#anyway yeah: listen to garbage (the band)

[gentleoverdrive]

[4/300] It makes me sad most of the time.

My wife is fast asleep, so I am going to let you in on a little secret, dear reader: You see, my wife? I love her. She literally saved me from falling into irreparable despair and burnout, and for that, she will have my eternal loyalty, both as a life-partner, as a lover, as a husband, as a friend, you name it. ---- I want you all to know this because, despite what I've written about in the past or what I will write about in the future, I am, indeed, a most fortunate man, and I genuinely, un-ironically and unconditionally love my wife with everything I have. She is my girlboss and i am her malewife. I tell you this as a secret because I know for a fact that, just like my daughter, she's not all that fond of social media, so it's unlikely that she'll ever read this, but I want YOU to know. ---- I want you to know that I, a rando on the internet you may have at some point interacted with. is indeed non-ironically blessed to be married to the woman whom with I shared three of the craziest years this period of history has decided to throw at us. And if I ever came to that same crossroads, I would, no bullshit, pick you again as my life partner. I love you. ---- And to my secret keeper(s)? Thank you so much for reading, I'll read you later. alligator!

[ragsy]

Heeheehoohoo what if I said you should do the whole thing for dogmark now

scoundrel. SCOUNDREL.

are they associated with a certain color? what color do they wear the most?

Muted, grayish blues; midtone grays; blood red.

what sort of music would they like? have you thought about what genres or bands do they lean towards? do they have a favorite song?

He never really grew a music taste of his very own, most of his music listening is either a) the radio (so… whatever the hell anyone broadcasts on the radio anymore) or b) the music of whoever he's spending time with. He's more partial to a rock sound palette than anything else, but if someone decides to put on folk or pop or nightcore he's not going to complain

weapon of choice? any particular reason they chose their weapon?

Teeth and claws. He hates that he has to use them, but they have saved his life on multiple occasions. Also, recently, he's been coming around to enjoying using them.

The rest under the cut 👇

how crafty/resourceful are they?

More than fairly! He has a solid foundation of camping/survival skills, and he liked to tinker a lot when he had the means to do so. Nothing super ambitious, but he can fix a leaky faucet or replace a headlight bulb for you.

how do they typically dress? does their wardrobe lean more towards practicality or aesthetics?

Outdoorsy and practical. Layers. Cotton tees, flannel shirts, denim jacket, jeans or canvas cargo pants, beanies. Almost all of his clothes are thrifted and/or a little threadbare, but he doesn't have a lot of money and he has even less space to store more than what he needs, so it is what it is.

He's mostly given up on owning a decent pair of shoes because whatever he buys, no matter how well they fit him, will just fall right off when he shifts into dog mode, and then he either has to carry them until he puts on human mode again, or he has to just leave them.

how do they wear their hair? do they care a lot how their hair looks?

Short and a little messy, but he rotates between that and way overgrown on a roughly one-year cycle. He doesn't take very good care of it when it's long, so it gets full of tangles and snarls that mean it just needs to be cut short again and start over.

favorite animal? why?

before his curse, he was really fond of dogs, but now, in his dogman world, he hates admitting that fact. "God, yeah, what the fuck am I supposed to say? I'm a dog person? Fuck. Christ. Yeah. I fucking am. Goddammit."

do they have a nickname? who gave it to them? if it's not derived from their real name, what's the story behind it?

Mark is technically a nickname since his full name is Marcus, but a lot of people just call him Dogmark. Or Dogboy. Or Paw Patrol. He prefers to be called Mark. (but if you want to see him audibly gag, call him Mr. Heckin' Pupper out loud)

favorite food? least favorite? are they a picky eater? do they have any dietary restrictions?

His curse changed his taste palette significantly; the only things he can really stomach anymore are meat and bones. Doesn't have to be raw, he can do cooked! And it's not like he can't eat anything else, it just makes him feel like garbage afterwards. And it's not like he ate a lot of vegetables before his curse, but like, it's the principle of the matter, you know? Anyway, he's broke as hell and roadkill is free as long as no one sees him dragging it away, so,

if they wear jewelry, what kind? do they prefer silver or gold? do they have a favorite gem?

Never been a jewelry wearer! He was raised in a household that really valued traditional white masculinity, and even once he'd left that environment, he was never really interested in wearing anything shiny. gold would look good on him though.

what do they have in common with you? how are they different? would you get along with them?

he's way more like me that i am comfortable admitting, lmao. he's kinda like. if i had no introspective skills, no support network, and was just generally way more anxious/depressed. i don't think we would get along; we would get frustrated with each other VERY quickly

how long have they been around? do you know their birthday? is their birthday the day you made them or another day? what do they think of celebrating birthdays?

i have had him as a character for an OBSCENELY long time, lmao. my earliest drawing of him (or at least. recognizably as him) dates back to 2009, but i was roleplaying him through at least 2008, or maybe even 2007.

i've always pictured him as having a mid-to-late December birthday, but beyond that, i dunno. not sure on the year either, he's kinda perpetually in his late 20s/early 30s, no matter what iteration i'm on with him. he's neutral on birthdays; there's never anything in particular that he wants to do for his birthday, but if someone wants to treat him, he won't say no.

what languages do they speak? how fluently?

fluent in english and can understand dog body language, but as he's only half dog, he can't perform the dog body language very well (two legs, no tail, extremely self conscious). they can't undersand his fucking accent

are they any good with numbers?

terrible with them. absolutely dogshit. might be dyscalculic.

how big or small is their family? who did they live with growing up? do they live with anyone now?

medium sized, i'd say. he grew up with his mom, dad, and older brother. he had a couple aunts and uncles on each side, with a medium handful of cousins that he sorta knew, and a further extended family that he maybe met once or twice at the odd family reunion, wedding, or funeral. "right now" is kinda vague canon-wise, but in the motw verse i'm using him in at the moment, he lives alone in a busted up camper fairly close to the taxidermy shop where he works. he's never too far from friends there, though.

do they have any pets? what do they call their pets?

he has no formal pets right now, but there's a stray cat that wanders by the camper every once in awhile who he'll feed meat scraps to. he's given it a name, but it's a dorky anime reference that if anyone found out he would die on the spot.

how did they spend their summers/free time as a child?

he went camping a lot! he grew up in the suburbs, but he really really really loved being outdoors. all well and good, until one of his uncles decided what he REALLY needed was to go hunting. let's hand this scrawny, anxious twelve year old a rifle, he said. that can only go well, he said--

their opinion on lying, stealing, and killing?

lying and stealing? they happen. sucks that they have to, but they do. killing? he will avoid that question like his life depends on it.

are they quick to anger? what sets them off?

he's nearly always a single straw away from total emotional overwhelm, and sometimes anger is what comes out. shivering, seething, tooth-baring anger that can easily erupt into rage if left unchecked. it's one of the things he hates the most about himself.

if applicable, can they drive? if they have their own, what color is their vehicle? is the inside neat and tidy, or a mess?

he's actually a pretty sharp driver; one of those people that just inexplicably have really good awareness of exactly where the edges of the car are at all times. you should see him parallel park sometime.

he used to own a car before he lost everything to his ex; he doesn't miss that car very much though, it was a piece of a shit. a desert mica 1999 honda civic with a broken tape deck and a door handle that fell off every time he locked it. the inside was usually strewn with junk mail and receipts, but otherwise pretty clean.

their favorite place to be?

ideally? surrounded by friends, being held by a lover. right now? by a campfire, listening to the crickets.

do they sleep well at night?

absolutely not. he's a light sleeper, and he's often kept up with racing thoughts and bad dreams. pre-curse, he was absolutely that roommate who you would find at 2am sitting in the dark eating a bowl of cereal to calm his nerves.

how would you describe their voice? can they sing?

his voice is actually somewhat soft and flat, but he stops and starts a LOT and uses a TON of filler words. he's never quite sure of or confident in what he's saying.

i think he would have a very pretty singing voice if he trained it a little bit, but he is WAY too scared of being seen singing. though, he's been known to hum softly to himself when working with his hands.

do they have any creative hobbies? (art, writing, music, etc)

he took piano lessons when he was younger, which he mostly regrets giving up on. beyond that, he's never really been a creative type! he's more drawn towards practical skills like fixing things and surviving.

how good/bad is their hearing? what about their eyesight?

his hearing is GREAT now that he has dog ears, and it drives him fucking nuts. all these higher frequencies he used to be blissfully unaware of that now he has to hear all the fucking time from every piece of human-made equipment ever. his eyesight is okay; it kinda sucks in human mode, but he's been a glasses wearer for most of his life. it's good enough in dog mode that he doesn't need the glasses, but dog mode gives him the gift of dog levels of colorblindness instead. sort of a decent trade off.

how do they move? are they clumsy? light on their feet? do they use mobility aids?

he moves like a deer that's being stalked by predators. sure-footed and tense, ready to sprint away and crash face first into a fence post at a moment's notice.

if applicable, do they have a favorite sport? do they play any sports or prefer to watch?

a youth spent pretending to enjoy the baseball and hockey games his dad dragged him to has left him completely unable to even consider sports as an enjoyable pastime for literally anyone. sometimes, though, he fantasizes about beating an olympic sprinter in a foot race when he runs on all fours in dog mode.

how do they show that they care about someone? how do they express that they don't like someone?

he's not really sure how to show that he cares about someone. the best he can do is show that he trusts them, which is letting himself be vulnerable around them. if he falls asleep on your couch, you know he really really likes you. if he dislikes someone, he'll pretty just flat block them out. blunt, one-word responses, no engagement, as little acknowledgement as he can manage. this can be bypassed if he doesn't like them AND he's scared of them though, because his fawn response will kick in instead.

are they associated with any particular element (air, earth, fire, water)?

earth. a footprint in the mud, a rocky overlook, campfire embers smothered with dirt.

do they smell like anything notable?

pine needles, wood smoke, bug spray, sweat, and a distinct undertone of wet dog.

do they like receiving gifts? giving gifts? what is their ideal gift?

he hates receiving physical gifts, he does NOT know what to do or how to respond. if someone wants to give him something, the best way to go about doing it is either leaving it at his doorstep and hiding in the bushes OR handing it to him, saying "here, thought you might find this useful" and then walking away without another word.

his ideal gift would be something he currently needs or uses, but like. a nicer version of it. a jacket without holes, a multitool, a sturdier backpack. giving gifts is a little harder-- he gets stressed out about whether or not the person receiving it will even like it after he put so much time/effort/money into acquiring it. he'd much rather just do them a favor.

do they have any habits that aren't particularly self-destructive, just maybe odd?

he's generally very fidgety, always readjusting his posture or wringing his hands or rubbing his arms. most of his shirts have a hole on the sleeve in the exact same spot where he picks at the fabric with his nails.

if applicable, how would your other characters describe them? i mean specifically the people around them.

Kenny: "You know, I don't really know! He seems like a fairly private person, I hate to pry. I caught him laughing at one of my jokes once and when he noticed, he blushed so hard I thought he was asphyxiating!"

Sloane: "He's kind of a dumbass. Don't ever let him fire a gun."

how would your character describe themselves? it doesn't have to line up with how they really are.

"God. Fuck, I don't know, can you-… um. Can you ask someone else?"

do they ever return home?

no, but he doesn't particularly want to. maybe his brother would understand what's going on with him, but his parents would only ask the wrong questions.

[geoffrard]

I really gotta hear the drag of im not ok wimpy and weird maaan.

LMAO so geoff told this story here which is an amazing and also kind of terrible podcast that i would 100% recommend especially for geoff lore beginners

to me it's a really funny story but by all accounts geoff feels really bad about it lmao. so, basically, after geoff helped mcr so much with bullets, they sent him the demo of i'm not okay, which he really didn't like when he listened to it lmao. he recalled it sounding "weird and wimpy" on the podcast linked above.

but mcr was really proud of that song, and so they didn't talk to him for a week LMAO. here's him reflecting on that during the talk he did with Sellout author Dan Ozzi last November:

"i think i made mistakes with them as their mentor because i misunderstood what their band was, i think, a little bit....i had a vision for them early on. when i first heard them they sounded a lot like nofx, which is very hard to believe now, and i was like i dunno guys, i don't think you wanna do stuff that's been done beofre. and gerard and mikey i knew very well, and i know how interesting and unique they were. they weren't like 'we're placebo fans, we don't give a fuck about this band and this band.' they wanted to make punk and hardcore music, but they just had a totally different view of it, you know? they were into glam and britpop and that kind of thing, and so i was like, 'i think you wanna draw the band as beautifully as gerard's art, because he's a beautiful artist.' so they came back with the first record they did, and i was really excited for them and i helped them shepherd that through, and when i heard i'm not okay, i told mikey, i was like 'i dunno WHAT you guys did, this shit fucking sucks, it sounds like made-for-radio music, it's garbage, what did you guys fucking DO?' and then like i heard the record i was like oh helena's great, the rest of the record's great, and now looking back, i'm like, i'm not okay's great too, it's just not what i thought they were gonna do. and i've always felt...you know, it's fine, we're good, we're still very good friends, but i still felt, like... that this vulnerable time for them, they were about to put out their major label debut, and this guy that they looked up to was like 'what the fuck is this shit?' you know....like, in retrospect, i was like oh that was a very ungracious, very uncool thing to do."

yeah so, typical geoff shit.

but ANYWAYS the story has a happy ending because theyre still besties and geoff started out his emo nite set after the thursday buffalo show in september with inok and two of my besties @raytorosaurus and @8thnotes got to be there and dance and sing along with him to a banger <3

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 5/9/2023

i almost never devour a book in one sitting without getting distracted, i rarely scrub back to the beginning of a scene to immediately rewatch it, and i have never force-quit a video game in order to immediately replay the level, but all of those things happened this week. cowboy machine go brrr.

listening

wolf by the yeah yeah yeahs (sextile remix). neo noir movie music, long establishing interior shot as you move through a dim mirrored lounge, making eye contact with all the denizens before the diegetic music cuts back in.

rare remix where i like the remix much better than the original. driving and pleasantly jangly, grooveable with some velocity to it. music to feel like a lone wolf protagonist to. spotify link

the release radar is one of spotify's best features and i wish something as set-and-forget existed for bandcamp

reading

Lone Women by Victor LaValle is a gothic horror western. only part of the gothic horror is due to the familial burden placed upon eldest sisters. this book is largely concerned with inheritance, sisterhood and female friendship (in scare quotes and otherwise) but not in a TERFy way.

Adelaide Henry carries an enormous steamer trunk with her wherever she goes. It’s locked at all times. Because when the trunk opens, people around Adelaide start to disappear. (bookshop.org link)

i try to read a couple reviews before writing my own, and there’s been a lot of grumbling that this book is comprised solely of diversity points. to which i say: do you really think interracial lesbians and trans people and autistic kids did not exist in 1915??? this is a pretty typical friend group. the weirdos band together.

i liked this book a great deal and had a good time with it. however, i think the denouement comes together a little too pat. i would have liked this book to be slightly longer than its 306 print pages. there are a lot of characters to juggle and there are two specifically i would have liked to see more so they feel a little less deus ex machina. however x2, i am deeply grateful to LaValle's wife who insisted on this specific ending. there are tragedies that happen in the book, but the book is not a tragedy.

there are in fact a fuck of a lot of threads being carried at all times, despite all these threads coming together somewhat unevenly in the last few chapters. there is a literary sleight of hand so effective (bc you are so relieved a group of characters hasn’t died and THEN so many things immediately happen) that you completely forget to question why the fuck this group left and came back in the first place (although you can come up with a satisfactory answer on your own by like. thinking for a minute). the suspense is sustained and effective as well, i was worried the whole time about something and devoured it in one sitting without getting up (mack, curled up against my side in bed, appreciated this a lot).

how scary is this book? more suspense and dread. there are very few detailed descriptions, there is simply. a lot of blood.

how horny is this book? i do very much like the pair of secondary lesbians (bisexuals? unclear. could be both/either. the distinction would not come for nearly another sixty years anyway). i complain a lot about when women aren’t horny enough, but if you make them both willing to fucking kill in a blink for each other and give me an achingly tender scene like this, im fine with this fairly tame level of horny!

watching

A scruffy garbage boy becomes the pupil of a famed gunfighter, and the stage for confrontation is set when the gunman overruns the boy's town through violence and corruption.

as an orphan with daddy issues, Day of Anger (1967, dir. Valerii) really fuckin hit for me. it's also an a-tier western i would let other people watch, slightly clunky at times but killingly sincere. really fun and unusual jazzy score, good camerawork. i really loved this but am having difficulty explaining why. it's coherent? do you know how rare that is for a spaghetti western???

it also has the best one minute forty-four seconds in any western ever, imo. why the fuck not have a joust!!! i do not watch spaghetti westerns for their restraint or subtlety!!! the HAHAHA SICKOS.meme moments, where it really fucking embraces its genre, are some of the best moments in the film. more FUCK yeah WHY NOT moments in other movies please.

this is one of lee van cleef's three "tutorship" movies (along with Death Rides A Horse and For A Few Dollars More), where he gets paired up with the spaghetti western version of a james bond girl. i don't remember who tagged one of my posts but he really is peak evil dilf here. the way he sets up his own destruction because he as a person cannot do anything else is just. pour it into my open mouth. yes thank you yumyumyum

it is not a complex plot, but thought and care was put into it. scott mary, the van cleef boy in this film, has a real character arc and an ambiguous ending. along with the score and lvc at his evil best, this is a novel example of a spaghetti western. the two-hour cut is here for free on tubi btw.

ty to @pasta-pardner for complaining that no one was talking about this movie, bc apparently that's a really effective hook for me. i love to feel exclusive.

playing

call of juarez: gunslinger, and i have finally determined that it was free on steam a couple two-three years ago and that's how i obtained it. mystery solved.

the conceit of this arcadey episodic first person shooter: you are semi-retired bounty hunter Silas Greaves, telling stories in a saloon to get free drinks out of your audience. the level can rapidly change as Silas' story changes: as he remembers things or as audience members argue with him. this is overall a pretty successful schtick and continues to be silly goofy fun.

i had so much fun with the first train level, where you are scrambling up through a derailed train over a ravine, that i immediately replayed it. i have never ever done this with a video game before. everything feels so precarious, it encourages speed without literally blowing the track up behind you. it is VERY fun to kick down train car doors and go into bullet time. it is VERY fun to defend a tunnel with a gatling gun. imo the sort of gleeful high-velocity gunfights this game wants you to have work best when you are fighting through a fairly contained level like a train-- the maps where you are running and gunning through an entire town can feel a little overwhelming.

the maps are generally the kind of over the top nonsense you expect from a spaghetti western-- in one level you are scrambling around under/on top of/through a giant trestle bridge trying to stay alive and deactivate some dynamite so the bridge and train stay unexploded. you fight through the ricketiest mine you can imagine! you fight on a steamboat beached in a swamp! you fight in a flooded graveyard in the same swamp! this game is not pretty, per se, but it is handsome. it uses vertical space really well.

the level with Indians is both better and worse than i hoped. Silas is after some Apaches who have escaped their reservation, and is sympathetic about them wanting off the reservation, but you sure do have a whole level about shooting guys anyway. this game leans really hard into, like, woo-woo nature medicine man abilities. luckily they are contained to the one level. this is pretty okay for 2013 (a named tribe, a sympathetic portrayal, they are defending instead of attacking or kidnapping) but they could have done better then and they can do better now.

additionally, i have some beef with the duel minigame-- im old. my reflexes are Not Good. there's a mexican standoff where there are three different things to keep track of and i have failed that duel seventeen times. i may be soft-locked due to a skills issue.

making

fallow week. im kind of frozen with fear about moving prep and really need to kick shit into gear despite the fact it is all very expensive and very scary. even when you have local people to look at apartments for you, the mere thought of renting an apartment without like Being There and seeing what the light is like and poking around under cabinets for mold and interrogating the neighbors is deeply uncomfy for me.

but onward! because we have to!

[thessalian]

Thess vs Context

So as I mentioned earlier, the Legend of Vox Machina S2 OST is now out. And the song played when VM takes on the Herd of Storms (called We All Rage, possibly not surprisingly) has just illustrated to me how context can change anything.

I mean, it’s a banger of a song in general, but when you’re not listening to it with the action visuals, you start focusing on other things ... okay, no, sorry, I start focusing on other things; I should not speak for others. Anyway, I also noted that Travis did some of the vocals for that - on further listening, yeah, he’s on the low notes in the chorus.

And then I got to thinking of that video interview thing they did about recording the vocals for the Campaign 2 intro sequence, and Travis bouncing around to the beat while singing it, and then giggling about it. Because that is a Travis thing. He looks like ... well, you know what he looks like. He is a large man, who I know for a fact looks very intimidating when he puts his mind to it (xref: the time he broke a mechanical pencil in half one-handed when Liam had Vax shave off half of Grog’s hard-won beard). But he is also the biggest most adorkable softie in existence.

So I’m listening to this and imagining this dude who looks very much like he could front a metal band of that type growling “We’ve all got to rage, motherfucker” and only getting through it without giggling because he is a professional voice actor, and then imagining the giggling he must have done after. Especially if it took more than one take for whatever reason.

So now I can’t listen to it without giggling unless I’m watching the fight scene along with it. Because my brain is garbage.

[geometropolis]

grt3D episode 12: the logarithm labyrinth

square and droplet were lying on their beds late at night, wide awake. 

“okay, so…” droplet started. “what’s your favorite number?”

“27,” square replied.

“favorite color?”

“gray.”

“favorite song?”

“fallen angle by poison. how about you?”

“well, um… 3, rainbow, and somebody to love by quintuple.”

“i love quintuple!” square exclaimed. “oh, have you listened to their song with data bowie?”

“under pressure? of course!” 

“not to mention other classic bands like fleetwood math, blue öval cult, guns and rulers…”

“i love those! wow, we have a lot in common!” droplet smiled.

“in terms of our music taste, anyway… hey, y’know what else we have in common?

“what?” 

“we’re both pretty darn awesome. we were so on top of today’s challenge.”

“you’re right. i wonder what we’ll do today…”

“nothing a pair of wings can’t help!” droplet’s wings were sitting on one of the empty beds.

“you don’t know that.”

“yeah, no, i don’t.” square sat up. “y’know, if origin already knows every challenge we’re gonna do, i wonder if i can trick him into telling us. so we can prepare ahead of time.”

“i mean we could, in theory. but that wouldn’t be very nice, would it?”

“i guess not…” a pause. “hey, i just realized i’m the only group twoer left. i mean, i knew already that my friends had been eliminated, but darn, they were my whole team then.”

“star and i are the only cool kids. i wonder how he’s doing?”

“you wanna find out?”

“can i?”

square smiled at her. 

the two left the cabin and started walking towards the homeslices’. droplet approached the window and looked through, to see star staring right at her! or… through her?

“aah!” she yelped, falling backwards. 

“golly!” he cried, shaking himself. he left his cabin and joined her outside. “droplet, what in math are you doing here?”

“i wanted to see how you’re doing, that’s all.”

“well i’m doing fine, buddy! bit nervous about tomorrow morning’s elimination, but otherwise, smooth sailing for me.”

“think you might get eliminated?”

“maybe.”

“well, if you do, you’ll get to see heart again!”

star chuckled sadly. “that’s the thing…”

“what?” droplet blinked at him.

“i want to prove to heart that i’ve really changed for the better. i only want to see him once i’m worthy to be his friend again.”

“but you’ve already grown so much, star!”

star smiled. “i know i have. but i want to be even better!”

square was leaning on the side of the cabin. “i think that’s a noble goal,” he said. “good luck with that.”

“hey, you haven’t wanted to win for a while, have you?” star asked.

“nope. i’m glad you two want to, though. hope you don’t get eliminated tomorrow.”

“thanks.” star looked slightly uneasy.

“hey, star,” droplet piped up. “...what’s your favorite song?”

“what makes you beautiful by one dimension. why?”

“noooo!” square cried over-dramatically. “he’s not one of us!”

“next thing we know he’s gonna say he listens to odd sheeran!” droplet chimed in, laughing. “unironically!”

star shook his head affectionately. “good night to neither of you.” and he went back into his cabin.

“i bet everyone else here also has garbage taste in music,” square retorted.

“all the more reason why we’re on the same team…!” droplet giggled.

…

“so, oval… how was your first day of co-hosting?”

“not bad, not bad… well, i guess it was a little rough.”

origin sighed. “yup. that’s just how it is around here… the contestants are always mad about something. and i don’t blame them.”

“neither do i. hey, what’ll we do if möbius never comes back?” oval had a worried expression. “then the winner won’t be able to go to the 3rd dimension… this’ll all be for nothing…”

“there’s nothing i can really do to get in contact with möbius strip, unfortunately.”

“hey, how did you end up working for him anyway? what’s your connection to him?”

“well, hm… möbius strip heard about me from my older sister a while back, and she has basically the same abilities i do. then he used his powers to come here, and he found me, and he told me about this idea he had for a game show. he told me that hey, he could travel between the 2nd and 3rd dimensions, and that it’d be fun if he could have a little competition where a shape could win the ability to go to the 3rd dimension. he just wanted my help with some stuff, and i obliged, as i had nothing better to do.”

“but why you in particular?”

“well, because of my sister he knew about my ability to access the paradox. maybe that’s why?”

“do you not know?”

“no, not really.”

oval was still curious. “how long have you known möbius strip?”

origin paused to think. “well, i–”

“hey guys!” hexagon greeted, hand in hand with octagon. “we’re back to our early morning walks.”

“oh!” oval exclaimed. “good morning, you two!”

“how are you?”

“i’m doing well. hey, glad to see you two cheering up a bit since yesterday morning.”

octagon smiled slightly. “yeah. we’ve had time to process.”

“good thing we did that during the challenge rather than instead of it!” hexagon chuckled.

“yup. we talked afterward too, though.”

hexagon nudged octagon with her elbow. “late into the night…! just like we’re on a sleepover…!”

octagon rolled her eyes but couldn’t stop herself from smiling. “shut up.”

“hey, you think it’s time to wake everyone up?” oval asked origin.

“yeah, um, probably. you wanna do it?”

“sure! i’ll be back in a jiff.” 

as oval left to rouse the other contestants, origin translated over to hexagon and octagon. “so?” he asked eagerly. “what’s up with you two?”

“nothing,” octagon muttered, biting her pacifier. “we’re just…really good friends now. we talk a lot.”

“for hours and hours~!” hexagon said in a dreamy sort of voice. she chuckled. “sorry, it’s just cute when you get flustered.”

“aaugh!! shut up!!!!”

as oval was walking over to the cabins, he spotted something strange behind a bush; he picked it up and tucked it away.

soon enough, he returned to the main field with the other contestants.

“so?” parallelogram asked origin drily. “who’s next on your list?”

origin edged back uncomfortably. “we’ll get to the elimination in a moment. how’s everyone doing?”

“pretty good,” square said. droplet nodded.

“yeah, i’m okay,” star agreed.

“okay, well, yes,” origin continued, “it is time for the elimination.” 

“and the homeslices lost yesterday’s challenge,” oval said. “so one of you will be sent to the paradox.”

“you may take this time to talk.”

parallelogram looked at his teammates. both looked antsy.

“to talk about what?” he asked. “enough with the theatrics, origin. you know who’s being eliminated. just spit it out already…”

origin sighed. “okay… the eliminated contestant is, um… parallelogram.”

“i knew it!” parallelogram cried. “i swear to the primes!”

“i’m really sorry, parallelogram.” origin began to buzz.

heptagon stared up at him with wide, glistening eyes. “parry…”

“take it easy, heptagon,” parallelogram said in a grave voice as he floated towards origin. “and star… figure out what you wanna do, and do it. just make my elimination worth it…”

star nodded silently as origin vanished, parallelogram gone with him.

“okay,” oval went on, “origin told me what today’s challenge is going to be, so i might as well explain it to you all.”

“yeah, go ahead,” square said.

“okay. so just northwest of where we are right now is the logarithm labyrinth.”

“oh, i’ve heard of that place!” hexagon piped up. “it’s this complicated cave system, right?”

“you got it! it’s this system of really intricate caves, like a maze. the challenge will be to get from one end of the tunnels to the other. but what’s important to note is that only one member of your team needs to reach the other side for you to be safe. the last team to have someone get across will be up for elimination.”

“that doesn’t sound too bad,” droplet said. “right?”

origin soon reappeared. “oval, you explained everything?”

“indeed i did!” 

“okay! so i’ll take you all over there. now hold still everyone~!” origin began to buzz again.

“hey, can you not take me?” oval asked. “i just want to walk.”

“oh, okey doke!” the remaining shapes lost their limbs and stuck to origin; together they translated over to the logarithm labyrinth, oval right behind them. 

origin released the contestants, still missing their arms and legs. but before he could use his powers to fix that, a beam of light hit them all. 

“the grapher!” origin gasped, seeing oval holding it proudly. “that’s where that thing went!” 

“i found it by a bush,” oval explained. 

“how about you hold onto it for now? so i don’t lose it again?”

“sounds like a plan!” oval gave him a thumbs up.

“okay, so are we starting?” octagon asked, crowded around the labyrinth entrance with the other contestants who now had their limbs.

“oh, yes! 3… 2… 1… go!”

everyone squeezed through the opening to find a large cavern with many tunnels branching off of it.

“i think we should split up,” square said. “only one of us needs to get to the end, after all.”

“okey doke!” droplet replied. “i’ll see you on the other side!” she popped into one of the tunnels, while square popped into another.

“we should probably do the same,” hexagon told octagon. 

“oh…” octagon frowned. “i thought we’d do it together…”

hexagon paused, then shook herself. “y’know what? yeah. c’mon, octagon!” she grabbed her hand and led her into a tunnel.

star began to go one way, with a sulking heptagon trailing behind him.

“y’know, heptagon,” star piped up, stopping, “we don’t both need to get to the other side. you can just relax if you want.”

“but that’ll lessen your chances of–”

“shshh, i don’t care, dude! i’m still figuring out if i even want to win! just go back and take a nap. that’s the most helpful thing you could do right now.”

star smiled. heptagon’s harshly lined face softened. “...okay. thank you.” with that, heptagon turned back.

“now it’s just you and me, star,” star said to himself. “just you and me…”

droplet was pretty small, so she found it relatively easy to navigate through the tunnels – there were little crevices and narrow shortcuts that few others would likely be able to fit through.

it’s weird going this alone, she thought. it’s for the best of course, but i dunno… it’s weird. hey, what’s that?

she had spotted a crystal poking out of the tunnel’s rocky wall, and marveled at it for a moment.

meanwhile, origin and oval had made their way to the other side of the labyrinth to wait for the contestants as they exited; origin had his camera lens.

suddenly, oval groaned.

“what is it?” origin asked.

“i forgot to tell them all to be careful. sometimes the walls break up and rocks go flying around – i hope none of them get hurt…”

“i’m sure they’ll be fine, don’t worry.”

“you’re probably right…” but oval remained uneasy.

“also, i’m just now realizing that the eliminated contestants won’t be seeing much. it’s not like i can broadcast inside the labyrinth itself…”

hexagon bumped into a wall. “oy vey, a dead end.”

“i guess we should’ve gone right at the fork, not left,” octagon said. “we’ll just retrace our steps.”

“okey doke! you lead the way, octy!” 

the two began to walk in the other direction.

“y’know, octagon…” hexagon said, “sorry for making so many jokes about, um, us being good friends now, and us talking and stuff… you just have such a funny reaction to it!”

“hm.” octagon stopped as they reached the fork in the tunnel, and took the path they previously hadn’t taken. “well, for the record, i’m not actually that bothered by it. i just have to wonder… how is my reaction funny???”

“i dunno, it just is! it’s adorable!” hexagon giggled. “you look away and your face gets all red whenever i so much as mention the fact that we talk…”

“well it’s because you make it sound like it’s a big deal!!! when it isn’t!!!!!” octagon stopped herself and took a breath. “...i just did it again, didn’t i?”

meanwhile, square was traversing the caverns by himself. 

it’s just like the time i was going it alone through the forest for the turf war challenge, he thought grimly. the other three are in the paradox without me… i wonder if they miss me…

he soon found himself at a dead end and shook his head. “how many dead ends has this been? 5? screw this.” he kicked the rocky tunnel wall in frustration.

a distant rumble could be heard…

heptagon had just exited the cave. suddenly, the tunnel walls that had just enclosed him broke up into rocky pieces, blocking the passageway. 

“geez,” he muttered to himself. “i got out just in time.”

hm, he thought. where would it be easiest for me to relax? should i stay here? or go back to the cabins? or go around to where origin and oval are? …i’m overthinking this, aren’t i?

so heptagon simply sat down right by the labyrinth and closed his eyes. 

hexagon and octagon were still chatting as they made their way through.

“guess what!” hexagon exclaimed. 

“what?” octagon responded.

“i heard that droplet won the citywide storytelling contest this past year.”

“oh really? wow.”

“yeah. and kite got first prize in a creative writing competition.”

“have you gotten any awards?”

“well…” hexagon chuckled sheepishly, “maybe a few…”

“wait – you’re the one who won the citywide spelling bee five years in a row! that’s you!”

“the one and only!”

“that’s crazy!” octagon nudged her affectionately. “you’re like a celebrity!”

“hey!”

“when we get back i have to get your autograph.”

“knock it off!” hexagon nudged her back. “i bet you’ve gotten your fair share of achievements yourself.”

“you don’t know that!”

“oh c’mon octagon, you’re a smart cookie!”

“so you’re gonna steal me? you cookie thief?”

the two burst into laughter.

“but really,” hexagon continued. “i bet you got straight As in grade school. gold honor roll. ms. valedictorian herself.”

“yeah, you got me…”

“what was your score on the SAT?”

“1520. why?”

“oh my primes!” hexagon laughed. “you’re insane!”

“no, you’re insane!”

at the same time, star was walking through the tunnels at a casual pace, talking to himself.

“it’s been, like, a week since heart was eliminated. that’s crazy, man! hey, this place looks familiar…”

he found himself in a large cavern.

“i’m right back at the beginning, aren’t i!” he exclaimed. “lol, oh well…”

star began to pace back and forth in the empty space before him, thinking to himself.

i only really signed up for this whole thing so i could hang out with him, he pondered, so i could hang out with this IDEA of him. i had just attached myself so strongly to the idea of a perfectly happy, carefree heart… when that isn’t real. there’s no perfectly happy, carefree star either. 

“what am i doing with myself now?” he said aloud. “i don’t know if heart and i will be friends after this… but that shouldn’t be all i’m thinking of. i need to do something with myself.”

he looked toward one of the tunnels.

“i need to win.”

droplet had found a multitude of crystals in the labyrinth walls. and they were colorful! everything in geometropolis was gray, minus its inhabitants – so droplet’s eyes were wide in awe at the sight of these marvelous gems.

the crystals made a path through the caverns which she followed eagerly. much to her surprise, droplet saw the light creeping in at the end of the tunnel! she had found the exit!

“AAAAAAAAAAAH!” 

droplet jolted at the sound of the cry. it was square!

she ran back through the tunnels and finally reached her teammate, surrounded by broken cavern walls.

“what’s wrong?” droplet asked. “i heard you yell!”

“one of these rocks crushed my foot,” he groaned. “but i’m fine. sorry to worry you.”

“just glad you’re okay.”

“how far along were you?”

“i just found the exit…”

“oh…”

meanwhile, hexagon and octagon were continuing along at a steady pace.

“it’s hard to say who’s the toughest competition,” octagon said. “most of the others still in the game don’t really want to be.”

“i suppose you’re right,” hexagon responded. “square? no. heptagon? definitely not. star? not sure, but i don’t think so. as far as i know the only one who really wants to win is droplet.”

“hm.”

“i guess my toughest competition is you!” hexagon elbowed octagon playfully. 

“...hey, i think that’s the exit!” octagon pointed ahead towards the light.

the two made it out of the labyrinth to greet origin and oval.

“and nothing without pentagon is the first team safe!” oval announced. “congratulations! now it’s down to go the DSTance and the homeslices!”

square sighed. “i’ll make my way. but go without me, droplet. i don’t want to slow you down.”

droplet hesitated. “okay.”

she ran off to find the crystals again, and noticed a flash of pink ahead of her.

“star!” she exclaimed.

he barely caught a glimpse of her as he sped past. “droplet!”

“it looks like a race between the last of us cool kids!”

“indeed it does!”

droplet was on star’s tail, but she couldn’t catch up to him. she spotted a little crevice in the wall and jumped through the shortcut, emerging a little ways in front of her old teammate.

“you’ve always been the inventive type!” star exclaimed, “but i won’t let that stop me!” he jumped ahead of her and kept running.

the two were coming up on the exit, lined with crystals sparkling in the light. 

“i never knew you were so fast!” droplet huffed.

“i’ve never had a reason to run!”

“and there we go!” oval exclaimed. “the homeslices are safe! that means go the DSTance is up for elimination.”

droplet emerged from the labyrinth mere seconds after star and collapsed in exhaustion. 

“that was epic,” star said, helping her up to her feet.

“hey,” origin started, “where’s heptagon and square?”

“square’s still inside,” droplet replied, an edge of concern to her voice. “his foot got smooshed by a rock… he’s coming out, but he’s probably going pretty slowly.”

“and heptagon’s somewhere,” star answered, “just not in the labyrinth. i told him to go take a nap.”

“where did he go?” origin asked.

“dunno. i thought he would’ve gone to you, but maybe he just plopped down by the entrance.”

“okay. hm, i have an idea…”

origin started buzzing; star, droplet, hexagon, and octagon all lost their limbs and stuck to him at once – and soon enough, square and heptagon were dragged over to him as well, like metal to a magnet.

“oh!” square gasped. “my foot can’t hurt if it’s gone.”

and so origin took the contestants back to the main field while oval followed behind him, using the grapher to return the arms and legs to his fellow shapes.

“does your foot still hurt?” droplet asked square.

“nope. it’s good as new. hey, sorry we lost.”

“it’s fine. anyway, it wasn’t your fault.”

square shrugged. “i dunno, it feels like it is.”

“well möbius strip is wrong. no need to feel bad.”

droplet smiled. square smiled back. “if you say so.”

octagon and hexagon had been chatting ever since they had emerged from the logarithm labyrinth, and continued to do so as they went to their cabin.

“so what about that autograph?” octagon asked cheekily.

“what do you want me to sign?” hexagon replied, grinning.

octagon lifted up her pacifier. “this!”

…

“AAAAH I HATE MӦBIUS STRIP I HATE THIS SHOW I HATE EVERYTHING!!!!”

“...hello to you too, parry.”

parallelogram suddenly rushed over to kite. “primes, how i’ve missed you! geez!”

kite chuckled. “i’ve missed you so much… hey, crazy to think heptagon is the last one of us still standing, huh?”

“yeah… he’s a good guy. he doesn’t deserve this.”

“you don’t deserve this either.”

“yeah, i don’t. screw möbius strip!! that pathetic jerkwad!!!”

“kinda hope he never comes back. origin is a much better host.”

“you got that right! but then the bar is incredibly low.”

“true.”

soon enough all of the inhabitants of the paradox gathered round to watch the contest – only to be treated with a static view of the mouth of a cave.

“this isn’t very exciting,” triangle said. “y’know what? how about we go over the standings again?”

“sounds like a plan,” trapezoid replied. “so who’s left?”

“we have hexagon and octagon on nothing without pentagon, square and droplet on go the DSTance, and heptagon and star on the homeslices,” rhombus said. “pretty interesting variety.”

“three who really want to win and three who really don’t…” heart murmured. “and yet all of them are d-doing pretty well for themselves.”

“we can all agree that heptagon does not want to be there,” rectangle said, “like at all. i’m on the fence about square – he came to the competition with the intention of winning, so i’m not ruling out the possibility of that coming back.”

“and he is a pretty darn good teammate,” trapezoid noted. “we should definitely watch out for him.”

“how about star?” pentagon asked. “i’ve never known what’s going on with him.”

“yeah, he’s a bit of a mystery,” circle said, “surprisingly enough. why is he here?”

“well, um…” heart started, “he j-just came here to have fun with me. of course, heh, at this p-point it’s clear that that didn’t really pan out…”

“so what’s he doing now?” parallelogram asked. “do you think he might want to actually win now?”

“maybe. he’s never cared about that kind of stuff before… but i d-dunno, things have changed.”

“hm.”

“well, okay, so we can put heptagon at the bottom,” kite concluded, “but from there it’s hard to tell. maybe we should go from the top down?”

“i’d say hexagon and octagon are at the top of their game,” triangle said. “those two are probably the ones to beat at the moment.”

“who would you say is stronger?” rectangle asked.

“i’d think hexagon, only by slightly,” rhombus interjected. “both are very strong, and work incredibly well together, but octagon seems to be a bit more volatile emotion-wise. hexagon has a better handle on things like that, at least generally speaking.”

“you’re not wrong,” trapezoid conceded.

“not to mention how hexagon is good at being sociable with anyone, while octagon’s only just getting used to this type of thing. once teams dissipate, which i’m assuming they will soon, hexagon will have more flexibility in terms of making alliances.”

everyone seemed to agree with this.

“so on top is hexagon and octagon,” circle restated. “then who?”

“rectangle’s right in that square might rediscover his desire to win,” parallelogram noted, “but as of right now? he still doesn’t really want to. he has potential, but at least in the current moment, square would place pretty low.”

“and i’d place star right next to him for the same reason,” kite said. “things have changed and he’s changed, but nobody has any clue what he’s really been up to lately or what he wants. at least up until now he has yet to definitively say he wants to win, but i could see him pushing through if it did come to that.”

“then droplet would g-go right below hexagon and octagon,” heart continued. “she isn’t the most skilled or experienced, sure, but she’s incredibly creative and great in teams – and she really does w-want to win!”

the group continued to discuss the state of the competition despite having little to no idea what the current challenge was. eventually, however, go the DSTance ended up losing.

“so…” triangle started. “how have things changed in the past 5 minutes…?”

“star is up,” rhombus said. “way, way up.”

[theworstzangooseever]

Daily VGM #11: No no no you don’t get it, it’s not YICK, it’s WHY-TWO-KAY.

 Yeah. If you know this game you know it likely because of me, but today I’m gonna be talking about a couple tracks from YIIK, A Postmodern RPG! YIIK is a game that has been through the wringer. It got reviewed preeeetty dang badly, and for good reason (mostly). The combat was slow and awful with action commands that took forever, that if you didn’t do you would physically do no damage at all. Or even if you DID do them, the amount of damage you’d do would still be miniscule on occasion. The EXP and levelling system was pretty interesting, but had garbage execution as well. But one thing I will still hold dearly is the writing.

Whenever you look up reviews of YIIK, the writing will be the first thing you see a good 90% of the time. Namely, the writing of the main character, Alex Eagleston. People really hate Alex, for the fact that he’s a whiny, insufferable person to listen to, who acts like the fact that he went to college just to get a liberal arts degree means he can make every conversation an essay, with a word count inflated with repetitive words like you would do back in middle school to pad out your paragraphs to reach that ~5 sentence per margin. Hell, all of the dialogue is voiced, which is impressive, but most of it is Alex’s thoughts. You might think “oh, this sounds insufferable,” and well.. Yeah, it is. But, it’s on purpose. Please stick with me here.

Without spoiling the plot and what all happens in the game, the general gist is, Alex finds a missing girl while skirting around his chores, and sees her be taken away by some interdimensional beings. He makes it his mission to find this girl.. Simply because she showed a little interest in speaking to him. Alex rounds up a friend of his, and goes around the fictional world of New Jersey, rounding up a small band of misfits that can hardly stand being around Alex, but do want to stop whatever supernatural force is at play. Multiple scenes play out where Alex prods too deep into people’s lives, then try very hard to come onto said people he’s prodding at (even being very racist to one of them at one point early on), with the iconic line of;

“Hey, dude, cool it with that. No one cares about your sister, right now. We almost just died ourselves!”

To someone who found the place where their sister took her own life. Yeah, it’s deplorable. Alex is an absolutely awful person, and the party does tell him off multiple times.

Anyway. You like leitmotifs?

The theme, Alex Eagleston, is well, Alex’s theme! The leitmotif for this song plays in a handful of others around the game, echoing this feeling of self-absorption that Alex exudes. The theme itself is goofy, but at the same time has that feeling of a ballad. It’s sad, in a way. Almost like Alex is sulking as this plays, as if he’s sulking in a corner as the chorus of “la-la-la-la” is sung at him in a mocking sense. 

The Machine and the Krow is less using the leitmotif, and is more an expanded version of the song. It sounds even more somber, using way less instruments than Alex’s theme, but with the addition of lyrics, seemingly talking about a girl, a robot girl at that, who was the best friend of the singer, that hurt said girl, who proceeded to short out as water was dumped on her. Or perhaps she was crying? As well, there seems to be a much worse friend that was in the picture.. A crow, we can probably guess. 

There’s also the title screen track. It’s a much more atmospheric and chill version of Alex’s theme. It almost seems to distort a bit as it gets to the second half, like how Machine and the Krow got sadder as it went on, and like how Alex’s theme got progressively more and more mocking-esq. It’s interesting to me, in that sense. 

Fighting the Fat One is a battle theme, for a change! It’s a very goofy and fast rendition of Alex’s theme. It’s used in a battle where you’re fighting a personification of Alex’s laziness and stubbornness, which is nicely reflected in the bombastic instrumental, which gives off a vibe of “I’m better than you, and you don’t know better about me than I do!” Which, for the fight you’re in, makes a lot of sense for the battle at hand.

Alex of Pretense Battle is.. Less nice to listen to honestly. But still gotta talk about it. It is once again a battle with the inner self for Alex, the part of him that is prickly and ends up pushing those away from him because of his inability to let go of things before he pushes those away from him that matter most. Hell, the latter half of this song sounds a lot like the final boss theme, The Twisted Beings. The track sounds, as a commenter put it,

“This sounds like they put like 4 chrome tabs of various final bosses from other RPGs and just kinda rolled with it “ -Aiden Ortega And.. Yeah. Not to excuse how goofy it sounds, but I’m gonna do that. The Twisted Beings is once again, a fight against an Alex. The most Alex of all Alexs. With Alex being a huge video game nerd in the 90s, it makes sense that this sounds like a hogepoge of multiple old final boss themes, he’s a huge nerd. He’d want his boss theme to be better than ALL of those bosses. 

---

This went on for a really long time. Listen to Little Eyes with me as I write the last little bit here, which almost sounds like a ballad from Alex himself, regretting all he’s done. 

YIIK, A Postmodern RPG is an absolute mess. There’s no denying it. It’s almost like a Sonic game, with absolutely amazing music but hardly much else going for it, aside from whatever the cult following might love. The criticisms for everything, say the writing, are completely on point. The script isn’t perfect, but it’s not the travesty everyone likes to say it is. Alex is a very purposefully written character, you’re SUPPOSED to dislike him. He’s not a obvious villain like other antagonists, he’s just your run of the mill scumbag that you’d meet in an actual college campus. 

YIIK is getting a huge free update in the form of YIIK I.V, which acts as half an overhaul, half a sequel, which is going to completely overhaul the combat, add new context to story elements, and overall expand on the story and world that’s there. I’ve been rooting for it ever since I learned about it, even if it did just start out as me wanting to be a crappy little devil’s advocate. 

Thanks for reading this far. Go check out YIIK. Not yet though, when I.V is done.

[medicatedonwater]

Dies ist nur ein music review

So sometime last year i met this rad girl who also listened to warped tour bands. As she described it it’s like she started in the 2010s or something and just never stopped. And for me, I started around 2009 like rly seriously playing the 04-06 albums on repeat playing halo and suddenly clicking with “The Phrase that Pays” by The Academy Is…

That song totally kicked off a series of me getting hella invested in punk rock / emo / etc but i never had like an actual scene phase and i’m living it now haha. I so wish i’d listened to the albums these songs had come from. I wonder how it could have influenced my life back then, but whatever, i’m still here now and finally getting to it!!

I at first wanted to listen to all the Warped Tour Compilations and i was sad to see FUCKING TWTTR killed warped tour. fkn garbage fire site. (well, warped tour SHOULD be coming back next year and i am so hella hyped i can’t wait to get the most exquisite sunburn as i claw and scrape my way to the oasis that is a hose of fresh? water.)

I quickly got through all the warped tour albums from 1996 through 2018? 2019? lotsa music i missed out on. stuff i really wish i *had* been around for but most of the 2010s is voided out for me, between floundering around in college and part time jobs and rediscovering alternative music around 2015. This project intends to listen to the full discography of *every* artist with a song on a warped tour compilation. I’m skipping the DVDs but also including the punk-o-rama albums which did a crossover with warped tour in 1997, and including the european and australian tours cuz why the hell not. Throwing in the local stations top songs list starting at 1997 cuz of how much they’ve influenced my modern taste in music. I’m mostly using spotify - for artists not on spotify i’m just listening to the album (or single/EP) that particular listing came from. youtube is clunky as hell with no background play and i need some form of organization and spotify i have hella mix CDs on…

Anyway, the first album is Punk-o-rama from 1994, with FUCKING, BAD RELIGION. OH MY GOSH IVE WANTED TO listen to these guyses discography for AGES.

I honestly, like, right out the gate they’ve very politically on fire, like, they’re saying the kinds of things people need to fucking hear. they’re so real for it, and as they grow older some of the stuff is kinda tamer, the sound softens a bit, but hot damn if “the kids are alt-right” doesn’t point out the ongoing problems that still need solvation.

and of course they’ve got the classic crazy taxi songs too :D (omg can’t wait to hear the offspring tooooooo)

I recall the warped tour i attended back in 05 that bad religion had performed there the previous day. I don’t believe they were there for that particular warped tour date tho. I would absolutely love to see them live or at the very least get some merch :3 they’re just so, raw. so real. “Punk Rock Song” is still stuck in my head, and i’ve already moved on to NoFX (which, holy fuck they start out crass but mb it’s the bias speaking… they get good FAST)

Bad religion was a great time through and through, ramping up to No Control with some real bangers. Against the Grain had the song “21st Century (Digital Boy)” which I’d all but forgotten about since my first exposure to it nearly four years ago. Stranger than Fiction and The Grey Race had some of my old favorites like “Infected” and “Ten in 2010” with “Gods Love” coming along in 2003. New Maps of Hell for whatever reason lives in my head as a rly good album.

A lot of that early energy was really important for setting the stage for an awesome presence.

Apparently liked 98 Songs… this may go down over time but hey, they’re good. heck.

The particular showing for Punk-O-Rama was “Do What You Want” from Suffer in 1998. Can’t say I entirely remember the track, oh wait hang on, guess i’ll break all the fucking rules and go to hell with superman!! yeah no this song is lit af. love this scene. i gotttttta see these guys at some point.

Next on the docket is NoFX… I’m to “Usa-Holes” off Wolves in wolves clothing.

See, I knew I was amongst cool folx when i went to a party and this dude had a bad religion shirt.

Looking forward to more from this project!

OH, I TOTALLY FOUND TOUR WATER THE OTHER DAY AND IT FKN AWAKENED SOMETHING IN ME.

[jeffgrant4real]

Thoughts on the new Vampire Weekend album Only God Was Above Us

Wednesday, April 10, 2024 2:08 PM

Okay, so I don't subscribe to any music streaming services. I'm a cheap person. Also whenever I have I always forget and then never listen to anything, you know how it goes. Maybe a year ago I decided I would just buy whatever music I wanted to listen to, because my consumption these says is pretty low and I just missed that old thing of owning music I liked. And yeah, I buy very few albums at this point.

All that to say when I saw Vampire Weekend was putting out a new album I PREORDERED it as soon as I could. This is probably my favorite current band, or the best one I know of as a guy who doesn't follow music as closely as he used to. They take like 5 years to put out an album and then when they do every single song is this perfect little masterpiece where every second of it has been deliberated over and from a production point of view it's just fascinating and inspiring. Or, you know, actually, after listening to the album I went back and listened to some of my own music I'm currently working on, that I've felt proud of, but all I wanted to do was toss it in the garbage. Ha. So maybe "inspiring" isn't the right word. Humiliating? Hmm.

Ezra Koenig is a songwriter I have a lot of admiration for. He writes the most thought-provoking lines over nonstop, earworm melodies. It's extremely catchy music filled with massive ideas. This new album is a lot about looking back at the old world you loved and maybe feeling disconnected to the current one but ultimately letting all of that go. It's a meditation on nostalgia and who gets to make the rules, how all of this is passed on generation after generation, and how things become "classical", to cite a specific song.

Sonically, this is a much more abrasive album than their 4 previous releases. Deterioration is a theme both lyrically and in the music. I think that could throw some listeners off but keep in mind this is all intentional and a part of what they're communicating here.

I got into this band around the release of their 3rd album, Modern Vampires of the City, after completely missing the first 2. MVOTC has been my favorite so far, a modern masterpiece in my opinion. After being so impressed by it I went back to their self-titled debut and Contra and was once again blown away. This is a band whose worst songs would be the best in another band's whole career. I will say I'm kind of glad I got into them late because I may have written them off early on if I only saw the preppy, Ivy League thing and didn't know it was partly a joke. I think that image is the first thing many people think of if you mention the band and I often want to tell them to take another listen. This is one of the great modern bands. If they keep going they're going to be putting out worthwhile music for a very long time. They've just got all the right parts and the creative talent is substantial. To put it more succinctly: if you think this is just some millennial hipster band you aren't seeing the full picture; these guys are lifers and we're lucky to get to listen to them.

Anyway, their previous album, Father of the Bride, was a change of pace after losing Rostam Batmanglij, a key band member and producer. It was more expansive, with 18 tracks, and more experimental after the tightness of the first 3 albums. I love probably have of it and like the rest. Some songs are some of the best they've ever put out but it's pretty uneven overall, I believe intentionally so. I think they wanted to try different things and poke around in directions they hadn't gotten into before.

Only God Was Above Us feels most connected to MVOTC, which for me personally is fantastic. I honestly don't know, after just a few days, which is my favorite but I'm pretty sure they're numbers 1 and 2 for me. I kind of over-listened to the 4 singles when they came out, almost to the point of burnout, so right now I'm trying to hear them in the context of the whole 10 songs and I think I'm in an adjustment period. Ha. Right now my favorite songs are "Ice Cream Piano", "Capricorn", "Prep-School Gangsters", "Mary Boone", and "Hope". I'm curious how the album will feel in a few months but I'm sure this will be one of my favorites of the year, if I even buy anything else. lol

[minniesmelody]

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗴𝗶𝗿𝗹 𝗻𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝗼𝗿

𝙋𝙖𝙞𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 : Eddie Munson x Female!Reader

𝙎𝙪𝙢𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙮 : Someone moves into the trailer next to Munson’s, Eddie soon finds out the newly moved in girl next door shares the same interests as him.

𝙒𝙖𝙧𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 : a cuss word, that’s it :)

𝙋𝙤𝙫 : third person

••••••••••••••

The last thing Eddie expected to see when he returned home on a rainy night after a game of D&D was to see a car parked and trailer sitting in what was empty lot next to his own trailer him and his uncle lived in. But there is was.

The trailer was slightly bigger than his and looked newly remolded and in better condition than his own.

He was about to enter the trailer but stop suddenly when his eyes spotted someone in one of the windows of the trailer.

There sat a girl who looked like she could possibly be around his age. She was just sitting there looking out the window with a Walkman, just sitting there staring at the rain.

“Eddie? Is that you? Are you coming in or what?” Uncle Wayne shouted from inside the trailer.

“Yeah it’s me, sorry” Eddie said while walking inside and placing the keys to his van on the kitchen counter. “New neighbors I see” he said while opening the fridge door.

“Yeah, moved in this afternoon. A father and daughter, daughter looks like she could be around your age, I haven’t given that warm and loving neighbor meet and greet as of yet so I don’t know all the deeds of them and why they decided to move into this shitty trailer park.” Wayne said as he pours himself a glass of whiskey while Eddie got himself a can of Coke.

“Yeah I saw the girl, should probably introduce myself tomorrow before everyone starts telling the poor girl all the things that normally get said about me and all the names of course.” Eddie said as he walks down the hall to his room, setting down the can of Coke on his nightstand and getting ready for bed, thinking of the mysterious girl in the window next door to him.

___________

“Y/n, do you mind taking these empty boxes outside with the rest of the trash for me?” Y/n’s father said “thanks” he said as she picked up the broken down boxes and started to carried them outside.

She threw them by the rest of the garbage, not caring if anything happened to it while she threw it since it was trash anyways. She started walking back to the trailer until-

“Not much of friendly neighbor huh?” She turned towards to voice which came from the trailer next to hers to see a boy with frizzy hair and smirk plastered on his face leaning up against a van that looked like it took a trip to hell, ran over a deer and came back.

“Not really, I don’t really like talking to strangers so-“

“Well then maybe we don’t have to be strangers, ever think of that?” He said to her while shrugging his shoulders.

She just gave him a raised eyebrow and look as if she was tell him to go on with whatever he wanted to say.

“I’m Eddie, Eddie Munson” he said while walking towards her and offering a hand out.

She looked down at his hand for a few seconds before looking back up and looking him in the eye. After a few seconds she slowly placed her hand in his and shook it gently.

“Y/n, Y/n Y/L/N”

“Pretty name” Eddie said while letting go of her hand.

“Thanks I guess” she said while crossing her arms, wondering where this introduction will travel to.

“I saw you last night, you looked like you were spaced out”

“Maybe i was, what’s it to you?” Y/n said with a slight bit of annoyance in her voice.

“Ooo she is feisty, I like it. I also saw your Walkman too, listening to anything good?”

She studied his face for a few seconds before answering.

“A lot of Black Sabbath, some AC/DC, some Billy idol and Pseudo Echo”

“Pseudo Echo? Never heard of them” he said with a confused yet intriguing expression on his face.

“It’s a Australian new wave band, I got into them after their song ‘his eyes’ was featured in the latest Friday the 13th and um- yeah no it’s uh- good band I guess” she said while looking down and playing with her fingers and chuckled a little before speaking again “I liked the song so much my dad got me the record with the song on it”

If Eddie was being honest, he was only listening to half of what Y/n was saying, too focused on the fact a pretty girl with such a pretty name had the same interest in music as him.

She had finally turned her away from the ground and back up to him.

“You wanna bring it over to my place sometime so I can listen to it with you?” He said with a small smirk, a gentle smirk.

She stared at him like she had just laid her eyes on the most amazing and understanding person in the world, which maybe she did, in her eyes at least. She slowly nodded.

“Great, so then I’ll see you around then?” He said while slowly backing up.

“Yeah, yeah for sure” she said while turning her heel and walking back into the trailer, a smile plastered on her face knowing this could be the start of a nice friendship, maybe something more one day. Whatever it will be, she had hope in it.

••••

A/N- I hope you liked it! I apologize if it was extremely short, I’m still getting back into the grove since I took a long break from Fanfiction writing but I’m glad to be back! I used to write Draco Malfoy Fanfiction but the Draco malfoy fanfic community started becoming toxic and ruined the fun in it and it soon became more like chore. So I’m happy to finally get back into writing again and loving instead of hating it <3

[dumbfuck-mojave]

Mississippi Kings

Franchise: Stranger Things

Pairings: Eddie Munson x Steve Harrington (Steddie) 

Also Featured: Just the two of them :^). Mentions Wayne for like one sentence.

Warnings: There’s mentions of eating, beer and drugs, but it’s mainly just cute fluff stuff. Also swearing but who cares.

A/N: I LOVE THIS GIF SO MUCH EDDIE IS SO CUTE. Anyways, this fic was a BITCH to write let me tell you. I don’t know why I struggled so much, but at least I managed it. Tense? I don’t know her I roll with my own style here. I don’t even really ship Steddie, but I absolutely love both their characters and had a thought pop into my mind one night that this would be “their song”. If you haven’t listened to Mississippi Queen I really suggest it, it’s one of the best song I’ve ever heard and really brings the vibes. 

Word Count: 1,543

@horrorstolemyheart @kaylawritesfics @samayhem​ Hope you enjoy the boys!

If you enjoy my writing and want to be tagged, let me know!

Support me here!

“I, uh, I had a really great time tonight.”

 Eddie’s rings thumped against the steering wheel as he fussed with his hands. Metallic and gleaming in contrast to his rough fingers, Steve pulled his eyes away from them as Eddie spoke, looking at Steve out of the corner of his eye nervously. He flits them away when Steve looks at him. 

“Yeah, me too. Me too, man.” Steve smiles and Eddie ducks his head down, brown curls forming a curtain to block his face as Steve curses internally.

“Man? Really? WHO CALLS THEIR BOYFRIEND ‘MAN’??”

Well, Eddie technically wasn’t his boyfriend. Steve would like him to be, sure, but before tonight they hadn’t even gone on a proper date. It was always a casual thing; hanging out for a few hours, alone, watching whatever movie someone had suggested or wandering around their little town, trying to find something interesting to do now that the mall had burned down. Steve didn’t quite mind that, knowing the truth about what happened last summer had turned him off from malls in general, and he enjoyed the peacefulness of just walking, listening to the birds and feeling the breeze. 

A surprising thing was all of these “hangouts” had been sober. Steve knew Eddie’s reputation, had indulged in those things before himself, but Eddie had never once brought up getting stoned or wasted. In fact, Steve noticed he seemed to be making an actual effort to clean up whenever he came around, beer bottles being swept into a garbage bag and pouches taking their proper place in the dented lunch-box instead of being thrown about around the trailer. 

More surprising than that, though, was Eddie directly asking Steve out. He had stuttered and mumbled his way through it, bouncing on his heels, and Steve had to hold back an agreement that would have been much too loud until Eddie had finished speaking. 

He had thought tonight was going well. Eddie had taken him to a small pub he had never been to before, apparently where he and his band played on weeknights. They had ate and talked, the dim lighting adding to the feel of intimacy despite people surrounding them, and Steve had finally witnessed Eddie truly loosening up, laughing a little louder and accepting the beers the manager had slipped them under the table. It was nice, it made him feel nice, and he had hope for the start of something different. 

But now Steve feels as if they’re back to square one. 

The conversation was still strong as they romped their way out of the pub, but it had slowly died down as they had made the trip to Lover’s Lake. Steve hadn’t noticed where they were headed at first, too preoccupied by finishing up what might have been the best fries he had ever tasted to notice, but as the trees grew thicker and the roads turned from pavement to silt, he realized and his cheeks had grown hot. 

Now they sat, parked right where a cluster of trees fanned out to reveal the shining lake, spotted with the reflection of the stars above. 

A familiar beat of cowbell snapped Steve’s attention back to reality, where Eddie’s head still hung low. How long had he been out for?

“Hey, I love this song.” Steve piped up, and Eddie looked at him with a confused expression, “What?”

“Nothing, it’s just…the song was playing the whole way up here, and you just now noticed?” Eddie replied, laughing slightly, “Although, you seemed pretty into your fries, so I guess I can’t blame you.”

“How’s it been playing this whole time?” Steve asked, his brows furrowing together to form a crease that Eddie wished he had the confidence to soothe out. 

“The tape is a loop of the song. When I was little, I couldn’t get enough of it, and my uncle Wayne had to make this for me just to keep me sated whenever we went on a drive. I’m surprised it still works honestly, Lord knows how many times it has been played at this point. I was actually going to change it out before I picked you up, but I guess I forgot.”

“It’s fine. Like I said, I like the song.” Steve shrugged. 

“~Where lived the Cajun Lady

Aboard the Mississippi Queen~”

“You know, I can see it.” Steve said, tilting his head to the side slightly, “Little Eddie Munson’s first headbang.” 

“Ooooooh yeah.” Eddie sighed, leaning back into his seat, “Imagine a scrawny little shit, flailing violently with this turned up full volume. Wasn’t even to the rhythm or anything. Just having the time of my life.” 

Both Steve and Eddie laughed then, chuckles rising to mix with the ever present guitar in the song. Steve can imagine it, quite clearly in fact. It’s akin to how Eddie acts with some music now. 

It’s one of the things Steve loves about him. 

“Tell him. You have to tell him.”

“Too bad I didn’t have this head of hair though, it would’ve looked flawless whipping around like that.” Eddie fluffed his hair dramatically, and Steve laughed once more.

“I’m sure you could do it now.” Steve suggested, half-hoping Eddie actually would. 

“Sureeee. I’m such a lady killer as is, I’m sure if they saw that they would run for the hills even faster than usual.”

“Who said it had to be for the ladies?”

Eddie’s head snapped towards him and Steve’s eyes went wide at what he had just said. It’s not like it was some secret, both he and Eddie knew what the other liked, but sometimes he really cursed his big mouth.

“C-Come again?” Eddie struggled out, and Steve was sure his face was as red as Eddie’s own right now.

“I just. Jesus, Eds.” Steve sighed out, running a hand through his hair, a movement which Eddie watched intently, “I love you so damn much. And I don’t know where this sudden confidence is coming from and maybe I’ll regret it right after I finish talking, but I have to say it. I love you, I really do. I love hearing your voice, I love listening to you talk about nerdy shit I don’t know anything about, but it doesn’t matter because it’s you. I love your hair, your eyes, your skin. Everything about you is perfect and I’m so fucking terrified of saying anything because I’m not the guy I used to be, which I mean I guess is a good thing because that me was a massive prick but what I mean is I’m not confident like that anymore and-.”

His rambling was cut off by Eddie surging forward and capturing Steve’s lips with his own. 

It was a bit of a process; Steve hissing out in pain when their teeth and noses smashed together, which had Eddie pulling back with a fearful look in his eyes before Steve took his face in his hands and fit them both together in a much more comfortable position. But after that, it was gorgeous. Everything felt perfect, from the feeling of his lips on Eddie’s to the grip he had on Eddie’s undershirt, warm beneath his leather jacket. 

Steve didn’t even know what point of the song they were at or how many times it had looped over at this point, but he wondered if Eddie knew how to play it on his guitar. When he was first told that Eddie performed for an audience, he had wondered what it would be like to see him play. He still wondered that now, but it was more fleshed out; Eddie, thriving off the energy of the night, dedicating a song or two to him. This song, maybe. A cheer, a bow, a kiss. A perfect kiss, just like now.

Eddie broke away first, panting as he lowered his head onto Steve’s shoulder, nuzzling and kissing the exposed skin right above his sweater collar. Steve struggled to catch his breath as well, his head falling against Eddie’s as he wrapped his arms around him, pushing a kiss into the side of his head. Eddie mumbled something and Steve hums in question. 

“I said,” Eddie repeated, lifting his head up from Steve’s shoulder, “You need to stop rambling so much. I love you the way you are, Harrington. No need to worry when you’re with a loser like me.”

Steve frowned, “You’re not a loser.”

“I am. That was my first kiss, I’m like the biggest loser out there. But so are you, so we can be losers together.” Eddie smiled sweetly at Steve, eyes wrinkling at the corners as the scrunched shut. 

“Maybe,” Steve responded, hints of laughter in his voice, “By the way, I could definitely tell that was your first kiss.”

Eddie gasped, clutching his chest and falling back. 

“How could you do this to me?” 

“It’s just the facts.” Steve responds, crawling over so he’s halfway on top of Eddie.

“You know,” Eddie says through lidded eyes, “I have a way you could make it up to me.”

Steve leaned in closer, feeling Eddie’s breath ghost across his lips, “Oh? I wonder what that could be.”

Eddie leaned up, his lips ghosting Steve’s as he spoke.

“Help me practice?”

“With pleasure.” 

[twilightofthe]

Obi Wan Kenobi Show Liveblog: Part III

Here we go starting TWO HOURS LATE because my stupid ass fell asleep trying to stay up for it

i fell asleep listening to my chemical fucking romance how the fuck does one fall asleep to MCR they are not a lullaby band xD

lskdjflsdkfk ANYWAY starting now

ahhh sir you’re as beautiful as the day i lost you (five days ago)

sorry i just love his face

and his voice

and him

just him

skdfjlsdkfk i forgot Reva shish kebabed G Quizzy

EHEHEHEHEEEE TIME FOR ANAKIN AND PAIN

AWWWW HE’S ASKING QUI GON FOR “WHAT THE FUCK DO I DO WHEN THE FRIEND I THOUGHT I KILLED ISN’T AND IS A SITH LORD”

only pain will you find ahahA YEAH THANKS YODA

HELL YEAH MAGICAL ROBOT GIRL TRANSFORMATION

HERE HE IS HERE’S MY STINKY BOY MY STINKY GARBAGE BOY

and WHAT AN ENTRANCE ok fine Anakin you did always know how to make it dramatic

lksdjfklsdfk “i don’t give a FUCK if anyone else died where’s Obi Wan” Anakin you’re the WORST i love you

THAT’S NOT HOW THE FORCE WORKS HAHA

yes obi wan teach anakin’s daughter about the force YESSSSSSSS

how does it feel when you turn on the light OOOOOOOOOF ;_:

AND HE FIXED THE DROID HE HATED SO MUCH FOR HER

ok now where tf are they this isn’t Alderaan

Kinda looks like Kessel?

Eh, a mining system, I was close!

*snorts* Obi Wan in full grieving crisis right now still trying desperately to be nice to Leia

WHT THE FUCK WAS THAT

WHO THE

IS THST ANAKIN

IS HE HAVING ANAKIN VISIONS HE’S FUCKING FLOATINHG

AAAAAAAAAAAA

Oho so the Inquisitors have their own fancy base or something?  Pff that’s cute

HELL YEAH REVA PULL RANK UR VADER’S FAVE AND HE KNOWS IT EVERYONE KNOWS IT

ok mr fifth brother just look forward to rebels yeah?

aight but that’s kinda ridiculous they’re sending out three probes for who knows how many systems?

lskdfjlsdkfk Obi Wan snappy and stressed and Leia’s just like “don’t worry I got you sweetie I’ll get us back”

leia i KNOW your parents told you not to talk to strangers you are a liiiittle too trusting methinks xD

either that or she’s just using her Force sense to read vibes

hmmmm mole man sounds familiar

obi wan dumbass put ur hood up around the troopers (tho i guess that could make them look suspicious)

damn leia you’re good

DAMN OBI WAN YOU’RE NOT

ehehehehe you see her mother’s or father’s face

AWWW SHE’S GIVING OUT PERCEPTIVE PADME VIBES

hoohoohoohooHOO WE GOT THOSE OBIANIDALA VIBES GOIN’ NOW BABES

Awwwww adopted kid bonding!!!!!

hmm i’m guessing he’s in no state for a mind trick right now!

aw fuck YEAH we stan a guy who can kick ass

he’s so hooooooooot

ohohoho PRETTY SECRET SYMPATHIZER LADY

awwww baby leia noooo don’t cry

ugh i like this pretty lady but i feel like she’s gonna be murdered by inquisitor

hhhhh someone on tumblr has to translate that aurebesh

AAAAAAH ARE WE GONNA GET A QUINLAN CAMEO?!?!?!??!?!?!?!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

NED is a cutie and I love him

sldkfjsdlkfsdk literally everyone knows who Obi Wan is on first glance

HOOHOOHOOOOOO HE’S GOT VISION FEELS, IS THAT VADERRRRR??????

IT IS IT IS IT IS IT IS IT IIIIIIIIIIS

HERE HE IS THE MAIN BITCH STRAIGHT OUT OF HELL

Ehehehehehe Obi Wan’s horrified face upon looking at the suit is so *kisses fingers* THE ANGST

lskdfjslkdk never mind pretty lady’s gonna get murdered by VADER because he kills everyone and Obi Wan can’t have nice things

ANAKIN STOP MENACING THE LOCALS AND KILLING CHILDREN

obi waaaaaaan u dumbass

he can’t look awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay

I’m still mad they’re meeting in person ngl but I do still so love seeing my boys interact!

ugh here we go

let’s hope it’s good

HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEEHEHE HERE’S HIS LIGHTSABER

I AM WHAT YOU MADE ME jesus christ you can even hear the pure boiling rage in his voice through the vocorder

lol nvm Tala is gonna get killed by Reva xD

aight obes i get you’re in panic mode but HOW did you let mr tall dark and wheezy sneak up on you like that

awwww goodbye pretty lady, at least you get a hug from Leia before you die xD

hmmMMMM?  REVA BACKSTORY???  She was a Jedi!!!!!

alsdfjlskdfksd HE’S TRYING TO BURN HIM LIKE HE WAS BURNED JESUS FUCK ANAKIN

aw yay at least Tala saved him first!

oh goddammit Reva xD

Leia’s gonna bite her hand I know it

WELL THIS EPISODE OF STAR WARS WAS FUCKING RUDE TO ME PERSONALLY FUCK Y’ALL

[adashofniallandasprinkleoflunacy]

Vampire Niall has such party planner/wedding planner potential. He probably has a binder with color pallets, seating charts, food restrictions and time stamps, just for hosting a dinner with the same friends he’s had for centuries. & there is no doubt in my mind he makes them fill out a questionnaire prior to any get together for them to express their preferences and choice entertainment and their answers never change but they humor him anyway.

He gets everything filled out and in order and then passes out the food restriction pamphlets to everyone cooking so they know what to steer away from.

Niall hands one to Harry, who scans it over quickly just to give the other vampire the satisfaction that comes with some hard work, but then his eyes catch on something that isn’t usually there. His brows furrow in mild annoyance, and he can’t mask the spite that sharpens his previously mellow voice. “Sarah’s vegan now?”

“Yeah, she said she wanted to try it out. The other girls in her band are vegan and she got curious.”

“Does she realize how stupid and hypocritical that is? She literally drinks blood in order to survive. It’s counterintuitive.”

“I dunno, mate, that’s her prerogative.” Niall mumbles distractedly, using his super-speed to rapidly flip through his color-coded binder, his keen eyes flitting back and forth as they scan through all the guidelines insistently. He wants to ensure he’s handed Harry all the papers necessary to make sure everything goes forward without a single hitch, so quadruple checking in a must. “If it makes her feel a bit better about herself, by all means, y’know?”

“She’s so full of shit.” Harry grumbles seethingly, folding the paper in half roughly to a perfectly pleated edge, only to shove it in his back pocket out of petty insubordination. “Sparing a chicken doesn’t counteract the karma that comes from draining a fucking human being.”

Niall uses one of his knuckles to push his glasses up the bridge of his nose, not even chancing a glance upwards as he responds. “Chickens, cows, pigs, humans— what’s the difference? If she wants to implement a limit on herself where she can, then good for her! ‘Fish are friends, not food’ and what have you.”

Harry scowls at the childish Nemo reference. “Whatever. I don’t have the patience right now to try and spell out the difference between a chicken and a person to you.”

“Good, ‘cause I wouldn’t have listened either way.” Niall snaps the binder closed with one hand, finally glimpsing up at Harry with the most dramatically bright grin plastered across his tinted cheeks. “What are you planning on doing with the turkey this year?”

“A casserole.”

“How English of you.”

“Going back to my roots, I suppose.”

“That’s a good thing, I guess, considering it’s really easy to incorporate meat substitutes into casseroles. Do you think you could get some tofu and make a separate one for Sarah?”

“Can I? Yeah. Will I? Absolutely not.” Harry accompanies his dig with a flat expression, eyes deadpan and lips set into a dry grimace. “If she wants to be an inconvenience, she can handle it herself.”

“The whole point of preparing a food restriction pamphlet is for us to follow it, H.”

“And normally I would, just not for her. I’m not ruining a perfectly good recipe because Miss Guitar Hero decided she wants to roleplay Mother Teresa. Tell Mitch to make her tofu garbage— his girlfriend, his problem.”

“You’re making the casserole.” Niall goads, narrowing his eyes at his friend, daring him to challenge the demand.

“I’m not.” Harry argues stubbornly, crossing his lean arms over his sturdy chest, refusing to forfeit his ground. “I’ll die again before I let you turn me into that witch’s personal chef.”

“I’ll tell Y/N.” Niall warns, giving Harry a knowing look as he tucks his notebook below his arm, his stance unwavering. “Is that what you want?”

The immortal bursts into disbelieving laughter. “Is that supposed to be a threat?”

“We both know if I tell her, you’ll end up making it against your will.”

“She’s my girlfriend, not my mother. Tell her, see if I care.”

Niall does tell her, and Harry does indeed end up making the tofu casserole against his will. He doesn’t have much of a choice, considering Y/N decides to use his blowjob privileges as leverage, and he’ll be damned if he gets put on fellatio parole because of a stupid plant-based dish. So yeah, he makes the vegan entree, and if he unintentionally spits in it during the process…Well, accidents happen, right?

[yurtletheturtlehenderson]

COSMIC - S3:E2; Chapter Two, The Mall Rats - [Pt. 2]

A Will Byers x Reader Series

Baffled with Mike's sudden behavior, El seeks out Y/n and Max for advice while Will struggles to get through to Mike and Lucas. Billy takes his co-worker on a field trip, and Steve and Dustin enlist a helpful ally in their top-secret mission.

||𝟑𝐫𝐝 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐏𝐎𝐕||

"And then he said he— he missed me. And then he just hung up."

Max, who had been pacing for as long as El had been telling the story from her bed, pauses briefly.

"He's a piece of shit." She says, resuming her angry pacing.

"What?"

"Mike doesn't have jackshit to do today, and his Nana obviously isn't sick," she stops again, a strained grin growing on her face. "And I guarantee him and Lucas are playing Atari right now,"

A sigh comes from Y/n, who sits up against Max's headboard, one leg dangling off the bed and the other propped up next to El. A similar expression to Max works its way onto her features as she looks between the two girls.

"She's right," she shakes her head, cupping her glass of f/d in her left hand even tighter. "I was with Will earlier and he told me he and Lucas were meeting at Mike's house,"

Growing visibly confused, a wounded expression comes over El's face as she looks between them.

"But... friends don't lie."

"Yeah, well boyfriends lie." Max fires back. "All. The. Time."

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

"She knows I'm lying. She knows I'm lying!"

Mike paces his basement floor, his heart hammering in his chest just at the thought of how deep he was into trouble. Lucas sits on the recliner, just feet away from Will who was setting up the campaign Y/n had helped him to plan.

"I don't even understand," Lucas says. "Why lie?"

Will looks up from the D&D board he was setting up.

"Hopper," Mike answers. "He threatened me,"

"Did he say he'd kill you?"

Mike stops, looking at Lucas baffled. "What? No!"

"So what's the big deal?"

"The big deal is that if I don't do what he says, he's gonna stop me from seeing El. Like, permanently,"

"Did you try telling her the truth?" Will asks. "You, know tell her what Hopper wants?"

Mike shakes his head, seeming eager to dismiss the thought. "No, she—" He sighs, running a hand over his face. "She wouldn't understand. She wouldn't take it the right way,"

Will makes a face. "I think you're underestimating her,"

"It wouldn't matter anyway," Mike says, clearing beginning to get worked up again. "You don't understand," he looks again between his two friends with a frantic look in his eye. "Neither of you understand. Hopper's crazy. He's lost his mind. I had no choice. I really had no choice,"

"You could have told her the truth," Will tries again. "That was an option,"

"So was consulting me first," Lucas chimed in, causing Will to roll his eyes and return to his game. "Because, the way you handled this..." he shrugs. "You're in deep shit,"

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

"You're gonna stop calling him," Max says, growing stern. "You're going to ignore his calls. As far as you're concerned, he doesn't exist."

"Doesn't exist?" El gaped.

"Or you could call him out," Y/n adds. "Confront him. Work it out?"

"Bullshit! He treated her like garbage," Max says, turning back to El. "Now you're gonna treat him like garbage. Give him a taste of his own medicine."

El nods stoically as the works soak in.

"Give him the medicine,"

Y/n smiled to herself down into her drink at that before taking another sip.

"Mm-hmm," Max nods, proudly. "And if he doesn't fix this? If he doesn't explain himself? Dump his ass."

Both El and Y/n's eyes go wide.

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

"Arhhgg!!!"

Mike slaps his hands against his forehead after collapsing into the couch with an aggravated groan.

Lucas winced beside him.

"I'm not gonna lie. It's gonna be bad,"

"ARGHH!"

Lucas draws in a deep, thoughtful breath. "But, you can fix this." He jumps to his feet. "It's just one little mistake. I've made hundreds. Thousands!"

Will looks up from the D&D board again with a frown.

"Are you guys really this bad at relationships?"

Lucas looks over at him and scoffs. "I wouldn't call Me Winning Max Back Five Times being bad at relationships," he boasts, turning back to Mike.

It's Will's turn to scoff. And he does so while placing another character on the gameboard as he mutters to himself. "I would,"

"That's right," Lucas continues, not having heard Will's little remark. "Max has dumped me five times. But what I have done? Huh? Have I despaired? No. I've marched back into battle and I've won her back every freaking time."

"I don't think that's a good thing, Lucas," Will tries again, but is again, ignored.

"How?" Mike asks.

A grin stretches across Lucas's lips. "I'll show you." Lucas makes a break for the stairs, gesturing for Mike. "Come on,"

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

"Come on," Max says, pulling El and Y/n up to their feet.

"Where are we going?" El asks.

"To have some fun," she answers, pulling them both to the door. "There's more to life than stupid boys, you know."

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

Mike jumps from the couch and follows Lucas closely on his heels, leaving Will without warning and no time to follow.

"Wait, guys!" He calls, peering over the table and up the stairs where they have already disappeared. "I'm still here!"

The only answer he receives is the muffled sound of the garage door opening and closing upstairs.

"Guys?"

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

Another plastic spoon dives into the sea of Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream, scooping up a taste for Erica Sinclair. Robin reluctantly hands the spoon over to the young girl who waits eagerly with her posse of friends. She gives the taste a moment of thought before licking her lips and discarding the spoon.

"Hmm, can I try the Peppermint Stick?"

"Haven't you already tried the Peppermint Stick?" Robin asks tiredly.

"Yes, and I'd like to try it again,"

Fighting a losing battle with a sigh, Robin turns to the closed window behind her and gives an exasperated cry.

"Steve?"

On the other side of the window, Dustin is seated at the break table with an open copy of Russian to English translation while Steve paces the floor and eating a banana.

"Поездка в Китай звучит хорошо, если действовать осторожно... Неделя длинная."

"So what do you think?" Dustin asks, pausing the tape he had gotten of the broadcast the previous night.

Steve nodded, shoving another piece of banana in his mouth. "It sounded familiar."

"What?"

"The music," he answers through stuffed cheeks. "That music right there at the end,"

"Why are you listening to the music, Steve?" The boy asks, growing aggravated. "Listen to the Russian! We're translating Russian!"

"I'm TRYing to listen to the Russian—"

-"Alright!—" Robin comes lumbering through the door she had just thrown open.

-"but there's music—"

"—babysitting time is over." She orders, her sudden appearance sending Steve stumbling back in shock. "You need to get out there. Hey, my board!"

Robin gestures angrily to the YOU WIN | YOU SUCK whiteboard that had now been wiped clean and replaced with the Russian to English Alphabet from the book.

"That was important data, shitbirds,"

"I guarantee you what we're doing is way more important than your data," Dustin says.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," he says, matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, and how do you know these Russians are up to no good, anyways?"

Dustin gapes up at Steve, looking dangerously close to livid. His voice lowers in a not-so-quiet whisper that only entertains Robin more.

"How does she know about the Russians?"

"I don't know!" Steve whines, once again through a mouthful of banana.

"Did you tell her about the Russians?"

"It wasn't me," he says, through puckered lips.

"Hello, I can hear you," Robin says, pulling their shared gaze over to her. "Actually, I can hear everything. You are both extremely loud. You think you have evil Russians plotting against our country on tape, and you're trying to translate but you haven't figured out a single word because you didn't realize the Russians use an entirely different alphabet than we do."

She looks between the two gaping boys and quirked a brow.

"Sound about right?"

Robin knows to take their silence for a yes and grabs for the tape. But Steve is just a bit quicker and swipes it out of her reach.

"Woah, what are you doing?"

"I wanna hear it,"

"-Why?"

"-Why?"

"Cause maybe I can help," Robin shrugs. "I'm fluent in four languages, you know,"

"Russian?" Dustin asks hopefully.

"Ou-yay are-ay umb-day,"

"Whoa-ho-ho-ho!"

"Holy shit!"

"That was Pig Latin, dingus,"

Steve whacks Dustin on the arm, "Idiot!" He hisses.

Robin takes a seat across from the Dingus Duo, lounging back.

"But I can speak Spanish, and French and Italian and I've been in band for twelve years. My ears are little geniuses, trust me,"

Steve gives a nervous laugh, the beginnings of 'I don't know...' dying on his tongue. The shrill cry of the customer bell ringing loudly from out front and Robin jumps in.

"Come on, it's your turn to sling ice cream, my turn to translate. I don't even want credit," She flops over the table, reaching for the tape in Steve's hand. "I'm just bored."

Steve has only a moment to think on it before the sound of the bell returns. Erica wanted more samples. Steve didn't want to go out and work, but he couldn't deny Robin's credentials. And so with a begrudging look, Steve hangs up the tape for a scooper.

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

The bus doors swing open with a squeak and out spills a small group of mall-goers. In that bunch, is Max, Y/n, and El.

El's jaw goes slack when she takes in the sight of Starcourt Mall.

"So, what do you think?"

It was wonderful. And wonderfully terrifying. It was exciting and new but it was also extremely intimidating. El hadn't seen a building this huge since the lab—apart from Chicago—and as she stood here now under the gaping mouth of the archway she couldn't help but feel like it was ready to swallow her whole, never to be seen again.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Max asks.

"Too many people," El answers sadly. "Not safe,"

Max chuckled. "Seriously?"

"You have superpowers," she whispered excitedly, giving her a nudge. "What's the worst that could happen?"

"I think you just answered your own question," Y/n laughed.

But truthfully, every possibility of disaster popcorning in her brain was lulled to sleep by the idea of sharing a day showing El a well-deserved day out.

And seeing the yearning growing in El's eyes as she gazed upon Starcourt's walls—a look she hadn't seen on the girl since the snowball—was all the persuasion she needed. It was time to make new memories.

The three of them.

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

Starcourt Mall was brimming with activity that day, most like it had any other since its grand opening. The entrance swallowed whole gaggles of citizens at a time, the outer rims of its halls pumping life all throughout, but none more so than the heart. It was here the neon azure sign bearing its name shone brightly even in the waterfall of sunlight pouring in from the roof of skylights. The yellow and blue hands of the clock telling everyone the warm morning had leaked into a toasty afternoon.

There is joy and plenty of unbridled fun being had by all who attend, and yet they all seem to pale in comparison to the new trio bounding in.

A grinning Max and Y/n have hold of either of El's hands, only releasing when the three of them have reached the very center of the mall. Joy fills their lungs as they watch El, silent and slackjawed as her wide eyes drink up everything around her.

"So," Y/n gave her friend a light nudge, unable to wipe the painful smile off her sore cheeks. "what do you want to do first?"

Max gave another chuckle. "You've never been shopping before, have you?"

El's still shocked face comes to look between her friends, and she shakes her head.

Max and Y/n share an elated look and turn back to El, knowing they were thinking the same thing.

"Well then I guess we're just gonna have to try everything," Max says, spreading their infectious smile to El.

Y/n's eyes widened with delight. "I think I know where to go first,"

Seizing the hands of her best friends, the three of them took off, disappearing into The Gap, unknowingly missing their respective significant others only just.

"I just... I don't understand what we're looking for," Mike sighs, two of his best friends in tow.

"Something pretty and shiny that says 'I'm sorry.'" Lucas said, eyes already scanning the mall for outlets that might cater to their needs.

"What, just something that literally says 'I'm sorry?'"

Will laughed and Lucas threw his hands to his face in agitation.

This wouldn't be easy.

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[harvestdew]

Yo sorry if this question takes a while to awnser, but if Cleo and Kiki were NPCs what do you think thief heart events will be like? If you don't want to awnser this that's fine, I'm just curious.

no problem! i actually need a break from my essay anyway i wrote 4 pages and it took me 5 hours/made me stressed, so this is a good way to decompress for me!

kiki’s 2 heart event - standard, boring 2 heart event... enter pelican town on a sunny day anywhere from 9am to 4pm. you see kiki on her way out of pierre’s and her grocery bag breaks. you have 4 options:

ask “are you okay?” and help her (+30 friendship). kiki is embarrassed someone saw her, but says “thank you so much for helping me! that was pretty funny, wasn’t it? i guess i bought too much”

“i didn’t see anything” (no effect on friendship). kiki just laughs it off

ignore her/do nothing (no effect on friendship). kiki goes “...” before telling herself she’s so clumsy and running off

“wow, that was dumb of you.” (-50 friendship) kiki, trying to remain deadpan, responds “yeah, you’re right”

kiki’s 4 heart event - (similar to leah’s 4 heart event) enter kiki’s house when she’s there. for some reason, she doesn’t notice you entered and you hear someone else talking unintelligibly on the landline, but she isn’t responding. after a while, she hangs up without saying anything, notices you, and jumps, asking “have you been here the whole time?” you have 3 options:

lie and say “i just got here” (no effect on friendship). kiki sighs and says “oh, okay. that’s good”

"who was that?” (no effect on friendship). kiki goes “...” and tells you it was just an annoying telemarketer. then she asks if she can help you with anything

"are you okay?” (+20 friendship). kiki tells you she just got an unwanted call from someone she doesn’t want to talk to but doesn’t elaborate. she mentions being worried someone’s going to come over, then realizes you’re still there and laughs it off as a joke, trying to cover it up with a random fact about tulips

kiki’s 6 heart event - (similar to haley’s 6 heart event) enter the cindersap forest from 5pm to 9pm while it’s raining. kiki spots you (“!”) and asks for help, explaining her cat (ghost) ran away because she didn’t properly lock her door and the storm blew it open (this literally happened to me and my cat didn’t come home for 3 days LOL). she explains how important her cat is to her. you have 2 options:

"i’ll help you find him!” (+30 friendship)

“just get another cat?” (-30 friendship)

either way, you can walk around the cindersap forest and click on a bunch of shrubs. the cat will come out of one of them and you bring it back to her. kiki hugs you and says she felt too guilty to ask anyone else for help. she also points out because it was raining you should go back inside before you get sick, so she offers to walk you home 

also: fun fact the farmer replaces sebastian in here because this was something i wrote for him, but it feels like a good 6 heart one imo

kiki’s 8 heart event - done here!

kiki’s 10 heart event - (similar to emily and maru’s) you get a letter in the mail from kiki that says something along the lines “come by the forest tonight!” if you enter the cindersap forest from anytime between 7pm to 11pm ONLY during the summer you’ll trigger the event. it turns out she wanted to look at constellations with you and borrowed maru’s telescope. kiki starts talking about how she was figuring out how to make up for you finding her cat but didn’t want to do anything boring. you only have 1 option:

"wait, is this a date?” (no effect on friendship)

kiki gets MEGA embarrassed, explaining she thought it was obvious but isn’t going to be mad if you don’t like her. you now have 3 options:

"wait, i do like you!” (no effect on friendship). kiki goes, “seriously? you mean it? i’m so happy!” and you resume the date. before the cutscene ends, she has you look at some stars and explains the story of altair & vega which originated in china (“have you heard about the story of altair and vega? it’s about a cowherd and a weaver girl who fell in love but were separated by a river which is supposed to be the milky way. it’s sad, but once a year a bunch of magpies form a bridge and they reunite. romantic, right?”)

“i’m sorry, i don’t like you” (no effect on friendship). kiki tells you she understands, explaining you’re just as good of a friend and will be fine

“ew” (-30 on friendship). kiki sighs and tells her she better return maru’s telescope

as for cleo i have no idea if cleo would be a marriageable npc... we’ll see. let’s get to her heart events though (excluding her 10 heart event)

cleo’s 2 heart event - enter cleo’s room whenever she’s in there. cleo asks why you didn’t knock out of annoyance, but gets over it to complain she smells like fish (because she’s a fisherwoman LOL). you have 2 options:

“if you hate the smell of fish so much, why are you a fisherman?” (no effect on friendship). cleo explains she picks up fishing because that’s the 1 condition kiki has if she wants to stay with her free of rent. she complains about her cousin for trying to teach her some work ethic, then goes on to say she can’t wait til she and whatever sam’s band is called gets famous and she can stop fishing

“not my problem” (-30 friendship). cleo gets irritated and tells you “look, i didn’t ask to be a fisherwoman, okay? i hate farming and mining doesn’t make that much money. why are you even in here?”

cleo’s 4 heart event - enter pelican town any time during the day when it’s sunny. you overhear haley berating cleo with a magazine (even though they’re friends), who asks why she never mentioned she modeled. cleo gets annoyed and tells haley to back off because she doesn’t want to talk about it. you have 2 options:

do absolutely nothing (-30 friendship). haley finally walks off; cleo looks at you and goes, “what are you looking at? don’t listen to stuff that isn’t any of your business”

tell haley to stop (+30 friendship). haley sighs and apologizes to cleo for being nosey and leaves. cleo awkwardly thanks you and says something offhand like “i guess you’re cool” before running off

make up an excuse to pull cleo aside like “cleo, i don’t get how to use my fishing rod, can you help?” (+50 friendship). cleo thanks you for not making a huge scene and sighs. she explains haley figured out how used to be a model and wouldn’t stop asking why she quit. she also mentions she knows you probably want to know and claims it’s just “stupid personal garbage” and “the modeling industry is shit”

cleo’s 6 heart event - enter cleo’s room whenever she’s in there again. you find her mumbling to herself out of annoyance before she notices you and greets you. then, she explains she just figured out that everyone in her old band seems to be doing really well and she’s worried they’re going to get a gig for the band SHE started. you have 2 options:

ask “what band?” (no effect on friendship). cleo explains her mom wouldn’t let her go to a gig for the band to punish her, leaving them without a bassist. she says when she snuck out to go, the lead guitarist had immediately replaced her and decided to kick her out of the band, which is why cleo ran away out of humiliation. plus, she thinks their new music sounds like shit 

“who cares? you don’t need them!” (+30 friendship). cleo goes silent before telling you you’re SO right and tells you that good-for-nothing guitarist that kicked her out wasn’t even that good of a guitarist!

“maybe you were a bad bassist” (-50 friendship). cleo gets defensive and tells she was a perfectly good bassist. then she sighs and says she wonders if she’s not as good as she thinks she is and should just stick to fishing, before telling you to get out

cleo’s 8 heart event - (similar to sam’s 8 heart event) cleo shows up to your door when you wake up and gives you a flyer for a battle of the bands in zuzu city. the next day, you go to the venue with cleo and she realizes she’s going up against her old band before freaking out. she tells you she doesn’t know what to do because she’s scared she’ll mess up and prove them right. you have 3 options:

"you can do this!” (+50 friendship). cleo tells you that’s cheesy but you’re right. she goes on to say “screw all of them! i don’t care!”

“who cares? show them what they’re missing!” (+50 friendship). cleo gets pumped and agrees with you before saying, “ugh, what was i thinking? i don’t care what any of them think”

"don’t be a baby” (no effect on friendship). cleo goes “ugh” before begrudgingly admitting you’re right

either way, you get to hear them play like in sam’s 8 heart event. it should correspond with whatever music genre you chose for him in his own events. sam’s band also wins and cleo makes fun of her old band. the lead guitarist gets annoyed and tries to fight with her over it. you have 2 options:

“get him cleo!” (no effect on friendship). cleo punches the lead guitarist off the screen the way pierre punches morris at the community center

“ignore him, he’s just a loser” (no effect on friendship). cleo says she guesses taking the higher road is better and doesn’t wanna mess up her hands

regardless of what option you pick, at the end of the cutscene, cleo thanks your farmer for encouraging her not to giving up and how she couldn't have done it w/o your help

okay that’s it! i’m sorry for taking so long to write this, but i hope it was interesting and i promise really appreciate the ask <3 it was fun to write

[ofcowardiceandkings]

I think you mentioned listening to podcasts? Do you have any favorites to reccommend? I've run out of content :(

that i do !

im not entirely sure what kind of podcast you'd be interested in but i'll throw out a few of the goodies in my huge library of stuff , i'll miss out a few of the HUGE podcasts that have been all over tumblr though

a LOT of it is true crime or human interest stuff , or history because im nerd ,, and a few of these dont have nearly enough attention so [shrug] i'll try to keep this short i guess lol this isnt EVERYTHING ive got in my library or listened series' by any measure

i AM gonna pop a shout to both Stuff You Missed in History Class and Stuff You Should Know from iHeartRadio because their HUGE archives have kept me from losing my mind many times over , and they cover a wide range of both important and wacky topics

BomBARDed (ongoing) this is the only fiction podcast i have happening right now really but its DAMN GOOD ONE .... it's an actual-play D&D 5E podcast in the DMs own musically-inspired world, focussed on a group of multiclass bards going to music school !! and all players (+DM) are members of the Texas band Lindby !! and they actually use and play music in the show with one original song an episode !! Kyle's worldbuilding and storycraft are truly incredible, and (Nick) Goodrich, (also Nick) Spurrier, and Ali's characters are in depth and interesting as well as an absolute powerhouse :') i actually made a piece for its first fanzine, Bardic Dreaming, which published earlier this year and is free to view now, all the players and the community are super wholesome its just very good overall 💙

History & Humans;

Fall of Civilisations (ongoing) legit one of my favourite podcast finds, im so glad my youtube autoplayed one of these ... it took me like 2 hours to realise it was 1) not the same as what was playing before and 2) had been on for 2 hours and wasnt near finished lmao. anyway, this is a series by historical fiction writer Paul Cooper, and is honest to all thats good one of the best documentary series ive encountered in years - and ive consumed a LOT of documentaries. it covered the downfall of various civilisations through history, and the episodes run from an hour to FOUR hours depending on the topic. its so chill to listen to and just get done, but over the pandemic all of the episodes have been given full movie-quality video versions too on youtube if youre more of a visual person.

Casting Lots: A Survival Cannibalism Podcast (on series break) yeah that says that lol ... its a SUPER niche topic but its very interesting and treated very well despite being kind of comical at times, the hosts are just naturally funny lol ... it delves around from the history of cannibalism in whole regions to specific incidents as recently as the 1970s, and of course the first episode is about the Donner Party, and it covers things ive never heard of despite being kind of important ?? anyway Alix and Carmella are good eggs

Sawbones (ongoing) i probably dont need to mention much here other than say that Justin and Sydnee saved me from being SO BORED sooo often, the history of medicine is wacky as hell and its what most of my history GCSE was on so [shrugs]

Cautionary Tales (on series break) this was a wild-card find lol ... it's by Tim Harford "the undercover economist" who writes for the Financial Times, and its topics kind of weave modern topics and science with how to learn from historical errors ... its a bit weird but well worth a go, also each series has a few celebrity guest voice actors which is pretty awesome

Ephemeral (ongoing) this is a very strange but thought provoking series about sounds and other things just barely saved. topics include the last castrato, the hello girls, hand-stamped records, the spread of kīkā kila music, and acoustic fossils of wild places.

Neat! The Boozecast (ongoing) history and bartending whats not to like lol ... hosted by Teylor Smirl and now their dad Tommy, they're just digging around in how important booze is to human culture

True Crime (white collar and weirdness);

Swindled (ongoing) this is an amazing show full stop. A Concerned Citizen details some of the most impactful and unruly things to happen in white collar and corporate crime. very factually accurate but given the sheer bullshit of the topics the deadpan snarking is [chefs kiss] absolutely warranted ..

American Scandal (on series break) this one is a series within a series type, and spends a few episodes at a time poking holes in some of America's biggest scandals, from a dramatised but fact-based point of view. such as what the hell was going on with Enron, how big tobacco was forced to own up to covering its own ass, how Iran-Contra happened, etc. it also now has a sister show called British Scandal, which does the same thing for British cases but with a slightly different format.

Missing in Alaska (finished) this was a fascinating series, a deep dive into what happened to two US government officials who disappeared on a small chartered flight in Alaska in 1972. it goes some really strange places, but it actually turned up a lot of previously unknown information through the audience. John Walczak's new series in a new feed is Missing on 9/11 which looks into what happened to Dr Sneha Philip.

Pretend (ongoing) Host Javier Leiva holds interviews with anyone living a lie, or who have been touched by them. con artists, snake oil salesmen, former cult members, catfishing victims, anyone and everyone.

Power: The Maxwells (finished) hosted by journalist Tara Palmeri, the story of media tycoon Robert Maxwell from nothing to empire to mysterious death and the scandals uncovered after he was gone.

Lets Talk About Sects (ongoing) Sarah Steele covering cults from around the world, in particular those in Australia - where she is from. She often has former members on the show to share their stories, and share knowledge of how they left. each story has the relevant content warnings at the start of each episode.

Brainwashed (finished) investigation of the CIA's covert mind control experiments, centred on the experiments performed at a hospital in Montreal, and its cultural impact.

Dr Death (2 series finished) two series investigating huge cases of fraud and medical malpractice, and how they were brought to a stop. series 1 covers Dr Duntsch and his horribly butchered neurosurgery, series 2 covers Dr Fata and his fraudulent cancer clinic

The Immaculate Deception (finished) untangling the weird and disturbing fertility fraud of Dr Jan Karbaat, who fathered children himself through his fertility clinic, and the impact of his deception. later episodes also touch on other similar cases.

True Crime (Violent/General);

The Casual Criminalist (ongoing) Simon Whistler of-the-many-youtube-channels cold reads a script about the case of the day, with some of his daft commentary thrown in.

Southern Fried True Crime (ongoing) Crimes from the American South hosted by Erica Kelley, she puts all the facts out there but refreshingly for true crime she doesnt hesitate to tell you if she thinks someone is human garbage lol

They Walk Among Us (ongoing) probably one of the most popular UK crime podcasts, very measured and well put together, not weird or annoying about it either.

All Crime No Cattle (ongoing, feed slowed down for now) specifically about crimes from Texas, hosted by Erin and Shay, they're very sensitive hosts and a lot of the cases they cover shed light on why the Texas criminal system is how it is or show an impact at a national level

Canadian True Crime (ongoing) Canadian crime from an Aussie who's lived there for a decade, Kristi is again a sensitive and measured host covering some important topics

True Crime (Violent/Deep Dive);

Hitman (finished) journalist Jasmyn Morris digs around in the sticky tangle around a book published by fringe publisher Paladin Press, and its apparent use as a blueprint in the killing of a mother, her friend and her 8 year old boy for financial gain.

Camp Hell: Anneewakee (ongoing) this series is exploring how a wilderness camp "correctional facility" was endorsed by the Georgia care and juvenile reform system, despite widespread abuses and shady practices the whole time. warning for csa and child cruelty throughout.

True Crime Bullshit (on series break) this one is a huge huge rabbithole but a very interesting one where the host Josh Hallmark has spent years digging into the life and potential crimes of Israel Keyes. Keyes is often mentioned as a serial killer with no pattern, but in picking it apart thats not quite true, and has sparked some re-evaluations of missing persons cases and stumbling upon information the FBI has redacted organically. there's also a series in the middle looking into the crimes of Kelly Cochran

Forgotten: Women of Juárez (finished) this series looks into the huge numbers of missing women of Ciudad Juárez, the strange circumstances surrounding them, and the potential cover-ups and corruptions on both sides of the border, trying to give a voice to all of the forgotten women and girls and their families without answers. the series itself is finished, but a spanish language edition is being released every week now.

aaaaaand i'll call it there before i list everything lol, i hope you find something to plug your boredom hole with !!