#song is By Being With You by Cosmo Sheldrake. by the way

[k1tty5]

”I’ll be the moon, you be the sun

we’ll make the day glow

you’ll slowly rise, and I will fall”

also extra w/ a glitchy scar :]

[conceptofjoy]

list of songs that i didnt feel like making into a playlist down there

color represents POV and no color means it can go either way or its alternating

The Buttress- Brutus Young Fathers- Toy of Montreal- Paranoiac Intervals/Body Dysmorphia Radiohead- Bodysnatchers Fugees- Killing Me Softly The Dresden Dolls- Coin-Operated Boy They Might Be Giants- Birdhouse in Your Soul Miracle Musical- Isle Unto Thyself Lauryn Hill- Ex-factor Nina Simone- Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood Cibo Matto- King of Silence Radiohead- How to Disappear completely Slint- Don, Aman Gang of Youths- Achilles Come Down Yael Naim- Coward Car Seat Headrest- Sober to Death American Football- I'll See You When We're Both Not So Emotional Cosmo Sheldrake- By Being With You Gregory & the Hawk- Two Faced Twin Cults- Always Forever

[fuck-you-upmusicbracket]

Hero (Ghost Quartet)

And you/You were there too/You drove that train/Right through my heart/But I guess it's time/To put that to bed/I think its time/To let the dead be dead

"Rose messed up so bad and she KNOWS she did but there’s also no way it ever could have gone any different, cause she had to do everything she did to get to a point where she could realize that hey, maybe killing pearl over and over throughout multiple lifetimes was bad, actually. this is a circular story, and it doesn’t happen in chronological order, and everything that happened was always going to happen, there is no version of this story where rose doesn’t mess up. pearl gets murdered in almost every one of her lives. this is the ultimate doomed by the narrative and dead since the beginning story, and this song is about rose coming to terms with that. but despite being doomed by the narrative, she’s still just a person. she’s not a hero, she’s not special. she’s the same as anyone else. and she’s coming to terms with that too."

The Moss (Cosmo Sheldrake)

Legend has it that the moss grows on/The north side of the trees/Well, legend has it when the rain comes down/All the worms come up to breathe

"The beat/music is like funky fun rain upon a log beside a pond with a toad or something. Plus the lyrics present facts/common knowledge as legends right along with bizarre stories. Which is a fun way to question what is and isn’t a legend to society"

Poll Runner: It's just so funky! The lyrics make no sense and so much sense all at the same time! Its awesome!

[flowerbloom-arts]

Do you have any songs you specifically associate with the Oshun Oxtra crew? Cosmo Sheldrake dropped "Old Ocean" and I cant help but think of Hodgkins when it plays. (P.S. hes like my favorite out of your depictions I'm a big fan of your Hodgkins!!)

(AAAAAAHHHH OMG THANK YOU I LOVE MY MAN HODGKINS SO MUCH)

It's so funny that you mention Cosmo Sheldrake because for the longest time I have imagined different songs by him as like, character trailers for each member.

Like Egg and Soldier would be Hodgkins' song because not only is he single-minded on his love of engineering to the point of being manipulative and uncaring to characters like Edward the Booble if it were a means to an end to help his project or unintentionally putting someone like Moominpappa at arm's length despite his clear admiration for him, I imagine that short-sightedness ran in the family so to say. I have this very vivid imagination for that song, like the intro, first verse and first chorus would be Hodgkins on his way to watch a stage performance by his lost brother, and then he recreates that when the lyrics repeat because he too, despite his terribly grandiose size compared to most people including his brother, is still a small man trying to attain big dreams by climbing that proverbial beanstalk to be amid the giants who don't really care for him.

Tardigrade would be Joxter's song as he sings about all the frivolous things he would do if he was as deathless as a tardigrade, but in the end he still very much likes a lazy lifestyle of drinking whiskey and wearing socks on his feet. Other Cosmo songs I've imagined as Joxter songs are the Cuckoo Song and his cover of Tom Waits' Green Grass.

Axolotl reminds me alot of Moominpappa and his journey to try and make something of himself after a childhood of being dismissed and isolated by his caretaker and peers, the line of "I'll build a home at sea" particularly reminds me of Moominpappa at Sea where he quite literally tries to make a home out of the lighthouse despite everything seemingly working against him. (I have a whole character playlist for him by the way, here's the link)

Muddler.... Muddler is my absolute favorite with a playlist of 99 songs but I can't really pin down a Cosmo song for him besides Did Don't Do by his side-band, Don't. I imagine the chaotic and patchwork nature of a song like Hocking would fit him in terms of vibes quite well but I've yet to really find a song that really speaks to Muddler in the ways of lyricism...

For Cosmo songs that are generally for the whole crew I imagine Old Ocean, Birthday Suit and Does the Swallow Dream of Flying work very well as songs for the imaginary trailers I have for a Moominpappa's Memoirs adaptation, lmao.

Also, as an honorary member of the Oshun Oxtra, the whole First Band On The Moon album by the Cardigans is SO Mymble Jr.

[valsansretovr]

if it's not already been asked – sir gawain? just in general or from whatever text you choose. alternatively, guinevere. thx :)

I will do Gawain my special boy for a little bit of Arthurian *seasoning* for my blog. returning to my roots….may reblog this later with more incoherent thoughts abt Guinevere

first impression: bisexual guy who is also a HUGE cunt. but in a compelling way.

my impression now: bisexual guy who is also a HUGE cunt. but in a compelling way. I’m joking…..I do think he’s probably one of my favourite characters of all time (at least. the character that I produced by stabilising a broad range of data abt him) I think he is a master social player lol? Hyper aware of the rules of the genre and will be able to manipulate them for his own gain? Very selfish and very narcissistic in a way? But also extremely loyal to his family and very respectful to women (whether or not this is bc it benefits him I will leave up to ur interpretation)

Favourite thing abt the character: excellent fashion sense, occasional cunty one liner

Least favourite thing: honestly don’t know off the top of my head. I don’t like interpretations of his character where he is ‘too’ good—to me he is a consummate player in the game of chivalry, he is so violent but there is this sense of him being like “may god grant you a good day sir” to a man he’s abt to decapitate

Favourite scene: when a man challenges him to a duel bc his gf is in love with him and Gawain tells him that he cannot be blamed if god made him so handsome 😌 he’s my king I fear

Favourite interaction: Gawain and Arthur actually! When his brothers die and he runs to him weeping and goes ‘my king, my lord, my uncle!”

A character I wished he’d interacted with more: his MUM

Another character he reminds me of: no clue

A hc: his name starts with a G because it is a reference to his grandfather Gorlois! The G kind of links him back to his mother and to her parentage!

A song that reminds me of that character: ok YES I have a playlist (!!) that is just songs abt birds and family and it’s my Orkney bros playlist lmao? The birds are a ref to their family crest….the idea was songs that the brothers would sing together as this is canonically something they do :(

In our Talons - Bowerbirds

Hooves - Bowerbirds

Cuckoo Song - Cosmo Sheldrake

Unpopular opinion: I don’t mind when adaptations make morgan le fay his mother! i actually really like it lmao !! I know some medieval texts say that his mother is a sorceress of some kind who has told him stuff abt the future so yeah why not!

[the-dye-stained-socialite]

Mr wines playlist 👀

Obligatory songs about alcohol:

Johnny Jump Up - Minstrels of Mayhem version (okay warning this one does use the c slur. also this song jumpscares me every time with bedlam. but it's fun!!! alcohol of Supremely Fuck You Up)

Johnny Tarr - Gaelic Storm (imagining wines going on a bender and drinking the fifth city dry)

Never Drink 'em Dry - Gaelic Storm (^ funny sequel, catholic, the end makes me laugh, cannot recommend the above without adding in this)

Cider Road - the Dreadnoughts (I've watched your cities rise and fall to dust. yes it's about alcohol but also. i think it fits. i already used gintleman's club for rory but that song is good here too)

with that out of the way, actual playlist:

Pelicans We - Cosmo Sheldrake (this one is hard to explain but just. birds who think themselves kings and queens and better than others is very wines to me)

Are You Satisfied? - Marina and the Diamonds (big bat incredibly dissatisfied after being cast from the sky. it's Not Coping Well!! and possibly trying to overcompensate!)

King of the Clouds - P!ATD (dissociation and remembering being a king... and maybe thinking of a certain someone)

What's Happened to Soho? The Correspondents (it getting kicked out of party time in the sky to go to. a fucking cave.)

Cult of Dionysus - The Orion Experience (hedonism!!!! make the white jealous!!!! have fun and drink it all away!!!! religion, but greek pantheon)

bonus O songs:

Thistle and Weeds - Mumford and Sons (this makes me think of like. end of nemesis post-ambition depression drop)

Jabberwocky - Erutan (O fighting the white in a fairytale, yes i know it's just the poem being sung but like. i like it)

[saturncoyote]

🎼, ✨, and 🌊 for the ask game :)

🎼. Your favorite music to draw to right now?

Normally when i'm looking for some beats to listen to while drawing my go-to is my long as fuck youtube playlist which at this point has uh..... 1720 songs in it <3 (the most recently added one being Axolotl by Cosmo Sheldrake) However i have been going out of my way to listen to Alex G specifically as of late !

✨. How often do you draw?

It really depends on how i'm feeling at the moment, there are times where i'll draw almost every single day for weeks on end, and then there are times where i won't even be able to look at a drawing programn for months At this very moment ? The last time i've drawn was about... 12 days ago ? So i'd say we're entering the latter

🌊. What’s the hardest thing for you to draw? 

Now that's a interesting one, because there are quite a few things i would say are difficult for me to draw, or i at least struggle with, i feel like saying "humans" would be the obvious answer here (no shit the furry artist struggles with drawing people...) The second thing that comes to mind is probably backgrounds, even simple backgrounds will sometimes stress me the hell out, like yeah this character is standing in a single colored canvas but i can't just leave it at that... i NEED to add something to that space, maybe stars ??? circles ????? but they NEED to be spaced out evenly or else i'll start ripping my hair out

[prince-liest]

3, 31. 34! If no one's beaten me to them.

Did 3 (that's a popular one, haha), but here are the other two! :D Thank you!!

31. Do you listen to music while writing?

Nope! Can't. Not even a little. It's distracting. The only time I've ever done it is when I put in sound-canceling earbuds and looped Pelicans We by Cosmo Sheldrake on repeat at like volume 2 to block out my brother's music. Pelicans We is the only song that I can do this with, HAH.

34. Are there any common themes you like to explore in your writing?

Poor self-esteem, loss of emotional control, isolation, unreliable narration, hurt/comfort, trauma, trauma, trauma, abuse, and also trauma recovery! Generally I just enjoy writing about characters being unwell in a large variety of ways.

ASK MEME

[picnokinesis]

Tagged by @kasterborous-constellation - thank you so much for enabling me to subject everyone with my new fixation on a particular band HAHAH

Five Songs I've Been Listening to Recently

To save this entire list from being Bloodywood, I'm gonna put their entire album, Rakshak, in the top spot, because it's fantastic. Favourites from this keep changing but I really love Endurant and Aaj at the moment, as well as Chakh Le and Zanjeero Se. And Jee Veerey goes off, obviously.

Ari Ari by Bloodywood, because it's not on Rakshak and I think this one is the one that rewrote my brain

PMS by Voice of Baceprot - you may have noticed that I've been listening to a lot of hard rock/metal from Asia lately. I'm solely blaming the We Are Lady Parts playlist on spotify for that. Anyway this one is excellent

My Way by SIAMÉS - it's been a hot minute since I watched an animated SIAMES video but oh my days, absolutely LOVE this one, and ofc the song goes off too

Cuckoo Song by Cosmo Sheldrake - I really love this one for multiple reasons! First of all I just really like it. Second, it uses found sounds - namely BIRD CALLS, which is insanely cool - to make most of the music, and it sounds brilliant. Third, the actual singing part is a song written by Benjamin Britten, who is a composer that I have a huge amount of love for anyway since I grew up in Suffolk.

Thanks for the tag!! Everyone go listen to Bloodywood HAHAH

I'm gonna tag: @archervale @chaoticacecryptid @flyist-nihilist @novantinuum @gabeorelse @taardisblue @sunshinedaysforever

Have fun!

[immoralimmortals]

A Song With Ten Names

Chapter 24: Fear & Delight

Chapter 1 ☆ Next chapter ☆ AO3 ☆ Featured song playlist

Summary of chapter: Bugs and birds...both alike share the heavens, Deidara and his coveted performer celestial beings in their own right. But birds eat bugs, being swifter than butterflies especially, and in turn the insect's wings warn of their poison with bright color if they so much as think about it. Yet they ride the same wind anyways, dancing till the sun goes down.

And what does a Scorpion on the dusty, dirty ground supposed to make of it all?

Author's Note: Song for this chapter's title and breaks is Fear & Delight by The Correspondents. If all goes according to plan (vague vibes), this will be THE Deidara song in the same way Misathrapologist is for Hidan. It's been a song I've associated with him for as long as I've known it, absolutely burned into my brain for the guy.

The song sung in context of the fic is Solar Waltz by Cosmo Sheldrake.

Sasori is here! I love him too. But he is Not Very Nice, No Sir!

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Oh, but I know you'll cause me grief ─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Dawn has hardly lit its torch when black painted nails lift something up for it to light; these fingers, however, don’t belong to the object’s owner. “Hmph,” Deidara mumbles under his breath, holding the two-sided rectangle in the morning rays evaluatively. “One side yellow…” He flips the thing over betwixt index and thumb, a matte side turning to a glossy one. “...and one side black. Hm…” The blonde blinks, setting it down to fumble through more possessions that aren’t his.

...Except one, of course.

“Ah…! The star of the show.” It doesn’t count as stealing if it’s his sketchbook. The siren is just borrowing it! ...And she can borrow it right back, soon as he’s done. Though he always smiles, the one this artist wears now is most assuredly sincere, even if a bit diabolical. It wasn’t for no reason, after all, he had offered paper and pen to a fellow artist. Oh, Deidara...never without an ulterior motive, are you?

So… What's that you see in her mirror…?

The cover opens and he hums, crossing one leg over the other as he sits at the dining room table, morning sun haloing behind his head. The figure she painted is immediately recognizable. “Huh.” The blonde blinks, flattered. “Well…” he remarks. “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised.”

“It’s crude,” a soft voice chimes from behind his shoulder. Deidara turns his gaze up from the sketch of himself as he was spotted studying his own clay yesterday, looking to his superior in title but not philosophy.

“What, am I that ugly?” The tone of his voice makes it apparent he is absolutely sure he is not. “Come on...you don’t see potential?” the blonde asks the redhead. The latter man standing behind the chair has no change of expression, not even a narrowing of the eyes. “Look at it here…” Redirecting his attention, the young art teacher traces the line that makes the shape of his own cheek, sloping down at a curved angle to form his jaw. “All in one move, there. She didn’t need a second try, un.”

Sasori stands silent, which is the closest you’ll ever get to him conceding a point. Successful, Deidara’s grin widens up at his Danna. “See? Potential!”

“…”

“Ha!”

And with that chuckle, he is free to go back to admiring himself as another sees him. As Deidara gets lost in the way ink drew his tongue sticking out in thought, the shadow the puppet casts falls off from his blue-eyed partner, his body leaving while eyes stay locked on the overly simplistic rectangle on the wooden table that the woman claims to have brought from another world. Pink glass and black glass…

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Close friends of mine are in disbelief

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

“So...you said you’re a teller, right?”

She none the wiser, the woman talks to Deidara now after he’s combed again through her personal affects, kicking her legs childishly. Innocent and naive, she tilts her head with a questioning blink. “Teller?” she repeats.

“Ah... Forgot so soon?” He raises his chin, eyeliner sharp and redone for the day ahead of them. “You said you’re not a songwriter but a storyteller.”

“Oh!” the woman corrects, straightening her posture to attention. “Yes. Yes, yes. That’s the best way to put it.”

“So," he drawls, "Color me curious: what kind of stories do you like to tell best?” A blessing and a curse: there is no better way to tantalize a neurodivergent person’s mind than to ask them to categorize or to explain things. To say her eyes don’t light up is to deny the moon never meets the stars up in the sky.

…But there, too, is the fear of talking too much. It is a punishment well earned, full of “shut up”, “I didn’t ask” (they did though?), and polite but blank stares. To talk too much is to be too much, and no one wants to be too much. So the joy bites back and the performer turns shy eyes to the corner of the piano room, past hand-me-down knickknacks and memories of times so tangible she can still taste the regret. Deidara spots this shift and hums, that large bang of hair so easily shifting with the cock of his head.

“Hm?”

As they sit together on the bench, backs facing the large instrument, the woman contemplates the fear of being known. As she has always put it: to be embarrassed is to be known. That is, if you feel embarrassed, then remember it merely means you exist, and there is no misdeed in existing as you are. She swallows and tries to let the eagerness creep out, dripping like a toothpick put a hole in a dam instead of the whole thing bursting to high hell. “I like…” Deidara observes her gaze becoming lost, going from the corner to raising up at the ceiling. “...I like certain themes,” she confesses. “I think a word I think a lot about is... alienation.”

The blonde raises a brow. “Oh…?” he drawls with interest, unaware this answer would make perfect sense to some Akatsuki and none at all to others she’s met before. She nods...but doesn’t immediately continue, and so his attention must be asserted. “Yeah? How would you describe that, un?”

The bottom lip is almost bitten but teeth back down, remembering the scolding the woman received for this instinctive reaction to nerves and thinking. They let go, finding words instead of pain. “Trying to find your place,” the siren weaves, attempting a tapestry of her worldview by pulling from her heart like it’s a spool of thread. “Feeling incomplete. Sometimes...feeling complete in being incomplete. There’s a couple things you could compare and contrast the lacking of, you know?”

Deidara does, so he nods, but he still wants her to say it. “Such as?”

Her palms come forward, still feeling unfamiliar with their painted, slightly more weighted fingernails; she bounces from one to the other as she goes through dualities. “Well… One that’s really prevalent in the stories and songs right now, where I’m from, is society itself and not belonging in it. Another I can think of is...reality? Like reality isn’t made for you—” One hand is raised down. “...or you aren’t made for it.” That hand lowers and the other raises next like a scale. “But I think in general I just really enjoy...the individual trying to understand their connection to specific things.”

“...You just repeated your thesis, un,” Deidara patiently corrects impatiently.

“Ah!” Oh, how soon she had forgotten: he is an artist. He knows more than her, surely has much more refined tastes and opinions and arguments. After putting her outstretched fingers in front of her mouth in a show of shameful surprise at her own words, the woman so visibly shrinks. “Sorry…” she murmurs. That just won’t do for Deidara; they aren’t done with the discourse yet.

“Hey, I didn’t say stop!” A bump of one shoulder to another works as a wake-up call, forcing the musician back into her own skin. “Just...find out where you were going with that. What are the kinds of comparisons you like between the individual and specific things?”

“Well...that just sort of encompasses the whole thing, doesn’t it?” she replies, sounding more helpless about it than clever.

“I know! But you started a list. Keep going, un!” He leans more into her space, smile unwavering as ever; anxiety be damned, he seems interested, the way his visible eye glistens nice and wide. She exhales.

“Sorry. I’ll...try again.” Deidara merely nods, metaphorically stepping out of the way now that he’s paved the path forward. “Let’s see...Society? Said that. Existing in reality...broad but...I think you get it.” Another nod, a mouthed hand gesturing in a circular ‘continue’ gesture. “Other individuals. That’s a big one for me. Nature? Yeah. Nature.”

A glance out the window. The branches still dance outside of clear glass, the green a bit more faded than when she noted them last before. In similar fashion, the stranger recalls an aspect of what makes her that very title: a stranger. She named it to Kakuzu in the middle of the night, and even before then played in the midst of its fallen tears, the rain misting down as a swordsman of Kirigakure shared a tender moment.

“...Nature,” she repeats more wistfully. The hush of rustling leaves in the wind answers back. “Where I come from… Well… The relationship humanity has made with it is so...much.”

Now we reach where Deidara is no longer the guide but the follower; matters of art from another plane of existence are out of his current expertise. But this is exactly what he’s been waiting for, anticipation flipping his heart upside down as he waits for her to elaborate. It is such painstaking, teasing silence as he watches her ponder things outside of his comprehension.

He didn’t expect it to be so... bleak.

“Places like where we are aren’t nonexistent,” she begins, trying to imagine her old view out of an old apartment building in the city. “...But they’re not common. It isn’t common to live in the middle of a forest, with a lake right around the corner, with stars that shine so well at night.”

A lost mind stands up from her seat and wanders to the window she stares out of, beginning to undo the latches at the bottom of its pane. “We built things— as a society, I mean. We overtook the forests, the marshes and swamps, flattened the mountains or found ways to fly above them.” The latch is open and fingers curl under the bottom of the wide wood lining glass. As it lifts up, she feels less here and more... there. In the first place she never belonged. “The morning was red,” she narrates her memory of the last day she woke up, “And smokestacks far away poured dark clouds into the sky, overtop the squares and rectangles of buildings that were covered in yet more squares and rectangles, uniform to be easily made and replicated rather than be architectures of art.” Her hand falls limp at her side as she looks over the neighborhood. “If those are made now— art, I mean...they aren’t made for you. For me. They’re things of status. For companies, the wealthy, sometimes government buildings.”

In her mind, the woman walks by a white building as she often does, always wanting to go in but too shy to even request a library card, fake plaster pillars pasted onto the outside of brick. She remembers how she stopped to look at them, saw the pill bugs hiding in the crevasses of wear and tear, dents from somewhat too forceful drawings with donated sidewalk chalk. As other people neared, she got nervous and continued walking her way, lest she be seen in that pensive state over nothing at all. Lest she be known and therefore be embarrassed, the reverse of what gives her hope in being alive. “Really only the library was the kind of place I thought deserved it, out of all the places that got to be decorative like that in how they’re built.”

She feels Deidara’s presence moving next to her more than she sees him. In what might be real life and not a dream, fingers idly reach outside the music room’s window, fumble their prints on a leaf within arm’s length. Indeed, the man notes, she seems to be utterly basking in the existence of something so simple, though perhaps it more represents the infinite quantity that lays beyond in the woods. As best as she can, she tries to describe to him the path she took to get all the way here— or at least part of the way.

“Trees are often planted in little dirt squares, in the middle of all the concrete. Little trunks that hardly got enough nutrition to grow, if even that much. So many seemed to be dying after winter last year.” She gazes up at the distance, past the offices, apartments, signs, and streets, and remembers how at the very end of the horizon she could see where water and sky meet, bloody red both until the Sun was done waking up. Deidara there or not, the memory makes her breath hitch—

...And so it must end.

“...Anyway.”

The woman shakes her head to where she stands today, as she no longer wants to think about that time, not in such a visceral manner. She blinks first at the fact she finds she had begun walking around the house as she wandered in her imagination, now standing not at the window but to face a pastoral painting, perhaps representing something a little too idealistic: merely a person existing within nature unpolluted. Next she blinks that he followed her all the way here, just to continue to stand by her side, bringing a blush to her cheeks.

“Point is,” she persists, trying to make it all worthwhile, maybe even seem smart, “People where I’m from have a really weird and complicated relationship with nature and technology. Individually we don’t really have a choice; that’s just...sort of how we ended up, in the current way things are. We’re destroying everything. And for what?”

There’s a reason the trees and the sky and the rain seep into her soul. And for what, her spirit begs. And for what…?

That’s the only assurance the traveler has that maybe she belongs here in the world of chakra and magic after all.

“And…?” Deidara presses. Outwardly it’s been quiet, so he’s unaware this was an interruption of such deep thought. “What do you think of it…?”

Silence, though this kind doesn’t worry him; he can tell she’s thinking with intent to answer, the way her brow furrows and lips purse.

“...I wish I could change everything,” she admits, hardly audible at all. The truest answer anyone’s squeezed out of her, more honest than her self-hatred, more sincere than her desire to be accepted. The root of all evil is the inability to change; that of all good is the possibility that maybe it still can, no matter how hopeless it feels.

Her eyes close, and a hand presses against the strokes of paint on canvas that depict flowers and spring. The skin she’s in never realized before… She’s hasn’t felt original paint, dry and textured instead of just replicated in print, in years. A factory exists for every thing she’s ever owned except her very life. There’s a little bee, hardly a swab of black and yellow depicted in the background of the garden scene. It is tiny just like her, though it is in a place she would rather be. A sigh buzzes the tip of her tongue, not with wind but with melody…

But in the merry month of May

A solemn fast does lurk

...and Deidara’s blood turns to ice. The siren sings, under her breath. Does he allow this, so close in proximity?

For spring, it sprung as spring, it does

And put the bees to work

In a split second, he decides as he did when she threw her animal figurines that if he is doomed by remaining, he’s been doomed from the start. Genjutsu or otherwise, let her continue. At least the demise is sweet as nectar.

And work they must, and work they shall

For all the things to grow

For if they don't, as Time, she knows

They'd wither on the bough

Somehow a song about bees sounds like a mourning hymn. Maybe there’s a reason for that turn of phrase...go tell the bees about the beekeeper’s funeral. A fitting tune, it is, to describe the encroachment of nature’s force, how the world will continue even with flowers wilted, even if the pollinators give up on keeping grass green and crops grown. Mankind is not special; honey and wine don’t drip on a king’s command but by the will of sunshine and rain.

Oh, what a dusty burden

That nectar and that pollen

Like Atlas with the heavens

On the back of his head

What if they should falter

And shrug their little shoulders?

And though she barely speaks at all, so quiet as to be on the cusp of not reaching his ears, she still prays that she has not gone too far, been too vulnerable, pushed her own self too much upon him. Deidara is so pleasant… Is he really bad as Kakuzu warned of them all? He reminds her of Itachi, of how nice he is, what a good listener. But it was fake once; what if it’s fake again?

And what would that mean, what would he want when she has nothing more to give?

Well, Time, she'd pass all the same

And on Deidara’s side of the coin, is this siren of the wastelands really safe to be around? Regardless, the rumors are true. If one defines the value of their life by experiences within it, then to hear her song is a pleasantry worth the risk.

Her voice is beautiful.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

As they can see what's underneath

Fluttering lashes, red lips and pearly white teeth ─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

The only thing louder than the quiet of the scenery around them is the echo in the performer’s ears at something said less to her and more at her:

“Rather foolish of you to believe that no one else would find this.”

Sasori’s words sting like the scorpion he is, making the performer squeeze her shoulders tighter against herself in an effort to become small. She should have never mentioned it, that she had “found” the lake. Deidara made it immediately clear with an “Oh yeah. I saw that on my way here, un” that it wasn’t as secret as she thought it could be.

“But...Kakuzu told me that he didn’t know,” she defends, but finds less of a sword drawn from her hip and more one being turned against her. Sasori blinks that sharpness at her with no mercy; he only ever seems to blink make a point, she hasn’t caught him just blinking yet when he’s not talking. It’s almost like he doesn’t need to. Goddammit, he’s too handsome with his perfect hair that curls up at the ends, the way his bottom lip sticks out a bit like he’s in a constant pout. Pretty people are the cruelest, aren’t they? It makes his disregard hurt all the more.

Though she had tried not to get on his bad side in the first place, staying close on one literal side of Deidara while Sasori sauntered to the lake with them beside the other. He doesn’t seem keen on her, and she’d rather not be uh... made into a doll. That’s what was implied, right? God, she hopes that wasn’t right. But, perhaps, there is mercy in that she seems to have no redeeming value, no interest in even being a subject to hate. Has to be so, as he willingly speaks to her still.

“Humoring you,” the redhead replies plainly. The woman exhales from her seat, having found a nook of tree roots and a trunk to cradle her like the big baby she is. Ah, the lakeside; she hasn’t been here since Zetsu cooed her hidden story right back. Was he there, too, when she described her alienation to Deidara earlier today? Hell...it doesn’t matter. She can’t find the energy to be convinced it matters. Tired eyes glance at the body of water past her toes, taking it in for at least a bit of meditation to be found on its rocky, grassy beach...but it isn’t long until the view is interrupted. In front of her face, fellow black-painted fingers dangle the sketchbook from yesterday. Oh, he must have gotten it from her bag just now while she and Sasori were reimagining the plot of cult hit 2004 film Mean Girls. The object is taken in her grasp though not immediately understood, its holder pointing a questioning stare up at the man who at least pretends to be nice to her.

“It’s a great place for a study, un.”

Blink blink. An ink brush is placed so easily in her other hand by Deidara, almost dumbly as she still has no idea what is happening. “I… How do you mean?”

“Just that, Takara-chan.” He slaps his knees before sitting down himself, and the woman quickly becomes flanked with one man on either side as Sasori decides to settle down with his back to the same tree as she. Both retrieve their own projects; she can’t see the one of the colder artist, but the one that bursts with warmth reaches into his pocket for a familiar pale substance. She has to ignore the fact that it’s the same chibi of herself from when they first met— otherwise she couldn’t think about anything else.

As far as instruction...that’s all she gets! It is, indeed, just that. Look around, find something to draw, that’s the whole idea of it, really. The peace of the lakeside with the scent of moss and mushrooms in the air surrounds her, bits of blue sky peeking through tall canopy treetops as birds tweet plans to migrate soon.

Blink blink. Silence. Blink blink once again and a turn of her head one way, then the other. More silence...

…

…

As ever, the voices like to talk louder if she gives them space to speak— an idle mind an amphitheater and playground for things that don’t like you— so despite herself— the fear of being known and seen and embarrassed— she has no choice but to put her skill or lack thereof on paper where two professionals may judge her as a fake.

Exactly what they want…though maybe besides that last bit. At least for Deidara. 

…Deidara really shouldn’t speak for the two of them.

Said iwa-nin’s eye that matches the sky darts every so often to its corner, catching snippets of what she’s doing over her shoulder. It’s a shame that she didn’t try to continue his portrait, turn to a new page instead, but a new day deserves a new piece, he supposes. Nervous fingers put a quiver into the trail of ink her brush lays, and though perhaps it isn’t formally a style, there’s charm in it. The little, minute indentations of the horizon where she meant to draw a straight line. Pressing just a bit too long so the shape of a wave becomes more like a blob...making it work by forging it into a foam rather than a clean curve of water.

Watching someone participate in art… It’s really the simplest things that make life worthwhile. The fleeting moments of learning, of creation. Even while he vehemently will disagree with Sasori to the grave...Deidara will always hold the position that there is superior skill in how his partner simply makes. This musician is no different. The azure iris softens, upper eyelid lowering.

And as time passes, the performer’s demeanor becomes the same, lost in her activity with a lull in the air that could nearly help one fall asleep…

...

…

…

Oh. Hold on a second, there.

“Hm? Takara-chan?” It isn’t an urgent request, and so now that she’s been lost in thought a moment, she doesn’t jump out of her seat like she would’ve a few minutes ago.

“...Oh. Yes?” One of the blonde’s fingers moves off the brim of the figurine’s hat to point at her own work.

“What’s that you’re drawing?”

“Ah? …Oh.” She looks back down at what she was sketching; it suddenly doesn’t look familiar. “It was meant to be the lake.” But there are no trees and this water painted in ebony is clearly moving rather than as still as what’s past her feet now. Her eyelids lower even more, and though nearing sleep, it is not more relaxed, because as it isn’t a place the blonde knows, it is one his siren has seen before. She has, after all, replicated the very paradise of her slumber and death.

“I...guess my mind started to drift,” she understates, the ocean of her dreams staring her back. All the worse that last night, she imagined she and the man on her left told her sweet nothings while the one on the right held her so commandingly by the jaw again, making her feel wanted. She can feel the latter’s stare joining in over her shoulder right now and it again makes her so very, very nervous. It isn’t always a good thing to be seen, especially when it is reality versus your fantasy. She prays as the puppeteer's dull brown eyes crawl over her that the ocean stays her secret, unlike the lake. Her poor heart couldn’t take it otherwise.

What she really should be grateful for is that she never peeked herself at what Sasori was crafting, that the clacks and twists of mechanical parts were of one hand picking into the others’ knuckles with a tool similar to her world’s screwdrivers.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

I don't show it but I quiver whenever you come near

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Deidara looks up at the passing treetops as they return “home”, remarking internally that he hasn’t given them artistic thought in a long time, not the same way he does the birds above. He glances briefly over the collar of his cloak to the woman walking to his right, seeing she too is looking up rather than watching where she steps. The tip of her brown boot hits the edge of an earth-embedded stone, but before the blonde can open his mouth to warn her, an oh so well-known glimmer of blue spiderweb glows underneath the sunshine. With the most subtle flick of Sasori’s wrist, her step is readjusted and the doll in a pale dress is none the wiser. 

“Tsk…” Sasori says under his breath. With the redhead on the woman’s left, Deidara leans his head past her to give the older artist a very amused smirk.

“You ever do that for me, un?” Predictably, the woman hums in confusion, but the two briefly speak as if she is simply not there, she nothing more than a barrier to overpass, a fence to talk through. Without even the time of day to roll his eyes, Sasori merely blinks his disdain through her to him.

“Only when necessary.”

“And how often is that?”

“More often than you think, clumsy brat.”

This reprieve from unkind thoughts isn’t as relieving as expected, her chin turning from one shoulder to another to get any goddamn hint at all what the hell is happening. But the conversation continues, Deidara putting his hands behind his back in an all-too casual, oh-so teasing fashion; it’s delightful to him where it is meant to be shaming from Sasori.

“Protecting me like that… Perhaps you respect my art more than you say?”

Sasori does the closest thing he can to growling, letting a hum barely roughen the back of his throat. With utmost precision, Deidara decides now is a great time to play out their age old argument, see what a fellow artist will make of it:

“Mayhaps art in its purest form is fleeting?” Evaluatively, the woman looks her right side man over.

“Fleeting?” she repeats. Deidara nods, and the edge in his eye isn’t due to his liner.

“You see...there’s a reason that Pain-sama paired Sasori no Danna and I together... It is because we both use aesthetics and philosophy in perfecting the art of war.”

“...War?” she repeats, quieter this time, but Sasori hitches onto another aspect of that statement:

“It’s because our fighting styles are complimentary,” he corrects with no compliment to be found, already weary of the coming conversation; they’ve had it ten times over, of course, with Deidara just trying to find the right buttons to push to get him so wondrously annoyed.

And damn him, Sasori falls for it every fucking time.

“Perhaps that...but you can’t mistake fate! Art brought us together.” A glance to the woman between them as he begins to slow his walk methodically. “...With you, too.” He acknowledges her bewildered, flattered gaze back in mind only, not with words; he continues: “So...tell me, Takara-chan. I believe art is an explosion. A bang. Its nature...hm…” He mumbles as if he hasn’t said these very adjectives over and over, even in his sleep. “...Fleeting. You can’t appreciate beauty if you consider it as an eternal state of being...or at least, not as well. You remember more that which scorches your memory with a flash!” A gesture of a mouthed hand to his most recent victim of art theory, inviting her to his trap. “Wouldn’t you agree?”

By this time, Deidara has stopped walking and so has the woman trying to follow his train of thought. “That all...sounds true,” she admits. Immediately, another tsk sounds behind her ear; it is the loudest she’s ever heard Sasori speak, and she regrets turning her back to him, perhaps even stand by him without Deidara as a buffer in the first place. In surprise, the woman jumps as the man that examined her in the dark steps forward, though at the moment he’s still ignoring her entirely, choosing instead to speak with his partner. Thank god.

“Misguiding, smarmy little brat,” he seethes. “You’re misleading with such broad statements, no context to be found. Art is eternal.”

“Eternal?” Yet more repetition. Whether he hears or her not...no idea! He just goes on, seeing no hypocrisy in his own sweeping generalization.

“Art is everlasting. To withstand the sands of time, their decay and erosion...that is true beauty. By definition, to state it should be fleeting is simply repulsive.” Deidara’s grin widens to show teeth.

“Repulsive, you say?”

“Yes.”

The woman tents her hands in front of her mouth, looking side to side to each argument and the man that delivers it. A blue eye begins to trail onto her, but it doesn’t speak...And then brown eyes do the same, though cold lips do find something to say.

“I’m sure even she can see that, given proper instruction.”

“Why don’t we ask?” Ohhhh yes! The maniacal grin of a cool but unsettling sculptor whips to bare fangs at the new subject of torture. “What do you think, Takara-chan?”

Oh Jesus fucking Christ on a bike.

Her pulse is racing.

“I...I…”

...No!

No more mumbling! No more being small, she abruptly decides. Physically she shoves the distraught away with a swing of her arms, then clenching her fists in front of her heart with a determined frown. If they want her opinion, it will be given. It’s far from it that she doesn’t have one, after all, these two guys throwing such absolutes around like confetti at a wedding or candy in a parade. If they ask...surely they value her. Maybe even as an artist.

...That’d be a wonderful thing. Her hopes get high up.

“So...let me get this straight.” The stranger motions to Deidara first after reopening her eyes, flipping her palms up to the sky to convey open thought. “You think art is best defined by the briefness of it?” A nod.

“Yes, of c—!”

“Shut up and let her continue.”

Ah, there’s the harder one to address; the dollmaker, in her so limited experience of him, is very, very hard to please. But she abides by the plan, as it is only fair, gesturing next to Sasori. “You th—...know that it’s best defined by its endurance through time.” Another nod.

“Among other things,” he corrects again, wiser than the singer. “But yes.” That’s good enough for her, so next, the hands she use to guide her words return in front of her pensively, one on her chin and the other tapping her cheek. In retreat, her eyeballs stare up at the sky to find room to better think, freer space in the cosmos than in the atmosphere down on the ground.

“I don’t know about here, but...back where I’m from, people have spent lifetimes— multiple ones, really— trying to define what art is. There’s a guy who tried to prove a point by stating a urinal was art because he gave it a label and put it in a gallery.” She reads how both seem distinctly disgusted with the idea, Deidara wearing a sour face for them both with Sasori’s eyes merely— but for once— widen, so she quickly pivots. “...Though the taste of such thing wasn’t in question, the validity of it was. Art…— I only know a bit about visual art, but… I think it can be a lot of things.” Deidara’s advice comes back to haunt her; stop repeating the thesis, add your points. “I think…” She swallows, tasting the thought in her mouth before she says it, eyelids shutting till closed tight as her brain is combed for answers:

…

…

But her eyes open and she, indeed, can say her truth confidently:

“I think the answer has to be both. That by the human experience of art, a firework is brief in the literal sense: it only lasts so long. But it lasts longer than that in other ways. The smoke in the air, the mark it makes in your vision. And then the memory of it! You can remember it until you die. And then if you replicate that vision with a painting, it can last even longer than you’ll be alive. Many artists of my land are defined by their work not within their lifetime but long after they’re dead.” A tinge of sadness. “It always makes me wish I could go back and show them how they impacted me— err, everyone.”

Selfish to do something as miraculous as time travel just to talk about yourself, after all.

“And on the other hand...let’s think of a book. A book in a literal sense can last forever, at least if it’s cared for well enough, maybe have the pages laminated. But you experience each word one at a time! And there are lots of stories where you’ll wish you could read it for the first time but know you never can; the first reading of it can’t be replicated because of the knowledge you hold. Sometimes, the second readings teach you something you didn’t notice before, maybe the third. So on!”

For once, a smile from her lips graces not only Deidara but the elusive Sasori. They let her speak this long; so that means she did, indeed, have things worth saying. Her confidence soars.

“Isn’t that right?” Separated hands finally clasp together in symbolic unity. “To confine your definitions… Sure, preferences are real, but to say one is or is not more artistic just doesn’t make sense to me.”

You can practically see the thought bubbles above their heads, each mind going “. . .”, drawn out with one period at a time to form the ellipsis. It’s only now that the performer notices the sculptor hasn’t been smiling himself...that is, she only notices because he begins smiling now.

“While I don’t agree...I see your point, un.” A turn of his head. “What of you, Sasori?” The two youngsters of the trio look to the named man, one calm as can be and the other’s heart running marathons.

“…” he speaks.

“…” they answer, on the edge of metaphorical seats. Under scrutiny, ever so slightly, the scorpion’s eyes narrow with one last parting strike.

“...Nonsense.”

And just like the piano, Sasori is gone in a puff of smoke. The woman’s arms flail up and a shriek pierces her throat, becoming so off-kilter that Deidara has to put an arm around her back to keep her from tripping yet again.

“Ah..” he comforts, a fingertip scratching his chin, “Well… Don’t take that too harshly. He likes to think in private...especially when his ego is crushed, un.”

Perhaps she should’ve just answered the initial question more sincerely, that instead of getting involved in discourse she’d just rather kill herself again. That’d be less painful.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

And I cannot decipher between the thrill and the fear

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

A heavy, heavy sigh escapes her chest as they finally reach the mansion, the woman practically collapsing onto the rocking chair upon the porch, human arms limp upon wooden ones. “What? You really tired after that?” But to Deidara’s question she weakly shakes her hanging head.

“No...just...long day.”

“...Mm?” His chin raises to the sky, a second of quiet breaking his thoughts. “...It’s only midday.” He’s answered with a pitiful groan:

“Don’t remind me…”

The whine is unlike prior tones she’s worn before, he notes of the performer, though a following grunt in surprise causes her to perk up again, even if only so slightly:

A butterfly, orange and black like burning leaves, putters ever so delicately in front of Deidara’s face; it makes the woman by accident stare right at him...especially so as it lands right there, tip of his nose. A wistful chuckle sounds from her lips and he remarks, again, how perfectly melodic her voice is.

“A butterfly...it’s a little late for you this time of year, friend.” Almost like they were made for it, one of her fingers are offered to the bug and it eagerly accepts, the siren withdrawing a symbol of nature’s beauty so it may be properly seen by them both. Another chuckle— no, a giggle!...— and she smiles wide enough to show her own teeth. Her eyelids lower so slowly as if the flutter of her lashes alone could scare the creature away. “You looked like Tobi’s mask, black and orange on his face like that!”

Deidara ignores the heat on his cheeks, being compared to someone so uncouth, and instead lets his pout speak for him...that is, until he has a question. “Takara-chan...what do you mean by that?”

“Well, his mask is orange and the eyehole is—”

“No. I get that. The other thing you said.”

“Ahhh, mmmm, oh!” Vocalizations help her remember what happened mere seconds ago. “It’s getting late in the seasons for butterflies to still be alive, at least if things here work the same way as where I was before.” The perch for the bug is raised, letting the flame of its wings catch the glitter of sun rays. “With fall around the corner, I don’t expect you to stick around here.” How lovingly she looks at the insect, Deidara notes. The way her eyes pinch, the adoration that graces her lips. Ah...yes…

That’s the goal he’s going to set.

“Takara-chan?”

“Yes?”

For once, his smile is bashful, lopsided but not with abandon but with self-conscious ideas. “It’s not a...what did you call it? Tin can in the sky...but maybe we could spot more of these butterflies if you go for a ride with me.”

“Mm?” The woman follows his gesture, putting his arm to his side. She doesn’t get it at first; there’s nothing in his palm, no clay or anything else. What’s he pointing at…?

…

…

Oh. She’s gotten so used to that giant white blob that she’s forgotten it’s been there, just sitting in the yard. An unsure finger points to the sculpture that rescued her before. “On the bird?” He nods in response...and the nerves in his grin grow and stretch his mouth wider as distinctly the woman looks...uncomfortable.

“I...I don’t know.”

His eye pinches, but not in joy— searching, instead. “You’re much too shy Takara-chan,” he says spitefully in lieu of saying she thinks she’s too good for his art. But to his surprise, she shakes her head, unconfident herself but sure in her answer:

“I’m scared.”

Well that just doesn’t make any sense! “Why? You’ve flown before. A couple times, right?”

“I haven’t—...oh.” Her voice trails quiet. So that’s what he means… Man, she did a piss poor job describing an airplane ride, huh? “It’s...really different. Being in a plane is like sitting in an office. You hardly feel anything. You’re in a long, tight room, and only get one tiny window.” She cranes her neck up, still avoiding Deidara’s face looking back. “One tiny window versus a big sky. You don’t...feel it. You don’t feel where you are.” Head lowers, gaze pinning to the dirt for stability as hands fumble in front of her lap. “Without that setting…” she admits a sin, “I’m afraid of heights.”

With yet another hum today, Deidara cocks his head and tries to imagine such a thing. To be up in the air, high enough to fly over mountains...and yet not feel it? Then what’s the point? Might as well be asleep in a crate the whole way if you’re missing the experience of flying. “So…” he prods, cautiously seeing if he can reboost his pride. “...You’ve never flown. Not really.” She shakes her head.

“No...of course not. That’s not a thing.”

“…”

And to make sure she spots the softness reentering his eyes, Deidara gently takes fingers under her chin and turns her face to look at them. As best as he can tell, she’s at least not lying about the fear. He waits patiently until he knows she sees him, sees his convincing, confident smile.

“You haven’t lived till you tried it.” The hand lets go, and thankfully her stare remains, no matter how tenuous. “Give it a shot, un?”

“…”

Her heart isn’t even beating right now, it’s just a tight, twisting black hole sucking the rest of her in. He’s insane. He’s insane…!

…

She’s insane.

Redness tinges her cheeks once more as she preemptively apologizes. “Forgive me if I cling too hard.”

“Darling—” Oh, she realizes. He hasn’t called her that since they pretended to be in love. Her heart reenters the fray; she can tell since it’s doing flips now to pump hot, excited blood through the body. “—It would be an insult if you didn’t.”

Not even five minutes later, the woman wraps her arms around his back tighter and tighter with each flap of clay wings, the scent of salty earth an aura as she buries her face in his neck and gilded hair exactly as soft as it looks, with one eye barely able to peek in the frontier of the heavens. The turbulence rings in her ears and as he laughs so fondly, she shrieks. Like being on a rollercoaster, it is in both fright and exuberance.

But the ground is so beautiful from up here, and though a rough lover, the wind plays with her hair until it sends tingles down her back.

And for Deidara to turn his own back on someone... Risk is most certainly the most erotic of foreplay. They ride until the day is over and the sky turns red, the night the same color as the morning she died. Butterflies chase and dance around them, beginning the long journey home for the winter.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

I wanna stop it but like it too much to let it stop here

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

The night is somehow both so quiet and so noisy, the sound of his breath from mere feet away.

She is scared of her dreams, especially as the bizarre man insists another sleepover together. He looks so...sweet, so innocent with his makeup wiped away to show a gentle visage, and hair down and around him like a golden blanket draped over his head. But each Akatsuki member she's met is deadly, and there is no reason for him to be any different. Her brow curls as she looks him over, on his stomach with hands near his face so tenderly. Why is he here...? She never thought herself the type to be romanced by thrill, a dichotomy of it next to something more relaxed...but here we are. With the blonde ahead who made her taller than the trees, a woman who has only ever tried to be small feels her sight fade in and out. The sigh of the ocean fills her ears and drowns into her chest, and while she fears the little death of sleep, so too is it anticipated, arms open in acceptance of fate and unbridled desire. Her fascination with death, after all, is rooted in wanting to understand that which frightens. Who better than an angel from the sky to sweep her up and away, asking now to sleep under these stars? (Well...under these stars under this roof; as alluring as a true camping experience would be, it isn’t so peaceful in execution.)

Her eyes close and she hears his voice, and a piece of her naughtily loves the goosebumps on her arms and the twisting in her chest. The ocean takes her away, drifting her into waiting hands and cooing praise.

Deidara's dreams, in turn, are unlike his usual: They bring cute bumblebees, and one lands with intent to sting as she whispers in his ear, this siren of flowers and butterflies and trees that emerged from the lake to sing her song of wine and plague. Just as she did, she asks him to drown too.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

It's wrong but I want you tonight

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

[locke-writes]

2k Writing Challenge

Sign Ups Open: March 24th, 2023

Sign Ups Close: April 25th, 2023

Writings Due: July 15th, 2023 (can be posted before the due date)

Rules:

Send an ask letting me know that you’re joining

Let me know the character that you are writing for. Must be a character I am familiar with so feel free to ask ahead of time if you are unsure you will be able to write for characters I know

Choose between 1-3 prompts from the below indicating whether they are dialogue or song prompts. You may mix and match between the two (ie. 1 song prompt + 1 dialogue prompt). I’ll then put your url next to the prompt/s you’ve chosen so you can reference this post.

There is no minimum or maximum word count

AUs are more than welcome, just let me know if you’re planning an AU

Make sure to include trigger warnings in your post if they’re needed

Tag Me and DM me a link if I don’t like the post within 24 hours of it being up. Sometimes tumblr is fickle and doesn’t like to notify me of being tagged

You may sign up to write more than one thing however you can’t use the same prompts (ie. if you sign up to write X character with song prompt 3, you can’t use that prompt if you want to write Y character)

Additional questions can be sent through the inbox. Prompts are below

Song Prompts:

Boris - Lo-Fang

People Watching - Conan Gray

If I Get High - Nothing But Thieves

Fair - The Amazing Devil

Saint Bernard - Lincoln

And She Was - Talking Heads

Bulletproof - La Roux

Pierre - Ryn Weaver

Washing Machine Heart - Mitski

brutal - Olivia Rodrigo

Fast Car - Tracy Chapman

Jessie’s Girl - Rick Springfield

Happier Than Ever - Billie Eilish ( @nekoannie-chan / Steve Rogers )

Vienna - Billy Joel

Come Along - Cosmo Sheldrake

Kiss Me - Sixpence None the Richer

Seventeen - MARINA

Sofia - Clairo

Your Stupid Face - Kaden MacKay

Toxic - Britney Spears

All These Things That I’ve Done - The Killers

Movement - Hozier

Motion Sickness - Phoebe Bridgers

End of Beginning - Djo

Liability - Lorde

Little Lion Man - Mumford & Sons

bad idea! - girl in red

The Adults Are Talking - The Strokes

Just Like Heaven - The Cure

9 Crimes - Damien Rice

Dialogue Prompts

“I couldn’t stop loving you, even if I tried. And I did try for some time. But it didn’t work.

“We all have secrets, don’t we”

“After all you’ve done, how can I trust you?”

“I trust you. I just don’t trust them.” ( @nekoannie-chan / Steve Rogers)

“You’re the only person I would do this for”

“I know this isn’t what you want to hear”

“What are you doing with that knife?”

“I think you need a hug”

“I smell something burning. Are you sure you don’t need help?”

“Don’t worry, you’re safe with me”

“Didn’t I tell you to bring a jacket?”

“No! You are not getting me sick!”

“Can I kiss you?”

“Excuse me, that joke was terrible”

“Let me get the first aid kit again”

“You aren’t dying, you just stubbed your toe”

“Who made you cry and where can I find them?”

“Go to bed, you need sleep.”

“It’s not breaking and entering if I have a key”

“Can’t believe I let you drag me into this” ( @kjs-s / Foggy Nelson)

“If the sun isn’t up, then I am not up”

“Trust me it looks worse than it is”

“Act like we’re dating, I see my ex” ( @kjs-s / Foggy Nelson)

“It’s always going to be you”

“Please don’t set off the fire alarm again”

“Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“No way, you’re taking a break and that’s final”

“You take care of everyone but who takes care of you”

“We promised not to tell that story to anyone”

“Stay there, I’m on my way”

[g1deonthefirst]

for the character meme: our lady of the passion OR aim OR we suffer and we suffer hehe

aim for you my love 🌹

favorite thing about them:

aim's entire deal drives me nuts i'm obsessed with them. i love the way they talk especially they have such distinctive dialogue that makes them really fun to read and write but also the queerness in how theyre described — using she/her pronouns with the kids but also being called sir because the other teacher is ma'am, the way they dress, and ofc the inherited they/them pronouns. also their whole backstory or what we know of it is sooo interesting to me.

least favorite thing about them:

i think they could stand to treat nona a little more like an adult to be honest.

favorite line:

their whole speech to the kids about how they should judge people by their actions rather than what they say is both a really good line and also i think very relevant to how you're meant to read ntn.

brOTP:

aim and we suffer i think they should've gotten to sit around and shoot the shit.

OTP:

aim/pash. like i said in my pash post no way they didn't fuck staying in such close quarters all the time. there's something about aim being half of The Message and seemingly quite revered and pash snarking at them the way she does with everyone that gets me too.

nOTP:

aim/any man. i haven't seen this but i just believe in my heart that aim's attracted to women.

random headcanon:

because aim is specifically described as a little person at one point iirc, i like to imagine that they have dwarfism. whenever i write them i imagine they have the ability to tap into memories of previous messengers because i think it's cool. maybe i also think that they had a partner they lost on lemuria.

unpopular opinion:

i don't know if people have enough opinions about aim that i can have an unpopular one. uhhh. they were probably right to call merv wing in given the chances that they were in the room with a lyctor even though it meant nona got shot in the head. i think they're deeply attractive like that scene where nona says "every furtive, fleeting, mercurial spark had gone, leaving something hard and old, something that touched light to some paper deep within nona." 🥵🥵🥵

song i associate with them:

HM!! maybe old ocean or bathed in sound by cosmo sheldrake given their whole zoologist who possibly has memories/knowledge of the earth before the bomb deal. although bathed in sound (and cosmo sheldrake in general) is also a very nona song to me. also holocene by bon iver i think.

favorite picture of them:

there's so few aims out there in the world tlt artists please im on my hands and knees. oh but i like the one from this art.

[kirango-rouge]

Tell publicly 3 facts about yourself or your three favourite songs or favourite books (it can be anything, really-whatever you want to share/feel like talking about) then send it some people you like! 😃

awwwwww dear <3 cmere i smooch you! *mwah mwah mwah*!!!

i'll tell one of each then ^^

1 fact: i still have as a treasure a little stash collection of the "Diddle" series from my childhood, because i have always loved these little creatures genuinely being all touchy and smoochy with each other in both romantic and nonromantic way (the ace spectrum was already crying "YES"). i still use the 2004 calandar displayed proudly in my room xD

2 song: it changes regularly ^^ but in general i am a huge fan of Cosmo Sheldrake's work, so i'd say "The Moss" a good classic ^^

3 book: my good old childhood children's story book that has been very well loved <3

[soldier-requests]

can i get a playlist for a tiger therian? i like kind of ethereal/mystical music, or anything that reminds you of a jungle or forest. please include some nonlyricals/instrumentals! thank you eternally :3

hello! sorry for being so late, but hopefully you like some of these songs. happy new year!

songs go like "song" + "artist"

"Evening Wind" + "Joe Hisaishi"

"Heimr Àrnadalr" (From 'Frozen'/Score) + "Christophe Beck"

"Tulou Tagaloa" + "Olivia Foa'i"

"Around" + "Modulogeek"

"Shalala" + "Moses Gunn Collective"

"Sunshine Recorder" + "Boards of Canada"

"Lycanthrope" + "NOMAD_theband"

"Creature of the Night" + "Air Traffic Controller"

"I Am Here To Lose Control" + "De Staat"

"We are Gods! We are Wolves!" + "Le Loup"

"Werewolf Heart" + "Dead Man's Bones"

"In The Room Where You Sleep" + "Dead Man's Bones"

"Fangs" + "Younger Hunger"

"Therian" + "Papadosio"

"Feels Like We Only Go Backwards" + "Tame Impala"

"Plastic Beach" + "Gorillaz" and "Mick Jones" and "Paul Simonon"

"I Can't Wait" + "Nu Shooz"

"Shut Eye" + "Stealing Sheep"

"Animal Impulses" + "IAMX"

"Kitty City" + "Cyriak Harris"

"I Saw an Angel" + "Puzzle"

"Photosynthesis" + "Blank Banshee"

"Bathsalts" + "Blank Banshee"

"The Mind Electric" + "Miracle Musical"

"Temptation Stairway" (Waltz Variation) + "Metaroom"

"Blood In The Wine" + "AURORA"

"Little Boy In The Grass" + "AURORA"

"LIGHT SHOWER" + "Melanie Martinez"

"SPIDER WEB" + "Melanie Martinez"

"最後の楽園" (in english: "The Last Paradise") + "Haruomi Hosono"

"This Is My Beloved" + "Mort Garson"

"lain" + "C4FF31N3"

"6pm" (from Animal Crossing) + "Arcade Player"

"K.K. Jazz" (from Animal Crossing) + "Arcade Player"

"Town Gate" (from Animal Crossing) + "Arcade Player"

"13 Angels Standing Guard 'Round The Side Of Your Bed" + "Silver Mt. Zion"

"I'm Not Human At All" (Copenhagen X Sessions) + "Sleep Party People"

"I Am Shell I Am Bone" + "Gazelle Twin"

"Wrath Of God" + "Crystal Castles"

"Love You" + "The Free Design"

"Once Upon a December" (from Anastasia) + "Emile Pandolfi"

"Landscape With a Fairy" + "aspidistrafly"

"Aquarius" + "Lor"

"village song" + "Paris Paloma"

"Come Along" + "Cosmo Sheldrake"

"Birthday Suit" + "Cosmo Sheldrake"

"Entangled Life" + "Merlin Sheldrake" and "Cosmo Sheldrake"

"In the Woods Somewhere" + "Hozier"

"Old Black Train" (feat. Justin Rubenstein) + "The Blasting Company" (Over The Garden Wall)

"Merry Go Round of Life" (Howl's Moving Castle) + "Vitamin String Quartet"

"Inside Out" + "Duster"

"Insomniac" + "Memo Boy" and "Chakra Efendi"

"Woodland" + "The Paper Kites"

"Featherstone" + "The Paper Kites"

"Willow Tree March" + "The Paper Kites"

"Oceanic Feeling" + "Lorde"

"Sunflower" + "Rex Orange County"

"Blackbird" (Remastered 2009) + "The Beatles"

"Here Comes The Sun" (Remastered 2009) + "The Beatles"

"Call Me The Breeze" + "John Mayer"

"Rule #28 - Sand" + "Fish In a Birdcage" and "Raquel Lily" and "Atlys"

"The Bug Collector" + "Haley Heynderickx"

"Call me" + "90sFlav"

"Everything at Once" + "Lenka"

"Firefly Lullabies" + "Ava Beathard"

"Howling at the Moon" + "Skyhill"

"Changing Colors" + "Hiwet Tesmi"

"La femme à la peau bleue" + "Vendredi sur Mer"

"Les Fleurs" + "Minnie Riperton"

"Monk's Robes" + "Deradoorian"

"Lavender Moon" + "Haroula Rose"

"Lions" + "Jenny Hval" and "Vivian Wang"

"Caribbean Blue" (Remastered 2009) + "Enya"

"Avalanches and Unfamiliar Ways to Die" + "Ha Vay"

"Sea, Swallow Me" + "Cocteau Twins" and "Harold Budd"

"Persephone" + "Cocteau Twins"

"Moses" + "Elizabeth Fraser"

"Andromeda" + "Weyes Blood"

"Holocene" (feat. Weyes Blood) + "Zella Day"

"Caliope" (Remastered 2011) + "Maanam"

"Mishima" + "Daphne Guinness"

"Mermaids" + "Florence + The Machine"

"Fairy Fountain" + "Super Guitar Bros"

"Glory Box" + "Portishead"

"Waffles" + "Whatever, Dad"

"Would I Be The One" + "Sean Ono Lennon"

"Electric Counterpoint: III. Fast" + "Steve Reich" and "Mats Bergström"

"Speak For Me" + "Cat Power"

"Bolero" + "BLAST! Ensemble"

"All the Candles in the World" + "Jane Siberry"

"Clouds" + "Resavoir"

"all I understand is that I don't understand" + "toe"

"The Moon Will Sing" + "The Crane Wives"

"Metaphor" + "The Crane Wives"

"The Moon and the Stars" + "John Mark Nelson"

"Mr. Fox in the Fields" + "Alexandre Desplat"

"Alive" + "Phil Lober"

"Star of the County Down" + "Van Morrison" + "The Chieftains"

"Acolyte" + "Slaughter Beach" and "Dog"

dividers from @/animatedglittergraphics-n-more and @/cringecrew

[thereareeyesinsidethetrees]

Making a playlist for my fangame/AU for you to try and analyze because i think it'd be v interesting to see! Also i will totally take you up on the offer to ramble about AU's if it's still available,,,

okay, let's see how close and/or far i get

starting with the songs i know:

Come Along by Cosmo Sheldrake. now i've never actually looked up the lyrics of this one (just been guessing at them which. i often mess up with), but according to the ~internet~ it's meant to be a sort of invitation away from real life's static-ness, to instead live with a bit of whimsy. one source also says it's also about "embracing the present and cherishing life's fleeting moments"

so, one possibility is that this is related to the au/fangame in an "escaping your real life and jumping into the whimsy that is this gravity falls game" sort of way. if we're counting the second bit, part of the story could be about refusing to let the game go? always coming back to it, never truly letting it end?

alternatively, the "cherishing life's fleeting moments" is about the show and "embracing the present" is about finding new joys in life. third possibility is that i'm overthinking this

A Sadness Runs Through Him by The Hoosiers. okay, i can connect this one to a few characters:

-the stan twins (or just one, lots of people just go with one)

-the player character (going hand-in-hand with the "not wanting to let the game end" thing)

-...bill cipher? (again, if you can't let the game die, you can't let any of it truly die, and that includes the antagonist. the lines 'asked me to pray to the god he doesn't believe in' and 'don't look at me with those eyes' work especially well for bill, with the former possibly being linked to the axolotl. considering that he called out for the axolotl to revive him and, in this scenario, he came back without its help. or maybe it's just. an actual god. who knows what bill believes)

Two Birds by Regina Spektor

-Mabel and Dipper or Stan and Ford work, of course. however-

-Bill and the player??? i'm sorry i caught this string and i'm refusing to let ago until i get to a song that proves me wrong

-adding third idea after reading back through this: one bird is the player, the other is representative of either the show or other people in the player's life. the player doesn't want to let go, and ends up in an unfortunate situation as a result, with the other "bird" leaving without them

Ruler of Everything by Tally Hall

I'm gonna say this one is also related to Bill Cipher, for a few reasons- one, the line "do you like how my face disintegrates into chalk?" well. it did kinda do that when stan punched him didn't it

second reason is because the whole back-and-forth section of the song could be between the player and bill. "i saw you slobber over clovers on the side of the hill, i was observing the birds, circle in for the kill" could be a reference to bill's death, with him becoming a stone statue in the woods. in the final episode, you see a bird land on his hand- hence, i was observing the birds. "circle in for the kill" could be the player, rightfully, not trusting him not to try mass murder again

there's also "i've been you, i know you, your facade is a scam" coming from the player. they've watched the show, they've probably interacted with discussions about it, fanart, fanfiction, possibly even made some of their own. they know bill as a character and, more importantly, they know he's not an honest one

(the rest of these are songs i had never listened to before now)

Tom's Diner by Suzanne Vega, DNA

i'll be honest i've got nothing for the lyrics. i suppose there's just too many ways i could interpret it- for example, applying the "player theory" to this one, the player could be the singer or the person outside the window. bill could be the dead person in the newspaper, or it could be someone unrelated. the singer could be one of the characters (leaning towards ford, considering he is the coffee guy) and the waiter is the player, or the person outside the window is still the player, or the person exchanging hellos is the player. you see what i mean?

Obstacles by Syd Matters

mmm not entirely sure about this one, but i think it could be from the perspective of the characters? the blizzard/changing weather is the world the player's trapped them in, the foreseeing obstacles is the player themselves, and the playing hide and seek in waterfalls represents the world before the game. the world as in the show (especially considering that the cave behind the waterfall is pretty important whenever it comes up)

Constellations by The Oh Hellos

ditto, but a little more optimistic (the mention of "good intentions", assuming that the player isn't refusing to let the game end out of maliciousness + "everything you thought you knew will fall apart, but you'll be alright" acknowledging that what's happening is terrible and it's not likely that life for the characters will not return to normal, but they will persist throughout it)

Willow Tree March by The Paper Kites

i lied i have heard this one i just never knew the name. bonus points for having one of my favorite songs in your playlist and therefore helping me rediscover it. anyway, continuing with our player theory, this one could be a more...guilty approach to it? guilty in that the lyrics ("with your lust and your greed weighing down" and "and you weaken your love and you hold it above your head" for example) seem to be more accusatory, and the repeated lyrics "we all still die" and "this tree, it will die (without leaves)" make me think the singer represents the characters, trying to get across the idea that it doesn't matter how hard the player holds on to the game, it'll inevitably die anyway

Just A Man from EPIC: The Musical

not entirely sure about this one either. possibly, the player realizing that not letting the game end is hurting the characters and reflecting on that?

Viva La Vida by Coldplay

this feels like more of a bill song than a player song

Conclusion!

alright, so my guess at this au is that it's sort of about a self-aware game? the player plays through the game, then plays it again and again and again and refuses to let it rest. overtime, this starts to wear down on the characters and causes things to go wrong, such as reviving bill cipher. at some point, the characters begin to directly plead with the player to let the game end and, possibly after some sort of tragedy or new route via bill that kills or otherwise harms the other characters, the player start to realize that it's their own actions that are causing the game to break down. what exactly happens after that? depends on the player

no idea how close i was, but! good playlist i thoroughly enjoyed going through it :]

[stillgrows]

get to know the mun

what made you pick up the current muse(s) you have? oh, goodness. there are so many and they are so varied. they're all muses i've picked up over the years who have spoken to me; in some ways, it's funny to look back and see what my "type" was at the time (see: huey laforet and johannes cabal being from things i was into around the same time, and then luxord and kariya being from similar times for me as well; looking @ my new gnshn additions is funny because yeah, you're into the fake people lately, aren't you).

is there anything you don’t like to write? while i love shipping, i dislike relationships where there is no... challenge? not even challenge in a butting heads way, but they have to be able to provide something to the other. they have to enable growth in the other. so i guess completely 100% fluffy cute happy ships without any substance (and the substance does not have to be negative in any way... it just has to actually be there).

is there anything you really enjoy writing? i love parallels and foils in narration. i also do love writing smut, i shall not lie; it's a good way to look into the dynamics of a character with themself and their own body as well as of a relationship. in general though i enjoy anything that really pries open a character and lets me examine them in different ways.

do you write in silence or do you play music? depends! i have character playlists i will usually use, but sometimes the vocals are a detriment and i'll just write in silence (or with music on in the living room so it's Noise but i'm not Listening)

do you plan your replies or wing them? yes? it really depends. sometimes i'll reply instantly and in that case i'm winging it, but i've usually had inspiration occur to me which counts as vague planning even if instantaneous? with replies being so short it's difficult to say, vs writing a novel where i know the ending and am winging the middle.

do you enjoy shipping? forgot this question was coming and kind of answered it already... so, yes. a lot. but it has to give something to the characters. i don't just ship just to ship. i'm not rewriting my above answer so y'all get the same thing twice.

what’s your alias/name? syd, or plant (although i've had several additional ones over the years) age? 27 birthday? 18 july favorite color? burnt orange favorite song? currently my top song on my on repeat playlist is over & over by rio romeo but i think axolotl by cosmo sheldrake may be my actual current favorite. this changes very often. last movie you watched? uh. it may have been my ghost in the shell rewatch a while ago? last show you watched? a murder at the end of the world last song you listened to? currently listening to brain damage by joywave favorite food? oh, um. hm. raw oysters with a good mignonette. favorite season? late summer/early fall do you have a tumblr best friend? does my girlfriend count?

tagged by: stole from @kkriitters tagging: you