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applsauss · 5 years

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Mors Ab Alto [3/8] - Act 1

Description: Tieria’s arm twitches, and he frowns, then looks away, testing his fingers by curling them into his palm. After moment’s hesitation he raises a gloved hand to the glass, pressing his palm lightly against the window, low, by his waist. He meets your gaze, and it’s a concession, you realize. He doesn’t smile; neither do you, but you press your palm against glass of your own, mirroring his, and his shoulders slack enough for you to notice.

Fandom:  Gundam 00

Pairing:  Tieria Erde/Reader

Word Count: 4.1k+

 Warning(s): Talk of Cancer. Death Caused by Cancer.

One year before the armed interventions. Lagrange Three, The Ptolemaios (Krung Threp).

The news anchor’s voice is pitchless as she speaks into the camera, face pretty, dark eyes steady. With her back to the gathering crowd of protestors, she enunciates her words clearly, the familiar english rolling off her tongue without effort, like it belongs in her mouth. The microphone slips a millimeter through her gloves, she gestures widely to the scene behind her, and your chest begins to feel tight, hot with an emotion you’ve yet been unable to smooth a label over.

The crowd of veterans and supporters jeers, then swells. You breathe out harshly through your nose, and pull yourself forward towards the screen, then push yourself back; one foot hooked under the handrailing, another flat on top. On screen, the wind picks up, and you pull your sweater tighter over your middle. Earth is frigid, the Ptolemaios is frigid.

Docked in Krung Thep, and still not the full-time residence of its future crew, the environmental controls haven’t been optimized. You’d do it yourself, here and now, but you’re off-duty, and the twilit corridors are inhospitable--abandoned, except for the strange shadows cast around corners.

It’s the graveyard shift, most normal operations have halted and non-essential personnel have retreated to their quarters for rest, but you’re too amped up on what’s happening down on Earth to sleep--too amped up on the promise of the armed interventions, not even a year away. You’ve got a buzz in your limbs and a stutter in your chest that won’t leave you alone.

The projection of protestors is wide across the screen, the scene a familiar city, but not your home. Shots of the Washington Monument turn into pans over the Reflecting Pool as the crowd only expands and intensifies; Bulky jackets and brightly colored hats filling the broad avenues of the Union’s capital city.

The lag between the commentator’s question and the anchor’s response is long enough for the shouting of the crowd to be heard, but there’s no unifying chant, it’s just angry noise. Above their heads, they’re waving scraps of cardboard and picketed signs scrawled with slogans: ‘Veterans! Unite and fight back,’ ‘medals for jobs,’ ‘what happened to social SECURITY?’ and, ‘we fought for you. Now you fight for us.”

The civil unrest settles at the bottom of your stomach until memories rise like bile. You should be down there, with a catchphrase of your own, but instead you’re on a space colony, watching the Earth churn far, too far, down below; and your mom should be there, marching for her life, but instead her ashes were taken by the wind and dumped into the rolling waters of the Pacific. Her life her own until it wasn’t, after the Union refused to give it back.

You can still feel the warmth of the sun, her hands, the ghost of her voice--but soldiers are soldiers until they’re useless, and though she still had arms for hugging and a voice full of reason, she couldn’t march or use a wrench and so they let her die, hollowed out and bedridden.

The protestors are flanked by riot police, they’ve got the streets intersecting the path of the march taped off and manned. With machined guns strapped to their fronts, and the snow feathering the ground, they paint a distinctly dystopian picture: Grey slosh falling around black helmets strapped under white faces, but it doesn’t look like it’ll get ugly. There’s no telling for sure, the anger at injustice is potent in the air, but this is a crowd filled with tired soldiers done with fighting wars.

The door to your left hisses open, and you tear yourself away from the railing, curling in slightly as you look towards the entrance way.

Tieria’s suspicious look melts into indifference at the sight of you, and after some deliberation, he pulls himself into the room. The news anchor picks up her commentary, bullet-pointing the protesters’ demands, and his eyes drift towards the screen.

“Too excited for tomorrow to sleep?” you ask in an attempt to draw his attention away from the broadcast, the display too close to home to share.

He stares critically at the feed for a lingering moment, then seemingly writes it off as unimportant. He pulls himself farther into the room, catching himself on the railing closest to the door, and gives you a look that tells you he’s not going to dignify your flippant comment with a response.

“What are you doing up this late?” you rephrase when some more movement on the screen catches his attention. The protesters are testing the boundaries of the police tape, and beginning to throw taunts over the riot shields. Maybe you were wrong about tired soldiers and wars.

Tieria blinks as you switch channels. Quickly, the screen is filled with images of smoke rising off the shell of a town, mobile suits flying overhead. After a few seconds of the anchor reviewing the carnage in french, you cut the feed entirely. No such thing as a tired soldier.

Tieria looks at you, then huffs. “I was performing a systems check on Veda’s terminal aboard the Ptolemaios.”

You shift uncomfortably. “Why?”

“You can never be too careful.”

You nod, then for lack of a better response, shrug his empty answer off. “You’re not tired though?”

“Are you?”

You don’t expect the laugh that his quick reply pulls from you, and neither does he. His eyes widen fractionally and his face loses its serious grimace. Huffing, you bend your knees, pulling yourself towards the handrail you’ve been anchored to, and grasp it, twisting your body around to mimic sitting on it. He’s quiet as you do this, his glasses picking up glare from the ring of lights embedded on the floor, lining the walls. You notice he’s wearing something that would more resemble sleep-wear than casual clothing: A plain shirt, his sweater hung open at the front, and loose fitting leggings, though he’s still wearing work boots, like he’s caught between worlds, unable to ever fully relax.

The clothes don’t fit right, not without gravity to pull them down, and so the normally appropriately buttoned sweater billows around his waist and rounds off his shoulders. You remember his question. “I guess I am,” you say, covering an ill-timed yawn. “Don’t rat me out?”

Tieria scoffs. “As long as it doesn’t affect your work.” And maybe it’s the late hour, or the hazy, violet light that’s swathed the briefing room, but you think his words come out kinder than they usually do. He’s off-kilter, his tone is smooth, borderline soft, and he seems to realize this, if his sudden frown is anything to go by. He doesn’t meet your eyes, and you wring your hands around the railing.

The briefing room smells like formaldehyde, there’s an open panel of exposed wires in the corner, and there’s this buzzing in your head, like an early-warning system that’s perpetually being tripped. You’re reminded of why you’re here, and what you’re meant to do, the crescendo this is all building towards. Your stomach flips.

“Are you…” You suck in a breath like it’d clear your head of the fog. Cold, uncomfortable air fills your lungs instead “...Do you think you’re ready for the interventions?”

The corners of his mouth twitch downwards. “Of course I am.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

He folds his arms in front of his chest, and lets himself float away from the bar towards the wall. “Of course not.”

You exhale, long and slow, and scrub your face with cold hands. The skin around your eyes feels tight, and this upset growing in your gut is so volatile you can’t rest--not with the protests, not with the armed interventions, and not with Tieria, as fragile as he is. Every conversation you have with him leaves you floundering to make him stay, and you don’t have the time to think about why--you don’t want to think about why.

“Sorry, I’ve just been out of it lately.”

It’s an off-hand confession, unthought-out and rough ‘round the edges, and you’re prepared to face the detached silence that’ll surely follow when he asks, “Does this have anything to do with what you were watching when I entered?”

You pull your face out of your hands with mild urgency, but before you can figure out how to respond, he wrinkles his nose, and looks towards the dark screen once more. In a flatter tone he says, “I am eager to have our operations underway.”

“...What?”

“The armed interventions,” he clarifies. His arms are still crossed, and he doesn’t meet your eyes. He stays where he is, displaced against the stark white of the wall behind him.

“Oh…” You swallow thickly. “Me, too.”

He kicks off the wall towards the exit, pauses briefly in front of the door, then retreats back to Krung Threp proper. When you hear the distant clang of Ptolemy’s airlock, signaling you’re once again alone on the ship, you turn the projector back on, but the protesters are gone and replaced by a daytime talk show.

***

Present day. Lagrange One, The Ptolemaios.

Ptolemy lurches and groans under the unnaturally tight turns Lichty forces the ship to follow through with. It’s awful, the stench of your own breath and fear as you fumble with Dynames, the dome of your helmet colliding with the scraped metal as you rush through repairs.

You never meant to work on weapons of war, despised them for all your life, and yet here you are, elbow deep in a mobile suit responsible for nothing but war, trying to bring it back online. On the good days, you can convince yourself that you’re okay with giving up what makes you human so long as you can be a shepherd ushering in change.

Today is not a good day.

A violent shutter moves through Ptolemy’s bones, and Dynames is jostled in its supposedly shock-absorbant restraints. The adrenaline makes you hyper aware, but your fingers are clumsy, and you have no idea what’s happening outside the hangar, whether you’re winning or losing, suffering through the beginning, middle, or end of a battle.

The hangar is your world, and it is even larger without the other Gundams occupying the space, and it is even lonelier while The Ptolemaios is in battle mode, with the lights dimmed and flashing. The utter silence is only broken by the aftereffects of explosions.

One of Dynames’s restraints comes loose and you see it as Ptolemy’s momentum sends it towards you. You feel the impact, but don’t remember anything after that.

When you wake up, Dynames is gone, the hangar is even more empty, and Haro is in your cracked helmet chanting Lockon’s name over and over again. You can’t help but feel like you’re fast approaching the end of everything you’ve fought for.

***

Present day. Lagrange One, The Ptolemaios.

The background hum of the GN drives surges in the overbearing silence while you wait for the doctor’s final verdict. Dull pain and disbelief numb your thought process, sift everything out except for the singular longing for a universal pause button.

Tieria didn’t even look at you when you tried to pull him off Setsuna, just stopped his clenched, white fist from flying into your face, and then Miss Sumeragi issued her orders with a tone so stern and warm that it made you want to throw up--because she’s a military woman born from everything you despise and no matter how far anyone walks, they can never quite shake their past.

“Nine to ten hours.” Doctor Moreno pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose, and you frown. “The damage is extensive, it would never heal right without the regeneration pod.”

You’re sitting sideways on the examination table, cradling your right arm in your lap. The heavy leaded vest you wore during your x-ray is tangled with your feet. Your hospital slippers are weightless, and slowly slipping towards the center of the room. The walls are a mocking beige, their voices are cold, and the hallway is quiet as death.

You look away towards the door as Doctor Moreno and Miss Sumeragi begin discussing your treatment between themselves, trading words back and forth; the doctor in his chair, Miss Sumeragi with an errant arm keeping her anchored to the desk. Her joints are locked; her hair swims around her.

You dig your nails into the synthetic leather of the bench and hold your tongue. You can’t help but feel distinctly betrayed by the garden of conspiracy they’re taking turns watering.

“You’re undergoing the treatment,” Miss Sumeragi finally addresses you after a moment of intense thought, and behind her, you spy the regeneration pods. They seem to loom over her shoulder, distorted through the glass separating this room from the one beyond. You see Lockon’s ghost in one of them. You see your ghost in the other. Your stomach sinks.

“It’s just a fracture,” you say, eyes fixed on your fate behind her, fingers moving to pick the velcro on your wrist guard. “And besides, you need me right now. I’ve still got a good hand-”

“You’re undergoing the treatment.”

“I’m fine-”

“You’ve got three broken fingers and a fractured wrist!” her voice wavers, loud. Your mouth snaps shut, and she at least does you the service of looking apologetic before continuing, this time more reasonably, “You’re not fine. We can’t risk this again. I won’t make the same mistake twice. Lockon...he…” She wipes her hands on her pants. “It would be a disservice.”

“This is...” You suck in a breath as your right hand twitches in pain. “...Different.”

“It’s not.”

“It is!”

“No.” Miss Sumeragi pulls herself closer to the desk with a resolute grimace. “It’s not.” She turns to look at the regeneration pods in the room behind her, then says, “It’s just nine hours--no time at all.” The words are quiet and insecure and convince no one.

You look at your feet as Miss Sumeragi’s grip on the desk tightens, shoulders knotting, and then she lets out a breath and returns to herself. “Make the preparations.” She nods to Doctor Moreno, and then she pushes off the desk and towards the door. It slides open, you see purple lingering in the hallway, and Miss Sumeragi begins speaking. It shuts before you hear what she has to say.

And you seethe.

A couple minutes later, the door opens again.

Tieria doesn’t say anything as he enters, barely acknowledges you. He’s got a far off look in his eyes, and you can’t tell if it’s the guilt or the grief that’s eating him, probably both. Doctor Moreno wisely excuses himself, holding his data pad to his chest as he disappears into the next room. The air grows heavier once the door shuts behind him.

Tieria’s got his uniform on, but he’s gone and switched out his contacts for his glasses--he’s this odd mismatched version of dressed and undressed, one foot in the battle field, the other in his grave.

You can’t bounce your knee in zero gravity, so you settle for agitatedly tapping your thumb against your thigh, though it’s clumsy with your off hand; You can’t keep a steady rhythm.

Tieria crosses his arms in front of his chest, and the silence begins to make you itch.

“Are you okay?” The question burns your tongue before you manage to spit it out.

He’s quiet for a beat too long, and then opens with, “I agree with Miss Sumeragi--”

“I know!” you grit out. He drags you right back into the pit of overwhelming indignation Miss Sumeragi tossed you down. “I’m doing it. Just stop talking about it.”

You can never guess his mood or what he’ll say next and it drives you up the wall when you’re in a bad mood. You can never tell what you are to him, he’ll act like he cares one day and then ignore you the next and it makes old insecurities surface no matter how hard you try and hold your head up high.

You both watch Doctor Moreno through the glass as he tucks his sunglasses into his breast pocket and begins fiddling with a regeneration pod. You feel the familiar unease begin to crawl under your skin.

“Are you alright?” is the only thing you can ask, and it’s stupid, the way you’re just repeating yourself. You kick the leaded vest away from your feet, and watch it meet your slippers, then make them spin out in the center of the room. Tieria’s eyes follow the movement.

He unfolds his arms, then folds them again. He doesn’t answer. Through the window, you accidently meet Doctor Moreno’s eyes, and quickly pretend to be interested only in your purple fingers.

“Why’d you even come here if all you’re going to do is avoid talking to me?”

“I wasn’t aware I was required to answer questions by virtue of you asking them.”

“Tieria-”

“I’m fine.”

Your skin prickles, and you can feel it in your chest, the familiar need to be comforted. It makes your limbs buzz. You miss being held, you want him to hold you, but he...he just doesn’t understand, and you can’t find the means or resolve to explain.

Your hands tighten around the edge of the bed, nails digging into faux leather. You don’t want to go in. You don’t want to be afraid. Your chest tightens. Your hands are cold. You bite your cheek and keep your gaze steady, expression neutral.

You are afraid of missing something while you’re in there. You’re afraid of ending up like Lockon. You’re afraid of ending up like your Mother.

Doctor Moreno approaches the door. You see him through the glass. Resigned, you curl forward, careful of your arm, then push off the bed with both feet. He holds the door open for you, but you’re clumsy and have trouble making it through the doorway. He helps you through.

“You’ll be out before you know what hit you,” Doctor Moreno jokes as he pulls the sling over your head and undoes your wrist guard. “Won’t feel like a minute’s passed.” When he moves onto your splinted fingers, he tugs just on the wrong side of too much, making you wince.

He offers you an apologetic smile, but doesn’t stop.

Careful to keep your hand still, the doctor helps you into the regeneration pod. You lay down as he walks away, look to your left, and see Tieria waiting on the other side of the glass, watching you with eyes unfocused. The doctor joins him, and turns his attention down to the control panel at his fingers.

You’re surprised by the glass cover when it slips into place above you. The lid seals, then pressurizes slowly. “See?” Doctor Moreno’s voice comes on, rough, over the speakers. “Easy.” You watch Tieria and the doctor through the window. “Almost done,” he continues as the hissing dies down.

Tieria’s arm twitches, and he frowns, then looks away, testing his fingers by curling them into his palm. After moment’s hesitation he raises a gloved hand to the glass, pressing his palm lightly against the window, low, by his waist. He meets your gaze, and it’s a concession, you realize. He doesn’t smile; neither do you, but you press your palm against glass of your own, mirroring his, and his shoulders slack enough for you to notice.

“Can you count down from ten for me, please?”

You nod your head, and begin: “Ten.” The air suddenly tastes too sweet, it makes your teeth ache and your toes curl.

“Nine.” Your vision grows fuzzy, and your breathing picks up, which only makes you fall under faster.

“Eight.” Your hands are freezing, but your chest is warm -– like black fabric in the sun.

There’s no more sound. There’s no resolution. You don’t make it to seven.

***

One Year before the armed interventions. Lagrange Three, Krung Thep.

Gundam Dynames is forest green, and it matches Lockon’s flight suit, though Dynames, nor his pilot, have been at the forefront of your mind as of late.Your thoughts keep returning to the image of dim corridor lights on rich purple and pale pink, eyes that you sometimes think glow. You’d bumbled along diligently through the start of your shift, turning over last night’s encounter in your head until Lockon made an appearance to check up on Dynames and you enthusiastically welcomed the distraction, the chance to tease and air some grievances. He has a habit of yanking too hard on the controls in the cockpit.

You reach up and pull the targeting apparatus down into place, then push it up, and pull it down again to make a point. “See?” you ask, continuing to mess with the attachment, your arms hanging above your head. “So smooth. No need to yank this baby off its hinges. It’s even got a lil’ bit of --” You let go with some flare, and watch as it floats back into its proper stowed position above you--“hydraulic magic.”

“I know how it works,” Lockon grumbles from outside the cockpit. He’s got Haro tucked under his arm, and his vest is open and breezy.

“He knows! He knows!” Haro chants, and you pull yourself out of the seat, then float up next to the pair with a playfully terse grin.

“If ‘you know, you know,’ then why do I have to keep fixing it?” You catch yourself on the ridge of Dynames’ chest plate, then stall to push your sleeves up your forearms, the grip of your gloves rough on your skin.

Lockon opens his mouth to retort, stares at you for a moment, and shuffles Haro under his other arm. “Right.” He wrinkles his nose and offers you a sheepish smile. “I’ll remember that for...next time.”

“Next time! Next time!”

“Mmhm.” You cross your arms, then uncross them and pull your sleeves down to your wrists when the cold makes the hairs on your arms stand up. You’ll never get used to how freezing the Ptolemaios is.

The door to the hangar opens, and you both watch as Tieria enters. He lets himself drift towards the railing, scanning the large room until his eyes find yours. You raise a hand in greeting, offer a smile, and then his eyes flick to Lockon. He turns suddenly and begins inspecting a terminal on the wall.

Lockon laughs and you look back to him.

“What?”

“Nothing,” he says. “He’s jealous.”

You snort. “Yea...maybe.” Your tone is just shy of disbelieving, and you roll your eyes because the conversation is familiar and worn to dirt, but you can’t help but wonder sometimes. You’re not completely oblivious to your own feelings, to the strange tug in your chest when Tieria’s around, and you know that he at least likes you more than most, that he unconsciously seeks your company after a hard day, after a good day, after a normal day.

You both push off Dynames and the cockpit closes behind you, “Y’know,” you address Lockon again. “Be more gentle and Dynames might not take it’s revenge next time.” You nod up to the dark bruise on his forehead, and he laughs good-naturedly.

“Alright, alright. You got me there.”

The muted tap of foreign boots on metal is the only warning you get before Tieria appears beside you. “You should be more concerned with the damage he’s done to Gundam Dynames rather than himself.”

Lockon sighs. “Gee, Tieria, nice to know you care.”

“I don’t.”

“Mmhm.” Lockon gives Tieria a reproachful look, then mock shrugs his shoulders in agreement. “Well, I guess you’re right. We don’t matter very much, do we? We’re replaceable, cogs in a machine and all that...” A rhetorical question.

His tone is too light to properly support the harsh reality he’s reintroduced into the forefront of your thoughts--and you don’t really want to think about your personal worth judged comparatively to Celestial Being’s ultimate goal right now, especially since Lockon seems intent on getting an answer he won’t find in Tieria.

Nobody says anything, Lockon’s stubbornly waiting for a response, Tieria’s narrowing his eyes like he’s been challenged, and you’re left floating between the two, floundering in the sudden and unpleasant turn the conversation took. Even Haro seems unusually subdued, and so you force yourself to scoff nervously and say, “Speak for yourself.” You try and break the clouds with some humor. “I’m indispensable!”

It works. Tieria looks annoyed again, and Lockon laughs, then takes the dip in the conversation as his chance to slip away. “Yea, yea, whatever you say,” he says, his body already facing away so you can’t see his face, but his voice still carries an airy tone.

Haro flaps happily, still under Lockon’s arm. “Whatever you say! Whatever you say!”

Both you and Tieria watch as Lockon leaves, Tieria more tense, intense than you, and then you turn to him with a smile. “How are you today?” you ask like you hadn’t met him in the middle of the night barely ten hours ago.

He looks startled by your sudden question, then settles back into his usual self. “Fine. How are you?”

You melt a little at his tone. “Good. Did you need something?”

A/N: Tsunami, Told Slant.

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#tieria erde #tieria erde x reader #gundam 00 #gundam 00 x reader #mors ab alto

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alpha-incipiens · 4 years

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Favourite music of the decade!

This is some of what I’d consider the most innovative, artistic and just great to listen to music from 2010-2019.

First a Lot of very good songs:

Crying - Premonitory dream

Arcade Fire - Normal person

Sufjan Stevens - I want to be well

Deerhunter - Sailing

Foster the People - Pumped up kicks

Carly Rae Jepsen - Boy problems

Grimes - Butterfly

Travis Scott - Butterfly effect

Future - March madness

Kanye West ft. Nicki Minaj et al - Monster

Juice Wrld - Won’t let go

Danny Brown - Downward spiral

Kendrick Lamar - Sing about me, I’m dying of thirst

Kate Tempest - Marshall Law

The Avalanches - Stepkids

Iglooghost - Bug thief

Vektroid - Yr heart

Ariel Pink - Little wig

Mac Demarco - Sherrill

Vektor - Charging the void

Jyocho - 太陽と暮らしてきた [family]

Panic! at the disco - Ready to go

The Wonder Years - An American religion

Oso oso - Wake up next to god

The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die - I can be afraid of anything

And my top 20(+2) albums:

Calling Rich gang’s style influential on trap would be like saying Nirvana may have had some impact on early-90s grunge. In 2019 with trap so omnipresent in popular music, hip hop or otherwise, through the impact of artists like Drake and Travis Scott it’s almost hard to remember when this was a niche genre - it was Rich gang that popularised its modern sound here. Birdman’s beats with their rattling hi-hats and deep bass could have been made 5 years later without arousing suspicion, while Rich Homie Quan and Young Thug deliver consistently entertaining flows and numerous bangers between them. Thugger, this being his first major project, steals the show with his yelpy and hilarious rapping style. This may have once been the defining sound of house parties in the Atlanta projects; now it can be heard blasting in the night from white people’s sound systems around the world.

Early 21p may have never aimed to be cool, to avoid a certain appearance of lameness, but they did have a knack for writing some really catchy pop with an optimistic message. To the devoted, the critics of Pilots’ apparent mishmash of nerdy rap, sentimental piano balladry and EDM production were just stuffy, wanting music to stay how it was back-in-the-day forever and unwilling to get with the times. This viewpoint is understandable when you approach this album openly and actually listen to Tyler Joseph’s lyrics about youthful anxiety and insecurity, delivered with real conviction and sincerity, actually recognise that disparate musical elements are all there for emotional punch. A few songs do underwhelm. But this is emo for post-emo Gen Z’s and it’s easy to see why to some it can be deeply affecting.

The musical ancestor to the ongoing and endless stream of ‘lo-fi hip hop beats’ youtube mixes, chillwave filled the same low-stress niche, and Dive released at the peak of the genre’s relevance. Tycho’s woozy, mellow sound prominently features rich acoustic and bass guitar melodies over warm synths, enhancing the music’s organic feel compared to that of purely digital producers in the genre. The experience of starting this album is like waking up in a soft bed, the cover’s gorgeous sunrise reddening the room’s walls, while a guitarist improvises somewhere on the Mediterranean streets outside. And it is indeed great to study or relax to!

Simple, minimal acoustic guitar and vocals. If you’ve got talent this type of music shows it, or else it doesn’t: perfect then for Ichiko Aoba. Her touch is light, her songs calm, meditative, in no rush to get anywhere. As if serenely watching a natural landscape, one can best understand and enjoy Aoba’s music in quiet and peaceful appreciation.

Through the incorporation of genres like shoegaze and alternative rock, Deafheaven managed to create a rare thing: a metal album that’s both heavy and accessible, needing no sacrifice of one for the other’s sake. Over these four main songs, there’s a sensation of being taken on an intense, atmospheric and even emotional journey, with the band stepping away from the negativity and misanthropy that dominates most metal. The vocals, closer to the confessionalism of screamo than classic black metal shrieks, express more sadness than they do aggression, and in respites between solid blaring walls of guitar and drums, calm pianos and gently strummed guitar passages set a pensive tone. This totally enveloping, flawlessly produced sound can take you away, like My Bloody Valentine’s best work, into a dream or trance.

By the late 2000s MCR had taken their thrones as the kings of a subculture formed from the coalition of goth, emo, scene and other assorted Hot Topic-donned kids, and earned a lifelong place in the hearts of many a depressed teenager. But after the generation-defining The Black Parade Gerard Way took off the white facepaint and skeleton costume, ditched the lyrics about corpse brides and vampires, and embraced an anthemic, purely pop punk sound. The silly story of Danger Days, set in a dystopian California where villainous corporations rule and only the Punks can stop them, serves as a kind of idealised setting for the all-out rebellion against authority and normality that so many fantasised about taking part in. The band’s electrifying performances are the most uplifting of their decade making music. For many diehards the upbeat sound here was a celebration that they’d made it through the most difficult years of their lives, and a spit in the face of those who’d done them wrong.

The teller of rural American tales, the indie legend, the teen-whisperer himself. John Darnielle, long past his early lo-fidelity home recordings and now backed by a full band, loses none of the heart his songs are famous for. The theme of the album, taken straight from John’s childhood when the pro wrestling on TV offered an escape from his abusive stepfather, is complemented by the country and Tex-Mex flavouring to the instrumentation. Some of the best lyrics in his long career infuse the stories of wrestlers with universal meaning - his characters try, fail, lose hope, reckon with their mediocrity, and when they step into the ring they’re up against all the adversity life can throw at them. John Darnielle’s saying that when that happens, you stand up and sock back.

Folk music was always a major part of the Scandinavian black metal scene during its peak years, so when American musicians began exploring the genre naturally they incorporated American styles of folk. The complex, oppressive and sometimes hellish compositions here, starkly contrasted with bluegrass that sounds straight from the campfire circle, give the impression of life in the uncharted woods of the American frontier, in the middle of a brutally cold winter. Almost unbelievably, one-man-band Austin Lunn plays every instrument on the album: multiple guitar parts, bass and drums as well as banjo, fiddle, and woodwinds.

Andy Stott seems to delight in making his music as unnerving, haunting, perhaps even scary, as possible. The female vocals these songs are built around become ghostly, echoing and overlapping themselves disorientingly. The percussion, audibly resembling metal clanging, rustling or rattling in the distance, is often left to stand for its own, creating a tense space it feels like something should be filling. UK-based club and dub music can be felt influencing the grimy almost-but-not-quite danceable rhythms here, but the lo-fi recording and menacing vibe makes this feel like a rave at some sort of dimly lit abandoned factory.

There’s so much Mad Max in this album you can just picture it being set to images of freights burning across the desert. True to its title, the nine songs on Nonagon Infinity roll into each other as if part of one big perpetual composition, with the end looping back seamlessly to the start and musical motifs cropping up both before and after the song they form the base of. With its fuzzy, raw sound, bluesy harmonica and wild whooping, the Gizz create a truly rollicking rock’n’roll experience. The band would go on to release 5 albums within twelve months a year later, but Nonagon shows these seven Australian madmen at the height of their powers.

Sometimes you just want to listen to fun, hyperactive pop. The spirit of 8-bit video game soundtracks and snappy pop punk come together to create a vividly digital world of sound that seems to celebrate the worldliness, connectivity and shiny neon colours of early 2010s internet culture and social media. The up-pitched vocals and general auditory mania recall firmly Online musical trends like nightcore and vocaloid, while the beats pulse away, compelling you to dance like this is a house party and the best playlist ever assembled is on. It demands to be listened to at night with headphones, in a room lit only by your laptop screen.

“You hate everyone. To you everyone’s either a moron, or a creep or a poser. Why do you suddenly care about their opinion of you?” “Because I’m shallow, okay?! … I want them to like me.”

The fact that that Malcolm In The Middle quote is sampled at the emotional climax of this record should give some idea to the absurdity that defines Brave Little Abacus. It’s not even the only sample from the show on here. And yet the passion and urgency so evident in Adam Demirjian’s lispy singing and the band’s nostalgia-inducing, even cozy, melodies are made to stir feelings. The tearjerker chords and guitar progressions are so distinctive of emo bands with that special US-midwest melancholia, and they are interspersed with warm ambiance and playful sound effects ripped from TV and video games, seemingly vintage throwbacks to a sunny childhood. Demirjian’s lyrics, yelled out as if through tears or in the middle of a panic attack, verge on word salad in their abstraction, but that’s not the point: you can feel his small town loneliness and sense the trips he’s spent lost on memory lane. The combined effect all adds to Just Got Back’s themes of adolescence and the trauma of leaving it. While legendary in certain internet communities for this album and their 2009 masterpiece Masked Dancers, the band remains obscure to wider audiences.

These Danish punks know how to convey emotion through their raw and dramatic songs. Elias Rønnenfelt’s vocal presence and charisma cannot be ignored: his husky voice drawls, at times breaks, gasps for breath, builds up the deeply impassioned, intense force behind his words. The band sounds free and wild, unrestrained by a tight adherence to tempo, often speeding up, slowing down or straying from the vocals within the same song, as if playing live. Instrumentally the command over loud and quiet, tension and release, accentuates the vocals in crafting the album’s pace. Horns and saloon pianos throughout give the feel of a performance in a smoky, underground blues bar, with Rønnenfelt swaying onstage as he howls the romantic, distraught, heartbroken lyrics he truly believes in.

At some point on first listening to Death Grips, a thought along the lines of “He really yells like this the whole way through, huh?” probably crosses the mind. When Exmilitary first appeared, quietly uploaded to the internet, the rapper’s name and identity unknown, another likely reaction among listeners might have been “What am I even listening to?” But perhaps more revolutionary than Death Grips’ incredibly aggressive sound and style might have been its foreshadowing of how over the next decade underground rap acts would explode into the mainstream through viral songs, online word of mouth and memes. It showed all you needed to come from nowhere to the top of the game was to seize attention, and it did that and far more. MC Ride’s intoxicatingly crass, intense rapping captures the energy of a mosh pit where injuries happen, the barrage of sensations of a coke high, while the eclectic mix of rock and glitchy electronics on the instrumentals is disorienting in the best way. If rap were rock and this was 1977, Death Grips would have just invented punk. Ride’s lyrics paint a confrontational, hyper-macho persona; unlike much hip hop braggadocio, the overwhelming impression given is that Ride truly does not care what anyone thinks. He just goes hard and does not stop. It’s music to punch the wall to.

Inspired by classic rock operas, this concept album represents some major ambition and innovation in musical storytelling. Delivered in frontman Damian Abraham’s gravelly shouted vocals, the complex lyrical narrative of the album follows a factory worker, an activist and their struggle against the omnipotent author (Abraham himself) who controls their fates. Featuring devices like unreliable narrators and fourth-wall breaking, it takes some serious reading into to untangle. But it’s the bright guitarwork, combining upbeat punk rock and indie to create some killer riffs, that gives the album its furious energy and cinematic proportions.

Joanna Newsom is enchanted by the past. Like 2006’s ambitious Ys, the music on Divers makes this evident with its invocation of Western classical and medieval music, throwing antiquated instruments like clavichords together with lush string orchestration, woodwinds, organs, folk guitar and Newsom’s signature harp. With her soulful, moving vocals leading the way, it’s hard not to imagine her as some kind of Renaissance-era country woman contemplating nature, love and mortality in the fields and the woods. As always Newsom proves herself a stunningly original and creative arranger with the sheer compositional intricacy and flow of these songs, and most of all the harmonious intertwining of singing and instrumental backing.

Burial’s music is born from the London night: the bustle of the streets, the faint sounds from distant raves, the buskers, the rain on bus windows. This EP’s dreamlike quality makes listening to it feel like taking a trip across the city well after midnight, watching the lights go by, with no idea where you hope to get to. Every single sound and effect on these two songs is so precisely chosen, from the shifting and shuffling beats, the swelling synths and wordless vocals that sound like a club from a different dimension, the ambient hiss and pop of a vinyl record. Musically this sound is drawn from UK-based scenes like 2-step and drum ‘n bass, but twisted into such a moody and abstracted form as to be nearly unrecognisable as dubstep. Just when this urban, dismal sound is at its most oppressive, heavenly soul singers or organs cut through like a ray of light in the dark.

There’s an imaginary rulebook of how construct music, how to properly make tempos and combinations of notes sound harmonious, and Gorguts have spent their career ripping it up and throwing it in the bin. On 1998’s seminal Obscura, their atonal experimentation sounded at times like random noises in random order. But listen closely to Obscura or Colored Sands, their return after a long hiatus, and the method behind the madness emerges. One mark of great death metal is that it’s impossible to predict what direction it will go even a few seconds in advance, and the band achieves this while presenting a heavy, slow, momentous sound. The density of inspired riffs, and the intricate balancing of loud and quiet, fast and slow paced throughout these songs are exceptional. In instrumental sections the guitars will echo out as if across a barren plane, then the song will build up to the momentum of a freight train. Behind the crashing and twisting walls of guitar the patterns of blast beat drumming are almost mathematical in nature. Luc Lemay’s harsh bellows sound like a warlord’s cry or a pure expression of rage to the void. It’s threatening, menacing, unapproachable, but it all makes sense in the end.

Futuristic yet deeply retro, Blank Banshee’s music takes vaporwave beyond its roots in the pure consumerist parody of artists like Vektroid and James Ferraro and makes it actually sound amazing. Songs are built out of a single vocal snippet processed beyond recognition, new agey synthesisers, Windows XP-era computer noises, hilariously out of place instruments, all set to the 808 bass and hi-hats of hip-hop style beats. The genre’s pioneers intentionally sucked the soul from their music using samples pulled from 70s and 80s elevators, infomercials and corporate lounges - here the throwback seems to be to the early 2000s childhood of the internet, and the influence of a time when email and forums were revolutionary can be felt. The effect of this insanity is an album that whirls by like a techno-psychedelic haze: the atmosphere of dark trap beats places you squarely in a 2013 studio one moment, the next you’re surrounded by relaxing midi pianos and humming that a temple of new age practitioners would meditate to. Still, at some point when listening to this album, perhaps when the ridiculous steel drums kick in near the end, you realise that this is all to some degree a joke, and a funny one. It’s hard to overstate what an entertaining half-hour this thing is.

While 2012’s Good Kid, m.a.a.d City presented a movie in album form of Kendrick’s childhood and early adult years, TPAB’s journey is one of personal growth, introspection, and nuanced examination of the state of race in post-Ferguson America. It’s simultaneously the Zeitgeist for the US in 2015 and a soul-search in the therapist’s office. Sounding deeply vulnerable, he openly discusses depression, alcoholism, religion and feelings of helplessness. The White House and associated gangstas on the cover give some idea to the album’s political themes, with Lamar contrasting Obama’s presidency to the political powerlessness and lifelong ghetto entrapment of millions of black Americans. Everything I’ve written about the lyrics here really only scratches the surface because the words here are substantive, complex and dense with meaning. Near enough every bar can be analysed for multiple meanings and interpretations, essays can and have been written on the overall work, anything less does not do justice. The musical versatility on display is astounding: the album acts as an extravaganza of African-American music, from smooth west coast G-funk to east coast grit, neo-soul and rock to beat poetry, and most of all jazz. Like an expertly laid character arc the record progresses through its ideas in such a way that they’re all impactful, with the slurred rapping imitating a depressed drunken stupor followed later by exuberant, defiant cries of “I love myself!”, the white-hot rage against police brutality balanced by the hopeful mantra: “do you hear me, do you feel me, we gon be alright”. Perhaps the most culturally significant album of the 2010s and an essential piece of the hip-hop canon.

This harrowing hour chronicles the struggles and everyday tragedy of a series of characters and their relationship with the city they live in, narratively driven by some outstandingly poetic lyrics. Jordan Dreyer’s wordy tales despair at the poverty, gang violence and urban decay in the band’s native Grand Rapids, Michigan, an almost childlike open-hearted naivete in his words as he empathises with the broken and alienated people in these songs. There’s no jaded sneer or sly lesson to be learned as he sings about the child killed by a stray bullet or the homebird left alone after all their friends move away, just genuine second-hand sadness and a dream that compassion and community will eventually heal the pain. Taking elements from bands like At the Drive-In’s fusion of punk and progressive, and mewithoutyou’s shout-sung vocals, La Dispute hones its sound to a razor edge to put fierce instrumental power behind the lyrics. Not an easy listen, but a sharply written songbook and a perfect execution on its concept.

Around 2008, Joanna Newsom met comedian Andy Samberg. Within a year, their relationship was becoming the basis upon which the poetry of Have One on Me was spun. Newsom’s lyrics, exploring her relationship with her future-husband, nature, death, spirituality, are above all else loving. Through her warm and vibrant voice, at times an operatic trill and in others deeply soulful, she expresses the joy of love for another, the peace and earthly connection of her beloved pastoral lifestyle, deeply affecting melancholy and grief. Contemplative, artful, genuine or expressive: every lyric in every sweet melody is used to offer her ruminations on life or overflowings of passion.

More so than her previous and next albums, the feel of the album is of not just a folkloric past but also the present day, with drums, substantial brass and string arrangements, and even electric guitar anchoring the sound to Newsom’s real, not imaginary, life in the 21st century. Yet songs here with moods or settings evoking simpler lifestyles and the women living them in 1800s California or the Brontës’ English moors still have a universal relevance. Whether rooted in past of present, the instrumental variety of these compositions, from classical solo piano, grand orchestral arrangements led by harp, to the twang of country guitars or intricate vocal harmonising, makes it apparent that this is the work of a master songwriter in full command of well over a dozen talented musicians. Ultimately, what makes this my favourite album of the decade is that, very simply, it is one stunningly beautiful song after another, all collated into a cohesive 2-hour portrait of Newsom’s soul.

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thetrashbang · 6 years

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PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Needs A God

No multiplayer game gets to live in a void for long. No matter how hard you may try to bleed yourself of troublesome concepts like context, or backstory, the reality is that people like to speculate. People like to tell stories. Doesn’t matter how goofy or outlandish; the creeping tendrils of narrative eventually wrap around the foundations of even the purest, most context-free experiences. Why are we bombing these crates? Why are we stealing that flag? Why are we fighting? Why are we here?

Somebody will come up with an answer. It’s the human thing to do.

But for PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, it feels like that answer has yet to come. One hundred players parachute onto a deserted island, where the average density of firearms per square meter exceeds even the most deranged fanatical NRA wet dream, and a slowly constricting hemisphere of crackling blue energy forces them to mercilessly gun each other down until only one is left standing. It’s an absurd, nightmarish premise; a theoretical scenario seemingly engineered to turn people into rabid beasts, fighting tooth and nail merely for the privilege of living a few minutes longer. Who would orchestrate such a competition, and for what purpose? Is it an experiment? A ritual? A blood sport? Is some Silicon Valley bazillionaire sitting in a darkened room somewhere, surrounded by monitors, cranking his sad rubbery hog to every rifle crack and arterial splatter? Nobody seems to know, or care.

Ordinarily, I wouldn’t either; PUBG is fun enough without framing. And yet, tonight’s winds bring an uneasy chill, carrying whispers of restlessness, indignance and fury. You feel it, don’t you? There’s a philosophical schism in how we approach Pubguh—the very concept of ‘battle royale’, even—and the hairline fractures are beginning to show. Players whine and gnash their teeth at the red zone, esports organisers desperately attempt to harness the format for views, and the proverbial chicken dinner seems to attain a more and more mythical, trophy-like status by the day; a reference to back-alley gambling now ironically viewed as a badge of ultimate prowess. This isn’t a healthy relationship. This isn’t a healthy attitude.

What Plunkbat needs, friends, is a god.

Well, okay, not necessarily a god god. Divine power is optional. I’m not asking Brendan Greene to start wearing a white toga and chiselling his patch notes into stone tablets, as much as it would set an entertaining precedent. The job requirements are flexible: I’m simply asking for someone vengeful and capricious, with unfathomable intentions, inscrutable thoughts, and—at least within the bounds of the playable space—immense, unassailable power. Like any god, you need not supply scientific proof of their presence; you merely have to attribute sufficient existing phenomena to them, and change people’s collective perception of the world. Ooh, got’em.

See, battle royale games represent an important shift to me. I’m a competitive person by nature. It’s etched into my mind, irreversibly chiseled by years of test scores and parental praise and all the other ego-stroking bullshit that you were subjected to if you were a certain kind of ‘gifted’ child. “You’re the best. You should be the best. You should be winning. Why aren’t you winning, what the heck is wrong with you?” So it bleeds over, into hobbies, work, and of course, online shooters, in which I regularly demonstrate that I have an innate… whatever the opposite of aptitude is. I react slowly, I zone out, I bean myself on the head with my own grenades, and if you exert the slightest bit of pressure, I’ll empty half the magazine into a wall and drop my weapon through a gap in the floorboards. I’m not good, and yet some unreachable, fundamental part of my conscious will never be satisfied with that knowledge.

You would think, then, that Pubby-G would only serve to exacerbate this mindset. And yet, in a world of delicately tuned esports that are built from the ground up to be pure, unfiltered tests of skill, it feels like the only game to grant a genuine absolution of responsibility; a kind of freeing fatalism. There’s a sense in a lot of classic multiplayer experiences—like, say, Counter-Strike—that every outcome is more or less deterministic; a product of a series of controlled variables and actions. With every failure comes the overwhelming impression that it could have been averted, given enough competence, foresight, and concentrated guarana. By contrast, a porridgey cocktail of chaos flows through the veins of battle royales, surrounding you with factors that are not only impossible to influence, but—in many cases—impossible to know at all. You are swept up by the gusts of a hundred butterflies’ wings, tossed to and fro by the whims of the random number generator, bombarded with unavoidable risks and squeezed into unmanageable situations. It’s easier to go with the flow, accept that at any given moment you may have your head unceremoniously taken off—by somebody lying flat on a distant hill, or hiding behind one of the game’s ten thousand trees, or concealed in a shrub on the far side of the Moon—and concentrate on all the minute actions you can make to ever-so-slightly nudge the odds in your favour.

But it’s not always clear that this is the reality of Puhburger. With its vast scale and often languid pacing, encounters can feel like isolated incidents, detached from the cascading series of events that led up to them, despite being anything but. Anyone can parse the map for circles of safety and non-safety, and understand that their arbitrary placement gives certain players an advantage; it’s less apparent that the figure in that upstairs window might have had their sights trained on the area, or seen you first, shot first, picked up a better weapon, obtained a better vantage point, or some other action, because of a dizzying permutation of astral alignments that neither of you could even begin to grasp. So we get futile attempts to establish a level playing field, find meaning in accomplishment, divine fair elements from unfair, and generally make things needlessly stressful for everybody involved. Except the infuriatingly smug yours truly, of course.

How do you make that clear, though? How do you concisely impress upon people that their fate is almost entirely out of their hands, in such a way that they adopt an attitude of acceptance? Blaming the roll of the dice doesn’t come to mind as swiftly when you never see them rattling around, nor the way their innumerable ripples propagate across the map. Furthermore, as current events have taught us all too well, it’s a lot easier to ascribe fault to individuals than to an invisible, fundamentally hostile system. So what do you do?

You give the system a name. And, if you can, a face.

Allow me to momentarily slam us into reverse. When Valve released Left 4 Dead way back in 2008 (oh god, it’s going to be ten years old this year?) they made quite a song and dance about the game’s AI Director; an invisible, unknowable entity that would dynamically dole out items and zombies in a manner consistent with the tenets of dramatic tension, ensuring players were subjected to a “fast-paced, but not overwhelming, Hollywood horror movie”. While the opacity of the AI Director’s machinations always made me a tad sceptical of its mechanical effectiveness, giving people a name to pin the blame for all their earthly woes on was a masterstroke. Notorious video game jokesman Yahtzee Croshaw—the one with the hat and that trendy 00s cynicism, remember?—reported that he once witnessed someone praying to the AI Director, and I bet you all the pipe bombs in the world that players’ personification of it didn’t stop there. Short of making a catastrophic error, I never saw anyone get chewed out for not pulling their weight, and when tones got heated—as they inevitably do, when you’re throwing yourself against the frigid slopes of the higher difficulties—they were directed in the vague direction of the director: for its expectations, for its lack of pity, for being unfair. Awareness of our lurking orchestrator changed our perception of the experience, even though we couldn’t entirely prove it wasn’t just somebody sitting in a black box, disinterestedly flipping a coin over and over.

So, why not do the same for a game that does? Put a face on the system that holds a fundamental grip on who lives and who dies. You don’t need to change a thing under the hood; you need only introduce the vague implication that the evolving state of the battlefield is a consequence of a thinking, feeling, mysterious overseer. A bloodthirsty oligarch watching from their lavish observation zeppelin, a dystopian TV network broadcasting a deadly future sport, an amoral team of government agents sealed away in a bunker control room, an inexplicably sapient Shiba playing with a selection of levers, or indeed, a literal deity. People will take the faintest contextual cues and run amok with them, ascribing everything they can to the will of the one who set this conflict in motion: item drops, circle position, all the way down to the subtle spread of their bullets as they sail through the air. Yeah, maybe it’ll start off as a running joke; an ironic indulgence, the “thanks Obama” of Puddlebounds. But that’s the thing about ironic behaviour: get enough people doing it at once, and you’ll cultivate sincere participants without even realising it. We will learn to absolve ourselves of responsibility, and engage in the unhinged pandemonium of battle royale with the mentality that befits it.

There’s just one problem: you need to be able to keep a secret.

I’m still working on that part.

#pubg #galaxy brain bullshit

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answerisalways42 · 6 years

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Yvonne Strahovski vs. The Lumberjack Shirt

Interview in Australian Sunday Times - 15 April 2018, care of Stellar Magazine [x].

Extracts:

“It was surreal because the show is so relevant, but it’s also so accidentally relevant,” says Strahovski, 35. “It’s taken on a real-life meaning and it has so much potency now out in the real world, when here we are making a show that is a dystopian future . . .” She pauses, then laughs. “Or a dystopian present, I should say, that a lot of people relate to as more of a present-day documentary. It’s amazing to be a part of something that really hits on everyone’s highest expectations of television in terms of pure entertainment, but also to go beyond that and really touch people in a very personal and moving kind of way. That’s been another level of experience for me in this one.”

(...)

America has been so good to Strahovski that it seems like it’s for keeps. She calls Malibu home and lives there with her husband, actor Tim Loden, and their two dogs.

“I have really connected with it,” she says. “It reminds me of Australia in a lot of ways, because I grew up spending all my weekends on beaches and camping. I feel like living in Malibu I’ve got these gorgeous mountains in my backyard and the ocean in my front yard. It’s a lovely echo of what life used to be like for me growing up in Australia, where I could drive out of town for an hour or two and be in a gorgeous place and set up camp with my family or friends. It’s suiting me just fine for now and I definitely miss it because this is my second Canadian winter and I don’t think I’m cut out for it.” Any day now, she’ll wrap filming on The Handmaid’s Tale and head back to sunny California. “We did a huge road trip up here, so we’re going to try and get a road trip in on the way back. It was lovely. We did it over 15 days and we went right up through Utah, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana, and just did a bunch of the national parks along the way. And it was beautiful. It was like an all-American journey.” Lumberjack shirt and all? “Well, you know, I did put a little fly in my hat like the fly fishermen do. A little souvenir for our travels,” she says.

Back home Strahovski will eagerly await the world’s reaction to the second season and the evolution of her character Serena Joy — Commander Fred’s cold and ruthless wife — who makes life miserable for the eponymous handmaid, Offred, played by Elisabeth Moss. “This material is so potent and politically relevant and it definitely will continue to be relevant on that scope with the new #MeToo movement and #TimesUp — everything that’s coming out now,” she says. “The show’s always had a strong theme of sisterhood and resistance, women banding together and forming a resistance, so it’s definitely going to continue to have that theme. For my character alone, there’s so much focus on motherhood this season and what that means. It’s interesting for Serena to realise that her expectations of herself as a woman, or as a potential mother, are maybe different to the reality, and what she learns along the way with certain confrontations and challenges she’s faced with.”

Playing an infertile woman desperate to have a child in a society where they have become rarities hasn’t deterred Strahovski from the idea of motherhood.

“It hasn’t put me off at all, because it’s definitely something I want for my future,” she says. “But it has made me wary of starting that process while I’m playing Serena, because I just always imagine if I have a child growing inside of me and here I am at work — screaming at people or throwing things around — how on earth is that going to affect something growing inside of me?”

Strahovski can’t reveal much about what will happen in season two, but admits she’s as addicted as the most rusted-on of fans. “I get a script in my inbox and if it’s two o’clock in the morning, I’ll just stay up and read it because I can’t wait,” she says. “I think people are going to be surprised, because I’ve been surprised when I’ve been reading the script. I’m blown away with what they’ve come up with — how they’ve been pushing the boundaries and how well they’re writing for the characters.”

#yvonne strahovski #honestly i cant even #adorable nerd #adopted nerd person #friggin favorite #precious precious nugget #wonderful idiot #ball of sunshine with arms and legs #she's a gift #and a gamechanger #unicorn wildling #tralalaaaaaaa-ing and road tripping around america #with her little fly fishermans fly in her cap #as one does #when they are nerdy and adorable and proud of it #articulate eloquent not-a schnook #dear dennis leupold #these pictures are also a gift... and they just keep on giving #how would you feel about just following her around and taking her picture always?#just a thought... use it... dont use it #she must be protected #at. ALL. costs #magical sunbeam in a human receptical #heart eye emoji thingies like damn #look. at. iiiiiiiiiiiit #listen. to. iiiiiiiiiiiit #serena not-so joy #played by thiiiiiiiiiiiiis #happy ninja unicorn #i guess i could have just italicised the whole damn thing.... great interview

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williamlwolf89 · 4 years

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57 Literary Devices That’ll Elevate Your Writing (+ Examples)

Where were you when your fourth-grade teacher first introduced you to literary devices?

(Did you learn about the mighty metaphor? Or maybe its simpering cousin, the simile?)

Perhaps you were daydreaming about cheese pizza and wondering what your mom packed you for lunch.

Years later, you’re starting to realize that maybe you should’ve taken better notes back then.

Because you’re a writer now, or trying to be, and it’s kind of embarrassing when your friends (or worse, your kids) come to you and ask: “What’s an onomatopoeia?”

And all you have to say is: “An onomatopoeia? Uh, well, you know it’s a species of a…a…achoo! Darn my dratted allergies!”

Never again.

Not with this handy-dandy list of 57 (count ‘em!) literary devices that will help your writing soar above the clouds… pull ahead of the teeming hordes… shine beyond the most brilliant — uh, you get the idea.

But let’s back up. You probably need a quick refresher first, right? Let’s do a quick Q&A.

Starting with…

What are Literary Devices?

Literary devices are strategies writers use to strengthen ideas, add personality to prose, and ultimately communicate more effectively. Just as chefs use unique ingredients or techniques to create culinary masterpieces (flambéed crêpes, anyone?), skilled writers use literary devices to create life-changing works of art.

So who should care about literary devices?

You, of course. If you want to be a charismatic, powerful writer that readers want to follow (or clients want to hire), that is.

The right literary devices can make your ideas more memorable, your thoughts more clear, and your writing more powerful.

Your knowledge and skillful use of literary devices will catapult you above the hordes of wannabe writers, increasing your self-confidence, and endowing you with the kind of influence that will keep your audience salivating to consume your work.

How are Literary Devices Different From Rhetorical Devices?

Literary devices and rhetorical devices have a good bit of overlap. They’re very similar — so similar, you’ll find a lot of confusing, conflicting information online.

Google “alliteration” and you’ll see it on lists for both rhetorical and literary devices. The same is true with “personification”, “tmesis”, “litotes”, and numerous others.

So what’s the difference?

Here’s an oversimplified TL;DR:

Literary devices are a narrative technique. Rhetorical devices, also known as persuasive devices or stylistic devices, are a persuasion technique.

What are the 10 Most Common Literary Devices?

Alliteration

Anthropomorphism

Dramatic Irony

Euphemism

Flashback

Foreshadowing

Hyperbole

Onomatopoeia

Oxymoron

Point of View

(Yes, we were surprised “anthropomorphism” made the list too.)

Alright, enough questions. It’s time for the main event.

Our Huge List of Literary Devices

You will find some recognizable names in this list. You will also find a few party crashers that (unless you were an English major) you’ve probably never heard of (I’m looking at you, verisimilitude).

But whether it’s a familiar friend or an idiosyncratic interloper, each and every device comes with a lovingly hand-crafted definition and an enlightening example, carefully curated by yours truly.

(Don’t say you haven’t been warned.)

Here’s our list of the 57 must-know literary devices to get you started on the road to writerly stardom:

1. Alliteration

Some super sentences supply stunning samples of alliteration, such as this one. In other words, an alliteration is a literary device that features a series of words in swift succession, all starting with the same letter.

Graceful and clever use of alliteration (not, ahem, like the example above) can create a pleasant musicality to writing.

But note: Alliterations are a special kind of consonance, which means they must use words that start with consonant sounds. Repeated vowel sounds are known as assonance.

Example of Alliteration

Most people think of tongue twisters like “Peter Piper picked a pot of pickled peppers” when they think of alliteration. But did you know many famous writers throughout the ages have used alliteration in their titles?

Love’s Labour’s Lost by William Shakespeare. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. Romance Readers and Ridiculous Rascals… wait. That last one is not actually a thing. But it is alliterative!

And I’d be remiss if I didn’t share this alliterative-filled introduction from V for Vendetta:

2. Anthropomorphism

Anthropomorphism is when a writer gives a non-human animal or object human-like qualities.

Example of Anthropomorphism

In Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Lumiere the candlestick, Cogsworth the clock, and the other enchanted residents of the Prince/Beast’s castle talk, walk, sing, and feel emotions just like people do. (Because they technically ARE people… fictional enchanted people, that is.)

3. Dramatic Irony

Audiences love dramatic irony, because they get to be “in the know.” That is, they know something that the characters IN the story do not. Hey, if you buy the book, you get privileges!

Example of Dramatic Irony

In Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, two men attempt to escape their responsibilities using the same fake name: Ernest. Only the audience knows the two tricksters’ real names are Jack and Algie. (A far cry from Ernest, for sure!)

4. Euphemism

The prefix “eu-” means “good” or “well,” so it makes sense that a “euphemism” is a “good way to talk about a bad thing.” Or, a “word or expression substituted for something else that is too harsh…”

Like when you say your nephew “just needs a bit of practice” when he plays the violin like a tortured cat.

Example of Euphemism

Because of humanity’s understandable aversion to death, we have come up with quite a few creative ways to describe death and dying:

Pushing up daisies

Going the way of the dinosaur

Kicking the bucket

5. Flashback

Flashbacks are scenes which show an event that happened in a character’s past, providing clues to the present story.

Example of Flashback

In Alfred Hitchcock’s famous movie Vertigo, one key flashback scene was almost cut out of the picture entirely. (SPOILER ALERT: It’s the scene where we find out that the suicidal wife is actually an actress hired to hide the wife’s murder. The actress starts to write a confession letter, then rips it up.)

6. Foreshadowing

The writing on the wall…

A glimpse of a tombstone with your name on it…

Fingernail marks scratched in blood…

Not all foreshadowing is creepy, but they all warn or indicate something is coming in the future. You could say that foreshadowing is like the opposite of a flashback.

Example of Foreshadowing

In the classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the author Harper Lee foreshadows the last twist in the story in the very first line of the book: “When he was nearly thirteen my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.”

(Of course, by the time you get to the end of the book, you’ve probably forgotten all about the first line. But that’s why Lee is a genius and the rest of us can only wonder in awe.)

7. Hyperbole

A hyperbole is an exaggeration that a hearer or reader is not supposed to take seriously.

Example of Hyperbole

The great satirist Mark Twain wrote in Old Times on the Mississippi:

“I…could have hung my hat on my eyes, they stuck out so far.”

8. Onomatopoeia

An onomatopoeia is a word that comes from the sound it represents, such as “achoo!” or “arrgh.”

Example of Onomatopoeia

Young children’s books are the motherlode of onomatopoeia. For example, Doreen Cronin’s Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type has onomatopoeia right in the title. Same with Ross MacDonald’s Achoo! Bang! Crash! And Barry Gott’s Honk! Splat! Vroom!

9. Oxymoron

An oxymoron is a popular literary device where seemingly contradictory words are connected. Fun fact: the word “oxymoron” is itself oxymoronic — it comes from two ancient Greek words meaning “sharp and stupid.”

Example of Oxymoron

Simon and Garfunkel’s famous song “The Sounds of Silence” is a perfect oxymoron.

10. Point of View

Point of view is the perspective a writer chooses when writing. In fiction, you can have a first, second, or third person point of view.

First person uses pronouns like “me” or “I,” second person uses “you,” and third person uses “he/she” and looks at the character and story from the perspective of an outsider.

Note: Third person can be limited. The narrator can either only see inside the head of one character, or they can be omniscient — a Godlike narrator that can see everything that is going on.

Example of Point of View

In The Help, a novel about black maids in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi, the story is told from the first-person point of view of three women, looking at similar events from their own perspectives.

11. Allegory

Take a metaphor, put it on steroids, throw in a dash of realism, and you have yourself an allegory: a figure of speech used to represent a large, complex (and often moral) message about real-world events or issues.

Example of Allegory

Nothing screams “hypocritical tyrant” quite like fictional pigs in human clothing, declaring: “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others!”

At least, that’s the message George Orwell hoped to convey in Animal Farm, a fictional mirror of communism. Orwell certainly had a way with (dystopian) allegories!

12. Allusion

An allusion is a device that the writer uses to refer, indirectly, to someone or something outside of the situation, such as a person, event, or thing in another (real or imagined) world.

Example of Allusion

In The Big Bang Theory, the names of main characters Sheldon Cooper and Leonard Hofstadter allude to the real-life TV producer, Sheldon Leonard. (Let’s hope that he did not share his fictional counterparts’ personalities.)

13. Anachronism

Anachronism is the time machine of literary devices. Anachronisms pop up when a writer accidentally (or purposefully) makes an error in the chronology of the writing.

It’s most often seen when writing features slang or technology that should not appear in the timeline of the story.

Example of Anachronism

In the famous “He got me invested in some kind of fruit company” scene from Forrest Gump, Forrest Gump unfolds a thank-you letter sporting Steve Job’s Apple logo.

But the letter in the movie was sent in 1975, while Apple didn’t go public in the real world until 1980. So Forrest Gump couldn’t have invested in the computer company as the movie portrayed it. (We still love you, Forrest!)

14. Anaphora

The anaphora is a literary device that emphasizes a word, word group, or phrase by repeating it at the beginning of a series of clauses or sentences.

Example of Anaphora

One of the longest opening lines by Charles Dickens (which a high school English teacher once directed me to memorize) uses anaphora generously:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the…”

(Thanks a lot, Dickens!)

15. Anastrophe

Anastrophe is a literary device that alters the normal order of English speech. In other words, instead of subject-verb-object (“I like cats”), the sentence order becomes subject-object-verb (“I cats like”).

Poets use anastrophe to make rhyming easier, and prose writers use it to sound… wiser?

Example of Anastrophe

Who can talk about anastrophe without mentioning our favorite intergalactic mentor? That’s right, Yoda’s iconic speeches are fantastic examples of anastrophe:

“Powerful you have become”

“Named must be your fear before banish it you can.”

“The greatest teacher, failure is.”

16. Aphorism

An aphorism is a short, witty saying that delivers wisdom with a punch. But in order for it to be an aphorism, it has to contain a universal truth, packed into a nutshell-sized statement.

Example of Aphorism

Benjamin Franklin was a master of aphorisms. Here is a prime selection from his treasure trove:

Little strokes fell great oaks

Strike while the iron is hot

Fish and visitors smell in three days

17. Archetype

An archetype is the original pattern, the prototype, the ideal model for a certain character or situation.

Example of Archetype

In the epic poem, Beowulf, Grendel is the archetypal monster, a “descendant of Cain,” “creature of darkness,” and “devourer of our human kind.” (Yikes. Would not want to meet him in a dark alley!)

18. Asyndeton

Sometimes, a writer leaves out conjunctions like and, but, or, for, and nor. This is not because s/he is forgetful. It’s because that’s what an asyndeton is: a group of phrases with the conjunctions left out, for rhythmic emphasis.

Example of Asyndeton

Here’s Abraham Lincoln beautifully demonstrating the power of the asyndeton:

“Government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the Earth.”

(Notice the glaring omission of the word “and.”)

19. Chiasmus

The Latin word “chiasm” refers to a “crossing,” so it makes sense that a chiasmus is a literary device where words, grammar constructions, and/or concepts are “crossed,” aka reversed.

Example of Chiasmus

Apparently, early Greeks were quite fond of the chiasmus, or at least Socrates was:

“Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may live.”

20. Cliffhanger

Cliffhangers get their name from the effect they have on readers: making them feel as if a cruel, cruel writer has left them dangling off the edge of a lonely ledge.

We all know that feeling of reading WAY past our bedtime, because every chapter’s ending has us frantically flipping to find out what happens next. That’s a cliffhanger.

Example of Cliffhanger

Here’s a cliffhanger from Harry Potter:

“Harry crossed to his bedroom on tiptoe, slipped inside… and turned to collapse on his bed. The trouble was, there was already someone sitting on it.”

Want to know what happens next? You’ll have to read the book.

21. Colloquialism

The word “colloquialism” would probably never be a colloquialism itself. That’s because colloquialism is a word, phrase, or expression that is used in daily, informal conversations by common people. Colloquialisms vary, depending on where you live.

Example of Colloquialism

The briefly popular 2012 meme series, “Sh*t X say,” are packed with examples of colloquialisms, such as these, er, jewels (?) from Episode 1 of “Sh*t Girls Say”:

“Twinsies!”

“Shut UP!”

“Like, I’m not even joking right now.”

22. Cumulative Sentence

A cumulative sentence builds on a core idea (an independent clause, if you must know the technical term) by layering on chopped-up partial sentences (dependent clauses) and phrases, like a layer cake!

Example of Cumulative Sentence

“She finished the Game of Thrones marathon, exhausted yet exhilarated, full of grief that it was all over, itching to call her bestie to discuss her impressions, shocked that it was already nearly dawn.”

23. Diction

Diction is a fancy way of saying: “the words a writer chooses when talking to a specific audience.” Diction can be formal or informal, use jargon or regional slang, etc.

Example of Diction

Formal diction:

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

Informal diction:

Hain’t we got all the fools in town on our side? And hain’t that a big enough majority in any town?Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn

24. Epigraph

An epigraph is a brief quote or saying at the beginning of a book or chapter that is put there to suggest the theme of said book or chapter.

Example of Epigraph

“For Beatrice — My love for you shall live forever. You, however, did not.”

“For Beatrice — When we first met, you were pretty, and I was lonely. Now I am pretty lonely.”

“For Beatrice — I cherished, you perished. The world’s been nightmarished.”

Technically, the poetic homage to the dead Beatrice in Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events is a dedication, not an epigraph. But since Beatrice is fictional (as is, in a sense, the author himself), and these darkly funny quotes set the tone for the Unfortunate Events quite well, one could make the case that these are, in fact, epigraphs.

25. Epistrophe

Not to be confused with alliteration, the epistrophe is the repetition of a word or phrase at the end of a series of clauses or sentences to add rhythm and/or emphasis.

Example of Epistrophe

‘Cause if you liked it then you should have put a ring on it

If you liked it then you should have put a ring on it

Don’t be mad once you see that he want it

If you liked it then you should have put a ring on it Beyonce, Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)

(My apologies for the ear worm.)

26. Extended Metaphor

An extended metaphor is a metaphor that is extended. Just like I’m about to extend this definition: a metaphor developed in high detail and spread over a large passage of writing, from several lines, to a paragraph, to an entire work. (Done! Whew.)

Example of Extended Metaphor

In 2003, Will Ferrell told graduating Harvard-ians about his alma mater, the “University of Life” where he studied in the “School of Hard Knocks” the school colors were “black and blue,” he had office hours with the “Dean of Bloody Noses” and had to borrow his class notes from “Professor Knuckle Sandwich.”

27. Exposition

An exposition is a literary device used to introduce background information about the story in a matter-of-fact way.

Example of Exposition

Because of the famous fiction writing rule, “show don’t tell,” many authors use dialogue and other tricks to convey need-to-know information. But some very successful writers continue to use plain old straightforward exposition like:

The hobbit was a very well-to-do hobbit, and his name was Baggins. The Bagginses had lived in the neighbourhood of the Hill for time out of mind, and people considered them very respectable, not only because most of them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures or did anything unexpected.J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

28. Frame Story

A frame story is exactly what it sounds like: A story that frames another story. In other words, it’s a story that introduces another smaller story inside, or the story outside the story within the story… oh, never mind. Just see the example below.

Example of a Frame Story

The best example of a frame story is The Princess Bride, which author William Goldman claims to have “translated” from an old “Florinese” story his father told him.

The movie version also uses a frame story: A grandfather reads his grandson a bedtime story (The Princess Bride, of course!).

29. Humor

If I have to explain what humor is to you, I’m afraid you might need something a bit stronger than 57 literary devices to… Oh, what’s that? (My editor says I still have to give you a definition. Contractual obligations, and all that.)

Fine, fine. Here it is: humor is a literary tool that amuses readers and makes them laugh. (There, happy?)

Example of Humor

I mean, technically this whole entire article is just one big ball of fun, but… what’s that? Okay, alright. Official examples, here we go:

“It’s just a flesh wound!” — The Black Knight, after getting both arms chopped off in Monty Python and the Holy Grail

“‘Greater good?’ I am your wife! I’m the greatest good you’re ever gonna get!” — Frozone’s wife’s in response to Frozone’s desire to bail on dinner to save the world in The Incredibles

“A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.” — Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless

30. Hypophora

No, it’s not a fancy name for a Greek hippo. Rather, a hypophora is a literary device where a writer asks a question and then immediately answers it.

Example of Hypophora

Here’s a philosophical example from the timeless children’s novel Charlotte’s Web:

“After all, what’s a life, anyway? We’re born, we live a little while, we die.”

31. Imagery

Imagery is descriptive or figurative language used to evoke near-physical sensations in a reader’s mind. Well-written imagery helps readers almost see, hear, taste, touch, and feel what is going on in the story.

Example of Imagery

Here’s an excerpt from T.S. Eliot’s Preludes, which uses multiple senses:

The winter evening settles down

With smell of steaks in passageways.

Six o’clock.

The burnt-out ends of smoky days.

And now a gusty shower wraps

The grimy scraps

Of withered leaves about your feet.

32. Irony

Irony is one of the trickiest literary devices to define, best grasped through absorbing examples. But a workable definition goes something like this:

Irony is using a word or phrase that usually signifies the opposite of what the speaker intends to say, for comedic or emphatic purposes. Irony can also be an event that works out contrary to the expected, and can often be funny.

So enough with dry definitions, let’s see if the examples can explain better:

Example of Irony

There are three kinds of irony, one of which (dramatic irony) we discussed earlier:

Dramatic irony: In Romeo and Juliet, the audience knows that Juliet isn’t dead, but asleep. Romeo, who doesn’t know, kills himself.

Situational irony: In the animated film Ratatouille, it’s ironic that a rat (which most people don’t like to see in kitchens) ends up being the master chef in a kitchen.

Verbal irony: When Beauty and the Beast’s Belle is trying to get away from an odious suitor’s proposal, she says, “I just don’t deserve you!”

33. Isocolon

Isocolon refers to a piece of writing that uses a series of clauses, phrases, or sentences that are grammatically equal in length, creating a parallel structure that gives it a sort of pleasant rhythm.

Examples of Isocolon

“Veni, vidi, vici (I came, I saw, I conquered).” — Julius Caesar

“You’ve got a lot to live. Pepsi’s got a lot to give.” — Pepsi, circa 1969

“You win some, you lose some.” — Unknown

34. Juxtaposition

Juxtaposition is a literary device writers use to place two highly contrasting things together to emphasize the difference.

Example of Juxtaposition

In Pixar’s Up, Carl Fredricksen is an old, curmudgeonly widower, while his unwanted sidekick Russell is a young, naively energetic schoolboy. That’s what makes the movie so much fun: the contrast (read: juxtaposition) between old, jaded Carl and young, innocent Russell.

35. Litotes

Litotes, from a Greek word meaning “simple,” refers to an affirmation where you say something by negating the contrary.

Example of Litotes

In A Modest Proposal, Jonathan Swift prefaces his proposal to cure poverty by eating poor people’s children with a litotes:

“I shall now therefore humbly propose my own thoughts, which I hope will not be liable to the least objection.

Having been assured by a very knowing American…that a young healthy child well nursed is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food…I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee, or a ragoust.”

36. Malapropism

A malapropism is when a character (unintentionally and hilariously) mistakes a word in place of a similar-sounding word. The concept comes from a character (Mrs. Malaprop) who liked to use big words incorrectly in a comedic play by English playwright Richard Sheridan.

Example of a Malapropism

The beloved children’s series Amelia Bedelia describes a maid who takes her bosses’ instructions a bit too literally. For example: sketching her bosses’ drapes when asked to “draw the drapes.”

37. Metaphor

Ah, the metaphor! A favorite tool of writers everywhere. The metaphor is a literary device where something is compared to a dissimilar thing without using a comparison word such as “like” or “as.”

Example of a Metaphor

In Pixar’s Inside Out, the emotions Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust, and Sadness live and work in Headquarters, an obvious metaphor comparing the brain to a technological control center.

38. Metonymy

Metonymy is the practice of using part of a thing to represent something related to it. In other words, it’s the use of one word as a stand in for another, bigger concept.

Example of Metonymy

Mark Twain uses metonymy in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:

“He said he reckoned a body could reform the ole man with a shotgun.”

Here, a “body” refers not to a corpse, but to a person. A corpse, after all, would probably have a hard time wielding a shotgun.

39. Mood

Mood is the feeling an audience gets from consuming a piece of writing. The words a writer chooses creates an atmosphere that evokes powerful emotions from the reader.

Example of Mood

Children’s writer Roald Dahl is a master of creating whimsical, funny, child-friendly moods in his books via extraordinary situations (a boy wins a golden ticket to a magical chocolate factory) and a silly invented vocabulary:

“Don’t gobblefunk around with words” — The BFG

40. Motif

A motif is a sound, action, figure, image, or other element or symbol that recurs throughout a literary work to help develop the theme.

Example of Motif

The book/movie Ready Player One is stuffed with pop motifs from the 1980s. The entire plot revolves around a virtual 1980s world, which contrasts with the main character’s bleak real-life.

41. Paradox

A paradox seems to make two mutually contradictory things true at the same time.

Example of Paradox

In the tragic revenge story, Hamlet, the title character says something that sounds paradoxical:

“I must be cruel to be kind.”

Meaning, he must kill his stepfather (cruel) in order to avenge his father’s murder (kind).

42. Personification

Personification: giving humanlike characteristics to nonhuman animals or objects. Don’t confuse it with anthropomorphism, which goes farther, making the nonhuman character act and appear human.

Example of Personification

Pixar is a master at using personification. For example, in their 2006 movie Cars, the main characters are all, well, cars — cars who talk, race, date, do community service, and win trophies.

43. Polysyndeton

Polysyndeton is a literary device that uses conjunctions quickly, one right after the other, often without punctuation, in order to play with the rhythm of the writing.

Example of Polysyndeton

In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou uses polysyndeton when she writes:

“Let the whitefolks have their money and power and segregation and sarcasm and big houses and schools and lawns like carpets…”

44. Repetition

Repetition is the grandaddy of many other devices on this list, such as anaphora, epistrophe, and polysyndeton above.

In other words, repetition is the reiteration of something (word, phrase, sentence, etc.) that has already been said (for emphasis).

Example of Repetition

Repetition is frequently used in song lyrics, such as the iconic Beatles song, Let It Be:

“When I find myself in times of trouble

Mother Mary comes to me

Speaking words of wisdom, let it be

Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be

There will be an answer, let it be…”

45. Satire

Satire uses humor, ridicule, irony, and exaggeration to expose and criticize something ridiculous, stupid, or bad. Satire can be light and funny, or dark and judgmental.

There are three types of satire: Juvenalian (viciously attacking a single target), Menippean (equally harsh, but more general), and Horatian (softer, more humorous).

Example of Satire

The funny-offensive show South Park is a modern-day example of biting satire, riffing on all kinds of sensitive topics in a politically incorrect fashion, from politics to religion to Hollywood.

46. Simile

A simile is like a metaphor, except that it compares dissimilar objects using the words “like” or “as” (whereas metaphors compare directly, without any helping words).

A choice simile can be funny, memorable, surprising, or all three!

Example of Simile

Sometimes the most memorable similes are the strangest ones, like this collection of similes from Song of Solomon in the Bible:

“Your hair is like a flock of goats descending from Mount Gilead. Your teeth are a flock of sheep just shorn…your lips are like a scarlet ribbon…”

47. Soliloquy

A soliloquy is a speech given by a character in the absence of hearers. Soliloquies are particularly popular in plays, which don’t usually have the luxury of omniscient narration to reveal characters’ inner thoughts.

Example of Soliloquy

Who can talk about soliloquies without mentioning the Bard’s epic romantic tragedy, Romeo and Juliet?

“Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo!” says Juliet, speaking (or so she thinks) to herself.

48. Suspense

Alfred Hitchcock. Lee Child. Steven King. All are storytellers who create suspense, a feeling of heightened anxiety, uncertainty, and excitement.

Example of Suspense

The famous (or should I say infamous?) shower scene in Hitchcock’s Psycho kept watchers curling their toes for 45 seconds while the innocent-and-soon-to-be-dead Marion takes a shower with a killer lurking in the background.

49. Symbolism

Symbolism. A favorite device of literature teachers everywhere. Symbolism is, of course, when writers use symbols (images, objects, etc.) to represent bigger, deeper ideas, qualities, and so on.

Example of Symbolism

Harry Potter’s lightning scar, the Ring of Doom from the eponymous Lord of the Rings, the mockingjay from Hunger Games… there are examples of symbolism everywhere you look!

50. Synecdoche

A synecdoche is a literary device where a part stands in for the whole, or vice versa. It is not to be confused with metonymy, which is when something represents a related concept. (See the earlier example for metonymy.)

Example of Synecdoche

In Julius Caesar, Mark Antony asks his “Friends, Romans, countrymen” to “lend [him] their ears.” Thankfully, his audience recognized this metonymy and did not interpret Antony’s words literally. Otherwise, we would have a very different play on our hands.

51. Tautology

A tautology is a literary device often used by accident. It involves saying the same thing twice, but phrasing it differently the second time.

A tautology is something a child might say: “I want it because I want it!”

Example of Tautology

In Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven, “gently rapping” and “faintly tapping” are redundant:

“But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping

And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door”

52. Tmesis

From the Greek word meaning “to cut,” tmesis is a literary device that cuts a word or phrase into two parts by inserting a word in between them.

Example of Tmesis

Here are two silly samples from Pygmalion’s Eliza Doolittle:

“Fan-bloody-tastic!”

“Abso-blooming-lutely”

53. Tone

Tone can be tricky to define. Officially, in writing, tone is the attitude a writer has toward the subject or the audience. It’s the writer’s viewpoint, conveyed through his or her word choice.

Example of Tone

Notice how the choice of emotional words, pacing, and use of other literary elements in this excerpt from Edgar Allen Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart create a guilty, anxious tone:

“I gasped for breath, and yet the officers heard it not…I arose and argued about trifles, in a high key and with violent gesticulations, but the noise steadily increased. Why WOULD they not be gone? I paced the floor to and fro…O God! What COULD I do? I foamed — I raved — I swore!”

54. Tragicomedy

A tragicomedy is exactly what it sounds like: a story (play or novel) that is both tragic and comedic.

Example of Tragicomedy

Having mastered both tragedy and comedy, is it such a stretch for Shakespeare to have mastered tragicomedy as well? Think: The Merchant of Venice, The Winter’s Tale, and The Tempest, which all blend humor and suffering in a reflection of real life.

55. Verisimilitude

Verisimilitude is a fancy-schmancy word for saying something fake looks real. Example: writing about a fictitious person, thing, or event, that seems almost true, even if it’s far-fetched.

Example of Verisimilitude

Fantasy stories are the best fodder for finding verisimilitude. For example, prolific fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson often creates convoluted magic systems based on things like color, strict rules, constraints, and consequences that almost makes them seem possible.

56. Vignette

A vignette is a short scene or episode — a moment-in-the-life description. Unlike a short story, it doesn’t have a narrative arc or all the elements of a plot.

Example of Vignette

In 2009, Pixar put out a series of video vignettes to promote their movie, Wall-E:

“WALL-E meets a football”

“Wall-E cup shuffle”

“Wall-E meets a magnet”

Here, check them out:

57. Zoomorphism

Zoomorphism is when a writer gives animal-like characteristics to something (human, inanimate object, etc.) that is not an animal. It’s basically the animal form of personification.

Example of Zoomorphism

Want a terrific example of zoomorphism? Just check out Spider-Man, Catwoman, Black Panther, and dozens other comic book superheroes.

What to Do With Your Literary Device Knowledge

Whew! That was a doozy. Congratulations on making it through the entire list.

Now, I know what you’re thinking:

“Do I need to memorize all of these literary terms?”

No, no you don’t.

“Do I even have to know them by name?”

Not necessarily.

But tell you what…

Go through the list again and just let everything soak in. Then next time you’re reading a book, blog post, magazine article, or even a tabloid, try to spot any of the literary devices hiding inside.

I promise, they’re there.

And next time you write, see if you can weave in a common literary device or two, for emphasis, for art, or just for grins and giggles.

As you learn to notice and absorb these devices into your craft — the way a kung-fu master absorbs the basic foundations of his form — you will find yourself becoming a more versatile, expressive, skillful writer.

It’s a bit like having a variety of colors to choose from as a painter. Sure, you can draw a decent portrait with just a stick of charcoal, but imagine what you could do if you had an entire palette.

That’s what literary devices can do for you, if you take the time to pick them up.

So take another peek at this list now and then, and practice sneaking lit devices into your own work.

You’ll be amazed how much clearer, stronger, and addicting your writing will become.

Editors will grin and nod as they read through your work.

Bloggers will fight to snap up your guest posts.

Readers will mob you for your skills.

And you will smile like Mona Lisa, master of the secrets of the universe (or at least this list of literary devices).

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Everything Coming to Apple TV+ When It Launches on November 1

With Netflix, Amazon Prime, Crave and other streaming services available at the tap of a button, there’s no shortage of access to quality film and television programming. Now, Apple is throwing its hat in the ring with Apple TV+, a new video subscription service, and a seriously impressive lineup that hits screens on November 1.

Apple TV+’s monthly subscription fee is $5.99 (CAD) and will be available on the Apple TV app worldwide on iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, iPod touch, Mac and other platforms, including online at tv.apple.com with a seven-day free trial.

The service’s upcoming slate of programming includes projects by the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Octavia Spencer, J.J. Abrams, Jason Momoa, M. Night Shyamalan, Jon M. Chu and more. Read on for a complete list of everything hitting the platform on November 1, as well as upcoming fall releases.

The Morning Show Starring Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston and Steve Carell, this hour-long drama explores the world of morning news and the ego, ambition and power dynamics behind the people who help America wake up in the morning. The series sees Aniston and Witherspoon figuring their way forward in a post-#MeToo landscape, after Carell is fired for sexual misconduct. Taking inspiration from real-life morning show hosts and scandals, the show “highlight[s] aspects of the archetype of a charming narcissist, of a generation of men that didn’t think that was bad behaviour,” Aniston tells Variety.

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See Written by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight and directed by The Hunger Games’ Francis Lawrence, this epic drama sets Jason Momoa and Alfre Woodard in a dystopian world 600 years in the future. When Momoa took the stage at Apple Park to announce the show this past March, he invited the audience to participate in a simple exercise: to close their eyes. “Try to think about the world this way,” he instructed, as ambient forest noises were projected through the theatre, “heard, touched, smelled, sensed—but without sight.” That, in a nutshell, is the premise of the show: after a virus has decimated humankind and rendered the remaining population blind, survivors must adapt and find new ways to navigate the post-apocalyptic world.

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Dickinson This dark comedy “explores the constraints of society, gender and family through the lens of rebellious young poet, Emily Dickinson.” The coming-of-age story set in the mid-1800s stars Hailee Steinfeld as the titular character and Jane Krakowski as her mother, as well as recurring roles played by Wiz Khalifa, John Mulaney and Matt Lauria.

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For All Mankind This series imagines a world in which the United States loses the Space Race, presenting an alternate timeline in which the USSR is the first country to make it to the moon, leaving NASA devastated. According to Variety, “that single twist unspools a complicated alternate history of U.S. astronauts and politicians alike scrambling to keep up as the Soviet Union laps them on space exploration.”

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Helpsters From the makers of Sesame Street, this new children’s series stars Cody and his team of Helpsters—vibrant monsters who love to solve problems. “Whether it’s planning a party, climbing a mountain, or mastering a magic trick, the Helpsters can figure anything out,” reads the show description.

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Snoopy in Space This series sees Snoopy pursuing his dreams to become an astronaut. Together with Charlie Brown and the Peanuts crew, Snoopy takes command of the International Space Station and jets off to explore the final frontier.

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Ghostwriter A reboot of the ’90s children’s program, this series follows four kids as they are brought together by a mysterious ghost in their neighbourhood bookstore who is releasing fictional characters from works of literature into the real world. According to TV Line, “each episode will focus on a particular literary work, and feature classics and new works commissioned from authors like DJ Machale and Kwame Alexander.”

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The Elephant Queen This wildlife documentary’s filmmakers—Mark Deeble and Victoria Stone—have spent 25 years living in the East African bush, making them the perfect directors for a film that serves as a “cinematic love letter” to a species in danger of extinction. Narrated by Oscar-nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor, the documentary follows an elephant matriarch named Athena as she leads her herd across grasslands and woodlands in search of water.

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There will also be a lot of TBD Oprah Winfrey content. Along with two documentary projects, one about mental health and one about workplace harassment, Winfrey has announced the launch of “the most stimulating book club on the planet.”

More Apple TV+ originals being added to the app later this fall include:

Servant M. Night Shyamalan’s latest thriller follows a Philadelphia couple in mourning over the loss of a child. “Their only way to cope is through what Shyamalan called a form of “fringe therapy”: pretending their baby is still alive by replacing her with a doll,” reports IndieWire. The eerie trouble begins when the couple decides to hire a young nanny to take care of their pretend child. The series stars Lauren Ambrose, Toby Kebbell, Nell Tiger Free and Rupert Grint.

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Truth Be Told Starring Oscar winner Octavia Spencer and Emmy winner Aaron Paul, this insightful drama explores America’s obsession with true crime podcasts. Spencer plays a podcaster compelled to revisit the murder case that made her a media sensation, while Paul plays the man she helped put behind bars. The series also stars Lizzy Caplan and Mekhi Pfifer.

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Little America Written by Oscar-nominated screenwriters (and real-life couple) Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V Gordon, this anthology series is based on the real-life stories of immigrants in America that were featured in Epic Magazine. “It’s not about telling immigrant stories. These are human stories that feature immigrants,” Nanjiani said at Apple Park in March. “When you get to know someone and start to see your struggles in their struggles, your passion in theirs, your problems in theirs, they stop being the ‘other.’”

The Banker Anthony Mackie and Samuel L. Jackson star as two African American entrepreneurs who try to circumvent the racial limitations of the Jim Crow era by devising a risky plan to provide housing loans to the African American community in a town in Texas. The film also stars Nicholas Hoult and Nia Long, and will premiere at the AFI Fest next month.

Hala After its Sundance premiere and subsequent screening at TIFF this year, this film by Minhal Baig—who has worked on acclaimed TV series like Bojack Horseman and Ramy—was picked up by Apple for wider distribution. It tells the story of a Pakistani-American teenager grappling with her sexuality, faith and Muslim upbringing as she gets ready to graduate from high school.

The post Everything Coming to Apple TV+ When It Launches on November 1 appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

Everything Coming to Apple TV+ When It Launches on November 1 published first on https://borboletabags.tumblr.com/

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maniactypewriter · 5 years

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The Backlog, week 1

I am one of many steam users who have way to many games in their steam libraries. And I have also not been able to play many of them. This summer I wish to rectify that. Every week from here until the end of summer, I will play 5 or more games from my steam library and write a short review on them. This is the tumblr version of this project, but I will include links to the Steam review versions with every review. We are starting with the numbers and working our way down. Now enough rambling, let us begin.

100% Orange Juice. Time played: 1 ½ hours.

100% Orange Juice is a board game. That is about the most I can say definitively about this game. It is extremely luck based. So for the majority of the game you’re praying to RNGesus to give you rolls that put you on the spaces that get you stars, and to avoid spaces that make you lose stars. Stars are extremely important to the game, being the metric that determines who wins the game. There are also spaces dotted around the board that teleports you to another random teleport space, and on top of that, sometimes at the start of every chapter the game decides to teleport you to the other side of the board. There is some strategy to the game though. The game has several cards that can be played on your turn that have various effects, including increasing/ decreasing stats, healing, warping players around the board and more. From my short time with the game, I get the impression that there are not many cards in the game. However, I could be completely wrong about that. The game is a bit daunting at first, but once i got the hang of it, I found it pretty fun. The graphics are somewhere between cartoons and anime. The audio is a mix of decent music and annoying Japanese VO for the announcer. There is also a store where you can purchase characters for real money, and an online game mode that seems to be the real focus of the game. I have dabbled in neither system so take that as you will. If you are looking for a light, fluffy, totally random board game experience, I'd give this game a try.

1001 Spikes play time: ½ hour

This game is hard. I am tempted to leave this review there. The fear of writing this review made me halt the writing part of this summer project. But I must keep going, so here we are. 1001 Spikes is a retro style indie platformer, invoking the spirit of pulpy adventure movies ala Indiana Jones. The story, as it is, is that some deadbeat guy inherits a map from his jerk wad treasure hunter father, and decides to follow it to for one final “up yours” to his old man’s ghost. The game play your standard retro platformer affair. You run, jump, throw knives, the usual sort of fair for this type of game. The twist in all this is that it's painfully difficult. Now, i enjoy hard games. I am a proud member of the sun bros after all. However, I find that this game is way too hard. The best game I can compare it to is I Wanna Be The Guy, and other such obtusely difficult platformers. The nominal “gimmick” of this game is that you have 1001 lives at the start of the game, and the game will take those lives faster than you can blink. My big problem with this game is that it doesn't have a good difficulty curve. Once you get past the tutorial, the game take’s its gloves off and punches you straight in the jaw. If you are in the mood for a difficult platformer that is ever so slightly fairer than I wanna be the Guy, give 1001 Spikes a try

12 is Better Than 6 play time: 1 hour.

firstly, Yeehaw, second, this is a good game. Set in the old west, you play as “The Mexican” an amnesiac murderer who escaped slavery and is on the run through the old west. The Mexican is armed with only a knife, a sombrero, and whatever weapons you can pick up. The big draw of this game is that it has semi realistic gun controls, and by semi realistic, I mean it has clunky gun controls. In my time with the game I had access to three guns. The shotgun is the simplest to use. A point and shoot double barrel shotgun can get a lot done, the downside is that there are only two shots before you have to reload. The middle most complicated gun is the rifle. To fire this gun, you have to alternate left and right mouse buttons to cycle the chamber, but it does have excellent magazine size and good accuracy. The third weapon and the most complicated so far is the revolver. You have to hold down right mb and then click left to fire, then click again to cycle the chamber. I could not get a handle on the revolver controls, and avoided them like the plague. Since the gun control is clunky, and you die in one hit, its best to use stealth. The game is really a stealth game at heart. It has you sneak around and knife bounty hunters and other folks who want your mustache stuffed and mounted. If you're spotted, or fire a bullet accidentally, the entire map is alerted to your presence, and they all come rushing to kill you. You can still shoot your way out of the problem, but success is unlikely. The game is presented in a beautiful hand drawn ballpoint style. If you're looking for a difficult, hotline miami experience with more stealth and mild racism, 12 is better than 6 is for you. … did I mention that you can collect hats?

140 time played: 2 hours

140 is a minimalist, music based platformer. You play as a… shape… maneuvering through a technicolor level, collecting orbs and avoiding static. The art style is minimalist and so is the core game play. The platforming is solid and tight. The whole game revolves around the soundtrack, sort of. The first orb you get lays down the baseline, and the more orbs you get, the more sound elements get introduced to the song, alongside new game play elements for you to platform around. Each level is capped off with a boss fight against the static. In one, you have a triangle that fires lasers and you have to dodge projectiles while still hitting the boss. Another has you dodging static spikes in a vertically scrolling space. there isn't much more to say about 140 if you want a challenging platformer with good music, play 140.

2064: Read Only Memories play time: 1.75 hours.

Cyberpunk is an interesting genera. Many Books, fims, and games are set in a cyberpunk setting, but all of the worlds start to end up feeling the same after a while. There are always big corporations keeping the lower class down with drugs and robots. Cyberpunk is almost exclusively a dystopian setting. 2064 is different. It’s world is a modern cyberpunk, taking place in the not so far future where robotic advancements and genetic tampering have made the world a more technologically advanced place. Its setting is a lot like modern day, but with more robots and cat girls. The game itself is a point and click adventure game crossed with a visual novel. You’ll spend half of your time talking to colorful, fully voice acted, characters, and the other half doing simple rub one thing on another thing puzzles. You play as a snarky aspiring journalist, who’s home is broken into by a sapient robot who’s creator has gone missing. You and this robot, named Turing, must now embark on an adventure to find your missing friend and Turing's creator. The game is presented in beautiful, detailed and colorful pixel art. Each screen has a lot of things to look or touch at and the protagonist or Turing will have something to say about each of them. You can also carry spoiled milk. Yay? If you're looking for an interesting cyberpunk story, with beautiful graphics and a sorta unique setting, 2064 Read Only Memories is for you.

#steam #video games #gaming #review #summer #100% orange juice #1001 spikes #12 is better than 6 #140 #2064 read only memories

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theseventhhex · 7 years

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Haken Interview

Haken

Photo by Ross Jennings

On Haken’s latest release ‘Affinity’, the band has rethought its approach to songwriting. ‘Affinity’ contains a themed schematic that deliberately falls short of a full concept: the ubiquitous presence of computers and their evolving relationship with human life. Interestingly, Haken go back to the '80s — specifically the synth-heavy prog of the decade — as their musical lift-off point — the era when synths became de rigueur in popular music. ‘Affinity’ is less dense than ‘The Mountain’ musically, but no less sophisticated. The textural scope is wider and considerably brighter. The striking harmonic sensibilities in these songs are marked statements of how prog is capable of attracting those listeners who aren't predisposed to it, but more than that, it's great fun to play. We talk to member Richard Henshall about having more eclecticism, being inspired by Steven Spielberg and Christmas jumpers…

TSH: What were some of the overall benefits in having ‘Affinity’ entirely collaborative from the beginning?

Richard: It was important for us not to recreate ‘The Mountain’, so we decided to try something new when it came to composing ‘Affinity’ by approaching it in a fully collaborative way from the outset. In the past, I took care of the main writing duties for the music, so working in this new fully inclusive way helped push our sound in a new direction. It definitely feels like there’s a part of each of us on this record, which I feel has resulted in our most multi-dimensional work to date. It really feels like the natural evolution for the band and I’m excited to see where this new path will take us.

TSH: What would you attribute the eclecticism of the record to?

Richard: As we began work on ‘Affinity’, we weren’t really setting out to create anything in particular, but instead just wanted to throw our ideas, with a no holds barred policy, into the mix and see what naturally occurred. When it came to piecing these ideas together, the range of our musical tastes became very apparent. There were hints of Tigran Hamasyan, Meshuggah, Volcano Choir, Toto, and a plethora of different artists, in the initial demos, so the outcome was naturally going to be pretty eclectic. We owe a lot of the diverse nature of the record to these influences; they essentially provide the fuel in which the Haken fire burns. It’s also worth mentioning that ‘Affinity’ is our first album with Conner Green on the bass. He’s really brought a lot to the table and offered a fresh perspective when it came to the writing.

TSH: With the record entailing an exploration of human evolution, what drew you to feeling strongly about looking at the state of life from the relationships we have with machines?

Richard: It’s such a vast subject that we only scratched the surface of on ‘Affinity’. The way we communicate with each other is in a constant state of flux, and is becoming evermore dependent on the use of technology, which is a scary thought. The Internet and social media platforms are completely altering the way we interact with each other, and even though on the surface we may feel more connected with the world; the opposite is arguably the stark reality. It’s interesting to see where the evolution of technology will take us next.

TSH: Is it a vital outlook to know that the band’s music-making techniques do not require a certain formula?

Richard: I think it’s important for bands to explore new ideas as much as possible; otherwise it’s all too easy to become stale and derivative. We’re always looking for new ways to push the band forward, so writing ‘Affinity’ together definitely was an exciting venture for us. I personally like to think of each new album as a fresh start, and an opportunity to tread new ground and push our sound further. As we grow with age we absorb new experiences and influences, so it’s only natural that this is reflected in our music.

TSH: What sort of motivations do you draw on for a track like ‘1985’?

Richard: Charlie got the ball rolling for this one. From the beginning, the idea was to recapture the magic of the 80’s, so we tried to channel the likes Van Halen and Toto in the music. There is also a huge tip of the hat to Vince Dicola on this one. He wrote the soundtrack from Rocky 4 and The Transformers: The Movie, both of which are incredible pieces of work. His work is very keyboard-driven, which is the approach we took with for '1985'. Diego really went to town with the sound design on this track!

TSH: Furthermore, what are the origins of ‘Red Giant’?

Richard: This one developed from a jam that Ray and I had. I went over to his place and he had his electric drum kit set up. He started playing a groove, which immediately grabbed my ear. I started playing around with some chords and pedal note ideas and it all seemed to fit into place quite naturally. Sometimes songs just seemingly piece themselves together in this way, almost as if you’ve somehow magically tapped into something that’s already there. This one had a lot of postproduction on it as we were aiming for an off-kilter Radiohead inspired sound. One other thing worth noting is that the drums are deliberately slightly unaligned with the grid in parts, which helps give the song a glitchy feel.

TSH: What was the trickiest part in forming ‘The Endless Knot’?

Richard: Ray provided the initial framework for this one. It had a short, snappy and straight to the point feel to it, which is something we wanted to retain. With these kinds of songs it’s always tricky fitting in all the ideas into such a short space of time without making it feel over encumbered. It’s hard to create a delicate balance between giving an idea enough room to breathe, and not oversaturating it to death. It’s all about finding the sweet spot in-between the two, which is something we’re always aspiring to achieve!

TSH: It’s been mentioned the atmosphere of this record is a bit like Steven Spielberg's films – was this a sort influence and impetus that you guys had in mind and identified with?

Richard: That’s a compliment of the highest degree! Spielberg is a master in my eyes. I’m a huge fan of his work, and would rate him as one of my favourite directors. He has a gift of capturing the magic of youth, whilst also dealing with some fairly weighty topics, which is something we’ve always aspired to do. With all of our music, since the days of ‘Aquarius', we’ve tried to create a larger than life and cinematic feel, so I’d definitely cite Spielberg as a huge inspiration in that respect. I think it would be safe to say he’s influenced most of us in some way or another, if not consciously then certainly on an unconscious level.

TSH: Can you tell us more about wanting lyrical themes to have an 80s sci-fi back drop? How this came into play…

Richard: We all grew up watching the likes of ET, Flight of the Navigator and Tron. There’s a certain kind magic to those kind of films that has been, for the most part, lost in modern cinema. We are certainly, unashamedly tipping our hat to this era. Personally, when I watch these kind of timeless classics it awakens a sense of nostalgia within me, which is something we’ve tried to tap into on ‘Affinity’. We’ve tried to create a sense of wistfulness within the music and lyrics that I hope a lot of our fans have latched on to.

TSH: This album asks if artificial intelligence will ever surpass the human capacity to create/recreate life – what are your overall views on this…

Richard: It’s a pretty harrowing view of the future that could quite easily come true. In fact, I would go as far as to say that this can be the only natural conclusion when you look at the rate technology has evolved over the last few decades. The amazing British TV show Black Mirror touched upon a lot of these issues; it offered a pretty bleak and sobering view of a dystopian near future. Each episode deals with a different idea, but the general gist is that the over abundant use of technology will erode human interaction, which has a lot of parallels with what we’re talking about on ‘Affinity’.

TSH: What’s it been like to play the newer songs during the touring circuit?

Richard: I love playing new songs live as the way the audience respond really helps add another dimension to the music. One song is never the same twice, so that moment can never be recreated. From the new tracks, ‘Endless Knot’ and ‘1985’ have always gone down a storm. On our last European tour we had our own light guy with us for the first time, which really helped breathe new life into our music.

TSH: Moreover, how surreal was it to support the mighty Dream Theater?

Richard: We were lucky enough to support them in Bonn, Germany along with the amazing Devin Townsend. It was one of those gigs you could only dream about being involved in. I’ve been a fan all these guys for years and have seen them countless times at gigs, so seeing them in action from backstage was really a sight to behold. They’ve really mastered their game, which is something we hope to do in the coming years. We got a chance to hang with Jordan Rudess and Devin Townsend for a bit, and they were as warm and humble as they always are.

TSH: How does modesty allow the band to continuously excel when looking to form new material?

Richard: Once the dust has settled from writing and recording an album, and we’re listening back to it with fresh ears, I’m sure we’d all be lying if we said we couldn’t hear room for improvement. There’s always an underlying feeling that the next album will a step up from the last. I am personally never fully content with my work and always feel like there are always improvements to be made. That is essentially what drives me to keep creating. As far as I’m concerned, as soon as you become too complacent you stop trying to push yourself.

TSH: What made you laugh and what was most memorable during the band’s most recent tour?

Richard: Touring with the Thank You Scientist was a great laugh. They’re humour and good spirits match their ridiculously amazing music! The most memorable night was probably our Boston show. A blackout occurred during the opening band and their drummer decided to do a 10-minute impromptu drum solo in the darkness, which was pretty surreal. The venue staff had to evacuate the building for safety reasons, so the sold out crowd were left to hang around on the sidewalk for about 3 hours! We decided to show solidarity and join them. There was a manhole cover with smoke coming out of it nearby, which I’m pretty sure was the related to the blackout. The whole thing had a post-apocalyptic feel to it. Just as we were about to announce that the gig was off, the lights suddenly came on about midnight, and we managed to quickly set up and play till about 2am. We were blown away that the majority of the crowd stayed. Thank You Scientist ended up playing their set in a basement at a house party!

TSH: How bad is Ross’ addiction to avocados?

Richard: Ross certainly does love his avocados, but I think Ray might just take the crown as the Avocado King.

TSH: Did you each wear your Haken Christmas jumpers over the holiday period?

Richard: We totally should! There’s always this year.

Haken - “Initiate”

AFFINITY

#Interview #Haken

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pissbaby-lover · 7 years

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OC Profile: Isamu Fahrenbach

This is an old OC of mine that insisted on coming back! She’s hard to ignore and highly demanding; introduce yourself Isamu. (Images are borrowed from other sources for reference only.)

“What the hell do you mean by “highly demanding”?! I’m just as demanding as the next person and I don’t appreciate you talking about me in such a crass way!“

Full Name: Isamu Brianna Fahrenbach

~Known by Takara as “Izzy”

Birthday: October 5th

Default Age: 21

Nationality: She’s a mix of German, Scottish, Irish and Japanese, the German being on both sides of her family. Her mother favored her Japanese roots, hence Isamu’s Japanese first name.

Isamu’s default appearance: Long black hair with face hugging bangs, tends to wear it down unless she needs it out of her face. Hazel eyes and cream colored skin. She has a lean build with average sized breasts, measuring about 5’ 4”.

Default attire: Isamu can usually be seen in jeans and a nice top or the occasional large sweater and skirt. She doesn’t mind wearing feminine clothing and can act the part as a woman, but she avoids excessive amounts of pink, yellow and other brighter colors. She enjoys dressing up for important occasions but doesn’t always like showing off her curves.

Default Universe: Modern or as close to real world as possible. Anything else is AU.

Exorcist AU: (Tangent Modern) Isamu is a retired prodigy exorcist/demon hunter trying to disappear back into the crowd. Once upon a time, she would alternate between hunting and preforming complicated exorcisms. After a few years went by, Isamu decided she had enough and closed shop.

She’s still well known, (A fact she is none too pleased about) and will get the odd person every now and then trying to get her to use her talents.

Pirate AU: (Age 23) Isamu is the ship’s Captain and top authority. She carries a sword and pistol at her side, a dagger in her boot, and welds a whip. While the whip’s mostly for show, it doesn’t mean she cannot use it and won’t hesitate to prove her mettle as Captain by literally whipping her crew into shape.

As Captain, Isamu must dress to impress. She wears a long blue coat embroidered with gold trim, long black boots with a thick heel, cream colored pants secured with a thick black belt (to hold her sword and pistol), and a sleeveless white blouse. Her hair is always done up in pins or tied back.

Unfortunately for Isamu, her pale skin can be somewhat of a problem when you stand on a ship in the sun for months on end. As such, she always wears her Captain’s hat when out on deck unless there’s no sun to be seen. Even though she tries to cover up, she’s prone to sunburn and needs to use various ointments to keep her skin from blistering and peeling.

Magical Girl AU: (Age 20) Isamu is the Element of Darkness and the agitated leader of the group. She was an isolated person and had little encounters with other people on account of her powers. When she gets angry or upset, she causes massive blackouts, draining all electronics and extinguishing any fires.

Eventually, her power grows enough to inflict blindness in her opponents and lock them in black balls, completely void of light and sound.

Demon/Monster High AU: (Age 17) Isamu is a Nightmare demon. She can control shadows and enter other’s dreams. This version of her has black horns and pointed ears. The red and gold markings around her eyes are natural.

She normally wears nothing but a traditional kimono, occasionally changing into a school uniform when required. She also always has a black parasol on her to block out the sun’s rays, since too much sunlight will make her nauseous.

Isamu is burdened with watching out for her family friend, Arcene. Though she won’t admit it to anyone, she really enjoys Arcene’s company and looks out for her like she would a younger sister. She finds herself intimidating Supernaturals who would pick on Arcene, as the young elemental tends to get in trouble often when one of her pranks go too far.

Honor Among Thieves AU: (Medieval Fantasy/RPG) (Age 21) Isamu is a high ranking guard for the royal family. She has been charged with overseeing the young court Mage Arcene in her quest to find ancient relics hidden deep in the old world ruins.

Arcene has made Isamu’s job extremely difficult, hiring a large number of thieves and rogues to aid them. Isamu now has to keep her eyes on the whole motley crew as well as the rambunctious Mage. The only members of their band of misfits that Isamu currently trusts is Akira and Arcene.

(Dystopian) Future AU: (Age 21) Isamu works as a high-ranking bodyguard for Kendrick, an executive level worker for a shipping agency.

She’s a quick draw and favors the pistol, though she’s trained in all forms of firearms and is skilled in hand to hand combat. her strong sense of justice pulls her into Greed’s band of rebels as she highly opposes they way the government has been operating.

Default Personality: Isamu is quite temperamental and can become easily agitated by the smallest of things. Her hot-headed nature tends to get her in trouble as she’ll mouth off at any given opportunity. Despite not being very big, she’s not afraid to throw around her weight and won’t think twice about swinging on someone or picking a fight with someone larger than her.

While she’s got a temper, Isamu’s still a kind and caring person at heart. She was mistreated a lot in her younger years and has a difficult time trusting others because of it. After a particular incident in her middle school days where she lost most of her friends, Isamu mainly stuck to herself, spending all her time and energy in her singing and painting.

Isamu’s not afraid to tell you what she thinks, even if she knows you won’t like it. Her harsh nature only widened the gap between her and the rest of her peers; and even if she won’t openly show it, long periods of isolation wear her out.

She longs for friends she can trust, but rarely lets her walls down long enough for anyone else to get in. Once you get on her good side, she’ll be the most protective friend you’ve ever had, going out of her way to keep her companions happy and safe.

Isamu’s also a bit of a hopeless romantic but is still skeptical of any suitors that come her way as she’s not yet noticed she’s grown into an attractive young woman. She tends to overlook her own beauty to see the beauty in the world around her. Though she secretly hopes for the story book romance, she has a strange attraction to conflect.

Her sense of humor is often the only thing that can get people past her crude and somewhat inappropriate behavior. She has a hard time noticing when someone flirts with her unless they’re direct.

Default Background: Isamu grew up in a small suburb as an only child with her mother and father. Her mother ran a small floral shop from their home and her father was a truck driver. Isamu’s father spent long periods of her childhood on the road but even with the distance between them, Isamu was always closer to her dad.

Her mother got sick and died shortly after Isamu turned ten, and she was left alone in the house while her father was on the road. Her aunt (on her mother’s side) and uncle would check in on her until she was about fifteen and trusted enough to be fully on her own.

It was during these years that she gained and lost most of her friends. When she was thirteen, her cousin Tomatsu started dating one friend and then cheated on that friend with another. The other girls started fighting and pressured Isamu into taking sides. When she refused to do so, the tension in the group became too great and they all went their separate ways, cutting ties with Isamu and effectively isolating her.

She never recovered fully from the way her cousin and friends acted, choosing to stay separated from everyone until her sophomore year in high school where she slowly built a small group of trustworthy friends.

Default Sexuality: Straight

Gender: Female

Additional Notes: Since she was left home alone, her father would need to set money aside for her during the time he was on the road, so she had to learn how to budget her money and cook her own meals.

~Isamu loves video games and is quite good at RPGs and versus. Though she’s lacking in the puzzle skills as she gets too frustrated to work on them for long periods of time.

~In her original universe, she’s got a black cat named Mika.

~Isamu knows how to sing and play the piano.

Drabble: ~In chronological order according to age~

High School High-jinks Short Story: School Dance

Isamu Drabble: Sinner

#oc profile

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