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imonthinice · 4 years ago

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The Criminal Psychology Majors, Jason Todd x Fem!Reader Part 2/?

Word Count: 2k

Author’s Note: Y/N - your name, A/N - any name (your best friend’s name)

Warnings: Swearing, no beta bitch we die like Jason Todd

Welcome Back! I have, once again, written more of Jason Todd because he’s a fucking teddy bear and I love him.

(Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4) (Part 5) (Part 6) (Part 7) (Part 8) (Part 9) (Part 10) (Part 11) (Part 12) (Part 13) (Part 14) (Part 15) (Part 16) (Part 17) (Part 18) (Part 19) (Part 20)

Y/N and Jason both returned from that date feeling all giddy about each other, but trying their dammed-est to not let their hopes get too high about the other. However, that was extremely, extremely hard for Jason to do with family like Dick in his life. It’s like coming home to a hopeless romantic of a shipper as a nosey bitch. Lovingly, of course. No one’s like Dick.

“So, Y/N?” Dick asked Jason immediately as he entered the Manor.

“Yeah, what about her?”

“So, many questions: Was that a date? If no, will there be a date? Is there going to be a second date? Do you like her? Do you think we’ll like her? Does she know you’re Bruce Wayne’s son?” Dick rambled at his little brother.

“Okay hold on god damn, yes it was a date, yes there will be a second, yeah I think she’s cool and I like her, slow your roll Circus Boy, I don’t know when she’ll meet you lot, I don’t think she knows who I am, she’s from Metropolis, so I don’t think she knows the Waynes well.” Jason answered Dick with confidence.

“So you like her!” Steph mocked as she entered the hallway, probably heard her brothers talking about Y/N, so she wanted in on it. Somehow she had evaded Jason’s gaze though, so she startled him immensely.

“Jeez, how many of you will scare me today? And yeah, dumbass, I like her. But I’m doing this magical thing called ‘Not getting my god damn hopes up about her since it’s only the first date’ you hopeless romantic fucks.” Jason barked at them.

“Yeah, but you love us.” Dick said.

“That might be true, but your meddling is only going to cause chaos, Dick and Steph.”

“What about my meddling, Jay?” Bruce asked. Once again, he had heard the talking about Jason’s new crush and decided he’d parent the boy on his girl. Jason jumped out of his skin, because, he had once again, not seen Bruce enter the hallway despite his best efforts to not get startled again.

“You, are going to give me a heart attack.”

“Looks like this girl let your guard down.”

“Can we just go on patrol and stop badgering me?” Jason muttered under his breath.

“Nope!” Barbara exclaimed. Clearly, there’s a pattern with Waynes escaping Jason’s attempts to not get startled today, “We’re still going to badger you, Jay,” Barbara finished.

---------------------------------------

When Y/N made her way back to A/N, she couldn’t help but turn her radio as loud as she could and try to take the longer journey back home. Pieces of quiet and tranquility always surprised and drew her in. Like a good book on a Sunday morning before the rest of the bustling city of Gotham or Metropolis awoke itself. If New York never sleeps, she thought, then what the hell do Gotham and Metropolis call themselves. She laughed.

There were a few good things about Gotham, like the people you’d meet on the street at 4am were some of the weirdest but kindest people you’d ever know. It’s like the city radiated off of the energy of the people in it, and in spite of the villains constantly hitting the city with their worst, somehow everyone never let it get to them. It was admirable. Metropolis was the same in that avenue, but it didn’t feel like the cold Gotham streets.

Y/N thought Jason was one of the kinder people she had met in her travels and classes. And she never thought that she’d meet someone she liked this much in her criminal psychology class of all places, but hey, the universe had different pen strokes for her.

She went and parked her car in the driveway of the rental house she and A/N shared. Only the two of them shared it, but if either of them lost their jobs, they’d be looking for another roommate immediately. Pulling out her bag which was full of notes written by Jason, the original notes written by her, and binders upon binders of criminal cases she was looking into at the time, she would get out of her car and begin walking to her door.

Of course, like most people, she would kick off her heels the minute she walked through the doors of the house, to which, A/N paused her music and went to go question Y/N about Jason.

“So, you know how this works, babes, lay it on me, how’s hottie? Is he kind?” A/N pondered.

“He’s so kind, he paid the printing fees for my notes and rewrote all of them, I guess it’s a system for us now. I write the notes in class while he tries to take it all in, we meet up, and he rewrites them all and pays the printing fee.”

“He paid the fee?! At that college?” A/N said, completely shocked.

“Is that shocking?”

“Well, the printing fees are so fucking expensive, hun. Mans must have daddy’s money to do that.”

“Really? Well regardless money doesn’t matter, he’s kind and I can make a name for myself if I graduate at the top of my class.” She said, fully believing this. Smart woman. She knew she could do it.

“I believe in you, do you have homework tonight? I can make dinner for you so you can study.” A/N offered.

“Nah, I’m just going to go file my notes and shower, I’ll come join you and help after.”

“Well, don’t drown.” A/N joked.

“Do you know how much effort that would take?” She laughed as she walked towards her room, once she got there she pulled out her papers and began the slow filing process of them into her desk.

About 2 minutes into this, she got a text:

Hey stranger.

If someone had a heart monitor hooked up to her, they could have bet their last penny on her heart skipping a beat.

Hey Jason. She sent back.

I had a fun time today with you, do you want to do the same thing tomorrow, I could use your fast writing skills to get by in classes. And I just like talking to you. What do you say?

She thought. Maybe something legit is here, hopefully I’m not just used for notes. She worried about that, since she was just a tad insecure about him. He was pretty. She knew she was a looker, sure. But he was something more.

I would love to go on another budget date with you.

Budget? Actually yeah, I guess it is budget lol. Maybe next time I’ll actually take you out to lunch like I said I would.

I, honestly, completely forgot you said you’d take me to lunch, I was just having fun as we were talking.

Me too. You’re a hoot.

A hoot? That’s a book nerd statement if I’ve ever heard one. She joked. She didn’t actually know if he was a book nerd at this time, but they had been joking the entire time when she was filing her notes. She was no where near done filing her notes, Jason was a distraction from that, it wasn’t that important, she would end up finishing it later. She just liked some semblance of organization so she didn’t have to put it off.

I’ll have you know I’ve probably read more books than you.

Well book nerds are cute.

Eventually the messages from Jason and Y/N started slowing, Y/N assumed he was tired or working so she took her chance to file her notes and start running her shower.

Sorry Y/N, this has been fun but I’m going to get really sparse with replies, I got work to do.

That’s fine! Where do you work, by the way?

And she got into the shower. Halfway through her shower her phone pinged, she assumed Jason was texting back, so when she finished her shower, before she even got her towel on, she decided to answer him:

I work at Wayne Enterprises with my dad. It’s quite fun. He had said.

Oh! I’ve heard the owner of Wayne Enterprises is a lovely man, have you met him? She asked him back.

And within an instant, he answered.

He’s my dad, so yeah.

You’re the Jason Todd? Heir to the Wayne Manor and Wayne Enterprises? She started thinking back on what A/N had said. Yep, she thought, Daddy’s money indeed. She started to slip into her pajamas, which were literally a mess and not put together, because this is the real world, not every girl has matching sets, when he answered:

I hope that doesn’t change much, Y/N.

Explains the camera I saw but didn’t mention, and that’s about it.

You saw the cameras? Damn it. I tried to shield you, they may have pictured us together, sorry.

Worth it for a lovely date. I’ve seen worse, my mum works with Clark Kent, who I guess you probably know since he’s Bruce’s best friend, and the paparazzi loves to take Clark’s picture.

Oh yeah, Uncle Clark. Yeah, the pap love him. You get used to it. I guess you somewhat know my family lol.

Nah, that’s about all I know. Wasn’t really interested in drama about you lot because it’s just not my business. Probably not a shared ideal with the general public.

She finished getting dressed and went to go cook with A/N, and share the news.

----------------------------------

“Girl! You were right about daddy’s money oh my god,” Y/N said when she entered the kitchen.

“Go on,” A/N urged.

“You know Jason Todd? Guess what. That’s hottie from Crim Psych 101.”

“Are you serious? That’s insane. You’re probably plastered across the internet right now for that date,” A/N laughed, “are you scared to date a famous man?” She asked.

“No, he’s really sweet and if this gets serious, I can just block out the flashes.”

The two of them laughed and started cooking. A/N was Latina, so, of course, she was in charge to cook most nights. But Y/N made killer desserts and pizza. Tonight was fajitas, so Y/N kind of sat bat and let A/N do her thing. Trying to know more so one day A/N wouldn’t have to do all the work, Y/N went onto the internet and the first thing she saw?

Globally Revered Son of a Millionaire, Jason Todd, out on a DATE with a Mystery Girl?

Like clockwork, Jason answered:

I guess I have a lot to teach you, and I hope you haven’t been on the internet recently.

I have. Globally Revered Son of a Millionaire. She texted back.

Fuck those damn tabloids. He said, she couldn’t help but agree, the paparazzi seem like they’re very invested in stories that aren’t theirs to tell.

Can’t agree with you more. We should put on a show for them tomorrow, actually give them something to write about.

I like your thinking.

You’ve opened up a lot today.

Is it your turn now?

What do you want to know? You asked him before turning to A/N.

“Tabloids talk too much,” you sneered at her.

“Cat should get their tongue and choke on it,” she finished, “did you at least look cute in their pics?” she asked.

“Somehow. Wasn’t even posing,” Y/N finished.

“Well, food’s done, are you still hungry?”

“Always.”

--------------------------------------

Jason turned to his brother, Dick, Nightwing, and said,

“She knows now.”

“That you’re rich?” he asked.

“Yeah, I guess I have to be more wary of her now,” he sighed, “I hope she’s not in it for the Wayne fortune.”

“Doubt she is if she agreed the tabloids can suck it, Red Hood.”

“I pray you’re right.”

He then drew his guns and fired at the ground underneath their laest venture into crime-fighting. This was gonna be one hell of a ride Y/N embarked on, not even knowing what she was getting into.

#jason todd x reader #jason todd #jason todd x fem!reader #jason todd x y/n #jason todd x you #red hood #red hood x reader #red hood x fem!reader #red hood x y/n #red hood x you #batfam #batfamily #batbros #jason todd fluff #red hood fluff #dcu #dc #dceu

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space-blue · 3 years ago

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1, 3, 7 (I might ask more later, future apologies if I do)

Oooh Pixie, hello! You're very welcome to ask as much as you want, the asks are there for it!

1. What font do you write in? Do you actually care or is that just the default setting?

I write in the default font on Ulysses, which is the Hack font. I write in night mode too! I generally don't care, and it's nice to shakes things up when I copy paste into Google docs for beta and get fresh eyes. I never care about font unless I'm making a graphic design thing.

3. What is your writing ritual and why is it cursed?

It's cursed because it doesn't exist. I have no ritual, and I write in many different settings and mediums. I've been a lot more intense recently about writing daily (took some days off, but that's been the ideal regimen since last November!), and the "ritual" goes from baiting myself into sitting down and writing with the help of Sprinto and friends, so opening my laptop and going on an insanity fueled 10h writing session that ends at 4am. I guess THAT is the curse.

7. What is your deepest joy about writing?

Oooh that is a strange and weird one... because I don't really know. I really enjoy crafting the story and making up the world and characters that inhabit it... it's rewarding in itself. But one of the greatest joys is when someone, of their own accord, reads your work and then goes "Oooh so XYZ" and you're like OMG YOU FUCKING GET IT!!!

Writing, talking, same business, you usually lose meaning as the ideas get carried across. Some readers can truly misunderstand stuff, and you can't always tell if it's you, them, a bit of both... There's true beauty in a reader GETTING you. They understand the exact vibe you were going for, the take on the character and what it means for them going forward. Truly some of that energy :

#Thanks for asking!!#ask game #ask away!#writing #writer ask

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navyhurricane · 3 years ago

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wtwp spoilers ahead!!

content warnings: moderate mentions of descriptive gore, might not be suitable for everyone

i had mentioned this on twitter and now im making it a reality: welcome to my interpretations of the ‘where the wicked play’ side stories i’ve written and posted:) if you’re interested, they’re all posted on my ao3

anyways this is the first one that i wrote and published, enjoy:)

jaws dripping all your greed - https://archiveofourown.org/works/35780938

You started from Darkness.

alright well to start it off i haven’t written second person pov since my self insert days so this was definitely new. i am positive this fic began with some insane thought that manifested at 4am and then i was furiously typing into a doc. i wanted something that was both unknown and completely transparent, and using a second person pov was attention grabbing enough to me to work with.

as we continue in the fic, we’re introduced to ‘you’. ‘You’ seem to know everything and ‘you’ seem to have no real kind of family, but it’s referenced that ‘you’ had to come from somewhere. i really liked this kind of introduction because it was so vague and so exact at the same time, and leaves a lot of it up for interpretation whilst handing you every single clue that you could possibly need.

You should start over.

Start from the beginning.

You started from Darkness.

i will be honest here this was me trying to refocus on what the actual objective of the piece was, and i felt like using the beginning in a twisted narrative was good to recenter both mine and the readers perspective. And it worked, because now at this point you know more about ‘yourself’ and where you came from, as well as your general outlook on life and things that exist, ie. the moon, the sun, the darkness, all of the things that are titled.

the titles are important as well. it’s kind of poked at in the summary itself, but the use of proper nouns on things that are usually improper (the moon, darkness, light, etc) is on purpose and with a point. names have power according to ‘you’, and by giving these otherwise mundane things names gives them something else: meaning. i will come back to this a little ahead:)

You started from Darkness, and that was where you belonged.

shoutout to ant @/bugboydwt on twitter and @lovelyybugz on here for giving me one of their favourite lines from this fic! anyways we will continue

repetition my beloved <3 again with the starting line and then added on with something that really solidified the personality aspect of the perspective. when we watched movies as children, the villains were always featured in a darker area of the world, whether it was the lighting or their words, their actions or even just the colour scheme that they were painted with.

‘Darkness’ in this setting can be read as direct and indirect. directly, it means that the thing we’re talking about belongs in the shadows and places where there isn’t sunlight or life, and is something that should be feared.

indirectly, it is something that should have never been created at all.

Names.

Fickle things, don’t you think?

names:) this little bit goes on to say:

You never had a name.

and it’s leading enough to believe that there was a time when you didn’t have any power. it was this thing that existed and was aware of its existence, its past and origin, and the names of other beings, but it never had one itself because it wasn’t important.

just because it wasn’t important enough to name doesn’t mean it didn’t have power, of course:)

It was something you heard on the streets, and people—people, oh, people were new.

i adore this line. i feel like it gives a more in depth look at the personality of the perspective, showing something egotistical and not quite mocking, but definitely a taunt that comes with learning about something you can corrupt. this is the perspective of what really is the main villain of wtwp, and the desire and only drive that it has is now to ruin whatever it can.

a lot of this fic is internal monologue and giving life to something that doesn’t have any verbal dialogue was actually difficult because in my experience (with dnf fics and others wow) there is always verbal conversations. writing this was more like a constant stream of conversation with something that wasn’t myself and something that didn’t exist at all. kind of like talking to a wall.

but, by adding in that hesitation or pause with ‘oh’, i felt like it gave more depth because instead of speaking the words, you could actually see the train of thought via the monologue.

It was a greed that burrowed to the bottom of your stomach, rotted and broiled in ivory and amaranth, and there was nothing you could find in sedimentary stone to quench it.

imagery <3 this fic is very, very imagery heavy, especially when it comes to the emotions that ‘you’ are feeling. again, it was harder to get a point across without verbal conversation, but i feel like adding in choice words such as these it was enough for people to understand how it felt.

this is the part in the work where it gets into what i wanted to achieve: the greed, the jealousy, the desire to have everything just so that no one else can.

People were not the cause, but they were who you decided to blame.

another shoutout to bella @/snowchcster on twt and @snowchcster on here for giving me one of their favourite lines as well <3

now. we know that people who are greedy usually have other emotions that run hot right behind it. one of those—at least to me—is rage, and i felt like adding in the narcissistic trait of pinning blame on someone else was fitting. here, the vines are blaming the people that it had learned about because it doesn’t have a name. it couldn’t blame the moon or the darkness and it didn’t want to blame itself, but it could blame the people.

maybe it doesn’t make sense logically, but that’s the point: it’s not supposed to.

Can you feel the pain of your discontent? Oh, they have what you want, do they not? You are greedy. You are envious, and your bitterness sits on cobblestones through pernicious distaste.

something that became a theme in this work is the rhetorical questions; i think it started to add ambience to the fic but then became useful in the way that it became a taunt. the narration is half from the perspective of one single being, but then there’s all these questions that are coming that aren’t really answered. i liked it because really, the vines aren’t one being in particular: just like in the dsmp, they’re spread out and scattered and while they are the same thing, are they really all the same being?

this small paragraph is one of my favourites simply because it can be split up into half of what is ‘one being’ and half of something that isn’t. it’s still ‘the same’, but all of those questions are violent and thrown at you with really no answer but the obvious.

Because they were unsure. You were this thing, curled and red to the base like a snake to strike, rattling a tail like an infant’s toy and taunting with the words you would never speak.

They were curious.

And, oh, how good you felt to not be the one unknowing.

i will say it again i love my imagery in this fic

anyways, in the start of the fic it was referenced that ‘you’ only knew what was important, but at the same time it is never mentioned how old the vines are. even in ‘where the wicked play’, george has a comment somewhere that he doesn’t remember a time when the vines weren’t around. so, with that in mind, think of how people grew and evolved, and think of how there was probably a time in the vines’ period of life and growth that people weren’t a thing.

ill let you chew on that for a little lol

in that paragraph, it is actually quite literal in the sense that the vines in wtwp are everywhere. in the corners of buildings, on the walls, over the stones. this is pointing at a time when it started to become more prominent, and when people where more unsure and starting to become afraid of the flora that was trailing over their kingdom.

How does it feel to have curiosity?

Does it decay?

Does it wither when you have found your answers?

Do you feel the necrosis of it, tangible until it disintegrates across your tongue and leaves you slobbering rot and bile?

i simply love this entire passage let me live i had the time of my LIFE rereading this after i had slept eight hours and came back to a 4am frantic masterpiece

this is mostly describing the process of curiosity, and the discovery of human emotions. like most people, a question that you might have doesn’t always stop at one, so what the rhetoric is is does the curiosity ever fade?

the short answer is no, and the long one is that the vines only wanted to know because it was just another thing that it could possess.

You were never truly hungry, but you could never be filled.

Again in reference to the curiosity. this is written more like it’s actual human hunger, but when i was writing it i was thinking of the crave for knowledge. you were never truly hungry because you knew everything you needed from the moment you existed, but you could never be filled because your greed created a bottomless pit you never acknowledged.

But, then came a king.

i feel as though this may come off as obvious, but this is schlatt. however, this is schlatt when he is very, very young, and extremely new to the rule of a kingdom. in the first chapter of wtwp it’s referenced that the kingdom was ruled nicely, and then war happened, and then schlatt took over. in chapter 12, puffy explains that when schlatt was deemed king, he extended a hand to snowchester and started a pact.

his reasoning is that he wanted power. he was young and greedy, and this is the vines realizing that such a person exists.

the next few paragraphs are the vines simply debating over the existence of the new king, and how it reflects its place in the world and the kingdom. at the same time, the people in the kingdom have lost the fear that they had of the vines—’you’—and have begun to show their distaste for the very presence of them.

and, at the same time, you are reading about the vines starting its descent into the destruction of people and realizing that the people have already begun their destruction of ‘you’.

Curiosity was never worth the death of your siblings.

again, people ask questions and they usually don’t stop. this is just one of those times where humanity should have stopped, even written in fiction.

And soon, the King was a title.The King wasn’t respected by you—it wasn’t a title that was gained through power and it wasn’t a title that you meant to give.It wasn’t even a name.

at this point, schlatt has become important enough to have some kind of impact on the vines’ life, and it wasn’t by choice. everything else wasn’t by choice either, but ‘you’ needed something more to represent a being that was presented to you that could potentially do something that mattered.

Now, you already have power.

You had plenty.

You started from Darkness—there was no need for a King to stand in and feed you from bloody palms, hoping that your nips were not deeper and trembling as you licked between it’s dirty knuckles.

im just staring at this rn i love this passage.

here, i kind of based it off that saying like “don’t bite the hand that feeds you”. obviously, the vines don’t need help. it has power and it knows that it has plenty of it, but it wanted more.

and, it also knew that by injuring the King, it would take away any chance of gaining that power, so: it never bit the hand that fed it, but it was never all that hungry in the first place.

The King stared at you, and you stared the same. The King never gave you a name, but it gave you an offering, and you stared at its open palm with slobber over your stained canines.

Blood. A body. Fingers and bones, and stretches of land over stones.

more references to that saying:) as well as rhyming, i dont think i did that on purpose but also it fits so i will never change it.

as for the offering, think of it like how schlatt extended a hand to snowchester. both of these beings want power, and both of them know there is something to gain from having a kind of pact with the other. schlatt didn’t give it a name because he didn’t have that kind of power over the vines, and the vines only gave him a title because he has something that mattered.

thats the distinction: schlatt doesn’t matter, but he has something that matters.

You have no name, but they still whisper an echo of a title even whilst in the Light. They are afraid, you see, and even as your tongue curls over the uncut fingernails and it slices along the edges of your muscle, not once do you pull away to smile. Bare your teeth and let them gleam with the Moon, lick your lips and swallow galefulls of jealousy to people you do not know.

i just adore this paragraph, im putting it in here because it is very tangible and i like it a Lot

You didn’t believe in names, but you have attained one.

You are the Vines, and you have been starved for too long.

and finally. the reveal.

im sure that for anyone who was deeply invested in the wtwp lore that it was easy enough to tell from the middle of the fic what ‘we’ were, but at the same time only using the name that people know it as at the very ending was impactful enough for me to want to post this. just the same as schlatt in this fic, the vines didn’t have a name or a title until they were impactful enough to matter. who gave it the name? well that’s completely up for wild interpretation because i don’t have an answer for it. but, regardless, it has a title and it has a name, and now it has enough power to really matter.

at the very end of it all, this is still incredibly up for interpretation because i didn’t have an outline or a real good idea of what i had truly wanted for this fic; i literally opened a doc at 4am and started typing, but these were just some of my thoughts that i remember having while doing so :) it was fun to write in the perspective of something that wasn’t a single person, and it was fun to explore the more violent writing style compared to what i usually write.

anyways, that’s my writers interpretation of my fic! if you made it all the way to the end and could actually understand my ramblings, congrats you get a cookie <3

until next time hehe

#wtwp #medieval au #character study #writing interpretation #give me your interpretations now #dnf fanfic #dreamnotfound #what the fuck happened here i started writing and then it turned into this

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dameronology · 5 years ago

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the one where you take the leap {poe x reader}

summary: you and poe take a late night walk and talk about everything and nothing (and you get tacos)

warnings: language

just some fluff because i am having a big sad tonight™ and i need some wholesome content. this is about 101 cliches rolled into one but sometimes that is the best thing

enjoy,

- jazz

There were very few people that Poe Dameron would wake up at 3AM for. In fact, the list started and ended with your name. You were that important that he was willing to forgo his beauty sleep and that was truly saying something. Everybody in the galaxy and their mother knew that the pilot needed a full eight hours to function and nobody could change that. However, you didn’t fall into the category of nobody.

That’s how you both ended up trekking across the plains of a jungle planet at an ungodly hour, the squelch of your boots in the wet mud filling the comfortable silence between you. Ajan Kloss was unbearably hot in the day but it bordered on glacial at night; that was how you’d ended up with one of Poe’s jackets. It was far too big for you, almost swamping your body, but he’d insisted you’d put it on before leaving.

‘Remind me why we’re going on a hike at 3AM?’ Poe’s voice, still raspy with sleep, called from behind you.

‘Because I told you I couldn’t sleep and you said hey, let’s go for a walk!’ You chortled back, peeking over your hood to glance at him.

‘Poe from half an hour ago was an asshole.’ He grumbled.

You stopped, turning to face him with a grin. The moon was high up above you now, casting the field of green in a yellow glow. Compared to the humid days, you almost relished in the crisp night air, enjoying the cool sensation on your skin as you glanced up at the dark sky and plethora of stars. Late night walks with Poe had become a regular occurrence over the last year - sometimes he initiated them, and other times like tonight, it was you.

‘The village isn’t far from here.’ You said. ‘Maybe we can see what’s open?’

‘That tiny place that does the tacos is twenty four hours!’ Poe’s face lit up as the thought came to him. ‘C’mon!’

‘Waaaaait!’ You called after him. ‘My legs are tired, Dameron.’

Poe knew you what you were doing - the whole thing was kind of your play. Either that, or the man was so whipped that the first thing he thought to do was carry you the rest of the way there. Whatever it was, he bent down in front of you, signalling for you to leap onto his face. You swung your bag over your shoulder and made a run for it, landing perfectly in place. He wound his arms around your legs and boosted you up slightly, peering up to face at you.

Now, it should be noted that Poe Dameron was one of the best-looking human beings you’d even seen - and that was on a normal day. But under the light of the moon, with his brown eyes illuminated like a warm, welcoming fire, and a cheeky grin on his face as he turned to look at you, it was something else entirely. It wasn’t just the external kind of beauty either - it ran deeper than that. He was the best person you knew; the kindest and the funniest, the smartest and the most selfless. As far as you were concerned, he was the most beautiful person in the galaxy (and he was carrying you half a mile - for tacos).

You chattered quietly amongst yourselves but it wasn’t about anything in particular. That was how a lot of conversations went; they were simply natural musings, you two bouncing off each other and giving a thoughtful hmm every now and then.

Clinging onto the material of Poe’s jacket, you blinked under the bright lights of the village, finally breaking through a clearing in the thick trees. It was a little town made up mostly of retired rebels and business owners. The place was hardly a sprawling city but it provided the Resistance with shops and bars, becoming the hub of different squadrons.

‘Taco Town is open!’ You cheered, almost falling off of Poe’s back as you pumped your first in the air.

‘Have you summoned up the energy to walk now?’ He teased.

‘I think I might be able to.’ You gave him a light poke. Your boots hit the ground with a dusty thud and then you ran towards your beloved taco place.

It was a twenty-four/seven shop, usually because of the Resistance soldiers passing in and out all hours of the day. The lady who manned the place at night was an elderly woman - she knew you both by name (and both your orders, because that’s how often you frequented the establishment).

After gathering your order and paying her a few extra credits as a tip, you carried the food outside to Poe.

‘You’re the only person who can get me out of bed at this ungodly hour for tacos.’ He muttered, flinging an arm across your shoulder as you sauntered towards a strewn bench.

He didn’t move it when you sat down, nor did he say anything when you shuffled into his side. The air was still cold, biting at the bare skin on your face as you enjoyed the taco-induced bliss you’d been waiting for. To your right, you could see the rest of the town lights as they stretched out for miles, eventually blurring into a blob of distant light. Poe was on your left, meanwhile, hand absentmindedly rubbing circles on your shoulder as he ate his food.

‘I wonder how far out this place actually goes.’ You murmured. ‘I’ve only been as a far as the boot shop, and that took me like an hour.’

‘Sorry I set fire to your old ones.’ Poe nudged you, and you couldn’t help but laugh as you remembered the incident.

‘It’s okay. I nearly grounded your jet so we’ll call it even.’

He didn’t respond verbally, instead giving your shoulders a light squeeze.

Even with the chaos of the war, Poe felt like an anchor amongst a raging ocean of pure fucking insanity. You’d met people before, ones you’d vibed with and connected with but with him, it was an entire new level of...whatever it was that you had. You’d teetered on the ledge of more-than-friends on multiple occasions, but neither of you had taken the leap. If you did, there was no coming back - you’d be jumping without a parachute.

‘That was a good taco.’ You declared.

‘Worth the walk.’ Poe nodded. ‘Not that you did much walking.’

‘You offered, Dameron!’ You reminded him. ‘You are my trusty stead.’

‘And that’s all I’m useful for?’

‘Of course not! Sometimes you bring me caff as well.’

Your conversation continued, veering off of the subject of the Uses of Poe Dameron™ and to a million other things.

You spoke about his X-Wing and the fact that BB-8 had made a point to show every single person in the base his new antenna. You discussed your latest meetings and missions and how Finn had lead his first successful operation the day before. You laughed about something - you couldn’t remember what - and the only thing that pulled you from the conversation was the fact you noticed the sky beginning to turn pink.

‘Maker, it’s gone 4AM already.’ You pulled up the long sleeves of Poe’s jacket to check your watch.

That was the thing with you and Poe - when you started talking, or when you were even just in the presence of one another, you completely forgot about the world around you. It felt like nothing else mattered. It was just you, him and the blank canvas of the galaxy ahead of you (and sometimes, a circular droid child).

‘Let’s stay a while.’ Poe murmured. He dropped his head against yours, pressing a soft kiss to your hair. ‘I have no-where to be tomorrow.’

‘Me neither,’ you reached up to squeeze the hand that was resting on your shoulder. ‘But the Resistance doesn’t wait.’

‘It can for now.’ He shot back.

Maybe this was it - the moment that he finally found it within him to take the leap and just tell you outright that he was blatantly, irrevocably in love with you. The thought of risking your friendship was painful - but the only thing more agonising was the idea of not knowing if you loved him too.

(But with the way you looked at him, it was a mystery to everybody around you how he didn’t you obviously were - but more on that later).

‘What is it, Poe?’ You gave his hand another gentle squeeze.

‘Huh?’ His blinked at you.

‘You’ve gone off some place else.’ You replied. ‘I know that look on your face and it means you’re either in deep thought or you’ve seen a nice butt and given that I’m sat down and the only person here, I’m gonna assume it’s the first one.’

That was the comment that pushed him over the edge. The realisation that you knew him, that you could read him like a book. You got him in a way that no-one else seemed to, understood him in a way that others had failed to. In a galaxy so cold and so daunting, having somebody by his side with a bright smile and a few cheesy jokes was imperative. Every time he thought about his future after the war, your face was always the first thing that popped up.

‘You know I love you, right?’ Poe - for the first time since you’d met him - stumbled on his words.

‘Of course.’ You replied, before silently adding but not in the way I want you to love me.

‘No...’ He shook his head. He shuffled to the side slightly, turning to face you. He put one hand on your cheek, the other resting on your shoulder. ‘I mean I love a lot of things. I love Leia, and I love Finn, and I love Beebs and I love my X-Wing. But not in the way I love you.’

‘What are you saying?’

‘I’m saying I’m in love with you.’ He got there eventually.

‘You’re in love with me?’ You couldn’t work out if you heart was going a million miles an hour or if it had stopped entirely.

‘Yeah. What do you think?’

‘I mean...’ You trailed off, chewing your lip for a moment. ‘I think you’re probably in love with your X-Wing too. I saw you cry over the landing gear once-’

‘-Y/N!’ Poe whacked you in the shoulder.

‘Poe, you’re an idiot.’ You gave him a watery smile. ‘Obviously I’m in love with you.’

Dropping the remains of his taco to the ground*, the pilot grabbed you, crashing his lips to yours. Just like Poe, the kiss was a lot of contradicting things all at once - it was soft but hungry, demanding but sweet. It was a lot of feelings at once and you could feel every single individual one, finally coming together after well over a year of pining. You’d both taken the leap and the water below was even better than the ledge on which you’d been standing.

(* you made him pick up the taco wrapper before you walked back to the base - hand in hand, obviously).

#poe dameron x reader #poe dameron x you #poe dameron x y/n #poe dameron imagine #poe x reader #poe x you #poe x y/n #poe imagine #star wars fluff #star wars imagine #star was x reader #star wars imagines #star wars fanfic

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adultswim2021 · 4 years ago

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Welcome to Eltingville: “Bring Me the Head of Boba Fett” | February 26, 2002 - 4:00 AM | Special

Lots of personal baggage to unpack on this one, so please forgive what will surely read as a personal blog post:

Welcome to Eltingville was the first of Adult Swim’s “failed pilots” which aired as a special. It’s failed in the sense that it didn’t get picked up, presumably for being too expensive. It originally aired as a stealth premiere at 4:00AM on Monday night/Tuesday morning, I’m assuming to fulfill a contractual agreement. It had a “for real” advertised premiere on March 3rd, which is what you’ll find cited on various web sources.

It’s time I confess something here: I didn’t like this show the first time around. The early 2000s was a time when “nerd” culture was being clumsily embraced as a novelty. People suddenly started gravitating towards movies and shows about nerds, all usually portrayed in a cutesy and toothless way. Yes, I was too blinded by my own shunning of this trend to realize that this show was the antithesis of that. And yes, I was unfamiliar with the original comics that these were based on, which probably would have blown my mind if I was aware of them in the 90s. Hell, I would have shunned a Dan Pussey cartoon if I weren’t already in love with Dan Clowes comics.

Was it all overblown in my own head? Well, I can only come up with two examples to illustrate my distaste for “nerds stuff”, so yes, it probably was. First, Super Nerds, which was a 2000 pilot staring Patton Oswalt and Brian Posehn as two nerds who worked at a comic book store. I was sold on it by a friend as being the best sitcom he’d ever seen in his life. I also loved Patton Oswalt and Brian Posehn. But good lord, did I hate that show, a lot. The more mainstream example is the Comedy Central show Beat the Geeks, a trivia game show where normal people compete against experts (or geeks) in certain fields (usually popular culture related). The promos showed the geeks in question strutting around and ironically looking cool and triumphant. These promos were so profoundly unfunny to me that I found it insane and offensive when the whole “geek” angle seemed to hook other members of my family. “there’s this game show where guys have to compete... against GEEKS! haw haw!” I can still hear my dad’s voice echo in my head. I still hate it!

I also didn’t relate to traditionally geeky things, like superhero comics, science fiction/fantasy, etc. I hated all of that stuff, and I still mostly do (did I go through a multiple year phase in my early 30s where I tried to force myself to like super hero comics? Yes! I did! It didn’t particularly take). I am absolutely a comedy nerd, though, which is a much MUCH lonelier pursuit.

Hell, the comedy nerd isn’t even an archetype on TV shows; Freaks and Geeks came fairly close, but those guys also liked sci-fi and role-playing games and stuff. Square Pegs also had a comedy nerd character. There was that episode of Undeclared where Martin Starr is boring the rest of the cast by trying to explain that Freddy Got Fingered was an intelligent anti-comedy (the closest I’ve ever seen myself be portrayed on screen). All of these shows lasted one season, making the comedy nerd character the most potent poison since (NOTE TO SELF: google FAMOUS FICTIONAL POISONS, please pick a cool non-nerdy one [leave note-to-self in write-up if coming up with one is impossible {will come off as intentional meta-humor (everyone will love this)}]).

Welcome to Eltingville is about four friends who have created The Eltingville Comc Book, Science-Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Role-Playing Club. They’ve presumably been together for a long time when this episode starts, and we see the dynamics of the club right away, the main thing being the constant petty bickering that quickly becomes violent and destructive. They’re all gigantic jerks who presumably only hang with each other because nobody else will. The main conflict of this show has to do with Bill, the Stan of the group, and Josh, the Cartman, who eventually come to blows over a rare Boba Fett doll-- I mean, figure. The first half of the show is a pretty good introduction to the would-be-series, with the guys playing a D&D style role-playing game and then getting into a full-fledged fist-fight over a VHS compilation of nude scenes that turns out to be a recording of the Hair Bear Bunch. The second half is an adaptation of the comic story “Bring Me The Head of Boba Fett”. Had I thought of it I might have read the entire run of Eltingville Club comics before reviewing this. Unfortunately it was a bit of an afterthought so I just read the first two stories, including the Boba Fett one. For the record, I own the Eltingville book, and definitely read and loved the two-issue series that serves as the ending of the Eltingville comics. It’s all those comics in the middle I still need to get to.

The show is very funny and it looks beautiful. According to the few interviews that I’ve found regarding the show (including a page of text found in the Eltingville book, which precedes a section showing off some of the character design sheets), there really wasn’t much reason given for the show not getting picked up. The show definitely looked better than anything else on Adult Swim, so the whole “too expensive” thing seems like as good an assumption as any. Apparently Dorkin spread himself too thin working on this, attempting to design/draw every little thing seen on screen. I actually wondered that while watching the show, because his art style is faithfully preserved here, which is great! The episode ends the same way the comic story does, with Bill & Josh in a trivia-off, competing over the buying rights for a 12 inch Boba Fett action figure at their local comic shop. With every rewatch of this show I confront one basic thing about myself, and it’s how much of the trivia I’ve picked up since the last rewatch. Bill & Josh’s trivia-off is a flurry of questions regarding all kinds of geek garbage, and the few years between viewings of this results in me knowing a few more answers. But, I have the internet, and can usually get hold of a movie or TV show or comic book almost instantly. It’s important to not lose sight that these kids (especially in the comics) are either high-school or college-aged and they learned all of this shit in an era when the internet wasn’t as ubiquitous as it is today. The original comic is set firmly in 1994, and when there’s a dispute over a question Josh runs home to get a large Godzilla reference book to prove that he’s correct. This changed in the pilot to Josh losing on a technicality with a slip-of-the-tongue; attributing a famous catchphrase to a fellow club-member who had adopted it for himself (the comic actually SEEMS to set this up, but doesn’t go in that direction at all, which is weird when you read it AFTER watching this special. I think that means the cartoon improved on that idea).

Wikipedia makes no mention of this stealth broadcast. It would SEEM to make more sense that it aired Monday morning following late night Sunday, but Adult Swim ended at 1AM back in these days, making early Monday morning still technically “out of bounds”. In fact, I very nearly “corrected” the air date to reflect this, but a quick google search for “Welcome to Eltingville” + “4AM” yielded this message board thread where we can see in real time that early Tuesday morning is indeed correct. So, if you’re ever arguing over a 12 inch Boba Fett feel free to uses this trivia in your trivia off.

#adult swim #welcome to eltingville #adultswim2021

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linernotesandseasons · 6 years ago

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My 19 Favorite Albums of 2019

2019 is coming to a close. The entire decade is coming to a close. This list has been an increasingly comforting exercise the last few years. I guess this will be the eighth annual version of the linernotesandseasons favorite albums of the year list! Crazy how time passes. So here are the collections of songs that I used to mark my personal time & space this year. The lyrics that I learned by heart & sang out in dark & dirty rock clubs. I also made a spotify playlist with two songs from each album if you’re interested in listening along as you read.

This year most of my writing focuses on when & why I fell in love with a specific album. Sometimes the history is important, building a base or connecting some threads, so when relevant, I have also included my history with when I fell in love with a specific artist. And finally, as has become more important to my music chasing brain in the last few years, why this artist or album is important to music right now. What they’re doing to leave a mark on the world, in whatever small space or way.

So without any further ado, here it is, in no particular order (unless you’re particularly knowledgable or fond of the english alphabet) my 19 (well actually 20 cuz freaking Big Thief put out two!) favorite albums of 2019. It’s been a pleasure.

BETTER OBLIVION COMMUNITY CENTER / Better Oblivion Community Center

Spring 2019 in Denver was cold & breezy, sunny & exciting. I had spun the Phoebe Bridgers/Conor Oberst match-made-in-indie-emo-sad-folk-heaven record once through, but in late March I made a game time (like I bought a day-of ticket off stubhub at 6pm!) decision to drive down from work and see their show at the Gothic on South Broadway. I’d been up since 7am the night (morning?) before, watching opening day baseball live from Japan (on March 20th?!). Ichiro’s final game and I was feeling maybe a little emotionally fragile already. But anyway… Better Oblivion Community Center’s live show (they call them meetings) has all the potential to come off as cheesy or contrived. A recorded voice welcomes you, self-help-cult style, and invites you to “celebrate sound & light” & “travel the well worn pathways,” because “we are one.” A mystical backdrop gives a hint of what you’re in for (I didn’t know what I was in for...) with letters at the top reading “It will end in tears.” The band is brilliant, loose, & fun. They play all the songs. They play “Lua,” “Bad Blood,” & “Easy/Lucky/Free” from the endlessly varied Bright Eyes catalog. They turn Phoebe’s “Funeral” into a punk blast. They cover The Replacements! They wear shades and sing a song from lawn chairs! The show feels effortlessly cool and I feel like I’m part of something special again. Music has a way of doing that.

The record is perfectly equal parts Phoebe & Conor. From the opening lines, where Phoebe takes control with “my telephone it doesn’t have a camera” sounding for all the world like a gloriously mopey “Smoke Signals Vol. 2″ to the way Oberst sings the first lines of ethereal closer “Dominoes” sounding 100% like Cassadaga-era Bright Eyes. If you know & love either, you should know the other now. Phoebe carries a torch from early 2000′s emo with a sad-at-heart, genius songwriting style that emphasizes pinpoint autobiographical lyrics, a cutting, (even humorous at times) wit, and a teenage, feminist, internet, millennial heart. Oberst for his part has kept up a steady output since Bright Eyes, and (at least lyrically) doesn’t seemed to have cheered up much. Better Oblivion Community Center’s self titled debut feels fresh & catchy. While there is definitely an aching sadness in the duo’s songwriting, light hearted moments abound, and the writing often points to getting older, all hard work & growth. There is the bouncing outro to “Sleepwalkin’” where their voices rise in unison singing “Acting insane, playing it safe, I wasn’t sold on that plan anyways. Feeling afraid of making a change.” Or in the bright, rolling verses of “My City” where they go looking for “little moments of purpose.” But the one song I kept going back to; the one I recorded to cassette tape and played on almost every drive home from work at 4am through April & May, is the bittersweet closer “Dominoes.” Ironically, this one is a Taylor Hollingsworth cover (I think that’s him adding the random, spooky voice overs) but Conor takes the lead on vocals, singing a mostly lonely, hopeless tale, until the last verse when Phoebe cuts in. She’s “carpooling to kingdom come, into the wild purgatory.” Encouraging us to “Experience a magic rainbow, all you gotta’ do is follow. & if you’re not feeling ready… There’s always tomorrow.”

“The world will not remember when we’re old & tired / We’ll be blowing on the embers of a little fire…”

BIG THIEF / U.F.O.F. & Two Hands

2019 was the year that I finally finally got really really into Big Thief. A band’s band known for their live show (I still have yet to see them live) their following seems equal parts cult-y and universal. How a band that sounds the way they do, made it almost to the top of the indie-rock world is an exciting & inviting mystery.

This year, for me, the catalyst was “Cattails.” Released at the beginning of April, this song struck me and stuck with me, making its way onto almost every mix I made last Spring, Summer, & Fall (including this one for my Mom!) A real song of the year contender (& my #1 most listened to song of 2019 on spotify!), “Cattails” is a melodic, driving, beautiful tune, that finds singer & front person Adrienne Lenker marking Time (”riding that train in late June”) & Space (”going back home to the great lakes”) with grace & depth. There is a sacredness & mysticism tied up in a lot of Lenker’s writing and she refers to her writing experience with “Cattails” saying…

“It was one of those electric, multicolored waves of connectivity just sweeping through my body. I stayed up late finishing the song and the next morning was stomping around playing it over & over again. We thought why not just record it … & when James and I were playing it felt like a little portal in the fabric had opened and we were just flying. Listening back to it makes me cry sometimes.”

In truth, U.F.O.F. (the last f stands for “friend,” a way of humanizing the foreign) is a gorgeous record. Soft & gentle, full of songs about the constant tussle between things known & unknown. A real headphones-on-an-airplane record. And then, out of nowhere, Big Thief announced that they had a second (!) record on the way in the Fall. A dirt & earth twin for U.F.O.F., a special surprise gift for their burgeoning fan base. They announced Two Hands with the vicious single “Not,” a song very unlike “Cattails.” A brooding, ravenous rock song that made me remember why I love unhinged, well-written, unafraid rock & roll music. Another song of the year contender. If you’ve followed this blog the last few months, my well thought out comments to “Not” were “ohhhhhhhhhhhhh shit” & “oh my holy shit.” to the live version! But it was actually the second track on Two Hands that solidified Big Thief’s greatness for me. “Forgotten Eyes” is sonically similar to “Cattails” and rides the same effortless rhythm, driven by Lenker’s repeating guitar riff and James Krivchenia’s consistently impressive drumming. The riff seems to fall in & out magically, and the writing bookends “Cattails” with lyrics that speak to both a great pain & a great universal truth. While she wanders through homelessness & death, Lenker reflects beautifully on the life cycle we (& our planet, & maybe everything?) are all going through.

“Forgotten dance is the one left at birth / Forgotten plants in the fossils of earth / & they’ve long passed but they are no less the dirt / Of the common soil keeping us dry & warm / The wound has no direction / Everybody needs a home & deserves protection…”

BLACK BELT EAGLE SCOUT / At the Party With My Brown Friends

After finding Black Belt Eagle Scout’s debut album late last year, I soundtracked many a dusk, dawn, or midnight drive with her swirling vocals & entrancing guitar, usually in the cold & dark, through the early part of 2019. It made my 2018 favorites list, and her Larimer Lounge show in May was a highlight. I guess it makes sense then, that I didn’t truly fall for her sophomore album At the Party With My Brown Friends (released in August) until it got cold in November and I was able to take it out for some dark, snowy drives. Moody & serious at times, Black Belt Eagle Scout sounds every bit like the gray Pacific Northwest where front person Katherine Paul (KP) hails from. The lyrics are simple, repeating phrases, full of deep, important ideas. Family & friends. People & land. There are bursts of guitar coming out of rewarding slow builds, shredd-y, rhythmic, & melodic. Also, all the instruments on ATPWMBF are played by KP, and the drumming is fucking fantastic.

I have some sort of longer form writing building somewhere in the back of my mind about listening to music in cars, and both Black Belt Eagle Scout albums are perfect examples for that. I have always loved the feeling of having roads (highways or simply long straight dirt back roads) & music to listen to. In high school, we would sometimes get in the car simply to drive & listen to music (small town life ya know?) and I still relish any chance I get to take new (or old & long loved) songs & albums on road trips or just commutes around town. The time to sit with the songs, to focus on nothing but the words & melodies, instruments & voices, & the pull of the road, mystical & magical. Black Belt Eagle Scout’s songs have been a calming companion on a lot of drives over the last year, and I recommend you taking them out on a spin of your own. Drive to that coffee shop that’s 30 minutes away that you’ve been wanting to go to, drive out of town just to drive, alone with your thoughts & the road. You just might learn something about yourself.

“& I wake up / I love you / Screaming loudly / Screaming softly too / Am I here? / My heart dreams…”

BON IVER / i,i

Bon Iver is a long time favorite and if you’ve followed this blog at all, you know how much I love his albums and how much Justin Vernon’s Eaux Claires festival has helped shaped my musical timeline. Seeing 22, A Million (the record that precedes i,i) live in Wisconsin by the river for the first time, was something special. That record made my 2016 favorites list, but until this year, until i,i, my story of the music felt very insular. Special & secret for me, confined to very specific times & places. Only to make me feel certain things. It’s why I was hesitant to buy a ticket to see the Red Rocks show last September. Or why I questioned streaming the album early while I was on vacation in Holden Beach, North Carolina. I thought the songs were only meant to carry me back to the river, back to Wisconsin, back to the Summer. Back to a very specific, special place in my heart. But thanks to the wonders of spotify, and the Bon Iver crew just up and releasing the album a week early under the simple & generous guise of “wanting folks to have the album & learn the songs before the tour!!” I obliged and… YESSSS that’s how you do an album release in 2019! I had the album in my headphones as I ran and sweated on the beach in North Carolina, letting brand new songs transport me thousands of miles away.

i,i is a gloriously weird, perfected mess of a hit indie record. It’s everything I wanted the next chapter of the Bon Iver story to be. It feels personal & widescreen. Little moments stretched out and shared with family & friends. Lyrics about growth & hard work & life (& a few WTFs, it’s Bon Iver after all!) The gang’s all here again (the massive crew that worked on the album are all pictured on the record’s gloriously, weird inside gatefold!) recorded from Vernon’s home (April) base in Wisconsin, to Sonic Ranch in west Texas (also pictured in the liner notes) walking distance from our southern border. The sounds are all here again too. There are hints of For Emma’s Winter falsetto folk in the gorgeous acoustic guitar of “Marion.” There are the industrial swells & stomps, bleeps & bloops of bi, bi’s Spring in the warbling, green grass, warmth of “Holyfields.” Then there is the distortion, the choppy samples of 22, in the jigsaw glory of “iMi,” the way it starts & stops, all choruses & voices, real & programmed. Threads of new songs tied up with threads from long, long ago. There is a fullness to i,i, a generosity, a true front to back album, with hits & new favorites sprinkled everywhere. The second half blooms with the charging folk of “Salem” & “Faith” and the contentedness of closer “RABi.” These are songs that I will love for years to come. These songs make me happy. They make me think. They make me want to share them with friends. They make me want to work on relationships. Songs about life. Songs about true, unconditional friendship. As Justin said way back in 2015, when my journey with the Bon Iver story began “The story is history, nothing more. Only the music can rise anew. & it is gone as soon as it is sung. & so we sing again…” I am soo soo happy to sing again, with songs anew.

“Living in a lonesome way / Had me looking other ways / Cuz I am lost here again / But on a bright Fall morning I’m with it / I stood a little within it…”

EARTHGANG / Mirrorland

EARTHGANG’s major label debut Mirrorland comes in hot & dancing, a hip hop duo with a true tribute to Southern culture, and a whole world encapsulated in 14 tracks. My personal introduction to the EARTHGANG universe, came courtesy of a dusk till dark dance fest at Denver’s Underground Music Showcase on South Broadway back in sweaty July. Their energy was infectious, their stories hilarious, & their songs stuck in my head. Specifically the Young Thug featuring “Proud Of U,” a song that carries enthusiasm & positivity through to the end. Other standouts include colorful, bouncing opener “LaLa Challenge,” & the squealing horns of Atlanta hot spot, name dropping “Wings.” A concept album of sorts Mirrorland references “The Wiz” as a jumping off point saying,

“We thought about how, if we’re going to make a project sonically to rival The Wiz, we got to create another world for people to imagine & go to. You know when Dorothy got swept away and she met the Munchkins? That was such a beautiful thing. You could see Quincy Jones on the piano, just playing away. It’s really colorful. It’s really dangerous. It’s really trippy. It’s literally Freaknik Atlanta in the summertime—folks riding around in cars with big rims with paint on their faces.”

EARTHGANG was formed in 2008 by high school buddies Johnny Venus & Doctur Doc in Atlanta, GA. It’s impossible to ignore Outkast comparisons and for their part, EARTHGANG does their best to keep up the Southern hip hop tradition. Mixing in bits of soul, blues, & jazz, Mirrorland plays like an homage, a soundtrack to the South. A real reminder that the album is not dead. These songs sound best played together. Also, that the hip hop group, or duo, is not dead. And finally, that touring and playing live shows is most definitely not dead. I probably still wouldn’t have heard about EARTHGANG if it wasn’t for their primo UMS slot (at the same Import Mechanics stage where Leikeli47 & Kiltro played!) and infectiously positive live show. Speaking of their live show, see y’all at Cervantes on February 3!

“One time, one time for your baby moms / Two time for the hand in the candy jar / Holy Ghost showed up in my favorite thong / Three times in the car for the way we are / Another white man scared, another black man dead / Another rich man war, another red man bled / I been writing this album down way too long / When I drop my shit, pray it hit the toilet like lala, lalalalala...”

FRUIT BATS / Gold Past Life

In the Autumn of 2013, my coworker Cassandra Disney at Mile High Organics played me “When You Love Somebody” by Fruit Bats (had that song already been out for 10 years in 2013?!) on one of her early morning work mixes, and I immediately put it on one of my favorite (if embarrassingly bro-folk heavy) mixes I have ever made myself. Discovering a weird/cool indie band in the vein of all my other loves (Band of Horses, The Shins, Modest Mouse, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, etc…) but more underground (!) was hipster heaven. I subsequently forgot about Fruit Bats for awhile, but was reminded with their graceful “comeback” album Absolute Loser in 2016. Although that one missed my favorites list, it gradually became a constant road trip companion; from the mountains of Colorado, through the great American Southwest, and even on some epic Mexican back roads. All alt-country, lost 70′s AM radio classics, and wistful, witty, & wise writing about highways and scenery. A true classic.

I was therefore super excited for Gold Past Life (Fruit Bats’s seventh album?!) to drop on Merge Records this Summer, and fell in love pretty quickly on a late afternoon drive across the high road between Taos and Santa Fe, New Mexico back in late June. Swirling guitar, bouncy piano. and Eric D. Johnson’s piercing, clear, impassioned vocals. Fruit Bats sound timeless & effervescent. Upbeat guitar rock with some weird twists, and Johnson’s consistently bittersweet, humorous, & big hearted lyrics. Growing up, growing older, & grinning a wry smile at a golden world. After catching back to back beautiful Fruit Bats shows in Fort Collins & here in Denver at the Bluebird this September, these folks are the real deal. Long live touring bands, long live seventh albums, long live music marking time & space! Here’s to many more Fruit Bats albums, Gold Past Life will be car stereo classic for awhile.

“Still waiting around for some mystical shift in the winds / So honey please, don’t go just yet / Cigarette fingers, a shake in the knees / A bit blue, kind of tired, but not broken… Anticipating a magical bend in the road / So hang on, take it slow / Your go bag is packed & your hangover gone / Another dawn at the edge of the known world…”

HISS GOLDEN MESSENGER / Terms of Surrender

Durham, North Carolina’s Hiss Golden Messenger (folklorist, family man, & singer-songwriter MC Taylor & revolving crew) have become something of a mainstay on this music blog & in my car’s cd player over the last five years. I picked up a used (!), advance (!) copy of Lateness of Dancers in the $1 bin at a record store in Seattle, Washington. after having been passed a burned copy of his 2010 solo album Bad Debt by an old coworker. Lateness ended up on my 2014 favorites list. Two years later, Heart Like A Levee made my 2016 list, and the next year, Hallelujah Anyhow was one of my favorites of 2017! I referred to the songs on Hallelujah as Hiss “building a repertoire, creating a legacy.” This may seem like quite a bit of superfluous backstory, but believe me, it is essential to the story, a journal of the journey. Geographic art for a topographic heart if you will. But anyway, Terms of Surrender…

The title is cryptic, referencing (as Taylor puts it “what we are prepared to sacrifice in order to live the lives that we think we want”) and the songs are deep (& growing deeper) & timeless. Not so much timeless in the way Yola’s songs sound timeless (skip down a few albums on this list to read about Yola!) but timeless in the way the songs seem to seep their way into my bones and stay for years. Terms burst on the scene with the release of the first single “I Need a Teacher” back in stormy June. With bright, rolling guitar stabs courtesy of The National’s Aaron Dessner (whose upstate New York recording studio was home for the Terms recording sessions), “Teacher” is about “the search for infallible guidance in an ever-changing universe.” but it is also about everyday work. Dedicated every night of the tour to all the teachers in the room, a political statement wrapped up in the seemingly obvious sentiment of “Defend Public Schools.” See what I mean? Timeless songs written for the here & now. “Bright Direction” & “My Wing” are reminiscent of Hallelujah’s “Jenny” & “Darkness.” a 1-2 punch of driving, drifting major key numbers, written from a hillside in Virginia, high on mushrooms. They contain multitudes. With a murky middle (Brad Cook gets funky on “Old Enough to Wonder Why” & “Cat’s Eye Blue”) & the already canonical Hiss’ live fav “Happy Birthday Baby,” the back half of Terms spreads out the Hiss’ sound in new ways. New live favorite, the nostalgic “Down at the Uptown,” had me googling maps of San Francisco to find the mythical Uptown bar where Taylor first heard Patti Smith’s Horses.

In late October, Hiss played an absolutely glorious three night run at little Globe Hall over in Globeville, just Southeast of where Interstate 70 meets Interstate 25. I went to all three shows. The shows were special & career spanning; from “Jesus Shot Me in the Head,” to Dead covers (& a Jesus & Mary Chain cover!) to all the Terms songs. I spent the Saturday afternoon before show #2, walking around the disappearing & rapidly gentrifying neighborhood in & around Globeville (& drifting across the highway into Sunnyside) listening to Terms of Surrender on my headphones. Thinking about the things I’m willing to sacrifice, thinking about the life I want, what are my Terms? After all, “It’s a real live world & I wanna live in it.”

“Something drove me crazy / Love had me lazy / Backwards won’t get me to my destination / Move me in some bright direction / Looking to be captured, looking for my freedom / Oh, dreams will come to get you / So careful what you’re wishing / Your family might correct you / Your heart might take a pounding / Make sure you take a picture…”

JUNE JONES / Diana

I can’t remember where I first heard of June Jones, but I’d like to think it was from one of my many Australian music friends (thanks Camp Cope, Julia Jacklin, Middle Kids, Courtney Barnett, Gang of Youths etc…!) The music community is a wonderful thing. June’s songs can be hard to explain, but Diana is an epic album that burns with a steady, stately drama. Most of the songs ride swelling synths and measured, 80’s sounding drums and center around June’s unique, emotive voice and head turning lyrics. Jones had fronted the Australian rock band Two Steps on the Water and written songs on the guitar for many years, but it’s pretty clear from listening to the writing and sound on Diana that these songs were meant for piano, synth, and a solo album. Her own writing. Her own words.

The album begins with the brooding “Rome From Afar” and the opening line “I got drunk again last night & I fell down outside the bathroom at my little sister’s party.” It then follows a dancing bass line into an apocalyptic nightmare of a world ending. “Meryl” is a gorgeous, autobiographical (?) song, an ode to “complicated” hard working women everywhere. There are parts of Diana that nod to it being a break up album, like in the gorgeously melancholic “Boulder Falling Slow” (”I am a boulder falling slow / You’re a magnificent spiderweb”) but I have been viewing it as just a complex, everyday life album. Jones lets her magnificent voice trail slowly over seemingly uncomfortable or awkward topics that she strives to make… not so. Sorry Alex Cameron, your “eating your ass like an oyster” line in “Miami Memory” is only the second best “eating ass” line this year after Jones’ “Look at You Go!” Her voice often belies the emotion in her lyrics, she works it up & down, and lets it stretch out over words, like in lonely closer “Sixteen Horses,” but she also sounds almost matter of fact at times. There is a moment in the piano led “Thorn” where she glibly throws “Have you seen the moon tonight? No, me neither, who cares about the moon when everything is dying?” over an understated horn trill. Everything is dying after all, but I want June Jones to sing it to me like an Australian Lana Del Rey or Matt Berninger. Trust me, you’ll be hearing more about June Jones in the coming years. Watch out.

“I haven’t thought too much about family / Ain’t got no husband or a couple of kids / I’ve spent 26 years in this office / I said goodbye to my relationships a long time ago / What does the mayor of a small town heart do after she retires?”

JUSTIN PETER KINKEL-SCHUSTER / Take Heart, Take Care

My long time music friend Adam over at songsfortheday had been trying to tell me about Justin Peter Kinkel-Schuster for quite a few mixes with songs I loved from his 2016 release Constant Stranger. But it somehow wasn’t until I needed Take Heart, Take Care, that Schuster’s work hit me right. It didn’t feel like a light at the end of the tunnel, but more like a light in the tunnel, something lasting, a collection of songs lifting up & out towards a light. As Schuster wrote upon it’s release…

“Here, I’ve fumbled my way, as always, and of necessity, into a collection of songs that hold a light to the joys & comforts of life not given up on, those that appear over time as we are looking elsewhere, to surprise & delight us when we need them most. Sure, it’s me, so there are glimpses of and nods to the dark, but the dark is not winning anymore. I simply mean to acknowledge its presence. To me, that’s the most fundamental job of songs, of stories, of all art — to be allies, friends, companions, when we need them most and it’s my hope that these songs can do that work in a world that seems to need it. If you are lucky enough to have something good to say, say it. Please. We’ll thank each other, now & later.”

So i guess it’s that second part that I have found solace in through my 20′s and into my 30′s. That songs (and stories & all art, but songs & albums seem to be my thing) can be allies, friends, & companions, and that sometimes (like Hanif Abdurraqib wrote in his brilliant collection of essays “They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us”)…

“If you believe, as I do, that a blessing is a brief breath to take in that doesn’t taste of whatever is holding you under: say I Speak To God In Public and mean more than just in his house, or mean more than just next to people who might also speak to God in public, or say God and mean whatever has kept you alive when so many other things have failed to.“

Take Heart, Take Care is a straightforward, well written, indie rock album. The songs ring true with light & darkness, an uplifting take on growing older and finding “Plenty Wonder” still to be found in the world. Schuster played the Hi-Dive on South Broadway in November, the last show on the Take Heart tour. A show I had bought tickets for months in advance, and I found myself in a crowd of maybe 15 people, celebrating the songs of Take Heart, Take Care. Listening to a writer with something good to say. Trying all in our own way to hold our own. I have a feeling I’ll keep these songs with me for awhile.

“Time is the mender / Whose strange mechanics yet untold / Bid us rise entwined together / So take heart, take care / Be true but beware / & honey we need not be scared…”

KARA JACKSON / A Song for Every Chamber of the Heart

In only 10 minutes & 42 seconds, Kara Jackson creates an intimate, magical world with just her voice and a guitar on her debut EP A Song for Every Chamber of the Heart. Four intricate & intentional songs, none longer than three minutes, finger picked slowly & methodically, Jackson balances a poetic, whimsical wandering with a steely focus on the craft of songwriting. These are the bones of songs, played honest & upfront, with no adornment. There is room for Jackson’s lyrics to really shine, all aching & wistful, yet practical. Like the way she balances “I have a crush, I have an ache” with “I know that love’s just a pain in the ass” in the bittersweet “Crush.” Her songs buzz with a youthful energy & teen angst. Wise beyond their years, finding their way in the world. As a songwriter and a poet, Jackson writes about race, activism, social justice, self, bodies, & humanity.

At 20 (!) years old, Chicago’s Jackson is... oh also a poet. The 2019 National Youth Poet Laureate (!) in fact, and it was her absolutely breathtaking writing about being a teenager that first caught my attention. She quotes Gwendolyn Brooks (pulitzer prize winning American poet) in her Ted Talk saying “write what’s under your nose.” She says that Brooks took the mundane and put it on a pedestal. That she understood there are “poems in train cars, poems on front lawns, & poems in microwaves & tea kettles.” An almost obligation to celebrate the ordinary. Ordinary folks celebrating similar ordinary folks. It’s the way that John Darnielle howls on The Mountain Goats song “Werewolf Gimmick” (track nine on 2015′s Beat the Champ) about “nameless bodies in unremembered rooms.” In his prerelease essay for Merge Records, music writer Joseph Fink wrote that the entire career of The Mountain Goats has been about “giving names to nameless bodies and remembering unremembered rooms.” and what a worthy cause that is. That thought has stuck with me for years and I have always loved the specificity of it. Whether it is Darnielle resurrecting historical characters real or fictional, or the way Lady Lamb (keep reading a few more albums down!) celebrates the specifics of her friends & family, in all the messy details. Written in song, remembered forever. It is also essential that all cultures have artists who look like them and think like them, as the ones doing the remembering. It’s why it’s so important that Kara Jackson is the one doing the remembering for young black girls. The same way Eve Ewing did for her, and Gwendolyn Brooks did before that. I can appreciate the magic of the remembering, but I need to let them be the ones to tell the stories. Oh, speaking of appreciating, I bugged Jackson enough on social media and got a handmade PHYSICAL copy of the EP that I’m hanging onto forever cuz it’s probably gonna be like the next original pressing of Bon Iver’s For Emma! Thanks Kara!

“Don’t take my pillowcase, that's my place to be alone / Don’t take my lamp from me, it helps me read about places I don’t know / Don’t take a lot for me to be on my own...”

KILTRO / Creatures of Habit

My end of the year albums list usually has at least one local Denver band. The Lumineers way back in 2012, Gregory Alan Isakov & Covenhoven in 2013, Nathaniel Rateliff, Covenhoven (again!), & The Yawpers in 2015, Nina de Freitas in 2017 (hey Nina & the Hold Tight, new album in 2020 please?!), and Izcalli last year. Kiltro is a part Coloradan, part Chilean folk band that have been putting on one of my favorite live shows around town this year. The brainchild of Chris Bowers-Castillo, a native Coloradan who spent time growing up in Valparaiso, Chile, Kiltro is named after the Spanish word “Quiltro” meaning a mixed breed dog. A dog that Kiltro has taken for their logo. In their own way, Kiltro is a mix breed; both in the way they mix the sounds of South America with the folk music of North America, and also the way they mix organic, acoustic instrumentation, with electronic, looping sounds and effects pedals. Their live show is a masterclass in layers, with Bowers-Castillo adding loops of guitar rhythms (sometimes simply bare hands slapping beats on the top of the guitar) to steady bass & drums, until the songs swell & build into dramatic crescendos and almost EDM-influenced drops. The extended intros & outros are my favorite parts of their songs and the live versions (from their sweaty 2pm UMS dance party, to Lulu’s Downstairs in Manitou Springs) have stirred hearts & feet alike with dancing not usually found in the Colorado “indie-hipster” scene. Keep an eye on these guys and maybe come out to Larimer Lounge in January and witness the dance party for yourself!

“Somewhere down the bank where the dogs go / Por la calle que te lleva a Curicó / & down the beach, where no others can find / Ni por agua, piso, coche, ni avión...”

LADY LAMB / Even in the Tremor

As I have been writing this year’s favorites list, I’m realizing that so many of the albums I loved & learned, came hand in hand with experiencing the artist, and specifically that new album, live. Lady Lamb released Even in the Tremor, her masterful & moving third album, way back in April, and I had a Spring-y three weeks to learn all her intricate, visceral lyrics to sing back at her Larimer Lounge stop in Denver on the Deep Love tour. Maine by way of Brooklyn’s (by way of a bunch of other places) Aly Spaltro has always written songs for Lady Lamb like her hair’s on fire. Wailing & gasping about blood & guts & death over spiraling electric guitar, there is a realness to her writing that reminds me of the east coast emo I grew up on. But for all the blood red gore & messy heartbreak that colors much of the Lady Lamb discography, there is a light hearted tenderness as well. Tremor has songs written for & about friends, lovers, parents, & god. Quirky opener “Little Flaws” is a first-dance-worthy love song, while personal favorites “Strange Maneuvers” & “Emily” are odes to platonic friendships, mental health, & growing up. In the same way I wrote about Kara Jackson celebrating the ordinary, Lady Lamb has always celebrated specifics of people, time & space. Tremor’s characters are Spaltro’s real life people (Emily, Shervin, Kurt (Kurtie Bear), Isaac, & her Mom), and the places (the diner, the batting cage, Templehof Park, Midtown, Berlin, Montreal, Madrid, a fast food joint, the stage of a church, someplace upstate, Lavanderia & Graham Ave) are specific, varied, & globe spanning. Her stories are autobiographical and rewarding and the music is stirring, singer-songwriter rock & roll with some punch behind it. She is one of my favorite modern writers for her ability to not just tell a story, but to find wonder in the small things and to celebrate the ordinary. Like she tells Shervin, minutes before “Emily” closes the album on a gorgeous, uplifting high note, “No photographic artifact, but here is something better than that.”

“There’s a picture that I found, my first car in the falling snow / Seems like yesterday I drove down into low tide / & Isaac snapped a polaroid of me pretending I was sinking, pressed against the glass pleading / I misplaced it but I’m looking... / When we are young, if only we could see beyond our fears where we are free / When we are lonely if only we could know that in our stillness we are growing... / All the portraits we collected, while we were running around in the desert / We were trying to seem fulfilled to rewrite our New York City narratives / But Emily we were utterly dejected / We took turns crying on the passenger side of America / Too clouded to be empowered by towering Redwoods... / When did we lose the ancient truths? / Is it what we’re born bending our bodies toward?...”

LIZZO / Cuz I Love You

For much of 2019, Lizzo could be heard playing everywhere. The 31 year old Minnesotan’s third full length album Cuz I Love You, came out in April, after a busy three years of huge singles, consistent touring, & building a repertoire of songs capable of headlining arenas. When Lizzo finally exploded these last few years, it has been fun watching the whole world embrace her uptempo, bold, self-love anthems, and hearing them blaring from open Subaru windows in Cap HIll, from balconies & rooftops in uptown, and on the lips of countless joggers & bikers, loving themselves in the Denver Summer sun. I know for my part, I took Lizzo with me to the beaches of North Carolina & through the Southern mountains of Colorado, dancing, singing, & gleefully giggling along. Bottom line, the songs on Cuz I Love You are FUN! You try not to crack a smile as Lizzo romps through “Never been in love before, what the fuck are fucking feelings yo?” on the bouncing, brassy, vocal led, track one title track MOMENT. Or the way she makes up the word “accessorary” on the spot (“my ass is not an accessorary”) and then fires back with “Yeah, I said it, accessorary!” Lizzo has been an outspoken supporter of our generation’s version of the self-love, body positivity movement, and has put her money (and body) where her mouth is, inspiring legions of teens & twenty somethings to do the same. “Soulmate” is a loner anthem that finds Lizzo belting “True love ain’t something you can buy yourself / True love finally happens when you’re by yourself / So if you by yourself, then go and buy yourself another round from the bottle on the higher shelf.” The soulful slowdown “Jerome” is about being the bigger person and ending a relationship that isn’t working. Lizzo manages to actually address her own issues, focus on the work she needs to do (“I’m trying to be patient & patience takes practice.”) and still absolutely belt a singalong chorus that rhymes Jerome with “take your ass home.” Also, the deluxe version of Cuz I Love You tacks on three previous Lizzo singles that hadn’t found an album home. Those singles? “Boys,” “Truth Hurts,” & “Water Me.” Three songs totaling almost 555 MILLION plays on Spotify. With apologies to Ariana Grande & Billie Eilish (Billie see ya in a few months at the Pepsi Center!) Lizzo is the biggest superstar that I want on this list. And she 100% deserves every bit of it.

“If I’m shinin’ everybody gonna’ shine...”

ORVILLE PECK / pony

There is an appealing, theatrical quality to the dramatic country songs on Orville Peck’s debut record Pony. I spent my high school years growing up in small town Western Colorado so country music has been embedded in my brain since I was 11. I’ve gone through so many phases of loving it, hating it, loving it ironically, nostalgically, hating it for it’s sound, cheesiness, backwards politics, etc... But with Pony; these are true country songs written by a gay, masked cowboy anti-hero from.. Toronto? Maybe? Who is Orville Peck?!?! It’s like all the best parts of “country” music came together. And the mask? The fringe? All the packaging & theatrics? It makes it fun. Part Bowie, part Coheed & Cambria, part Grace Jones, part Ghost, part Brandon Flowers. Hollywood meets Vegas meets Carson City.

When I listen to Orville Peck’s songs it brings together so many feelings from my youth. From country radio & boxes of old country cds, to the dramatic side of theatre, play acting on a stage, dress-up, halloween, cowboys, loneliness, & the open road. From the tumbleweed roll & mournfully powerful coyote howl of opener “Dead of Night,” to the shoegaze rumble, autumn ride of “Winds Change.” Peck’s lyrics are honest & heartfelt, drawing on sweeping, western imagery, & idolizing the classic country ideal... the cowboy. Music marks time & place and Peck makes sure to reference the cities along his highway songs. Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Carson City, Kansas, a veritable Rand McNally road map of the American West. In the same manner as both Black Belt Eagle Scout albums, Fruit Bats, & Caroline Rose from last year, it wasn’t until a highway drive that I truly fell in love with Pony. It was a brilliant November sunset & still warm, but windy & changing, and we knew we had to hustle to beat the snow back to Denver. Highway 159 from the Southern Colorado border through Costilla County, on the way towards Fort Garland & then Walsenburg. Purple & Orange out the window to my left, Winter on it’s way. Peck’s songs sang with a heartache... a loss. a rhinestone loneliness that country finds a way to revel in. When “Kansas (Remembers Me Now)” statics out like a long lost FM radio. When “Hope to Die” fake ends at 3:30 and instead key change pivots like a washed-up Broadway starlet, shooting her shot on a dusty jukebox. When “Nothing Fades Like the Light” draws its last, peaceful breath, closing Pony like the last light of that November sunset. Thanks Orville, this one’s a classic.

“Fell in love with a rider / Dirt king, black crown / Six months on a knucklehead hog / I like him best when he's not around / He gets me high, oh, big sky... Fell in love with a boxer / Stayed awake all year / Heartbreak is a warm sensation / When the only feeling that you know is fear / I don't know why, oh, big sky...”

RAPSODY / Eve

Rapsody’s third album Eve is a masterclass on rap music, and the Snow Hill, North Carolina rapper sounds relaxed & loose, while still staying focused & on topic with an album that reads as, as Rapsody herself puts it “a love letter to all black women including myself.” She is at the top of her game right now, and these songs cement Rapsody as one of the premier rappers in an exciting field of rap talent both young & old.

Each track on the album is dedicated to one of Rapsody’s personal heroes, and I am going to focus these words & my research for Eve (besides listening to it nonstop, which I’m currently doing now!) on those black women. Track one is for Nina Simone (”without Nina there’s no Lauryn Hill, & without Lauryn Hill there’s no Rapsody.”) and features critically important verses about black heritage & culture over Nina’s terrifying & sobering classic “Strange Fruit.” Rapsody is recognizing her legacy and the importance of heritage, but she is clearly claiming her spot in that bloodline. “Cleo” preaches standing up for yourself over a Phil Collins sample (between Cleo & Lucy Dacus, “In the Air Tonight” is getting some serious love this year!) and is named after Queen Latifah’s character in the 1996 movie “Set it Off.” From there Rapsody recognizes artists (Aaliyah), philanthropists (Oprah & Michelle Obama), actresses (Whoopi), athletes (Serena Williams & Ibtihaj Muhammed), writers (Maya Angelou & Reyna Biddy), models (Iman & Tyra Banks), and historical figures & activists (Hatshepsut, Myrlie Evers-Williams, Sojourner Truth, & Afeni Shakur). Bottom line, ALL of these women are essential google material (you’re reading this on your phone or laptop, google and give yourself a five minute refresher if there’s anyone you don’t already know!) While you’re at it, google the lyrics for Eve (and Jamila Woods’ equally incredible, equally name dropping LEGACY! LEGACY!) and listen along. This is an important time capsule document for Rapsody and it’s just a damn good rap album.

“I am Nina & Roberta, the one you love but ain't heard of / Got my middle finger up like Pac after attempted murder / Failed to kill me, it's still me, woke up singing Shirley Murdock / As we lay these edges down, brown women, we so perfect...”

SABA LOU / Novum Ovum

When I listen to Saba Lou’s intoxicating sophomore album Novum Ovum, I am transported to somewhere magical & different. Maybe older, maybe out of place & time. Everything about Novum feels… classic. From the dusty, record-store-bin-find look of the out of focus cover photo, to the laidback natural way Saba Lou seems to dance along on top of a rollicking house band lifted from the 70’s. There are elements of surf rock, shoegaze, late night soul, and classic rock & roll on Ovum, but it is all driven by the singular writing & vocals of Saba Lou. In the liner notes of the record, a note can be found, claiming that this album is meant to be from the future. 2286 to be exact! Is a concept album?! Is it actually from the future & delivered to us by a time traveling band of Germans?!! Does it have songs about Star Trek??!! Maybe, mayyyybeee... & YES!

Yet to turn 20 (!), Saba Lou is a German born singer songwriter who has been making & releasing music since she was literally six years old! Novum Ovum is Latin for “the new egg” and features a hot four piece full band, and wonderfully fleshed out songs that bounce and swing with palpable energy. The lyrics span an awesomely wide spectrum from endometriosis pain (the title track obv) to a Star Trek mindmeld tune sung from the perspective of Gracie the pregnant whale (closer “Humpback in Time”)!! All in all, Saba Lou is an absolutely electric songwriter and her youthfulness & fervor are contagious. It’s the reason I love making this list every year, and what makes discovering new music so exciting. Can’t wait for the next one!

“A brick wall around your placenta / Cut them all off from her mother blood / The hounds call for appassionata / A phoenetic paste for the fetal bud...”

SHARON VAN ETTEN / Remind Me Tomorrow

Over the last few years I started the practice of making a draft favorite albums list in January and adding albums throughout the year, as I fall in love with them. This way I don’t forget the ones I loved in January & February, the ones that got me through the backend of the Winter. I’m able to track my year in music as it develops, a sort of captain’s log. A living, personal journal using music to mark time & space as I sprint my way through another increasingly faster, increasingly chaotic year. Sometimes, scrolling through the list acts as a comfort. “That album only came out this year?! OK, this year isn’t moving too fast, that feels like forevvverrrr ago!” Sometimes it helps to show me how much I’ve grown, how much an album has meant, or has helped with my mental & emotional growth. This year, the very first album I added to that list, the very first album that I fell hard & holy hell in love with... was Sharon Van Etten’s Remind Me Tomorrow.

A blast of energy. A weird synthy, pulsing red & blue darkness. Simultaneously club-y & indie rock vibey. Van Etten’s fifth album is supposedly written from a place of contentment. A marriage, a child, a life & happiness discovered. Less desperation, more introspection. I hear in her voice & words, how taking care of yourself, how striving to be your best self, can bring out the most powerful, most emotional art. She also isn’t afraid to let her voice go and I think her vocal performances are what truly take Tomorrow to another level. “Memorial Day” rides a haunting vocal loop & tumbles in nearly wordless, glimmering vowels, all ethereal magnificence. The chorus of the brooding “Jupiter 4″ spirals upwards & then rollercoasters, a late night drunken banger. But at the heart of Remind Me Tomorrow sits one of my songs of the year, one of my songs of the decade, “Seventeen.” I had heard it first live, way back in October 2018 in the rain in the mountains at Red Rocks. I got tipsy & wrote about it the day it came out, January 8, 2019, after a long, cold stretch working the night shift. This album & especially this song will stay with me for a long time. Sharon has taught me to keep working on myself. To look back in fondness. To think about how, with hard work, how much joy & peace & comfort await in my coming years. But she also taught me to lean into emotions. To embrace the ache of memories and the bittersweetness of growing up. Thanks for making this album Sharon.

“Downtown hotspot, halfway up the street / I used to be free, I used to be 17 / Follow my shadow around your corner / I used to be 17, now you're just like me / Down beneath the ashes & stone / Sure of what I've lived and have known / I see you so uncomfortably alone / I wish I could show you how much you've grown...”

TIM BAKER / Forever Overhead

I have a special feeling tied to the collection of intimate, swirling songs Tim Baker released this year from Canada. Forever Overhead carries a certain small town holiness, recognizable to those who grew up in small towns , but specific to his own personal, north-north-eastern-eastern “small” town, St Johns, in Newfoundland & Labrador, Canada. Growing up on the farthest coast of the Atlantic on the tippy, tippy point of Canada (seriously google it!), Baker fronted emo band Hey Rosetta! for four albums until striking out this Spring on his own with Arts & Crafts Records. There is a very Springsteen-esque bent to the way he writes about growing up somewhere (as someone) small & wanting to be somewhere very big and exciting. He captures the bittersweetness of growing up so perfectly. From the teenage romantic feelings in swaying opener “Dance” & the rousing “Mirrors,” to the friends & bars & singing found in the melancholic “Spirit” and the absolute hit “All Hands.” The latter is the core of the album, a bright, rhythmic guitar number that builds & swells with voices & instrumentation to a few huge, singalong choruses. A real song of the year contender. Baker isn’t afraid to let the songs go on journeys on Forever Overhead and they rarely finish where they begin. Horns & handclaps burst in at points, celebratory & fearless. The sexual tension of “Strange River” is lightened with a false start and a “sorry. In ‘D’” followed by a belly laugh, before restarting. The light & dark are present throughout Overhead and listening to these songs remind me of growing up. I feel like I’m being given a secret glance into Baker’s youth and the parts that mirror mine make me want to lift my voice in unison with those that understand. Sometimes small collections of well written & well played songs can do that, and to me... it’s sacred. Hopefully I get a chance to visit St Johns someday, and if I do, these songs will be playing as my soundtrack.

“A boy in bed, all the windows wide / You can hear the hot rods running from the light / From the light, into the dark / That's all I wanted in my cousin's car / To listen to the wind & to the lead guitars / & feel the reckless running of your heart / Now is that gone or does that all remain? / Can I go back and have it all again? / Well now I know it, where I'm going / I'm going back behind the river / I'm going back behind the rain / Cuz no matter where you're heading / You end up where you’ve been...”

YOLA / Walk Through Fire

It’s clear from the first minute & 30 seconds of Yola’s debut full-length Walk Through Fire, that this album is destined to be an all-time classic. She comes in slow & wistful with “wish I knew what you were wishing for...” over a soft wash of cymbals and mournful country-soul guitar. Then one minute in, her voice swells to gigantic proportions, seeming to lift the song right off the page, carried into another stratosphere, timeless & magnetic. That “Faraway Look” in your eyes.

From there, Yola (36 year old Yolanda Quartey from Bristol, England) takes her commanding voice through bluesy, fiddle-led country (”It Ain’t Easier” & the title track), and laid back soul (”Shady Grove” & “Deep Blue Dream”). Personal fav “Ride Out In The Country” became a backroads, summer anthem for me this year on multiple trips through Southern & Western Colorado. Through it all, her voice booms, whispers, & rocks gently, propelling the songs forward with warmth & light. Her lyrics are full of both dreamy memories & work-a-day stories about the challenges of life. It was fun this year to have different friends & family members get into Yola at different times, getting texts like “have you heard of YOLA??!!” Sharing songs, & collections of songs (like the ones on Walk Through Fire) is what makes making this list every year so fun, and I’m always excited to see what new, life-long favorites I will discover. See you in a couple months at the Bluebird Theater on Colfax here in Denver Yola!! Can’t wait!

“A little shady grove / A memory long ago / A tale too old to know the ending / I gave it all away / It takes my breath away...”

#yola #tim baker #Sharon Van Etten #saba lou #Rapsody #orville peck #lizzo #lady lamb #kiltro #kara jackson #june jones #hiss golden messenger #fruit bats #earthgang #bon iver #black belt eagle scout #big thief #better oblivion community center #justin peter kinkel-schuster

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libertasrpg · 6 years ago

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We welcome Thomas Hatter to the city. He’s 32 years old and is a book store manager. Hatter is often mistaken for Taron Egerton. He’s open.

→ Background Information

Thomas Hatter has always been a bit of a while one. As a child, his parents regularly tried and failed to get him under control. They figured his energy levels would calm down as he grew up. That never happened though. So, people just had to learn to deal with him. He’s a very marmite person. Some people think he’s great, and some people can’t stand him. His own family distanced themselves from him when he moved out on his own because they were sick of asking him to slow down. It was sad for him to begin with but eventually he learned that if people didn’t like him the way he was, then they weren’t worth having around.

→ Living Situation

When Thomas first moved to Libertas, he did move in with someone. It quickly became apparent though that he wasn’t designed to live with others. His eccentric ways and often unruly behaviour meant his roommate quickly grew sick of him. They had enough of him making a racket at 4am in the morning. So now he lives alone. This does mean that he has complete rule of his domain now, and he definitely enjoys that. There isn’t a single empty shelf in the place. Every room is stuffed to the brim with bowties, books and hats. Thomas calls it his ‘organized mess’ and it is exactly that. The place looks like a bomb went off most of the time but if you asked for Thomas to find a specific item, he’d have it for you seconds later.

→ Relocation Explanation

Thomas had a great life. He was happy and content. His best friend, King, really helped him keep a level head at all times. But then one day -- King was gone. In what was labelled a ‘sexscapade gone wrong’ with his girlfriend, Iracebeth, King lost his life. Thomas was absolutely distraught. The death sent him absolutely off the rails. So, along with Iracebeth’s assistant who was also looking to escape, Hatter left his home looking for a new start.

→ His Personality

Hatter’s name is known far and wide, thanks to his eccentricities. He’s incredibly loud and has often been labelled “insane”. Thomas does not do anything in halves. There is nothing that makes Thomas smile wider than the smiles of others so he lives to make people happy. This often means he’ll go to crazy (sometimes worrying) lengths but everything is usually okay at the end of the day. Coming from a theatre family, Hatter knows how to put on a show - Whether that be as the manager of his book shop or as a host of a tea party. There is nothing more he loves than a good party and often holds them in his store.

→ His Qualities

Charming, eccentric, creative, loyal

Temperamental, unprofessional, forgetful

→ His Relationships

Andrew Hare (Colleague): Andrew is Thomas’s illusive and mysterious deputy manager at the bookstore. He tends to stay behind the scenes most of the time and doesn’t do a lot of front-facing work. Andrew comes on very strong when talking to people which is why Hatter agrees that it’s good to keep him behind the scenes.

Alice Kingsleigh (Close friend): Thomas and Alice befriended after she started to become one of the bookshop regulars. She’s a cheery young lady and Hatter simply adores her. His favourite thing is exchanging stories with her about each other’s lives.

Charlie Mace (Employee): Charlie immediately seemed like the exact right person to have in the bookstore. When they turned up for their job interview, Thomas knew he wanted to hire them immediately. They have the exact same lust for life as him.

→ Possible Connections

Iracebeth Marmoreal (Enemy): Thomas really tries to not waste too much breathe on Iracebeth. The mere thought of her enrages him. Hatter is fairly certain she is to blame for his friend’s death still. It breaks his heart. So, he does what he can to both avoid her physically and also avoid thinking about her.

Dora Mallymkun (Employee): It would have been hard for Thomas to turn Dora down. He adores how incredibly sweet and kind-hearted she is, even if her air-head means she sometimes turns up late to work (Hatter normally despises people who’re late). Not giving her the job or firing her would be like taking candy from a child.

Edwin White (Acquaintance): After Edwin and Thomas both arrived in Libertas together, they unfortunately ended up drifting apart. They were both each other’s last reminders of the live they’d led before. If they do see each other in the street they’ll exchange a smile, but that’s all for now.

Hatter is based on the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland.

#mad hatters bookstore #alice in wonderland #alice in wonderland rp #mad hatter #taron egerton #alex saxon #sam heughan #thomas hatter #hatter #male #26 to 30 #open #open male

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serial-dater · 6 years ago

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Jake, from State Farm*

It’s funny - when I meet someone I hit it off with really well, they immediately have such high potential in my mind where I almost instantly black out the other guys I’m currently seeing, as if they were invisible and didn’t, at some point, also win my affection.

Gotta stop doing that shit.

Anyway, in an attempt to keep this short, I’ll try to give you the Cliffs Notes version of the past week. Buckle up.

Last weekend, I was happily swiping away from my couch on a date-free, lazy Saturday night. The next morning I awoke to a messing from a guy, responding to my typical yet stale “Hey, how is your weekend going?” bumble message. After a few back and forth exchanges, he admitted that he might have been drunk swiping the night before and didn’t actually live in Nashville, but just visiting from Austin, TX with his family. With the obnoxious number of Bachelor parties that invade my city, this happens probably 50% of the time and I typically don’t respond, but for some reason I did. And we talked without hesitation for the next 48 hours, joking about our dating struggles, each other’s respective cities, and debating the best taco spots in Austin. Because all good things come to an end (or do they?), he was set to fly back to Austin on Tuesday morning, and we commiserated together about how bummed we were that we didn’t get to meet.

Until I got a message that asked “would I be completely crazy to see what it would cost to change my flight until tomorrow?” And I said “yes, it would, but I wouldn’t be mad about it.” And before you know it, I was taking a sick day on Wednesday and a stranger was Uber-ing to my apartment at 11am. People totally never get murdered this way, nope.

The weird part about this whole situation is that it wasn’t weird. At all. And I’m not a chill person when I first meet people, at least not when I’m sober, so that’s saying something. But our conversation was so great leading up to meeting that I felt really comfortable, despite the fact that inviting a stranger over to MY APARTMENT is insanely out of character for me.

Anyway, my first impression was about what I expected it to be. He’s extremely tall, attractive but not I-wanna-jump-your-bones attractive, and seemed just as guarded as I was. We chatted for a couple of hours and then decided to venture downtown for a drink, because drinking whiskey at 1pm is totally the normal thing to do. We stayed out until around 6, visiting various places around the city that he hadn’t seen yet. It felt good and natural and comfortable.

Comfortable is a dangerous word for me. I need equal parts comfort, but also spark. It’s that little bit of edginess that keeps me on my toes, on the edge of my seat. Desire, if you will. And as shallow as this might make me seem, I was so attracted to his personality, that I think it overshadowed the lack of complete physical attraction for me. He’s definitely good looking, but physical attraction is so important in relationships, and not something I overlook.

We went back to my place, he suffered through the Preds game for me, and we cuddled on the couch. And it was so nice and still not weird. We had a rude 4am wake up call to get him to the airport, though. Despite that, we had a great ~20 hours together, and have a pretty good story to tell if this works out.

I never entertained the idea of a long distance relationship, but he opened up my eyes to the possibilities. I have the ideal job for it, plenty of flexibility, and a love for travel. However, I’m skeptical about how I feel, for now at least. We still talk everyday and have Skype dates (vommmm, I hate Skype) but I want to take it slow, yet not count it out completely. So we’ll see.

*because I’m a 12 year old, every time I hear the name Jake, my mind immediately goes to that damn “Jake, from State Farm? Commercial. You’re welcome. His name actually is Jake, though.

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offshore-writes-blog · 7 years ago

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searching for a roommate: maybe also love (2/?)

soulmates!au (part 2/?) part 1/

genre: lots of angsttttt pairing: Mark x OC inspired by prompt: (i’ll add the link of the list when i find it) 8. “You’re so fucking hot when you’re mad.” 100. ”You’re my soulmate?!”

when the door bell rings, i’m in the kitchen cooking, stretching my neck to watch the tv from there. who is that? i try to remember if i’d ordered anything recently. and as i look out the peep hole, i'm startled.

it’s mark.

i open the door and stare at him. it’s that spellbound feeling. “hey.” i finally say and continuing staring.

“hey, i’m mark.” he introduces like i could forget him. i mean…not that i think he’s that memorable. but he is insanely attractive.

i laugh softly. “i am aware.” i nod. “please come in..”i trail off and step aside as he walks in. “um,” i clear my throat. “what’s up?”

he stands in our little hallway before the kitchen and looks at me. “oh god, you don’t remember.” there’s a look of panic that flashes onto his face. and that hurts my chest a little. he shakes his head, looking down and laughs too himself. “ah, nevermind.”

“what?” i find myself mimicking his soft laugh. “what happened?” I'm scared that i did something stupid that night with him too. god.

“it’s nothing. it’s kind of dumb.”

“please. i love dumb things.” i ease into a smile, watching him as he looks around the hallway. it’s the blandest part of our apartment. but we have picture frames of ray and i; now new pictures of him and ed while it’s me and my other friends.

his neck’s really long. and i stare at his lips. also how his hair falls over his eyes. he finally looks at me but I'm mesmerised by how beautiful he is. “it’s embarrassing if you don’t remember.”

“oh no.” i mumble, frowning. “did i kiss you or something?”

“why would you do that?” he chuckles, eyes on me again. intense.

“so tell me.”

“you told me you were looking for a new roommate? and i also need a place to stay at since bambam and my lease is up.” he explains and i wish he spoke longer because i remember how i’d felt that night when i first heard his voice. so soothing.

“oh! oh my god!” i grin like a idiot. “i don’t remember at all but.” i nod at him excitedly. “will you move in with me?” this giddiness is so strange. like it’s not just that i found a roommate but it feels another level of happy. i ignore it. maybe because everything’s been kind of shitty. this is a win.

“of course. that’s why i came. you told me to come.”

“god, i’m such an idiot.” i laugh and he does too. “please you can look around. sorry it’s a mess.” i say as i gesture him down the hallway and i head back to kitchen.

mark decides to stay for dinner. he jokes that i’m just trying to get him to become my roommate by making him delicious dinner. he says my food is delicious. that makes my heart flutter. because it definitely isn’t. ray always wants to order take out.

it’s weird but we stand in the kitchen; drinking wine as we clean the mess i made as i was cooking. there’s a blanket of silence over us but it’s comfortable. and i can hear him hum once in a while. i do that all that time i wanna say but i just smile as i wash the dishes. he comes over beside me as he’s put all the pots and pans away.

“so, you and jaebum?” he finally says. he doesn’t put weight on it. like it just flows out his mouth and he’s not trying to start anything.

“yeah, it’s just dumb. i mean there’s nothing there.” i give him a glance as i put the dishes onto a rack to dry. “i just have the biggest fucking crush on him and he doesn’t even realise.” i admit and continue scrubbing the dishes away. mark only “mhms” as a reply and starts drying the dishes.

“what about you?” i finally ask after we’re done with the dishes. “are you seeing anyone?”

his eyebrows raises and mouth slightly open like he wants to say something but decides against it. “no. not right now.”

“bambam and grace are soulmates huh.” i say just something to throw out there.

“yep.” he nods before taking a sip of his wine. “their marks are right on the side of their ring fingers BOTH of their ring fingers the left and the right.” he says almost like a exasperation. “i mean like … how cheesy is fate.”

i laugh. “i know right. god, same with ed and ray. everybody’s so in love.” we both look each other and laugh a little.

everybody’s so grossly in love.

mark moves in two weeks later. it only takes him a day to move everything in. he has very few belongings. as it turns out, i also own very few things as i realise when ray takes his things from our my apartment. he left the couch (we did buy that together though) but most of the clutter in the living room has always been his. so the living room’s bare now.

most nights, when i'm home and not deep in research for an article, mark and i stay in and watch something on netflix while one of us cooks. i like this routine. he’s a pretty quiet guy. so we hadn’t had a house warming party. i would like to. i think he does too. he hasn’t said anything but i feel like he does too.

“so i get that i have,” i pause and shake my head at myself. “i had feelings for jaebum. unrequited feelings for jaebum but why are you single?” this is just a curious question i throw out, as i do the dishes. i know mark’s behind me leaning against the counter; waiting to dry the dishes. he’s always hovering in the kitchen when i’m in here.

there’s no sound from him. (that’s really common with him) the only sound is of me and the running water from the sink. at first i think i’m prying too much but with mark and me, it’s really another level of comfort that i hadn’t even thought twice before asking.

“well, this whole soulmate thing. i don’t wanna bother with someone else.” he finally answers. “like i know that people still date even if they know they aren’t with their soulmates but i wanna try it out with my soulmate first.” from the way he stops, i can tell that he has much more to say but stops himself.

“how would you know that they’re your soulmate?” i scoff a little, throwing him a glance.

“there’s this…” he hesitates and even with my back turned to him; i picture him licking his lips and biting the corner of his lip. “i mean, i heard there’s this like moment where it just clicks for you.”

a spellbinding moment, huh...

“jaebum, hi.” i smile at him brightly. his broad shoulders and arms engulf me as he rests his head into crook of my neck. “i missed you too.” i breathe.

“i’m sorry for being…such a dumbass.” his brows furrow as he looks at me apologetically after he pulls away.

“it’s okay. i’m just glad you still want me around.”

jaebum nudges my shoulder. “i can say the same about you.” there’s an easy smile on his face with his eyes almost disappearing. for a moment, the two of us just linger where we’d just hugged despite the fact the party’s happening. but he pulls me into the living room now.

there’s only a handful of people at the party because i have a small circle of friends and so does mark; unsurprisingly. we’d spent just the afternoon ‘decorating’ by that we mean, cleaning up and just putting up a banner that says ‘welcome to our humble abode’; we might’ve been under the influence when we bought that; thinking it was hilarious.

“so how’s living with mark?” jaebum asks as he walks onto the balcony as he’d asked me to wait for him as he brought drinks.

i don’t know why but i can’t help but smile giddily again. “it’s really nice.”

“really nice?”

“stop!” i punch him playfully. “like he’s just easy to be around.”

he nods and smiles at me, sipping his beer. i think he thinks i like mark. i don’t. i mean i like him but as a roommate and a friend. i am aware he is attractive. like insanely. but it’s because i am a person with eyes and taste. not because i wanna kiss him bad.

“he’s a pretty quiet guy. doesn’t say much. but i’m glad he’s being himself with you.” jaebum adds, only reassuring me further than mark and i are totally hitting it off as roommates. but i sense jaebum’s tone that he’s hinting at something else.

“he and i stay in and cook dinner most nights.” i say with a smile that i can’t erase. i don’t know why i tell jaebum whose suspicions are confirmed by my admission. “all i’m saying is that i think i couldn’t have found a better roommate.” i raise my hand defensively and laugh. he throws me another funny look which earns him another punch to the arm. we sip our beers in silence again but both of us have smiles on our faces; looking down at the view from our balcony or there lackof.

“i barely saw you.” i tease mark as he sends off the last of our guests. he looks over at me and i can’t decipher the expression on his face but i assume he’s just tired because i am too. plopping onto the couch, i turn my head to see where he is.

“yeah, i didn’t you see either.” something in his voice tells me he’s not in a mood to joke.

i sit up straighter as he still stands by the door. “what’s up?”

“nothing. tired.” he walks past me and heads into his room, without glancing at me. um..weird.

i’d spent most of the party; making sure all the guests were having enjoying themselves. it wasn’t hard because i invited all ten of my friends. (im very popular) not to pick favourites; but i’d spent most of the night with jaebum since jackson’d picked mark over me tonight. ray and ed were a no-show because they’re on a sickly unmarried honeymoon. but the roles of sickly sweet couple was also played by grace and bambam who are often bickering but even in their snarky comments i could actually feel the love. good lord.

since mark’s tired and acting weird, i decide to clean up on my own. he must be actually tired. there isn’t much of a mess but there are just a couple of beer cans and wine glasses here and there. i sweep the floor, take the trash out and do the dishes. it’s 4am by the time i’m done and it’s practically for me to go to work.

mark’s still a little weird the next few nights. but i don’t ask. if he wants to tell me he will. i don’t wanna be pushy. but i might explode. i thought we were fine. i thought we were having fun being roommates. he stays in his room and doesn’t even come out for dinner even though we’d silently decided what our nightly rituals were. so i’m a little hurt that he’d do that to me. why’s he suddenly building a wall between us? like we already know each other now and he decides NOW after moving in together that he wants to be a stranger. what a weirdo.

on a rare day off, i invite ray and ed over. they rave about the new additions to the living room. mark chose most of the things. i think. we agreed easily to whatever the other said. we got new shelves for the living room and new posters to hang. i also splurged on a vinyl player to add to the new shelf. ray and i’s old bluetooth speaker just doesn’t do with the new living room so a vinyl player just did it.

but really, i invited them over to have some life into the apartment. mark and i haven’t really spoken. also the mark on my chest (top of my left boob, let’s be real here.) is getting more prominent; if it’s a soulmate thing, i feel like they’d know.

we talk about their not-a-honeymoon-but-totally-a-honeymoon trip. the two of them seem closer now more than ever. but they still talk about the struggles of living together; bickering about how the other never helps with [insert any random roommate problem] which makes me smile because they’re acting so married.

“so,” i clear my throat. “guys, i have to show you something. please don’t be weirded out.”

ed looks at me strangely. “arista, you are like the daughter i will never have.” he jokes which makes me laugh and nods for me to go on.

“well, wait. i have to be shirtless for this.” i say and ray chokes mid-ship of his lemonade.

ed attends to an almost-choked ray and throws me a confused look. “is this a threesome suggestion? because we are not that couple, arista.” he jokes again and i’m rolling my eyes again. ray smacks his arm; rightfully so.

i’m pulling my shirt over his head. “okay, so, is this a soulmate mark?” i point to my chest. “it’s been getting more dark? like when i first saw itit was kind of pale. and now, it’s been getting more noticeable and i think it’s slightly bigger. it’s the size of a dollar coin now before it was like a cent.” i’m rambling now.

i’m standing before them awkwardly as ray approached me taking a closer look.

“i mean, probably, arista.” he says and sits back down. “about time, huh?”

i sigh. “this sucks. now i know he exists. now i won’t stop thinking about him.” i groan into my shirt, still shirtless.

“isn’t that like a good thing? i mean—“

“mark, hey!” i greet, interrupting ed. he stopped a few steps behind the couch; processing what the fuck is doing on. his mouth slightly open and watching me; brows furrowed. i realise I'm shirtless.

“um, hey?” mark speaks and his voice sounds so sweet. not sweet to me. but the fact that i get to hear his voice again i’m melting inside. his tone’s confused though. ray and ed also greet him and start chatting away as i head back into my room and put on my shirt. (also gather myself because that was really embarrassing)

“so we’re just entertaining guest shirtless now?” mark says quietly as i cook in the kitchen. i hadn’t even realised he’d come into the kitchen. he’s rarely in here anymore. it’s just been me and the sound of the vinyls from the living room most nights.

i kind of scoff and laugh. “it was just a weird moment.” i don’t say anymore. i don’t want him to know anymore about me if he’s putting up a wall around himself. mark’d retreated almost immediately to his room after ray and ed’d left a couple of hours ago.

“um, and the context was?”

“can you stop with the um’s?” i answer, annoyed. still unwilling to face him, i stir the paste sauce with more focus.

“sure.”

“whatever.”

there’s nothing left to say after whatever. but i feel him linger in the kitchen. is he expecting me to say more? because i’m expecting him to say something too. this is the most i’ve heard from him after that party. i want to know why he’s being like this.

giving in to the silence, i speak.“i know jaebum said you were a quiet guy but why are you being so standoffish?”

“yeah, jaebum said i’m quiet so i’m quiet.” there’s something venomous in his tone. like he wants to fight and i want to as well. i throw my wooden spatula, annoyed.

“what is with you?” i still don’t face him. “don’t fucking answer. keep your cool quiet guy act.” leaving him in the kitchen alone, i make it a point to push past him but still not look at his face because it’ll hurt my heart. he just looks so much like angel and i’ve never seen him angry.

----one (1) new text message----

mark roomie: i made dinner it’s the pasta you were making it’s in the kitchen don’t worry i’m not there

fuck him. i’m not going to answer. i force myself to sleep. i’m hungry but i’m more hurt and angry with him. so i’ll starve myself. i have too much pride for someone who’s lived through her top 5 embarrassing moments in front of mark. (and i’ve only known him for 2 months)

#mark tuan fic #mark tuan soulmates #soulmates au #got7 fanfic #got7 imagines #got7 imagine #OC #got7 fic recs #got7 fic #mark tuan angst #got7 angst #marktuan #marktuanfic #got7 jb #got7 jackson #mine #offshore-writes

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cabeswaterlovesthem · 8 years ago

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Vancouver Crowd

I don’t know if anybody else has headcanons for these boys but I have noticed a lack of them. So here are some bits I’ve written up for each of the boys of the Litchfield House please feel free to add on to these! I used what little info we had about them from the books to form some bullets.

HENRY BROADWAY AKA CHENG2

Known as Cheng2 not because we was the second Cheng, but rather the second Henry. He sort of embraces this though because him and Henry have been best friends since private primary school and have been attached at the hip for years.

Cheng2 was always the shy one which is how he ended up being the 2. He didn’t really like to let anybody get too close to him and prefers to have only a few close friends over a big group.

But the reserved side of Cheng2 ceased to exist when he started at Agliony. Henry managed to form a group around him that made Cheng2 feel comfortable and included. Soon, his louder side was coming out.

One of the things about being the shy guy was that he spent a lot of time not really talking to anyone so, because of it, when he does open his mouth, usually it’s to say something unbelievably stupid like “Holy fuck, we got girls?” but yah know.

He’s a fucking economics wiz and plans on majoring it. He’s pretty much Ivy League bound which is fine by him. He doesn’t know what getting burnt out feels like. He works incredibly hard for his good grades and hasn’t found that they have come easy to him like some of his other friends. But he lives for success. He has goals and he’s going to achieve them and nobody is going to stop him.

That’s probably because he’s constantly drinking a red bull to stay up studying until 4am and then smoking a bowl to fall asleep. The other perk of being The Shy Guy at school is that nobody knows when you show up high to class. He’s taken advantage of this fact multiple times.

RYANG (WOO?)

Ryang (aka Mrs. Woo’s nephew) is a piece of fucking work my guys let me tell you.

Ryang is always pissed about something happening in the world and has to do something about it. If there’s a charity drive happening at Aglionby you can imagine he is behind it.

There are about 20 cats roaming around Litchfield House and they’re all there because Ryang saved them from a kill shelter two summers ago. They all have names after famous activists (although one is named Beyonce after a long winded argument with Henry in which Henry sorted every good thing Beyonce has ever done for the world) and they all have collars.

Ryang can often be found sleeping in a bed with five cats because all his anger exhausts him so much that he needs to take a lot of naps. This is extremely frustrating to Koh who likes to cuddle but is slightly allergic to cats and all the hair that collects in Ryang’s bed is just too much.

He drives a motorcycle and has his own custom helmet made that Koh designed for him. Did I get to the part where they’re both in love with each other but won’t admit it? Maybe that’s a story for a different night.

One time Ryang tied himself to a tree on Aglionby’s campus to save it and all the Vancouver boys rallied enough support around him that the tree stayed and the plans for a new media center were moved to another location on campus.

His favorite kind of music is classic rock and, no offense to Henry, but he can’t stand pop. He only tolerates it when he’s drinking with the guys. He also lightens up a bit when he’s drinking and is often the one to initiate weird games.

But otherwise, he’s generally standoffish but Koh softens his edges a lot. He doesn’t mean to be standoffish, but he’s staunch in his opinions and demands his peers learn to be better. It comes from years of dealing with privileged white boys in his classes.

Him and Cheng2 often have heated discussions about policy and the latest United Nations topics.

KOH

Koh is almost the opposite of Ryang. He’s a ball of energy who is actually quite liked by everybody. He is on the student government at Aglionby because of his generally positive attitude and friendly nature.

He’s acquaintances with pretty much everybody at school and has a way of making everybody feel included.

Probably because he’s a team player from being a fricken soccer star. It’s insane how good he is. He works out for it but most of it is absolutely natural skill and when he’s not at Litchfield he’s probably on the pitch.

Koh is crazy smart but he couldn’t give half a shit about half his classes. His interests include the finer things in life like golfing on the weekend and drinking fancy drinks at a club house. He’s a little flippant with his money which drives Ryang fucking nuts sometimes but he always shuts him up by showing up to every single one of Ryang’s fundraisers- even if they do start at ass o’clock in the morning.

His grades are good but he really doesn’t try and honestly? High school is a bust. He already has plans to go to business school and take over the family’s pharmaceutical company (but hopefully only after he plays in the premier leagues for a bit).

There is one class that he tries in and it’s music. He sort of loves mixing records together and will often steal the speakers away during parties to control the music. He doesn’t really think he can pursue it, but the boys have been really encouraging him to not give it up. Secretly Koh wants to be encouraged….

As much as him and Ryang are polar opposites in a lot of ways (he’s materialistic where Ryang is minimalist) their heated debates are usually dripping with tension. And when Ryang sneaks downstairs into Koh’s cat-free room to sleep, they don’t talk about it in the morning.

(To be perfectly honest, the book wasn’t clear about whether or not SickSteve, Logan, or Lee-Squared live at Litchfield but I don’t care for the sake of this headcanon. They live there now. Welcome home, boys.)

SICKSTEVE

Bruh, you know what you have to do to get a nickname like that? A lot of sick shit that’s what.

SickSteve is the epitome of awesome and has the wildest stories. Like one time he went to the Vatican and puked in the holy water because he was too hungover.

And another time he skateboarded off a roof into a pool and broke his arm.

Literally there isn’t a weekend that Steve doesn’t have a story for on Monday morning. And it isn’t like he’s trying hard to do shit- it’s just his nature to be wild.

He owns a BMW but it’s his third one so far because he keeps finding ways to fucking total them by accident trying to do donuts too close to a building or some shit. It’s literally insane.

The crazy thing is he’s so calm and nonchalant about it all. Like you would not at all guess by his demeanor at school that he’s such a crazy guy, but the minute he starts telling you a story your jaw can’t not hit the ground in shock.

And he’s always somehow convincing the guys to pull stupid shit with him. He’s crazy persuasive about it and thanks to him most of the other guys’ lives have gotten a lot more fun. He’s the reason for their toga parties 99% of the time because they just want to see what will happen after he takes a few shots and a hit of weed.

But perhaps the wildest thing about Steve is that he is the biggest movie buff any of them have ever met and can quote over a hundred movies from start to finish. It would be annoying if Steve didn’t turn the volume down and improv half the time. He’s just got this good humor about him that everybody likes to be around but will shrug when you tell him he’s funny.

LOGAN RUTHERFORD

He’s basically their classic fuckboy who they constantly rag on for having a white boy name.

Logan is the resident lax bro of the house due to the fact that 1. he does play lax and 2. he’s actually that obnoxious about it.

He wears bro tanks and backwards hats and spends a ton of time at the gym. Protein shakes are pretty much his staple and he tries to convince the whole house to get into shape to no avail. So instead, they dedicated one cabinet to all his health food junk and tell him they weren’t going to touch it anyways.

He’s the beer pong champion of the house and likes to brag about it a lot. He’s also the one who supplies most of the alcohol as his family lives in town and his brother is attending college nearby.

His family is old money which is weird for their little group. Nobody knows the backstory though because Logan doesn’t get along with his father. His parents are divorced and he was raised by his mother and step father instead. Thankfully the divorce settlement was insane so his mother made out like a bandit. Which Logan thinks is karma because his father is a dick.

He gets pretty terrible grades in school because he’s more focused on sports and it pisses his dad off when he sends his report card.

He seems like he doesn’t quite fit in with the rest of them, but the truth is that Logan has a really big heart, he just keeps it on lockdown. He had a tough time growing up that he doesn’t talk about a lot but has opened up to his friends about. Because of that, they put up with his bro bullshit for the guy who would drop absolutely anything to be there for them if they asked.

More than once he’s been the friend they’ve called at 4am to come pick them up or the one they’ve gone to crying after a really bad day. He’s a good listener and a great hugger and knows how to make things better with a smile and some froyo.

LEE-SQUARED

He’s known as “Lee-Squared” because he has a twin sister (who Cheng2 has a huge fucking crush on which drives Lee-Squared absolutely nuts).

Lee is actually his last name but he prefers to be called that anyways so it works out.

He’s incredibly insanely close to his family and it’s hard to be away from them during the school year. He’s from California and fucking hates the east coast winters to be honest.

He’s got the west coast sort of attitude too. Super laid back. Absolutely surfs in the summer. Is cold 99% of the time and is always turning the heat up and driving the house nuts. Smokes a shit ton of weed with Cheng2.

Generally he’s pretty quiet, even when he drinks. He’s big on observing and people watching over participating in events.

He’s the only one who will eat Logan’s healthy meals and goes running with him sometimes.

Lee-Squared is also a huge fucking nerd who loves reading and writing and psychology and anything that involves personal connection. He’s taken up yoga and mediating and is always looking for ways to find his calm.

The reason why is because while his exterior is calm, his mind is usually moving a mile a minute. He’s got pretty bad internal anxiety but he doesn’t like to talk about it a lot. He’s pretty self deprecating and second guesses himself a lot. Him and Logan talk about it sometimes and the runs with Logan sometimes help him turn his brain off for awhile.

Him and Logan become even closer after sharing their backgrounds and really support and love the heck out of each other. They don’t externally appear soft ever, but truly they are.

Anyways, all the Vancouver boys are good good boys who I love and adore thanks for listening!

Edit: I worked really hard on these and did as much research as I could but I may have missed things from the book so feel free to point them out and I will add them! Like someone mentioned Koh was on the soccer time so I have since amended my headcanon. So as a general disclaimer, I tried my best here but do not be afraid to be like, “Hey, actually, this makes more sense based on their character!”

#trc #the raven cycle #henry cheng #vancouver crowd #***

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