#ooh i read this one a while ago let me try to remember what i thought

[libraryleopard]

Adult science fiction standalone novel

In near-future America, struggling documentary filmmaker Hayes Figuerido learns that an alternate version of himself from a parallel universe created the Envisioner, a device that can predict the future, and sent it to his reality

When he joins a team of scientists studying the Envisioner, Hayes meets physicist Yusuf and learns the two of them are married in another universe and finds himself falling for Yusuf in this one

As Hayes learns more about the multiverse, however, it becomes clear that while their lives are inextricably linked, their story often ends in tragedy and saving Yusuf could risk the univerise

Explores multiverse theory and questions of how far you will go to save the one you love

Gay main character with depression; Egyptian, Muslim love interest; M/M romance; aromantic asexual Japanese side character

[drachonia]

𝐥 𝐚 𝐯 𝐞 𝐧 𝐝 𝐞 𝐫 ' 𝐬 𝐛 𝐥 𝐮 𝐞 .

Alfons Slyvatica Family Fluff

𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬: i kinda felt like going back to my roots and writing some family fluff while i wait for october and try not to pass out from uni stress, lmao. simple stuff, just wanted to write for some characters i've grown fond of. a lil tough to write because of how complex alfons' emotions are about life stuff.

𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠: not really anything warning worthy aside from just...family fluff. a little mention of his more bleak inner thoughts near the end (ends postiive), but that's about it.

Soft and tender notes reached Alfons’ ears as he entered the parlor of his home in the late hours of the morning. His wife’s long brunette hair trailed over the arm of the rocking chair as she cradled a dark-haired child in her lap, gently brushing back the straight and smooth hair from his little forehead.

“Let the birds sing, dilly, dilly And the lambs play We shall be safe, dilly, dilly Out of harm's way.”

Her gemstone eyes flickered up to meet his from across the room, her calm stare turning to a beaming smile as she saw her husband linger in the doorway.

“Look who’s home.”

A tiny head of dark hair whipped up in excitement, the boy turning and scrambling down from his mother’s lap and bouncing toward Alfons with a bright and mischievous grin, much like his own.

“Alec, careful!” His mother called gently after him as tiny feet padded across the hard wood floors quickly.

“Papa’s home! Papa’s home!” The boy leapt into his father’s arms, giggling happily. Long arms caught the child as his aforementioned father lifted him effortlessly in his arms, “How is my little duckling?” He chuckled, feeling the tiny little arms squeeze ‘round his collar and chubby cheeks nuzzle the breast of his coat, eyes closing happily, “Mum read me a few stories that uncle Liam sent! And uncle Elbie came by with Erik to say hello! Ooh and after that we baked a pie together, Mum made our favorite flavor filling, too—” The boy brightened as he recounted the events of the day, his father’s soft as he sat down on the sofa with his son on his lap.

Smoke colored eyes drifted briefly during the story to his son’s mother, taking in the smile as she stared at their child lovingly. He recounted the many times she’d expressed how she wanted their child to look like him, and glancing back down at Alec, she practically got her wish. Narrow but pretty dark eyes, soft black hair just short of ink in color. The more he looked at his son, the more he contemplated his own negative thoughts. If someone had asked him several years ago whether he’d make a good father, he would have laughed in their face. Nowadays, however, Alfons was almost terrified at how much his own family had changed his outlook on life. That solemn reminder of being forgotten lurked in the back of his mind, always. But…this peace he was rewarded with at his home he’d made…it was something that kept him going. He would make every effort each mission to execute each plan to perfection, not a resource nor a second could be wasted, for he had a family to return to.

“—Oh! And I start school tomorrow, remember, papa?” Excited smoke colored eyes stared wide up at him, expectant for a reaction. He felt his muscles relax finally, reaching up to rub Xander’s fluffy little head, thumb rubbing his chubby cheek, “Yes, little one, I remember, growing so fast, aren’t you?” He lifted him into a hug, squeezing him to his chest and kissing the top of his head, chin resting there as he smiled at his wife, a fragile, but contented smile. All of this felt surreal, like he could let out too heavy a sigh and it would all blow away like smoke. But with each day he lived it, he learnt he was far more content to let things develop as they were.

He remembered being hesitant when he learned he and his lover had managed to conceive. Remembered the anxiety of what could become of them both should anything happen to him. But perhaps the thing he remembered most of it all was when he got to sit by her side, watching her cradle that little bundle with a patch of dark hair. That moment he reached out, only for a tiny fist to wrap around his gloved index finger. That moment rendered him wide-eyed in wonder, speechless and curious to how someone could capture his attention even easier than his partner. Of course, given the fact a child was practically a manifestation of them both, he supposed it wasn’t entirely impossible to have that unconditional love.

Brought back to reality by a faint tug on his coat by his eight year-old, he smiled softly, eyes crinkled in joy as he kissed his son’s head tenderly. Every bit of love he would pour into this family of his, until all of them were filled with too many memories to possibly forget. That would be the thing that he would leave behind, no matter what twisted card fate may try to pull.

lace headers by saradika.

[peaches2217]

Ooh, another ask game! 😁✨️

May I start off with 21 for Mario? ^-^

Gonna answer these in one fell swoop! Let’s go!

21. If you're a fic writer and have written for this character, what's your favorite thing to do when you're writing for this character? What's something you don't like?

I love writing his dialogue actually! I have a rule of thumb when writing dialogue where, if I can’t imagine it in the character’s voice, it’s not going in my fic. Mario is extra fun to work with in that respect, because, while I don’t write his accent out phonetically, I always try to arrange his words and phrasing in ways where you could still read it in his accent. I struggle more with his general quirks and mannerisms; I’m still figuring out how to write him physically occupying a space.

More below the cut!

@mrspockify answered 21 above! As for 6:

6. What’s something you have in common with this character?

We’re both cheerful little shitheads that tend to act without thinking. We’re also both fat; I’d love to be fat AND strong like him 🥹

@mrs-luigi-vargas

21. If you're a fic writer and have written for this character, what's your favorite thing to do when you're writing for this character? What's something you don't like?

Sorry to sound repetitive here but I love writing dialogue for him SO much! He’s so hammy and over-the-top, yet thoughtful and competent. And I love writing little mannerisms for him (I’ve given him a few quirks, namely mirroring people’s actions without realizing it and grabbing onto the handle of his sword as an almost comfort reflex). Admittedly I can’t think of anything I don’t like… he’s probably my favorite character to write for overall right now.

@keylovesstuff I wish I had answers for you, but I honestly don’t. 😭 I was 13 the last time I wrote or read Pucca fanfiction, and that was also 13 years ago. I don’t remember much of anything that went through my head at that time… and I cringe at my old writing too much to go back and re-read it. 😅 I’m so sorry!!

2. Favorite canon thing about this character?

Honestly? I love the implication that she’s perfectly capable of holding her own, she just usually doesn’t bother because she knows she has a stocky little plumber who will answer her every beck and call. Unconventional answer, maybe, but it makes her that much more fun in my eyes. 😂

Summarized by this quote from Fortune Street:

7. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like?

I love how everyone really leans into her girliness rather than tomboyifying her, honestly. There’s historically been an air of “Ugh, she’s so GIRLY, which makes her BLAND” around characters like her, but at least since I’ve been in the fandom people seem to embrace her frilliness and ditziness without dehumanizing her for it.

8. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?

It’s not hugely widespread within the fandom itself, but I see it in general — characterizing her as vapid or ungrateful, with no agency of her own. I’m especially talking about the people who put her down for Odyssey’s (admittedly controversial) ending. “Uuuuuugh she’s so ungrateful, Mario went to the moon to save her and she cucked him” he saved her from a forced marriage and then got into a cockfight with the guy who tried forcing her into that marriage… over a MARRIAGE PROPOSAL, she had EVERY RIGHT TO SAY NO

It’s not Peach’s fault Nintendo was too fucking cowardly to give us the ending we actually wanted. 😭

14. Assign a fashion aesthetic to this character.

Strawberrycore. She would ROCK strawberrycore.

25. What was your first impression of this character? How about now?

My introduction to Peach outside of vague mainstream acknowledgement was when I played Super Princess Peach in the third grade, and I loved her from the get-go! She was just so cute to me. And I feel pretty much the same way now; she’s such a fun character, more than people give her credit for.

[pyropsychiccollector]

Do you have any interest in Pokemon? Not because I want to nerd out about it specifically, but because... let's just say, I've been rather inspired after reading your Raincode stuff, and watching some Pokemon animations online. (人◕ω◕)

Still have to determine if this is merely a temporary spark, or a true desire to write out what I have in mind, however~ (人◕ω◕)

You know, it's strange. For all I talk about Sayaka being the "source" of so many muses and subsequent harem ships these days... My true, honest beginnings - my first forays into discovering and reading fanfiction in general lies in...

Ash x Misty. n___n I must've discovered fanfiction.net myself back in, ooh... 2004? That feels so long ago. I'm old. XD Had no interest in writing back then, I was just thirsty for a ship that canon kept mercilessly teasing me with. No other anime I liked had me so invested in a ship. I suppose Digimon eventually hit me with Takato x Rika, and Takuya x Zoe, but Ash x Misty was definitely my origin point for anything fanfiction. That was the first time I ever Googled "Ash x Misty stories" or anything of that ilk. Seeing so many stories on ffnet made me proud to be a shipper for them. lol

Granted, I was a kid. And the quality of fanfics was as varied as it is these days. But back then I didn't care so much if some stories were cheesy. I remember coming across aged up Ash and Misty scenarios, a more adult and nefarious Team Rocket terrorizing them, Ash as the Kanto Champion and TR trying to get to him by assaulting/kidnapping Misty.... That was one of the better written fanfics I read back in the day.

That all said, am I still a Pokeshipper these days? Ash x Misty, sure. And shinobisage09 made a Ash harem card a while back...

In terms of my tastes? Ash x Misty is my highest priority. Ash x Serena is alright, I just haven't watched the XY anime to grow attached to that ship, while the original Pokemon anime was my childhood. XD Ash x May is okay, very neutral to that one... Ash x Melody is fun. She was only in the 2000 movie, but man she left an impression~ Melody is probably the reason I enjoy Natsumi Kuzuryu so much. Or rather, girls like them - spunky, tough girls that have tender sides they don't like showing. Ash x Anabel is fun, too, from what I remember of the Battle Frontier anime... Ash x Dawn is okay, like May I'm pretty neutral about it. And then the grass girl there... I haven't watched the Sun and Moon anime either, so I dunno what that ship - or rather, how the girl thinks about Ash....

I guess to summarize, my favorite Ash ships are Misty, Melody, and Anabel. Serena to a little lesser extent. Then Dawn and May. Then anyone else, so long as it's not toxic or creepy. XD I suppose that girl from the fifth movie... Bianca, I think? Or Latias in her form...? Whichever it might be, the kiss at the end of that movie was cute, but I'm a bit unsure about dabbling in human x Pokemon.... Not sure if that's a kink of mine. It might be easier to "assume" that was the real Bianca kissing Ash, and not Latias... Even though the evidence points to the contrary. lol I'm used to burying my head in the sand~ XD

But I digress. Outside from Ash...? Uh.... Probably the only other Pokemon ship I like is Brock x Lucy (the Pike Queen). That episode in Battle Frontier was awesome. XD Beyond that, I can't think of other ships in Pokemon that I like. I haven't read the manga, so I'm neutral to any Red, Brendan, Krys, or any of their ship stuff. I do find Leaf to be cute. Claire is hilariously tsundere. Cynthia is bae~ Gardenia is cute. I love Team Magma Courtney, specifically her Omega Ruby version. She's crazy, but I like the crazy~ XD I don't necessarily ship those girls with Ash. Maybe Courtney x Brendan (Hoenn protagonist), but that's about it.

[khalaris]

Twenty Questions for Fic Writers

Ooh lots of fun questions, thank you @justhugsplz for tagging me <3

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

25.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

61,430 which is absolutely mind-boggling to me. And of those about 45k are Tatort Wien. Which I started writing exactly one year ago. For comparison, I've been writing fanfic for over 20 years and until I fell into Tatort fandom in 2021 I'd posted less than 3k in total.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Exclusively Tatort Wien at the moment. If I ever manage to peek my head out of that particular rabbit hole, I might get back to some Münster WIPs. Not in the near future, though :D

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Aufgeben -> Der Anruf -> Die Welt in unseren Händen -> Bordsteingespräche -> Loslassen

Haha, Tatort Münster with a little sprinkle of Wien. I don't usually sort by kudos, so it's a bit surprising to see Die Welt in unseren Händen rank so high. Well, high in a range between 75 and 34. That's just how it is in small fandoms :D

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes, always. Sometimes it takes a while to get to it. But I always want to take the time and energy to write a proper response, because a) if someone else took the time and energy to tell me how they feel about my story, the least I can do is tell them how much I appreciate them commenting. and b) A comment always feels like the start of a conversation to me. I remember the long comment/discussion threads under fanfic on Livejournal and I miss the community of that. Nowadays it often feels like there's this growing gulf between author and reader, probably because of the current content creator/consumer culture that does little to invite equality or discussion.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Silence, a Torchwood CoE fic about John Frobisher's last moments.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Bordsteingespräche. I'm really proud of how everything came together in the end in that one :)

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Nope, thankfully never.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

If you'd asked me that a month ago, I would have said no. But recently I kind of got over my terminal embarrassment at even trying to write anything smutty. I haven't posted anything yet, but there's several fics/chapters in the works. Tbh I don't find vanilla sex interesting and most of the usual kinks in fanfic are either squicks or a snooze-fest to me. The stuff that I am writing is either weirdly specific kink or just downright unsexy (which my characters are having a frankly outrageous amount of fun with atm, bless them).

I'm a bit hesitant to put any real smut in a fic that isn't actually primarily about the smut. I fear enough people might be put off by that, so hardly anyone would end up reading it then. Bit of a stupid fear to have, perhaps, but still...

(Yes, I know, I should just get over it and simply write and post whatever the hell I want 😅)

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I've had a lot of crossover ideas over the years, but the only thing I've ever written was an MCU/Agents of Shield thingie I hacked out during NaNoWriMo a couple of years ago. Let's be honest, that combination is the least crazy crossover of all time and hardly counts as a crossover at all. Like 99% of the stuff I've ever written during NaNo, it's completely horrible, unfinished and should never see the light of day again.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Don't think so.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I've translated Bordsteingespräche myself, but was very unhappy with the result, which is why it's unavailable at the moment. It's going to get reworked at some point.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Many many years ago, when the world was still young and some of you not yet born 😂, the lovely @hope-calaris and I cooked up a tentative plot for a rather ambitious Star Trek: Voyager fanfic. We didn't end up writing that one, but later co-wrote a CSI: Miami one with someone else iirc and I believe there might have been a 4400 (?) fic, also. Due to depression, my memory of that time is hazy at best, though, so it's possible that I'm missing or misremembering things there.

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

Didn't expect this question to be so difficult to answer, but is kinda is... 🙈 I guess any combination of my 3 Tatort Wien blorbos. Apart from that, Boerne/Thiel and Stephen Strange/Tony Stark are ships I can always come back to.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

The aforementioned MCU/AoS time-travel epic.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue, especially banter-y dialogue. And editing sentences/paragraphs for maximum impact (when I take the time to do it)

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Action. What characters are doing, how they're moving, getting them from A to B and so on. Ugh.

External conflict. I despise conflict in real life and find it extremely difficult to write. You won't find an antagonist in any of my current stories or wips. And when I do write conflict between characters, that's always rooted in their internal conflicts and mostly the result of them not communicating properly.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

It's very hard to do right. Translations in footnotes are annoying and leave me confused while reading. Translations in brackets behind the dialogue also annoying and missing the point of having different-language dialogue in the first place. It can be good when the author puts enough context there that you can get the gist of what is being said without needing an actual translation.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

X-Files. There's probably some 23-year old notebooks in the back of a drawer somewhere at my mom's house that have fanfic snippets mixed with homework assignments.

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

Oof, that's another difficult one. I have several that are favourites for different reasons.

Bordsteingespräche for the sheer joy and ease with which it was written.

Kaputt for how much of my heart and soul I'm putting into it.

Die Welt in unseren Händen, because after twenty years of trying and failing I am now finally writing an epic long-form multi-chapter fanfic and I have so many plans and ideas for it. I cannot put into words just how wild that is. And I simply adore this version of my favourite characters.

No-pressure tagging @carlomenzinger, @kathastrophen and @all-my-worlds-a-stage if you want to :)

[lady-lycany]

Ooh btw, on the way to the lake, I came across some dog owners that took their dogs for a walk and I tried something - which had me actually surprised, that it worked (or it was a very weird coincidence lol)

So with the first dogs I came across, I was thinking like "yupp I'm human, everything's fine, don't acknowledge me, I'm nothing special, just ignore me" and well, they did lol

But then I was like "Let's see what happens, if I try the exact opposite next time?" and 15 minutes later, there was actually another dog owner with a white poodle, and so I started to fixate my eyes onto him, lowered my head a little and while I was walking towards them, I was thinking "I'm also a canine. A wolf. You better acknowledge me and notice that this body is nothing but a facade" and istg, I wish I would've recorded it as proof, that I don't tell sht, cus the dog literally kept turning around and pulled on the leash, staring at me- even the dog owner turned around to look at me, why the dog was acting so strange lol. He kept pulling the dog back, but he also was completely fixated on me. Eventually they stopped and let me walk past by, cuz I was walking faster than they were anyway. But this is not the first time that this worked. I think eversince, I was aware of being a werewolf, I had moments like that. One time, I had the same thing with a shiba inu (I might even made a post about it back then, since that happened only a few years ago) and once, which was probably 9-10 years ago with a wolfdog in a nearby park. We both locked eyes, stopped walking and just stared at each other. The wolfdog wasn't leashed and the owner was staring on his phone lol Eventually the dog kept walking while keeping the eye contact and so did I, until we eventually broke it and went our ways. That was the first time this has happened and therefore I still remember the moment super clear. I love when stuff like that happens.

Have you experienced something like that already as well? Lemme know. I'll read all reblogs/comments :3

((little side info, on the way back home I put my collar on cuz it was dark enough outside for me to feel comfortable doing so :]))

[staceymcgillicuddy]

🌙, 🌝 + 🌈 for soul! I was intrigued by a comment you made about how the fic you're writing is different than what a lot of people are reading, so I'm curious about your thoughts on it.

THANKS PAL. I remember that comment and what it was about so hopefully I can elaborate in this, my addled state of mind.

🌙  What time of day do you prefer to write? Why?

First thing in the morning. If I let the day get in my head, then I find I can't focus, or get in the right headspace. I write with noise canceling headphones on, in fullscreen mode on Scrivener, with one of those binaural noise apps playing white noise in my ears. I'm capable of writing anywhere, but I prefer when I can focus and drown out the world and just grind out a couple thousand words in an hour.

🌝 Who is one character you haven’t yet written for that you would like to?

Robin! A long time ago, post season three I started a Robin/Tammy thing that never went anywhere, so I guess I can't say I've never written for her. But I've never written anything long, and I've never posted anything for her. I would like to, though. I like Ronance, and I think there's something there I could play with, but I also like the idea of giving her an OC love interest, or someone out of left field like not-dead-Barb or not-dead-Heather (so many not dead ladies), or Eden or Kali or another character that hasn't been super developed.

🌈 What inspired you to write to get my soul know again?

Ooh, ooh! Okay, so, one of my favorite things to do as a fic writer is write mundane AUs where I spin out the most realistic possibilities I can come up with for characters from supernatural shows or superhero shit or whatever. I don't know why, but it turns my crank. So after a brief (BRIEF) dip into the uh... other Eddie ship... (they don't know me and I don't go there anymore)... I decided I wanted to try my hand at Hellcheer. I'd been reading it since the show launched and my beta and I were like "HOLY SHIT THE CHEMISTRY" but hadn't actually tried writing anything.

So I did my usual "what's a logical future for these goobers?" brainstorming, and the idea of Eddie getting out of Hawkins with his CDL jumped out at me almost immediately. Chrissy was a little harder, but the part of me that was raised around a lot of guys like Jason wanted to lean into the darker, nastier sides and play with what happens when a guy like that finds out he's not special. Much like in the show, where Jason's nice guy veneer shattered when faced with Chrissy's death.

I mashed those two ideas together, and I got something where I knew I wanted to tell the story of Chrissy's recovery mingled with Eddie's figuring out who he wants to be as a man, and how he can emulate Wayne's steadiness while also remaining true to himself.

Going back to my comment, I think that a lot of times in stories about an abusive partner--many of which I've read and, well, enjoyed seems the wrong word, but appreciated--there's this constant threat of that abuser popping up and ruining things. Which, I think, a lot of people were expecting to have happen early on in Soul. Like, when is Jason going to pop out from behind the bushes with a gun? Is he going to steal Chrissy back? Is he stalking them? But I knew from the start that this wasn't about re-traumatizing Chrissy with Jason's bullshit. I want her to heal, with Eddie, on a road trip where she rediscovers the parts of herself she's been keeping locked away. Which, ultimately, makes it a different sort of story than what a lot of "running from my abusive spouse" narratives end up being. Which isn't to say that Jason won't be in the story--he will--but not in a way where he eclipses the narrative, or is allowed to cause significant damage to Chrissy's healing.

I hope that giant, intoxicated ramble made some semblance of sense!

[schismusic]

Tom Waits and the art of believing

Somewhere in Simon Critchley's book on David Bowie he has an anecdote about Bowie redoing a vocal part a billion times because it's not authentic enough and — hold up, let me get the book:

"If Bowie’s art is inauthentic, if it is F for Fake, as Orson Welles might have put it, then is it also F for Falsehood? I remember reading an interview many years ago with Robert Fripp where he talked about watching Bowie in the studio in the late 1970s. Bowie was listening to a track or a tape loop and was very carefully, repeatedly, quite deliberately, and for the longest time, trying to generate the right emotion in his voice. What could be more contrived and fake than that? Shouldn’t true music come straight out of the heart, up through the vocal cords, and into our waiting, shell-like ears? Yet, as others have observed, Bowie’s genius lies in the meticulous matching of mood with music through the medium of the voice." (Bowie, Simon Critchley, p. 37)

— so yeah, if you've ever listened to so much as a smidge of Tom Waits this should be a pretty obvious connection to make.

It gets even better when you realize that Waits's inauthenticity is actually kind of the point. It's really hard to pinpoint where Thomas Alan Waits ends and Tom Waits begins, or more accurately the other way around - which makes what Tom Waits says immensely compelling, in that you never know for sure whether it's the cookie-monster-demon-thing talking or the man behind the legend poking his nose into the words. So this necessarily makes for a number of different possible listening experiences. This one time I was playing D&D with my old party and as we were playing my DM needed to introduce the Skaven — it was a Warhammer 40K type thing, I have never played any Warhammer 40K, whatever, that's besides the point — and he was like "all of a sudden, from the underground, you hear that song from Robots" and everybody was like "ooh yeah I know that!" and I was like "holy shit you mean Tom Waits?".

This kind of threw many of the people around the table for a loop and the night ended with me lending my Bone Machine CD to the home owner. He promptly returned it a while later and I suspect he didn't get to the end of it. More Tom Waits for me I suppose. When I first got that exact copy of Bone Machine (spoken like someone who has more than one copy of Bone Machine, whereas this is very much not the case, it's still the same one, bought used in January 2020: I was dating a girl and it lasted for like thirty seconds flat but luckily our relations are still very much positive, we got to base one and then dipped, then we lost track and exchanged like holiday wishes or birthday wishes if we got lucky, then all of a sudden I meet her again downtown last November — what happened is she apparently takes dance classes in town and has to spend like two hours on the train everyday just to train, pun not necessarily unintended but also definitely not intended entirely — and we have this wonderful little chat and then we're both like "actually let's stay in touch I'd love to get coffee at one point" and then sometimes we have short conversations and honestly I might just actually ask her for this coffee thing, have a more relaxed conversation and all, she's a nice person you know, she has her own way of dealing with the cards she gets dealt, a slanted skewered sense of irony about herself and everyone else that's very Southern-Italy-expat-into-the-North most likely mutuated from her parents and perhaps even derived from a sense of inadequacy of sorts, there's a lot to unpack I think, meanwhile I at the time — January 2020, that is — was still trying to process the previous relationship, which I might or might not have mentioned in the Godflesh piece, which actually might have become the veritable centerpiece of most of the stuff I write on here, and damn this sentence is really long, you guys are enjoying the ride I hope, I mean you must, after all this is the name of the game on here, don't I usually just run around in circles until all of a sudden you look the other way or roll your eyes in immense frustration and/or inveterate anger and while you're not looking I get to the point and the story ends?), it was January 2020 and I was on lunch break from studying. I was getting ready for a Linear Algebra exam. Linear Algebra is pretty cool but it doesn't leave much room for emotion, necessarily — it has its reasons of which the heart knows nothing. So here I was, this girl I was dating on her first relationship, me with one relationship too many, as young as I was. And at one point it entered my mind that maybe, just maybe, to stop being a crybaby I probably just needed to get into different music. Potentially music that had mystified me in the past. And nothing had mystified me like this one 128kbps CD dump of Tom Waits's Rain Dogs had, uploaded on a USB drive for me by a friend's father. So obviously I picked up Bone Machine. And I pop it in the stereo that night and this shit hits me right on the temple.

Imagine my shock when I realize that all of a sudden you don't need to be Godspeed You! Black Emperor to sound like the end of the world. Even crazier to me that the apocalypse could sound so flawlessly and tastefully arranged and yet so tangible and even brutal, and that there was basically no divide between the two. Which obviously prompted me to ask "how does this even work?" and to keep listening. So maybe all I needed to do was approach this with a musician's mentality, which is what I still do and it genuinely helps me a lot when talking Tom Waits. At the same time I wouldn't argue Tom Waits is a musician's musician, so to speak. He's also a writer's musician, crucially. Bones Howe defined his work on Nighthawks at the Diner as "Allen Ginsberg with a really, really good band" (I'm linking it here in full so you can check it out on your own time, which I highly recommend you do), and while I feel like Waits's work on average is a bit more humorous, which is kind of why even among the Island era works Bone Machine is the only one that actually does that homicidal maniac thing where everything, and I mean everything spectacularly ties into that general sense of apocalyptic abandon. The more personal numbers relate excellently to that, better than they ever have — and this is from that same guy who wrote, I don't know, Time. This one time, right before the pandemic hit, I was invited to a birthday party and as many things did back at the time it spiralled into a lot of heavy feelings being spilled onto absolute strangers. I had this CD in the car and I felt like I had to put this track on, I just knew it, don't ask me why. So I did:

And then a while later I found myself toying around a lot with this other track, called I Don't Wanna Grow Up (music video courtesy of Jim Jarmusch, by the way). Obviously 2020 wasn't the best time for many people. I was trapped with five other people — two of which had COVID — in a house meant for four, I seemed unable to hold one person down for long enough to actually become friends and my academic career, if there even was one, was very clearly dead in the water. And let's be clear here: would you wanna grow up in that context? God knows I didn't. And I guess it makes it even funnier when it's a guy who has very much grown up already telling you that he doesn't wanna grow up — and that you find yourself believing him. Because ultimately Tom Waits, as opposed to Thomas Alan Waits, does not in fact grow up. He is born fully formed and trudges through life in eternal decay, he faces memories of his past haunting him and turning ever less beatnik and ever more hallucinatory and modernist and distorted. His blues become his decomposing greys/greens, they become toxic miasmas that end up deforming and corroding the songs. And even icons of religious salvation turn into broken contract killers — the sole ones capable of providing a truly beautiful death. "Some say he killed a man with a guitar string… some say under his coat there are wings." Fitting that the music should turn a slow country instrumental into a metaphysical number, chilling and perfectly inexplicable precisely in direct proportion to how close it is to the reach of sheer intuition.

But what originally got me into the record was Waits's balladry, as funny as it may seem. You don't usually listen to Tom Waits for the ballads, mostly because lately (that is, from 1983 onwards, at least) that's very much not what he's remembered for. And yet not many people can just as easily write Goin' Out West — a track that goes so hard it's been covered, basically unaltered, by Queens of the Stone Age — as he does Whistle Down the Wind — a track that's so touching it's been covered, with very different instrumentation and vocal interpretation, by Joan Baez — on the same record, no less. The one that got me at first was A Little Rain, a murder ballad so brutally honest it doesn't even have to say it out loud: a sixteen-year-old leaves her small hometown to see the world. "I love you mom, and a little rain never hurt no one" are the words she leaves her mother with. To the cost of sounding redundant, it probably wasn't the rain that hurt her. You are left with a profound sense of evil that, unsurprisingly, pops up in a track like Springsteen's Nebraska — "well, I guess there's just a meanness to this world".

But the one that speaks to me, fellow imposter syndrome having asshole, the most is Who Are You, more eloquently (perhaps a bit too eloquently) titled Who Are You This Time on some live albums of Waits's. It's very easy to construe yourself as a suicidal buttfuck-insane maudit rat bastard, but most other people see right through it when you're twenty. My obsession at the time was to be taken seriously, to be taken as a ticking time bomb, to be taken as a menace even. I don't think it was necessarily a form of posturing; it could more appropriately be interpreted as me trying to get people to notice how fucked I felt this shit to be. Unfortunately it gets old fast. I guess Tom Waits, or likely Thomas Alan Waits, kind of saw it too. It's reasonable to interpret this track as a song against itself, or rather a song against whoever is singing it, or rather a song about whoever is singing it pretends to be in front of an audience, which necessarily entails some interesting reflections on identity and artistic integrity and the understanding that who says the thing is just as important as the thing being said. I am making no sense because it's almost 2am. I don't give a fuck. Here's a song that makes me cry:

[hyperfixation-or-death]

If you’re still doing the writers truth or dare ask game, how about 🍄 and 🧩?

oh, i absolutely am, let's do this. :)

🍄 ⇢ share a head canon for one of your favourite ships or pairings

ooh, okay, this one was kind of hard, because i'm mostly neutral on most romantic ships. like, they're fine, i just don't think as much about them? and i couldn't think of a headcanon for any platonic/queerplatonic ships i have.

however! there is a headcanon i have for Bilal Belkebirs and Romane Berthauds from Parallels. i technically already posted it, but i like it, so i'm posting it again (spoilers for Parallels, i guess):

Romane's mom still dies in the timeline without Sam and Victor, and she gets separated from her sister. She's grieving, she's basically had her entire sense of security yanked out from underneath her, and she doesn't know what to do with herself.

So she tries to focus on schoolwork, because she needs to keep her grades up, and she's missed enough school trying to deal with everything. But she ends up leaning too far into that focus, and she gets into the habit of studying late at night. And that leads to her getting very little sleep, which leads to her focusing worse during the day, which leads back to her having to study at night more.

It's a vicious cycle of stress and anxiety. And she does eventually break out of it, but while she's stuck in it, Bilal makes a habit of bringing energy drinks to school for her. Romane didn't realize that he was bringing them specifically for her until she remembered that Bilal didn't even drink caffeine, and connected the dots.

Once she realizes, she's really touched and grateful (and feels the slightest bit guilty for no real reason) but she's also still kind of sleep deprived, so basically it's a lot of emotions and they end up hugging. And the whole thing is just a pretty significant memory for Romane later in that timeline, because the situation she was in really sucked, but there were things like that that reminded her that she hadn't lost everything.

wow, that headcanon was longer than i thought. but yeah, they have a nice dynamic, i like it whether it's romantic or platonic. (although this takes place in the timeline where they end up married, so there's that.)

🧩 ⇢ what will make you click away from a fanfiction immediately?

Okay, I've only seen this a few times, but like. When a fic is written in almost a screenplay-like format? Except without the cues and stuff, just like:

Name: Dialogue.

Other Name: More dialogue.

First Name: Dialogue again.

And it goes on for the entire fic, not just a few quotes. To each their own, obviously; I actually used to write in that format a long time ago, but it's just really hard for me to read now. So, yeah, not my thing.

thanks for the ask!! have a great day! :)

[ccss10987]

Heist Gone Wrong

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/43881277

Characters: Logan, Patton, Remus, Roman, Virgil, and Janus.

Words: 3,060

TW: I think it's all good. Let me know if I'm wrong

Notes: This is written for @lostinmyfictionaluniverses as part of the @sanderssidesgiftxchange I hope you have a fun holiday season and you get yourself a little treat. I would like to thank the mods for putting this all together. I had such a fun time writing this. I hope everyone who reads this enjoys this funny little art heist sanders sides one-shot.

"Does everyone understand the plan?" Logan asked, setting down his wooden pointer.

The group in front of him nods.

"Remus and Patton, do either of you remember what step 4 is?" Logan asked the two with a smug look on his face

"OOH!" Remus raises his hand quickly, jumping up and down in his seat.

"Yes, Remus?" Logan sighed.

"Kill everyone in the room and use the blood to cover where the painting was!"

"Maybe… go through the plan one more time, Logan." Patton said gently.

"That's what I thought. Step 1, Roman will create a forgery of the painting. Step 2, Janus will sneak into the museum accompanied by Patton. Step 3, I will hack into the security system and put all the cameras in a loop to make sure no one sees anything. Step 4, Remus will cause a distraction while Roman sneaks the forgery inside. Step 5, Janus finds the painting while Patton keeps all the other guards from finding Janus stealing the painting. Step 7, we replace the painting with the fake one Roman created. Step 8, we get out of the museum, and Virgil will drive us away. Step 9, we return the stolen art to the original artist. Are we all clear now?"

Once again, everyone nods.

"What's the worse thing that can happen?" Janus asked with a smirk on their face.

"You said that on purpose. I have a list I can read out for you, if you want." Virgil said, glaring at them.

"Okay, okay. Let's not fight. This is going to go perfectly." Patton told Virgil while standing in between the two.

"You can't say that either!" Virgil yelled, pulling at his hair.

"I'm sorry. Knock on wood." Patton said quickly while knocking on their wooden coffee table.

"So how is the replica coming along, Roman?" Logan asked, trying to change the subject.

"It's nearly there. It just needs something." Roman told him.

"Blood! Mucus! Slime! Some other questionable substance?" Remus suggested.

Roman scrunched up his face. "Ew. You're not helping."

"I will take a look at it and help you figure it out." Logan told him. Logan and Roman left the room.

"I started working on my costume months ago and am now done." Janus said, looking at their manicured nails. "In other completely unrelated news. Patton, you have a spare security uniform, right?"

"Yeah, you can have my spare. I'll go get it." Patton told him.

"I don't need it, of course. I simply want to compare the two."

The two left, leaving Remus and Virgil alone.

"I can't imagine this going well. I'm not even sure why I decided to do this in the first place. I'm gonna cause a police chase. We're all going to go to jail and I'm going to fuck something up-"

"Nah don't worry about that. If anyone is going to fuck something up. It's gonna be me, emo, but it'll be on purpose."

"Please don't."

Remus chucked and crept out of the room. "What a prick…" Virgil mumbled under his breath.

"I am not quite sure what you think is missing. It looks fine-" Logan said, staring at the false art.

"I don't want it to look fine. It needs to be an exact replica!" Roman was pacing around his studio, mumbling about all the details he put into the painting, trying to figure out what the art was missing.

"Roman, it does not need to be perfect. It just needs to look enough like the painting so we have the time to get away before we are caught. We have recovered works of art before without anyone knowing it was gone, and I have no doubt in my mind that we can do it again." Logan told him.

"Well what if it's not good enough!? What if my forgery gets recognized too quickly? We won't be far enough away from the museum when the police start chasing us. Maybe we won't even get that far. The security guards-"

Logan cut him off once more. "If everyone follows my plan, we won't need to worry about the security guards at all. Patton and Janus will have them distracted, most likely with awful dad jokes."

Logan didn't want Roman to know that he was also worried about the heist. It was his plan, after all. If something went wrong, it was his fault. He didn't plan for it and couldn't deduce a solution. Logan could not let Roman know this because he needed all the answers. Having Roman worry more wasn't going to help in the long run.

"Well you know what's best. After all, you're the smart one." Roman stated.

"Obviously. I am going to retire to my room now. Please try and get some rest, Roman."

"Will do, Specs."

In Patton's room with Janus, Patton was hunched over in his closet, pulling things out and throwing them on the floor.

"Are you sure you have this?" Janus asked.

"Well I might have given it to a coworker of mine…" Patton trailed off.

Janus pinched the bridge of their nose. "I can make do. This might surprise you, but I don't have a disguise ready.

Patton laughed nervously, still rummaging through his closet. "Oh really? I had no idea." he said as playfully as he could.

"Why did you give away the uniform anyway?' Janus asked.

"Well he spilled some soda on himself and I always keep my spare in my bag in case someone needs it. I told him that he could borrow the shirt. He was so nice and even said he would wash it before he gave it back to me."

Janus just nodded. Patton stood up and stretched his back out. Janus sighed, hearing the crackling of Patton's back. "Take this advice from someone who has chronic pain, you need to stretch more often."

"Yeah I know. I keep saying I will, but I never do. Just like me saying I should clean my room more often, especially the closet." Patton told Janus. He said this as he shoved the pile of clothes back into his closet.

"I should get started on that uniform so I can finish it before Logan stars nagging me."

"Good luck!" Patton called out while Janus left the room. He sighed, looking at the pile of clothes in the closet before closing the door. It was too much work to do to clean that up now. It didn't seem like a problem before.

Everyone had trouble sleeping that night. They were all worried about something not going according to plan, except Remus. He was just too excited to sleep.

It was the morning of the heist. Everyone was tired. Patton was still the first one up to start making breakfast for everyone. Logan was the next one down. Patton put on a smile for him. "Did you sleep well, Logan?" he asked.

"To tell you the truth, I could have slept better."

"Aw, I'm sorry to hear that, bud."

Janus came down just as Patton finished breakfast, followed by the twins, who all looked sluggish. Virgil was the last person to come downstairs, looking just as tired as everyone else, but that was a common occurrence.

"Based on everyone's faces, I deduce I am not the only one who did not get a good quality sleep last night."

Everyone mumbled in agreement, even Patton, trying his best to hide his drowsiness.

"No matter. I want everyone to try and sleep today. We will continue as planned. The more rested we are, the more successful this mission will be."

Everyone nodded and promised they would get some sleep before the heist. They had done this several times before, so why were they all so nervous?

Janus, Logan, and Patton were the only three who had tried to sleep before the heist. All three were unsuccessful.

Patton and Janus left a few hours before the rest of them to secure Janus' cover as a security guard at the museum. Patton had been working there for a while now. That's how they found out about the stolen art in the first place.

At the front doors of the museum, Janus took a deep breath. "My name is Dee Jordan. I am 31 years old."

"Why three years younger than you are?"

"Shush. I'm babysitting my nephew Declan, and I need the extra cash, hence the night shift job." Janus finished their mumbling, and they took another deep breath. "Alright, I'm in character. Let's do this." they said with a fake voice.

"Wow. That is amazing!" Patton exclaimed. He unlocked the door using his ID, and they entered the building.

Patton led Janus into the security room, where one of his coworkers was, waiting for his shift to start.

"Hey, Patty! I bought some donuts before I came here, do you want one?" Patton's coworker, Carl, asked.

"Thank you, Carl." Patton said before taking a chocolate-covered donut with sprinkles. "This is our new coworker-"

"Dee Jordan. It's nice to meet you. I won't have this job for long. It's just supposed to be an easy payment." Janus lied.

"Well, it's pretty dull. There's like nothing to do, and the alarms are always faulty." said Carl. "Do you and Patton know each other?"

"Yes." "No." Patton and Janus said in sync, respectively. Patton was not okay with lying to his coworkers. He had known them for so long.

"What do you mean?" Carl asked.

"What he means is we met here before, but we don't actually know each other." Janus said before Patton could speak.

"We should get started with patroling the museum." said Patton quickly.

"Alright. I'll see you later, buddy." Carl said to Patton."

The two started walking away from the security room. Janus turned to Patton and told him, "Next time that someone asks us a question, please leave the talking to me. I know you don't like lying."

"But, keeping information from people is still a lie." Patton huffed.

"It's not a lie if they don't have the right to know." Janus fired back. Janus sent Logan a quick text to let Logan know they had gotten inside with no trouble.

In the van a few streets away, Logan started to tap into the museum security cameras.

"Has anything gone wrong yet?" Virgil asked.

"For the hundredth time, no." Roman told him, inspecting his painting.

"Not yet anyway." Remus said.

"Would you three please be quiet. I need my full concentration. As long as everything goes according to my plan, we will be able to get away with this." Logan snapped at them.

Everyone was quiet after that, even Remus. The only sounds in the van were Logan's fingers tapping on the keyboard and Virgil's leg bouncing.

After a few moments, Logan got into the security cameras and put all of them on a 5-second loop. He was certain no one was on the looped footage and sent Janus a text saying step 3 was complete.

"Hey Patton, friend, buddy, pal, a synonym for a friend." Janus started.

"What is it? Did something go wrong?" Patton asked, worry in his voice.

"No, but do you remember what step 3 was?"

"Oh." Patton sighed in relief. "It was the distraction. I'm at least 87% sure."

Janus laughed. "That's a specific number. Too specific to be wrong. I'll meet Roman at the meeting point."

Janus got to the meeting point, a fire escape near the gallery the stolen art was in. Remus said the distraction was loud enough to drown out the noise of the alarm, so they opened the door. The fire alarm blasted, and Janus covered their ears. Roman wasn't at the door. They peeked their head outside and looked around. Roman wasn't in sight.

"What happened over here?" someone from behind Janus asked. This wasn't supposed to happen. Everyone was supposed to be wherever Remus caused the distraction. Something went wrong.

Janus turned around. "I heard the alarm go off, so I ran toward the noise.

"Ah, you must be new. This door is always a bit fussy. It scared me on my first night shift too. I swear the slightest gust of wind can cause it to go off. I'm Maddison, by the way." she said.

"I'm Dee." Janus told her. The two shook hands and jumped when they heard a loud boom and several crashes.

"I've never heard that one before. Let's go check it out." Maddison said. She grabbed Janus by the wrist and started running towards the sound. They found a giant hole in the wall. Everyone came to check it out, including Patton, who saw Janus at the scene and became very nervous. They weren't supposed to be here. Something went wrong.

"I cannot believe someone blew up a wall. Who would go through the trouble of doing this?" Maddison mumbled to herself.

"I didn't see anything on the cameras. I should have though, right?" Carl asked himself.

"I didn't see anything either." Patton said. It felt wrong to keep information from his two closest coworkers, but he knew he had to. He couldn't believe Remus would do something this extreme. Well, yes, he would. This came as a surprise to no one.

"What do we do now?" Janus asked, dumbfounded.

"We shouldn't call the police. They only make matters worse." Carl said. He gave Maddison a slight nod, who nodded back at him. Something suspicious was happening, and it wasn't just the art heist.

"You blew up an entire wall, Remus." Roman whisper-yelled to his brother.

"No way. I did not blow up the entire wall, just most of it." Remus said as a matter of factly.

"They know someone is sneaking in now." Roman told him.

"Then you better hurry up and replace the painting then." Remus told him as he started walking back to the van.

Roman would have argued more, but he was right. They had to finish this job now. Roman ran to the meeting point to meet up with Janus. The door was open, thankfully, but Janus wasn't there. Something went wrong. He couldn't wait for them. He needed to find that stolen painting as soon as possible.

Roman raced through the gallery, trying to find the painting. He eventually found where the artwork was supposed to be. There was a sign with the thief's name and their fake title, but no artwork. He sent Logan a panicked text explaining the situation.

"That was completely irresponsible, Remus." Logan scolded him.

"Hey, it was loud enough to drown out the fire alarm and caused all the workers to check it out." Remus defended himself.

"Including Janus. Luckily they left the door open for Roman. Unfortunately, someone stole the painting before we could."

"WHAT!?" Virgil yelled. He started mumbling to himself and spiraling into a panic attack.

"I'll help Roman get out of there. You help Virgil." Remus said. He wasn't stupid. He knew when it was time to get serious. This could have serious consequences.

"Not to worry, Virgil. This is a minor set back. We have to tell our client that someone else stole their artwork, and there is nothing more that we can do."

"They'll be disappointed with us." Virgil told him through shakey breaths and tears.

"No, they won't. I'm confident we got further than they expected us to get. Now, let's work on your breathing."

"Okay." Virgil mumbled.

Remus snuck into the museum through the open fire escape. He found his brother in the gallery where the art was supposed to be. "Alright, we need to leave before we get caught. Take the painting with you. We can't let anyone know we were ever here." Remus told him.

"Right." Roman said as he got up and followed Remus through the entrance they came in through.

The two made it back to the van without being detected.

"Okay, we will be here for another moment while I reset the museum security cameras. Then, we will be on our way back home. No one will know we were there. Janus and Patton will make sure of that." Logan said while sending a text to Janus and Patton to let them know the updated plan. The text he got back was far more concerning.

"Let's go back where we were and try to find the intruder." Maddison told Janus. She grabbed them by the wrist and led them away from Patton and Carl.

Once they were out of sight, Carl let out a sigh of relief. "I'll let you in on a little secret on why I'm not too worried about this."

"What's happening?" Patton asked.

"Do you remember when I told you that someone was taking credit for someone else's artwork here?" Carl asked. Patton just nodded. "Maddison and I were going to do something about that. We took the painting down and hid it in her car. We were going to say that the art thieves held us at gunpoint and threatened to shoot us if we tried to stop them. I really hope you don't think less of us."

Patton nodded once more. "I have a confession too." Patton explained everything he and "Dee" were doing but left everyone else's name out of it to Carl.

Carl called Maddison back to the hole in the wall and told them to bring Janus with her.

"Well I guess the cat's-" Janus started. "Meow." Patton interrupted.

"Now that you two are in on the plan, we can call the police." Carl stated.

Maddison started the phone call while Carl got the story straight with Patton and Janus.

The police came a few hours later and questioned all the security guards all individually. They didn't suspect a thing.

Janus, Patton, Carl, and Maddison all went home. Patton brought the painting to the original owner, who thanked him for returning it.

On the drive back home, Patton and Janus could finally talk without the fear of being listened to. "How come you didn't have a problem lying to the police?" Janus asked.

"I am surprised at you, Janus. It's always morally correct to lie to police officers." Patton told him. Janus laughed. "Too true." he said. A moment of silence went by before Patton spoke up. "You might hate me for this, but that spare uniform was in my bag the whole time."

[the-himawari]

A3! Izumida Azami - Translation [SSR] MANKAI Party (2/3)

*Please read disclaimer on blog

---

Azami: This colour’s limited-edition, but it’s pretty versatile.

Yuki: Ooh. The colour looks quite sharp though?

Azami: I think it depends how you use it. The way it looks surprisingly changes when you apply it to your skin.

Yuki: I see, I see.

Azami: …Alright. That’s all for the shoot. I just gotta pay now, so cut the camera.

Yuki: Got it.

-pause-

Azami: Sorry for the wait, Yuki-san. Thanks for filmin’ today. That seriously helped a ton.

Yuki: …Hey.

Azami: Hm?

Yuki: How’d you think of doing this for your VLOG this time? You were still undecided just a short while ago.

Azami: Ahh… …When I was thinkin’ what I wanted to show my fans, I realized it might be better to show ‘em a side of me they haven’t seen much up ‘til now. So instead of showin’ me as an actor on stage or in an instelive, I thought I’d let everyone see me behind the scenes. …I mean, you introduced your costume room in your VLOG, didn’t you? I got this idea once I saw that…

Yuki: Oh, so you’re plagiarizing me?

Azami: Uh, no. You’re the one who said it wouldn’t be the same even if the themes overlapped, remember?

Yuki: True.

Azami: Geez…

Yuki: Alright, are we done filming your VLOG now?

Azami: Ah, actually, there’s somethin’ else I wanna film once I get back to the dorm…

Yuki: And you want me to film that too, don’t you?

Azami: Pff… I owe you one.

-pause-

Azami: And hup… there.

*places something down*

Yuki: Can I film now?

Azami: Yeah. …This time, what I wanna show everyone is a men’s makeup course using my face.

Yuki: Men’s makeup?

Azami: Well, I say makeup, but it’s gonna be somethin’ that people who normally go to school and such can do. It’s for men, more or less, but I think there’s parts that’ll be practical regardless of gender. Alright, let’s get started. First is the base. For makeup, the most crucial thing is the foundation. It’s important to do some thorough skincare before applyin’ stuff on top.

Yuki: Should we do skincare even at our age?

Azami: It doesn’t matter how old you are. Of course it’s good for your skin now, but that’s not all. It’s for the sake of your future skin too. It’s better to think of it as an investment in your future and do what you can.

Yuki: Hmm. Anyways, that lotion’s a pretty good one, isn’t it?

Azami: Ahh, Azuma-san told me about this one. It goes on sale online sometimes, so I think it’d be better to buy it then rather than pay regular price. Or this one…

Yuki: Ah, I feel like I see that one at the drug store all time. Is that also lotion?

Azami: Yeah. Honestly, the ingredients themselves aren’t all that different from the previous one. But you can get it for a more reasonable price since the ingredients are less concentrated. You’ll still see results if you apply this one daily, so if you’re plannin’ on using it regularly, I don’t see any problems with gettin’ it.

-pause-

Azami: …That’s a wrap.

Yuki: Heh. It was mostly foundation, but with just that, the impression of your face changed quite a bit.

Azami: I know, right? The impression changes since the area around your face looks brighter. I hope lots of people give this a try.

Yuki: At any rate, I didn’t except you to do a daily makeup course. I was sure you were going to talk about stage makeup.

Azami: …My realistic self? I wanted to show somethin’ like that.

Yuki: What do you mean?

Azami: I told you earlier that I thought of showing my behind-the-scenes work after I saw the VLOG with your costume room, right? In the same vein, I remembered Kumon said something like, “I wanna show myself as I am” when I shot his VLOG. I want everyone to get to know what I do all the time and feel closer to me too… you feel?

Yuki: …Hm, not bad. I was able to get a good shot of your face. Should I stop the camera now?

Azami: Ha!? You were still filming!

Yuki: You never told me to stop.

Azami: …I’ll get them to cut that part just now.

---

previous | next

[dudemanauthor]

Peach's Implausible Burgers

Author's Note: This story leads on from The Hunger and A Flowering Appetite, so reading those might help understand a few things, but I think it works fine as a standalone thing (but if you did read those and maybe fave or comment on them, I'd hella appreciate it)

“Okay, gotta get this right, or I’m definitely going to be fired,” Professor Peach mumbled to herself, a hint of concern in her reddish-pink eyes. In front of her, she was moulding together a large number of plant-based burger patties. They looked mostly like regular meat patties, nothing making it look particularly like it wasn’t made of meat. “Alright, alright, those look nice. Thank goodness some of the students are back from their holidays, or maybe they didn’t leave, I don’t know. Maybe this wasn’t the best thing to be testing on myself,” Peach rambled as she wiped her hands off on a paper towel, before patting her belly.

Since Professor Peach wasn’t teaching at the moment, she had ditched her lab coat and gloves and just had her black dress and long boots on. However, she was carrying a couple dozen extra kilos on her, so she was sporting a decently sized doughy belly, her rear was a fair bit plumper than usual and her thighs were being squished as they came out the top of her boots. With her dress being so short already, Peach found herself tugging it down almost constantly in order to keep herself decent. She was just lucky that her dress was so stretchy, otherwise a size-up would be more urgently needed. Still, she had bigger concerns at the moment. Specifically, she was working on the first plant-based burger patty in Remnant that was meant to be indistinguishable from a meat patty in every perceivable way.

“Right, now let’s get some people in,” she muttered as she tapped up an invite on her Scroll to try her burgers, before sending it to 5 random students. She then put her Scroll aside and got to cooking her burgers.

A little while later, the invited girls all arrived in Professor Peach’s classroom and took a seat around a table with a cloth covering a pile of something. It being the only table not covered in plants made it special enough, but the cloth raised a few eyebrows.

“Ooh, I wonder what’s under there. I bet it’s food,” Nora commented.

“I hope it’s food,” Blake added.

“That makes sense, you have been eating more lately,” Weiss commented. Blake suddenly felt a little bit self-conscious about the tiny hint of a muffin top she was sporting nowadays and sucked in her gut.

“Yeah, but I bet you can’t eat as much as me!” Nora bragged, eyeing up Blake.

“Let’s not turn this into a competition, Nora. Remember last time Blake ate a lot?” Pyrrha whispered to Nora. That was when Professor Peach came back in with a tray of burgers, her appearing causing a few wide eyes of shock pointed at her.

“Oh, great, you’re all here, a little bit early too, very good. Now, I’ve got burgers for all of you, have as many as you want.” She lifted the cloth to show the mountain of burgers she had made earlier, adding the fresh ones she had just made to the stack.

As the girls began to eat the burgers, Peach had decided to take a few of them stacked in a little pyramid shape on a cart and carefully rolled the cart back to the kitchen, leaving the five girls to feast as she recalled a small conversation she had had with her good friend and colleague, Professor Goodwitch, not that long ago too.

---

[Two weeks earlier]

"Thumbelina, why are your plants all over the kitchen?!" A strict yet calm feminine voice spoke out as the woman poked her clearly doughty belly making the sleepy professor jolt awake as she looked around and stumbled upon her words.

"Gak! I wasn't day-dreaming…'' Professor Peach then looked at the cross-looking blonde, Glynda Goodwitch, who was keeping a safe distance from the array of blue and black flowers that Peach had set up in the staff kitchen. "Oh hello there Glynda, I was, um, testing out a theory," the professor said as she slowly got up. "Remember when team RWBY accidentally discovered that plant which made their bellies expand."

“All too well. I could hear the commotion in the cafeteria from my office,” Goodwitch complained.

“Well, I have been testing its properties and I wanted to see how it worked and, more importantly whether its properties can be transferred to food to make it more appetising. I thought it would help us sell more burgers and make more money for the Academy during the Vytal festival,” Peach quickly explained, her quick voice being her normal voice rather than her panicked, barely awake one. There was a comment that Goodwitch could have made regarding Peach’s current appearance, but that seemed, perhaps, too rude.

“Well… just make sure you’re experimenting carefully. You don’t want it to be too appealing,” Goodwitch warned. Even though Goodwitch was trying to avoid directly addressing the issue, Peach did pick up on Glynda’s messages, both the spoken and unspoken ones.

“R-right, right. I’ll be careful. Wouldn’t want you to have to roll me out of here,” Peach sheepishly agreed.

“Oh, and please, save me some burgers to try out. I’ve never been much for fast food, but I’m sure you can pull it off.”

---

With Professor Goodwitch’s warnings ringing in her ears, Peach quietly hoped that she had gotten it right this time, and that no one was going to have to be rolled out.

Unfortunately, what was happening back in the classroom was proving that wrong. Burgers were almost literally flying off the carts and into the girls’ mouths. They were tearing through the stack of burgers at a lightning quick pace. To make matters worse, this massive amount of calories was hitting the girls all at once. They were all ballooning up before their very eyes, but they were all so hungry and enjoying the burgers so much that they didn’t even notice what was happening to them.

Blake’s recent gluttony encouraged her to eat the most of all the girls, and it certainly showed as she became the biggest of the girls. Her belly took on the lion’s share of the fat at first, billowing forwards and pushing every button out of the way on its way to freedom as it spilled out onto her lap. Her shorts and top grew incredibly tight as her breasts bloomed and her rear plumped up, catching up with her belly and giving her a larger all-over size. But, unbeknownst to everyone else, Blake had swapped to a stretchier top and shorts, with only her vest being the same as usual. This meant that her increasingly regular binges did not carry a risk of her bursting out of her clothes, even now, as she tripled her starting weight.

Weiss was not far behind in terms of size, as her previous exposure to both The Hunger and the flowers had given her a larger appetite, only she had more self-control around food than Blake, keeping Weiss at her original size without any weight gained. Of course, all that self-control had gone out the window the moment the first burger passed her lips. Before long, plenty of burgers joined that first one, and all of it piled up, making rolls and rolls of fat, straining her top to its limit. It also gave her a ballooning behind, growing large enough that it made her appear to be taller than before, when it was just the extra padding pushing her up. With her widening hips and thickening thighs joining her rear in its growth, her combat skirt was not able to do very much to keep her decent.

Meanwhile, the JNPR girls were also indulging, though not to the same extent that Blake and Weiss were.

Being the most top-heavy to begin with, it was no surprise that Pyrrha remained the most top-heavy as she gained weight. Her increasingly large breasts spilled over her armoured corset, while being pushed up by the corset enough to make them look even larger than they already were. Her comparatively modest belly pushed up against the corset that was keeping it looking so small compared to the other girls, untying the knots that were keeping her corset snug. There was also the generous additions to her rear and thighs, not to the degree that the others had, but still very noticeable by anyone not caught in a gluttonous trance. Fortunately, her miniskirt and shorts were elastic enough to contain her growing lower body, even if the seams were starting to groan and sound like they were ready to give out. Pyrrha’s gains gave her a somewhat hourglass shape, if the hourglass was much larger up top.

Nora, on the other hand, was basically the opposite. Sure, her chest was far from lacking as it filled and stretched out her top, and her rear and thighs were getting nice and plump, but her belly was surging forward with no signs of stopping. The round, doughy mass of a belly ploughed through her vest and escaped, sitting heavily on her lap, spilling over the sides and down over her knees. In terms of sheer size, Nora’s belly was probably only marginally larger than Blake’s, but it looked even larger, as Blake’s gains were more balanced, so she was larger all over, meanwhile Nora’s belly had picked up the vast majority of the fat, so it seemed proportionally bigger than Blake’s.

Without a doubt, this burger binge had made the four girls massively fat. Yet, somehow, the girls had not noticed, as the extracts of the mysterious flower had increased their appetites and stomach capacities while making them singularly focused on eating. Unfortunately, this was exactly what Peach was hoping to avoid.

In the other room, Peach and Goodwitch had worked through their modest pile of burgers. Not having eaten as much as the girls in the classroom, they had not ballooned to such massive weights. Of course, it was too late for Peach to stay slim, and it was too late for Goodwitch too, as after her first taste of Peach’s plant burgers, she was hooked. It was why Goodwitch was now permanently sporting a big, round belly that she knew was going to lead to questions about whether she was pregnant or not, especially since the rest of her was so slim in comparison, not that she was particularly slim nowadays.

“Mmm, Thumbelina, you’ve done it again,” Glynda said, patting her belly, before a long belch rumbled out. “Oof, that’s better.”

“Here’s hoping the girls liked it as much as you did,” Professor Peach said with a smile. “We better check in on them.”

“Especially if they’ve ended up like us,” Goodwitch added, grabbing her fat gut and shaking it to emphasise her point.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure it’s fine. If it’s the problem I had before, then it should be temporary as long as they’re not having the burgers too often,” Peach explained, before leading her colleague out into the classroom. What she saw in there made her jaw drop. The four girls were massive, bigger than Peach had ever accidentally made herself, the groaning from the girls matching their groaning overloaded chairs and groaning stretched out clothes. ‘Oh crap, I’m so fired,’ she thought, bracing for impact from Glynda.

“Oh dear,” Professor Goodwitch started.

“W-wait, Glynda, I-I can fix this…”

“Thumbelina, relax,” Glynda interrupted before Peach could really start to spiral into apologies. “I’m sure you can fix this. Also, this shows that your burgers must be very good. I’m certain that these will be very profitable at the Vytal Festival,” Glynda reassured.

“Right. Right. I’ll just need new test subjects. I don’t think these four would like to stay fat,” Peach commented. “But I’ve got this, I’m sure of it.”

[astorytotellyourfriends]

💌🌈🎀🕯️

💌share something with us about an up-and-coming work (WIP) that has you excited!

ooh! okay! umm i have plans to start writing the summer camp au sometime next month (hopefully maybe later this week but no promises), since it won my moodboard poll from ages ago, and i've plotted about 90% of it at this point and i think it's going to be REALLY interesting to write and a bit of a challenge since it's entirely different from anything i've written before. i'm really excited about it!

🌈is there a fic that you worked *really fucking hard on* that no one would ever know? maybe a scene/theme you struggled with?

you wouldn't know because i haven't worked on it in literal months but the steddie dnd fic that i've basically abandoned (i will finish it someday I WILL) had me tearing my hair out on multiple occasions because my dumb ass really decided that trying to make up a whole campaign - when i have played dnd all of TWICE in my life - was a good idea. lemme just tell you right now - it was not.

🎀give yourself a compliment about your own writing

STOP MAKING ME COMPLIMENT MYSELF IDK WHAT TO SAYYYYY ugh. i like the way i write dialogue, i guess? idk i kinda pride myself on making sure that my dialogue sounds natural and that it flows similar to how people talk to each other in real life. not everybody knows the perfect thing to say all the time, and remembering that from time to time really helps me when i'm struggling with what to write.

🕯️was there a fic that was really hard on you to write, or took you to a place you didn’t think it would take you?

i've had a few fics that took a toll on me, but ultimately i'm glad i wrote them. i've written several that deal with addiction and grief, and while they're hard topics to read about let alone write about, i've always been proud of how they turned out in the long run. i've never regretted writing about hard stuff, because sometimes you just need to. life isn't all sunshine and rainbows all the time, and i know people use fanfic as a way to escape real life but it's also important to remember that writers use their work as a way to cope with things they're going through in their personal lives, and sometimes that means that the story doesn't have a happy ending.

let's get real fic writer asks

[cata-daily]

[WoT]

Written during the second show because I am backstage comm guy (also move stuff but not all the time)

About trying the Cata boss, the wing stars' colours, and Lucy lines

"I OPENED THE ANNOUNCEMENTS CHANNEL DEADASS JUST AS HE SENT A MESSAGE

yk i didnt read the damn message..

but. IM SO EXCITEDDD EYSYSHXBNZMZZMKZK NEW CATA VIDEO WOOOOOOOO"

Earlier today ^^ proof of my sanity yep yep.

This is from a while ago but um: "yeah its great hes super interactive but its also SCARY because i'm lowkey highkey obsessed with him rn"

Like, I could've literally asked him where the Death's Terminus infinite flight comes from but nooo instead I was a coward and struggled for almost an hour trying to figure it out, continually dying then giggling at how the npc gets yeeted to the ground after flying

I also thought it was far too funny when a blue slime just jumped on him, did 14 damage, and killed him in one hit. Seems the npc just waves his arm at enemies and not much else

After much struggle getting 1.3 to load for some reason, I can now skill issue at the Cata boss. It's super fun even though I suck and haven't gotten past the first phase :)

Space moment. Also Shadow Clone sprite jumpscare. No idea why she stuck around and killed me twice. Ssure I set the respawn time fast, but non-Shadow Cata just turns back into the npc

Ooh also. About the stars on his wings changing colours:

Mage=purple, I saw from most of Infernum

Ranger=dark cyan kinda? From the eol and You videos

Melee=grey? From the like and subscribe animation, if slap hand counts as melee..

Summoner=light blue, from the Golem Infernum video where he used the Gastric Belcher staff thing

Nuclear Option=rainbow, confirmed

Though when I looked at them during the Nameless Deity fight where he was using the Fabstaff, they were grey.. And Fabstaff is a magic weapon, so ehhh I don't know

I didn't know where he'd use a summon weapon, or at least hold it for a few seconds, then, lying in bed:

And I went to sleep because sleepy. Then, the next morning:

The sad thing is I considered it earlier in the day and actually remembered that the vanity broke

I'm was considering having a line for Lucy when he gets his vanity in my ptw animatic, then had the idea that she would have a literal pickup line because it's silly. But also looking up tree pickup lines was a bit disappointing.

"Cata, I tried coming up with some pickup lines about chopping trees but I'm stumped"

Was the one I was thinking of. Speaking of Lucy lines, here are the ones I know that he's changed them to:

"Come on, Mothy boi, Let's go chop some trees."

"What's the best thing to use against a tree? THE NUCLEAR FREAKING OPTION!"

I haven't written it down so this may not be correct: "I wish I could possess things like Shadow..." um probably something about making people chop trees?

"Hey Sprocket... Want to go chop trees with me?"

Yippee show 2! Yesterday we sold out seats on a Thursday which is rare, not sure sbout today, but tomorrow is sold out too. My back is in p a i n from lifting a sofa, tables, a rowing machine, an absolutely dumb wooden stage, and stacked stools

As usual thank you for reading my rambles c:

[musicarenagh]

Austin Willacy: Bringing Hope Through Music With 'Gonna Be Alright' Welcome my music fam! Brace yourselves for the best energy that descends from Austin Willacy himself. This singers's new EP titled "Gonna Be Alright" is just purely what we need right now which is motivating and truth be told uplifting songs to keep us happy always. For the past twenty years, Willacy has been dropping pure musical magic and we are glad about that. He went from harmonizing with his dad on the recorder years ago to playing along with legends on huge stages, and his story could not be more of an epic. Not only that, but what I like most about his latest work is the authenticity and warmth to it. Every tune on "Gonna Be Alright" brings as if it's Willacy making the music with you, and making physical contact, you know what I mean. With their catchy tunes and powerful message, they invite you to take an amazing journey through self-love and resilience. It's sort of an album you put on when you need a little reminder that, in spite of all the mess that is going on, in the end everything will be okay. This interview showcases the man himself and the mind behind this musical ray of sunrays. We're talking about creativity behind the songs, stories from the roads, and the whole idea. Strap in and let's run to Willacy's musical world all at once. Whether you have been a loyal fan for long or just awakened to his sound, you must give "Gonna Be Alright" a try. This EP serves as a soundtrack for life with its heady beats and you'll end up rejuvenated and ready to take on the world.Let's dive in! Listen to Gonna Be Alright below https://open.spotify.com/album/5TLWGK1LabLEqjcyGnXFbb?si=yisFmZDVTtqMOdRd0BbcPg Follow Austin Willacy on Facebook Spotify Soundcloud Youtube Instagram What is your stage name?  Austin Willacy Is there a story behind your stage name? “Austin” is my first name.  My parents called me “Keith”--my middle name–when I was growing up. I always loved my dad’s signature, and modeled mine after his, with a flamboyant “A” before my middle and last names.  A lot of people asked me what the “A” stands for and asked if they could call me “Austin”. I’ve always liked the name and always said “sure”. 90% of those people forgot and continued calling me “Keith”.  One of the 10% happened to be the guy who introduced me onstage for a while. He introduced me by my full name, but people started calling me “Austin”, and I liked it. Where do you find inspiration? Sometimes I find inspiration in a word or a phrase. Sometimes I’m moved to write something I read about in the news or by a character in a book I’m reading or a movie I’ve seen.  Sometimes I find it when I’m goofing around. Often, I find it when I’m playing guitar and make a compelling mistake. I’ll mess up and then be like “Ooh! That’s cool!” Then, I just keep asking myself “What comes next?!” I try to follow that initial spark of creation as far as it lights the way. As I’ve gotten more into music production over the past few years I’ve started to find inspiration in beats and textures that tickle my imagination and make me wonder “What comes next?!” What was the role of music in the early years of your life? My earliest musical memory is playing recorder duets with my dad. There was something incredibly sweet about that. I feel like I can still kinda remember the melody of my part–the higher part. After recorder, I took piano lessons for 5 years and played clarinet for a year and sax for 4 years before I quit. After a point, I fell out of love with the music my teacher was having me play.  She wanted me to focus on more traditional music and I wanted to play songs I’d heard on the radio. I didn’t want to practice, and that was that. I never had that sweet, warm feeling I got from the recorder duet when I was playing anything else. My parents listened to a lot of great music, Motown, Bill Withers, Earth, Wind & Fire, blues, and Stevie Wonder. There was always music playing in the car, and when we’d have family game nights.

I heard different music at some of my friends’ houses and loved a lot of it. My ears were wide open. Are you from a musical or artistic family? Yes, and no. My mom loves theater and museums, and both of my parents love music. I grew up hearing them sing along with their favorite songs and seeing them dance at parties or when they loved the song that was playing. My dad even had a short-lived band in college, King Bee & the Yellowjackets. He was King Bee.  They loved music and knew that knowing how to play and read music would help me be a better rounded person. I don’t think either one of them had any idea that I would fall in love with music so deeply. Who inspired you to be a part of the music industry? There wasn’t any one person. I joined a band that had a lot of gigs. In the middle of one of our tours, we had a gig at The Bitter End in NY.  Kenny Gorka was kind enough to let us know there would be some industry peeps in the house that night. We did a killer show and wound up the subject of a minor bidding war.  We got signed to a major label and suddenly, I was in the music industry. I had spent zero time thinking about it before that all happened. How did you learn to sing/write/to play? Because I played instruments so young I feel like I’ve always been familiar with the architecture for some of the basics of pitch, rhythm, and harmony, but I didn’t study it when I was a kid.  I’d officially quit making music the summer before 10th grade. But 2 years later, I got pressured into joining the school chorus by a girl I had a huge crush on. I didn’t want to suck, so I sang a lot during the summer before senior year. In choir, I got put in an octet to sing a barbershop song and was completely floored by what was possible with just 8 voices and 4 parts. I went to college and got into an a cappella group that rehearsed 6-7 hours a week. And suddenly, though I’d only been singing for a year and a half, my range grew rapidly and I started exploring my voice.  I’ve never taken voice lessons, so I guess you could say I’m self-taught, however; I’ve spent a lot of time around very talented singers and tried to absorb as much as I could from them. Every now and then, I’d be moved and I’d write a song, usually for my girlfriend, but I didn’t consider myself a songwriter. I was inspired enough by my experience in the a cappella group that I took music theory so I could learn to arrange music for us to perform.  It was here that I was able to concretize a lot of the stuff I’d been exposed to as a kid that I understood on an instinctual level. [caption id="attachment_54826" align="alignnone" width="1200"] I was inspired enough by my experience in the a cappella group that I took music theory so I could learn to arrange music for us to perform.[/caption] Singing in the a cappella group eventually led me to sing in bands. Because I wanted more agency, and more power in determining the repertoire, I started playing bass. I took 2 months of bass lessons in Cleveland and started writing a LOT when I went back to college.  Suddenly, riffs and chord progressions and melodies and lyrics were just kinda flying out of me. When I decided to take my writing seriously I dissected my lyrics and decided they were too literal and analytical and set about liberating my lyrics. I spent my lunch breaks working and reworking my lyrics and my evenings singing and playing bass for 2-5 hours. Eventually, when I started touring in an a cappella group, I switched to acoustic guitar so I could have more harmonic information to work with in my writing, and because basses are heavy AF and I didn’t want to lug an amp, too.  I’m self-taught on guitar, but I was lucky enough to spend a lot of time around some excellent acoustic guitar players who opened my mind to how much was possible. What was the first concert that you ever went to and who did you see perform? I saw James Brown! He almost never stopped moving. He was a whirling dervish of funk and soul.

He shrieked and keened and hollered and begged and testified and sweated and sweated and danced and danced and it was INCREDIBLE! Thanks Dad! How could you describe your music? I love a lot of different genres of music. Usually, the music that seems to want to come out of me blends rock, pop, blues, and soul. The messages I express in my music are often about empowerment, hope, dignity, self- acceptance, love, and interdependence. Sometimes I share interpersonal observations or offer broader cultural reflections.  Depending on the nature of what I’m expressing, both lyrically and energetically, I'm drawn to lean more or less heavily into a genre and follow the inexorable pull as far as it takes me. As often as possible, I want my music to actively support whoever chooses to sing the lyrics. Describe your creative process. I try to start with whatever is pulling on my attention the hardest. Sometimes it’s a lyric or a lyric attached to a piece of a melody. Sometimes I'm playing guitar and a riff or a chord progression finds me. I do my best  to keep listening to whatever wants to come.  I love that feeling of being pulled and getting into a flow state. Time disappears and it’s just Yes/And…I follow that pull as far as it'll take me. I’ve learned to honor the powerful  singularity of that moment of genesis; I have to tune in to it in that moment or else I can almost never find it again, which can be incredibly disappointing.  That moment is almost like a glowing power up in a video game that’s only active for a certain period of time.  I always try to let each of my modes of expression inform each other, in real time. So, I may start with a lyric and then jump to a chord progression which leads me to a bassline which leads me to a drum groove which suddenly liberates a melody with more words.  As I’ve gotten more into music production, I’ve been able to draw inspiration from a broader spectrum of sources. There are more voices I get to listen to in this “conversation.” (Laughs) And now I recognize how frickin’ weird  all of this might sound. Oh well! What is your main inspiration? I draw a lot of inspiration from people in my life who I love deeply. Sometimes familial-ly, sometimes romantically, sometimes friends who’re going through something that inspire me to whom I want to offer extra support. I'm also inspired by the beauty and the ugliness of the times in which we live and the fact that so many people in the world have so much and are persuaded to believe we have so little, that we are so little…I guess a lot of what inspires me is trying to create space for healing and reconnection, for/with myself and for/with others. What musician do you admire most and why? I have a HUGE amount of admiration for Bruno Mars. He does it all. He plays, sings, and dances his ass off. He doesn't take himself too seriously.He writes incredible songs for himself and for/with others. Even after he became a superstar, he was still willing to do great music written by others. He created a whole new project with Anderson Paak based on a joke they shared on tour. He's able to pay tribute to his influences without ever losing the powerful originality of his own voice. Did your style evolve since the beginning of your career? I don't know that my style has evolved so much since the beginning of my career. My first album is pretty eclectic, and I still write songs I love and variety of genres. That said, I feel more confident tightening the parameters of what I’m writing when I want to.  I also feel confident owning the diversity of musical expressions that comes through me at others. I've also learned to not take myself so seriously; the fate of the world does not hinge on the lyrics, the mix or the chord progression of anything I've ever worked on. So I can't necessarily say my style has evolved, but i guess I can say I have. Who do you see as your main competitor? Interesting question. I don’t think of any person as competition. I think it ultimately all boils down to access.

Right now, the most daunting competitor is the overwhelming volume of content that’s readily available at a moment’s notice. And all of it is vying for attention from people who have limited time and who have devices of infinite distraction on--or near--their person, almost all the time.  Some artists have access to millions of people. Most of us don’t. What are your interests outside of music? I love travel. I love strategy games and word games. I love falling into one-on-one conversations where It feels like time stops. I love cooking with friends. I love going out for great food. I love dancing to great live music and old school hip hop. I love playing with kids. Somehow, no matter where I go, they all seem to want to jump on me! I love reading and listening to well narrated audio books. I love going to movies. https://open.spotify.com/artist/3AeBm4fsHBtIqBgkIYff6l?si=SaW0L2zrRjqIglWuN5eEbQ If it wasn't a music career, what would you be doing? If I wasn't a musician I would either be an actor, photographer, or filmmaker. Much to my parents’ chagrin, those are also unlikely to be lucrative. (Laughs) Why did you choose this as the title of this project? I chose “Gonna Be Alright” as the title of my EP because–in addition to being the title of a song the EP that I adore–it ties together the themes of all of the songs on the EP.  . Do you have any artistic collaboration plans? I do! One of the things I love about where I am as an artist is that my engineering and production skills make it possible for me to collaborate with artists in a lot of different genres.  I have a handful of people I collaborate on a regular basis, and I just met some amazing artists at the Durango Songwriters Expo that I can’t wait to work with! What message would you like to give to your fans? Thank you for taking the time to listen to me and for sharing my music with those who are dear to you. Having an audience is a privilege, not a right.  Thank you for honoring me with your attention.

[solomons-poison]

Hi Tarren! I read (and read and read and re-) your Geto Suguru + 'Sharing a kiss on new year's eve' and my oh my did it set off sparks (only good ones I promise 😉). It was a complete suprise but all the more welcomed after shedding tears from that fic which I shall not name again 😅 Now let me paint a picture for you.

12 days ago at an indeterminate time, I was listening to an old podcast that was discussing kissing at new years. I then retired for the night and began to dream. I do not remember all of the details but it was a sad dream about me struggling to make irl friends and I woke up with tears in my eyes. Wanting to take my mind off it, I decided to check my Tumblr and was met with this fic of yours 🙂

I immediately related to the reader from the get-go when they were nervous about spending time with their crush as well as worried about joining in a group that already have an established dynamic with each other. When you included the group sharing stories about encounters with weird curses, my mind went straight to that one curse suguru had that liked to kiss a lot 😂 Seeing how nothing was extremely damaged and nobody seemed to have sore feelings, I am going to assume they were not playing Mario kart 🤣 I can't think of a horror movie that would make me laugh at the monsters or the terrible sequel so I ask, what did you have in mind when writing that line? 😮

The brief cooking disaster brought me back to when my mom had something on fire on the stove (we both panicked but she was able to smother the fire) and when my dad had somehow set a part of the kitchen floor on fire (did not even realise until minutes after sitting in front of the tv when I see a flicker in the figured glass door in my peripheral vision but luckily it only was on the surface level of the floor so we lived with a kitchen that had different coloured laminated kitchen tiles till we moved out 🤔). What was your brief cooking disaster if I may ask? 😀 The group going outside for a break with sparklers and talking about a temple visit was nice but I cannot help but think satoru would go more buck wild with the fireworks. I think he would love this heart shaped one that spins and lights it behind shoko and suguru while they are focused on their sparklers 😈 (You get a cookie if you recognise the anime reference hahaha XD).

My favourite non dialogue line would have to be 'As the last minute ticked down, he looked over at you, and just that single moment of eye contact got your heart racing'. The anticipation may have been fictional but felt real to me 😊 The kiss was definitely thrilling and short lived (just like the fireworks *drum sound* ba dum tss~). Finally, I have one more question to ask before I end this feedback ask. ...What was shoko's drink choice? Okay, Talk to you later ^///^!

Haha well I had to make it up to you after making something that sad, I'm glad it was to your liking!!! And ooh sounds like this was good timing then! Definitely the three of them, Gojo and Geto and Shoko, are such an iconic trio, so I could imagine sticking a fourth person in there would be strange. But I also see Gojo and Shoko as being happy for any kind of company, the more the merrier!

Honestly they could be playing all sorts of video games. I doubt any of them had a Nintendo DS 😂 but New Super Mario Bros came out in 2006, which is when Hidden Inventory takes place! So if you want to imagine that, they could be playing that! However I do see them playing older classics too, like Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Dig Dug. Can you imagine them sharing an old Atari platform? 🤭 or maybe one of them even has a Game Boy Advance!

As for bad horror movies, I could see them watching the classics, too, particularly Shoko. After dealing with curses in real life, I feel like most movie monsters wouldn't bother them, especially older stuff with really obvious costumes and effects. But I can imagine them even watching stuff like The Ring and then trying to scare one of the others while it's playing

And oh my goodness! Honestly I wouldn't put it past the trio to accidentally cause a cooking fire. It could be anything, such as burning the food, realizing too late that they don't have enough/the right cooking utensils, don't have enough bowls, etc. So they have to use something definitely not intended for cooking

Ooh that sounds really familiar but I'm not sure on the anime :o whats the name? And haha maybe if he wasn't on school grounds, Gojo might go a little crazy with fireworks. But I'm not sure on Japan's laws on firework use, especially by regular citizens, so I wanted to be a little tame lol. And haha I wanted that little moment of tension. The last seconds of the year counting down, eye contact with your crush, and just that one little action changing everything~

I was going to say sake since she's a drinker and it's a holiday 😂 but we'll just go with some unsweetened chilled green tea, since she's not into sweets :3