#But I used to burn CDs for my tabletop groups

[alexis-royce]

Youuuuuu got it @windienine ! Updating an old post since the formatting broke on it:

Like any good OC gremlin, I have playlists for all my favs. The one I’ll put before the cut, though, is Kinesis’ theme song, written by Andrew Huang. He legit wrote it for Evil Plan. It’s both about my OC and it has a slick guitar theme that is just….EVERYTHING. It is the best character theme I have and I adore it.

Here’s a pile (though not even close to all) of character songs under the cut:

Evil Plan

Kinesis: Upside down - Barenaked Ladies, Defeat You- Smash Mouth, half the Dr. Horrible Soundtrack because of course, Evil Genius - Pat Benatar, Bank Job- BNL. A reader also once sent me “Sexy Supervillain” by Fanatical, and I laughed so hard I nearly fell out of my chair.

Alice: Science Vs Romance, Rilo Kiley , Do It - Spice Girls.

William: Vanishing, BNL.

Lemon and Lime - Sunday Morning - Maroon 5



Sire

Anna & Susan - Odds Are - BNL

(Cannot for the life of me find the rest of those playlists. I’m sure there were a ton. Anyway I know a fuckton of weird old musicals, it’s mostly them.)

morphE - Mage: The Awakening Campaign

Campaign Theme: Dark Blue - Jack’s Mannequin

Ammi: Esperandote - Rika Muranaka & Vanesa Quiroz

Sanguine (The First One) - Mister Blue Sky in G Major

Amical: Golden and Green - The Builders and the Butchers, Hurricane - Panic!, Killer Queen - Queen

Billy Thatcher: Every fucking song from Chess, The Musical, by Tim Rice and the boys from Abba

Hendrik Rakove: Hurt So Good - John Mellencamp, Lovefool - Spencer Day’s Cover, Love Me Dead - Ludo, Grace Kelly - BYU A cappella cover, Talk about You - MIKA, It’s All Been Done - BNL, The Show Must Not Go On - Harvey Danger, Circus- Drew Gasparini and Lindsay Mandez.

Talaiporia- Choke - I DON'T KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME

Andrew Cross: Camisado- Panic!

Closing Shop - (The weird experimental meta campaign that literally ate itself)

Steam Rising - Murder By Death, Devil’s Calling - Florence and the Machine, Talkin at the Texaco - James McMurtry, Keepin’ It Real - Barenak BLOW BY KESHA BLOW BY KESHA GET MY SONG RIGHT GET IT RIGHT, Sometimes the Line Walks You - Murder By Death

Exit Signs- Slashers/mixed nWoD Campaign

Season One theme: What if I’m Wrong - Damien Rice

Season Two Theme: I Wanna Get Better - Bleachers

Cyril: Disaster - Drew Weston, A Little Irony - Tom Milsom.

Dea ‘Exit’ DeLus: When I Grow Up - Tim Minchin, Break Your Heart - BNL, If I Had a Heart - Fever Ray, Crystalline - Bjork, Still - Ben Folds, Come Into My Head - Kimbra, Dinner at Eight - Rufus Wainwright, What You Know - Two Door Cinema Club, Big Dark Love - Murder By Death, Bitter and Sick - One Two,

DRT: Bitter Rivals - Sleigh Bells, Passcode - BNL.

Swing: Boogie Feet - Kesha.

Deirdre Whitman: Welcome to the Ball - Rufus Wainwright.

NonPlatonic Forms

I’m Gonna Win- Rob Cantor Boomerang - Lucy Schwartz, Hate that you know me so well- Bleachers, Jericho - Rufus Wainwright, Guster - Center of Attention, Toe to Toe - BNL, Give It Back to You - BNL, Limits -BNL (I apologize for nothing I love Silverball), Blood - ANIMA!, and of COURSE- Dead Inside by Patricia Taxxon!

- Other characters -

Channery Keene

Artificial Heart - JoCo, Erase Me - Ben Folds Five, Desperate Measures - Marianas Trench, Haunted - Maya Kern, Cake - Melanie Martinez, Bulletproof- La Roux, Cassandra - Area 11, Stolen - Greentree, Guster - Simple Machine, Make Me Feel - Janelle Monae, Could I Leave You - (specifically Donna Murphy at the Sondheim’s 80th concert).

Chrome and Prism

Kiss with a Fist - Florence and the Machine, Langhorns - Spybeat, Dancing’s Not a Crime - Panic!, Thanks I Hate It - Simple Creatures, Sweet Talk - Saint Motel, This Is Love - Air Traffic Controller, Nothing Without You- Vienna Teng

Harold Ludicael

Consequence Free - Great Big Sea, Sea of No Cares- Great Big Sea, Don’t Threaten me with a Good Time - Panic!, Dust and Ashes from Great Comet, I Need to Know from Jekyll and Hyde; Boy Decide - Murder by Death, Spring Break 1899 - Murder By Death, My Type - Saint Motel.

#ocs #character songs #I think I also have a playlist for Gray Jacket but I can’t find it #I apologize in advance for no Academic songs yet #haven’t been listening to enough new music lately #But I used to burn CDs for my tabletop groups #I made cover art and liner notes with art for the tracklists too #And I also spliced songs together on occasion #the Keepin’ It Real track in Closing Shop started glitching in the middle #before turning into Kesha’s Blow #It was a way to both characterize the villain AND have them pull off a 4th wall break #The fact that I don’t do webcomics or twice a week tabletop sessions anymore is #like I took the weights off #if anyone wonders how I make so much stuff #it’s because is was forced in a terrible crucible #XD

[starshineskyandthepowerofrock]

The Throes of Utter Bewilderment

Part 18 of Starshine, Sky, and the Power or Rock.

"What are you doing here at lunch time, Gossamer?" Father asks, not looking up from the papers he's grading.

I wring my hands, unwilling to leave the doorway. "I wanted to speak with you."

Father waves me in, eyes still glued to his desk. "Well, come in if that's your plan."

I scurry in, sure to close the door behind me, my head bowed.

Father's eyes flick up, edges wrinkled in mild annoyance. "Stand like a Glade."

My spine straightens in compliance.

"That's better," he says through a satisfied smile, his green mustache pulled up with his lips. "Now, what is it you wanted to speak about?"

"Well..." I begin, unsure how to put this. What do I tell him, that I'm still fascinated by monsters and that I'm not sure my opinion of Skylar is entirely negative? Yeah right.

Father raises an expectant eyebrow.

"It's..." I say. "It's just that..."

"If this is about your grades, then I can say you have nothing to worry about," he says with a modestly proud smile. "I know you've been having trouble sleeping thanks to that bloodsucker, but rest assured you have one of the best grades in the class. Way to push through."

I smile through my nerves, which spike further once I realize my discomfort with him throwing the word bloodsucker around so casually. "Thank you, Father."

"Is that all you wanted to talk about?" he asks, green eyes returning to his work.

It would be so easy to just say yes and leave, to let him believe nothing is happening internally with me. But no, this confusion is something I need to fix and I need his help to do it. "Actually..." He looks up again, frowning slightly but I'm not deterred enough to let it go. "My question is related to... that situation."

Father makes to stand up. "Is she harming you?"

"No!" I say, hardly conscious of how defensive I sound until it's too late. "No, it's just... I hear her wake up every night. It happens so often that I can't help but wonder..."

He strokes his mustache in thought. "She's clearly sabotaging you. Some long-term scheme to deprive you of sleep in such a seemingly innocent way. But to what end? To make the Glades seem like fools? Or something more..." He stares past me. I can't fathom what conclusions he's drawing.

"My question was more philosophical, I suppose," I say. "The more I think about the situation, the more paradoxical it seems. I've realized it all boils down to the question of how she could even have nightmares to begin with. After all, if the definition of a nightmare is a frightening dream, then the only way for her to have a nightmare is for her to have the capacity to feel-"

"Gossamer."

"... Yes?" I answer weakly.

"You will rid yourself of these thoughts immediately if you know what's good for you."

"Well, yes, of course, that's why I'm here to-"

"Immediately."

That's my cue, then. I nod my head graciously, as if I've gained anything from this conversation. "Yes, Father," I say. Then I leave.

🥀🥀🥀

She's faking it. She's faking it. She's-

My pen jumps from my white-knuckled grip. Snapped from my trance, I watch helplessly as it makes an arc through the air only to land...

In Skylar's hand. Crescent and the princess applaud lightly.

"Nice catch," Crescent says.

"Thanks," Skylar says with a sheepish smile. No. No, the smile isn't sheepish because it's a fake smile because she's faking it. She holds the pen out for me. I know better then to fall for that. I pull out a new pen from my bag and resume my self-imposed task, no matter how many friction burns I get or how many times I'm warned about "ink poisoning."

She's faking it. She's faking it. She's fa-

"Maybe you have the answer, Ms. Glade?" Mr. Borealis asks loud enough for the whole class to hear.

"Huh?" I look up, and this pen escapes my grip too.

Scattered snickers from all around frame Mr. Borealis's smile as less patient and more quietly amused with my blatant disrespect for... What is it he's talking about?

"Maybe you would have a better understanding of the quadratic formula," he says, "if you spent more time paying attention and less time doodling on your hand."

Eyes make attempts to catch subtle glances at my right hand. I pull my sleeve over it once I notice that Skylar's are counted among them. Her chapped lips form the words "she's faking it" ever so slightly, silently. Several times over. She chews on it with those fangs, with those lips that have tasted blood, in movements so slight the only reason I notice them is because I'm looking-

STOP LOOKING AT HER.

I finish the phrase on my hand one last time, pressing so hard that maybe I really should worry about ink poisoning.

🥀🥀🥀

Okay. Okay. I have determined that all interactions, even the most minor, are threats. Consequently, I've resolved to get around speaking with her no matter how unavoidable it may seem in the moment.

It actually works for a couple days. I don't bother her and she learns surprisingly fast not to bother me. In group work we sit as far from each other as possible. In the mornings I don't bother her and Crescent when they play whatever tabletop game they've decided on that day. In the evenings I hang with my sisters and study their discussions of second-year drama and collective hatred of Princess Starshine like there'll be an exam on it. When I'm alone I sink into the world Willow Withers has created, the one where vampires make sense. And when Skylar inevitably wakes me at night with her fake nightmares I let her grab whatever monster music she listens to.

...What does monster music sound like? Other than the Band of Darkness' work, obviously. What's Skylar listening to right now? Is it rock? It's probably rock. Like most kids my age, I mostly learn music for the obvious utilitarian reasons, but every waking moment of her life seems consumed by it. Won't those earbuds damage her hearing? How good can monster music be that she-

STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT!

Out of desperation I knock the thought out of my head with my wooden fist. I can't slip up like that just because no one can hear my thoughts. The only way to get them to end is to train them out of me, non-stop.

I turn over so my back faces her casket and my face faces the wall, where no interesting images can tempt me.

Then something creaks behind me. My insides jump but I use every will to ensure my outside doesn't do the same.

"What does 'She's faking it' mean?" Skylar asks.

It's the first direct question she's given me in a while. But not one to which I respond.

"I can take a guess," she says.

I bury myself deeper in my sheets. That creature's not fishing a response out of me.

"Look, I know it's probably annoying, me pestering you like this. I wouldn't do it if I thought you were a total loss."

Don't let her get to you, Gossamer.

"I, uh, can't exactly say I like you or anything..."

I'll believe that.

"But I don't really hate you either. I... I actually can't stop thinking about you-"

"I don't swing that way, vampire," I finally say, sitting up.

Skylar laughs. "Wow, really? You broke the silent treatment to tell me that? Don't flatter yourself."

I can't say I'm disappointed that wasn't what she was getting at. "I should have known. After all, your taste skews royal, doesn't it?"

"Hey, I like Star a lot but not that way," she says, hugging her stuffed spider to her chest. "Your sister's pissed at her, huh? Star's the biggest attention-getter of them all, I bet Summer hates that."

"I'm not talking about my family to you anymore, vampire. What are you planning?"

"Even if I was planning something, why would I tell you?" Skylar asks.

Unsure how to answer, I remind myself that there was a reason I stopped talking to her and lay back down. Skylar doesn't do the same.

"My point is," she says. "I can tell you're not a bad person, okay? And... I just think you'd be a lot happier once you... I don't know..."

"Tell me when you form a coherent thought," I say.

Skylar huffs. "You know, it'd be a lot easier to talk to you if you didn't act like such an ass!"

"Considering what you are, I'll take your insult as a compliment," I say.

Skylar stares at me from across the room, and I her. Her brow is furrowed in annoyance. "You know what?" she says. "I actually did have a plan talking to you tonight. I just want a roommate that doesn't hate me, okay?"

"Well, maybe you shouldn't room with a Glade," I say.

"It's too late for that!" Skylar says, fangs on full display. I gasp involuntarily. She turns away,  closes her eyes, rubs her temples. Then she turns her head slowly back to me. The inverted colors of her eyes are still creepy but not creepy enough to mask the pain in the look she gives me. No, no it's not pain.

It's not...

She studies me, who knows what going through that head. What are her thoughts even like? She must have thoughts if she can make decisions and communicate, yes? Is thought separate from the soul? What even constitutes a soul? Is it our capacity to feel? Our conscious thoughts? Are souls even a thing that exist?

Skylar hangs her head and begins to put her earbuds back in place. I can't leave it at that, though.

"What do you listen to? Every night?"

Skylar looks up at me, surprised. "Uh," she says. "Just... some bands I like. Metal, mostly. The Isle has a great rock scene if you know where to look."

"Metal? After a nightmare?"

"Uh huh." She nods. "I guess it shouldn't really be relaxing but for me it is. It's kinda like... taking back control, you know? Grounds me."

"Grounds you?" I ask.

"Yeah," she says, looking down at her CD player. "I, uh..." Her eyes shift back to me, unsure. Then she looks away again. "I... had other problems. Back home... This music is what kept me sane."

"I see," is all I can say.

"I guess that's why I was so stuck on the horror thing with you," she says. "Because it... kinda seemed like the same thing."

A pang of fear grips my heart, but something about the way the night obscures everything makes me feel safe enough to allow in the thought that maybe she's right. Willow Withers doesn't need me to be some norm-loving perfect queen of the school. She allows me to indulge in the strange, the unnatural, the paradoxical. The undead.

The fearful part of me searches for a manipulative reason why Skylar would listen to music every night, in her casket where no one can see her, but it comes up empty-handed.

"And..." she continues, "I know you probably don't wanna have anything in common with me, but, I feel like you should know that I know how it feels, you know? To feel like you're not right. Or like you're not good enough. But you are, you just need to quit faking it for people who can't see that."

Her words cut so deep, I almost feel violated. "Well... Well..."

"You know, I can't hide who I am. Like here, everyone knows I'm a vampire, no matter how hard that makes things hard for me. But at least I know that when someone does like me, it's really me they like."

"And what of the guy who said he loved you and then almost staked you?" I ask, if just to get her to stop her monologue.

Skylar is silent, but her somber expression doesn't change. "He... He thought he could make me into something I'm not. Someone as horrible as him. But I didn't let him."

"Well..." I say. "There's a big difference between him and my family. My family, they... They just know what's best for me-"

"Do they? You know, my family hates rock but you don't see me hiding my CDs from them."

"Could you stop?"

"If they know what's best for you why are you so miserable?" she asks, a bit louder.

I put my hands to my ears. "I said stop!"

"How much do they love you if you're SCARED OF THEM?"

"THAT'S ENOUGH, VAMPIRE!"

The door is kicked open. "Would you two SHUT UP AND LET ME SLEEP!" Pearl's tiny silhouette stands in the doorway, dripping with saltwater and wrapped in a bathrobe. "We can hear you two from the other side of the dorm and now Crescent is crying and I'm freaking DONE!"

My shock renders my voice nonfunctional, but Skylar snaps out of hers, eyes wide with unmistakable regret. "Crescent's crying?" She hops out of her casket and leaves the room, Pearl following. I eventually do the same.

By the time I'm in the living room, Crescent is on the couch, sniffling into a glass of water. Skylar's hand rests on her shoulder. Pearl is nowhere to be seen, presumably back in bed.

"I'm s- I'm sorry for making you worry," Crescent snivels.

"Stop saying that, it's my fault," Skylar consoles, her voice soft. She doesn't look at me, doesn't acknowledge me. "I really feel bad about this."

Crescent shakes her head. "You don't have to."

Skylar's mouth ticks up in a little smile. "Well, since we won't take each others' apologies, why don't we stop apologizing?"

Crescent giggles through the tears that look like they're letting up. "Okay."

Then they giggle together.

🥀🥀🥀

"So yeah, I'm still not speaking to her," I tell my sisters over breakfast.

Summer swallows another spoonful of applesauce and sighs. "Nothing juicy happened?"

"Nothing," I confirm.

Scattered "Your Highness"s fade nearer and nearer. Many students bow their heads as Princess Starshine sashays angrily to our table, even with Skylar in tow, dragged by her wrist. Many other kids scowl at the sight of the princess lowering herself so, some even calling out "Vampire lover!"

I bow my head just to be safe - she is royalty, after all - and let Summer do the talking. But before she can get a full word out the princess says, "Talk to the hand, Summer. Gossamer, the girls told me what happened last night and I'm sick of it."

"What happened last night?" Dewdrop asks me.

"I thought it was nothing!" Summer says.

The princess rolls her eyes and says, "Ugh, I don't have the patience for this." Then she grabs me by the jacket sleeve and drags Skylar and me away from the gossiping students. "Make up," she tells us. "Now."

I turn my head away in defiance, arms crossed. "There's nothing to be made up if we weren't friends to begin with."

The princess gives Skylar an urging glance, for which Skylar gives one that says "Do I have to?" Then she sighs and holds out a hand. "Truce?"

"Oh, is that the best you can do?" the princess asks her.

"What do you want from me?" Skylar responds.

"Share! Feel! Show her why you two should matter to each other!"

"We've both done plenty of sharing, Star, but nothing's happening until she decides to stop being a-"

"If you two don't mind," I interrupt. "I'd like to finish breakfast."

"Same," Skylar says.

But the princess grabs us both again, gasping. "I know! I'm ordering you two a spa day!"

"Excuse me!?" I exclaim.

"The hell is a spa day?" Skylar asks.

The princess gasps again, with even more melodrama. "How have I not explained that to you yet? I just know that's what you two need! It's impossible not to be at peace wearing only a towel while an absolute hunk places hot stones down your spine! Even with someone you hate!"

Skylar scratches her head. "That doesn't clear anything up."

I scoff. "As if any spa would admit a monster."

"Perhaps not," the princess responds, smiling mischievously. "But they'll admit 'a friend of Princess Starshine.'"

A matching smile spreads across Skylar's face. "I see I'm rubbing off on you."

#elf oc #vampire oc #fantasy WIP #Fantasy Story #gossamer glade #skylar acdalur