#and was like people come in and take out a bunch of cds and rip them onto their phones and return them the next day

[transannabeth]

btw if you borrow dvds or cds from library you can rip them onto your own blanks or onto your hard drive or whatever. librarians don’t care and they won’t know if you do it or not

[thebunztalk]

Mimic story in sb theory!!!!

Uh spoilers maybe…it’s been 3/4 weeks tho

Before I start, I wanna say that I don’t believe Tales From The Pizzaplex is FULLY canon.

Yes, Mimic does exist but I don’t think his backstory and personality from the TFTP is canon, maybe there’s some aspects that Steelwool put into game!Mimic.

The proof for this, is that game!Mimic is slow. When Cassie gets chased by Mimic, she runs but her stamina drops faster than Gregory and runs slower while Mimic is even slower than Cassie. And book!Mimic hunted a group of teenagers which are faster than Cassie and yet Mimic killed the group like it was nothing…

Another proof is in TFTP, book!Mimic rips people heads and limbs off and in Ruin, Mimic’s jumpscare shows him grabbing Cassie’s head to rip her.

But when you actually look at both Mimic jumpscare

It looks like he’s trying to wack Cassie on the head instead of trying to grab or rip her and for the Mimic jumpscare without the suit, it looks like he’s putting his hand on front to Cassie’s face instead of his whole palm.

I also don’t believe GGY is canon, I mean sure, amnesia is a thing and Gregory could forgot about what he did

but then again…him being NATURALLY good at computer tech and hacking doesn’t really match to SB taken from his dialogue…

“I don’t know, it looks pretty complicated…”

It’s not that complicated actually, it’s just so much memorizing.

OK! Now let’s get officially started.

Staffbot Silo/Post it room

In my theory on Mimic, I said he’s the one writing these notes, Vanny created him for the purpose of a physical body for Glitchtrap but didn’t work, him kicking Freddy out of the main system and Mimic spying on Gregory through the caution bots/Patpats.

I’ve also talked about Mimic is the one scattered the retro cds for Gregory to find and him waiting in the fake Michael’s living room for Gregory to come see him because Mimic wants to get to know him better.

And from what you guess on the title, I want to tell about Mimic’s story before SB and in the middle of SB but let’s talk about this first.

Specifically the language. In TFTP The Mimic, a young kid named David and book!Mimic decides to make a hand sign language for Mimic to communicate

and when their father wrote in of what the language looks like…it looks like the image that I just showed you. Hopefully! I dunno, I never read TFTP but from what people said, the writing is very similar to the wall code.

Since I said that Mimic’s backstory isn’t canon how does this work? Well I said Vanny could’ve created Mimic and she is very smart, Vanny could be also the one created that hand sign language for game!Mimic to communicate better. But why?

Because in Ruin, you reach closer to the underground, Grimic’s voice sounds less human and more of a bunch of words that stuck together and when Cassie meets the real Mimic, he doesn’t speak (other than “I’m Gregory”) so that’s why Vanny created that language and in the notes you can read that was talking to someone. Like this

Now, was Mimic got put in the endo warehouse?

Maybe. Maybe, after Vanny realized that Mimic is its own being, she putted him in the warehouse with the other endos and from their walk/run cycles, it looks like they have a mimicking feature of their own…that they able to copy the Glamrocks’ AI and the wall/door to teach them. My proof that Mimic was there.

This would make sense, in a way that Vanny is trying to make Mimic just like Glitchtrap.

So I said in the beginning, that Mimic’s run cycle is very slow and he doesn’t copy the Glamrocks’ or Gregory’s.

So maybe Mimic is a slow learner when he was in the warehouse and from the post it notes, his writing is progressing to be a more steady one. So he just needs to take his time on learning how and what is surrounds him and that causes him to be a slow learner (autistic robot real).

Vanny notices this and decides to move Mimic down to Staffbot silo so the employees won’t get suspicious about Mimic and to learn at his own pace and give a lifetime supply of post it notes to Mimic.

From the look of the room, Mimic has been in the Staffbot silo for a while and he has of a more developed mind but he is still a child, he just wants to be grown up.

Connecting Caution bots

While Mimic have been staying in the Staffbot silo, employees starting to get a little too close to the truth then Vanny kills them, with her recent action being the message “All staff meeting”. That also happened to Glamrock Bonnie.

He must’ve trying to investigate about all the strange stuff that happened like the disappearances of children and the staff. The question is who Vanny used to kill Bonnie? Was it actually Monty? Roxy? Prototype Freddy? Or Mimic. If Mimic killed Bonnie, he either gotten pressured or told to just “decommission” Bonnie by Vanny. In the end, Mimic able to connect to the Patpats or he already did get connected and they’ve decommissioned Bonnie because he got to close to the truth.

Which I wanna say that the reason why, Bonnie’s eyes stopped glowing when you deactivate the Patpats is because Mimic must’ve felt guilty about killing him and decided to connect Bonnie with the Patpats too.

The start of SB

Mimic saw Gregory at his stay in the Pizzaplex through the Patpats. Mimic watched Gregory a few times when he’s trying to be in shelter, Gregory must’ve been staying in the Pizzaplex for at least two days that Mimic gets curious about him and his behavior.

Sadly, that has to end when Gregory gets caught by Vanny or Vanessa BUT Mimic has a plan, he wants to help Gregory get out of this mess then Freddy had an error moment when he saw Gregory and Vanny/Vanessa in the crowd but then he had full shut down because something kicked him out of the main system. Mimic kicked him out. That distracted Vanny/Vanessa that Gregory able to get out of their grasp.

Mimic wants to know Gregory more so he can’t just leave then he knows how to make Gregory stay little longer. Make a scavenger hunt! That’ll keep him busy. Mimic leaves the Staffbot silo but when he got out, he crashed into a bunch of boxes

He tried to put boxes in its place but he doesn’t have the time do this right now. Mimic searching for something to use in the scavenger hunt.

Now the retro cds can only be found by using Roxy’s eyes and since the Glamrocks and Mimic is connected to the AR system, Mimic could have found a bunch of data that’s complied into a cd and somehow Roxy’s eyes can make it into a reality.

Mimic found the retro cds through the AR world and scattered all of them in the Pizzaplex for Gregory to find.

Fake SL living room

Mimic is staying in the fake SL living room while Gregory’s doing his 6 hour adventure. He’s been watching Gregory in security cams and Patpats through the TV. Why did I said he watching Gregory through the TV?

Because in ruin, we can see a security footage of Gregory and Vanny so there’s a possibility that Mimic can see Gregory like this too.

Now does Mimic just sit and wait for Gregory to come and that’s it? No. I’m sure, Mimic helped Gregory along with Freddy but how?

The messages

Throughout the game, you can collect messages in the shape of a duffel bag that can help you or for lore reasons. So how Mimic can send the messages despite that in game, you’re collecting them yourself? Simple, that’s just a game mechanic.

In one of Freddy’s unused dialogues, he mentioned about one of the messages on how to get to the catwalks. So in game, you have to collect the messages but in story, Gregory got messages at random times but in certain places. And there’s this one place where you get the “PQ 1 maint” message. The first message that Gregory founds out about PQ

The same place where you can find Bonnie in Ruin (I’m on the 10 images limit but you know what I mean).

If Mimic send all of those messages to Gregory then why he sent the message about PQ despite the arcade machine could free Vanessa.

Maybe the Bonnie and all Staff meeting incident made Mimic realize something that what Vanny’s doing isn’t good or normal. Maybe he wants to free Vanny because he knew something was wrong and the only way to do that is playing PQ but it didn’t exactly work…

(I think the “HI DAVE” and “Better Employees” message was a message misread speedrun send accident or Mimic thinks it would be funny)

A challenge message

Back to fake SL living room, there’s this message behind the TV and I said that the language was created by Vanny so ONLY Vanny and Mimic knows about this language but what if i told you Mimic1/Glitchtrap also knows about it.

When you think about the translation of the message, it sounds like a taunt, a challenge.

Taken from the quote

“Break and mend, i built the breath. They hunt now, drawn to life. Not real, still keen. And frit and fraught with thought and zest and gest no blunt woes. Dodge, duck, flash, shoot, crawl, run, crash the vile band. Cry not, try not, do not hold out hope, no. Your life, your aim will save those with soul.”

“I built the breath. They hunt now”

That would make sense for Glitchtrap because he built the virus and Vanny put that into the Glamrocks causing them to be aggressive. Obviously, this message is for Gregory but it’s not message…it’s a challenge. A challenge for Gregory. Glitchtrap is taunting him to fight through the night and destroy the Glamrocks which Gregory did just that.

But how Glitchtrap able write that challenge despite he doesn’t have a physical body? Mimic also got affected by the virus in which cause Glitchtrap to control him and wrote that message. So here’s what happened

Mimic was helping and watching Gregory through the TV then he got glitched and errors, he dropped his popcorn (yes, I think Mimic was the one who carried two popcorns and eating it) Glitchtrap took control and wrote that code then he leaves and Vanny founds him.

Vanny hides Mimic to somewhere below the Staffbot silo and that place is Freddy Fazbear’s pizza place, that’s where Mimic’s story ends and y’know how it goes next,

Gregory and Freddy goes to Fazer Blast and Vanny disassemble Freddy, Gregory plays PQ 3 and freed Vanessa and which also “freed” Vanny and they eat ice cream together with Freddy being a head and Mimic saw that and he’s all sad, the 3 star fam are gone for awhile then they came back with Vanny created MXES and modified the AR world.

Now here is the interesting part

A story about a Mother and a Son

I’ll tell you one thing…there is not a single mother and son duo in the FNAF franchise. So either the mother and son is most likely a metaphor or it’s about Vanny and Mimic.

“Now i will tell you a story about a Mother and a little boy who lived alone in a cabin in the dark woods”

Vanny and Mimic lived in the Pizzaplex which they hide in dark places and the animatronics there seems aggressive.

“There was a monster in the woods but the Mother caught it and kept it locked in the basement”

The monster is Glitchtrap. Tape girl and Vanessa tries to trap Glitchtrap in different ways but the one thing about tape girl, that she had the option to delete her audio logs that was used as Glitchtrap’s hiding spot but she never deleted them…

“The monster always made scary noises at night. But the Mother would tell the boy not to worry because it could never get out. Then she would sing the boy a lullaby to sleep.”

The virus affected Glamrocks is seen killing their targets through the Patpats, Mimic asked Vanny about the disappearances but she told him not to worry/gaslighting him to not think about it.

“One day, the monster stopped growling. Instead, listened and learned the lullaby.”

Glitchtrap watched Mimic and learned the language that Mimic communicates with and used it to write the message.

“The next day when the Mother went out to find food, the monster sang the lullaby from the basement. The little boy heard the lullaby and opened the door…”

When Vanny got “freed”. The 3 star fam came back to the pizzaplex and put MXES in the underground.

MXES who is oddly similar to Glitchtrap is now the monster luring Mimic to the underground and trapped him there.

But wait…

Did MXES lured Mimic?

From most people’s theories, Gregory lured Mimic there because Mimic wants to meet Gregory. But what if Mimic’s messages to Cassie IS true.

In his first dialogues to Cassie, that SOMETHING grabbed him and he’s under the raceway and when MXES first appeared, Mimic told Cassie to “stay away from that thing”.

Then when Cassie talks to Mimic in the Monty gondolas maintenance room, Mimic said this

“I’ll explain it all when you get here. That thing is back! I gotta hide!”

It’s the fact that Mimic sounds very genuine when he’ll explain about how he can see what Cassie’s doing and he called someone “that thing”.

Was he referring to himself or to MXES because it would make sense that MXES is physically near Mimic.

Now, the very last thing to talk about

The elevator ending

In the chase scene, Mimic kept trying to run to Cassie. Maybe the reason why Mimic knocked Cassie out of consciousness was because he was desperate to have company especially when Gregory said that he’s been trapped for really long time.

Then if Mimic cut the elevator (as in destroyed the conduit) either he didn’t think that the elevator would fall or he’s so desperate that he’ll let Cassie get hurt on the way down…but I think I’ll choose that first one.

Conclusion?

Mimic is so tragic actually…same thing with book!Mimic. Anyways

AlsoiheadcanonedVannycalledMimicJimmysoMimic’sactualnameisJimmy

This theory is helped by @chaosnightgal

[creoterative]

Uhm... I made another one.

Yeeesss, I know, my finals for this semester are coming up, but leave me some freetime xD

Anyway, my best friend sent me another bunch of funny things kids in kindergarten said and I made another TWDG kids template out of it.

So there.

Enjoy! Xd

PS: I had to rewrite some of them because she gave those to me in german and they wouldn't make sense in english, so... excuse the Florida comment xD

Minnie: "I have a unicorn at home! But I ripped out the horn, so it's a not-so-much-corn now."

Sophie: "I always read books at home, my favorite book is Justin Bieber!"

Louis: "My parents have a swing in their bedroom, it must be so much fun, but I'm never allowed to play with it." (...That was disturbing, send help to the poor boy.)

Duck: *talking about future jobs* "I wanna be a whale!"

Ruby: "Yes, I love Spargel! Oh, what's that?" (It was at this moment, that the little girl learned, Spaghetti and Spargel aren't the same. And for my english friends, Spargel is Asparagus.)

Clementine: "Mommy had a baby yesterday! But it is a little bit ugly."

Marlon: *to the new young woman working there* "My dad said everyone needs a job when they grow up. Why don't you have one?"

Mitch: "Remember when you said that I'm not allowed to play with the water in the sink anymore? *soaked from head to toe* "Because I don't."

Louis: "I don't like cucumbers that grow." ( what .)

Willy: "Did you know, that eggs break apart when you throw them? By the way, where is the cleaning set?"

Brody: "You can't play with us, you don't like coffee!" Violet: "But you never drank coffee either!" Brody: "But I like it, because momma likes it!"

Tenn: "You're my kokong." (He meant Cousin.)

Marlon: "I want my reflection to be alive as well, I want to play with it. That's so unfair!" (He didn't understand the concept of twins yet.)

Violet: "I'd eat that very gladly. I just don't want to."

Willy: *after being asked to help clean up the mess* "No thank you, I like it better this way."

Marlon: "Your pants are ugly." Mitch: "You're wearing the same." (And then Marlon threw a tantrum because he felt insulted.)

Aasim: "I have a bunny at home. But sometimes it changes colour." (Again, Aasim are you okay?)

Louis: "My goldfish went to Atlantis today!" (It died.)

Marlon: "My uncle has no eyes, so he got a dog with eyes. I don't want my eyes either, I want a puppy!"

Clementine: "How long does a strawberry tree grow?"

Mitch: "If bears gotta go for little boys, they pee in their fur."

Louis: "I'm there in a second. Geez, I hate it when people say that, what KIND of second, a long or a short one?!"

Violet: "Tastes ugly."

Ruby: "You need to go home, you have 124 meters fever!"

Sophie: "If you destroy my picture, I'll get world destruction!"

Aasim: "I have to computer now."

Louis: "My tummy feels yucky, can you call my mother in law?"

Marlon: "What do you have there?" Louis: "A cough drop!" Marlon: "Woah, I want a tough drop too!"

Ruby: "I lost my fuck in the sandbox, momma!" (She was talking about her toy truck.)

Minnie: "My mom has circus disturbance." (She meant circular disturbance.)

Omar: "Today I have fish sticks with potato pudding!"

Brody: "Look, I'm a mermaid! Now I only need a fork!"

Marlon: "Why is that man shaving the lawn?"

Louis: "But I already ate all my cousins!" (It's raisins, Louis.)

Ruby: "My grandma is in the animal shelter because she can't walk anymore." (Her grandma went into retirement.)

Willy: "My grandpa is magnetic too!" (His grandpa had a prosthetic leg.)

Duck: "My dad is special too, he's from Florida!"

Mitch: "I want more pregnant stamps." Ms. Martin: "...What?" Mitch: "I'm still hungry." Ms. Martin: "Ah, yes, you can have more ravioli."

Duck: "Can I have more weed?" (He meant arugola.)

Sophie: "I only got one motivation left for cleaning up, so I'll hurry."

Louis: "I got a bikini!" (It's a kiwi, Louis.)

Marlon: "Does the CD player google the songs first or why is it taking so long?"

Clementine: "My baba brought me today." Duck: "Huh? I thought you could only eat them?" (...He thought she meant a banana.)

[podracerbarrelroll]

How to ditch subscription music apps and build your own library (mostly) for free

This post is brought to you by the most recent update to the Amazon music app which no longer lets me, as a Prime subscriber, download individual songs or albums. I now either have to download “playlists” or pay an extra subscription fee for Amazon music unlimited. Since I was only using Amazon’s app because I didn’t have to pay anything extra, I ultimately decided not to put up with their bullshit and to go back to the old ways, e.g., building my own music library that no corporation can randomly decide to take away from me.

If you grew up in the pre-internet, burgeoning-but-not-ubiquitous-internet, or pre-smartphone era like me, the following steps will be a blast from the past, so this post is not exactly for you. It’s for Kids These Days™ who may not remember a pre-algorithm, pre-subscription service internet in the same way, or just anyone who doesn’t know you can do this. Remember, one man’s time knife is another man’s Chris Fleming.

So, how do you get music for free?

Use your public library

Check out CDs

Rip them using Windows Media Player, which comes standard with windows computers

That’s it. Now you can save and back up the .mp3 files wherever you want, and you have them forever and ever. I recently ripped music from a CD I copied and burned onto a new disc back in high school, uploaded the mp3 files to Google drive, and downloaded them onto my phone. I paid zero dollars for that, and I now have that album forever.

Ok, so how do I do that?

I’m glad you asked.

1. Insert a CD in the disc drive. (I know a lot of new laptops don’t come with a disc drive--I’ll address this later)

2. Go to the Windows start menu and find Windows Media Player. (If you have a mac, use itunes or whatever, I’m sure it’s similar)

3. Find the CD on the menu on the left-hand side of Windows Media Player. It looks like this.

4. At the top of the screen, go to “rip CD”. If you don’t want all of the songs, uncheck the ones you don’t want to rip. It should now look like this.

5. When it’s done, go to your music folder and find the artist and album. Here are the .mp3 files. You can connect your phone directly to your computer to transfer the files, or you can upload them to Google drive or your cloud storage of choice and then download them onto your phone.

6. From there, the .mp3s should load automatically and play in the music player app of your choice. I use Musicolet because it doesn’t have ads.

Is this legal? Honestly, that’s a bit of a grey area. Technically, only the copyright owners can make reproductions of their work barring exceptions for fair use, but the real trouble does not come when you copy a work, but when you redistribute it. If you save this from a hard copy to your own computer or phone, who’s ever gonna know? Basically, it’s legal enough to get away with, and legal enough that no one will care. This is how back in the pre-CD days, people recorded songs off the radio onto cassette tapes, and how my parents saved all of the James Bond movies from a TV movie marathon by recording them to VHS tapes on the VCR.

Is this ethical to the artist? It’s as ethical as checking out their CD to listen to it on a CD player and then return it. The library already purchased their music legally, and checking out the CD to rip it is literally no different than checking out the disc to play it in a CD player. The more times something has been checked out, the more likely the library is to replace it if it wears out and gets ruined.

Will the library get mad at me / figure out what I’m doing? Emphatically no. They don’t give a shit. Checking out a bunch of CDs improves their circulation rates, which is good for your local library system as a whole, because that’s something they bring to their governing bodies to show that people are still using the library and that they still need funding.

What if the library doesn’t have the album I want? You can try getting it through interlibrary loan, requesting the library purchase it (a lot of libraries have forms for that), or just buying that album yourself if you want it that badly. CDs cost roughly $10-$25 each, less if they’re used, which is the equivalent of like 1-2 months of spotify depending on what tier you use. Compare that to having the music you want forever without having to pay a monthly fee.

My laptop doesn’t have a disc drive. Neither does mine. I bought a USB disc player from Amazon for like $20. Your library might also have one they’d let you use, although they might not have ones to check out and take home.

I don’t have a computer. Your library does. They’re free to use, and I can almost guarantee they have PC desktops running Windows. They may not have a disc drive, in which case you can [see last paragraph].

This would be great if I could actually get to the library / afford a disc player / had a phone, etc. Yes, I’m assuming several things here, including that you have a phone, can get to your public library, and (if you refer to the title of this post) that you are the kind of person who can pay for spotify or another streaming app. I’m also American, and I don’t know how well all of this applies to other countries. However, this is the most affordable and most accessible solution out there ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I don’t have the time for this and would rather just keep paying for spotify. That’s fine, and I’m honestly not judging you. I buy a lot of pre-cut vegetables from the store because I don’t have the fucking time to peel and chop carrots. My mom would say that’s a waste of money, but I’m paying for the convenience.

Lol I’m just gonna pirate shit. Cool, have fun. Just please keep your pirating to mega-rich artists who are already set for life and not struggling people putting their shit out on soundcloud, ok?

How do I get new music recs without suggestions? Listen to the radio. Look up music you hear in movie soundtracks. Get recs from friends. Go to YouTube (using ublock origin for Firefox so you don’t get ads) and use their algorithm. There are ways beyond the personalized playlist spotify gives you.

This seems like it takes a lot of time and effort. If you have no music to begin with, yeah, then it’s going to take some time to build your library. But, as I keep saying, the benefits are that you get to curate your own experience and that you get to have this music forever. Once you already have most of what you want set up, it’s going to take a lot less effort to add new albums or songs here and there as you discover them. In this modern hellscape of profit-seeking and algorithms, I will keep peddling the value of curating your own experience and getting shit for free.

[beevean]

Castlevania has a bunch of games each zig zagging between different time periods across a 1000 year old timeline.

It still has a much clearer timeline and sense of canon than Sonic, despite its own issues, which is extra embarassing given that most Sonic games take place in release order yet we seemingly can't decide on whether or not Mania Sonic is a split timeline or the same guy as Modern Sonic, because last time I checked Forces claimed the former (and made sense) while Izuka is now claiming the latter.

The latest Tailstube also had Knuckles reference Knuckles Chaotix despite that game having been made non canon by Heroes as stated by Izuka himself.

And Frontiers speaks for itself, too much in fact

Are you referring to the fact that apparently now Superstars takes place between Mania and Adventure? I read people that pointed out that their behavior in Superstars doesn't match the one in Adventure: Sonic and Knuckles weren't besties yet, Sonic was still uncomfortable around Amy. This poor game keeps being ignored despite being so important to the lore :(

(also rip sonic 4 good riddance)

I don't know what's happening anymore. I'm not following anything. I haven't felt the interest to watch the latest Tailstube. I only know that they're trying so hard to cobble together all the pieces of the lore, from Fang now changing name in-universe to escape the law (and being officially Fang the Hunter, after nearly 30 years), to referencing Chaotix and Mighty and Ray, to slapping in your face that Amy KNOWS TAROTS!!!!!! LOOK AT MAGICAL GIRL AMY ATTACKING WITH TAROT CARDS!!!!!!!!!!! something that by all means should have stayed cute trivia in the manuals, or maybe referenced in things like the Origins CD cutscene.

And Frontiers :)

shut up sage eggman did not help sonic take down neo metal he was just standing there if you're going to shove references up our asses at least be accurate

I remember when back in the day the biggest source of confusion was whether Battle happened before or after ShTH...

They're absolutely going on an overcorrection course, when things were just fine! And yes, I'm aware that IGA did a similar thing for CV, sitting down and putting as many games as he could in order while cutting from canon the ones that didn't fit like Legends or the N64 games (although I still believe there was room for CoTM lol). He tried to answer all sorts of questions from "why does Bloodlines not star a Belmont?" to "why do candles release hearts when hit"?, and I don't envy his job. I know some old-time fans weren't exactly happy with this guy pulling a Flynn and getting his hands all over the franchise :P

The resulting timeline can't really be understood without a guide, but I can't say it was confusing at all. It helps that there is no time travel involved. That's the thing that started to make the Sonic timeline fall apart: Classic Sonic travelling into the future of Forces and then going back home.

(then you add that apparently in Japanese Classic Sonic comes from a different sekai, which is a vaguer term than "world" or "dimension".)

I should probably have more to say, but... I don't know when was the last time I checked something Sonic-related with interest. I still have to listen to the Superstars OST... I'm definitely feeling more and more alienated by this new direction.

[hospitalterrorizer]

diary14

9/18-19/2023

so sleepyyyyy.

i've done 3 more songs, not the 5 i would have preferred but i did figure out a way to make everything easier on myself, and i got a few new "guitar" sounds out of today too. so it's been a long day, like yesterday, since about noon i've been at it, i took a longer break today but i didn't cook or eat, i just spent time with my gf, we're always around eachother, or i guess not so much since she's started work/school (same thing for her cuz grad student) but i digress.

so i'm up to 8, but, really, the 5 yesterday will need to be worked on more too. but i think i'm deciding that what i'm going to do is a single pass, and then come back and listen, and figure everything out like that, less obsessive, hopefully by nailing out the process more i'll get stuff that's overall fine, with few shocking or strange bits, and more just issues of levels. getting the drums standardized again is going to go a long way in that i think. when i say again, it's because they already were, but they were sort of sloppy, same sounds, some minor eqing, i handled the drums by letting them clip and eat whatever they needed to eat up to sound right. they were always super fucking loud. now they are less so. so i got compression and eqing on the kick and snare.

and it sounds good. the song i just did with this has a kick that's a bit too loud, there's an extra snare that's sort of not there that i need to bring out, and yeah, it's all coming up a lot better this way. there's a lot of surgical stuff i get stuck on but if i just go about mixing like this maybe that won't have to happen. very exciting stuff.

i know this is taking its toll on me, i'm sad that i'm basically not writing or even listening to music right now, i have now thrown 4 days into what feels like a minor tragedy, but i will at least get some songs that sound nicer i think.

the nicer sound is kind of really gonna go a long way in helping get things feeling right too, i think the kind of associations i'm going for might become more obvious. super-rainbow-puke freakouts, dandyist hardcore, you know, that kind of thing, it is a thing, i think.

right now though i've been so without like, relaxing, i'm listening to a record i haven't listened to in a while, oval - wohnton. people don't talk about this one as often as they should, there's a song here that the alien9 ost stole too, basically, no one talks about that either. the song woisdiestadt? is sampled and looped for a song. i thought for the longest time the person who made the ost was just a genius, but it was actually oval. they're a genius for knowing to steal that though.

i'd listen to this record all the time in my early semesters at college, this and tujiko noriko's make me hard. make me hard has been with me since highschool, it's a really incredible record, it's fucked up how that, orchid, have a nice life, and salem, sort of propelled me into wanting to make music. there's a ton of other stuff too. there really was a lot of post-hardcore. i've been sat here figuring out how to make uncanny and strange synth guitar replicas of the things guitars do in certain kinds of post-hardcore. isn't that fucked up.

a funny thing about oval is he'd draw on cds with sharpie and stuff, get the fucked up glitchy rips and work with those as samples, among other kinds of fuckery/glitch stuff. i got a bunch of really awesome cds from a goodwill once, like real nice stuff to keep in your collection, cocteau twins holv and an aphex twin cd single for come to daddy, as well as the 2nd placebo album, and instead of keeping them i did that. i think at the time i thought about punk rock, and said, fuck it. i don't regret it. i still think punk rock, and say fuck it, at least about some things.

wednesday is errands day again, not looking forward to that + continuing to deal with this mess, but who knows, it could be one of the good ones. i know this is taking some kind of toll cuz in the shower i just closed my eyes and started seeing things, and with my eyes open i saw distant and inexplicable phantoms of silver/blue light, a streetlight gone wrong maybe, hovering. it wasn't a hallucination i think it's just something that happens after looking at eq curves all day and quibbling over .5 db differences in some places.

i did barely eat today, and my stomach kinda hurts. i drank some tea with boba in it, that my gf brought home, it was hers but i steal, because i am cool. actually she let me so didn't steal i'm a good person.

i did try to practice vocals today too, just lightly i guess, because i should stay in practice daily w/ this stuff.

i am terrified, right now, and every day i guess now, that i'm going to hear these new versions, and hate them. but i don't think i will. and if i do, i can fix them again, and it's not so bad. but god the thought scares me so bad. it's so early in a new process, how do i know i'm actually right about this. but you go asking for second opinions, a lot of people just want to say what you've done is good, because it probably is basically, but it maybe sounds wrong to me, i want it to be right. that's nebulous but i want it to be what i want, i think, earnestly, i'm getting there, and maybe at worst, this doubt is a passing anxiety that i'm going to fuck up 23 songs. but fuck it. i put my voice on them, that fucks them up enough.

i don't think they're getting any worse, checking on a couple. like i thought, tiny adjustments can be made, and i'll make them eventually, but it feels reassuring i guess to check, it also feels super obsessive and like i can't stop myself and i have to stop myself, if i want to not go crazy.

i don't wanna go crazy and gosh it's getting so hard to type and my eyes are heavy and stuff but there's more to say maybe.

i got some lyrics out. some short thing, new shouty sccreachy idea. it's funny to add more to my plate but it feels kinda good, i should figure out how to recognize sentences that are good for noisecore outburst things, and just do that. save them, maybe, too, for the future.

and soon i want to start on the album art, i want to get to a place where i feel okay with starting, and i want to get an actually okay picture of me to use on it, that's gonna be a thing where i need to find a place to pose and have a way to have the camera held up high, and good enough lighting conditions, oh my god everything is so difficult and i make everything so hard for myself for no reason but maybe when this is all over i will be so happy that this just adds to the payoff. i hope so.

the bright side is that all these songs that don't have vocals on them yet, this seems like it might make it easier to get all that placed, since i have some headroom and things are like, being mixed instead of left to battle in some hell of clipping and limiting.

say hello to the roses in this photo i took a year ago when i was living with my cousin and aunt in a strange neighborhood of houses that all looked the same and say goodbye to me. i'm gonna to try and relax some more i guess, before getting ready to sleep for another day of supermusichell.

[the-firebird69]

There's money from each and every company worked at and way back in the beginning he was investing money privately at his house and believe it or not it was at Wells Fargo and you remember it now and he bought some CDs wasn't much money and he knew it it was like right now it's worth $500,000 and he also has some CDs from westborough and yeah from Bank of Boston and they owe it to him and he actually called them and the idiot said they don't know who he is and the records were expunged and they're not and he told them that on the phone so I know they are and I know who runs the place and what are you lying for and instead of saying you don't have an account here so calling the feds and so he did and they investigate and since idiot next door and he's falling apart he lost everything cuz he's sitting there keeping out of my husband for he's about to lose a lot more too cuz these Banks already has his money in and we can't let him have his money we need it that's our money you don't use our money against us. And it's pretty big money but Wells Fargo has CDs Bank of Boston several banks in between Bank of America there's a whole bunch of money it has his money in it and Matt wants a check cut from some of them and he knows how to do it the bank has to try and contact him and when they do and they'll find him they have to make sure that he's around and so forth and he will request some of the money and they'll have him come in anymore and he said to leave money in there and that's the intent but I'm excited about this it's a much better thing than what was going on that was horrible it still is. Right now all the bases are defunct of the more locks that are large in the eastern hemisphere what they could get to was ripped out and they're down to probably 4% of the general populace and it's not getting any better. They're attacking the Western hemisphere bases and they have what we said was 40% left now they have 20% left and they just began and the max are leading into it and obliterating these jackasses pulling tons of stuff out and we are too and Stan and Biden and there's some other people too that joined up and they're taking tons of stuff here soon I'll be empty. And Jason Statham is bja and he's going after all sorts of people who are taking stuff from him mainly their trumpsters and the guy with him is a form of trumpster but he's not Trump's clan or a clone. And he needs some stuff that's a huge number of people watching. There's a giant giant offensive in the United States against warlock 20% of the bases left and they just started 3 hours ago and they're wailing on them and then they're going to hit the smallest or hitting them now too. He gone tomorrow morning almost all of this if not all and they will have to try and do business in Durango then they suck at it overseas are getting ass to send to them it goes down to percentage point every 4 hours that's a giant number of people by the way and there's an evacuation that's getting bigger and bigger and soon yes that made 2% will evacuate it's a huge number of people it's enough to populate all of Australia and normal levels and they like that they want to do that and take over they say giant ships are prepping and loading are you ready by midnight I'm just going to be a huge Exodus and tons of wind and they're going down to Cape south of South America lots of them go this way is a huge day it was their last stand and here in the western hemisphere is thier last stand. Huge movies will start soon once they lose all the bases and lose all the small bases and start losing the populace still start up this movies.

They're in the New Orleans and it's been like three movies there and there's Killers going all over the place and they're fighting Jason and such over the tech. Trumpsters have all gone up to the upper Midwest and they're pouring out of the Midwest huge numbers are at the Statue of crazy horse it's probably about half the population of what is still out there and several thousand octillion that's a huge number we've been adding zeros the whole time to our reports because they force us to it's giant giant giant

Hera Zues

[frankjerry311]

Five Family Activities During Karaoke Instrumental Breaks

What will be great about karaoke? Let's just be honest - everyone who hopes for the limelight doesn't necessarily find themselves standing for them. Just watch the The American idol show tryouts an individual are doubt my vision! For most people, real life doesn't contain a stage together with spotlight. The start . okay, but the magic of karaoke comes into the world from the residue with the dream. It feeds our soul, connects us to other dreamers like ourselves, and is defined as a lot of outright fun for people who like taking a stand to truly perform.

Most karaoke machines have old songs. Today, there are also a lot of karaoke machines for younger generations possess new music. However, most of the karaoke machines out there still were not updated yet with new tracks from artists right now.

There are 4 things needed for doing karaoke:

the karaoke system, the sound system, the movie system and the courage. If you're able to put most of these together, a person definitely too can have this wonderful feeling of singing as becoming superstar. Because doing karaoke arouses the opinion of an active band behind you. The sound quality furthermore just choose to one that a singing star has.

The best singing software actually let you set up a playlist or an array of karaoke songs that you need to play. You'll pick from songs already downloaded, or convert the music activity you have definitely into karaoke songs. Method you should not mess with a bunch of CDs. Trust me, higher . save time and hard earned cash.

There are 4 things needed for doing karaoke :

the karaoke system, the sound system, motion picture system as well as the courage. Content articles can invest of these together, then you too can have this wonderful feeling of singing like a superstar. Because doing karaoke arouses the opinion of a live band behind you. The sound quality one more just like the one that her singing star has.

You intend to always be rip the song tracks from every one your CD+G discs to your zipped MP3+G format. Is actually an a mind-numbing venture is far more efficient no way around this item. It will be worth it in the finish. There are a couple of applications designed for this task but make certain used by many professionals, and also the one I highly recommend, is Power CD+G Burning. This program produces high quality rips, automatically names the song files from on-line databases (with an connection to the web present), and works with most modern CD/DVD drives.

Another contributing factor towards the extinction of Laser Karaoke was more compact of the discs. Each professional 28 Song Laser Disc was 12 inches round, you shouldn't size being a 33 RPM record. But it really was heavier than an archive. When professionals typically the business in order to haul around 100 much more of these discs, the temptation to switch to a lighter, easier, more accessible format, the CD+G, proved too beneficial. Pioneer tried to combat this problem by offering a smaller, lighter 8" Laser Compact disk. This solution only created another difficulties. The smaller Laser Disc only had about 8 songs, that's all that could be programmed onto the entire group. That meant that to own the equivalent amount of songs to offer, a KJ would not have to haul around 500 a lot more of these discs.

One adverse reaction of karaoke is which often leads people get up singing lessons. Fail to work karaoke competitions offering some major cash prizes, the rewards getting the best singer can be worth paying to brush up on your vocal talent.

[primofate]

Genshin Modern AU - You get a lot of attention/Jealous (Part 2)

Notes: Decided to go back to some of my work and do second parts. I haven’t updated the taglist, I will soon!

Other parts in this series: (Part 1 with Zhongli, Xiao, Childe, Diluc, Venti) 

Characters: Albedo, Gorou, Kaeya, Scaramouche, Thoma, fem!reader

Warnings: not proofread, maybe slight possessiveness, but otherwise mostly fluff

Albedo

quiet guy in class. Not a lot of your classmates would know you guys are actually dating.

He doesn’t mind it, he’s a pretty private person. 

Gosh does it ANNOY him though when the other guys in class are talking you up and you’re just so OBLIVIOUS to it.

At first he ignores it, a bunch of them comes in the morning or even in the afternoon to your table asking you for help with their Science homework.

The first day, it was just one guy sitting in front of you taking notes as you talk them through the lesson.

The next day there’s 3 of them, the day after that there’s 5. It’s like some kind of mini lesson and you’re a tutor. 

The next day he drags a chair next to you and sits there before any of the other guys can walk up to you. 

He glares pointedly at the guys who try to approach your table. They turn tail at the evil aura he’s emitting. 

You’re wondering what’s up with him and he covers up by taking out his Science notebook and saying he also needs something explained to him.

“But ‘Bedo... You’re the top scorer in Science...”

Gorou

no nonsense type of guy. If he’s unhappy about something he won’t be able to hide it and will be vocal about it.

There’s one particular week where the guys are hovering around you during art class cause you’re quite good at it and they’re all like “oooohhhh ahhhhhhh” “so niiiceeee” “can you teach me?”

Gorou’s just doing his own painting but man’s about to break his paintbrush in two, and he’s stationed right next to you too.

“Could you all just back off a little? You’re suffocating her!”

Everyone in class knows you’re dating, he’s pretty affectionate towards you and can’t hide it.

What he doesn’t know is the guys in class hangs around you just to piss him off. They all think it’s funny how he gets this totally twisted annoyed look on his face

“Okay come on guys, Gorou’s gunna rip our heads off,”

He glares at them until they’ve all sat down, but then turns to you and in a snap has this pleasant, gleaming smile on his face. Like he just won a grand prize for fending off the guys.

Kaeya

Touchy. Even in inappropriate situations, like class time. 

The type of guy who would find a way to sit behind you and absentmindedly twirl your hair in his fingers until the teacher calls on him.

Any amount of contact is like a blessing to him.

There aren’t a lot of people who actually approach you cause they’re largely intimidated by Kaeya.

He doesn’t seem like he’s much but he can be pretty sadistic if he wants to be.

Example: There’s this guy from another class who is just TOO OBVIOULSY into you and visits the class from time to time just to hand you something. Like “Hey, I got this CD the other day, thought you might want to listen to it,”

Your actual classmates are saying prayers for him every time he comes by because they can feel Kaeya eyeing the interaction real closely.

There’s this one time where the guy comes by with a perfectly wrapped gift in his hand. He’s talking to you by the door, but hasn’t given the thing yet, just making small talk.

Kaeya knows where it’s going so he comes up behind you and actually wraps his arms around your waist and leans his head on your shoulder, looking at the guy.

The whole class lowkey wants to take their phones out to record this situation

Kaeya gives the guy the MOST PLEASANT smile he has ever mustered up and says “Don’t mind me, just hugging something that you can never have,” 

You scold him and karate chop his head for that later on, but he enjoys your violence.

Scaramouche

I mean, I think even the teachers are intimidated by him.

Has a perpetual frown on his face. Looks like a delinquent who keeps his uniform untucked. The two of you are like night and day.

Still, the class knows he’s soft for you cause he goes around barking at your other classmates but never actually raises his voice towards you. He’ll call you “stupid” or “clumsy” or “an idiot” but never in an overly offensive or disrespectful way.

In your class, no one really dares to offend Scaramouche. So it’s during your club activities that you get a lot of attention.

He picks you up from club activities one day only to find you surrounded by ladies and guys alike as you model the new club shirt/jersey/uniform.

He stands by the door and crosses his arms. Eyes squinted and trying to see if the situation escalates. He’s already annoyed that he can’t even get a proper view of you because of all the people around. 

Everyone’s saying something about how the ribbon looks good on you, or the colour looks good on you. 

HE DOESN’T FREAKING UNDERSTAND WHY SOME OF THE GIRLS ARE COOING and admiring you so much. 

“Let’s go,” he was quite loud when he said it, and some of them are confused as to who he’s talking to until you reply and say you’re coming, you just need to get changed.

Everyone’s still looking at him as you leave, more curious as to who he was than anything else. He smirks at them, slightly irked. “Got a problem with me picking up my girlfriend?”

Lowkey just his way to say “back off”. Yes, even the girls who was fawning over you.

Thoma

The perfect boyfriend. Polite to everyone. The teachers love him. The girls love him. The boys love him. Your parents love him. Your dog loves him. Everyone loves him. Everyone.

But the man is DEVOTED to you.

You’re seen as the “power couple” in school because you seem to fit each other in every way. 

A lot of your classmates think you’ll end up marrying each other but hey that’s still a long time coming. 

He doesn’t actually interfere much even if you’re getting a lot of attention.

But he DID have a talk with you about it. “If you ever feel uncomfortable in any of those situations just cough three times and I’ll whisk you away,”

Man is so respectful to others that he doesn’t want to just barge in and rudely pull you away.

So when a time actually comes where, while having recess in the hallways, and he’s hanging around with his friends, he hears you cough (unusually loudly) three times and he immediately walks over to you with a water bottle in hand. 

He places a hand behind your lower back, as a show to the guys around you that you have a close relationship to each other, and hands you the water bottle. “You okay? Here, drink up. Told you you should’ve stayed home today,” 

He glances at the group of guys. They’re just students who got overly enthusiastic in asking you to join their club. 

Gives them a quick smile and leads you away, “Excuse us, she needs some fresh air,”

Thoma is actually quite worried, and you reassure him that you just didn’t know how to turn down their requests and needed a way out.

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[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 3/15/22

huh my original fun little quip got eaten. whatever. come for a turn about the garden with me as opposed to our leisurely long ramble

listening the Franz Ferdinand song The Fallen off the album You Could Have It So Much Better.

LOVE a jaunty rollicking hook. LOVE some stupid little bible puns. no real chorus in this one but some fun phrases to shout in a car while you’re doing an inadvisable speed down a turnpike

Did I see you in a limousine Flinging out the fish and the unleavened 

and i have had to Really Think about how to pronounced “unleavened” ever since. does NOT rhyme with “limousine” in the common vernacular

undefined

oh right how did i find this: i went to high school from 2010-2013 okay this band was unavoidable, popped up in my sp*tify releases bc they rereleased it. think i originally originally discovered it from a CD at the library, specifically (sigh) the tim burton take on alice in wonderland’s soundtrack, they did a song about the lobster quadrille iirc? as was my wont, i promptly ripped that cd to my ipod touch and then went back and looked up more albums of the artists i particularly liked. and here we are today.

reading lobdell and rocafort’s red hood and the outlaws. i am part way through the third collected volume out of seven or eight, bc batman comics reliably turn my brain off at night. not that they make me sleepy, but i’m just invested enough in them to want to read them but also be able to put them down at random. if that makes sense.

the art in this thing is pretty great. very bad chronic case of tits and ass (not even equal opportunity tits and ass, which is a shame), but the linework is crisp as hell. i don’t really remember how i came across this, it’s been on my list for a while but got bumped up to the top bc i cannot yet pirate a good quality cam of The Battinson.

watching just as fnv is baby’s first leftist video game, i feel like ds9 is baby’s first leftist tv series? even tho sisko is not Not a cop? anyway i am fully “wow cool space station!” about this show (did i make that joke last week? i don’t care). i’m on s2e5 and bashir is. bashir is trying. he’s in his first job out of med school and he’s twenty eight and an idiot. he is slightly more of an idiot that me, who is twenty seven and in her first job postgrad.

also watching killing eve and losing my whole fucking mind but what else is new??? ep 1 has been out for a full month so i do not feel these are spoilers: did not super care for s2 and s3 but watching eve slowly become more and more and more like carolyn is delicious. also love her progression of bond girls and boys. love a bisexual disaster who goes “this is what i want and i’m doing it” with no real thought to if the thing she wants Is Actually the thing she wants. DELICIOUS you’re doing amazing eve

also the fact that villanelle did a born again christian thing to try to persuade eve she’s a good person? even is not religious why would that convince her??? did villanelle literally google “how to be a good person” and show up at the nearest church??? what a delightful mental image

these two shows could not be more different and i am having an outsized reaction to them this week bc i’m playtesting a bunch of really insipid stuff for work and it’s nice to be like! oh! these are grownup shows for grownups with lots of conflict and gray areas!!!! good for my brain!

playing love on the peacock express, the mystery train milf dating sim. love trains, love milfs. content specifically for me. it took me about one lunch hour to play through four endings, so i assume for people with a normal reading speed who don’t habitually skim it’s more like a three-hour dealio.

this is a light romance with some incidental mystery instead of a mystery-solving visual novel, which i do not think the itch.io page is great at conveying. you do get handed the mystery as you go along, but it’s a solid little visual novel with all the quality of life tweaks one expects from a much larger team. i admire this game’s commitment to not giving you icon customization. you’re a private investigator, that’s what you look like, deal with it. all the ladies’ routes are fun (i liked the butch’s route best bc i am a simple woman, there are platonic and romantic endings) and the bonus hidden route dipped the most into the private investigator schtick i think. pwyw on itch.

how did i find this?: a tumblr post from the devs i can no longer find :(

also i am obliged to point out the ukraine game bundle with some big fuckin names (celeste! fatum betula! wandersong! baba is you! the sword lesbian ttrpg!) and note that some of these folks are my dayjob clients but i cannot tell you which ones

making i made some more curtains but i’m unhappy with them. did finish the kitchen ones tho and attached all the fucking pom pom trim and AM happy with that set. also put up a knife strip but that’s not very photogenic. once i figure out how much the next round of doctor’s appointments is going to cost, my next unwise kitchen purchase will be whetstones.

[dialovers-translations]

DIABOLIK LOVERS Para-Selene Vol.6 Sakamaki Subaru Animate Tokuten CD

Original title: DIABOLIK LOVERS Para-Selene Vol. 6 逆巻スバル アニメイト 各巻購入特典ドラマCD

Source: Diabolik Lovers Para-Selene Vol. 6 Sakamaki Subaru Animate Tokuten CD

Audio: Here

Seiyuu: Takashi Kondou

Translator’s note: I don’t know if they are popular in other countries too but aquarium dates have always struck me as such a typical Japanese thing. I’ve seen it so often in anime/dramas/etc. but in real life, I’ve never really heard of two people going on a date to an aquarium. :p If anything, it’s mostly just parents with their children visiting those places. I loved all of Subaru’s little tsundere moments where he would grow jealous over the fish because they captured his S/O’s attention. xD His bolder attitude near the end of the CD wasn’t half bad either. <u<

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The two of you are walking in public.

“Che...This fuckin’ sucks...The aquarium lures in visitors at night as well!? ...Do you really enjoy comin’ here with me?”

You nod, smiling.

“...! ...I see. Damn, guess you give me no other choice. I’ll keep you company then.”

Subaru suddenly comes to a halt.

“This pool attracted more people than I would have expected. What’s happenin’ over here?”

You explain.

"The Dolphin Night Show? Hmー”

You ask if he would like to watch.

“I don’t mind but are there any open seats left?”

You point.

“Hm? ...Ah, you’re right. Guess we can sit down there then.”

The two of you walk towards your seats.

*Splash*

“Oh. Seems like it started already.”

*Splash splash*

“Ah...Hm...”

*SPLASH*

“Haah...

...The fuck’s so interestin’ ‘bout this? It’s just a bunch of dolphins jumpin’ in the air and headbuttin’ some balls. ...Say? How much longer will this go on fo...Oh...Fuck. Look at her watchin’ in awe like a damn kid...”

*Splash splash*

You suddenly turn your head towards Subaru.

“...Eh? W-W-What!?”

You ask why he was looking.

“...W-Who says I was lookin’ at you!? Don’t be gettin’ the wrong idea, geez!”

The crowd cheers.

“M-More importantly, the dolphins are ‘bout to pull somethin’ again so shouldn’t you watch that?”

You turn your attention back to the show.

“...They call it a ‘big jump’ but is this shit really worth gettin’ so excited over?”

*SPLASH*

“...Woah! Amazin’...! So high...!”

The two of you get splashed with water in the process.

“...Ugh.”

*Clap clap clap*

“The water splashed all the way over here, huh...? ...O-Oi!? Are you alright!? ーー Actually, you got pretty soaked. Do you have anythin’ to wipe yourself down?”

You start rummaging through your bag.

*Rustle rustle*

“Aah...Then use that towel.”

You offer to wipe his hair as well. 

“...Hah? Nah, I’m good.”

You insist.

“I don’t catch colds, so it’s fine. Instead you should worry ‘bout yourself, right? Your hair got wet as well so hurry up and wipe it.”

You act tough.

“Hell no it’s ‘fine’. ...Gimme. I’ll do it.”

You become hesitant.

“Oi! How am I supposed to wipe your hair when you back away like that? Come closer!”

Subaru scoots closer. 

“Keep still, ‘kay?”

*Rustle rustle*

“...There we go. Guess that should do. ...Your clothes aren’t that wet at least. ...Oi. Why are you all tensed up? Also, your face’s red. D-Don’t tell me...You’ve got a fever!?”

You explain.

“...Hah? I’m too close? ...!! D-Don’t get all flustered over every single lil’ thing...!”

He moves away a little.

“Here, you can have your towel back. Also...Wear my jacket.”

Subaru throws his jacket your way.

*Thud*

“Stop complainin’ and just put it on. It didn’t get wet and...It should help you warm up a lil’ at least. I don’t want you...to catch a cold. (1)”

You thank him.

“No need to thank me, honestly. ...The show has ended so should we go to the next thing? There’s still other stuff you wanted to see, no?”

You nod before the two of you get up from your seats.

*TIMESKIP*

“...That bein’ said, the inside of an aquarium is darker than I expected. You better not trip, ‘kay? “

You tell him that won’t happen.

“Heh. I wonder? You’re a huge klutz, aren’t you? You’d definitely trip and fall while gettin’ distracted by the fish.”

You puff out your cheeks and protest. 

“Heh. Let’s see ‘bout that. ...Let’s go.”

You suddenly stop walking.

“Hm? What’s wrong? ...Oh, jellyfish.”

You note that they are very beautiful. 

“...Aah? What’s so pretty ‘bout these gelatinous blobs? They lit up, that’s all, right?”

You continue to look at them.

“...You like these guys?”

You suddenly start dragging Subaru towards the tank with jellyfish.

*Rustle*

“...Wah!? ...F-Fine! You want to go there, right!? Don’t pull me!”

You are totally excited about watching the jellyfish.

“Are they really that beautiful? They’re just floatin’, right? I don’t get the appeal at all...”

You continue to watch the jellyfish in awe.

“Haah...She’s totally enraptured by those damn jellyfish...I don’t get chicks...”

He continues to watch you in silence.

“...You’ve seen enough, right? Let’s go already.”

You want to watch the jellyfish just a little longer. 

“Che...I’m goin’ ahead. I’ll leave you behind if you take too long!”

You try and chase after him but nearly trip in the process.

“...! Watch ouーー!”

Subaru catches you in his arms just in time.

*Thud*

“...Ugh. Haah...See, what did I tell you? You almost landed on the floor. You really are so clumsy.”

Your cheeks flush bright red.

“Wait. ...Hmm~? Look at those flushed cheeks...You’re basically tellin’ me I’m free to do what I want, right? In that case, I won’t hold back. I’ll suck you to my heart’s content, right here, right now.”

You protest.

“I won’t wait. If you don’t behave, I’m gonna rip apart your throat with my fangs.”

You immediately keep still. 

“Hehe. Perfect. Just be a good girl, and I’ll make sure you enjoy it.”

Subaru nearly bites you but other people arrive.

“ーー Ugh. There’s visitors approachin’, huh? ...Fuck off.”

You frown.

“Oi, don’t get all worried over some other people.”

You shake your head.

“It’s not ‘impossible’. All you need to do is focus on me.”

You insist.

“Haah...Guess you leave me no other choice. If you’re that desperate, I guess I won’t suck you here.”

You sigh in relief.

“Why do you seem so relieved? I won’t suck you here, but you better don’t believe this is the end.”

*Rustle*

“If we can’t do it here, we can simply go somewhere a lil’ more private, right? In that case, we can both have some fun.”

Subaru grabs your hand.

“Let’s head home. We’ll continue where we left off once inside our room. ...I’ll give you my love until you fall apart.”

ーー THE END ーー

Translation notes

(1) Literally he says he would be troubled if she were to catch a cold, however, the expression ‘I don’t want you’ sounded more natural to me in English. 

[lustfulcat]

Welcome To The Saezuru Fandom!

Hello new followers and those coming back to the fold. I was hoping The Clouds Gather would bring more people to our lovely corner of the internet and I’m so glad it’s happening!

Here’s a little primer if you’re new or you’ve been away for a while.

Info:

Saezuru Tori wa Habatakanai is currently at 41 chapters. Chapter 42 is set to come out at the end of this month AND I’ve been hearing that Saezuru will be on the cover!

You can read the first three volumes in eformat here. June Manga has published physical volumes, with volume 4 being announced for December 2020. Saezuru has two prequels: Don’t Stay Gold and Tadayoedo Shizumazu Saredo Naki mo Sezu; they’re short and give you necessary backstory on Yashiro’s character and his relationship with Kageyama, as well as Kageyama and Kuga’s backstory.

Chapters come out every two months, unless Yoneda Kou takes a break, then it’s a 4 month wait. There are six volumes, with the seventh almost complete, and six drama CDs. And a lot of merch rip my wallet.

There will be three movies. The Clouds Gather was the first and is currently out on bluray/DVD with a bunch of gorgeous extras. JustBLThings has a sub out and it will also be available in theaters and to stream with subs from Sentai. The Storm Breaks is the second movie; there is a short preview of it at the end of the credits in The Clouds Gather. My guess is we’ll see it sometime late next year? But I’m just speculating.

Don’t Stay Gold has been animated and will be included as an OAD with volume 7.

Important Links:

Yoneda Kou on Twitter, The Official Saezuru Twitter, The Official Saezuru Anime Twitter, and The Saezuru Drama CD Twitter

Yoneda Kou’s blog, Yoneda Kou’s old blog, and 10th Anniversary Page

The Saezuru Discord

@mitrr‘s A++ Saezuru Merch List

Some amazing Saezuru cosplay, and even more cosplay!

And then there’s me I guess. *waves* Hi, I’m Lustfulcat and I’ve been a Yoneda Kou fan for 10+ years now. The minute I saw Yashiro smirking in the first few pages of Don’t Stay Gold I was like WHO IS THIS GUY and he’s now My Flaweless Son. I championed this manga for a long time and scanlated 14 chapters so I can’t begin to tell you what these movies mean to me. Seeing everything animated is a high point in my life; I’m never going to be the same. *flails*

Feel free to stick around! And yell. And headcanon. And freak out over the new chapters  ♥

[rhys-writes-sometimes]

Music Worth Making Part 1: Bright Forever

Requested: nope!

Warnings: abuse, child neglect, shitty parents, death, food, terrible writing

Series Summery: When the reader’s life is ripped away from them, they’re distraught. But with her two best friends and three certain ghosts, maybe the afterlife isn’t so bad after all. 

Chapter Summery: The band Sunset Curve was about to have a life-changing concert when they ate some bad hotdogs and died. 25 years later, you’re best friends with the girl who discovers them. 

Words: 3,026 

A/N: This is pretty much just introducing the characters and their relationships to one another. Things will get more interesting in the next few chapters.Also, the reader is non-binary! <3 lyrics are italicized Part 2 ______________________________________________________

Hollywood 1995

“Don’t look down, ‘cause we’re still rising up right now, and even if we hit the ground we’ll still fly, keep dreaming like we’ll live forever, but live it like it’s now or never.”

The teenaged boys finished their soundcheck, earning scattered applause and even a “whoo!” from the employees working at The Orpheum that night. The band didn’t try to hide their smiles as they took a bow. 

“Thank you, we’re Sunset Curve!” one called out.

“Tell your friends!” another added. 

“Too bad we wasted the tightest we’ve ever played on a soundcheck,” one said as they set down their instruments. 

“Wait until tonight man, when this place gets packed with record execs.”

The boys all nodded, thinking of all the chances of fame they would have after that night.

“Okay, well, I’m thinking we fuel up before the show. I’m thinking street dogs?”

Two of the other boys liked that idea, but the other one had other plans.

Jumping off the stage, he started to make his way over to a young woman who was wiping down tables.

“Hey Bobby, where you going?” the one who had suggested they go get street dogs called out.

“I’m good!” he called out to his bandmates, then said to the girl: “Vegetarian. I could never hurt an animal.” 

“You guys are really good,” she said with a smile as the other three guys joined their band member at her table. “I see a lot of bands. Been in a couple myself. I was really feeling it.”

The guys all smiled. 

“That’s what we do this for,” one of them said. The tips of his chestnut colored hair almost reached the top of his shirt with cut off sleeves. “I’m Luke, by the way.”

“Hi, I’m Reggie.” Reggie had black hair and was wearing a leather jacket with a red flannel tied around his waist. An interesting combination, but somehow the outfit worked. 

“Alex.” A boy with blond hair spoke up from where he was hovering just to the side of the group, wearing a pale pink t-shirt.

“Bobby.” The boy who had first walked over to the girl had brown hair and a sleeveless jacket over a t-shirt. 

“Nice meeting you guys. I’m Rose.” The girl smiled at all of them again as Luke licked his finger and stuck it in Bobby’s ear. 

“Oh uh, here’s our demo, and a t-shirt, size beautiful.” Reggie handed Rose a CD and a t-shirt, earning a small groan from Alex. 

“Thanks. I’ll make sure not to wipe the tables down with this one.” 

“Oh, good call. Whenever they get wet, they just kinda fall apart in your hands,” Alex informed her.

“Don’t you guys have to go get hot dogs?” Bobby asked, clearly wanting to talk to Rose without the other three around. 

“Yeah.” Luke leaned closer to Rose, as if to tell her a secret. “He had a hamburger for lunch.”

-----

“Man, I can’t wait until we eat someplace where the condiments aren’t served out of the back of an Oldsmobile,” Alex grumbled as he put a pickle on his hot dog. “Hey, sorry, I got some pickle juice on your battery cables.”

“No problem. It’ll help with the rust,” the man cooking hot dogs said with a slight chuckle.

“That can’t….okay.”

The three made their way over to a couch to eat. Before they could dig in, however, Luke started speaking. 

“This is awesome, you guys. We’re playing The Orpheum! I can’t even count how many bands have played here and then ended up being huge,” he said with a slight chuckle. “Eat up, boys. ‘Cause after tonight, everything changes.”

They all bit down hungerly into their street dogs.

Alex was the first to notice that something was off. “That’s a new flavor,” he said, a small amount of worry creeping into his tone.

“Chill man. Street dogs haven’t killed us yet.” Reggie tried to calm down his friend.

Luke hesitated for a moment, then took another huge bite.

-----

Los Angeles 2020

You made your way through the hallway, walking fast, faces pass, weaving around people as you tried to reach your locker. You smiled as you saw your two best friends waiting for you.

“Hey, underacheiver,” Flynn said in greeting.

“Hey, disappointments,” you joked back to them. “Okay, Julie, I know you don’t want me to ask, but have you figured out what you’re gonna do today?”

“I’ll know in the moment.” The frizzy-haired girl fiddled with her bracelets as she spoke, the only clue that she was nervous for her proformance later.

“Really, Jules? That’s all your giving us? Mrs. Harrison said-” Flynn was cut off from scolding one of her best friends.

“This is my last chance, I know, I was there,” Julie finished. Flynn smiled softly for a moment, but it turned to a grimace of disgust as she noticed a girl handing out flyers. 

“Ugh, what is she handing out?” she questioned.

“Desperation?” you said, only half joking. Julie and Flynn snickered. 

However, you put on a smile as the girl walked up to the three of you. 

“Here you go. My group’s performing at the spirit rally tomorrow. I’m sure you guys have nothing better to do,” she said, her eyes sweeping over you critically as she handed the flyer to Flynn. 

Flynn put on a bright, sarcastic smile. “Oh my gosh, Carrie, thanks!”

“Oh my gosh, Flynn, don’t bother coming!”

The three of you rolled your eyes at Carries retreating back. However, someone else caught Julie’s eye. 

“Nick?” you asked, looking between Julie and the blond-haired boy she was staring at.

“Still?” Flynn asked. “You know they’re gonna get married and have a bunch of unholy babies.”

“Nick’s a sweetheart.”

“Yeah, you’d actually have to talk to him to know that,” Flynn said with a small smile. “And only one of them has to be a demon to make a demon baby.” 

You nodded your approval of this statement as Flynn called out “Demon!” in Carrie’s direction.

The three of you turned towards the lockers and laughed quietly. 

“There’s that smile,” Flynn said, lightly poking both you and Julie’s face. “Now come on, let’s go prove everybody wrong.”

You flinched slightly as she put her arm around you, but tried not to show it.

-----

“Okay, we have one last proformance,” Mrs. Harrison called out. “Julie.”

You squeezed her hand slightly as she stood up and walked over to the piano. 

She sat in silence for a moment, before saying “I’m sorry,” and running out of the room, with you and Flynn not far behind. 

-----

“I’ll be back to pick you up at 5:30. Have fun at practice, Danny!” you called out after your little brother as he ran to join the baseball team. This was a daily routine for you; drop Danny off at practice, go to Julie’s to study and eat, pick up Danny, go home and endure torture. 

You let your mind wander as you walked to Julie’s house, which luckily wasn’t very far from the sports fields. Walking through the front door, you let your bag fall to the ground as you went to go get something to eat. 

-----

A few hours later, you were walking back to the sports fields. 

“Hey, Danny,” you said once you saw him, ruffling the boy’s hair. “How was practice?”

You paid attention as best you could as he rambled on about what had happened that day, but if you were honest, you didn’t understand a thing about sports. You were just glad your brother had found something that made him happy.

You closed the front door as quietly as you could, not wanting to wake your father. You tip-toed into the kitchen to start making dinner, as you did every night.

“Olivia, is that you?” you mother asked. You winced. 

“Yes, mother,” you sighed slightly, afraid to tell her that you had changed your name to Y/N.

“Hurry up and get dinner started. My feet are tired from cleaning all day.”

You wanted to roll your eyes at the excuse that was very obviously a lie, your house was a mess and you knew you would be expected to clean it later, but you didn’t want to get in trouble. So you fell into a robotic sort-of motion that you had developed as a way of hiding your emotions and thoughts from your parents. 

Thirty minutes and one burnt fingertip later, dinner was ready and waiting on the table. 

“Wake up, Harold, dinner is ready.” Your mother shook your father awake. You knew if you tried that, you would be slapped across the face. By both of them. 

However, your father just sat up sleepily and lumbered over to the table. You stood over to the side as your family ate, not being allowed to join them. 

“Goddamned roast beef is overcooked again,” he grumbled. You blinked back tears. Such a small thing shouldn’t upset you, you knew, but it did. 

You endured the criticism on the meal you had worked hard to make from your mother and father for the next half-hour. Your father declared himself full and snapped his fingers at you. You whisked his plate away before taking your mother’s, too. She never ate after he finished. You took Danny’s too, but only because you knew that your parents disapproved of him still eating. 

“Hey,” your father said, his voice already low and dangerous. “Give your brother back his plate. He wasn’t finished yet.”

You set the plate back down, nodding and shaking slightly. “My apologies, father.”

“Don’t appologize to your father, appologize to your brother!” your mother exclaimed, grabbing Danny’s hand from across the table and giving it a squeeze. 

“It’s okay, really, I was done,” he hurried to say.

Your mother frowned at him. “Are you sure, darling?”

He nodded. 

“Well, okay then…” she said, still frowning slightly. “You may be excused.” 

He ran off to his room. You took his plate. 

Heading back to the kitchen with a small sigh, you started making a meal for yourself out of what was left, leaving enough so that your family would have leftovers. 

You ate silently, thinking about how nice it would be to have a caring family. Of course, Danny cared, but he was too young to stand up to your parents, and you never wanted him to have to. You would protect that boy at all costs.

Holding in a sigh, you cleaned up from dinner, and then pulled out the duster to start to clean the house. You were stopped, however, by your mother. 

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“I- I’m cleaning the house…”

“Didn’t you hear me say earlier that I cleaned it? Are you insulting my cleaning job?”

“N-no, I-”

“You what?” Without waiting for an answer, she slapped you across the face. You struggled to remain emotionless; your face stung. 

You thought it was over, but then your father joined in.

“What’s this Jennifer? Is Olivia insulting your hard work?”

“It’s Y/N…” you muttered quietly. Your father overheard and put his face uncomfortably close to yours.

“As long as you’re living under my roof it will always be Olivia. And even if you could change your name, that doesn’t change your gender, freak,” he spat. 

“I know,” you whispered. 

He slapped you.

“Don’t talk back to me.”

Blinking back tears, you stood still as they walked away. Eventually, you remembered the duster in your hand. Placing it back on the shelf, you walked back up to your room, hoping you would be able to escape them for the rest of the night.

-----

The next morning as you and Danny were walking to Julie’s house to go to school, you heard something you hadn’t heard in a long time: music. Julie was singing. 

“Wake up, wake up, if it’s all you do, look out, look inside of you, it’s not what you lost, it’s what you’ll gain raising your voice to the rain.” You smiled. It had been so long since you last heard her voice, and her music was a gift to the world. 

You walked into the studio alone, Danny having gone to talk to Carlos. Julie looked up with small tears in her eyes, seeing you standing there, smiling. She smiled back. 

“It’s so nice to hear you play again.”

Julie smiled wider. “Thanks.”

Just then, Flynn burst in. 

“Carlos told me you’d be out here. We need to talk.” She crossed the room to where the two of you stood by the piano. 

“Are you okay?” you asked, noticing the tears running down her face. 

“No, I’m not okay! One of my best friends just got kicked out of music! I’ve been up all night thinking about what I was gonna say. Might’ve drank seven sodas, but I need to get this out.”

“Wait, I have something to tell you-”

“No. It’s my turn to talk.” Flynn took a deep breath. “You can’t give up music. You’re music’s like a gift, that would be a tragedy. So you’re basically, like, cancelling Christmas, and I love Christmas!”

“Flynn-” you started to say, but she cut you off. 

“Uh-uh! I don’t know why you’re siding with her, Y/N. I know you like hearing her play.”

You knew Flynn didn’t mean to hurt you, but her words stung a little. You nodded once and retreated back into yourself slightly. Flynn was too emotional (and sleep deprived) to notice. 

“When we were six, we promised to be in a band together. Double Trouble!”

“I never agreed to that name,” Julie said, laughing slightly.

“That’s not the point. Jules, if you leave the music program, we’ll be apart forever. That’s just what happens. Sure, we’ll see each other in the hall sometimes, but we’ll have different lives, make new friends…” Flynn said the last part quieter. You could tell she hated the thought of losing one of her best friends.

“That’s not true,” Julie reassured her, but Flynn wasn’t finished.

“You’re right. I won’t be making any new friends. I’ll only have Y/N, and they’re amazing but I’d miss you Jules! And the only time we’ll contact each other is when we’re liking each other’s posts on Instagram. Every time I’ll be hitting that little heart, my heart will be breaking because one of my best friend’s left me, and… do you have any soda? My head hurts.” 

“Can I talk now?” Julie asked tentatively. 

“Fine.”

“I just played the piano and sang again. Y/N can confirm it.” You nodded when Flynn looked at you excitedly. 

“What? Why didn’t you just say so?” She asked, practically bouncing with joy. 

“She was trying to, but then your seven soda’s kicked in,” you answered with a small laugh. 

Flynn was grinning from ear to ear now. “I’m so happy for you! And me! And Y/N!”

You all hugged, but Flynn pulled away quickly, gasping. “We need to tell Mrs. Harrison that you can play so you can stay in school and my life won’t be that sad picture I just painted for you!”

You giggled as Flynn put her arms around both of you. “Y/N, our girl’s back. Double Trouble lives again!”

“Still not our band name,” giggled Julie. 

-----

“Did you end up getting back into the music program?” you asked Julie at the end of your study session for the day. She looked down at her shoes, and you knew what the answer would be before she said it:

“No. No I didn’t.”

You tried not to look too disappointed for her sake. “Oh. I’m really sorry, Jules.”

“It’s…” she sighed. “It’s okay. I can reapply next semester.”

You hugged her. 

“Oh hey, I almost forgot to tell you,” she said right as you were about to walk out of the door. “We decided not to move.”

Despite the news that one of your best friends was no longer in the music program, a smile lit up your face. “That’s great!” you said, pulling her in for another quick hug. Then you walked out the door, not wanting to be late to pick up Danny. 

-----

“Check it out, yeah we make ‘em say Wow!” Carrie bowed as her band, Dirty Candi, finished their dance number. You were at the spirit rally, saving a seat for Julie and Flynn, who were nowhere to be found. 

Suddenly Flynn plopped down beside you. 

“Oh hey, where were you?” you asked the girl.

She tried to blow a piece of hair out of her face, frowning slightly when it wouldn’t move. “I was in the band room. I wasn’t feeling very… spirt-y.” You both chuckled slightly. 

“Where’s Jules?” You looked around for the other girl, but couldn’t see her. 

As if in response to your question, music filled the gym as someone started to play the piano on the stage. You looked up to see Julie, alone on stage, with a spotlight on her. 

“Sometime’s I think I’m falling down, I wanna cry, I’m calling out, for one more try, to feel alive,” she sang, her voice echoing slightly as it filled the room. You smiled, happy she was singing again. 

Then suddenly, there were three boys on stage with her. 

“Whoa!” Flynn exclaimed.

“Where did those boys come from?” you asked in amazement. Julie seemed a little shocked that they were there too. One of them, the lead guitarist you guessed, started singing the second verse. 

“In times that I doubted myself, I felt like I needed some help,” he sang. 

“Whoa, he has a really good voice,” you said, your mouth hanging open slightly. 

You found yourself staring at him as the song went on. You could tell that he really enjoyed playing, and found yourself getting caught up in the music. 

“And rise, through the night, you and I, we will fight to shine together, bright forever!” Julie harmonized with the boys, finishing the song. You started clapping with the rest of the crowd that had gathered to watch, proud of your friend.

Then, as suddenly as they appeared, the boys were gone.  

[katrinawritesthings]

Jonghyun / Taemin; bridging parallels ; nc17

jonghyun and taemin live in the apartments across from each other and jonghyun has been watching taemin climb out of his window and sneak out of the house several times a week for years ever since they were both in high school

for summer of shinee 2021 : )

Him and Taemin text still. Not often, and when they do, it's never really a full conversation. Mostly just memes shared at 2 in the morning, small talk, happy birthdays. Look at that dog texted fervently at 7 p.m. On a Thursday dragging one of them at light speed to their window to obey. Taemin makes his way into one of Jonghyun's articles again, this time a little spotlight of his work as a choreographer for an entire show.

Jonghyun has known Taemin since they were kids. Apartment neighbors, kind of. Jonghyun is 408, Taemin is 718. The way the apartments are set up, Jonghyun can sit at his bedroom window, look outside, and see Taemin's bedroom window across the way and one floor down. They go to elementary school together, then middle school, and then high school. They have one or two classes together over the years. None of that really matters because they never really talk.

What was the homework texted here, our mutual friend both invited us to the same party there, look at that dog shouted into the space between their windows at 7 p.m. On a Thursday one time in 8th grade. Whatever.

Even when Taemin starts sneaking out at night, the summer after sophomore year, 15 years old, it doesn't magically make them have a speaking relationship. All it does is distract Jonghyun as he's sitting at his window sill, scented candle lit, summer reading program report under his hands. Distracts him and makes him drop his pencil four floors into the bushes that line the building.

He doesn't watch it long enough to see it hit the ground. He's far too interested in watching whatever the fuck Taemin thinks he's doing. He's clambering out of his window, his third-story window, nothing but a concrete drop below him, and then he's actually climbing up, up the wall, up the building, up three floors until he's hauling himself up onto the roof.

When Taemin makes it up there, he rolls out of view over the ledge, but then his head pops back over. He looks all the way down, and even from far away, Jonghyun can see the huge smile spread over his face. His hands slap excitedly on the ledge before he stands up, turns, and disappears again as he jogs away, the high kick of his ankle behind him as he stumbles a step the last thing that Jonghyun sees of him.

Until he sees him sneaking out again the next night.

It doesn't become a nightly thing, but it is still regular enough that, every night when he's at his window sill with a candle and some writing, he’ll glance up at any movement he sees across the way just in case. It doesn't stop when school starts back up again, either. Sometimes Jonghyun will watch Taemin clamber out of his window, up the building, and disappear on the roof one night and then watch him sleeping on the bus the next morning, wondering how many hours he actually got. Sometimes he'll be up late enough to watch Taemin sneak back in, a descent three floors down from the roof that stops Jonghyun's heart every time.

School goes on. Jonghyun takes storytelling electives; music, ceramics, creative writing, art. He reads comic books, watches anime, looks up walkthroughs of video games that he can't play himself. He gets detention one time for being late and a kid sitting next to him offers him some weed, which he tries but doesn't really like, but that kid helps him through some spontaneous crying a few weeks later so they become pretty close and he winds up being the designated driver to a bunch of stoners. His dad moves out, his sister moves out, his sister moves back in. He picks up a part-time job at a music store during his senior year to help with the bills.

He sees Taemin around every now and again. They have ceramics together, for one. Taemin sits at another table with his own group of friends, but he smiles and says hey to Jonghyun when they wind up in the glazing room together. He comes into Jonghyun's job sometimes, looking over new album releases and buying everything a particular band puts out.

Jonghyun sees Taemin dancing during school pep rallies, assemblies, during rehearsals and the big night for a talent show they're both in where Jonghyun almost cries on stage because he's so nervous to be playing one of his own self written songs in front of people. He cries backstage instead and they still don't talk, but Taemin offers him a quick hug as they pass, hand rubbing over his back, and then he's gone before Jonghyun even really realized he was there in the first place. Later that night, Taemin sneaks out and then back in again within an hour.

And that night is also the first night that Taemin notices Jonghyun watching him. It’s just as he’s putting his hands on his windowsill to hoist himself up that he hesitates and, for a reason that Jonghyun can't come up with, looks directly across the way at Jonghyun.

He jumps when he sees Jonghyun, like he's startled; Jonghyun waves, a little confused, a little amused. Taemin looks down, covering what has to be an embarrassed smile with his hand.then Taemin looks up, waves back, and clambers out of his window and up the wall like usual. After he reaches the top, he peeks his head over the edge for the first time since that first night. Jonghyun leans just a little bit out of his window to smile and wave again. Even with all of the distance between them, Jonghyun can see the flash of his smile as Taemin taps two fingers to his temple and flicks them off in a salute.

From that night on, everytime that Taemin sneaks out, they wave at each other.

They graduate; Jonghyun with okay grades and Taemin with probably the same. Jonghyun doesn't go to college or anything. He upgrades his job at the music store to full time and does some freelance work online writing articles about art events and festivals in the area while he tries to work on his own stories in his free time. Taemin doesn't leave town either, because he still climbs out of his window and disappears over the roof on a regular basis. It's not until Taemin comes into the music store one time to buy a new CD and Jonghyun recognizes the logo on his hoodie as belonging to the local dance theater that he figures out what Taemin has been up to lately.

And it's not until they happen to both wind up in the little corner store down the street from their apartment complex at the same time that they have their first real conversation.

Jonghyun is there because he wanted snacks and his sister wanted snacks and he lost the rock paper scissors to decide who would go out and get some. Taemin is apparently there to buy some booze because he's standing in front of all of the refrigerators and contemplating the selection when Jonghyun opens one next to him to grab a couple bottles of soda.

"Oh, sorry," Taemin says, glancing at him and stepping a little bit away, and then, brighter, "oh, hey Jonghyun."

"Hey," Jonghyun says back, pleasantly surprised to recognize him. "Party?" he asks, nodding at all of the liquor. Taemin shakes his head, tells Jonghyun that he's just looking for something fun and fruity to enjoy by himself in his room sometimes. For self-care, he says. Jonghyun tells him he gets that and taps the glass in front of one of his favorite fruity boozy drinks in recommendation. Taemin shrugs and takes his word, opening the refrigerator and pulling out the bottle without even really looking at the label or anything on it. Then, after a moment's hesitation, asks, "how old are you again?"

"20," Jonghyun tells him, smiling a little sheepishly. "Maybe I ask my sister to buy me alcohol. Don't tell anyone."

And Taemin's response to that is a snort, a broad grin, and a hand slipping into his back pocket and pulling out his wallet. "As long as you don't tell anyone about this," he says as he pulls out his ID card from its clear plastic flap, slots it in with all his other cards, pulls out a different ID card, and puts that in the flap.

The blunt casualness of that whole exchange surprises a laugh out of Jonghyun, one that sounds loud in the quiet little store. He doesn't try to stifle it; has never really tried to stifle his laughter. Still chuckling, he offers up his pinky to Taemin to promise. Taemin looks at him, looks at his pinky, covers his mouth and nose with the back of his hand for a moment, then links their pinkies together.

Taemin buys his alcohol and leaves the store before Jonghyun finishes picking up all of his snacks, but he sees Taemin ahead on the sidewalk on the way back and jogs to catch up with him.

"Don't go climbing out of your window after you drink any of that," he says, worried halfway through the sentence that maybe he's overstepping but finishing anyway. Taemin does that thing again, where he looks down and rubs his nose, and is the first one to offer up his pinky this time.

Taemin picks up a fashion for denim-on-denim, leather, spikes. Dark clothes, baggy hoodies, lots of rings. Beanies, worn-out shoes. Jonghyun attaches himself to big comfy sweaters, turtlenecks, bracelets cinching over the sleeves. Ripped jeans, snapbacks, boots. Taemin lets his hair grow out until it fans out around his face, soft and wavy, then cuts it short into a choppy bowl cut and a crisp undercut. Jonghyun tries out an undercut too, finds he likes it, experiments with dying his hair every couple of months. Taemin has some new piercings–shark bites, cheek studs, spikes through his ears. Jonghyun has some new tattoos–words on his arms, permanent bracelets around his wrists, planets on his side, a starscape on his back.

Jonghyun starts teaching guitar lessons at the music store to kids on the weekends. His mom gets promoted at her job. They stop struggling as much, settle into something almost resembling financial security. He keeps freelancing and in one of his articles he writes about a culture show the dance theater is putting on. In the picture that runs with the article, Taemin is standing on the end, smiling with his arm around a fellow dancer, doing a victory sign for the camera.

There's a queer club down the street from the music store that Jonghyun goes to sometimes. He makes new friends, has a couple of casual hookups, has a cute girlfriend for a while but things don't really work out. It's fine between them after. Taemin almost has a cute date friend one time, but that doesn't work out either. Jonghyun knows this because he watches the whole thing happen from his window sill.

He's there, writing notebook under his hands, scented candle next to his elbow, just like every night, and Taemin is suddenly there on the roof. Except, for once, he's not alone. Someone else is with him. A little taller, thick dark hair spilling out of a pulled up hoodie, and that's about all Jonghyun can see of them. The pair of them sit down on the ledge, feet dangling over nothing, close enough that their shoulders almost brush every so often.

Jonghyun doesn't mean to snoop, or eavesdrop, or anything. Taemin's love life is his own business. It's interesting, yeah, to watch them stargazing and talking together, but Jonghyun really is only glancing up at them every couple of minutes to distract his brain a little bit so he can focus on his writing without getting distracted a lot by something else. And it just so happens, that during one of those glances, Taemin tries to make his move.

It's not much of a move; a purposeful bump of their shoulders, a rub of his nose with the back of his hand, something said to make them look at him directly. More quiet words, a leaning in–not all the way, but enough to be clear–a tilt of his head like he's asking a question, and then.

And then. The other person leaning back, shaking their head, covering their mouth with both hands. Quickly they reach for Taemin's hand, holding it tight as they speak earnestly, as Taemin nods up and down and tugs his hair at the back of his head where they can't see.

They sit together for a little while longer after that, but a barely perceptible distance apart now, enough space that they don't accidentally bump shoulders anymore. Then the other person stands up, starts to walk away. Taemin turns and takes their hand, carefully, asks them something that they nod in agreement to. Taemin drops their hand, flops his own hands into his lap. The other person walks away, and then a minute later, Taemin falls back, sprawls himself out over the roof until all Jonghyun can see are his legs still dangling. They kick in the air for a few seconds before flopping limply back down in defeat.

Jonghyun looks back to his writing with a shake of his head. Poor baby.

He doesn't see Taemin sneak out for a couple of weeks after that. Then, another night, another candle, another page of writing, he glances up and finds Taemin sitting at his window, arms crossed on the windowsill, face nestled in his elbow, cheek smushed up as he pouts out at nothing. Jonghyun can't help it; he smiles at the image.

"Hey sorry about your heartbreak dude" is what he texts to Taemin once he finds his number buried in all of his contacts, an entry probably put in during high school for some project that neither of them remember. And then he just watches, waits, until Taemin leans away from his window. A moment later, Taemin returns, and this time he's holding his phone and looking up at Jonghyun. Jonghyun waves with an apologetic little shrug.

"Damn you saw that??? " Taemin texts back. Jonghyun replies that he did indeed see it and offers more condolences. Taemin's sigh is audible to Jonghyun even from so far away, but he replies anyway. They talk about nothing, really; Taemin asks what Jonghyun is always writing about and Jonghyun tells him. His book that he's been working on for a while. The one where he wanted to write a love story but wound up accidentally writing a breakup scene in the first chapter and then just went with it. Taemin seems to take some comfort in hearing about a failed romance.

The night after that, Taemin climbs out of his window again.

Him and Taemin text still. Not often, and when they do, it's never really a full conversation. Mostly just memes shared at 2 in the morning, small talk, happy birthdays. Look at that dog texted fervently at 7 p.m. On a Thursday dragging one of them at light speed to their window to obey. Taemin makes his way into one of Jonghyun's articles again, this time a little spotlight of his work as a choreographer for an entire show.

Jonghyun's manager gets fired for tax evasion or some bullshit and suddenly he finds himself as the manager instead. Not because he's super qualified for the job, but because he's worked there for the longest, almost 11 years, and the rest of the employees are mostly part-time high school kids. All of a sudden he has all of these duties and responsibilities that he doesn't know what to do with, on top of dealing with the mess that his old boss left him with. The first thing he does is give himself and all of the employees a raise, which at first gets him a serious reprimand from upper management of the store chain, but he doesn't give a shit and the next month he gets praised for reducing customer service complaints and boosting product sales.

One night Taemin comes into the music store to buy a new album from his favorite band a couple weeks later than Jonghyun was expecting him to. Usually he shows up on day one; when Jonghyun mentions that to him, he rubs his nose with the back of his hand and shrugs, mumbling something about a giveaway online and shipping problems. Jonghyun chuckles at that, mentions that the cardboard stand that they have in the store to promote the album is free for him to take, if he wants it. He's the manager. He can do that now.

Taemin's eyes widen behind his bangs, his teeth flash in a huge smile. He thanks Jonghyun emphatically, grabs the stand, and walks out with it, holding it in front of him as he goes and biting his lip.

Jonghyun finds himself thinking about that later in bed. Taemin’s teeth biting into his bottom lip. Digging into soft, plush pink. He looked different today. Something about his face, his nose. A nose job, Jonghyun guesses, something to change the tip of his nose from a cute soft hook to a cute round end. He dropped his shark bite piercings at some point and replaced them with studs. two silver squares on each side of his bottom lip, matching the ones that dimple his cheeks, the sets that outline the tips of his eyebrows. Matching the ones lined up below his collar bones. Jonghyun could see those in the dip of his v-neck.

The piercings won't leave his mind as he tries to fall asleep. Heavy silver, bold, striking, a statement of toughness outlining his delicate features. Jonghyun wonders how they feel, if he ran his fingers over them would they be cold or would they have absorbed Taemin’s body heat. He makes the mistake of wondering if Taemin has matching studs on his hips and realizes with a start that he's running his fingers over his own lips, imagining how it would feel if he were to drag his mouth over them.

Face hot, lips tingling, Jonghyun rolls over in bed and tries to think of anything else.

It works. For a little bit. Until the next day when he waves at Taemin as he heads out for the night. Then he's thinking about them again. Then he's thinking about what kind of noises Taemin would make if Jonghyun kissed his piercings. About how much deeper, huskier Taemin's voice sounded in the store. It had to have been that deep the last time they talked, the last time Taemin came in to buy an album, but–if it was, Jonghyun doesn't remember noticing or caring as much as he does now.

This new realization has him trying with all his heart to think about himself, what it means that he's gone his whole life without knowing that he had a thing for piercings, what it means if it's not the piercings and it's just Taemin, what it means if he suddenly starts lusting over the boy next door.

This lasts for about two more days until he gets tired of it and decides to just do something about it.

So the next time he catches Taemin about to climb out of his window a little bit after midnight, he waves frantically to get his attention. Taemin stops, looks at him, smiles, waves back. Jonghyun beckons towards him, trying to communicate that he wants him to come over without shouting. Taemin points at himself then over up at Jonghyun, tilting his head; Jonghyun nods eagerly, beckoning again. Without a moment of hesitation this time, Taemin nods and holds up one finger.

He climbs up his building, and then instead of disappearing away from Jonghyun, he walks along the edge. Jonghyun leans a little bit out of his window to watch him all the way down to where the parallel lines of their apartment buildings turn into a U for him to cross, until he gets too close to Jonghyun's side to see anymore. Then, a minute later, there's a crunch of shoe against brick outside his window. He moves his tealight candle out of the way and Taemin slips into his room feet first.

"Hey," he says. "What's up? Can I smell?"

A finger with chipped black nail polish touches next to Jonghyun's tiny candle. He has studs on the backs of his wrists too. Jonghyun lets him smell with a warning to be careful not to spill it, and then tries to figure out a way to say what he wants to say tactfully. He didn't think this part through. It's not really his style to come up with detailed plans, just to try things out and see if they work. Finally, after a bunch of starts and stops, half asked questions, an exasperated sigh, he just says, "do you want to make out?"

And in the silence after the question, in the dim light of his desk lamp, Taemin's tongue wets his lips.

"Sure," he says.

Nice.

Sure turns into Taemin in Jonghyun's lap, turns into Jonghyun gliding his thumb over the studs under Taemin's lip, turns into Taemin cupping his face and pressing their mouths together. Kissing turns into Jonghyun's hands sliding up under his shirt, turns into Taemin groaning the hottest noise Jonghyun has ever heard into his mouth, turns into him standing with his sweater half way over his head frantically whispering to Taemin that his bed is too squeaky and his family is trying to sleep.

He takes Taemin to the floor, sits on his hips and grinds down while Taemin fumbles with his own belt buckle, hands bumping Jonghyun's cock through his pajama pants. Jonghyun hadn't meant for this to happen, wasn't planning on fucking Taemin, but he doesn't want to stop.Taemin doesn't either, says god no when Jonghyun asks and that's enough of a reason to Jonghyun to keep going. He's pushing Taemin's shirt up while Taemin is trying to reach up onto his bed for a pillow, and it's rushed and it's messy, but Jonghyun discovers that Taemin not only has studs along the V of his but also one over his belly button, bars through his nipples, and, best of all, when he pulls Taemin's pants down, four of us small silver balls like an X around the head of his cock.

Lube from his desk, three fingers deep into his own ass, thumb tracing over every piercing on Taemin's hips, so hard it hurts, almost delirious with want, Jonghyun barely hears Taemin when he says, "I've always thought you were cute."

The piercings in his collar bones glint in the light, his skin glistens with summer sweat, the sharp angle of his jawline, the shadow of his adam's apple bobbing in his throat, the raw edge on his voice as he says, "I've always liked you, ever since we were kids, I've always–I don't know when it turned into a crush, but I–god that feels so good. Oh my fucking god." Halfway down Taemin's cock, Taemin grabs Jonghyun's hips and pulls him down all the way, knocks the breath from his lungs. "Jonghyun," he says, "more."

Jonghyun gives him more until he can't anymore, until his thighs are burning and his arms are trembling. Taemin removes the effort for him by turning them around until he's on his back. Taemin fucks him like that, tries to kiss him more but quickly gives up and buries his face in Jonghyun's neck instead. With "you're perfect, you're perfect, you're so fucking perfect, " breathed under his ear, Jonghyun hooks his leg around Taemin's back, pulls him in harder, faster, whispers his own pleads back, begs Taemin to bite him, bite his neck.

Taemin bites him, hard, and that's how he comes, body frozen underneath him until he goes all the way limp, only barely registering in some faraway part of his brain Taemin's choked breaths and the warmth pooling inside of him. He's weak, hazy, loopy, giggling, and Taemin's gentle hands are on him again, picking him up, putting him on his knees, and Jonghyun is glad to obey, glad to do whatever the fuck when he's this blissed-out.

Quiet curses as hands smooth over his back, the softest "oh, wow," whispered as fingers trace his constellations, and then the deepest groan as Taemin's tongue touches his skin. Jonghyun's eyes fly open, his voice rises three octaves, he slaps both hands over his mouth to stifle the noises he's making, noises he’s never made before in his life. The moment that he realizes that Taemin has a tongue stud is the moment that everything goes white, and then the next moment, everything goes dark.

The next morning he wakes up alone, in his bed, pajama pants back on, candle burned all the way down to nothing, window closed. He's not angry, or hurt, but he is a little grumpy all day long until he walks up to the entrance of the apartment complex after work and Taemin is sitting on one of the big potted plants outside the door.

He stands up when Jonghyun gets close to him, presses a large jar candle of the scent from last night into his hands, and, blinking a mile a minute, blurts out, "hey, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for last night when I told you I was in love with you and then fucked you and then panicked and left," to which Jonghyun, baffled, wracking his memory, replies, "did you tell me you're in love with me?"

Which kicks Taemin's blinking into overdrive, starts up a long, stammering babble that Jonghyun can confidently say he understands about 20% of. After a minute he realizes that Taemin isn't going to stop, so he interrupts him by asking, "Taemin, do you want to go on a date?"

A few days later, they share a mountain of fries on an outside table at some burger joint. Taemin, embarrassed, reading notes from his phone, admits that he's had a crush on Jonghyun for what feels like forever but was always too shy and infatuated to make a move. Jonghyun, embarrassed, scratching the back of his head, admits that he just got suddenly horny for the piercings one day and was a little too impulsive in making his move. Both of them, laughing, agree that it would probably be nice to work towards a middle ground together.

And it is.

[bowieandqueen11]

Break Things / Billy Hargrove Imagine

Request: Hii! Could I please request Billy (Stranger Things) being a huge dick to you for months since he’s come to Hawkings but then one night at a party, both drunk he admits he likes you? Please and thank you❤️ 

Of course love, thank you for requesting! I’ve really missed Billy

Comments are much appreciated!

You never expected to end up at Dean Brauner’s house on this Friday night, but that was Hawkins for you.

You were too busy spinning around in circles on the dancefloor with Nancy, Steve glancingly warily, as if almost afraid of the unity the two of you held from where he stood at the punch ball. The strange, gloopy, scarlet liquid bounced out of over Nancy’s solo cup, splashing down on her fingers and staining the front of her cream blouse as she swished her hips. She stumbled against you as the night began to reach its climax, giggling as her forehead hit against her shoulder and the two of you stamped on the foot of poor Jason Miller. Laughing, she wraps her arm around you, slow dancing with wilting hands before nodding off against the dip of your chest.

‘Nanc. Nanc!’

You shake her gently, eyes fluttering open before closing once again.

‘No, Nanc! The night’s not over yet!’

She hiccups slightly as she pushes up and off you.

‘I’m gonna go to the b-bathroom. Maybe...maybe sleep.’

The bass thumped in time with your heart beat as Nancy walked off, faltering with every step towards the stairs. You go to catch up with her, but stop when you see Jonathan Byers grab onto her elbow and help her start slowly away from the roarous noise of a bunch of drunk teenagers.

Over the roar of music, you could hear a distant, hazy chatter. You couldn’t make out any words, but harshness rang in your ears and wouldn’t seem to stop. The song that was playing got louder, pulling you in and wouldn’t let go. You rolled your eyes, believing Billy Hargrove would, of course, always be the main culprit of any disruptions, of any fights that broke out among the Hawkins High students.

Billy Hargrove, the man who had body slammed you into your locker during the first day of school because he ‘hadn’t seen you standing in his way’. The man who sit down in front of you during lunch break just to blow cigarette smoke in your face with a laugh. The man who then, later, when skipping class with the next skyscraper hair girl he had found to play tonsil tennis with, would flick said cigarrette buts out of his hand and onto your leg. In all honesty, he would say, he hadn’t even seen you sitting next to Steve Harrington on the bleachers.

Little did you know, that Billy Hargrove was trying to distract himself from how deeply, and utter terrifyingly much he was falling in love with you. He couldn’t get you: little, unknowing you out of his mind, and it was driving him insane.

The crowd here was so jubilant, singing the songs that belonged to the inebriated and joyful, so annoyingly happy. They rubbed shoulders, never minding that their toes were often trodden on or that they were in closer proximity to these strangers than they usually were every single day at school. The atmosphere was one of elation, the warm summer air occasionally punctuated by whoops and hollers.

Billy dropped down off the keg stand, finding a high, the only form of elation he could in his life from the roars of the boys around him as he saunters inside cheering. He reaches up to pull down the bunting that lines the ceilings, gritting his teeth in drunken victory. He buttons back up his shirt, hoping no one could see the slight red mark, the last remaining bruise in the shape of Neil Hargrove’s hand, but being too buzzed to fully care.

He sees you wander over to the pizza table from across the room, stepping on scattered cups and pieces of popcorn that litter the wooden floor. He frowns slightly as he watches you go, trying to draw his eyes away with a feeling he can only guess is close to some heartbreaking kind of longing. He snarled to himself, beating his chest and slapping Dean Mibrow on the shoulder as he passes by. Thinking about you too long reminded him of his mother: the things he wants most in life, will only break his heart in the end.

But the thought of the giddiness he would feel from just the touch of your skin muzzled his higher thinking in much the way the mass of beer he had just downed was. With his primitive brain in charge and the flood of endorphins urging him to continue he was swept away in the moment with his girl, his love. He was intoxicated.

Deciding which topping of pizza was going to be the best tasting one right that second, you don’t even notice John slide up to you, eyes glancing at your cheeks. He flashed you one of those signature half smiles that Hawkin heartbreakers were famous for, shifting closer towards you until his hand reached up to brush against your neck.

‘Hm, you smell delicious tonight, Y/n.’

‘And you’re drunk, John.’

He shoves his hands into the pockets of his football jacket, shrugging slightly. He couldn’t mask the look of slight annoyance that flitted over his face, however.

‘Maybe, but that doesn’t mean you have to be such a prude Y/n.’

‘Excuse me?’

You shivered as you tried to dodge the hand to started reaching towards your thigh.

‘I said-’

Before he could even reply, his body was flying forward onto the counter as Billy grabbed him by the scruff of his neck. Billy pinned him down, not enough to hurt him, but as his face loomed over John’s grimacing one, it was enough to instill fear into the jock’s heart.

‘You want to say that again? Say that shit one more time, I dare you.’

His voice was almost inaudible against the thumping music, but it was enough to make John’s legs start shaking from underneath Billy’s vest. You grab onto his arm, crying in surprise when Billy nearly rips his arm away, but he softens slightly under your touch.

‘Billy, it’s okay, everyone’s just really drunk. It’s fine.’

Billy’s grip falters as you grab onto his hand, one eyebrow twitching in confusion. When he realises that you’re not tugging away from him in disgust, he slowly interconnects his fingers with yours, letting his grip on John’s collar go.

‘Fine, but I’m giving you a ride home.’

~

The two of you just sit for a while on the hood of his Camaro, Billy kicking at the gravel with his boot as you just wonder. Wonder what on earth Billy Hargrove was doing.

‘Why are you being so nice to me. You hate me.’

Billy’s fingers reach behind him through the rolled down window to fumble with the radio buttons, switching the channels until he finds the track on the CD he’s looking for, ‘Kickstart my Heart’ by Motley Crue, turning it down slightly until the musical notes begin to blur in with your synchronised breathing.

‘I don’t hate you, Y/n. I hate most people in this shit hole town, but you’re not one of them.’

‘And you’re drunk as well, Billy.’

You smile at him warily, your heart beginning to pound at the hope that fills his swirling eyes, flecked with little pieces of gold as he looks at you like one of those hopeless romantics in a love movie, his chest shaking with each breath. Neither of you dare to move for a second, and all that can be heard between the two of you is the gentle hum of his engine.

‘And you’re warm.’

It takes you a second to realise what he means, before Billy’s forehead is resting gingerly on your shoulder and his arm drapes around your lower body. His fist is still trembling, slightly red against the knuckles as he grinds his teeth, scared by this moment of vulnerability. His voice rumbles against you as he continues,

‘And you’re beautiful.’

‘W-what?’

‘I didn’t tell you, because I don’t deserve you.’ He ducks his head for a second, his breath warm against your arm as he blinks the tears that rise up in the corner of his eyes away. ‘I break things, Y/n. All I do is break things, and you’re too perfect for someone as damaged as me.’

You laugh lightly at his nervous expression, wetting his plump lips almost subconsciously. He takes a deep breath in, staring at you with such an intensity you couldn’t place, but were willing to take a chance on.

‘I didn’t know you were soft for me.’

His smile faded, his expression growing deep. His eyes stared intently back at you, examining you, surveying you. His eyes travelled down to your lips, slowly pushing forward until his nose bumped against your forehead.

‘Only for you. But if you tell Harrington, you’re still dead.’

Buy me a Coffee?

[lgbtyrus]

TJ’s Playlist (Final Ep Anniversary Bonus)

So it's been a year since I cried to the finale because tyrus was canon, and I wanted to travel back in time to some of the happiest memories I had because of this show. I had a thing in Macaroni's POV, but it was a little lame and didn't want to finish it so I went this route instead. It's also always bothered me that this story ended on 19 chapters, and I thought this was the perfect chance to even it out with a perfect 20. If you're reading this, I love you very much and thank you for coming back (or getting here for the first time). Goodbye to TJ's Playlist for real now <3 

Ao3 Link | Wattpad Link

-

TJ ran down the hall, pushing by students who couldn’t get out of his way fast enough. It was the last day of middle school, and everyone was lingering behind to say goodbye to their friends who might go to a different high school. TJ had been doing the same before remembering he had promised Cyrus he would meet him up front.

Cyrus was standing with Buffy and Marty, laughing at something one of them said when TJ caught up. “Hi,” TJ told him, bending over to catch his breath. “Sorry I’m late. I forgot how fast time can go.”

“It’s fine.” Cyrus smiled. “I wasn’t going to leave without you.” Cyrus reached over to hold TJ’s hand, making him smile.

Buffy said to Cyrus with a grin, “So yard sale?” Cyrus’s neighborhood had a large yard sale once a year, and they chose the last day of school to do it. Cyrus’ parents invited all of them to take their things to sell.

“Yes! Come by with anything you want to get rid of,” Cyrus replied. “I’m so excited. It feels like a cleanse and the first step into high school.”

“Can’t wait,” Buffy said. “I’m going to stop by home first for my stuff, pick up Andi, and meet you guys there.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Cyrus said and gave her a thumbs up. They said bye to Marty and Buffy who walked off holding hands, leaving TJ with his boyfriend. Cyrus turned to look at him and asked, “So. Did you think about it?”

TJ bit at the inside of his cheek for a moment. “I did.”

“And?”

“I think I’m going to sell them.”

Cyrus jumped up. “Yes? Really?”

“Just the repeats!” TJ smiled, taking a step back to avoid getting stepped on.

“Yes, that’s amazing. That’s perfect. The people in the neighborhood are going to love you,” Cyrus said. “We’ll look up the value of every single one before we set them out.”

“Already did that. That’s actually the reason why I decided to sell them.”

“Are they worth a lot?”

“Not as much as the cameras would be, but it’s a decent amount of money to pay for basketball camp.” TJ and Cyrus started walking away from their now former middle school, not looking back.

“How long would you be gone for?” Cyrus asked him.

“Three weeks. We can handle that, right?” TJ asked him, squeezing his hand. The coach at Grant High School recommended he go to basketball camp to secure a spot on the varsity team the next year, but it was a little pricey even with both of his parents working at the time.

“Of course.” Cyrus squeezed his hands back, smiling at him. “Let’s go get your things.” After going through his GG’s stuff for the first time, TJ realized there was a lot of valuable items that included comic books and vinyls. He was letting go of all the comic books because he wasn’t interested in that, but he didn’t have the desire to let go of any music. There was more vinyl’s in the attic than he realized and even though he didn’t have a player, he wanted them for the day he did have one.

Cyrus was talking to TJ about his last day of dance and how he wasn’t looking forward to regular PE at all as they headed to the Kippen’s house. “I need to have PE with Buffy at all costs next year. If not, I’ll definitely get picked last for every team.”

“You’re already stressed out for PE next year?” TJ snickered. He knew Cyrus well enough at this point to know his fear of public humiliation in PE was insurmountable “You need to relax a little. It’s summer break.”

“I know, but I tend to plan every minute of my future and PE is an inevitable part of it.”

“Let’s make a deal. You put off thinking about PE until a month before school, and I’ll let you be there when I get my report card in the mail.” TJ liked to open his report card alone considering he has done really bad in math in the past, but Cyrus really wanted to see how much TJ had improved now that he had a proper tutor.

Cyrus hummed to himself before saying, “Deal. But only because I can’t wait to see the look on your face when you see how well you did.”

“My C average does bring out my best smile.”

“All of your smiles are your best smiles.”

“You literally told me my dancing to old music is my best smile.”

“It’s a little biased because you dance with me.”

“It does make me smile when you slow dance with me,” TJ admitted to him. Cyrus smiled, blushing at the comment and making TJ’s heart skip a beat. There hadn’t been a single day where TJ doubted his feelings for him.

-

They got to the Kippen’s empty house, Macaroni the cat waiting in the yard. He was jumping after a grasshopper before he saw Cyrus and TJ come up. He ran to Cyrus and meowed, making him grin. “Hello, friend,” Cyrus said as he bent over to pick him up.

“Needy,” TJ muttered to Macaroni as he roughly petted his ears. Macaroni swatted at TJ who pulled his hand away on time.

Cyrus held Macaroni closer and said, “You have to be gentle with him. He’s old.”

“He’s okay,” TJ said, sticking his tongue out at the cat. He went to go unlock the door while Cyrus asked Macaroni about his day. The cat simply purred in his arms.

Inside, Cyrus put him down and followed TJ without asking upstairs to his room, little footprints tapping against the wood floors. Cyrus felt like the Kippen’s gothic house was his second home. It was Halloween themed according to his parents, but he liked the charm it gave off. TJ’s parents were younger than his after all and when the air was clear, it was fun to be there.

TJ had two boxes on the floor ready to go. “Can you take the vinyl one? It’s lighter,” TJ asked Cyrus as he picked up a box.

“For sure,” Cyrus said. He got the box and looked around the room that seemed to be more crowded as TJ dug out things from the attic. It made Cyrus smile every time TJ called him with a new discovery. A new photo album from the 70s. More polaroid photos he took of TJ and Amber when they were little. A random trinket TJ thought was cool. One time he didn’t find anything of his GG’s. He found a bunch of new t-shirts from his dad’s old band and a few CD’s TJ couldn’t stop laughing at for an hour. His dad was in makeup that really did make him look like a vampire.

Cyrus said goodbye to Macaroni who rubbed against his leg before walking out with TJ and walking down to his house. Around the block, people already had their yard sales open and people from all over Shadyside were visiting there. Even though TJ lived so close to him, his neighborhood seemed to be a completely different world from his. TJ didn’t know his next door neighbors, and he had just found out a month ago that Marty had lived across the street from him practically his entire life.

They got to Cyrus’ house where his parents had set out tables. Cyrus’ old toys and clothes were out and ready to go to new homes. He gave up most of his children’s books, but he kept a few favorites just in case he ever had kids to read them to one day. “You’re selling all your Pokemon cards?” TJ asked him as he set his box on an empty table.

“There will be someone who appreciates them more.” Cyrus then added, “They’re also fake.”

“Dollar store packets?” TJ smiled knowingly.

“Yes!” Cyrus laughed. “I always wondered why the ones at Kmart were more expensive and now I know why.”

“They were still fun to play with, though.”

“I honestly never learned how to play with them,” Cyrus admitted. “I just liked looking at them.”

“That’s me with my vinyl records right now,” TJ said. “I opened every single one of them because some had notes and receipts from GG. Some silly stuff like saying to pick up my grandma from school or just lists of other singers.” Cyrus stared at TJ as he set out the records, wondering if now was the time to give him what he just bought him. He wanted to hold out for his birthday but watching TJ talk about the vinyl’s made him realize how much listening to that music meant to him.

“There’s actually something I want to give you,” Cyrus said.

“Now?” TJ raised an eyebrow.

“Think of it as the first part of your birthday present.”

“First part? Of my birthday present? My birthday that’s in July?”

“Yes. Yes. Yes,” Cyrus nodded. “So, do you want it or not?”

“Can it be the only gift you give me?” TJ asked him.

“Of course not. The other thing is on its way already.”

“Oh god, Cyrus. You really didn’t have to get me anything.”

“Says the guy that gave me a present everyday of the week leading up to my birthday.” TJ smiled, Cyrus knowing that he finally got him to give in.

“Fine. Surprise me.”

Cyrus took TJ’s hand. “Come on! I can’t wait for you to see it.” Cyrus led TJ inside his house where they walked past his parents, TJ barely able to say a full hello to them. They went into his room where Cyrus let go of his hand and dug through his t-shirt drawer where he pulled out a wrapped present.

“You already wrapped it?” TJ asked, smiling as Cyrus handed him the box.

“Had to be ready just in case you ever found it.”

“You’re the one that snoops through my things, not me,” TJ reminded him.

“Just open in,” Cyrus said impatiently. TJ put the present on the bed and started ripping the wrapper. With a single tear down the middle, TJ knew what it was and gasped.

“Cyrus,” he whispered. “You really shouldn’t have.”

“I wanted to. Really badly.” TJ finished unwrapping the green record player and held out the box in his hands, staring at it in awe. “Now you can listen to everything your GG left you.”

“Yeah,” TJ said with a smile. “I really can.” He put the box down and went over to face Cyrus. “Thank you so much.” TJ bent down and kissed him, both smiling into the kiss.

“You are very welcome.”

TJ held onto Cyrus’ hand and told him, “Let’s go play some music.”