#because more often than not i get annoyed with mainstream music | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

tellthemeerkatsitsfine · 2 years

Text

So, I listened to the three episodes of a radio show that Daniel Kitson hosted in the middle of the night in Australia in 2009, because yesterday I had 15 hours in the car that’s what I decided I wanted to do. He played music, some of which I quite liked and some of which I found rather annoying. I like lots of independently made music, but the specific sound associated with the term “indie rock” often seems sort of obnoxious to me. It often strikes me too hard as something that thinks they’re deep because they aren’t pop music but there’s barely anything actually there. It feels like a cop-out, saying it’s not supposed to sound musically beautiful, we added this vague distortion on purpose. That just makes me want to tell them that people created soundproof recording studios for a reason, you don’t have to record in a wind tunnel, you can make it sound better than that. Unless of course you’re just not that musically talented and don’t trust it to sound good on its own.

As soon as I wrote that I realized that just several days ago I said I loved the way David O’Doherty’s fourth album was recorded in his car and you can hear the storm pick up around him as it goes along. But in that case, the musical talent actually isn’t the point. All due respect to DO’D, but no one is listening to that because he has a beautiful singing voice and plays an instrument really well. The music is just a tool to enhance the comedy. And even aside from that comedy, I’ve enjoyed some purely musical albums that were recorded outside a studio. My favourite Corb Lund album was recorded in his cabin with almost no production added, and includes lovely acoustic versions of the songs that are basically just him and his guitar and nothing else. But crucially, it also sounds like good music. What I hate is when people create that under-produced effect artificially, ironically via extra production, like that adds to the music in some way. Just sort of half-singing half-talking about a girl they used to like over some strange-sounding noise because having an interesting melody is too mainstream.

There was no reason for that rant and it has nothing to do with the rest of this post, and the real reason why I don’t like anything labeled “indie rock” is just that when folk festivals want to appeal to the youths they bring in “indie rock” as though that’s a suitable substitute for folk music, which it fucking isn’t. Listening to several hours of that radio show involved some songs that annoyed me for how much they were like that kind of thing that I dislike, but I realize that is my fault for listening to a music and comedy radio show curated by a guy who has made it clear that indie music is his thing.

I listened to it anyway, because it also had some songs that I really liked and have written down so I can look them up, but I was mainly listening for the comedy. Daniel Kitson did some of his own material and some just talking with the crowd, and he brought on various comedians to do short sets live and played some more comedy on CDs. The shows were recorded to a live audience between midnight and 2 AM, which doesn’t seem like a way to get an audience at their best, and that the effects of that were fairly clear. On all three shows, but especially on the first one, the audience was mainly subdued to the point of at least mild awkwardness, but would occasionally half-heartedly say stuff and that was even more awkward.

The actual reason I wanted to write this post was that he brought on Tim Vine about halfway through the first show, to do about eight minutes. I’m not a huge fan of Tim Vine, the one-liner stuff is not my favourite as a general rule (a rule with a number of exceptions, like the rule of me disliking indie rock), and I sometimes just find him a bit annoying. But I actually thought that if you like this sort of thing, which clearly many people do because Tim Vine and other comedians like that have plenty of fans, the jokes he did on that radio show were pretty good. Even I laughed at his bookmark bit, and for some reason I really liked the bacon sandwich joke.

But it did not go over well. That crowd was a bit off anyway, but Tim Vine got an even worse reception from them than the rest of the show did. I think they just didn’t really know what to make of him, which is understandable. I guess these Australians were not familiar with Tim Vine and his schtick, and it’s pretty different from what they were expecting for people who had come to see Daniel Kitson tell stories and play indie rock.

As the set went on, I found it interesting just because I realized I don’t often see or hear those “bad gigs” that all comedians reference all the time. I know they must happen, but those aren’t the ones that get recorded and put on the internet. So when I hear comedians tell a laughing and highly entertained crowd about the time they told their jokes and no one laughed, I don’t think they’re lying or anything but I don’t really know what they’re talking about. Hearing this Tim Vine thing is sort of an interesting way for me to say, “Oh I see, that’s what it sounds like when that happens.”

I actually have heard things like this before, because I used to go to comedy clubs a lot when I was in my early twenties, and my brother was in his first few years of performing stand-up, and I’d go see him. At those shows, there would be plenty of times when a comedian would find they weren’t getting the response they wanted, and then they’d deal with that in various ways. Some ignored it. Some awkwardly referenced it and let it go. Some tried to argue with the audience (a move that is funny when it's actually a joke and they’re doing it for comedy, and is just really fucking awkward when they actually are upset at the audience and they think this tactic will somehow make it better). Some changed their material to see if something else would work better. Generally, the headliners did this better than the middlers and the middlers did it better than the openers, because I get the impression that the ability to respond well in that circumstance is pretty directly tied to experience.

So I’ve seen that before, but it’s rare that I’ll see how it happens with a properly famous comedian, far ahead of the people in my local comedy clubs. You can hear Tim Vine flounder more and more as he goes along and keeps not getting the laughs he wants. It’s especially noticeable with his style, because his jokes last about eight seconds each, so even few seconds he gets a new chance, and you can hear him hope this one will go better and then it doesn’t. So he starts acknowledging it a bit, but that still doesn’t help.

I mean, it wasn’t even that bad. The audience was laughing a bit, it wasn’t total silence. It just wasn’t great, and it was enough to fluster him. This might be a bit of a silly thing to say, and it might be over-analysis of something that actually means nothing, but as a coach of a sport team with a psychology degree, I found it interesting when near the end, he forgot part of his joke. Because throughout the set, I could feel the tension build, and it felt like watching a match in my sport that’s going badly. Watching an athlete keep making mistakes, and then trying other things, but those don’t go well either. If they do that for long enough, it is a real psychological phenomenon that tunnel vision will set in. Their peripheral vision will physically narrow, they’ll start missing things they would otherwise have seen, because of the way their brain is scrambling to keep up. They’ll try something they’ve done properly a thousand times, but they’ll leave out an aspect of it that they know very well. As a coach, a huge part of my job is helping athletes learn how to mentally handle bad situations so that doesn’t start happening.

I’m pretty sure when Tim Vine forgot that kangaroo joke, I was straight-up watching the equivalent of that phenomenon, and I find it genuinely interesting that that works in a similar way in such a different context. He tried to recover for a while, threw a few different things at the wall, a couple of them stuck a little, and then he got the hell out of there. By the end, I very much felt like I’d just watched an athlete in a match where everything went wrong, they get to the last thirty seconds and just try to survive, and then they’re relieved to be able to just get the hell off the mat and probably out of the gym altogether to kick a wall in the hallway. I don’t even need to think of it as a coach – I’ve been that athlete out there with everyone looking at me, suddenly going from executing my own plan to someone who has written this off and just wants to have people stop looking at me so I can be mad about it.

Even the terminology’s the same. While listening to that Tim Vine segment, I kept thinking “Oh God the man is dying, someone put him out of his misery.” At the end, I thought, “Well, that’s it, Tim Vine has died.” The night before this car journey, I was at my friend’s house with a few other coaches, watching videos from some of last year’s tournaments. When someone went down hard, I would say, “Oh shit he killed that guy.” When someone had a terrible match, I’d say, “Well, [athlete who lost] is dead now. He died in that match and now he’s dead.” That probably just says something about my own lack of creativity with ways to express that things are going badly, but after I finished listening to Tim Vine, I did laugh a little when I realized my way of describing it used the exact same words that I’d been using to describe athletes the night before.

I found it interesting. Normally the comedians I see are so in control, because normally I’m seeing things that went well enough to be recorded and edited and put online. I like seeing the stuff that hasn’t been through that process. I completely understand why the comedians don’t want that to happen. I understand why they don’t want their bad gigs and unpolished material on the internet, just like when I had a terrible match I used to desperately hope that the guy who records matches and puts them on YouTube had not caught that one.

I can also see why it’s not even just about comedians’ egos or perfectionism; having some control over what gets preserved makes comedy better. If every time they do a show they have to worry that if it goes badly it’ll be out there forever, they won’t take risks or try new stuff. I realize it took me a little while to get to the theme of this post, but to be clear, the theme is ways in which people doing comedy remind me of my experiences in sports. And to come back to that theme, it’s like how during non-pandemic times, we go to tournaments nearly every weekend for most months of the year to just get lots of matches. We tell the athletes that most of these don’t matter, that I’d rather see them try something they haven’t perfected and fuck it up than win the tournament with the same stuff they were doing last year. Because you’ll never get better if you don’t do lots of unimportant matches where it’s fine if it all goes wrong, so when you get to the championships you’ve worked out the problems. You try it once, you see why it didn’t work, you fix that in practice, you try it in the next competition and find new flaws, fix them, repeat and hope to God it’s in decent condition by the time you get to stuff that matters. As far as I can tell that’s basically what they do in comedy, except replace “practice” with “sitting in their house writing stuff”. In either case, no one gets better if they think it really matters every time so they’re too self-conscious to try stuff they don’t already know will work.

I can understand why this means comedians should be able to do most of their shows with the knowledge that no one is recording it, so they get to control which ones get recorded and go online and be attached to their name forever. And that is why I feel a little bit guilty if I listen to a bootleg from a comedy show, which I am currently doing with a couple of old Daniel Kitson shows I found online. My defense is that I’m not the one making that worse. I would never go to a live show and record it. I’m not distributing the files. I just found them, they’d be there whether I downloaded them or not. I think it’s a decent justification.

The connection between live comedy and other parts of life, other ways that people are all working on getting better at something and sometimes it goes well and sometimes it doesn’t, is something I’ve thought about a few times this week. On this Comedian’s Comedian podcast I’ve been listening to, the host Stuart Goldsmith made an offhanded comment that stuck with me, that, “We’ve all been in the finals of competitions with people who are millionaires now.” Referring to how you can have a crop of people who were all nominated for the Newcomer Award or something like that at the Edinburgh Festival in one year, and ten years later some of those nominees are doing pretty well and some have gone nowhere and some are hugely famous. And it makes you realize how much it really doesn’t fucking matter which one of them won that particular award ten years ago.

I don’t even have some psychological point to make about that, it was just a very familiar and accurate observation that I’ve never heard someone quite put into words before. One of the most successful women in the country at my sport used to be in my category at tournaments when we were both fairly new, and one time we got into the finals together at some regional competition, and I did in fact beat her. Every time she racks up some new major accomplishment, I think, “Yeah but I pinned her in 2007.”

The first main training partner – meaning a teammate that I worked with at almost every practice – I ever had won a gold medal at the Olympics in 2016. I watched her do it and said, “Yeah, pretty sure she got there because of all those days in 2005 that I pushed her on [I’d started to write the name of the moves we used to do together but no one will know what I’m talking about so just imagine generic sports move that were definitely not the ones that won her the Olympics].” I mean, obviously I didn’t really watch her win the Olympics while saying that. I watched her win the Olympics on a choppy livestream with tears in my eyes as time ran down and I realized which way it would go, and when the final buzzer sounded I threw my arms around friend and shouted things. I said the stuff about how her and I were in the same place in 2005 later in the night, after we’d had about eight shots of whiskey in her honour. One might think that that sort of thing is why she won the Olympics and I didn't, but to be fair, I've been out with several Olympians before and it's amazing how much they can drink.

I wonder if that’s what it’s like for comedians who watch some people go a lot farther than others. I guess it’s like that with anything, sports or art but even just working in any job. I’ve never had a job where I care that much about advancement in this way; I’ve just had things to pay the bills while I mainly revolve my life around this sport. So I don’t know what it’s like to be really competitive in a career, but I assume it’s like this. I guess everything I've said in this post is basically obvious and like that for everyone, but it's a few connections I hadn't specifically made before.

Well, those are my thoughts. Disjointed thoughts I had during a long road trip yesterday, while listening to a bunch of different things on my phone. I’m going to go look at an ocean now, because the result of that car journey is I’m in a place where I can do that.

5 notes · View notes

mirrorforevers · 3 years

Text

here, there, and everywhere • graham coxon/reader

this fic is based on two prompts y'all sent me:

and

this fic really tested all of my blur knowledge holy Fuck. blur as talking heads au i guess. how cool would it be if they

1. had a girl bassist instead of the cheese tory dude

2. werent as unhappy as they were in the mid 90s (just a bit)

3. were just a little 🤏🏻 bit more female friendly lets just pretend this is a universe where the blurjob passes didnt exist heh

it took me everything i had to make this sound as realistic as it could be. u know these girls who think they could fix patrick bateman or don draper? perhaps y’all could fix blur

consider this a gift n not only me writing for your prompt, @nottuned! thank u so much for all your support n encouragement n for always bein so sweet 🥺 i hope u enjoy reading it as much as i enjoyed writing it!

let’s see how many references to unfortunate britpop moments y’all can find in this

also i hope i captured the silliness of the gossip and drama in that era well. if you enjoyed it, please leave an ask telling me more! ur feedback is rly important to me 😔✊🏻

tw (?) reader has shitty parents

word count: 7.938 (this one's quite long!)

smut. set in the 90s. au.

You were unlocking your door when you heard your house phone ring. The shrill sound echoed through the empty corridors as you hurriedly unwrapped your scarf, tossing your keys and backpack on nearby furniture as you ran to answer the call.

“Hello?” You answer, panting.

“Y/N?”

“Dave?” You smile, that call was a very welcome surprise. Your friend owed you an answer.

A few weeks ago, Dave Rowntree, your music classmate who became a close friend, told you that he had teamed up with two other proficient musicians to form a band. Dave was ecstatic, and every day he had new stories about his new friends to tell you between breakfasts and lunches that you shared between the countless hours of rehearsals. Even though you weren't part of the group, you already felt that you knew Damon and Graham like the back of your hand. Yin and Yang. One was expansive, ambitious, vain, impulsive. The other, shy, introspective, anxious and careful.

Damon Albarn wanted to be an actor, Graham Coxon had a firm foot in the visual arts. One was a fan of grand classical compositions, the other was a Beatles fan. They had been friends since they were children, in a seemingly unbreakable bond. Damon dropped out of his theater class not only because out of a sudden he had found a bigger calling in music instead of acting, but also because he couldn't stand being away from his best friend for so long. You found yourself often imagining their faces and voices while trying to make all of the wild and endearingly funny stories Dave told you more tangible in your head.

It was not long before Dave started dropping little hints that they needed someone else for their project. “It’s not that Graham isn’t good at bass,” he’d say, “but we could do better.” It wasn't at the top of your plans to be part of a band right now, especially as you were preparing intensely to join the Royal Academy of Music, and he knew it. When you mentioned the conversations you had with Dave about the boys on your family dinner, in quiet wonder and timid want of being part of something really exciting, your parents wrinkled their noses. Focus on the greater things, they’d say. Don’t let these boys distract you from your goal.

Our goal, they meant to say. Since you were born, you never knew if the things you wanted were really your will or theirs.

But anyway.

That dynamic went on for a while, until the day Dave invited you to audition for them while you shared a Diet Coke in the tube home.

“Will it take too much of my time?” You asked, coyly.

“Bold of you to assume we’ll let you in that quickly.” He chuckles, amused by your confidence. You playfully elbow him in return. He knew how good you were at what you did, though, and there’s lightness in his tone when he continues, “But no, unless you let it. You’ll probably have to stand up to Damon every once in a while.” He sips the drink, handing it over to you.

“What about Graham? How much is he determined to make it big?”

“Damon’s the one who wants it the most. Graham’s studying Fine Arts at Goldsmiths, so. There’s still cautiousness in him.”

“Huh. Okay then.” You reply, thoughts running wild. “Do we have a time and date?”

“Is tomorrow ok to you?”

“Sure. After our class?”

“Perfect.” The train reaches his station. He ruffles your hair: “See you tomorrow then.”

“See you.”

You don’t tell anything about it to your parents, you just warn them that you’ll arrive a bit later than usual. Dave’s intel was crucial to your choice of songs: knowing Graham was the beatlemaniac and also the rational brake to Damon’s tireless ambition, you knew who to please and have as an ally, so you build an innovative and fresh mashup of Paul McCartney’s greatest basslines to play for them. Of course it could backfire, but you didn’t care. You had a hell of a good ear anyway and if Damon wanted you to play anything out of the blue, you would improvise beautifully over it.

The day comes. You didn’t know why you were that nervous for an amateur audition. You weren’t even sure if it was the right path to follow, given that, depending on how focused Damon really was and how contagious his aspiration was, being part of a band could really take you out of your predestinated course. The reason why you were so nervous, now thinking a little more about it, may be because deep inside, you want your path to be a little less predictable. You didn’t want to fill your heart with hopes that you might make it big and travel all over the world because you didn’t even know them. But… what if it clicks? You knew some people in the scene whose work was getting seriously recognized out there.

Meeting them for the first time was an enigmatic experience. Damon was incredibly brash and cocky - not the first theater kid you’ve met in your life. Graham was way more approachable, though also a bit conceited when pushed just right. You wondered if you’d fit in that boys’ club, and decided you wouldn’t be an easy target for discredit or any kind of shit they might give you. “Took me a while to fully get their trust. You’ll do just fine”, Dave said, out of their earshot.

That gave you more fuel to play amazingly well. Damon definitely wasn’t one to be impressed quickly, but he was, when you finished your set. So was Graham - Graham was starry eyed with your performance, actually. Albarn showed you a song and asked you if you could improvise to it, just as you imagined. Of course you could, on the first play. You even suggested some adjustments to its structure. Your feedback was welcomed and noted.

Even though everything went surprisingly well, you still weren't sure if you would be a member of “Seymour”, as they called themselves. (You knew it wasn’t the best name, but you didn’t have a better suggestion at the time so you’ve kept your opinion to yourself.) Graham became eerily quiet out of a sudden and wouldn’t cross eyes with you the entire time you were there. Damon, well, was Damon. Perhaps he thought you were too ordinary and mainstream for deciding to play Beatles when he’s trying to be the new avant-garde Jesus.

But Dave's news was different than you expected. “They really, really enjoyed your audition. As I thought they would.” You can hear the smile in his voice. "When can you rehearse with us?"

Months after, on your first gig as a fully formed and integrated band, Damon was hit in the face by a guy twice his size, Graham vomited onstage and you and Dave had to take care of both. A beautiful way to close the already exquisite day you had, after you fought with your parents, got kicked out of your childhood home and gave up on entering the Royal Academy of Music two days after you received your acceptance letter featuring rave reviews of your entrance exam.

Dealing with these boys - no, grown-ass men - was hard, but not completely unpleasant. If it were totally unpleasant, you wouldn’t give up on your entire life to embark on such an adventure.

You - plural you - were so gifted and Damon’s compositions were so good. You could see that artsy pretentious mess of an act going somewhere. Of course, you were a bit lost in your life, but so were they, as you ran from city to city meeting new people and trying new things in your journey to fame.

Loneliness, once a close friend, became a distant acquaintance. One you didn’t know anymore.

You confess you were getting worried, though, with how much money you had left on your savings and how much you were spending lately now that your parents weren’t an active part of your life. Wanting to eat something you cannot dream of buying without that money being really useful in a much more critical situation, not having nearly enough money to replace something important that broke or got torn off was frustrating. Some basic things became luxuries out of a sudden.

One day in particular, you very briefly mentioned that you were dying to eat a slice of chocolate cake, but your voice was so small and everyone was so immersed in their duties you thought no one gave two shits to what you said. Two days later, Graham arrived late at rehearsal with a small chocolate cake in his hands, handing it over to you like it was a completely ordinary act. Nothing in the way he acted told you he expected a reward, it was so natural and… gentle. You knew no one in your band could buy a chocolate cake without it being apocalyptic to their personal finances during that time.

That day, you were assured by fate that feeling lost together was better than feeling guided alone.

The band finally got on track - strictly musically speaking. Personally speaking, many contemporaries who followed you at parties and other events described you as an ever-growing odd, annoying and intermittently disarming bunch - and Blur and its members became household names, at least in the UK. It became harder and harder everyday to impose yourself as an entire industry and its target public aimed to tear you down. Men couldn’t understand.

(Graham Coxon was the one who tried the hardest to.)

It was four in the morning. You’ve got used to following your bandmates to hospitals, running away from trouble or knowing when to relish in it. But it was the first time you offered yourself to clean up dried blood from one’s face, given how much you hated seeing the fluid and even fainted when younger whenever exposed to it.

You, so delicately, wipe the saline solution-soaked cotton across Graham’s face, who flinches at the cold sensation on his still sensitive skin. He stares at you with the eyes of a child, and you couldn’t help but give him a slight, warm smile in return, which he retributes. Your face conveyed gratitude and affection towards the one you were taking care of. Your hands still struggled to stay completely still after the surge of adrenaline your body received a few hours ago.

Being the only girl in a massive band, and one the music magazines and mainstream media loved sexualizing, meant having paparazzis in your window in odd hours (not that that’s acceptable in any hour, but you had to lower your standards even more these days), meant having different photographers trying to pressure you to get into all kinds of uncomfortable angles with skimpy-ass dresses and just count on the intervention of your fellow bandmates so they would stop, also having invasive male fans who would try to harass you in any way they could.

Of course the day where one of your bandmates would get into a fist fight with one of these men inserted into these categories would come. And even though they were all protective of you, each in their own peculiar, increasingly contradictory way, Graham’s dedication to it was sometimes commendable.

You were making your way through a small corridor of people on your way to the stage when a random guy cupped one of your breasts. It’s not like the venue was incredibly tight, it could not have been on accident and it made your blood boil. You turned around to scream at him, and Graham, who was just behind you, threw a punch directly towards the man’s face, without thinking twice.

And oh boy, took a lot of people and a sweet amount of time to separate the two after that.

After all was said and done, Graham had a few scratches, a black eye and a cut brow. He kept dodging your many “sorrys”, “you didn’t have to do this” and other expressions of guilt. “You have nothing to be sorry about, he deserved it”, he kept assuring you, like a mantra, just giving in to your pleas when you supplicated to take care of his wounds during intermission and after the show.

“I get why you did what you did, Gra. I hate that you took such a risk because of me, but I understand.” you say, voice cracking from not using it for a while after spending some good minutes in complete silence taking care of him. “However,” you soak another cotton ball in the saline solution a roadie got you, punctuating the word with a squeeze to the cotton to remove excess liquid. “I was worried sick about you. What if he… had a knife or something? You could’ve got seriously injured. Or killed.”

“Don’t worry about me. I’m perfectly able to have a good fight,” after wincing from the contact of the cold wet cotton with his dried blood, he purses his lips in a forced, shy smile, trying to light up the mood. He notices your hands are still shaking from the adrenaline, and takes one of them in his bigger ones, trying to calm you down. The fact that he did this for you, coupled with the fear and how tired you felt of having to go through that kind of situation once again, made you cry-laugh from how overwhelmed you felt.

His expression changes to one of pure compassion in an instant. “Hey, don’t--oh my,” he gets up from his chair to embrace you as you pour your frustrations through fat tears running down his shoulder.

“It’s so exhausting,” you mumble, through sobs. “Now I’m putting you in danger too. I feel like I did and I’m still doing everything wrong. I should be the one giving you a shoulder to cry on.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong! Anything at all, I promise you,” he says, tenderly, running his hands through your hair, still holding you tight. “It was his fault! I decided it was the right thing to do. You’re worth the risk. What people have been putting you through is unacceptable.”

“I’m not worth the risk!” You break apart from his arms, trying to get your point across. “What would I do without you if someone killed you? You need to be more careful!”

The silence hangs heavy between you two thanks to the weight of your words.

“You should’ve asked me before you lunged at him, at least. I don’t know.” You wipe your many tears as you move towards the nearest bottle of water to try to calm yourself down. “It’ll never end. I’m so afraid that these situations will get even worse. That,” you motion at his wounds and dirty clothes, “is a bloody tragedy. It’s a tragedy things escalated to this point. You can’t do that forever.”

“This is just a consequence. And something I would do for you in a heartbeat whenever necessary.”

“Graham, I don’t want you to get hurt because--”

“They hurt you. I won’t let you go through that alone. Besides,” he comes closer to you again. “As I already told you, I can take care of myself, most of the time.” He takes your face in his hands, his fingers so delicately running across your cheeks to dry your tears. You knew that gesture wasn’t his way of asking you for anything you weren’t ready to give him yet. He just wanted you to feel safe. “And I want to take care of you.”

“I’m the one cleaning your wounds.”

“A great partnership, I think.” Coxon chuckles softly, and finally gets a smile out of you. As he always does. “And they make me look cool, don’t you think?”

“Shut up.” You giggle, still feeling too emotional to return to the stage. You sigh: “Thank you for being there for me. You know I’m still not very used to it. Just please be safe.”

The roadie returns, a little flustered by interrupting your little moment together. “5 minutes and you’re back, guys.”

“Okay!” You both turn to answer her.

“I’ll be. No need to thank me for anything, Y/N.” He answers, giving your forehead a little kiss. “Let’s go.”

“Give me two minutes. I’ll be right behind you.”

“What’s it like, being the only woman in the band?”

Four eyerolls at once don’t seem to faze the interviewer. She waits for your response.

Apparently the thousand invasive questions regarding Damon’s love life and the same bullshit treatment of women as either rare specimen or sex dolls is what pleases the audience of music TV shows these days.

“What do you think?” is what you say.

“Must be a thrill to have these beautiful boys around you all the time. And we’ve heard you never even took advantage of it!”

You don’t like where this is heading. “Is that… a bad thing? I don’t know what you mean.”

“Perhaps some of our lady viewers might think it is. No judgement though!” She raises her hands. “You do you, it’s just that it’s quite unexpected to see prudes in non-Christian bands. I mean… from what we’ve heard.”

“I’m sorry? What are you trying to say? What did you hear?”

Her tongue clicks while she stares at you with defiance and mischief on her eyes, as she goes a little further and raises her voice so it can overlay yours. “Oh love. You do know what I’m talking about. There’s no need to be ashamed of being a virgin.”

Your cheek burns intensely and the only thing you wished for was for the ground to swallow you whole. Dave and Graham are especially uncomfortable. Damon’s a bit amused. The three knew almost everything there was to know about you. The one topic that surprisingly they didn’t know about is that you’re still a virgin.

They know you’ve been single for a long time. They know that’s part of what draws so much attention and twisted lore regarding you and your past, but that’s not something they felt they needed to know about you at all, and you truly never felt the need to comment about that with any of them, and they haven’t asked. Not even Mr. “the way to be successful in this game is to make all the boys wanna be you and all the girls wanna sleep with you. In your case that’d work in reverse” Damon Albarn.

“Is that even something that should be discussed in an interview about our music? Is that what your boss told you to ask her about?” Dave answers, his tone venomous.

“Musicians are way more than just music. You’re entertainment in every sense of the word.”

“Who told you that about me?” You asked, not sure if you want to know the answer.

“A lovely elderly lady who lives in Elgin Crescent. She knows you so well.”

That’s your mum. That’s how far low your relationship has degraded. You’re not surprised. That doesn’t feel less like a punch on your gut, but you don’t feel like tumbling again. Not today.

“I know who you’re talking about. Tell her I asked her to go fuck herself and burn in hell. In that order.”

“But that’s your--”

“Yes, she is my mum!” If people are going to expose you anyway, then why don’t you do it on your terms? “We’re truly entertainment in every sense of the word, aren’t we. Not everyone’s mum’s a cunt. Some of us aren’t that lucky.”

“You want to be the next Gallagher sister with the spicy remarks?”

“Not sure. But I do want to be the last person you ever get to interview.”

The management of the band wasn’t at all surprised your interview became UK’s topic of the week. People were heavily divided between family is family and we shouldn’t hate our relatives and blood isn’t everything, family can be shitty too. Your bandmates were proud of you. The management was angry but tried to understand, and didn’t press you for further explanations. They suggested a two-week break from everything so Blur could rest their image and start a fresh cycle after that, and you gracefully accepted it.

The whole thing seemed so ridiculous the more you thought about it. Did your mum tell the reporter about that gratuitously? What was their conversation like? How did that even happen?

You became the butt of jokes in some places. You saw other famous people doing challenges between them, countdowns, all sorts of crude remarks. What a pathetic, sad chapter of your career.

You dial Graham, and you feel like your heart was about to burst out of your chest.

“Hey, Gra. It’s me.”

“Hey, Y/N.” He sounds pleasantly surprised. “How's it going?”

“Better, I guess. I have to take my mind off all that chaos though. Are you available right now?”

“Yeah.”

“You’ve been owing me a movie night for quite a while now and I miss spending time with you. Wanna come over?”

“Aww. Sure, I--um. Do you want me to bring anything?”

“I’m pretty sure I got everything we need here--ah… I think I don’t have any more beers.”

“I’ll buy some then. See ya in a few minutes.”

Actually, you couldn’t take all that chaos off your mind because that was the only thing in it. You’re feeling so nervous.

The main reasons sex wasn’t a priority for you until now were:

You didn’t have any real opportunities of losing your virginity in your teens. You were impossibly introspective until, like, 3, 4 years ago, and the way your family worked hasn’t really allowed you to get really close to people. Be it boyfriends, girlfriends or just friends. Anything that threatened to take time off the various tasks and classes your parents assigned to you just couldn’t be part of your life. To be honest, you still struggled a bit to form meaningful connections with people thanks to how you grew up.

The moment you stopped being shy, you noticed it was a real man’s world out there, especially in music, classical or not. You didn’t want anyone to think you fucked your way up to the top, you didn’t want any messy affairs. Also, you had yourself, and you didn’t get all of the hype regarding the concept of screwing someone. But apparently there’s a lot you’ve been missing, given the importance people seem to give to it. After that incident, even though you swore to yourself you wouldn’t give in to any kind of misogynistic pressure, that was one that really got under your skin.

You never really found someone who you felt 100% safe with in that sense until the one who’s about to arrive at your house appeared in your life. Bloody hell, and you don’t even have anything romantic going on. By the time you were a Blur member, you’ve fooled around a bit, but not all the way. You knew how to kiss, knew how to touch yourself and even brought manual satisfaction to some random fool you thought you were into one time. But perhaps this is the time to go all the way. Why not? Everyone knew how close you two were. He made you feel special. He was so kind. And gorgeous. And--

You hear a knock on your door. It’s him. Beers in hand, hair somewhat in place, twitchy as ever.

He comes inside and you feel like your legs will give up anytime. It was not the first time he visited you. It was one of many, actually, and he noticed you were acting… different.

“Y/N, are you okay?” He asks after a brief dialogue between you two, after plating some snacks for both of you.

“Graham...” You sigh, being really careful with your words. “What is your perception of me?”

“My perception of you?” He smiles. “I… think you’re great. You’re fun to be around. You’re one of the best musicians I know, if not the best. Why are you asking me that?”

“N-nothing. It’s nothing. Also, I asked the wrong question. What was your first perception of me?”

“Uh… the day of your audition?”

“Exactly. You barely talked to me that day.”

His eyes lower to his own feet. “I was really timid, actually. I wasn’t used to being near any girl, especially one who… w-would spend so much time around me if everything went well.”

You giggle. “I thought you hated me.”

“Never!” his smile turns into a full blown laughter. You melt at his confession. “Also because it seemed like you were trying to read my mind or something.”

“Of course! Because I thought you hated me!” Now that was a laughter you two shared. You do a voice: “‘Why is that pesky girl trying to get in my band?’”

“My goodness, no! I don’t even sound like that - you know what, I changed my mind. You suck. Because, besides the fact you don’t even know what I sound like, you still haven’t told me why you are asking me that in the first place.”

You couldn’t help but notice how he slightly cornered you physically in one of the kitchen corridors. Graham could be really persuasive when he wanted to.

“Okay. Right. Um. I’ve been thinking about some stuff.”

“What, exactly?”

“Everything that happened this month. The great virginity debacle,” you roll your eyes, and he scoffs.

“You don’t own anyone any information about what you do or don't do with your life. Everyone’s being so invasive. That was incredibly childish of the reporter to do, and we talked about that hundreds of times.”

“Yeah, but… you know what, forget it.”

“Tell me, Y/N. I just said that because I want you to know you were not in the wrong.”

“I know. It’s just… I’ve been thinking that maybe it’s silly for me to… keep closing myself for affection. Any kind of affection.”

“What are you talking about?” His brows furrowed in curiosity.

“I’m not sure if it’s the pressure that finally got under my skin, but… I’m willing to learn what all the fuss is about. Maybe it’s silly that I’m still a virgin.”

He bites his lips, still processing what you just said, expression unreadable. Perhaps you’ve treaded a ground you shouldn’t. You step back both literally and figuratively. “I’m sorry I even brought that up--”

“No, no, don’t be.” He assures you. “I’m just… surprised, that’s all. I swear.”

“And...” You know what. You already went too far, so why not go all the way. You’ve already gone way past the point of no return. “I was wondering if… you would… popmycherry?”

His eyes widen, yours still closed. When you finally open them, he’s closer to you again.

If his head was a machine, you’re sure it would be releasing lots of steam and shaking due to overprocessing. You felt like you just ruined everything.

“Y/N, you don’t need to do it if you don’t really want to.”

“But I want it! At first I thought I didn’t, but then I thought...”

“I don’t want to be part of that if you’re just doing it to fulfill weird expectations.”

“But it’s not that. Not just... that. I asked about your perception of me because I really like you, Gra. I think we should be more than friends and I wanted to know what you think about me. And I want to know what the fuss is about, yes, but I’m not telling you that just so I can lose my virginity to prove some point. I’m telling you that because I like you, I want to kiss you, and I think it would be a great idea if you showed me what it’s like. Y-you know, sex.”

“I-I can’t believe it. Did you even have any movie in mind?” His smile’s back, but you’re still not confident about what his answer will be.

“I didn’t. I’m sorry. You don’t have to--”

He sighs. “I was in love with you the moment I first saw you, actually.” He says it like he’s releasing a huge load out of his back, his arms crossed. Now your eyes widen, and you hold your breath without even noticing. “I didn’t want you to feel pressured. I know how you feel, or, felt about relationships, so… there wasn’t any reason for me to tell you that. And what I said about being timid was just half of the truth.”

“Huh?”

“I also was really intimidated by how pretty you looked. You can’t imagine how.”

“No way.”

“It’s true. I felt like I wasn’t even worthy of looking at you, really.”

“You’re joking. That’s mean, Gra.”

“I’m not. I’m really not.” He doesn’t look like he is joking. He looks relieved. “I’m really not. That’s why I’m so surprised by your request.”

“I’m nothing special.”

“You are everything to me. But I can’t accept your offer, not now.”

“Are you… seeing someone? Am I too late?”

“No. Definitely not. I just want you to be sure you’re not doing it because people are saying you should.”

“Graham, I’m a grown woman.”

“I know.”

Graham carefully presses his slightly chapped lips to yours, kissing you for a few precious, heart stopping seconds before pulling away; his voice is impossibly silky when he suggests, “Let’s watch a movie. How about The Godfather? I heard it’s airing tonight. Then, if in two weeks you don’t change your mind, tell me and I’ll be glad to help you with what you want. Do we have a deal?”

“That’s so unfair. I want you so bad.” You whisper.

“Tell me if you still do in two weeks.”

You sigh, defeated. “...Deal.”

You definitely notice the subtle shift in Graham’s personality and actions after that fateful night. If you were already close, both figuratively and literally, it now seemed like he would use any excuse to always touch you, be near you, sometimes tease you. The shift was subtle, though, don’t forget it’s still Graham Coxon we’re talking about - the constant “is it okay if”s or “is it alright if I”s were still there, as careful as ever. You don’t even talk about your deal that entire time, or even kiss again - sometimes you wondered if it was even real or just a fabrication of your mind.

The way he now caressed your hand discreetly when you listened to Damon’s ramblings, the way his hands now went directly to your waist when your games became too handsy, the way he seemed to be madly in love with everything you were and still are from the start - made you realize you were ready for this man to be a consistent part of your life.

The dust of the controversy was settled, and your own intentions were 100% clear to you now. The societal pressure has waned. The need for Graham to be your first persisted. After exactly 2 weeks have passed, you call him again, yearning to share the answer with him.

One beep.

Two beeps.

Three beeps.

Four beeps. “Hello?”

You release a sigh hidden deep inside of your lungs. “Graham, it’s Y/N.”

“Oh. It’s been two weeks.” You could hear the contemplative tone of his voice.

“...Yeah. That’s precisely the reason I’m calling you.”

“Do you still want to…?”

“...Desperately.”

“Ok.” He chuckles, flustered as hell on the other side of the phone, probably one of the prettiest sounds you’ve ever heard. “Right. Ok. Your place or mine?”

“I think there’ll be an element of mystery if I go to your place this time.” You lose some of the constraints this silly shyness has been tying you on. “Do you have everything we might need there?”

“We don’t need a dungeon, you know.”

“The basics.” You make your smile heard.

“I do have… I do have the basics.”

“See you in a few minutes then.”

“Will you want to… ease into it? Or just go straight to it?”

“God, don’t make it awkward!” Your cheeks burn, your smile turning into contagious laughter. “Maybe… I don’t know. Ease into it, I guess? A movie night… but with s-something else?”

“Okay. Sounds good.”

“Alright then. See you.”

“See you.”

You don’t choose any particularly fancy or sexy clothes, instead settling for a slightly oversized yellow striped shirt he gave you as a birthday present some months ago and some skirt that fit you well. He wasn’t one to lavish his loved ones with gifts all the time, but few things were as precious as the look on his face whenever he saw you wearing something he gave you or, hell, even eating something he paid for you. You’re thrilled to see it again when he opens the door for you, it easing some of your deepest doubts.

2001: A Space Odyssey is already playing on the TV when you arrive. Despite it being one of your favorite movies of all time, and his, you’re not mad it was already halfway through when you arrived. It wasn’t your main priority to rewatch it for the 17th time tonight.

He offers you some wine, which you accept to ease the nerves. You sit on his couch, and he shares the cozy space with you, now mindlessly throwing one of his arms around your shoulders. You cuddle up to him, and everything seems peaceful in the world for a while.

The tip of his fingers softly caress your lifted knee, absentmindedly. You couldn’t help but notice how well his body fits with yours, how your skin was apparently made for him to touch, and the anxiety rumbles in your stomach like a storm in a wild wavy sea. After some minutes, you raise your head, his big brown eyes meeting yours as if asking you a silent question. You leaned up a bit more to press your lips to his, in a silent answer. The sweetness in him makes this moment as precious as every other moment you ever shared with him. His hands enter your hair, making you shiver a bit from the unfamiliarity and the electricity of it all - but it doesn’t sway you from deepening the kiss, wanting more of his taste, more of this, more of him.

“Do you wanna take this to the bed?” He whispers, after noticing your moans were becoming more frequent and needy. You nod, and you are taken by surprise when he carries you bridal style to it, hiding your excited giggles in his broad shoulders.

Graham wasn’t exactly the most organized man in the world - so the fact that his bedroom was now impossibly tidy was something that positively caught your attention. He put some planning into this. He lays you down and you part your legs, beckoning him to meet you between them. He does, and you go back to the breathtaking makeout session. You notice he’s holding himself back a bit, taking his time, his warm tongue moving smoothly, not hurriedly, against yours. His self control falters a bit though, given how he can’t stop grinding against you. You follow the rhythm of his hips a bit timidly and not nearly as in sync as you’d really like, though the pressure his covered cock is creating against your core can already be felt and some particular thrusts are able to fill at least partially the aching, wet need growing within you.

“How do you feel about oral?” He asks, breath warm near your ear, his voice raspy and spent by his desire for you.

“Um… It would be my first time receiving or doing it.”

“Would you like me to go down on you?”

“Wow. I never thought I would hear you saying something like that.” You smile, still assimilating the situation you’re in, trying not to show how badly his voice is affecting you. “Sure.”

“I never thought I would get to propose this to you. Aren’t we full of surprises lately.” He smiles back, warmly. He notices your hands trembling a bit from how anxious you are while you’re taking off your underwear with his help, and as he lowers himself to where you need him most, he takes your hands in his as an act of reassurance. “Tell me what you like. Tell me if what I’m doing works for you. I want this to be a great experience.”

“You want me to get addicted to you, that’s what you want,” He chuckles, lovingly kissing your thigh as a reply. “Okay, Gra. Guess I’ll find out along the way.”

You quickly take a peak below you to see the lower half of his face disappear in the middle of your thighs. The sight alone sets your fire ablaze, as he hooks his arms around your thighs and lifts you closer to his mouth, his lips ghosting over the curls between your legs tantalizingly and his breath catching when your hips jerk forward.

As he begins his ministrations, you immediately notice it’s unlike anything you’ve ever felt. That feeling was completely alien to you. It was even wetter than you expected, and weird, but powerfully pleasant. Before this exact moment, you had a firm belief that hardly anyone else would make you feel the same way, or better, than you do yourself, but apparently you were very wrong. Thankfully you were wrong. “My god,” you gasp as the flat of his tongue drags over your folds, too much and not enough, and you jerk at the contact. “This is great. So weird, but-- great.”

He moans at your response, his movements carefully enthusiastic. He works his tongue between your folds and traces up to curl the tip of it around your clit, and it’s quite endearing and madly arousing to see how he eats out you like you’re the sweetest and tastier dessert he has ever tasted. You involuntarily buck against him with a desperate sound the moment he moves his tongue and lips in a particularly wicked way, something that definitely doesn’t go unnoticed by him, but you still feel the need to highlight in case it didn’t - “That. Keep doing that, please,”

And he does. The building of this climax is also different than the ones you already had by your own hands, and is more coy. As he sees the drops of sweat sliding along your soft skin and the expressions on your face as you get lost in this new but enchanting sensations, his hesitation and self-control fades away; there’s nothing uncertain in the way he buries his face in your cunt now, nothing restrained in the groan he lets out as he devours you and drinks you down as if you’re the first stream of water he has seen in days.

His tongue glides deeper in your folds again and again, swirling up through the wetness you’re coated with to tease at your clit while he grunts and strains closer, squeezing your thighs with both hands tight. The wave of heat inside of you is cresting so fast, you don't even know how to tell him, how to signal that you’re nearly done for and, in the end, it happens too fast to even try. He sucks at your clit, circling it with his tongue, once, twice, and then you’re crying out, shaking underneath him, trying to keep your thighs from clenching too hard around his head as he laps you through it with with urgent whimpers and moans, as if he cannot have enough of you.

You’re still trembling when he rises, the look on his face revealing to you how proud he feels by making you feel this way. It looks so good on him.

You fail miserably at the simple task of connecting words together after that, choosing instead to collect your remaining strength, prop yourself up and beckon him again to keep kissing him and learn, through his talented tongue, how you taste. He kisses the thin fabric of the shirt at your chest that covers you from view, your throat, your jaw, and before he reaches your impatient lips, he notes, sinfully, “Seems like you enjoyed yourself, love.”

“That was… unbelievable. Stars, I want to make you feel good too. Please show me how.”

“Keep kissing me,” he begs, voice still strained from how aroused he is. “I want to be inside you so bad. Let’s get you prepared.” You’re still so sensitive, you tread on overstimulation when his fingers lightly touch your clit, making you break the kiss in a hiss. He traces a line on your folds, inspecting the impact his mouth had on you. “So wet for me.”

“Bit slower, Gra,” He complies to your breathy plea, his fingers now more tame as he slowly spreads your wetness throughout your pussy. He stretches towards the nightstand to grab a bottle of lube, interrupting his contact to spread some on his fingers before unhurriedly slipping his middle finger inside of you. The coldness of the gel makes you shiver in surprise, the easiness brought by it very welcomed. Again - the sensation is odd. Completely unfamiliar. The feeling of having something inside of you for the first time, going further than you ever dared to try, probing, exploring; the coldness of the lube clashing against your burning hot cunt. But it also felt nice. The focused look on his face was adorable, he looked like he was a scientist in the middle of very complex research.

Despite the panting, the messy hair and the fire in his eyes.

Your body already has a lot of new sensations to process simultaneously, so when he asks you to take off your bra and shirt so his tongue can work on your nipples - which you gladly accept, you feel like you’re on sensual overload. His tongue, again, so talented, takes your mind off the slight burning you feel when he introduces his ring finger to your soaked, throbbing core, his focused, carefully overpowering and constant stimulation driving you insane.

“Does it feel good?” He asks, voice muffled by your breast. You nod, carried by the wave of pleasure sweeping you.

“Yes. God, yes.” You pant, tangling your fingers tightly on his thick hair as an encouragement, a desperate sound escaping from your lips the moment he reaches a certain point within you you didn’t even know existed, hot mouth continuing to lick and suck your nipple. Even though you were spent by your last orgasm, he was indeed getting you addicted to those new feelings, and even though this was heavenly, truly heavenly, you needed more. “Gra, I’m ready, I think.”

“You sure?”

“Yes. Please.”

Releasing your nipple from his lips with a sounding pop, he eagerly frees himself from his trousers - hard as a brick - and puts protection and lubrication on, swiftly positioning himself between your thighs while stroking himself to the sight in front of him. You motion to take off your skirt, and he holds your hand, not letting you. “Don’t. It’ll be really hot to fuck you in this.” He confesses, giving your forehead a kiss in a very different context than before. He aligns his forehead with yours, each of your lips just barely touching while you breathe each other’s air. He looks deep into your eyes, slowly running the tip of his cock between the slick folds of your pussy, coating himself in the remnants of your pleasure. “Do you trust me?”

You trust me to know your limits? Not to go any further if you don’t really want me to?

“Absolutely.”

The only response you get from him is a shuddering, helpless moan into your mouth and you hold him tighter to you, grinding your still sensitive cunt up against his cock while he pulls hard at the soft fur next to your head. You feel your soaking pussy lips part around the solid curve of his length and gradually coat the underside of him in slick with every gentle circle and roll your hips make, as he finally pulls away from your mouth to drop his forehead to your neck. He then, very slowly, penetrates you, stopping when he hears the noises you make indicating you’re struggling to adjust to his presence. Out of everything you’ve felt in the last minutes, this was by far the most painful sensation. “This-- is new,” you note, your face completely incapable of hiding the discomfort. He also notices that.

“Are you okay? Do you want me to stop?”

“It’s okay. I’ll get used to it.”

“It’s not supposed to be about endurance, you know.” He says, a bit breathless and worried, caressing your hair. “Tell me when it’s okay to move. Or if you feel too much pain.”

After some long seconds and some deep breaths, you say: “Okay. Go on.”

“As you wish.”

He moves inside you at a very slow pace, the lubrication clearly making it easier for you to handle it. It still hurts, significantly, but the sensation of being filled is also surprisingly arousing.

His hand moves to your sensitive clit again in small, measured circles, your little moans being a mixture of the pain of penetration and the sheer ecstasy of seeing him falling apart because of you. The way his chest heaves while the drops of sweat start pearling his fair skin, the furrowed brows and broken groans, the thickness of him as he rests heavy up against your entrance, the way his voice presses deliciously tight in his throat as he gasps out into the quiet room - everything’s making your chest burst in love and satisfaction. You tighten your grip around him and roll your hips up into his cock, letting it break you open nice and slow; it stretches you wide with a deliciously sharp fullness and pleasure rips through you, and Graham becomes even more vocal as he picks up a steady and gradually faster pace. He turned all of your keys, it’s about time you turn some of his.

“Graham, deeper,” you whimper, continuing to tighten your legs and hoist yourself up, lifting your hips to take his cock deeper inside you. His name rips itself from your throat while Coxon clenches his jaw and starts to lose himself in the pleasure, holding you down into the bed while he allows your desperation to guide him to the perfect angle and speed to sate you. He found denying you to be impossible.

He snarls and curses as he holds you down and rails you, determined to make you sing again before he finishes, and to his delight, your heightened sensitivity gives him what he wants. And this time, he couldn't hold on.

Graham kisses you one last time as he groans and gives in, head dropping to your neck again. You didn’t reach a second climax, but stars, what an experience you just had.

When he comes back to himself enough to realise he still had you practically folded in half, he carefully pulls his softening cock free, taking the condom off and taking the strands of hair out of your face as you struggle to catch your breath. You suggest a shared bath, a suggestion he gladly accepts.

Too tired and too sore for pillow talk, comfortable silence falls as your hand finds his, and you lay, listening to each other’s breathing slowly settle.

I could get used to his little snore on my chest, is the last thought that twinkles on your mind before you fall asleep snuggled with him.

#graham coxon #alex james #damon albarn #dave rowntree #blur #britpop #smut #imagine #reader insert #graham coxon x reader #graham x reader #y/n #fluff #au #fanfiction #blur band

231 notes · View notes

drawing-way-outside-the-lines · 3 years

Note

2, 5, 11, 15, 16, 18 aaand 31 for the story teller asks.

Gotta stop here before i send all of them xD

Oh man! :D Thank you so much! I'm very excited to answer these! :D 2. Describe your story in three words or less Chaotic.... but loving. Not that the story is written chaotically, cause I don't think it is, but I think from an outsiders perspective, specially considering I sorta started sharing the story publicly almost 300 chapters in, I'm sure it at times can seem rather chaotic? Or maybe I'm the chaotic one? 5. How do you choose your characters’ names? Hm... it's many different ways really. For the most part I recall a name I really like for whatever reason, or see a name somewhere in the passing, like a tv show or an online article? Sometimes I use Google, let's say I want a very "bohemian" type of name... I'd Google that, cause I know shit nothing about that. And for the McKinney's I Google a fair bit. They all have Irish/Scottish names (well 99% of them do) and since I'm not Irish/Scottish, and I don't want everyone to end up with the most mainstream names, well, Google is my friend. Also specifically for the McKinney's, their names are chosen because of their meaning. Raven's birth name is Brandubh, which essentially can be translated to little black raven. Ronan, his brother, means seal, and he is actually a key that can seal the doors of hell. Eonan is knight... he was a knight of hell. Aedan (Andy and Raven's son) is born of fire, Andy has a power to control/create fire, that not many knows about. The McKinney brother's fathers name is Alroy, which means red haired (cause he simply has red hair, *snort*) And I could keep going. But I'm sure I would bore everyone to death. Anyway, point is, all McKinney's have a name that has something to do with either their powers or their appearance. 11. Why have you decided to tell this story? are there any messages or meanings within it? First it never meant to be a story for anyone but myself. It started as an RP. But when the RP ended, I had all these characters with elaborate personalities, living and breathing inside me. It felt empty to just drop them there. So I continued writing the story for myself. It was never meant at first to continue for years, I actually continued with the thought that I'd maybe write 5-10 chapters or so, and simply writing an ending of the story. Yeah, that was at least 275+ chapters ago. The story fast became a way for me to live a life I had to at the same time face I could never live out in real life. So I suppose my decision to keep writing, was a way for me to pull through a lot of things, I'm not sure I otherwise would have been able to pull through. There are a lot of "hidden" messages and meanings in the story, but I wont sit here and spoil them all, it's up to the readers (now that the story is actually being posted... here <- to interpret it for themselves.) However, I'm always up for answering questions about it. What I can give you is the message of loving people for who they are, not what you want them to be. To love yourself, even if you aren't the version of you you wanted to be, you can still be a pretty rad person. A message that we can overcome much more than we believe, as long as we keep fighting. And last but not least, a message of never giving up, and following your dreams. And to never give up on love. But above all, the message is simply love. I chose to write a story that heavily weighs on love, simply for the fact that I more than ever, believe what we need most on this planet, is love. And lots more of it. A lot of our issues could be solved by simply loving each other more, and loving the planet we live on, before there's nothing left to love. It sounds cliche maybe, but it's my opinion, and you don't have to agree. 15. What have been the highlights of creating your story? Definitely getting to know everyone, watching their characters unfold and grow. It has kept me to my writing. Back in school, my Danish teacher told me to never give up on writing, cause in her words, I'm good at it. She told me to 'always write, whether I would be bubbly happy or breakingly sad, write

write write'. For many years after I finished school, I barely wrote at all, so I was insanely rusty when I picked writing back up. My story helped me with that, and I found my way back to writing. Another highlight is definitely all the hard times my story has gotten me through. Doesn't mean I am smooth sailing my way through life, but it keeps me from drowning completely, and that's something. I still need to make some major life changes, but till that's possible, I'm holding onto my story, and it keeps me above water. 16. What about the process do you enjoy? *Snort* I think if people has followed this blog more than a month, it's already clear I enjoy creating characters, and as a result post some of the most lengthy bio's on Tumblr. But I enjoy just as much to see the scenes unfold in front of me as I write, feeling the emotions of the characters, often so intensely that it affects my own mood. There's just something in it, that makes me feel like I'm a part of the story, like I'm literally in there. And that's enjoyable to escape into for a time. 18. Choose a song that reminds you of your story A? A song? Like in one? ONE song for a circa 300 chapters story??? How??? How do I cram such an elaborate and still growing story into ONE song??????? Ghost-boi.... pls.... I'll have to get back to you on that *goes into full on panic mode searching through albums in my head* 31. Drop some random trivia about your story Pffft.... First chapter that actually made it into the story (cause there were a couple loose ones before that, that never made it) was actually written under different names, as I was considering sharing it online, but didn't want to annoy my previous RP partner, so I changed everyone's names. Andy was Alexander. Congo was Connor. Evan was Ethan. And there you also have the original poly relationship, that ended up in so much more. Well.... at the very beginning of the story, Evan and Congo still wasn't dating, but it didn't take many chapters. Adrian was originally made as an attempt to create something different, look-wise. To get out of my comfort zone and play with new features. While making him, I sat there looking at his face thinking 'this is me'. I simply connected not only with his looks, but also the character I started seeing growing in front of me, so writing his bio was probably one of the easiest ever to write, and he was very easy to adapt as a main character in my story. He just swept his way in there like a cool breeze on a way too hot summers day and the main cast was like... keh... cool... So he actually sorta became the main focal point of the part of my story I am sharing on my story blog, where Andy is the main focal point of the main story. Akin, the Alpha wolf, was originally supposed to never be a fully developed character. He was "just" a doctor that popped by here and there, but the two readers of my story back then, liked him a lot, and started expressing seeing potential in him. So I started developing him. As I expressed how he looked (he was originally extremely tall and a bit like a rugby player) they strongly disagreed and told me he was definitely slender and with semi-long dreads XD And that made Akin look more or less like he does today <- About that song though... if I have to choose just one song for such a BIG story, I'd have to simply choose a love song. But not a sugary sweet one. A haunting, emotional, longing, breathtaking, yet deep, passionate and warm song. I'd go with <- Witch is also a song from the movie Romeo + Juliet, by amazing Baz Luhrman. So basically a story about teenage suicide. In that aspect it doesn't fit at all. But it was the first song that came to my mind.... Sooooo.... I'll quietly leave this as well, on the way out <- (which is probably a much better fit anyway, both regarding lyrics and music video)

#Daniel mumbles #way too much #eternal-infamy

13 notes · View notes

kaosketches · 3 years

Photo

Carla Villalvazo (She/her) Age: 25 years old (January 15, 1992*) Height: 1.69 m Occupation: Store clerk in a bookstore

15 things about Carla:

1. She is the oldest of three sisters, whom she is very protective of.

2. Carla met Ellie when they were in high school. She didn’t like Ellie at the start because she was too shy and could come as a little too bossy. One day they got paired for a team project, and they start to know each other better, being best friends ever since.

3. Ever since, Carla has been a softie towards Ellie. A little too protective, even as she sometimes acts like a “mother hen”.

4. She feels a little repulsive towards romance. She might not care about giving a little push of it towards friends (like Ellie) but doesn’t want to be involved in one. Part of it is because she has seen her younger sisters and Ellie suffer a lot though their past relationships or crushes and don’t want to deal with it at all.

5. While Carla didn’t identify as “goth” in high school, she often dressed in dark/emo-like aesthetics. She still uses some accessories from those times, but she dresses in more pinky/pastel colors these days.

6. Not only her ears are pierced but she also has an eyebrow piercing, as well.

7. She has an aggressive and sarcastic personality. Her bluntness is something that many don’t like, including former classmates and other peers.

8. She often argues with other people when she is done with their bs.

9. She studied for a Marketing degree but has been struggling to get a job that she wants ever since she graduated from college. Got a job as a clerk at a specialty bookstore, even though she also doesn’t like this job.

10. Her first interactions with Riley make her dislike him. She thinks he is a little annoying and that he may had been pulling a façade, because he doesn’t look “honest” to her. But with time she realizes that he does have good intentions towards Ellie.

11. Anime wasn’t her initial interest at first. She may know some stuff (mainstream stuff she might have caught on TV) but being friends with Ellie opened her mind and helped her get interested in some of that stuff.

12. She has other friends besides Ellie, some that are artists and musicians. She even wanted to pursue music as a career, but her parents discouraged her to do so.

13. Carla likes to play piano and guitar.

14. She likes to paint and sometimes goes to painting classes that some of her friends are teaching. It makes her relax a lot.

15. She is close to her grandparents, and sometimes goes to their house to help around as much as she can.

(*AU takes place in 2017, btw. I am currently indecisive if applying it more to “nebulous late 2010s”, or simply leaving it as such. No special reason more than this is the year I started writing it.)

#original characters #personajes originales #original project #character profile #carla #artists on tumblr #digital art

4 notes · View notes

kingdomtual · 3 years

Text

Okay I just finished watching Imitation and I’m gonna give a review, idk why but I have a lot of feelings LOL gonna write this without giving away big plot points so no spoilers for you if you wanna know if you want to watch it or not (probably everyone already has but whatever I’m usually late to the show)

Things I liked about it:

- Imitation was a really interesting drama because it didn’t focus on all the fun stuff of the idol world like a lot of idol dramas do. It’s main focus ends up being more on the struggles idols have to deal with, mainly pertaining to the dating issue but instead of putting it fully on the labels for keeping their artists from dating it also focused on how sasaengs think, talk, and react about their idols dating which I thought was a nice touch because that SURE IS REAL LIFE. (unfortunately they kinda drop that plot point as it goes on, but whatever)

- It also had plot points pertaining to mistreatment of idols by the industry and their labels, which was another thing that I liked about it. It’s a tough world, and it should be more mainstream that we know about and find ways to help idols as they’re dealing with all of this. Idk it’s just something that should be talked about more, so I’m glad they did.

- The cast was beyond fantastic. I think that’s honestly what made the show for me. Obviously the casting director knew the draw would be having actual idols in their show, but even those who were just actors were absolutely fantastic and did a great job in each of their roles. Dojin and Hyuk were obviously my favorites, but I think they’re everyone’s favorites LOL their acting chemistry was spot on and it really felt like they had been bffs for years.

- LA RI MA. Queen, icon. Absolutely in love with her tbh. What I really loved about her is that she started off being a rival for Ryeok to Ma Ha, and I thought to myself, ‘Great. She’s gonna end up being a flat character.’ but I think she ended up having the most character growth in the entire story, besides maybe Ryeok. The way she is so confident, knows her worth, and takes care of those around her makes her such an enjoyable character to watch. Every scene she’s in she totally steals, I love her LOL

- The last two episodes definitely make the entire show worth watching. They’re really full of heart, you get so excited, and watching them perform is really cool. I won’t give away any of the ending, but it is worth it!

Things I didn’t like:

There are a few things that made me feel ‘meh’ about the show. It kinda felt like there were a lot of plot points that dragged on a bit too much for me. This is totally a personal opinion so like obviously you might feel different! Cool.

- So, the idea that the story starts out with a love triangle didn’t appeal to me at all LOL I hate that trope, but even after that ends it starts going through the whole ‘we’re idols that have to date in secret’ and all that angst that comes with that and I have to admit there were a few mid series episodes that had me so bored because it felt like I’d already seen this to some degree before. I ended up mostly enjoying whatever subplots were going on instead of the main plot. It’s not that I didn’t like their romance, but sometimes it was just SO uncomfortable because they were uncomfortable LOL idk, romance plots are not usually my jam, but there are enough other elements to make the show enjoyable for me.

- Struggles would come up and then immediately not be an issue by the next episode. I know this is only a 12 episode drama (which I think is a shame, I think if it had been 16-20 episodes then it actually would have fared so much better but alas) but I feel like...I mean if a massive contract issue comes up and can be resolved with a quick call or an article being written, then it wasn’t an issue...and yet the fact that two idols are having angst over dating can be drawn out over the course of 4 episodes just didn’t make sense to me LOL like you’d think the dating issue would have been resolved faster than a contract issue? idk maybe it’s just me.

- Eunjo’s plot, which is essentially a subplot until the end of the show, is far more interesting than most of what goes on LOL I almost would have liked to have that mystery be woven more thoroughly through the show instead of it being sprinkled in occasionally and then BOOM at the end it all comes together. I just think it might have had more impact.

- GROUP DYNAMICS. Bruh! This is what I really wanted okay? LOL I mean obviously the focus is mostly on Ryeok and Ma Ha but god I would have loved having more scenes with group dynamics and seeing how they actually all get along instead of making the other members all side characters until the very end when we see that they actually all care about each other. I didn’t even know Jaewoo was the leader of SHAX until the end of the show, man LOL like it would have been nice to see more from him, and all of the others, especially since Jaewoo was essentially a snitch to the their label owner for so long and ending up having so much guilt over it, but we never saw that until the last episode.

I also think I would have preferred to have seen more of the past SHAX with Eunjo, because Ryeok was apparently his bff and yet we don’t really get to see any of that, you know? We just hear about it. This show does a lot of telling instead of showing and I do think that’s because of the episode limit, but it’s just a shame. I think the ending would have been more impactful if we’d gotten to see them altogether more at the beginning.

- If you’ve decided to watch Imitation solely for Seonghwa and San, I’d advise against it LOL they have like two lines per episode they’re in (which isn’t all of them, Sparkling is barely in the show aside from Yoojin(Yunho)) and basically they don’t get to say or do much of anything until the end LOL I get that Sparkling is a secondary character group, basically, but it would have been nice to have seen more dynamics from them, too. I think Seonghwa and San could have honestly been like Dojin and Hyuk, the comedy duo of SHAX, but they just didn’t have the time or whatever, I suppose. Like I don’t even know Seonghwa’s character’s name LOL the only reason I know San’s character’s name is Minsu is because they said it once at the second to the last episode. LOL so, just a warning. But you atinys will be fed by seeing much Yunho and Jongho, I promise.

I also would have loved to have seen more group dynamics from Sparkling, as I said, because until the 11th episode, I think, I don’t even see them really being like, “guys! I love you all, let’s stick together until the end!” which really confused me bc my dude Hyun Oh was literally causing property damage and giving them a problematic image but apparently they were good with that LOL idk idk

- The whole sasaeng issue gets dropped right before the ending and I thought that was rather strange since up until that point sasaengs had been one of the main roadblocks for the romance plot and they had been rather vile and annoying LOL unfortunately the show often had to skip over or completely drop or quickly resolve a lot of the large ongoing issues in order to come to a conclusive end and I thought that was a bit sad but I do understand why. Can only do so much with 12 episodes.

Overall opinion:

I really enjoyed it. I know I have some critically things to say, but as a writer I just kept seeing plot holes and had to talk about them briefly LOL (or not briefly because idk how to be brief) I think that the tone of the story was good, and that what they were trying to convey through this story was also good. I think it does give an idealistic image of idols freeing themselves from the oppressive evil labels and living the way they want, because unfortunately that’s not always a viable option, however it did remind me of Hyuna and Dawn’s story in a way and that warmed my heart! Love conquers all, my dude, we love to see it.

I would honestly love to watch more idol dramas like Imitation that star idols and therefore we get some sick performances and awesome music and it tells an interesting and somewhat realistic story! I think it’s something anyone can enjoy, even if for me it did get a little long in the middle with all the romance stuff LOL the ending was totally worth it for me, I think it’ll be worth it for you!

#imitation kdrama #kdrama #uhh yeah just me talking I guess!#tl;dr I liked it LOL and it's fun #but some of it was long :)

10 notes · View notes

nevertochange-evertoshare · 3 years

Note

What are your feelings about Hamilton? If you’re okay with sharing!

Hi! Of course, I totally don't mind! I'm not super into analyzing media/not super good at it either so I don't really have any hot takes or anything lol. From a theatre standpoint, I think it's really well written! The music is great, I think the story flows really well, I feel like it was one of the first big shows that used a turntable and now that's sort of A Thing™ in a lot of Broadway shows now but I'm such a sucker for it so I don't mind at all. Also the double-casting and having the actor's roles from the first act share parallels with their roles in the second act is just *chef's kiss*. From a historical standpoint...eh. My high school choir director brought up the point that Hamilton romances/tries to romance all three of the lead women in the show even though that's like...just not a thing that happened. It just feels like the women in the show are there to support Hamilton at all times and that's it and it feels gross even with the powerful moments they get at times. There's also the thing about glorifying white slave owners which like...I don't know if I totally agree with because if you really look at the show Hamilton's not a great dude. It doesn't even take a lot of analyzing to get that lol. But the audience of the show is often really young and sometimes does...cringe things with the characters(*cough*MikuBinderJefferson*cough*). I think the message gets a little muddled at times but honestly not any more than what you get in a US history class. And then just personally I feel it's overhyped. Like is it a good show? I would say yes, absolutely! Again like I said, the music slaps, the choreography is really cool, I'm in love with the set. But is it the greatest musical of all time or even recently? I've gotta say definitely not. I think it just got really mainstream so that's the show a lot of non-theatre people know now. And I love non-theatre people getting into theatre! Bigger audiences means we get more tours and pro-shots and all that good stuff! But it also means that the really popular shows get more attention and then just get kind of blown out of proportion to the point it's annoying, I guess.

#ask #anon #hamilton #really i'm just kind of ambivalent to it i guess?#like i've watched the proshot multiple times because i have access to a disney+ account #and that's like...one of the only proshots there is and i miss theatre a lot #but yeah i think it's overhyped and it's just personally not my favorite #also not lmm's biggest fan but god he writes music that slaps #no hate to anyone who's really into the show

2 notes · View notes

miikewheelers · 4 years

Text

a3 character headcanons (spring troupe edition)

just because i can lololol

sakuya

has an extreme aversion to raw mushrooms for some reason. he feels nauseous just looking at them, and things get WAAAAAAY worse when someone is cooking with mushrooms and he can smell them (especially if they’re being sautéed, very much like myself kjdfhsdj)

actually really enjoys playing minecraft, he and itaru have sessions every now and then on his realm

v v shy when it comes to physical contact!! he doesn’t usually initiate any hugs or other touches, unless if he’s confident in his relationship with the other person, but if he’s hugged out of the blue by someone he’s still getting used to, it takes him a moment to respond or hug them back (but he’s gonna be a blushy mess the whole time uwuwu)

enjoys singing in his free time!! he’s actually a pretty good singer and has wanted to do musicals in the past, so he’s hoping he gets that opportunity with the spring troupe!! has a voice a little on the higher and lighter side, so a tenor role would probably suit him best ;w;

masumi

gets cold very easily, hates winter and always layers up to the extreme whenever he goes outside on chilly days

actually a very soff teddy bear on the inside and is super duper caring ;w;

pretty camera shy actually, he always turns a little red whenever he notices someone filming or taking pictures without him knowing before. he also tries to hide whenever kazu is vlogging in the dorm for his youtube channel

he absolutely LOVES music. he listens to it all the time, whenever he’s doing anything that he can focus on with it. he usually listens to rock and lo-fi beats/ambient music, but he dabbles in mainstream pop, alternative, and k-pop every now and then (but he’s too embarrassed to admit it)

tsuzuru

gets teased and pranked by itaru all. the. time. ice water in the shower, fake poop on the toilet, scare pranks, blasting inappropriate music when he’s sleeping, basically anything you can think of skjdhfsjkdhfsd

horribly afraid of spiders!! he hates all bugs but he’s super DUPER averse to spiders bc in his own words “they don’t need that many legs”

because he has so many brothers, he’s learned how to use his people-reading skills with the other company members. he’s adjusted very well to the others’ personalities and knows exactly how to get them to comply with his requests

ADHD as ALL HELL. i mean, have u even seen the anime and/or read the stories??? my mans stayin up all night writing a SINGLE FUCKING SCRIPT. gotta be a product of hyperfocus skjfhskdjfhs

itaru

kind of has to be pushed by the other boys (esp tsuzuru bc he’s mom) to get more fruits and vegetables in his diet. he usually kind of just lives off of pizza, curry and soda

he becomes very whiny whenever he has any problems, usually mostly to annoy tsuzuru bc he’s fun to make fun of (even tho his comebacks are sharp as knives). he usually exaggerates a lot but he just does it for the lols

ticklish af lmao. he and chikage sometimes go to starbucks together after work, and chikage just fucks with him when he’s placing the order at the drive through by just reaching over and poking or tickling his side or under his armpits.

uses terms like “pog” and “based.” does video game streams as well as occasional political commentary and he often drops these terms, esp if he’s streaming with kazu

btw did y’all know that he and i share a birthday??? uwu

citron

studies a lot of languages other than japanese, including english!! he’s particularly interested in korean, russian, and spanish. his english skills actually aren’t as good as his japanese skills tho ;n;

prefers to pay with cash over credit cards, he finds it easier to keep track of his expenses and spending that way

doesn’t really know how to handle small animals, probably bc he’s afraid of hurting or squishing them by accident!! he doesn’t really like lizards or frogs, he thinks they feel too slimy in his hands for his comfort

whenever masumi isn’t around, he’s the “designated bug-killer” (name given by itaru), even though he doesn’t really kill any of the bugs (he scoops them up in a cup and lets them back outside). sakuya, tsuzuru, and itaru all absolutely hate bugs, so he’s usually called upon for backup if masumi isn’t present to take care of them

i’m prolly gonna get to the other troupes at some point as soon as i come up with some hcs for them sjkdlfhskjdf

#a3!#a3! headcanons #headcanons #sakuya sakuma #masumi usui #tsuzuru minagi #itaru chigasaki #citron #spring troupe #a3 text #text #noah rambles

40 notes · View notes

tobiosmilktea · 4 years

Text

a simple romance — tsukishima kei

1.5k words | genre/s: fluff, 80s!au | warning/s: — | pairing: tsukishima x fem!reader

↪︎ in which you and tsukishima celebrate a simple anniversary for your simple romance

a/n: kinda plotless and just mindless word throw up because im a homeless romantic who’s whipped for tsukishima, plus it’s my 500 follower special ✋🏻😌

you and tsukishima always had quite the simple romance. the only factor that was not exactly simple was that it was tsukishima who confessed first one september day. it was early in the morning the moment the sky bled its onyx night sky into an orangey-dawn.

you had barely left the safe confines of your home when the tall blond that waited outside your door in the crisp autumn air had nonchalantly confessed. usually it was him and yamaguchi waiting for you, but you figured he made his best friend walk ahead in order to be alone with you.

it was quite surprising, really. you assumed that all you were to tsukishima was nothing but a friend, someone so annoyingly bearable that he only let you stick around because you made him bentos once in a while. and in a surprising turn of events, you accepted his feelings and the two of you have been dating primarily on the low.

having your relationship known wasn’t exactly your main priority and neither was tsukishima’s. especially considering that if his volleyball team found out, they wouldn’t leave you alone for a second without bombarding you about why you would end up with someone as salty as him. the funny thing was that you often asked yourself that as well, but with how simple your romance was, there was nothing more to answer that question besides the fact you liked being with him. so you digress.

granted, since your relationship was more or less a secret besides only yamaguchi being aware of this fact, you and tsukishima often had to see each other in away from the sight of others. most of the time is was behind closed doors, but sometimes, sometimes, very early in the mornings you two would have a sweet rendezvous somewhere behind the gym before spending the rest of the hours before school starts on the field.

with you being a member of the track team and tsukishima being in the volleyball club, the field seemed like the only plausible reason why the two of you would be there. every friday morning you two would come early just to run around the track with the cool morning breeze and the tweets of songbirds tweeted among the peaceful silence.

you and tsukishima walked upon school grounds with water bottles in hand and your walkmans in the other. you had recently gotten a new one for your birthday, the latest 1984 Sony Walkman that was progressively better in sound quality than your boyfriend’s old 1982 model, to which he stated, “how much better can it be when your music taste is trash?”

you rolled your eyes and ran ahead of him. he gets quite annoyed when you do that as he isn’t necessarily the fastest runner. the only reasons why he does these morning runs is to be with you, so you ditching made him put on that cute pout you can’t resist. besides, you would reward him with a heated make out session behind the gym or the storage closet in return.

ten laps around the track was all you two ran, occasionally making small talk on the most existential topics on whether or not aliens exist or the stupid hypothetical questions about a zombie apocalypse—to which tsukishima would tease you and say he would feed you to the zombies. but it wasn’t to say that sometimes waves of comfortable silence wouldn’t fall upon you two. you concluded that no matter what, you would always find yourself in this type of tranquil silence with tsukishima. you had even forgotten your boyfriend’s stares of admiration, rather, you didn’t actually know if his gazes were of malice, indifference, or adoration, but whatever it was you hoped it was something good.

despite dating for a year now, you still couldn’t tell the difference, but you knew deep inside your gut that was accompanied by the same butterflies that all he means is nothing but love. and you wished to show that love as today was your anniversary.

and to which tsukishima thought you couldn’t get more breathtaking than the last time you had been at each other’s companies just yesterday, it seemed he had been proven wrong. you were teeth stark against the moonlight, divulged in night torn howls of winds and slick with honor. even at your worst, with skin frayed with abrasions and scrapped knees, tsukishima still found light within your fondness. and right now, you were filled with ichor of charming homemade raptures. your boyfriend couldn’t fathom how beguiled he was for a girl he hadn’t thought of more than an add on to his friendship with yamaguchi.

after your run, you two found yourselves resting upon the bleachers near the baseball field. you rested your legs atop tsukishima’s as he fiddled with your walkman. your headphones were now rested over your boyfriend’s ears as he listened to your curated mixtape of songs you specifically listened to on your runs with tsukishima. the songs that you burned on it were special to you and him and to you and him only. the songs that reminded you two of your first date during the night when you breathed out against the late night’s mist, inhaling the stars as you and tsukishima walked hand in hand through the city—of his quips of banter, his wisecracks of pleasantries, even his annoyingly amiable witticisms that would often put you in your place of not being as clever as your boyfriend—had a special place in your heart.

your gaze, warm in admiration as you looked upon his handsome features, took him in like a breath of fresh air. he was bobbing his head lightly to the music. it made a smile melt upon your face as your thoughts were scattered by the wind (a mere light breeze) as you exhaled your silk promises. your bare knuckles grazed over his as your hand lifted to his face, running your hand through his messy blond hair.

within seconds, the mixtape clicked to an end to which tskushima kissed your palm messing at his hair as he sat up. “this is actually good,” he mutters. “perhaps your music taste isn’t as bad as i remembered.”

“that’s funny considering most of my past music taste was from you.” you jested with a smirk on your lips.

he scoffs playfully, pecking your lips quickly. “yeah right, the majority of your mixtapes were nothing but queen and abba.”

“please tell me you’re not trashing queen and abba,” you rolled your eyes and feigning offense, “they’re literally iconic.”

“if you added some mötley crüe or tears of fears, maybe it would be better.” tsukishima smirks, making you huff. “but it’s fine as since it is our anniversary today, i figured i would be nice.”

“do you want to give our gifts now?”

tsukishima nods as he smiles, “so i can listen to it throughout the day.”

your eyebrows furrow together in confusion, “how’d you know i was going to give you a mixtape?”

“mere intuition,” your boyfriend jokes, causing you to shake your head as you reached into your backpack’s front pocket. “i actually burned you one too.” tsukishima did the same as the two of you faced each other once more with mixtapes in both your hands.

your fingers brushed each others briefly as you two traded gifts. and despite contact between the two of you hadn’t been scarce, there was still that same spark and radiating warmth that would consume you two.

both had cute notes attached to it as you had both read it.

FOR MY LOVE: the first mixtape of yours that isn’t complete rubbish and the first mixtape given to you for your new 1984 Sony Walkman that you won’t stop talking about. i don’t have to worry about you liking these songs because i know you will since i know you so well. i’ve also come to notice that you like to mix severely opposite genres on one tape i.e fleetwood mac and metallica like an absolute monster. so i did that on this tape for your sake. i love you, idiot. —tsukishima kei

FOR MY BLONDIE: even though you hate listening to mainstream music, i couldn’t help but put on the latest from michael jackson, madonna, and some city pop because who else would i scream these songs until my throat is raw with? but besides that, i added some more of your favorites like twisted sister. i can’t wait for you to make fun of this mixtape because i know deep down it’s going to be one of your favorites because it came from me. i love you, dickhead. — l/n y/n

you two sit in silence for bit, doing nothing more but being in each other’s presence and embrace. letting the world before you continue to move as you looked at the tape’s songs. you were immediately struck with the feeling of the nostalgic nights with tsukishima, laughing in the dark at two in the morning of messing around and reassuring pats on the back. you two were quilted blankets and moonless nights, of warm sunspots on a cloudy day, and cherry blossom petals falling upon your hair without noticing. you were tsukishima’s cure to boredom and lack of sleep. you two were each other’s everything.

it was your simple romance.

#haikyuu!!#haikyuu #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu scenario #haikyuu imagines #tsukishima kei #tsukishima scenarios #tsukishima x reader #tsukishima imagine #tsukishima fluff #haikyuu oneshot #tsukishima oneshot #hq tsukishima

154 notes · View notes

queensdivas · 4 years

Text

Turntables (Roger x O/C)

The first one of the gif board fics! This one was given to me by @freddie-moments and was super excited to make this the first one on my list of things to write. For those waiting for theirs don’t worry it’s coming! I have to get a good understanding of them, (And I have like four other fics, and school) But I got this okay!

Also sorry that it’s short. I promise the other ones are going to be much longer!

FOR YOU GUYS!

HUZZAH!!!

Warning: There is a lot of vulgar language in this short fic. You’ll see why because I get the feeling y’all will enjoy it in the context.

Alright here we go!

Masterlist

Kensington

Janurary 2nd 1974

Let’s see the archies go right here and..and..The Amboy Dukes go right here! Finally got a good supply of The Amboy Dukes and I know they’re going to sell out quickly. Walking around the stand to then open up the curtains for the front window.

Moving my way back over behind the counter to make sure the registrar was ready for the day. After the registar I began going through the records of the day stack to see Aurora Borealis by Jigsaw next in line. Not my favorite album in the world but it’s decent for an opening time slot. Sliding the record out of the sleeve to then place it on the turntable for the needle to gently place it down.

The delivery truck should be here any second since we’ve got a new shipment of magazines coming in today. There’s an issue that people have been asking about that feature The Who and apparently more secrets will be unlocked about them. It’s mostly the same information just told in different forms.

Last step is to unlock the front door! Grabbing my keys that I left on the counter. Walking to the door to unlock it. After unlocking it I flipped the open side then plugged in the christmas lights that were hung around the window of the shop. With it being only noon I won’t really see anybody till four.

One hour…

Had some grumpy old man come in to yell at me for not having Doris Day in stock when in fact we did..just not what he wanted exactly. You’d be surprised how often that happens here and each time it’s just nitpicking for solo vinyls from people that aren’t even printed at the moment. If this is how today is going then I’m ruined for the day!

Two hours later...

It took almost two hours for a group of tourists to come in and mess up half of my cleaning from this morning! Stupid Americans. They thought it would be fun to rummage through The Beatles trying to find anything exclusive since it’s England. (It’s not the first time it’s happened but it gets extremely annoying after a while.)

The record ended for it was time to change the record. Hmm let’s see what else we got here today. Peggy Lee is perfect! Pulling the vinyl from the sleeve to gently place it on the turntable. The snapping began as I began swinging my hips back and forth a little.

Never know how much I love you

Never know how much I care

When you put your arms around me

I get a fever that's so hard to bear

You give me fever,

When you kiss me

Fever when you hold me tight

Fever

In the mornin', a fever all through the night

Sliding from behind the counter to slowly dance throughout the store as I began checking the stock of everything on the floor. Sashaying over to the blues section of the shelf to start going through them.

Sun lights up the day time

Moon lights up the night

I light up when you call my name

And you know I'm gonna treat you right

You give me fever,

When you kiss me

Fever when you hold me tight

Fever

In the mornin'

A fever all through the night

Everybody's got the fever

That is somethin' you all know

Fever isn't such a new thing

Fever started a long ago

Ah the key change. One of my favorite moments in this song. My hips swayed back and forth as I slowly worked my way through the aisle till the door opened. Immediately stopping as the small group came into the shop. Turning around from the shelf to see that they were circling around the shelves nicely.

“Welcome to Itty Bitty Records.” Greeting with a smile as I began going down Ike Turner's collection as they began looking around.

“Um excuse me?” The man stood next to me as he had really curly hair and stood tall like a giant before me goodness.

“What can I help you with?” Smiling as I turned to face him.

“Do you have any Mungo Jerry?” He asked as I had to think for a second.

“We do actually.” Motioning him to follow as we made it to the “M'' section for me to try to find them. Ma..Me...Mo...Mungo Jerry!

“Right there. Now I am expecting a shipment to be delivered in the next week if you’re looking for something specific of his?” He looked at the few records that were there and smiled at me.

“This is good. Thank you.” He smiled as I walked back over to the Blues section to finish where I left out. Definitely need a lot more Aretha Franklin in this shop or I might go mad.

“Excuse me?” Looking up to see another customer who wore a huge fur coat with his hair about shoulder length. It was pretty blonde but sort of odd to see a man in such a big fur coat to come into my store. Normally if they’re looking into records they head into more of the London London area.

“Do you have The Surfaris?” Not a lot of people listen to them. Mostly because they were really popular in California and I think that’s literally it for popularity. I find them interesting with a fun old sound that people still enjoy.

“We do. Didn’t think anyone listened to them on our side of the woods.” Commenting as we walked over the “S” section.

“Sort of a sucker for the classics.” He commented as we rounded the corner into the “S” Shelf.

“Most people our age would call you an old chap. Right here.” Pointing at them with my pencil.

“Fantastic you have Hit City. Is it 65’?”

“Yes. We have a first edition in the back if you’re interested.” He formed a huge smile on his face as that was my cue to go and get it.

“Give me a few minutes.” Smiling as he went back to looking at the records. I walked back into the back to begin looking for the box I usually keep them in.

IT should be around here somewhere. Making it into the back as I was skimming up and down on the shelf looking for one of the original boxes. Is it more back than I thought it would be and I can’t exactly leave the front alone this long.

C’mon...you sneaky little devil where are you hiding?

FOUND IT!

Reaching up to grab the box labeled 10 y/o originals. Should definitely be in here since it only arrived the past two three years. And again no one is going after The Surfaris. If it was anything major mainstream then I would be worried for him.

Walking back out onto the floor to see him waiting patiently at the counter for the record. I went around the counter to open the box and start going through all the records that are in there. It’s a little more dusty than I enjoy it but it’s a good reminder when my workers come in to take over that I can stay later and go through everything.

“Let’s see..we’ve got an original Yardbirds, Velvet Underground, Juicy Lucy who I will make sure plays next. Ummm..” I kept going through them till I saw the yellow truck and red lettering of the album.

“So why The Surfaris? Some small band from California?” Asking him as I handed him the record.

“Nothing was more fascinating than surfing rock. It sort of helps with the gray winters of home.” This is true. England does get rather gloomy and very bright music can always make those gray clouds fly away.

“To think the Americans went from surfing music to heavy rock in a matter of ten years.” We laughed as I noticed that his eyes were...were these beautiful blue pools. Almost like beautiful sapphires.

“If you’re interested I’ve got plenty of more originals in the back. More than just American surfing music.” Smiling at him as I offered him to look into the box.

“I would definitely be interested. Can I put my coat somewhere?” He asked as I pointed over to the coat rack.

“Roger by the way.” He smiled as he took off his coat with a long striped scarf.

“Anya.” Smiling as his group of friends he came in with approached him by the coat rack.

“I’ll be a little bit. Meet you there at the studio around six.” His group left as I began pulling out the rest of the records from the box.

“You seem like a trustworthy chap. Do you mind if I leave you in charge of the front. Just don’t let anyone steal anything please while I get a few more boxes.” Asking him as I am hoping he doesn’t rob me either.

“Of course.” Nodding as I walked from behind the counter to then hurry into the back.

Grabbing the small step ladder for me to start grabbing boxes from the shelf and placing them on the ground. I really need to take a few days and go through all this junk, maybe save me some money on orders if I have almost originals in here. I wouldn’t even sell them for that much more than the ones I already have, just a few more extra pounds maybe.

Lightly kicked the door open to carry two cases of records to then towards the counter. He was already looking through the ones I laid out for him to look at. I’m taking a wild guess that he’s some musician and a very dedicated one to that fact. Or he’s a conicor kind of person who wants to get his hands on this stuff before it comes obsolete.

“These should be good for now. Thank you Anya.” He smiled as I opened the lid of the boxes. He was smiling the entire time as I began going through them to see the amount of records that I had so far in the back. His smile is really cute and it brings a nice warmth into the store.

“The Chocolate Watchband? Holy hell it’s been a few since I listened to them.” I completely forgot about them. I love psychedelic rock but there were so many these past five years that it’s hard to remember each and every one of them.

“There’s something that I’ve noticed with a lot of these types of bands Roger. Their band name has some sort of food in it, guess when the acid is gone you get the serious taste of the munchies.” He chuckled a little to then go through half of the bands.

“The Chocolate Watchband, The Lemon Pipers, The Flying Burrito Brothers, The Peanut Butter Conspiracy, Chicken Shack, and Apple Pie Motherhood?” I don’t think I’ve listened to them before actually.

“Let’s hear it.” He handed me the record as I took off Peggy Lee who to then replace it with their 1968 record. That’s also called Apple Pie Motherhood. The first song that was played was Born Under a Bad Sign. It definitely reminds me of watching Woodstock on the television.

“Let us not forget Vanilla Fudge.” Roger showed me as he did a little jazz hand underneath the record. I just noticed..he has beautiful hands. Not a lot of men have just hands..but they look so rough around the edges. They look stunning.

“Good god this was my first record I think I bought for the store. I’m not surprised that it’s still here. They were a little too hard and felt like they we’re trying too hard. After working in this store for two three years now I can definitely tell when a band is trying too hard or not.

“Do you think this decade will be any better than the previous one?” I asked Roger for him to perk up at my question.

“Well think about it. The movement in California changed music. Little Richard and Elvis Presley brought blues back into light, Lucille Bogan showed that you can write literally whatever you want.”

“Lucille Bogan?” Oh my god Lucille Bogan!

“Lucille Bogan! The raunchy blues singer?” He drew a blank as I practically ran around the counter and towards the Blues section. Bogan bogan bogan AH HA! Snatching it from the shelf to then back to the turntable. Practically tossing off the record from the turntable to replace it with Lucille Bogan.

“Now just listen to the lyrics, let the lyrics flow through you Roger.” Placing the needle down to then watch the show before me. I know Roger is going to be shocked when he hears this song.

I got a man I love

I got a man I like

Everytime I fuck them means

I give ‘em the doggone clap! Oh baby!

His eyes widened for him to take a look at the album cover.

Give ‘em the doggone clap

But that’s the kind of pussy that they really like!

“Jesus Christ Anya!” He laughed. But we couldn’t stop listening to it because it’s just so fantastic!

I told him I gotta have a good cock!

And it’s got four damn good names!

Rough top

Rough cock

Tough cock

Cock with a bone!

“Dear God Anya! How much?” Looking at the front of the album then back at him.

“Fifteen pounds?” Roger immediately pulled out his wallet to hand me the money. Opening the register to give him back his change, with the music still playing around in the background. Till I took the needle off the record to pack it up for him.

“Listen. What time are you out of here?” Roger asked which made me gulp a little.

“Four. Why?” I could feel the rush of blood going through my body at an alarming rate.

“Come by Trident Studios around six if you would like to.” He offered as he placed a small card on the counter.

“Okay. I will definitely be there.” Smiling as he walked over to the coat rack to put on his fur coat then scarf.

“See you later Anya.”

“Bye Roger!” Smiling and waving to him as he left the store.

What just happened?

#roger taylor #Roger Meddows Taylor #Roger and Freddie #roger taylor one shot #roger taylor x reader #roger taylor fluff #Roger Taylor x o/c #Queen #Queen band #Brian May #freddie mercury #John Deacon #fan fiction #Roger Taylor Fan Ficiton #70s Roger Taylor #record #record stores

18 notes · View notes