#rock salt intro

[annlillyjose]

Rock Salt – WIP Intro

hello again! on today’s news, your girl has a new wip aka something to fixate on and mould her life around for the next couple of months (or years). and because i cannot keep any exciting news to myself, here’s a wip intro.

but before we head into that, here’s a little backstory to how it happened. i finished writing dairy whiskey, i worried about my brain being incapable of forming new book ideas, two to three days after i get this new book idea that i’m totally hooked on, struggles to find a name, names it, decides to go forward with it, so again, here it is – rock salt!

here are the specifics:

disclaimer: this is an original work of fiction. plagiarism of any kind will not be tolerated. don’t be a pathetic loser.

genre: literary fiction

pov: first person retrospective

structure: probably going to be just full-length chapters

projected word count: 50k

concept: identical twins rain and norah move out of their family home for college where they purse two different degrees, live with different people in separate homes, and fall in troubles of their own. these begin to affect each other and they grow apart, being forced to navigate the the most confusing part of their lives – their shared existence as twins.

aesthetics/vibes: indigo skies, the beach, moths, seawater, salty breeze, chopping off one’s hair because existential crisis and queerness, lesbian relationships, house parties, fire, gloomy days where you feel like it’s going to rain but it doesn’t, cheap housing, bad grades, rotten food in the fridge, the moon, hanging plants, weed and local flowers

CHARACTERS

if you’ve heard these names before, no you haven’t, but again, they’re from twinepathy – the short story i wrote nearly three years back and scrapped afterwards. i tried to create new characters for this book but they feel like the perfect fit, so here they are.

norah

18

lesbian, she/they

her real name is eleanor

the protagonist and the narrator

studies political science

shoulder-length black hair, dark brown eyes, 5'3, skinny, wheat-coloured skin

always wears basic t-shirts or sweatshirts with a pair of mom jeans

distant, secretive, in constant disapproval of everything

strives on academic validation (and is being too hard on herself to bring in good grades)

rain

also 18

aroace, she/her

her real name is lorraine

studies painting and the applied arts

long black hair, dark brown eyes, 5'3, skinny, wheat-coloured skin

is a goofball, sunshine and rainbows, has a lot of friends, is extremely talented in her art, golden retriever energy with some drama to be unleashed

cannot keep her mouth shut so ends up in trouble with norah

don’t want to introduce them officially, because they’re not key characters, but here’s a little info on their older sisters –

harper

23

is called harp

is a high school geography teacher

engaged to her college boyfriend

oldest child in an asian household (i guess that’s saying enough)

violet

21

is called viv

the neglected middle child

in her last year of a nursing degree

wanted to study music but was too scared to bring it up to her parents and ended up being stuck at a hospital

plans to go abroad and marry a rich guy

well, that’s all i’ve got for you today. i haven’t started writing this book yet and i think i won’t until i finish editing dairy whiskey in august. i think i’ll start in september and then hopefully do nanowrimo for it in november. i’m super excited to work on it because it’s so different from dairy whiskey in a lot of aspects. but i’m discovery writing (as always) and we’ll just have to see where it goes. but until i come back with an update for this book, you take care, stay hydrated, water your plants, and eat a second dessert tonight.

– ann

general taglist (ask to be added or removed)

@shaonsim @heartfullkings @vnsmiles @dallonwrites @wannabeauthorclive @sienna-writes @violetpeso @flip-phones @silassghost @ambidextrousarcher @zoe-louvre @writing-with-l @magic-is-something-we-create @femmeniism @frozenstillicide @wizardfromthesea @rose-bookblood @coffeeandcalligraphy @rodentwrites @saltwaterbells @snehithiye @at-thezenith

[worldsidiot]

Prankster Reader with Class 1-A: because peace was never an option

CW: suggestive themes after the cut

🃏Putting a little dot-sticker on Iidas glasses, which looked like a specle of dust. Poor boy was trying to rub it off the entire time.

🃏A Classic: Switching up salt and pepper, which caused Momos teaparty and baking to turn into chaos.

🃏putting pink dye in Denkis shampoo when he claimed to be the King prankster of the shool. He rocked that Patrick Star look for weeks.

🃏Asking Shouto what would happen, if he placed hot oil and ice in his mouth at the same time.

🃏Placing Fake insects in the kitchen. Kirishima broke out a whistle note, when he saw the giant spider.

🃏Sneaking into the teachers lounge and asking Allmight nicely that you had important news for entire school. The gulable teacher announced them of course. Big Mistake- You started playing the pornhub drums intro and the whole facility whooped and laughed. Even Music Man lost his mind. The biggest surprise was, that you could bullshit your way out of trouble by saying "What is wrong about that nice melody?" .Cue Aizawa raising his eyebrows and saying it´s inappropriate. "But why, Sir? Where is it from?" -gaslight, gatekeep and boss around!

🃏Setting up an obnoxious alarm in bakahoes phone, after he talked smack about you. Him being absolutely flabbergasted when sounds of moaning and clapping started in the middle of Allmights class. Boy was so red when everyone and their mother looked at him. Noone, not even Midoriya, has seen him stumbling and cursing like that, when he desperately tried to turn his phone off.

🃏placing an Allmight themed thong in the boys bathroom and watching the chaos unfold. Everyone was side-eying Midoriya for days.

[k-atsukibakugou]

Mercury your event is SO cute I’m actually obsessed! I’m such a beer girlie, but if I had to pick a drink it’s gotta be a jägerbomb! And for the character you pick because I want you to be as free as possible I’m ready for anything👀

ehehehe i was a lil cheeky with this one, i leaned more into the leave you wanting more vibe with the jagerbomb also im sorry for the lack of beer i've never met a beer or cider i've liked LMAO i was going to make this endeavor but the more i wrote it the more it worked better with bakugou but i hope u like it!! teehee birthday bash intro + rules + menu | event masterlist

anyone who wasn’t a couple jagerbombs deep could tell you how bad of an idea jagerbombs are at an work party, but when you work at one of the most popular bars in musutafu, it’s more a rite of passage.

not even here a year, your work-best friend was the very first to inform you of the notorious annual work party, how messy they get, how she’d gone home with the chef one year, and how many servers had crashed in the booths over the years. finally, the time had come for the party, your friend already abandoning you to flirt with the chef again, although, you couldn’t play the morally high act about it when all your attention was on your boss behind the counter.

walking behind the bar, you perused the liquor on offer, mostly mid-tier stuff, but god, did the imported stuff look good right about now, something smooth to take your mind off of him. fuck, why’d he have to roll his sleeves up like that? his forearm muscles enough to make you wonder what else lies beneath that damn shirt, an endless expanse of muscles underneath a wife-pleaser singlet, thick thighs caged in his expensive slacks.

“need some help?” lost in your daydream, bakugou is beside you before you realise how long you’ve been ogling him, your indecisive daze in front of the alcohol drawing his attention (any excuse to talk to you, really). you’re nowhere near drunk enough for him to be this close, to get this messy. yet.

“you don’t have my beer on tap.” his eyes nearly roll back at your sweet tone, your gentle teasing that’s been driving him up the wall for months. he stays steadfast, dark garnet eyes unwavering, despite the top you’d worn specifically for them to wander.

“let me make it up to you,” he takes another step closer, the expensive scent of his cologne filling your lungs when he reaches around you for the distinct green bottle, trapping you between his biceps for a fleeting moment, “we’ll do something i used to have in my party days.”

grabbing two pint glasses and two shot glasses, you watch him work with the kind of swiftness and expertise decades behind a bar could give a man, every twist of his wrist calculates, not a single drop of jagermeister or redbull spilling, even when the latter threatened to bubble over the top of the glass.

“you used to do jagerbombs?” you can’t help but sound incredulous, your eyebrows shooting up to your hairline when you accept the drink from him. mesmerised as he pours his own, you try to imagine him younger, chugging back the bomb, swallowing shot after shot, stumbling home in the am. even in your daydream, his hair had speckles of salt through the blond of his hair, the silver fox look worked too well for him to see him any other way.

“why are you so shocked? i was twenty once.”

“it’s hard to imagine you… like that.”

“like what?”

“you know, a party animal, i can only see you drinking bourbon on the rocks.” he chuckles at the memories, of sleepless nights, of horrendous hangovers.

“i could still drink you under the table.” he challenges, already reaching to pour another, you try not to laugh in his face, the image of your all-powerful boss drunk and stumbling was something you’d pay to see. with a smile you could only describe as evil, hot, you clinked your drink with his before knocking it back, “sure you can, old man.”

after too many bombs, an assortment of other shots, some cocktail bakugou poured you and a sip (you weren’t game enough to have more of it, there’s a reason you weren’t a bartender) of the one you poured him, the pair of you stumbled into his office at the back of the bar. half the buttons are undone on his shirt, your hands sliding beneath the hem of his shirt even when he pulled away from you long enough to unlock the door, pulling you inside with him and nudge it closed once more before turning all his attention back to you; the way you stared up at him with glassy eyes, the way your lipstick smudged under your bottom lip, how your chest heaved (the way your tits looked when you did), how your dress rode up when you pulled yourself onto his desk, tugging him in by his belt loops.

he can’t even find it in him to care about the time-sheets crinkling under your ass when you bite your lip, can’t care you’re his employee and his mind goes blank of everything when you wrap your thighs around his hips. fuck, you’re irresistible like this; arching into him, kissing and biting his jaw, one hand tugging your dress further up your thighs, the other working off his belt to slide into his slacks, searching for more and more, more he wants to give you.

you’re just so, so, so hot… and he’s soft. he’s fucking soft. he finally has you under him and he can’t get it up.

let’s hope the alcohol buzzing through your blood is enough to clear your memory of this in the morning.

[yourdeepestfathoms]

things i think could kill Ocean O’Connell Rosenberg

Toast popping out of the toaster when it’s done

Warrior Cats MAPs

Ice dispensers on refrigerators

A Roomba

Automatic toilets

Amber Alerts

Tornado sirens

TV cutting to static

Lawnmowers

McDonald’s Sprite

School fire alarms

Drinking orange juice after brushing her teeth

Drinking water after having a mint

Specifically the yellow Warheads

Biting ice the wrong way

Gacha Heat

A trip to Hooters

A trampoline

A 4D theater

Metal detectors

Pop Rocks

One Gusher

Pools that smell too much like chlorine

Roman Holiday by Nicki Minaj

Temple Run

Pickle juice

A FNaF jumpscare

Touching an electric fence

One singular sour Skittle

Any part of a video game where the controller vibrates

The mere smell of sea salt and vinegar chips

Sparkling water

A tanning bed

One drop of Diet Coke

Hot tubs that are a little too hot

The performance for Hibikase x Echo (she’d see Miku break out of the screen and would DIE)

Also the performance for Bring It On (her little heart couldn’t take all that energy)

Honestly attending a whole Vocaloid concert would end her

A haunted house

A firecracker

You know those things you throw on the ground and they pop? Those

The sound of a firework exploding

Police sirens

Thunder that’s so loud it shakes the whole building

A wave pool at a water park

8D music

Axe body spray

One glance into Victoria’s Secret

A Bath and Body Works store

A single sip of Fireball

The back of Spencer’s

A York Peppermint Patty

Discord light mode

The concept of a mommy/daddy kink

Driving in a car with all the windows down

One hour in direct sunlight

A dog barking at her once

Not chewing up a chip enough so one of the chip shards scrapes down her throat

Maybe a roller coaster? idk though

American Horror Story’s intro

What Does The Fox Say

That part in Silent Hill 3 where Heather throws up the fetus of God and then Claudia eats it

Patting her back too hard

Thirty minutes of Subnautica

Biting ice cream with her front teeth

The “Dead Dove: Do Not Eat” tag on AO3

A brain freeze

Dark chocolate

Any smut fanfiction

The cinnamon challenge

Putting food in her mouth when it’s still too hot so her mouth gets burned

An ice bath

Stubbing her toe

Not being able to refer to an adult as “sir/ma’am”

A mean word

Being yelled at

Any Mr. Nightmare video

That part in Oxenfree where the screen flips upside down

Being shocked

One of these

[7grandmel]

Todays rip: 08/02/2024

mlp racism anthem (comix zone arrange)

Season 5 Featured on: SiIvaGunner's Highest Quality Rips: Volume GS

Ripped by KnightOfGames

Requested by Corb! (Discord)

When I initially read the request asking for this to be covered (reminder - google form is on the pinned post!), I noticed something really interesting in the note the requestee attached. mlp racism anthem (comix zone arrange), as you may note by the initial acronym in the title, is a rip based on a joke from the My Little Pony franchise - and the requestee noted that the franchise had seen surprisingly little coverage on this blog despite being such a big part of the channel. And yeah: to my knowledge Determination is Magic is still the only directly MLP-related rip to be featured on the blog, with Field of Love and Cringe and SING A SONG ABOUT HOPES AND DREAMS as...edgecases, I guess. But it wasn't until I got this request that I started thinking...yeah, MLP HAS been a pretty big part of SiIvaGunner since its beginning, hasn't it?

Thing is, though, back in the early days of the channel, it always felt to me as if the MLP-posting was sort of...not meant to be taken seriously - to be taken as part of "cringe culture" rather than as actual appreciation of the show. The example that always sticks out to me is JoJo Wrap Up (My Little JoJo: Friendship is Manly), an early Season 2 rip that presents itself as a JoJo's Bizarre Adventure rip before bait-and-switching to a mashup of one of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic's many cheerful, peppy, "cringe" songs. Given that the time around 2016/early 2017 was effectively the very peak of cringe culture, you can imagine for yourself what the outcome was - it became the third-most disliked video on the entire channel, with comments filled with salt from fans of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure cursing the very idea of combining their favorite franchise with MLP. Combined with the fact that JoJo fans were already getting plenty messed with intentionally by the SiIva team back in the day, as I covered in Hen'yoku no Piraman, and you get a pretty prominent example of the typical way MLP was treated back in early SiIvaGunner. A popular, cringe and gay kids show, and therefor prime material for trolling and nothing more.

As the years went on, as the team matured (and those who failed to were kicked off), and as the internet landscape as a whole changed for the better - you got the sense that My Little Pony was gradually becoming more of a sincere household name on the channel. Sure, its presence wasn't all *too* much higher than it had been in the past, but the act of using the show for trolling or intentionally-bad rips had all but ceased entirely overtime - which is, of course, how we got excellent rips like Determination is Magic. More than that, though - we in the audience were slowly made to realize that the SiIvaGunner team had several people on it who were far bigger fans of the show than we'd ever been led to believe.

Because sure, ripping the Friendship is Magic intro theme, ripping Winter Wrap-Up, sampling the show's most memetic clips in YTPMVs - that's all well and good. But mlp racism anthem (comix zone arrange) is something else entirely - an arrangement of one of the SEVERAL songs featured in the My Little Pony: A New Generation movie, which released just *three days* prior to the rip itself. There's not a hint of irony in sight, no popular song that Danger, Danger seeks to "ruin", and it isn't even using a song that's particularly popular within the nostalgic part of MLP's fandom. Much like the rip 88811, one that remains an all-time favorite for me, mlp racism anthem (comix zone arrange) is nothing more but a killer Genesis arrangement of a fantastic song. Part of the appeal of Danger, Danger in the A New Generation movie to begin with is that, it's the sole hard-rocking track of its kind in a movie otherwise filled with pop and cheer (the "racism anthem" of the title is referring to how Danger, Danger is the movie's villain song). Which in turn makes it a perfect fit for the soundscape of Comix Zone - there's nothing the Genesis does quite so well as rendering the sound of shredding guitars, and KnightOfGames utilizes it to absolutely fantastic effect here.

I'll likely be covering a good few more rips using the My Little Pony franchise in the future, and I'm really glad this submission alone reminded me of just how prevalent the series really is on the channel nowadays. With those bitter, cynical years far behind us, SiIvaGunner is able to stand proud, with full sincerity, as a celebration of ALL parts of internet pop culture - the concept of "cringe" be damned!

[why-so-serious-lucifer]

K-pop Discography Deep Dives: Only One Of (Supplemental)

A Disclaimer: I was planning, when I first started Tumblr, to be a lurker, but then I began an office job and needed something to listen to to keep myself occupied. And then, I started going through entire K-pop groups’ repertoires, album by album, and jotting down my thoughts. And then, I stumbled into K-pop tumblr and decided, you know what, there’s at least four people on this hell site who would read in depth rants about these discographies and at least five who wouldn’t read it and then get mad because it’s kind of our job as K-pop fans. My lukewarm takes should be taken with an entire silo of salt and the knowledge that this is completely for fun and occupying my very bored, very neurodivergent brain. All this to say, for the love of god, I’m a sleep-deprived student and I don’t have time for internet hate, so don’t kill me. With that being said, enjoy!

So, since I’ll probably be tackling some groups with large discographies, both now and in the future, I thought it’d be good to shine lights on some smaller groups and soloists who either aren’t as popular and/or have much smaller repertoires, so that’s what we’re doing today! These are going to be a lot more chill than my deep dives because they’re really more of a fun break than anything else.

Here are my credentials: I’d already been a fan of SHINee for a while before, but it was actually OnlyOneOf that helped me realize that I wasn’t just a girl group stan and SHINee weren’t just a one-off. I’m mainly a fan of their Underground Idol solos series so I’m looking forward to hearing more of their other titles and b-sides. Let’s do this!

OnlyOneOf debuted in 2019 with seven members: Love, Nine, Yoojung, Rie, KB, Junji, and Mill (Love left in 2021). They’re most known for their…concept in a way? Basically, for basing their music around queerness, while not stating their actual orientations. This is thorny territory, as k-pop is infamous for its shipping and fanservice-heavy culture, which we could argue about until we’re so blue in the face that we’d be mistaken for smurfs. Is it queerbaiting? Is it representation? I know what I believe, but is that “right”? I don’t know. Either way, it’s important to keep in mind (even as I’m going to praise them for the good work they’ve done) that what they’re doing is, at the end of the day, proving profitable.

We start off with Savanna, which has one hell of a music video intro. The song is more subdued than I’m used to from their later singles, but with a similar subject matter. It gives me Taemin vibes with its self-assured sexuality, but speaking of sexuality, what would later make them famous is basically non-existent here. I do like this song, especially the slowed-down reverb and distortion, but it’s not especially unique, and it didn’t have a lot of staying power with me. I love the drama of the visuals though—I’m a sucker for cathartically lighting things on fire. (For the FBI agents reading this, I promise that that was a joke.)

From the Dot Point Jump single, I enjoyed the chill soft-rock of Time Leap, which absolutely did have staying power for me and I added it to my playlist. I really liked that chorus, and by the end of the first one, I was in. I think their voices both blend better and feel more unique in this one than in the title, which is probably another reason I liked it so much. Blossom I enjoyed less but it reminded me more of what I’m used to from them.

Sage is up next, and again we have a really odd MV intro. A lot has changed since Savanna—now, the song has much more sing-talk, feels more disjointed in terms of when the tempo changes, and it has a greater focus on the cyberpunk citypop vibes than before. It also adds a greater sense of drama with the slight strings and the control in the voices. It took me a few listens but I like this one too, more than Savanna, and I can see how the singles are slowly shifting to become the OnlyOneOf they are today.

Line Sun Goodness is a pretty solid EP, and I enjoyed the whistling hook in Boss, the chill guitar in Desert, and the breathy layers of vocals in Only One Of Me (which was my favorite). However, the songs, despite the few quirks I mentioned before, sound very similar to each other. None of them are bad, but none of them stick out either.

Dora Maar goes even further in the direction that Sage began, with its harsh background clanging, its heavy use of percussion, and reliance on more intentional frying in the vocals. I wasn’t as big a fan of this one as Sage, to be honest, because I felt like it went from the calmer (yet still fried) parts to the harsher ones, and I got a bit of whiplash.

Angel was a song that I’d heard before, but I actually had no idea that it was by OnlyOneOf. It’s catchy from the outset, and has a self-aware humor that I could get behind. It’s also softer than their usual titles, and that little bit of vulnerability is a good balance for the flashier parts of their discography. That repeating rap in the pre-choruses caught me off-guard every time, I have to say, and by the time I’d gotten used to the new tempo, we were back to the usual. I have no idea why it's there, because it really didn’t have to be. I really liked Heartbreak Theatre from the single, because I love some drama and that piano was perfect.

A Song Of Ice & Fire pulses with a great energy, and I was nodding my head through the first verse. I was worried they’d go with the dreaded anti-drop chorus and they kind of did in the second half, but thankfully the rest of the chorus is quite strong. I liked this one, but I actually have the opposite comment I have on the rest of their songs, which is that I wish it carried through that great build up through the chorus, because they were almost there…but no. I didn’t have a hidden gem for this single.

Libido is the song that I think most people know from OnlyOneOf, and it’s obvious why: unlike many of their singles, it’s pretty unique. I was surprised that what they’re so known for started here and not before though. Between the choreo, the lyrics, and the music video, it definitely breaks the boundaries of what’s normal in k-pop. It’s a song I appreciate more than enjoy, I’ll be honest, but I do like the pre-choruses. I know the whole point is that the chorus comes out of nowhere, but it’s not for me. I admit though, the “girl I just wanna know” makes me cackle every time, because what girl? Where? There is not a girl within a 10 kilometer radius, folks. If we’re aiming for plausible deniability, that train left the station halfway through the first verse with whatever the hell Nine’s character was doing watching Love take a bath.

From Instinct (Part 1), my favorite was Instinct, because it has good drive and its vocals match perfectly with that distorted guitar instrumental in the background. It’s definitely not a combination I’ve heard before, but it works quite well. The other songs are similar to other b-sides from earlier, in my opinion.

Coy is calmer and more subdued than their usual singles as well, while still keeping the smooth sexuality that defines much of their work. I think it needs more of a show stopping moment, personally, but this isn’t a song for me. I don’t have a hidden gem from this single, but I did like Night Flight.

Skinz gave me a jumpscare right away, I admit it, with that scratching noise grating on my ears. It continues the queer themes from Libido. Unlike a lot of their other work, it doesn’t have enough of a balance between the harsh distortion and the gentler moments, because there really aren’t enough gentler moments for that to happen. It’s just not a pleasant experience on my ears, and not one I want to repeat either. OnlyOneOf has a lot of charisma but none of it carries through enough for this one, and quite frankly, I don’t like it. From the single, I think that Suit Dance would’ve made a better single with its well-flowing vocals and jazzier beat and I also liked Ultimate Bliss.

It’s nothing new for idols to release solo music while still part of a band, but Only One Of’s “Underground Idol” series is absolutely unique. The members were divided back into their branded pairs for this, and each pair told the story of a couple from two different perspectives. Yoojung and KB were the first in Begin and Be Free, Junji and Rie were the second in Be Mine and Because, and Mill and Nine were the last in Beat and Beyond. This series is both where I found them and where, at least to me, a discography that could have been seen as queerbaiting-for-profit becomes something that genuinely means so much to so many queer people, myself included.

Begin, fittingly, begins the solo series, and expertly captures the feeling of boredom expressed in the music video until, of course, we get the meet-cute and literal crash into each other that begins the relationship too. The song is a gentle, breathy city pop sound, and feels both hopeful and resigned (“when you’re free from prejudice, freedom will begin”), reaching a catharsis in its understated bridge (“It’s time, and I know it.”) as Yoojung’s character takes care of KB’s when he’s drunk. Never has a k-pop song title so fit a song, because it’s about so many different beginnings: the relationship, the freedom, and even the journey of coming out itself. I like this one.

Be Free is Begin’s other side, and starts where it left off. As befits the title and its character’s personality, it’s far more open from the beginning and knows what it wants right out of the gate (“Hey guess what?”), while also embracing a funkier, brighter sound that feels more joyful. The relationship continues, and the characters bond deeply in the space of a night (a very queer thing in and of itself), before they end up waking up together, shirtless. Genuinely, the first time I watched this, I was shocked that they were so open about it, despite the fact that nothing is shown, and it was this that began to change my mind on the subject of queerbaiting. The story shown here is given an open ending—we have no idea what happens after that one day—but the final line (“You never know, baby. One more time could make it right.”) seems to hint that it won’t end here. I like this one more than Begin, but it’s not my favorite.

Be Mine starts the second of the three stories, and, again fittingly to the title, feels softer and more romantic with its gentle piano as Junji’s character runs after Rie’s. This duo shows an established relationship between its characters as they have a summer romance that involves dancing, listening to music, cooking, and just spending time together. Its slow and settled melody isn’t for me, personally, and neither is its seemingly out-of-nowhere rap verse, but on the whole, the song is very sweet.

Because was actually the first song I’d heard by OnlyOneOf, since it was recommended to me about a week after it came out, and, as previously stated, changed my mind that I was only a girl group stan. I was surprised by it right out of the gate, and was soon won over by the quite convincing intimacy between its two characters, its quiet folding of paper cranes, and overall bluntness of its subject matter. The song is nostalgic and feels lived in, waffling between comforting and melancholy as the characters have a fight and go their separate ways while all their best memories replay, then reconnect many months later (though it’s left open whether they get back together). It’s genuinely quite touching; I wince when Junji’s character smacks the paper cranes off of the table and I hurt for Rie’s when he’s heartbroken. It was my favorite of their songs when I first watched it and it’s stayed that way since.

Beat marks the start of the third and last series, and sticks out from the rest of the songs in the solos with its harsh beat and most of the song is either sing-talk or outright rapping. Mill is the group’s rapper, so I do get it, but this one is just too grating for me. The video shows two students falling in love with each other while facing hinted-to-be-homophobically-motivated bullying and dealing with both the fear and the excitement of that love. The song does fit the video, I’ll give it that, perfectly connecting with the insecurity and genuine danger the characters face (“wanna tell them to beat it, beat up, beat out”), and the video ends with Nine’s character falling into Mill’s arms after getting beaten up.

Beyond is the last of the Underground Idol series, and rather than match the harshness of Beat, it goes the exact opposite way, and is quite an understated slow burn mixed with citypop that makes the most of Nine’s smooth and soothing vocals, meaning that I enjoyed this one much more. Its lyrics are quite lovely with how they mix floral imagery (“perhaps it’s withered; my heart is dried up, but you take root”), and openness (“Baby, I wanna make you mine”), and captures the head-over-heels feeling of first love quite well. These two videos don’t push boundaries in the same way as the first two sets do, only because they tell what is a quite well-trodden story rather than breaking new ground, but seeing the characters take care of each other is very sweet. The quiet, mutual moment of realization at the end where they’re lying next to each other and move to kiss feels very comfortable and honest.

The description box written for Beyond on their official YouTube channel states: “How did our music reach you, who are far away? How did our small melody crafted in Korea reach you, who are on the other side of the world? To all those lovers who do not feel like they’ve been given the blessing, we hope our music will comfort you and cheer you up. We hope you’ll dream the same dream as us.” Is it a little cheesy? Perhaps. But does it make me emotional? Absolutely. Does it still matter? Hell yes.

The thing that really felt meaningful to me was the mundanity with which the characters live their lives; they may face internalized or external homophobia, but what the solo series gets across so well is how normal and everyday these people are, no matter who they love. The best way I can explain it, as a queer person myself, is that it feels like another queer person wrote and planned these six songs. They feel very honest and self-reflective, and don’t try to tiptoe around their subject matter, which I really appreciate. Look, I’m not going to speculate on whether any of the members of OnlyOneOf are queer themselves, because I frankly can’t stress enough that unless one of them bursts through my window at 2 am with a megaphone and tells me to share it with the world, it was and remains none of my fucking business.

Seoul Drift is their latest comeback, and similarly to many of their other full-group singles, it’s not that fun to listen to. It follows Skinz; there isn’t really a break in the song, which normally I’d be a fan of, but here it just makes it feel overwhelming and unnecessarily harsh. I like the idea of it—the lyrics are pretty good and the whole idea of loneliness and the intensely fast pace of life in Seoul in the MV intrigues me—but the execution just doesn’t win me over.

From the album, Seoul Collection, Blue Blue Seoul stuck out to me. It’s breathy and soft, and it moves along with an inviting, almost warm feeling. It feels a lot like a song from their Underground Idol series, which is probably why I like it. I love the way the voices are layered and how the minimalistic background gives them a chance to grow.

OnlyOneOf have gained attention yet again this year, not only for their earlier comeback but for their participation in Bump Up Business, a short drama adaptation of a BL webtoon that stars Mill and Nine as two k-pop idols forced to do a “business gay partnership” (basically, act like they’re in a gay relationship with each other), who actually end up falling in love. You can see why this is causing a stir, when their whole concept already has people declaring it queerbaiting.

Personally, I honestly don’t know where I stand, because I do think that they do genuinely important, boundary-breaking work, but they also play into the queerbaiting and the lines between characters they play and the idols themselves are intentionally made smaller. I applaud them for acting in this and having the guts to actually kiss on screen, and despite how toothless the show is, I did watch it and go “aww” at several points.

I’m glad I did this! Even if I didn’t end up becoming a Lyon or a fan, I did still have fun with this, especially watching the series and the solos, and a couple interviews (which gave me some good laughs, so thanks guys). I also learned that Nine and KB are very involved with the writing and composing of OnlyOneOf’s music, which is something I really appreciate that happens to be quite rare in k-pop.

My top 5 songs from Only One Of are Because, Time Leap, Heartbreak Theatre, Be Free, and Beyond, with Only One Of Me as an honorable mention. Only One Of gets a 7.75 / 10 from me. To be honest, I’ve found that besides their Underground Idol series and a few odd b-sides, their music is mostly not for me. I do really appreciate the self-production, the important messages, and the experimental quality of a lot of their work, but at the end of the day, this is my blog and it comes down to personal preference.

Next time, we’ll be doing part two of the Red Velvet deep-dive and next week we’re restarting the one-group-a-week schedule with a boy group. Tschüss!

[djscuffs]

New Mix! Live at Cabana Pool Bar, Summer 2023. 2 hours of Dance, Pop, House, Baile Funk, Jersey Club, and more mixed by DJ SCUFFS. Featuring music from Doja Cat, Rihanna, Avicii, Jengi, Central Cee, and more! 

Playlist

Barbatuques – Baianá – DJ Larry-T Remix Diplo, Charli Xcx, Herve Pagez – Spicy  Jamelia – Superstar – Stavros Martina & Kevin D Remix Nelly – Hot In Herre – Da Phonk vs Lules & Naken Remix Doja Cat – Woman  Doja Cat – Woman ft. Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj, Dua Lipa, Missy Elliott (Remix) Timbaland ft. Keri Hilson & D.O.E. – The Way I Are – Stavros Martina & Kevin D Remix Bell Biv DeVoe – Poison – Bastian Bell Remix Timbaland ft. Justin Timberlake & Nelly Furtado – Give It To Me – Le Boeuf Remix ACRAZE – Do It To It FT Cherish Dillon Francis – Goodies Kanye West – Mercy – FOMO Remix Bruno Mars vs. Timmy Trumpet & Kastra – Uptown Funk (HMC 2019 Bootleg) Rihanna – Rude Boy (AANSE Remix) Jain – Makeba – Jerry Wallis Remix Shenseea & Megan Thee Stallion – Lick – Anthem Kingz Finer Things Edit Crystal Waters – Gypsy Woman (She’s Homeless) – Anthem Kingz Don’t Stop Moving Edit Jorja Smith – Little Things x Gypsy Woman (L BEATS MASHUP) David Guetta/Kid Cudi – Memories (feat. Kid Cudi) – 2021 Remix Avicii – Levels – RICHIE ROZEX Remix Daft Punk – One More Time – Lambue, Guztav & Siëma Remix Tag Team – Whoomp! There It Is – DJ Serg Remix LMFAO – Party Rock Anthem – Tony B & Vocalteknix Remix Eve ft. Gwen Stefani – Let Me Blow Ya Mind – Anthem Kingz Work My Body Edit Central Cee – Doja – Vunzige Deuntjes SoundSystem Remix LMFAO – Sexy And I Know It – Richastic Remix Barbatuques – Baianá – Rogerson Remix Jengi – Bel Mercy Rihanna – Rude Boy (Klean Remix) Nina Sky x CHAMOS – Move Ya Body Shenseea & Megan Thee Stallion – Lick – ETX Coolie Dance Riddim Edit Bob Sinclar ft. Big Ali – Rock This Party (Everybody Dance Now) – MIKIS & ZING Remix Richastic – The Roof Is On Fire – Tall Boys Clap Intro Don Omar ft. Lucenzo – Danza Kuduro – Kevin D & Sven & Rolf Remix Farruko – Pepas (Smoothies Baile Funk Remix) Pitbull – Give Me Everything (BeatBreaker ‘Barranquilla’ Banger) Mark Ronson – Uptown Funk FT BRUNO MARS (Club Breakerz x Medy Landia Mambo Edit) DJ Katch – Banga Black Eyed Peas – My Humps – Stavros Martina & Kevin D Remix Robin Thicke ft. Pharrell – Blurred Lines – Stavros Martina & Kevin D Remix Rihanna ft. Calvin Harris – We Found Love – DSM League Remix Delirious & Alex K ft. Max-A-Million – Sexual Healing – Anthem Kingz Closer Edit Koffee   – Toast (262 Remix) James Hype/Miggy Dela Rosa/Oliver Heldens – Ferrari – Oliver Heldens Remix Axwell Λ Ingrosso – More Than You Know (Extended Mix)  Avicii – Levels – DJ Serg Remix Technotronic – Pump Up The Jam – Sico Vox Remix Tag Team – Whoomp! There It Is – Lincoln Baio Money Edit Salt-N-Pepa x Megan Thee Stallion – Push It Flamin Hottie (Jonney Miles Segue) City Girls – Twerkulator – MarkCutz Remix Megan Thee Stallion – Thot Shit – DJ Serg Sniper Move Shake Drop Edit Rihanna – Only Girl (In The World) – Stavros Martina & Kevin D Remix Rihanna – Don’t Stop The Music – Trayze Carnival Remix Taio Cruz – Dynamite – ZIGGY & Replay M Remix Flo Rida ft. Sesman – Low – Richastic Remix  DJ Crell/Silez – Do it To it – Baile Funk Remix J Balvin & Skrillex – In Da Getto Barbatuques – Baianà – Jack Back Remix Steve Aoki Daddy Yankee Play-N-Skillz and Elvis Crespo – Azukita (CloudNine Intro Edit) Deorro – Bailar (Afro Bros Bootleg) Steve Aoki & Willy William ft. Sean Paul, El Alfa – Mambo Jengi – Bel Mercy – Richtanner Remix  Wiley & Sean Paul & Stefflon Don feat. Idris Elba – Wale – Boasty (Grandtheft x Wuki Dub) Rihanna – Don’t Stop The Music – Richastic Remix

[danketsuround]

sunday six!

eastern hemisphere experiencer so i'll make it a true sunday six this week. tagging @fire-tempers-steel @c-cw-f-saeko @passthroughtime @overdevelopedglasses and uhh whoever else. no pressure but you're the only mutuals i can think of right now who are/might be working on something they want to share T_T

i didnt have much time to write this week cause i've been freaking busy but take this! *throwing motion*

more post lj au stuff with kuwana and mitsuru. mitsuru uses a wheelchair. this is the only real thing i'm consistently working on so you can check out other wips in my sunday six tag. sorry long intro. read below if you want

Kuwana stands next to a wilted pine tree and faces the ocean with Mitsuru by his other side. He feels a rock in his shoe. Wind crusts salt into Mitsuru's choppy-thick hair. Kuwana scratches a mole under his soft uneven buzz.

He sets off, leaving Mitsuru behind, dusting the sand with the bottom of his sneakers, failing not to get his shoes wet. It's soft and dry; moony, extraterrestrial. The ocean erases his footprint like it wanted to, and he turns around again.

"What do you think?" he calls out. "Can you go?"

Mitsuru gestures towards his wheels. Then the sand, then the water.

He catches up to the safe sidewalk. "It might stick a little, but."

"I can't."

"I should attach a motor to this thing," Kuwana thinks aloud, pushing the back of it with his foot a little. "Then we could go off-roading."

Mitsuru looks at him.

"Sorry."

The waves measure time. A few laps foam and dissipate within a second. The sound of the ocean is relentless, but it seems to put Mitsuru at ease. A cold air drives through them both when Kuwana realizes they've been sitting in silence for a few minutes. He can't count the waves or the grains of sand under his feet, nor the number of times his socks have gotten wet, but he knows the clouds have changed--they hang lower than they did before, or perhaps he's gotten taller. The sand spumes below them and a red crab shovels its way to the surface. Kuwana puts his hand against Mitsuru's cheek, his fingers moving to steer his head, his thumb to feel his low, alive pulse. Mitsuru takes Kuwana's hands into his own to push them away but holds them for warmth instead. His eyes are on the water. He used to swim.

"Sorry," Kuwana repeats, releasing his neck. "Do you see that crab?"

[arcplaysgames]

Man do y'all remember when I was sad at the start of P4G because the game did not adequately pat my head and feed me soup and give me friends on day one like P3P did

that was fucking little leagues. I'm gonna light everyone in this game on fire.

Anyway, we are in the tutorial stages so lemme sum up except with there's weird shit I wanna pontificate on.

Reverie missed a bunch of school on his first day with frankly doesn't look amazing for him. We met Ryoji GODDAMN RYUJI on the roof, because all Persona games love the school roof, and he wants to go back to the App World so he can poke around on Kamoshida.

There is palpably some Beef between Ryuji and Kamoshida. There is some fucking t-bone 3-inch cut that I have seasoned in mushroom salt and fresh ground pepper and left to air-dehydrate for three days, there is soooo much beef between them.

In the Not-Velvet Room-- Look, I am gonna start calling it the VR for efficiency's skae but be aware I do not think this is actually the Velvet Room, or if it is then someone has booted Igor and is pretending to be him.

But yeah Notigor says our rehabilitation can begin and I just wanna claw my hair out. What's funny is I know for a lot of fans, Persona 5 was their entry point. Did they know this was as severely fucked as it is? I feel like the game is pushing Fucked As Hell vibes pretty well, so maybe it was obvious even to the initiated.

Oh so Notigor is the one pushing the unauthorized APK onto my phone. I think Reverie is rocking a Samsung, it's got that Chonk to it.

Also, I dunno what it's called in the Japanese... hang on, to google!

Isekainabi, or "Otherworldnavi" that's pretty good. Which, the adjustment of "navi" to "nabi" reminds me that Japanese doesn't use 'v' does it? Or.... wait.... R is also a no, right?

(That is shit I learned from fucking Metal Gear Solid 2 actually, because my beloved Problematic Fave Kojima called the big villains the La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo, because they were 'invisible', they weren't even a part of the language, metaphorically speaking, which when I understand that I thought was fucking smart as hell, though I imagine the original voice actors who had to say it a lot and rapidly did not agree.)

ANYWAY I AM GETTING DISTRACTED, POINT IS, I picked a hilariously un-apt name with Reverie Vantas. That is a tongue-twister and I am sorry.

what the fuck was i even talking about OH YEAH Netscape Navigator, yeah. That's our Dark Hour/TV World, the Metaverse. I find it cursorily interesting that Persona has many different manifestations of the whole Jungian Collective Subconsciousness. P4's TV World was fully separated and impossible to access without the power of Persona. But Reverie and Ryuji stumbled like idiots into the....

wait, that cutscene from the start, that was Reverie's awakening to Persona. So what caused it. Also: Is that relevant to the mystery here like it was in P4, because in P4 that was super important, and I would prefer it wasn't Super Important again lmao.

God the Izanami thing was dumb. ANY FUCKING WAY.

I briefly meet THAT ONE GIRL FROM THE INTRO on the train, and her personality traits seem to be "worryingly doormat-ish" and "thin'

Like man, P5R is not hitting me over the head with DIET SODA ADS but we are still fatphobic, don't forget! BTW if you want a Persona game that doesn't do that shit, P3P Girl Route baybeeeee best Persona.

I am apprently ribbon girl's senpai and she bows to me twice nad runs off to school. Later, gator.

holy shit this game doesn't fuck around with its classroom questions, are you kidding me

also I am sitting behind Moot in class. how's your life been since relinquishing 4chan, moot? I hope it's better.

Mitsuru would use her rapier to carve you like a chunk of roast.

Kamoshida's influence over everyone is kind of baffling to me. It's a VOLLEYBALL TEAM. Oh is that the Japanese equivalent of a football team? Because then I TOTALLY GET IT, CARRY ON.

Like, I understand sort of academically that having sports teams is good for students but also I fucking hate school sports culture. Dunno if its as vile in Japan as in America but if its even half as bad, yeah, abolish it.

Ryuji is so far not the brightest bulb on the tree, bless him. He keeps trying to locate a castle and getting frustrated. Finally, we put him out of his confused misery and use the app to make castle happen.

HE IS JEALOUS! In almost every jock there is a theatre kid's soul, crying to get out.

Ryuji has like no indoor voice, Morgana, I am sorry.

Also, I have so far zero indication of Morgana's gender, which I do like. 8) Gender don't matter, just don't call me a fucking cat.

There is a huge tutorial section, and I immediately understand why this game is +100 long, these sequences are much more complicated now. There's psuedo-stealth mechanics? Blurgh.

Ryuji wants to save the volleyball slaves and Morgana explains that these aren't actually them, they are cognitive copies that are.... essentially the projection Kamoshida has of each person in the school.

I don't wanna be a jerk Persona but this is adding more and more complexity to your already complex world. But maybe I am still in P4G mode, where every aspect of how the Midnight Channel worked was a clue. At this point, there is no central mystery.

hey yo what the fuck

Somehow Kamoshida broke Ryuji's fucking leg?????

What the fuck happened there? Also yeah, Ryuji, I don't know you super well yet but I'm with you, we can wreck this guy. Holy shit.

boy howdy getting your persona stings a bit in this one huh

Ryuji has Captain Kidd as his, with is pretty fun NGL. So our theme is literally Various Types Of Thieves in this game, huh? I'm cool with that.

[heymalookitsme]

Blog intro

Hi everyone, I made this blog solely about music and whatnot. My main Tumblr blog is right here, I might reblog this post using my main blog too. Small story time I guess: Ever since I was born basically, music has been around my entire life. Sure, it was mainly metal, rock, and other stuff but it has been around long since I can remember. My parents are huge music fans and they like anything to Metallica to Bon Jovi to even Salt-N-Pepa. I have my parents' music taste with some added 80s rap like Run-D.M.C. and Beastie Boys. I created this blog to express my passion for this music... and maybe rant about music too I'm not sure where this blog's gonna go to be honest. With the cheesiness aside.... Hi.

[annlillyjose]

WRITEBLR REINTRO – ANN LILLY JOSE

hello there!

following through with my tradition of posting a new writeblr intro every single year, here we go – a brand new reintro where i talk a little bit about myself and my current writing projects. so, here we go, onto all that good stuff!

about me

i'm ann, a twenty-year-old writer from kerala, currently based in kochi

i live with my husband, who is a musician, and lead a very creative life of sorts

i'm an infp, enneagram type 2

i write literary fiction and poetry

i'm a discovery writer and have a thing for sad stories with traumatised characters

i work as a content writer and social media manager for a wedding company

you can find all my published work on my linktree

my aesthetics: wilted flowers, fallen leaves, silhouettes, shadows, gentle friendships, indie music, unplanned trips, birds, fireflies, annotated books, old libraries and buildings, post-colonial literature, voids, romance

my wips

i recently finished a litfic novel called dairy whiskey and am editing it right now, hoping to get it ready for agent submissions in a month or two. i put my heart and soul and blood and bones into it, so if you’d like to dive into the story and read a few excerpts, you can check out the intro here and every other excerpt here!

rock salt is my main wip since finishing dairy whiskey. it is the story of identical twins rain and norah as they move out for college and navigate their lives on their own, which ends up in them growing apart. if you like complicated sibling relationships and the struggles of growing up, you’ll love this book!

i so badly want to start writing it, but i don’t think i’ll be able to until dairy whiskey is in a more secure position. so, there probably won’t be any updates for a few months, but you can read the wip intro here.

this is a gay vignette novel that i started writing back in 2021 as a source of personal joy. this is the story of how a singer-songwriter desperate for normalcy meets a boy with a heart heavy with guilt. this is the story of how they fall in love and it’s honestly quite wholesome <3

i haven’t worked on this book in so long and i’ve been trying to sneak some words in, but it feels like the book needs a fresh start. i don’t know, i just might start it all over again. but until then, here’s an outdated wip intro.

green room is a literary/experimental memoir documenting my teenage years as a writer. it is a deep dive into craft and how it affects life, particularly how it moulds you as a person. i haven’t started drafting this yet, but here’s a wip intro for now.

so, that’s about it!

if you’d like to be pinged when i drop a new publication or a wip update, just send me an ask to be added to my general taglist and i’ll tag you in those posts.

thank you so much for reading. i hope writing has been going well for you. if not, here’s some strength, some kindness, and some caffeine to keep going!

– love, ann.

general taglist (ask to be added or removed)

@shaonsim @heartfullkings @vnsmiles @dallonwrites @wannabeauthorclive @sienna-writes @violetpeso @flip-phones @silassghost @ambidextrousarcher @zoe-louvre @writing-with-l @magic-is-something-we-create @femmeniism @frozenstillicide @wizardfromthesea @rose-bookblood @coffeeandcalligraphy @rodentwrites @saltwaterbells @snehithiye @at-thezenith @subtlefires

[wub-fur-radio]

Pop Rock Ist Nicht Tot²

Wub-Fur once again makes the case that pop rock is not dead and invites you to join us for an hour of compelling audio evidence for that bold proposition. Featuring the musical testimony of Sheer Mag, Jacuzzi Boys, Teenage Fanclub, Dignan Porch, Liz Phair, Chris Stamey, Anton Barbeau, Swansea Sound, and a dozen more bands that are not averse to adding a little shooby dooby doo wop to their rock.

Apologies to E. Ludwig & John Hinde Studios, M, the Kinks, Anne-James Chaton, and Wild Billy Childish.

Our first Pop Rock Ist Nicht Tot mix, released 2 years ago this week, can still be heard here.

▶︎🎶 Listen on Mixcloud

Running Time: 1 hour, 7 seconds

Tracklist

Intro: Fanfare from “Pop Musik”  (0:07)

All Lined Up (3:39) — Sheer Mag | Philadelphia, PA

Many Multitudes (2:22) — Strange Magic | New Mexico

Free Ride (2:46) — Liz Phair | Chicago, IL

Anything (3:40) — Frankie Rose | New York, NY

Shapes (2:25) — Bong Wish | Boston, MA

Love You More (2:16) — Chime School | San Francisco, CA

Ways to Wear My Hair (2:26) — Monnone Alone | Melbourne, Australia

Waiting on the Radio (4:00) — Anton Barbeau | Berlin, Germany

The Pebble in My Hand (3:17) — The Salt Collective | Paris, France

See You in Hell (3:29) — U.S. Highball | Glasgow, UK

Pictures (2:00) — Dignan Porch | UK

Interlude: Yes it’s #1, it’s Top of the Pops (0:07)

Ami Spécial (3:12) — Special Friend | Paris, France

Realize (2:49) — Chris Stamey | Chapel Hill, NC

Gonna Have to Tell You (1:52) — The Lost Days | California

Back to the Light (3:02) — Teenage Fanclub | Glasgow,UK

Rather Blue (2:45) — Jacuzzi Boys | Miami, FL

Paradise (3:14) — Swansea Sound | Swansea, UK

Absolution (4:07) — Forest Bees | Berkeley, CA

99.5 (2:52) — TV Girl | Los Angeles, CA

Better Days (3:37) — Zack Keim | Pittsburgh, PA

Outro: Pop Is Dead, Shooby Dooby Doo Wop (0:04)

All tracks released in 2023.

💚 🎸 🚫 💀 ✳️ 🎸 🚫 💀 ❇️ 🎸 🚫 💀 ✳️ 🎸 🚫 💀 💚

[reneesbooks]

wip intro - salt and brine

oh shit oh fuck. i uh. i had an idea for a short story about a side character's parents and uh. i got a little invested so fuck it i'm gonna write it.

genre: romance

status: drafting. it's going to be a short story i swear <- we all know i'm a liar by now. draft 0 is done and marinating. currently editing

summary: Meja is used to her life. She has her five-year-old daughter, Reijka, her bright spot through her husband's dark moods. She has the cove where she sets the traps, her place of refuge. She is strong, and nothing can really hurt her.

Then an outsider washes into her cove with a storm, and her world thrown to the tides. Tradition states that she should kill him herself for intruding on their land, but she can't bring herself to do it, nor can she let the hypothermia take him. She hides him in her cellar, nurses him back to health under Stian's nose, and drags him back to the cove when he is well enough. She plans to send him on his way and never speak of this unfortunate incident again.

But he keeps coming back to the cove.

Kamon isn't sure what to think about the silent Hass woman that saved him on that rocky beach. He'd expected her to kill him, then expected her husband to kill him. But she'd saved him, and then refused to let him save her in return and take her with him away from her shouting husband and fading bruises. So he keeps returning to the cove, even if she still won't speak to an outsider like him. Even if all she ever gives him are silent, longing looks--he keeps coming back to the cove.

picrew

clockwise from top left-- Meja, Kamon, Stian, and Reijka. this does take place in the same world as the raedoran cycle, though it happens in one of the other countries and doesn't connect to the main plot at all. however it is going to take over my brain until i write it and i'm dragging all y'all with me.

tag: salt and brine

snippet:

She picks her way carefully over a few new pieces of driftwood. A storm had blown through late the night before, and apparently it carried through more than just rough seas. Meja sighs. Half her traps will be ruined, if the amount of debris on the beach is any indication.

A weak groan echoes from one of the piles of driftwood and Meja's head snaps up.

“Hello?” she calls. She drops the ice from her lip so that she has both hands free to grab a large stick in one and a large rock in the other. “Is someone there?”

She steps over one of the chunks of driftwood and her eyes widen in shock. There is a man lying on the rocky beach, his tattered sailors' uniform soaked and clinging to his amber skin. His arm is looped around one of the driftwood branches, as if he'd held onto it until it carried him to shore. His head lolls back and another pitiful groan escapes his lips.

An outsider. Meja freezes, her fingers clenching around the rock and stick in her hands. He is alive, awake, even, limbs twitching as consciousness returns to them. She stands there dumbly as he rolls onto his side and coughs, seawater spilling from his lips.

He collapses against the ground again, his breathing shallow, and Meja realizes that he's dying, his lips blue and fingers shaking. She sets down the rock and stick and takes another cautious step towards him. The outsider's eyes flicker to her for the first time and widen. He pushes himself up onto his elbows, feet scrabbling on the rocky beach, but quickly collapses against the ground again, his painful, ragged breathing devolving into a hacking cough.

Meja should walk away. He is an outsider, an intruder. She should kill him for daring to be on Hass soil, for contaminating their land. But he looks scared. And with how blue his fingertips are, he will die soon without help.

She kneels next to him and he flinches back. She slips the shawl off her shoulders and wraps it around him, then her fingers around his wrist. His dark eyes are wide looking up at her and she wonders if she is being the biggest fool to ever live, doing this.

She tugs him to his feet. He stumbles and she steadies him, allowing him to lean on her. He tries to ask her a question, his hoarse voice struggling to form the common tongue, but she ignores him. She starts to walk back towards the house and he stumbles alongside her.

This is a bad idea. Stian will be home and will kill you both. You can't do this.

She ignores the voice in her head too and focuses on putting one foot in front of the other. She couldn't just leave this man to die on the shore. She'll help him recover, then send him back to wherever he came from. Soon this will all be a strange story to never tell another soul, something to dream of late at night when Stian is asleep and she is tending her bruises.

Reijka is still asleep when they reach the house. Meja pulls the outsider to the cellar door and shuts them inside. He collapses into a sitting position against the wall, coughing weakly. She lights the lantern with trembling fingers. She has a few blankets stashed behind the crates of food, in case a bad enough storm blows through that they have to shelter here. She turns to the outsider with one and wraps it around his shoulders, then crouches down to pull off his soaked boots. He doesn't protest and she wraps another of the blankets around his feet.

She makes enough space behind the crates for him to lay down. Stian never comes down here, and he won't be visible from the doorway. As long as he's quiet, she'll be able to hide him long enough for him to get better. She heats up a few large stones in the fire while she builds up the courage to strip him of the rest of his wet clothes. They'll keep him cold, slow his recovery, but she's not sure he's able to do it himself yet. He barely moved as she laid him down in his hiding place, his eyelashes fluttering.

The stones are warm enough. She puts out the fire and lifts them out, carrying them down to the cellar. The outsider has managed to pull his shirt most of the way off, and she can see his trousers tangled around his ankles. He yanks the blanket over himself again and she quickly averts her eyes, her cheeks burning with shame.

After a few sharp breaths, she turns back and helps him pull the shirt and trousers the rest of the way off. She hangs them to dry along the back wall, cloaked in shadows, and moves the stones so that they surround the outsider, offering warmth. She gets another blanket and throws it over him. His eyes are following her sleepily. Good. He'll need to sleep to heal, now that he's warm enough.

She steps back and puts a finger to her lips. The outsider nods, his eyelids drifting shut. Meja exhales slowly, watching him slip into a deep sleep.

What the hell did I just do?

taglist (ask to be added! <3): @oh-no-another-idea

[jules-has-notes]

2017 Napa Valley A Cappella Extravaganza — VoicePlay live performances

VoicePlay on stage in Napa — photo by Haley Olson

Three years after their previous appearance, VoicePlay returned to northern California as the professional headliners for the annual high school and collegiate vocal festival in Yountville.

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J.None was excited to hit the road with the guys after performing with them at Disney World for the previous two months.

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When you're singing for other a cappella singers, it's hard to go wrong with a little musical theater. VoicePlay has plenty of Broadway material in their repertoire, and this was the most recent addition at the time.

Details:

title: Seasons of Love

original performers: cast of Rent (1996)

written by: Jonathan Larson

arranged by: VoicePlay & AJ Rafael

performance date: 28 January 2017

My favorite bits:

J.None's smooth timbre on the opening lines

the way they seamlessly pass the lead vocals around (But why doesn't Layne get a turn? 😞)

that momentary silence before they start the first chorus

when the rhythm section really kicks in 🥁🎸

Earl's crystal clear high tone on the second verse

that jazzy harmonized riff from Eli, J, and Earl

the layers of sound in the final chorus

such a lovely ending chord

Trivia:

As Geoff mentions in the intro, the guys had recorded this song as a collaboration with AJ Rafael in October, and the video premiered on his YouTube channel a couple weeks before this performance.

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VoicePlay refuse to be confined to any one genre of music. They've tackled everything from barbershop to hard rock, country to sea shanties, pop ballads to orchestral pieces. So why not revisit the rap hits of their youth?

Details:

title: Aca Top 10 – Old School Rap

original songs / performers: "La-Di-Da-Di" by Slick Rick & Doug E. Fresh; [0:16] "Going Back to Cali" by LL Cool J; [0:32] "Push It" by Salt-n-Pepa; [0:56] "Parents Just Don’t Understand" by DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince; [1:09] "Bust A Move" by Young MC; [1:32] "It's Tricky" by Run-DMC; [1:49] "Just A Friend" by Biz Markie; [2:12] "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice; [2:21] "The Humpty Dance" by Digital Underground; [2:44] "Rapper's Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang; [3:10] "Walk This Way" by Run-DMC & Aerosmith

written by: "La-Di-Da-Di" by Douglas "Doug E. Fresh" Davis & Richard "Slick Rick" Walters; "Going Back to Cali" by Rick Rubin & James "LL Cool J" Smith; "Push It" by Hurby "Luv Bug" Azor & Ray Davies; "Parents Just Don’t Understand" by Pete Harris, Will "Fresh Prince" Smith, Jeffrey "DJ Jazzy Jeff" Townes; "Bust A Move" by Marvin "Young MC" Young, Matt Dike, & Michael Ross; "It's Tricky" by Joseph "Rev. Run" Simmons, Darryl "DMC" McDaniels, Doug Fieger, & Berton Averre; "Just A Friend" by Marcel "Biz Markie" Hall; "Ice Ice Baby" by Robert "Vanilla Ice" Van Winkle, Mario Johnson, Queen, & David Bowie; "The Humpty Dance" by Earl Humphrey, Gregory "Shock G" Jacobs, & George Clinton; "Rapper's Delight" by Bernard Edwards, Nile Rodgers, Sylvia Robinson, Henry "Big Bank Hank" Jackson, Michael "Wonder Mike" Wright, Guy "Master Gee" O'Brien, Curtis "Grandmaster Caz" Brown, & William Hankshaw; "Walk This Way" by Joseph "Rev. Run" Simmons, Darryl "DMC" McDaniels, Steven Tyler, & Joe Perry

arranged by: Geoff Castellucci

performance date: 28 January 2017

My favorite bits:

Layne kicking things off with some old school beatboxing

Earl recreating the breathy part in "Push It"

Eli handling the scratching in the back during "Parents"

the middle three busting some lowkey moves as the lyrics instruct them to do

everybody bouncing to the beat during "Tricky"

Geoff continuing the "Ice Ice Baby" bass line under "The Humpty Dance" after the other guys leave him hanging

Eli showing off some slides in "Rapper's Delight"

J's little wave in response to the "hello" in the lyrics

the record skip effect at the end of "Walk This Way"

Trivia:

The guys originally recorded this countdown live in the studio, where they could do as many takes as they wanted. It's even more impressive seeing them perform it in front of an audience.

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This video is missing the very beginning because the fan who recorded it got over-excited about them actually performing the song live. But how could they possibly resist singing the theme to one of the most beloved TV shows set in San Francisco when they were just north the city itself?

Details:

title: Everywhere You Look

original performers: Carly Rae Jepsen & Butch Walker for Fuller House (2016)

written by: Jesse Frederick, Bennett Salvay, & Jeff Franklin for Full House (1987)

arranged by: Layne Stein

performance date: 28 January 2017

My favorite bits:

the bouncy descending bass line leading into the chorus

Eli and J grooving along to their own harmonies

Earl's scooping crescendo as a transition into the second verse

the call and response of ♫ "never go away" ♫ "like the Olsen twins" ♫ 👭

that quick crisp diction of the ♫ "how do you know… " ♫ section

hearing a few audience members shout "Hey!" in time with the guys

that big coordinated descending riff at the end

Trivia:

This song was the second entry in VoicePlay's PartWork series, performed entirely by multiple versions of Earl and Layne.

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Additional photos

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Before they flew out of San Francisco the next day, J.None took a side trip to meet up with a friend, see a bit of the city, and get some fresh air.

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[solstice-the-spellcaster]

(intro post)

*a ginger tabaxi with blueish-black shoulder-length hair and a purple, pointy hat rolls his funy magic travelling cart across a forest path, when all of a sudden he spots you! he runs up and vigorously shakes your hand.*

"hi, traveller! what brings you here on this humble path? im solstice."

OOC: this is my wizardblr sideblog!! my main blog is @turntechsharkhead, im gonna b directing all of my wizardblr stuff to here!! ill be roleplaying as a tabaxi wizard named solstice, who loves learning new spells and such. his alignment is chaotic good. :) he travels around with his funy magic travelling cart!!

CURRENT BALANCE!! (stealing this idea from @merchant-wizard-and-jerry because id like to keep track of my stuff):: a dead wasp encased in resin, glitter-adorned spellbook, sick-ass rock, copious amounts of gravel stored in jars, a bit of currency stored in a well-hidden pouch, 4 cups of salt)

[why-so-serious-lucifer]

K-pop Discography Deep Dives: Gfriend

A Disclaimer: I was planning, when I first started Tumblr, to be a lurker, but then I began an office job and needed something to listen to to keep myself occupied. And then, I started going through entire K-pop groups’ repertoires, album by album, and jotting down my thoughts. And then, I stumbled into K-pop tumblr and decided, you know what, there’s at least four people on this hell site who would read in depth rants about these discographies and at least five who wouldn’t read it and then get mad because it’s kind of our job as K-pop fans. My lukewarm takes should be taken with an entire silo of salt and the knowledge that this is completely for fun and occupying my very bored, very neurodivergent brain. With that being said, enjoy!

So, let me lay out my credentials for Gfriend: I’ve been a Buddy since I stumbled across MAGO in a compilation in 2020 or so, and needless to say I was crushed to find out that they disbanded. I still consider myself a Buddy, and in the last few years, I’ve listened to all their title tracks and a decent amount of b-sides. So, this deep dive is less of me getting into a new band and more of me seeing…hmm what else can I discover? Obviously, a lot of bias is involved here.

Gfriend debuted in 2015, in the heyday of 3rd generation, with a “schoolgirl” concept not unlike their peers Lovelyz, TWICE, and WJSN. Also, as a side note, their intros are all great, even from the beginning, and I wish that more of the interesting quirks that make them so great carried through into the rest of the songs.

Their first song, Glass Bead, has more of a classical spin than I remembered from their earlier work, and I enjoyed it, Me Gustas Tu, and Rough more on re-listen. Glass Bead is sweet: it’s good, but to someone who’s listened to as much k-pop as I have, it doesn’t stand out as very unique. From the album, Neverland is pretty good too.

Me Gustas Tu’s intro starts with gentle water and the song itself continues the feeling with an overall sunny vibe; it’s another nice one, but another that feels like a lot of others. As a hidden gem, Under The Sky has great drive and payoff, and would’ve made a better title track in my opinion.

I know a lot of people absolutely adore Rough. I’m…not one of them. Don’t get me wrong; Yuju’s belted power notes are always a pleasure, and her voice with the electric guitars makes such an excellent contrast. Eunha’s high voice also stands out, but Umji’s, Yerin’s, SinB’s, and Sowon’s are great too, and their different tones all harmonize well together.

I wish that the energy of the rock guitar or the orchestra carried through more, because there’s something about the song that doesn’t feel fully realized and I can’t say what it is. Rough is less a moment of standing apart from their peers and more a very gentle sidestep—but definitely a marker of what’s to come. Hidden gems from this album are definitely Say My Name and Someday, the second of which uses the classical touches quite well.

Their first few titles are a bit formulaic, but Navillera, despite at first fitting it, has much more drive and heft, and by the time we reach the guitar solo and the accompanying power note, it feels earned. It takes the best parts of the previous songs and melds them together into something great. I confess that I know this song by heart, and all in all, it’s an early highlight that I find myself liking more each time. Hidden gems from this album include Mermaid and Compass (with a special shout out to the harmonica in Distance).

Fingertip picks up where Navillera left off, with a good sense of humor in its 80’s action movie spoofing. It has one of the few dance breaks I adore, and I found myself bopping my head. And the catharsis! One of the things I love most about k-pop is when songs build to a point where everything just lights up, and Fingertip has this in spades. My hidden gem for this EP is definitely Crush.

Next up is a return to form in Love Whisper, which feels very much like Spring, and has a calming energy, but the song itself isn’t anything trailblazing. It’s a bit meandering and the orchestra isn’t used enough for me. It’s also a lot like Me Gustas Tu, which again, doesn’t mean that either is a bad song, but it does mean that both stick out less.

Summer Rain also has a nice opening, but it feels more dramatic and symphonic, which sets it apart from the rest of Gfriend’s songs at this point. It isn’t my favorite either, but I like it more than Love Whisper, Glass Bead, Me Gustas Tu, and Rough, which I classify in the same category. From the album, Rainbow is the definite winner, with Red Umbrella close behind.

Sunny Summer offers a different view of the same season; it’s upbeat and while carrying through the youthful energy of their earlier work, something about it also feels more grown up, as though a goodbye to their younger selves.

I’m probably reading way too much into what should be a fun song, but it reminds me of the feeling of a last summer vacation after high school and before adulthood. Either way, I’d say that my hidden gem from this album is Vacation (for its boundless energy)

With Time For The Moon Night comes the second big shift in Gfriend’s sound and the start of a new era. The intro, Daytime, sounds right out of a Disney movie, and the song delivers. It begins peacefully, and eventually gently glides into an introspective sort-of ballad that toes the line between sad and hopeful. The whole album is honestly great, and my favorite of the EPs so far.

That being said, I’d like to take a moment of your time to discuss Bye, which may be my favorite of Gfriend’s b-sides. It’s a ballad, yes, but so much more. It blends a full orchestra, an electric guitar, and some of Gfriend’s most affecting vocal work to date. All in all, it’s one of those album tracks that could’ve made an excellent single, and I’m so glad I rediscovered it in my deep dive, because I may or may not have replayed it three times.

Sunrise, perhaps appropriately, feels like Time For The Moon Night’s opposite twin, with lyrics that are just as sad combined with a far more hopeful and well…sunny spin on it. It’s many people’s favorite Gfriend song, and while it isn’t mine, I can’t deny that those choruses, especially the final one, is a hell of a knock-out.

Memoria, while technically a b-side, is also a Japanese single, but it’s so ethereal and lovely that it deserves a shout out. Hidden gems from this album include Only 1, and A Starry Night, but the stand-out has to be You Are Not Alone, both for the adorableness that is the title and for the surprisingly poignant follow-through.

Fever is a departure from the sound Gfriend’s been cultivating and seems like a bit of an odd choice. It’s not a bad song but it’s not great either; it’s pleasant, but it slips in and out of the ears, without any staying power. The girls’ voices feel underutilized, which is unusual for them, and I’ll never understand the impulse to have an anti-drop rather than a power note. I don’t have a hidden gem for this album, but I did like the whistling in Smile.

This album also highlighted something I’ve noticed: a lot of Gfriend’s b-sides start out with a really unique or interesting instrumental (like Smile) but don’t carry it through to the rest of the song, and thus leave it sounding like a lot of other songs.

Flower is the one song I really did like from the album, although it’s a Japanese single and so not technically a b-side. It also takes Gfriend’s music in a different direction (in this case, tango) but the gamble pays off! It’s a pretty good song; not their best, but a nice break.

After this, we finally reach the Modern Witch Trilogy, what I would consider their Magnum Opus, and unfortunately, the end of their time as a six-person group. Each part of the trilogy is magical in its own way: Crossroads is classical and grounded in emotion, Apple is ethereal and delightfully entrancing, and MAGO is empowering and warm at the same time.

The first song of the trilogy is Crossroads, which is definitely the most melancholy of their titles, finally giving the orchestra time to shine. The song’s best moment is undoubtedly the short section of a-capella before the last chorus’ soaring take-off, with the girls’ voices absolutely feeling like some sort of desperate plea to the stars.

My hidden gem for this album is definitely Labyrinth, which, in a 2023 world, I could totally see being a pre-release with a music video; not a title track instead of Crossroads, but with it. Here We Are is great too, and the other b-sides hold their own.

Next in the trilogy is Apple, which simply oozes magic and power. At first, I worried that it would be another Fever with a nothing chorus, but it proved me wrong! It doesn’t quite have a climax but it’s still absolutely engaging and unique.

This is another great album, and it was so hard to pick a hidden gem. The trio of the electro Eye of The Storm, the ballroom waltz of Room of Mirrors, and the dance floor of Tarot Cards are pretty neck-and-neck. But if I had to choose, Room of Mirrors is my favorite.

And at last, we reach MAGO! MAGO is, I’ll be honest, one of my all-time favorite k-pop songs (we’re talking Top 10), and I’ve loved it since I first heard it. To say everything I want to say would take forever, but if I had to name a few, here we go. The song has such great drive and heft and never stops moving, even when it slows down a little. It explodes with confidence and self-expression, and it’s a song that stands out because that empowerment doesn’t fall flat.

There are so many good songs from this album too: the rock in Love Spell, the brightness in Three Of Cups, and the R&B in Secret Diary, but my favorite without a doubt is Wheel Of The Year. Look, I’m a total sap, and it’s the exact kind of song that I adore: sad and happy, hopeful, emotional, inspiring, and all about the power of friendship. In the wake of their disbandment, it’s hard not to see this as a lovely farewell, to both the fans and each other.

It’s hard to overstate how much I adore the Modern Witch Trilogy. All three of these titles also feel so…queer to me? Obviously, as a queer woman, everything I view is through a queer lens, but between the found family separated in Crossroads, the forbidden temptation of witches in Apple, and the all-female be-yourself disco club in MAGO, I don’t think I’m reading too much into this. But I’d love to hear other opinions on this.

My top 5 songs are MAGO, Wheel Of The Year, Fingertip, Crossroads, and Bye. But I loved their whole discography, and as much as I ragged on Fever, there weren’t any songs I actually disliked, and it would be a highlight in a less incredible body of work. I’m also Wiccan, and the Wheel Of The Year is such an important thing for us that it felt like it was made just for me. I admit, when I started writing about their later songs, I even got a bit emotional and even more when I found out that the members themselves helped write some of them.

Gfriend, to the surprise of no one, gets a 9.5/10 from me. I can’t really imagine a discography more suited to me personally, although I think that anyone who appreciates great voices, disco, orchestral spins, or witches would find something to love here too. The only reason the score isn’t higher is because I haven’t done that many deep dives yet and I want to leave some room, lol.

So, I’ll see you next time, for a boy group!