#this came from my 2023 top played playlist

[sehunniepotwrites]

RISK IT ALL | L.HC (teaser)

read the full fic here!

SYNOPSIS. In theory, playing a card game called Risk It or Drink It during your holiday kickback sounded fun. In reality, it was your group’s wild plot scheme for you and your close friend, Donghyuck, to finally get yourselves together in more ways than one. 

PAIRING. Lee Donghyuck x fem!Reader GENRE. Friends-to-Lovers!AU, Holiday!AU, Christmas!AU, Party!AU, comedy, smut (minors dni!) WORD COUNT. (teaser) 673, full fic estimate ~7k

WARNINGS. original character (Ari), language (crude sexual jokes, talks about sex positions, and profanities), alcohol and food consumption, adult drinking games with dares, explicit content (fingering, oral/sixty-nine, nipple play, praise, penetrative, missionary, etc.), nicknames (princess),  will add more once they come up! PLAYLIST. Up to You - PRETTYMUCH feat. NCT Dream

DISCLAIMER. This is work of fiction. I do not own the people/characters or concepts I have written about. You cannot translate or copy my work. © sehunniepotwrites, 2023

The moment you pulled the card, Donghyuck shifted his head to read the card with you. His body began to shake with laughter as the rest of your crew rushed you to reveal the dare. God, you were not drunk enough for this. He grabbed the paper out of your fingers and took the liberties of saying the dare, “Hold a piece of food in your mouth and have the person on your right,” he paused, grazing his soft fingers on your bare knee, “that’s me, princess—”

“Yes, I know my rights from lefts, Hyuck,” you interrupted him.

“—and have them take it from you.”

“I’m picking the piece of food you use and don’t you dare complain!” Ari yelled before anyone else could claim the job. Everyone watched as she stifled through a plate of French fries. Her playful grin expanded across her pretty face when she found the perfect fry—a thin, crispy piece that was around an inch long. The group exploded with excitement as she held it up. 

“That,” you pointed to the fry in your friend’s hand, “cannot be legal. That has to be against the rules!”

Jaemin pretended to examine the fry his girlfriend was holding. “Hmm, looks fine to me.”

“You’re a menace, Jaem,” you hissed at him.

Jaemin came right back, “Just doing what has to be done to take us out of our misery.”

With everything already set, you resigned to your friend’s wishes and begrudgingly accepted the dare. Ari handed you the tiny piece of food and you sighed dramatically before placing it between your teeth. It barely extended past your top and bottom lip. You shot Donghyuck a widened look, telling him to hurry. If you were to prolong this dare any longer, you were afraid of the fry breaking in your hold before he’d get to it. 

You stood still as Donghyuck approached with a smug look. It disappeared as soon as his eyes dropped to the french fry you held, lingering at the sight of your parted mouth. When he looked back up at you, there was a sort of look in the brown irises you were so attracted to. Hunger. Anticipation. 

“Lean in,” someone shouted but you couldn’t. 

Swallowing back your nervousness, his two warm hands touched your face, both molding to your cheeks. Shutting your eyes as he grew closer, the last thing you saw was his handsome face tilting to get a better angle. Donghyuck’s actions were lightning quick and sudden, making your heart beat skyrocket towards the moon. His breath tickled your skin and then, his lips brushed ever so gently against yours. It didn’t last too long; after all, his goal was to retrieve the french fry. You did your best to focus on that, remembering not to bite down to break the crunchy strip of food–the task at hand was hard but not impossible.

Then, there was a slight pressure, the plushness of his lips pushing into you as Donghyuck bit, tugging the food out of your mouth. 

Still frozen in your spot, you sensed Donghyuck pulling back. You exhaled through your nostrils and slowly opened your eyes. Your best friend was right in front of you, wearing a smirk as he chewed on the fry. He licked around his mouth, gathering the tiny dusts of salt before humming. “Salty,” was all he said while everyone surrounding  you laughed at his antics.

Ignoring the hammering of your heart as he continued to stare at your lips, you cleared your throat. As much as you tried to shove all feelings of attraction aside, Donghyuck kept his sultry gaze fixated on you. You watched as it dipped back down to your lips again, his fingers coming up to brush away the little specks of salt that stuck your mouth. Everything was too much for you–the warmth of his touch, the intensity of his stare, the looks the others were giving you–it was time to direct everyone’s attention elsewhere.

 “Next dare,” you called out, facing away from Donghyuck.

AUTHOR'S NOTE. Hi all! I'm back with a (shorter) one-shot! This Haechan brainrot has been sitting in my drafts since September. I was inspired by a hilarious but somewhat crude drinking game I played with my friends a while back. It's been a minute since I've written something with a lot of tension/smut but please let me know what you think. I've been obsessing over Haechan crying over Mark in the latest youtube contents that were released, so if you see some familiar lines, no you didn't <3

TAGLIST. @nctsworld @johtenrecs @emmybyeakitty @sokkigarden @hyuckworld @baekhyuns-lipchain @yutaholic-main @moonctzeny @suhrocs @smileysuh

tagging my usual friends <3 let me know if you would like to be added!

© sehunniepotwrites, 2023

[storiesofsvu]

Holiday Bingo 2023

That's right besties! It's that time of year again! And in an attempt to keep y'all entertained with your favourite blorbos, I'm hosting this bingo so we can all share our creations and you have something to fixate on while I'm busy as hell at work!

As per usual:

Submissions can be anything! A mood board, a ficlet, headcanons, drabble, gif sets, one shots, social media au's, make it a mini series following the holiday journey of the same two characters! literally whatever you want!

Prompts are all winter/holiday themed. If it specifically says "Christmas" it does not need to be Christmas, it can be whatever holiday this time of year that you want!

Read the rest of the rules under the cut!

Prompts can be made into any genre, make it super spicy, make it tooth rottingly sweet, make it angsty as all hell and break our hearts, make it a wild AU, do whatever you want with them as long as they are what inspired your story. (aka "first snowfall" could be the first time character a is seeing snow, it could be the first snow of the year, it could be the characters baby's/dog's first time seeing snow. It can be cute, catching snow flakes on tongues or sad, bringing back memories with a friend who has passed. Literally whatever you want.) Just make sure to include any and all appropriate warnings/tags at the TOP of the post and I don't want to see any TikTok censoring of words!

Fics can be a ship, a reader insert, an OC, or any kind of crossover! Mix and match, stick with one, try out a new character or fandom!

Accepted Fandoms:

Literally everything and everyone. This is wide open to any and every fandom/show/movie that you want, it's free game besties! It doesn't matter if I write/read that fandom, do what you would like!

Some Inspiration:

-Law and Order (OG, OC, SVU)

-Criminal Minds

-Marvel

-NCIS

-One Chicago

-Abbott Elementary

-Mayans

-Grey's Anatomy/Private Practice

-911/Lonestar

-OUAT

-The L Word

-Wednesday

Rules:

You MUST tag me @storiesofsvu and use the hashtag #storiesofsvuholidaybingo2023 on each creation and I'll put together the masterlist.

Bingo begins on November 25th and will run all the way to January 20th.

You may only post/submit ONE creation per day!

Only one bingo square per creation

No underage characters involved in relations.

Tag all and every warning appropriately at the top of the fic

Anything over 1000 words must be under a readmore!

Everyone is welcomed and encouraged to participate! You do not need to be following me, we don't need to be mutuals, if you see this post and want to play, let's go!

If anyone has questions, feel free to comment or send me a message/ask!

Some playlists to get us in the mood:

________________

tagging some people who might be interested? (if you got tagged and have no idea who i am/where this came from it is likely that i have read your stuff and loved it/have some bookmarked on my to bed read lol. feel free to ignore.)

@prentiss-theorem @swimmingstudentchaos891 @rustyzebra @plaidbooks @thatesqcrush @adarafaelbarba @detective-giggles @mickey-gomez @alexusonfire @bumblebear30 @tropes-and-tales @unitchiefs-blackbirdphoenix @beccabarba @prurientpuddlejumper @fighterkimburgess @baubeautyandthegeek @melk917 @blackbird-brewster @virescent-v @leftoverenvy @iamnotoriginalphil @happenstnces @daddy-heather-dunbar @just-a-torn-up-masterpiece @five-bi-five-main @thehauntingofbasingse @supercriminalbean @h0tch-r0cket @bullet-prooflove @boldlyvoid @astrophileous @slutforsilverfoxes @cissyenthusiast010155 @hotchs-bitch @honeypiehotchner @whiteberryx @v3nusxsky

[batty4steddie]

Can I Keep It?

@spicycinnabun and I's contribution to steddiebang 2023! ❤️️ | Chapters: 2/12 | Rating: M | Read, kudos or comment on ao3 | We have a playlist. ❤️️ | Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Chapter 2: Stupid Hunk

The early afternoon at Family Video was so boring. No one was coming in to rent or return movies. Steve had finished all the grunt work. Rentals that came back that morning were rewound if the customer hadn’t done it already. Everything had been put back in its place, and he had straightened up the store.

Usually, Steve enjoyed the free time getting paid to do nothing, but he was feeling listless about work and his love life.

Now, he was just leaning against the counter, playing with Eddie’s skull ring. He had been keeping it under the counter for when Eddie came back to return A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge or if he saw Dustin.

Steve found it fit perfectly on his ring finger and considered not giving it back.

He had a date tonight. He was taking Brenda to the basketball game. He wasn’t sure about her. She was gorgeous but even denser than him. Maybe it was the blonde box dye that had fried her brain.

The game was almost more exciting than the prospect of getting laid. He’d totally fucked up the year before and had lost state for Hawkins. It had been the cherry on top of not getting into college. Steve was looking forward to redemption for the team and a win for Sinclair.

When the phone rang, Steve answered it within a few rings. It was Dustin wanting him to come play D&D. Yeah, right. He would never socially recover from that.

Steve looked at the ring, spinning it around with his thumb. It chafed a little that Dustin thought he was jealous of Eddie. He absolutely was not. “I’m not cancelling my date with Bombshell Brenda. Sorry, Dustin. You and the freak can have fun without me.”

Steve was relieved when two hot customers walked in, giving him a reason to hang up.

Eddie sat on the bus. It was the last one running, and nobody else was on it except himself and the bus driver. He’d abandoned his van back at the trailer—too conspicuous. What happened was fucked. It was so fucked.

He made a noise of distress, picking his feet up off the ground and curling up into as small a ball as possible on the dirty carpeted seat. His eyes went glassy, locked wide in fright. The driver gave him a wary glance from his rearview mirror.

Twenty minutes later, Eddie had barely moved. The bus lurched to a stop, and the driver cleared his throat. “End of the line,” he said.

A few seconds passed. There was no motion from the back.

“Hey!” he said louder. “I said end of the line. You gotta get off, kid.”

That jolted Eddie. He stood on wooden legs and stumbled to the side door, pushing it open and stepping outside. The doors hissed closed, and the bus chugged away and turned around the corner, leaving him alone on the barren road.

There were no streetlights here. Nobody was around.

Eddie started walking briskly, glancing over his shoulder constantly.

When he reached a fork in the road, he stopped and stared into the depths of the woods. Cutting through it was the closest way to his dealer’s house. It was the only place he could go that he knew would be safe from the cops, who would no doubt be coming after him for the fucking death of Chrissy Cunningham. He didn’t know if it would be safe from whatever the fuck had attacked Chrissy.

Eddie stepped off the road and onto the dirt with a trembling breath.

The branches of the trees were long, spindly, and black. He should have heard the rustle of animals scurrying around and insects buzzing. He should have heard the wind off the lake. It was too quiet and too still. He could only hear his breath and the soft whimpers rising from his throat that he couldn’t control.

He started to run. He ran faster than he ever had before. He ran like somebody was chasing him because it felt that way. It felt like he was being watched, hunted.

His lungs gave out long before he did. Eddie was dripping sweat and heaving when he finally reached Rick’s place. The security light was on and casting a cold glow on the ground that wasn’t very welcoming, but at least he was out of the dark.

Eddie didn’t have a key to Rick’s house, and he didn’t want to break in and leave evidence that he was there or risk someone seeing him. A key to the boathouse was hidden in a flowerpot on the back windowsill. Eddie went around, grabbed it and jammed it in the door, having to try three times before he unlocked it because his hands were shaking so badly.

There was no light inside, except for the scant amount coming from the windows and the moon off the lake. Eddie whimpered again, every creak in the floor and every shadow on the walls making him jump.

“Fucking relax, you coward,” he said hoarsely. The volume of his voice almost made him jump, too.

Miracle of all miracles, he found a case of beer on one of the shelves. He drank two of them. It didn’t do much to calm him. Mostly, it just made him feel nauseous and dizzy.

He still saw Chrissy’s body levitating in the air, her bones cracking to unnatural angles, her eyes sucking back into the caverns of her skull.

Eddie climbed into the boat and curled up under the blue tarp, scrunching his eyes shut as he tried to force the images away. The tarp made crinkling noises as he continued to shake, but eventually, his breath slowed. The adrenaline crash hit him, and he passed out.

But he wasn’t out for long, plagued by nightmares that made him toss and turn in the boat, getting twisted up in the tarp. The third time he woke up screaming, he stopped trying to sleep.

Eddie didn’t do much of anything when morning came. He tried to calm himself by going outside and sitting on the dock. It was a sweet relief to feel the warmth and safety of the daylight, but since it was the weekend, there were people out boating, and he had to retreat to the darkness.

He looked through Rick’s things and took an inventory of everything there. Most of it was junk and fishing gear, but there was a first aid kit and some old food in a cooler he could survive on. He couldn’t risk going to a store. He should have packed a backpack, but he hadn’t prepared anything. All he did was run. All he did was leave Chrissy.

Eddie hacked open a can of expired SpaghettiOs when his stomach started cramping, scarfing them down ravenously and cutting his tongue on the jagged tin. He devoured a Big Hunk bar, saving the other two for later like they were precious gems.

Looking at them reminded him of the video store and Steve. To think, he had been worried about finishing his trig homework. When now… now , look where he was. Eddie buried his face in his hands with a hysterical laugh.

That night, Eddie started hallucinating. The isolation was getting to him.

Chrissy’s deformed body kept manifesting in different places. Once on the ceiling, another time in the boat with him under the tarp, and another time while he was outside taking a piss. She tried to talk to him, but her jaw was broken, so it came out like a long, guttural groan. Eddie had never started sobbing with his dick in his hand before. That was a first he wished never to repeat.

When the sun went down and the darkness hit yet again, Eddie was so delirious he could barely differentiate the floor from the ceiling. He heard voices yelling outside.

They sounded, strangely, like his Hellfire Club gang. That sounded like Dustin’s voice. But that couldn’t be. It was a trick. It wasn't real.

Eddie broke one of his empty beer bottles on the side of the boat and then jumped into it, hiding under the tarp.

So, not only had Steve’s date been a total flop, but he’d been roped into going to Lover’s Lake and aiding in the search and rescue mission of Eddie Munson.

He wasn’t sure that Eddie was innocent in all of this. Of course, Steve believed in all that constitutional shit—innocent until proven guilty—but the freak thing he couldn’t shake despite Eddie’s sweetness and sweet tooth he had witnessed the other night in the store.

Still, he didn’t put up too much of a fight. He’d help. He always helped.

When they arrived at the boat house on Lover’s Lake, Dustin rang the doorbell in quick succession. Steve was more than willing to walk away when they didn't get an answer—mainly because it was super spooky, and it felt like they shouldn’t be there.

Dustin wasn’t willing to give up that easily.

Something was trying to get Eddie. Poking, prodding—one smack would have landed right on the family jewels had it been just an inch to the left. Eddie remained silent as the voices continued. They changed to a buzzing drone that grew louder and louder in his ears.

The poking stopped.

Mustering a burst of courage, Eddie sprang out of the boat and backed his attacker up against the wall, shoving him there and pressing the jagged glass to his throat.

Steve couldn’t feel the pain. He was too frightened. He tried not to breathe because the broken glass was too close. His eyes were wide as he watched Eddie. Eddie tightened his grip, which scared him more, and it got harder for him to breathe. He couldn’t believe Eddie was about to stab him in the throat.

One second, Eddie was holding what seemed to be a normal person, then it was Chrissy and her black hole eyes, and then some indiscernible creature barring its teeth at him. He pressed the edges of the bottle harder against its neck until Dustin convinced him they were who they said they were.

A scent invaded Eddie’s nose. He smelled… coconut?

Everything came into better focus, along with the frightened expression on Steve’s face. Chrissy and the monster temporarily vanished. Eddie could feel the frantic pulse beating away in Steve’s neck under his fingers, but he was still suspicious and let them all know it.

It took some more convincing from Dustin, Robin, Steve, and the redhead, Max, whom Eddie recognized as Billy Hargrove’s sister, who had moved in next to them with her mom after Billy died in the mall fire.

Finally, Eddie let go.

He slowly slid down the wall. His hands were trembling again. Dustin reached out to take the bottle from him, face morphing into something sinister. Eddie flinched as it quickly disappeared, and he was just Dustin again, the goofy, smartass little sheep Eddie had herded into his D&D club.

Steve stuck his hand in his jacket pocket and gently thumbed Eddie’s ring, trying to calm down after all that. He didn’t feel like giving the ring back anymore. If Eddie knew he had it, there was a possibility he could think Steve had stolen it. Then maybe he actually would kill him.

Eventually, Steve calmed as the others got Eddie to tell them what had happened.

Eddie tried not to cry as he attempted to keep his fragile hold on reality. There was no way they'd believe him if he told them the truth. They would probably pretend they did, and then, as soon as they had his guard down, they would knock him out and take him straight to the police station.

His eyes went glassy again as he started telling them everything. Even the part where he was a fucking coward who ran.

Then he learned about the Upside Down.

Monsters were real. Monsters were actually real, and they were way less cool than they should have been. Eddie was still trying to wrap his head around it while the three questioned him.

Robin was watching him closely, and Eddie felt exposed. He had a real-life encounter with something otherworldly, and “run” had been his final choice. He’d failed, and the princess had died.

Nearly getting his throat slashed had shaken Steve up. After a little while, he felt grounded again. Especially once he heard what happened to Chrissy. He kept his arms crossed as he watched Eddie and listened to him tell them what happened.

It was harder to hear than he expected. What Eddie witnessed was brutal. There was literally nothing he could’ve done about it. He knew if it sounded this awful, seeing it in person must have been terrifying. Steve didn’t understand why Eddie was beating himself up for leaving her there. He didn’t know what it was, what it was capable of or if it was coming for him next.

That didn’t change the fact that he was suspect number one. Steve was glad they didn’t bring the police into this, even though he had suggested it earlier.

The sting of Dustin favoring Eddie over him lingered from earlier, but Steve chilled out. While it seemed like and felt like Eddie was going to kill him, he hadn’t, and he wouldn’t have killed Chrissy. He had been scared and was too sweet… like the candy he’d bought at the video store the other night. It was clear the Upside Down had gotten to her somehow in the form of a killer monster.

Now that they had found Eddie and figured out what had happened to Chrissy, they could make a plan. Unfortunately for Steve, the first plan involved babysitting, and this time, it wasn’t the kids.

They were leaving when Dustin asked Steve to stay with Eddie. “If I can’t stay, you should. Seriously though, fuck this. Mom will be fine. She won’t worry if I don’t come home for one measly night.”

That was a lie, and his shifty eyes said it all.

“Dustin, look, man… Eddie is perfectly capable of taking care of himself. He has a weapon that he almost slit my throat with, remember? You think he needs a babysitter?” Steve shook his head. Technically, he was already babysitting Dustin and Max. He had to make sure they got home safe with this Vecna creep going around breaking people’s bones and killing them. “We can come back tomorrow. We’ll bring him some stuff he needs, like food and water. He can’t live off beer for long. Plus, we’re the only ones that know he’s here. He’s safe for now.”

Dustin accepted his no since Steve promised they’d come back. Part of Steve did feel bad for Eddie.

Eddie’s cheeks burnt as he overheard their conversation through the open door.

While he appreciated that Steve had saved face for him, it was humiliating for Dustin to suggest it. For a kid to think someone younger than him needed to keep watch over him. Babysitter? Fuck. Even worse, Eddie’s heart was pounding again, and his breath quickened because he was about to be alone again.

Robin was still watching him with her observant owl eyes. When he looked at her, she handed him her flashlight with a sympathetic smile before joining the group outside. Eddie clutched it too tightly and gave her a half-hearted salute, grateful for the small comfort.

After the door shut, he heard the engine rumble as the car started and the quiet as the noise moved further and further away.

“Don’t,” he told his tear ducts fiercely because they were welling up again. “Don’t you fucking dare.”

This was all just… way too fucking much.

Eddie returned to the boat with the flashlight, sitting cross-legged with it in his lap for a few long minutes as he got his sniffles under control. The flashlight flickered, making his heart flutter, but it stayed on after he smacked the base violently with his palm.

Steve seemed like a brave dude. Braver than him, at least, to have been dealing with this other world for so long, these real-life fucking monsters, all while he lived his everyday life and worked at the video store. He was more than just the vain bully of a jock Eddie had pegged him as. Maybe. He bet Steve wouldn’t have let Chrissy get put under a curse. He would have done something to stop that from happening to her.

Eddie picked up a Big Hunk bar and opened it, drowning his feelings in corn syrup and peanuts. “Stupid hunk,” he muttered, taking a big bite, “being all hunky and brave.”

Eddie finished the bar, throwing the wrapper overboard. His head suddenly dipped as exhaustion hit him. He was close to tipping over when he caught himself and cursed, forcing his eyes back open as the boat swayed on its chains.

He wondered if Steve would have stayed and kept him company if Eddie hadn’t almost killed him. It had been an accident, but he hadn’t apologized. Shit.

The next time Eddie’s head dipped, he fell back and let sleep take him.

Eddie jerked awake to noise from outside. He vaulted out of the boat, bottleneck clutched in his fist as he peered out the window, panting with adrenaline. It was light out again, so he had actually gotten some sleep, but he wasn’t focused on that. Someone or some thing was there. The floorboards creaked.

Or not.

His heart had barely slowed before the door clanged open, revealing Dustin, Steve, Robin and Max.

Eddie’s shoulders slumped. He glared balefully at them, but it didn’t last long because he was glad to see them. “Knock next time, or I won’t be tipping,” he told Dustin.

“Uh, I’ve earned a tip for stellar customer service with a smile, thank you. No take-backsies.”

Eddie cleared his throat as the munchkins started unloading the grocery bags and making themselves comfortable. He set down the broken bottle. Robin leaned against a steel shelf and looked out at the water, which was peacefully still without any wind.

Max opened a bag of chips, and Dustin scolded her as she shoved a handful in her mouth. “Those are for Eddie ,” he said, way too overprotectively if everyone’s expressions were anything to go by.

Max shrugged. “Eddie can share.”

“Course I can. I’m not a chip hog. Unless those are Bugles,” said Eddie. Putting Bugles on his fingers like claws was always a tasty and perfectly on-theme accessory for Hellfire nights.

Fuck, was he ever going to have one of those again?

"We got Buges!" Dustin said. He was already helping himself to the chips, arm stuck in the bag, while Max rolled her eyes at him.

Eddie was hungry, but there was something he had to do first. He reached into his pocket, sweaty hand wrapping around the wrapper of his last Big Hunk bar. It turned out the information he’d filed away about Steve liking them would come in handy now. Hopefully.

He nodded at Steve, stepping towards him while everyone was all distracted. He held the bar out as a peace offering. “Hey, dude, um. I’m sorry about last night. You know, the whole…” he trailed off, motioning towards Steve’s throat with his other hand.

Steve wasn’t expecting an apology from Eddie. Nearly getting attacked had left him full of adrenaline after he’d gotten home. It had taken a while to wind down and fall asleep, especially after Eddie had horrifyingly recalled what had happened to Chrissy. Steve hadn’t known what Eddie was capable of until he had been in the thick of it. Eddie was strong and very threatening. Getting an apology made Steve confident that Eddie didn’t have it in him to physically harm him or anyone else. He was probably all bark and no bite.

As Steve listened, he smiled a bit, remembering it almost fondly as he lightly touched his throat. He looked down as the apology hit him and made him bashful that he was even getting one.

“I was kinda worked up. Hadn’t slept much since Friday. Which is still not really an excuse, I know,” Eddie rambled, “So, just—”

This was going swell.

Steve gave a casual shrug of his shoulders and then looked back up to catch Eddie’s eyes.

“Sorry,” Eddie repeated, clapping Steve on the shoulder and giving it a warm squeeze.

It felt like Eddie was looking directly into his soul. Their eyes connected for an abnormally long beat. The intensity made Steve’s eyes drop to Eddie’s lips, and he immediately felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise just like they had when Eddie had the bottle to his throat.

Eddie’s stomach stole the show by rumbling like an angry bear, interrupting Steve’s weird physical reaction to the apology and touch. Steve nodded, understanding. “It’s cool,” he said, brushing it off. He had been over it after Eddie told them about Chrissy, anyway.

Eddie nodded, annoyed at his stomach for no discernable reason. Steve had accepted his Big Hunk and his apology.

Moving away, Eddie sat down and started ripping open the bag of cereal. The smell of the Honeycombs invaded his nose. He was shovelling them into his mouth between sips of sugary sweet Yoo-hoo when Dustin told him the bad news. He always went with the bad news first.

It didn’t surprise him that the police were looking for him and that he was the only suspect, but his lips still trembled, and his appetite vanished, a nauseous feeling replacing it.

The entire town would be lighting their torches and sharpening their pitchforks. Many people already had a problem with him, especially the members of the church, so hunting him down was going to be like Christmas morning for them. He didn’t see any way this could end well for him.

That was until Robin informed him that this wasn’t their first otherworldly rodeo. They had been through this kind of shit before.

Eddie glanced at everyone in the room, lingering on Steve until he nodded in confirmation.

Eddie's eyes bulged as they tried unsuccessfully to reassure him, and his eyebrows lifted. Jesus Christ. Right, there was nothing to worry about. Nothing whatsoever. And a girl with superpowers, so what? That was totally normal.

Sirens sounded nearby, making them all go on high alert.

“Tarp!” said Robin urgently. “Tarp, tarp!”

Eddie ducked under it, pulling it over himself. He clenched his eyes shut as they waited and whispered the chorus of Leper Messiah to calm his racing heart. “Time for lust, time for lie. Time to kiss your life goodbye...”

Fuck, this was it. He was going straight to the big house. He would be reunited with his dear old man, who would be thrilled to see him, especially after their last conversation where Eddie told him about his big plans. About how he was really going to buckle down, graduate school this year, and get his diploma. Hell, maybe even get into a college.

Dad had laughed his ass off, sporting a wide grin through the plexiglass. " You really think you can get into one of those smarty-pants schools?"

It was said with affection, which made it hurt even more.

Steve followed the others to the window as soon as Eddie was out of sight. He hung back slightly. They watched the cops speed right past the boathouse.

Once the sirens dissipated, Steve felt a slight sense of relief. Eddie was still wanted, but at least they wouldn’t have the police snooping around with him only hidden under a tarp. It was the most obvious hiding place. When Steve originally started poking around with the oar, it was clear to him then. Not only that, but Eddie’s broken bottle was no match for a policeman’s gun.

It was only a matter of time before someone else figured out he was hiding here at Reefer Rick’s. They had to prove Eddie’s innocence sooner rather than later. While Dustin made it sound totally plausible, they had a lot of work to do.

“They’re gone. For now,” Steve said, grabbing the top of the tarp. He pulled it back just enough to free Eddie’s face. He still looked terrified. That made him feel bad. Steve didn’t want to leave him here all alone again, so he thought quickly.

“We need to get you out of here,” he told Eddie. Steve’s house was in the direction of where the police were going. No one would expect Eddie to be there. “We’re going to take you to my house. My room is in the basement. My dad is out of town, and my mom is probably passed out on the couch. It’ll be easy to sneak you in. I do it all the time with my dates. What do you say?” Steve thought it was a pretty good idea.

Robin’s eyebrows slowly climbed into her hair. She gave Steve a peculiar look, unseen by Eddie.

Eddie’s brain was now short-circuiting from a completely different reason other than fear. Not even in his wildest dreams would he think he would be offered shelter from Steve Harrington. At the very most, he should have been offering Eddie a hiding place in his dusty pool shed or something—not in his very own, very personal bedroom in his basement.

Eddie’s stomach was unexpectedly flipping the fuck out as he looked up into Steve’s, also unexpectedly, kind brown eyes. “Um…I…are you—”

—really sure you want me there? He didn’t get to say because Dustin interrupted him, slapping Steve on the shoulder. “Great idea, Steve! Then we won’t have to ride out so long to bring him things.”

Robin’s eyebrows said it all. What was Steve thinking? She was surprised. Steve was, too. He had just invited Eddie to stay at his house… in his room.

Whatever, it wasn’t that big of a deal. And there was no taking it back now.

“Can we leave now?” Max asked. She was rubbing her temple, her forehead creasing like she was in pain.

Steve looked at Max. She had really been worrying him. It sounded like whatever had gotten Chrissy was after her now, too.

Eddie sat up quickly, moving the tarp off himself and jumping out of the boat so he didn’t miss his ride out of there. “Well, I’m not going to miss that thing one bit,” he said honestly. Anything would be an upgrade from the boat.

His mind was already off to the races. What would Steve’s bed be like? Hard? Pillowy soft? Would Eddie be sleeping on the floor? Maybe Steve had a couch in his bedroom. Rich people had other furniture in their bedrooms, right? Why would Steve’s mom be passed out in the middle of the day? How many dates did Steve sneak into his bedroom on a weekly basis? Why was Steve doing this for him?

Steve nodded, “Alright, let’s go. The quicker we get Eddie to my house, the quicker we can find out what the police are after.”

Steve led the way out of the boathouse. He got in the car first and waited for everyone else to pile in before starting it. As he backed up, he caught a glimpse of Eddie in his rearview mirror. He seemed less rattled, which made Steve feel better about his decision

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 10/17/2023

started explaining why this one is a little lighter than last week's gallery wall behemoth bc of a uhhhh kind of dire week, personally and professionally speaking, but then realized when fic authors do that in front of chapters i don't actually care or require an excuse from them, im just delighted to have a new chapter.

listening

this is a deeply cheesy little folk song but the lyrics "man you name it and if we ain’t got it: we’ll get it" gave me a sensible chuckle.

now for a moment to expound upon houston: they truly have imported every possible food service establishment. the two chains i miss most from jersey, jersey mikes submarine sandwiches and 7-11 gas stations, are both here. i get that this is the fifth largest metro area in the US or whatever but both of these companies are SO niche. absolutely bonkers. spotify.

i think this started autoplaying after a playlist inspired by f/allout: new v/egas came on??

-

reading

i originally had a very mean-spirited graf about the utility of a pool in northwestern massachusetts and the kind of person who can comfortably lose $31k, but it is genuinely awful that there are no rules around zelle. that money goes into a black fucking hole and there's no way to get it back, which is not the case for any other kind of recognized money except cryptocurrency

Did we confront Gary Kruglitz [the pool contractor]? Yes we did. We marched right into his office and grilled him hard until he defeated us with a simple and probing question: What's a zelle? It defied belief, we quickly realized, that a man who had been trapped in technological amber since the Nixon era was running a cyberscam designed to come between us and our money out of an AOL account.

-

watching

Van Helsing (2004, dir. Sommers). this movie is horrible. this movie is terrific. i don't have anything to say about this movie bc i was distracted by equal opportunity tits and asses the entire time. the time of the “Kate Beckinsale in a corset” movie genre is long over but GOD. watched with my sister bc it's leaving tubi soon

playing

one week i will have the energy to try New Thing but until i do it’s genshin. there's a poetry event that has terribly boring minigames, but the story quest has finally tied a bow on a piece of folkore we came across in the very first release so that was fun!

wrapping up some stuff in sumeru bc im running out of map pins, this game has done one of the things i hate most: progress-locking one extremely long and tedious collectible hunt (the music gates) behind another extremely long and tedious collectible hunt (the robots locked in the vines). the next time i see one of those little fucking budget koroks i am going to drop kick it into the sun. what the fuck is the circumference of teyvat anyway. it feels like we have explored so little of this planet's surface

i have graphics turned down pretty low bc of performance issues on my elderly laptop and this is still such a remarkably pretty game. look at this big estuary leading off into the distance

-

making

i wildly overextended myself this week, partially bc im trying to take advantage of this brief post-covid heightened immunity. lot of dinners. lot of late nights. on top of that BOTH of my siblings were in town for unrelated professional reasons this week :) no overlap so we did not have a nice fambly dinner :( but did have pretty okay separate dinners :) if they could learn to fucking communicate their trave plans and the number of peope that will be showing up at my home that would also be pretty okay >:(

one of the party games i played this week asked the question “what could you give a 40-minute PowerPoint presentation on” and i started saying facts about the downfall of the penn central railroad and they very nicely let me continue saying facts about the downfall of the penn central railroad, the largest bankruptcy in US history until ENRON, until the round timer went off.

i have some thoughts about Train Guys and how it's very easy to fall into being a Train Guy, bc there's a very easy template to follow, and there's a lot of Train Guy content, and have i been doing this bc i actually like trains, or bc it's easy to listen to Well There's Your Problem on repeat bc it's familiar and comforting, or do i just really really really fucking hate flying?

who could possibly say.

mackintosh update: allowed herself to be scooped up by my brother (who she met at christmas and loves) but did NOT allow herself to be pet by the strangers in his company. did hang out in the middle of the floor observing tho. a regular little extroverted socialite!

[serpentmessmer]

Top 5 Favorite creations of 2023

my darling @nameslikeguns tagged me and this is so fun

Rules: list your top 5 creations you made for this year. Creations can include any type of fic, any type of art, webweaves/comparatives, meta/headcanon posts, gifsets/edits, fanvids, playlists - anything that contributed to the fandom. These don't have to be your most popular - just the ones you love best.

the night does not belong to god - samdean necrophilia (9k) it was my first finished fanfic in like.....a decade after i kinda dropped off fandom and is to date the longest thing i've written and i go back and read it and go "man, i was on some real shit here"

curse of blood - winchester family wreath/bloodborne comparative i'm sick proud of how good this one came out, it rotated in my head for like a solid month and came out exactly how i wanted it to

my weapon of choosing - johndean, 2nd person pov from inside dean's head (6.5k) unquestionably my favorite fic i've written possibly ever. playing with second person was SO fun, and it resulted in my favorite paragraph i've written ever

lothric odollam: the dark urge - intro to my baby my awful wrech we know baldur gate did a number on me but my god i was not expecting to create an oc that i love so deeply and have so much FUN creating for

orange cassidy v jon moxley - wrestling caps edit i go back and look at these sometimes and am totally blown away bc like....something fundamentally changed in how i edit things in this one and i am OBSESSED with the result i got. thank u luminosity mask you are my lover

ok my beautiful big brained creative sluts its tag time:

@lucy-stillman @mandymovie @deanwinchesterpregnant @ahfolart @theangiediary @saltbind @arcanespillo

[nakachuchu]

Christmas Cookies | Fushiguro Megumi

SYNOPSIS: You bake cookies with your boyfriend on Christmas morning in your apartment.

READER: gender neutral

WORDS: 1k

WRITTEN: 01/01/2023

NOTE: This is for @https-sanjis-bitch 's Baby It's Cold Outside collab! Happy new year! (even though I wrote this piece around Christmas lol)

"Megumi," you whispered. "Merry Christmas."

You were so excited for Christmas that your body woke you up on its own. You had been waiting for Megumi to wake up on his own, watching his facial features for the slightest twitch.

He rubbed his eyes, then blinked away the blue and crusts. You smiled and took a picture of him, making him grumble in protest.

"Merry Christmas," he murmured sleepily. "What time is it?"

"Ten," you said. "It's snowing outside. Come look."

"Give me a second," he said, pulling his arms out from the blankets to stretch them above his head.

On instinct, you curled up against him and he brought his arms down to wrap you in them. You rubbed your face against his side before climbing on top of him.

"Snow," you urged. "Just from the window. I know you don't wanna go out."

Both you and Megumi were homebodies. You didn't go out unless it was necessary, but both of you liked it like that.

You climbed off him and stood by the window in your room, beckoning him to get out of bed and join you. He threw his legs off the bed and slipped his feet into slippers before joining you.

"It's pretty," you said.

He nodded. "We should check the water to make sure our pipes aren't frozen."

"My boyfriend, always the smart one," you said with a soft peck to his chin before shuffling toward the bathroom.

While Megumi checked the water in the kitchen, you checked the bathroom. He joined you after, informing you that the water was flowing.

"We're good here too," you said as you handed him his toothbrush with toothpaste.

The two of you stood side by side, brushing your teeth together. It was routine when the two of you were together to simply do things together.

You spat the toothpaste out and rinsed your toothbrush, moving to the side to let Megumi do the same.

"Can we bake cookies today?" you questioned. "I ordered Christmas cookie cutters online and they came a few days ago. I've been wanting to bake cookies with you."

"Sounds good, dove."

With a smile, you skipped into the kitchen and started a pot of coffee going for Megumi. You drummed your fingers along the countertop for a moment before suddenly remembering that the occasion called for Christmas music.

" 'gumi, can you get my phone?" you called out.

He didn't respond, but you knew he heard you. He liked to preserve his energy and talking seemed to be tiresome at times.

He walked into the kitchen and handed you your phone before nudging the side of your head with his nose. You unlocked your phone and played a Christmas playlist while Megumi sniffed you.

There wasn't a weird reason for him to sniff you. He just liked how you smelled. He reminded you so much of a puppy sometimes.

"Could you get the ingredients, 'gumi?" you asked.

"Sugar cookies, right?"

"Yep!"

He kissed your forehead, then pulled up a sugar cookie recipe from his phone and began pulling out the ingredients from the pantry.

You danced to the songs, taking peeks at the recipe and getting out bowls, mixing spoons, and measuring spoons.

Megumi, with his long arms, carried everything to the counter and waited for you to start. Usually, when you baked anything, you did most of the work but that was because it was more efficient. Besides, Megumi liked watching you when you were completely mesmerized by something.

You could only focus on that thing, raging about with it. Your eyes were glued to his phone screen, reading the recipe as you poured flour here, sugar there, and vanilla extract into the bowl.

"Let me help," he offered.

Snapping out of your baking frenzy, you looked at him and handed him the wooden mixing spoon.

"I'm too lazy to stir," you said simply.

He rolled up his sleeves and took the spoon, wrapping an arm around the bowl to begin mixing. Within one stir, flour flew out onto his clothes and cheek.

You blinked, holding in your laughter as he stood there frozen in silence. You couldn't hold it in and burst out laughing.

" 'gumi, are you okay? Did any get in your eye?" you asked through bubbles of laughter.

He dipped his fingers into the top layer of flour and flicked it at you, splattering across your face in clouds of white dust. You immediately stopped laughing, opening your eyes through blinks of white dust.

The two of you stared at each other before laughing. The two of you were completely covered in flour, and it was okay.

“Let me take photos. Hold on,” you said as you grabbed your phone and swiped to the camera.

The two of you took many selfies and timed photos of you being covered in flour. You laughed at the pictures of Megumi either frowning, rolling his eyes, or smiling when he thought you weren't looking.

“Okay, let's finally finish these cookies. I'll turn the oven on while you mix. Try not to lose all of our ingredients,” you teased.

He rolled his eyes. “I won't.”

Once Megumi was finished stirring, the two of you grabbed small balls of dough and flattened them on a clean tray.

“Should we make a snowman first? Or a Christmas tree? Maybe Santa?” you questioned.

“We'll get to all of them, so it won't matter.”

You frowned at him.

“Snowman,” he answered after seeing the upset look on your face.

You smiled and nodded, grabbing the snowman-shaped cookie cutter. “You can do the honors.”

“We can do it together,” he said quietly with a faint blush across his cheeks as he grabbed your hand and pressed down on the cookie cutter together.

You smiled. “This is fun. I love you, ‘gumi.”

“I love you too, Y/N,” he said.

You kissed his chin and placed the snowman dough onto the baking tray. “Let's do a Christmas tree next,” you suggested. “It reminds me of your hair.”

He stared at you with an unamused expression on your face. “You think you're funny.”

“I really do.”

[mysticnightmarewrites]

Gendrya Kinktober 2023 Day 4: Music

Read "The Fuck-It List" on A03

The cold of winter had crept into Gendry’s bones, and he stared down at his peppermint mocha in contempt.

“I’m bummed I won’t get to see you over the holiday break,” he finally admitted, giving into Arya’s persistent questioning.

“Is that why you’ve barely said six words to me since the weekend?” She set down her black coffee and crossed her arms.

Gendry nodded, trying to hide his embarrassment behind the cup as he took a drink, letting the warmth of it slide down his body.

“Stupid bull. I’m going to King’s Landing for Yule this year! My whole family will be there. Well, except Robb, he’s staying behind to run the hotel. And really we could just drive there together and –”

Gendry cut off her rambling with a rushed kiss that tumbled his coffee over the edge of the table.

“You know,” Gendry said, kneeling down to pick up the cup and trying to wipe up the spill with a napkin, “all good road trips involve music.”

“Undoubtedly.”

Standing up, Gendry leaned over her side of the booth. “Want to do number eight from the list, then?”

It took a moment for Arya to remember, but then she nodded, smiling from ear to ear. 

And that’s how the two spent their last day before break, cuddled up in Gendry’s bed, collaborating on a playlist. Picking out the sexiest songs they could find and trying as hard as they could to keep their hands off each other in the process. They failed.

The next day, they packed into Arya’s car and less than thirty minutes into the music, Arya’s hand was on Gendry’s thigh, her other one clinging onto the wheel. A sexy Brotherhood Without Banners ballad was playing as she took a corner and took his cock in hand.

“Fuck,” he moaned.

But a hand job in a moving car hadn’t been number eight on the list. 

The next song switched on, the rhythm flowing through Arya’s body as she slowed the car down and pointed to an empty field at the end of the lane. “That spot looks pretty deserted.” 

“I don’t care if it’s deserted enough. I need to be inside you.”

The second the car stopped, Gendry almost single-handedly hoisted Arya over onto him. The thrum of the beat seemed even louder than before, now that the road noise had quieted. Thump. Thump. Thump. It pulsed through them like their heartbeat as they clumsily worked to put the seat all the way back mid-kiss.

Arya worked to pull Gendry’s sweats down and moved her underwear aside – thankful, for the first time, she hadn’t bothered with tights despite the cold – and settled herself on top of him, rocking back and forward with the music.

When the sound paused for a moment, so did she, the head of his cock pressing at her entrance. Only a breath. She watched Gendry close his eyes, waiting, listening to the silence. And then the song exploded back to life as Arya slid all the way down. She could feel the music moving under his skin as she squeezed around him. The beat was in the pounding of his hips up into her own. The instruments were in the rush of need coursing through her body. The lyrics were in the way he whispered her name.

It felt, for a minute, like they were more than just two people fucking in a car. But Arya didn’t have long to linger with it. The second the song reached its crescendo, she came crashing down, and Gendry came with her.

“We should probably hit the road again soon,” Arya said, resting her head on his chest and listening to the way his breaths rolled through his body. It felt like the stereo wasn’t even playing anymore.

“Want to put on my extra pair of pants?” he asked.

Arya nodded. She hated how much she wanted to wear Gendry’s clothes, but she put them on all the same.

“I’m glad you tugged my hair in class,” she said, putting the car into reverse. 

“I am too.”

[gaslybottoms]

I was tagged by @celientjeee in the get to know your blogger thing

Name: Kit

Sign: Aries

Time: 17:26

Favorite band or artist: Oh god oh fuck I need to pick something that's not just on my liked songs playlist? I havent listened to any specific band/artist in like 5 years 😨

Last movie: Red, White & Royal Blue

Last show: Heartstopper (I binged both seasons in basically one long sitting don't look at me)

When I created this blog: 7th February 2023. I finally caved on Pierre's birthday and I havent looked back since

Other blogs: This is actually a side blog, my main that I reply to posts with is @starkidinthestable but its very inactive I probably should have repurposed that for this.

Do I get asks: Rarely, and usually only if I do a tag game/ask meme first. I promise I don't bite

Followers: Around 70 people who somehow came for the Pierre URL and stuck around through the Lando brainrot.

Average hours of sleep: What is sleep? Anywhere between 3-8 hours, but around 5 or 6 on average.

Instruments: I don't play regularly, but I can get a song out of the piano, a guitar, and the clarinet.

What I'm wearing: Black gym leggings (with paint on) greenish gym shirt (with paint on), odd spotty socks (with paint on) and a grey cap (no paint). I just got home from the yard can you guess what I was doing?

Dream job: Lando Norris' WAG. No but seriously, I dont know. Something that allows me to have enough money and gives me the time to do what I need to

Dream trip: Florence, Italy.

Favorite song atm: Vampire by Nitemayor is top of my on repeat playlist on Spotify, so probably that? Idk I listen to so much in the background when I'm writing I don't even know what I like anymore.

Tagging whoever sees this and wants to do it, I have about 4 braincells right now I'm so exhausted and I can't remember who has already done it.

[therecordconnection]

Ranting and Raving: "Rapper's Delight" by The Sugarhill Gang

Recently, I started reading The Come Up: An Oral History of the Rise of Hip-Hop, a really great book by Jonathan Abrams that came out back in October last year. It’s a thorough work, taking its time to really cover the genre, from all its major landmarks (New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, the Midwest, etc.) and most of its major players are interviewed and represented in it. I really recommend it if you’re someone who doesn’t know a lot of the deep lore surrounding hip-hop’s history (like me) and you’re looking to learn more.

2023 marked the year of hip-hop’s fiftieth anniversary and it’s done a lot of well-earned celebrating throughout. There were tons of retrospectives done, the Grammys held a live concert to honor the occasion, and many Spotify playlists were made to help a new generation of hip-hop lovers go back and become immersed in the full history. It’s a good thing that the fiftieth anniversary had so much dedicated to it and people could enjoy looking back, because this year has been very strange for the genre in terms of mainstream Billboard chart success.

From August 2022 to August 2023, no rap song topped the Hot 100 chart, which hasn’t happened for twenty-three years. Rappers were still very much successful and there were still albums that hit the top of the album charts (Lil Uzi Vert’s Pink Tape, Travis Scott’s Utopia, Drake’s For All the Dogs topped it twice) but there was no single song that topped the Hot 100. That dry spell finally ended when Doja Cat managed to break the slump with “Paint the Town Red,” which became a number one hit back in September. In a year where Morgan Wallen and Taylor Swift reigned supreme with no end in sight (especially if you’re Taylor Swift), it was almost a good thing that hip-hop was able to focus on looking back and enjoying how far it's come and celebrate all that the genre has achieved in such a short time.

Anyway, as I was reading the first chapters of The Come Up, which focus on hip-hop’s birth in the Bronx and how it grew out of New York and out of the block parties DJ Kool Herc was throwing in 1973, I was captivated. As I kept going though, there was one thing I kept wondering about.

When do the Sugarhill Gang enter into the story?

When I was young, I had always been under the impression that the Sugarhill Gang were among the first rap pioneers, more or less believing they were the first MCs to spit into the mic and bring hip-hop into the world. They... kinda did, but also not really. They were responsible for playing a major part in the genre becoming the cultural juggernaut we recognize it as today, but as for pioneers? Your mileage will vary on that and I hope that’ll become clear soon as we start discussing them. 

Now, I want it to be known that being a white guy from Bumfuck Nowhere, Pennsylvania, my hip-hop history knowledge has always had giant gaps in it that I’ve only been starting to fill up in recent years. I imagine for many others like myself, they’re only just now really learning the history of hip-hop’s birth in the Bronx and what the first MCs unleashed. If you’re not much of a reader, Netflix’s Hip-Hop Evolution is a really great series that covers a ton of that early history. Charlie Ahern’s 1982 film Wild Style also serves as a historical time capsule of that history as it was being written. The Sugarhill Gang get discussed in Hip-Hop Evolution’s second episode, but they’re nowhere to be found in Wild Style.

So, as I was learning about hip-hop and rap’s origins in New York, eventually the Sugarhill Gang did make an appearance. What I ended up learning gave me an entirely new fascination with a song that up until recently I had just found enjoyable and didn’t think too much of. “Rapper’s Delight” is such a fascinating song. Let me count the ways. Why don’t we start with who the Sugarhill Gang are?

The story of the Sugarhill Gang begins with a woman named Sylvia Robinson, often dubbed the “Mother of Hip-Hop.” A shrewd businesswoman, she was the head of All Platinum Records, a label that started in and ran through the seventies (Sugarhill Records, where “Rapper’s Delight” was released, was a subsidiary of All Platinum and formed in order to focus on the emerging rap scene). Robinson was also a musician herself, being one half of the guitar duo Mickey and Sylvia, scoring a hit in 1956 with “Love is Strange” (a song you definitely know if you’ve seen Dirty Dancing). Sylvia herself also had a hit in 1973 with the song “Pillow Talk.” Robinson has lived a life that goes beyond the scope of our subject today, so we’ll stick with knowing her as a businesswoman. If you want to learn more about Robinson’s story, this Billboard piece on her from 2019 is a good place to start.

In 1979, All Platinum was facing bankruptcy and was in desperate need of a smash hit in order to save it. Robinson had agreed to attend a party at Harlem World, a popular disco club in the late seventies and early eighties at 116th & Lenox Ave, in Harlem. Abrams tells the story of how Robinson first discovered the music that could save her label in The Come Up:

“Robinson witnessed Lovebug Starski work the turntables and the crowd into a frenzy with his call-and-responses. Robinson wanted to capture the music and release it commercially. When Lovebug Starski declined the arrangement, Robinson went on a hunt for other artists.”

Robinson’s search for talent, led by her son Joey Robinson, Jr., took them to a pizza parlor in New Jersey. It still exists today. It’s Crispy Crust Pizza in Englewood, NJ (the surviving members of the Gang are interviewed there in Netflix’s Hip-Hop Evolution). The story goes like this: 

The Sugarhill Gang are made up of three guys: Michael Wright (“Wonder Mike”), Henry Jackson (*Big Bank Hank”), and Guy O’ Brien (“Master Gee”). Robinson only came to hear Big Bank spit, but Wonder Mike and Master Gee also auditioned for her. Unable to make a decision on which one to go with, she ultimately decided to say “fuck it!” and made them a trio. 

It’s the best decision she could’ve made.

They auditioned on a Friday night and by Monday they were in the studio cutting the track. The three guys just kept passing the mic to one another and eventually the full song wound up being fifteen minutes long. 

We’ll get into the rhymes a bit later, but now that we’re familiar with the gang, we should cover what “Rapper’s Delight” ended up being the first of. Hip-hop may have already existed in the Bronx and New York scene for about six years before the gang came along and scored a bonafide hit, but the song does have legitimate cred. It’s the first rap song that made it onto the Billboard Hot 100 and the first rap song to break into the Top 40. It paved the way for Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five to get onto Billboard with 1982’s “The Message” (peaked at #62) and led to eventual chart dominators like Run-DMC and the Beastie Boys, which would start sprouting up a few years after the Gang made their mark. The Sugarhill Gang are also some of the first rappers to film an official music video (which is linked above at the top) and be seen performing on pre-MTV television (there are so many videos out there of them performing this on TV shows. It’s nuts). 

Listening to it, it’s not hard to understand why this song still gets written into the history books. First, this shit holds the fuck up. Second, it’s probably the easiest example to use if the aliens ever visit and Captain Cleevmorp asks, “W h a t i s t h i s t h i n g y o u c a l l . . . ‘r a p m u s i c’?” It’s ripping off a disco song that was barely three months old at the time (“Good Times” was released June 4th, 1979, “Rapper’s Delight” appeared September 16th, 1979) but at its core, it’s a rap song and nobody could mistake it for anything else. Did I mention this is ripping off a disco song that was barely three months old at the time? I feel like that’s an important part of the story.

Do you like “Good Times” by Chic? If you do, then hoo boy, do I have the song for you! I don’t think I’m blowing any minds here when I say that musically, “Rapper’s Delight” is quite literally just three guys rapping over an instrumental version of “Good Times” by Chic. I feel the need to stress that it is NOT a sample of “Good Times,” though you would be forgiven for thinking it is. “Rapper’s Delight” came out during a time when the technology for rap sampling and looping didn’t exist yet, so the production team behind “Rapper’s Delight” had to bring in session guys to recreate the song from scratch. They did such a good job recreating it, Nile Rodgers (guitarist) and Bernard Edwards (bassist) from Chic threatened to sue them. They eventually settled out of court, getting co-writing credits on the song and, according to the Library of Congress, “a substantial undisclosed amount of money made off of album sales and performances.” 

Chic won, but Curtis Brown, better known as New York rapper Grandmaster Caz, didn’t. Now might be a good time to start talking about the lyrics to the song.

For brevity’s sake, we will not be going over all fifteen minutes of this thing (I’ve never made it through the entire song. It just goes on-and-and-on-and-on-on-and-on). Rather, we’re going to focus on most single/video versions of the song and just cover the most important parts. 

Wonder Mike is the first one up. Equipped with a friendly voice and a smooth delivery, he spits some of the most important opening lines in rap history.

I said a hip hop, the hippie, the hippie The hip hip hop and you don't stop the rockin' To the bang-bang, boogie, say up jump the boogie To the rhythm of the boogie, the beat

According to Mike in Hip Hop Evolution, these are the lines he used when auditioning with Sylvia Robinson. Those four lines alone tell you everything you need to know about rap flow and delivery. It’s obviously very primitive compared to what MCs are doing now (and even what MCs were doing when this song got big) but to an unsuspecting audience outside of New York that had no idea what the hell rap was at all, those lines are an immediate attention grabber. I’ve always adored the line that comes after those initial four: “Now, what you hear is not a test I'm rappin' to the beat.” It’s a great way to present something strange and new to an audience without alienating them or scaring them away. People in 1979 had long known about disco and would’ve recognized the music immediately, but the rapping part was a new ballgame and Mike’s delivery in the opening verse lays down the framework for the rest of the song. At its core, “Rapper’s Delight” is a laid back and fun party anthem and he immediately sets that tone with his opening verse. He’s a good straight man compared to the goofy braggadocio that starts immediately once he passes it to Big Bank Hank. 

If “Rapper’s Delight” is beloved, it’s because Big Bank comes in and just kills it from the moment he steps up to the mic. The man just sells it and then some. He’s got great flow, a fun loving attitude, tons of style, and a goofy but confident swagger completely on lock. Depending on the version you’re listening to, he’s going for almost two minutes straight with barely any breaks. For one of the first rap songs ever put to vinyl, it’s an impressive feat. He’s got a lot of really great rhymes too.

It’s just a shame he didn’t write a lot of them...

Remember when I said Chic won their lawsuit threat but Grandmaster Caz didn’t end up being so lucky? That’s because a good chunk of the rhymes Big Bank is using are actually Caz’s and it wasn’t a secret to the New York rappers hearing it at the time. 

One dead giveaway is in this line: “The women fight for my delight / But I'm the grandmaster with the three MCs.” Three MCs, huh? But there’s only three of you. There would have to be four of you in order for that line to work. It worked when Caz said that as part of the group Cold Crush Brothers, because there were four of them. Another Caz line is near the beginning of Big Bank’s first verse: “Check it out, I'm the C-A-S-A-N, the O-V-A / And the rest is F-L-Y.” “Casanova” was a nickname of Caz’s. Caz reveals more stolen rhymes and where Big Bank got them from when interviewed for The Come Up:

“Sometimes I’ve been misquoted, and then sometimes I’ve made the mistake of saying I wrote all of Big Bank Hank’s lines for ‘Rapper’s Delight.’ What I meant is his verses. I meant his rhymes. But the little bridges, the hook, that’s DJ Hollywood. That, ‘Imp the Dimp, the ladies’ pimp. The women fight for my . . ., that’s Rahiem from Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. Those two things, I didn’t write, but the full rhymes he says, ‘I’m the C-A-S-AN, the O-V-A from the time I was only six years old’ and then the Superman and Lois Lane, I wrote all of that.” 

Whether Big Bank got to see a book of Caz’s rhymes and learn them from reading that is up for debate. Caz claims in both The Come Up and Hip-Hop Evolution that Hank didn’t have to study. He knew them all just from knowing Caz and being around him. If you want to hear Caz get bitter about it (which he has every right to be) he addressed this issue of plagiarism in 2000 with the song “MC Delight” (“the cat who bit this rhyme was my manager, pure treason I'll tell you why...”). 

It does take the wind out of the sails a bit when you learn Big Bank cribbed from other rappers for “Rapper’s Delight,” because he’s a very fun and energetic performer with a great voice and great flow, but once you learn the rhymes were stolen from guys who would never get any of the glory of “the first rap hit,” you start to feel bad and look at Big Bank as nothing more than a thief. It blows. New York DJ Grandmixer DXT voices the backlash and problematic nature of getting caught ripping somebody else off in Hip-Hop Evolution:

"Hank was saying a rhyme that we was hearing at the parties already, and he's saying somebody else's rhyme. And for us, that's a catastrophic no-no. There were people who would get beat up for saying somebody's rhyme. And here's a record where this guy bites and actually records it. Like, that was just the worst thing ever."

It goes without saying that the biggest problem with Hank ripping off rap’s founding fathers in the Bronx is that the Sugarhill Gang gets credit for being the first rap stars when one of them is pretty shamelessly ripping off lines from every rapper he heard in New York. There’s no evidence that everything in Hank’s verses are ripped off from somewhere, but there’s evidence of plagiarism all the same. Luckily, Master Gee and Wonder Mike’s parts are both authentic as well as fully written by them. Which is good because once Gee takes over from Big Bank, he takes a little time to get going, but eventually starts feeling himself and really starts delivering some Grade-A stuff. Most of his lines are either about bragging about his status as a ladies man, observations about the listener dancing to the music, and how he’s the youngest member of the three, but can still keep up with the best of them. I do like that his first brag is how he goes by the “unforgettable name” of Master Gee. Personally, I actually think all three of their names are pretty dumb and lame as far as rap names go, but they’re among some of the first rappers so it’s not like they had any way to avoid that.

Master Gee’s most impressive moment is this verse right here, written out in full:

I got a little face and a pair of brown eyes All I'm here to do, ladies, is hypnotize Singin' on-and-and-on-and-on-on-and-on The beat don't stop until the break of dawn Singin' on-and-and-on-and-on-on-and-on Like a hot buttered pop-da-pop-da-pop, dibbie dibbie Pop-da-pop-pop, you don't dare stop Come alive, y'all, gimme whatcha got

It’s stuff that’s downright corny by today’s standards, but Gee’s ability to spit all that without getting tongue-tied is more than I can say for myself. He’s got really great control; all three of them do. Mike, Big Bank, and Gee each deliver their parts like a never-ending party and when you listen to the full version of the song (that fifteen minute monster!) it has the feel of a party where you and your friends are just shooting the shit and passing around a blunt or something to each other. The three of them all seem like friends that are collectively goofballs just having a good time, which is one reason why I think the song has enjoyed the long life it’s had.

I also think the reason this song has lived so long is because white people LOVE this song. Of course they do! It’s a pretty sanitized version of the kind of music that was being made in New York at the time. There’s no message to it, no commentary about social issues, or even using old records in a creative way like the DJs of the day had been doing. Everything about this song was specifically engineered to be commercially viable, right down to completely ripping off a song that had already been a hit less than four months beforehand.

A mainstream audience (read: white) was absolutely slammed with pretty much nothing but disco for most of 1977, all of 1978, and most of 1979 before a bunch of people finally snapped and held a massive bonfire in Chicago about it. “Good Times” was something they already knew and something disco lovers still enjoyed, so you could ease them into this strange new thing called “rappin’ to the beat” and they would understand it without being confused. To most, it was probably just a different style of disco song at the time. It wouldn’t be until the mid-eighties when people would start to begin to understand a better definition for what rap is.

Obviously, the song has a wide appeal and white people really enjoying it isn’t the only reason, but that definitely plays a major factor. You’re looking at the song that inadvertently launched a thousand novelty rap songs in the eighties, all featuring white guys who should’ve never been allowed to be anywhere near a rap song. Rodney Dangerfield with “Rappin’ Rodney,” the Beach Boys with the Fat Boys on “Wipeout,” Joe Piscopo doing “Honeymooners Rap” with Eddie Murphy, and, lest we forget "The Super Bowl Shuffle" by The Chicago Bears Shufflin' Crew. What I’m trying to get at is this: The Sugarhill Gang made it so that if they, three dorks from New Jersey working in a pizza parlor, can rap, you probably can figure it out too. Adding to the “White People Have Propped This Song Up as a Monument” theory is how many things have referenced this song over the years. Here’s a Homer Simpson toy that raps the song and dances to it. The grandmother from The Wedding Singer famously does it (also adding to the “elderly women rapping” trope). Jimmy Fallon once had somebody cut and splice NBC anchors Brian Williams and Lester Holt rapping the song. Kid Rock’s breakout 1999 hit “Bawitdaba” references the song in its chorus (“Bawitdaba, da bang, da dang diggy diggy / Diggy, said the boogie, said up jump the boogie”). And there’s of course the famous 2002 Las Ketchup song “Asereje,” though you probably know it better as “The Ketchup Song,” which is about someone who goes to the club and asks the DJ to play "Rapper's Delight" and sings along in gibberish because he doesn't know the English lyrics. The point is that this song has been propped up by a lot of people who should NOT be considered rappers (yes, that includes Kid Rock).

I think the first time I ever started to have suspicions that the song wasn’t universally adored was when I watched In Living Color for the first time. There’s a sketch in the first season where Keenan Ivory Wayans plays Jesse Jackson and goes for the joke that everyone used to make about him: That he speaks in rhymes, almost like he’s a real life version of Gruntilda the witch from Banjo-Kazooie. Anyway, there’s a sketch where Jackson is giving his final State of the Union address (in the world of this sketch, he beat George H. W. Bush in ‘92 and has been president for eight years) and gives his address in the most basic AA BB CC rhyme scheme that wouldn’t look out of place in a children’s book. After a few of them, Wayans-as-Jackson breaks and quickly says: “Hip hop, you don't stop the rockin' / To the bang-bang, boogie, the beat,” which I took to be an insult that the rhymes in that song were just as basic as anything Jackson had ever said. The idea that “Rapper’s Delight” was wack was something I think I had already known in the back of my head but didn’t want to say because I thought that would just make me sound like a guy who hates fun. But, upon reading and hearing testimonies from the founding fathers of rap in New York, I realized that the big sin of “Rapper’s Delight” wasn’t that it was wack...

Its biggest sin was that it was made by a bunch of posers.

Sylvia Robinson didn’t know anything about the hip-hop and rap scene developing in New York, but she knew it was something that could be monetized if it was done and presented in the right way. Wonder Mike and Master Gee weren’t real rappers with any credibility, they were just guys working in a pizza parlor in New Jersey who were given the opportunity of a lifetime. Big Bank was the only one who could lay claim to having connections in the Bronx. He grew up there, worked the doors at famous Bronx nightclub The Sparkle, and also served as a manager for Grandmaster Caz (whom he would later rip off). “Rapper’s Delight” wasn’t made by starving artists who were pivotal to creating a new scene, it was made by a bunch of posers who had everything to gain from it. New York rappers interviewed in The Come Up knew this and were justifiably pissed about the song. The only testimony that was kind to them came from Kool Moe Dee, who understood the backlash as well as the song being embraced by white America.

“I understood why there was a lot of MCs at the time that didn’t like it, because I just think the social construct of oppression puts us against each other in many ways. In my opinion, many African Americans have a hard time giving other African Americans credit for achieving because so much of white America accepted that record and they started to define it from their perspective. And we’re saying we’ve already been here; it’s not new. So a backlash was on Sugar Hill that wasn’t deserved because they didn’t ask for it. ... So it was never not really hip-hop. We just had gotten more lyrically sophisticated at that time and the record was a great record. And looking back, if it wasn’t for Sugar Hill, we might not have an industry as prominent as we have because of the success of ‘Rapper’s Delight.’”

Kool Moe is right. It wasn’t their fault that “Rapper’s Delight” took off the way it did. Robinson was cashing in on what she saw as “the new thing” and wanted in. The song taking off the way it did happened the way a lot of hits happen: it was the right song with the right artists at the right place at the right time. “Rapper’s Delight” has stuck around the way it has because it captures a beautiful moment where music history is at a crossroads. The golden age of disco is going to be gone when the ball drops on January 1st, 1980, but rap music is only just getting started and by the end of the eighties it will begin its big mainstream explosion and keep going from there. 

“Rapper’s Delight” captures rap in its beautiful infancy. What it lacks in authenticity, it makes up for by being representative of what was going on at the time. It’s a time capsule. No matter which version of this song you choose, it sounds like a never ending party that everyone is invited to and a party where everyone is your friend. It’s fun, it’s infectious, and the three hosts are entertaining as hell as they pass the mic back and forth and keep the party going. Mike, Hank, and Gee created a fun rap song for beginners: it’s a very easy song to understand sonically and it’s an easy song to learn how to rap along to. The rhymes aren’t super complicated and the most you’d have to learn and work out is how to get the flow right and how to not trip over the words. If you can master Wonder Mike’s opening lines (if a Homer Simpson toy can do it, so can you!) the rest comes easy. Learning Big Bank and Master Gee’s parts aren’t complicated either and it becomes fun to recite along with them once you start getting it down. The beat of “Good Times” is very easy to keep up with and follow so that helps it as an excellent beginner song. Despite the criticisms against it, “Rapper’s Delight” still stands as a fantastic party song and it’s not hard to see why people still enjoy getting down to it even now. If you play it at the right party, you’ll hear a whole room recite the lyrics and just have fun with it. Hip-hop and Rap started life as block parties DJ Kool Herc was throwing in ‘73 and the Sugarhill Gang continued that tradition by capturing that party on vinyl. The rap world has changed in many ways since the Gang started rappin’ to the beat, but it keeps its status as a legendary rap song because it’s the party rap song that all party rap songs aspire to. Forget authenticity and leave your notions about “what rap really is about” at the door and just let loose. With the Sugarhill Gang, the party goes on-and-and-on-and-on-and-on

And the beat don't stop until the break of dawn.

[latin-dr-robotnik]

🎸, 🎤, 🎧, 😘 :)

🎸 Favorite Stage Theme?

Carnival Night Act 2, next question. lol no

In all seriousness, this person right here is extremely partial to Hard Times Act 1, what can I say, I'm a simple guy :P

Though, to be honest, something about the Buxer tracks is so... well constructed, even in comparison to the rest of S3K's already top tier OST. Of course the song itself is from the 80's, but the way it was translated to Genesis, the choices in instruments, those crunchy samples taking over the least amount of cartridge space possible in the game's already gargantuan size. Flying Battery and Death Egg are beautiful tracks, but something about the way they got IceCap working still amazes.

As for 3D Sonic, lately I've been feeling Skyscraper Scamper Night a lot. It's the kind of song I think of when I'm about to stream and I have to pick a Sonic song to play from my almost 500 track playlist. I fucking hate Skyscraper Scamper Act 1 with a burning passion, but you can never be mad at Kumatani's music :P

🎤 Favorite Vocal Track?

Every Sonic Frontiers boss, oh, and One Way Dream.

I cannot possibly understate just how much this OST changed my life. This wasn't my first rodeo, I've been here for years and I've spent a lot of my time listening to Sonic OSTs both new and old. When Forces came out, I celebrated the fact vocal songs were back, and I wanted more. I love Sonic vocal songs, and for a long time With Me was my go-to vocal song. But holy fuck these tracks blew me away.

My expectations were surpassed. Final boss-tier songs playing every four hours or so, and probably my favorite credits theme ever in this franchise. It felt like playing through the final battles of Sonic Adventure 2, Heroes and Black Knight over and over again, all in one game. The bar was set very high before this game, and now it's even higher.

And, of course, I picked Find Your Flame as my absolute favorite. I think it perfectly represents Sonic as a whole. Confident, fighting to the very end for his mission, sticking by his friends, very high energy, very powerful and, in the end, a moment to calm down and reflect on the best things in life, that flame that keeps him going.

🎧 Favorite overall soundtrack?

Sonic Unleashed. It and CD are still at the top, but Sonic Frontiers came very close to stealing that, too. The thing I still love about Unleashed's OST is the overall variety, it's so well-rounded and high quality, aged just as beatifully as the game itself. Also, I live for jazzy Sonic tunes, they always hit different.

😘 Favorite ship?

I see you mentioning KnuxAmy here and there, and I'm a bit guilty of not talking about that underrated ship more. Low-key it's still one of my favorites :P (One day I'll finish that Angel Island fic, maybe)

I'm sorry, I was very busy enjoying the absolutely wonderful state of SonAmy in 2023 :P

And tbh I'm not as active in the shipping side of the fandom as I used to

[zhouxiangs]

my top albums of 2023

(but i'm cheating, probably, because of course i am)

tagged by @theelast-straw <3

in no particular order except for roughly release date/order in which i got obsessed with each album, i present you: the albums i've had on loop for most of 2023

i like to listen to albums from start to finish, i think for the same reason that i tend to rewatch the same movies when i can't sleep (the sense of familiarity) but i'm picking a favourite from each because all of them had that one (1) song i got obsessed with and/or made it into one of my very specific playlists... some even more than one, if i'm honest lol

my world, aespa (2023)

what can i say about my favourite gg except that i love them so much? their title tracks are always a 10/10 for me but so are most of the sides, and for my world we got some amazing track videos (my favourite was of course i'm unhappy). plus there's the added layer of collecting pcs and the friends i cry about pieces of cardboard with, and while i admit i went a bit overboard during my world and that may be one of the reasons i got overwhelmed and eventually bored so now i'm stepping back from collecting, i still had lots of fun and this was my soundtrack for most of it.

perfume, nct dojaejung (2023)

my sons and jungwoo, do i really need to say anything else... i was lowkey scared i wouldn't like the mini for some reason and yeah that wasn't a problem, i am still obsessed with perfume lol i think this came out right after i decided i wouldn't buy more physical albums except the ones that i really loved the design of, and then i loved the songs so much that i ended up getting doyoung's box... and eventually two pbs from ktwt because i wanted to make covers out of them, and then never did lol

golden age, nct (2023)

pado and baggy jeans are my most played songs of the year; wish i could say i've gotten over the brain worms baggy jeans caused but nope, it's still on loop in my mind months later and i fear it's not going anywhere 👖

nil, the gazette (2006)

so this one is not new... but for some reason in the first half of the year, i think? i got back into the gazette; i've been listening to nil now and then throughout the years but now i also listen to their whole discography regularly. it's like being 16 again but with back pain lol happy to announce nil is still my favourite album of all time, and that i somehow remember all the lyrics! for this one i'm picking cassis because it has been one of my favourite songs since it came out and then cemented its place forever in my heart when i saw them play it live, which is something i'll never forget.

fact check, nct 127 (2023)

ICONIC MOVE, MY MOTION. i adore fact check, 127 never miss with their title tracks and i always go through at least a few days where i need to play them on loop because they won't leave my mind otherwise... but this time, if i could only pick one song from the album, it'd have to be angel eyes. i don't know if it's the happy 90s boyband energy or what but it's so special to me, makes me happy every time i listen to it <3

ร็อก เล็ก เล็ก, micro (1986)

we all know when and where this came from, don't we? one thing i'll always be grateful to only friends for (other than sandray both as characters and as a ship) is the music; i discovered so many wonderful songs and artists by listening to the playlists, and of course my favourite was micro, particularly this album which i started to listen to because both อย่าดีกว่า and อยากจะบอกใครสักคน are in it, and while they're still my favourites i really like the rest of the album too.

the land is inhospitable and so are we, mitski (2023)

i think i discovered mitski back in 2018 when be the cowboy came out, but for some reason i never listened to her music a lot? i had a pearl in my playlists, but it wasn't until laurel hell came out in 2022 that i started to listen to more... and then this year we got this amazing album and she's now one of my most listened artists of all time. my favourite is my love all mine because, like for most of twitter, that was (one of) my sandray song(s).

something to give to each other, troye sivan (2023)

this album came out right when i was itching for new music and to make more playlists because i was bored of always listening to the same songs. it was kind of a break? not because it's super different from other things i listen to, i don't think, but idk it was exactly what i needed right when i needed it. there's something about can't go back, baby that has always made it stand out to me, but don't ask me what.

to. x, taeyeon (2023)

mother! taeyeon has been in my life continuously for the longest time; her voice is such a comfort, it doesn't matter if i stop listening to kpop for years (which i've done a couple times in my life because i am that dramatic) i don't think i could ever quit her. honestly the whole album is perfect, no notes, and we even got a live clip for all for nothing. best way to end the year!

not tagging anyone but if you see this and want to do it you can consider yourself tagged <3

[dangerliesbeforeyou]

i just spent an embarrassing amount of time sorting all my spotify wrapped top songs from the last 5 years (which is how long i've been using it regularly) in order to see which songs and artists come up the most so, uh, i'm gonna go thru the data cos i'm a nerd lol

(this is all very self indulgent and only really exists so me from the future can come back and find it lol... but hey feel free to read if ur interested in my listening habits lol)

so what's interesting is that i've never had the same artist as my top artist of the year!

2018 -> BTS

2019 -> Banks

2020 -> Dreamcatcher

2021 -> EXO

2022 -> Girls' Generation

2023 -> Fall Out Boy

but despite that, both EXO and Banks have been in my top 5 for 5 times out of the 6 wrapped years!

even more interesting is that Banks is my 5th top artist this year despite the fact only one of her songs shows up in my top lists (i think i'm just always listening to her albums lol)

whiccchhh brings me onto the songs themselves

so no song shows up as top of my year every year, and there is also no song that appears in all 6 wrapped playlists BUT there is a song that shows up in 5 of the 6 and that is...

(drum roll lol)

Judas by Banks! not surprising cos it's such an amazing track but i kinda didn't realise just how much i listen to it lol! it's never been in my top 5 but it's always somewhere in the playlists lol

songs that show up 4 times out of 6 are:

Be by Hozier, Peppermint Chocolate by K.Will and Mamamoo, Vibrato by Stellar and Kingdom Come by Red Velvet!

songs that show up 3 times:

Lol by Taeyeon, Apple by Ga In, Snap out of it by the Arctic Monkeys, Bad Boy by Red Velvet & Tempo by EXO!

only other repeated song i'll mention is I Don't Care by Fall Out Boy which showed up in 2018 and then not again until this year lol

this year is a bit of an anomaly, because usually none of my top artists have more than 10 songs in the playlist (exceptions are usually if I had a particular album on repeat) BUT this year both my top artists (fob and hozier) have 18 and 20 songs in my top songs playlist respectively lol

(which is why when i've been rebloging those 'what is your 10th top song' posts it's mainly been fob and hozier tracks pfft.... rule of averages wins again lol)

& because of this most of the songs on my 2023 top songs list are ones that came out this year lol

some fun exceptions are:

How do you sleep by John Lennon, Why don't you do right by Lil Green, She's always a woman by Billy Joel, Can't rely on you by Paloma Faith and Irony by Wonder Girls lol!

honestly kinda shocked that hardly any of the mcr/green day stuff i was listening to earlier in the year has showed up (there are a couple mcr tracks, but i listened to american idiot SO much but not a single track is on my playlist rip.... guess i'm the (non)american idiot after all lol)

also kinda sad that spotify doesn't do a top albums things, though it is kinda obvious w/ my list pfft (top albums were So Much (For) Stardust, Unreal Unearth and The Age of Pleasure!)

& what i've discovered from looking at all this data is that i kinda like that every year is slightly different, with a different top artist and usually different albums that i play constantly throughout the year!

Last year it was Dance Fever, The Gods We Can Touch and 28 Reasons, few years ago it was III and 1719 lol! i just love having an album define so much of how i feel about a year :')

can't wait to see what albums define my next 5 years of life tbh!

anyway i think that's about all the data i can really pull from this lol!

[numetaljackdog]

what i'm listening to 5/5/2023 (song notes under cut)

spot. link//yt link

Laura Les - Haunted: haunted. by laura les.

Machine Girl - Dumbass!!: i was listening to a whole bunch of machine girl in the lead-up to the gecs n girl show and i feel like it made me a bigger fan than i had been previously. i honestly still am not like the most familiar with their individual songs but this is one of the ones that sticks with me. NO SUCH THING AS THE BOOGEYMAN!!!!

Cracked Out - If You Leave Me I'll Kill Myself: pretty tasteless but as soon as i came across this post and listened to it i was immediately hooked on this song. it reminds me of the dumb edgy comedy bullshit i would have listened to as a tween, but like, the better side of that stuff. it was basically impossible to find much of anything about this group, so the spotify track is a local file that you guys won't be able to play, and it wasn't on youtube so i actually uploaded it myself this morning just to put it in the playlist lol

Sum 41 - In Too Deep: i feel like sum 41 tends to kinda get dismissed as part of the obnoxious skate punk scene of the 90s-00s, and to a large extent that's fair, but man did they have some good hits. i feel like edgy teen songs like these really can work by being simple as long as they just hit the premise with everything they've got, and this would be an example

Tyler, The Creator - DOGTOOTH: i was very pleased when this reached the top 40, brief though its stint was. i've been getting more into tyler recently bc i feel like i've been missing out, he's really such an interesting artist and he balances a lot of different traits super well while still delivering the goods in terms of good beats, good lines, etc. seriously, "not sure what you overheard but it's probably what I said" is such a good fucking line

Nick Lutsko - A Ghost Story: would STRONGLY recommend checking out the video for this one, either in the youtube playlist or on tumblr here actually never mind i can't find it. watch it on youtube it's fun. i followed nick lutsko on youtube for a while before whatever network it was that he was producing for went under. probably machinima. i mainly knew him because of his limp bizkit parody which is funny bc i wasn't even listening to actual limp bizkit at the time. anyway i really like his voice and i'm actually glad that he's still finding success these days

Naughty By Nature - O.P.P.: as i've referenced, i've been rewatching robbydude's paper mario vods, which are very good, and in one of the early ones robby references this song and it made me look it up. and then i made this post and it was underrated. i don't really have anything else to say it's just a good classic rap song

Slipknot - Left Behind: putting this here as more of a landmark to represent that i've been listening to iowa (the album this is from) a lot in general. i've had slipknot on the brain recently more than usual (not for any reason of course. winks) and reminded myself of why everyone loves iowa so much. it's so fucking brutal and biting... nu metal <3

Busta Rhymes - Woo Hah!!: honestly another one where it's like yeah idk this is just a classic what do you want me to say. busta's a legend and this song is legendary and he tears it up and it's good

Sweet Trip - Tekka: probably the most direct of the violet finds from this month (hi violet :3) i had never listened to sweet trip before but tekka instantly grabbed me... it's all crunchy and stuttery and has yummy synths. i especially love how it just fucking breaks down in the second half it's like that machine that's breaking down and sweating and sputtering it's almost sexual. you know

Ike & Tina Turner - I'll Never Need More Than This: so i've been on my phil spector bullshit, as you might have guessed, so i was revisiting some of his tracks to just kinda take it all in. as always, it. well it sounds really fucking good, and tina turner turned in a killer performance as always. i love. sound :)

Rowdy Rebel - Computers (feat. Bobby Shmurda): I'M SLIDIN OVER CARS WHILE I SHOOT

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THEY THINK THAT I'M TOM CRUISE

Machine Girl - Scroll of Sorrow: it's really rather exciting. see for those in the know (which is all of you bc there's only two or three people reading this), you're aware that my mutual (hi again :3) had posted about how, at the live show, the vocalist of machine girl got up real near the crowd (including said mutual) during scroll of sorrow. as such, i was listening out for the song at my own show and well chat i'll tell you i was not able to recognize it :-) but there was one point where they got up on the railing above the pit and were singing from up there, and while it wasn't like exceptionally close to where we were at, it was still cool bc it was like hey! that's like the thing! that i heard about! :) amd anyway i like the song

Sonic The Hedgehog - His World: itsa banger... i actually heard the penny parker cover of this song from the sonic fandub way before ever hearing the original so even now i still mix up the lyrics but it's fine. i've actually never played a mainline sonic game or any video game or any media at all but i like the music

Strapping Young Lad - Oh My Fucking God: i straight up didn't know that strapping young lad was a devin townsend thing, not that i've listened to any of his other stuff. this song's weird and loud and stupid and i like it

Rae Sremmurd - No Flex Zone: okay now. based on this one and the previous song, can anyone guess what semi-popular artist playlist i was listening to this month? i tried to listen to a lot more rap this month, because i wish to learn more about this beautiful world. no flex zone has been my first exposure to rae sremmurd and it was a good one, although i like one of the guys way better than the other one. slim jxmmi i like him better

glass beach - classic j dies and goes to hell part 1: i didn't really "get" glass beach for a while, i thought they were alright, but this month they started to click (once again with some help - check out this post teehee). they're cute, earnest, and high-energy; i have to kinda be in the mood but i can get into it 👍 i've also seen the band described as sort of a modern emo type deal and while i don't yet know if i agree or disagree with that it compels me

NLE Choppa - Final Warning: straight up this dude is weird and has a weird hit on the charts rn but bc of that i was like "ok let's see what he was like before his big image change" and ended up liking some of that stuff. he's so energetic and it really gets you pumped up, which is def what i'm looking for in this type of thing. he's got some interesting lines, too. it almost makes me wish he hadn't changed at all - i feel like i missed out lol

Vanilla Ice - Prozac: okay look i try not to vanillapost too much but like i'm a little bit insane about vanilla ice. i'm obsessed with his career path and it is not uncommon for me to just sit and think about it for an hour or more. i really enjoy his nu metal stuff, at least the earlier portions of it, and this is a top-tier track from that era. real headbanger. FUNKY RHYME KILLER, THE DOPE SONG DEALER

[leaahhh]

some things i consumed in april

blondshell’s self-titled debut album

there is a shocking amount of music i truly, madly love coming out this year. i think this is one of my top 3 albums of 2023 (i know it’s only april). i’d only casually listened to blondshell until i saw her play the rolling stone showcase at SXSW in march, where her music suddenly became a safety net for me, marking the first time in 8 straight months i actually felt capable of treading water. angie, who’d interviewed blondshell late last year, sent me the advance for “salad” a couple weeks before it came out. i listened to it at least 4 times a day walking through greenpoint as spring emerged and i felt the sun on my skin in a way i hadn’t since it all started to hurt. this album, to me, feels like coming up for air.

this essay in the paris review about curtains and radiators

“For Springsteen, as for Deleuze, desire is not a lack but a productive force. Disaffection holds affection like a cigarette between the teeth.”

the gego exhibit at the guggenheim

i spent my birthday weekend microdosing celebration: a bar on friday, brunch saturday, dinner at bonnie's sunday, several cakes in between. on monday, my actual birthday, it was eerily quiet and rainy. eliza and i ate breakfast at the neighborhood diner before she had to head into the studio to rehearse for her show that night, leaving me with my solitude. i got back into bed and considered finally taking myself to the guggenheim, walking through the city with a specifically curated playlist, silently sitting under a tree, but i remained frozen there, unable to muster the energy to fill the space around me. i shuffled around the apartment, then M texted me lomelda’s “bust” and said he’d meet me anywhere. at the museum we contemplated shadows and shapes and fired off crude comments circling up the rotunda, increasingly aware of our shared fear of heights. outside he bought me a frozen-over ice cream bar from a truck and we walked the same route through central park as we did the first time together. i know him so well now it’s hard to remember that version of us. we sat on the same bench on the west side, too, laughing differently, holding entirely new conversations. a year passes and history takes shape. the trees were blooming pink all around, the reservoir glistening. the sun shone bright for the rest of the day. i closed my eyes and thanked it.

bonnie’s (east williamsburg)

best dinner in brooklyn, maybe. a near-perfect family meal. the round corner table at 7pm in the spring and summer is a great place to be if you want to sit and watch the people you love laughing and eating, backdropped by the sky changing from day to deep blue to black. the waiter put a birthday candle in the head of a whole fish.

the new daughter album

i remember standing in front of eavesdrop before heading in to finish listening to “neptune,” texting screenshots of the lyrics back and forth with ryan, remembering the time someone leaned over to me at a party while we both gazed at the same person and whispered into my ear, “you know who’s losing, right?”

radical adornment: the music of julius eastman at 92Y

went uptown saturday afternoon with M and C to listen to a retrospective of the compositions of julius eastman. dev hynes played the piano for the last piece, i was thoroughly mesmerized. afterward we walked through the park as the last of the cherry blossoms fell off the trees, and i kept thinking of this tweet i’d bookmarked that reads, “Woke up this morning gripped by what seemed to me a brilliant and original insight about how April is a particularly hard month . . . because it rekindles desire . . . and also memory . . . and there’s something cruel about that”

this newsletter on “contact” from bookbear express’ substack

particularly this excerpt:

kara jackson’s “why does the earth give us people to love?”

and hanif abdurraqib’s review for the new yorker that put me onto the album in the first place. pitchfork’s review, too:

“The cost of love comes up repeatedly on Why Does the Earth, and it’s never clear if it’s one Jackson feels is worth paying. ‘Have you thought about the price of my mouth?’ she asks her lover cheekily on “Free.” On “Rat,” Jackson sings of a man who ‘couldn’t buy compassion cause it’d cost him 40 dollars.’ “Price,” “cost,” “bargain,” “pay”; her frustration with transactional relationships is palpable, as is her desire to devote herself to someone without giving away parts of herself. The record captures the dangers of living with an open heart at a time of diminished personal connection, massive overwork, incessant productivity, and constant grief: To prioritize love one must give up something else.”

[hopetorun]

🎵 💪 👾

🎵 What was the #1 song you had playing while writing? What fic was it for?

well the top song on my spotify wrapped was born to be yours by kygo and imagine dragons, which was on my vibes for my wip playlist

but the plot twist is i didn't listen to the vibes for my wip playlist much while writing because it has too many bops and i found it distracting. i mostly listened to a spotify-generated playlist called "scenic route" and the song from that that i listened to the most was count on me by the lone bellow

💪 What ship gave you the most brainrot this year?

LIKE YOU DON'T ALREADY KNOW, isn't it obvious, etc. i wrote 100k of matthew and leon, nothing else came close

👾 Ruh roh. Your FBI agent just took a peek at your internet search history. What kinds of things will they find?

a lot of visits to the st louis blues capfriendly page. a smaller but still concerning number of visits to keith tkachuk's wikipedia page. google maps searches for restaurants in st louis. google maps searches for the driving time between different suburbs of st louis. google maps street view taking a walk around st louis. the website of a specific condo building near the cardinals ballpark. google maps to see how many bridges there are in prague. tripadvisor things to do in prague. tripadvisor five star hotels in prague. in 2023 i'm only writing fic in places i've been to.

[luchicm04]

My Pokémon Challenges - PT. 1

Game: Pokémon Sun

Challenge: Randomlocke

Final team:

Duration: 02/28/2023 - 03/19/2023

[I had to stop playing for a few days because of a bug in the emulator. Luckily, I figured what was wrong was able to fix it with the help of a youtube video. The music remained a little of though, so I just stuck to playing with my playlist in the background. It's a shame, I love Alola's soundtracks]

Nickname explanation:

-> Pedro Pera: I got Chikorita as my starter, and a friend and I were trying to come up with a cool name. Eventually, we ended talking about superheroes and the name Peter Parker came up. We liked how both the name and surname shared the same initials, so we chose the name Pedro to go with 'Pera' (pear in Spanish) cause you know, Chikorita is kinda the pear pokemon.

-> Paco (Flygon's name): honestly I don't remember why I first picked that name for him. I probably just looked around my followers of Tiktok and Insta and chose it for random reasons. Flygon is my fav pokemon btw.

-> María: I think (sort of, I don't remember much) that I picked that name because when naming her, an image of my childhood friend popped in my head. No other reason, just my friend appearing on my mind in that second.

-> Victoria: same with Flygon, I think I just liked that name and it was the first think that I came up with so I thought why not? Ironically, this fella almost died a lot couple of times, so I don't know if naming her 'Victoria' (victory in Spanish) was a really good idea.

-> Rita: I was searching for a name for her when I remembered my friend from college and judging from her firey personality, I thought it would be perfect for her. PS (the name Rita is a diminutive of the name 'Margarita' (daisy flower))

-> Esteban: I had just gone through a bunch of Steven Universe youtube videos before I got this big guy and somehow two moments merged in my mind, Steven naming himself 'Esteban Universidad' and him becoming old and bearded by aging.

[What is a randomlocke? Like in every nuzlocke, you can only catch the first pokemon of each route and you gotta give them a nickname so you get attached to them (and receive emotional damage when they die) If they faint, you can never use them again. However, as the same indicates, everything is randomized in a randomlocke. An Arceus could appear on route 1 or the league champion could go with a sunkern as their top pokemon. All objects, moves, abilities... are randomized as well]