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styrmwb · 7 months

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Favorite Final Fantasy Music (FFXIV - Stormblood)

I don't think the copypasta has reached Stormblood yet BUT ANYWAYS 2ND EXPANSION LET'S DO ITTTTTT! This is when I started playing XIV! Lots of fond memories of TP (0 fond memories of TP). Something Stormbloood does, very similar to XIII, is the main motif. That shit is EVERYWHERE. And luckily, it's Amazing, so I literally am not complaining about hearing it all the time (spot #1 on this list goes to the stormblood quest accepted tune).

Something I will preface with is a lot of the music I love here is in the Omegascape raids but it's all (mostly) remixes! I love all of those songs but it would be doing this soundtrack a disservice to put any of them in this list (That Dancing Mad version is fucking dope though)

5. Crimson Sunrise Easily my second favorite main city theme. I feel like I can't say much about the melody, cause it is The Stormblood Motif and I'm probably gonna say some more about it later down the list, but I will say I love the instruments used here. The flute and plucking (I think it's a shamisen) is really calming, and the slow tempo of the drums (taiko?) add to this, while also giving that grand nature befitting of a huge city.

4. Dangertek Completely different vibe from the last song. This was originally introduced in PvP, but I more commonly experience it in treasure maps. It's an absolutely banger techno remix of Hard to Kill, the FATE Boss theme, and it's my favorite version of the two. The melody is sick, the guitar playing it rocks, and that heavy beat is a bop. I also really love the interlude section that I can only describe with the BADADUNBADADUNBADADUN noise going back into the Hard to Kill riff again but from a distance, it's so coollllllll I love this song

3. Triumph Part 2 of The Stormblood Motif; but I think this version is the most stand out example. This also includes the Ala Mhigo anthem for an epic combination of both sides of the expansion, a lot of eastern instruments included. I love the start of this song with the japanese flute and the more middle eastern sounding guitar (I have learned that this is called an Oud!) again, showing that combination of two ends. The Ala Mhigo anthem played by the brass builds up the intensity of the song, and then The Stormblood Motif rockets it into pure hype. It's so hard not to sing along to it every time it plays! The finale of this song sounds like a spiral wind down while still keeping the energy. It's impossible to hate any dungeons in this expansion when you know you're gonna hear this at the end. (STORM OF BLOOD, BORN FROM BLOOD, OF OUR FALLEN BROTHERRRRRSSSS! BORN UPON OUR HANDS, CRADLED IN OUR ARMS, SWELLING IN OUR HEAAAAAARTS! RAISE YOUR WEARY HEAD, HEED THE CALL TO ARMS, RINGING IN YOUR HEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAART!!!!)

2. Amatsu Kaze Bringing in that classic Primals rock to this list in my favorite way, Amatsu Kaze is a song I literally liked so much I learned to sing to it despite not knowing Japanese (I'm sure my pronunciation is horrible don't worry I keep it private). That fucking bass at the start is legendary, not to mention the electric strumming and the strange vibraphone like pongs creating a super unique sound. It's not a very high speed intense rush song, but that slower deliberate nature is perfect for Byakko being this massive brutal creature. To the main meat of the song, I love how it's the first lyrical song in XIV to be in Japanese! I mean, like, I don't see why they wouldn't cause it literally takes place in the Far East, but I still love it. The verse sounds like he's holding in his anger, the refrain getting more angry, and then finally screaming in the chorus (I looked up music words for this I hope I'm using them right). The very end of the song before the loop sounds like an absolutely mindless rage, looping and spiraling before calming down once more. What else is really cool about the lyrics is it's actually telling Byakko and Tenzen's story (also shoutouts to the XI reference let's goooo), which the next of the Four Lords' song also does. This song is addictive to listen to, only getting more hype as it continues. In the Primals version, it even has Yoshi-P singing it which is fucking outstanding. (KAZE TODOROKE KAZE TODOROKE KAZE TODOROKEEEEEEEEEE)

1. The Worm's Tail COME DON THE MASK OF BLIND BETRAYAL E'ER DOES THE HEAD DEVOUR ITS TAIL AS IRON BENDS TO STEEL O'ER MY RIVALS I PREVAIL! This song has a beginning so fucking epic, they use it twice in the game (granted the second time was a medley BUT UHH SHUT UP). The Worm's Tail is my favorite final boss theme out of all of the XIV expansions. As you can probably tell, I fucking love that intro. The massive choir setting the stage as you fly into the heavens on a giant fucking dragon that you're literally trying to kill, the drums slamming to raise the song further, I hate using this word so much, but it's fuckin epic! The final note brings tears to my eyes. When the song actually starts, it goes into this really really cool melody that's very bouncy and I THINK it's waltz like? please feel free to correct me on this I need to expand my words but I hope you get what I mean. It's a very unique rhythm. I love the middle part between it looping, continuing to raise the song even higher, almost like that audio illusion that keeps going up despite not actually going up? It gives that illusion of height as it should. The entire way through, the orchestra continues to sound heavy and grand even during the "calmer" parts, which for the size of this fight and Shinryu himself, I think is perfect. Finally, we reach The Stormblood Motif Part 3. The finale of this expansion HAS to fucking have it. The melody itself already sounds uplifting, it already stokes the fires in your heart. Combine it with the sound of this song and the context of the fight, and it brings it to the highest level it could possibly go. Last thoughts, cause I couldn't put them anywhere else, but while the base version is mainly gibberish vocals, the official orchestral version actually adds lyrics (same with Ultima and Heroes), and this song is essentially sung By Zenos. It talks of rising above, it talks about being the beginning and the end, and it's even partly sung in latin, befitting the Garlean Empire. The entire song is Zenos's victory chant against you, but you almost combat him equally with Storm of Blood overtaking the entire song. It's fuckin poetic, man.

Honorable mentions are: Prelude - Long March Home, Heroes of Stormblood, Gates of the Moon, Beauty's Wicked Wiles, Answer on High, Wayward Daughter, eScape, Sunset, Sunrise, and From the Dragon's Wake. (and again like every song in Omegascape and Return to Ivalice (those songs are just straight ports but tactics music fucks))

#final fantasy #final fantasy xiv #textpost #jared's final fantasy music opinions

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ultravioletfuture · 9 months

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ULTRAVIOLET VISIONS: Back To You Pt. 1

Hello UVF and happy Friday!! I wanted to focus this week's blog on 2 major topics: the new Lunar Data Garden single, and my thoughts on the way that Vaporwave is represented in the eyes of the general online audience. First let's get into the new track!

"Back To You Pt. 1" by Lunar Data Garden

youtube

Last night was the premiere of the brand new Lunar Data Garden single "Back To You Pt. 1" on the LDG youtube channel as well as the new bandcamp page. The track should also be available on all streaming platforms sometime later today. We decided on making "Back To You Pt. 1" the single track for Perfect Dawn since it's probably the most recent track we finished and felt fully complete to us. The original mix for "Back To You Pt. 1" was a lot more bare bones as one of the first demos I sent over to Truman during the inital Lunar Data Garden brainstorming sessions. Over the months, this track eventually led to a second part rendition of the track that felt much more full and polished. We knew that we needed to completely overhaul the original Pt. 1 version to match the feelings and sounds of the new Pt. 2 that comes later on in the Perfect Dawn tracklisting. We sat on the original mix until about a month ago when I finally sat down and sent over a newly structured Pt .1 to Truman. It was within that day that the two of us ping-ponged wav files back and forth until we struck gold with "Back To You Pt. 1". It was one of those instances where Truman and I felt perfectly in sync and ideas were flowing without much hesitation. This new version felt way too good to be true and became an instant favorite for the both of us. It reminded me of when I had sent the first Lunar Data Garden demo to Truman for "Secret Place", which was just laying down the chops from this Danity Kane sample, and then Truman sending back his additions that just worked seemlessly and filled all the gaps we were looking for. "Back To You Pt. 1" felt like our whole production cycle for Perfect Dawn coming full circle and definitely made the two of us feel like we had something really special in our hands, just like "Secret Place" made us feel when we worked on it 9 months ago. I think my favorite portion of the song is when the drums fully kick in on the 2nd half. I don't think I've listened to the track a single time without uncontrollably banging my head as soon as those drums come in.

I hope you all enjoy the track so far and shoutout to Truman for putting together those insane visuals for the music video! The full album, "Perfect Dawn", will be available September 29th with CDs and Minidiscs by ULTRAVIOLET-FUTURE

I've been super preoccupied with getting Perfect Dawn ready to drop later this month on UVF so I haven't been able to be as in depth with these blogs as I want, but I do have a particular topic that I want to tackle for next week's blog. Until then, here's a couple music recommendations I'll leave you all with before I see you again next week <3 -portal from UVF

The legendary electronic music producer, Oneohtrix Point Never, has recently announced a brand new album along with a single track. This new track titled, "A Barely Lit Path", is this bitcrushed, distorted electronic masterpiece. OPN starts the track with this beautiful vocal excerpt that is a mix between vocoded, autotuned, and natural vocals. The end result is something right on the borderline between feeling human and robotic at the same time. The track is filled with lush string sections accompanied by OPN's famous synth work that give the whole thing a perfect balance of natural and digital sounds in harmony.

"[USA]" by Anamanaguchi is an album I've been going back to a lot recently and has had a huge influence in my side of the production for Lunar Data Garden. The album is a fusion of Chiptune, VGM, Electronic, with a hint of Rock influences on the drums. Tracks like Lorem Ipsum (Arctic Anthem) have been some of my all time favorite tracks by them and have been held in a special place in my heart. I love the use of Vocaloid throughout the album like the Hatsune Miku feature on "B S X". Alot of the glitchy electronic elements have been a huge influence on my music in the past year and the album has become very nostalgic to me.

"how i'm feeling now" was Charli XCX's quarantine release back in 2020 and the album definitely reflects that. Everytime I listen to tracks like "forever" and "claws", I can't help but remember being stuck at home listening to this record and playing the new Animal Crossing game. The album features production from Dylan Brady of 100 gecs fame and is mainly produced from Charli's home during a one month period back in May 2020. For an album that took a month to produce, the album is incredibly forward thinking and insanely catchy. If you haven't already listened to this record I highly recommend it if you are a fan of any kind of hyperpop or experimental pop music in general.

#Youtube #Spotify #Bandcamp

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aris-c0rner · 1 year

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pre-read: beautiful deception

hello all! ari here, i finally got around to editing, updating, and moving my NCT gang au, “beautiful deception”, off of wattpad and onto tumblr! it’s been about 6 or so years since i first wrote this fic... wow. it got a lot of love on wattpad, but my writing style has changed and grown immensely since i started this, so i figured it was time to give it an upgrade and finish it here on my tumblr. so if you read this fic and it seems really really familiar for some reason, you probably read the initial version of it on wattpad under my old username mineyoonghi!!

a few things to be aware of before you begin reading:

1. i started this fic waaay back when NCT was ot18, literally days after the “black on black” mv was released lol. that being said, the fic is written with only ot18 until chapter 21, when i found a way to incorporate wayv; i am hoping to find a way to make it ot23 but be warned, you may not see sungchan or shotaro here.

2. i wrote the initial fic on wattpad from a 1st person pov and named the character song seunmae- i decided to change this and instead convert the fic into a reader-insert 2nd person pov, so bye-bye seunmae lol. if you see the words “i” “me” “my” etc. in this fic, that’s just a typo from the original version hehe, please ignore.

3. i got locked out of my wattpad account where i wrote this fic (mineyoonghi) a few years ago because i lost access to the email i used to sign up.. smh. anyways, wattpad has been a bitch about not letting me get back into it so the story is unfinished on there; i’m pretty mad abt it because i had SO many chapter drafts and plot points saved in my unpublished works there, and i have no way of getting back to it to remember where i was going with the story. so everything after ch.21 will be from scratch, since that was the last part uploaded on wattpad for public reading. i’ve called my email provider so much that they know me by name and they still can’t unlock the account for me. ugh.

4. in case i havent mentioned wattpad enough yet, i’d like to say that this gang au was largely inspired by another fic i read on there named “bandaids”!! i totally fell in love with it although i don’t remember the user who wrote it (or if it’s even still up anymore). so if you see a lot of similarities between bandaids and this fic, it’s because beautiful deception was brought to life after reading that one!!

5. if you’re an OG who read the oldie version of this up on wattpad, two things: i love you i love you i love you, and also forget that version pls and thanks its SO embarrassing haha. but seriously, if you remember that version then you remember how weird the ages/personalities were for some of the members,, don’t worry i fixed that here. idk what i was on when i wrote some of the members that way lmao but it’s all good in this fic, it’s much better now.

6. if you were one of my beta readers for mineyoonghi and you remember who the traitor is, DO NOT I BEG OF YOU PLEASE!!! do not comment who it is!! please don’t spoil the reading experience for my lovely tumblr followers,, and for those of you who have no idea what i’m talking abt: it’s not who you think. :)

7. this was such a long note so thank you to all who made it through to the end!! i’m so excited to bring this passion project of mine back to life after so many years, and happy reading! xoxoxoxo times infinity!!!

#beautiful deception #mark lee fanfic #nct gang au #nct au #mark lee #nct mark #fanfic #kpop fanfic

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finelinegynandromorph · 2 years

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harry, gender, and musical consonance: a follow-up look at falling

okay so after getting that monster of a post out the other day (thank you so so so much for all of your thoughts and engagement with it!!), i spent some time musing on @laurelier’s tags and i of course fell down a rabbit hole after talking further with meg. so here we are! consider this an addition to the original post, linked here, to give falling the space she deserves! more under the cut :)

p.s. i’ll likely be writing a follow-up post sharing some wonderful thoughts from the tags on that post, i just got carried away with this so it’s coming out first lol.

falling: studio

i’ll be splitting this post up into an extended look at the studio vocals and a brief look at harry’s live vocal choices for this song. i’m still thinking of writing a larger post on patterns in harry’s live note changes some day too!

i will be looking at falling primarily from a gender lens here. of course, i think lenses are really all combined and a song can speak to many different themes and experiences simultaneously. linking here to @ialwaysknewyouwerepunk’s close reading of falling for some lyric analysis that looks at falling as a song that might speak to harry’s relationship with a partner, with fame/an audience/his fans, and with himself.

alright here we go!

the only harmonies we get in the studio version of falling occur in the choruses. everything else is in a singular harry voice. he delivers the verses in his normal harry alto (once again, i know i know, but it’s what makes sense to me!). he’s alone, singing without the backing of his usual vocal doubling and harmonics.

what am i now? / what am i now? / what if i’m someone i don’t want around?

we slip into a higher register for the melody in the chorus, but it’s still clear and full-bodied, harry singing in his chest voice.

what if i’m down? / what if i’m out? / what if i’m someone you won’t talk about?

halfway through the first chorus however, we get the hint of a consonant harmony in the backing track. it’s one octave higher than the melody and sounds like a head voice to me, forceful in texture but soft in volume (a production feature).

when we get to verse 2 we’re back to the singular harry alto. by the 2nd chorus we have the alto melody and higher consonant harmony straight from the get-go, carrying us all the way through to:

i get the feeling that you’ll never need me again

ah the pain of this bridge! harry delivers this line in a singular voice again, without the accompaniment of the higher consonant harmony from the chorus. it’s painful, it’s heartbreaking, it’s harry questioning his relationship with himself. who is he now?? (and who is he when he strips away all these registers?)

we get some nonverbal vocals in a higher register as we swim into the final chorus. they’re an expression of anguish but soft in volume, a muted higher register.

for the final chorus harry employs the same combination of melody and consonant harmony but now there’s vocal doubling on that harmony (it almost sounds like two harry’s are singing the harmony) so the delivery of these lines in a higher register is just that much more perceptible. (sounding a little like all those other times harry uses a higher register for emotional expression in the conclusions of his songs?...)

we’ve got this harmonic combination right up until the last word of the song:

falling

this is delivered solely by the singular harry alto voice (that is, the voice that’s been delivering the melody), with some slight vocal cracking that’s only just audible in the studio version. this is desperation, harry dropping back down into the singular, he’s vocally falling down from the consonant harmonies, his voice is cracking open, it’s a far cry from the triumphant resolution of fine line with a choir of harry registers singing in unison. it blows me away that the last word of this song about isolation (“someone i don’t want around”) is delivered alone, without the company of some of harry’s other registers.

for me, falling has always been a song about gender pain and struggling to just be with yourself. because this is harry and songs can contain multitudes, it’s just vague enough that it can easily be read as a song about relationship-angst (which, hey! it could totally be both! songs don’t have to just mean one thing!). the juxtaposition between the stripped nature of the vocals here compared to some of the other songs on fine line, and the way that isolation and displacement from oneself is mirrored in harry’s harmonic choices only underscores the sheer ✨gender✨ of this song!

when i listen to falling, i’m often moved to tears. i also cry during fine line but it always feels different. i think this is because falling is gender pain that harry is actively struggling with, while fine line is gender pain that soars up into triumphant self-acceptance. there are some hints of resolution in falling (“what if you’re someone i just want around”), but this is a heartbreaking song for a reason. fine line always seems to break me down and build me back up again, which is a profoundly emotional experience but of a very different nature. in falling, i feel like i’m sitting in that brokenness and trying to make sense of it.

falling: live

a quick disclaimer as we hop in here that harry is a dynamic performer who often performs songs in many different ways while live, so this section is not meant to be all-encompassing but rather addressing some of the features of live delivery that harry often seems to use in falling. i’ll be drawing heavily from harry’s first live performance of falling at the BRIT awards in 2020 (linked here), because i think it can provide some insight into the stylistic choices harry was making when he first presented this song to the world in person.

alright here we go!

to note: when performing falling live, harry tends to sing at a pitch just slightly lower than his studio version. this could be to protect his voice? to give himself a better shot at hitting that raw, heartbreaking yell of “again”?

as a personal aside, my most comfortable register is in roughly the same vocal space as what seems to be harry’s most comfortable register (that “harry alto” i keep blaspheming about). i find that harry’s slightly lowered pitch in live renditions of falling is easier on my throat too, so i’m guessing this is likely why!

okay so usually harry has two vocalists from the band he’s performing with do the harmonies. they recreate the consonant harmonies recorded in harry’s voice for the studio version but with a subtle striking twist: they are ever so slightly dissonant. (!!)

let’s break this down!

the vocalists sing the same consonant harmonies from the studio version throughout the chorus and then we get to:

falling again / i’m falling again / i’m falling

the vocalists deliver “falling” in that same consonant harmony as harry in the studio version.

“again” however, is sneakily dissonant!!

in all his recorded studio vocals, regardless of pitch (ie. melody or consonant harmony), harry drops to a lower note for the second syllable of “again”. it looks sorta like this:

a gain

but in live performances the vocalists hold the same note for both syllables!! ie:

_ _

a gain

remember, dissonance tends to be unsettling!! this song is painful in its beauty!!

okay, i promise i’ll get to what i think this might mean but first let’s complete our journey through this performance.

for verse 2 we’re back to the singular harry alto, but on the line

at the beachwood cafe

the vocalists come in with a consonant harmony that’s one octave higher than harry’s melody. dramatic. atmospheric. the higher register making an appearance. we then move on to:

and it kills me ‘cause i know we’ve run out of things we can say

here we have harry singing the alto melody, one vocalist doing the previously used consonant harmony one octave higher and now the other vocalist doing a new consonant harmony that’s two octaves lower! the higher consonant harmony is much louder in volume, which could just be the nature of the vocalist singing it, but i do think it’s interesting that the higher register is highlighted (a consistent pattern in harry’s songs), and that the lower register is an almost eerie undercurrent that you can barely pick out.

another thing to highlight! in recent live performances of this song on love on tour, harry has upswept into a higher register for “we can say”, shifting up a note starting with the pronoun we. i’ll return to this in a second.

we have the same 3-punch-combo on the heartbreaking “again” of the bridge (harry melody, vocalist one octave higher, vocalist one octave lower). as with above, the lower consonance is softer in volume than the higher consonance.

alright, remember the upswept “we” i just mentioned? well in the last chorus we get to the line

what if i’m out

and harry shifts up a note on “i’m”. wow okay chills and let’s see if i can make this coherent: harry is highlighting individual pain using a collective pronoun. the upwards tonal shift on “i” and “we” suggests a confluence of the two, as if the “you” and “i” harry refers to in this song are not two separate people but rather harry himself.

damn okay, so what is he even saying here?

i mean, i don’t know but i’ll give it a shot.

i think harry is consistently foregrounding the conflict contained within an individual. he does so through a variety of vocal elements, including but not limited to vocal differentiation between harry’s harmonies and those delivered by vocalists, and slight upsweeps in tonation on certain pronouns. the subtlety of these changes (the note that’s ever so slightly higher than the studio version, the very slight shift that creates dissonance when the vocalists sing “again”) seems to suggest to me harry’s profound awareness of the public perception that is his context as he grapples with his identity.

he can speak to these gender feelings because he’s aware that this song will be widely interpreted as about another person, not himself. so he can let himself really feel that pain (linking here to a wonderfully eloquent discussion by meg and ella of live versions of falling and she and this idea of the complexities of when and how harry can express himself) but he needs to be careful with how much he conveys because there’s an audience receiving this heartbreak.

there’s a level of repression, even in his sadness, that just breaks my heart as a queer person to hear what i truly believe is another queer person singing about their anguish and pain and also having to veil that narrative because of the circumstances of their closeting, their public image, etc. etc. it’s also entirely possible that harry is just keeping his gender exploration more private, but the constant vague nods to perceived het relationships make me think it’s not solely harry’s personal privacy that’s keeping him from being open (“he is broken / and i’m hoping someday he’ll open” holy shit unreleased golden lyrics i need to tackle you and give you a giant hug).

harry comes back down to his usual alto for the last word of falling because he’s harry styles, he’s performing this for a crowd and his emotional outpouring in his higher register is confined to a breathy soft nonverbal expression (“we’ve run out of things we can say”) that sounds like a faint musical chime in the studio version right before the last chorus.

to me, some of the most heartbreaking aspects of harry’s music involve his sheer honesty in the face of the painful self-awareness that his art is being sold for mass consumption. in this vein, falling feels like a very public exploration of a very intimate pain, and i think harry’s harmonic choices reflect that balancing act. what to show, what to hide, what he can get away with in the spotlight (“so bright sometimes”)...

okay, okay i’m stopping here for now. big hugs and gender love and do chime in if this makes you feel or think something! <3<3<3

#harry discussions #song analysis #falling analysis #vocal symbology #consonance and dissonance #live note changes #gender gender gender #butterfly h

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stray-tori · 3 years

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It’s over! *party* - now it’s time for

Merlab bonus insight/rambling! ^^/

Okay, so here I will be talking about various things related to the mermay au, that didn’t make it into the final “story”/version.

Original draft - My original draft was sorta like this:

It started out as the very last scene of them parting but originally there was way less bonding and Emma just left without any drama, they still locked hands though pff-

Emma loved her freedom more than she cared about Norman, it’d be a sort of “eyy cool, okay let’s lock hands - byee!” deal.

Here’s a drawing I did in 2019, back when Merlab wasn’t a comic but just standalone drawings sduhdsj - it never came to be posted because Merlab escalated, but it would be their original reunion.

have more doodles:

Things that I probably didn’t convey properly but want to point out:

Emma can easily pull Norman into the tank earlier in the story, but on p137 she’s too weak to even drag him further down (he can stop the movement/being dragged) due to the sleep siren and the tranquilizer arrow.

Ray has a higher resistance to Isabella’s lullaby because he’s her biological child. He can also use the siren song ability (as seen towards the end).

Mers communicate per high-frequency sounds that humans usually cannot hear or just barely hear.

Things that got scrapped/changed along the way:

Emma was first going to only talk at the end and surprise the shit outta Norman. Basically her only line in the entire thing was “Norman will be killed” or something along those lines. It was supposed to be implied that she could learn the language simply by listening to the other people talk.

edit: i found my original sketch of this!

Originally p89 was going to be a very long scrolling page where Norman would go through and debunk some plans (which were all plans I came up with and scrapped because they didn’t seem plausible anymore) - I actually don’t remember why I scrapped this, I think I wanted to avoid too many unnecessary monologues.

The co-worker was not Don originally, he would just be some random dude.

Originally, Norman was going to encounter not-don-coworker dude and be confronted by him. And end up shooting him. With the “flood the facility”-plan came my realization I’d have to scratch that encounter, which I was happy to do, because Don doesn’t deserve to get killed in an au and because action is impossible anyway :’D

Oh yeah Norman was originally gonna steal a gun and be a little more. uhm. wild. But then I figured if Norman had a gun, the guards must have guns and guns are kinda useless underwater so I scrapped that.

Gilda was originally not in the au at all, but when I changed it so that Norman could physically not enter the tank room, but then had him use two id cards later, I needed a 2nd id card from someone. So Gilda came to enter. I also figured she’d maybe help Isabella, like the older girls do in the anime, and therefore has access to more things.

Oh yeah: Isabella was the head of the facility before I switched it to Krone. I think you can still sort of tell in some of Krone’s reactions because I didn’t change MUCH of the storyboard even after the switch. I changed it because of the Isabella/Ray thing and because I really liked the idea of her lullaby being a siren song.

Originally, the mermaids could only talk per very high frequency sounds, which basically meant they had a sort of telepathy thing going on. The language parts actually came in fairly late, it was more of a short idea, originally Norman was just going to try to learn their “language” but I kinda wanted to give her a name and then that was developed a bit more.

Emma has pretty quick healing! (Mers in general do) - therefore it’s kind of implied that the chest bandages are more an act of decency/respect/human moral, from some point forward. Technically, they wouldn’t care about that as soon as Norman doesn’t take care of her anymore, but I didn’t know how to portray that without limiting myself, artwise, so. I ignored that.

I thought a lot about what the facility’s goal actually is. I’m not actually sure what I ended up hinting/going with throughout the story because my brain is a mess, but there were times where I was thinking of going fully into the realms of human modification or using them in wars or similar - but I wanted the language aspect to be viable so I kind of wishy-washy’ied what purpose the research is actually for.

At some point Emma lashing out on page 53 was much more extreme: She’d try to drown Norman (mirroring the one time she pulled him in playfully), but I couldn’t really find a way to make that believable after how much they’d bonded at that point. Norman would either use a recording of the lullaby (upsetting her more) or try to stab her - he’d then try to make the guards not harm her, since they’d actually come in to immobilize her.

But basically her saving him later during the escape was supposed to be the narrative “comeback” / mirror continuation of that! It still works with the book I feel, personally, but there’s just a lot of mess and missed potential in general hhh-

What happens now?

Originally, Norman was going to be actually shown alive/experimented on, and their separation would be outside (but that made little sense so I scrapped it), and Norman was going to obtain some mer characteristics.

Basically he’d have scales, could hear the mers’ frequency (and talk it after a while, even though Emma just uses human speech sometimes to help him) and could breath underwater, but have no actual fin.

About the high frequency: Norman starts to be able to hear it after he transforms, but at first it's just a mixture of random signals he can't quite make out but as he starts to get it more, I would have switched it to "normal" speech bubbles (first with random words, jumbled around) which I think makes sense visually? And I’m somewhat sad I didn’t get to do this.

For those of you who've seen my trio week mermaid art, that’s actually part of that plotline :)

(original post)

Norman can’t deal with the high frequencies at first and transforming in general hurts, his skin is melting and falling apart before it regenerates with more mer characteristics. Emma and later Ray do their best to comfort him! ^^

I scrapped that bc it would have been too long, and I didn’t know where to go with it ultimately. Plus, as the facility developed further, I didn’t think I could write a believable way for Emma and Ray to break him out of there. Though now that Gilda and Don got more sympathetic and bigger roles, they’d probably solve that problem if I tried.

I won’t create this because I don’t have the energy to, but have a barebones plot outline: 1. Norman is a half-mer now 2. Don and Gilda find out somehow 3. 4. Profit, I mean Freedom!

Other fun concepts: 5. Norman goes to the shore to burn the fish they give him bc he will nOT EAT RAW FISH (Ray is fascinatedTM)

6. Emma is like "now we're like the book!" at some point! I found this really cute and wanted to do it at the time, but I’ve grown away a bit from this brand of shipping them. But have the notes I did for the interaction!

Emma: [now we're like the book!] Norman: /// ... Norman :) Norman: *gradles her hair* Norman: Yeah.

“Norman…” “Yeah?” “In book, thing human and mer mouths…” Norman: /// “Why?” Emma: *tilts her head* “Can Noamon and Emma?” Norman: uhm… [Only for… love] <- high frequency convo, it’s less embarrassing than saying it out loud Emma: …? Norman: Uhmm…. Procreation? <- an attempt to have Ray not hear it if he’s near Emma: blink blink Norman: ///// Emma: Noa gwud? Norman: You can it’s just— *peck* Norman: blinks, then chuckles

Ray, coming in: [Are you feeding Halfmer???] Emma: [It’s a hooman thing!! It’s very weird] Norman: soul has officially left his body Arrow pointing at Ray: actually very curious about human culture but won’t admit it

Merlab 2.0

If I did this comic now, I would update a bit of the mer lore. I would make it a research facility, which experimented on mystical creatures / “demons” and their shifting capabilities and applied them to humans, or something like that, and mers basically being a byproduct of that.

I would make Peter the head of the facility instead of Krone and Isabella a former test subject that got killed when Ray and Emma escaped. That way most of her stuff would stay somewhat intact. Emma would also have a reason to try and go back there more to investigate and potentially save everyone else or something like that, and Ray is more cynical and just wants to keep her safe. I would probably also try to utilize more aggressive/active Emma better in the beginning before they bond more. I’d also try to stay more grounded than I did and tone down the romantic hints a bit more, and try to integrate Ray more / show what he tries to do.

well I hope some of this was insightful / fun to read! ^^/

#tpn #tpn au #tpn fanart #merlab au #my shtuff #tori talks #tori's disowned art

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welcometomy20s · 2 years

Text

May 15, 2022

VOCALOID Legends - 2013 Part 1

#122 - Rotten Heresy and Chocolate (PinocchioP) [Hatsune Miku]

Achievement Date: 13-01-05, Upload Date: 11-01-10

PinocchioP enters into the list with a song about the dangers of rumors. Quite fitting for a NicoNico crowd, and certainly a song that demonstrates the unique musical prowess of the PinocchioP, denpa influence but heavy synths but with a dark turn.

#123 - Monochrome∞Blue Sky (Noboru-P) [Hatsune Miku]

Achievement Date: 13-01-10, Upload Date: 10-03-25

A song that betrays the VOCALOID convention in that the song starts sad and gets brighter and hopeful as the song goes on. As with Noboru-P, the chorus is instantly memorable and one of the more positive melodies for him and also of this list.

#124 - Brain Fluid Explosion Girl (rerulili) [Hatsune Miku, GUMI]

Achievement Date: 13-01-11, Upload Date: 12-10-19

Beginning of Human Zoo of Hell series, and the most famous of those songs. Brought rerulili into stardom with his fast-paced composition and pretty obscure but risque lyrics makes for an intriguing song overall, and all that fast bass slap and risque lyrics doesn’t betray the addictive and lyrical melody that holds the whole song together. Since the song speeds along for the entire duration, it is really hard to sing.

#125 - Earth’s Last Confession (kemu) [GUMI]

Achievement Date: 13-01-26, Upload Date: 12-06-26

From one classic to another. As I had said earlier (good thing almost all kemu songs are on this list) the song is about leaving behind after a long life to who she loved? Probably one of the more recognizable melodies in VOCALOID history, the girl in the PV looks like IA but it’s an original character. To me, it is one of the more straightforward kemu song which makes the song more focused on presenting its ideas and so forth.

#126 - Time Machine (1640mP) [Hatsune Miku]

Achievement Date: 13-01-29, Upload Date: 10-09-13

Collaboration with 164 and 40mP, leading Miku to grow well over the Tokyo Skytree. It’s interesting to hear the different tuning of Miku and it’s nice to hear the combination of the piano stylings of 40mP and 164’s more rock style. It’s a pleasing song about saying goodbye (sorry, there is a lot of goodbyes on this portion of the list) but this time only for a little while, perhaps Miku is going to the city? Kind of? Not sure.

#127 - Hello, How Are You (Nanou) [Hatsune Miku]

Achievement Date: 13-02-17, Upload Date: 10-07-20

Probably one of the most famous songs from Nanou. There is a Gundam reference on this song, by the way. The song is oddly glitchy, which makes it hard to listen to, but there are plenty of cover versions. Probably the saddest goodbye song on this list, which absolutely contrasts with the light, airy feeling of the overall song.

#128 - Blindfold Chord (Jin) [Hatsune Miku]

Achievement Date: 13-02-24, Upload Date: 11-05-29

The 2nd song in Kagerou Project (that’s why it’s Miku) and kind of a mood song for the project? It’s basically the main group walking the streets of Tokyo. I think this song basically demonstrates the building blocks which will blossom in his later songs, which I covered earlier and also later on as well. Nothing much to write home about.

#129 - Wind-Up God (kemu) [GUMI]

Achievement Date: 13-02-28, Upload Date: 12-08-02

The song basically wraps up kemu’s story into something. And… uh, it’s about this android girl who makes people’s wishes come true and that causes the apocalypse… wait, it kind of feels like I talked about this before. And this is why kemu and Kagerou Project are two sides of the same coin, not just due to similar style of sound and the fact that they came along at the same time but also their storyline are oddly reflective. There could be some sociological essay about this, but as for the song itself, it’s passable.

#vocaloid #music #review

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writingbeary · 3 years

Text

Kingdom - Pre-episode

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ATEEZ was seated around a table for a Kingdom shoot for a pre-episode. They weren’t told what they’ll be doing but they figured that it will probably be an interview before the show. Minyoung followed Seonghwa and sat beside him and San, usually she would have sat beside Hongjoong but seeing as the leader was sitting at the edges and near the camera, she opted to sit farther.

“I wonder what we’ll do today.” Minyoung mumbled as she made herself comfortable, leaning on Seonghwa’s shoulder while waiting for the staff to finish setting up.

Seonghwa patted her head smiling “I’m not sure but they said we’ll be watching something.”

“Oh? Were you fired by Minyoung as her pillow?” Wooyoung teased Yunho as he noticed the girl leaning on Seonghwa, making Yunho laugh and play along saying“I wasn’t told I got fired? I demand an explanation. Since when were you planning to hire a replacement?”

“Mhm. Seonghwa-oppa lets me hug him whenever and I feel neglected lately since you have to practice for your drama.” Minyoung put on her saddest acting face, making everyone laugh. It has been a running joke in the group that whenever Minyoung goes to find Yunho it only means one thing: she is sleepy and wants someone to cuddle.

They continued on with their chatter until the production staff asked them to hit the slate, everyone fixing their posture and focusing as the staff explained what they’ll be filming today.

“Top 3 videos? I wonder which videos are included. Would it include San-oppa’s fancam?” Minyoung asked looking to her left at the person in question

“I doubt it. Maybe our debut?” San shrugged

“We’ve done many performances on MCountdown, but <HALA HALA> might be..” Wooyoung started as everyone agreed.

“That’s true. Our fans liked our <HALA HALA> performances and outfits.” Yunho added in agreement

“Or the performance that we’ve done with SF9-sunbaenim?” Hongjoong suggested

Minyoung hummed before talking “Won’t it be our first win stage? Out of all our stages so far, I think they’ll like that one and it’s on MCountdown too.”

[The 3rd highest video of each team is?]

[ATEEZ <Say My Name> 2019.01.17 MCountdown]

“Hongjoong-hyung looks like a baby!” Wooyoung commented as Minyoung giggled nodding.

“Ah. The clothes with fur were so hot.” Yunho laughed remembering how they were all drenched in sweat after every recording

Wooyoung added as pointing towards the video “At that time, all the clothes were so heavy.”

“But Minyoung enjoyed those fur jackets and used them as pillows.” San laughed, teasing the girl

“Ah. That time. I was also filming for the drama and had to go straight from music show recording to drama filming. So I sleep whenever I can.” Minyoung reasoned out

“What are you saying? You still sleep whenever you can now.” at that Minyoung slapped San’s arm lightly pouting but laughed in agreement.

As they watch the whole performance, Jongho commented seeing his part on the screen “This was the first album as soon as Minyoung and I turned 20. We’re still quite a baby. We haven’t even had out graduation yet.” making Yunho and Wooyoung crack up

“You two are still babies. It’s just been two years ago.” Hongjoong piped up, making the two youngest members just laugh at the thought

“I shouldn’t say our concept is cute but...” Yunho started as he laughed seeing how they look on the video, looking real young and dressed in puffy fur coats.

“That stage. It was the first time to feel fire.” Seonghwa pointed out as the fireworks on their performance went out

“The heat sparkled on the head!” Yunho nodded

“Minyoung actually got a bit scared during the rehearsals saying there may be a fire.” Seonghwa chuckled as he felt the girl look at him in disbelief as if betrayed.

“I really thought someone could get hurt! I could feel it on my head and I’m already smaller than everyone.” Minyoung said defending herself. “and it was the first time we had fireworks from above.”

After watching the video, they all talked about the memorable parts of Say My Name promotions sharing some stories with the staff.

“This song was the best in letting everyone know us. Because we kept on saying our name.” Hongjoong concluded as everyone agreed

“Mhm. It repeats in your head when you hear it. Say my name, say my name, say my name~” Minyoung nodded as she sang a bit of the song

“But this is interesting, watching our old videos together.” Seonghwa commented chuckling.

“I wonder what the other two videos are. If this was the first one then maybe we’re completely wrong in our guesses” Hongjoong nodded as he pressed play on the second video.

[The second videos is... ATEEZ <Wonderland> 2019.10.10 MCountdown]

Hongjoong surprised as Wonderland played “<Wonderland>?”

Everyone explaimed in surprise and commenting how long it took to film this performance to achieve the final effect for the show.

“It’s almost like a music video.” Seonghwa commented

“This stage where we had the compass and Minyoung was in the center got viral too. Atiny called it as Alice in Wonderland.” Wooyoung pointed at the screen as he remembered the detail

“Ahh I remember. I remember.” Minyoung nodded and laughing at the memory “My brother also called me to ask why my photos were trending as Alice in Wonderland when I’ve been using my Korean name.”

“One thing I know for sure, after we watched Say My Name...we look better here.” San piped in with others in agreement. They were all satisfied with their stage outfits for Wonderland.

Yeosang who has been quiet throughout the shoot spoke, “Atiny especially loved Minyoung during this comeback.”

Minyoung tilted her head, wondering “I didn’t really have many lines though, but I did have center position during the last chorus.”

Suddenly Seonghwa’s part played and he immediately commented “The best chorus ever” making both Wooyoung and Minyoung look at him ready to tease him

“It’s the best part because you came out?” Wooyoung laugh teasingly with Seonghwa denying it hurriedly.

Wooyoung continued “You said that as soon as you came out.” then Yunho adding in “He didn’t say that for my part in Verse 1″ having fun teasing their oldest member.

“Wasn’t this the performance where Minyoung cried?” Jongho asked suddenly remembering it when Minyoung’s part in the song came

“Me?” Minyoung looked at him confused

“Ah! It is. As soon as we went down backstage, she was tearing up saying her in-ear fell off during her dance and was worrying if the last part got ruined.” Wooyoung nodded remembering it too

“Ahh. I really thought I ruined the performance. I couldn’t hear myself but since we were recording live, I just continued singing.” Minyoung explained pouting “I was really thinking I’m so screwed and was so nervous when we were monitoring our stage after.” Seonghwa patted the girl’s back as if to give reassurance.

“The thing is <Wonderland> wasn’t out original title song for this album. <Answer> was supposed to be the title song for this album. But everyone agreed to use <Wonderland> instead.” Hongjoong giving some insight on the story behind the song

“I thought <Wonderland> suit better for our full album.” Yunho nodding in agreement

“But if <Wonderland> was our 2nd top video, will Wave even come out?” Minyoung wondered out loud as the check the final video.

[The Top 1 video is... ATEEZ <Wonderland> 2019.10.31 MCountdown]

“Yah. The Halloween version is higher than the original one!” Hongjoong exclaimed laughing

[The youngest team’s top 1 video is Halloween Version <Wonderland>]

“Wonderland even with this concept?” Seonghwa asked curiously as their top 2 video was also Wonderland. “We really worked hard for this performance. We all opened our eyes wide.”

“We just saw the original stage but this is really different.” Hongjoong laughing as the dance break played

“We danced differently as well.” Yunho added in as he danced a bit in his seat “The choreography was changed a bit for this one. Like a zombie on purpose.”

San nodded chuckling as the watch the video “As if we didn’t have any bones”

“I get why people liked this one better than the original.” Minyoung acknowledged as she also finds this performance more interesting particularly after watching both versions back-to-back.

“We can really tell why people watched this one a lot. Like this halloween version, we need to make them watch our stage first to make them know us. So having a hot stage could be one way.” Hongjoong concluded with the others nodding in agreement. “Let’s prepare more stages like this one in the future.”

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ATEEZ Minyoung Masterlist

Disclaimer: This is just a work of fiction. Any portrayal of real people is a combination based on what we could see on cameras and imagination of the author. This is purely fan fiction written for fun. Thank you for understanding.

━━━━━━ʕ ˵• ₒ •˵ ʔ━━━━━━

Writing Beary Corner:

Kingdom episodes incoming! If you haven’t noticed, I’ve been excited to post these and have actually made this even before I wrote the earlier posts lol

-Mimi

#kpop scenarios #kpop reactions #ateez 9th member #ateez minyoung #ateez oc #ateez scenarios #ateez au #kpop imagines #park minyoung #writing beary #minyoung masterlist

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thepriceofbeingaroseisloneliness · 4 years

Text

Kaoru&Toshiya Interview BURRN!! October 2020 1/2

'Ochita koto no aru sora' was released as the band's first digital single ever. In the middle of what it seems to be nightmarish situation in which they can’t predict at all what’s lies ahead , what are the hopes and emotions that these 5 people put into this song? Text by You Masuda

Notes before reading: This is the first part of the Kaoru and Toshiya interview done by You Masuda for BURRN!! October 2020 Issue, released on September 4th. This part covers more or less half of the interview. Expect second part to be posted around this weekend. You can read the second part here. You can support and get the magazine at Amazon Japan or CDJapan. Feel free to correct me if you spot any mistake or any confusing parts. Links or credits to this post when the content is reposted or captured in other SNS is appreciated :) -----

At midnight on August 3rd, DIR EN GREY's latest single 'Ochita Koto no aru Sora' was released through digital distribution. Half a day before this, on 2nd afternoon’s, this magazine had the opportunity to talk to Kaoru (guitar) and Toshiya (bassist). Following the 'TOUR 20 SOGAI’ that was scheduled for this spring, the two-night performances 'The Insulated World-The screams of Alienation', which were supposed to be held on July 23 and 24, at Pia Arena MM, a large venue newly established in Yokohama, were also cancelled. However, this latest song with such a meaningful title was delivered as a promised.

Completed by Josh Wilbur as a mixing engineer, this song should be the starting point for a new direction for the band. On the other hand, the flow of their live activities has been cut off. However, even if they are under such a strange situation, I felt objectivity and calmness that differs from resignation in their words. -I think the situation is different so far from the usual single release timing. When it comes to digital-distribution only releases, things like booklets or extra DVDs are no involved in the process. Kaoru: No, it was supposed to be like that, but this is what we are doing right now. Besides, we are making an special package for Pia Arena (a packaged version of the same single that will be sent to ticket purchasers who didn’t want a refund due to the cancellation of the two-night performance at Pia Arena MM). Toshiya: So, in the end, the result is the same thing. Kaoru: It feels like (the idea of) that kind of work (packages) is something that we pursued later so that’s why the talk about if we should do a photoshoot for it or not came out. -I see. This time, the first digital distribution only release was made. It was the result of reassuring the release of new songs at this time, right? Kaoru: That’s right. A digital release is probably the best way to get it on time. Toshiya: In a sense, it's also a new initiative. I always thought the time for us to release something in this this way would come. I couldn't predict when that would happen. But now, at this time and under these circumstances, I feel like a digital release is a very rational thing. On the contrary, if it was not this time, maybe we wouldn’t had known when the right time was to give it a try. -Then, this situation made it happen. In the first place, surely the song ‘Ochita koto no aru sora’ was planned to make its debut at the two-night performance in Yokohama (Pia Arena), After that, you have planned to release it around July, right? As a result, the fact that the performances were cancelled seems to have changed the implications a bit. K: Originally, the flow/world of ‘The Insulated World' was supposed to be finished in those two days, and we were heading to a new path from there, but the lives that were supposed to be the precursor for that, disappeared. So, as a result of that, it feels like the new single will be released while the previous flow is still going on. Of course, just because the tours and live performances that were supposed to be held are gone doesn't mean we can't make new ones, however, but you could say that the way to look at their flow has changed. Well, actually, about those two live shows (PIA ARENA MM), we may try to do them again someday in the future. -But in fact, just because a new flow is about to begin, even if these so-called revenge performances are done in the future, at this point, the things that you wanted to do might have changed. K: Yes. Because I don’t think of them as performances that had a date change. Over time, the songs we want to play will change. We actually talk about that. As expected, I can't say anything about it yet (laughs) -At the same time, the single. I think the way we look at the ‘Ochita koto no aru sora’ will also change. T: It will change naturally. But it can’t be helped, and I don't think it's a bad thing. No matter what kind of work it is, it’s something that gets out of our hands at the moment that we put it out for the world. From that moment, I think it will change depending on the moment that people listen to it and how they feel connected to it. -For the two-night performance in Yokohama, the set list was broadcasted in real time on your official channel of Youtube. The last song of the 2nd day was ’SUSTAIN THE UNTRUTH'. I think that the fans that we were watching it should had listened to it while imagining ‘what kind of atmosphere will have the end of this performance?’. K: I don't think you could imagine what kind of live it was supposed to be even if you tried to (laughs). However, to reveal something at that live…. If we could had done these live, there was no announcement planned after the performance. We had no plans to do a tour beyond that, and there was nothing new to announce at that time. As a result, it only became possible to announce the single properly at that time. -The moment in which the flow from 'The Insulated World' was completed after the two-night performance, the growing curiosity would be “what’s next?”. If nothing is announced, that’s going to make people talk (speculate) about that, right? T: Hahaha. For sure. K: Well, but it was like “but there is nothing! (to announce)’, right? (laughs), But well, we are just about starting the album production. It’s just that we can't announce anything because we haven't decided when we are going to announce it yet. T: But that’s already the greatest implication, right? -For sure. Anyway, the fans have no choice but to use their imagination. Also, a song with such a meaningful title such as ‘Ochita koto no aru sora’…what kind of song it it? Is the kind of song that is ahead of ‘The Insulated World 'and 'The World of Mercy'? Could you say that this song suggests the musical direction you are going to move on? K: Well, we don’t know yet. It's just a song has been completed to be single. It starts from there but who knows what will happen in the future? -In other words, it's better to think of it only as a single song, right? K: Yes. At this point, that’s what it is. -Kaoru, you said in an interview published in 'BURRN! JAPAN VOL 16’done before the completion of this single that I have no choice but to imagine how the music would be from the title. You used the mysterious words “a modern/ a song according to the current times” as way of teasing me. K: I did say such a thing, didn’t I? (laughs) -I had no idea of what that meant, but from the impression of the title, I imagined a slow song that felt dark and heavy. However, when I actually got to listen to it, I found out that it’s not like that at all. It’s a song that doesn’t fit in your common format or a standard song that has gone through a process of changes. Although there are many developments parts and just a few repetitions, it feels like all these the elements are tightly packed in these 3 minutes. Pointing out that it’s a song that debunks the theory I made, I wonder what did you mean with “a song according to the current times/modern”? K: What I wanted to point out when I said that it’s that the high point of the melody(chorus) isn’t the only outstanding thing about the song. Usually there is one high point in the song, usually in the middle of it and a few other highlights during it. That’s what I think that I meant when I say a “modern song” (laughs) -What were your first impressions when you heard the song, Toshiya? T: I don't remember the impression I had when I first heard it. Of course, the song itself has changed a lot since that moment. However, it did change following the flow of DIR EN GREY at the same time in a natural way. I don’t know how to say explain it properly but, I think that it feels like a song that was composed while using limited components very effectively. It’s a very interesting song composed with creativity and originality. -The fact that it’s a song composed with the minimum necessary parts, including the the catchy part makes it interesting and intertwined, isn't it? T: That's right. So, while adding and subtracting parts, it created a good shape for the song. I think that’s very interesting. -In a sense, I feel that it also connectss with "CLEVER SLEAZOID", which is recorded in a new version this time. K: What do you mean? -At that time, that song was also the beginning of a new flow for you, building up the song until a high point. Moreover, there was a compactness in each part that were intertwined in a functional way and finished without needing to repeat parts more than the necessary. That's why I felt there was some intention behind these two songs lined up together in this way. K: Ah, I see. T: But that’s reading too much into it (laughs) K: Actually, before the main song of the single was completed, I've already arranged it, this 'Clever Sleazoid'. “I wish we could live in really safe circumstances. Rules for live might be different, but I definitely want to try it soon” Toshiya -Oh really? What made you decide to re-record this song at this time? K: Somehow, the lyrics…. T: As he (Kyo) wanted to sing them in Japanese... K: Yes. English is mixed this time as well in the lyrics, but at that time the lyrics were all in English. (Note: In the original song, only one line in Japanese was included in the end). He wanted to sing it in Japanese, we thought we should try it. T: This was... I think it was in France. We had already decided to do it during the European tour from January to February. That's why I remember the time when we were rehearsing it in France. K: Yeah, that's right. T: We raised the tempo a little, change the rhythm, and try to match it together. It was like… ‘how does it feel like this? ‘Or like that?’ We were kind of checking the atmosphere that it would create (for the song). - The single "Clever sleazoid" was released in 2005. At that time, even from the American label side, the lyrics were requested to be made in English. That’s something that might had cause Kyo feel disappointed. Also, using the English language did not change the way people accepted you in Europe and the United States. So it might me something that created a feeling of discontent. By the way, this song hasn't been on the set list so much in the last years. K: That was just a coincidence. -It was a little surprising that it wasn't included in the set list for the two-night performance in Yokohama (PIA ARENA). T: Yeah, for sure. K: If we would had put it in this time, you just can’t play the old version. It's just like that. (When the setlist of PIA ARENA was broadcasted in Youtube) -I agree with that. There are many things I would like to ask about the lyrics of this song now that are done in Japanese, and of course, the lyrics of "Ochita koto no aru sora", but this time, Kyo seems that won’t accept interviews about the lyrics. Fans have begun to search for the lyrics of "Ochita koto no aru sora" since the short version of Youtube was released for the first time. The words "August 6th Morning" appear in the lyrics but is the reason of this the continuation of the story that is told in the song “Riyuu” (Song from 'Macabre',released in 2000, the lyrics start with the words "August 5th")or is it pointing out the date when the atomic bomb was dropped in Hiroshima? When the video clip was released, it seemed more natural to interpret it like the latter, because it includes images related to war scenarios. I don’t really want to compare your answers here but, how do you both interpret it? K: Mmm, I think that it’s like something that is restricted, like being trapped in something where you can’t see anything. That kind of feeling. To tell the truth, Kyo told me something like “this is the feeling of it” but, it seems that at some parts, the current situation has also been included. The other day, following the cancellation of the Pia Arena performances, there was a talk event for people who purchased VIP tickets, and this same thing was said there right on the spot. “It’s not unrelated to this situation right now”. -Even if he originally wanted to write about other things, does this mean that this situation has affected it (the lyrics)? K: It seems so. -What do you think of this, Toshiya? T: I don't really try to interpret the lyrics in detail, however, I was wondering if this song was a continuation. I feel the lyrics these days are all connected even if they come from different directions. Also, I basically think of all his lyrics and songs in terms of melody. So, I didn't scrutinize the meaning of the lyrics or anything like that, for me it is like a sound. -Saying so, I can't go asking any further (laughs) In fact, I myself feel that there is a continuation in that sense. I think there should be a connection with "The World of Mercy". What about the title itself, “Ochita koto no aru sora" (“The fallen sky or the sky that has fallen”)? Does this mean that a sky has fallen? Does that mean that you yourself or something has fallen in the past? Initially, I felt it was the first option but now seeing the story, it seems most likely to be the latter. K: I think it could be both things falling, right? But, I think that it’s ok for each person to decide how they do perceived to the lyrics. -I feel like the suffocating feeling as if the sky was falling, overlaps somehow with the current situation. K: Yes. However, when you use “koto no aru”, it means that you have already experienced it. So, in the sense still…. T: I’m not really sure about it. K: I don't feel like the person who wrote the lyrics wants to say "this is it" clearly. In a way, if it were something that wants to be clear, it would be explicit in the lyrics. Rather than that, there is a part in which what is writing is daringly blurry. After all, I don’t think I like explaining the meaning of the words because explaining will weaken the meaning. Isn’t it stronger if everything is in the shape you wrote it? -Yes. I would like to ask Kyo again about this matter sometime after. However, what about the link between the content and the video clip with the lyrics? For example, among those which are known, as "VINUSHKA" (included in "Uroboros" released in 2008) from the video, it is natural that some people interpret is as "This is a song about the atomic bomb, isn't it? However, it is not a materialization of the lyrics, but rather an answer to the song from the director of the video’s side. The video of "Ochita koto no aru Sora" is directed by Keita Kurosaka, who has worked on "Agitated Screams of Maggots" and "Rinkaku"as well. This time, you asked Mr. Kurosaka to do it because…...? K: First of all, the actual question was who could make the clip. So, it started with looking for a director. It was the same as always, this time, after all, it’s hard to come up with new ideas when it comes to select people for doing it. This time, it’s not directed by Kondo (Hiroyuki: the video director who has worked on many of their video clips) because the previous clip has not been completed yet (laughs). If he hasn’t finished that, we can’t ask him for a new one. So, we talked to Mr. Kurosaka, with whom up until now we have worked together with animation stuff but, as there were also people who took pictures and footage, we decided to mix them up. -So that was the reason why you didn't ask Mr. Kondo? The full version of ‘'The World of Mercy' video clip isn’t out yet… K: It's not finished. It hasn't been done yet, it's true. But….aren’t we a little weird? Somehow, normally, we should be angrier. Actually, I was angry but even so, it wasn’t done yet (laughs) -He is a person who thoroughly goes digs in the content. The video will be exceeding the 10 minutes as well as the length of the song. However, until now, the video for 'The World of Mercy' has only being shown to our eyes in its limited version. T: We also have seen only that as well (laughs) K: We haven't seen anything more than that. We've only seen the short one, so with those, we still don't get the big picture of the video. That’s why we haven’t been able to do some exchange of opinions like ‘isn’t it really different?’ -That's too bad.Isn’t it something like (the situation) of La Sagrada Familia? T: Isn’t it? (laughs) After all, it seems it’s hard for Kondo to put everything together, because there are too many feelings or enthusiasm towards DIR EN GREY. I’m acting as his spokesman (laughs). But well, I’d like to ask you to do it faster (laughs) (Next part)

#dir en grey #kaoru #toshiya #burrn!! october 2020 #BURRN!!#You masuda #interview #toshiyatranslations #translation

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avocadomin · 3 years

Text

final kingdom rankings

i decided to do the dumb thing that took too long and ranked all of the kingdom stages based on my personal opinion and ranked my top 7 over all (unit stages included). once again this is an opinion and i’m more then happy to discuss other opinions on the stages, but don’t use this post to bash me or others if it differs from your own. this will include notes on both the performance and the music itself.

with that said i’ll keep it under the cut as this will probably be a long post (spoiler: it is </3):

quick note: i watched all the stages by group and each stage in chronological order as i was taking notes. there may be some repeats of things or i bring up something that’s in a lower ranking stage if a higher ranking stage was one of the more recent ones (hope that makes sense). also if you don’t want to read everything there’s a top 5 ranking and my own final group ranking at the bottom.

skz:

stage 3 - i’ll be your man: seungmin and jisung vocals!!! i’m still not too familiar with the original btob song so i’m not sure how skz’s version varies from it, but their version i think fits their team really well. chan took a little bit of a back burner this stage, but we really got to hear the vocal side of skz shine through this song esp in their lower register which i think it stronger then their upper one lmao. jisung is really the only one (that i think) can belt some of those high notes so consistently. on the actual performance side of things there was an interesting use of sets and props, but not over done. there were some really ineresting dance breaks esp at the end of the song. the story of the stage was also i think one of skz’s strongest (and no guns <3). i really hope skz does a song like this in the future cause they can obviously pull it off.

stage 2 - side effects / god’s menu: really loved how we got to see a different side of skz on this stage with their acting! i don’t think they had another stage that was quite like this one. also loved the mixing again with both side effects and god’s menu with how they used felix as the transition between the two songs, and the FAT synths during the ‘my head hurts’ right before going into god’s menu. while this is a strong stage musically, acting and energy wise. i feel like there was too much of a reliance on props and a lot of work was done by the dancers which was visually amazing!! but skz is a strong dance group too and i wish it wasn’t as flashy as it was.

final stage - wolfgang: this stage and their 2nd stage are honestly tied but i think wolfgang is slightly lower cause i prefer the mixing for the 2nd stage. really dissapointed there was no epic organ player that was killed at the end </3 but that aside i would say wolfganf is a just a really strong skz song that’s a little more in the 3racha style. i really liked how they tied in some of the points from their intro stages with the green mouth light things and some of the samples used in the track! the reason it’s middle of the pack (haha get it cause their wolves.....i’ll stop) for me is similar to the side effects stage as it relies a lot on their dancers and props. it was a really nice ending performance to end their time on kingdom. (also one of their most messiest stages, but it was probably the one with the least amount of time for practice with everything lmao)

intro stage - miroh: really great intro stage for the skz cause we really got a taste of what was to come with kingdom (sadly no jinnie). the mixing was insane and one of my faves i think for skz (esp minho’s part <3). it had the same height of energy as the original tack, just much darker, and there was decent balance between vocals, dance, and rapping. it also showed their great work as a team with the small stunts in the choreo.

stage 4 - god’s menu x d4: don’t get me wrong, this stage is really neat with the deadpool stuff, but it’s also a stage that won’t really age that well? it was more on the gimmicky side of kingdom stages and i’m not sure why they had a large chunk of the choreo with guns???? that’s not needed that you. going into the good things...binnie popped off!! he really stuck out to me this stage rap wise. also the drop for the first d4 chorus was very unexpected but also really satisfying? kinda reminds me of the drop in the chorus for 1team’s ‘make this’ (go check it out if you don’t know the song). over all a really fun stage and their energy was really good, but just wish it wasn’t quite and gimmicky as it was </3

ateez: man i miss mingi....comeback soon king

final stage - the real: ok this stage is also really really close to their wonderland stage but is just SLIGHTLY ahead it. this stage was probably one of the most fun ones to watch out of ateez’s kingdom performances because they seemed so loose? like they were really just feeling themselves on this stage and it just looked like they were really enjoying themselves out there like this is what they were born to do. i also love this song and it’s one of my fave recent releases from ateez again (i’m not too big of a fan of their fever series sorry </3). the energy, rap, vocals, choreo was just all there. i’m just really glad we were able to see one of these stages again where we go to see the group really just let loose and half so much fun performing before the end of kingdom.

stage 2 - from the wonderland: look...i KNOW there’s a tentacle, but i’m going to look past that. it might be the favoritism towards wonderland as it is one of my top ateez titles, but i think it they did do a really good job mashing it together with symphony no. 9. there was a decent balance between using props/reliance on dancers and the group actually dancing. jongho slayed that high note at the end, and it was actually placed well in the song where it didn’t seem out of place. and them the OUTRO just represents one of the main reason’s i love ateez with their amazing energy. high energy song, high energy choreo...just the perfect ending to get you hyped. also one last note....seonghwa looked so hot when he was walking through the line of dancers with that rifle (he just looked good this whole stage <3).

stage 3 - the awakening of summer: a very different style from the original and i’d say even a different style for ateez but it still works?? the beginning was a lil cheesy and not sure how the whisper talking/rapping through most of the song works for me, but the INSTRUMENTAL pls play it at my funeral...that synth line <3 i really liked the little choreo with the rope that san did and the overall choreo was also really strong. the outro was a little let down on the energy of it. it may be cause there was some slight timing issues with the vocals and backing track or they were just missing SOMETHING for it, but jongho slayed that belted note once again where i’m not too mad at it lmao.

stage 4 - answer: in the first half i really thought this was going to be one of my fave stages for ateez as the added strings were a nice touch and i loved how they made some references to their past songs and overall concept story line. overall musically in the first part it was decently balanced with a few ode to joy and answer. once it got to the part where it was the opera singers i was????? if they stopped there i think it could have still worked, but the ending there was just so much going on but it was also missing so much as well?? i didn’t understand jongho’s one belted note at the end. this was the only stage where i really felt it didn’t fit. they either needed to not add it at all or have him have one other note after it with maybe a break between the two notes to make it feel more complete. overall...a decent stage, but it really just didn’t have that ateez polish on it.

intro stage - wave: ok tbh i....kinda hated this stage? NOTHING on ateez or wave, just the song did not translate to the style they ended up choosing for it. i think say my name would have been a really strong intro song in the final style chose esp since it didn’t come up in their later stages. the choreo was really strong, but honestly the mixing just seemed like they forced two pieces together that didn’t fit.

the boyz: ok i just want to write a quick note as a general opinion i have across all their stages. tbz is a really solid group overall esp with dancing, but i feel like for kingdom they played it safe in a lot of ways and we didn’t see much variation of wow factors from their stages. they were good!! just (usually) fairly predictable like they set the bar high and then just never raised it again </3

stage 4 - monster: this ranks so high partially cause i love exo’s monster sm but besides that point </3 the vocal line seemed to be pretty much a copy paste from the original (not a bad thing at all) but once again the instrumental my beloved <3 i think because the vocal line was pretty much the same as exo’s made it a really nice balance between the original and tbz version. i wasn’t too sure about the giant snake towards the end, but it actually wasn’t too bad as it was more of just the use of an entrance, then just a bg prop after that. as with all of their stages, the choreo was really solid, but it was the arrangement of the song that really put this performance on the top.

final stage - kingdom come: dance wise i think this is my favorite out of all their stages. they had neat transitions from their pre recorded parts of the stage and the live part of the stages. really liked the part where the hand off screen was controlling the chroeo. then the dance break/outro!! not sure what it was, but i think it just really highlighted their strengths in dancing as a group. the song itself didn’t stand out at all and i think that’s why it ranks lower then their monster stage. it sounds a lot like checkmate to me (possible blended with salty???) so it’s a solid track, but it just doesn’t sound that different from their past ‘finale sounding’ tracks. it was a nice stage to end on for them as it was really solid, and it capped of their time with the kingdom series well.

stage 2 - no air: tbh the orginal song for no air doesn’t do much but i LOVE this mix of it. it might be the slowdown of the chorus that really does it for me, but it’s one of my fave mixes for their stage. really solid choreo and i liked the paired dancing with the other dancers in the first chorus. i think tbz i one of the the better groups when it comes to non-power dancing....not sure how to word it, but they’re very graceful and i love when they show it off and the dancing in front of the white fabric was a really nice touch. they also pulled off their stunts really well!! that’s another things they’re pretty reliable in, but it’s something they don’t overuse which is nice. a very strong stage overall for them.

stage 3 - the red wedding: someone is going to murder me for this, but i’m not the biggest fan of o solo mio </3 tbz did a really good job with the song! music wise for me is just that the rap sections i think didn’t flow too well in their rendition of the song. i don’t remember how they fit in the original but it didn’t fit that well in this stage ;_; i thought the rest was really good! their use of props wasn’t overdone and added some interest to the choreo that was already really strong. also really enjoyed the sections in the birdcage with the female dancer. another really solid performance by them.

intro stage - the stealer: LOVED the choreo and formations for this performance. they’re a really strong dance group and i’m glad we got to see how good their dancing is with no props or anything. the song it’s self wasn’t too special, it was a solid mix but it seemed like something we’ve seen before? i think it reminded be of one of their stages from rtk, but i don’t remember which one ;_;

sf9:

stage 4 - move: CONGRATS TO SF9 FOR BEING THE ONLY GROUP THAT HAS TAEYANG. i could watch that man dance all day damn. the only thing i didn’t really like/understand was the very end where they were standing in the rain??? it would have been neat if they had one final dance break in the rain box or a solo dance or SOMETHING...it just didn’t need to be there otherwise </3 but everything else was SO GOOD. the concept of the stage was strong, the mixing was fit the group really well, and with move being such a difficult dance, the members did a really good job with it. the props/sets used i think added to it, and there was a good balance between those and the group actually dancing. glad to know taemin covers in the kingdom series did the original songs justice <3

final stage - believer: taeyang once again <3 overall the track sounds like a really solid b-side, but their performance really brought it up to a nice finale song. loved their references to their past stages with the props and formations with the dances, it wasn’t too much and didn’t distract from the rest of it. the use of reflections was also really well done!! that prop was super cool and loved how they played around with it. overall a really nice way to end kingdom for them, and i think dance and staging wise, it was one of my faves to come from them.

stage 3 - the scene: congrats sf9 for being the only group that has hwiyoung <3 tbh this stage would probably be my number one of they didn’t have the guns during the choreo </3 it just...brought it down so much for me (and the blurred out knife???). i think the mixing was pretty solid as it was close to tbz version, but made it fit sf9 really well. the fight scenes were super well done and i feel like did add something to the stage. then overall the dancing was really sharp this time around!! a super good stage....just take out the dancing guns.

stage 2 - jealous: this was one of the few stages outside the introductions that didn’t have a super heavy reliance on props, they didn’t rank well, and then we never saw a stage like it again </3 i loved this stage!! it didn’t change drastically music wise, but i really liked the kind of rock style? remix of now or never and it fit well with the concept of the stage. the formations!!! in this performance were some of my fave and loved the bits of choreo we saw when the members were dancing with the female dancers. there were some parts with the members weren’t quite in sync with each other, but overall it was really solid and sad we didn’t get to see a stage like this one again ;_;

intro stage - good guy: if sf9 just did suit concepts in the future i would not be mad <3 but overall a solid intro stage! there wasn’t much difference music wise except in the dance break in the beginning from the original song. choreo was pretty crisp and overall done well. there were no ‘wow’ factors in this stage, but a very solid one overall.

ikon:

final stage - at ease: tbh i wasn’t too sure about the song in previews, but it’s grown a lot on me as this past week went on. it’s a great hype song and has the energy of ikon that i really love. the drop the in the chorus is really satisfying and it was just as satisfying visually in the performance as well. they used their dancers really well and the members also did really well with the chorus choreo. it was just overall a really satisfying stage for ikon and it was the only stage in my opinion they ramped up their more laid back energy and worked so well.

stage 2 - to the world: this is one of the stages that really does age pretty well. i wasn’t a huge fan of it mainly bc of the ending and it’s still not my fave but it didn’t take away as much from the stage as i remember. i LOVE both love scenario and killing me. the love scenerio portion of the stage i think it still one of my fave ikon moments. the acting was solid and i liked their story with it. in some ways i wish at least killing me was a little more hard hitting and less a copy and paste for the most part from their original. love scenario was an amazing opening but killing me needed something to make a solid ending song as it caused the energy of the stage to kinda fall off or not really raise at all. overall i do really like this stage, it just needs more of something for the ending.

intro - rhythm ta: i think this was my 2nd fave intro stage right being skz’s. i love the formation in the beginning and the vocal fry on the ‘ikon is back’ was a nice touch. it also just seemed like the most loose intro stage? like this wasn’t their first rodeo and just felt really comfortable on this stage. overall loved the energy of the stage, and there was solid mixing of the song and good choreo.

stage 3 - inception: this isn’t hate on bobby or anything but his rap parts really bought this performance down for me </3 it might have just been an off day or smth but...yeah. otherwise i really liked the stage!! the mixing was really intresting and they really made inception into their own ikon style. the sets used was also probably my fave overall? it was really really neat with the changing sets to match the song title. also the ending was super cool with the dancers in that final formation where they kinda slowed down. a really cool stage overall.

stage 4 - classy savage: family watching yg tv time <3 i think there was a really nice balance of both the original bp song and ikon’s style. tbh it seems opposite of what i said with the boyz..the insturmental seemed pretty close to blackpink’s, but the vocal/rap was very much the ikon style. the reason this one is so low for me is because it seemed like two separate stages with lisa? it was really neat that she was added, but it would have been so cool if he joined in with them for the final outro or something. she even had the same lyrics to the blackpink song as ikon’s changed so it just made it that much more separate. if lisa either joined in more with ikon or she wasn’t added at all i think this would have ranked a lot higher on my list </3

btob: another quick note....i think on the performance end btob is the opposite of tbz. they don’t do much with choreo but they’re such an enjoyable group to watch and their VOCALS are always so stable so i probably won’t have many notes on their dancing lmao

stage 4 - blue moon: concept and comedy kings <3 idk they were really feeling themselves but it looked like they were having so much fun on stage and it made me have a smile on my face the entire time. the concept of the movie worked so well with the style of the jazzy tune. i’m not too familiar with the original bside so i’m not sure how much it differs or if it does at all. there’s really nothing i would change from this stage...it’s just so enjoyable to watch from the concept, vocals, and peniel playing that piano terribly <3

stage 3 - back door: really close to their blue moon stage for me. i really feel like they got the hang of the kingdom stages at this point. i loved their remix of back door. they took a rap heavy song and turned it in to a vocal heavy one so well?? truly made it their own. the weird drop(?) after they say back door just works so well for me and the inclusion of the electric guitar is so NEAT. there wasn’t much as far as dancing except for the small bit at the end and in one of the ‘dressing rooms’ but it really worked for the concept of the stage. idk it’s just a really fun stage to watch and a really good hype energy at the end.

final stage - show and prove: TALK ABOUT A FINALE STAGE. i love this song on it’s own and it’s probably my top song or in the top 2 for the original kingdom songs. this stage is another one that’s so close with their blue moon and back door stage, but i think it ranks a little lower then the other two as there was choreo from the members (or at least not a lot at all). but even with that this stage didn’t feel any less grand then the other finale performances because they killed the vocal parts so much and the song itself is such a GOOD ending song. oh man i would rate this higher if dancing or concept also was involved ;_;

intro stage - beautiful and painful: (i think that’s what it’s called?): vocal kings <3 they really said we’re the best vocalists on this show with this intro and you know? they’re correct. i wasn’t too sure on this stage when i first watched it since it was so different compared to the other groups, but watching it again now it’s a really strong intro stage. btob is a really strong vocal group and they established that really early on and only gave us a taste of what they were really able to do. a great intro stage overall.

stage 2 - missing you: overall the stage is really beautiful with the lighting and the trees, but similar to ikon’s stage with lisa it seemed really disjointed. the vocal sections were really strong on their own and the dance break section this was really cool on it’s own, but it didn’t mesh together super well :/ a decent stage for sure, i just wish they kept the style of the dance break or just kept it the style of the vocal stage. i think they might have just added that dance section in there as the other groups had such dance heavy performances and theirs didn’t, but again it just kinda took something away from it </3

unit stages: i’m not going to write notes on the unit stages cause i’ve already written so much on the group stages lmao but if you want to more about/wonder why one ranked lower then another than pls ask! i’m just too done with this post to write it now. i will say 2-4 are really close in ranking. love poem took the whole thing for me and i wasn’t a huge fan of wither rap unit stage </3

love poem

wolf

king and queen- both performances teams are really close in ranking after a rewatch

spark

colors

full dash

top 7 stages overall: cause i couldn’t choose 5 </3

love poem (i think it’s cause minnie brainrot but we’re not going to talk about it thank u)

i’ll be your man

blue moon

the real

from wonderland

side effects / god’s menu

move

final group rankings:

stray kids (call it favoritism, but they deserved it)

ateez

btob (if kingdom was only vocal/music they would have won in my opinion)

sf9

the boyz

ikon

#ok it's finally done </3 #i hope someone reads this or it sparks a conversation ajshrdsdr otherwise i spent 4 hours just reliving kingdom #it was interesting to see how all the stages #ended up being #and it really seemed around the 3rd round all the groups found their groove and then it got really really good #also this is not proof read to sorry if there's some mistakes

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lycorogue · 3 years

Note

Hey girl! For your "Ask about WIPs" game, I'm interested in "I Don't Care" and/or "Seduce with Caution." Hope you're well, stay safe!!

Hey right back! I am doing well. Hope the same for you and yours.

[WIP tag game: my list]

Ya know what, no one else has played yet, so I'll go ahead and indulge. 😀

I Don't Care

This story actually started life as a "tumblr exclusive" one-shot called Stranger in a White Dress (published here May 2018). It was actually one of the first fanfics I posted to Tumblr. It was inspired by the song "Play Me Like a Violin" by Stephen (*warning: the music video has flashing bits, so those with photosensitivity, please be careful if you watch instead of just listen).

I don't know why specifically I latched onto Gabriel Agreste and Emilie Graham de Vanily, but it seemed appropriate somehow. The story was them having a meet cute in college. Emilie would have blown into Gabriel's life for a few minutes, stole a kiss unexpectedly, and then blew back out of his life just as abruptly.

The story stayed like that for quite some time. Then, August 2019, I heard the acoustic version of Ed Sheeran's song "I Don't Care". At first blush, the song sounded like something my husband would sing, but the more I listened the more I realized it could be Gabriel singing about/to Emilie. This song was kind of the theme of the Agrestes' relationship, in my opinion. Hence stealing the song title for the story's title. I took the first verse about being at a party, and continued my story. Gabriel was dragged to a party by his flatmate, and Emilie coincidentally was there. The two reconnected, and Gabriel turned a one-time chance encounter at a club into a potential relationship.

I'm not entirely sure where else to go with this story, aside from knowing I want it to be the love story between these two. Possibly ending with Adrien's birth. Possibly continuing until Emilie's "disappearance." Not sure which yet. However, this whole story is a bit of a slow process while I wait for inspiration to strike again, mostly by way of new music. I have been a touch obsessed for the past year with the songs "2AM" by MK (feat Carla Monroe) and "Say You Won't Let Go" by James Arthur as a back and forth between Emilie and Gabriel respectively (the fact that "2AM" has a female vocalist and "Say You Won't Let Go" has a male vocalist just makes it all the better). The only snafu there is that this would be a chapter about them drinking too much while out, and/or Emilie drunk calling Gabriel and asking for him to spend the night with her. As spontaneous as I like making Emilie, it seems a bit abrupt considering where their relationship stands at the end of the 2nd chapter. So I want to come up with a buffer one showing their first official date as my 3rd chapter. I'm just not sure what said date should look like yet. Thus this WIP sits in waiting.

If you want to read the first two chapters, you can find them over on AO3, FFN, or DA.

Seduce with Caution

This one is actually my current WIP. It's also my first foray into Miraculous Ladybug smut (aged-up, of course).

For some reason, August brings out the smut in me (is it the warm weather?), and I've written other smutty fics during that month in the past. Most have never seen the light of day. I've written a couple using the X-Men OCs created for my husband's play-by-post role-play game. I've written one using my D&D character and one of her partymates. The only smut I've officially published though was my interpretation of a handwaved sex scene in the book Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore (mostly because the series was fairly unknown and that book had been published 7 years prior, so I figured not many would even find my smut).

I have never tried ML smut before though, despite enjoying a lot of the ones I've found. I just couldn't get past the mental image of the Love Square as 14-year-olds.

Last year, however, while reading Dressed to Confess by @zenmisery , she had a bit where Chat Noir's costume acted as a bit of a magical chastity belt. For some reason, that gave me this fantastic concept for a MariChat sex scene. I started working on it, but I realized that it seemed too abrupt of an interaction between these two characters without also having the story be post-reveal and the two of them being in a relationship. The concept, though, would have been how MariChat could spend a night together without Marinette finding out who Chat Noir is under the mask first. The whole premise crumbles if they're already in a relationship and/or it's post-reveal.

I just couldn't get the balance right, and so I abandoned the story. Right around December, I tried again by backtracking a touch to include the seduction and foreplay leading into the sex scene. That too seemed a bit left-field. It felt like glorious crack, and I was tempted to just run with it because crack is a fantastic story "genre" but I... just can't find it within myself to do so. So the story was abandoned again.

This past August I revisited the story once more. After 3 or 4 false starts, I tried backing up even further with my story's starting point. Now this story has become a slow-burn, sexual tension, blushfest. There's implied masturbation, and later chapters will include make-out sessions with heavy petting, but the actual true-blue smut won't show up until the final chapter or so. So my "Porn without Plot" has become "so much pining with a sprinkle of smut thrown in for flavor". 😅

I still don't have a concrete story figured out, but the working summary is: "While 19yo Chat Noir tries to demonstrate to Marinette his new 'moves' to try to win Ladybug over, he accidentally seduces Marinette. Now she has to come to terms with the knowledge that she finds him sexy and highly desirable, all while still holding a flame for Adrien. Meanwhile, Adrien has to wrestle with the knowledge that he found Marinette getting hot and bothered over him a major turn-on. Chaos ensues."

Considering it kept me over a year to write just the first chapter (but only 3 days to write the second one), I want this story complete before unleashing it onto the world. I also need to build up the confidence to let the rest of the fandom read my first ever MariChat smut soooooooooooooooooo..........

ANYWAY, yup. That's what's up with I Don't Care and Seduce with Caution.

A romance story between young Gabriel and Emilie where I humanize Gabriel....

And a slow-burn MariChat smut story that will only really include anything explicit in the last chapter or so.

Thanks so much for the ask! This was fun. Feel free to ask me more!

I've also talked about my original WIP Glitches here, here, and here, as well as talk about my other Gabriel-humanizing project When Love Matters here.

#writing #LycoRogue writing #rikareena ask #LycoRogue answers #WIP tag game #talking about my WIPs #Miraculous Ladybug #ML #ML fanfics #fanfics #I Don't Care #Seduce with Caution #please ask me things #long post

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tarry-a-lot · 4 years

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French Musical Recommendations/review (Part 1)

It’s great seeing people get into musicals other than Broadway and Westend (don't get me wrong I do love Westend/Broadway shows and off- shows, some definitely do get less love than they deserve), I thought I’d make a list of French shows I know about, people may already know these shows, but I thought it would be fun! (This is mainly based on soundtrack as I have had no opportunity to watch most of these shows)

Le petit prince (2002): I love this show, it might be my favourite based solely on soundtrack, the music is really soothing and beautiful, if you like Daniel Lavoie he has quite a few songs in here, “Le plus beau et le plus triste pays” is what made me love Daniel Lavoie’s voice, for you Mozart l’opera rock fans Laurent Ban is in here and has one song “Moi je” which is also a fun one, you should be able to find a recording and full show on YouTube last time I checked

Le rouge et le noir (2016): the music is more rock pop (it’s a rock opera) so if that’s your vibe, I will say the soundtrack doesn’t have all the songs featured in the final developed show which is a pity because “L’amour nous désarmés” and “La sagesse est de tous les âges” are bops, you can find a recording of the full show on YouTube, or the concept concert which is just the actors singing no plot and only features the song on the album (so newer songs in the full show are missing)on YouTube as well

non-music: the plot is alright, I mean it’s based on the books of the same name, the staging is nice and simple, heavy reliance on digital screen backdrops, the costume is debatable in my opinion it’s vaguely historical and some of the blocking was strange (the horse riding scene was hilarious how they executed it), though I will say the imagery and lighting with the screens is quite lovely and can be quite effective in adding to the emotions of the acting and songs

Mozart l’opera rock: y’all know it, it’s the rock opera about Mozart with a focus on his relationship with Salieri in the 2nd act, of course the French cast is beloved as I too really love them but here are some other casts you may want to look into as well,

the 2013 Japanese cast, sings and clips can be found on YouTube, there was an indigo and rouge version where the actors playing Mozart and a Salieri switched roles, thus two ver. I will say, not all of the singing is the best, but I think the renditions of popular songs like l’assasymphonie are great, it is a non-replica production

there’s also a Korean cast which I’ve only heard bits of, again through YouTube, they too are very talented, and I recommend, it is a replica of the French version

I don't necessarily recommend it but there is the illegal/legal ukranian concert ver, it’s on YouTube (there’s one with the French cast and another without), I say illegal because at some point the original Mozart actor complained about it being illegal on Instagram or something but later there was another concert of the Ukrainian singers with the some of the original French cast so honestly don’t know, they are good but the costumes were really... on a tight budget it seems but hey it’s a concert

and the final ver. that I know of is the Takarazuka 2019 version, I will be honest it’s not as good as the Jp 2013 version lyrically, they made changes for reasons I do understand however I think it’s still a miss for me (if anyone’s interested I can talk more about the differences) but the vocals are still good so I would still give it a listen (not sure if you can find songs on YouTube, maybe on Tumblr someone posted some songs?)

La légende du roi Arthur: this is the Florent Mothe lead King Arthur musical for those Mozart fans, though the whole cast is absolutely wonderful and deserve all the recognition, music wise it’s alright, more pop heavy, I like quite a few of the songs, has some fun wind instruments in there, the reason I don’t love it is because some songs blatantly sound like a radio song (mainly a comment on the backing track), I would still definitely give this show a listen, you can’t go wrong with the songs (my favourites are Mon combat, Auprès d’un autre, and maybe il est temps) I know there’s a Korean ver. (in 2019?) and a Takarazuka ver. in 2016 but I know very little about it but I’m sure there are others on here who are better informed, the full French show can be found on Youtube

non-music: the plot seems alright, I’m a little doubtful on the ending but hey I skipped through it so maybe I just missed stuff, some of the costumes are hideous in my opinion (the red gold Arthur) and I have some complaints about props but could be a budget/ practical reasons (mother puppet, the golden cage) but it’s still quite a large and impressive show with many dancers so despite my opinions it was still a cool show to watch for the staging and visuals, the large layout with dance is similar to that of Robin des Bois,

Romeo et Juliette: de la haine à l’amour/ Roméo et Juliette: les enfants de Vérone: this one is a classic, a bit complex to explain but there are two versions as can be seen by the change in the sub title, the first title is the original ver. and les enfants is a later version with changes, I won’t go into detail but wiki and other Tumblr accounts I’m sure can be helpful, this is a fun musical about r+j, If you like the play or just like musicals I think this is a good starter musical to listen to, music can be popish but the backing band?/orchestra? is lovely,

French 2001 Original (de la haine à l’amour) full show available on Youtube

French 2010 Revival (les enfants de Vérona) I just call it a revival, they add songs and I think cut parts out, stage and costumes differ from original, full show available online, there is an Asia tour version of this as well

I was first introduced to this show through the Italian ver. (Romeo e Giulietta: Ama e cambia il mondo) which I think has some of the best costumes, all of act 1 can be found on YouTube and the soundtrack and clips should also be available, this production ran twice with mainly the same cast for both times, it is a non-replica production

Hungarian ver. (Rómeó és Júlia), has a rap in “Les rois du monde” which I love, you’ll find it’s one of the fan favourites, I know clips and the full show is available on YouTube, it is a non-replica production

Russian ver. (Ромео и Джульетта) was a replica production of the original French ver., full show on YouTube

Korean ver. (로미오와 줄리엣) was a replica of the French revival ver. clips of scenes on YouTube, separately there’s a full amateur production on YouTube as well

Takarazuka ver. (has done it multiple times) One of their renditions can be found in full split up into multiple videos on YouTube, and general clips are also available, non-replica production

Japanese ver. Toho, (ロミオ & ジュリエット) the original version ran in 2011 and then 2013 (non-replica) it was then brought back in 2017 with a completely new designs and choreography and this version ran again in 2019, it’ s non-replica and clips of the new design version can be found online, has two casts, the black version cast and the white version cast

German/Austrian ver., (Romeo und Julia: das Musical) has Mark Seibert as Tybalt for you Mozart! and Elisabeth fans and Lukas Perman as Romeo, the costumes are debatable though, again non-replica production, clips and the full show (split into parts) on YouTube

infamous English/British ver. which is awful (nothing against the cast), the lyrics were just really bad, and the costumes aren’t great except for maybe Juliet’s wedding dress, had a short run, you can find the songs on YouTube

Dutch/Netherlands ver. (Romeo en Julia: van Haat tot Liefde), replica of the original French ver., full soundtrack and some clips can be found on YouTube, there was a Netherlands/Belgium tour, but I assume it is the same?

Spanish/Mexican ver. (Romeo y Julieta) 2008 Monterrey, it’s a replica of the original French with adjustments, clips of all the songs can be found on YouTube, there are also a smaller local production from 2019 that also has clips on YouTube (it seems to be trying to replicate the French revival costumes)

Israel ver. (רומאו ויוליה מחזמר) set is similar to the French revival, but it is a non-replica production, clips available on YouTube

Romanian ver. (Romeo si Julieta) also has the “Les rois du monde” rap part, clips on YouTube, was confirmed that it is a replica of the Hungarian version

Slovakian ver. (Rómeo a Júlia) 2013, it’s a non-replica version, some clips are available on YouTube

Portuguese ver. (Romeu e Julieta: do Ódio ao Amor) non-replica and clip(s?) are available on Youtube, I personally quite like their “Verona” ensemble harmonies

Have I missed anything? let me know!

Edit: There is also a Czech ver. non-replica at the Forum Karlín in 2015, clips are available on YouTube (I recommend adding the forum name when searching), there was also another German ver. at Thun in 2015, it is non-replica and some making-of clips can be found on YouTube (adding “Thunerseespiele“ can help in finding it), and there was a Mongolian ver. though only music videos are available

I really recommend this show maybe start with the original French?

#romeo and juliet #romeo et juliette #Mozart L'Opéra Rock #mozart l'opera rock #le rouge et le noir #La legende du roi Arthur #le petit prince #musicals #rambling #takarazuka

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jackredfieldwasmyjacob · 3 years

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OT 2017 TOP 3 CHRISTMAS GALA

Here's gala 8 :)

The first special gala of the new OT!! This aired on Christmas Day, and I remember being more excited for this than for the presents and stuff jsdjs. Anyways, this gala worked a bit different. There were no nominations or expulsions, this was just to have fun. And, as special guests, some OT 1 contestants sung songs they performed in OT 1 with the OT 2017 contestants!!! Which was very cool!!! I'll talk about them if I get to talk about the songs so you get a bit of context, but yeah, this was a big deal!! When OT 1 came out I was 3 (my mum says I watched it tho) so I don't have a real attachement to them, BUT since last year my favourite Spanish youtuber, Carolina Iglesias, has been making a series of videos reacting to all the galas of OT 1, they are hilarious and if you know Spanish I really recommend them (here's the video of the first gala, I couldn't find a complete playlist, but she's done up antil gala 5-6 i believe, she stopped right after Àlex's death, I don't know when she'll continue with them). Anyways, thanks to those videos I now know a bit more about the contestants, so I can talk a bit more about them here :)

Anyways, let's start with the honorable mentions:

Lady Marmalade - Ana, Gisela, Vero & Mimi: The original performance (the third girl is Chenoa, one of the most famous from the edition and the absolute best) is one of the most iconic performances of OT 1, and this one was also very good! Vero ended up 6th and it's now a singer residing in the USA, while Gisela (who btw if I had watched OT1 would've been my favourite alongside Alejandro) ended up 8th and she's now a successful musical actress and voice actress. In fact, she was the voice of Elsa in Castilian, which means she performed in the Oscars in 2019!!!!

Vivo Por Ella - Nerea & Àlex: I still listen to this song to this day, it's sooo good. Anyways, Àlex ended up 10th in OT 1, and continued working in the Catalan television network, released some songs and starred in musicals, until he sadly died due to a car crash in March 2nd 2021, a death that shocked the whole nation, as he is the first contestant from OT to die, and which makes watching this video harder ngl. Anyways, here's the original performance, by Gisela and David Bustamante (I think Bustamante was supposed to sing this song with Nerea originally, but he couldn't make it. Bustamante is one of the most succesful artists that came out of OT ever. ALSO, I believe people shipped Bustamante and Gisela during the contest).

Gracias por la música - Amaia & Rosa: THE TWO QUEENS OF SPAIN!!! Anyways, Rosa won OT 1 and went to Eurovision with the bop "Europe's Living a Celebration", and if you hear her sounding a bit off, it's cause they fucking exploited the hell of her voice after she won (here's the original performance with Nuria Fergó so you can hear how amazing her voice was), until the point she had to get surgery. So yeah. But yes, Rosa was dubbed Rosa de España (and Amaia was also dubbed Amaia de España), and she will always form part of the history of Spain.

3. NOCHES DE BOHEMIA - MIREYA & NURIA FERGÓ

youtube

Here's the original song, by Navajita Plateá, and here's the performance in OT 1, by Nuria and Manu Tenorio :)

Flamenco in OT is so scarce that I gotta take what little we have. And this song was SO GOOD and Nuria and Mireya are SUCH QUEENS. I genuinely prefer this version to the OT 1 one. Anyways, Nuria Fergó ended up being 7th, and she's still a singer, with a couple hits, and has also appeared as an actress in TV shows. I really liked her in OT 1, and I think she's underrated, just like Mireya. Also, both of them won beauty pageants in their hometowns, both in Andalusia, so this was like a match made in heaven.

2. CAMINA - GROUPAL

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Slight spoiler, number 1 and 2 are going to be group songs!!! Anyways, this is the hymn of OT 2017, and they sung it for the first time here!!!! This song is so fucking iconic, you don't understand, it was EVERYTHING. It has nearly 11 million streams on Spotify alone, and I'm sure it was like Platinum or something like that. This song was everywhere, cause it encapsulates that happy period of our lives when OT 2017 was on and everything was good, I can't be the only one that still tears up a bit listening to it. And in the tour!!! It was everything!!! There was this tradition of Miriam, who was the one who wrote it, getting onstage alone, and giving a speech, and right after that, everyone would come along and we would just go crazy. Oh, to go back to those days.

1. MI MÚSICA ES TU VOZ - GROUPAL

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Here's the original song, by the OT 1 contestants :)

NO BUT YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND THIS SONG WAS GAMECHANGING. Like I can't even start to describe how hard this song hit, like right now, 20 years later, it's still one of the most well-known Spanish songs, people who weren't even born when OT 1 happened know this song, it's a lot. It got to number 1 in Los 40 (the Spanish Billboard Hot 100), and i'm sure it got at least Double Platinum or some insane shit like that. Keep in mind 60% of Spaniards watched the final of OT 1. Also, in 2016 they did a reunion concert after nearly 20 years, and of course they did this song. Here's a video of it, so you can see the impact that this song still has (LOOK AT HOW THE AUDIENCE SINGS IT WITH THE CONTESTANTS). Anyways, long live OT :)

#vivitalksot #operacion triunfo #ot #ot 2017 #ot 1 #welp this got me emotional #anyways sorry for the long ass post holy shit #but i had a lot to say sjdsjdjs #anyways i know that chenoa couldn't go cause of her contract with antena 3 and all #(which is bullshit tbh but whatever)#but it would've been so freaking cool to see bisbal and bustamante #Youtube

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