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journey-to-the-attic · 1 month

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3rd anni FINALE: brothers / paws n claws

ao3 link

note: based loosely on the pop quiz of the same name, though with the requested change of levi being a snake rather than a giraffe - and since that was different, i decided to do something new with ik as well (this is what that random animal poll was for). this one's a proper long one, so i'm deeply sorry if the keep reading bar ever breaks

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You'd normally think that an event that makes Luke flee the House of Lamentation, tearfully shouting, “I’ll go get help!” must be some kind of catastrophe. Well, it still might shape up to be - but I'm hopeful that it won't. Right now, it's a situation at most.

Said situation can be summarised with one sentence: there was something wrong with the cake. This is vague enough to be misleading, though, so I’ll elaborate: there was a potion in the cake, and it made Beel grow fluffy ears and a tail, then shortly thereafter started doing the same thing to everyone else.

‘Fluffy ears and a tail’ might not sound too bad, but Luke wouldn’t have run like that if that was all. Beel has rapidly developed a mouthful of sharp teeth, a bone-shakingly powerful roar, and a sudden, even more pronounced taste for meat. Raw meat, specifically, because that is what lions eat. It'd be cool if it wasn’t for the fact that we had been the nearest sources of raw meat when the hunger first hit.

The only thing to do, really, was run and hide. And that probably wouldn’t even have worked (Beel is also now even faster and stronger than usual) if Mammon hadn’t suddenly sprouted new striped features of his own and pounced on him in return. Things just sort of went crazy after that.

I haven’t been able to keep track of them all, but knowing their track record, everyone else has probably been hit with the curse, too. Asmo definitely has, at least - I know that because it happened while he was rushing me to the safety of his room's two locks.

“It’s weird that the potion changed your clothes as well,” I say, trying to figure out whether that’s a dress or a really long blouse as he pushes me in. “Isn’t it?”

Asmo doesn’t answer for a moment - he turns the key, then peers fretfully through the peephole. After a moment, he hisses, “That doesn’t matter, does it? You know Mammon’s a tiger? There—”

There’s a knock on the door, and Asmo skitters backwards. After a moment, there’s another, mellower knock, then a plaintive, “Hello?”

Though it sounds closer to a ‘he-wo?’. Asmo frowns. “Levi? Why do you sound like that?”

There’s a shuffle. “I goh— got fangth. It’th… wha’ever, can I come in?”

Asmo doesn’t move for a moment, but relents quickly. Levi sidles in, head turning from side to side, tail dragging in behind him. It’s longer and thinner than in demon form, and iridescent green instead of deep grey - his pupils look narrower, too, and there are dark markings along his cheeks.

“Whoa!” I hadn’t gotten a good look at him when he first started transforming. “You’re a snake!”

“I notithed,” He says unhappily. He has fangs now - long, curved ones that keep catching on his bottom lip. “It’th a nigh’mare. Theeth teeth…”

“Are they retractable?”

“I’unno…” He scrunches his face in concentration. The fangs suddenly swing up into the back of his mouth. “...oh! Yes! Finally!”

“When did you switch?” I ask as he opens and closes his mouth several times with relish. “Asmo went a few minutes ago, I think he’s a panda… it looked like it hurt.”

He makes a popping sound, then releases a long sigh. “Eh - not really? It’s more like everything gets really hot and itchy for a bit. Isn’t anything happening to you?”

I look down at myself. “Doesn’t look like it.”

“Guess the potion only works on demons. Lucky…” Levi rubs his arms, then abruptly dives into Asmo’s bed. “Brr! Why’s it so cold in here?”

“Snakes are cold-blooded, right? So you need to get heat from somewhere else.” I lean over and plant my hands on his cheeks. “Is that nice?”

“Ooh… yeah…” He blinks at me. “Hrm. Everything looks so weird. It’s, like… fuzzy.”

I squint at his face. Wait - those aren’t markings after all. “Oh! You’ve got heat pits! You’re, like, seeing temperature. That’s so cool.”

Asmo looks as well, then recoils, hands flying to his mouth. “Eww! There’s holes in your face!”

“As if you don’t have a nose,” Levi snaps, but reaches self-consciously to cover his cheeks anyway. “...ugh. I’m still cold.”

I’m not large enough to be an effective heater - what we really need is either a heat lamp, or the sun, neither of which Asmo has in his room. He resorts to dragging Levi to his bathtub instead, and lighting candles in a circle around him. It looks like we’re using him for a nefarious ritual, but it seems to provide Levi with a little relief.

“It’s like I can see them way clearer than everything else,” Levi says, squinting, then covers his nose. “And they smell super strong. You know I’ve got venom now, too? I got some on the carpet and it started, like, dissolving.”

So the potion definitely isn’t just a cosmetic thing. I glance at Asmo. “Do you feel any different?”

“Hmm. Maybe?” He stretches, and for the first time his sleeves fall down enough for me to see his hands. The pads of his fingers look thicker, and his nails look more like claws. “Like, I kinda wanna go to sleep, I guess.”

He leans forward on the edge of the bathtub, then fumbles and slips down into a heap. “Ooh. Gosh, this whole thing is weird. How do you think everyone’s doing?”

“It might not have even worked on Lucifer.” Those candles really do smell strong. It’s making my nose tickle. “What animal do you th— achoo!”

I can tell something’s changed as soon as I open my eyes again, but Levi’s yelp and jerk backwards (dangerously close to the candles) confirms it. I look down. Those definitely aren’t the clothes I was wearing a minute ago.

“Oh,” I say, defeated. “So the potion did work on me.”

“You’ve got a tail!” Asmo squeals, trying several times to scramble to his feet before succeeding, and immediately reaching for me. “And your ears!”

“Whoa whoa whoa—” I think I can empathise with Hyde when Aunt Lisa rushes him now. “Wait, wait, wait— put me down for a sec—”

Asmo (somewhat unwillingly) releases me, and I hurry to the mirror. White ears, a bushy red tail, distinct markings across my cheeks… am I wearing gloves? No - that’s straight-up a paw. It’s alien trying to move my fingers and watching the claws flex instead.

…my right hand is still normal, though. That one is just wearing a sort of glove. It’s like the potion got mad about not being able to do anything to the prosthetic and doubled its effects on the intact one.

I lift my paw as if to swipe at the mirror, then bare my teeth at it. “Rarrgh!”

Behind me, Levi’s reflection soundlessly pretends to get shot in the heart and collapses backwards into the tub. Asmo isn’t nearly so quiet - he squeals again, twice as loud this time.

I give him a moment to compose himself, then turn and announce, “I think I’m a red panda.”

“Ooh! So we’re matching?!” He slides over and sets his head on the crown of my head, then brandishes his own claws at the mirror as well. “Oh, we need to get pictures. Or film some videos! We can’t let this go to waste!”

“Hey, hey, slow down.” Levi emerges from the tub again. “What about everyone else? If the potion even works on humans, then Lucifer’s probably…”

“Oh, yeah! We totally need pictures of him, too.”

“That’s not the point—”

Levi pauses to yawn, but it’s nothing like anything I’ve ever seen before. He just keeps going, wider than should really be possible. His fangs click out, and the entire roof of his mouth seems to turn inside out for a moment - then everything realigns, and his jaw swings shut again.

“What?” He asks after a moment. Asmo is staring at him in horror - and I with fascination.

“What happened to your bones?” Asmo asks in a hush.

“That was so cool,” I say with the same intonation. “And gross.”

“...you don’t sound like that’s a bad thing.”

“It’s not.”

“That potion really is crazy,” Asmo whispers. He looks haunted. “Should that stuff really be allowed? What’s Solomon doing in that lab? Am I gonna start doing that?”

“You’re fine, Asmo,” I reassure, patting him on the arm - he latches onto me like a stress blanket. “Pandas don’t do that.”

“You promise?” He asks tearfully.

“Promise.” I think of all the videos I’ve seen over the years. “And everyone loves pandas, anyway. They’re super cute.”

Levi crosses his arms over the edge of the bathtub and rests his chin atop them, then heaves a melancholic sigh. “And everyone’s scared of snakes ‘cause they think they’re gross.”

“Oh, don’t be a spoilsport,” Asmo scolds - though, to be fair, that’s easy for him to say. “We don’t think snakes are gross.”

“Uh, yes you do. You went ew about my heat pits.”

“That’s not the same thing!”

“I love snakes,” I declare. “Anyway, every animal’s kind of gross sometimes. You should watch Planet Earth.”

All while we’re saying this, I’m beginning to worry a little about the others. Levi’s the only reptile so far - if we’re lucky, that’s the furthest up the evolutionary tree anyone else has gone, but if we’re unlucky, one of them could be a fish. If the potion’s capable of giving Levi heat pits and the bone structure to actually unhinge his jaw, there’s no reason it couldn’t give someone gills.

I wonder how the potion decides what it’s going to turn us into. Levi being a snake makes sense… but Beel being a lion and Asmo a giant panda feel more arbitrary. (Though I couldn’t imagine what it’d look like if they turned into a fly and a scorpion.) And I don’t know why I’m a red panda, either.

“I think I’m gonna go look for Beel,” I decide after a while. He’s probably sated himself at least a little by now - he knows where the fridge is. “You guys stay here.”

“You think we’re gonna send you to the lions?” Levi asks in disbelief, and starts attempting to get out of the tub. ��No dice! You’re staying here, where it’s safe. I’ll go check on Beel.”

“You have to stay here, though - you’re cold-blooded now, remember?” I push him back down, which takes surprisingly little effort. “So you have to keep warm.”

“Come on, d’you really think these candles are doing anything for me? They’re tiny.”

Now that he mentions it… “Hmm. Maybe we should run you a hot bath.”

“You want me to take a bath while you go talk to a lion?”

“He’s right, hon.” Asmo interjects. “We’re not the ones who need protecting.”

“Come on, we do this every time something—” I sigh loudly and try to compose myself. “—okay, look, you know you never win this fight. Nothing’s happened to me before. And it's just Beel, anyway.”

They exchange a look. After a moment, Levi huffs. “Fine - but you’d better not do anything stupid, alright?! I’ve seen this go wrong in way too many shows!”

“And if it looks like trouble, you’re coming straight back here,” Asmo adds. “Or I’ll cry. I mean it.”

I sigh, but smile at him anyway. “Sure, Asmo. Take a nap or something.”

It’s finally business as usual. We have an impromptu team handshake - which is nice, that’s never happened before - and then I let myself out into the hall, and into the figurative jungle.

It’s eerily quiet out here. Or it is for a moment, at least, because then something crashes in the kitchen.

I can take a guess at who it is. I hurry downstairs - I feel more agile, somehow. I don’t think my feet are paws as well, but these boots definitely look like them. I’d thought having a tail would feel stranger, but the sensation seems to have settled in seamlessly. It feels as if it’s been there the whole time.

Beel, just as I’d thought, has his head in the fridge when I get there. I can hear glass clinking and plastic crinkling. Several containers are already lying empty on the table. The only real difference between this and his usual fridge raids is that he’s gone exclusively for the raw meat.

I’ve never seen him get food poisoning, but that doesn’t mean he can’t. Well, maybe the potion gave him a lion’s stomach too... “Uh - Beel?”

He makes a sound of surprise that isn’t that different from a cat’s ‘mrrp’ - just a lot deeper - and pulls back from the fridge with startling swiftness. There’s a scrap of something pink hanging out of his mouth.

“...are you having fun?” I ask after a moment. Ignoring all new features, his demeanour looks about the same. Maybe his eyes are more dilated than usual.

He makes a rumbling sound at the base of his throat and swallows the rest of the scrap in his mouth, slamming the fridge shut with his elbow and moving to the sink. He cups his hands under the faucet and drinks deeply - every move is poised and purposeful. Then he closes his eyes and shakes himself all over, like a wet dog.

When he opens his eyes, they look normal again. I can’t say the same for the rest of him - his hair is longer and poofier, as if in imitation of a mane, and there’s fur around his neck that makes him look almost twice as large as usual.

“You switched, too?” He asks after a moment. I catch a glimpse of sharp, bloodstained canines, and recoil before I can stop myself. “...hm? Are you okay?”

“Y-yeah, peachy.” Do red pandas’ tails fall between their legs when they’re nervous, too? I feel like mine’s trying to do that. “What about you? Do you like being a lion?”

“I don’t like… liking all this,” He says after a moment, gesturing at all the empty boxes. I try not to think too hard about the image they conjure. “I mean, it’s way better when it’s cooked. You can put all sorts of different stuff on it to make it tasty. But it’s the only thing I feel like eating right now.”

“Well, that’s how a lion eats.”

Beel looks at me for a moment. Then, unprompted, he reaches up and scratches my fluffy new ears. I feel my shoulders fall. “Hey. It’s alright. I’m not going to hurt you.”

I hadn’t even noticed myself tensing up. It’s not like I thought he ever would, but… actually, I can’t tell if those were the red panda’s survival instincts, or my own. I’m fairly sure the latter hasn’t been working for a while.

“Yeah, I know,” I sigh after a moment, sitting down with him. Using my tail as a cushion, I can’t feel the chill of the kitchen tiles at all. “I just… I dunno. Do you know what happened to everyone else?

He thinks for a moment, then looks a little alarmed. “Uh— I think I was chasing Satan for a while. He was moving all fast and funny, and I just— I don’t know. It felt like I had to grab him. I don’t think I caught him, but…”

“We’d better see, just in case,” I conclude, getting up. “I need to check on everyone, anyway. Asmo’s with Levi already…”

“Belphie went to the observatory,” Beel says thoughtfully, following me out of the kitchen. “And I haven’t seen Lucifer since we split up. He looked like he was gonna follow you and Asmo, but then…”

“Did it look like he transformed?”

“Uhh…” He looks mildly guilty. “I don’t know. I stopped thinking straight. Mammon bit me, and then I was chasing him instead…”

“He bit you?” I saw Mammon jumping at him, but I didn’t think he’d gone that far.

“Yeah. Pretty hard, actually. It only hurt for a bit, though.” Beel points to his shoulder. “I think he thought I’d go after you first, so he was trying to chase me off. I don’t know where he went after that…”

I sigh. “Well, he’s got to be somewhere in the house. Let’s go find Belphie first.”

“Mmm? Sure.” He pauses to yawn. It isn’t quite as spectacular as Levi’s, but it’s impressive all the same. The teeth are still a little unsettling. “Be careful. I don’t know what he turned into.”

He rubs my ears again, then moves away with long, languid steps, tail trailing lazily behind him. My own tail swishes anxiously for a moment before I steel myself and follow him.

It turns out Belphie didn’t even make it into the observatory - he got into the music room, then apparently couldn’t be bothered to walk any further past the divider and just curled up under the piano. Beel very nearly stands on an extended arm before he seems to smell his presence.

“Belphie?” He crouches down and reaches for the thick brown tail he’s using as a blanket. “Wake u—”

As soon as his hand closes around the fur, Belphie’s entire body goes rigid - the underside of the piano presses his ears flat against his head as he rolls out from under it and flips upright in an instant, poised as if to pounce. It’s all so quick, all so alarmingly sudden, that my entire body tenses, jerks backwards, and I find myself with both hands raised high in the air.

I don’t know what I expected to do, only that I had to make myself look as large as possible. Belphie - eyes wide open in a way that they almost never are immediately after waking - looks at me for a moment, then laughs so loudly that Beel jumps back this time.

“Where’ve you been?” He asks, grinning. His teeth aren’t nearly as pointy as Beel’s, but his smile is a lot more devious. “Hey, I’m just messing with you.”

“Uh huh,” I say, trying not to look too scared. For some reason, I can’t bring myself to bring my hands down. I just look like I’ve long since surrendered. “I knew that.”

Belphie snickers. His tail curves up behind him, ears swivelling to the side of his head. “C’mon, relax. Let’s play a game.”

On the last word, he hops just a bit forward, and I take a great big step back. Beel glances between us, then commands, looking mildly concerned, “Be nice, Belphie.”

“I am being nice,” Belphie says with a sniff, baring his teeth at me again. The longer I look at his grin, though, the more it begins to look playful. “Hey. Hey!”

He darts forward again, but this time I’m ready for him - I pounce straight at his chest, knocking him within an inch of smacking his head on the piano, then quickly get up and scurry to the other side of the room. Belphie springs straight back to his feet and rushes so swiftly at me that there’s little I can do before he scoops me up with deceivingly gentle hands and tosses me a fair distance across the room.

A ‘fair distance’, however, is not long enough to prevent me from running straight back at him (for some reason, my hands end up in the air again) and bowling into his knees to knock him over. He lets out a sound between a yelp, a yip and a laugh, tumbling back onto his stomach and forgoing even getting back to his feet before he charges again.

“Wait—” Beel’s head swings back and forth until he’s blinking from the whiplash. “You two, come on—”

Belphie swipes at my feet at the same time that I seize his hood, sending us both back to the ground in a tangled heap. I recover first and unpin myself from beneath his unexpectedly heavy limbs, and register Beel standing over us - without stopping to wonder if it’s a good idea, I reach up, hook my claws into the fur around his shoulders, and scramble up him like a tree.

He only wobbles for a moment before balancing himself again. I adjust myself onto his back, then peer triumphantly down at Belphie through his mane.

“That’s cheating,” He complains, sitting up. “C’mon, are you really doing this?”

“You started it.” I muffle through Beel’s mane.

“What? You literally jumped at me first.”

“You’re bigger than me, so it doesn’t count.”

Beel makes a deep, rumbling sound that I’ll take as one of amusement. Hmm. I’m a lot closer to his ears from here.

Belphie yawns and flicks his tail about, then wraps his arms around it like it’s a toy. “Whatever. Bet you’re only getting away with it ‘cause you’re cute. Right, Beel?”

Beel lifts his hands innocently. Meanwhile, keeping my right hand latched to his mane, I reach up with my left to touch his ears. “I’m just standing. I can’t control what IK does.”

“Uh, yes you can. You can literally just pick her up. Any time.”

Beel’s fur is softer than I was expecting, but still coarser than any dog I’ve ever pet. I turn around to look at his tail. It’s sort of similar to Belphie’s usual demon tail - sleek along most of its length, but with a big fluffy bit at the end. He’s holding it too far down for me to reach from here, but if I twist a little more…

“Whoops—” Turns out I twisted too far. My claws detach, and I rapidly start slipping down his back.

Belphie’s eyes flash up. As smoothly as if he’d anticipated it, he ducks forward and cushions the landing with his tail - then draws in a breath through his teeth and scrunches his face up. “Oww. That hurt.”

“No one told you to do that,” I counter, but hurriedly shuffle off anyway.

“And let you break your tail? I don’t think so.” He reaches over before I can get far enough away and squishes my cheeks inward, then puts on a voice that he reserves for his most infuriating bits. “You gotta be careful, you’re just a little baby. Look at your cute little ears. What are you meant to be?”

“Not telling you!” I try to wrestle my face out of his hands, but he’s a lot better at this game than either Beel or I am. “Hey! I’m gonna bite you if you don’t stop!”

“Fine,” He sighs with unnecessarily gloom, and acquiesces. “You’re so mean to me. Well, do you know what I’m meant to be?”

I fold my arms and regard him for a moment. It’s not as obvious as the others have been so far. “I dunno. A weasel?”

He gives me a look. “Be nice.”

“I am being nice. What’s your problem with weasels?” I lean forward and pick up his tail at the tip. It’s heavier than it looks. “...well, your ears are the wrong shape, anyway. Um… you could be a hyena. Do a laugh?”

“Ha ha ha.”

“A proper one.”

“That is my proper one.”

“What do you think, Beel?”

He starts. He doesn't seem to have been paying attention - just watching us with a warm look on his face. “Uh— a cow?”

“A cow?” Belphie repeats incredulously. “Have you ever seen a cow? You just want steak, don’t you?”

Beel’s face says ‘guilty as charged’. I prop myself up on my knees and start ruffling Belphie’s ears without permission. They feel like they could be extra-big cat ears.

“I think you’re some kind of desert fox,” I announce. “Try barking.”

He looks offended. “No way.”

“I command you to—”

“I think it’s time for Beel to have a snack,” He says loudly, and gets to his feet. “We’re going now.”

“It’d be easier if you just do it on your own,” I say persuasively, following behind as Beel gets unceremoniously pushed out of the room. “It’s less embarrassing. It’s on your terms.”

“I’m not barking!” He insists, moving a little faster, as if that will stop me from speaking. “Make Lucifer do it. Wolves are way closer to dogs.”

“I d— oh, so the potion did work on him?” My attention is successfully shifted. “Where did he go?”

“I dunno, I wasn’t looking— where are you going?”

I’m already in the other room when I realise I was meant to answer that question, but it doesn’t matter that much. There are only so many places to be in the House of Lamentation, and Lucifer’s pretty predictable. He might well have gone back to his office to do his work for the day.

I look into the common room just in case, which is empty - but, rather suspiciously, there’s a lot of grey fur stuck to the cushions in Lucifer’s usual spot. The common room has a pretty distinct mix of scents to it, and Lucifer’s is strong enough that he can’t have left too long ago.

I’m not sure I enjoy having such strong senses. It’s easier not to pay attention to it all when I’m in the middle of something else, but it’s overwhelming as soon as I stop and try to dissect everything.

I sit down for a moment, close my eyes, and listen carefully to the silence. There’s some distant clanking and conversation from the kitchen, but other than that it’s just quiet…

…the weird thing is that we all still have our normal ears, on top of the new animal ones. I can’t tell which ones are doing the work.

Garden, a voice in the back of my head suddenly supplies, and I open my eyes again. I don’t think I even heard anything - not consciously, anyway - but it feels like the right thing to do.

And apparently it is. Lucifer is sitting out on the grass and doing absolutely nothing.

Which is quite suspicious, really. But all I can think about is how he doesn’t seem to have heard the door open, and that it would be really funny if I snuck up on him.

I take a slow, careful step onto the lawn. He doesn’t give any indication that he’s noticed anything. Maybe he can’t hear me over the rustling of his own tail swiping idly through the grass. I think this is about as close as I can get away with. Can I jump that far? Only one way to find out.

I crouch back and adjust myself. Then, using the soft grass as a springboard, I launch myself ever-so-gently at his shoulders and grab him by the head.

Lucifer doesn’t scream - I wouldn’t have expected him to, and if he had, I’d have been very alarmed. But he does let out a loud, gruff ‘heurgh!’ and nearly topple straight over, which is about as good as you get with him.

“Hey,” I announce, into his regular ear, then lean up and do the same into the wolf ones, just in case. “Hey!”

“Yes, I can hear you,” He sighs, catching himself on a hand and trying to act stern. (His tail is wagging.) “And what do you think you’re doing?”

“Dunno.” I lean forward until I’m just about hanging over his shoulder. Lucifer has to switch from hunching forward to tilting back to keep balance. “What’re you doing?”

He’s quiet for a moment. I get the feeling that he doesn’t know, either. “Keeping watch.”

“Watch on what?” The only thing in front of us is a big hedge and some flowers. “There’s nothing here.”

“Hmm,” He says, which isn’t an answer. “Shouldn’t you be inside?”

“Well, I was looking for you—” I tip further forward still, and at this point Lucifer seems to decide that it’d be more prudent to just lie back, so that I’m lying on my front instead of attempting to fall head-first into the grass. “—oof— ‘cause I didn’t think the potion would work on you. And I wanted to see what you were like.”

“You wanted to see me do something embarrassing,” He concludes, and waves off my defensive ‘nooo’. “I didn’t think it would work on you, either. What are you, exactly?”

“Red panda.” I reach across his chest and poke at one of the straps running down his shirt. “Wow. Your suspenders are kind of ugly.”

There’s a short, sharp exhale, and then he remembers to be offended. “I didn’t choose them.”

“Well, I was saying - it’s weird that the potion knows how to make clothes, isn’t it? I mean, it’s adding bones and everything…”

“Which is exactly why I’d like to question Solomon about what he put in it,” He says, and now he does sound genuinely severe. “He’s lucky it hasn’t done any damage. I don’t know how Luke managed to bake it into a cake.”

The tip of his tail - the rest of it is trapped under his back - has started lashing angrily at the grass. I wonder if scratching his ears would help calm him down, or just make him madder.

“It’s not his fault,” I say in what I hope is a persuasive voice. Maybe it’d help if I sounded more pitiful. “And I helped him bake it, too.”

He gives me a look. “You’re the one I’m most worried about. A human body shouldn’t be able to handle the same kind of magical stress as a demon, and it wasn’t exactly comfortable when I transformed. Is there something you aren’t telling me?”

“Funny story, actually. I just sneezed and then it happened.”

“You just sneezed,” He repeats.

“Didn’t feel a thing,” I confirm. “Anyway, it’s cool, isn’t it? Like - Levi has heat pits now.”

“We still don’t know how long this is going to last,” He says, but he does look less tense. “...well, you might as well have fun with it.”

“Do you feel like howling at all?” I ask, looking up at the moon. I mean, I know it’s not actually a thing, but even so… “Actually, do you feel any different? Like… is the wolf within talking?”

“You make it sound more dramatic than it is,” Lucifer says with another little exhale. “But yes.”

“What’s it saying?”

“To hunt, mostly. Feed the family, or something along those lines. But we’ve been grocery-shopping this week already - and I’m not sure what I’d hunt even if I listened. What about your… ‘panda within’, then?”

It’s nice that he’s playing along. “Mmm… I think I really wanna climb up something.”

“Something up high?” He gently pushes my head off his shoulder and gestures to the end of the garden. “Will that do?”

It’s not the tallest tree in the Devildom, but to someone of my stature it’s an intimidating enough height that I’d probably feel a little dizzy at the top - which is perfect. I hadn’t realised how much I wanted to do this until Lucifer pointed it out, but I’m moving before I can even stop to think about it.

There’s something liberating about this new agility. Scaling the trunk comes about as second nature as taking stairs - so smoothly that it feels like the air is parting around rather than rushing against me. It’s only once I’m crouched contentedly on the highest sturdy branch I can find that I notice Lucifer standing at the base of the tree, ears pricked and eagle-eyed in apparent trepidation.

The bark is rough, but for some reason it doesn’t bother me at all. I lie forward with a leisurely sweep of my tail and give him a winning smile.

He huffs. “Proud of yourself, are you?”

“Yup.” It’d be better if this was an apple tree - then I could pick one and toss it down to him, and it’d be extra cool.

Alas, the tree just has regular leaves. Which… look kind of tasty, actually. It’s not like I have access to bamboo down here, so this might be the next best thing.

“Don’t,” Lucifer warns. I can only assume that I was wearing a Beel expression. “You’ll make yourself sick.”

“I’m not doing anything,” I insist, then pause. Something’s just sped past one of the windows upstairs. “...huh? Was that Mammon?”

I can hear Lucifer’s tail swishing agitatedly as I edge closer to the end of the branch to get a closer look. A moment later, another blur goes by.

“He’s just running. Okay—” I quickly unlatch from the branch and drop down, landing neatly in Lucifer’s arms. “—I’m gonna go check on him.”

“Was a warning too much to ask for?” He asks, as if he hadn’t reached up as soon as I let go. “Alright, but be careful. He’s… energetic.”

“You aren’t coming?”

“In a moment,” He says, and an odd look comes over his face. “I might have a walk. I need to…”

I feel like ‘patrol’ might be the word he’s looking for, but Lucifer seems pretty adamant that he’s the boss of the wolf and not the other way around, so I won’t tease him. He sends me back to the house with a nod, then sets off - turning his head first, then the rest of his body, tail pointing out behind him.

I’m expecting to hear the thunder of feet as soon as I get inside, but apparently tigers are lighter-footed than I’d thought. I barely even sense Mammon approaching until he suddenly springs out from around the corner, coming within less than an inch of slamming tie-first into my face before yelping and jerking away.

At the same time, as if struck by invisible lightning, I half-twist and half-leap backwards, hands flying above my head again, and it’s only a moment after the weird, chattering sound that I realise I was the one making it. Mammon skitters several feet away, eyes wide with alarm, then catches himself on the wall and realises what’s going on.

“Whoa whoa whoa!” He holds out his hands in supplication. “Chill, it’s just me!”

I blink at him, mildly out of breath, then say, “I knew that.”

“...are ya gonna put your hands down, then?”

“Yeah.”

He waits. It takes a little effort, but I manage to regain control of my limbs and bring my arms back down to my side.

Mammon cocks his head to the side. His tail goes from pointing down to up, and begins to move idly from side-to-side as he sets his hands on his hips.

“Didn’t scare ya that bad, did I?” He steps closer, then motions for me to look up. “C’mere, lemme get a look at ya.”

“Why were you doing upstairs?” I ask as he pokes at the new markings on my cheeks, then leans back and tilts his head from side to side, squinting at me. “I saw you in the window.”

“Runnin’,” He says after a moment’s thought, squashing both my ears flat against my head. “I kinda… bit Beel. I was sorta worried I’d start bitin’ everyone else, so I was tryin’ to blow off steam. Actually, I was takin’ laps around the garden first, but Lucifer said it was makin’ his head hurt.”

“So you came back in?”

“Well, I did wanna start runnin’ faster,” He admits. “Like, I was there first. But then he growled at me. Figured it wasn’t worth pissing him off after that.”

He swipes a hand across his face, then sighs. “Man. I’m beat. Let’s just find somewhere to chill.”

“Aren’t you hungry at all?” I ask, following him back to the common room. “You were running for ages. Tigers eat a lot even when they’re just sleeping all day.”

“Eh, I’ll manage,” He yawns, slumping onto the sofa cushions and turning onto his side, like a leisurely cat. “‘Sides, I’m pretty sure Beel cleaned out the fridge. And it ain’t like there’s anything to hunt around here.”

“Ooh— actually, do you want a fun fact? Tigers kill their prey by biting onto their throats until they suffocate.”

Mammon lifts his head and gives me a look. “That’s a fun fact?”

“A lot of people think they maul them to death. Well, they can, but the throat thing’s easier. ‘Cause it saves energy.” He looks uneasy, so I try to comfort him by adding, “It’s just what they do. Tiger’s gotta eat.”

“Tiger’s gotta eat,” He repeats, but his face stays creased. “Okay, now tell me something nice.”

“Alright.” I sit down on the carpet in front of him. “Every tiger has a unique pattern. So these are your special Mammon stripes! They’re the same under the fur, too, so you’d still have them even if you were completely bald.”

“Ha! Reckon I could pull it off?”

“Uh... I dunno, your head’s pretty big.”

He smacks me on the arm. “I told ya to tell me somethin’ nice.”

“I’m not going to lie - that’s the nice part. If you did go bald, Levi wouldn’t stop calling you an egghead for a week.”

“Ain’t that mean someone’s smart, too? Hey, I could live with that.”

“But your head would be so shiny. And an eagle might think it was a rock and drop a tortoise on it.”

He snorts incredulously. “Yeah, ‘cause that happens all the time to bald people.”

“It’s happened at least once,” I assert. “Historically. According to one guy two thousand years ago. The bald guy died, by the way.”

“Be a hell of a way to go.” He twists up, so that his chest faces the ceiling, and folds his arms with a deep sigh. “Fine. Guess I’ll hold back, just for you.”

His tail lolls over the edge of the sofa as he closes his eyes. I watch it for a while, glancing periodically up at his ostensibly absent expression, then reach out to catch it.

Like a spider on a string, it flicks backwards, and goes to lying barely an inch away. I try again, then again, then again, and yet it keeps bouncing away, as if it can sense the movement. No matter how fast I move, it’s always just a little faster.

I refuse to give up. I keep batting at it with mounting frustration, switching from quick jabs to slow, careful ambushes before finally turning a glare to Mammon’s face - and belatedly notice that his eyes are fully open again.

We look at each other for a moment. Then I realise that he’s not paying attention, and instinct takes over. Before he can react, I seize his tail and - for some reason I can’t fathom - bite it.

But I suppose I can’t have bitten it very hard, because Mammon usually makes it very loudly known if someone so much as pinches him. This time, he just stares at me. Then he starts laughing.

“Hahaha, oh man—” He reaches forward and gives both my ears an aggressive, adoring rumple, declaring, “Aren’t ya sweet? You havin’ fun with that? Hahahaha!”

“Quit it,” I mumble, pushing his tail away from me with perhaps an unnecessary amount of force, then decide on a whim to climb up onto the sofa with him. “Move up.”

“Oof!” He ends up squished against the back, but I’m too embarrassed to care. “Sheesh, give a guy some breathing room.”

“No,” I muffle into a cushion. “Die.”

“Fine, then. Have it your way.” He burrows one arm under me, then uses that as leverage to make himself some more room. I bury my face in my hands and pretend not to hear his pleased chuffing. “Wanna tell us a bedtime story?”

I peek up at him through a gap in my fingers. “...all the stories Dad told me about tigers end in the tiger dying.”

“Oh, don’t tell me, lemme guess—” He snickers. “—some little red thing tries to eat its tail and—”

Before he can finish, my hands shoot up and tug both of his tiger ears down. This time he does yelp. “Oi! Okay, okay, you win—”

“I don’t even know why I did that,” I grumble, letting go and shielding my face once more.

He chuffs again, pinching my nose with just enough force to be annoying. “Yeah, well, it was funny. Don’t even worry about it. Y’know Levi used to bite my arm whenever he got excited? Man, that was ages ago…”

“You shouldn’t let him bite you now - he’s got snake venom. You’ll get necrosis and your arm’ll fall off.”

“That bad? Yikes.” He yawns, then abruptly tucks me under his chin like a glorified teddy bear. “Good thing you’re gonna guard me, right?”

“I can’t do anything when I’m stuck here,” I complain - knocking my head affectionately into his at the same time, like a hypocrite. “I can’t die valiantly in battle if you don’t let me go.”

“Against a snake? Nah, leave it. That’s not even a cool thing to fight.”

“How dare you say that about Saint Patrick…”

The conversation continues in that vein for a little longer - until Mammon finally runs out of energy to keep coming up with responses, and instead starts responding with a series of low, growling hums. He dozes off soon after that. Considering how long he was sprinting around for, I’m impressed he managed to stay awake for that long.

I’d like to stay with him for a while, but I don’t feel sleepy at all, and it’s also getting kind of warm. I carefully wriggle my way out, then stand up and survey the scene. I reckon I’ll build a few cushions around him, like a fort, and that way he’ll be extra safe…

Once I’m done with that, I decide to go wandering again. Satan’s the only one I haven’t seen so far, and I can’t tell if the ongoing silence from him forebodes well or poorly.

The first place to check is, as usual, the library, which is empty at first glance. Then I catch a pair of vivid green eyes staring at me - a large demon-shaped cat tucked neatly into a high-up gap in the bookshelf.

“...why are you in there?” I ask, even though I know the answer from Hyde, and it’s just that he can, and wants to be.

Satan stays there for a moment, then slips out, landing softly on all fours, and sits gracefully back on his haunches. I’d be worried about the lack of response if it wasn’t for his tail pointed straight up behind him, waving slowly like a happy flag.

“Hello,” He says, perfectly serene.

“Hey.” I give him a knowing look, which he ignores. He’s not fooling anyone who knows him even a little - let alone me. “Are you having fun being a cat?”

“You would not believe,” He replies, and at this point the giddiness starts to seep into his voice. He leans forward a little. “Come here. Scratch my ears.”

There’s a weirdly intense look on his face. I wrinkle my nose at him. “What?”

“Scratch my ears,” He says again, as if it was the instruction that was the problem.

“Why?”

“Just do it.”

“Not if you’re gonna be weird about it—”

“I can purr now,” He says impatiently. “Come on, come on, I’ll show you.”

“Okay, okay—” I bend down a little and give the base of his ears a rub. They’re sleeker than Hyde’s - more intact, too. “Is that good?”

He shuts his eyes, ducking his head so that I get the angle correctly. A familiar sound starts up, even louder and deeper than I’m used to, like a little motor in his chest.

It’s hypnotic. I kneel down beside him, and in turn he starts dipping his head even lower, until it looks like he’s contorted in a funny yoga pose. Eventually he just gives up on supporting himself and flops over onto his side with a content little smile.

A voice in the back of my head comments that this must all look incredibly strange. The voice in the front of my head replies that it’s really cute, so it doesn’t matter.

I mess around with one of his ears and turn it inside out. He doesn’t seem to notice, but the ear itself starts twitching restlessly, as if trying to reverse itself. “What’ve you been up to? What else can you do?”

(It’s kind of hard not to start baby-talking him, but I’m not sure he’d forgive me if I did.)

“Well, Lucifer left his office unlocked, so I went in and got some fur on his chair,” He says triumphantly, opening his eyes for long enough to offer a slow, happy blink. “Then I just took a nap. Sleeping as a cat is much nicer than sleeping as a demon. No wonder they always look so happy.”

There’s no way Satan didn’t spend at least a little time just basking in the bliss of his feline transformation, but I won't force him to admit that. I pick up one of his hands and turn it over. Like Asmo, they look mostly the same, but with little pads on the ends of his long fingers.

Satan yawns, then slowly sits up again. “What are you looking at?”

“Trying to see if your hands do the…” I press down between his knuckles, and his nails do indeed seem to protract. “Whoa! I wonder how that works?”

He looks down, then lets out a shallow gasp and wrenches his hand out of mine, reversing the positions so that he’s holding my left hand instead. His ears are pointed straight up - I imagine a pair of whiskers fanning out from his cheeks.

“You’ve got paws,” He whispers in awe.

“Paw,” I correct, showing him the right one. “This is just a glove. I don’t think the potion works on prosthetic stuff.”

“Interesting..." He frowns. “I wonder if we have any textbooks about this kind of thing.”

I know he prefers spellwork over brewing, which I’ve heard Professor Baal vocally complaining about in the staff room before, so this is a good sign for them. After a moment, though, the scholarly look on Satan’s face vanishes again, and now he’s wearing the same expression he watches kitten videos with.

He tweaks my nose, then starts combing his fingers methodically through the hair I messed up on the sofa earlier, beginning to purr again. I’m suddenly put in mind of those videos of cats grooming each other.

He shifts to better reach the back of my head, and I hear a quiet chime. I look down. There’s a bell tied around his tail.

Weird choice of accessory. It’s not attached very securely - just loosely looped around with a strong string. Satan pauses as I detach the bell, then lift it up and give it a jingle.

I open my mouth to say something, then realise that, based on his expression, he won’t hear a word of it. Satan’s completely frozen in place, eyes fixed on the bell. His now-unadorned tail swishes restlessly behind him.

Holding my breath, I jingle the bell again. The pupils of his eyes expand until there’s barely any green left in them, and he crouches back unconsciously. I think he’s actually trembling a little in anticipation.

I give it one last shake, then toss it away. Satan follows it with a sharp turn of his head - then, wiggling as if to calibrate, pounces at it like— well, like a cat at a mouse.

As soon as he lands beside it, his hand strikes the edge at just the right angle to send it spinning away, and this time he doesn’t even try to adjust before leaping at it again, then again - head held close to the ground, digging his claws into the carpet to keep himself from skidding and then getting them stuck when he tries to keep going. Each time, the bell seems to evade his grasp, right up until he lunges for it a little too rapidly and runs head-first into the wall.

“Oh no—” I’d been covering my mouth to stop myself from laughing, but now it’s more out of shock - I hurry to prop him back up as Satan stares at the ceiling, dazed. “—are you okay?”

He blinks deliriously for a moment, then gives himself a shake and flushes. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine—”

He hurriedly gets back to his feet and, for want of something to do, starts flattening the fur on his ears. The bell lies, discarded, a few feet away. His eyes keep darting back to it again.

After a moment, deciding that he doesn’t seem like he has a concussion, I get up to retrieve it. Satan watches me in close anticipation as I toss it in my hand for a moment, then roll it over to him.

His hand shoots out and slams it to the ground. Then he smacks it my way again, and without thinking I dive to the side to catch it.

With each pass, he gets a little more boisterous, and the bell starts moving in wilder, faster directions, criss-crossing all over the library, passed back and forth with barely enough respite to actually jingle. I bounce this way, Satan bounds that way - knocking into furniture so frequently and loudly that it’s not really a surprise when someone comes to see what’s going on.

The door opens, and Satan stops himself short. He sits up straight, replacing his playful expression with a completely serious one, and Levi eyes us both suspiciously.

“What were you doing?” He asks after a moment.

“Nothing,” lies Satan, getting up. His eyes dart down to the bell again, and he discreetly kicks it away. “What’re you doing here?”

He scratches his head. “Well, Asmo got hungry. And I didn’t wanna just sit around in his room.”

“Are you still cold?” I ask. He shrugs.

“I think I’m getting used to it,” He says, coming further into the room. “I mean, it’s still chilly, but it’s like… outside chilly.”

“That’s good. Oh, have you tried eating anything yet? Do you reckon you could swallow stuff whole like Gerald does?”

He grimaces. “Do I have to? That sounds gross. Do we even have anything big enough?”

“Uhh… a big loaf of bread, maybe…?”

Satan, listening to this with interest, glances to the side and spots Levi’s long snake tail, and abruptly shoots into the air - so high that it looks as if a helicopter took off with a rope tied around him. Levi yelps and dives to hide; a moment later, Satan lands on his feet, a good ten feet away from where he started.

Levi peeks warily out from behind the armchair. “What was that?”

Satan clears his throat and refuses to make contact. “Ahem - do you hear people in the common room? Let’s go to the common room.”

The common room is a lot busier than it was since I left it. The twins have arrived, and the scene looks like Mammon’s swapped personalities with Belphie - while the latter is playing a chase game with Beel around the sofa, he has his head propped up on a cushion, blinking reproachfully at them for disturbing him.

Asmo shows up soon after we do, throwing himself into the seat next to me with a metric armful of some leafy vegetable that I can only assume is the Devildom equivalent of celery. He offers me a stick and keeps crunching loudly throughout Levi and Satan’s bickering, cheeks perpetually full like a hamster.

With everyone else gathered here, it’s not long before Lucifer slips in as well, and immediately gets dragged into Belphie’s game with Beel. Lucifer waits until he’s tuckered himself out (which doesn’t take long, because it’s Belphie), to finally call a family meeting of some kind so that everyone can get their bearings.

Though there isn’t much to say - we're all more or less settled into ourselves now, so it’s just a matter of getting used to everyone else. That doesn’t take long, either, and soon enough, certain demons start getting bored. Within the hour, they’re all running around the house again like excited puppies.

…I say ‘they’, but that includes me. Levi’s the one who opts to stay sitting calmly by the fireplace. Belphie keeps collapsing in the middle of the hallway for a five minute nap before he gets up to join in again, and Lucifer has to try to keep up with us to make sure we don’t start breaking everything.

Such is the commotion that no one hears the knock on the door, which Luke left unlocked when he fled. That also means that no one thinks to stop Mammon when he makes to use it as a launchpad - Solomon steps inside and immediately gets bowled over, sending the carefully corked bottle in his hand flying. Behind him, Luke lets out a short squeak and covers his eyes, but it lands safely on the carpet, its momentum carrying it down the hall.

And then it comes to a stop by Satan’s feet.

He stares at the bottle, eyes dilated. His tail flicks restlessly.

“Satan,” Lucifer starts, ears pricked in caution - none of us are close enough to grab the bottle to safety. “Don’t—”

Satan reaches down and bats the bottle cleanly into the wall. It smashes it into about a million smithereens. The rest of us watch the violet potion inside drain into the carpet.

“You know,” Solomon says, cross, “Sometimes you bring this on yourselves.”

#3rd anni event #writing #obey me lucifer #obey me mammon #obey me leviathan #obey me satan #obey me asmodeus #obey me beelzebub #obey me belphegor #jtta ik #finally done!! woohoo!!!!

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ewyband · 11 days

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EWY BIG Q&A

hi!! recently i did a q&a on instagram about SLAD. unfortunately (or fortunately?) there were too many questions to answer purely on instagram stories without spamming. here's the ones i couldn't answer on instagram, answered here!

MERLOT, both in terms of my favourite composition and performance

my partner and i were on a break whilst they were studying abroad ("we're only on month 1 of 4"). I just kinda word vomited my feelings. I was feeling pretty depressed at the time I wont lie.

yes i DID!!! this EP was MADE for fun. i wrote the songs specifically to make fun songs to play live. (aside from HOLLOW DRUG)

"And I could be displaced from my home And it could be seen on all your phones Is it real? Or is it fake? Look close, do my arms look like legs?"

probs the most lyrically dense I've been?? i'm not sure.

first of all, thank you so much!! second, some songs i write it all in one day but others can take a week or so before i'm fully happy with how its sounding. that being said, i always end up changing something before recording (usually around a month after writing, but in the case of MERLOT, that was recorded only a week after writing).

if i had to just name one, it'd be Nirvana. I wrote a 3000 word essay on In Utero for uni and that genuinely inspired me to make these songs. I really loved how Nirvana performed and I thought 'man, if only I had songs like that where I'd have an excuse to go crazy' other influences would include Jeff Rosenstock (my #1 fav artist) and PUP (greatest live show I've ever been to) btw, thank u sm!!

yes,,, very much

unfortunately i havent learnt proper scream technique so all of my screams were done at the very very end of my recording sessions. i think it worked out because that meant i had a lot of pent up frustration

i will start by saying my uni lets me hire out all of these microphones for free (if you don't count the student loan) vocals: SM7b & RE20 (only on sociopathic leech) guitar: AKG C414 matched pair (acoustic and electric) bass: my takes were originally done with an RE20, pretty sure fern just DI'd drums: Audix DP7 + SM57 (for hi-hat) + C414 for room mic's

i'll try get this done tomorrow!

i was in a guitar lesson at uni and we were talking about chromatics in the blues scale. my guitar teacher suggested i try to make a riff using the blues scale and particularly the chromatic part. that riff ended up being the middle 8 section of RIGHTS TO MY WRONGS. the rest of the song basically acted as a vessel to transport this breakdown middle 8 section. hopefully it doesn't come across that way !!!!!! but that was the main idea.

it felt very natural. i'll probably continue to go this direction in my future releases.

its mainly a reference to SOCIOPATHIC LEECH! 'i could beat you with a bat'. i just wanted something that felt visceral and angry and i feel like izzie really captured that.

yes and no! brett romnes is a super nice guy and very fun to work with. i obviously had my own mixes so he could see what i preferred and essentially made it better. i think there ended up being 4 drafts before we reached a final master.

these were my original mixing notes! i think the only thing that really got lost in translation was i added some really subtle vocal distortion at the end of HOLLOW DRUG in my original mix. in the end, i feel empowered by brett because he made it sound like what i felt it should sound like in my head (DOES THIS SENTENCE MAKE SENSE!?)

after i wrote SOCIOPATHIC LEECH and RIGHTS TO MY WRONGS, i was like 'okay, this is the style we're going for, lets do some sort of project in this particular style' i was pretty dead set on an EP since i'd just done an album. so to answer your question, yes and no!

i wish i could put something significant here. im sure theres some psychologist out there who could tell me that the song represents something about me. i was feeling alienated at the time, hopefully this helps? "confess your sins to the crowd, no-one can hear you when you're talking so loud" is definitely about my frustrations with song meanings though

hi mikey!

this person was the GM for a cyberpunk TTRPG game i played in. i wanted to write a cyberpunk themed album at one point but i guess that one merlot line is the closest we'll get.

i have semi answered this question but I WANTED TO WRITE SONGS THAT WERE FUN TO PLAY LIVE !!!!! and i think it worked out in the end

THANK YOU EVERYONE WHO WROTE IN !!! MY ASKBOX IS ALWAYS OPEN!!!

#ewy #ewyband

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yggdraseed · 4 months

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My Hero Academia Ch. 425 Thoughts

To tell you the truth, I'm relieved. When I saw how the fight with Tenko/AFO ended, I was immensely disappointed.

I felt like we were going to smash cut to the final chapter, everyone in the LOV would be dead, and we'd get some smarmy shot of Deku clenching his fist and staring at the sky saying, "But someday, we'll fix these problems. Someday, somehow, this will be our Hero Academia." For me, that would have been the worst outcome possible. Like it'd make me depressed.

Seeing that we're probably going to get an actual mini-story arc to wrap things up is so important to me. And to be honest, I'm much more fascinated by the potential of this last little leg of the story than I was with most of the war arc.

This is something I've never really seen a Shonen do, follow up the big final slugfest with a stretch of story that's marked by so much uncertainty, less action and more focus on drama, suspense, and emotional content. I'm in a position where I don't know what the story's going to throw at me, and that has me excited. Especially with Horikoshi acknowledging that this set of circumstances can't be neatly tied off in just a quick batch of two or three chapters.

As for what's actually in the chapter, I love how even the gags have this morose tinge to them. Like everyone's trying to crack jokes or goof off in order to cope with the pain. Seeing Fuwa again was also really nice, since I love her design and personality so much. I think she's the kind of upperclassman the 2-A gang need right now - cheerful, laidback, but experienced and confident, too.

Getting to that reveal towards the end, I think the person with the dark hair is actually Toga transformed into another patient. I get the feeling she's trying to escape the hospital, and that gives me a lot to think about. She was sure she'd be killed if she was caught, so is she being taken care of? Or is she being mistreated? I've heard horror stories about mental health institutions even for patients without a criminal record. I wonder if Horikoshi is going to do something so dark as to show Toga being abused and Ochako needing to rescue her from that situation.

I also think it's pretty clear that at the very end, Endeavor is sitting in front of Touya inside some sort of regeneration tank like from DBZ. He's probably going to be in there for years, and it's probably going to cost the Todoroki family a fortune to keep him alive.

Overall, I think this is good. Really, really good, so long as Horikoshi takes a little more time to really deliver. Have the students confront the system head on and save the people who still need them. I hope after his break, we see Horikoshi really give the story the finale that it needs the most.

#boku no hero academia #my hero academia #toga himiko #mawata fuwa #touya todoroki #kohei horikoshi #mha spoilers #bnha spoilers #bnha 425 #mha 425

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muraseclinic · 27 days

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This is the dumbest post I will ever make online. Anon on to keep my last shred of dignity. Hope the post doesn't break.

All of your pretty words have been plaguing my fucking mind recently. Been thinking a lot about the type of shit you say. I'm normally a sadist dom, but your posts slip me into a stupid fucking masochistic stupor. I've read at least every word about a dozen times over. It's pretty fucked up how desperate I am about all this. I doubt you even care, but I don't think I want you to.

I picture the scene pretty vividly, you telling me exactly what steps puppy has to follow. Maybe I fight back, helplessly trying to turn the tables, but it doesn't work. It'll never work against you. You'll only mindfuck me harder. Telling me I don't know what I want, telling me to get over it. How I don't deserve to be in control. Slipping me further and further into absolute submission, I won't be able to resist anymore.

You'll tell me to cut my veins open, let it all bleed out, and I'll obey. 'Cause it's what you want. My desires don't matter. It's all about pleasing you. The knife'll sink deep into my flesh, carving deep grooves, brilliant shades of red rising to the surface. The blood scent in the air is fucking pungent. You'll laugh, almost angelic but truthfully cruel. You'll stomp down on my wrist, the blood spurting out of the cuts onto your boot, maybe you'll even fracture the bone. You'll tell me to clean up my mess. I'll stick my tongue out like the whores in pornos do, idiot and crass, and I'll lick up my own gore off the vamp of your boot without a second thought. That copper taste so familiar, it's all I'll know beyond this point.

We'll go for hours, days even. I'll be a fuckin' drugged up cut up mess, sobbing and broken, and you'll be laughing through it all. You'll get bored eventually, I know you will, and then you'll give me one last command. You'll tell me those lovely parting words, tell me to kill myself for you, it's the final act to our fucked up scene. And I'll do it. A kicked puppy only wants to please its ruthless master. I'll make it slow, just so you can take in my gargled cries like an alluringly haunting symphony of pain. Choking on my own blood, fucking filthy.

Then what comes after? That's for you to decide. Not me, of course.

fuck anon .ᐟ ,, you’ve really outdone yourself this time haven’t you (ㅅ´ ˘ `) i gotta say, i'm flattered that my “pretty words” have been rattling around that head of yours . . .

now, for that very very nice scene you mentioned . .

i'd peel away that last shred of dignity, leaving you a broken mess at my feet. it’d take some effort, considering you have the same knack for violence and defiance as an untrained mutt, but we’d eventually get there wouldn’t we .ᐣ i'd savor every agonized gasp, every gurgled cry as you choke on your own blood. it'd be one of the most beautiful, and most disgusting things i’ve ever seen, and it’d be all for me . . .

i’d enjoy the moment, might even record you killing yourself just to add it to my personal collection. but, once the deed has been done, and you're lying there in a pool of your own blood .ᐣ well, my interest tends to wane pretty damn quick. ᓚᘏᗢ i dunno - i've got better things to do than babysit a corpse. . .

but just because you’re dead doesn’t mean you can’t be useful, now does it .ᐣ you’ve got a little more left to give until i get sick of you. . .

i’m sure i’d find something, anything, to make it so that even in death you weren’t a waste of time. cut into you with zero-surgical precision, rough and uneven, take out whatever interests me or whatever i think might taste good (๑⃙⃘´༥`๑⃙⃘) maybe i won’t be able to hold back, might not be able to wait til’ everything is clean, cut and organized. might start tearing into you right then and there, making more of a mess of things. you won’t mind, right .ᐣ for the rest of you, i’ll find ways to utilize every last scrap. maybe i’ll tan your skin, craft it into a wallet or a glove . . might take a picture of your body n’ hang it somewhere. your corpse, once i’ve gotten everything i can out of if, will probably be left behind some dingy motel or in an alleyway.

if i’m feeling nice, i might even send it home to where your family is as a surprise. they can burden themselves with it now ᥫ᭡

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misc-obeyme · 4 months

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okay okay I'm back with more self indulgent poly coffee au. Last time I said Lucifer fixed up the piano, and there's definitely another scene idea there, but I'm so excited about the Horror night one that I'm skipping the piano scene aksjdj. I even re-read the horror movie night devilgrams for research. Yeahhh, research,,,,(that one line from Mammon where he comments on MC's scared face lives rent free in my head). But I learned Mammon would have nightmares, and Solomon gets really into the plot.

okay so I think it'd be nice if the three of us meet on Wednesdays before I head to the record shop. Solomon brings his homework, but never gets much done, too happy to talk to us instead. Wednesday is the only day I wake up super early, all because I'm looking forward to hanging out for longer with the two of them. It gets me out of bed, but I have shown up looking groggy as hell some days. Record shop is open 11-7:30 Monday through Friday? And 11-9 on Saturday, but closed Sunday. The only reason it closes early is because I take the bus, and that's not something that's fun taking at night. Saturday night I stay at the shop (thinking of a mini storage/break room upstairs where I've set up a sleeping bag). Coffee shop I think is also closed Sunday, but Mon-Friday it's 7-3:30, with Saturday being 7-12 so he can get errands done. And then Sol has classes Mon/Tues/Thurs/Fri.

OKAY ANYWAY, WORLD BUILDING ASIDE, the three of us meeting on our usual Wednesday, and Solomon mentions this movie he wants to see. He says he has extra tickets because the people he planned on asking can't make it, it's a midnight showing on Friday. Says he understands if we can't since we both need to get up early the next day, but wanted to ask. I agree because I think it'd be nice to hang out outside of the coffee shop, and Mammon says he's not one to turn down a free outing. He can run on little sleep anyway, he's got espresso to help.

The three of us trying to figure out the logistics, Solomon saying he'll even pay for rides there and back home if needed. Mammon blurts out "Why don't y'all sleep over after?" and we both turn to look at him. He freezes and turns red, but he's already said it, he can't turn back now. "What? I-I got a car, I'll pick the two of you up, and y'all can stay at my place. T-That way, it's not too far from your shop, and your apartment, right?" "I could walk home from here, I wouldn't want to intrude-" "Yeah, I don't mind taking an uber-" "Walking at night can be dangerous, don't you know!? And you! Getting into a strangers car so late is even worse! I'll drive you both home if that's what ya want, but I don't mind having you two over." Solomon is fighting the urge to make a comment about it being like a date. I'm just happy to not have to wake up as early.

"Yo, why'd you want to go to the midnight showing anyway? Are ya that excited to see it?" "Haha, that's not the main reason. It's a horror movie! A midnight showing would be the most immersive." Cue me and Mammon freezing, giving each other terrified looks. Oh man.

Leading up to the outing date, Mammon and I are researching like crazy, only to find out it's the premiere. So there's no spoilers or ways to prepare. We're going in blind. I'm not one to watch many horror movies, the closest things being Saw, Final Destination (both of which I love), and I think a movie series called Paranormal Activity or something. But I always looked away during scary scenes during that. Yet I'm too stubborn to turn it off because I need to know the ending.

Friday comes, Mammon closes up and tries to take a nap to calm his nerves after stress cleaning to get everything neat for the sleepover. And no one planned it, but everyone has dressed up a little nicer than usual. Mammon's got a lucky watch that was gifted from Lucifer, and an open button up with the sleeves rolled up.

He gets in his car to go pick up Solomon, his heart hammering in his chest because Solomon is wearing a nice button up and maybe a sweater? And wearing cologne?? Please help Mammon, he is panicking, trying to reign it in as Solomon puts his overnight bag in the trunk. His voice cracks as he greets Solomon, and immediately begins driving to pick me up, turning up the music as a distraction.

Not sure what I'd wear, but I've got extra jewelry on because it makes me feel cool. Maybe a mesh shirt and a cardigan?? But I wear perfume, and I'm nervous without any clue why. I've got my wallet and my duffel bag, and snort when Solomon jumps out and opens the passenger door like a gentleman before climbing into the backseat. The drive is slightly tense, all of us nervous until I spot a car with a difference state plate. My friend introduced me to this game, and I instinctively bump Mammon's arm and call out the state, which breaks the tense atmosphere. The three of us fall into comfortable conversation until we reach the movie theater.

okay there's a really funny idea I have for the next part that happens during the actual movie. Solomon is going to be living his best life very soon OKAY BYEEE

- ✨ anon

AHHHH I wanna know about Solomon living his best life!! Lemme guess, he's sitting between you two and something especially scary happens so you're both clinging to him out of fear?!? LOL!

Oh man, both of you guys not liking horror is so cute! I totally get it, I'm not a horror fan at all. I can't watch horror movies because I get so freaked out, I can't sleep for months. Books seem to be no problem, but movies for some reason I can't handle lol.

ANYWAY I also love how Mammon is coming up with reasons why you should both sleep over, that is so sweet - of course he's getting all overprotective! Walking at night! Getting into a stranger's car!! You're gonna give him a conniption!

And ohh Solomon being the gentleman and opening the door for you, that's adorable, too!!

As always, I will be pleased to know what happens next, but of course no pressure & no rush! I'm just enjoying this cute lil love story~

#like I'm on the solomams train but also with your MC because they're all so cute together #obey me #obey me solomon #obey me mammon #✨ anon #misc answers

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nogenderbee · 7 months

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♡˗ˏ✎*ೃ˚ ℚ𝕦𝕚𝕔𝕜 𝕓𝕖𝕒𝕥 ₊˚ˑ༄

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ anon request: hii! i'm so happy u opened ur requests again but always remember to take a break if u need to!

if it's ok, may i request for a honami, minor and airi with a rapper! reader? i think it would be so cute to see an idol/band member together with a rapper, haha couple goals

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ Hello! Yeah absolutely!! Gosh I'm so happy girlies finally get some love! Even tho I'm still kot sure if I got them all right... Anyway, I really hope you'll like it!

Why did Airi turned out the best-?

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ fluff

Affiliation with @virtualbookstore

✧ band member and rapper actually don't sit that far... Honami just sings a bit more often than you but your music types aren't that different

✧ you sing it quick songs and wo does she! Not ALWAYS but pretty often

✧ she probably never tried forcing wpoint but her voice is so soothing, I doubt it'd fit rap music

✧ but it doesn't mean she doesn't like it! It really depends of the song but there are some which she can listen, most being by you!

✧ when it comes to your songs, it doesn't even matter as long as she can hear your voice, you coule be screaming alongside hard metal music and she'd still listen to it just because of your voice

✧ she finds it comforting to listen to on headphones when you're away but she most likely wouldn't play it on speakers or when she's sharing a headphone with someone else than L/n

✧ overall, she's great supporter of yours and most likely has a playlist meant for your songs alone, as well as many photos on Instagram with "listening to Y/N's song now <3" to give you small promotion, especially if you're smaller creator than her or Leo/need

"I-I just... I just liked the song! And playlist... I just... I like your music is all..."

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

@bleachtheidiot @prsk-krow @bad-the-an-enjoyer @miya-akane - come get your apple pie lover~

✧ Minori definitely discovered some new music thanks to relationship with you

✧ of course she knew what rap music is and all but she always just prefered idol songs or so

✧ but when you show her how rap music can be good too and isn't just reciting random words, she actually took a like of it!

✧ it's certainly kinda hard to match her taste there but if you manage to find something slower, I think she may even add it to her playlist!

✧ as for your songs... maybe she's not as big fun as she is for Haruka, but the amount of merch she has is almost the same...

✧ maybe she doesn't have your playlist on loop because it's still not her ideal music genre but she won't mind having SOME songs pass by when she's just playing her favorites playlist

✧ in short, she's still not a fan of rap music but she is your fan!

✧ your music tastes don't really get along but she doesn't mind random rap that you play when she's around and you don't mind songs she play

"Well it's... some are really nice! But some aren't my style... I'm so sorry!! I just can't compare it to Haruka's solos!"

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

@bleachtheidiot @yulikesminori - come get your Haruka lover!

✧ Airi most likely isn't new to this genre, she was a tomboy, she definitely used to listen to rap music

✧ you know those kids who wander around streets with rap on speaker? She was in that group

✧ she actually likes rap music and is pretty open minded about all music so when she discovers you make rap, her childhood memories are back

✧ wanna do karaoke? Record something with her? She's down! It doesn't even need to be posted, she's happy to have fun

✧ you definitely exchange some songs even if her playlist is way shorter than yours

✧ because of her experience, you can count on her honest opinion whenever you show her your newest song or scratch for it

✧ she won't promote you since she knows it's nice to get up by yourself but if you ask her, she'll be happy to mention your song on her socials or to do a little collab with you

"Oh so you sit in rap! That's so cool. C'mon, show me your playlist like you promised. I need to have a look if you got some actually good artists there!"

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

@bleachtheidiot - come get your tsundere idol!

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telltalebatman · 5 months

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Pls tell me more about the band/musicians AUs omg I'm in love with them!!!

OK SO

for frankie and mac: they are in different bands. he's the drummer of sinister six - a rock/metal band and she plays the organs and writes lyrics for a goth band the first daughters. he is down BAD for her since their first meeting at a music festival and frankly his bandmates are getting SICK of it, because he just won't shut the fuck up about her. to quote the six's vocalist the vulture (an old man), "it's like i'm picking up my daughters from middle school again, man. not even high school. MIDDLE FUCKING SCHOOL."

eventually tho mac helps frankie out of a sticky situation and he lets her stay with his band for a few days until her girls can come pick her up, and they kinda just... click. he realizes she's a very sensitive gal who feels very lonely, and she realizes he's just head over heels in love with her, like a lost puppy. "if that makes you feel weird, i can get over you probably. give me some time." "no, uhm, you, uhm, you don't have to get over me. it's, uhm, fine. i'm fine with it."

(he thinks she wants to drive him insane and kill him because it'd be so good for her goth image if she had an actual body count and he is more than okay with it, he can kill himself for her on stage if that's what she wants-)

(also at one point he records a cover of are you gonna be my girl by jet where he changes the girl's hair color to black in the lyrics. go figure!)

(also doc ock is the six's keyboard player and he teaches her some tips and tricks to really fucking rock out on the organs)

(sinister six: the vulture on vocals; doc ock on keyboard; scorpion on drums; electro on lead guitar; rhino on bass; mister negative on violin the first daughters: frankie on organs; delphine costa on cello; mina kernelli on guitar; tonya cicero on vocals; lisa manfredi (mac's girlfriend until they break up and she becomes a thing w/ mina) on drums)

charlie and oz: charlie is a pg-friendly popstar with an immaculate public image. she is Good and Nice and Sweet and Wholesome and Pure and she is a Role Model For Girls and she never swears, never kisses anyone, never drinks. she is a 3d flat image. she is entrapped in a contract with her predatory and abusive manager who may or may not have had a hand in the tragic demise of her parents. the world thinks she is perfect and happy; but in reality she is depressed beyond belief as having to repress her very human urges is killing her.

cue oz: the frontman of the children of arkham, a grunge/punk band. he is a menace, an alcoholic, he flirts with his fans, he gets naked on stage, he's violent and mean and he saved charlie's life one night after meeting her in some dingy bar she ran into as she was escaping from the paps. they fell in love hard and fast and he is the first person she can truly be human around - she can swear, she can drink, she can fuck, she can have messy hair, she can be a person. naturally due to their wildly different environments they have to keep their relationship a secret, and it is killing them slowly.

eventually, during a show on her goddamn birthday that she isn't even allowed to celebrate on her own terms (so with her boyfriend, eating a pizza, watching some garbage movies, and getting fucked to the point of being unable to speak properly) she has a very public breakdown on stage, and afterwards just straight up kills her manager in self defense as he assaults her. with her career finally over, charlie opens a new chapter of her life (as her bf's band has a practice session in the garage. she sometimes provides additional vocals for them, and she takes great joy in screeching into the microphone, and the children's fanbase eats it up, because what's more punk than a fallen popstar who violently broke out of the establishment!!!!!)

#ship: pinnguin #sorcione

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everysongineverykey · 1 year

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and now, what no one's been waiting for: junie's official ranking of every (original) queen album, from favorite to least favorite! it's fucking long. have fun, if you're interested!

-the works: ah, this one is a fucking classic. peak queen, in my opinion. to me, this is the culmination of their sound and style as a band. this is the album that took priority in their iconic live aid performance (mostly because it'd just been released, but still), and for good reason. there isn't a single song on this album that isn't at least pleasant to listen to- even some of the less Good tracks like man on the prowl and i go crazy are at least still decent and have some good lyrics and a nice backbeat. and the hits on this record- my god, who can hear i want to break free and NOT start dancing? it's one of the best examples of john deacon's pure songwriting genius. roger taylor really shines on this one, too; radio ga ga is a powerful, touching tribute to the radio medium that actually has genuine emotion behind it. every time i hear "radio, what's new? someone still loves you" my heart aches. the boggles could NEVER. brian may writes some of his best social commentary in hammer to fall, which never fails to leave me moved to my core- it's so passionate, and the fact that it still holds up to this day really says something. none of the megahits on this album were penned by freddie mercury, but he still produces his share of bangers. it's a hard life is a passionate and earnest ballad about heartbreak that turns hopeful in the end and genuinely makes me want to fall in love, and keep passing the open windows is a simple yet beautifully uplifting song with some fucking amazing guitar bits. underrated gem, in my opinion! really, really picks you up. the whole album does, in fact. my favorite forever and always- it doesn't get more "queen" than this.

-sheer heart attack: this one's so so good. the overall sound of the album is really eclectic and varied, jumping from vaudeville to heavy rock to campy from song to song. it features the first song john deacon ever wrote for queen, the underrated bop misfire which i just adore- there's something about the energy and the earnestness of the lyrics and vocals that just make it. obviously we have freddie mercury's (and the band's) first ever megahit killer queen, which needs no introduction- the lyrics are some of the most intricate, cleverly worded ones he's ever written, and the song as a whole fits perfectly with the rest of the album's refined yet playful style. "drop of a hat, she's as willing as / playful as a pussycat / then momentarily out of action, temporarily out of gas / to absolutely drive you wild"- those lyrics perfectly describe sheer heart attack as an album to me. it pulls you in and then hits you with the wildest bait-and-switches ever, from the cheery, upbeat misfire straight to the long, emotional she makes me. it does that thing where almost every song segues perfectly into the next and doesn't really "end" properly, which probably isn't to everyone's taste, but i personally adore that the final line of flick of the wrist crosses over into lily of the valley- it sets the tone, in a way, because lily of the valley is far less shouty and angry, and opening it with a softer version of that classic "baby, you've been had" before breaking into a sweet piano melody really helps build atmosphere. roger taylor has one of his first vocal spotlights in tenement funster, and while it's not my favorite song ever, the lyrics are quite clever, and he sings it well, and it really shows you his potential as a lead vocalist and songwriter- potential he comes to fully realize in later albums. favorites of mine from this one include the classic brighton rock, misfire, flick of the wrist, the bouncy vaudeville bring back that leroy brown, and stone cold crazy (which has such fun lyrics). some of their strongest work!

-a day at the races: now, most would probably put this one below night at the opera, which is completely fair- the latter is one of their most famous albums, and that isn't at all undeserved, so it often ends up overshadowing its smaller-scale companion/sequel album. i personally think that's a crime, though! a day at the races has all the satisfying vocal arrangements and song styles as its predecessor, in my opinion, and what's more, it doesn't try to be the second a night at the opera- it's simply a more lowkey continuation of that type of music. standouts (to me) include roger taylor's drowse, which i believe is some of his most pleasant lead vocal work ever, with really good lyrics about burnout and midlife fatigue, and brian may's long away, which is so sweet and longing and melancholic it makes my brain go "we need to go home!! we need to go home RIGHT NOW!!!" even when i am at home. then, of course, there's freddie mercury's two hits, somebody to love and good old-fashioned loverboy, which. i mean, come on. these two songs were once described by a critic as "mercury's baroque one-two", and i think that says it all. they really ARE a one-two punch- somebody to love knocks you OUT with its passionate vocals and lyrics about loneliness and city-living burnout, and good old-fashioned loverboy finishes the job by surprising you with some of freddie's best lyric writing since killer queen and an addictive melody to boot. as for john deacon's work, he produces another sweet, earnest love song with you and i, again showcasing his talent for passionate love songs just as brian may deals perfectly in melancholia and roger taylor gives us one small town burnout anthem after another. as for freddie mercury, well, what doesn't he do? this album, i think, really shows you what each member is all about. it's their fifth album, but if you wanted to listen to it first, i wouldn't stop you at all.

-a night at the opera: well, this one was bound to be near the top, wasn't it? you know this one- even if you're not a serious fan, all i have to do is tell you it's the one with bohemian rhapsody, and you'll probably go, "oh. oh, THAT one." even if you don't know any of the other songs, i mean. it's the one with bohemian rhapsody. regarding that song, like. what can i say that hasn't already been said? it changed contemporary music history. it basically invented the music video. it became a mandatory north american white people party song for the rest of time. yadda yadda yadda you don't need me to ramble on about bohemian rhapsody. as famous as it is, it's actually not my favorite song on the album, which has a lot more to offer than just borhap- this album is home to my favorite queen song ever, you're my best friend, which is some of john deacon's best ever songwriting work. the man doesn't miss basically ever, but this one is particularly special. the beat's so damn bouncy and addictive, and the lyrics are the sweetest and so fun to sing- you can tell it was written out of genuine love and passion. listen to that "oooh, you make me live" and tell me you don't want to jump to your feet. it never gets old! besides that banger, we've also got '39, which is another brian may melancholia masterpiece- the lyrics tell a perfect story, and roger taylor's falsetto during the bridge is really, really something to behold. it's not even really edited, if you listen to a live version- he can just do that. men with high voices i love you. anyway, another standout is death on two legs, a delightfully angry and vitriolic song that is so mean to the band's asshole former manager that freddie mercury's bandmates were initially shocked when he showed them what he'd written, and he later actually questioned whether they should actually release it because it was so hateful. you can tell it's genuine, too- mercury's vocals have a rough, legitimately furious edge to them as he sings, which is something i LOVE in songs. it's so fucking fun to sing if you're angry, or even if you're not angry. incredible lyrics include "feel good? are you satisfied? / do you feel like suicide? (i think you should)" (yes they told him to kill himself in a song they released to the public. yes he sued them for defamation. yes all this did was reveal to the public that he was the bastard they were talking about and damage his reputation so bad he wrote an autobiography defending himself titled "life on two legs". anyways), "was the fin on your back part of the deal? shark!", and "insane, you should be put inside / you're a sewer rat decaying in a cesspool of pride". this song fucking rocks. three more underappreciated gems from this flagship album are lazing on a sunday afternoon, which is short but oh so sweet, seaside rendezvous, which is heartwarming and upbeat, and the prophet's song, an eight-and-a-half minute-long behemoth (yeah, you thought bohemian rhapsody was their longest song? you ain't seen nothing yet) about the biblical apocalypse that absolutely fucking slaps and makes you want to shake your fist at god. would recommend!!! i don't have much else to say about this album. it's an all-in-all really cohesive and well put together record that gets an unfair amount of focus put on its most famous song when it's got lots more to offer besides that. i like it!

-jazz: a delight through and through! the ones you're bound to know from this one are fat bottomed girls, bicycle race, and don't stop me now, which all rock, but i think it has a really steady groundwork of less well known songs holding it up besides the megahits. my personal favorite is if you can't beat them, another john deacon jam, but not about love this time- instead, it's about people trying to take your money. fun times! it's genuinely so fun to sing. i also like mustapha, though i can't really sing along to it since most of it's just gibberish (side note, it's really funny how freddie mercury clearly saw the opportunity to write a vaguely persian-sounding gibberish song that didn't actually mean anything but that would be believable to the average white person as meaning something in part because of his parsi background, and took it. get it king fool us we are stupid). jealousy is another really nice mercury piano ballad, and helps give the whole album a nice smooth, confident feel, as do songs like dead on time and leaving home ain't easy. the whole record gives off a very nonchalant "yeah, i know i'm cool, what of it?" vibe, but not in like an obnoxious way- in a completely deserved way. you can tell that they've really become confident in their style as a band by this point in their careers from the way every song fits together like puzzle pieces. they all sound so right!

-the miracle: this one's interesting. their third-to-last album, the miracle was released in 1989, around the time when freddie mercury's aids was beginning to take a turn for the worse, and i believe the first album written after his bandmates had found out about it. as such, it marks queen's first major forays into reflective songs about life, death, humanity, the impermanence of beauty, and abstract subjects like that. the eponymous single "the miracle," for which the album is named, is the perfect example- freddie mercury's (and the band's as a whole, but the chords were primarily mercury and deacon) declaration that there are miracles even in the smallest things in life, that everything in the world is beautiful, that one day we'll all get over ourselves and achieve world peace. you have other songs like that, too- scandal, written by a frustrated brian may annoyed at the tabloid press' hounding of his own declining marriage and the ailing freddie mercury, with some genuinely good lyrics ("today the headlines, tomorrow hard times, and no one ever really knows the truth from the lies"), and was it all worth it, written mainly by freddie mercury, asks just that, and concludes that in the end, everything that's happened has been for the best, and that the singer wouldn't change a thing. so all in all, the miracle is in concept a very good album- it's just such a shame that i only really like two of the songs on it. lol. i'd like to like the album as a whole, but... i don't know! although i recognise that it's objectively good, most of it doesn't do much for me. two songs i adore, however, are rain must fall and breakthru. rain must fall is a fun, cleverly written collab between freddie and john, who i would say are my two favorite songwriters in the band overall, so it really works marvelously well. breakthru is a primarily roger taylor-written piece that doesn't have the deepest lyrics ever, but the chorus is really really good- freddie mercury reaches a heavenly high note in the second chorus that reminds you with a start that oh yeah, this guy has a four-octave vocal range and can sing as a baritone, a tenor, and even practically a soprano if he wants. insane. this album also features a decision of the band's to credit all their songs to the band as an entity instead of the individual members who wrote them, taking away some of the competitive nature and making them closer as a group. it's a nice show of collaboration and teamwork! again. i want to like this album better. i really do. but aside from the ones i listed above and the invisible man, most of it's just okay. i wouldn't not recommend it, though. different tastes for different people.

-made in heaven: ohhh this one. this one. their last album as queen, released years after freddie mercury's death and made up of songs he had recorded vocals for before death without instrumentals because he knew he wouldn't have time to wait for the rest of them to play all together. as such, it's... an emotional record. most of the songs are about the impermanence of youth and beauty, such as it's a beautiful day and a winter's tale (which i believe was the last song freddie mercury ever wrote), which both exude a sense of peaceful finality. they give "i'm satisfied, and i'm ready to go." it touches me deeply when i think about it- i only wish the actual songs did the same. there are some really good ones, of course- mother love is a classic, with the final verse being sung by may because mercury died mid-recording- and that vocal change really really adds to the turbulent, haunted atmosphere of the song. as far as i know, that's one of only two queen songs that share two lead vocalists with relatively equal amounts of singing time (the other one is the tribute song they wrote for freddie after he died. so.). it's really powerful, and even at death's door, freddie sings his fucking heart out and delivers some spine-chilling vocals ("i don't want pity, just a safe place to hide! mama, please, let me back inside..." haunts my dreams). too much love will kill you is another favorite- it's passionate and emotional and i was legitimately shocked when i found out it wasn't written by freddie. you will see why if you listen to it. all in all, made in heaven, like the miracle, is so so fucking good as a concept, but in reality, i can only really get into one or two songs. i love the vibes, though- peace and love and finality and acceptance and hope.

-news of the world: this one's okay. it's not BAD, by any means- most of them aren't- but it's always felt very generic rock to me personally. to be clear, i'm kind of biased, since i like their more unusual stuff. this is a big album. it's the one with we will rock you and we are the champions, for god's sake. and there ARE songs i like on it- john deacon's classic songwriting shows up again on the tango-y who needs you, which is very sweet both lyrically and musically, and it's late goes so fucking hard and stirs definite emotion in me. it's got good stuff- ballads as well as their typical rock tunes, and all recognizably distinct from each other. i love the album art, and everyone does a great job individually and produces some great work, but if you like their more eclectic work, i wouldn't say this album's for you- it's much more down-home type rock.

-innuendo: their second-to-last album, and the last one freddie mercury was alive to record. despite being sandwiched between two melancholy albums focusing on life and death and acceptance, this one takes a break from that- it gets a little experimental with it, with tracks like innuendo and bijou being the best examples. of course, the best songs on it are i'm going slightly mad and these are the days of our lives, which are also the most famous ones- i'm not pretending to be unique here. honestly, it's not my thing- the album art's cool, and the funky, more electronic vibes are nice, but other than the aforementioned two songs, none of it really makes an impression on me. delilah's sweet, though. sometimes you just gotta write a song about your favorite cat who you love so much even though you have like six. freddie mercury was so real for that

-queen ii: i'll be honest, their really early work is not for me. it's far more folky and has a recurring fantasy theme to it, with songs talking about fairies and ogres and rats and the like. freddie mercury's vocals are a bit higher in a couple songs, giving him kind of a fey-ish sound, so i guess i like that that works with the theme. i do like one song from this record- funny how love is is a very sweet little ditty about love in all its forms, and it's where i get my url. march of the black queen is also interesting, though it runs a little long for my taste. this is from the time where they were still figuring out their style as a band, and though you can tell they had fun with it, it obviously didn't really last past the third album. on the whole, it's fine. nevermore is fine. some day one day is fine. funny how love is is very good. i approve! but i don't really like listening to it all the way through.

-a kind of magic: ehhhh. the two albums that immediately follow and precede this one are both better (the miracle and the works respectively). it's got a specific sound to it, but i can't really explain it- i don't have the fancy music words. you have to listen to it to get it. the only track i really like is friends will be friends- it has a nice guitar riff and it's about friendship, so of course i approve. i honestly don't have much to say about this one. at the very least it stands out as audibly its own album and clearly distinct from the others (but again, for the life of me, i can't explain how. it's not super electronic or disco-y, but it's not old-fashioned heavy rock either. it's a nice blend of the two). the song a kind of magic itself is nice, but not really nice enough to get this album a higher spot on the list. sorry besties this one just isn't it :(

-queen: again, from the era where they were really into the tolkien stuff. it's a small album. it's all okay. i have nothing to say about it. they have a song about... jesus. cool. at least keep yourself alive is good. now that's got staying power! it shows hints, i think, of how the band's sound will develop in the future, and it's still nice to listen to. yeah!! we SHOULD keep ourselves alive!! other than that, though, entirely unremarkable album. sorry

-the game: okay i. i'll be honest i don't get the hype. this one seems to be generally pretty well-liked and i don't get why. is it because it has another one bites the dust (once again courtesy of our man of the hour mr deacon)? like what else has it got? crazy little thing called love? i'm sorry i really don't get why that song's so beloved. it's fine! it's a normal rock song! nothing special! and yet it's somehow my uncle's favorite queen song. the only song i actually kind of like from the game is need your loving tonight (john deacon again! he does not miss), but it's not quite enough of a saving grace to bump it up to third from last. it's even more generic rock than news of the world. maybe i just need to listen to it again, but last time i did, i found nothing at all interesting about it. i liked need your loving tonight, but that's it. however, it still isn't as bad as

-hot space. you knew this one was gonna be last. you know under pressure? that awesome fucking song about societal divide and how we need to reach out to others and open our hearts to fix things but we're scared of that vulnerability deep down? yeah, great song, right? well, the rest of the album kinda sucks. SORRYYYY i'm sure it's to some people's taste but it's not at all what you want from queen. it's entirely electronic disco 80s funk- which isn't inherently bad, just... again, not what queen fans want to listen to, generally. in fact, it caused such discord within the band that they all split up for like a year and took a break from each other because they kind of all hated each other for it for a while. then they came back and produced their best album, the works! so that makes up for it :3 this album is still. not good. though. the songs all sound the exact same, and it's not even a good sameness. it's the exact same bland 80s disco song over and over again. there are one or two glimmers of hope in there- las palabras de amor is a nice effort, as is life is real, freddie's touching tribute to john lennon, and brian makes a nice attempt at some social commentary with put out the fire, a song about gun violence. the lyrics aren't really thought-provoking, just kinda "aren't anti-gun law people stupid?", not really the most revolutionary stuff in the world, but it's kind of fun anyway. very sad that the actual melody is not interesting in the slightest. if you are wondering why queen suddenly decided they were all about disco in 1980, well, it's in large part because the album was heavily influenced by freddie mercury's then-manager (boyfriend as well? i think? he was in the movie but they could've made that up) who hated rock and loved disco. why they let him convince them to make this album i cannot figure out. hot space 1980 why. your best song is one that wasn't even written for you. under pressure was written like a year before they got any ideas of r&b or dance music in their heads and it shows. thanks but no thanks

#i've wanted to make this for a while now #it features what i hope is enough background info for non-fans to understand as well!

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whumperfully · 2 years

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Can't Breathe

Masterlist

CW: drowning, manhandling, recorded torture, humiliation, creepy whumper

Also marks off my bthb:grabbed by the hair

"And since you decided to be a little rebel, he's going to be taking your place."

The man grabbed him by the hair again and, with one hand angling the phone camera at his face, dragged him to the other side of the bed.

Matt blanched when he saw the water-filled bucket getting closer. "No no no... please no!"

The scream didn't make it out as his head was pushed underwater.

For the first few seconds, Matt thought he could take it. Back during middle school swimming lessons, he always used to win the breath-holding competitions. Aside from the uncomfortable position and the hand ready to rip his hair out, it couldn't be that different, right? Right?

He held up well for a full minute- counting it in his head. Right as his chest began to tighten, he was pulled out, a sharp pain in his scalp.

Before his frantic breaths could fill up his lungs again, the hand twisted his hair, forcing his head down again into-

"Please-"

-into the water again.

I can take this. I can take this. I can take this. I can take this- His chest tightened again. His lungs begged for even the tiniest bit of relief. He couldn't take it anymore-

Once more, the hand pulled him out, letting him take not even a full breath before-

"No-"

-pushing him under again. He wanted to breathe. He wanted to breathe. He knew he couldn't underwater but he wanted to- he had to- Or he was sure he'd die. But he couldn't. It would only make it worse. It would only make it worse. It'd only make it-

He was pulled out of the water again, ready. He took the biggest breath he could- but maybe he wasn't ready. Drops of water entered his throat through his nose- the wrong way. He was about to cough but-

"Sto-"

-into the water he was forced to go again. His mouth opened involuntarily, trying to cough out anyway- but he somehow ended up with more water in his throat and shit it burned. His throat burned. His nose burned. He had had enough. He wanted out out out outoutoutoutoutoutout please-

He was pulled out of the water again and in a split second- shoved back down.

No no no no no please. His mind shouted. His insticts won against his fear and, grabbing the edge of the bucket, he began pushing against the grip in his hair with all his might. Anything anything to get some relief.

Yet the fingers in his hair only twisted and turned, the grip tightening further to shove him deeper underwater. His nose hit the bottom of the bucket, his shoulders and back ached with the awkward angle. Finally, his hands slipped out, making him fall in deeper.

He just wanted to breathe... breathe... breathe... just one breath... please...

He could practically feel his consciousness slipping out from his hands before finally finally he was pulled out.

He bagan to cough as his head hit the ground, the man throwing him to the side.

"Aww! Aren't you a little baby!" A distant voice cooed.

Matt covered his face with his arms, curling up into a ball and coughing up water he didn't even knew he inhaled.

"I want you to look at the camera, darling. Wouldn't you wanna beg your brother to help you out?" A boot nudged his arms.

"Please..." He buried himself deeper in. "I just wanna go home."

"Perfect!" The camera shut off. "You're so lovely, darling." The man crouched down beside him. "That should make a nice trailer for him."

As fingers locked in his hair again, Matt let out an involuntary scream- "NO! PLEASE!" -quickly coughing and breaking down into shaking mumbles. "Please please please no. Please-"

"Take your arms off your face, honey. I wanna see it."

As soon as Matt reluctantly slipped them off, he heard the sound of a photo being clicked. Through his blurry tearful eyes he saw a phone hovering above him, the man's mouth twisted into a sick grin.

"Ah! Perfect again." The man pocketed the phone, smiling to himself.

Matt squeezed his eyes shut, more tears slipping down his cheeks.

"A- a- a- be careful now, boy." A thumb slid beneath his eyes. "You need to save some of those for later too."

Taglist: @whumpsday @rabbitdrabbles @whumpycries (lmk if u wanna be added or removed)

#whump writing #whump #cw drowning #cw manhandling #cw filmed torture #cw humiliation #cw creepy whumper #a bit short but took me way too long to write #not perfectly happy w the results but i think it turned out okay #cw recorded torture #MattandDom #mywriting

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tea-with-evan-and-me · 8 months

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Halsey in their relationship perplexes me. If I were in her shoes and had wanted to date him so badly and knew he was just coming off of a relationship that he needed to heal from, I would not push the poor man.

look, i also don't like her and think she's a very problematic person, but i have a different point of view of that situation. first of all english is not my first language so sorry if it sounds hard to understand. but i think this should be his responsibility, if he wasn't emotionally available and wasn't fully healed (for obvious reasons) he shouldn't be in that relationship in the first place. i might be interpreting you the wrong way and might be not what you mean, but it's not like he isn't capable of making decisions for himself and he'd be the first person to know if he needed to heal from something, it shouldn't be her responsibility exclusive. if that's what happened, i think it'd be HIS lack of affective responsibility.

PLEASE don't get me wrong with that, i'm not hating on evan, i love him with all my heart, this is my pov from outside of the situation.

maybe it's not that deep, i just feel a bit uncomfortable seeing people putting responsibility on women over men in so many situations. we don't know exactly what happened, but ASSUMING this is the situation, that's my opinion.

tell me what you think tho, i think it's nice that we can share different ideas and i'd like to know your thoughts on that!

adding to that, by what i see (which it's obviously not very precise, since we don't know evan's personal life) he seems like the type of person who can't be single for too long. like, he jumps into relationships in a short amount of time and, ofc there's no rule of how much time you should wait to date again, but maybe that's not much healthy. like, most people don't heal from an abusive long term relationships too fast and probably may have a lot of relationship issues after that. does anybody else sees it that way?

(again sorry if it sounds confusing i'm trying my best 😭)

no need to apologize! i understand.

ultimately, we are all merely speculating, as only halsey and evan know the true nature of their relationship and why it didn't work. i think even outside of us all being fans of evan, the reason we judge halsey more harshly is because she is the only one who has made little digs in this situation. evan has never made a peep about her, either way.

"he'd be the first person to know if he needed to heal from something, it shouldn't be her responsibility exclusive" i agree that it's not her responsibility to know and heal him from his relationship trauma. but i also think that many people who need to take time to do so don't actually ''know'' that they need to heal, or even how to begin to do this - that is part of the problem. evan is never single for very long, his pattern is to seek a partner for a long-term/serious relationship. there's nothing wrong with it, but i do think that he does not have a good track record the past decade overall for choosing partners. and halsey is in the same boat. as i have said, their relationship was doomed from the start. intense and emotionally turbulent starry-eyed girl who has fantasized about a man for years finally gets him fresh off a break-up with his longterm, abusive fiancee, quickly has him move in.. yeah, not exactly a recipe for success, even if evan didn't have his own issues and trauma.

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sunshinemoonrx · 1 year

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Starhound: April Devlog

I've mentioned the RPGmaker game I'm working on a bit before, and since that's always gonna be pretty slow with me working full-time, I thought it'd be good to keep track of my pace with end-of-the-month progress posts. So! Here's what I've done in April.

(For the record, at the moment I'm actually planning on calling the game "Star Hound Vega", as the [Thing] [Descriptor] [Name] pattern is venerable among tokusatsu and mecha type heroes, but "Starhound" is my name for the setting and stories generally.)

Finished the first dungeon! It took more passes than I thought it would, as it always does, and I'm sure there'll be more tweaks in future, but I have now got to the point where I'm able to play through it and go "wow! that functions as intended without breaking! no notes"

2. Updated some sprites! Previously Vega's and Nemea's were just placeholders, but I've arrived at some that I feel pretty good about and represent them much better. Placeholders on the left, final sprites on the right:

I ended up using the "male" creator for Vega, which I think works great for creating butch women. (I have hemmed and hawed a bit over if I'm being Problematic by doing this as she is also the main trans character, however: I am a trans girl and I can do what I want. In seriousness, it is a bit of wish-fulfilment for me--I wish I could be more butch and masc-styled and be read as "a handsome woman" and not "a man", so Vega's living that dream for me. She's a hunk you get it)

I will definitely still need some kind of custom visuals for Vega's henshin hero suit, and Nemea (and her boss, Princess Ascella) when she appears as an enemy.

3. Diversified the music! So a fun thing about RPGMaker is you think you know the small selection of default assets it gives you, but if you dig around in the installed files there's actually a lot more free assets you can transfer in--from walk sprites and portraits from older versions of RPGMaker, to a whole bunch of extra enemy graphics, to a lot more music. In particular, I found some pretty sweet battle themes so now each boss can have its own! (This all mixed in with something I already grabbed right when I started making this--a pack of specifically old toku style music, which is really great for making it feel appropriately flavoured.)

4. Added a town area! The overworld is pretty limited in this, it's not so much travel as using a small consistent hub/base to rest between dungeons (if sequels happen they'll probably be bigger but I'm trying to keep a lid on the minimum viable product scope ykno), but there are a couple additional areas, so...now we have that!

Got to have some fun populating it with cute characters, which was nice.

5. Started the second dungeon! My main goal this month was to finish the first one, so it's nice to be ahead of schedule.

I've also figured out some really fun gimmicks for this one, so the first dungeon will serve mostly as a backdrop while you're introduced to the game's core mechanics, then this one will step it up and be more showy in its own right. Figuring out stuff like "oh you can have specific enemy encounters only happen on certain regions of the map" and "oh you can totally hide one-off boss fights inside random encounters" has got me to a concept I'm real happy with.

So yeah, that's where the game's at right now! For May, my main goal is just to finish the second dungeon, but we'll see where that goes. I plan on making a prototype build to toss at some friends once I've done a pass on the third dungeon (the total plan is for five, plus a final area after), but the third one is very short so I might even be able to do that in May too. But no pressure if the second is all I manage, that's the goal.

#starhound #gamedev #rpg maker #scififantasy #tokusatsu

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bexktaegeun · 1 month

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waterbomd solo

he hadn't planned on doing it.

it was a little push actually. at some point, tae and a few friends hand been wondering around waterbomb for the better part of the day. at some point, they found a place to sit, grab snacks and relax without being in the pit of performance watchers. he enjoyed it but he did need a break. if he got one more elbow to the stomach, he was pretty sure he was going to explode in a fit of rage. the open space to just people watch without fighting for this life.

it was a nice little reprieve.

"are you going to film one?" the sudden question had tae cocking his head to the side, glancing at one of his friends who pointed to the others. "ah, the challenge? i didn't plan on it.." it wasn't as if he used social media a lot anyways, he had a few pictures up and would post clips of his music but he wasn't on the app everyday. so, it hadn't crossed his mind to do the challenge. "i do-" before he could finish his sentence, a phone was being shoved into his hands. "you can do that right?" tae turned his gaze back to the phone, watching the small clip through as he scrolled through the rest.

it wasn't hard.

"you should do it." the phone was taken from his hands. "you never know, you might get discovered." that was true. it hadn't taken much to convince him and he took a few seconds to learn the relatively short moves. once he had down, tae picked a somewhat free spot. enough that he wouldn't bother people but there was a good glimpse of the festival.

"ah, when i'm doing it, use the water guns…just don't hit my face." he thought it'd be a cool effect, it was on theme.

he did a few practice takes, finally ready to film the final version. there was no need to be this serious but tae was committed to the bit. his eyes were focused on the camera and he couldn't help the laugh that came out when he was hit with the water. still, tae pushed through, holding the final pose for a bit before he got the clear that everything was recorded.

"and considered it uploaded, you can thank me when you become a trainee."

"or i could fight you when i don't."

#;; solo #be:waterbomb2024 #404 wc

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tcub123 · 7 months

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A Few More Things about Andras

"Please, please please don't reject the mating bond. I will step back. You will never have to see me again."

"Why?"

"I will still have my ma, and Tam in this life. I don't wanna end up insane. It'd break their hearts."

===

"Wow, this Autumn princeling seems like a really cool guy. Tam's been spending a lotta time with him."

"That doesn't mean we'll stop being friends."

"I know, Tam. I know. I'm always here when you need me."

===

"It doesn't matter, Ma."

"Andras. I'm your mother. I really worry about you. You stopped talking to the High Lord, and now you even withdraw from your sentry corps? Didn't you say you always wanted to become a Captain?"

"Ma, I told you. Tamlin is fine. He has someone better now.

Besides, Captain of the Sentry has a nice ring to it but... like I said, it doesn't matter anymore. The Court is fine, after all."

===

"I'm not sending anymore sentry."

"I'll go."

"No, Andras."

"I said I'll go. I know how to find them."

"I said NO."

"Do you want this to be how it ends?!

For our friends' sacrifice to be in vain?!"

"Tam. If you ever choose to have faith in me, this is it. This is how we will begin to break the curse.

I'm with you. Even if I have to pay with my life, I'll do it just to do right by you for once."

"If I send you out, if you succeed... what will become of your mother? Have you considered what she will think?"

"...She of course has the right to know. You can break the news to her once you have sorted out this mess.

For the record, I already told her that I'm back on my sentry duty and currently, I should be approaching the border of Summer to assume my post."

"I have to go. She's all I have left, Tam. My only family.

If you don't break the curse, she'll have to go Under The Mountain with the rest of our people. And I can't protect her there.

I'll never get to repay the sacrifice she made to let me walk in this world. Not even this will be enough, but it's the closest thing I have to an opportunity.

It's my only chance to finally be something good that happens to her."

#life of andras #tcub blurb #acotar fanfiction

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ask-the-crimson-king · 1 year

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Music Shill of the Day: Bloodlines by Pyramaze

NEW PYRAMAZE LADS! I'll be going over my thoughts on each song + an album final thoughts at the end.

Rating system as per usual: 10: PERFECTION, zero complaints, best song. 5: Average. Whelming. Nothing to write home about. 1: Awful. Why did they make this?

Due to not wanting this post to be longer than it already will be, I'll only be including embedded videos for the top 3; I have a link for the various platforms you can stream the album in full here.

WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, we begin with...

BLOODLINES: 7/10

Similar to Disciples of the Sun and Epitaph, this album opens with a completely instrumental track. I will say, I do like this track, it sounds very nice and, after having gone through the album a few times, it does encompass a lot of the emotional themes that are present for the album as a whole. It definitely has a cinematic feel, almost something like Two Steps From Hell, but without the massive orchestral sound to it. It's a very pleasant track to listen to, the ethereal singing in the background meshes perfectly with the building instrumental elements. The inclusion of guitar is also very welcomed and not to jarring.

The only thing I wish this track did was have a bit more of a lead-in to the next song, but instead it ends off as it's own piece and I can definitely appreciate that. It breaks a bit of a trend I've been seeing in the musical spheres I've occupied -- see Gloryhammer, Kamelot, or arguably even Pyramaze's last album Epitaph. So for that it's definitely got my respect and I do enjoy the track.

2. TAKING WHAT'S MINE: 9/10

youtube

BANGER. Banger. Banger.

This song definitely has a more pop-ish influence on it but it's genuinely good despite that. It still definitely feels like a grounded and wonderful symphonic metal track. The guitars still carry this very heavy feel even while the instrumental elements give the piece a bit of a lighter tone throughout.

The vocals are fantastic, and they don't feel as though they're the only reason you're listening to the song. They fit well with the rest of the track, they're not too loud nor too quiet, it's perfectly balanced.

The symphonic break at about 3 minutes in? While it's short (literally only a few seconds), I LOVE it to pieces. The piano and strings highlight the sort of triumphant and yet melancholic feel that permeates through the song. It's very good.

Song good. My only complaint is that the song feels kinda shortened somehow? I'm not entirely sure why, but it feels like it could definitely have tacked on another minute and sounded a bit more complete.

3. FORTRESS: 8.5/10

youtube

Another banger, and if I remember correctly this was their second single for the record. And MAN did it get me hyped for this album.

It's music video has a sea-faring feel to it which is... genuinely interesting. I don't know why they went in that direction (there might be an interview somewhere with the lads to explain why that I haven't seen) and lyrically I don't really connect it to a story about an old lighthouse keeper, but it's still cool, and the instrumentals do reflect this. There's a few elements of a more sea-like ambience scattered throughout.

Despite the lyrics kinda being at odds with the narrative they told through their music video, this song is still really great. I loved it since it first dropped. It's definitely leaning a bit more heavily on its symphonic bits than Taking What's Mine, as the guitar sometimes does get a bit overshadowed and outshone by them, but I don't think this is a bad aspect. I do enjoy me some nice symphonic in my symphonic metal, after all. But that would be one of my few nitpicks. There is a bit also where there could have been a solo or something but with how the guitars are handled in general I do think it'd clash a bit too harshly with the song.

Still, Fortress good. Has been for a minute. Still is.

4. BROKEN ARROW: 6/10

This was their FIRST single off this new record, and it's good. This has a similar feel to it in terms of how the instrumentals are handled; there's a lot more emphasis on the symphonic parts and I feel like the keyboard shines a bit more in the song here. The guitars mainly are here to carry rhythm then stand out on their own.

It's good, it's catchy, it's nice. Nothing to really write home about.

5. EVEN IF YOU'RE GONE: 7/10

DAMN this feels like Particle 2. And I really loved Particle off Epitaph, so I enjoy this. The keyboard hard CARRIES this song, it's beautiful and soft and sits right behind the vocals and it's wonderful. Again, this is not a song you're coming to for the guitars; they're here, but more for rhythm. It's partially why I call it Particle 2.

The vocals are also very good and very nice. The variance is nice, and the lyrics are... Something. I can't tell if this is a pining song or if this is borderline "I love someone who committed suicide" or potentially a strange "I want someone even though they didn't want me". To show what I mean, take some lyrics:

Lost in the fire Burning my skin like you warned me Breaking the walls you build to avoid all the pain outside

Will you finally be my destiny?

I see the light here I know that you don't But I wanna be the one you really want Through the nightmares we're chasing the dawn I'll be fighting for you even if you're gone Even if you're gone

[. . .]

Save me from myself I try to let go Take my pain away Away Save me from myself I can't breathe

It's kinda back and forth, which is neat cause it means there's a few different ways these lyrics can be interpreted. But overall, the song is still good.

6. ALLIANCE: 5/10

I'm gonna be honest, I'm not a ballad guy. The song is objectively good, but it's not for me. Here is probably the objectively best piano on the album, and the duet with Melissa Bonny is very nice. The vocals are good, the instrumentals are good, the song is fine. It kinda feels like Under Grey Skies by Kamelot. Kinda.

It's not a bad song, but it's just not what I enjoy too much.

7. THE MIDNIGHT SUN: 9.5/10

youtube

And we're RIGHT BACK into the action again with the Midnight Sun. WHAT A BANGER of a song, and what a wake-up call from Alliance. The guitars are BACK, they're at the forefront again and every element of the band is absolutely on display. Where the mid was a bit muddled through with a LOT of symphonic stuff taking a bit of center stage, now we got a bit of a more metal feel.

This song is still along the lines of a ballad in terms of the vocals, which is contrasted by some of the heavier riffs accompanying them in the best way possible. There's plenty of places for the guitars to shine, the piano is still easily heard in the back even with the symphonic elements around it. Song is GOOD.

The lyrical content is also low key trans coded, happy pride. Mainly this bit:

I was the son you never had But how come everything turned bad? After the rain had washed your sorrows away You took a new position Without my permission

[. . .]

Look at the ways of the world now It's a race of alarming it somehow And the further we get from the truth The sacrifice of innocent youths

Are we all but puppets at dance? A bittersweet, egotistical romance Built upon the remainders of trash Self-imploding as we crash

Am I absolutely inserting meaning here that doesn't exist? Yes. However. I am trans and this is my agenda.

Happy pride lads. Excellent song.

8. STOP THE BLEEDING: 8/10

The entirety of the back half of this album is definitely softer and more melodic feeling in contrast to the first, and it's a good thing. It makes for a very pleasant listening experience. Stop the Bleeding is a bit slower and less punchy than Midnight Sun, but I still rate it very highly.

While the guitars throughout most of the song are back to being a backbone rather than more of their own beast, there is a nice solo that lets them shine a bit more, which is nice. The instrumentals here are way more symphonic and orchestral in sound; there's a lot of very evident strings in the back, and the piano is still there highlighting the song. The vocals take a bit of the center stage during the verses but for the chorus, especially the last one? It all blends together beautifully. It's wonderful. Very good.

I compare this to Taking What's Mine and I say that this almost has the feel of that song but if it were allowed that extra minute. It's a very nice listening experience, and a good song in general.

9. THE MYSTERY: 7/10

I never thought I'd say a song is "adorable" but this song is legitimately adorable. It has a feel of whimsy throughout and it's a very delightful and joyous song. The lyrical content concerns our narrator just wondering about the worlds beyond Earth in the stars, wondering about what they may see, and wondering about the big "mystery".

The big "mystery", of course, is why humanity is here. What the purpose of life is. For a song tackling such a subject, I love that it feels so... I hesitate to say childlike, but it is a fitting descriptor. It's bright, where many other songs I've heard that tackles this existential question are usually very somber or reflective or even melancholic in sound. It's refreshing and it's inspiring. It's a very nice song.

10. WOLVES OF THE SEA: 7.5/10

ROUNDING IT OFF WITH ANOTHER INSTRUMENTAL PIECE. Which was a little surprising on a first listen through.

This piece is a HARD contrast to The Mystery, where it takes on the more solemn tones found everywhere in the album. This is also definitely more Two Steps from Hell than Bloodlines is, and it's good for it. Because while it definitely has that more drab and melancholic feel at the beginning, it does transition into this more hopeful and inspiring sound. It generally basically feels like all the musical themes of the album are brought together and rounded out in a really good orchestral track.

There's a couple of small leitmotifs sprinkled within to make it that much more whole and complete. It's a very nice way to end off the album.

OVERALL FEELINGS:

Bloodlines is a great album. It feels like it has something for everyone who is into the more proggy/symphonic side of metal. If you enjoyed Epitaph and Disciples of the Sun, you'll probably like this album too. It's very enjoyable to listen to and it's pretty short, only clocking in at 44 minutes. It's very good, and if you've never heard Pyramaze before, PLEASE check them out.

I will say, I do think I enjoy Epitaph just a bit more, purely due to The Time Traveller, Particle, and its title track, Epitaph. But this album is still not a bad introduction for newcomers, and it's a good new step in their catalog.

#pyramaze #music shill of the day #bloodlines #Youtube

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