#mentions of Christopher

[mythtakens]

favorite Buck and Christopher scenes (requested by anon)

[tvuniverse]

EVAN BUCKLEY WEEK 2024 Day 3: Buck + favorite near death experience (x,x)

[ex0rin]

LOWER DECKS S04E01: Twovix +bonus (Pike thing in question):

[noonaracha]

oopsie 8/∞

[starlightseraph]

“he’s literally me”

no, he’s literally a scrawny middle-aged white man and probably british.

[ncwhereman]

if brian played himself in a hard day’s night

[ssturniolo]

hii first ilysm and your stories :))

so I have an idea with Chris and the reader (they are dating in the story), the reader has problems eating but doesn't want to show it to anyone so as not to worry them so she lies about it. saying that she has already eaten or that she is not hungry, one day while she was at the triplets' house she went down to Chris's room to change but she did not know that Chris had followed her and when she takes off her sweater and her jogging pants, chris is very worried when he sees that the reader has lost a lot of his weight. I know that it's not an easy subject so you don't have to write it, it's just a proposal

Unconditionally loved

𝔭𝔞𝔦𝔯𝔦𝔫𝔤 - Chris sturniolo x fem!reader

𝔰𝔲𝔪𝔪𝔞𝔯𝔶 - request <3 (it’s a little different I hope that’s ok)

𝔴𝔞𝔯𝔫𝔦𝔫𝔤𝔰 - eating disorder, use of y/n, crying, I think that’s it??

I follow the delicious scent of my favorite food down to the triplets kitchen, smiling to myself as I watch Chris and Nick put it into 4 separate bowls.

“Hi baby” Chris smiles, trotting over to wrap me in a hug. “I made us chicken Alfredo,” he says proudly.

“Don’t worry it’s edible, all he did was boil the water,” Nick smirks, handing me one of the bowls.

I laugh lightly as Chris rolls his eyes, walking with me to the couch. I set the bowl onto the coffee table, eyeing it longingly. It smells heavenly but I had a full banana this morning so even though my stomach is rumbling, and every part of my body wants this food, I know I can’t.

Instead, I snuggle into Chris’s side, watching him enjoy his meal.

***

I wake up still on the couch, Chris asleep at my side. I quietly stand, taking my now-cold bowl of chicken Alfredo to the kitchen, dumping it into the garbage before setting the bowl in the sink.

I return to the living room as Chris stirs awake.

“Hey baby” he smiles, opening his arms for me to crawl into. I do so, nuzzling my nose into his neck as he runs a hand through my hair.

“Wanna go back to the bed? I don’t wanna sleep on the couch tonight,” Chris says after a few moments of silence.

“Mhm” I hum into his neck, waiting a few seconds before pushing myself off of him.

“I’m gonna put my bowl away then meet you there, ok?” Chris says as he turns the tv off.

“Alright.”

I make my way to his room, leaving his door cracked open behind me. I pull out a pair of pj pants and a hoodie from Chris’s closet, laying them out on the bed. I remove my sweatshirt, not noticing Chris enter the room.

“Y/n?” Chris’s concerned voice cuts through the air as I spin around. His eyes are trained on my ribs that are poking through my skin at an unhealthy level. The way my stomach is less than half its original size is easy to hide under baggy clothes but under his hot gaze, I feel like shriveling up and dying. He wasn’t supposed to see me like this.

“Baby are you ok?” Chris takes a step closer as I take a step back, my eyes brimming with tears.

“I saw your food in the trash. Have you not been eating?” He questions again, knowing the answer.

I say nothing, burying my face in my hands as I erupt into sobs. Chris rushes over, to which I do not step away this time. He brings us to sit at the edge of his bed, cradling my shaking body in his warm embrace.

“It’s ok… you’re ok” he whispers sweet nothings into my ear until I’ve calmed down enough to form coherent sentences.

“I-I lied a lot about already eating or not being hungry. I’m so sorry” I sniffle, my cheek pressed against Chris’s tear-soaked t-shirt.

“No need to be sorry my love. I just wish you would have talked to me before it became a severe issue.” Chris replies, rubbing my back soothingly.

“I just didn’t want to worry you,” I mumble, realizing how stupid that now sounds.

“I know I know. All that matters is getting you the help you need now, yeah?”

I just nod my head against him, blinking away fresh tears. I know I need the help I just never knew how to go about it. Especially since no one but me knew about my bad eating habits.

Chris lifts my chin, forcing me to look into his eyes.

“I’m scared Chris.”

“And I’m going to be here with you through it all. I always will. We face problems together from now on, ok?”

“Ok.” I repeat, giving him my word.

Taking this on is so much less scary with Chris at my side, loving me unconditionally.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Unfortunately, eating disorders are increasingly common amongst people, particularly younger females. If ANY of you need to talk, my dms are always open. I love you guys <3

XOXO - Zoe

Taglist ⬇️

@dwntwn-strnlo @mbbsgf @gabbylovesreading @0-r-a-y-0 @sturn3g1rl @lvrsparadise @taylorssfilmsss @emssturniolo @ilovemattsturn @mattestrella @itsaaliyah2 @thetriplets3 @urfavstromboli

[ansonmountdaily]

Strange New Worlds cast about the Vulcan episode in upcoming Season 3

At a Star Trek: Las Vegas convention panel, Strange New Worlds cast members teased the Vulcan episode in Season 3 - August 4 2024.

Anson Mount, Christina Chong, Celia Rose Gooding, Rebecca Romijn, Jess Bush, Babs Olusanmokun, Melissa Navia and Ethan Peck are all very excited about the special episode (which is episode 8, see official teaser clip). Celia Rose Gooding said they can't wait for the ep to come out, so they can post all the behind the scenes shots of them doubled over laughing. Jess Bush said it was a fight to not laugh in the episode every single day!

Carol Kane (Pelia), Bruce Horak (Hemmer), Melanie Scrofano (Captain Marie Batel) and Dan Jeannotte (George Samuel Kirk) were also present at the panel!

Source: backofthehead Instagram clip

[mischiefbuckley]

“Steve, so you find out the hot new firefighter is a single dad whose son has cerebral palsy and he loves that kid with all his heart and is raising him all by himself with the help of his abuela and tia and he moved away from his parents house and you wouldn’t go out of your way to help him get help for his son as he is struggling? Also in the process you start coparenting the amazing kid with him”

[hearts4werka]

Hot Tub Fun

Summary: You’re at a party, feeling confident in the outfit you’ve picked and you’re having a good time and think that nothing can ruin your night but then when you go to the bathroom you see your toxic boyfriend with your best friend. You run to Matt and he helps you with the newly break up in his new hot tub… Genre: ANGST & SMUTT, cheater bf (fuck him), party setting, toxic relationship, hot-tub smut, comforting, under the influence, friends with benefits? Warnings: swearing, cheating ( do not stand by it ), mentions of alcohol consumption along with drugs, toxic relationship, SMUT, use of pet names ( sweetheart, good girl ) unprotected sex ( bitch wrap that little pickle up ) , p in v, fingering, cowgirl, d riding, teasing, characters being slightly under the influence, aggressive kissing, smutty time in a hot tub, slight dirty talk

I was carefully applying my eye liner in the dimly lit bathroom, trying not to fuck up for the hundredth time now as suddenly someone decided to enter the bathroom.

It’s Matt standing in the doorway all dressed up and ready to go, rushing me to be quicker or we’ll be the last ones to arrive to the party one of our friends are hosting, Chris and Nick already went but I needed more time to get ready so Matt stayed with me and decided to wait.

“Scarlet, hurry the fuck up or I’m going without you” He says with slight warning in his tone but very evident annoyance, leaning against the doorframe to my small bathroom we currently reside in together.

“Jesus, I'm almost done. Have some patience for once.” I say, glancing at him and back at the mirror and continuing to apply my eye liner with precision.

“How can I have any patience left when you’ve been getting ready for a goddamn hour already.” I hear him slightly raise his voice, tapping his foot on the ground impatiently now.

I decide to not anger him further so I just drop the eyeliner into my makeup bag and put my hands up in mocking surrender.

“God, fine! I’m done now, you happy?” I say slightly annoyed at his impatience, turning my head to look at him standing in the doorway with his tall frame, his head almost hitting the top of the frame, would be funny if it actually did.

“Yes, now get your ass into the car.” He demands and motions for me to walk past him while moving out of the doorway, before I actually do what hes demanding me to do I do one last look into the mirror, making sure I look on how I intented on looking which is to look like the bad bitch that I am. ( outfit here )

| - 🍂 - |

We're in the car, driving to the party as Matt gives me a lecture to not get too fucked up nor black out drunk. I just listen, nod and shake my head at whatever he's saying and not really paying attention to the words currently leaving his mouth instead, I gaze outside of the window at the streetlamps illluminating the streets

"Do you understand me, Scarlet?" He asks after his small rant and glances over at me from the road, I nod my head again and keep not paying attention to him but my gaze is ripped away from the window view outside as he speaks again with more warning dripping from his voice.

"Don't just nod your head, use the words you like to use so often" Those words catch me off guard and my ears listen into the tone of his voice, my eyes finding their way to his face.

"Yeah I understand, Matt. I'm not five years old"

"You sure act like one sometimes" He mumbles under his breath which delivers him a soft punch on the arm from me, getting a little chuckle from him at how non-impactfull the punch was to his arm.

"Oh shut up"

And on that note, we finally arrive at our destination. Matt parking the car in the driveway among other cars, some look luxurious and some the polar opposite but here no one cares what you drive, you came here to have fun and not to slump about who drives what kind of car.

Me and Matt enter the party and our ears are Immediately assaulted by the loud music blasting through the speakers, my friend Tania as soon as she sees me she comes up to me while Matt excuses himself and goes to have a drink at the bar which I assume is because Chris or Nick is at the bar.

We both excitedly hug each other and when she grabs a hold of my hand she basically drags me to the dance floor once a song she likes comes up and we start dancing together, moving our bodies to the beat of the music.

As I sway my hips from side to side while the song keeps blasting from the speakers I feel Matt's eyes tracking my every move from the bar but I don't care and keep dancing, I'm gonna have a good night tonight and no one will ruin it for me.

| - 🍂 - |

After a few drinks and a molly with Tania, Matt and Chris that also joined us on the dance floor now, dancing to Pitbull songs blasting from the speakers I feel a need to take a quick piss.

"Hey, do you guys know where the bathroom is?" I ask trying to talk over the music, glancing between the d group dancing group. Tania doesnt even hear the question over the music including Chris who are gracefully taken over the curent song.

"It’s just down the hall to the left. last door." Matt finally answers my question, I give him a polite nod saying a small 'thank you' non-verbally as I go towards the hall to the bathroom.

I suddenly realize I haven't seen my boyfriend anywhere nor my best friend, shrugging my shoulders at the thought, ill go search for them later after I'm done with my bathroom break. Reaching for the door I attempt to open the door but its locked, I hear my boyfriends voice call out from behind the door but there seems to be something against it.

"Who's there?”

"What are you doing in there?' I say so he hears me from behind the door, I hear slight whispering in there and a feminine voice but just assume I'm hearing something from somewhere else.

"Wait a minute" He replies, hearing slight commotion behind the door my senses become heightened and I try to hear whats happening behind the door.

"The fuck are you doing in there? are you with someone?" I slightly raise my voice annoyingly hes taking up more time then he should be, I start twisting and shaking the door knob to try and pry it open but something seems to be holding it in place.

"Wait a goddamn minute! I'm...um shitting!" My brows furrow at his obvious lie, why is he lying to me right now? and why do I keep hearing female fucking whispering in there?

"Open the fucking door, Kyle!"

More commotion and whispers are heard on the other side before the door finally opens and Kyle steps out of the bathroom, looking down at me and moving out of the way for me to go into the bathroom. He doesnt say a word and just glares at me as he walks away into the crowd of people on the dance floor, I simply roll my eyes and enter the bathroom.

Walking over to the toilet I hike up my dress and oull down my panties to sit down on the toilet seat, taking care of my business. when I'm done I reach out for the toilet paper and realize It's not there, I glance around the bathroom for any toilet paper and none is found. Cursing under my breath I see a small towel next to the bathtub civered with a simple curtain.

I quickly walk over to it and snatch it off the holder, when I sit back down on the toilet seat I could have sworn I heard shaky and nervous breaths. After I wipe my ass I pull my panties back up and my dress down to cover what it can of my ass.

Ripping open the curtain I see my best friend hidding in the bathtub with what looks like guilty tears falling down her face, I look at her confused before I start to connect the dots. All of the moving and the whispering when Kyle what in here...

"What the fuck are you doing in here, Kiara?" I question, waiting for her to start to maybe explain what hes doing hiding in the bathroom even though I already connected the dots.

She picks herself up and sits up, guilt and nervousness written all over her face. "Scarlet I swear its n-not what you think..." she starts and stumbles over her shaky words before continuing "Please don’t hate me for this..." I huff at her small plea, looking at her and feeling betrayed.

"Since when was this?"

"what do you me-"

"I asked since fucking when was this, Kiara!" I yell, expecting a better explanation than her acting clueless when she knows damn well what I’m talking about.

“It- it started a few weeks ago after your birthday party.” she admitted and my heart shatters , my mind starts to go into a whirlwind but I calm it down as slight anger washes over me.

“You dumb, fucking bitch! How could you do this to me?” I yell once again, this time feeling hurt and betrayed. How could she? I’m mentally getting ready since this might take quite a violent turn.

When she notices my state, she bolts out of the bathroom and I just let her run away. I sit on the edge of the bathroom and just let te feeling of being hurt as well as betrayal mix together inside of me.

I need to find Matt so he’ll get me out of here.

Picking myself up from the bathtub I also exit the bathroom, scanning the area surrounding me I find Matt at the spot he obviously would be in. At the bar.

Speed walking to him and as soon as I get a grip on his hand he’s being dragged away from whatever conversation he was having with whoever but I didn’t care anyway.

When I get him into a quiet corner I turn to look at him and I can see he noticed my distressed state under my tough and confident demeanor.

“Woah, calm down there. What happened?” He asks in an almost calming way, taking a small step closer to me and his tall frame towering over me which sends a shiver down my spine.

“Kyle cheated on me with Kiara, that’s what happened” I simply admit through the lump in my throat, my hands immediately finding their way around Matt and hugging him tightly.

Matt returns the hug as equally warm, rubbing soothing circles on my back and I melt into the embrace. Holding in my tears so my makeup doesn’t smear all over my face.

"You want me to take you home?" He says as he pulls me away from his chest and seeing the hurt and betrayal written all over my face. I shake my head positively and he wraps an arm across my shoulders and walks me through the crowd and to the exit.

This feels like an ultimate betrayal out of a movie or show, I cant believe the two people the closest to made crossed me over so brutally. Tears prick my eyes and they become glassy by the time we make it to the car and when Matt turns to look at me he notices.

"...why would they do that to me?" I murmur under my breath as Matt takes a step closer to me, looking down at me with sorrow and empathy, placing a soothing hand on my shoulder.

"Dont worry about them, lets get you home now" He says and opens the passenger door for me, letting me get inside of the car before he eaks around and sits in the drivers seat.

| - 🍂 - |

The drive to his place was quiet with unusual and unexpected tension occupying the air around us, he gets out of the car and walks around to open the door for me.

I follow behind him and step out of the car as he closes the car door and we make our way to the front door, his arm around my shoulder in a comforting way that made the pain slightly easier to bare with.

“Do you want to relax?” He asks as he opens the front door and we enter the house, closing the door behind him.

“Yeah, anything to stop my mind from spinning” I state and drop down onto the couch in the living room, feeling the effect of both alcohol and drugs flowing through my system.

“You can relax in the hot tub if you want” He suggests, walking over and sitting down next to me. The triplets got a pretty spacious hot tub for their house recently and already made a party in it a few days ago.

“That might not be such a bad idea actually” I state and look over at him sitting next to me, always when he’s near me I feel a warm and almost soothing feeling wash over my body each time, sometimes I even feel slight attraction towards him.

“Let’s go then”

| - 🍂 - |

After getting changed into a bikini i didn’t realize i left behind after the hot tub party a few days ago so I just put that one, it was weirdly left in Matt’s room for some reason but decided to not question it to not come off as nosy.

Grabbing a towel Matt lended me I make my way downstairs and outside where the hot tub is located, I asked Matt to join me since I didn’t want to go alone and just sit in silence so by the time I was downstairs he was already relaxing in the hot water of the hot tub.

I put down my towel nearby the tub and walk over to the tub, feeling Matts gaze run up and down my body taking in the sight of me in the bikini. Slowly entering the hot tub I let the hot water coat my skin and I let my body relax and as I’m about to sit down he suddenly grabs my waist and pulls me down onto his lap, making me straddle his hips with my legs each on the opposite sides.

A surprised look casts over my features as my head subconsciously tilts to the side in confusion but then I remember where I found my bikini which was located in his room.

“Matt, what are you do-?” As I try to finish my sentence he cuts me off by smashing his lips on mine, kissing me with slight aggression which makes a burning sensation create between my thighs as I try to squeeze them together but Matts knee is already keeping them open which causes me to let out a soft whimper into the aggressive kiss.

Hearing the noise leave my mouth he presses his knee against my core letting more noises escape past my lips and into his mouth like he’s feeding off of them, demanding more. My hips rock against his knee, my body desperate for any kind of friction but his hand grabs my waist and pushes me down onto his knee, making my movements stop.

“Don’t worry, sweetheart. I’m just here to comfort you…” He says in a suggestive tone, sounding sweet yet teasing at the same time. Matts others hand was moving up and down my sides before landing onto my thigh and squeezing it, putting his hand teasingly close to where I need him the most.

“Matt, stop teasing me like this” I state as desperation slips through my words and into the tone of my voice, my slight drunken state makes me not to think about my actions and right now is a prime example of that happening.

“Someone’s desperate for me, hm?” He asks, already knowing the answer to his little teasing question. God I don’t know how long I can take his teasing.

“Why ask dumb questions you already know the answer for?” I tease back but that desperation still evident in my tone but I try to shove it under the teasing but my traitorous body makes me fail miserably as the pleasurable sensation grows between my legs.

“Oh my, are you talking back to me?” He opined, releasing me from his grip on my waist holding me down on his knee and slides his hand now between my thighs, pulling my bikini bottoms to the side and pressing down on my clit with his thumb as one of his fingers enters my wet folds making a soft moan slip past my lips.

“What do you want, sweetheart?” His voice drips off mischief and small drops of lust, he slides in another finger inside and starts to pump them in and out of me causing me to let out a desperate whimper instead of words.

“I need you, Matt please…” My voice becomes more desperate and whiny as he increases his fingers pace, making me subconsciously rock my hips against his fingers for more friction as I clench around them and feel myself getting close to trip over the edge.

As I’m about to finish, he suddenly stops his movements and removes his fingers. A whine leaves me at the loss as he leans down and whispers into my ear teasingly.

“Oh you’re not gonna cum on my fingers, sweetheart. What we’re gonna do is you’ll slowly slide down onto my cock and then I might consider letting you finish…”

The erotic words leaving his mouth in such lust whisper makes me clench on nothing, his hand goes under the water and hooks his fingers on the band of my bikini bottoms and slides them down and tapping the side of my hip, signaling for me to lift them for him to remove my underwear and I oblige with his order.

He resurfaces his hand but now dangling my bottoms before placing them behind him, his hand submerges back into the water and sliding off his own swimming trunks. Taking them out from under the water and making them join mine behind him.

Placing his hands on my hips and guides me down into his cock, sliding it through my folds and erupting a juicy moan from my mouth. My hands slide up onto his chest for support as I lift my hips up and down, my head being thrown back as more noises come past my lips.

Noises of his own start to come out of his mouth, only fueling me to move my hips faster as his fingers dig into the skin of my hips.

“Just like that… ride my cock like the good girl you are” His voice comes out almost breathless as my movements speed up and become sloppier when a feeling of becoming closer to the edge I so desperately want to be pushed over.

I start to become even more desperate, moving my hips from side to side to throw myself over the edge but then he whispers into my ear again.

“Fuck, you feel so good wrapped around my cock so nicely”

His words once again make me clench but now around his dick as I continue to ride him and desperately to finally finish and I can see he is becoming close to the edge as well.

With a violent thrust of his hips, burying himself deep inside of me before he paints my insides with his release and I follow behind him and the mixture of our releases start to spill out of my thirty hole as he removes his dick out of it.

A soft string of delightful curses leave both of our mouths as we ride out our orgasms together, I slump onto his lap and bury my face into the crook of his neck., feeling sensitive after the high just came down of.

He chuckles as he wraps alarm around my waist and pull me into his chest, enveloping me in a sweet embrace.

“Let’s get you washed up and placed into bed, hm?”

“Can we watch a movie together though?”

“Of course, sweetheart”

@hearts4werka

authors note: This fic was heavily inspired by the show ‘Euphoria’ and if you haven’t watched it yet (somehow) then you should for sure watch it if you love angsty and problematic teenager. I gave it my own little twist and I hope you guys enjoyed it!

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[etapereine]

helmet pat pat pat

[politicalprocrastinator]

Christopher Eccleston did not kiss a man on the lips for you bitches to say that the doctor used to be straight

[canmom]

music and narrative {[0]}

so. as part of the ongoing music researches, I've for a while wanted about the relation between music and narrative. that's going to be a long project! but to begin with I wanted to run down the examples I know, and maybe solicit a few more~

now, on some level, nearly any song has some degree of narrative. your basic love song introduces us to some characters - singer, object of their affection - and furnishes them with emotions and desires. moreover, music can play a role in a narrative without literally relating events - indeed, the art of soundtrack design is definitely a subject I want to look into at some point. even songs addressed directly at the real world, such as political songs, construct some kind of narrative.

however, for these purposes, I'm interested in songs that go a bit further in the direction of telling a fictional story, especially when those link together into whole albums (sometimes called a concept album, though this is a slightly broader concept). which can work in a lot of ways!

for example, Janelle Monae's The ArchAndroid tells a sweeping scifi story of an android fleeing an oppressive society and becoming an unintentional figurehead of revolution. it sketches out a wide-reaching set of influences in constructing a scifi world, but you'd be hard-pressed to boil it down into a simple series of events - it prefers to leave a lot to interpretation. by contrast something like Splendor & Misery by clipping. deals with kinda similar subject matter - a scifi story, an escaped slave, artificial intelligence - but with a different musical approach and perhaps a slightly clearer narrative arc; sometimes directly narrating the thoughts and actions of characters, or slipping into memory, but also drawing less direct musical parallels with e.g. gospel tracks and slave spirituals. both excellent albums - both solve the problems of conveying a story musically in different ways.

of course, the largest pool of examples here comes in the context of musical theatre, and further back opera. (the exact transition from one to the other is something I'm going to need to research). particularly interesting to me are sung-through musicals such as Les Misérables, in which there's no spoken sections in between the songs. this restriction means the songs (and staging etc.) have to do all the work of conveying the events of the story.

there's a lot to be said about the various traditions of musicals (for example). there's even more to be said about the history of opera - both the Western traditions and other musical traditions that have been given the label such as Chinese opera. but that will have to wait for later day in the project because otherwise this entire post would be a huge list of musicals, and I want to try and wander all over the shop.

what I'm most curious to find is music that tells a story all on its own - no actors or staging, but more similar to oral narration. of course, in the present era, music is often released along with videos, and these can tell quite elaborate stories that will become part of the overall 'message' communicated by the song, so the lines are a bit blurry! but since the aim of this series will be to look for ways to convey narrative using music, I'm looking for examples where the music does most of the heavy lifting.

music that tells stories is something with a looong tradition in folk music, pretty much the world over. in Europe, the ballad was a common form for it, a word that survives into the present. it seems that most cultures have had some kind of tradition of wandering itinerant musician-poets - for example, at various points in history, there were biwa hōshi in Japan (pictured) and griots in West Africa, medieval Europeans had minstrels, the Celts had bards, the Occitans had troubadors...

moreover, work and marching songs such as sea shanties would also have a certain degree of narrative to them, in addition to their main function of keeping a group moving in time.

in modern times, people will sometimes attempt to reconstruct how this kind of music and lyric poetry would have been performed. you can naturally only go so far with the archaeological evidence, but I'm fond of Peter Pringle's recordings of segments of the Epic of Gilgamesh, using period instruments if not necessarily a period musical style!

in the modern age of recorded music, these traditions have become much more niche, but there are still artists who use music as a vehicle to tell a fictional narrative. (fair warning: I'm a huge nerd, so most of the examples I know are like, supreme nerd shit. also about ten years ago I was given an assortment of metal from a friend which included a bunch of what I'm about to put below.)

to begin with I've naturally got to talk about my friend Maki Yamazaki (Dr Carmilla) and the band she founded but later left, The Mechanisms. They tell a story of a sprawling gothic scifi universe, with the band playing the role of travelling space pirates who observe the (invariably tragic) tales that unfold. The Mechanisms' music starts as folk song pastiche, but gradually gets more original, although narratively they keep the approach of crossing over mythology with genre storytelling (fairy tales as space opera, arthuriana as space western).

The Mechanisms got a significant measure of international fame washing back after their frontman Johnny Sims got really big on some podcast or something.

Maki's solo music as Dr Carmilla took things in (from a narrative sense) a more abstract direction, using elaborate production and an incredibly textured sound to tell a (so far!) fragmentary story of the tragic space vampire Dr Carmilla and her doomed relationship with another vampire Lorelei (for example). And I'm gonna have lots more to say about them all, in the future, but this is just an overview so let's not get ahead of ourselves!

In a related vein (though I'm much less familiar with them) comes indie band Decemberists, who often create narratively driven songs - for example, The Mariner's Revenge Song depicts a sailor's motivation for extracting bloody revenge on someone who wronged him, with the actual violence conveyed by an energetic instrumental break. A subject that reminds me of the Clockwork Quartet, now long gone, who managed to record just three of their songs from a larger project, yet stand out as way more interesting than most of the steampunk milieu - with for example The Clockmaker's Apprentice giving a very fun antihero-revenge narrative to the ticking beat of a clock, and The Doctor's Wife a compelling tragedy of desperate medical science.

There's definitely something in common with this type of storytelling and the subgenre termed rock opera, which has a pretty long history going back to the late 60s (SF Sorrow by Pretty Things and The Story of Simon Simopath by Nirvana, thanks wikipedia), with notable examples including some incredibly popular albums like Pink Floyd's The Wall (which was adapted into a partly animated film using animations by Gerard Scarfe, c.f AN86) and My Chemical Romance's The Black Parade. In many of these, the connection between songs and narrative is fairly abstract and metaphorical - most of the examples mentioned are about the psychological arc of one character.

Calling this a genre or subgenre is kind of a stretch recently - just in those four examples we see a pretty wide range of musical styles, so it's more like an approach to album writing. Still, for want of a better word, there's definite overlap between this 'genre' and musicals. For example, the history on wikipedia cites The Rocky Horror Picture Show as an example of rock opera, which in my head it's just a musical. (Anyway, exactly the taxonomy of regular opera/libretto, rock opera and musical theatre is not that important anyway, because we want to look at the techniques of all of them!)

A more direct narrative comes in the work of The Protomen, who have the 'no way that would work' premise of creating a huge, dramatic, emotional story based on the plot of the Mega Man games. By putting the focus on the tense relationships of the fought main characters (scientists Light and Wily and robot boys Proto Man and Mega Man), and their sense of rejection and betrayal by the broader society, they somehow pull it off.

Moving gradually in the direction of (progressive) metal, we encounter Ayreon, whose entire career has been telling psychedelic and occult stories of time travel, aliens, warnings projected into the past, out of body experiences, and the history and direction of humanity. I'm not sure if all of their albums fit together into one big story exactly, but certain ideas seem to keep coming up - for example, future societies or aliens sending warnings to humanity to fix our shit before it's too late. In some of their albums (e.g. The Electric Castle) they follow the device of having each member of the band play a character in an ensemble cast, bringing it a bit closer to something like a radio play.

Also in metal land we find the rather unique project Charlemagne: By The Sword and the Cross, best known for that time Christopher Lee shed the blood of the saxon men. This is using music as a vehicle for a (more or less) historical story, featuring an old Charlemagne (Lee) reminiscing on the various awful things he did over the course of his life. Apparently they made a sequel to this album, which I never realised!

As well as history, metal also likes to lean on literature and poetry. For example, Kamelot (classed, apparently, as 'Power Metal') have a rather fun adaptation of the story of Faust into two albums, Epica and The Black Halo. Iron Maiden famously took on the Rime of the Ancient Mariner in a 13 minute song. And that's not even to get into all the songs dealing with Tolkien.

Moving on from metal before we start listing a hundred songs about vikings, it's worth looking more broadly for music about history, since it's a pretty major overlap with fictional storytelling! For example, the Boney M song Rasputin tells an incredibly catchy account of the assassination of Grigori Rasputin. Another rather more charged example comes in Nakam by Daniel Kahn and the Painted Bird, about the unsuccessful paramilitary plot to poison six million Germans as revenge for the Holocaust.

If you go looking, you can find an impressively long list of historical songs compiled by 30 users of lyrics website Genius - though many of these I feel don't really count, since they were describing contemporary events when they were written.

Of course, there is a heavy overlap between this subject and political songs - in many cases the historical subjects are invoked to comment on the present. For example, Wernher von Braun by Tom Lehrer was written at a time when von Braun was leading the US space programme. In many cases, the songs simply invoke a historical event to express a feeling, assuming you already know what happened. Others may recount events more or less directly, before seguing into a verse or two at the end about why it matters now. Most of the songs in this list focus on recent (20th-century) history, sometimes they reach further back - mostly to talk about colonialism.

Historical songs can also be quite oblique. For example, Mili's song Salt, Pepper, Birds and the Thought Police is about the life of Korean poet Yoon Dong-ju, but you wouldn't necessarily know it from the content of the lyrics unless you were already familiar with Yoon's life. More on Mili in a moment - most of their songs are more fictional.

One thing I'm curious about is whether there are examples of more historical fiction in music, which tries to imagine the thoughts and feelings of historical characters... well obviously there's Hamilton, and perhaps that illustrates why there aren't a lot more songs about non-recent history, because the vibes can be off.

Storytelling is still a powerful mechanism even in a contemporary, political song. Take Construção by Chico Buarque - the story it tells is of the pointless death of a construction worker; with the lines ingeniously remixed over the course of the song, this turns into a wider illustration of the ruthlessness of the system that killed him. Its lyrics are absolutely fucking genius, even if you don't speak Portugese.

Speaking of language, most of the examples I've covered so far are in English, since well, that's my native language. It's naturally a little harder to access a story in a language you don't speak, but in these days of subtitles, we kinda can! So for example I can encounter projects like MILGRAM, something of a combination of music project and voting-driven story, in which we are introduced (by character song) to a number of characters facing execution - and then invited to vote on who should die. Heavily illustrated, it is somewhere vaguely in the space between album and straight-up anime.

I mentioned Mili already, but many of their other songs have a strong narrative arc to them, and sketch out the contours of a fictional setting. For example, one of their best-known songs is world.execute(me), which portrays the failure of a bdsm relationship between an AI girl and her creator. Which is relatively grounded by Mili standards - other songs depict for example the relationship of a jiangshi and a mad scientist cooking food, or a witch reanimating a knight with scientific methods to kill on her behalf.

And I think that will suffice for now. But we are of course only scratching the surface - this is by no means supposed to be an exhaustive list but I'm sure there's stuff that I'll be kicking myself for not mentioning. Mostly, however, this is a request for recommendations - particularly, of music from genres I haven't addressed in this post, and especially non-English languages, or that convey their stories in especially creative or unusual ways.

This project will likely be a long time in the works - it's something of a supplement to the Music Theory Notes (for science bitches) series - but my aim will be to pick out a few of these to examine how they go about conveying narrative through songs. Because I think that's kind of one of the big things I want to do with music.

ok canmom out i gotta go play some music. see you next time!

[naomullen]

Someone is going to graduate in two weeks, and I just got my thesis printed.

... and I still can't believe I was able to mention my favourite band! 🥹

(My crazy supervisor completely forgot about this chapter and didn't read it at all. That's actually positive because she didn't complain about it, like she did for the whole thesis)

Let me ramble about my thesis on the 10th of July like a certain Paul Landers would do ✨️

[ovrour]

IM SO LOST WITHOUT YOU⇢ CHRISTOPHER STURNIOLO

summary; y/n is put in the hospital after being drugged at a party. The whole time her bestfriend, Chris is by her side. Both of them knowing that she wasn’t going to make it. Chris admits how he feels for her in their last moment together.

Genre; heavy angst

cw; Mentions of being drugged, rape, and Death.

a/n: im sorry. guys, this shit is so sad like, i almost cried making this. please, if any of this triggers you, feel free to click off. im not offended. and please, if something like this has ever happened to you. please reach out to someone. its always important to talk to someone about it rather than just staying quiet. my dm’s are always open. feel free to reach out to me. im always here. and if this offends anyone in anyway, please message me privately. im glad to take it down if it does. thank you.

Maybe it was a bad idea to bring you to the Party.

No.

It was a bad idea to bring you to the party. Chris was supposed to protect you. you weren’t supposed to end up here.

not where you would be connected to a bunch of machines with an IV in your arm. Oxygen tube in your nose. you would’ve preferred to be at home with the triplets, watching Shrek. Popcorn and candy, soda on the side.

laughing with your friends, and gossiping about all different types of things. yelling and laughing about different debates and their opinions on them. thats what you wanted. thats what everyone wanted.

they didn’t want to see you like this. connected to so many damn machines. they gave oxygen just so you could fucking breathe.

doctors came in almost every minute of the day, just so they make sure you were okay. it was back to back. nonstop.

making sure there wasn’t anymore drugs in your system.

you never should’ve agreed to go to that damn party chris invited you to. one minute you were fine and drinking. next minute your head was pounding, sweat pouring down your face, and then all of a sudden your passed out on the couch.

“Guys, have you seen y/n? she was just here.” Chris asked looking at his twin brothers. “no, she said she went to go get a couple drinks for us.” Nick responded.

“how long ago was that?”

“about 10 minutes ago.”

“and you didn’t go to check up on her?”

“no, i didn’t have to. she texted me saying she was on her way back.”

“and she’s not here is she?”

“No, shes not”

“then im going to go look for her. stay here.” Chris stood. He was walking up to where the drinks were and asked a brunette haired girl, if she had seen you.

“Uh, yeah i did. i think she went that way.” she pointed towards the opposite of the room near the restroom. He thanked her and walked towards the bathroom. He knocked. nothing. He knocked again. again, nothing.

He started to panic. his bestfriend was nowhere to be seen. then, he looked towards the left near the couches. there you were, passed out. Some guy on top of you, with his pants pulled down, and yours too.

He was upset, angry that someone had the nerve to take advantage of you in your most vulnerable moments. He stomped his away over there, fists clenched.

“Dude, get the fuck off her! who do you think you are.” Chris shouted. “Bro, why are you bothered? it has nothing to do with you.” The guy laughed. “it hs everything to do with me. Thats my fucking friend your taking advantage of.” Chris pulled him off you, pulling your pants up in the process.

“Alright bru, damn.” the guy walked away.

“y/n?” Chris shook you. and again. and again, and again. When you didn’t wake up or respond he panicked. Called his brothers and told them.

“Cmon chris, we’re gonna help you get here outside.” Matt spoke. they all picked you up to carry you outside. “Nick, call 911! she’s not responding.” Chris said, eyes filling up with tears. “Okay, i will.” Nick responded, hurrying to get his phone.

“you’re going to be okay y/n. i promise.” Chris cried. Holding you in his arms, his tears spilling onto your face as he ran his hand through your hair.

eventually, the ambulance made it. Bringing out a gurney, and laying ontop of it. “look, im gonna ride with y/n. you guys take the car.” Chris walked towards the ambulance. Matt, and Nick heading to car.

“Do you think she’s gonna be okay?” Nick asked. Tears starting to form in his eyes. matt looked at him.

“yeah. i think she’ll be okay. it’s y/n, shes always okay.”

they both chuckled, hoping they were right. the whole drive to the hospital was silent. how could they have let this happen to their friend. someone who they deeply cared about.

they should’ve just accompanied her. not just sit on their ass.

“y/n, im so sorry.” he cried, holding your hand as they put you on an oxygen tube. “you should’ve told me. i would’ve went with you to get drinks. otherwise none of this would’ve happened.” He apologized. blaming everything on himself. it was his fault.

“guys, shes barely got a pulse. we need to hurry.” spoke one of the paramedics. Chris’ heart dropped, he couldn’t handle losing you now. not his girl. not the one hes loved since middle school.

“im so fucking sorry y/n. none of this would’ve happened if you could’ve just said no. i never should’ve asked you to come to this damn party, if i knew this was where it was going to end.” He breathed deeply, legs bouncing with anticipation.

“everythings gonna be okay. you’re gonna be okay. how could you not be?”

“youre y/n. youre always okay.”

he felt so guilty. guilty knowing that this happened all because he invited you to some damn party. he would’ve never asked if he knew that this was going to happen. he never would’ve.

Chris would’ve rather stayed home. cuddled up with you by his side, eating all kinds of of junk food together. if you would’ve just asked. you only agreed because you didn’t want to make him feel like he was forcing you to.

eventually you make it to the hospital, paramedics rushing you in, Chris still standing by your side, even when they asked him to go sit down. which, he did but he was a nervous wreck. waiting to see what doctors had to say.

“anyone here for y/n y/l/n?”

Chris was zoned out thinking too much that he didn’t hear the doctor at first.

“Chris.” Nick spoke. “H-huh?” he hummed, turning to look at Nick. “The doctor.” Matt commented.

Chris turned to see the doctor standing there looking around. “Oh.” He stood. “uh yes, that would be me. is everything okay?” He asked, eyes filling up with tears.

“uh no.”

“w-what happened?”

“we tested y/n for drugs and it came back positive.”

“h-how that doesn’t make sense. y/n doesn’t take drugs.”

“We know. we called her mother, and she confirmed that she doesn’t. she’s on her way here now.”

“then, how did the drugs get in her system?”

“we think she might’ve been drugged.”

“do you know how this could’ve happened?”

“uh yeah, we were at a party. someone must’ve slipped something in her drink.”

“okay, and uh one more thing.”

“what is it?”

“we found traces of semen in her as well.”

“are you saying…”

“yeah, she was raped.”

“oh my god.”

Chris just stood there and thanked him as they both went their separate ways. Both Nick and Matt stood.

“is everything okay?” matt asked. “is she okay?” nick commented. “she was drugged.”

“what thats impossible. she doesn’t do drugs.”

“yeah i know. someone slipped something in her drink.”

“and uh..”

“and what chris?”

“she was raped. someone raped our friend.”

They just stood there in silence not knowing what to say. the tention felt upsetting and they were all so distraught that something like this could happen. how they could let this happen.

they were supposed to protect you. no matter what it was. their promise was to keep you safe. to care for you, to be by your side no matter what.

“boys.” spoke a middle aged woman. it was your mom, her eyes puffy from crying. “ms.l/n”

“how is she? what happened?” she asked now standing infront of them. “she’s not okay. she was drugged and raped.”

Hearing that come out of Chris’ mouth broke her to pieces. her sweet babygirl was used and taken advantage of by some guy. thinking about it made it worse. She just stood there not moving an inch, tears pouring down her face.

All of the triplets just stood there and hugged her. they knew how hard this was going to be for her. I mean, her daughter was still so young, and she was filled with joy and love. all of a sudden, that’s just taken away from you.

“we’re so sorry ms.l/n, this is all our fault.” Nick spoke. “how so?” she questioned. “we invited her to this party that we got invited to. she didn’t have to go. if she would’ve just asked to stay, we would’ve. we would do anything to go back and change that.” Commented Chris.

“oh my god. how could you let this happen? you promised to take care of her!” she shouted, pulling apart from chris. “we did. if we would’ve known this was going to happen, we never would’ve asked.” Matt spoke.

“Im so sorry.” Chris cried. he felt like the guiltiest man in the world. breaking the news to the mother of the love of his life. it hit him hard watching his beautiful bestfriends mother cry.

it was going to be hard for everyone. especially your mom. and he knew that. so, he was going to do what he couldn’t with you. and that was to be by her side all the time.

when the doctor came out, he informed them that you weren’t going to make it. the drugs had already gone into your bloodstream and there was so much of it that they didnt get it all out in time.

he told them one by one to go see you before it was too late. and thats how chris ended up where he is now. sitting in the chair next to you, holding your hand.

“im so fucking sorry y/n. this shit is all my fault. all because i invited you to some dumbass party.”

“i was meant to keep you safe. to protect you at all time. to be by your side at all times, no matter what. i couldn’t even keep that promise. i failed you, and your mother. she’s mad at us, and she has every right to be. but i promise, to look after her now that you can’t.” He cried.

“i dont know how i could’ve let this happen. if only they had told me so i could’ve been there with you. then, that man on top of you. i feel like throwing up even talking about it.”

“i just wish i could’ve done more you know?”

“i love you y/n. i always have since middle school. i never told you because i didn’t think you felt the same way even though everyone told you did. i never believed them because i thought you were out of my league. now, i wish i would’ve asked you sooner.” He cried, looking at you with red puffy eyes.

thats when he heard it. the heart monitor going off. he looked up to see it go flat.

doctors flooding in the room, asking him to step out. he could hear all the commotion going on.

they tried over and over again to use an internal defibrillator to shock you back to life. but, it didnt work. nothing did.

“time of death?”

“3:47 am”

Chris visited your grave everyday after that. he told you all the stories that happened everyday. let you know all the gossip. he told you everything.

“Hey sweet girl. i brought you your favorite flowers.” Chris smiled, placing them ontop of your grave stone.

hibiscus flowers were your favorite. especially pink ones. you told him that once when you went to a flower garden, and ever since then hes kept that in mind. it was his favorite moment you two shared.

they way your green eyes glistened in the morning sunshine, or the way you looked with no makeup on in the sun. skin glowing.

he always thought you were the most lovely, enchanting, and graceful woman ever. never once did he think any different.

you were his bestfriend, his side kick, his everything.

“Soooo…me, nick and chris uploaded a new video today, and someone asked about you. it made me cry but, happy tears. they asked what our favorite memory about you was, and i told them about the flower garden.”

“God, you looked gorgeous that day. the way the sun made you glow. i wanted to kiss you so bad. i just never got the courage to do it.” He chuckled. to him, you looked like aphrodite. there was no one else more beautiful than you to him.

He liked you because you saw him for more than just an influencer on youtube with six million subscribers. You saw him as a person with great personality. and he saw you for someone with a better personality than he had.

you were always so kind, no matter what. it didn’t matter if they did you wrong in anyway, you were always kind. you told always told him, “Be the reason someone smiles. Be the reason someone feels loved and believes in the goodness of people.”

you were a great person and he knew that. even on your bad days when you felt like nothing, you’d always put anyone else before you. you wanted to make them feel loved. and you always did.

“I wish you were still here. Im looking after your mom, and she misses you tons. She cant stand to come and visit your grave, so she picks your favorite flowers, and tells me to being them to you. i promise i pick them too. it never left my mind that hibiscus flowers were your favorite. ever since you told me at the flower garden.”

“I hope your doing great up there. Being kind like always, i hope. I know that you always wanted to get matching tattoos together but, you’re not here anymore. So, i got your name and your birthday tattoed on my forearm. So, did everyone else.” He spoke, tears starting to swell up in his eyes.

“I dont know why im crying, but im hoping its happy tears.” He laughed. “i miss you like crazy. i get nightmares sometimes thinking about that night. how i could’ve prevented all of it from happening. Sometimes, i cant even sleep in my own room knowing that youre gone. so im in yours all the time. i hope you dony mind since i know how tidy you liked it.”

“Nick, Matt, and I go to your favorite restaurant every once a week now. Where we first met in 5th grade. We talk about you all the time. oh, also your mom put an ofrenda in our living room. so we can put all your little trinkets and stuff on it. we even have your graduation picture from four years ago.”

“I dont know what im doing y/n. i miss hearing your voice, i miss coming to you for advice. i feel so alone now. yeah, i have my brothers but you were my bestfriend. the love of my life. my favorite person in existence. now, i dont have one.” Chris cried, letting the tears fall down his face, looking down at his hands while he picked at his nails.

He genuinely didnt know what to do. He was so lost. He wished he had the right words; he just wanted you to know that he missed you like crazy. waking up everyday without you jumping on his bed was hard for him. most of the time he didn’t want to get up. He just wanted to rot in your bed all day. but, he knew that you would want him to live his best life in anyway he could.

It was hard on everyone. but, they were all there for eachother. Holidays were different, birthdays, celebrations, everything was.

“I’m so lost without you.”

He hoped that you were looking down at him proudly, even on his worst days because he was pushing through. He pushed through for you.

[eddiewithcat]

losing my mind a bit, and need to try and get my thoughts in order BUT!

there is just.. something to be said with this season, and how they constantly like to reaffirm for us buck’s place in christopher’s life.

literally starting off the season with eddie opening up to buck about chris and him dating multiple girls at once, asking buck to talk to him (instead of simply asking him for advice to handle the situation, or even asking his girlfriend who- is a girl and would probably be better in that department! but anyway!).

and then showing us buck’s jealousy of chris thinking tommy is “so cool” (we all know now where that stemmed from, but i am still convinced he was confusing a bunch of feelings at once- and even oliver has said buck had no idea what / who he was jealous about!), and when tommy goes over to talk to buck about the basketball court incident- tommy tells him just how much christopher “can’t shut up” about him. and not to forget buck’s face when he says that and how it lasted a few seconds longer than it probably should have

…. and now; whatever the fuck is going on with helen and ramon coming to visit. my money is on abuela getting / feeling sick after the wedding (hence why eddie is still in the same shirt he wore to the hospital wedding in that still of him and chris that we got- also looks like he possibly could’ve been crying)

i am not super sure what the heck is going on there but i have a silly theory that my friend and i kind of came up with! we do not have strong evidence supporting it btw- this simply just based on what we have seen thus far and how the season has been playing out!

but since eddie will most likely be busy being by his abuela’s side- he would want someone to watch after chris for him. our best guess? buck, of course! it would also explain why he seems to be filming the same time as everyone else involved- and plus it could be the perfect opportunity to bring the ‘will of it all’ into play.

i could see two things going on with this; helena says something in a spur of a moment out burst along the lines of like, “you cannot keep leaving your son with a stranger” and eddie can say something like “he’s not a stranger, he’s family” and that can somehow lead into the will reveal! (because i do see helena being the problem here- people have pointed out many times now that ramon is the only one it seems to be putting in any effort into having a relationship with his son, where as it’s crickets from helena! also she was the first one to be defensive about shannon but anyway!)

OR!

and just a heads up: this is not me bashing tommy at all, i actually do enjoy his character and love what he has done / is doing for buck! this is simply speculation and also just a bit of fun!! no harm in silly theorizing!

i could see tommy perhaps noticing how often buck is watching after chris, and maybe he just brings up something about like, oh hey i thought eddie’s parents were in town… are they not able to watch after him? (in a nice way!! idk how the hell to word things but i do not think he would be a dick about it 😭 like he would just genuinely be asking!) and then somehow that conversation leads to the will and how eddie trusts buck more than anyone etc …

needless to say i just think there is. Something. There. and i have sooooo much hope in the will being brought up. based on how many times they brought it up in interviews, and sort of alluded to in the show as well (“you don’t seem to have trouble committing to certain things” you all know where your mind went!)

anyway that is all. thanks for reading this mess if ya did <3