#i am being incredibly normal about this song why do you ask?

[musicmusings42]

"You wasted your life, but thanks for applying"

"You got older cause you're good at life"

"I'm all grown up, but you couldn't tell"

"Getting a life's a little like dying"

"Be kind to me, be kind and wait it out"

[look-at-the-soul]

Hi! I'm new to the Peaky fandom and am in need of some Tommy fics because he's my favourite character! If your requests are open, (if not, there's no rush!) may I pretty please have a drabble or imagine -- whatever is easier -- with this gif?

*A little spice is okay, just nothing explicit. Also, my pronouns are she/her, but a gender neutral story is totally okay, too! :)

Thank you in advance!

Hello Jessyca! 🥰 Thank you so much for sending this gif!! I decided to make it part of Adele challenge using one of my favorite songs! (Lyrics in italics) 🔥🥰 edit and welcome to the fandom!! 🥰 I forgot to reply this sorry! I hope so far you’ve found incredible stories and lovely mutuals around (I’m always reblogging stories I really enjoy reading 💖)

🔥🔥🔥although the gif is extra hot, you’ll find nothing but fluffiness in this little story…

Women like me

By the corner of your eye, you found Mr. Shelby trying to catch his breath. Resting on his back against the pillows, he was looking at the ceiling completely lost in his own thoughts, his thumb rubbing absently between his brows.

You're driving me away, give me a reason to stay

I want to be lost in you, but not in this way

Don't think you quite understand who you have on your hands

How can you not see just how good for you I am?

In silence you started the same routine you knew by heart now; get up, get dressed and sneak out of his bedroom in silence, head down.

Ah, yes you were almost forgetting about his generous payment in between.

I know that you've been hurt before, that's why you feel so insecure

I begged you to let me in, 'cause I only want to be the cure

You could still feel his seed dripping down your legs, but tried to pick up your clothes scattered on the floor as gracefully as you could to get dress in the corner.

You’d been serving him for several months now, rumor has it Lizzie Stark wasn’t his mistress anymore because she got pregnant, so that was your job now; being Thomas Shelby’s whore.

Complacency is the worst trait to have, are you crazy?

You ain't never had, ain't never had a woman like me

But tonight there was something different, out of place. Mr. Shelby was still in the same position, his chest was now moving at a more normal pace. Looking at the floor, you felt embarrassed to ask for the money so you decided to pretend to fix your hair to see if he got the hint.

But he didn’t.

So after he longest seconds of your life, you decided to walk out without anything, feeling disappointed because you really needed to money to support your family. Perhaps he’d pay you double the next time, you thought to yourself but as you reached the door, his voice stopped you.

All you do is complain about decisions you make

“Y/N…” Your mouth hang open, surprised to hear him say your name.

“Is there a chance for you to stay all night?”

“I-I don’t know Mr. Shelby.” You stammered nervously, the instructions were clear; let him do whatever he wants, pick up your stuff and leave.

“You can call me Tommy… is there somewhere you need to go?”

Your eyes found his briefly, but you instantly dragged them down. “No, it’s just I’m not supposed to stay for the night.” You answered in a low voice.

“Why not?”

Feeling more embarrassed than ever, you didn’t want to point out the obvious, but as his intense blue eyes stared at you, you didn’t have another choice.

“Sir-Tommy,” you corrected yourself, “I’m just a whore.”

We come from the same place, but you will never give it up

It's where they make you feel powerful

That's why you think I make you feel small

But that's your projection, it's not my rejection

You knew that’s what you were, anyone could tell without even knowing you. But calling yourself that, hit you differently.

“Come here,” he extended his hand at you, and you didn’t have any other choice but take it and climb into bed again. “How long have you been coming here?”

“Six months.”

I put my heart on the line for the very first time

Because you asked me to, and now you've gone and changed your mind

But loving you was a breakthrough

You saw his head moving up and down slowly, but he was still oddly quiet.

He was still trying to organize the thoughts inside his mind as he saw you absently picking on your stockings. How could he put into words the way he felt about you?

“Y/N over the last couple of months, you’ve been the only one willing to spend some time with me, when everyone else finds an excuse to walk out the door, you’ve been the constant of my days, or nights for the matter.”

I saw what my heart can really do

Now some other man will get the love I have for you

'Cause you don't care, oh-oh-oh

Was he going to ask you to stop coming every night? You couldn’t speak, terrified of saying something that would piss him off. You had fallen for him secretly, blame it to the intimacy, the frequent late night calls, the way please took over him, but you did and deep down you knew it was all wrong.

“You’re not like the others, you don’t take and leave. You fill my glass with whiskey before you go or you pick up my clothes and fold them… you’ve listened to all my shit without judging me.”

Confused, you gave him a long look. “Tommy, what are you try-”

“I’ve feelings for you, Y/N.”

“That can’t be true, I’m a whore… men like you don’t fall in love with women like me.”

Consistency is the gift to give for free, and it is key

To ever keep, to ever keep a woman like me

“Women like you?” He was suddenly kneeling in bed in front of you, his hands cupping your cheeks. “Who says that?”

“Everybody knows that.”

This was just a fantasy, a dream. You were worthless, the worst of the worst.

“Just so you to know, I’m not so different than you… we just sell different parts of ourselves, Y/N.”

His eyes fixed on you, his intense gaze penetrating every layer, tearing down every single wall. And as he realized your guard was coming down, he pulled you in for a kiss, breaking the only rule you set when you first walked into his bedroom; no kissing.

That first kiss felt totally different to anything you’ve experienced until now, because men usually take what they want and leave right away, but Tommy took his time to explore your lips, the way they molded to his, tentatively, switching his pace and tilting his head from time to time as if he didn’t want to leave a single spot unattended.

He broke apart allowing you to take a deep breath, your head was spinning.

“Beneath, there’s a good woman, I just know it.” His knuckles carefully caressed your chin. You wanted to believe him, but you had been used in the past you no longer knew who you were.

He saw the hesitation in your eyes, so he took your hand and placed it over his heart. “Y/N I’m not going to hurt you, I genuinely fell for you, for he woman you are, for the little things I know about you… for the way you allowed me to be myself when the door is closed.”

He had been fighting it for so long, but with you he was allowed to strip down not only from his clothes, but from the heartless cold bastard he had to be in front of everyone else.

“Will you give me the chance?”

Looking down you fought against the lump that formed in your throat. “But how will you deal with my past and all the burden I’ve?”

“I’m not going to erase it, just like you can’t delete mine,” his fingers sunk in your disheveled curls, “but we can look forward and take it from there, together.”

As a single tear slid through your cheek, his thumb came to wipe it away, right before he crashed his lips once more and you believed him with all your heart because deep down you knew he was right.

A woman like you wasn’t so different than a man like him.

***

Master list

A/N: I’ve had this idea for a while now, guess it was time to post it, and I apologize because although I absolutely adore the concept I have been feeling a bit down and I’m not sure I was able to portray what I intended to…

Like always I’m so grateful if you decide to share your thoughts x

Tag list: @lyarr24 @runnning-outof-time @cillmequick @datewithgianni @cloudofdisney @gretelshelby @gypsy-girl-08 @lespendy @onlydeadcells @fastfan @stevie75 @rangerelik @prettylittlehoneyeyesxoxo @esposadomd @forbidden-forest-witch @ange-thoughts @moral-terpitude @elenavampire21 @forgottenpeakywriter @thenattitude @winchestergirl22 @zablife @heidimoreton @imichelle-l-rigby @allie131313 @already-broken144 @peakyscillian @babaohhhriley @mrkdvidal1989 @shelbydelrey @shaddixlife @sloanexx @sydneyyyya (can’t tag) @adaydreamaway08 @pono-pura-vida @thomashelbyswife @darleneslane @everythingelseisextra @kmc1989

[eternal-kosmo-ghoul]

Hi I was wondering if you could write maybe an angsty Terzo fic? Full creative freedom to you but I randomly started to think of "Why'd you only ever call me when you're high?" By artic monkeys fits him kinda in my eyes.

❝why’d you only call me when you’re high?❞

➵ “left you multiple missed calls and to my message, you reply…” —❤︎

pairing: terzo x gn!reader

theme: angst ❦

a/n: the way i am in love with this request. i love terzo and that song definitely fits him. hope you like angst

cw: alcohol consumption. substance abuse (weed). bittersweet ending. hints of terzo’s death. terzo being kinda neglectful of the reader. fighting-ish, lots of sad feelings

┅✦┅

“you’re doing it again, terzo.”

“doing what?”

“you know exactly what i mean.”

you just stood over terzo’s desk, tapping your foot with your arms crossed, gaze narrowed at the emeritus in a stern manner. meanwhile, terzo returned your gaze with an annoyed glare.

“leave me alone, y/n. i’m perfectly fine. i don’t need you babysitting me like i’m some toddler.” terzo spat back with a harsh tone, running his gloved hand through his raven-black hair while he directed his attention back to whatever alcohol he was downing.

“well i feel like i have to! you’re wasting your life away on all of this useless junk!” you retorted back, voice raising in pitch as you watched your lover just stay focused on the substances he was downing himself in.

it was a rather sad sight, and a difficult situation for the two of you. terzo has been incredibly stressed out as the era’s current frontman for the ministry.

you couldn’t blame him, it was not an easy job at all. from warding off jesus-preachers and hardcore christians from the ministry, to keeping everything in check with sister imperator and the ghouls.

it was only a matter of time before the work got to him.

why must he wash his sorrows away through the means of elicit liquor and powdered drugs?

“look at yourself, terzo! your face paint is all smudged, and you look like you haven’t slept in days. can you at least try to get your life together?” you asked with your hands on your hips, stepping over to get real close to terzo— who was still lazily hunched over his desk.

upon hearing your words, terzo scowled and shot up from his seat, turning to glare at you with a hiss. due to the sudden change in position, he stumbled a bit from the dizziness, and due to the side effects of the alcohol and weed.

“can you just fuck off, y/n? i’m a perfectly capable and responsible man. i don’t need your ass monitoring me.” terzo slurred out in an agitated and angered tone, shoving your shoulder. it took you aback.

this wasn’t like the sweet terzo you once knew. he was normally so heartwarming, always being gentle with you. his touch normally felt warm.

but this time, it was ice cold.

“terzo…” you trailed off, finding yourself at a loss for words. you just wanted your lover back. this wasn’t the same guy you once knew. whatever happened to that soft-spoken and flirty terzo?

because this man just looked bitter, like he hated himself, hated the world.

and yet, it didn’t look like he hated you.

terzo knew he was acting like a jackass to you, neglecting your affectionate needs and advances. but with everything that’s being onto him, how could he not? especially since his era is coming to a close soon, and a new era means that a new papa was going to come around.

he knew he was going to get replaced brutally, which is why he’s been so stressed. but terzo didn’t want to tell you that, even if he’s being a complete jerk and wasting his last few moments away.

“just get out of here, y/n. you don’t have to worry about me.” terzo tried to say coldly, but there was a hint of vulnerability in his voice, which you definitely picked up on.

despite this, all of the alcohol circulating in his bloodstream caused him to collapse, and blackout, almost hitting the floor. your reflexes were quick and you managed to catch terzo.

he looked incredibly miserable, even when he was passed out like this. sighing, you just brushed the hair out of his face.

“you idiot.” you mumbled to yourself, dragging terzo’s unconscious body to his room.

gently laying him down on the bed, you made sure to keep a trash fan nearby incase he needed to throw up when he woke up. terzo’s chest rose and fall with each heavy breath he took.

it would’ve looked so peaceful if it weren’t for terzo’s current condition. you wished you could’ve helped him more.

sighing, you put a hand over terzo’s, gently tracing circles in his palm while he slept.

maybe you could be the last bit of comfort terzo experiences before he perishes.

“goodnight, terzo.” you whispered softly, pressing a kiss against his cheek.

you never left his side that night.

[ibelieveinvillainsupremacy]

Oooooh!! I have an idea! How about a pitch black x reader where (Y/N) is totally Gen Z, so nothing really scares them and it drives Pitch INSANE.

Reader is so desensitized that anything Pitch tries to pull they just brush it off or think it’s funny!

Omg first request on my AU <33

Of course! Sounds so cool ^^

(After a lot of time i start writing again qwq)

Before starting, here's a little context on this AU:

I was inspired by @seaslugfanclub Disney Villains/ y/n park assistant concept, I thought something.

What if there was another company (generic name supposedly) that to go against this incredible idea of the Disney Parks to make the Villains turn into actual people decided to do the same thing with non- Disney Villains as well?

And this other y/n had to take care of them, because they are also very chaotic without a lead of some kind...

my most recent post includes way more villains i got obsessed with, so check out the list if you want to request me some asks!

Now, let's go <33

The Disney Parks had made such a smart move on making their bad guys come to life, so their most brilliant rival decided to do same thing.

But how to make their choice not sound like a copy of their rivals?

Easy.

Let's include multiple animated universes and let them come to life together!

Unfortunately for Y/N, the park attendant that has to reunite them all together and "take care" of their actions,

(no kids or human was harmed in this, writer of this confirms! at least not yet),

that wasn't an easy job. Not at all.

Don't get this wrong, the newest addition to the park really enjoyed villains of all kind (and despite not being accepted by the other park) she gladly wanted to work at this new one. Yeah, wanted.

Because the poor human didn't know tha chaos that was about to happen.

One of the villains that was a pain in the ass to tolerate was the lord of nightmares himself.

Now, normally one would be a little bit, at least for a moment, scared of what that man had in mind.

Well, let's just say that Y/N was one of those incredible (and so incredibly frustrating) humans that wasn't scared of the tricks and literal creatures Pitch could materialize out of nowhere.

Spiders? No, the park assistant wouldn't even look at them.

Clowns? You'll get a laugh and a few looks that seem to say "Not today, big guy"

Anything that the obscure could think about would never work.

"After months in your company, I'm still not sure on the reason why you are even able of seeing me, without any profound and maniacal fear in that head of yours."

Oh. That day you were literally head in the clouds, well not fully. You were trying to separate Rasputin and Rothbart (those bickering old-) that were for the thousand time arguing on who was the most powerful, had the coolest song, which one was almost going to be part of Disney (let's just think that he didn't succeed). And who had to help that mess? Guess.

So now you had another problem to fix. A big one.

You knew that he was a little disappointed from that look on his ashen face, so you had to fix that.

"Well, I actually am afraid of things, Pitch, but if I actually start panicking at any nightmare creation of yours, this park would be absolutely turned to dust. And I don't know where you'll go without me, and my frustrating emotionless face."

The villain then gave a small nod in your direction.

"Can you at least be scared next time? Just a little bit?"

"Would that make you happy?"

"I think so."

"Then alright big guy. I'll show you my terrified face, promise."

"I can't wait to see it."

[marchiveeee]

Domestic scenarios with the HSL boys

Hey, friends! I decided to make this one using the pronouns "they/them." Hope you like it!

Armin

He was in his room, half sitting half lying on his beanbag, and fully focused on the game he was playing. He'd just got out of the shower and his hair was still damp.

Armin hears his partner leaving the bathroom after they are done with their shower, but his eyes don't move from the screen in front of him. He breathes in the fresh scent of soap and notices them getting closer.

Eyes still on the game, he feels his partner's hand combing his hair gently from behind.

"Are you winning?" They ask.

"Hum..." The boy lets out a hum of agreement and approval and leans back his head a little bit indicating he didn't want that caressing session to end so soon.

Castiel

He opened the door to his apartment letting out a loud thankful sigh for getting home after a long day.

“Cas?” his partner called from their shared bedroom.

“I’m home!” Castiel replied making his way to their room.

As he stepped inside, he saw them lying down scrolling down through something on their phone but stopped when saw their boyfriend coming in.

“Hey.” They dropped the phone and smiled in his direction.

Castiel walked towards the bed and threw himself on top of their lover, who let out a grunt with the sudden weight. 

“God… You’re so clingy sometimes.” They complained but wrapped their arms around Castiel anyways.

“You love it tho.” The man’s voice sounded muffled for he had his face pressed between their neck and collarbone.

They chuckled in response and hugged him tighter. 

Kentin

He watched with a smile on his face as Cookie ran to get the stick he had just tossed. 

"I'm back!" He heard his partner calling and turned to see them approaching with two ice creams in hand.

He didn't know what happened at that moment, but as he saw his partner coming in his direction with a kind smile, and with their hair and face glowing from the sun rays that landed on them, he just couldn't help but think how incredibly lucky and how terribly in love he was. 

"Thanks, baby," he said accepting his ice cream and hugging them by their shoulders. He pulled them closer and felt himself being hugged by the waist, he pressed a kiss on the top of their head. That kiss lasted a bit more than it normally would, he wanted to make sure they felt how loved they are even if only by this small gesture of affection.

Lys

He started humming a song he'd recently listened to on the radio as he cut some vegetables in the kitchen. 

"That's a good song you're singing!" His partner surprised him as they entered the kitchen 

"Oh, I didn't hear you coming!" The white-haired said and accepted a peck from them, before they made their way to fill up their water bottle.

"What's the name of the song?"

Lys stopped cutting a carrot and tilted his head back with his eyes tightly closed.

"Hmmm… I don't think I remember, honey." He said giving up on recalling the name of the song.

His partner let out a giggle and hugged him from behind.

"I should've known." They said pressing a gentle kiss on the back of his neck.

Nathaniel

He saw his partner sitting on the couch, they had a frown on their face as they read something on their laptop.

They had been very stressed lately about a project and it wasn't hard to notice how tired they were.

Nath walked to them and handed them a cup of their favorite homemade drink. 

"C'mon, it's time for a pause, don't you think?"

They sighed nodding. Nathaniel waited until they had put their laptop aside and accepted the cup.

"Thank you, Nath." 

"Don't mention it." He sat by their side and leaned in to give them a kiss on the shoulder. 

"What would I do without you?" They said looking at him after he came back to his normal position.

He giggled and said, "You'd handle everything pretty well, but I guess we'll never know for sure…"

"Oh?" They said raising one eyebrow in a fake doubtful look. "Why's that?"

"I am not going anywhere so soon, dear." 

_________

Wow writing those lovebirds being lovebirds made me realize, once again, how lonely I am kkkkkk Searching the gifs also didn't help, but it was fun still.

Hope y'all are having a good day!

[amiharana]

Hey; different anon here. I saw your post about Revali singing to Link, and that got me thinking: Revali singing in some cavernous place(maybe an unearthed Sheikah building, but those probably would be occupied by researchers 24/7 so idk) and Link finding him there, maybe catching him mid-practice. First, Revali trying to come up with a feasible reason why he hangs out in said place would be hilarious, and second, imagine him singing some old Rito song to Link once he promises he won't tell anyone 👀

Also: imagine all chamipons, Link and Zelda hanging out on one of the Divine Beasts and singing a song together (i am very weak to champions being a found family)

oh anon this is a fantastic idea and i got a little carried away with it. i am so sorry i basically half-wrote fanfic here omg i'm gonna put a read-more under the next paragraph 😭 i also really love the idea of the champions as a found family aaaa but i will not be able to cover that here because this post is already long enough HAHAHA i'll try to talk a bit on that in a separate post LOL i recall there being a modern revalink au where the champions are in a musical? and i believe it was by bibliomaniac! i'm gonna have to go reread it that fic was gassss omg

i would like to suggest the cave where the great hebra skeleton is as revali's super-secret-singing cave! maybe he stumbled upon it as a fledgling and promptly left screeching and running when he saw huge beastly skeleton, but later returned over the years and started using it as his secret singing practice cave. the acoustics in that place gotta be fire, fr.

i'm imagining this happening pre-calamity, but maybe link is checking out the huge hole in hebra peak with zelda (for science reasons >:] zelda is a Woman in STEM!). when they're done, zelda gets flown back down to rito village by another rito who accompanied them, but link decides to stay for a little while longer because hebra is one of the prettiest regions hands down idc! he ends up accidentally figuring out how to shield-surf down the peak completely unintentionally and i know his dumb ass face-planted into the snow LMAO. somehow, he ends up near the stone entrance where one of the doors have already been propped open... so keeping a hand ready to grab for his sword, link enters the cave 😳

but once he does actually enter, he hears a beautiful voice singing a melancholy song, their voice resonating and bouncing off of the cavern's walls and link is entranced. his guard drops immediately and he follows the song deeper into the cave, eyes wide and moving like he's possessed where he's greeted by not only a gigantic fucking leviathan skeleton and one of those shrines zelda's obsessed with, but revali, the champion of the rito and known asshole freak, being the owner of that incredible angelic voice? hylia above, revali of all people?!

but the longer that link listens, the further he falls under revali's musical spell, the rito standing on the platform lip of the shrine, a hand on his chest and his eyes shut as he sings. revali does have a very nice voice and it's making link want to sing with him, like he's meant to or something. but the longing in revali's voice keeps catching link off guard — why does he sound so sad? why does he sing like his heart aches to be with someone he can't have...?

by the time revali has finished his sorrowful song and opens his eyes, link stands before him at the steps of the shrine, his eyes still wide. for a moment, revali holds link's gaze catching his breath and doesn't actually register it's link at first, but then—

"how did you get in here?!" revali squawks, jumping back. his screech echoes across the cavern, but link doesn't flinch at all still staring at revali in awe.

"i could ask the same of you," link says breathlessly. "do you normally just hang out in caves? you know what, that's not important right now. your voice is... incredible."

revali shifts and preens under the praise, but it's still link, who of course has disrupted all his plans once more. "y-yes, well," revali stammers, "it's not as though as an extraordinary warrior such as myself couldn't be talented in music and art! the rito are natural singers, our vocal chords are practically perfectly formed for singing when we're born! why wouldn't i posses a voice fit for the heavens?" revali tosses his braids over his shoulder and points his beak upwards, but he keeps an eye trained on link, who still stares in awe and admiration. it's... quite nice to have link's attention like this. "and for your information, i do not just hang out in caves. i'm a creature of wind and sky! i simply required an isolated location that would provide the proper resonance i needed to... rehearse. and this was the perfect spot, until you came and ruined it!"

"what was that song you were singing?" link says softly, ignoring revali's harsh words. he takes a step closer and revali can't find it in him to move away. "it sounded so... sad."

revali stares at him incredulously, before sighing in resignation. link was a very stubborn person who was focused on achieving his goals, no matter what. it was... an admirable trait, in more appropriate situations than this. "it's an ancient song of the rito," revali responds, in a much softer tone than when he previously spoke. "it might be difficult for you to believe, but the rito are a people of intimacy and devotion. we aren't just warriors." revali looks back to meet link's piercing blue gaze. it could blend in with the ice that surrounds the cavern walls around the leviathan skeleton. "this song... is one of yearning, of being apart for far too long, whether it be time or space, and of wishing desperately to be by each other's side once more.

"it was originally in the ancient tongue of my ancestors, but of course time and its partner conquest have done their duties, attempting to usher in reinterpretations and translations digestible for general hyrulean dialects and muddling our sacred words in the process." link winces and stares apologetically. "don't bother with apologies now, what's done is done. the ancient rito language still lives, even if broken and battered. my ancestors never yielded to such conquests." revali looks away again and up at the great skeleton above their heads. "and it's still a proud and beautiful song, even if somber."

"it is beautiful," link agrees. then he fidgets, averting his eyes to play with his fingers. "a very beautiful song..." link still feels that aching need to sing with revali, and that song....

revali studies link's actions. "spit it out," he says. "you very clearly want to say something. did you change your mind and decided that my performance was pathetic and subpar?" revali's words are frigid, sharpened into icicles dipped in bitterness.

"no!" link's head shoots up, eyes wide in panic. "no, no, never. your voice is amazing, i really meant that! i just..." link fidgets again. "the song... is it... do you... do you do lessons?" revali blinks and link takes it as a no. "sorry, never mind, that was dumb, i—"

"with all due respect, champion link," revali cuts him off, "perhaps you should allow me a chance to respond." link shuts his mouth and nods. "what do you mean, 'lessons'?"

"would... would you teach me the song?" link says. he stares at revali with wide blue eyes, nervous but curious more than anything. it catches revali completely off-guard.

"you... want to learn it?" revali says. his tone is no longer icy and spitting, instead soft and genuinely surprised.

"yes," link whispers, eyes impossibly wider. "you said it's sad, but it sounds beautiful. i'm not the greatest singer in the world or anything, but i can appreciate a well-composed song when i hear it. so... i want to learn it, if you'll teach me."

when revali looks into link's eyes again, they're still nervous but now they're hopeful and determined and genuine and it leaves revali astonished. link, of all people, wanted to learn a song of his people? "perhaps," revali murmurs, "you aren't as incompetent and selfish as i thought you were. i could spare some time to teach you such a significant song of our culture..." link perks up, eyes sparkling— "but! under certain conditions!"

"i'll do anything," link agrees immediately. that surprises revali too, but he masks it as he stares at link.

"i will not have you sullying my name and image as a champion," revali says, "and so you will not speak of this to anyone. you won't tell anyone about this encounter, this place, that i'm teaching you this song, that i sing at all — this will remain strictly between you and me, understand?" and link nods right away, maintaining his intense blue-eyed gaze. "...good." revali shakes his crest feathers out reflexively. "i'm finished for this session, but if your desire to learn this song manages to survive the night, you will find me here again at dawn."

"then i'll see you tomorrow morning," link says breathlessly, beginning to grin. "thank you, revali... i'm genuinely grateful."

"rightfully so," revali preens. "you'll be learning only from the best. now let us return to the village, before the princess thinks you've abandoned your duties and disappeared into the wilderness."

when they step outside of the cavern, the sun is beginning to reach for its bed under the horizon, the sky above them glowing in soft shades of pink and orange and light sheets of snow fall gently around them. link gasps softly at the scenery — hebra truly is one of the most beautiful regions in hyrule. revali snorts at the little hylian's wonder but his chest swells with pride for his home.

as he raises his wings to gather updraft, revali realizes that link doesn't really have any other methods of returning to the village. he doesn't even know how link got here in the first place, but if he were to walk all the way back to the village from here, he might as well just leave himself for dead. the hebra mountains were beautiful, yes, but they were incredibly dangerous for anyone who wasn't prepared or familiar with the terrain. and so revali takes a breath to gather his pride and ask...

"do... do you want me to take you back to the village?" revali mumbles, averting his eyes. link turns to look back at him, his eyes wide. "simply out of necessity, of course. a flightless, featherless thing like yourself couldn't possibly make it back to the village on your own and return by dawn. it would be a death sentence!" revali's feathers begin to ruffle as he continues to talk— "the princess would have my head if i didn't ensure your safety, as i'm practically responsible for it if we're out here together."

"i'd like that," link murmurs, his gaze softening. revali looks back at him and his feathers rise. "thank you, revali."

"yes, well, i'm sure you would," revali stutters, "i'd provide the smoothest and most comfortable ride out of all the rito!" revali turns away, trying to subtly pat down his feathers, and crosses his arms. "now, get on my back, we're losing light! i don't want to fly when it gets dark. i won't be able to see a thing..."

link smiles at him and revali's chest expands and swirls, a strange feeling he can't quite recognize yet. the little hylian does as revali says and clambers onto his back, holding onto revali's shoulders. "hold on tight, my gale is quite powerful now, you know. i won't spare you any time to catch you if you fall." (a lie, not that link needs to know.) and with that, revali crouches and gather wind under his wings, before bursting upwards into the sky.

link's arms tighten around his shoulders and chest, whooping and gasping from the cold air as they rise. as they fly back to rito village, revali wonders how link will be able to make it to the cave in the morning. should he offer to take link there? would link even say yes? he doesn't know. all revali can focus on is the feeling of link's arms tight around his chest and his warm breath in his ear as they fly back to the village.

what an interesting turn of events, revali thinks, who would've thought that this is what we would become, that you would want to learn a song in the tongue of my people. that's too likeable of you, link. how shall i maintain our rivalry now?

(spoiler alert, revali; the r in rivalry stands for romance and you're about to get held against the wall during a sparring session 🥰)

[justmossyall]

about me <3

hi! the name’s sunny. she/her, a minor, INFJ, aggressively neurodivergent

a bit about me: i’m a christian, an author, an artist and an actor. i’m a huge dork and love infodumping about my favorite things, so my asks are always open if you want me to rant to you 😭

the general stuff: no nsfw, don’t be weird, just remember that i am legally (and honestly mentally) a child before you say anything weird or are mean to me lol. also i have pretty bad anxiety and emetophobia, idk why that would ever come up but I figured I would mention it??? just…………….don’t stress me out or mention vomit ig????? bro idek anyways

side blogs because i have an obsession:

this is my main, a lot of reblogs about the things i like

my horrendous thoughts @justmossyaps

art blog @justartyall

writing blog @justmosswrites

photography blog @raindropsonmushroomcaps

ask game! drama ask game! can you tell i like ask games! here’s a fourth one!

~~~

shows i like: gravity falls, arcane, bluey, bee and puppycat, amazing digital circus, toh, wandavision (not a marvel fan in general but i love that show), dance moms (don’t judge im a sucker for reality tv), and way too many kids shows. what can i say my mental age is like 4 (@person4924 and @sweetronancer know octonauts is where it’s at 😭)

movies i like: first of all i am a huge ghibli fan 😭 anyways the tinker bell movies, ratatouille, wall-e, the muppet movies, spiderman: into/across the spiderverse, brave, random 90s movies that I watch with my parents

books i like: psych im not listing all those, there’s way too many 😭 (kotlc and the scythe series are my favs though)

games i like: undertale/deltarune/undertale yellow (y’all should know by now how obsessed i am with that franchise), stardew valley, animal crossing, zelda botw (i have not played totk yet :( im hoping to soon though!), ddlc

special interests: psychology (especially neurodivergencies, specifically autism and tic disorders), writing, undertale/deltarune/uty, gravity falls, arcane, tadc, bee and puppycat, some oddly specific medical stuff (mostly things like autoimmune disorders and the like, i just hate gore and tbh the cardiovascular system in general), kotlc, bluey, coding, embroidery, linguistics/etymology for some reason???

~~~

i do a lot of writing, my first novel is actually fully drafted and i’m hoping to have it edited within the next 2 years so i can publish :) other than that main one + my other main-ish novel i have about ten million wips 😭

as mentioned above i am also an artist, i mostly just draw though i also embroider and dabble in clay and watercolor. my art blog is linked above so you can go check that out :) i also do photography! it’s not a very serious hobby but i enjoy it, photography acc is also linked above

i’m also an actor (yes i like to suffer creatively in many ways) so naturally i’m quite dramatic. i frequent the 😭 emoji and often use all caps. i love to sing though and i love music so if you have any cool songs you think i would like feel free to send them to me. OBSESSED with the oh hellos

speaking of which, my spotify is @/-sunflowerskies- if you want to search me up. here are a few of my fav playlists ~ ~ ~

also as mentioned above, i am a christian! if you ever want me to pray for you or are curious about the faith, my asks and dms are always open :)

i have a huuuuge sweet tooth. it’s so bad but I love candy so much

idk what else to put here???? i am, as the kids say, neurospicy so im sure none of my posts are coherent lol. also im having a lot of health issues recently with a lot of brain fog and fatigue affecting my overall functioning, so apologies if the posts are even less coherent than normal lmaooo

honestly send me asks whenever you want, i am incredibly bored all of the time and love making new friends <3 literally rant to me about anything idrc but i apologize if i don’t answer for a while lol, i go through on and off phases of being on this site

i guess that’s about it?? love you guys have a wonderful day!! <3

[riddlerosehearts]

Okay now EYE must ask you - how are you liking BG3??? How far are you?? Tell me about your Tav!!!! (Please and thank you <3)

hi!! 💖 i only started the game a few days ago and it was an impulse decision i made after having previously told a friend of mine that i definitely wanted to play it but that it'd probably take me a while to get around to it (and, because i thought i wouldn't play anytime soon i hadn't really been trying to avoid spoilers). but, i have the PC version and while it generally runs just fine, my computer is kind of slow and the game is so big that it took hours to download and install. so i kind of went ahead and started to come up with a whole character idea during that time LOL. sorry if my explanations of things get a bit too rambly/disorganized. i'm actually not very far in the game at all yet, i've been spending a ton of time doing stuff in the druids grove and i'm supposed to go find halsin but i haven't even gotten karlach in my party yet! i've recruited all the main companions except for her but i am excited to meet her. gonna put the rest of this under a cut for length.

my only background with DND is that i listened to the first campaign of the adventure zone and i've watched the legends of vox machina show. i also have a friend who's super into her own DND campaign and another friend who's told me a lot about dimension 20, specifically fantasy high--and i've considered trying it out for her but haven't gotten around to it yet! i think she actually told me the same thing about the episode lengths making it easier to get into than critical role, because i had tried critical role and it was just so long that i couldn't stick with it. but, yeah, i've also looked at the forgotten realms wiki a bit but i've never actually played DND. i have played skyrim and final fantasy 14 and some other similar RPGs with customizable blank-slate protagonists, and in those types of games i always have to make OCs to roleplay as--usually i'll think up a basic idea to start with and then flesh the character out as i get into the game. they're never really self-inserts but i do often project onto them a little.

so, in games like these my first character is usually an elf that specializes in elemental/destructive magic. idk why, that's just what i've always liked. in ff14 i started out as a black mage without knowing it was the hardest class to play LMAO. soooo i went into this planning to create a high elf sorcerer, but as i started writing out ideas and thinking about what to do, i ended up creating a half-high elf bard. they're transmasc/nonbinary and in my head they use he/they pronouns, but i picked the nb option in the character creator and that causes npcs to actually use they/them in dialogue which i think is so cool. i love that the character creator is so inclusive in regards to gender.

anyway, i named them elenion, which is something i took from the lord of the rings universe because i'm a huge nerd. in LOTR it's an elvish word that basically means "of the stars". here's a couple screenshots i took when i first started. let's just ignore the fact that this hairstyle clips into elf ears (and also that the face preset is from a mod i downloaded).

i didn't really give him a tragic backstory or even the most interesting story haha--i'm wanting to do something bigger and angstier with another character on a second playthrough when i'm more familiar with the lore and world of the game. and i'll probably also end up changing or expanding on some things about this character later, but for now i just kind of made a normal guy with normal problems. i had this idea that his father, a human who attracted the attention of a beautiful elf woman, was also a bard and was a very successful musician in his youth. so elenion has always shared his father's passion and dreamed of being like him, being able to effortlessly tell incredible tales and inspire crowds of people through song, but no matter how much he studies and practices he never feels good enough. if he seems confident it's usually just because he's gotten really good at faking it. he's also pretty reserved and often avoids having to talk about himself by asking a lot of questions. see, i kind of wanted to specifically find a way to not roleplay the usual sort of loud, flirty, goofy bard, lol. not that i dislike those kinds of characters or anything though!

however, bards are meant to be super charismatic, witty, and persuasive and of course the game strongly encourages that with the dialogue options and skill bonuses you get. so my way of explaining this is to have elenion be a bit like raine from the owl house, in that they may be shy, but they're very firm in their ideals and are no pushover when it comes to protecting themself or their allies. they're clever and have a snarky side to them, and they're genuinely friendly and caring in a way that gives them a sense of quiet charisma. which reminds me that one of the spells i gave them at the start was sleep, and it's made me imagine that when they were a kid they tried calming a crying baby by playing a lullaby on their lute and accidentally ended up casting their first spell.

oh, and, i also wasn't really sure at first where in the world i wanted elenion to come from but i decided on something pretty quickly after getting multiple of those dialogue options suggesting that the protagonist is baldurian! i pictured them growing up in a somewhat small town with their family but moving to baldur's gate as an adult, hoping that if they left the comfort of their home and started to journey out into the world a little they'd eventually find their spark and become the bard they wanted to be. unfortunately they've had little luck so far because even after all this time they can't see that maybe their whole fixation on trying to be just like their father and achieve the exact same kind of success that he had is holding them back. the fact that their father died the year after they moved away hasn't helped either. and now, in the middle of traveling to a historical site that they'd wanted to see in person and use as inspiration for a song, they've been abducted by mindflayers and are struggling with the massive upheaval that this has brought into their relatively mundane life.

so. yeah. my tav for this first playthrough may not be the most unique or exciting character but i like him! i like figuring out what kind of choices he'll make and thinking up new ideas for what he likes and how he sees the world. also, i find it funny how in your reply to my ask you said you thought you'd be into gale but then you fell for astarion--because i thought that i'd be all over the edgy, brooding, snarky vampire man, but it turns out gale is so charming and funny that i'm probably going to romance him first. i'm also pretty intrigued by shadowheart and wyll but i'm so early in the game that i can't even say who i think my overall favorite companion will be because they all seem so interesting!! even karlach despite the fact that i haven't actually met her yet, i've seen a bunch of cool gifsets of her and my brother told me he's been romancing her on his playthrough. i really need to go find her soon.

i'm sure you can tell from everything i wrote here that i am definitely enjoying the game LOL. i can already tell that there's just so many different things to do and see, that i will both need and want to do a lot of different playthroughs and that it's going to be something that sticks with me. nothing wrong with using guides and walkthroughs btw! i do it too because i'm worried about missing too many things and have the world's worst sense of direction even with a minimap. honestly i probably need to look up some guides for certain mechanics that i don't feel like i've really figured out yet. there's a sarcophagus trap in the ruins early in the game that got me SO stuck and got my whole party wiped and then i looked up a video and found out you could turn off the whole trap system by pushing a switch... i felt so stupid askjdfgf.

anyway, i think this got to be way too long of a reply so i will stop here! but if you ever wanna tell me more about your tav or anything definitely feel free to and i hope you're having an awesome day!

[moonstruckloverwritings]

Yandere! Steve Rogers x Reader (general Headcanons)

Steve’s song about/to reader:

Completely obsessive, incredibly possessive, and sooo clingy.

So, first off, I think he would be a very black and white yandere.

What I mean by that is, he could either be your most beautiful daydream or your most terrifying nightmare. It really all depends on how much you behave.

I think at first he would try to date you normally but would also rush it or go overboard before you guys have gotten to a level that certain gestures are normal. Like getting you clothes, engraved jewelry, and like a build-a-bear at the first date level when those gifts would be seen as overbearing. Or downright creepy.

This might push you away on its own. And 100% would if you didn’t like him that way to begin with.

But if you did accept it and liked him back, you’re just digging your own metaphoric grave I’m gonna be honest. You give him an inch, he’ll take a mile. He would be completely comfortable with being married and in the process of having kids by the end of the year. The sooner the better in his eyes.

If you tried to let him down easy as in, you didn’t completely cut contact off, maybe stayed friends or colleagues, he would argue about it. “Why am I not enough? I’d do anything for you!” “What more could I do? I’ll do it!” He would get aggravated and try to convince you to change your mind. Wether nicely or.. loudly.

If you completely ditched out on him and tried to hide from or avoid him and his texts, he would find you. That’s it. That’s just how it would be. He would find you and you would learn to love him. He would kidnap you and have strict rules on what you could and couldn’t do.

He would spoil you while you were good but if you had been bad and broken rules, he would severely punish you. This is the first yandere I’ve written about that would actually put their hands on you in anger in some way. I could see him spanking you or if you kept pushing and made him mad enough, he might slap you out of anger. Slapping you would make him instantly feel guilt and regret and would be the only way he might regret his actions. Spanking though, doesn’t effect him emotionally because he would be one of those people that don’t see them as the same thing even though the only difference is location. And with him being a super soldier and having super strength.. it would hurt so much more.

Other punishments would be things more like stern or angry lectures, confinement until submission, and confiscating things you enjoy.

His rules are pretty strict as well. He would expect you to fall in line of the traditional “house wife”. You cook his breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You clean the house. You pamper and fawn over him and his needs. And you will not complain, argue back at him, or fight against him in any scenario. If you do, you will immediately be punished. The severity of the broken rule will have a matching punishment of the same severity.

If you can expect anything out of him, expect him to be fair. If you brake a rule the punishment is matching in severity, if you’re the house wife then he will provide everything you want and need. He won’t punish you without cause. Etc.

He will pay for everything. Just ask and you’ll get it.

I may have painted him more as a dictator and that is accurate for one side of him as a yandere but he also has another softer side.

He is very clingy and very affectionate. He does love you in his own.. twisted way. Cuddling and kisses are very frequent in this relationship. He would love doing silly things that he missed out on too. Board games, fun karaoke, etc. he would love just spending time with you in general. Being around you and with you in anyway is his bliss. If you’re less lively and have more of a calmer personality, he’d love to read your favorite books to you. Or poetry if you like that. Hot cocoa, in front of the fire place with him rubbing your feet and you reading a good book while it snows outside. He is very attentive and loving if you let him show it.

He would be completely obsessed with you in ways like this. Always thinking of you when he’s away. Always worrying over you. Always touching you in some way like holding hands or his arm around you holding you close. When cuddling he is very much the type to nuzzle against your shoulder and just breathing you in. He lives to indulge in you. This is also why I picked the song I added to the post. He is absolutely obsessed with you.

“Just let me love you, darling.”

Authors note:

There’s many ways I could see a yandere Steve Rogers going so if anyone has any requests on scenarios, lmk!

[sketchy-scribs-n-doods]

Bee and Argie, Billy and Argyle

Arturo Guillermo Franco Valdes.

Arturo Guillermo, and a friend that calls him Guille, Artie, Argie.

A red faced Billy that pronounces Guillermo as ‘Gah-ee-ler-moh’ before learning that ‘ll’ makes a ‘yuh’ sound in Spanish.

Artie calling him Bee-yee, and later Bee, as a joke because of it.

Billy tosses out nicknames like the affection he’s never been sure how to express. But he loves the way his friend's name rolls off his tongue, the syllables strange and clunky and a challenge that Billy readily takes up. Soon, it falls full and melodic from his lips, prettier than any song he's ever heard on the old radio his mom left him with.

Mi amigo, Arturo.

Argie tells him not to sweat it, but Billy doesn’t understand why nobody else seems to want to make the effort. Like it’s too difficult, or like Argie isn’t worth the effort. Most of the other Mexican kids at school already know how to pronounce the names that give their white teachers pause, but outside of that demographic there’s a pathetic lack of effort that incites Billy sometimes. 

“Don’t sweat it, bro. Not everyone can roll their Rs as good as you.”

“What, like it’s hard? Fuckin’ idiots.”

(Years later, when they find each other again, Billy will know why his old friend Argie goes by Argyle, because Argyle will nudge him with a serene little smile of his and say, “Long time no see, Bee. Your ol’ pal Artie Gyle-ermo missed you, amigo.”)

Once, early in their friendship, Billy asks Argie why he has so many damn names. Why does he need like half a dozen of them? And Argie says,

“Well, I dunno. I think it makes me pretty damn special, though. How many ‘Arturo Guillermo Franco Valdes’ do you know?”

“Just you, obviously. But that doesn’t mean much, I don’t know any other ‘William Hargrove’s either.”

“Maybe not. But it’s prolly a lot easier for some random Hargrove to be named Billy than for someone to line up a buncha random names to smash together and create a Franco Valdes named Arturo Guillermo.”

“That ‘random Hargrove’ is me, jackass!”

“Exactly!”

“At least my name’s not a fuckin’ mouthful!”

“Oh, so I’m a mouthful, am I?”

“Fuck you!”

A few months later, well into Billy's friendship with Argyle, the kid invites him over to his place to check out his new bike or something, Billy doesn't remember.

What he does remember is meeting Argyle's dad and paternal grandma, Nana Hermelinda.

It's getting colder, for California at least, and Nana insists on making the kids chocolate abuelita while Argyle's dad is at work. A much richer hot chocolate than Billy is used to, the smell is spicy sweet and warm in the air as it foams up in the pot Nana is using, instead of the mild chemical sweetness of the mugs Billy puts in the microwave when he can sneak a packet of Swiss Miss in the winter. Her worn, wrinkled hands make quick work of it, expertly spinning between them a wooden stick with rotating round bits at the end that goes into the frothy mix. Nana calls it a molinillo when she sees him looking at it, and rather than freeze up over being caught staring, as he normally would, Billy instead finds himself trying to pronounce the new word for the remaining five minutes the chocolate takes to finish. The air feels almost soft around him, pleasantly warm and sweet like cinnamon as Nana lets the mixture cool while she searches for mugs in the cabinet above them. When she offers him his own, a brown mug with a rounded bottom and pretty dotted flower designs on its shiny finish, Billy is shy and hesitant to take it. But the warmth as he wraps his chilly fingers around it is welcoming and its smells so good. The first sip is cautious, slow like he's still unsure about whether he's allowed something so warm and comforting.

It's incredible.

Billy's pretty blue eyes light up like Argyle has never seen before. He can feel his heart thump awkwardly in his chest as those baby blues shine bright in the soft yellow light of the kitchen.

Then Billy lowers the mug, and a little mustache of foamed milk and chocolate lines his upper lip. Argyle quickly forgets the brief stutter of his heartbeat and cackles at the sight.

Billy is too busy having a religious experience over his mug of hot chocolate to bother with telling him to shut up like he normally would, but he doesn't truly mind- he likes the sound of Argie's loud bouncing laughter.

Nana looks fondly at them over her own mug, sitting comfortably on a stool by the kitchen counter as Billy politely thanks her for the drink with what little clumsy Spanish he's learned from Argyle so far. She coos at him, putting down her mug as she answers in a kind, lilting Spanish that Argyle will later tell him roughly means, "Of course, love. Come here whenever you like. I will make you a mug anytime, son." Billy inhales the warm steam wafting up from the mug he holds tight as Nana places a gentle hand on his cheek and calls him mijo.

Years later, Billy still remembers it as one of the last times he'd felt so held and cared for.

[loverofallthingssmart]

PLEASE UNLEASH your hadestown demons!!!!!

unleash my hadestown demons is right this is a BEAST thank you very much ive satisfied the brain worms by dumping all my thoughts under the cut

first off. the beauty of live theatre allows for so much nuance and beauty to demonstrated so i cant even begin to cover all the things that could make me insane its so wonderful i love live theatre everyone should watch at least one live theatre production i believe it will solve at least one problem they have

the tragedy of it all!! its a sad song but we sing it anyway, in hopes that we hope that orpheus doesn't turn. but he will. bc he loves eurydice so much so he went down to the underworld to save her.

guys. the repeated, cyclical nature of everything. its an old tale from way back when and its a sad song but they sing it anyway. the point of hadestown is the HOPE of it all wait theres an article (https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/theatre/anais-mitchell-hadestown-west-end-broadway-b1134613.html) regarding mitchell's thoughts on orpheus that make me insane im gonna paste a quote here:

"If Hadestown has a moral, she says, then it’s “you have to try, you have to have hope, not because success is a given – it’s not. Orpheus fails. We heroicise” – here she breaks off to apologise that jet lag has led to her making up words – “we heroicise Orpheus not because he succeeds but because he tries, and that endeavour alone is worthwhile. How to live, and not merely survive, is to believe things could change.” ARE U KIDDING ME OURGHH

which brings me to the topics of like. climate change and capitalism that the play discusses its so good. the fact that there's no spring or fall, only summers and winter because of persephone's absences, how "is it true" is just a song abt labor protests red carnations are a symbol of love and passion yes, but in germany theyre a symbol of the working class protest. its SO important hades has just created an industrial revolution, has built a wall, has workers work forever, "why we build the wall" is soooo incredible "hey little songbird" "chant" all the songs that take place IN hadestown itself are sooo gritty so despondent in a way its insane.

theres another article that discusses sm of it AND discusses like portrayals of persephone that i REALLY like. im gonna paste it here PLEASE read it it has so much good stuff from a classics person regarding it and OURGH too good

orpheus's "to the world we dream about" but then also "the one we live in now" like oh.okay. im NORMAL….

if u noted every single lalala in hadestown it would be 6 min long. the leitmotif oh i am so normal actually.

okay im not rlly a music person i call myself music adjacent bc my two closest friends r music ppl LMAOJDHJS but like. the first time u hear eurydice say "i do" i.e what you say to seal a marriage is after she tells orpheus she signed the papers. she does not say "i do" in the entireity of wedding song, where they talk abt their nuptials. she says "i do" in informing orpheus she cant come up with him. that she chose this life (or death i guess) of her own doing. isnt that vile….

in wedding song she goes "is he always like this" and hermes responds but then in "a gathering storm" she asks the same question to no response.. idk what's there but something is there.

hermes being the narrator thats involved in the play is SOOOO delicious for my brain, the way he switches between a character involved in orpheus and eurydice getting together, invested in their relationship to a all-knowing narrator who knows the end bc he sees this every time.

there's this sense that only orpheus and eurydice do not know they r in a repeated play. which heightens their love at first sight, the "i feel like i know u but ive just met you" OHHHHH my god.

the original nytw script having orpheus say "ur early. i missed u." directly paralleling hades and persephone but in a different context because OHHHHMYGOD and not even that but the fact that mitchell took it out bc she believed it engaged the brain when the moment should only directly engage the heart. so she had the lovers say each other's name. one last time. im soooo normal

also this is bc one time i was thinking abt hadestown and mitski's remember my name played so . just that song in the context of hadestown is SOOOO bc like. like. how eurydice couldn't rmbr herself when she became a worker but orpheus went down to save her and she remembered.

when he turns back and says.

"it's you" "it's me"

^ are you fucking kidding me. the sort of disbelief the happiness the love the incoming grief im inconsolable.

when orpheus turns back, eurydice says his name w so much joy SO MUCH JOY she is not upset at him. "what was there to complain of, except that she'd been loved?" <- quote from metamorphoses

like yes we wish orpheus doesnt turn around but at the end of the day, orpheus is still the trusting guy he was in the beginning. EURYDICE on the other hand KNOWS how cruel the world is and chooses to trust orpheus anyway. but. "it's a tragedy" and doubt creeps in. part of the tragedy lies in the fact that eurydice, "all ive ever known is to hold my own" eurydice runs after him w open arms, chooses to trust him, chooses to follow the trial, and he still turns around. BECAUSE he loves her ohhhmygod im so normal

obligatory mention to the fact that orpheus could never finish the song he was working on because it was a duet. like okay lol. im fine im normal hahahahaha are u fucking kidding me.

hades and orpheus are mirrors, there r two relationships in the musical obviously and it is clear theyre mirrors of each other even w/o the original script line but like.

hades gives orpheus the test that he himself goes through every spring. hades is the villain of the story yes but he is not evil. he gives orpheus the same trial, sees that if orpheus can judge him for losing faith in his wife through the course of their relationship, let's put his romantic nature to the test. let's see if he can feel the absence of his love and keep going. and he cant. bc orpheus has never had to learn how to fend for himself. so when u take away his support system, when u take anyone's support system, how is he, how r we supposed to succeed?

just. the song "how long" encapsulates hades and persephone's relationship SO WELL. "the girl means nothing to me." "i know. but she means EVERYTHING to him" the fact that this is the first time we persephone REFUSE a drink bc shes had enough oh were SOMBER somber the way the whole song just parallels itself and every verse GOD.

the love was there. the hope was there. its a sad song. its a love song.

every single time before they leave. every time they're on stage, eurydice is in front of orpheus. he trusts that she is before him and she never doubts that he is there. it is when their positions change, him in front and her behind that he bends. it is then that doubt comes in.

those r just the like the thoughst of the music and themes itself we can talk abt the ppl and the live play now:

so first. can we talk abt this we need to talk abt for reeve carney's last show the original orpheus his last show he didnt turn back. he and eurydice lived they passed the trial. sorry that makes me so insane bc like. imagine u play orpheus. doomed to a lifetime of looking back at ur lover and your final show, u finally get to stay. oh im very normal i just love the nuances of live theatre!!! what a send off!!!!

THEN we can talk abt how eva and solea play PERFECT eurydices, full of grit and used to the cruel nature of the world. and how lola tung i feel is a DECENT singer but shes not a eurydice shes so light and soft but idk. who am i to say.

also the soundtrack is just SO incredible so is the set design there's not a single ounce of stage space that is wasted like there are so many nuances like i cant even talk abt all that there is my FAVORITE musical for SOOO many reasons ough.

yeah i think that's it. this took me MULTIPLE hours and i feel drained abt talking abt all this. WOW i love hadestown not normal amounts. i can't die before i see this live its one of my goals i just need to see it live on broadway.

[para-socialist]

Can you elaborate on that fandom drama I am so so intrigued

ok so anon is asking about this post and of course i will elaborate i love talking about myself thank you so much for asking for the sake of privacy and not wanting to dig any of this back up too much i'm going to leave my involvement out of most of them

content warnings: suicide, ableism, piss kink (sorry), grooming, rpf

the Conor Oberst divorce leak: back when Phoebe Bridgers and Conor Oberst dating was a rumor and not a lawsuit, the biggest question besides "are they fucking" was "is Conor cheating on his wife." This is around like...early 2020?

anyway a Bright Eyes fan on tumblr (or possibly reddit) found that if you search through Nebraska public records, you can find a property transfer from him to his wife with the reason being "divorce." This spread pretty quickly and was likely the reason why Conor admitted to it.

fall out boy fan who faked their suicide: in 2018 (?) this guy was called out for repeatedly making new identities (of various ages, races, etc), making a bunch of the same friends in the fob community on tumblr, then faking their suicide. they were later doxxed and it was revealed they were 13.

HONESTLY i have no idea how the fuck i ended up involved because this would've been right when i was kinda exiting the fandom. i'm assuming i had mutuals involved. genuinely i hope that kid is okay now because i know what it's like to be 13 and feel the need to do something drastic for attention.

2021 stevebucky twitter: stevebucky is the ship name for Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes in the mcu. In 2021, the miniseries The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was released. There was an incredible amount of drama idk where to start really but the main discourse was between people who shipped Bucky with Steve and people who shipped Bucky with Sam (the falcon in tfatws). No one could have a normal conversation it was always stevebuckies getting called out for racism and sambuckies getting called out for antisemitism and ableism. I have no idea how valid these callouts were.

I was and am pretty firmly in the middle on it (not the racism part, that's bad, just the shipping part) probably preferring stevebucky in canon and sambucky in fics just because of how ableist Sam is written to be in tfatws. Fic writers recognize this as out of character for him.

"is it ableist to forcibly remove an amputee's prosthetic if you're girlboss about it" drama: referring to this scene from tfatws which caused. so much discourse.

being accused of nazism because i think it's hot when sebastian stan pretends he's in pain: not getting into this but it's very surface level hydra trash party discourse if you want to look into that for some reason (warning: you will see a lot of torture/sexual assault/other dark themes if you do)

conor oberst houston incident: kinda don't want to get into this either but Conor Oberst walked off two songs into a Houston show. Somehow it breached containment and got him trending on twitter and I moderated one of the big Bright Eyes groups so I had to like, gently explain to people who knew one Bright Eyes song that calling him a junkie isn't very nice. I'm quoted in one of the articles about this incident but I won't tell you where.

green day discourse: i don't think it's really a secret i ran a very popular green day blog from when i was like 12 - 17 and there were callout posts LMFAO

the person who stole the christie road sign: green day has a song called christie rd about a road they would smoke weed by or something i guess. someone on tumblr stole it and then bragged about it and people got really really fucking mad. only remnant of this is on reddit i guess

the piss kink drama: green day lead singer billie joe armstrong has a piss kink. this is not fanfiction he has an obsession with piss. it's very very well documented. there's a fucking like, vlog he made in the 90s that contains a 30 second pov shot of his dick while he's pissing. there's interviews where he talks about it. he writes lyrics about it. he once screamed "piss in my mouth" at a show.

the piss kink blogs themselves were very controversial and probably don't exist anymore. a couple of them were accused of grooming because they openly interacted with minors, including me.

well known p!atd rpf writer being doxxed along with their arrest record for soliciting minors: that was the author of the milk fic. i followed her and we had interactions; i don't remember how extensively we talked, but i admired her a lot as a kid, which is pretty horrible to think about.

i helped get jeff matika kicked out of green day: jeff matika is a guitarist who used to tour with green day. his girlfriend cheated on him in 2019. he was not happy.

me and a few other green day blogs threw a fit until it got enough attention to get his ass fired

i'm massively ostracized and hated by tmg fans: this is a joke. there's like 10 tmg blogs who have me blocked but probably only like 1 who hates me. i think it's funny and we should pretend i'm making a great sacrifice by posting here

[royalbilliards]

hey– i just wanted to say i'm really sorry people are being rude about maruki on your own dang posts, that really sucks. so, instead, i want to bring some positivity!

i LOVE maruki. a lot! in the first half of the game, i honestly came to completely trust and admire him– his speech when he left shujin left me in tears because of how it resonated with me. i don't know about his japanese seiyuu, but billy kametz was an incredible voice actor and put everything he had into giving maruki an unforgettable performance.

also, all of his themes are some of the best in the game– out of kindness (and its variations), the ideal and the real, and throw away your mask are all incredible songs that i listen to.. a normal amount..

anyways! sorry for rambling for a second there but, i just wanted to show maruki some appreciation. i love your art, and especially your maruki art! keep going!! have a wonderful day!

^ image of me seeing this ask Thank you anon, im usually pretty chill if people dont like a character I dislike, but with Maruki there is an overwhelming amount of people that just do NOT understand him at all that it really grates on my nerves and seeing people actively be rude on posts i make about him just made it worse. I also ADORE maruki, hes one of the characters of all time to me, and his character themes and what hes meant to represent, and his musical themes are all wonderful, i havent heard his Japanese VA (i also played with the english VA's but thats because some of the CR cast did voices and i was like hehe my silly guys) but Billy put in an insane preformance for Maruki, and really helped sell Maruki's character as a whole (i also just have a deep love for voice actors though, so), Near the End of Royal after his first boss fight, the scream he lets out when talking to the PT during this voice line made me fucking INSANE.

And his preformance during the end of the game, where Maruki had Given up also drove me mental. im normal about him, prommy. His musical themes are some of my favourites, and i tend to have I believe and Ideal and the Real stuck in my head at all times because i listen to them so much, the rest of his themes also really help lend to his character and his motivations, and the way theyre composed helps this too. i just wish people took notice of them and their naming schemes importance into consideration when theyre being dumb about his character. I Do not mind your ramble, because i am ALSO rambling, I love hearing why people love Maruki and their thoughts on his character, and it means the world to me when i get asks like this telling me what people think, because it gives me a reason to talk about him too!! so thank you, and thank you for your kind words :3

[glowyjellyfish]

Once the demo loaded for me, I only had about an hour and a half to play before I had to quit and go to bed, and I spent most of that time on the piano minigame.

Some thoughts:

Cloud is such a baby omg. Part of it is the obvious Zack dialogue blatantly coming from his mouth, of course. Loved the obvious swap where Secret-Cloud-Grunt (Ramirez, if you will) was clearly assigned the lines Zack said to Cloud. Cloud’s brain what are you doing.

Sephiroth will take some time to master, especially as I barely remember the controls. He looks like an idiot when I am controlling him, lol. Perfect acting on him and everyone really so far, A+.

I am going to miss so many climbable surfaces

the mountains are so spiky

NIBELHEIM PORK SANDWICH. Well there’s my themed meal! (May not actually do, but come on they threw that out for me a couple weeks in advance??)

I am gonna master every song on that piano dammit. I got very close to star rank tonight, only 2 Goods and the rest Great!

Pretty sure that on my first play through, I am going to do as much as possible and whatever feels right with regards to the affection system. I can’t not rifle through Tifa’s room, for one thing, and I’m never gonna say no to a side quest. Aerith or Tifa would be preferred for the date on my first playthrough, but if I wind up hanging with Cait Sith because I wanted to glean all available information on how he functions and whether Reeve is talking directly to me, so be it.

It’s possible I got some things right in my wild guessing since Remake—more likely character stuff than actual plot, I think—but honestly I am looking forward to being completely wrong about most things.

Also it warms my heart how much Cid and Vincent were in that trailer. Maybe Vincent won’t be spilling his major trauma immediately after we meet him?

Day 2:

Took me probably another hour to get star rank on the piano

Something about Obvious Zack Behavior is incredibly cute when it’s Cloud doing it

I feel like I may have missed a lot of crates and chests

The normal chit chat with Sephiroth and Cloud and Tifa? Omg

Trooper cloud saved Tifa’s life without her knowing!

Sephiroth saved Tifa’s life in the river and Zack saved Cloud’s life, poor nameless other guy but ❤️ Zack and boy must Tifa feel weird about that memory

I want to explore the whole Shinra mansion so badly, I found Vincent’s room and the tubes

I really like how rebirth made it a little clearer that Sephiroth snapped because Jenova started having influence on him once he reached her. Not that I’m trying to make her the villain and him the victim—pretty sure once he falls in the Lifestream, he’s running the show with all his own villainy going, Jenova’s basically The Thing—I just like that the flashes compared to flashes Cloud has had show her influence on him. I like that they didn’t go too hard in making him Evil; you can still see the underlying tragedy.

(I mean, we all know Hojo is the real villain and I think even Sephiroth would agree on that)

Also on multiple occasions I asked Sephiroth why he was so pretty

I REALLY like how those who are in the know about cloud and Zack can easily read between the lines and see what Actual Cloud did—not only showing us Random Trooper on the ground saying “Mo…” but also showing that Cloud’s memories match.

the struggle of having cloud drag himself along the ground while Sephiroth murdered people was AMAZING.

How dare they stop right there before the flashback is over. I know the point is to be tantalizing and they probably changed a thing or two but. Come onnnnnnn let Cloud deliver the cliffhanger.

(Oh, I did look at Tifa’s dresser but then said it was a joke, did not impress anybody lol. Should’ve stayed away!)

(I would like a screenshot of Cloud saying “hey Sephiroth, whatcha got there?” Sephiroth: A KNIFE

[sarahswifts]

Taylor’s NYU Acceptance Speech

Hi, I’m Taylor. Last time I was in a stadium this size, I was dancing in heels and wearing a glittery leotard. This outfit is much more comfortable. I would like to say a huge thank you to NYU’s chairman of the board of trustees, Bill Berkley and all the trustees and members of the board, NYU’s president, Andrew Hamilton, provost Catherine Fleming, and the faculty and alumni here today who have made this day possible. I feel so proud to share this day with my fellow honorees, Suzanne Hatfield and Felix Montez Rodrigues, who humble me with the ways they improve our world with their work. As for me, I’m 90% sure the main reason I’m here is because I have a song called 22. And let me just say, I am elated to be here with you today as we celebrate and graduate New York University class of 2022. Not a single one of us here today has done it alone. We are each a patchwork quilt of those who have loved us, those who have believed in our futures, those who showed us empathy and kindness or told us the truth even when it wasn’t easy to hear. Those who told us we can do it when there was absolutely no proof of that. Someone read stories to you and taught you to dream and offered up some moral code of right and wrong for you to try and live by. Someone tried their best to explain every concept in this insanely complex world to the child that was you as you asked a bazillion questions like “how does the moon work?” and “why can we eat salad but not grass!” And maybe they didn’t do it perfectly, no one ever can. Maybe they aren’t with us anymore, in that case, I hope you remember them today. If they are in this stadium I hope you’ll find your own way to express your gratitude for all the steps and missteps that have led us to this common destination. I know that words are supposed to be my thing, but I will never be able to find the words to thank my mom and dad, my brother Austin, for the sacrifices they made every day so I could go from singing in coffee houses to standing up here with you all today because no words will ever be enough. To all the incredible parents, family members, mentors, teachers, allies, friends and loved ones here today who have supported these students in their pursuits for educational enrichment. Let me say to you now, Welcome to New York, it’s been waiting for you. I’d like to thank NYU for making me technically, on paper at least, a Doctor! Not the type of doctor you would want around in case of an emergency, unless your specific emergency was that you desperately needed to hear a song with a catchy hook and an intensely cathartic bridge section. Or, if your emergency was that you needed a person who can name over fifty breeds of cats in one minute. I never got to have a normal college experience per day. I went to public high school until tenth grade, and then finished my education doing homeschool work on the floors of airport terminals. Then I went out on the road for radio tours which sounds incredibly glamorous but in reality it consisted of a rental car, motels, and my mom and I pretending to have loud mother-daughter fights with each other during boarding so no one would want the empty seat between us on Southwest. As a kid, I always thought I would go away to college, imagining the posters I would hang on the wall of my freshman dorm… I even set the ending of my music video for my song Love Story at my fantasy imaginary college, where I meet a male model reading a book on the grass, and with one single glance we realize we have been in love in our past lives. Which is exactly what you guys experienced at some point in the last four years, right? But I really can’t complain about not having a normal college experience to you, because you went to NYU during a global pandemic. Being essentially locked into your dorms and having to do classes over zoom. Everyone in college during normal times stresses about test scores but on top of that, you also had to pass like a thousand COVID tests. I imagine the idea of a normal college experience was all you wanted too. But in this case, you and I both learned that you don’t always get all the things in the bag that you selected from the menu in the delivery service that is life. You get what you get. And as I would like to say to you, wholeheartedly, you should be very proud of what you’ve done with it. Today, you leave New York University and then go out into the world searching what’s next, and so will I. So as a rule, I try not to give anyone unsolicited advice unless they ask for it. I’ll go into this more later. I guess I have been officially solicited in this situation to impart whatever wisdom I might have to tell you things that have helped me so far in my life. Please bear in mind that I in no way feel qualified to tell you what to do. You worked and struggled and sacrificed and studied and dreamed your way here today. And so, you know what you’re doing. You’ll do things differently than I did them, and for different reasons. So I won’t tell you what to do because no one likes that. I will however, give you some life hacks I wish I knew when I was starting out my dreams of a career and navigating life, love, pressure, choices, shame, hope, and friendship. The first of which is: life can be heavy, especially if you try to carry it all at once. Part of growing up and moving into new chapters of your life is about catch and release. What I mean by that is: knowing what things to keep and what things to release. You can’t carry all things: all grudges, all updates on your ex, all enviable promotions your school bully got at the hedge fund his uncle started. Decide what is yours to hold and let the rest go. Often times, the good things in your life are lighter anyway, so there’s more room for them. One toxic relationship can outweigh so many wonderful simple joys. You get to pick what your life has time and room for. Be discerning. Secondly, learn to live alongside cringe. No matter how hard you try to avoid being cringe, you will look back on your life and cringe retrospectively. Cringe is unavoidable over a lifetime. Even the term cringe might someday be deemed cringe. I promise you, you’re probably doing or wearing something right now that you will look back on later and find revolting and hilarious. We can’t avoid it, so don’t try to. For example, I had a phase where for the entirety of 2012, I dressed like a 1950’s housewife. But you know what, I was having fun. Trends and phases are fun. Looking back and laughing is fun. And while we’re talking about things that make us squirm but really shouldn’t, I’d like to say, I’m a big advocate for not hiding your enthusiasm for things. It seems to me that there is a false stigma around eagerness in our culture of unbothered ambivalence. This outlook perpetuates the idea that it’s not cool to want it. The people who don’t try are fundamentally more chic than people who do. And I wouldn’t know, because I’ve been a lot of things, but I’ve never been an expert on chic. But I’m the one who’s up here so you have to listen to me when I say this. Never be ashamed of trying. Effortlessness is a myth. The people who wanted it the least were the ones I wanted to date and be friends with in high school. The people who want it the most are the people I now hire to work for my company. I started writing songs when I was 12, and since then it’s been the compass guiding my life and in turn, my life guided my writing. Everything I do is just an extension of my writing. Whether it’s to write, directing videos, or short films, creating the visuals for a tour, or standing on a stage performing. Everything is connected by my love of the craft. The thrill of working through ideas and narrowing them down and polishing it all up in the end, editing, waking up in the middle of the night throwing out the old ideas because you thought of a newer better one, or a plot device that ties the whole thing together. There’s a reason they call it a hook. Sometimes a string of words ensnares me and I can’t focus on anything until it’s been recorded or written down. As a songwriter, I’ve never been able to sit still or stay in one creative place for too long. I’ve made and released eleven albums, and in the process, switched genres from country to pop to alternative to folk, and this might sound like a very songwriter-centric line of discussion, but in a way, I really do think we are all writers. And most of us write in a different voice for different situations. You write differently in your Instagram stories than you do in your senior thesis. Send a different type of email to your boss than you do your best friend from home. We are all literacy chameleons and I think it’s fascinating. It’s just a continuation of the idea that we are so many things all the time and I know it can be really overwhelming, figuring out who to be and when. Who you are now and how to act in order to get where you want to go. I have some good news: it’s totally up to you. I some terrifying news: it’s totally up to you. I said to you earlier that I don’t ever offer advice unless someone asked me for it and now I’ll tell you why. As a person who started my very public career at the age of fifteen, it came with a price. And that price was years of unsolicited advice. Being the youngest person in every room for over a decade meant that I was constantly being issued warnings from older members of the music industry, media, interviewers, executives, and this advice often presented itself as thinly veiled warnings. See, I was a teenager at a time when our society was absolutely obsessed with the idea of having perfect young female role models. It felt like every interview I did included slight barbs by the interviewer about me one day running off the rails. And that meant a different thing to every person who said it to me. I became a young adult while being fed the message that if I didn’t make any mistakes, all the children of America would grow up to be perfect angels. However if I did slip up, the entire earth would fall off its axis and it would be entirely my fault and I would go to pop star jail forever and ever. It was all centered around the idea that mistakes equal failure and ultimately the loss of any chance at a happy or rewarding life. This has not been my experience. My experience has been that my mistakes led to the best things of my life and being embarrassed when you mess up, it’s part of the human experience. Getting back up, dusting yourself off, and seeing who still wants to hang out with you afterward and laugh about it, that’s a gift. The times I was told no or wasn’t included, wasn’t chosen, didn’t win, didn’t make the cut, looking back, it really feels like those moments were as important if not more crucial than the moments I was told yes. Not being invited to the parties and sleepovers in my hometown made me feel hopelessly lonely. But because I felt alone, I would sit in my room and write the songs that would get me a ticket somewhere else. Having label executives in Nashville tell me that only thirty-five year old housewives listen to country music, and there was no place for a 13 year old on their roster made me cry in the car on the way home. But then, I’d post my songs on my MySpace - yes, MySpace - and I would message with other teenagers like me who loved country music, but just didn’t have anyone singing from their perspective. Having journalists write in-depth, often times critical pieces of who they perceived me to be made me feel like I was living in some weird simulation, but it also made me look inward to learn about who I actually am. Having the world treat my love life like a spectator sport in which I lose every single game was not a great way to date in my teens and twenties. But it taught me to protect my private life fiercely. Being publicly humiliated over and over again at a young age was excruciatingly painful, but it forced me to devalue the ridiculous notion of minute by minute ever-fluctuating social relevance and likability. Getting cancelled on the internet and nearly losing my career gave me an excellent knowledge of all the types of wine. I know I sound like a consummate optimist but I’m really not. I lose perspective all the time. Sometimes, everything just feels completely pointless. I know the pressure of living your life through the lens of perfectionism. And I know that I’m talking to a group of perfectionists because you are here today graduating from NYU. So this might be hard for you to hear. In your life, you will inevitably misspeak, trust the wrong person, underreact, overreact, hurt the people who didn’t deserve it. Overthink. Not think at all… and not deny any wrongdoings. Not take the steps to make it right. Feel very guilty. Let the guilt eat at you. Hit rock bottom. Finally address the pain you caused. Try to do better next time. Rinse, repeat. And I’m not gonna lie, these mistakes will cause you to lose things. I’m trying to tell you that losing things doesn’t just mean losing. A lot of the time when we lose things, we gain things too. Now you leave the structure and framework of school and chart your own path. Every choice you make leads to the next choice which leads to the next and I know it’s hard to know which path to take. There will be times in life where you need to stand up for yourself. Times when the right thing is actually to back down and apologize. Times when the right thing is to fight. Times when the right thing is to turn and run. Times to hold on with all you have and times to let go with grace. Sometimes the right thing to do is to throw out the old schools of thought in the name of progress and reform. Sometimes the right thing to do is to sit and listen to the wisdom of those who have come before us. How will you know what the right choice is in these crucial moments? You won’t. How do I give advice to this many people about their life choices? I won’t. The scary news is, you’re on your own now. But the cool news is, you’re on your own now. I leave you with this: we are led by our gut instincts, our intuition, our desires and fears, our scars and our dreams. And you will screw it up sometimes. So will I. And when I do, you will most likely read about it on the internet. Anyway, hard things will happen to us. We will recover. We will learn from it. We will grow more resilient because of it. And as long as we are fortunate enough to be breathing, we will breathe in, breathe through, breathe deep, and breathe out. And I am a doctor now, so I know how breathing works. I hope you know how proud I am to share this day with you. We’re doing this together, so let’s just keep dancing like we’re the class of 22!

[clandestinedmusings]

Dr. Taylor Alison Swift (Full NYU speech)

Hi, I'm Taylor!

Last time I was in a stadium this size, I was dancing in heels and wearing a glittery leotard. This outfit is much more comfortable.

I’d like to say a huge thank you to NYU‘s Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Bill Berkeley and all the trustees and members of the board, NYU’s President Andrew Hamilton, Provost Katherine Fleming, and the faculty and alumni here today who have made this day possible. I feel so proud to share this day with my fellow honorees Susan Hockfield and Felix Matos Rodriguez, who humble me with the ways they improve our world with their work. As for me, I’m 90% sure the main reason I’m here is because I have a song called ‘22’. And let me just say, I am elated to be here with you today as we celebrate and graduate New York University’s Class of 2022.

Not a single one of us here today has done it alone. We are each a patchwork quilt of those who have loved us, those who have believed in our futures, those who showed us empathy and kindness or told us the truth even when it wasn’t easy to hear. Those who told us we could do it when there was absolutely no proof of that. Someone read stories to you and taught you to dream and offered up some moral code of right and wrong for you to try and live by. Someone tried their best to explain every concept in this insanely complex world to the child that was you, as you asked a bazillion questions like ‘how does the moon work?’ and ‘why can we eat salad but not grass?’ And maybe they didn’t do it perfectly. No one ever can. Maybe they aren’t with us anymore, and in that case I hope you’ll remember them today. If they are here in this stadium, I hope you’ll find your own way to express your gratitude for all the steps and missteps that have led us to this common destination.

I know that words are supposed to be my ‘thing’, but I will never be able to find the words to thank my mom and my dad, and my brother, Austin, for the sacrifices they made every day so that I could go from singing in coffee houses to standing up here with you all today because no words would ever be enough. To all the incredible parents, family members, mentors, teachers, allies, friends and loved ones here today who have supported these students in their pursuit of educational enrichment, let me say to you now: Welcome to New York. It’s been waiting for you.

I’d like to thank NYU for making me, technically, on paper at least, a doctor. Not the type of doctor you would want around in the case of an emergency, unless your specific emergency was that you desperately needed to hear a song with a catchy hook and an intensely cathartic bridge section. Or if your emergency was that you needed a person who can name over 50 breeds of cats in one minute.

I never got to have the normal college experience, per se. I went to public high school until tenth grade and finished my education doing homeschool work on the floors of airport terminals. Then I went out on the road for a radio tour, which sounds incredibly glamorous but in reality it consisted of a rental car, motels, and my mom and I pretending to have loud mother daughter fights with each other during boarding so no one would want the empty seat between us on Southwest.

As a kid, I always thought I would go away to college, imagining the posters I’d hang on the wall of my freshmen dorm. I even said the ending of my music video for my song “Love Story” at my fantasy imaginary college, where I meet a male model reading a book on the grass and with one single glance, we realize we had been in love in our past lives. Which is exactly what you guys all experienced at some point in the last 4 years, right?

But I, really can’t complain about not having a normal college experience to you because you went to NYU during a global pandemic, being essentially locked into your dorms and having to do classes over Zoom. Everyone in college during normal times stresses about test scores, but on top of that you also had to pass like a thousand COVID tests. I imagine the idea of a normal college experience was all you wanted too. But in this case you and I both learned that you don’t always get all the things in the bag that you selected from the menu in the delivery service, that is life. You get what you get. And as I would like to say to you wholeheartedly, you should be very proud of what you’ve done with it. Today you leave New York University and then go out into the world searching for what’s next. And so will I.

So as a rule, I try not to give anyone unsolicited advice unless they ask for it. I’ll go into this more later. I guess I have been officially solicited in this situation, to impart whatever wisdom I might have to tell you things that have helped me, so far, in my life. Please bear in mind that I, in no way, feel qualified to tell you what to do. You’ve worked and struggled and sacrificed and studied and dreamed your way here today and so, you know what you’re doing. You’ll do things differently than I did them and for different reasons.

So I won’t tell you what to do because no one likes that. I will, however, give you some life hacks I wish I knew when I was starting out my dreams of a career, and navigating life, love, pressure, choices, shame, hope and friendship.

The first of which is -- life can be heavy, especially if you try to carry it all at once. Part of growing up and moving into new chapters of your life is about catch and release. What I mean by that is, knowing what things to keep, and what things to release. You can’t carry all things, all grudges, all updates on your ex, all enviable promotions your school bully got at the hedge fund his uncle started. Decide what is yours to hold and let the rest go. Oftentimes the good things in your life are lighter anyway, so there’s more room for them. One toxic relationship can outweigh so many wonderful, simple joys. You get to pick what your life has time and room for. Be discerning.

Secondly, learn to live alongside cringe. No matter how hard you try to avoid being cringe, you will look back on your life and cringe retrospectively. Cringe is unavoidable over a lifetime. Even the term ‘cringe’ might someday be deemed ‘cringe.’

I promise you, you’re probably doing or wearing something right now that you will look back on later and find revolting and hilarious. You can’t avoid it, so don’t try to. For example, I had a phase where, for the entirety of 2012, I dressed like a 1950s housewife. But you know what? I was having fun. Trends and phases are fun. Looking back and laughing is fun.

And while we’re talking about things that make us squirm but really shouldn’t, I’d like to say that I’m a big advocate for not hiding your enthusiasm for things. It seems to me that there is a false stigma around eagerness in our culture of ‘unbothered ambivalence.’ This outlook perpetuates the idea that it’s not cool to ‘want it.’ That people who don’t try hard are fundamentally more chic than people who do. And I wouldn’t know because I have been a lot of things but I’ve never been an expert on ‘chic.’ But I’m the one who’s up here so you have to listen to me when I say this: "Never be ashamed of trying. Effortlessness is a myth." The people who wanted it the least were the ones I wanted to date and be friends with in high school. The people who want it most are the people I now hire to work for my company.

I started writing songs when I was twelve and since then, it’s been the compass guiding my life, and in turn, my life guided my writing. Everything I do is just an extension of my writing, whether it’s directing videos or a short film, creating the visuals for a tour, or standing on stage performing. Everything is connected by my love of the craft, the thrill of working through ideas and narrowing them down and polishing it all up in the end. Editing. Waking up in the middle of the night and throwing out the old idea because you just thought of a newer, better one. A plot device that ties the whole thing together. There’s a reason they call it a hook. Sometimes a string of words just ensnares me and I can’t focus on anything until it’s been recorded or written down.

As a songwriter I’ve never been able to sit still, or stay in one creative place for too long. I’ve made and released 11 albums and in the process, I’ve switched genres from country to pop to alternative to folk and this might sound like a very songwriter-centric line of discussion but in a way, I really do think we are all writers. And most of us write in a different voice for different situations. You write differently in your Instagram stories than you do your senior thesis. You send a different type of email to your boss than you do your best friend from home. We are all literary chameleons and I think it’s fascinating. It’s just a continuation of the idea that we are so many things, all the time. And I know it can be really overwhelming figuring out who to be, and when. Who you are now and how to act in order to get where you want to go. I have some good news: It’s totally up to you. I also have some terrifying news: It’s totally up to you.

I said to you earlier that I don’t ever offer advice unless someone asks me for it, and now I’ll tell you why. As a person who started my very public career at the age of 15, it came with a price. And that price was years of unsolicited advice. Being the youngest person in every room for over a decade meant that I was constantly being issued warnings from older members of the music industry, the media, interviewers, executives. And this advice often presented itself as thinly veiled warnings. See, I was a teenager at a time when our society was absolutely obsessed with the idea of having perfect young female role models. It felt like every interview I did included slight barbs by the interviewer about me one day ‘running off the rails.’ and that meant a different thing to every person said it me. So I became a young adult while being fed the message that if I didn’t make any mistakes, all the children of America would grow up to be perfect angels. However, if I did slip up, the entire earth would fall off its axis and it would be entirely my fault and I would go to pop star jail forever and ever. It was all centered around the idea that mistakes equal failure and ultimately, the loss of any chance at a happy or rewarding life. -- This has not been my experience. My experience has been that my mistakes led to the best things in my life.

And being embarrassed when you mess up is part of the human experience. Getting back up, dusting yourself off and seeing who still wants to hang out with you afterward and laugh about it? That’s a gift.

The times I was told no or wasn’t included, wasn’t chosen, didn’t win, didn’t make the cut, looking back, it really feels like those moments were as important, if not more crucial, than the moments I was told ‘yes.’

Not being invited to the parties and sleepovers in my hometown made me feel hopelessly lonely, but because I felt alone, I would sit in my room and write the songs that would get me a ticket somewhere else. Having label executives in Nashville tell me that only 35-year-old housewives listen to country music and there was no place for a 13-year-old on their roster made me cry in the car on the way home. But then I’d post my songs on my MySpace and yes, MySpace, and I would message with other teenagers like me who loved country music, but just didn’t have anyone singing from their perspective. Having journalists write in-depth, oftentimes critical, pieces about who they perceive me to be made me feel like I was living in some weird simulation, but it also made me look inward to learn about who I actually am. Having the world treat my love life like a spectator sport in which I lose every single game was not a great way to date in my teens and twenties, but it taught me to protect my private life fiercely. Being publicly humiliated over and over again at a young age was excruciatingly painful but it forced me to devalue the ridiculous notion of minute by minute, ever fluctuating social relevance and likability. Getting canceled on the internet and nearly losing my career gave me an excellent knowledge of all the types of wine.

I know I sound like a consummate optimist, but I’m really not. I lose perspective all the time. Sometimes everything just feels completely pointless. I know the pressure of living your life through the lens of perfectionism. And I know that I’m talking to a group of perfectionists because you are here today graduating from NYU. So this may be hard for you to hear: In your life, you will inevitably misspeak, trust the wrong person, under-react, overreact, hurt the people who didn’t deserve it, overthink, not think at all, self sabotage, create a reality where only your experience exists, ruin perfectly good moments for yourself and others, deny any wrongdoing, not take the steps to make it right, feel very guilty, let the guilt eat at you, hit rock bottom, finally address the pain you caused, try to do better next time, rinse, repeat. And I’m not gonna lie, these mistakes will cause you to lose things.

I’m trying to tell you that losing things doesn’t just mean losing. A lot of the time, when we lose things, we gain things too.

Now you leave the structure and framework of school and chart your own path. Every choice you make leads to the next choice which leads to the next, and I know it’s hard to know, which path to take. There will be times in life where you need to stand up for yourself. Times when the right thing is actually to back down and apologize. Times when the right thing is to fight, times when the right thing is to turn and run. Times to hold on with all you have and times to let go with grace. Sometimes the right thing to do is to throw out the old schools of thought in the name of progress and reform. Sometimes the right thing to do is to sit and listen to the wisdom of those who have come before us. How will you know what the right choice is in these crucial moments? You won’t.

How do I give advice to this many people about their life choices? I won’t.

The scary news is: You’re on your own now.

But the Cool news is: You’re on your own now!

I leave you with this: We are led by our gut instincts, our intuition, our desires and fears, our scars and our dreams. And you will screw it up sometimes. So will I. And when I do, you will most likely read about it on the internet. Anyway, hard things will happen to us. We will recover. We will learn from it. We will grow more resilient because of it.

As long as we are fortunate enough to be breathing, we will breathe in, breathe through, breathe deep, breathe out. And I’m a doctor now, so I know how breathing works.

I hope you know how proud I am to share this day with you. We’re doing this together. So let’s just keep dancing like we’re…

… the class of ’22.

© Taylor Swift. (2022)

Doctor of Fine Arts

(Singer, Songwriter, Musician, Producer, and Director)

@taylorswift @taylornation