#hopscotch 2019

[jealousmartini]

KPOP DR INTRODUCTION

Old opening intro:

" Don't freak out! We are O.M.G! "

New opening intro:

" 6 friends and a dream! We are O.M.G "

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[ # 000 :: O.M.G's ORIGIN STORY ] small print

O.M.G, is an originally animated six-member girl group created in late 2013 by Lucia Martinez, or better known as "Keisha" from her character in O.M.G, under her youtube channel "Envious Martini" accompanied by her 5 other girlfriends for fun. They would post a lot of vlogs, grwm (get ready with me's), mukbangs, reaction/commentary, and livestreams, of course, none of these posts were ever serious. And a lot of their videos would be clipped to be used as memes that would instantly catch fire, and their faces would soon be very recognisable. In fact It wouldnt even take long for O.M.G to earn a lot of attention from Korean and Western K-POP fans when "Molly (claimed song!! playboi carti)", which is a scrap unreleased track by the way, would randomly go viral at 2.3 million views on youtube and Envious martini would begin to grow a humble following of 430K followers for their music, art and shitposts.

All music production, concepts, and choreography were created by Keisha with the help of the 5 girls behind the scenes. For example, in order for Keisha to be able to animate the choreography, the girls would make dance routines together, figuring out positions and record it for Keisha to take as reference. This also went for vocals and rapping. All girls played their parts accordingly to how they felt comfortable and were suitable to each member. And then it would be in mid-June of 2014 that the girls would decide to bring Keisha's art to life and replace the characters of O.M.G with themselves.

And in 2015, after being invited to many interviews and talk shows and entering many survival shows and competitions, it would be one competition show in particular, held by JYP which O.M.G would win, where they would officially be adopted under JYP entertainment and debut as a JYP girl group in the same year. But it wasn't until 2016 after much debate surrounding the group that O.M.G. was finally recognised and accepted as a KPOP group.

[ # 001 :: ALBUMS ]

[ disclaimer!! claimed songs are highlighted, and said songs most likely sound slightly different in my dr because of personal taste.]

Core genres :: KPOP, EDM, JERSEY CLUB, POP-ROCK, SYNTH, ELECTRO-POP, CONTEMPORARY R&B

Core aesthetics/concepts :: GIRL CRUSH, Chaotic academia core, Y2K, Girl-next-door

Themes :: Teenage years/Nostalgia, Self discovery, Love/self love, Random stuff

(2013) Mini album 1 :: Superstitious

Tracklist :: "track no.1", "track no.2", "track no.3"

(2014) Mini album 2 :: Lawfully Wedded Wives

Tracklist :: "What's your number", "Molly", "Greedy hearts", "girls never die", "heaven sent", "kinda miss you rn"

(2015) Debut Album :: Oh My Gosh

Tracklist :: "OMG", "Magnetic", "Ditto", "Lucky girl syndrome", "Dalla Dalla", "Woo! Ah!", "ETA"

Debut song :: Ditto

(2016) 1st Single :: Princess Sickness

(2017) 2nd Album :: New Region

Tracklist :: "La di da", "Supernova", "Crush", "life on Mars" , "JOYRIDE",

(2017) 3rd Album :: GINXED

Tracklist :: "Girls on wings", "LOOP", "Serotonin", "WOW", "Bitternes, the disease", "Yes, and?", "Charmed", "LOVE DIVE", "Accendio"

(2019) 4th Album :: Hopscotch

Tracklist :: "Six of em", "1 on 1", "Now what", "Super mario", "Jersey Girls", "Sir mix a lot", more to come...

(2019) 5th Album :: Joyride

Tracklist :: "Insidious", "It's my turn now", "Trance", "met her on the internet", more to come...

(2021) 6th Album :: TOTALLY MAXED OUT

Tracklist :: "I'm your magical girl", more to more...

[ # 002 :: SOLO PROJECTS ]

(2019) Debut Solo Single :: "Make way"

(2021) 1st Solo mini Collection :: Come again?

Tracklist :: "It's my turn now", "He ate my heart", "WTF?"

(2023) 4th Solo Single :: "My Chemical Romance feat. Megan the Stallion"

(2024) 5th Solo Single :: "ABCD feat. NAYEON"

(2024) 6th Solo Single :: "Boohoo"

(2024) 7th Solo Single :: "New Woman feat. CHAE KYUNG"

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╭╔═════════════♱═════════════╗

[ # 000 :: BASIC INFO ]

Date of DR :: ??/04/2017

Name :: Lucia R. Martinez

korean birthname :: Hwang Chae-Kyung

adopted name :: Lovely adopted surname

nicknames :: Kyu, Kyungie, Keish/Keesh, Chae-Bae, Vivi

Stage name :: Keisha/Kyu

Title names :: THAT girl, Mother Rabbit, Millionaire Maknae, KPOP's Princess, KPOP's Darling, KPOP's first Black Idol, KPOP'S secret ACE, KPOP's curly head, KPOP's BEYONCE

Positions :: Producer, Main/lead singer, main dancer, sub rapper, visuals, maknae, center maybe??

Date of birth : 20 / 06 / 1997

Age :: 19

Hobbies :: Music production, drawing, dancing, singing, baking, gaming

Languages :: English, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Mandarin Chinese

Ethnicity :: half puerto rican, half korean

Representative animal :: red panda / puppy / Bunny (I can't choose rn guys)

Representative colour :: orange

Representative dessert :: cookies and brownies

Fanbase name :: charmings

Training period :: ?? months

Company :: JYP

Group representative colours :: Blue and Pink

Brands :: Vivian Westwood, Diesel, Juicy Couture

[ # 001 :: FUN FACTS ]

She is older than Jungkook by 4 months. He knows this but still chooses to not use honorifics sometimes.

She is close friends with NAYEON, Sana, Chaeyoung, YOONGI, JIMIN, JUNGKOOK, Namjoon, J-hope, TAEHYUNG, Jin, BANGCHAN, Felix, Hyunjin, YUNA, Jennie, Jisoo, Tsuyu, WONYOUNG, YUJIN,

No one knows this yet but she has a crush on 6 of the idols listed and 2 of the highlighted names are part of the six, the other 4 are not

The red panda is her animal representative because there was a video circulating of her dressed up as a mascot for her highschool as a red panda and break-dancing

Speaking of dancing, she has mastered multiple dancing styles like house, vogue, street dancing, belly dancing, Jazz, Latin, Club, Jersey and Freestyle. She's got her own signature groove 💃🏾 🕺

She is the first kpop idol to be the ambassador for Vivian Westwood, Juicy Couture and Diesel

[ # 002 :: CONTROVERSIES AND SCANDALS ]

Next post...

∘₊ ✧───────────────────✧₊∘

[catofadifferentcolor]

Terrible Fic Idea #85: The Old Guard, but make it Assassin's Creed

My brother has always been a big fan of Assassin's Creed, but I never gave the games a shot until recently, when it seemed a natural progression from all the Crusades research I've been doing for The Old Guard fic I want to write but probably never will. Once I realized Isu bullshit could be a perfect explanation for TOG immortality, this (incredibly self-indulgent) crossover was born.

Or: What if Merrick Pharmaceuticals was a competitor of Abstergo Industries?

Just imagine it:

Pharmaceutical research is an expensive, cut-throat business. Viagra is a $2 billion dollar a year industry. Humira, the blockbuster drug of 2018, sold nearly $20 billion in the US alone. So I imagine if you're a pharmaceutical CEO of limited morals and great ambition, it might seem like a better idea to steal ideas from your competitor who seems to hit it out of the ballpark every time instead of pouring billions of dollars into what may turn out to be an unfruitful venture.

Enter Hugh Merrick, father of Steve Merrick and founder of Merrick Pharmaceuticals. Needing a blockbuster and desperate to get one over on Abstergo, he hires a hacker to slip into Abstergo's servers and find him the ripest, juiciest plum they can sometime in the early 2000s, before the (modern) events of the games or the 2019 TOG movie.

The hacker comes back with the schematics for the Animus.

The idea of genetic memories seems absurd, but Hugh figures that if Abstergo has been using the Animus since the 1980s to get ahead, there's no reason he can't do it too - all he needs is a single Piece of Eden and all his problems are solved.

Hugh builds the Animus and has the hacker go back into Abstergo's systems looking for a candidate to put into it. But finding someone with Assassin blood seems dangerous - they're likely to be an assassin too and could be dangerous if they try to escape, plus the Templars killed off nearly all of them. Templar descendants are out because most are Templars themselves and if Hugh's plan is to succeed he heeds to stay off their radar for as long as possible.

The hacker returns with Abstergo's list of people who may be useful if all other avenues fail. It contains a list of people who were peripherally involved during the invents that interest them - mainly high-ranking courtiers close to Popes Alexander VI and Julius II - and their descendants. They might know things about events of Ezio's time.

Enter Joe and Nicky.

For the past few hundred years, their primary cover identities involve being the children or grandchildren of their previous cover story, all the way back to their first deaths. There are fewer questions and you get to "inherit" all your old stuff.

This method has worked quite well for them - until Merrick learns that their "ancestors" were part of the court of Pope Julius II from 1497 (when he was still Bishop of Ostia) until his death in 1513. Nicky was his private secretary, Joe was a court painter, and contemporary sources suggest they were highly placed enough to know whatever Pope Julius II knew about Ezio's apple. Such as where Ezio might have hidden it.

It's not an unreasonable plan, except for the pesky fact of Joe and Nicky's immortality. After all, the animus is designed to draw on genetic memory, not the subject's own memories. And even if it can be used to view memories laid down in their own genes 500 years ago - which is doubtful, - there's a high likelihood of it killing them - and if Hugh were to learn of their immortality, things would only get worse for them. But they have little choice once they're captured and brought to Hugh's secret research bunker somewhere north of Inverness.

What follows is a largely self-indulgent stroll through the more interesting episodes of Joe and Nicky's life together.

Nicky's first go in the animus is a jumbled, confused mess as Hugh's tech minion learns the ropes as she goes. Nicky ends up hopscotching through his early memories - for instance, a memory where he's learning how to use a sword as a young squire jumps to him using the same move during the Siege of Jerusalem. That strand of memory continues on for a bit until another interaction gets him sent into the memory of another battle/training session/conversation with the person in question and so on.

Joe's first time in the animus goes a little better, as Hugh realizes that his minion needs to learn how to program the animus before they put their most valuable subject into it, and so let's her learn with Joe. Hugh's minion (who is really beginning to regret taking this job) succeeds, pulling Joe into the genetic memory of one of his ancestors: al-Kahina, an Amazigh religious and military leader who led indigenous resistance to the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb. There should be suggestions of a Sword of Eden somewhere in events, but since they don't share Precursor knowledge, Hugh's not interested in letting the memory play out.

Nicky's second session gets them to the time period they want, but his memories have next to nothing to do with the PoE. The same holds true for Joe, when his second session puts him through his POV of that time period. And though Hugh has his minion take them up and down every memory of that time period searching for the smallest hint of anything that might point them in the right direction, there's nothing to find.

Or, rather: Nicky and Joe did meet Ezio once or twice, in waiting rooms or reception areas or the like, but they spent that time talking about art, or the weather, or philosophy - nothing about politics, or Ezio's travels, or PoEs at all.

Otherwise, most of Nicky and Joe's memories of early 16th century Rome involve Joe's rivalry with Michelangelo, who among other things persisted in flirting with Nicky even after he made it clear he wasn't interested. (Joe was, among other things, responsible for getting Michelangelo the commission for David in Florence to get him out of Rome and away from Nicky.)

There's some Vatican politics as well - Nicky's part in organizing the Swiss Guard, Joe's in organizing the Vatican Museums, and the removal of the Borgias from power - and some global politics - the 1503 dispensation for Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, etc. But most of their memories are largely Joe and Nicky being Joe and Nicky in the High Renaissance (and rather hating their jobs, as neither of them particularly like working for Julius II but were blackmailed into it to avoid being labeled as Ottoman spies.)

This goes on for several days until Hugh orders his minion to start looking for the memories of other "ancestors" - essentially, to refine the animus and her technique while he gets his hacker to find better candidates for the animus. And if this accidentally destroys Joe and Nicky's minds in the process? So be it. The plan was always to kill them at the end of their usefulness anyway.

Hugh's minion spends a day doing as asked - there's a few tantalizing glimpses of Joe and Nicky at the court of Kublai Khan in the 1270s - before she has an opportunity to act on the guilty conscious that's come to plague her.

The minion helps them escape - destroying the animus, wiping the records, and blowing the place sky high to cover the bloody swath they have to cut to get out of the secret research bunker. Amongst the casualties is Hugh Merrick, propelling his son Steve into position as youngest CEO in Pharma.

Joe and Nicky rejoin Andy and Booker - who'd been doing their best to cut their own bloody swath through anyone tangentially related to the mercenaries who kidnapped their brothers - and decide to turn their attention to tracking down PoE and destroying animus technology wherever it can be found, believing there are no peaceful uses for either. As a glad you escaped present, Booker tanks Merrick Pharmaceutical's stocks so badly the company never recovers, eventually going bankrupt.

As for the minion? Maybe she's a young Rebecca Crane prior to her recruitment by the Assassins and it’s her experiences with Hugh's animus that get her recruited by the Assassin Order. Maybe she's just a random OC who sets herself up with a new identity halfway around the world and watches gleefully as Merrick Pharmaceuticals and Abstergo Industries both eventually crash and burn.

Bonuses include: 1) Joe and Nicky being the most passive aggressive kidnapees in the history of kidnappings - on the face of things, going along with exactly what Hugh asks of them, but doing their best to focus on innocuous memories and figuring out how to purposefully make memories "skip" between similar episodes without Hugh ever noticing the glitch. Also, playing up the Bleeding Effect so that by day three they're only speaking in Medieval Italian; 2) Hugh being a better class of villain than his son. Immoral? Unethical? Yes, but in a sophisticated businessman way, not a jacket and hoodie, stab a man with a letter opener type way. For some reason I'm imagining him as Jean-Luc Picard, if Picard ever had a Mirror Universe alternate; and 3) Interludes of Andy and Booker searching for Joe and Nicky after they've been kidnapped. This should be part action-thriller along the lines of Taken, part buddy comedy, and involve an arc wherein Andy learns of Booker's deep unhappiness with his immortality and helps him come to terms with the feelings that would have otherwise eventually led to the events of the 2019 movie.

And that is surprisingly more than I thought I would have had. As always, feel free to adopt this bun, just link back if you decide to do anything with it.

More TOG Fic Ideas | More Terrible Fic Ideas

[bzedan]

We watched Civil War early on in the month and although some of the camera stuff wasn't on (watching any photography-focused movie with a person who was a photojournalist for over a decade, when oneself also has decades of photography experience is like watching VH1 Pop Up Video) the music was a fun mix, and reminded me how much I love the band Suicide, and the use of 'Rocket USA' was solid.

Speaking of music from movies, 'Sara Loves Her Juicy Fruit' has been on my monthly playlists before and is from Creep 2. It came up naturally in a suggested playlist and I dug it and couldn't figure out why more of this "Albert Natural" band wasn't out there then learned it was just a movie-only song very much riffing on like, Phish (though my partner clarifies it really is more in the style of Umphrey's McGee).

Realising there are a lot of covers in this one.

Related media to some of the songs:

We all know 'Baker Street' but have you heard the demo, which has guitar in place of sax? It's got a different, but also very good, vibe. Not as sad, more dreamy, I guess?

The_miracle_aligner overall has many classic language covers of songs that bop, but this cover of 'All Star' also I think is one of those covers that helps underline how genuinely a bop a song is. I've linked the orchestral version by Eric E. Britt before, I'm sure.

Hey, you know how I first heard The Polyphonic Spree? In a flash game called The Quest For The Rest, by Amanita Design. The first scene of it is thankfully archived on Archive dot org, and it was so wild to play it um, literally 20 years later.

Anyway here's a link to August's playlist on Spotify, with the track list below the cut.

And embedded, if you like that:

'A Message to You Rudy - 2015 Remaster' - The Specials

'Come On Let's Go' - Broadcast

'King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 1' - Neutral Milk Hotel

'Owner of a Lonely Heart' - Yes

'Everybody's Gotta Live' - Love

'Sara Loves Her Juicy Fruit' - Albert Natural

'Treat Me Right' - Norma Tanega

'Bone' - King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

'Hopscotch' - Pinc Louds

'The Secret To Life' - FIZZ

'Pure' - The Lightning Seeds

'All Star in Classical Latin' - The_miracle_aligner

'A Beautiful Morning - Single Version' - The Rascals

'Baker Street' - Gerry Rafferty

'This Is Gonna Hurt' - Dirty Nice

'Water Underground' - Real Estate

'Repetition Kills You' - The Black Ghosts

'Section 12 - Hold Me Now' - The Polyphonic Spree

'Black Hole Sun' - Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox

'Hold Me Closer' - Elton John

'Happiness' - Lovequest

'f*ckthat' - IAN SWEET

'Wicked Game' - Giant Drag

'Picture Book - 2018 Stereo Remaster' - The Kinks

'I Will Walk You Home' - Melanie

'Jubilation' - Norma Tanega

'Bark Like a God' - Sloppy Jane

'Night Life' - Scissor Sisters

'Heart And Soul' - Huey Lewis & The News

'Red Wine Supernova' - Skatune Network

'Still Be Friends' - Boy Jr.

'The Water' - Indigo De Souza

'On My Mind' - Sun City

'Rocket USA (2019 - Remaster)' - Suicide

[fin-stabilized]

A reflection on identity, and a public apology to Hopscotch user we2fd

Years ago, around 2015, when I first moved back to shanghai, I found myself unable to connect to the things I used to love watching - YouTube in particular. However, I did still crave online interaction. So what I did was install the mobile app Hopscotch - an app where you can code things with simple shapes and an intuitive block coding system, as well as - critically for me - a way to upload your creations to the world. (Don’t try the app now if you think you’re interested - it’s been enshittified.)

Also in 2015, I was… insecure about my identity. Something had already felt wrong, with me feeling that maybe I wasn’t the boy that I made myself out to be, but at that time I didn’t know how to express it, and so I tried my absolute best to present as close to the status quo as possible - perhaps hoping that by defending the system enough that eventually I would fit in. And so, when I came across another user on the site trying to explore their own identity, saying that they could turn into a cat, I sort of latched on to the concept in the worst way possible.

Bogus biology on my part. Throwing random numbers out in an effort to seem logical - I remember very clearly the nights I spent fuming over the fact that someone couldn’t turn into a cat. It made me enemies, too, as people clearly more well-adjusted than I recognized that what I did was tantamount to bullying, and tried to intercede.

I was an asshole! and a hypocrite too - a scant few years earlier, when I still lived in Melbourne, I had prided myself on playing pretend with my friends at lunch break.

Another possible reason for my actions in those few months was that I was… kind of jealous, in an odd way. Being able to turn into a cat - wouldn’t that be fantastic? no need to do the song and dance I do now, just sprout fur and a tail and walk out, y’know?

But, I digress. Fact of the matter was, I wanted to be on the “right side” of the fight, I wanted to stand for reason and logic and science and just be the most *correct* person in the room, just so there was nothing wrong with me.

… Is it any wonder that I fell straight down the conservative rabbit hole?

From 2016 through 2019 my desire to be “right” brought me down the wrong path. I focused too much on confirming my own repression and it led me to hurt some of the people who I had been closest to at the time. I happily threw away relations on my path to being the most antagonistic student in my whole school. And, of course, the feeling never subsided. Instead, my thoughts on who I *really* am, my dissatisfaction with my body and name… they gnawed a hole in me that I couldn’t resolve ever.

Come 2020, however, and lockdown hit. I had gotten a VPN working for some time now, and I decided to hop on discord. I met people - real people with things to say, and I discovered that my experiences weren’t just me. It took me a while, but I grew out of that repression, realized that I was trans, and, more recently, began to experiment with otherkin things. but most importantly, I realized that I was wrong. Someone could be a cat, if they believed hard enough.

So, with all that in mind:

we2fd. If you’re out there, which you probably are, I hope this message finds you. And I hope you know that I, Hopscotch user Marron Cinq Coding, or whatever the hell name I came up with back in the day, was dead wrong on all counts. I’ve grown, and changed, and I’m fully convinced so have you; so, if you’re out there, and you remember that username being yours on that silly little coding app, please get in contact with me. I’d love to talk. And I’m sorry for everything I’ve done.

[alexafaie-nail-art]

Do you think I have enough neon green nail polishes?

This isn't actually them all. I've got another darker green neon which has a shimmer in it which I may have bought 2 bottles of because I liked it and I'm glad cos the brand doesn't exist any more. And another which is more on the yellow green side from Barry M which wasn't actually sold as a neon, but does still react under blacklight so its got neon pigment in it.

The two POP Polish ones in the front are actually 2 different colours. One is a thermal polish which changes from a yellow-green to yellow but its a very subtle shift and its old enough it wouldn't shift much now anyway (thermal pigments unfortunately only last about 6 to 12 months in being able to react to temperature changes).

And the two Cirque Colors polishes are actually different colours from the closest POP Polish ones in real life, particularly once on the nail and dry.

They're probably close enough you'd only need one though, in which case I'd recommend Cirque Colors if you prefer a wider rounded tip brush. Left is C.R.E.A.M from Vice 2023, right is Kushy from Vice 2022.

If you prefer the skinniest of skinny brushes then POP Polish ones have those. Left to right on top row are Hopscotch, Electric Trees, and Rapture (which is a sheer neon with a ton of shimmer in which shifts from yellow through green to blue for the most part, but at extreme angles you can sometimes see hints of orange or even pink). On the bottom row are Pucker and Squirt (the thermal one) . The names together are awful, I apologise.

Currently painting my nails so that they are a gradient skittle mani from darkest to lightest. I'm applying Rapture on top of Hopscotch on the middle finger to make it more of a mid tone. I felt that Pucker leant too yellow once dry and next to the others given that I was going for a look loosely inspired by Käärijä. And since I may have a lot of green nail polishes (particularly bright/light shades including neon) in my collection, picking only the one shade seemed unfair to the others. (May have 18 greens just within arm's reach. If I lean to pick up the boxes at my feet, its probably closer to 30, and that's not including any of the rest of my collection. I may or may not have a problem).

Käärijä's nail look:

It looks like he might be wearing gel nail polish, but closest match from my polishes for colour would have to be Kushy by Cirque Colors so good luck finding that since it gets made in limited runs and other than last year, I believe the last time they offered it was 2019 or 2020. I think Glisten & Glow's Shake Your Grass At Me would also be a good match. Or Picture Polish's Lime Light.

[gone2soon-rip]

GLENDA JACKSON (1936-Died June 15th 2023,at 87).English actress and politician. She was one of the few artists to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting, having won two Academy Awards, three Emmy Awards and a Tony Award. She was made a CBE by Queen Elizabeth II in 1978.She won the Academy Award for Best Actress twice: for her roles in Women in Love (1970) and A Touch of Class (1973), not appearing in person to collect either of her Oscars due to work commitments.She won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971). Her other notable roles include Mary, Queen of Scots (1971), Hedda (1975), The Incredible Sarah (1976) and Hopscotch (1980). She won two Primetime Emmy Awards for her role as Elizabeth I in the BBC series Elizabeth R (1971). She received the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress for her role in Elizabeth Is Missing (2019). Jackson took a hiatus from acting to take on a career in politics from 1992 to 2015, and was elected as the Labour Party MP for Hampstead and Highgate in the 1992 general election. She served as a junior transport minister from 1997 to 1999 during the government of Tony Blair, later becoming critical of Blair. After constituency boundary changes, she represented Hampstead and Kilburn from 2010. At the 2010 general election, her majority of 42 votes, confirmed after a recount, was the narrowest of that parliament.Jackson stood down at the 2015 general election and returned to acting.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenda_Jackson

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

omg Merula made an unbreakable vow with Verucca before she even knew her aunt worked for R! and Verucca’s been using it to force Merula to do things she didn’t want to do and hurt people or she’d die. we don’t know the whole story yet but if it’s true then this changes a lot. it’s kind of hard to blame Merula if she’s telling the truth especially if she was forced into taking the vow which she probably was knowing Verucca. i know there’s a chance that she’s lying especially how she’s lied before but i’m not sure if she’d lie about this.

Oh look, here comes that one single flimsy excuse I needed totally and utterly forgive Merula for everything and go back to loving her! Ahaha, the day is saved! My conscience is clear!

...Okay, okay, it's not that simple. First of all...she could be lying. Like, let's not discount that possibility. Goodness knows that she's lied about so much. But like always, I am inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt. (Even knowing that to do so is unwise at this point.) I'll assume she's telling the truth at least in part. She may, for instance, be lying about what she knew when she took the Vow. Or she might not be. It remains to be seen.

...and now my heart is breaking, because I know how this story is going to end. Merula is going to violate her Vow, and give her life in the process. She's going to have a change of heart, and fully commit to helping MC and/or standing up to R. And it's going to kill her. I may be wrong, and goodness knows that I hope I am. But I can feel the direction that the wind is blowing, and this seems to be where Merula's story is headed now that we know this.

It's tricky because we don't entirely know the circumstances, but I still am assuming that Merula was forced to join at a young age, probably when she was eleven. Not only that, but Verucca has shape-shifting powers. Consider this - what if she took the form of Merula's mum to fool her into taking the Vow? That's an insidious thought. We know that children can (apparently) enter into an Unbreakable Vow based on Fred and George trying to trick Fred into doing so, and how angry Arthur was about it. I don't know if the enchantment has any "clauses" to protect minors, or people who are deceived into the Vow, but there aren't any that we know of. I would love it if minors can withdraw whenever they want, the way it works in real life. If no one knew that was true because no one ever tried. But that would simply be too easy.

(As a side note, R coercing children into making Unbreakable Vows to serve them? Holy hopscotch you guys, I'm on a roll. My silly fictober story from 2019 has retroactive spoilers, and I'm gonna be riding that high for the next few hours or so.)

[benicedeerhoof]

It’s cool kid’s song. :) Zora and Randa love this music recently. 🎶🎤

[moochilatv]

Cornelius presents: "Too Much Love for Sauna (Falling Deep)"

Post-Modern Pop artists Cornelius releases bewitching New Single and Vide.  

Forthcoming Ambient LP Ethereal Essence Out June 26

Stream/Order Ethereal Essence here

“Too Much Love for Sauna” unfurls like a fractal melody from an otherworldly music box, layering delicate tones and textures organically, enveloping audiences in a sublime experience. The piece also has a fun story behind it. 

“This song was written for the TV drama, SADO, and has been used as the opening theme since 2019,” Cornelius says. “In the past few years, there has been an unprecedented sauna boom in Japan, and the original manga was the spark that ignited it. I was a fan of the artist and decided to take charge of the project. The single we are distributing this time is a newly arranged version that expresses the psychedelic ecstasy of the sauna more deeply.”

A noticeable shift in direction from his famed hopscotch pop style to a more meditative and abstract approach, Ethereal Essence marks Cornelius’ first full-length album since the critically acclaimed Dream in Dream (2023), and Mellow Waves (2017) LPs. Dream in Dream’s singles and videos – "Change and Vanish”, “Sparks” and "All Things Must Pass" – were received adoringly throughout 2023. 

Reflecting on the evolution of his sound, Cornelius explains, “I gathered songs that have an ethereal feel from the various purposes for which they have been produced over the past few years and I decided to make one album. With the current strange situation in the world and the stressful social life, I feel comfortable with something that fits into the introspection and spiritual world. Last year, I exhibited my work at Ambient Kyoto in Kyoto with Ryuichi Sakamoto and others.” In addition to Sakamoto and Cornelius (whose collaboration wowed audiences and critics), the prestigious festival also included Shiro Takatani, Buffalo Daughter, and Seiichi Yamamoto, a noteworthy lineup overflowing with genius highlighting Kyoto’s significance in the world of music and art. 

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Cornelius’ current focus is nothing new. The songwriter, producer, and performer has been a fan of ambient music his whole life and includes Raymond Scott’s “Soothing Sounds for Baby,” Hiroshi Yoshimura’s Music for Nine Postcards, Jonny Nash’s Exit Strategies, The Sweet Enough’s Marshmallow, and Steve Hiett’s Down on the Road by the Beach among his favorite ambient albums of all time. 

The upcoming 30th anniversary Dream in Dream World Tour features Cornelius’ 20-year compatriots Hirohisa Horie on keyboards (also a support member for Yukihiro Takahashi’s Yellow Magic Orchestra) and Yuko Araki on drums (also a member of Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band along with Cornelius); and Buffalo Daughter’s Yumiko Ohno on Moog and bass, who joined Cornelius in 2016 on his indelible Fantasma World Tour. Cornelius and his band will be playing songs from his five previous albums since 1992, beginning with the landmark LP Fantasma. He encourages old fans and new to experience this next wave in sound in person. “We are grateful to everyone who has supported our activities. Please come and see us.”

U.S. West Coast Tour Dates

9/21/24 - Music Box - San Diego, CA

9/22/24 - Pappy & Harriets - Pioneertown, CA

9/24/24 - Fonda Theatre - Los Angeles, CA

9/25/24 - UC Theatre - Berkeley, CA

9/27/24 - Crystal Ballroom - Portland, OR

9/29/24 - Neptune Theatre - Seattle, WA

World Tour Dates 

8/29/24 - End of the Road Festival - Salisbury, England 

9/3/24 - Paradiso - Amsterdam, Netherlands 

9/6/2024 - Barbican - London, England

Ethereal Essence Track List:

1. Quantum Ghost

2. Sketch For Spring

3. Heaven Is Waiting

4. Too Much Love For Sauna (Falling Deep)

5. Xanadu

6. Koko

7. Step Into Exovera

8. Forbidden Apple

9. Melting Moment

10. Mind Matrix

11. Windmills Of My Mind

12. Thatness and Thereness - Cornelius Remodel (Ryuichi Sakamoto 2023 tribute cover

Follow Cornelius:

Website | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube | Facebook  

[dallasgrant]

Hopscotch (Official Video) ft. Joji, AUGUST 08, Barney Bones, & Rich Brian October 30, 2019 at 09:00AM via YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cn11rmyYbaM

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WKNC Breaking

After weeks of intense negotiation The Avett Brothers finally realize their dream of directing people towards bathrooms and beer.

-Andrew Evans 

[fedoraphe]

THEY GAVE PLUTO A SEQUEL, A SONG!!!!!!!

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My mama womb expensive.

📷: stay_chxll on IG✨