Sam. “Ok, so where do we get one of these talismans?”

~ ~ ~

Y/n ran her thumb across the smooth wooden figure in her hand. It was cute. A creature resembling many animals but had an innocent look about it.

“You ready?” Dean’s voice got Y/n’s attention.

She looked up at him, let out a shaky breath, and nodded, placing the talisman under her pillow.

“Hey,” Sam said, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Dean, Cas, and I will all be here with you, ok? If something happens, we’ll pull you out ASAP, alright?”

Y/n weakly smiled, but smiled nonetheless and nodded again. She picked up the sliver of paper on her nightstand and took a deep breath before singing the words on it. “Nagakiyonoto o noneburinominamesame. Naminoribuneno o tonoyokigana.” She repeated it twice after that and received a small, quick orange glow coming from under her pillow. Y/n looked wide-eyed at the brothers and Cas. “Do you think it’ll work?”

“There’s only one way to find out,” Cas said, finally speaking up. He also gave her shoulder a squeeze and smiled before she laid back into her bed.

Sensing her nerves, Dean took a seat beside her, allowing her to snuggle up against him as he carded his fingers through her hair. The boys smiled a bit when her eyes slowly closed and soon fell asleep.

Y/n woke up to find herself strapped to a table again. Her eyes darted about and her heart instantly sped up. Not again! she thought.

“Welcome back,” Arcadia said, emerging from a corner of the room.

Y/n took a quick moment to look around the room, hoping for any sign to indicate where she was. She didn’t get too long before her insides began to twist and convulse. A scream tore at her throat but no sound came. The pain stopped and she panted for air.

Arcadia approached the table and smirked evily. “Our bond grows stronger with each dream. I’m able to use more and more spells to make sure you won’t wake up. And I’ll be more careful this time.”

Arcadia picked up a knife and ran her eyes down Y/n’s body until she stopped at her abdomen. “How’s that stab wound?” she said, pressing the knife slowly into it, breaking the stitches and reopening the wound.

Sam had gone back into the library to help Rowena with the spell while Dean and Cas stayed behind with Y/n to watch over her and wake her if needed.

The boys were gazing around the room, the waiting becoming a bit tedious, when Cas glanced back at Y/n to see tears streaming down her face.

“Dean,” he said, pulling the older Winchester’s attention as he approached the bed.

Dean snapped his head over to the girl and walked to her side as well. He began shaking her shoulders to wake her to no avail. He looked her over and stopped when he saw blood seeping through her shirt, immediately becoming even more alarmed.

“I thought this thing was supposed to protect her?!” he yelled.

Baku-san, help me. Baku-san, help me. Baku-san, help me! Y/n repeated in her head, remembering the detail from researching.

Arcadia removed the knife from her abdomen only to run it over her cheek, drawing a line of blood behind it. When she lifted it again, she went to make another cut when an orange light flew from the table to knock the witch over. It stopped next to Y/n and began to materialize into a majestic, tiger-like creature. It resembled a tiger but had small, elephant-like ears, small trunk and tusks, small bull eyes, and a cow tail. As soon as it fully appeared, it grabbed the restraints holding Y/n in its teeth and ripped them off. The girl rolled off the table onto the floor, clutching her stomach. She took note of the symbol on the floor and looked up to see the baku prowling protectively in front of her, growling at Arcadia with its teeth bared.

The witch rose and twisted her hands, a blue glow surrounding them. The baku quickly curled around Y/n and an orange light surrounded them.

Y/n woke up with a gasp, the orange light fading around her. She felt hands on her shoulders and grabbed them to push them away but looked up to see Dean, not Arcadia.

“It’s me, kid. You’re alright. Well, kind of. We’ll have to patch you up again.”

“Y/n, that orange glow - what was it?” Cas asked from beside her.

“The baku,” she said, catching her breath; she silently thanked every power that she could speak again.

“I thought it was supposed to protect you?” Dean said, a little angry she still got hurt.

“It did. When I called to it in my mind, this orange light appeared. It knocked Arcadia over and it became whole. It ripped the restraints off and got me out of the dream before she could hurt me anymore. It worked,” she explained, smiling a bit at the end.

Dean returned a small smile and pulled her into a hug, trying to be gentle and avoid her injuries.

“Guys!” Sam jogged into the room, abruptly stopping when he saw Y/n was hurt. “Hey, you alright?” he said, striding over to inspect her wounds.

“I’ll be fine.”

“Cas, go get the first aid kit.”

Cas nodded and Dean looked expectantly at Sam. “What were you gonna tell us?”

Sam smiled a bit and looked over at Rowena, who stood in the doorway, then looked back to Y/n and Dean. “We figured it out.”

The other two smiled and Sam put a hand on Y/n’s shoulder and squeezed it a bit. “We’re gonna fix this. It’ll be alright soon.”

Dean placed a kiss on her head and she leaned into him, relief flooding her system and hope filling her chest. It would all be over soon.

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More album releases by Find A Song artists!

Vancouver Sleep Clinic - Onwards to Zion

Vancouver Sleep Clinic released his debut project to critical acclaim in 2014 when he was just seventeen years-old. Now--following years of major label purgatory and a concerted effort on Bettinson’s part to reclaim his music for himself--Vancouver Sleep Clinic releasef its transcendent sophomore album, Onwards to Zion, written during a period of isolation in Bali with his friends in the fall of 2018. In a purposeful departure from his forays into electronically driven song construction, Bettinson wrote much of the album on a $100 nylon guitar bought at one of Bali’s only music stores. “I’d started getting used to making three-and-half-minute songs with a beat and a hook—but the thing is that I don’t really come from making beats,” he says. “I used to busk: that’s where I came from. The whole direction of this album changed for me once I realized I wanted to put the focus back on guitar again.”

Despite the relative simplicity of its origins, Onwards to Zion bears a distinctly collagic sonic palette, encompassing everything from ethereal atmospherics to psychedelic synth tones to hazy samples of ’60s jazz-pop records. Not only a return to the self-reliance of Vancouver Sleep Clinic’s early material, Onwards to Zion also marks a deliberate tonal shift from his multi-part project Therapy 1 and Therapy 2 in 2018 “The Therapy songs mostly came from a place of frustration—just me complaining about the situation I was in back then,” says Bettinson. “When I sat down to think about the new album, I realized I don’t want my discography to reflect bitterness: I want to put something positive into the world. So even though it’s got some darkness, and it’s a bit of an emotional rollercoaster at times, the album is very much coming from a place of love. I’d love for it to leave people feeling re-energized, and ready to just keep pressing on in their own lives.” (press release)

Dylan Perkons- The Healing Day

A collection of richly orchestral songs that tell the story of an experienced songwriter finally stepping out to record under his own name. Perkons has spent his career working on various projects, honing his craft both on the road and in the studio, so while The Healing Day is his first solo outing, it represents a much longer journey.

Perkons knew early on he wanted to work with producer, Jonas Bonnetta of Ontario folk-outfit Evening Hymns, and had the privilege of recording at his secluded Port William Sound in Mountain Grove, ON. The woods were the perfect backdrop for an album that required, above all else, space. While the album was largely performed by Perkons and Bonnetta, The Healing Day also features a handful of Canadian indie mainstays like Michael Feuerstack (Snailhouse,The Luyas), Pietro Amato (The Luyas), Edwin Huizinga (The Wooden Sky), and Lisa Conway (L CON).

The album draws influence from Canadian folk songwriters that have come before him and while Perkons’ familiarity is comforting, he uses it as the foundation for his atmospheric indie-pop. The opening instrumental track feels like dawn, bringing listeners immediately into the woods before Perkons’ deep baritone breaks in, beginning the album’s tellings of imperfect, but meaningful, love. The songs move through relatable despair, knowing sometimes love must be set free in order to grow. There are also moments of reprieve where it is easy to imagine an audience singing along to the chorus in “Love Like Mine”. The album finishes with “Halfway to Winnipeg” where Perkons cultivates hope in the midst of self-deprecating sincerity.

The Healing Day is best described as layered. These are earnest, well-crafted songs, brimming with strings, french horn, electric piano and a plethora of synthesizers, creating a distinctive universe for the listener, one they will want to visit over and over again. (press release)

Foreign Television - Foreign Television

Foreign Television is the solo project of Francis Allen, a musician from Wales, UK, currently based in Moscow, Russia. This is the new, self-titled album, which will be released on October 21st, 2019. All songs are written and recorded between 2016 and 2019 by Francis Allen. Bands that have Influenced Foreign Television's sound include: Teenage Fanclub, Red House Painters, Radiohead, Mew, American Football, and The Smashing Pumpkins. The first Foreign Television album, 'Youthless', came out in 2013. The project was started in 2011, having released 4 instrumental albums as 'Snowmobile' between 2007 and 2011. The most noticeable difference between the two projects was the introduction of vocals and a new style of songwriting. A song off 'Youthless' (Olympic Christie) is going to be featured on 'Waking', a game coming out on Xbox in the next couple of months. (press release)

Portland - Your Colours Will Stain

Portland is the creative brainchild of musician and songwriter Jente Pironet. Sometime during the misty autumn of 2015, Jente collected a huge amount of song material, without a specific end purpose. Over the years, the songs were refreshed, adapted, rewritten and eventually gathered together and poured into a new creative receptacle by the name of Portland, a nod to the home of the late Elliot Smith.

After a short period of experimentation, Portland gradually began to patent a dreamy and melancholic pop sound. The lyrics are loaded with melancholy and nostalgia and the song structures are very recognisable and apt.

While Jente was completing his studies as a singer and songwriter at the PXL Music college in Hasselt, first-year student Sarah Pepels wandered down those same corridors one fateful day. The two shared the same student house but more importantly they shared the same interests and ideas about music. The ‘musical soulmates’ found each other and Portland soon became a duo. The song material was revisited and it quickly became clear that Jente and Sarah’s voices were a wonderful match. Along with Gill Princen on electronics and Arno De Bock on drums, Portland continued the search for their own sound.

The group had big ambitions from the start and set the bar high. They took part in Humo’s Rock Rally in 2016 and two years later they signed up for De Nieuwe Lichting. This Belgian radio competition run by Studio Brussels allowed the band to take a big step forward. They were crowned one of the three winners and the debut single ‘Pouring Rain’ became an unexpected success on streaming platforms. The next records ‘Lucky Clover’ and ‘Expectations’ showed that Portland meant business. The songs are all rich in dynamics and melody, while Jente and Sarah’s harmonious voices really strike a chord. A club tour sold out quickly and, in the summer of 2019, Portland was able to cross both Rock Werchter and Pukkelpop off their bucket list.

Over the rest of the summer, the band worked on their debut album with producer David Poltrock (MIA 2019 for Best Musician). While yet another heatwave raged outside, sweat was literally dripping from the walls in Poltrock Palladium (Poltrock’s own studio in Brussels) and in the DAFT studio in Malmedy too. More than 100 songs and separate ideas were carefully weighed up. There was plenty of experimentation with rhythms, types of sound and structure as some songs were split up and then put together again.

'Your Colours Will Stain’, Portland's debut album, brings together 11 tunes that demonstrate perfectly who Portland is. From stylishly arranged and dreamy indie rock (‘Lady Moon’, ‘Ally Ally’) to funky, danceable electropop (‘You Misread Me’) to pure piano ballads (‘Pearls’). From grand and epic (‘Expectations’) to shamelessly poppy (the irresistible ‘Killer’s Mind’) to fragile and intimate (‘Moonlit’). And sometimes all at once (the overwhelming ‘Deadlines’). But in every song there's these two voices, two incredible voices that pull on all the heartstrings. With ‘Your Colours Will Stain’ Portland has created a mature and confident album, one that ticks all the boxes and shows a band that's ready for the bigger stages. (press release)

Manic Carbon - The Sun Is Gone & The Moon’s Off Too

Manic Carbon is a band risen from the ashes of yesterday's internet. Its members, spread between four cities and two continents, met on a long-dead music forum in the mid-2000's. Today, they make music by sending tracks back and forth, building and improvising on each other's ideas. "The Sun Is Gone & The Moon's Off Too," the band's debut album, is a nostalgic journey that descends from the slick, brooding opener "Enter the Dreamhouse," to the sunshine pop of lead single "The Reset Era," and the sublime cloud rap of "Gimme the Dream Touch" and "Talker." The record grows darker as it progresses, ending with the fearsome and haunting "Palindrome," where vocalist Moral Reef raps from a place of nightmare. The album is sure to please fans of Superorganism, Animal Collective, Toro Y Moi, and Brockhampton. (press release)

#music #music blog #indie music #alternative music #albums #Vancouver Sleep Clinic #Onwards to Zion #Dylan Perkons #The Healing Day #Foreign Television #Portland #Your Colours Will Stain #Manic Carbon #The Sun Is Gone & The Moon's Off Too #indie #alternative #find a song

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