#but at least i can jam to this song and relate :')

[wikitpowers]

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!!! 😎

['22' by taylor swift plays in the background]

[earthstellar]

Earth Music on the Lost Light: Human Music That Cybertronians Like

we know for a fact that the Lost Light has access to human media, primarily movies, TV shows, and music-- and we know they generally seem to fucking love most of it, or at least find it interesting

but what would everyone's tastes be, in regards to Earth music?

time to talk about music for a long time!!! strap in, enjoy some tunes

we already know Cyclonus has impeccable taste and enjoys some of the best jams the 80s had to offer.

I can't help but imagine Rodimus being given a media archive of Earth tunes to approve for the Earth Dance would only result in chaos

(it's not like he would say no to anything, he absolutely blanket signed it all, it's just an obligatory thing-- or Ultra Magnus tells him it is, solely to keep him away from Important Captain Things that he would rather handle himself or hand off to Megatron, lmao. the shit that really needs to get done)

and this is how Rodimus discovers the somewhat questionable yet amazing genre of "mid-90s underground techno rave mix tapes"

(somewhat related, I still think Testarossa might as well be Rodimus' theme song, although it's not a 90s track and has more of an 80s synth vibe)

Rodimus would love that "computers are the future, fuck yeah let's make Digital Cool Future Music" mid-90s shit, there is no way he would not. it has the exact energy level that appeals to him and is also cheesy and weird and chaotic. and has like 500 different sub-genres, so his selection is endless, lmao.

he would probably find it cute that this is what humans imagined to be the peak of "digital sound" at the time. like lmao this was the best humans could do when asked to create music that sounds like it was made by robots or other mechanical space future cyber lifeforms--high concept!!! he would probably find it interesting and endearing. this is what organics think non-organic music is like!!

anyone acting as DJ at Swerve's on any given night would be so, so mad that Rodimus keeps requesting shit like "DJ MASSIMO ITALO DISCO BEST RAVE TUNES LIVE FROM LONDON 1995" or "DJ ARMPIT SLUDGE FEST HOUSE-RAVE-DRUMS N BASS SET 1996" for them to play, lmao

not individual tracks. the whole album. entire mix tapes of random, somewhat questionable mid-90s techno house rave bullshit.

that having been said, that good ass early 90s trance techno might send him into a spiral depending on his mood at the time, lmao (it's been known to happen)

but at the same time I can imagine him sharing tracks like Solar Quest - Space Pirates with Drift and they'd both just sit there and jam out, but quietly, thinking about shit while sitting in a port window next to each other (this was peak sleepover party techno, Back in My Day-- many deep conversations were had while listening to stuff like this, lol)

Drift would probably find some of Rodmus' recommended stuff to be pretty good for meditation-- although once he finds out about the human drug culture involved and certain concepts of experimental consciousness etc. that surrounded techno/rave and other related genres, it might cause him to pull back a little bit

(until he finds out about kandi culture, in which case, Drift would love the idea of hand-made unique bracelets and sentimental trinkets being made and exchanged at warehouse shows purely out of Good Vibes and Love for Fellow Beings and it turns out actually he fucking loves this shit, a chill vibes based "expand your mind" kind of music subculture appeals to his Spectralist sensibilities and he likes sharing tunes with Rodimus in return)

Drift picking tracks on his own would likely lead him down more of a classic rock road, but more of the chill side of things, more of the folksy type of classic rock -- I can see Drift really enjoying Spirit in the Sky - Norman Greenbaum or California Dreamin' - The Mamas and the Papas. or like, Incense and Peppermints - Strawberry Alarm Clock.

I mean, Drift might even go Full Earth Hippie and end up liking Green Tambourine - Lemon Pipers, lmao. in fact I am fairly certain of this.

I can see Drift loving Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In - The 5th Dimension. the whole vibe would probably appeal to him.

he'd quite possibly also like I Need a Dollar - Aloe Blacc, but it hits him in a place that still hurts to think about. so it's in rare rotation.

meanwhile Ratchet would probably be fine with classic rock too, like the good Dad Rock shit, just a lot of tracks from the 70s/80s -- a couple tracks he and Drift could probably agree on would likely lean more into the experimental/psychedelic rock side of things, like White Room - Cream or something like Wheel in the Sky - Journey

Rodimus tries to troll Ratchet by recommending Old Time Rock n Roll - Bob Seger, but joke's on him because it turns out Ratchet loves it, lmao

Swerve would go all out on classic bar jams for the evening playlist. Chill, good shit like Do It Again - Steely Dan.

Megatron would love Sinnerman - Nina Simone; He'd send it to Drift in a command crew level secured data packet, and they would both feel the hell out of this song. They don't need to talk about why. They never mention it to each other.

Megs would also probably love These Old Bones by Dolly Parton (mostly due to the lyrics, rather than the upbeat tune, but he would find it relatively relaxing), as well as 9 to 5 (of course), and similar music. Country from back in the day when country music was more about the struggle of poverty and the working life of rural people. Country music from back when songs told all the untold stories. He can respect that.

He'd listen to You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive by Patty Loveless and it would get him right in the fucking spark. Megatron is the Cybertronian equivalent of an Appalachian miner, god dammit. He understands.

Megatron would also like Johnny Cash; He would overthink Ghost Riders in the Sky and it would depress him, partly because it reminds him of Seekers... sigh.

I think he'd also like Cold War - Janelle Monae. He'd be way into good lyrics; What's being said in a song matters most to him. "This is a cold war, you better know what you're fighting for..." Indeed.

anyway I like thinking about what jams Cybertronians might like from their available selection of Earth tunes

[ladyxskywalker]

In Exile, ii

Anakin Skywalker x F!Reader/OFC

During his morning meditation on the mountain side, Anakin faces a new enemy

part one | part three

a choose your own outcome story !

weekly story polls posted at the end of each chapter !

hope you enjoy ! 💌

Cliffs

Anakin didn’t like very many people.

Not since forming a close bond with Obi Wan, and certainly not since falling in love with Padme.

The idea of love never even crossed his mind in the last few years living out his existence on this planet. Monotony, and isolation compounded all of that for him. It was no longer on his radar.

Wherever he ended up in life, he didn’t feel it necessary to speak to anyone, let alone form a friendship with them if he absolutely didn’t have to.

He kept his head down. Stayed quiet. Tended to his field everyday. Watched as his crops and trees took on shape and beauty. That was something he could relate to - hard work, and discipline. Doing his best, and making sure that he was absolutely ‘better’ than everyone.

they don’t know what I’m capable of…

But when his neighbor moved in on the plot of land next to his, everything started to change. A man who once lost his sense of humanity, started to become whole again. 

Her smile did that for him.

And the sound of her voice alone, seemed to have made things the slightest bit better again.

So, when she told him of her troubles the day before involving that lowly fisherman, he got angry. Even more so when he heard more about this from the villagers in town.

It took everything in him just to speak with the modest shopkeepers, and the elders. Going against staying silent in order just to help her.

what do you know about him?

he’s a defector! a scoundrel!

fled fighting in the war?

I don’t know where from, but yes. took off during the clone wars.

how did he end up here?

bar fight, ended badly.

what do you mean?

stole from someone, then killed them. had a bounty on his head but escaped, somehow ended up here.

he won’t be here for long…

we’re good people, lars, none of us asked for thieves and criminals to infiltrate our home…

If only they knew…

As he begins to feel one with all of his thoughts, a light breeze begins to pass through all of the trees behind him. The sweet melodic song birds, delivering their peace to all of the mountainside. Everything is green here. The water, freshest just from falling. All that was once jagged is now made smooth again; the river, freely flowing over all of the stones and rock.

It reminds him of a time when everything made more sense. At least, that is what he settles with during his daily meditation. Breathing like this with his eyes closed makes him feel as though he has some sort of purpose, a reminder that, yes, perhaps I can in fact be whole again. 

But, it’s this one fight that’s been holding him back from all of it.

A kind face, that no matter how hard he tries, can never be forgotten.

Frankly, it’s become somewhat of an annoyance…

A beautiful, and persistent, growing sort of distraction…

you’re nice to me.

I try.

“Ha! Would you get a load of this! Tough guy seems to be one with nature! I know what you really are!”

there he is, perfect timing. 

“And what’s that? I’m just dying for you to tell me…”

With his eyes closed, Anakin smirks, where instinctually he feels the vagrant in question pacing back and forth behind him. 

his steps make the grass fold.

a few twigs have snapped.

“You’re soft! Defending some disgusting woman! What’d you think I wouldn’t hear about where you are?”

“That was my plan all along, not my fault you fell for it.”

there goes a splash into the water.

an echo of a floating basket behind him.

Anakin stands, turning to see what the sound was, only to find broken stems, and dirt, clouding the bottom of a nearby waterfall.

Rose petals. Scattered thorns...

Sunflowers, and broken glass jars.

Stolen garden tools.

Homemade favors, and jam, wrapped in woven cloth of all colors, strewn about the neighboring rocks. 

“You’re nothing, Lars, just like the rest of us! Who knows if that’s even who you really are!”

He smirks, all while lifting the palm of his hand, and controlling the air around them. Watching as his newfound enemy begins to choke on his own breath.

“Perhaps it is best that you address me from the floor.”

Anakin circles him, all while tightening his grip around his neck through the force.

“I was…right…you are…”

With a sharp and instant motion, all at once, he slams him toward the ground.

“Enough.”

Then, he continues with his onslaught.

“It seems you know exactly who I am, and what I’ve done. So the rest is only inevitable…”

His enemy’s eyes are ruthless, but there is only silence. A quiet he can not withhold.

“You’ve led a kind woman into great distress. Destroying her livelihood. And for what? Because she denied you?”

Anakin backhands him, a hardened blow to the face that manages to break the force’s hold.

“Coward.”

He then lands a strengthened kick to his stomach, before stepping on his throat.

Through the grit of teeth, the fisherman snarls.

“You’re…no General…”

“How would you know? You never fought in my war.”

he’s been spreading falsehoods about me and my family throughout the village…

“All you’ve done is harass an innocent girl. Do you take pride in that? What makes you so miserable?”

Releasing his boot, Anakin slowly walks toward the wildflowers. For a second he thinks about collecting some of them when he’s done here. And…the possibility of how they would look on her, worn as a pretty crown.

“She’s nothing but a whore!”

With his back turned, so viciously, he smiles.

“So unfortunate…”

As the nameless vagrant begins to rise to his feet, the entire mountain begins to rumble, causing him to stumble and fall.

“...that now you will be no more than a pile of dust.”

With a menacing crack, Anakin’s wrath lays claim to all of the Earth, forcing his enemy over the ridge ahead of him; listening to his screams ring out from the shattered edges of the cliffs.

what have I done?

why should I feel remorse?

I did nothing wrong...

he deserved it...

“He won’t be a problem anymore.” 

The words come easily, but they are only above a whisper now.

Everything is strangely quiet, where the trees no longer move.

It reminds him of the calm that happens right before a powerful storm.

Except, the carnage has already happened…

And he feels all the more alone.

… ❤️

thanks so much for reading & sharing this story ! I hope you are enjoying the choose your own outcome polls. it has definitely been a lot of fun getting to write these short scenes. sometimes I don't even know what will happen next until I am actually writing them ! I would love to know what you think. 💌😊 xo A

[kairiscorner]

Okay, this is entirely based on a situation I was in with one of my coworkers.

But, imagine Miguel coming back from HQ, in a bad mood cause he was stuck working with idiots, and he goes straight to the office to check on the other Earths. Lyla warns him to be quiet, he wants to ignore her but just plays along cause he can hear music from in there. He sneaks up, peeks in, and just sees his sweet little lady just GROOVING to some good ole y2k Spanish dance music. I'm talking Daddy Yankee's peak, Shakira, N.O.R.E, that music that got your hips absolutely moving. Bonus points if he's like everyone else and thinks she couldn't dance like that cause she's so "prim and proper" (According to Hobie)

I know I nearly killed my coworker with whiplash when that happened with me lmao gotta keep folks on their toes ~ 🍄

OMG I ACTUALLY MADE A BOT RELATED TO THIS IDEA, time to bring it to life yet again <33 I LOVE THAT FOR YOU THOUGH, 🍄 ANON !! i also dance when nobody's looking, IT JUST FEELS RIGHT OK !! ANYWAY, I HOPE YOU LIKE THIS !!

(reblogs are greatly appreciated, it helps get my content out there! if you guys like what you see, please reblog it too <:D)

he can't look away. — miguel o'hara x reader

fuming and muttering under his breath in anger, miguel rips a portal open into HQ and storms his way in the building. he had yelled his mouth off at a bunch of know-it-alls in his team and disengaged from the situation by storming off back to HQ to gather his thoughts and cool down. when he got there, the place was practically deserted. the only thing that was present in the atmosphere in the whole building was the faint sound of upbeat, lively music that reverberated throughout the empty halls of the building. "what now?" miguel asked himself with furrowed eyebrows as his mask dissipated and he trudged over to where the music was coming from. lyla appeared on his shoulder and raised an eyebrow at him. "you might not wanna go that way right now." she warned miguel as he wordlessly dismissed the AI assistant.

"i swear, if someone is throwing a fucking party up here, voy a perder la cabeza." miguel muttered to himself as he got up to the floor where the music was playing, and searched for the exact room where the party music was. he didn't bother knocking on the door anymore, he flung the door open and scowled. "what the fuck's going o-" miguel growled, but was soon interrupted by the loud music blaring and ringing in his ears, and the sight of his dearest little lover absolutely jamming to the music. their hips were swaying from side to side, their arms flailing in the air as they let the music overtake their body, doing such bold moves that nobody would believe they were capable of due to how sweet, innocent, prim, and proper they seemed (at least, according to some of the chaotic ones, like hobie, gwen, and pav).

miguel's mouth hung open as he requested lyla to lower the music slightly so he could focus on how his darling was grooving to the music, not having a care in the world as to what was going on around them except for the music carrying them away into the zone. they sang along to the songs and shook their bodies to the beat, with their eyes shut all the while and with a grand smile on their face, they danced and danced until they hit a wall; miguel's broad chest. they looked up at miguel and looked back at his broad chest, they soon got all embarrassed and turned off their speakers and looked down at the ground in embarrassment. miguel raised an eyebrow again at this sudden act of timidity.

"what's wrong? you looked so happy dancing, please..." miguel trailed off as lyla played the music even louder, with miguel taking your smaller hands in his as his face broke out into a small, sweet smile. "...may i dance with you?" he asked you as you looked into his eyes with bright, beaming eyes and nodded, a smile on your face again as you swayed with miguel and danced with him; this little dance party the two of you having together melting away the stress and tension he was experiencing earlier, where all he can focus on is you and the perfect way your body looked while dancing, and how his heart skipped a beat whenever he heard you smile and felt your hands in his as he spun you around and dipped you ever so often.

tags !! @miguelswifey04 @binibinileonara @simsrandomstuff @luvstarrstruck @popeheywardssecretgf @meeom @arachnoia @melovetitties @fable-library @ophanimgold @fictarian @yuridopted0 @hisachuu @wreakingmarveloushavok

[half-shadowgalra]

Bianca if she grew up and didn’t join the hunters

I tried

I feel like she would def have a mental break down and just chop all her hair off

she and piper would probably bond through that

I love her

I feel like she would be a bit silly and a bit sad

Probs projecting (again) but I feel like she would relate to manny an AJR song

especially Inertia

I feel like Will and Michael would introduce her to modern music

I feel like her and Will(@seagull9111) would bond through AJR songs. (I feel like most AJR songs could describe either of them, or at the very least they would def jam to most of them)

can y’all tell I like AJR

(I’m so sorry they are my hyper fixation band rn)

[theboywithburninghands]

So uh... in my last story I sorta implied Pomni was autistic. This is the story that confirms it. I wanted to explore more of her worldview and how she might find ways to pass the time. So this is what came out of it. It's a bit short, but it's personal and sweet and I think you'll like it. Lists T/W: profanity in some of the linked songs? I guess? I hope anyone who reads my stuff has heard the word fuck or shit before...

Pomni paced about her room. Pacing helped her think. She was here indefinitely, and while her boyfriend and girlfriend kept her from slipping too far into existential despair, boredom was a whole different animal. So, after racking her brain for several hours one evening after dinner, she finally settled on the one idea that would offer instant gratification.  

Lists. Lists of what? Well, any kind of list. Chronological lists, best to worst lists and vice-versa, top 100 lists… something about them scratched a hot red itch in her brain. Information could be so overwhelming when it was just flopped in front of you, especially in huge portions. If it was broken up piece by piece based on certain categories, it was far more digestible. You didn’t shove an entire pizza in your mouth, after all, you cut it into slices. Being able to break something down was not only comforting, but satisfying. Maybe that’s why she was so good with numbers…

So, Pomni went to Gangle. She had plenty of paper. Most of her room was covered with drawings of all sorts, done in crayon, colored pencil, watercolors, magic marker, even the odd charcoal. 

“Sure, I can lend you some paper…” Gangle had said with a timid but pleasantly surprised smile. “I didn’t know you liked drawing too, Pomni.” 

Pomni laughed a little. “Um, actually, I was going to make a journal. To keep up with all of the wild stuff that goes on around here, you know…?” 

“Oh, okay! That’s a good idea! I don’t know if I have any regular pencils, but I have some black colored ones. Would that be okay..?” 

Pomni had told her it was perfectly fine, and she went back to her room with ten big sheets of sketchbook paper, three black colored pencils and a red twist sharpener. She made a makeshift desk, the flat side of one of the oversized building blocks in her room and another building block for a chair. No real lumbar support, but eh. Her body was a bunch of pixels anyway. She set her things down tidily, placed one of the sheets in the middle of her desk, and began to write.

She tapped her pencil on her desk. Man, it felt good to have something to fiddle with while she thought… She decided to start with a profile of every other performer in the circus. She began by writing out a quick template, something she could use as a reference so every profile followed the same pattern. After some thinking, she came up with this: 

Name: Their name (duh)

Potential Real Name: Educated guesses on what their real name was before they came here

Likes: Hobbies, favorite foods and candies, favorite people 

Dislikes: Fears, least favorite foods and candies, anything else that bugs them 

Musical Taste: Music I’ve heard them listen to on Layla, or if I’ve asked them. 

*Hobby Related Stuff: See asterisk

Personality: What they’re like. What they’re like to me, others, etc.

*Variable, only if needed for major hobbies

Things like gender or age didn’t matter since she already knew all of those by heart. Personality would be the biggest category obviously… well, the only way to see if it satisfied her was to try it.

So she started with the first person that popped into her head.

Name: Jax 

Potential Real Name(s): Jackson/Jack, John/Jonathan/Johnny, Max/Maxwell, Braxton, First initial J, middle initial A, last initial X, Alexander/Alex, Xavier

Likes: Me, Ragatha, practical jokes, spaghetti and meatballs, lock picking, bowling, Nerds Rope

Dislikes: Corn, bad dreams, condescension, authority, anime, Ayn Rand, black licorice

Musical Taste: Radiohead, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, Foster the People, Soundgarden, Garbage (the artist), Linkin Park, Flyleaf, whoever wrote that song “Pepper,” Big Black, Bad Brains

Personality: Formerly a bitter, selfish assho-

Hm…

Pomni stopped to think. She had never tried actually writing down a swear word here before. They were never censored in her head, thankfully, but as soon as they left her mouth they were filtered out. 

She picked up her template sheet and wrote “asshole” in the bottom left corner. A few moments later, a black censor bar appeared over it. Pomni smirked ruefully and went back to Jax’s profile, scribbling out the beginnings of her swear word and continuing. 

Personality: Formerly a bitter, selfish jerk. In fact, in some ways, he still is. One of the first adventures I ever went on with him, he threw me out a window between two moving trucks. He kept putting things like tacks and whoopee cushions on my chair at dinner, hid bugs in my room, he was awful…  A few months later, he let me come into his room and talked to me about the law of entropy… He actually said he was sorry for the way he treated me after that. Then he got me my favorite food (honey-glazed garlic salmon), down to the way I like it cooked. I kissed him. He kissed me back. We kissed a lot. We didn’t really know what we were for a while, but it got made clear pretty quickly that we both loved each other.  

Now he’s… better. Not perfect… no one is perfect, but… he’s grown a lot. I don’t know what changed. He told me once he acted like such a bully so people would forget about this whole purgatory situation and be mad at him instead of at the world. I didn’t believe that then and I still don’t. I could ask him, but I don’t know how he’d react. I guess I’ll wait and see.

Anyway. He’s great, really. Underneath that sandpapery outer shell, he’s just as vulnerable and human as the rest of us. He’s funny, he’s charming, he’s handsome… and most importantly, he’s genuine. I love him. 

Pomni smiled at this completed profile and set it aside. She paused to sharpen her colored pencil, the lead on the end worn down to a nub. After it was sufficiently sharp, she grabbed a fresh sheet of sketchbook paper, cracking her knuckles and fixing her posture before getting back to work. 

Name: Ragatha

Potential Real Name: Agatha, Raquelle, Ann/Anna/Annie, Annabelle, Agnes, Anya, Christie

Likes: All of us here- me included, horses, video games, ballet, hugs, stuffed animals.

Dislikes: Centipedes, circus peanuts, ripping her stitches… she doesn’t have a lot of dislikes.

Musical Taste: Aretha Franklin, Roberta Flack, Smokey Robinson, Tom Petty, Pink Floyd, OutKast, Kendrick Lamar, Joan Jett, Carole King

Video Games She Likes (Heavily Abridged): Dark Souls Trilogy, Final Fantasy VII, Legend of Zelda, Goldeneye, Spyro the Dragon, Bloodborne, Uncharted 2, Assassin’s Creed 2, tons more…

Personality: When I first got here, I thought Ragatha was just being nice to me because I was new. But she just… never stopped being nice. She always had my back, always had something encouraging to say… I left her behind like a coward the first day I was here and she didn’t give up on me. I look up to her.

She’s not perfect. She can be a bit arrogant without meaning to, and she used to let Jax walk all over her, but… well, things are a lot different with Jax now. And I think she helped in some way with that… 

I love her just as much as I love Jax. I couldn’t imagine life without her sweet smile and her cute laugh and her hugs. Oh my god, her hugs! I HATE hugs, but somehow she makes hers incredible. She’s incredible.

Pomni re-read the profile and grinned. Oh, this felt so GOOD. Being able to put her thoughts down and in the form of a neatly organized set of lists. Scraps of order in this world of never ending chaos… She needed to write more.

She sharpened her colored pencil again and started work on Gangle’s profile, breezing straight through it and moving on to the next person. Zooble’s profile wasn’t as complete as the other three so far, since Pomni didn’t know as much about them. She would just have to add more to it the more she found out about Zooble. 

She was a good ways into Kinger’s profile, adding Luna moth to his list of favorite insects, when her eyelids sagged. Pomni grunted and rubbed her eyes. Time must have really gotten away from her. She should ask Caine for a clock. Well… maybe not. Seeing time slowly creep by in this prison would probably do more harm than good. Either way, she must have been writing for an hour or two, it made sense for her to be tired. She went on an adventure that day. 

She decided to take a break, give her brain a chance to wander. She crossed her arms on her desk and laid her head atop them. Sketchbook paper always had a pleasant, ethereal smell to it, like a shaft of sunlight illuminating a shelf of old yellowed scrolls in a castle’s study. She loved that smell. Pomni felt even more at ease. She found something to pass the time, and nobody could stop her. She could write as many lists as she wanted, about anything she wanted. She closed her eyes, the warm, private dark behind her lids the perfect place to imagine what she could write next. 

Within minutes, she was asleep. 

——

The faint yet insistent song of birds woke Pomni up. She blearily opened her eyes, lifting her head up off of her arms, the spots on them where her head rested warm and flushed. Pomni reached a gloved hand to her right eye and rubbed it, something slipping off of her shoulders and drifting politely to the floor. She turned around to find her comforter rumpled about her chair. It must have been draped over her while she slept at her desk. Did she do that..? She turned back to her desk.

 It took her eyes a moment to defog, but everything on her desk was right where she left it, Kinger’s profile stopping at Luna moth. She stretched, a yawn bubbling up and escaping her mouth. She picked her blanket up and made her bed, tempted to flop right back down onto it and get some more sleep. But she needed to organize her things first. 

She yawned into her palm and picked up the completed profiles, tapping the sheaf of papers on her improvised desk so they fell into order. She blinked and examined the top sheet. It was written in purple colored pencil, not her black one, and it definitely wasn’t her handwriting. She held it a bit closer.

Name: Pomni

Potential Real Name: No idea

Nicknames: Pompom, Poms, New Stuff, Newbie, Shorty, Clownface, Jingles

Likes: Jax and Ragatha, Salmon and rice, number puzzles, swimming, long walks, lemon drops, fudge ripple ice cream, cuddling

Dislikes: Hugs from strangers, snakes, spicy candies, cooking, whoopee cushions

Musical Taste: U2, Coldplay, Snow Patrol, Marina and The Diamonds, Regina Spektor, Keane, Ariana Grande, Corinne Bailey Rae, Duffy

Personality: Pomni shouldn’t have lasted long here. She’s a nervous wreck that’s prone to crying, depression, overstimulation and anxiety attacks. We were all a little worried she would abstract early. 

But she never did. She showed everyone that not only is she tougher than she looks, she’s smart as a whip and one of the most courageous people any of us have ever met. She’s a great friend to everyone, and never gave up on even the people here that seemed beyond help.

We all love you, Pomni. 

Pomni set the piece of paper down on her desk. She rubbed her eyes again, her glove coming away flecked with water. She got everything organized, sliding her paper and pencils under her bed. She took the sheet with purple handwriting, folded it neatly, and tucked it into her pillowcase. She rubbed her eyes again, sighed shakily, and opened the door to her room, ready to meet the sunrise. 

[porcupine-girl]

Our Song S3: Commercial Break

While I work on editing episode 5, I've posted a special chapter on AO3, with all the Our Song-related stuff I saw (and bought) in China!

You can read it here on AO3 or below the cut:

First off, a literal word from our sponsor: I found a UBEST ad. For a country where a lot of the population is lactose intolerant, there are a lot of milk ads. I guess when a lot of your potential market is lactose intolerant you have to advertise your milk more heavily than here.

I very much wish I'd been able to see someone in concert while I was there, but nobody I could find happened to be playing either of the cities on the few days I'd be there (Joker played Beijing DAYS after I left! 😫). But I did see ads for Jam Hsiao coming to Shanghai in August:

Wait... Who tf is Jam Hsiao, you may ask? You'll find out in episode 5!

Thanks to a tip from marlo-noni on tumblr, I found two "idol stores" in the Shanghai Jing'an Joy City mall, which were ground zero for merch. These stores were about 75% K-pop, but there was a decent amount of merch for Chinese singers and actors, along with a few current cdramas.

Photo cards are very popular, little playing-card-sized random photos of celebrities, some of which look official and some of which look like selfies from their social media. You can buy these singly, or in packs of like ten, or in actual decks. I didn't buy any, but I saw some for both Wang Sulong and Joker Xue:

I also saw some for Zhou Shen, who was in Season 1 of Our Song, but I forgot to take a photo of those. The first store especially also had a ton of these 6"x18" double-sided banners. This was the only Liu Yuning merch I saw on my trip! There were a ton of these but I bought these two, LYN and Joker (photos show first one side and then the other):

In the second photo, the text on Joker's banner reads 你是我今生未完成的歌 (You are the unfinished song of my life), lyrics from his song 未完成的歌 (Unfinished Song) from his 2009 album of the same name. The text on LYN's banner reads 一束光 / 黑夜的2 (A beam of light in the dark of night 2). 黑夜一束光 is the name of one of the songs on his 2019 album 十.

I also bought this Joker Xue bookmark (front and back):

The first idol store was also where I got an ACTUAL PIECE OF OUR SONG MERCH! It's got Xiao Zhan, who was on season 1, not 3, which you can watch here (it says 2 but it's 1)—the store had a whole section for Xiao Zhan merch.

Honestly, I almost didn't notice it in with all the other Xiao Zhan stuff—I don't even remember him wearing this outfit, though apparently he wore it for some of the promotional photos like this one. I eventually noticed the Our Song logo, though. I have to wonder if I would have seen other Our Song merch around if I'd actually been in China while it was airing, or if this was only made because of XZ's popularity (as a singer, overall he's not nearly as big a star as some people they've had on the show, but among people who shop at idol stores he may be the biggest lol).

My white whale of this trip was to buy at least one actual physical CD from an artist I like, or at least someone I know of. I asked on multiple subreddits where I might be able to buy CDs in China, only to be told over and over again that Chinese artists don't release physical media anymore and nobody cells Chinese CDs. The closest thing I got to a real answer was someone who suggested a bookstore chain they thought might maybe stock CDs at some locations, but with the warning that they probably mostly or only sold western artists. This turned out to be the biggest bookstore chain in China (and run by the government, unsurprisingly); I went to at least a couple different locations as well as many other bookstores and not a single one had CDs.

Finally, a couple days from the end of my trip, I was looking for more idol stores in Beijing and had the idea to Google where to get K-pop stuff, since the idol stores were mostly K-pop (the idol stores actually did sell K-pop CDs, as did a couple other places I saw, but not a single Chinese CD). This is what finally led me to a blog post about places to get K-pop stuff in Beijing, including CDs, which mentioned the store Disc in the Chaoyang Joy City mall! (Joy City seems to be a big mall chain in China, I went to two different ones in Beijing on top of the one in Shanghai.)

Unfortunately, once I got inside there were signs saying no photos - I'm not really sure why, but I really didn't want to get kicked out so I didn't take any! Which is a shame, because talk about hitting the jackpot! The very first thing I saw when I walked in was a bunch of George Lam CDs, along with Hacken Lee (who was a senior in S1).

I have no idea how the discs were organized, honestly. I think maybe the first section was Cantopop, since George and Hacken both recorded mostly in Cantonese and there was also a lot of Wang Fei (who has never been on Our Song afaik but I have some of her songs, she's recorded in both languages). Then was clearly Mandarin stuff, and maybe vaguely sort of in alphabetical order but not very strictly? And maybe also by genre? There were no signs on the shelves that I could find explaining the organization, listing genres or anything.

I opened my notes app and made a note with "Where can I find these?" in Chinese along with a list of the artists all in hanzi, but thankfully the guy I found to help me actually spoke pretty good English. I still showed him the list because it just seemed easiest. He knew exactly which ones they had in stock and where to find them.

They had two of Penny Tai's albums, a couple from Wang Sulong, a bunch of albums from Da Zhangwei's band The Flowers, one Da Zhangwei CD/DVD, and a bunch of Joker Xue albums. (As an example of the weird organization, the Da Zhangwei album was shelved with the Flowers albums, which suggest genre but not alphabetical, and Joker's stuff was on an endcap in a totally different part of the store that I never would have found.) I wound up buying a Flowers double album and Joker Xue's latest, Countless (I already knew I loved the title track from this album):

I will not say how much I paid for these; let's just say that the Joker CD was somewhat reasonably priced while the Flowers CD, which was released in 1999 and this is probably a copy from then, cost way more than I was hoping to spend. 😬 But I have yet to find a single Flowers album on eBay or yesasia.com or even iTunes—the few Flowers songs I have in my playlist I've ripped from YouTube—so I bought it. The guy helping me actually handed it to me telling me it was their best album; I'd assumed he was trying to sell me the most expensive one but believe it or not this double album was actually the cheapest one they had! I forget which album it was but one of the Flowers CDs was going for 1000RMB ($137)!

Joker's album, Countless, cost a little more than I'd normally pay for a CD in the US, but when I got it home and finally opened it, it very much earned that price! I was not expecting it to be full of more merch. It's in a very nice grey box to start with, then on top there was a black envelope that, when I opened it, contained several index-card-sized black and white photos of Joker. Plus instead of just simple liner notes with lyrics, there was a full little photo book, with the lyrics on the smaller black half-pages in between:

Also! I could not get a photo of this, but I heard Hu Xia's song 那些年 (which you'll see him perform soon) in the wild! We were eating breakfast at a pastry shop in Beijing and they were playing it! What's really funny is that my son realized it at the exact same time I did—"Mom, this is a song from your playlist!"

Of course, Our Song merch wasn't all I was looking for in China—to see some of the other merch and ads I saw, keep an eye on my PG Goes to China tag on Tumblr; I made some posts while I was there but I'll also be posting several themed roundups over the next couple of weeks! I might even post a few photos of boring things like the Great Wall and Forbidden City.

I promise next time I will be back with more actual Our Song. Until then, here is 无数, the title track I love so much from Countless:

[th3-0bjectivist]

Dear listener, recently I’ve been semi-regularly online gaming (Grim Dawn on Steam) and exchanging musical notes with Tumblr mindful-hempress. In a recent fun exchange, she sent me a video of a fairy girl licking amphibians and tripping balls in the forest. Fresh off her astute recommendation I asked her if she was ‘ready to dance??’ and introduced her for the first time to the music of Phantogram. Having never heard of them, she responded very positively to the music video for their song Fall in Love from their 2013 album Voices (smash play on the track above). Specifically, she praised the voice of lead singer Sarah Barthel and kept on sampling their tracks, I assume, well into the effervescent night. So, it worked on her. Now I ask you, Tumblr. ARE YOU READY TO DANCE!? If the answer is affirmatively YES, YES, YES!!!… scroll down for some more details, you degenerate sicko. If the answer is no, well, then kindly fuck off?? If the answer is middling, read on...

This is a psychedelic pop duo I’ve highly enjoyed for about a decade, and they managed to hook me fairly quickly with their street-beat, synth-heavy tunes. Their music is equal parts batshit crazy and deeply emotional, and they generally manage to hit both extremes on every single one of their albums. A New York band consisting of two pre-school friends, this group found at least a tepid amount of initial success with extensive interest in singles related to their self-titled 2009 EP. A year later, they released their first full length album, Eyelid Movies, which, while not a slam-dunk music-market success, enabled them to set up their foundational roots and original sound. Starting in the mid-2010’s their music started to pop up on the radio, commercials and even video games. Recently, I was playing Grand Theft Auto V and one of their songs randomly started playing as I was cruising around Los Santos. I consider them to be one, if not my favorite electropop act, as they can produce sounds that are both emotionally gritty and hypnotic, all while keeping me interested in what they’re going to do next. Perhaps the best part of music by Phantogram is that no matter what, I always have a hell of a lot of FUN listening to them. Whether I’m trying to decode some of their lyrics, or listening passively in my car to one of their darker tunes, or just sitting at home listening to one of their full-length albums… I can’t get over how much FUN this duo is to listen to and watch. Just below, you’ll find You Don’t Get Me High Anymore from their 2016 album Three. Smash play and as always, enjoy!

Just wanted to point out that I bookended this post with a song about falling in, then out of love. I forgot to mention above that I really enjoy all the tricky wordplay in a lot of their jams. Even if all the lyrics don’t make 100% sense, they still can throw together one hell of a well-constructed poetical verse. I don't really like pop music, but I like Phantogram A LOT. Image source: https://phantogram.bandcamp.com/track/as-far-as-i-can-see

[scruffytheclown]

My Fav Character's Fav Songs

Simon "Ghost" Riley

Self Defeating Prophecy by Dystopia

Let's be real here, Ghost would listen to the most disgusting metal to drown out everything else. Bro is not going to be listening to explicitly sad music cause that would mean he would have to think about his feelings and he doesn't want to do that. He would, however, know a surprising amount about music and would have sludge bands with like 100 monthly listeners on his playlist. Ultimately, Ghost is blaring the most disturbing, harsh metal known to man. His favorite is Self Defeating Prophecy because of the rattling vocals and extreme drum breaks.

John "Soap" MacTavish

Rooster by Alice in Chains

Soap would be a Dad Rock kind of guy but in a "my dad was a teenager in the '90s" way. So a lot of grunge. He could get behind some heavy shit for sure, but really appreciates some solid vocals. I think Soap would actually have a pretty good voice and would be able to sing along to Eddie Vedder or Chris Cornell songs. I feel like he's at least a little more in tune with his emotions and would listen to Nothingman by Pearl Jam alone at night. Rooster would be his favorite song because he can relate to the lyrics since the song is about a Vietnam War veteran.

Jujutsu Kaisen Spoilers Mentioned Ahead

Suguru Geto

But The Regrets Are Killing Me by American Football

Bro is a fucking math rock, midwest emo freak, I'm so sorry. Geto is blaring songs about self destruction with some of the most beautiful guitar riffs. And he was doing that before the KFC breakup too. The American Football song is his favorite though because it almost perfectly represents his tragic relationship with Gojo. I know he's constantly racked with guilt and regret, but is so far gone that he feels like he couldn't change. His music taste mirrors that. GAH it hurts. Are you kidding, "A long goodbye with mixed emotions"? Pretty much sums it all up.

Satoru Gojo

New Song by Maggie Rogers & Del Water Gap

Gojo gets it. Man has a 20 hour crying playlist. He never got over Suguru and probably visited him (or at least wanted to) after they split apart because he would never love anyone the same ever again. New Song helps him justify his lasting feelings about Suguru and how he would go back to him in a heartbeat if he could. But alas. "Is there a cure for this hunger? A terrible curse to be under." Hmmm, kind of reminds me of "Love is the most twisted curse of all."

Damn, all my favorite characters emo as fuck. Bless them. Sorry for making them more sad.

[symbioticsimplicity]

I don’t need to be up this early but this idea won’t leave me.

So, Steddie Battle of the Bands AU featuring punk!Steve.

Corroded Coffin join a battle of the bands competition run out of a little bar just outside Indianapolis, expecting fully to make it all the way. There’s not a lot of musicians in their area and out of all of them, CC have the most milage and the most unique sound. Sure, it’s metal, but in the bigger city that’s not the death sentence it would be back in Hawkins.

For the most part, they’re right. There’s a little pop trio that do okay, a Bob Dylan type with an acoustic and the flattest, most nasal tone Eddie has ever heard, a rock outfit with a drummer who’s clearly on speed and fixing to pull a Spinal Tap, and one very old dude who’s there more for the fun than to actually compete. They’re a shoe-in.

Except there’s a punk band that were running a little late, and manage to take stage literally just as they’re being called. The Demogorgons, they’re called. 

Eddie is pissed the instant he sees them, firstly because he’s been on sight with punks since ‘84 when a flock of the little shits dissed Dio to his fucking face. Second because out of all the things they could have been called, they picked a DND creature??! In Eddie’s house??? Who the fuck did they think they were?!

The longer Eddie watches them play (he can’t leave until they announce who’s moving on from this round, he’s literally a captive audience), the more pissed off he gets because they’re good.

The lead guitarist is a girl with dark, short hair mostly hiding her face, but she’s absolutely slaying their cover of White Wedding, adding more than was originally in the song seemingly on the fly. It’s beautiful, as a guitarist himself he can at least begrudgingly respect her talent.

The bassist is also a girl with short hair who seems like she’s in her own world, totally lost in the music and jamming so hard Eddie can’t really look at her for too long without getting sucked in with her.

The drummer looks like an absolute madman, big buff blonde guy who looks like he’d bite if anyone got too close to him. He’s bare chested, showing off a few tattoos and a couple piercings that make him far more interesting than Eddie cares to admit.

But the singer/ rhythm guitarist, is what is really tripping Eddie up.

He’s prettier than he has any goddamn need to be, and he’s weirdly smiley for a punk. Like being on stage is his happy place, which Eddie can relate to, even if he hates admitting any commonalities between them at all. His voice too, is lovely. It’s not the typical scratchy punk sound, it’s high and airy and from a technical standpoint (only that, Eddie swears) it’s really good. And he seems like he’s not having any trouble playing and singing at the same time, which is shitty as hell because Eddie still does sometimes.

Before their set ends, Eddie has decided he hates them. He hates them, so much.

So much in fact, he goes over to heckle them once they finish.

It goes south almost immediately.

He was right, the drummer is definitely a maniac. It’s like he was waiting for an excuse to fight someone. And given how fast the singer snatches him up after he decks Eddie, this is a frequent thing. The singer and the drummer posture at each other and for a second Eddie thinks they’re about to fight.

But evidently the drummer thinks better of it and stalks off to start helping put their gear up.

The singer apologizes for his bandmate, even though Eddie started the fight, and introduces himself as Steve, the drummer being named Billy. He’s a good kid, Steve tells him, just angry and still learning where to put that anger. He offers to buy Eddie a drink for his trouble, and he’s so floored he ends up accepting.

To Eddie’s surprise, they end up talking, and they end up talking a lot. Steve is easy to talk to, and he listens like what Eddie has to say is important. When he talks, it’s with this sardonic edge to it that reminds Eddie of sour candy. Before he knows it, it’s been like three hours, and it’s time to announce who’s advancing to the next round.

To Eddie’s complete lack of surprise, Corroded Coffin make it through, but so do The Demogorgons. Steve congratulates him, sincerely, and Eddie stutters out the same.

They part ways for the night, but the pretty punk with the prettier smile won’t leave Eddie’s thoughts.

Cue CC telling Eddie to get his head in the game, trying to head off the crush they can spot forming. They know him well enough to know the signs, and they don’t need him pulling a Romeo and Juliet with some punk he met for one night.

Little do they know, The Demogorgons are having a similar chat with their own lead. They’ve worked too hard to have Steve get distracted, or worse, go soft, over some greasy metalhead he’s only talked to like, once. Steve of course promises that he won’t. After all, it’s not like he’s really going to see him much, and Steve isn’t easy, he has to get to know someone to fall for them.

Cut to a week later when one Steve Harrington is dropping Dustin off at his DND thingy, only to see none other than Eddie Munson perched at the head of the table. He’s explaining what their quest is for the night, or something, and he’s so animated, so into it, he doesn’t notice Steve frozen in the doorway.

Steve makes it out before Eddie sees him, but from that moment on it’s like he’s every where Steve goes. They bump into each other constantly, Hawkins is a small town, it’s easy to do. It gets to be such a regular thing that Eddie makes a joke about following Steve, and Steve sings that Rockwell song about being followed and they find themselves laughing together again.

It’s easy, really. Too easy. And before they know it, whenever they bump into each other, they end up talking for a while. It’s just a few minutes, they both reason to themselves, a few minutes is fine.

But a few minutes turns into an hour, turns into a couple hours, turns into a smoke sesh at Eddie’s, turns into a jam sesh at Steve’s, and before they know it, they’re missing each other when the other isn’t around.

Of course it isn’t long before Gareth notices his best friend’s preoccupation, and Robin could clock Steve’s daydreamy look three miles away. They each come clean to their respective long-suffering bestie.

Neither are happy, but they both care more about their friend than some stupid band competition. They know the rest of their bands won’t be happy, and that could be a pain, so rather than being even slightly reasonable, they hatch a plan.

Eddie and Steve are determined to be the punk-metal version of Romeo and Juliet, but that doesn’t mean their story has to be a tragedy. This is a musical, afterall. What better to do than bridge the gap with the power of music.

So the next time Eddie and Steve hang out, they both spend probably fifteen minutes uncomfortably dancing around trying to ask the other to write a song with them.

Steve cracks first, because seeing Eddie uncomfortable is so fucking bizarre it trumps his own nerves and he has to ask what’s going on. Eddie decides to be brave and takes the leap, asks Steve what he’s got to ask, and to his surprise Steve tells him he was going to ask the same thing.

They haven’t really talked about it, the tension between them, but it boils over when Steve tries to explain why he wants to write a song with Eddie. Eddie can’t watch him flounder for a second more, when he knows he could just be kissing him instead.

He takes Steve by the jaw and kisses the soul out of him. If they weren’t sold they were doing the right thing before, the kiss seals the deal.

They spend the night trading kisses and lyrics in equal measure, alternating between strumming strings and heartstrings until they’re both so caught up in creation, in each other, they’re harmonic.

After that, they hit crunch time. The battle of the bands is next week, and learning a whole new song is a pain in the ass for both bands. It’ll be worth it, but Jeff doesn’t know that and Billy doesn’t care.

The boys make time to see each other, but of course, they get caught.

Band practice gets postponed on both sides of the fence. They know they shouldn’t, it’s stupid, but Eddie spent the day getting harassed by a flock of “Concerned Christian Mothers” who were not shy about telling him exactly what they thought about him, and would not get the hell out of his face about it. Steve is a caretaker down to his bones, and doesn’t think twice about going to care for his metalhead.

Nancy however isn’t stupid, and Grant knows damn well Eddie would only postpone practice if something was genuinely wrong. So Nancy follows Steve to see what the hell could be so important to him that he’d call off practice, and Grant goes to bring Eddie a care package.

Nancy isn’t happy about finding the two spooning on Eddie’s couch, but she doesn’t make as much of a fuss about it as Grant does. Grant goes off about sleeping with the enemy and treachery and the metalhead code of honor (which he made up right there on the spot), but the real bucket of cold water is Nancy telling Steve how disappointed she is that he pulled them all into this, made them care about it, only to waste his time chasing after someone instead of putting his heart into the music the way they all had been. She asks him to get serious, then leaves.

Steve excuses himself, ignoring Eddie’s pleas to wait a second, come back, please, let’s talk about this.

They don’t see each other again until the night of the show.

The competition threw them a curveball, however. None of them know until they get there, see the layout of the big warehouse like space, but instead of playing one after the other, the competition is amp versus amp. CC are freaking out a little bit because they’ve never played that way before, and Eddie is picking up an acoustic, why the hell did he even bring an acoustic, what’s going on?? The Demogorgons are equally nervous, this being a first for them too, and Steve is quiet, so quiet, he’s never like this before shows, what’s going on??

Despite everyone’s nerves and fears, the two bands take their places on the two stages, on opposite ends of the room from one another.

Eddie introduces Corroded Coffin with the same flare he usually does, but tells the audience that tonight’s performance is going to be a little different than their usual. He finishes with “This one’s for you, Juliet.”

He starts strumming the acoustic, the song he and Steve had written together filling the space, warm and full and a wild departure from their usual sound. He’d gone over it with the guys, added some polish to it, made it more metal, but he’d asked them to hold off on that until he cued them.

“And hey darling, I hope you’re good tonight. And I know you don’t feel right when I’m leaving-”

The rest of Corroded Coffin have never heard Eddie sing like this, didn’t even know he could. Usually he was all growls and grit and demon noises he’d figured out how to imitate. They had no idea he was even capable of making a song sound so beautiful.

Eddie continues singing his heart out, strumming his guitar, praying that Steve picks up on what he’s doing, joins him at the drop, doesn’t leave him again. He’s nearly convinced himself he’s going to end up singing the whole thing alone, and God how stupid would that be, that when he reaches the switching point, he nearly drops his guitar when Steve’s voice rises up to meet him. A spotlight flicks on, illuminating him as he sings into the microphone, playing his own part of the accompanyment.

“And hey, sweetie, well I need you here to night. And I know you don’t wanna be leaving me here tonight-”

Steve’s voice is the perfect counterbalance to Eddie’s. It’s light where his is heavy, soft where his is gritty. It showcases their duality, while highlighting how good they are together and Eddie would cry if he weren’t on stage.

He takes the next verse as planned, but Steve’s voice stays with him, harmonizing along side him so perfectly it’s as if they’ve been singing together for years rather than about a week.

“You know you can’t give me what I need, and even though you mean so much to me, I can’t wait through everything.”

That’s different, not the line they wrote together. It lands like a gut punch when Eddie looks up and sees Steve’s expression. He’s not smiling. He always smiles on stage.

“Is this really happening?” Eddie sings back without missing a beat, knowing the next verse is his, meaning it might be his only chance. He prays to every muse he’s ever had to lend him the improv skills to land this.

To his suprise, he hears Jeff’s heavy guitar start to build, Grant’s bass swooping in beside it to flank him. When he turns his head to check, they both give him the nod, the one that’s always meant they’re beside him, for better or worse. It gives him to courage to put his soul into the words he’s about to spit.

“I swear I’ll never be happy again, and don’t you dare say we can just be friends, I’m not some boy that you can sway.” 

There’s a half a second pause in the music, just long enough to wreck Eddie’s heartrate. He can see Steve’s face from here, not clearly enough to make out every emotion that flashes across it, but enough to see when it lands on determination.

“We knew it’d happen eventually.” He and Steve sing, or in his case shout, in tandem.

Corroded Coffin fall back in with them, and to Eddie’s utter surprise, The Demogorgons join them. The sound of two bands playing the climax of the song he and Steve had written together hits Eddie so hard he can barely sing past the balloon of emotion swelling in his chest.

The crowd reminds him they’re there, joining in on the chorus of ‘La la las’ going around the room, their voices loud enough to shake the walls. It’s everything Eddie has ever wanted from a crowd, and it’s way too much along with everything else going on right now. Eddie can’t focus on it, not when Steve is staring him down from across the room.

“If you can wait ‘till I get home, then I swear we can make this last.” Eddie belts, Steve’s higher register wrapping around the notes the same way his hands wrap around his mic.

Both bands let the song taper out, leaving just the crowd echoing back the words to them, just Steve and Eddie singing to each other.

Eddie reaches out his hand, as if he could take Steve’s in his despite the distance. Steve once again meets him halfway, extending his own hand as if to bridge the distance.

The lights go down and the crowd is still chanting. It takes longer to settle them down than it does to make the decision to shrug off his guitar and run to his boy. Eddie hesitates only to look over at his bandmates.

They look exhasperated, but fond. Grant rolls his eyes and tells him to go kiss his stupid punk or whatever.

Eddie is off in an instant.

He finds Steve tearing his way over to him, runs straight into him almost the same way he’d run into him the first time they met outside of a venue.

There aren’t words, they don’t need them, already sung them. There’s just Steve and Eddie and how badly they’ve missed each other. The apologies and affirmations can come later, when their mouths aren’t so busy kissing the life from one another.

In the back of his mind, Eddie registers some of the crowd around them wolf whistling, but for once he doesn’t give much of a shit what the crowd thinks of him.

[noemilivv]

Good morning/afternoon/night, I was wondering if I could request a MORNINGSTAR ; send in a list of 5-10 hazbin hotel songs (both pre-show and post-show are acceptable) and i will rank them + give an explanation !

The songs I had in mind were

Out For Love

My Machine

Addict

Insane

Heaven 2 Hell

We're Sure To Drown (Husks Tale)

More Than Anything

Poison

Hell Is Forever

Thank you so much, I love your pics!

hello!! i had to listen to ‘my machine’ cuz i had never heard it before, so this ranking may be a bit wonky, but here it is!!

this list goes from worst-best (there is no worst tho, let’s be real, cuz these are some bangers)

lowkey though, i’m expecting to get murdered for this, cuz i have some opinions that may be controversial 😭

9: We’re Sure to Drown (Husks Tale)

It’s a banger, no doubt. It tickles my ears (in a good way) and makes me absolutely wanna bash out. But honestly, nothing against it, it’s just not for me, I still like it, it’s just not one of my tops.

8: Out For Love

This was one of the very few songs that in the official show that I couldn’t ever fully get into, it’s very good, but halfway through I end up moving to the next song on my playlist :’) I truly wanna love it, I’m just not there yet haha

7: My Machine

I know it must seem like I despise PARANOiD DJ’s music but I don’t! You just stunned me with two of his songs that I’ve only listened to once or twice XD Pentious is one of my fave characters, but tbh Cherri’s part blew me out of the water haha Not much to say cause my first time listening it to this one was like 10 minutes ago.

6: More Than Anything

Don’t get me wrong, I definitely jam out when this song comes on, but tbh I’m a bigger fan of more upbeat songs - especially in Hazbin, and I connect very deeply with this song due to being a massive Charlie kinnie XD and honestly it’s amazingly good, but it’s not at the top for me

5: Heaven 2 Hell

This was the song I would absolutely jam to in like 2022 during my prime-time Hazbin Hotel phase, but honestly, when I listen to it now it’s not my fave, it’s not bad by any means - it’s just my preferences have changed since the show came out

4: Insane

This song has a special place in my heart, but truth be told, I haven’t listened to it in a hot sec since the official show soundtrack came out. It’s chill, makes me wiggle, and this song definitely sparked my love for Alastor, but you gave me so many bangers so it dropped slightly :’)

3: Hell is Forever

Adam (and Lute) are some of my fave characters in the whole show and they nail this scene AND Alex Brightman does a killer job at this song! Imo it really emobodies Adam’s character and his morals, and not only that, it’s catchy as fuck! Also I love Charlie’s part in the beginning haha

2: Addict

This song holds a lot of sentimental value to me, as it’s the song that really got me immersed into this show. It was the song I’d listen to as an escape, and on top of that, Micheal Kovach and Chi-Chi nailed their parts and their voices are stunning together! Also not to mention no matter how long it’s been since I’ve last listened to the song, I can sing my heart out word for word, no mistakes

1: Poison

In the least biased way possible, I relate a lot to Angel Dust (so ofc both of his songs are at the top), and I know how it feels to be in a shitty situation with another person and for it to feel like you have no way out. Also on top of that, this is a fucking banger?! The switch between Angel Dust to Anthony in this song has never felt so real and painful. Blake Roman does an fantastic job with this number and he’s also one of my faves from the voice cast. (I know, I’m biased, sue me /hj)

[ablatheringblatherskite]

top 5 musicals?

oh OH I LOVE THIS ASK THANK YOU, CHAOS!!

Okay so, from lowest to highest, so far, my favorite musicals are:

5. Tick, Tick, Boom!

Especially as an artist, I absolutely LOVED this film. It's like a love letter to all artists. Of course non-artists can love and relate to this musical, but there's just something special it has for artists specifically. Plus the CINEMATOGRAPHY?? the PERFORMANCES?? ANDREW GARFIELD???? THE SONGS???? UGH. PHENOMENAL

4. Hamilton: An American Musical

This is the only musical I've ever been blessed enough to actually see LIVE! And it was literally one of the greatest experiences of my life and made my desire to see musicals live EVEN MORE PAINFUL. BECAUSE THIS WAS WHAT I WAS MISSING OUT ON!! But yeah even if it's not at the top of this list I clearly still love this musical so much. This was one of my most powerful and longest-lasting hyper-fixations ever, and also the musical that actually really got me into writing fanfiction! So on top of the amazing music (my go to hip-hop and rap songs fr LOLLL most of my rapping ability comes from singing and rapping Hamilton with my siblings and cousins), performances, themes of LEGACY and FORGIVENESS??? AUGGHHH, i am also really grateful to it for awakening the writer in me.

3. Les Miserables

I remember when I first started listening to this I was like. How is there not a single MEH song in this musical??? It was literally banger after banger after banger LIKE BRUH. I also remember when I finally finished listening to the musical, it was when my family and I lined up all night for some basketball tickets. And I finished listening to the musical when I woke up really early in the morning for my turn in waiting in line, and I was screaming at myself not to cry because I was literally surrounded by people. But anyway yeah I love this musical so much and while it's not as deeply personal as Hamilton (at least not yet), I think it definitely belongs in this spot. Listen specifically the THEMES AND MOTIFS ARE WHAT MAKE ME SO FERAL OVER THIS. BUT ESPECIALLY THE THEME OF FAITH??? BYE I CANT HANDLE IT ASJDFHJLDAD

2. Newsies

While I think Les Mis is probably a better musical in general, THIS one is very personal. This is the first broadway musical i ever listened to, the one that got me into theatre musicals for the first time. IT ALL BEGAN HERE. This was also the first pro-shot I ever watched!!! And absolutely LOVE the songs DEARLY to this very day and still jam out to them every time I hear them, plus I LOVE the story and find it to be very relevant to people my age in particular. It's just so FUN and with AN INCREDIBLE story and soundtrack and the PERFORMANCES and DANCING AUGHHH and i love it so much i cant put it into words so here have Jack flipping someone instead

1. The Phantom of the Opera

I doubt ANYONE is surprised by this being at the top LOL. But for real, this musical just HIT THE SPOT. I don't know how or why BUT I JUST FELL IN LOVE WITH THIS MUSICAL SO FAST AND HARD and I can't explain it. But just--the MUSIC the STAGING the STORY the CHARACTERS?? HELLO?? ERIK IS LITERALLY ONE OF THE MOST WELL-WRITTEN CHARACTERS I'VE EVER SEEN IN A LONG WHILE. AND CHRISTINE MY BELOVED. and OBVIOUSLY . RAOUL . HAS MY ENTIRE ENTIRE HEART THIS IDIOT BOYYYY. and and RAOULSTINE??? UGHHH. And i love all the supporting characters too like they're so FUN lol. and anyway of course the SONGS ARE JUST INCREDIBLE, WHAT ON EARTH. And of course, most importantly THE THEMES AND MOTIFS. LOVE AND LUST AND OBSESSION AND UNCONDITIONAL VS CONDITIONAL LOVE AND RECKLESS BRAVERY AND AND AND GRACE????? AND KINDNESS??? HOO MY HEART BE STILL

Send me Top Five Anythings and I'll answer!!

[klenda-v]

Thinking about the King’s Jubilee special of 2003,

which featured Every Ultra they had a suit for at the time, an absurd amount of rap music, an Ultraman hip-hop dance troup, and Zearth’s hip-hop son, B-Boy Zearth Junior. He looks like this.

Literally I have difficulty watching this because this might be the single piece of ultra content that delivers the most psychic damage to me. It’s just. It’s absurd, it’s a musical, it revels in its shamelessness—or at least I think it does?

Link and more specifics below:

Just gathering screenshots I feel my soul deteriorating. For the curious and foolhardy, here’s a link to the video. No, there are no subtitles; no, you won’t need them. CONTENT WARNING: flashing lights and images, absurdity.

I will go briefly through each song, to give you an idea:

Song 0, 2:27 - Meet the performers

A dance/rap(?) group made of kaiju, aliens, and maybe bedazzled ultras? Or maybe they’re just dressed up as Ultras, the eyes are dark and they’re slightly Off? Maybe the announcer actually says, I think the general consensus is that they’re not true Ultras, but some other kind of alien cosplaying as ultras to…honor them? Or at least play as them for the purposes of the “narrative” they’re about to play out.

It’s also an incredibly large cast of performers. We’re just starting, we’re barely three minutes in.

UPDATE: My friend Emcee was kind enough to share the names of all the performers, which I will now relate to you:

"Ultra" dancers, referred to as Ultra Funk Jam:

Dyna Rocksteady, Gaia Electric, Zearth Funkygroove, B-Boy Zearth Jr., Cosmos Air, 80 Super Cool, Agul Boogiedown, Tiga Spinning, Ace Galaxy Step, Seven Shuffle, Justice Pointer

"Kaiju" Dancers (IDK their group's name):

Baltan Big Twister, Pit Flash, Izaak Wildstyle, Magma Freeze X, Dada Sexy (YES REALLY), Lady Benzene Hypnotic, Godola Popping, Bomberhead Gan-Q, Deban Floorcrown, Chaos Headder Grandmaster, B-G-RL Lady Benzene Daughter, Z Capsule Kouju Miraclon

Song 1, 3:15 - four-man hip-hop dance

There are no words I can possibly use to match the actual experience of watching this. I think it’s the fact that I can’t tell if this is satire, or if they’re playing it completely straight. They never tell us. Or maybe they do, I don’t speak Ultra.

Imagine if you will, any late 90s rap. Then imagine the music video for it. But filmed as if it’s a live stage performance, but also everyone is a trained gymnast and we get synchronized flips with Zearth Funkeygroove, Justice Pointer, Gaia Electric, and Tiga Spinning.

Song 2, 4:14, Kaiju Team’s turn

Now that I’m watching this, I think it’s framed as a dance competition? Where the kaiju and “ultra” teams alternate songs, like a rap battle with performances?

Anyway this song starts with an audio sample from, of all things, the sound Ultraman’s timer makes when he’s in mortal peril. This audio blinks sporadically throughout the song, hitting that sweet spot right between “huh I guess it’s just playing at the beginning, huh” and “actually using it as a sample/carrying any meaning.” Maybe the weird timing of the audio has significance with the JP lyrics, but I doubt it. The timer blinking tempo doesn’t quite sync up with the tempo of the actual music.

While the NotUltra’s solo performance had heavy use of flips, the kaiju team impliments a lot of floor work. Lotta breakdancing, if the camera cuts slowed down enough for me to catch most of the moves. Honestly the dancing throughout is very solid overall, with, again, the big caveat being the bewildering editing choices.

Also I think the ultras in the audience are moshing? Maybe I don’t know what moshing is. Watching this, I don’t think I know what anything is anymore.

Song 3, 5:21 - Kaiju Team, or the “Sexy Dance Time, Check It Out” one.

I…wish I were making this up. This one stars Dada Sexy (his [their?] actual name), alongside a feminine-coded alien I only later learned was Lady Benzene Hypnotic. At this point I wonder whether this is better watched high, or if this is already making me high.

The groove to this one starts notably different, but like…if the Cha Cha Slide tried to be steamy. And no I didn’t grab a screenshot mid-frame-shift, this part is literally shot like this. It goes on for several seconds. They wanted it to look like this.

Oh and the Not-Ultras are here too. Seven Shuffle is one of them. Do with that what you will.

The dancing itself is definitively less hip-hop and more…interpretative dance? I absolutely believe that this is an alien party, because nothing about this presents as remotely normal or human.

Partway through, a green screen cape (Kings?) flies through the screen. I can’t bring myself to care. Every Ultra in the audience is Very into it.

Then about halfway through they switch it back to…hip-hop? I think? It still has multiple Interpretive Dance elements to it. The Not-Ultras bedazzled suits have neon lights on them, btw, I think you should know that.

And yes, by the end, they have the (male) narrator's voice chanting variations of “oh, sexy” in a way that makes me feel. vEry uncomfortable and I wish I could turn back time. I can only hope that the writers truly, legitimately didn’t know what that word actually meant in English, or what it implied if you sing it with the breathy energy they put into this number.

Benzene Hypnotic lets out an alien scream/trill at the end of the song, and we cut to the Ultra audience applauding at what a fun song that was. I want to go home.

7:43 - The Kids Come And Do a lil dance!

This next song is the intermission, a little ditty sung by and danced to by children. One of whom is B-Boy Zearth Jr. Zearth has a child. I barely notice; I’m still reeling from Sexy Dance.

This song, inexplicably, also has the “Dying Ultra’s color timer” sound. It actually appears more here than in the “villain” song. The song itself is…I think cute and charming? It’s hard to tell, my eyes are still glazed over. The kids do a pirouette or a cartwheel or something. The song ends, the announcer praises how super kawaii the performance was, I get a drink.

9:03 - Actual Dance Battle

This one has Justice Pointer, Agul Boogiedown, and I think Dyna Rocksteady (Might be Gaia Electric; his head is weird so I can’t tell), in a dance battle against three Kaiju Team members. This one’s probably my favorite, it sums up the weirdest parts of this while also having some legit solid dance moves. That and since it’s turn-based, we get lots of cool freeze-poses. Plus Agul Boogiedown throws up some gangsta peace signs, which is deeply funny after watching how edgy he is in his show.

The rap song itself appears to also be framed as a rap-battle? I think? My JP is limited but each team’s bar of music seems to be lightheartedly dissing the other/pumping themselves up. Everyone ends the battle by doing the splits on the floor, which is what my head’s gonna do in a minute.

10:42 - A Ballet Number

What’s that? You wanted this to make less sense? No? Well that’s okay, this is basically a ballet number (??????), with violin and slow swaying from the crowd. Zearth Funky Groove is dancing ballet with Lady Benzene Hypnotic. It’s actually…you know what, this is kinda nice. It’s a nice break from—NOPE ITS HIP-HOP AGAIN, LADS

But like a…flamenco (I think?) influenced hip-hop. This song is actually really interesting in terms of merging VERY different influences. Definitely a musical style inspired by the carribian or one of the Romance languages, but asking me to search my mind for factual information while watching this is like asking a boxer to do trigonometry mid-match.

The announcer tells the crowd to grab your sweetheart and dance with them. Tiga bows before Camearra and offers to dance (she graciously accepts). A Daadaa propositions Seven to dance, which seems to catch him off-guard in a bad way. Ultra Father offers his wife his hand, though they don’t properly dance, they just hold hands and sway to the music. Incidentally, Yullian and 80 are present and clearly went together, but they don’t couple up for this dance (that we see).

This doesn’t fit anywhere, but Zoffy is REALLY into the music. Like I’ve never seen him this enthusiastic for anything before. It's really sweet honestly. He’s dancing alone but is clearly more than happy that way.

12:22 - Final Dance

I have trouble articulating exactly what happens in this segment. Clearly it’s framed as a final battle, but those interpretive dance bits are still mixed with the hip-hop. As before, the dancing itself is quite good, if you like incredibly 90’s hip-hop dancing and breakdancing. It’s definitely the most floorwork-heavy of any of the songs.

The camera-work, while strange but functional before, takes a turn even further into the surreal. Some of the camera cuts are so rapid you’d think it was a stage-3 marvel movie; in places it gets to about 5 cuts per second. It will also cut not only between angles on the same person mid-action, but to random other shots, like the crowd of ultras, or a different dancer, or someone unrelated doing half a flip before cutting back again.

I think this must be the point in production where someone discovered you could rotate a camera, because suddenly multiple flips or dance moves are filmed with the camera spinning—presumably to follow the movement, but not quite synchronized and there’s no way we’re doing another take.

At the climax of the song, I can only assume Ultra Father saw some risk to the child-dancers; the music gets tense, and the kaiju-dancers close in around the kids, who cower back-to-back. Ultra Father exchanges an urgent glance with his wife, and together they SHOOT A PULSE OF ENERGY AT THE PERFORMERS ON STAGE.

Which puts everyone on an acid trip. Or I think it does? The colors turn negative/green/weird, and then all the adult-coded performers drop to their knees in a clearly rehearsed part of the dance.

I’m losing my mind. What was this? Was this choreographed or not? Was Ken supposed to do that? I can only think he must have, but then why did his body language radiate legitimate fear for the children’s safety? Why have the Ultra Parents do that part, isn’t this King’s party?? What am I going to do with the avocado I bought two days ago and is gonna go bad??

Not labeling this as a separate song, because the last one never truly ended. But this is clearly the epilogue of the “fight”; the ultras do elaborate secret handshakes with the aliens and monsters, indicating everything’s A-OK now. I will never be A-OK again. The announcer is chanting “happy," though I think he’s repeating the last syllable a bit too much. I don't think they thought through what yelling "HAPPY-PEE" would actually mean in English.

The experience ends with King’s greenscreen cape floating down and King materializes onstage between the two child performers. He then levatates back up, which is the most normal thing to happen this whole time. He says something in English that sounds like maybe “Happy Mercy?” Messy? Blessing?

After the third listen, I realized he’s saying Happy Birthday. It’s his birthday. He’s saying it to himself. The crowd wildly applauds his self-congratulation and repeats the English phrase, and King makes his bows. My splintered psyche notices that the foley-work on his cape movement is very nice.

The end closes out with what I at first think is a hip-hop version of Dyna’s opening theme. I am wrong. They start a weirdly paced hip-hop beat with Cosmos’s “Something You Can Do” vocals. They loop the opening line twice, then go back to rap.

The announcer delightedly cries in English “See you NEXT YEAR!”

I take this as a threat.

[spotforme]

my thoughts from my re-watch of seasons 1-2 (that might be useless)

Who Do You Think You Are:

Hunting Alison was Pat's idea

Happy Death Day:

Robin playing chess with himself in Happy Death Day

Both Cap and Fanny like to go on rants about their lives (and things related)

Free Pass:

Kitty singing is precious

As is Mike telling facts to an empty room

Robins little rhyme in Free Pass: Never bored with chess board

Moonah Ston:

Cap and Thomas are essentially the duo no-one wants to listen to

It's fun to imagine Robin teaching everyone the moonah ston dance, even Humphrey's body knows it

You know that episode about Cap and Fanny not laufing? Yeah, they both laufgh while watching friends

Mike's urge to shake hands when offered

Getting Out:

Cap conforts Kitty the first time (on screen), even if it's for a plot

Cap new there were bones in the basement, but others didn't, so he could only know if he went down to the basement and chatted with the plague ghosts (I like to imagine he does this regulary)

The Grey Lady:

I feel dumb only detting this now, but when Thomas says "If music be the food of love..." and alison puts on the record.

Like that's so good

Humphrey being the only one who thanks Alison for turning the page of his book

Mike's monocle

The whole Thomas's Luice's Chees commerchall

And about that. They left the recorder there to pick up any voices that might be heard while they were away. So with all logic they should've listened to the whole recording, like they didn't know there was a ghosts right then and there who would start speaking ammediedly.

That's why I think the box would've started playing Button FM in a second, if they hadn't cut it off

Also, I can't believe Pat left Robin hanging

About Last Night:

Just how fast Pat goes from thinking the party will be fun, to not liking it the second Captain says something negative about it

How easily Cap can be persuaded into silence about dante at the threat of Alison not putting on documents anymore

And Pat's sly smile at the fact

Mary's song about nice names include: Daniel, Bruno, Clive, Annie.

Julian is so annoying that the plague ghosts rather live in the basement (with the guy who killed them (and their kids, who I'm glad moved on)) than with Julian

Redding Weddy:

Captain doesn't have his medals in the flashback

Captain doesn't seem at all compitent under pressure

Thomas and Robin are both just as disbelieving of the man on moon thing, at first at least

Kitty turns serious the moment anything related to Mary's trail comes up, so she can confort her

Captain definedly used to smoke. Like, why else would he have that cigar when burrying the bomb, that to have a melancholic smoke after it's done.

The Thomas Thorne Affair:

Mary want's to wear a dress made of sea-shells and a simple lobster hat, she doesn't want the hat if it's too complicated

Thomas was close to dying with his jaket on, but he took it off for the duel

Fanny married into Button house, so she was something else before

Bump In The Night:

Captain uses Humphreys hands to keep count of boxes while chatting to his head

Music club!

Kitty and Julian sing

Cap does that instumental march, and Humphrey "sings" along to the trumpet section. Witch makes me think Cap has performed it to Humphrey already.

It's really funny that humphrey is the guy who always listens. But maybe that's just 'cos he can't get away, even if he wanted to

Sadly Robin and Pat seem to be the only ones jamming to the Cap's song

Pat's morals are auestionable, he thinks the (younger) robber can still be redeemed, but the moment he puts gum on a table, it's instant borstal.

Robin was really smart and helpful to call Barclay's dogs

Fanny's shadows can be seen

Perfect Day:

Mary canonically had a husband who died in a farming accident few years after their merrage

Robin and Fanny's development to accept merrage is nice to see

The Ghost Of Cristmas:

Robin falls asleep on the floor by the fire, with is adorable

Them playing twister

The plaque ghosts singing along to carils too

And of cource Julians break down (now with family and crying babies!)

That's half of everything so far. Just one thing to add

Call Me by Blondie fits to be anyone's theme (I must clarify that I do mean the 8-minute version)

[giveamadeuschohisownmovie]

Thoughts on the official trailer for “HBO’s The Last of Us”:

1) Uh…“Take on Me” is certainly an interesting song choice. Didn’t really like the way it was used in the trailer. And slowing it down didn’t make it feel any less silly. Also, that’s a love song, if you’re going to choose a pop song for your trailer, why not go with one about fathers and daughters? Something like Pearl Jam’s “Daughter”.

2) I’m more convinced that the show will take the “Uncharted” approach to the source material, which is also the “Walking Dead” approach. The game is still the foundation of the series, but the series definitely feels like a partial reimagining of the story.

3) The casting really makes a HUGE difference in how the story is coming off. In the game, you get the feeling that Joel could be Ellie’s dad since they look like they can be related. In the show, it’s pretty obvious that Joel isn’t Ellie’s dad, creating more of a divide. That said, I do like that divide since it emphasizes that Joel is some dude who grew to care about Ellie. Sarah was his true daughter, Ellie is the girl he adopted.

4) The overall show at least looks like the game. Still up in the air about the execution, but the trailer does look good at least.

5) Since there are only 10 episodes in this season, I’m assuming that the first two episodes will be Tess, episode 3 is Bill, episodes 4-5 are Henry and Sam, episode 6 is reconnecting with Tommy, episode 7 is when Joel gets injured, episodes 8-9 are David and Riley Abel, and episode 10 is the hospital massacre.

[pocketweiss]

RWBY Characters’ Favorite Taylor Swift Albums!

In honor of the release of Speak Now TV, I present to you my long-awaited thoughts on which Taylor Swift albums would be the RWBY characters’ favorites! I tried to pick at least one character for each album (except evermore bc I just haven’t listened to it enough I’m so sorry evermore I’ll get to u I promise) RWBY also has a million characters so there are several who I have not (yet) given an album to.

(I also WILL be taking constructive criticism; I want to know if y’all disagree with my choices and/or which albums you think other characters would like!)

Ruby: Red (Taylor’s Version)

I know it’s *so* on the nose, but I couldn’t not choose it. Besides, I do genuinely believe that Ruby would love this album. This is an album she can appreciate all throughout her character arc. She loves to jam to the upbeat songs during the early volumes, and then in the later volumes when she’s in her Mental Illness Era, she gains a new appreciation for the sadder songs.

Favorite Song: At first her favorite is Stay Stay Stay, but around v8-9, she’s listening to Nothing New on repeat.

(Also, NO ONE let Taiyang get his hands on All Too Well ten minute version. He will never recover.)

Weiss: folklore

Folklore is for the depressed girlies, the burnt-out gifted kids, the perfectionists, and those who feel out of place. Weiss can certainly relate, so songs like this is me trying resonate strongly with her. And the last great american dynasty?? That one hits a little too close to home as well.

Favorite Song: mirrorball. I mean, come on. Any song that has mirror imagery/symbolism is so Weiss-coded. And the song as a whole is so her.

Blake: also folklore

Blake loves folklore for entirely different reasons than Weiss does. Blake is both a hopeless romantic and a lover of stories, so the trilogy of betty, august, and cardigan are right up her alley. (Those three songs also somewhat fit the v4-6 perspectives of Blake, Sun, and Yang, respectively. Just think about it.)

Favorite Song: betty. Again, just think about it.

Yang: 1989

Yang is absolutely an enjoyer of upbeat pop music. It’s great music to work out to, and in general gets her pumped up and makes her feel hot and powerful. Plus, even a lot of the sad songs on this album are less melancholic and more intense. She can easily channel any anger she has into these songs. Even when she’s in her angstiest moments, Yang still wants to be able to jam out.

Favorite Song: Bad Blood (though v4-5 Yang has a special appreciation for All You Had To Do Was Stay. Just think about it.)

Jaune: Debut

I feel like if anyone is going to listen to cheesy country music for teenage girls, it would be Jaune. It doesn’t help that he has that stupid guitar. He definitely tries to learn several of the songs from this album, but can’t get the hang of most of them.

Favorite Song: Teardrops On My Guitar. He *does* manage to learn this one on guitar, and he plays it *constantly* after Weiss rejects him.

Nora (and Ren): Lover

Nora is a lover of bubbly upbeat music and sappy love songs!! She’s SUCH a romantic, and she loves singing and dancing around to these songs. This album is also Ren’s favorite because it’s Nora’s favorite. He loves nothing more than to watch her sing and dance. They’re both such absolute saps, it’s adorable.

Nora’s Favorite Song: Paper Rings

Ren’s Favorite Song: Lover

Pyrrha: Fearless (Taylor’s Version)

Fearless is an album about girlhood, romance, and fantasy. With all of the pressure of being in the public eye and living up to expectations. Pyrrha wants nothing more than to be a normal girl and enjoy all of the classic teen experiences like everyone else. Gods know she’s also a hopeless romantic, and her idea of romance is very sweet and fairytale-like, which is very Fearless.

Favorite Song: You Belong With Me. It’s LITERALLY her pining for Jaune. Just think about it.

Sun and Neptune: Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)!!

To me, Sun and Neptune are the epitome of the true and pure definition of ‘boys will be boys’. They have this very endearing chaotic energy, and they’re not afraid to get excited about silly things. So I think they’d absolutely blast some ‘girly’ music in the car and scream-sing it with conviction.

Neptune’s Favorite Song: Haunted. This is the boys’ favorite song to blast in the car and sing along to. All of SSSN gets in on this.

Sun’s Favorite Song: Foolish One. This is less of a ‘scream in the car song’ for him and more of a ‘listen on late nights when you’re yearning for the girl who doesn’t love you back’ song. ):

Roman: reputation

The thing about reputation is, yes, it’s about revenge and spite and resonates with every girl who claims—whether accurately or not—to be a ‘bad bitch’. This alone fits the bill for Roman, but it’s important to note that reputation is ALSO an album full of powerful love songs. This makes it absolutely perfect for Roman, as he is so deeply in love with Neo. He loves to serenade her with songs like Don’t Blame Me or Dress, and he’s always so dramatic about it. Neo doesn’t really listen to Taylor herself, but she does adore it when Roman sings to her.

Favorite Song: King of My Heart. Idk it just feels right. Honorable mention to Getaway Car, which he always likes to put on when he hijacks an airship.

Cinder: Midnights

You’d think that Cinder would also be a rep girlie, and on paper she absolutely is. But something kept drawing me to Midnights for her. And for the longest time I didn’t understand why these Vibes were so strong. And then I realized. It’s the fucking Cinderella connection, innit. Meet me at midnight indeed.

Favorite Song: Vigilante Shit. reputation is for girlies who think they’re bad bitches but really aren’t, and Vigilante Shit is that same energy but cranked up to 11. I love her, but she thinks she’s so much cooler and more badass than anyone else thinks she is XD

Those are all of my thoughts for now! Let me know what you think, and feel free to add your suggestions as well (: