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love-fireflysong · 2 years

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2. We were dancing but all of a sudden it’s a slow song and we’re standing here awkwardly staring at each other

(gotta tag both @torahime and @nick-furcillo in this one now. kenize because I’m a complete moron who originally posted this like a week early and deleting the og post meant I had to make another one, and tora because she too hilariously enough ALSO requested this exact premise lol)

Nick had never so badly wanted to die in his whole entire life than right now.

Which, all things considered, he really should have expected considering that this whole shebang was really Jacob's idea in the first place. That wasn't to say that all the other counselors certainly hadn't made their own contributions in making this party what it was though, Nick included.

Emma had been the one to suggest making the party eighties themed in the first place and opening the drama cabin's costumes up to the camp so everyone could dress up. Dylan who made the playlist that everyone could dance to out of all the music records found. Abi who was in charge of decorating the lodge to give it a sufficient eighties inspired look and fun for the kids. Nick himself the one who recommended having supper that night be a 'make your pizza' party complete with too many soft drinks and bags upon bags of potato chips. Kaitlyn who organized the shooting stars tournament that would determine which cabin of kids would be making (and thus eating) their pizza’s first and getting first crack at all the ‘good’ ingredients.

And Ryan? Well he had had the most important job and contribution of all: convincing Chris Hackett that they were allowed to even throw the eighties themed dance party in the first place on such short notice. Especially with camp ending in just another short couple of days.

Though at this point, Nick was starting to wish that Ryan had failed, or that Jacob had never been punished with tidying the lodge attic that had resulted in him finding the music records that started this whole thing in the first place.

Which was a shame, because the night had been going so fucking smoothly too! There had been almost no arguments over the pizza toppings, and only one kid had burst into tears when they had dropped their pizza and it fell face down onto the floor. And sure, Nick had nearly sweated to death in the kitchen with the oven cranked as high as it could, but that happened nearly every night he made supper so really that wasn’t a big issue. Plus, he hadn’t changed into his own costume until afterwards, he probably would have actually died otherwise wearing the nearly all-white khaki ensemble with the heavy jacket (and that wasn’t even mentioning all the stains he would have ended up with too).

He had even been able to join in on the dancing himself once Kaylee and Caleb had both switched with him and taken over making sure that the punch and snacks bowls stayed filled and clean cups always at the ready. And, best of all, the last couple of those dances had been with Abi. Abi, the girl he’d had such an embarrassingly large crush on all summer, but had been, as Jacob so loved to eloquently put it: ‘too much of a chickenshit to do anything about it’.

And seeing as the last day of camp was pretty much tomorrow, Nick wasn’t exactly jumping at the bit to let her know about any of that. Not when the chances of them ever seeing each other ever again after they all split ways was pretty much nil, and he didn’t even have her number or socials or anything to keep in contact afterwards.

(Okay, fine. Yes, he still had her email address that had been listed on the orientation packet. Yes, he had maybe stared it at long and often enough that he had memorized it ages ago. No, he was absolutely not gonna be messaging her through it, are you insane Kaitlyn?! Doing that would just make him look like some sort of desperate creep oh my fucking god!)

So Nick was more than content to just share a couple of quick dances with Abi. Keeping a friendly and respectful distance between each other as they danced to whatever band Mr. H had apparently listened to in his youth. Occasionally laughing with her when the both spotted one of their campers doing some absolutely ridiculous dance move that apparently both were now too old to recognize as being the new, cool thing if one had to judge from the excited shrieks that would always arise from nearby kids every time one was pulled off.

It was nice. It was good. And if this was the last chance that Nick would ever get to spend some time with his summer crush, then he would enjoy every last second of it.

As the last couple of notes of Danger Zone had begun to wind down, Nick knew he should probably have excused himself and gotten back to the kitchen so he could relieve Caleb and Kaylee a song or two back now, and that he should definitely do so now. That was the responsible thing to do after all, but the problem was that he also wanted to stay and continue dancing with Abi a whole lot more. Not that he had time to make either choice when the music faded not into another of the hard rock songs that Dylan had been playing all night, but into a song much, much softer.

A song that sounded suspiciously like one someone would have to slow dance too.

Whatever shock was on his face though was clearly reflected almost identically onto Abi’s as well. Staring up at him with the same wide-eyes and almost gaping mouth, bodies frozen in place awkwardly as all the campers continued to dance around them, not caring or even noticing what the change in music meant as they grabbed nearby friends to dance with.

Slowly, Nick turned to look over his shoulder to where Dylan was standing with the music equipment, demanding to know exactly what the actual fuck he thought he was doing. Only to be met with a wide, beaming smile of encouragement. Encouragement only matched by the double thumbs up he sent Nick’s way.

Forget dying, he was going to kill that Patrick Star looking ass motherfucker if it was the last thing he did. And considering he felt like he was going to die from the mortifying embarrassment of staring at Abi awkwardly as literally everybody else in the room continued to dance, it probably would be.

And yet, despite the fact that this was literally the perfect time to excuse himself and get back into the kitchen where he could wither away and die in peace, he found that he wanted to leave the dance floor even less now.

“We...we can keep dancing if you want. I’m okay with it if you are...”

Nick could only blink down at Abi in shock. There was absolutely no way he had heard her right, no way at all. There was no way that she was fine still dancing with him, that she wanted to keep dancing with him. Not when the extremely romantic Listen to Your Heart was currently playing very loudly and clearly throughout the lodge.

If Dylan had thought he was being subtle with the message of the song, then he clearly had another thing coming. Cause his definition of subtlety was far, far closer to hitting someone up the side of the head with a brick.

“...You sure?”

“Yeah, totally,” Abi nodded, even as she kept her eyes firmly planted on her feet. “I mean, it’s just like any old song, right?”

“R-right. Yeah. Totally.”

Even with that agreement, neither still made the first move to actually reach out and put their hands on each other. Instead partaking in their own little awkward dance of trying to figure out where exactly the safest place to put said hands would be, squeakily apologizing every time their arms managed to collide into each other and pulling back before trying again. It took them both until about midway through the first chorus to actually get settled and into a somewhat appropriate position with her hands on the top of his shoulders and his resting lightly on her waist.

Nick’s honestly not sure what part is the most painfully awkward to look at: the fact that the full foot in height difference means that Abi’s almost straining to try and reach him even though he’s hunched down slightly to make it easier, or the even more obvious fact that Mr. H would have been thrilled with how much distance they were keeping between themselves as they held their arms stiffly out. Forget ‘room for Jesus’, Nick was pretty confident that Jacob could have easily fit in between them!

And, surprisingly, it was easy to ignore the soft weight (and warmth) of Abi’s hands up on his shoulders as they awkwardly swayed side to side. Though the main reason it was easy to ignore was due to the pure fact that she had cut the bottom off of one of her band t-shirts for tonight, meaning that Nick was trying extremely hard to forget the fact that he had his own (likely super sweaty) hands on the extremely bare skin of her waist.

“So,” Nick starts off, wincing and hoping that Abi didn’t notice the sharp crack in his voice as he did so, “the decorations look nice?”

He’s currently in the middle of kicking himself for the very unintended way his voice had decided to catch at the end, turning what was supposed to be a statement into a question, when Abi nervously laughs. “Thanks, but it was mostly the kids that made everything, I just showed them examples that I had already made to give them ideas.”

“Well they clearly must have had a pretty great teacher then, cause they did an amazing job.”

Nick can’t help but catch Abi’s face starting to go pink even under the dim lights, and as always he’s pleased with himself that he was even able to make her blush in the first place. He’s ready to continue in the same vein as those compliments—willing and able to say whatever it takes if it makes her continue to keep blushing pretty pink like that—when someone (ie: Emma) bumps into Abi from behind and sends her crashing into him.

“Whoops! Sorry about that Abi!” Emma calls over her shoulder (not sounding very sorry about it at all in Nick’s opinion) before she leads Jacob back to vanish into the crowd...or at least, she would have vanished if it wasn’t for the fact that the crowd pretty much consisted of nothing but kids that were still shorter than Abi and Kaitlyn.So instead Nick got to watch her head straight back towards where Kaitlyn and Ryan are also sharing a slow dance of their own. Ryan somehow looking more awkward than Nick felt and like he would rather be anywhere else but here as Kaitlyn does her best to keep a light mood with a forced smile on her face... all while Dylan watches them both with a not very well hidden sulk.

Nick would be feeling bad for Dylan honestly if it wasn’t his own fault that he was in this mess in the first place. That, and it’s hard to feel bad for him when all Nick can pay attention to is the fact that Abi’s all but pressed right up against him right now, her arms now nearly wrapped all the way around his neck to try and catch herself and his own hands having tightened their grip around her waist to try and steady her. Slowly, she turns her face up to look at him and the colour had changed from the light dusting of pink across her cheeks to a dark magenta that almost matched the coloured tips of her hair.

A shade that Nick was very sure matched the one on his face almost exactly.

“I’m sorry!” She squeaks out, hazel eyes wide as she tries to regain her footing. “I didn’t mean to!”

“I-It’s fine,” he stammers out, trying so very fucking hard to ignore the way that he can literally feel her pulse fluttering nervously beneath his palms. “It wasn’t even your fault to begin with. Really, it was just Emma being Emma if anything.”

“Yup!” Even as she nervously laughs it out though, he can’t help but notice how shrill and high pitched her voice is. “Just...just Emma being Emma!”

It only takes another couple of seconds to sort themselves out, but Nick doesn’t let go of her just yet. Doesn’t want to let go of her honestly. Now that they’ve started that dance, even as awkward and stiff as it was, he doesn’t want to stop until the song ends. So instead he swallows and works up the courage to say as much. “Listen, just because Emma was being—well, Emma, I guess—that doesn’t mean we should let her ruin our good time. I—” he takes a breath and readies himself for whatever may happen next “—I’d like to finish this dance if it’s alright with you.”

Abi doesn’t say anything. Staring up into his face with a contemplative furrow of the brows that he recognizes oh so easily as the same one that he sees on her face whenever she’s deep in sketching. He doesn’t know what it is that she finds, but whatever it is it clearly causes a shy smile to break out across her face. A smile wide enough that he can see her dimples starting to deepen at the corners of her mouth, and his breath can’t help but catch at the sight. “Yeah, I’d like that too. I’d like that a lot actually.”

This time when they both start the side-to-side sway from earlier, it looks far less stiff and stilted than before. Abi never bothered to remove her arms from where they had wrapped themselves around his neck and Nick was more than alright with that, hunching his shoulders down just enough so that she doesn’t have to reach very far like before but even that looks less awkward and more natural due to the fact that it means that his forehead is bent over hers. Nick’s hands are still on her waist as well, just holding her and enjoying her warmth beneath his palms, but even those are starting a southern drift until they rest almost naturally on the swell of her hips. Feeling not her soft skin anymore but the rounded studs of metal on her belts, and yet it’s somehow more intimate. They still make sure to keep some distance between them of course, but it's less Jacob-sized now and more like camper-sized, and even then only Daisy likely would be able to fit comfortably as the smallest of them all.

The silence isn’t suffocating anymore either—listening as Marie Fredriksson sings about voices wanting to be heard and the scent of magic—just enjoying the moment more than anything, but then Abi starts to chuckle lightly under her breath. He can’t quite help (and doesn’t want to, honestly) the wry smile that forms at the sound.

“Oh no,” he sighs dramatically, “what is it?”

“It’s nothing. Just surprised is all that you managed to go through this whole night in that outfit without a single pizza sauce stain on it. Was so sure that you’d leave the kitchen looking like you’d been attacked by a pizza monster or something.”

He snorts. “And that’s why I obviously never wore it in the kitchen, you dummy. Nah, I just made sure to shove it away somewhere safe and then changed into this when the pizza and dishes were all done. Was sort of the reason why it took me so long to join the rest of you guys: kitchen duty never rests and all that.”

“Well, I for one think it was worth it. Don’t know what you put in that sauce but that was definitely the best pizza I’ve ever had.”

Nick pretends to groan as though in physical pain at her statement. “If you think that was what a pizza should be like, then I am so sorry for your taste buds. You savage Americans have no idea what a true pizza should taste like.”

Abi looks up at him as though offended, but the twinkle in her eyes is clearly saying otherwise. “Oh, I’m sorry, and you Australians do? At least we don’t put actual eggs on our pizza.”

“Of course not,” he scoffs, thickening his accent just for the hell of it (but mostly because he knows that it will make her laugh), “and that’s because you guys are once again American savages who’ll gladly put something absolutely terrifying like deep fried butter on your pizza instead.”

Just like he had expected, Abi’s caught somewhere in between laughing and pretending to gag at his joke, and the pleasant flips that start in his stomach only spur him on to continue. “But I was talking about Italian pizza actually. Not even we Australians know how to make good pizza either, unfortunately, only Italians can manage that one.”

That alone is worth it if only for Abi’s sudden snort of laughter. “Oh god, that’s right. Totally forgot that you were part pompous, stuck up Italian, and that you came with all the high class opinions on what real food is because of it.”

He gives a mock, disdainful sniff. “Excuse me, but you should be thanking me and my ‘high class, stuck up and pompous’ opinions right now. You should have seen what kind of food Mr. H was keeping stocked in the camp kitchen before I got here. You’d have been stuck eating slop all summer if it wasn’t for me.”

Abi laughs again, and right on time too. Nick can feel his heart doing its usual gymnastic routine in his chest at the bright, ringing sound of her laughter. The laughter that he so rarely gets the chance to be the cause of, so just the fact that he knows for certain that she’s laughing with him (and not at him like he usually fears) means that the kaleidoscope of butterflies that had taken residence in his stomach at the beginning of summer are absolutely fluttering like crazy as well.

He’s so busy centering on the ever pleasant sensations that always seem to fill him when spending time with his crush, that it takes him a moment to realize that Abi had asked him another question. Only noticing after realizing that she had been calling his name for the last few seconds.

“Shit, sorry. What was that?”

Abi sighed, but it wasn’t without a great amount of amusement. “I was just wondering if you were able to speak any Italian as well?”

Nick shrugs. “Well sure. I mean there’s cappuccino, lasagna, spaghetti, pizza, piazza—ow!”

Abi laughed after having stepped on Nick’s foot on purpose—not hard enough to hurt of course, but just firm enough to make him stop. “I’m being serious right now, you dork!”

“All right, all right already. Sheesh, should report you to Mr. H for physical abuse of your fellow coworkers.” The grin on Nick’s face never fades even as he actually answers her question seriously this time. “But yeah, I can say a few phrases and words I guess. Stuff like hello, goodbye, thanks, ‘where's the bathroom?’, ‘go fuck yourself’. You know, simple and basic everyday stuff like that.”

Abi rolled her eyes but it’s clear even to him that she couldn’t help the grin that formed either. “God, should have known that you of all people would have absolutely memorized all the ways you could swear at someone in another language before moving onto hello of all things.”

“Be a pretty terrible Australian if I couldn’t do that now, could I?”

“Wait, doesn’t this mean that you could have just sworn in Italian the whole summer instead? You had a chance to actually keep swearing all summer unlike the rest of us monolingual idiots, but instead you wasted it!”

Nick snorts so hard that it actually sort of hurts a little. “Oh yeah, cause that’s not obvious at all what I’m really doing. And when all the kids start spouting off actual Italian curses every five seconds just to show off, Mr. H totally won’t figure out which one of us started it. The fact that one of the counselors has an actual Italian last name with the known Australian stereotype for swearing to boot, and not to mention has been heard saying random Italian words repeatedly is just a total coincidence.”

“Hmm. Well, maybe one day when you show me what a so-called ‘actual’ pizza should taste like, you can teach me some of those curses for the full immersive experience.”

The song’s finally starting to wind down now, but Nick’s not paying any attention at all to that. Not when he’s experiencing that rare moment of time again, the one where he swears to god that she might actually like him in the same way that he likes her. That maybe—just maybe—she’s been nursing a little crush on him of her very own. Because she just now pretty much came out and said that she would have had no objections to going out and spending some one-on-one time with him. And normally, this would have been a thought he could easily brush off as just seeing what he wanted to see, but not now. Not when camp is ending in just a couple of short days and there’s no time for them to meet up for a pizza and language lesson before they’re separating to different parts of the country again.

And Abi hadn’t said if he’d show her, she’d said when. As though it was a foregone conclusion to her that of course they’d be meeting up again in the future just for a pizza of all things.

Maybe, just letting her know that he likes her even this close to the end of summer wouldn’t be the worst choice in the world.

The song hasn’t stopped yet, still going through its last couple of repetitions of the title, but Nick has. Stopping the dance well beforehand so Abi can look up at him in confusion just as he looks down at her in trepidation.

“Hey,” he starts off nervously, trying very, very hard not to pay attention to how pretty she looks in her outfit under the atmospheric lighting right now, “can...can I talk to you outside?” If he’s going to actually do this, then he wants it to be at least somewhat private, and right now the wrap around deck outside is the best place even if they’d both be able to still easily hear the music playing inside. He’s not expecting anything crazy or inappropriate to happen, but he wants it to be a moment just for them.

Even if it turns out that Nick got this all horribly wrong and she’s just going to shoot him down in the end.

Abi’s eyes widen in her face and he’s really hoping that it’s a mixture of hope and excitement that he can see shining in her eyes and not anything else. “Oh! Um, yeah—”

“Alright Hacketteers! That’s the last song and I think it’s time for you all to get your butts to bed for the night!”

Immediately, all the lights are turned on and Nick is nearly blinded by how bright the lodge is as a loud chorus of groans and whines erupt from the campers. All aimed completely at Chris Hackett who’s standing just outside his office by the light switch.

“Come on Mr. H!”

“Just one more dance Mr. H, please!”

“But we’re not tired yet!”

Chris shakes his head. “No can do, already let you kiddo’s stay up later than I agreed to, and we all got a big day of cleaning ahead of us tomorrow before I send you all back home to your parents.” He turns his head to look at Ryan who had probably all but gladly extradited himself from his dance with Kaitlyn the second that Chris had turned on the lights. “Ry-guy, while I supervise the clean up here I can trust you and Kaitlyn to lead all these wayward souls back to their bunks for the night, right?”

“Yeah, of course Mr. H. You got it.”

Nick looks back down at Abi from where they had frozen in shock, still with their arms around each other in the dance from only seconds before. Hoping to take advantage of the confusion while Ryan tries to herd all of the still grumbling and complaining campers out the door and back to the cabins, he’s crossing his fingers that he’ll be able to sneak outside with Abi without anyone noticing. That no one will notice that they’re missing while they spend a couple of minutes having what Nick is beginning to think was a sorely needed conversation and confession before joining the others again.

He doesn’t even get far enough to take a step backwards, much less towards the door that leads outside.

“Abi, I’ll need you, Emma, and Jacob to start taking down the decorations and then mopping the floors. Nick—” Chris frowns in disapproval “Weren’t you supposed to switch back out with Caleb a while ago?”

Already feeling the ever familiar sensation of shame, Nick can feel whatever courage he had had already slipping out between his fingers as not only all eyes in the room turn to him, but Abi has already vanished from his arms to grab for the garbage bags. Her face is as red as he’s ever seen it. “Uh, sorry sir,” he apologies nervously as he awkwardly makes his way back to the kitchen with his hands shoved tightly in his pockets, “must have lost track of the time I think.”

Except as he walks into the kitchen with his mood somewhere near rock bottom now, he’s pretty sure he lost more than just the time. He’s getting the sinking feeling that he also just lost his very last chance of maybe becoming something more with Abi.

#asks #nick-furcillo #my writing #the quarry #nick furcillo #nick #nick/abi #furblyg #whoop whoop time to get my first actual quarry fic into the wild lol #also i need to be completely honest #but the when i was reading over all the prompts for this list before sharing them all those weeks back #the second i read this prompt the idea came to me fully fleshed out instantly #i just didnt think i would get it asked though for the very simple reason #that only kenzie really knows that ive been working on a different nick/abi piece since like july #so i laughed my fucking ass off when not one but TWO different people requested it anyways sjdhsdjhfjkhsdf #thank you both for being able to read my mind apparently ❤#also i think its very important to point out that i wrote nearly the entirety of this fic #while eating a chicago deep dish hawaiian pizza like the canadian heathen i am lol #i like thick crust and pineapple on my pizza okay?#and if that makes me wrong i don't want to be right 😔#also also i owe roxette my life for gifting me this near perfect song to use for these two morons slow dancing #every song on this album was a complete banger imo #so realizing that this song actually fit the very exact 80s only songs i was going for was a godsend

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bananaofswifts · 3 years

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By Paul Tingen

From sketches to final mixes, engineer Jonathan Low spent 2020 overseeing Taylor Swift’s hit lockdown albums folklore and evermore.

“I think the theme of a lot of my work nowadays, and especially with these two records, is that everything is getting mixed all the time. I always try to get the songs to sound as finalised as they can be. Obviously that’s hard when you’re not sure yet what all the elements will be. Tracks morph all the time, and yet everything is always moving forwards towards completion in some way. Everything should sound fun and inspiring to listen to all the time.”

Speaking is Jonathan Low, and the two records he refers to are, of course, Taylor Swift’s 2020 albums folklore and evermore, both of which reached number one in the UK and the US. Swift’s main producer and co‑writer on the two albums was the National’s Aaron Dessner, also interviewed in this issue. Low is the engineer, mixer and general right‑hand man at Long Pond Studios in upstate New York, where he and Dessner spent most of 2020 working on folklore and evermore, with Swift in Los Angeles for much of the time.

“In the beginning it did not feel real,” recalls Low. “There was this brand‑new collaboration, and it was amazing how quickly Aaron made these instrumental sketches and Taylor wrote lyrics and melodies to them, which she initially sent to us as iPhone voice memos. During our nightly family dinners in lockdown, Aaron would regularly pull up his phone and say, ‘Listen to this!’ and there would be another voice memo from Taylor with this beautiful song that she had written over a sketch of Aaron’s in a matter of hours. The rate at which it was happening was mind‑blowing. There was constant elevation, inspiration and just wanting to continue the momentum.

“We put her voice memos straight into Pro Tools. They had tons of character, because of the weird phone compression and cutting midrange quality you just would not get when you put someone in front of a pristine recording chain. Plus there was all this bleed. It’s interesting how that dictates the attitude of the vocal and of the song. Even though none of the original voice memos ended up on the albums, they often gave us unexpected hints. These voice memos were such on‑a‑whim things, they were really telling. Taylor had certain phrasings and inflections that we often returned to later on. They became our reference points.”

Sketching Sessions

“The instrumental sketches Aaron makes come into being in different ways,” elaborates Low. “Sometimes they are more fleshed‑out ideas, sometimes they are less formed. But normally Aaron will set himself up in the studio, surrounded by instruments and synths, and he’ll construct a track. Once he feels it makes some kind of sense I’ll come in and take a listen and then we together develop what’s there.

“I don’t call his sketches demos, because while many instruments are added and replaced later on, most of the original parts end up in the final version of the song. We try to get the sketches to a place where they are already very engaging as instrumental tracks. Aaron and I are always obsessively listening, because we constantly want to hear things that feel inspiring and musical, not just a bed of music in the background. It takes longer to create, but in this case also gave Taylor more to latch onto, both emotionally and in terms of musical inspiration. Hearing melodies woven in the music triggered new melodies.”

Not long after Dessner and Low sent each sketch to Swift, they would receive her voice memos in return, and they’d load them into the Pro Tools session of the sketch in question. Dessner and Low then continued to develop the songs, in close collaboration with Swift. “Taylor’s voice memos often came with suggestions for how to edit the sketches: maybe throw in a bridge somewhere, shorten a section, change the chords or arrangement somewhere, and so on. Aaron would have similar ideas, and he then developed the arrangements, often with his brother Bryce, adding or replacing instruments. This happened fast, and became very interactive between us and Taylor, even though we were working remotely. When we added instruments, we were reacting to the way my rough mixes felt at the very beginning. Of course, it was also dictated by how Taylor wrote and sang to the tracks.”

Dessner supplied sketches for nine and produced 10 of folklore’s 16 songs, playing many different types of guitars, keyboards and synths as well as percusion and programmed drums. Instruments that were added later include live strings, drums, trombone, accordion, clarinet, harpsichord and more, with his brother Bryce doing many of the orchestrations. Most overdubs by other musicians were done remotely as well. Throughout, Low was keeping an overview of everything that was going on and mixing the material, so it was as presentable and inspiring as possible.

Mixing folklore

Although Dessner has called folklore an “anti‑pop album”, the world’s number‑one pop mixer Serban Ghenea was drafted in to mix seven tracks, while Low did the remainder.

“It was exciting to have Serban involved,” explains Low, “because he did things I’d never do or be able to do. The way the vocal sits always at the forefront, along with the clarity he gets in his mixes, is remarkable. A great example of this is on the song ‘epiphany’. There is so much beautiful space and the vocal feels effortlessly placed. It was really interesting to hear where he took things, because we were so close to the entire process in every way. Hearing a totally new perspective was eye‑opening and refreshing.

“Throughout the entire process we were trying to maintain the original feel. Sometimes this was hard, because that initial rawness would get lost in large arrangements and additional layering. With revisions of folklore in particular we sometimes were losing the emotional weight from earlier more casual mixes. Because I was always mixing, there was also always the danger of over‑mixing.

“We were trying to get the best of each mix version, and sometimes that meant stepping backwards, and grabbing a piano chain from an earlier mix, or going three versions back to before we added orchestration. There were definitely moments of thinking, ‘Is this going to compete sonically? Is this loud enough?’ We knew we loved the way the songs sounded as we were building them, so we stuck with what we knew. There were times where I tried to keep pushing a mix forward but it didn’t improve the song — ‘cardigan’ is an example of a song where we ended up choosing a very early mix.”

Onward & Upward

folklore was finished and released in July 2020. In a normal world everyone might have gone on to do other things, but without the option of touring, they simply continued writing songs, with Low holding the fort. In September, many of the musicians who played on the album gathered at Long Pond for the shooting of a making‑of documentary, folklore: the long pond studio sessions, which is streamed on Disney+.

The temporary presence of Swift at Long Pond changed the working methods somewhat, as she could work with Dessner in the room, and Low was able record her vocals. After Swift left again, sessions continued until December, when evermore was released, with Dessner producing or co‑producing all tracks, apart from ‘gold rush’ which was co‑written and co‑produced by Swift and Antonoff. Low recorded many of Swift’s vocals for evermore, and mixed the entire album. The lead single ‘willow’ became the biggest hit from the album, reaching number one in the US and number three in the UK.

“Before Taylor came to Long Pond,” remembers Low, “she had always recorded her vocals for folklore remotely in Los Angeles or Nashville. When I recorded, I used a modern Telefunken U47, which is our go‑to vocal mic — we record all the National stuff with that — going straight into the Siemens desk, and then into a Lisson Grove AR‑1 tube compressor, and via a Burl A‑D converter into Pro Tools. Taylor creates and lays down her vocal arrangements very quickly, and it sounds like a finished record in very few takes.”

Devils In The Detail

In his mixes, Low wanted listeners to share his own initial response to these vocal performances. “The element that draws me in is always Taylor’s vocals. The first time I received files with her properly recorded but premixed vocals I was just floored. They sounded great, even with minimal EQ and compression. They were not the way I’m used to hearing her voice in her pop songs, with the vocal soaring and sitting at the very front edge of the soundscape. In these raw performances, I heard so much more intimacy and interaction with the music. It was wonderful to hear her voice with tons of detail and nuances in place: her phrasing, her tonality, her pitch, all very deliberate. We wanted to maintain that. It’s more emotional, and it sounds so much more personal to me. Then there was the music...”

The arrangements on evermore are even more ‘chamber pop’ than on folklore, with instruments like glockenspiel, crotales, flute, French horn, celeste and harmonium in evidence. “As listeners of the National may know, Aaron’s and Bryce’s arrangements can be quite dense. They love lush orchestration, all sorts of percusion, synths and other electronic sounds. The challenge was trying to get them to speak, without getting in the way of the vocals. I want a casual listener to be drawn in by the vocal, but sense that something special is happening in the music as well. At the same time, someone who really is digging in can fully immerse themselves and take in all the beauty deeper in the details of the sound and arrangement. Finding the balance between presenting all the musical elements that were happening in the arrangement and this really beautiful, upfront, real‑sounding vocal was the ticket.

“A particular challenge is that a lot of the detail that Aaron gravitates towards happens in the low mids, which is a very warm part of our hearing spectrum that can quickly become too muddy or too woolly. A lot of the tonal and musical information lives in the low mids, and then the vocal sits more in the midrange and high mids. There’s not too much in the higher frequency range, except the top of the guitars, and some elements like a shaker and the higher buzzy parts of the synths. Maintaining clarity and separation in those often complex arrangements was a major challenge.”

#taylor swift #folklore

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fruitcoops · 4 years

Note

Could you maybe write a “73 questions with Sirius Black” Vogue one? Or something like that.

Yes! I had never seen these videos before and it was a fun challenge to write. Hope you enjoy! Sweater Weather credit goes to @lumosinlove!

The house is large, two stories tall and painted a soft gray with white trim around the windows. Holiday lights have yet to be taken down and shine in all colors of the rainbow from the eaves as the camera crew walks up the front steps. The curtains in the window tremble for a moment, then a dog pokes her head through—she is all-black and curious, and looks quite large.

Dorcas Meadowes knocks on the front door; a moment later, it swings open and reveals Sirius Black. “Hey, guys, come on in! You can leave your shoes by the door inside.”

“Thanks, Sirius.” Dorcas kicks off her flats and follows him inside as he sets a dish towel on the end table and leans against it. “How are you today?”

“I’m doing pretty well. Morning practice was productive and I’m feeling good about our upcoming game.”

“We’re here today to ask you 73 rapid-fire questions while you lead us around. Sound good?”

“Sounds good. You can all come inside instead of freezing on the porch,” he laughs, waving them closer. The door shuts with a gentle click.

“First question: on a scale of 1-10, how excited are you about life right now?”

“Hmmm. A solid seven.”

“Do you have any pets?”

“I do!” Sirius leads them into the other room, where the dog is curled up on the couch below the window; he picks her up and gives her a kiss on the head. “This is Hattie and I love her very much.”

“Cute! If you could do a dramatic love scene in a movie with anyone, who would it be?”

Sirius sets the dog down and thinks for a second. “Aside from my fiancé, I’m going to say James Potter. We would kill it and I don’t think it would be that awkward.”

“What’s the origin of your name?”

“Pretty much my whole family has star-themed names. Sirius is the dog star from Canis Major.”

“Brightest star in the sky, too. What’s one thing people don’t know about you?”

“I’m an introvert. Lots of people assume that I’m super social because of my job, but I’m very quiet in real life.” He walks back out to the entrance and takes the towel off the table, then moves into the kitchen. It’s well-lit and painted a deep, warm red. The countertop is scattered with knickknacks and picture frames—clearly, this is a place people spend a lot of time. Hattie, who followed them in, lays down by the oven with a heavy sigh.

“What’s your wakeup ritual?”

Sirius reaches up and pulls two mugs out of the cupboard. “I wake up around seven am and make coffee while Re is in the shower, then rinse off and get dressed while he makes breakfast. It’s a good system. Want some tea?”

“Sure. What’s your bedtime ritual?”

“I don’t think I have one,” he says as he puts the kettle on and ignites a burner on the stove. “Usually we read or watch a movie, then go up to bed and talk for a while. There’s not a big routine or anything.”

“Sounds nice. What’s your favorite time of day?” Dorcas sits on the other side of the kitchen island while he takes a box of peppermint tea down.

“That’s a tough one. I like the in-between spots, like just after sunrise or dusk. Three in the afternoon is usually pretty chill as well. Does anyone else want a cup?”

There are a few murmurs behind the camera and he takes two more down. “What is one thing no one knows about you?” Dorcas asks.

He raises an eyebrow. “If I told you, everyone would know, and it wouldn’t count.”

“Fair enough. Dream country to visit?”

“Anywhere. I think I want to go to Ireland first, though.” Small wisps of steam begin curling out of the kettle, but it doesn’t whistle.

“Do you ever feel pressure to post things on social media?”

Sirius makes a face. “I used to. Eventually I just got tired of it, you know? The whole point of social media is sharing bits of your life with people and it makes me happy to show off my dog, or Re, or my friends. I post things just for fun now.”

The kettle begins to hiss and he reaches back to turn it off. “Sneakers or skates?”

“Skates.”

“Vintage or new?

“Vintage, especially for t-shirts and sweaters.”

“Who is your biggest role model?”

“Pascal Dumais.” Sirius stops pouring for a moment to look up at the camera. “If you ever get a chance to meet him, listen to what he has to say. You’ll be better for it.”

“Wise words. How do you deal with negativity? Oh, thank you.” Dorcas wraps her hands around the mug and takes a small sip while Sirius passes the other ones to the crew.

“Honestly? I don’t give a shit. It used to really bother me, but I’m happy, I have a job I love, and my family cares about me. Why should I care what people I’ve never met think of me?” He sits on the counter and rests his elbows on his knees, blowing on the hot water.

“What are three things you can’t live without?”

“My dog, Remus, and my family.” There is no hesitation in his voice.

“Not hockey?”

“I’d be devastated if I couldn’t play, sure, but it’s not the central focus of my life anymore.”

“What’s one ingredient you put in everything?”

“Does salt count?” He winces as he takes a drink. “Ugh, burned my tongue. I put salt on a lot of things because I drink so much water that it throws my balance off.”

“What is something you’re completely bored of right now?”

Sirius rolls his eyes. “Gossip columns and tabloids in general.”

Dorcas hums in agreement. “What’s your biggest fear in life?”

“Losing my loved ones.”

“Window or aisle seat?”

“Window. Anyone walking by always steps on my foot or hits my elbow if I’m in the aisle. Plus, I get a good view and an easy nap spot.”

“What’s your current TV obsession?”

“Avatar: The Last Airbender, which I’m watching for the third time already.” He shakes his head. “It’s just so good.”

“Favorite app?”

He takes a second to think. “Spotify.”

“Secret talent?”

Sirius looks at her over the rim over his cup. “This is going to shock you. Ready?”

“Ready.”

“Hockey.”

“You’re the worst.” Despite her words, Dorcas smiles. “What the most adventurous thing you’ve done in your life?”

“Uh, probably going to Europe with some of the guys last year. We had a lot of fun, but it was crazy.”

“I can imagine it was. How would you define yourself in three words?”

“Tall, dark, and handsome.”

“And apparently not humble,” Dorcas teases. “Favorite piece of clothing?”

“Hoodies.”

“Clothing item everyone should have?”

“Hoodies.”

A door opens behind them and the camera turns; Remus walks out of the basement, covered in sweat as he wipes his forehead with the hem of his shirt and holds his skates in his other hand. “Baby, have you seen…” he trails off when he sees the group of people in the kitchen. Hattie’s tail thumps on the floor. “Um. Hello.”

“Hey, Remus, how are you doing?” Dorcas asks mildly.

The camera pans out to catch both Sirius, who is laughing quietly, and Remus, who flushes pink. “I’m good. I thought you were coming at ten?”

“It’s ten-thirty, sweetheart,” Sirius says, hiding his smile in his tea.

Remus glances at the clock before giving an awkward nod and walking toward the stairs. “I guess I’ll take a shower, then. Sorry about that. Uh, carry on.”

“What’s a superpower you would want?” Dorcas asks as soon as he disappears.

Sirius shakes his head with a grin. “Uh, teleportation. That would be really cool.”

“What’s inspiring you in life right now?”

“Ah, une grande question.” He thinks, then tilts his head toward the staircase. “Moments like that. And the Stanley Cup, of course.” He reaches back and knocks on the wooden cupboard.

“What cause is closest to your heart?”

“LGBT+ rights, especially trans rights. I’m privileged enough to have a platform and I intend to be loud as hell about that.”

“Good.” Dorcas sets her almost-empty mug on the table. “What’s one thing you’d say to your teenage self?”

Sirius lets out a long breath and drums his hands on the light blue ceramic of his cup. “I would say…it gets better. It really, really does. You’re going to feel super shitty for just a little bit longer, but then I promise you will be so incredibly happy that you wake up every morning and it hits you all over again.”

Dorcas nods, and the kitchen is quiet for a moment. “What’s a book that everyone should read?”

“The Hobbit, by J.R.R Tolkien.”

“What would you like to be remembered for?”

“This is going to sound so corny, but I want to be remembered for just being a good person.”

“That’s not corny. How do you define beauty?”

“Remus Lupin.”

“That’s corny,” she laughs, making him smile. “What do you love most about your body?”

“I’m a big guy, which can be a little bit intimidating, but it means I give really great hugs. I’m sure everyone saw the video that went around a while ago.”

“Cap Cuddles?”

He snorts. “Right. You’ve got Finn O’Hara to thank for that.”

“In your opinion, what’s the best way to take a rest or decompress?”

“Being alone,” Sirius says. “There is literally nothing better than getting home and sitting down with a book or something while I can hear Re doing his own thing and Hattie’s napping. It’s one of my favorite parts of the afternoon.”

“That’s the most introverted thing you’ve ever said.” Dorcas grins and finishes her tea just as a faint beeping noise begins in another room. “What’s your favorite way to experience art?”

“Through music, for sure.” He slides off the counter and walks down the hall, leading them toward the laundry room. He gives the camera crew a look as he pulls dry clothes out of the machine and heads back to the living room. “What? Did you think I didn’t do my own laundry?”

“You lost a sock,” Dorcas informs him, picking it off the ground and laying it on top of his head.

“Thanks, D.”

“What question do people ask that you wish they wouldn’t?”

“Lots of people have asked me when I decided to be gay, which is wrong on so many levels.”

“If you could master one instrument, what would it be?”

“Guitar or piano.” He dumps the load of laundry on the couch and opens the back door, holding it for the crew as they walk out into the sunshine. Hattie weaves through their legs and disappears into the bushes along the back.

“I might have to take your dog home with me. If you had a tattoo, where would it be?”

Sirius mock-glares at her. “Let me have my girl! Um, I would love to have a tattoo somewhere on my arm.”

“This might be a hard one. Dolphins or koalas?”

“Oh, that is hard. Probably dolphins. The ocean is terrifying but those little guys are just having a blast.”

“What’s the best gift you’ve ever received?” Dorcas asks as he picks up a tennis ball and throws it across the yard. Hattie emerges from the bushes and races after it in a blur of black fur.

“An engagement ring.”

“Yeah, it was.” Remus walks into the backyard and kisses Sirius’ cheek before bending down to catch Hattie in his arms. His hair is still damp from the shower. “Hello, sweet girl!”

“Who’s your favorite musician?”

“Queen.” Sirius laughs at her surprised look. “I’m gay, what did you expect?”

“True. What’s your favorite board game?”

“Monopoly.” Remus and Hattie disappear from the frame, but the bouncing sound of the tennis ball creates some background noise and Sirius watches them for a moment with pure affection.

“Favorite color?”

“Blue.”

“Least favorite color?”

“Orange.”

“Bowties or knot ties?”

He frowns. “Don’t they all have knots?”

“Smartass.”

“Yep! Uh, regular ties.”

“Bowties are superior!” Remus calls.

“Get your own questions!” Sirius laughs.

“Going off your music answers: records or CDs?”

“I don’t own a lot of records, so I’m going to have to go with CDs. I love the way vinyl sounds, though.” His eyes widen as he looks to the side. “Are you okay?”

“Fine,” Remus wheezes. “I didn’t need those ribs anyway.”

“For the viewers, the dog just football-tackled him into the grass,” Sirius says, and Dorcas snorts.

“Your hair is famously luscious. Blow-dry or air-dry?”

“Air dry.”

“Coffee or tea?”

“Coffee, but tea is nice in the evenings.”

“What’s the weirdest word in the English language?”

Sirius laughs. “There are so many. Uh, ‘jeez’ is the one that comes to mind first.”

“What about the French language?”

“Oiseaux,” he says in a crisp accent. “It means ‘birds’, and you pronounce about three of the actual letters.”

“Good to know. Do you prefer dark chocolate or milk chocolate?”

“Dark chocolate.”

“Stairs or elevators?”

“Elevators. I don’t want to walk up three floors after playing hockey for two and a half hours.”

“Summer or winter?”

Sirius bites his lip in thought as they walk around the yard, where small flowers line the fence in beds and colorful pots. “I love summer because I have actual free time to be with my friends, but winter is hockey season. I don’t know, next question.”

“What’s a dessert you don’t like?”

“I’m not a huge fan of caramel. It’s too sticky.”

“A skill you’re working on mastering?”

“Will you ban me from more interviews if I say hockey?”

“Yes.”

“In that case, I’m working on keeping plants alive, as you can probably see.” He taps the nearest flowerpot gently with his foot; it has ‘Harry’ painted across it in sloppy blue letters. “My godson made that for my birthday.”

“What’s the best thing to happen to you today?”

“This, for sure,” he says with a smile. “I haven’t seen you and Marley in ages.”

“We missed you, too. What’s the worst thing that happened to you today?”

He pouts slightly. “Burning my tongue on tea.”

“Hugs or kisses?”

“Hugs! Though I’ll accept kisses from a few very specific people.”

“Do you have a favorite smell?”

He pauses and cranes his neck to look behind the cameras. “Re?”

“Yeah?”

“What shampoo do you use?”

“Uhhh…” There’s a moment of quiet. “It’s something with lavender, I think.”

Sirius turns back to Dorcas. “Something with lavender.”

“How specific,” she laughs. “What’s the best compliment you’ve ever received?”

He smiles to himself. “There was a young woman, maybe sixteen or seventeen, that came to one of the games earlier this season. I saw her standing with a puck and went over, and while I was signing it she looks at me and says, ‘you are exactly what I wish my older brother was like’. Turns out, she was bisexual and her brother wasn’t super accepting of her. That was…” He shakes his head. “That meant the world to me. I’ll never forget it.”

“You’ve definitely made a big impact on the community,” Dorcas agrees. “What’s the last piece of content you consumed that made you cry?”

“I watched ‘Soul’ the other night and almost had to pause it at one point to pull myself together.”

“Do you prefer animated movies or live-action?”

“Animated, mostly because I wasn’t allowed to watch Disney movies as a kid, so I’ve been catching up as an adult and they rock.”

“What’s your nerdiest quality?

“I love watching documentaries.”

“Sweet or savory?” The back door creaks a bit as they walk back inside and the camera catches a few frames of Hattie and Remus running around the yard together.

“Sweet.”

“In ten years, you have a daughter. What age do you let her date?”

Sirius gives Dorcas a look. “Whenever she wants to. I’m going to impose curfews and stuff, but I’m the last person on the planet to police her love life.”

“Good answer. What’s a song you can listen to on repeat?”

“Don’t Stop Me Now by Queen. Absolute banger.”

“If you could switch lives with someone for a day, who would it be?”

“Arthur Weasley,” he says after a moment. “I would love to know what it feels like to get up in the morning and know you’re about to spend another day wrangling our team. It’s a miracle he hasn’t killed us all with his clipboard.”

“How do you know you’re in love?”

“Oh.” Sirius blinks at her in surprise at the sudden topic change. “Well, for me, I think it’s just…being comfortable around someone. Being able to spend time with them without saying anything and knowing you’re safe, no matter what. It’s the best feeling in the world.”

“What are you most excited about at this time in your life?”

A slight smile crinkles his eyes. “Getting married. That’s going to be awesome.”

“Who is your go-to for having a good laugh?”

“James Potter. He’s the best, and I love him.”

“Last question,” Dorcas says, sliding her list into her pocket. “Many LGBT+ people, especially teenagers, have spoken about how you’re an inspiration. Any words for them?”

Sirius hums in thought. “First of all, thank you for being so open and welcoming. I would never have expected the sheer force of people’s love to come through like that when so many people were saying horrible things. Second, to any kids out there who need to hear it: I’m proud of you. It takes a lot to be true to yourself and even if you’re still in the closet, you’re just as valid as the rest of us. Stay proud.”

“That’s a wrap.” Dorcas gives him a quick hug that he happily returns. “Thanks for letting us crash your morning, Cap.”

“Any time. Thanks for tuning in to Lion Pride, everyone!”

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carewyncromwell · 2 years

Text

So I recently did the Valentine’s Ball TSLQ...and yeah, since I don’t see the plot as strictly canon for Carewyn (she seriously is more a side player, singing music for the event rather than actively organizing it and getting a date for it), I decided to just have her go with one of her close friends for it for the gameplay, just like I did with the Spring Festival I played recently.

Even if the sidequest’s plot isn’t really canon for Carewyn...here’s some fun stuff from it anyway!

LMAO, Penny, there is only ONE possible answer for the music-loving Mama Bear to choose.

Some of the songs Carewyn ends up singing for this “woodland-fairytale-themed” event include Once Upon a Dream from Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, Greensleeves, and Some Enchanted Evening from South Pacific.

But yes, the outfits Andre designed this time around were pretty awful and don’t suit Carewyn in the least bit (that dress is WAY too revealing for her and those cropped black suit pants with the white socks and black shoes?? Ew! Just...ew!)...so I instead chose a white dress I won for Carewyn’s wardrobe during a prized event, so as to partially evoke the “Peach Dress” I headcanoned Andre making for his personal dress-up doll Carewyn, which resembles the ballgown Sarah Williams wears in Labyrinth. (For Carey-bear is a big David Bowie fan and introduced the movie to Andre because great costumes!!)

And as for Carewyn’s “date” in game...after hearing her friend Jae express such interest in the event and the music and dancing early on, Carewyn decided to hang out with him!

Jae and Carewyn in a lot of ways are complete opposites, right down to house placement...but Jae, like Talbott, Duncan, and her brother Jacob, really encourages the “wry banter” out of Carewyn. Plus Jae, out of a lot of the other “date” options, seemed the most casual about this whole thing, which is fine by Carewyn, since this event would be set in her seventh year, and therefore post-Vaults, so she would totally have only gone to the Ball to spend time with her friends.

And yeah, after singing for a while, it was fun to let loose with her fellow Circle of Khanna members on the dance floor for a bit. Even Talbott, Chiara, Badeea, and Merula really got into it! But damn it, where’s Charlie, Liz, Diego, and Ben -- Carewyn would want to spend time with them too!! 😣

I’m done having to be the hero saving the day...I’m just here to spend time with my friends, and just be happy. That’s all I ever really wanted, when I thought of coming here.

Yay Jae and Carewyn huggles! X3 I kind of like the idea of this being toward the end of the event, when Jae tells Carewyn that he’s going to take the plunge and put a down payment on buying his own restaurant (something Carewyn’s always encouraged, even if Jae hasn’t shared it with much of anyone else!!) and gives her a “thank you” hug for all of her unwavering support in chasing that dream. Damn it, now I want to draw these two as adults, the way I did for Carewyn with Talbott and Tonks!! I love their friendship so much!!

Hope you all have a lovely evening! Much love! xoxo

#hphm #hogwarts mystery #gameplay #carewyn cromwell #jae kim

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project-pnf-404 · 4 years

Text

Checkpoint and important updates 2!!: Electric boogaloo!!

Heyo guys!! Long time no talk. So, I’ve got some cool update stuff to show you guys. I’ve been doing a lot of blog “housekeeping” since the end of the last event. (don’t worry it hopefully won’t be boring update stuff lmao as it includes some new supplementary content). So, first and foremost, thanks to the inspiration from @koppais-smallest-nerd I’d like to let you guys know that I am now adding screen reader access to all future posts!!! This one included. At the bottom of each post under the, “read more”, image descriptions for all images will be added! Screen reader accessibility will also be added to all previous asks on the blog. However, getting through all of them will take a tiny bit. As, of this update, the first 4 asks have had image descriptions added. As well as all the supplementary content in between where applicable.

I’d also like to show you guys some supplementary content for the blog. Between these dashed lines are in character day 1 log entries written by the rest of the crew.

———————————————

I originally wasn’t sure if I wanted to put these extra day 1 logs on the main blog or not. But, I’ve decided that all supplementary content that may be story related will remain on the main blog for the foreseeable future, while BTS content will end up on PNF-404-Plus.

That being said since the end of the 1st event and my time away from the blog a lot has been going on when it comes to the blog.

For one the entire desktop version of the blog has had a large overhaul. A new theme has been added to the main page.

But, not only that but new side pages with supplementary content have been added!! This includes an event list, a bio page for the crew members of the S.S Drake, a Piklopedia page for the new Piklopedia, and a music page to top it all off!!

The Event List will show each new event as they are added! You can click on the current known events to go directly to all posts tagged with that event tag. Speaking of which all Event 01 posts have now had their tags updated with the Event 01 tag making it much easier to navigate.

The new Crew Members page has bios for all the members currently on the mission or known in the story so far! These Bios are pretty in line with cannon with some fanon, and light headcanon added in for good measure. I recommend taking a look as it does have some interesting info in there. Also quick note: all of these bios are written as if it is prior to the beginning of the blog.

Then there’s the Piklopedia!! Here you can read each of their findings as they explore PNF-404! Currently the findings will be on each area they explore (not each creature they find) as they haven’t found any new creatures yet. There is also a map of places they’ve discovered and more!

Lastly, a new music page has been added. On this page, I’ve created event-inspired music playlists. Some of the songs have been mentioned in the past. But, here you can listen to them all in one place and see which songs are for which part of the events. As well there’s a secret songs playlist. This playlist has nothing to do with the blog directly but is filled with music given to me by people I’ve met from this community while I’ve been here!! Currently, there are 5 songs there, however, there will be more added in the future! What makes it secret is that you won’t know who gave me the song XD. (well unless you’re the one who gave me the song lmao) who knows if you’ve ever shared music with me before you may find your song there!! (There is also one song I’m sharing with you guys in there too so have fun figuring that out lmao. )

As well the table of contents has been once again updated with a lot of this new stuff as well as some other new information!! As for mobile users as of now, all of this is on separate Tumblr pages. However, in the near future, I will be uploading much of this stuff , such as the Piklopedia entries and Crew Bio’s, as individual posts! However, in the meantime, if you feel like you can always check out these pages on your phone browser instead if you’re a mobile-exclusive user. (Though some pages don’t look as good on phone)

Welp, I think that’s it as far as updates go!! I should be back with brand new ask posts soon (likely within the next week or so!) so keep a look out!! I’ll see ya guys again soon and thanks for reading!!!

In the first image, Alph’s Day 1 Log entry is shown. His log says, “To think I thought the first day would go well. Then again I didn’t think I would get sucked out of the ship either so maybe I should stop being so surprised. At the very least Louie and I were able to find our way back despite some obstacles and I was able to fix the ship in time. Though if it weren’t for Chunks we would have never found the pikmin we did. That little guy sure saved the day.

However, Then there's what happened to Brittany… To see her in a situation like that... I can’t even bear to think about it. Tomorrow I will be checking over the entirety of the Drake to make sure a crash like that doesn't happen again. I can't help but think that the crash was due to me overlooking something during maintenance... However, The only thing I can do now is to make sure something like this never happens again for all our sake, especially Brittanys’. “ It is then sighed by Alph

In the second Image Charlies Day 1 Log entry can be read it says, “I should have been on top of things. As this crew’s captain, everything that went wrong was under my watch and things should have gone much smoother. That being said I am very glad that all of my crew have made it out alive. Though I am still worried about Brittany. If only I was able to keep her safe…

But, at this point, we all must press forward. We have a task to complete and after seeing how devastated some areas are, we must get to the bottom of what’s wrong with PNF-404. Nothing will get in my way, not with my steely fists that is!!” It is then signed by Charlie

In the third image Louies’ day 1 log entry can be seen it says,

“

Going back to the pikmin planet wasn’t at the top of my list of things I thought I’d be doing anytime soon. Yet somehow I find myself back here and stranded again…. At least I wasn’t fully alone this time…

Alph and I eventually found a pikmin that we later named Chunks. He sure acts differently in comparison to any other Pikmin I’ve seen before. But, even still, if it weren’t for Chunks, we wouldn’t have been able to help Brittany or find any other pikmin for that matter. So, we should thank him for that.” It is then signed by Louie

In the fourth image the updated version of the Project: PNF-404 Tumblr is shown. It now has a bright cyan futuristic aesthetic to it. In the fifth image a picture of the new events page, listing all the past and future events planned so far is shown. It has 1 known event Titled Event 01. The other 3 are titled Event unknown. In the sixth image, the new crew members’ character page is shown. A picture of Olimar is shown along with a description of his traits and a biography. It reads as follows,

CAPTAIN OLIMAR

AGE 38

ALIAS(ES)Olimar

SPECIES Hocotatian

GENDER Male

TITLE(S) Employee of Hocotate Freight, Xenobiologist

AFFILIATION Hocotate Freight, Planet Hocotate Government

Fatherly, well-meaning, and resourceful, for an almost 40 year old Hocotatian he has a lot of bravery and guts. Olimar first and foremost loves his family and cares deeply for others around him. A Hardworking employee of Hocotate Freight and family man, Olimar tends to try and stay level-headed while looking out for others.

Having been one of the first to visit the Pikmin planet Olimar has extensive knowledge of the planet's life. Lucky for him he just so happens to have gone to college for xenobiology. Many of his findings can be found within his many log entries known as the Piklopedia.

But, for as much as Olimar tends to be on top of things, his trips to the pikmin planet have had him face many dangers and life-threatening events. Though these issues are not something he brings up…

In the seventh image, The new Piklopidea page is shown, In one section it displays a map of PNF-404 with 2 marked locations. The first of which is highlighted in blue is named the “Silent Stream” the second, is highlighted in orange, Its title is “Glacial Gardens”. To the right of that is a description introduction for the Piklopedia. It says” To help ensure the progress and success of this mission all crew members must write down their findings in this log. Overview:

CAPTAIN Olimar: Writes In-depth biological analysis of fauna and how the ecosystem affects said fauna.

LOUIE: Writes about Recipes and ingredients that can be found in each area. ALPH: Looks at the area with the eyes of an engineer. He uses this insight to discuss the benefits and flaws of what he’s analyzing. BRITTANY: Uses her botanist skills to look into the flora of the area along with talking about the aesthetics of things and adding in her own general opinions.

CAPTAIN CHARLIE: Writes about combat strategy and how one can use the environment in an area for a tactical advantage.

To the left is a map showing the current locations discovered by the crew. The one highlighted in orange has yet to be explored.

The final image shows the new music page! 6 playlists can be selected on the left each having 5 songs. To the right is an image of the event 01 cover art. With (from left to right), Brittnay, Charlie, Olimar, Louie, and Alph all looking up with a distressed expression on their faces.

END ID

#pikmin #supplementary content #alph #louie #charlie #ooc #Event 01 #not an ask #update #man why are my posts always so long XD #I’m writing most of this in the middle of the night I’m really tired #tomorrow imma look at this and be like what the heck did I write lmao

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ayuuria · 4 years

Text

Yashahime Translation: Animage December 2020 Issue (Part 2)

Please do not repost this translation without my consent! This includes screenshots of any type or amount. If you wish to share this translation, simply link to this post.

For more information regarding the use of my translations, click here.

This month’s Animage article was quite loaded with 6 pages of content. It consisted of an illustration with Kohaku and Hisui (2 pages), an interview with Kimura Ryōhei and Urao Takehiro (2 pages), and an interview with Uru (2 pages). That being said, this translation has been split into two parts.

Part 1: Interview with Kimura Ryōhei and Urao Takehiro Part 2: Interview with Uru

Click here to read Part 1

The Light of Recollection The Cool First Ending Theme “Break”

Song, Lyrics, and Composition by Uru

An ending video broadcast full of suggestiveness, tied together with a clear singing voice and wonderous imagery. We unravel the charm through an interview and image cuts.

The ending theme for “Hanyō no Yashahime” is “Break” by Uru, an artist who mainly puts her work on Youtube. It is an impressive song with a pleasant beat and a singing voice that holds a mix of transparency and strength at its core. This is a song that Uru wrote after reading the script of the main story. The lyrics are based off the regret that Towa has long held towards Setsuna and confronting that anguish stemming from her kindness. Also, not only is the setting of the work and the characters feelings diversely woven in, but universal themes of modern society are woven in as well. The ending cinematic that unfolds from “Break” uses soft colors. There are Japanese motifs scattered everywhere and creates a sense of being in a dream. You can feel a story telling nature at the end as the three of them walk together in the same direction after searching for something separately. In accordance with the change of their relationship in the main story, the way one sees the ending cinematic may change as well.

Towa’s Emotions and Regret as She Anguishes from Her Kindness

— Did you previously watch “Inuyasha”?

Uru: I watched anime when I was a child. I remember my heart skipping a beat when I watched the exchanges between Inuyasha and Kagome, even as a child. This time, when discussions of “Hanyō no Yashahime” was presented to me; I went back and rewatched “Inuyasha” but I thought “Was there this much decapitation (of demons) before…?”. I love horror works, so I still found it fun even when I rewatched it. Not only is “Inuyasha” very popular overseas but “Hanyō no Yashahime”, which is continuing that world, seems like an anime that will be loved by many people. I feel nervous to be singing the ending theme for such a work.

— How did you go about creating the new song based on what you knew about the story of “Hanyō no Yashahime?”

Uru: I read the entire completed script (translator’s note: completed at the time). Since the story’s protagonist is a girl this time, I was excited to see how the story would unfold but as I continued to read, it left quite an impression that while the protagonist, Towa, is a strong girl, she is very kind at her core. There were scenes where she suffered in battle because of that kindness, so I thought up the lyrics using that as a base.

— The regret that Towa has is certainly expressed in the starting lyrics.

Uru: Yes, I imagined the scene where Towa became separated from Setsuna in the forest fire. The part where the story unfolds as Towa drags those emotions from that time is, what I feel, an essential point to this work. The regret of letting go of that hand despite having an existence she wanted to protect. Plus, the feeling of wanting to return to those peaceful days they spent living together. For that reason, I think that is what drives Towa’s actions.

— In part 2 of the song, there is the phrase “Piling a number of fake guises”

Uru: There are scenes where Towa is unable to inflict the finishing blow upon the enemy during battle and Setsuna chides her for it. Also, while she can fight those who come at her, she can’t make a preemptive attack on someone who seems likely to attack her. Somewhere inside her, there’s something that can’t Break free from its shell. It’s a part that I wrote imagining something like “There are a number of selves within her carrying all different emotions.” Basically, it’s like even though she has something she wants to protect, there’s a part of her that can’t seem to get stronger.

— Not only can you think that part 1 is Towa’s and part 2 is Setsuna’s song, but you can also feel that it pertains to Sesshōmaru and Inuyasha.

Uru: I think that kind of interpretation is viable. They are lyrics drawn from different angles… You see, at the time I was writing the lyrics, there was some sad news which involved social media. You could say that for me, I linked this work to that timely situation. Social media feels like a bunch of lined up icons but there is always someone existing on the other side, you know. You can say things you can’t say in real life and easily hurt someone when you create an anonymous account and hide your face and name.

— I see, hence “Piling a number of fake guises”.

Uru: That is what sprouted from the story of “Hanyō no Yashahime” coupled with the feeling of wanting to say, “Right now, the one who is here is you.” Also, in the D melody, there’s a lyric that says “To foster strength in order to protect someone”; Even if Towa can’t initiate the offensive, she’s willing to risk her life to protect those who ought to be protected. When I felt that is what fosters her strength, I realized that she had the same thoughts as me.

— It is like Tessaiga in that you can begin to wield it when you have a heart that cares for people. The universality of “Inuyasha” and “Hanyō no Yashahime” have linked well with Uru-san’s feelings.

A Song That Gets Closer to the Work as the Story Progresses

— Next, please tell us about the composition of the music

Uru: This is a story about going between the feudal and modern eras, so I wanted to make the music mysterious. The part that starts from “In the corner of my memory”, there’s an independent melody that’s only found in that part; I imagined an introduction that felt like opening the door of time. In the part after that, in order to connect to the vigorousness of the hook (translator’s note: the high point of a song), I expressed the determination in oneself.

— Did you ever give instructions to song arranger, Yaffle?

Uru: It connects to what we’re talking about right now, but I wanted the low tone of the first half to feel like a coolness that held back temperature, so there’s not much of a chord. However, I did request things like a hook with a rhythm that could go well with fight scenes or that I wanted a chord that was easy to become familiar with. Yaffle-san is someone who always makes wonderful arrangements, so that’s all I really told him. Actually, I think he made it really fancy. In order to match the base that Yaffle-san created, I really held back and suppressed my voice until the hook. Then I sang the hook as though letting everything out at once.

— After seeing it, what did you think of the ending cinematic that was broadcasted?

Uru: I’m always nervous the first time the song plays. I wonder if my song truly fits the work. However, it was very lovely so that made me happy. The traditional Japanese designs were especially impressionable. I liked how they made it into bands instead of the whole screen. The atmosphere of the entire screen used gentle colors instead of snapping (from one thing to another) (translator’s note: not confident on the translation of this sentence). Also, I was inspired by the figure of the three’s back sides together at the “Right now, we’re all right here” part. It a had a different touch from the rest (of the song) and it had a kind of recollective feel to it.

— Lastly, please give a message to our readers.

Uru: I’m deeply honored to have sung the ending theme for “Hanyō no Yashahime” this time. I created “Break” hoping that it would get closer to the story as it progressed. I would love for you to be able to enjoy the song as you listen to it.

Creating images “Within a Dream”

Ending Storyboard – production direction: Lim Kahee

— What sort of impression did you get when you first heard the ending song, “Break”?

Lim: It’s difficult to put the shock at that time into words. I thought it was a song that had a lot of depth, gentleness, and strength. Like… waking from an important dream that you mustn’t forget. I felt a lot of pressure like “I have to create a cinematic that won’t lose to this song…!” (laughs).

— Based on the story and the composition of the music, what sort of cinematic theme did you think of? In terms of the image, I felt as though it was a story of “The three who were searching for something separately, come together at the end and walk in the same direction.”

Lim: For the most part, I organized the storyline as you said so I’m a little relieved that it came through. I wanted to entrust the interpretation to the various people watching, so rather than a cinematic that conforms perfectly to the lyrics, it took its shape from mixing together everything and reconstructing it: the direction of the story, the lyrics, and the melody. This time, I wanted the song to really be felt, so I threw away unnecessary information from the screen and created something that’s close to the “image”. Creating plenty of white space on the screen, I focused on creating a picture that wasn’t lonely. Using white so boldly was personally challenging for me. I was so scared like “What’ll I do if it comes across as incomplete” (laughs)

— Uru-san told us “Why did you think of Japanese style from this song? It’s very lovely.” What do you think?

Lim: Thank you very much. You see, director Satō Teruo-san gave me this order at the time of the ending’s ordering, “Please put in Japanese style things into the cinematic”. Conversely, that was the only order I received from the director, so I was free to do whatever for the rest. I was at a loss as to what direction to take prior to the ending order meeting, but a single requirement was created which made thinking easy after that. It’s just that I was a little unsure as to how to “incorporate Japanese things”. Rather than using Japanese goods as is, I focused on inserting the designs into the screen so that it would balance with the three’s clothes.

— Additionally, I felt a lot of devices being used such as instead of the outlines of the three girls being black, they were sliver, gold, and red, or that the back sides of the three girls was drawn with a color penciled touch.

Lim: First, after respectfully listening to the song, I wanted to create images “Within a dream”, so I thought I would create an unrealistic space. I thought drawing the three girls in a way that you wouldn’t seen much in the main story would be fun for the ending, so I challenged myself in different aspects. In terms of colors, the song was fairytale-like so I made a request to color designer, Satō Miyuki-san, saying that I would like the cinematic to have a pale image, and made adjustments. There was a lot of trial and error to get the image we were aiming for, so being told this makes me happy.

1) Towa opens her eyes in a white space. The silver outline and use of pale colors brings a fairytale-like atmosphere to the screen.

2) Also in this white space is Setsuna, laying down. To her side, the gold rainbow pearl in her possession rolls past.

3) Moroha opens her eyes in the same way. The movement of making a small frown is just like her. Japanese motifs like the Japanese umbrella appear and continue into the next cut.

4) The three of them start walking; Each slowly looking around as though searching for something. The gorgeous bands (translator’s note: the kanji translates to the obi found on kimonos) draws the eye.

5) On the band behind Setsuna, a sparrow motif that seems to associate with her technique (translator’s note: aka attack move) is also inlayed.

6) Moroha opens her eyes and starts running as though she has found something. The action of her sniffing out a scent resembles that of her father, Inuyasha.

7) The sliding doors that appear in the backdrop open, the tune goes to its hook (high point of the song). The paper doors that quickly open and appear many times makes the climax of the song prominent.

8) At the hook of the song, the stirring poses of the three of them holding their weapons appears. With the outline becoming black, there is a greater sense of strength.

9) The impressionable color penciled touch of their back sides. The sense of roughness that the three of them have in the main story is undeniable but, will they walk onward in the same direction like in this illustration?

10) In the last cut are the rainbow pearls that the three girls possess. The brilliant high-quality goods surrounded by Japanese motifs finishes off the ending video.

#Yashahime #Hanyou no Yashahime #Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon #Translation #Uru

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botwstoriesandsuch · 4 years

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casual anon checkup how you doin

Let’s see, well we just breached 4am, and the sense of urgency to complete some school work has finally kicked in. I got my laptop propped up on the kitchen counter, and I just finished making some houseblend coffee that I loaded with milo powder for “health” purposes. Gotta finish up this AP Stat quiz while pretending I have some semblance of what the hell is going on in the class that I don’t pay attention to. I got my fancy bluetooth headphones that I connect with the wire anyway because I don’t like using up the battery, and I’ve had this acoustic cover of Solitary Warrior Revali looped for a few minutes now--I need those soft vibes to distract me from my thoughts about how the only reason I’ve been so sluggish with my work overall is probably due to years of ingrained perfectionism and inability to adapt my standards to the currently circumstances of the world along with my slightly declining mental health so you know--music’s nice.

Oh! And my dad got me this electric coaster (as pretentious as that sounds, I know. Leave me and my not-cold drinks alone ok) for the holidays and it matches with my favourite mug that I’m drinking from right now so, it’s the little things :3 Plus, not to derail myself from my school life intentionally, I’ve been working on this sheet music for one of my songs for a few weeks now and it’s starting to actually sounds pretty decent so yaay!! Probably won’t share it for a long time though...I’ve really been only working on it on and off again when I have “free time” [which may or may not just be my online class gym period hey you can’t prove anything to the cops]

Uhhh what else can I shove in here...”How you doin” pfft, I don’t really know how to make this ask funny or entertaining. Well I’ve nearly finished up this zine piece about the Royal Tech Lab so that’s fun (shameless plug for the Memorabillia Zine) aaand, I’m picking my kalimba again to learn Mipha’s theme. About time, cause I have to record shit for the [REDACTED] project I’m working on >:) heh. Oh fucking SHIT now that I think about it I have like three different secret projects I’m working on huh...haven’t even finish the script for that damn au...OK what it, right, “how am I doing” well, I’m doing everything and nothing currently, if that makes any sense. Your possible regrets about sending this to me aside, it feels good to just lay everything on a plate, shit out a post, and then never talk or acknowledge it ever again. It’s like birds, you know how they just take a ten pound shit in the mourning and never look back? (That way they don’t need to go during the rest of the day) That’s what this is, just a giant load of bullshit that I’m gonna set out at 5am and then never look at again.

You know as unhealthy as it sounds I really do dedicate a lot of time to this blog and this fandom. I mean sure not all of it (arguably any of it) is productive, but hey it’s something. The fuck else am I gonna do with my time...you wake up, you slam your keyboard awake to show up to online class, you take a nap, you spend a few hours keeping up the cishetallo gifted student appearance to your parents and then spend the rest of your time finding enough serotonin on the internet to make your brain work. Hell if I’ve talked to another human being in real life all year. Even my parents just kinda talk about the news and “how was class” during dinner which lasts like 10 minutes. My dad just kinda pisses off to work as soon as breakfast is made, and my mom just kinda stays in her office until everyone’s back and she makes dinner. Wait, that’s a lie, she does talk to me on Sunday mornings when she informs me of how I’ve ruined her day before church. So you know I do prefer it that way anyhow, why the hell would I want to talk with them when I got perfectly entertaining internet companions. What’s a “what scholarship programs are you doing?” to a *checks notifications*, “why are Rito fingers like that if they molt to they just lose the ability to--” god fucking dammit...

So! What were we saying--how am I doing? Welp. Guess it’s up for interpretation cause I sure as hell don’t know the answer to that. The hell would you do with the answer anyway. Pity points, praise points? I don’t particularly care for either. God I just realized you introduced yourself as “casual anon,” HA....apologies this is the opposite of casual isn’t it. Or, well maybe it isn’t. I’m the one just having a nice little chitchat with myself as I sip through my mug o’ caffeine. I might have to add a keep reading bar to this so I don’t blog up the dash, but also that would be ironically humorous to see for such a stupidly small question huh. Idk, contrary to popular belief I don’t have a spine so I’m probably not gonna unload all this shit on my followers like that out of the blue. Hell I’d be surprised if I actually posted this. Then again...5am and vibin with bad decision making.....plus the sentiment of putting something out to be seen is always nice.

You ever watch Bojack Horseman? Fantastic show, it’s just on a whole ‘nother level when it comes to writing. And yeah, I probably should have been watching it in the first place, BUT.............yeah ok there’s real excuse I probably shouldn’t be watching it/have watched it. But there’s this one episode in Season 4 I think? It’s where Bojack gives a eulogy for his mother’s funeral and the entire episode is just that, it’s just this giant monologue of him giving his eulogy. And that episode always facinated me because it is probably the most interesting episode in the entire show and one of my favourites, and like...how did they do that?? How did they make twenty minutes of talking so engaging and entertaining? I mean, yeah, I could probably analyze the pacing and structure to find the answer, and hell if I’ve watch my share of youtube video essays on the subject. But like, just the entire concept that someone had the idea to make 20 minutes of talking an entire episode....that’s just insane (forgive the language).

It’s one thing to want to talk about yourself for a long time and be interesting, but to pour all kinds of energy to make some made-up fictional character talk about THEMselves for a long period of time...is that sad? Or maybe it’s respectable. /to make an audience care more about something that’s not real rather than you. Well, perhaps that’s selfish thinking.

Oh! You know what, I just got this super nice message from someone the other day about a Raybands giveaway. Obviously, I’m not in the need for sunglasses during this day and age so I kindly declined and ignore the offer, but it got me thinking: how liked to you have to be in order to sway someone to clicking a random link. Like I’m talking about your friends or something, but like, if you opened your door oneday and Mr. Rogers was there selling clementines, would you buy them? Or if Lin Manuel Miranda offered you a vaccum, would you buy it? What’s the standard of known niceness that constitutes to you complying with what they’re asking? I sure would like to know....not for manipulation purposes but just for...idk, just having that tangibility of something.

Ah well, fuck me gently with a chainsaw how am i doing. Well I’ll tell you what I’m doing, I’m procrastinating. Procrastinating on work and wips and conversations and dilemmas. You don’t fail all the shots you don’t take afterall *wink wink* aaand for legal reasons that was a joke. Idk, you tell me how I’m doing, fuck if I know. According to this empty mug, I’m doing well, but I also will be doing a piss in the bathroom probably.

#not botw #rant #or vent #idfk #it's weird #i guess it's ok to rb tho sldkfj #god fuck me and my pretentious ass I really did write more than two paragraphs for this huh

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aspiestvmusings · 4 years

Text

WV QUOTES by Ep

Best & Most relevant Quotes from WandaVision series

SUPERLONG POST

Quotes by episode [eps 1-8]

Ep 1

"A newlywed couple just moved to town / A regular husband and wife / Who left the big city To find a quiet life / WandaVision! She's a magical gal In a small town locale / He's hubby whose part machine / How will this duo fit in and fulfill all? / By sharing a love like youve never seen / WandaVision! " - Episode 1 opening credits theme song

"Forget your past. This is your future." - COMMERCIAL: Stark Industries Toast Mate 2000 toaster

"My wife and her flying saucers." - Vision / "My husband and his indestructible head." - Wanda, ep 1 #ohtheirony

"Aren't we a fine pair?" - Vision, ep 1

"Wanda, is there something special about today? There...on the calendar...someone's drawn a little heart right above todays date." - Vision / "Oh, yes, the heart... Well, don't tell me you've forgotten, Vis?!" - Wanda / "Forgotten? Oh, Wanda, I'm incapable of forgetfulness. I remember everything. And that's not an exaggeration. In fact I'm incapable of exaggeration" - Vision /"Well...then tell me what’s so important about todays date." - Wanda / "[PAUSE] What was the question again? Oh, well, perhaps you've forgotten yourself" - Vision / "Me? Heavens so. I've been so looking forward to it." - Wanda / "As have I." - Vision / "Today we are celebrating.." - Vision / "You bet we are...It's the first time we...have ever celebrted this occasion before..." - Wanda / "It's a special day --" - Vision / "Perhaps an evening --" - Wanda / "Of great significance --" - Vision / "To us both"" - Wanda / "Naturally!" - Vision / "Obviously" - Wanda / "Exactly!" - Vision / "Well done, us" - Vision, ep 1 #finishingeachotherssentences

"So what's your name? And where' you from" - Agnes / "I'm Wanda" - Wanda / "Wanda? Charmed." - Agnes, ep 1

"So what's a single girl like you doing rattling around this big house?" - Agnes / "Oh, no, I'm not single" - Wanda / "Oh... I don't see a ring." - Agnes / "Well, I assure you, I'm married. To a man. A human one. And tall." - Wanda, ep 1

"Well..it feels like we've always been together" - Wanda, ep 1 [answering the question "how many years have you been together?]

"Oh, this is gonna be a gas!" - Agnes, ep 1

"Would you be good as to tell me what it is that we do here exactly" - Vision / "...What is the purpose of this company?" - Vision / "All I know is (that) since you've gotten here productivity has gone up 300%" - Norm, ep 1

"You're like a walking computer!" - Norm / "What? I most certainly am not! I'm a regular carbon-based employee made entirely of organic matter. Much like yourself." - Vision

"No skeletons in your closet, eh, Vision" - Mr. Hart, ep 1

"I don't have a skeleton, sir" - Vision / "Glad to hear it. Your future in this company depends on it" - Mr. Hart, ep 1

"(You could point out that) The death rate of single men is twice that of married men." - Agnes, ep 1

"Now that's romantic." - Wanda, ep 1

"Don’t worry, dear, I have everything under control" - Wanda, ep 1

"I still get a little tongue-tied" - Vision, ep 1

"If tonight's not gonna go just so I think this could be the end." - Vision, ep 1

"I think the best course of action is to impress the wife" - Vision / "And I think think the best course of action is to impress the husband" - Wanda, ep 1

"Glad to know we're both on the same page" - Vision, ep 1

"The heart on the calendar was an abbreviation" - Vision, ep 1 [*heart* To grow old in. - V.]

"You move at the speed of sound & I can make a pen float through the air. Who needs to abbreviate?" - Wanda, ep 1

"Oh, darling, this is so romatic to do - the candles, the music, that stunning outfit..." - Vision, ep 1

"Oh, Agnes, you're a lifesaver" - Wanda, ep 1

"You're so naughty!" - Wanda, to Agnes, ep 1

"Should/Shall I just pre-heat-the over, dear?" - Agnes to Wanda, ep 1 #BunInTheOven

"I know you're in a pinch, so this menu can be done in a snap" - Agnes, ep 1

"Oh, no, too much!" - Wanda (chicken overdone) / "Oh, no, not enough!" - Wanda (turned to eggs), ep 1 #

"How can I be of assistance?" - Vision, ep 1

"For your upside-down cake" - Agnes [giving Wanda a pineapple], ep 1

"Whose that?" - Mr. Hart / "A salesman/A telegram" - Wanda & Vision [simultaneously] / "A man selling telegrams" - Vision / "Wouldn't you know it. Good news is more expensive." - Wanda, ep 1

"My head is spinning" - Mrs. Heart #WandasMagicAffectingPeople

"From what I've seen here tonight you can/could barely keep it together. I mean, look around, there's all this chaos going on in your household." - Mr. Hart, ep 1

"So...Where did you two move from? What brought you here? How long have you been married? And why don’t you have children yet?" - Mrs. Hart, ep 1

"Honestly...why did you come here? Why? Damit, why?!Why did you [come here] *chokes* - Mr. Hart, ep 1

"Oh, Arthur, Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it! Stop it! Stop. Stop it! Stop it." - Mrs. Hart, ep 1 #StopIt

"Vision, help him." - Wanda, ep 1

"We are an unusual couple, you know." - Wanda / "Oh, I don't think that was ever in question" - Vision, ep 1

"What I mean is: we don't have an anniversary. Or a song. Or even wedding rings." - Wanda / "Well, we could remedy that. Today could be our anniversaty" - Vision / "Of what? " - Wanda, ep 1

"And the rings?" - Wanda / "Well, could you make some for us?" - Vision, ep 1

"I do. Do you?" - Vision / "Yes, I do." - Wanda / "And they lived happily ever after..." - Vision, ep 1

Ep 2

"Strücker: He'll make time for you" - COMMERCIAL

"Are you using your night-vision, Vision?" - Wanda, ep 2

"Oh, this is getting ridiculous" - Wanda, ep 2

"...and look at how you seized on the opportunity to redecorate..:" - Vision, ep 2

"Fear not, Glamour, for I, Illusion, wow to bring you back exactly as you are." - Vision to Wanda, ep 2 #reversetheroles

"Wanda, are you not at all worried that the audience might just see through this little sharade?" - Vision / "Well, that's the whole point - in a real magic act everything is fake." - Wanda, ep 2

"This is our home now. I want us to...fit in" - Wanda, ep 2

"...and after last nights excitement I wanna make sure that this towns security is up-to snuff" - Vision, ep 2

"Would you look at us: Wanda & Vision, WestView fitter-inners" - Vision, ep 2

"So, are you ready to meet Queen Cul de Sac, and her merry homemakers?" - Agnes

"You'll notice that her roses bloom under the penalty of death." - Agatha, ep 2

"Dottie is the key to everything in this town. " - Agnes, ep 2

"Just mind your Ps & Qs, and you're gonna do just fine." - Agnes, ep 2

"Your roses are divine" - Agnes, to Dottie, ep 2

"The devil’s in the details, Bev." - Dottie / "That's not the only place he is" - Agnes, ep 2

"Those little boys & girls are counting on us. All of this is for the children." - Dottie, ep 2

"For the children" - group chant, ep 2

The only reason why I didn't clap is because I'm afraid to move" - Geraldine, ep 2

"I actually don't know what I'm doing here" - Geraldine / "I'm starting to feel that way myself."- Wanda, ep 2

"Now you can clap" *everyone claps* "And...stop" *everyone stops clapping* - Dottie, ep 2

"This is, sort of, a members-only type deal." - Norm, ep 2

"Got some top-secret intelligence for you" - Herb, ep 2

"I, too, have some top-secret gossip to share. [Norm here is a communist.] - Vision, ep 2

"Who knew you were such a funny guy?" - Norm ep 2

"And to think that you came (in) here a hot & bothered about protocols & nonsense" - Herb, ep 2

"I can't help but wonder if you & I haven't gotten off on the wrong foot. And I would like to correct that, if I can." - Wanda / "And how would you do that?" - Dottie, ep2

"I've heard things about you. You and your husband." - Dottie / "Well, I don't know what you've been told, but I assure you...I don't mean anyone any harm." - Wanda / “I don't believe you" - Dottie, ep 2

"Whose doing this to you, Wanda?" - Jimmy, ep 2

"Wanda, my little cabbage, you look smashing" - [drunk on gum] Vision, ep 2

"Listen...something strange happened with Dottie. [Actually] Something strange happened before that, too. It's hard to explain..." - Wanda, to Vision, ep 2

"What is going on?!?" - Wanda, to Vision / "You are!" - Geraldine, ep 2

"For the children" - group chant, ep 2

"I'm Glamour, and this is my delightful assistent Ilusion" - Vision / "I'm Glamour, and he’s Illusion" - Wanda / "Yeah, what she said” - Vision, ep 2

"Tonight we will lie to you, and yet you will believe our little deception. Because human beings are easily fooled due to their limited understanding of the inner workings of the universe! - Vision, ep 2 #ohtheforeshadowing

"Flourish!" - Vision as Illusion, the magician, ep 2

"Now my wife & I will delight in your dumbstruck little faces" - Vision, ep 2

"Oops, you weren't supposed to see how we did that trick" - Wanda, ep 2

"If only you all knew our secret" - Wanda, ep 2

"The Magnet of Crysteries" - Vision as Illusion, ep 2 #TheCabinetOfMysteries

"I will now make my wife... disappear." - Vision as Illusion, ep 2

"What's in the box?" - group chant, ep 2

"Vis, it's alright. It's okay. But what is going on with you?" - Wanda / "I have no idea. I've been feeling weird-y all day." - Vision, ep 2

"Well, you're back to yourself, and that's all I care about" - Wanda to Vision, ep 2

"A magician never reveals his secrets. He leaves that to his assistant" - Vision / "And she's not talking" - Wanda, ep 2

"I don't know what I was so worried about. It wasn't so hard to fit in after all" - Wanda / "And all we had to do was be ourselves". - Vision / "Well...with a few modifications" - Wanda, ep 2

"And it was all..for the children" - Wanda & Vision, ep 2

"Vision, is this really happening?" - Wanda / "Yes, my love, it's realy happening" - Vision, ep 2

Ep 3

"We got something cooking / And it's looking good / We got something cooking / And you knew we could / All great expecttions Lead to complications / But it's grovy and fun / It's me and it's you / Together one plus one is more than two / Some sudden surprises / Come in all shapes and sizes / But it's rainbows and sun / It's you and it's me / Together one plus one is family." - WV episode 1x03 opening credits intro song

"You read my mind" - COMMERCIAL, ep 3

"Come with me. Escape to world all your own, where your probllems float away. When you want to get away, but you don't want to go anywhere... Hydra Soak. Find the Goddess within" - COMMERCIAL, ep 3

"I have nerves of steel, so there goes your theory..." - Vision, ep 3

"Have you gotten bigger?" - Vision / "Have I? I can't tell from this angle" - Wanda, ep 3

"I can't wait to be a proud papa-ya." - Vision, ep 3 #dadjokes

"Oh, did I do that? I didn’t mean to" - Wanda, ep 3

“All the worlds a stage. And all the men & women marely players.“ - Vison, ep 3 #QuotingShakespeare #William #Billy #Thomas #Tommy

"Do you think they know it's my fault?" - Wanda, ep 3

"I think something's wrong here, Wanda" - Vision, ep 3

"I know what you mean. The truth is: We are in uncharted waters. And you know what? I'm anxious, too"- Vision, ep 3

"We just don't know what to expect" - Wanda, ep 3

"Will the baby be human, or synthezoid, a bit of both?" - Wanda, ep 3

"If he is anything like his ma' (mother), he (Billy) will be perfect" - Vision, ep 3

"What a mess." - Wanda, ep 3

"Well..in all fairness, darling, the baby is aproximately 9 months early" - Vision, ep 3

"Now's not really a good time.." - Wanda, ep 3

"I may be late to the party, but I imagine there's s logical explanation for this." - Geraldne, ep 3

"It's all perfectly natural" - Wanda, ep 3

"I can't do this" - Wanda / "Yes, you can." - Geraldine / "I can't. I cant." - Wanda / "You can do this." - Geraldine, ep 3

"I don't think we'll get away after all. Small towns, you know... So hard to escape...." - Dr. Nielsen, ep 3

"She came here because... She came here because we're all..." - Herb, ep 3

"Who are you?" - Wanda

Ep 4

"She came here because we're all...what?" - Vision, ep 4 ("previously on" part)

"I think you should leave" - Wanda, ep 4 ("previously on" part)

"I don't understand what's happening, but you need to listen to me". - Dr., to Monica, ep 4

"Director Tyler Hayward" - Monica / "Acting! Director." - Hayward, ep 4

"It's been three weeks [since the Blip] & you're the first to report." - Hayward, ep 4

"Sentient Weapons, like it says on the door" - Hayward / "It also says "Observation and Response" on that door. Not Creation." - Monica, ep 4

"The world's not the same as you left it." - Hayward, ep 4

"What's the story here, agent Woo?" - Monica / "I've got a witness set up down the road in WestView, and this morning it looked like he flew the coop." - Jimmy / "Your missing person is in the Witness Protection Program?" - Monica / "I have contacted known associates, relatives..." - Jimmy / "And let me guess: none of them have seen him either?" - Monica / "No. None of them have ever heard of him." - Jimmy, ep 4

"This isn't a missing persons case (anymore). This is missing town. Population 3892" - JImmy, ep 4

"Why havent you gone inside to investigate?" - Monica / "Cause it doesn't want me to. You can feel it too, can't you? Nobody is supposed to go in." - Jimmy, ep 4

"Why is it that you have an awareness of WestView? Or me...for that matter? Is it because we're outside of a certain radius? Or maybe because we don't have a personal connection?" - Monica, ep 4

"What is it?" - Jimmy / "Some sort of an energy field..." - Monica, ep 4

"We're not supposed to talk to each other" - "Boyscout Leader", to Darcy, ep 4

"We've got a full clown-car." - Darcy, ep 4

"Wow...[I'm getting] A colossal amount of CMBR [Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation]" - Darcy, ep 4

"Look, I know it's been a crazy few years on this planet, but he's dead, right? Not Blipped. Dead." - Darcy, about Vision, ep 4

"So you're saying the universe created a sitcom starring two Avengers?" - Jimmy, ep 4

"It's a working theory." - Darcy, ep 4

"So what, deep cover? Monica has to play along?" - Darcy / "With whom? Or else what?" - Jimmy, ep 4

"What are we looking at here? Is it an alternate reality, time travel, some cockamanie social experiment?" - Jimmy / "It's a sitcom. A 1950s sitcom." - Darcy, ep 4

"1950s, 1960s, and now the 70s. Why does it keep switching time period? Can’t be purely for my enjoyment, can it?" - Darcy, ep 4

"Twins. What a twist" - Darcy, ep 4

"Has this happened before? A reference to our reality?" - Jimmy, ep 4

"Someone is censoring the broadcast." - Darcy, ep 4

"You're not my neighbour. And youre definitely not my friend. You are a stranger. And an outsider. And right now you are trespassing here. And I want you...to leave" - Wanda, ep 4 #HexWandaSawAgathaInMonica (she came at Monica so hard, cause she sensed an outsider, but she gave the role to the wrong person...)

"We don't have to stay here. We could go wherever we want." - Vision / "No, we can't. This is our home." - Wanda / "Are you sure?" - Vision / "Don't worry, darling, I have everything under control." - Wanda, ep 4

"It's Wanda. It's all...Wanda" - Monica, ep 4

"What shoud we watch tonight?" - Wanda, ep 4

Ep 5

"You wander the world with a vision of what life could be / But then the years come and teach you to just wait & see / Forces may try to pull us apart / But nothing can phase me if you're in my heart / Crossing our fingers, singing a song / We're making it up as we go along / Through the highs & the lows / We'll be right, we'll be wrong / We're making it up as we go along / And there wiLl be days / We won't know which way to go / But we'll take it higher / You're all I desire / When the going gets tough / When push comes to shove / We're making it up / ' Cause we got love / We got love. We got love / Baby we got...WandaVision" - Episode 5 opening credits intro theme song

"Lagos (paper towels) - for when you make a mess you didn't mean to (make)" - COMMERCIAL

“I know parents aren’t supposed to take shortcuts, but I think this situation calls for one, don’t you?” - Wanda, ep 5

“Why won’t you do what I want?” - Wanda, to the twins, ep 5

"Vis, what are we doing wrong?" - Wanda, ep 5

"Don't worry, dear, we'll figure it out." - Vision, ep 5

“Do you want me to take that again?” - Agnes, ep 5

“Should we just take it from the top?” - Agnes, ep 5

"I dare you to stay awake" - Agnes, ep 5

"What was that about?" - Vision / "What was what?" - Wanda, ep 5

"Did you really not see what I saw?” - Vision, to Wanda, ep 5

“Kids. (You) Can’t control ‘ em. No matter how hard you try.” - Agnes, ep 5

[Whats the 1st thing you remember?] “Pain. And then Wanda’s voice in my head. There was this feeling...keeping me down. This...hopeless feeling. Like drowning. It was grief.” - Monica, ep 5

“Our initial theory had Wanda Maximoff as one of many victims. (But) We now know she’s the principal victimizer.” - Hayward, ep 5

“That’s an over-simplification of events, but... yeah.” - Jimmy, ep 5

"Does Maximoff have an alias?" - Hayward / "No, sir." - Jimmy / "No funny nickname?" - Hayward / "Not a one." - Jimmy, ep 5

"When was this?" - Monica / "9 days ago. Maximoff stormed our facillity, stole The Visions body, and resurrected him." - Hayward, ep 5 [a direct violation of the Sokovia Accord Section 36B & Vision's own living will, cause he didnt want to be anybodys weapon]

“Maximoff in her grief disregarded his [Vision’s living will] wishes” - Hayward, ep 5

“But how did she even do it? Bring him back without the Mind stone?” - Jimmy / “Who knows? But she has the worlds only known vibranium synthezoid playing father-knows-best in suburbia. What happens when he learns the truth?” - Darcy, ep 5

“Taking care of a living thing is a big responsibility.” - Wanda, ep 5

“I’m tired of hiding. (And maybe you don’t have to either)” - Wanda, ep 5

"Wanda, we are usually so much of the same Mind[stone], but right now...” (What aren't you telling me?) - Vision, ep 5

“What aren’t you telling me?” - Vision, to Wanda, ep 5

"Wanda’s twins are hers. Everything might look fake in TV, but everything in there is real.” - Monica, ep 5

"But Wanda manipulates peoples perceptions, makes them hallucinate..." - Jimmy, ep 5

"If all the sets, and props, and wardrobe are solid matter, that would mean she's wielding an insane amount of power." - Darcy / "By far exceeding anything she's desplayed in the past." - Jimmy, ep 5

“It’s not an illusion. Wanda is re-writing reality.”- Monica, ep 5

"If she can change things...as they go into the hex...what happens when we send something in that requires no change?" - Monica, ep 5

“Can’t you tell..none of it is real..” - Norm, ep 5

“You have to stop her. [Stop who?] She’s in my head. None of it is my own. It hurts. It hurts so much. Just make her stop.” - Norm, ep 5

“Sometimes your dad & I aren’t on the same page. But that’s just temporary.” - Wanda PS. She is literally saying that she & him aren’t always in scenes that are on the same page in the script, hence he (one of them) is away/somewhere else.

“Family is forever.” - Wanda, ep 5

"He's...far away from here. And that makes me...sad, sometimes." - Wanda, (about her twin-brother Pietro, who is buried in Sokovia) ep 5

"We can't see the drone on the broadcast. Wanda is framing it out." - Jimmy / "Just like all the jump-cuts. Wanda decides what makes it onto her show, and what doesn't." - Darcy, ep 5

“This will be your only warning. Stay out of my home. You don’t bother me, I won’t bother you.” - Wanda, ep 5

[What do you want?] “I have what I want. And no-one will ever take it from me...again” - Wanda PS. She seems to look at Hayward when she says the last past. This seems to be a message about them having Visions body & going against his will & trying to weaponize it...as much as it is about her having her perfect life with her Vision.

"The urge to run from this feeling [read: grief] is powerful. I know." - Wanda, ep 5

“You can fix anything, mom. Fix the dead.” - The Twins [Wanda: "What? No." / Agnes: "You can do that?"]

"I am trying to tell you that there are rules in life: We can’t reverse death...no matter how sad it makes us. Some things aren’t forever. ” - Wanda, ep 5 #AThingIsntBeautifulBecauseItLasts

"You said family is forever. He is family. Bring him back, mom" - Billy & Tommy, ep 5

“You can’t control me the way you do (control) them.” - Vision / “Can’t i?” - Wanda [as the end credits start to roll], ep 5

“I have to believe that this -- whatever this is -- was subconcious at first, and that you only recently became aware of it.” - Vision (about the Hex & WV), ep 5

"Stop lying to me! [angry]" - Vision / "This... All of this is for us. So let me handle it.” - Wanda, to Vision, ep 5

“What is outside of Westview” - Vision - /”You don’t want to know, I promise you.” - Wanda / “You don’t get to make that choice for me, Wanda” - Vision, ep 5

“Before what? I can’t remember my life before Westview. I don’t know who I am. I’m scared.” - Vision, ep 5 (proof that Vision 2.0 is evolving)

"You are my husband. You're Billy & Tommy’s father. Isn't that enough?" - Wanda, ep 5

"Wanda, why are there no other children [besides Billy & Tommy] in Westview?” - Vision, ep 5

"Why...tell me why..." - Vision / "Do you realy think that I am controlling everything? That I am somehow in charge of everybody in WestView? I'm walking their dogs, mowing their lawns, getting them to dentist appointments in time? I mean, I... I don't know how any of this started in the first place..." - Wanda, ep 5

“What you’re doing here...it’s wrong. It is wrong.” - Vision, ep 5

"I didn't do that. [pause] You don't believe me." - Wanda / "Wanda, I want to. But at this point I'm ignoring statistics entirely." - Vision, ep 5

"Whose the popsicle?" - Fietro [bout Vision], ep 5

Ep 6

"Don't try to fight the chaos / Don't question what you’ve done / The game can try to play us / Don't let it stop the fun / Some days it's all confusion / Easy come and easy go / But if it's all illusion / Sit back, enjoy the show / Let's keep it going x2 / Through each distorted day / Let's keep it going / Though there may be no way of knowing / Whose coming by to play" - Episode 6 opening credits intro song

"That's not exactly how I remember it" - Wanda / "You probably suppressed a lot of the trauma" - Fietro, ep 6

"I'm undercover!" - Vision, ep 6

"No, that's not what you're supposed to..." - Wanda / ”What?” - Vision, ep 6

“Mom & Dad have been... not fighting, just...like...different (lately/ever since Uncle P. arrived)” - Twins, to the camera, ep 6

“Wanda, be good” - Vision, ep 6

"If I see any funny business, I'm going to magic you into a pickled herring" - Wanda, to Fietro #RedHerring

“We take her out, this whole nightmare ends” - Hayward / "We don’t know that. We actually have no idea what will happen in there, or out here if Wanda dies”.- Monica, ep 6

"If Wanda is the problem, she has to be our solution.” - Monica, ep 6

"Is there something I can do for you, Wanda. Do you want something changed?” - Herb, ep 6

“I can’t believe what a bad influence you are” - Wanda, to Fietro, ep 6

“I’m just trying to do my part. Come to town unexpectedly, create tension with the brother-in-law, stir up trouble with the rugrats, and untimately give you grief. I mean...that’s what you wanted, isn’t it?” - Fietro, ep 6

"I got the old XY chromosome" - Fietro, ep 6 #Xmen #HeXmen

“Unleash hell, demon spawns” - Fietro, about/to the Twins, ep 6

“Dammit if Westview, New Jersey, isn’t charming as hell.” - Fietro, ep 6

"It's not like your dead husband can die twice." - Fietro, ep 6

“Where were you hiding all these kids up til now? I assume they were just sleeping peacefully in their beds.” - Fietro, ep 6

“You don’t think it’s... wrong”? - Wanda / “Are you kidding? I'm impressed.” - Fietro, ep 6

“Howd’d you even do all of this?” - Fietro, to Wanda, ep 6

"I don’t know how I did it. I only remember feeling...completely alone. Empty. Endless nothingness.” - Wanda, ep 6

“Am I dead” - Agnes / “No. Why would you think that?” - Vision / “Because you are”. - Agnes / “Because I am what?” - Vision / “Dead” - Agnes, ep 6

“No one leaves. Wanda won’t even let us think about it.”- Agnes, ep 6

“I will fix this, Agnes, I promise” - Vision, ep 6

"I know what Wanda’s feeling, and I won’t stop until I help her.” - Monica, ep 6

"How'd you even do (all) this?" - Fietro / "I don't know how I did it. I only remember feeling completely alone. Empty. Just...endless nothingness." - Wanda, ep 6

"He really does want out, doesn't he?" - Hayward, about Vision, ep 6

"I hear daddy. In my head. He's in trouble" - Billy, to Wand, ep 6

Ep 7

"Feeling depressed? Like the world goes on without you? Do you just want to be left alone? Ask your doctor about Nexus. A unique anti-depressant that works to anchor you back to your reality. Or the reality of your choice. Side effects include: feeling your feelings, confronting your truth, seizing your destiny, and possibly more depression. You should not take Nexus unless your doctor has cleared you to move on with your life. Nexus - because the world doesn’t revolve around you. Or does it?” - NEXUS COMMERCIAL, ep 7

"Letting our fear and anger get the best of us. Intentionally expanding the borders of the false world we created" - Wanta, to the director/camera PS. She uses plural form. Since nothing on this show is meaningless, and we know it was actually Agnes sitting behind the camera, maybe that was a hint at her saying THEY created it, not she alone?

"Mom, my head feels weird. It's like...really noisy. I don't like it." - Billy, ep 7

"As punishment for my reckless evening, I plan on taking a quarantine style stacation. A whole day. That'll show me." - Wanda

"Yeah, I'm not sure what's that about" (the glitches) - Wanda, ep 7

"If he doesn't want to be here, there's nothing I can do about it" - Wanda, ep 7

“I have no answers. Zero, Zip. Zilch. Nada. Niente." - Wanda, ep 7

"I'm starting to believe that everything is meaningless." - Wanda, ep 7

"You're welcome to draw your own conclusions, of course. But that's just where I'm at" - Wanda. ep 7

"Vision is made of vibranium, (so) they literally inherited tough skin" - Wanda, about the twins, ep 7

"Agnes, you are a life-saver. Is there anything I can do for you?" - Wanda, ep 7

"R&D reports, all on the same project. Code name: Cataract. [pause] Hayward wasn't de-commissioning Vision, he was trying to bring him back online. But nothing worked... ["until Wanda stole Visions body"]" - Jimmy, ep 7

"You know, part of me secretly wanted a guest spot on this show, but...seriously..that sucked." - Darcy, ep 7

"I have questions” - Vision / “I have answers” - Darcy, ep 7

"I don't understand why it's happening. Why it's all falling apart. And why I can't fix it." - Wanda, ep 7

"Do you think maybe this is what you deserve?" - Director's voice BTS/Agatha, to Wanda, ep 7

"So...Wanda killed me?" - Vision / "Yes. But it's not that simple. You asked her to do it." - Darcy / "Why would I have done that?" - Vision / "To save the universe. Well...half of it." - Darcy / "Did it work?" - Vision / "It did. [pause] Until the bad guy rewound time & killed you himself. There are a few extra steps, but...to set up the ocontext... " - Darcy / "I came back and died again." - Vision / "...and she had to watch." - Darcy

"Also..it never rains in WestView, right" - Darcy, ep 7 [Vision gives the camera THE LOOK]...as there are puddles on the road & the windowsglass is covered with raindroplets...

"I'm not amused" - Vision, ep 7

“What am I now?” - Vision, ep 7

“What I don’t get is why you can’t leave the hex.” - Darcy, to Vision, ep 7

"So..if I understand correctly...my original code dates back to an AI called JARVIS, but my corporal form was born from ULTRONs plan for global genocide?" - Vision / "Correct-o" - Darcy / "What am I now?" - Vision / "Honestly... I thought she just flipped a switch on your head and brought you back to life, but..what I dont get is why you can’t leave the hex.” - Darcy , ep 7

“What I do know is that I've been watching “WandaVision” for the past week, and the love you two have is real. You belong together.” - Darcy, to Vision, ep 7

"Don't let him make you the villain" - Monica /"Maybe I already am." - Wanda, ep 7

"I lost the person closest to me, too. The worst thing I can think of has already happened to me. And I can't change it, I can't undo it, I can't control this pain anymore. And I don't think I want to. Because it's my truth." - Monica, ep 7

"I had no idea how much Wanda had endured before coming to WestView. How much we both had, I guess. Though I can’t remember it. For me it feels like it happened to someone else, you know... But for her.. it's mere weeks ago." - Vision, ep 7

"What am I doing here? Sitting, talking to you...when I should... This is absurd. I need to get to my wife." - Vision, ep 7

Ep 8

"You have betrayed your coven. You stole knowledge above your age & station. You practiced the darkest of magic." - Evanora Harkness / "I know nothing of these crimes. I swear it!" - Agatha / "Enough. Deception.!" - Evanora / "I did not break your rules. They simply bent to my power." - Agatha, ep 8

"I cannot control it."- Agatha, ep 8

"If only you would teach me...! (Help me, please!)" - Agatha, ep 8

"Please...I can be good" - Agatha / "No, you cannot." - Evanora, ep 8

"Your magic's no good in here. Didn't you notice? Basic protection spell. One on each wall. ... No? Nothing? These are runes, Wanda. In a given space only the witch that cast the runes can use her magic. How do you not know the fundamentals?" - Agatha, to Wanda, ep 8

"Who are you?" - Wanda / "Who are you?" - Agatha, ep 8

"Who are you? All those costumes and hairstyles? Oh, I was so patient. Waiting for you to reveal your true self. I got close with Fake-Pietro...Fietro, if you will. But no dice." - Agatha/ "That was you?" - Wanda / "No, it wasn't literally me. Just my eyes & ears. A crystalline posession..if you will. Necromacy was a non-starter since your real brothers body is on another continent. Not to mention (also) full of holes. But you're so crippled by your own self-doubt that you believed it." - Agatha, ep 8

"When I sensed this place - the afterglow of so many spells cast all at once...I couldn't make heads or tails of it... Mind control. A classic. Quick incantation and a feeble psyche and you're good to go. With thousands of people under your thumb all interacting with each other according to complex storylines. Well, that's somethign special, baby. And of course there's transmutation. Years of study to achieve even the smallest convincing illusion. But WestView through your lense, Wanda... Every little detail in place...down to the crown molding. You're even running illusions miles away at the edge of town. Magic on autopilot. What's your secret, sister? Listen... I need you (to)...I need you to tell me how you did this." - Agatha / "I didn't do anything. I'm not..." - Wanda / "I tried to be gentle....to nudge you awake from this ridiculous fantasy, but you would rather fall apart than face your truth. You left me no choice... What was it (that) you said to your not-brother? Hmm? All you could recall was the feeling. You felt empty. Alone. Endless nothingness... Let's start there..." - Agatha, ep 8

"It's been fun playing pretend for a while, hasn't it, Wanda? But it's time to look at some reall re-runs. All right, let's go." - Agatha /"No" - Wanda, ep 8

"After you, superstar" - Agatha to Wanda, ep 8

“I know you don’t want [to go back there...to relive your painful memories]. But it’s good medicine, angel” - Agatha, ep 8

“The only way forward is back” - Agatha, ep 8

"I forgot. I put it in the special place. For extra safekeeping." - Wanda's dad, ep 8

Shenanigan [definition]: ... like mischief. But...a silly mischief, that always becomes fine.

"...and at the end of the episode... you realise it was all (just) a bad dream. None of it was real." - 10-y-o Wanda, ep 8 flashback

"You stop that. You'll hurt her feeling." - TV Character 1 / "She hasn't got any feelings. She's full of sawdust, or rags, or something." - TV character 2, ep 8

"So...little orphan Wanda got up close & personal with an Infinity Stone that amplified what otherwise would have died on the vine? The broken pieces of you are adding up, buttecup. I have a theory, but I need more..." - Agatha, ep 8

"So where are we know?" - Agatha / "The Avengers compound. It was the first home Vision & I ever shared. Pietro was dead, and I was in a new country... I was all alone..." - Wanda, ep 8

"Vision?" - Wanda [sensing him behind the wall/that he wants to enter her room] / "I apologize, I dont mean to intrude..:" - Vision / "You don't?" - Wanda / "Well, I suppose yes I did intend to come in here..." - Vision / "And now?" - Wanda / "Well...whatever is your preferance..." - Vision, ep 8

[Wanda & Vision watching sitcoms on TV] "Is it funny because of the grievious injury the man just suffered?" - Vision / "No, he's not really injured" - Wanda / "Ah. [But] How can you be certain?" - Vision / "It's not that kind of a show." - Wanda, ep 8

"Wanda, I don't presume to know what you're feeling, but I would like to know. Should you wish to tell me. Should that be of some comfort to you." - Vision / "What makes you think that talking about it would bring me comfort?" - Wanda / "Oh, see, I read that the..." - Vision / [interrupts him] "The only thing that would bring me comfort is seeing him again." - Wanda [SILENCE] "Sorry... I'm ..I'm so tired..." - Wanda

"Sorry... I'm ..I'm so tired... It's just like this wave washing over me, again and again. It knocks me down, and when I try to stand up, it just comes for me again. And I can't... It's just gonna drown me..." - Wanda / "No, no it won't." - Vision / "How do you know?" - Wanda / "Well...because it can't all be sorrow, can it? I've always been alone, so I don't feel the lack. It’s all I've ever known. I've never experienced loss because I have never had a loved one to lose. But what is grief, if not love persevering?" - Vision, to Wanda, ep 8 #foreshadowing

"But what is grief, if not love persevering?" - Vision, to Wanda, ep 8

"So, to recap: parents dead, brother dead, Vision dead." - Agatha, ep 8

"What happened when he wasn't there to pull you back from the darkness, Wanda?" - Agatha / "I can’t do this anymore..." - Wanda / "Come on, Wanda! You're on the precipice. You are right there! Tell me how you did it." - Agatha, ep 8

"Vision was gone. But you. wanted. him. back." - Agatha / "I wanted him back. [to herself: "I wanted him back"]" - Wanda, ep 8

"I know you have him" - Wanda

"Please...Please. When I came back, he was gone. His...body. And I know he's here. He deserves a funeral, at least. I deserve it." - Wanda

"I just wanna bury him. That's all I want" - Wanda, ep 8

"Are yo sure (that’s all you want)? Not everyone has that kind of power that can bring their soulmate back online. Forgive me...back to life." - Hayward, ep 8

"No, I can’t do that. Thats...That’s not why I'm here." - Wanda, ep 8

"I can't feel you.... [whisper] I can't feel you." - Wanda, ep 8

"To grow old in." - V. *hear shape* [Vision's note to Wanda, on the propery deed], ep 8

"Wanda, welcome home. Should we stay in tonight?" - (Hex) Vision, ep 8

"I know what you are. You have no idea how dangerous you are. You're supposed to be a myth - a being capable of spontaneous creation. BUt here you are...using it to make breakfast for dinner. ... This is chaos magic, Wanda. That makes you the Scarlett Witch" - Agatha to Wanda, ep 8

"Let go of my children" - Wanda / "Oh yes...your children, Vision, this whole little life you've made...this is chaos magic, Wanda." - Agatha, ep 8

TBC in ep 9

#QUOTE #QUOTES #WandaVisionSpoiers #Scarlett Witch #WandaVision #SPOILER #WandaVision spoilers #WandaVision spoiler #WandaVisionSpoilers #Wanda #Vision #The Vision #Wanda Maximoff #Wanda Vision #Wanda x Vision #MCU

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amusement-spark · 3 years

Text

Busch Gardens Part 4: Stanleyville and Jungala

For this review I will be combining a couple locations. In all I will be talking about Tigris, Sheikra, Stanley Falls Flume, and the Zambia Smokehouse. I am visiting this weekend where I will spend more time with the animals, performances, and the train, so I will have a separate post dedicated to those things.

First up, Tigris. Full disclosure, I love tigers. They are my favorite big cat and easily one of my favorite animals, so this might cloud my judgement of the ride slightly.

The queue before the ride is pretty simple with some atmospheric music, jungle plants, and fun facts about the ride itself and tigers in general. Even though I know this is impossible, I always get the feeling that there could be tigers lurking in the forest around the line. I’m sure some younger park goers have a similar experience. Up at the front of the line, the tv screens, in addition to showing normal safety information, have footage of tigers swimming and playing along with multiple choice trivia questions. Plenty to keep you interested for about 25 minutes. Luckily I have never seen the line for Tigris longer than 20.

Tigris is a roller coaster with two main special features. For one, the ride starts with a launch forward followed by an ascent backwards before the main portion of the ride begins. The second unique feature is what they call the "heartline roll," where the track spirals centered around your heart. Combined with the theming, I enjoy the feeling the coaster gives of being a tiger on the prowl, able to both stalk slowly and pounce at a moments notice. Tigris is contained basically on a single vertical plane, so rather than being jerked side to side, the thrills of Tigris come the changes in speed and the couple loops. Busch Gardens calls Tigris the “Tallest Launch Coaster,” at 150 feet, and I make sure to ride it every time I visit.

I love Tigris. It is something unique, always with a decently short wait, and a fun theme that, in my opinion, ties into the design of the ride itself, much like another one of my favorites, Cheetah Hunt. Tigris gets a 4.7/5.

The next ride in Stanleyville is the mighty SheiKra, the largest coaster at Busch Gardens Tampa. The queue takes riders through some stone ruins and up quite a few stairs on your way to the ride. Before entering the queue, you pass by where SheiKra drags through a pool of water, drenching all passers-by. A great way to help build anticipation for the ride. You really feel SheiKra’s power as it screams past.

The biggest draw to SheiKra is the initial 200 foot drop at a steep angle, past 90 degrees. SheiKra, full of twists, and turns, and tunnels and splashes, is... fine. It’s fine.

Yes that first big drop is incredible, but SheiKra’s massive size might actually work against it in the exhilaration department. Each of the three rows carries 8 riders, which makes the cars the widest in the park. When a ride like Kumba dives into a tunnel, it feel pretty tight, like a bat flying through a narrow opening. The width of SheiKra requires the tunnels and turns to be more open than the tight turns and gaps of the other rides at BG.

SheiKra’s height and might make it very enticing, which also can make the line VERY long. Since every run can accommodate 24 riders, the wait is usually better than Cheetah Hunt or Cobra’s Curse. I would just advise riders to temper expectations just a little. Like I said, it’s fine. Just not my personal favorite. SheiKra gets 3.5/5.

Just a few steps from SheiKra is Busch Garden’s log flume, Stanley Falls. Quick story: when I visited last weekend and decided to ride the flume for the first time, it promptly broke down. We continued to move up in line as other patrons gave up on the ride. Once the ride got working again, about half an hour later, we witnessed an argument between a patron and one of the ride operators. There was a lot going on that day. It was hot, and a lot of people wanted to cool off by getting wet. So I will say the experience was memorable. The flume itself was... not.

If you’ve ever ridden a log flume ride at a smaller local amusement park, you’ve likely ridden one just like Stanley Falls. I wasn’t expecting the Mona Lisa of water rides, but I still feel like it was missing a little something extra. As far as log flumes go, Stanley Falls is decent. In the category of water rides at Busch Gardens Tampa, Stanley gets 4/5. But as a theme park attraction in general, Stanley falls a little flat: 2.5/5

Stanleyville is home to one of the major eateries at Busch Gardens, the Zambia Smokehouse. When I visited recently, I believe this was actually the longest line I waited in, and you know what? Actually worth it. I was pleasantly surprised.

On the menu for main courses, the Smokehouse offers pork ribs, smoked chicken, brisket, and a pulled pork sandwich. We shared the ribs and the pulled pork and I thoroughly enjoyed them both. The sides are to be expected: fries, coleslaw, green beans, carrots. All the standard cookout fixings. I cannot stress enough how good the meat was. Easily the best theme park food I’ve had in years, and even some of the better ribs I’ve had recently. Around the Smokehouse there are signs talking about their cooking process and how they start firing the wood “before sunrise” and I appreciate having a food option that goes that extra step.

My only issue with the Smokehouse is that when you call an eatery “Zambia,” you might expect more than just american southern faire, but once you know what they’re serving, enjoy some old fashioned messy barbeque. They even give you wet wipes. Zambia Smokehouse gets a 5/5.

This whole section of the park is worth spending some time in. Come for the thrills, stay for the pork.

Splashes: 3.5/5

Wet wipes: 5/5

Launches: 4/5

Stanleyville (plus Tigris) gets a 4.2/5

#Busch Gardens #Tampa #Florida #amusement park #theme park #tigers #barbeque #smokehouse #log flume #water rides

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captain-of-the-historicfuture · 3 years

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~hello~ !! For the meta asks!: 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, and 25 :))

Hello!! Thank you for sending these; I was really excited to see that ask game and I was hoping somebody would send some in. It still took me a while to actually answer them though, and for that I apologise. But without further ado! Some meta answers (under the cut because they ended up being fairly long, whoops):

3. What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (Consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway.)

I thought of a few examples, but they could basically be grouped together under a common theme: whumpy/angsty scenes that were self-indulgent as all heck. The whole self-indulgent aspect often required the characters to be just the teeniest, tiniest bit OOC and/or necessitated rather unrealistic plot circumstances. So it was simply easier to keep such scenes as maladaptive daydreams, rather than trying to think of explanations for the character/plot issues…or exposing myself to judgement for them LOL.

Receiving permission to write/share one such scene anyway is an opportunity I can’t let slip by though. It might be because I’m writing this while running on zero (0) hours of sleep—let’s hear it for insomnia, y’all!—but I suddenly couldn’t remember any of my newer ideas under this category. However, I did recall a one-shot I had started writing a couple of months ago that sort of counts? “Sort of” because I could actually be arsed to write it since I was, ya know, writing it. Only got about six hundred words down though.

…should I share those six hundred words…?

………nahhh. I don’t think I’m quite ready for that yet.

But here’s the gist of it: Coulson and May (because of course it’s Philinda) were married for quite some time before the Attack on New York. But then Coulson DiedTM and then got ResurrectedTM. But gasp of horror, he had to lose his memories of his romantic relationship with May because reasons. (I actually did have some ideas for those reasons but sshhhh this is about me yeeting context and setup.)

The first half of S1 still happens as normal (except MayWard doesn’t happen because??? Vows) and it’s now post-E20 “Nothing Personal”. The morning after (or a morning soon after, whatever) the T.A.H.I.T.I. reveal! May’s mom—who doesn’t know about GH.325 and whom May fed a cover story about Coulson divorcing her or something equally as oof, IDK—shows up at the hotel and starts ripping into Coulson for breaking her daughter’s heart, then dragging her back into the field with her ex-husband (him), then accusing her of terrible things and forcing her away again.

Poor guy’s confused as heck, and so is the team, and soon enough so is Lian. The only one who understands what’s going on is May, and she’s freaking dying off to the side like why is this happening to me and eventually everybody’s like! Explain??? (Was thinking about including something from Coulson like, “Are you still keeping things from me?” Just for that extra smidge of angst, yay!)

So yeah then May gives a, like, two-sentence debriefing that elicits more questions than answers. Coulson decides to take May aside and they have a heart-to-heart. Lots of feelings and angst and hurt/comfort and at some point plenty of kissing too. Just! May hiding her feelings for Coulson’s sake but really magnified, plus some actual apologies and consideration of the grief May’s been through on Coulson’s part.

And uhh yeah that’s basically it I dunno hdsjncjshd. I warned y’all it’s OOC, plot-bendy, and very self-indulgent!

6. What character do you have the most fun writing?

I don’t think I could name a single character for this. I get different things out of taking on different voices, you know? I guess recently I’ve found myself gravitating towards more taciturn and introspective points of view, like JQ from my original novel Rosewood or M. Yisbon from my…other original novel Temple.

Generally, however, I like tackling stories from an outsider’s perspective. That’s why I so rarely write my more “substantial” (serious? demanding? for lack of better words?) projects from the PoV of my “preferred” character. This usually means writing from their love interest’s perspective, but not always. With shorter fanfic, using a more removed/unconventional/niche PoV can be really fun. Like, I once wrote a canon compliant ficlet purely(-ish) about Philinda from Tony Stark’s perspective. That isn’t always sustainable with stories that demand more character development or closer character studies, however, which is why it’s a good thing I like writing drabbles!

9. Are you more of a drabble or a longfic kind of writer? Pantser or plotter? Do you wish you were the other?

My word counts tend to run long, but I usually only write one-shots for fanfic. If I’m even inspired with a novella- or novel-length story idea for a fandom, you already know I’m in deep with them. And if I actually find the motivation to plan and execute that idea? Dangg. That’s only ever happened…twice, maybe thrice, and I’m in a lot of fandoms.

At times, I wish I could go for more of a middle ground ’cause, like, you know what I love to see? An AO3 dashboard with several completed novellas for my ship/character of choice. I mean yes, I hecking love >90k fics, but sometimes I’m in the mood for quick reads…and what am I supposed to do when I burn through all the drabbles and 2k one-shots? (Besides despair and/or reread my faves desperately.) Novellas are basically always safe for me LOL, and I’d hope to be able to give as much as I take.

Ultimately though, I think I’m okay with where I am with regards to that. I wish I could write more in general, but I’d be okay with “writing more” just meaning “writing more one-shots”, ya know? More than okay, really. I have mad respect for fic writers who have, like, a hundred or more one-shots under their belt for this one ship. The fandom ecosystem would be incomplete without them (as well as every other type of writer, but sshhh that’s the type of writer I’m closest to being right now).

I’m definitely a plotter, and I definitely prefer it that way. It’s cool having such a detailed record of my process. I like feeling like a frazzled genius on the brink of a major discovery with all of my different outlines and colour coding and many drafts and various websites.

12. Do you want your writing to be famous?

Not exactly. It might be cool if my original works were recognisable in the world, but I don’t think I’d want to be recognisable. As for fanfic, I’d low-key enjoy gaining a place in that fandom’s community as a fic writer. Like someone who gave and got fic gifts from fic writer friends, who participated in challenges and GCs, who received writing prompts on Tumblr, whose name was known for doing a certain trope/genre a bunch of times… Ya know what I mean?

Unlikely to happen when I’m so hecking hesitant to publicly (i.e., outside of AO3) claim credit for my writing, but fjnskfsjhfjs. A writer can dream, right?

15. Which is harder: titles or summaries (or tags)?

Of those three, tags are the easiest for me, for I have a reliable system for figuring out those.

Next easiest would probably be titles. For fanfiction, I like to use titles that are a quote from the source material. You should have seen all of my old Hamilton fanfic… I was really proud of some of those titles. And I don’t mean, like, whole lines—usually only two to five words. It’s a unique type of wordplay that I just love dabbling in.

And lastly, summaries. Sometimes inspiration strikes me and a snappy and intriguing synopsis just jumps out—one that I’m quietly pleased with—but most of the time I’ll spend way too long trying to think of such a synopsis and eventually just go with whatever I’d come up with so far. And live with my quiet dissatisfaction for the rest of time.

18. Do any of your stories have alternative versions? (Plotlines that you abandoned, AUs of your own work, different characterisations...?) Tell us about them!

Typically, no. If I have deleted scenes, I save and publish them separately, but that’s about it. I sometimes think of AUs for my own work and might talk about them in my author’s notes—might even talk about writing them—but I never really do anything with them.

Although…

It’s not uncommon for me to decide a plotline isn’t working for a certain story or to think of an interesting but undoable arc for a certain character, but what I’ll do is make a whole new story for those ideas. Once I’m done developing the original idea and the branched-off one, you probably wouldn’t be able to tell they grew from the same roots. Does that count?

21. What other medium do you think your story would work well as (film, webcomic, animated series, etc.)?

That depends on the story. I’ve actually written stories in other mediums—movie screenplay, musical stageplay, poetry, TV show scripts, play scripts, roleplay—but the novel does tend to be my comfort zone. Sometimes, if I have an idea that I think could work, or would even work better, as another medium, I’ll label it as such in my folder of ideas and decide not to write it as a novel.

Most of the time, my non-book projects are collaborations. I’m working with five different people on six different story ideas: two webcomics, one stage musical, one anime, and two animated TV shows. Little concrete progress has been made in any of those, mind you, but they’re still fun to discuss!

24. Would you say your writing has changed over time?

Absolutely. But I’ve been writing stories since I was five years old, so we would hope so, huh?

I wouldn’t say my writing’s changed completely, though maybe that’s just my insider’s perspective.

25. What part of writing is the most fun?

Oh gosh, I can’t believe you’d make me choose. Writing is just such a wonderful experience for me; I love just about everything to do with it. Admittedly, not all the time, but. Since that barely qualifies as an answer, however, I’ll give you this—

The endings. Not only that intense feeling of rightness when you wrap up that last sentence, but also the moments before. The adrenaline of knowing you’re almost there but you gotta push just a bit more to actually get there. And also the part right after—the real wrap-up, honestly: the revision and the editing. Heavens, I love revising and editing my work.

Which is not to say I don’t like writing it out for the first time, too—there’s nothing quite like seeing your cursor scroll to the next page, like going from a blank expanse to a Oh man, how many more lines are even going to fit on this page?, like watching that page counter tick up another number. However, there’s something cathartic about finally ironing out those problems I had to force myself to stop worrying about earlier because “just finish the first draft dangit”.

I guess that’s not really the end of the writing process, but whatever. Close enough (as fic writers are wont to say).

Another thank-you for these asks, and feel free to come back with more at any time! ;P

Send in fun meta asks for your friendly neighbourhood writer!

#thou canst not then be false to any man #ask game #invictusmaneo #to write and read comes by nature

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livinginsunnyhell · 4 years

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Ask game for fanfic writers! ⌨️🖊📓📝

1. What fandoms do you write for?

2. What pairings do you write for?

3. What is your most popular fanfic?

4. Do you write original stories as well?

5. What fanfic of yours should everyone have read?

6. What is a fandom you will never write for?

7. What is a ship you will never write for?

8. Archive of Our Own, FanFiction.net, Wattpad, Tumblr, etc. which platform do you prefer?

9. What are your favorite fanfics?

10. How do you stay motivated to finish what you’ve started?

11. What’s your longest fanfic?

12. Do you want to break your readers‘ heart or make them laugh?

13. What is your planning process?

14. What have others criticized about your fanfic?

15. OCs or no OCs?

16. Do you use sentence starters, writing prompts and/or fandom headcanons for your fanfics?

17. Do you use/follow advice from writing blogs/posts?

18. What is your favorite writing prompt?

19. Dead or overused tropes?

20. Can we get a list of all of your current available fanfics?

21. What’s your shortest fanfic?

22. Do you listen to music during your writing process? What music do you listen to while you’re writing?

23. Long chapters or short chapters?

24. How many WIPs (work-in-progress) do you’ve got?

25. How many WIPs will you finish?

26. First-person-narrative or third-person-narrative?

27. Do you take requests?

28. I will name you three things (drunk Ian — shared bachelor party — Gallavich): write a paragraph or two!

29. What’s more difficult? Fanfics or original work?

30. What writing software do you use?

31. Do you use beta/sensitivity readers?

32. Past or present tense?

33. Do friends and family know that you write fanfics?

34. How did you find the magical world of fanfics?

35. What is your favorite review?

36. Did you ever delete a work of yours?

37. Did your work ever get plagiarized?

38. Do you partake in any fanfic/writing events? (Big bangs, zines, NaNoWriMo, etc?)

39. Collaborations or working solo?

40. Do you have any rituals before uploading a fic?

41. What is something you don’t like about your writing?

42. Rudest review?

43. Guilty pleasure tropes and scenarios?

44. Does fanart of your fanfic exist?

45. Do fanfics of your fanfic exist?

46. Few long essay reviews or many short reviews?

47. What fanfic of yours is truly underrated?

48. What is your favorite sentence that you’ve used in a fanfic?

49. Where do you draw inspiration from?

50. Can we get a teaser for an upcoming chapter?

(Don't feel obligated to answer. Thought if you're into these kinda things, that'd be a nice ask. ;))

Oh this is so nice!! Thanks for sending this @annansmith

I chose a few of them to do.

1. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently, I’m writing for Shameless (Gallavich) but I’ve written for:

Veronica Mars (LoVe), Veep (Amy/Dan), Arrow (Oliver/Felicity), Once Upon A Time (Hook/Emma), The Old Guard (Joe/Nicky), That 70′s show (Hyde/Jackie), Sons of Anarchy (Tara/Jax), Vampire Diaries (Klaroline), Hart of Dixie (Zoe/Wade), Gilmore Girls (Rory/Jess), X-men (Rogue/Pyro), One Tree Hill (Haley/Nathan), and a few others.

2. What pairings do you write for?

Now I write Gallavich.

But I’d say my top ones I love writing for now (my fanfiction writing has spanned about 14 years) are Dan/Amy, Veronica/Logan, Klaus/Caroline, Mickey/Ian.

3. What is your most popular fanfic?

My most popular fic on Ao3 is The Course of True Love (Arrow) and on FF Of Bloodshed, Babies, and Epic LoVe (Veronica Mars)

4. Do you write original stories as well?

Yes, I do. I’m working on a book, well, two books. But it’s going very slowly. The first is a memoir of my travels from around the world and the second is a vampire urban fantasy one. We’ll see how it goes, but I’d like to finish them by next year and see if I can get them published, but it’s hard so who knows.

10. How do you stay motivated to finish what you’ve started?

Well, recently I’ve really been trying to finish everything I write. I have a lot of WIPs from years and years ago and even within the the last year, so this answer is pretty new. Basically, I focus on one fic at a time and write a little every day to stay motivated. Now, I try to update once a week on a certain day. I think comments/reviews and kudos and people being genuinely encouraging helps though. It’s also what’s gotten me considering finishing my older fics.

11. What’s your longest fanfic?

Of Bloodshed, Babies, and Epic Love (over 165k)

13. What is your planning process?

Now, it’s different. I have a doc of ideas and I wait to see which one I can’t seem to shake. Then I plan out each chapter with a few sentences and I have a list of things I want to focus on in the story. Usually, each story now has a kind of theme to it and a main focus. I sometimes will just want to write a certain situation/scene/focus and the story is born from there. But what really helps is writing down chapter 1, 2, etc. and having a sentence or two for what I want to happen. It doesn’t always go according to plan, but I never get writers block or forget what happened in previous chapters now.

16. Do you use sentence starters, writing prompts and/or fandom headcanons for your fanfics?

Probably a mixture of fandom (or my personal) headcanons. I don’t start with prompts unless it’s a challenge or sentence starters. Usually, I have a scene I already want to write in my head and then I sit down and write it.

17. Do you use/follow advice from writing blogs/posts?

Yes, I’ve read several books on writing. My undergrad was creative writing too, so I learned a lot there. I also follow writing instagram accounts which are helpful. I take everything I learn with a grain of salt and I see what is best for me. The best advice I heard recently was short sentences and so now I’m experimenting with that.

20. Can we get a list of all of your current available fanfics?

There’s a lot from many different fandoms. I used to be on FF.net as Psyc0gurl0 and now I’m ProstheticLoVe on a03. I like writing on ao3 better cause it’s easier and I love the tagging process. Plus the gallavich fandom on there is unreal. So to think about going back to ff.net to finish my WIPs seems like such a process now.

Currently though, I’m writing an Ian’s POV 5 chapter fic called Chocolate. It’s not out yet, but it’ll focus on Ian from 1x06 to 1x09 or so and how his feelings for Mickey change and evolve. It’s the second part to a series called Chocolate and Cigarettes. Mickey’s POV was Cigarettes.

22. Do you listen to music during your writing process? What music do you listen to while you’re writing?

Yes, I listen while writing but I need silence while editing. I have a Love (lol) playlist. It’s basically all the love songs that remind me of couples I ship. So for example, The Acid is in there a lot because their music is great, but also Basic Instinct is so haunting. Overall, I like all music except country, so sometimes I’ll listen to my larger playlists while writing.

23. Long chapters or short chapters?

So this has changed over the years. Initially, I wrote short chapters, then when I got back into fanfiction while writing klaroline they got a lot longer and now it’s just basically where the chapter has a natural ending. So the chapters are between 4 - 10k words depending. I try to get over 4k though. Right now, once I’m done with my current fic, I really want to write something over 100k.

24. How many WIPs (work-in-progress) do you’ve got?

A lot...none in Shameless though. Well, I guess my current one, but I haven’t posted that yet. I’d say I probs have about 10 WIPs spanning different fandoms. I know. But my goal for 2021 is to pick two and finish them.

25. How many WIPs will you finish?

Not all of them. Some of them are from years and years ago. But I’d like to finish the ones that I still get reviews on. So there’s a SOAs fic I want to finish cause that fandom is so lovely. I also want to finish a klaroline one cause that was fun to write. And my Amy/Dan ones I’d like to finish. I would like to finish my Veronica Mars ones (I have two) but they need a lot more attention, so when people message me about them I tell them the planned ending.

28. I will name you three things (drunk Ian — shared bachelor party — Gallavich): write a paragraph or two!

“Fuck, Mickey, I probably shouldn’t have had the third Hot Toddy,” Ian grimaced as the world around him spun.

Mickey laughed at him and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. Ian wanted to think his future husband just wanted to pull him closer, but he had a feeling it was to steady him.

“Probably should’ve cut you off earlier,” Mickey said tugging Ian closer.

Ian wobbled and plopped down on the back steps of the porch. Mickey followed suit a moment letter and they both looked out toward the backyard where the Gallaghers, Balls, and a few of the Milkovich cousins were alternatively huddling around a fire, drinking, and dancing.

“I blame Lip for making us have this stupid shared bachelor party in the first place,” Ian grumbled.

Mickey kissed him on the forehead as Ian lay his head on his shoulder. “It’s Sandy’s fault too.”

Ian hmmed in response and Mickey knew he was going to fall asleep any moment. He ran his hand up and down Ian’s arm and watched as Debbie bounced over to them.

“Jesus, you aren’t even married yet and you two are like an old married couple. Are you going to come dance or what?” she whined.

Mickey looked down at Ian, whose eyes were already closed, and then back up to Debbie. She was watching them with knowing eyes.

“We’ll dance at the wedding. Go grab Lip, I need his help to get Sleeping Beauty upstairs.”

Debbie turned to go get her eldest brother and Mickey looked back down at Ian. In his sleep, he nuzzled Mickey’s shoulder, breathed deeply, and a gentle smile appeared there.

3 more days and they’d officially be husbands.

34. How did you find the magical world of fanfics?

I was about 10 and my cousin used to write a buffy the vampire slayer zine. There was a link to a site called buffyworld.com or something like that. And I found fanfic that way. There was a link on the site to ff.net and that’s how I stumbled across that. I stayed there for many many years until my second time in the veronica mars fandom around 2014 when I was lead to a03 and then I’ve been there ever since. On and off, my writing has fluctuated through the years based on my personal life.

49. Where do you draw inspiration from?

Everywhere! omg. It’s insane. Gallavich I love writing for. There’s so many different facets to them, but truly everywhere I find inspiration. I have a whole doc of gallavich ideas that have stemmed from other fanfics, headcanons from me and other people, rewatching episodes, what’s going to happen in s11, cute moments i’d like to see happen, holidays, and just general life. I saw a pic of WW2 vets who were in a long term relationship and i was like mickey and ian! another idea is born.

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dukeofonions · 4 years

Text

Reaction Redux (I know it doesn’t make sense but it sounds cool)

Alright, here is my initial reaction to Putting Others First: Selfishness vs Selflessness Redux.

It’s finally here, I’ve watched it a total of two times and currently have it on in the background as I type this, and I have a lot of feelings. All of which would be too much for one post, so after I do this I’ll be making a few separate posts addressing certain points I’d like to expand on further.

So what I’m going to do is have the video playing as I write this out, that way I don’t miss out anything I wanted to discuss. Basically it’s not gonna be a full on analysis, just a lot of random ramblings with what I hope are some insightful gems sprinkled throughout. Consider these my notes for all my future serious analysis posts.

Good? Great. Let’s go. (Also spoilers under the cut)

So, how did I feel as I watched the video for the first time? Well considering I got the notification for the video while I was still at work, I couldn’t get as excited as I wanted to be about it because I didn’t get off until 8pm and had to deal with one too many dunderheads so I was pretty grumpy once I got off.

However, as soon as I got home and retreated to the safety of my isolation fortress (aka my bedroom) I was finally able to get excited as I got on my laptop and pulled up the video and let me just say I was a mess the entire time. I missed my boys!!! I knew they wouldn’t all be present, but I still missed my boys!!! And I loved seeing them again!!!

First things first, that song at the beginning! I think it’s called Review Redux (correct me if I’m wrong) it’s such a freaking bop and I wish it was longer because I could listen to it all day. I loved the artwork and little details that went into their characters, and how each of the circles represented who was singing/talking by their colors. Fun stuff and a great way to recap everything! As well as foreshadow things to come within the episode… “If our goals aligned with his what would that say?” Roman you’re in for a rude awakening bud…

Also, the little moment near the beginning where Patton is about to shut Thomas’ negative thinking down, but stops himself and allows Thomas to explain why he feels that way. Showing that he’s learned to ease up just a little since he learned to do so in Dealing With Intrusive Thoughts. Good for you Patton.

Speaking of Patton, oh he is so confused. I understand where he’s coming from, and honestly everything he said are things I have been taught growing up, and this is something I’ll address in another post because I have a lot of things to say about it. But just know that I adore the development Patton has been going through and watching him grow and mature.

Oh yes, I must mention I was pleasantly surprised to see Logan. I didn’t think he’d show up in this episode, or at the very least have a brief appearance, but I love how he took part and by far the funniest part in this episode (to me) is when he had so much to say in one little post that it popped up and hit Patton in the nose. It was one of the few moments where I laughed out loud and I rewound it a few times on my first viewing.

Plus Thomas being more concerned about the blinds than Patton. My type of humor. And Roman actually gets to use his sword for once, good for him!

(Funny enough as I typed this the video got to that part at the exact same time so I got a nice little laugh again)

Which brings up my next point: Logan getting yoinked after Patton skips his dialogue. No one talks about how he does his little impression of that philosopher, am I the only one who found that utterly adorable?

Let Logan geek out over philosophers please. He clearly loves it so much.

Then we get to Roman believing he’s the one responsible for everything, wanting to give up the driver’s seat to Patton. And just… This exchange of dialogue:

Thomas: “Roman, I only mean well when I say…” Thomas: “That that is the stupidest thing you have ever said.” Roman: “Oh Thomas, you’re just blowing smoke.”

I don’t know why I enjoy this so much but I do. Give me more of this. I crave it now.

And I just need to make a whole post about Patton in this video, there is so much to unpack with him alone.

Looking back and noticing that Thomas only starts listening to Logan after he’s been replaced by Deceit kinda hurts.

Speaking of which, can we appreciate how much better Deceit has gotten at impersonating Logan? Looks like he took Roman’s advice and focused on the little things. Good for him.

Alright, one of my absolute favorite parts from this episode and where things really start to shine: Patton freaks out and turns into a giant frog because he’s so desperate to have an answer for them he flips and honestly, sounds a little crazy. Which, I don’t know why but I find it both menacing and hilarious at the same time?

Also the fact he turns into a frog because he was talking about Frogger earlier, nice touch! (And Lilypadton that’s so cute)

Then we get probably the single greatest character entrance in the history of character entrances. We find out that Deceit finally reveals himself and steps in to stand up to Patton and get him to see how his actions have been having a negative effect on Thomas.

The way his voice changes from Logan’s to his own, his music kicking in, “The Lord of the Lies” oh my gosh it’s all just perfect! Also Roman’s “Reptilian Rapscallion! Reptilian Rapscallion! We’ve got a code yellow!”

And if I may: Roman: “What have you done with Logan?!” Deceit: “Nothing at all and I resent the question.”

WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM YOU SNEK?!

(in all honest probably nothing but what if)

Important to note here that Roman instantly begins defending Patton from Deceit as soon as he accuses him of misleading Thomas. This goes to show just how much Roman views him as a villain. Or in other words: Patton, good. Deceit, bad. A viewpoint he continues to hold onto until the end of the episode, which also deserves it’s entire post because we all know how much turbulence that caused within the fandom.

And to the observant eye, you’ll notice that the cane (or staff) Deceit uses is the same one that dragged Logan off screen.

Frog puns. That is all.

I just, I love Deceit’s dialogue throughout this scene. It’s stuff I need to hear and tell myself on a regular basis. And I’d honestly rewatch this part (along with the rest of what Deceit and Logan say later on in the video) because it’s all something I need to also teach myself. But this ain’t meant to be a personal post so I’ll just move on.

Deceit’s walk towards the camera. I don’t know why. It’s so smooth. He’s amazing. I love him. Snek…

I have problems don’t @ me.

Also no one is mentioning the reference to that one “Turn based rpg” short that Thomas made with his friends and I find that sad because it’s a neat and fitting reference given the theme of this video. Also earlier on when the trolley problem is first brought up all the people on the bottom track are Thomas’ friends. Another neat little detail, though sadly, their digital selves perished.

PETER SINGER

Logan doesn’t seem to like Deceit much, not outright hate him or anything, but it’s more like he just tolerates him but doesn’t seek to get on good terms with him. Which is a shame because as both parts of SVS have proven, these two have the capacity to work together. Which is why I hope Logan gets a debate episode with him as well because out of all the Sides, these two have interacted the least and that needs to be remedied (especially when they’re my two favorites)

Deceit is trying to make Roman understand, but he’s so caught up in this black and white thinking that he disregards everything Deceit says! Why? Because the last time he tried to hear Deceit out he was reprimanded. (In other words, I relate to Roman so much in this that it hits a little too close to home and I’m definitely making a separate post about this.

Deceit: *confused* Trees? And I’m so glad I found out I’m not the only dunce who thought Deceit’s name was going to be written on his hand…

But seriously this whole moment, with the buildup, Deceit’s reluctance to share his name, the music, I’d put it up there with Virgil’s “I was one of them” for best Sanders Sides scenes.

Also, Deceit’s name is Janus! I was a little iffy about it at first, but since I didn’t ever really have a prediction for his name, I wasn’t disappointed and the name is growing on me.

And then, the moment of trust is immediately ruined by Roman laughing. Dude, come on. (again though, post for another time because I understand where Roman is coming from here)

In all seriousness though I just love the last bits of this episode. The emotion, the angst, it doesn’t hold back and I appreciate the team taking things a step further than normal. Usually, moments like this are followed up by a joke to play it off, but they don’t do that after Roman sinks out. They stay in the moment until it’s had time to sink in. I wish the episode had ended a little more somberly, but I think this is a good step in the right direction. Showing that there won’t always be a 100% happy conclusion to things. Sometimes you need to take time in between to figure things out.

This line: “Do you think there’s a limit to how many times someone can say sorry before you have to admit that they’re just bad for you?” This line is so important to me within the context of the episode and outside of it. I won’t get too personal but I will say that I was raised to believe that if a person wronged me in any way, that if they said sorry, I had to forgive them. Even if they did the same thing over and over and over again. As long as they apologize, you have to forgive them and move on. And that has messed me up in so many different ways, especially when those people are family.

Janus sums it up best with “It depends” because yes, some people make the same mistakes again and again. But there’s a difference between someone trying to change and accidentally falling back on old habits, and someone taking advantage of your “forgiveness” that they continue to do those hurtful things because they know they can get away with it and not have to change.

Also, while it’s totally fine for people to dislike Patton, I can’t understand how anyone could watch this episode and claim that he’s still the same as he was at the beginning of SVS Part One because he has changed. He has finally realized just how much he’s been hurting Thomas, and even Roman. He sinks out at the end to apologize to him, he recognizes his faults, and he’s seeking to make amends. He wants to do the right thing here, and keep in mind that recently a lot of his views (which are also Thomas’ views) have been flipped on their heads and they both need to rethink some things. It’s part of growing up and becoming your own person.

I need to make a whole post about the more personal things that I got from the last three episodes (excluding Asides) because there’s just so many important things these episodes teach and I feel the need to address them.

Also everyone sleeping on the fact that Leslie Odom Jr. just casually makes an appearance and attempts to start a pilot episode for his own series “Odom Sides” which I wish him luck on. He just wants to be in the room where it happens.

Everything Patton did was for Thomas, so he wouldn’t be left in the dark again. He promised to keep fighting but ultimately, ended up fighting himself. Am I deep yet?

“Those imperfections don’t make you any less worthy of love” can you tell how much this episode means to me yet?

Janus’ “I’ll take care of him.” Ack, he just cares so much… My gosh… Where did this character come from and what did he do with the slimy boi? (I mean that in two different ways)

Oh, there he is. That’s my boi.

“There are smarter ways to get people to do what you want anyway.” “There are much less barbaric, much more fun, forms of sabotage.”

Parallels? Maybe? What the heck I love Janus whether he’s encouraging Thomas to look after his mental health or plot his schemes in the shadows. Do I trust Janus? Oh heck no, of course not. There is something suspicious going on here and I both love it and hate it. More on that in a different post though.

“You’re not stuck with an evil snake boi. You’re just stuck with a snek boi.”

Yes Thomas, continue to overthink every little issue until it results in a mental breakdown. Hm, sounds like what someone with anxiety does… I suppose that’s why this series exists.

Okay call me a bad person but I almost always space out during Thomas’ messages to the viewers at the end of the videos. I don’t know why but I cannot focus on them to save my life and usually end up skipping past them to get to the end card. I dunno, maybe because it takes me out of the moment? Especially during episodes where they don't’ address the audience at all and then suddenly “Oh yeah! This is a Youtube series lol” it just feels out of place in more story driven episodes like this one.

Okay am I the only one that’s kinda creeped out by Lee and Mary Lee? I dunno they just seem, off. Like if they were characters in a horror movie they’d be that overly nice couple that turn out to be the killers. Those are the vibes they give me. Maybe it’s because I have zero people skills due to being homeschooled all my life and the only social interaction I get is with coworkers so I dunno. They still creep me out. They creep me out more than Remus. And he legit freaked me out for a bit before he stole my heart. (I suppose this means I need to make a separate post about these two because I do have some opinions about whether or not it was a good idea to actually include them at the end. When I said I had too many thoughts about this episode I meant it)

And if the end card is any indication, I’m going to assume that the Sides are invisible to everyone except Thomas. Unless they’re just “observing” and not even Thomas can see them at this point, given he shows no indication of seeing or hearing them there. Maybe they get to choose when they’re visible? Or Thomas does? I dunno, the rules of this universe have never been clearly stated and are inconsistent.

I didn’t expect Patton to be the first to accept Janus, and I’m kinda glad I was proven wrong. It does seem fitting with Patton’s growth and I liked their little moment at the end.

And that wraps up my commentary. I hope you found something in this mess of, things. I plan to go more in depth with my separate posts which I’m going to have fun writing, so be on the lookout for those!

Also at the time of writing this I now have 63 followers?! Thank y’all so much! I never thought this blog would get this far and I’m so glad it did because I’m having a lot of fun with it and hope to bring out more content regularly! Again, thank you!!

#sanders sides #ts spoilers #sanders sides spoilers

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