All We Do anon here, this first part is directed to both you and the da capo anon—I would highly, highly recommend taking a listen to "Sun" and "Taste" if you haven't already. Please. They're songs that, like All We Do, are very much celebrations of humanity (which is also what I associate with this blog).
Oh I love SAL's Enneagram songs too! My favorites are 1, 5, 8, and 9. That's literally almost half of the songs but who cares?! It's all so good.
I am very bad at music. I have learned how to play instruments before but I have very poor relative pitch and my rhythm is always slightly too fast. Also not a singer. All this to say that while I don't quite relate to your perspective on SAL's work when it comes to personal renditions of it I still find it really interesting! SAL is one of those artists I'm very very hesitant to share with other people because of how precious they are to me, so I don't really get to hear others' thoughts on them.
Also I can't believe I didn't make the connection to Neptune! Da capo anon thank you for picking up the slack on my end!
I have not had the chance to listen to the playlists yet because 1) I don't use Spotify and must familiarize myself with it and 2) combined they are over 8.5 hours long. I have looked through the songlists though and would like to say: The Oh Hellos!! The Crane Wives!! I love them both!!! They both have such wonderful songs (and you have such wonderful taste!)!!! Also:
I see you have "Hello My Old Heart" in one playlist. Have you heard the most recent version? If not, I'd highly recommend it. It has a very different feel to it but it is also amazing.
I've recently been rediscovering my love for the Crane Wives so I'm just going to list A Bunch Of Songs: Take Me to War, I Talk in My Sleep, Never Love an Anchor, Allies or Enemies, Tongues and Teeth, Metaphor, High Horse, Empty Page, The Garden, and so so much more. These are all very different songs, but they're all very very good.
Since it's tradition now (if twice can count as such), I'll recommend another artist! Hozier!!! He has a lot of good music too! I wouldn't say it shares the same vibes as SAL or All We Do (and that applies to a lot of the Crane Wives songs as well), but I would absolutely still deem them amazing. Some of my favorite Hozier songs are "Nina Cried Power," "In the Woods Somewhere," "Like Real People Do," "Shrike," "Almost," "From Eden," and "Movement."
I realize now that this is legitimately a ridiculous number of songs to recommend all at once but I do genuinely mean it when I say they are all wonderful (although since they differ quite greatly from SAL and "All We Do I" I can't exactly promise you'll love all of them).
This is getting a bit too long so I'm just going to add that I'm very very happy that you also shared the playlist for hold me softly!! It's another series of yours that I love greatly and I didn't expect to see it in your response so the fact that it was there made me very very happy!
May you also be very very happy!
omg omg omg you have NO IDEA how happy this ask is making me right now!!! I was literally gushing about you and da capo anon to my partner earlier when we were chatting about fic and writing and how nice it is to get feedback / enthusiasm from other people!!!!! no but truly, you and da capo anon have given me some energy back when it comes to writing, and specifically for the fics you both have given me feedback for and engagement with. This past year or two is the first time in my life I've actually had the mental time and space to really build good daily writing habits, and this fandom and these fics I've been working on have been the first time I've been able to tackle and accomplish big writing tasks and actually, you know . . . accomplish them. It's been a fun bit of growth to go through, and I mean that genuinely. Thank you for being a part of it.
(also the fact that you and da capo anon and I are having a full conversation through asks is making me cackle with joy because it's so fun)
I HAVE SEEN THE NEW VERSION OF "HELLO MY OLD HEART". I LITERALLY SPENT AN HOUR RAMBLING TO MY FRIEND ABOUT IT WHILE ON A DATE WITH HER, AND YELLING ABOUT THE FIRST VERSION AND THE DIFFERENCES AND MEANINGS, AND SHE WAS JUST GRINNING THE WHOLE TIME. IT WAS FANTASTIC.
I do a lot of singing while I work, and a lot of my repertoire is The Oh Hellos and The Crane Wives, among other traditional folk songs. Folk music my absolute beloved. Scribefindegil here on Tumblr has a great catalog of folk and filk (fiction folk music) and I highly recommend checking out all the stuff she and Nate (astriiformes) have done. Eregyrn also has lots of good recommendations for folk and filk on her blog, and also awesome art. There are lots of others who have lots of really great stuff - I've reblogged a decent amount of folk and filk music at some point or another, so if you search it on my blog it should be tagged. Lots of neat stuff and creative people!!!
More music to check out!! Bless you!
Hozier's music is great - I've listened to a lot of his stuff off-and-on, but I'll have to put your recommendations on my work playlists so I can listen to them again.
All We Do anon I am hugging you with all my might, the fact you hold me softly makes my heart light up with glee. It is and always will be my baby in terms of fics and fic series, because it was my first real foray back into fic writing after several big life changes. It's also the first big story I've ever composed that's actually made it onto paper and not just spent time as spoken or imagined tales. There's so much more still to come in that world and that story, and with some luck and hard work I will get to tell it. I hope you'll be patient with me until I can.
For now - in return for your benevolence, have a section from the next installment of hold me softly. Title and excerpt under the cut.
An excerpt from the fic "so build me a cottage of sunlight and stone" from the fic series "hold me softly (kill me softer)" by howtotrainyournana on Ao3.
Summary: On the residence of king Eret in the cottage of one Dream. Or: Dream earns the last name “Was Taken” by kidnapping a king. Dream is not amused. Eret, however, is having a great time.
. . .
Eret did not wake up this morning expecting to be kidnapped.
To be fair, it has been a very long time since someone has tried, so he doesn’t usually wake up expecting to be kidnapped. He thinks he’s a fairly good king, all things considered; he’s neutral in all conflicts, but not uninvolved. He seeks peace and fairness and justice, and he sees to his people and his lands and their needs. He holds a hands-off approach for most things, preferring to give people their freedom so long as they are good to each other. It’s been a good approach for staving off kidnappings and assassinations and other unpleasantness that generally comes with being a monarch, even one in name but not function.
So, the kidnapping is a surprise.
He’s blindfolded, which is inconvenient, but his ears aren’t muffled and he’s not gagged. He flexes his wrists and shuffles his legs and is pleasantly surprised to find that while his arms are bound, his legs are not. He doesn’t know if he was drugged or not, because while he remembers going to sleep he doesn’t remember being tied up or transported, and he’s quite sure he would have woken up at some point during all that. He’s not a heavy sleeper.
Eret takes a moment to try and suss out what he’s laying on – something soft, maybe a bed? There’s a pillow under his head and he thinks he’s laying on old quilts by the feel of them, so probably yes. It’s very comfortable. He listens closely to the sounds around him, but when all he hears is birdsong and a breeze through windows and the distant sound of running water, he figures it’s safe to reach up and undo his blindfold.
He blinks in the light and takes in the cottage around him.
It’s a small thing, one room, and stuffed full to the brim with just . . . everything. Every bit of space is meticulously utilized, and Eret’s rather impressed. The rafters are hung with baskets and herbs and meats, hooks and shelves fill every wall, and the windows open outward to give more space inside. The door is open too, which is a pleasant surprise.
Eret stands – on steady feet, so a drugging seems unlikely, which begs the question of how he got here – and wanders about the room. The most curious thing about the whole place is the costumes – and the masks. There’s a little dining table absolutely crammed with sewing supplies. There’s a little redstone-driven sewing machine of a design he’s never seen before.
He might try to figure out how to take it with him.
There’s spools of thread and stacks of neatly-folded fabric and a pincushion absolutely glittering with needles. Thimbles and buttons and hooks and clasps peek out from an overflowing sewing basket on the back of the table, and a half-empty bag of stuffing and scraps is stuffed haphazardly itself under the table next to the little stool. There are costumes in various states of completeness folded or hung up or laid out around the sewing corner, but what really draws Eret’s eyes are the masks.
There’s a delicate golden mask with curling ram’s horns. There’s a feathered half-mask, all black and silver and with a wicked beak. There’s a monkey mask, and a fish, and a horse, and a dog, and one with a strange geometric pattern that’s hard to look at. One is split neatly down the middle, half black, half white. One is a simple white porcelain circle with a smiley face on it; another is nearly its mirror image, but the mouth is open and laughing. Another yet is the smile turned sideways, another only a smile with no eyes at all. There is a beautiful blue mask of scales and fur, another of white bone and sharp teeth and six horns. There is a mask that is simply a smooth black dome, reflecting the beholder back at themselves. Eret gets lost in it for a moment, or maybe longer than a moment, because he startles back into awareness when something soft brushes past his legs. The light has shifted a bit, crept that much closer to midday.
There is a calico cat purring and rubbing against his legs.
“Oh, hello there little one, I didn’t see you there,” he says, bending down to pet her. She purrs louder. He pulls his hand away, and she meows in protest, so he gives a chuckle and sits on the rug, patting his leg. She walks over his lap and begins kneading bread on his legs, purring like a motor.
“Nice place you have here,” Eret remarks. “I don’t suppose you’re the one who kidnapped me, are you?”
“No, that would be me,” says a voice from the doorway, and Eret startles again. The cat leaps off his lap and runs over to the man at the door. He scoops her up in his arms and pets her, tilting a masked face and very obviously considering the king seated on his floor. The mask is a pale wood, Eret notes, with a smile similar to the porcelain ones. There are thin, branching antlers reaching out from the crown of the mask.
“Did you have a good rest, Your Majesty?” the man asks, and his voice is familiar.
“I did, thank you for asking,” Eret replies. It never hurts to be polite to your captors. “Who might you be?”
The man tilts his head the other direction, and Eret can tell that he’s smiling even though he can’t see a bit of his face.
“Myself,” the man says, like it’s an inside joke between the two of them. Eret feels like he should know him, but for the life of him he can’t place the voice.
“And who might she be,” Eret asks, gesturing at the cat purring in the man’s arms.
“That’s me,” the man says, laughter in his voice.
“So I guess that makes me I, does it?” Eret jokes back.
“No, that’s me,” the man says, pointing at the cat, “and you are I, not me.”
Eret breaks into a grin.
“I think I might like being kidnapped this time,” he says, and the man laughs.
“Careful, you’ll ruin the reputation I’m trying to build, talking like that.”
The man walks over to the fireplace, depositing the cat on a little climbing shelf on his way. She disappears up into the rafters. The man swings the kettle over the fire. Maybe they’re going to have tea? Eret wouldn’t be opposed to it.
“And what reputation would that be?”
The man keeps fiddling near the kettle. Two porcelain cups get unhooked from the wall; a jar of crushed herbs uncorked; and a gleaming jar of honey opened. Tea it is, then.
“The thief who stole a king,” the man replies.
Eret hums as he stands.
“That’s quite a bold reputation to be seeking. Tell me, what’s it for? Fame? Money? Status? A sense of power?”
The man turns back, steaming mugs of tea in hand. The mask is lifted, pushed upwards into curling dark gold hair. Eret sucks in a breath, because - his eyes. Eret knows those eyes, knows that face, knows that voice. But it's not the Creative God standing before him. Eret knows that, like he knows when the wind will turn and the seasons will shift, like he knows when the tide of battle is reaching a fever pitch, like he knows when his breath stills at last he will breathe anew somewhere different in a new body and an old life.
"Fun," the man says and yes, yes this will be, thinks Eret.
He accepts the tea graciously and grins at his unwitting host, demure and graceful and already plotting. The man grins back. Oh, to be a young fool again. Eret sips his tea again before he speaks. Let the games begin.
"So, what should I call you?"
. . .
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oh you know it's all latestage capitalism but the thing is. how are you supposed to be a person inside of this. a person trying to be a better version of yourself.
oh, you started working young, which was kind of hard, but it's just the way stuff works sometimes. and it was 2008 and your family couldn't afford heat. but it's fine, you grow a spine and get used to the professional world and besides it was the suburbs we're talking about here, like, your life could have been actually hard, so what if your father lost his job and you can't afford to move or turn the lights back on. and once you start making money, it's good. you keep doing that. because now they're relying on you. so you have to do that.
oh you were in thousands of dollars of debt at 17 years old so that you could go to school, because you have to go to school if you want to get a "real" job. you even did it "right", you worked parttime and attended community college before you transferred to a public school. you were under so many merit scholarships.
which is fine. you pick yourself up and you say like, okay. i graduated college. i'm holding down a job. i'm doing the Adult Thing, which looks and acts like this, according to all the books i've read. you start with the shitty job and then you climb that corporate ladder.
but the shitty job doesn't cover rent and you stretch yourself too-thin so you get sick. good luck with that. the shitty job no longer pays for your meals. everyone asks why you don't just move, but there's nowhere to move to. and with what money are you going to be moving? and then the loans come back, because they were never going to forgive them, because you were 17 and trying to do the right thing, which was stupid. people are now saying you shouldn't have even gone to school.
which is fine. but because you have no other option, so you do the shitty job, and you apply every day for like 5 new ones, and despite the fact everyone says "there's no one who wants to work!" it's actually just that nobody is fucking hiring so you can either work for 13 dollars an hour in the shitty place you know (where at least you have a passingly friendly relationship with the manager) or you can start from scratch again with a different 13 dollars an hour without knowing how much abuse from the new job you'll be taking.
and if you quit you lose your insurance. if you quit you lose your housing. if you quit, you'll be another burnout kid. the lazy ones. these assholes, look at them!
and you come home to a family dinner and you hear from your father the same old thing. how he worked hard at his job and yes it sucked for a while but he was able to provide for the family and then the house and the dog and the rest of barbie's dream vacation. how the insurance did cover some of it. how you just really need to start speaking up more in manager conversations so they know you're a go-getter. you want to tell him - did you know we're actually doing more now hourly than any previous generation? - but you can't remember where you heard that statistic, and you're far too tired for the fucking argument. and then he starts in on his usual bit. where's the house? where's your kids? where's your ambition.
the same job the same money the same hours doesn't do it anymore. the same nose-to-the-grindstone now just shreds your face off. there's no such thing as upwards mobility, not really. and as far as you're aware, the money certainly is not trickling. you do the soulless stupid shit you signed up for because you fucking have to or else you literally risk your life (food, the apartment, the insurance), but it's not getting you anything. you download the stupid "save more" app and you budget and you do every right thing and then the price of eggs is 7 dollars and you say - oh great! another thing i have to fucking worry about now!
and you go to your stupid job and everyone in your father's generation just tells you to be better about being an adult. they have their homes and their savings account and their bailout and they say. well have you tried not drinking starbucks. well your generation just spends too much on clothing. well you might just be too addicted to travelling. and you - because you need the job - you bite your tongue and don't say i am being held prisoner and you're suggesting i stop pacing my cell if i don't like the scenery and you don't say what the fuck do you think i've been doing with my money and you don't say i haven't spent a cent on something nice in literally forever much less coffee you arrogant asshole. you open and close your bank app and check your loans and check your credit score and check fucking zillow and ziprecruiter and apartments.com just one time more. and still they give you that demeaning little grin and say - see, what you need is -
what you need is for your meds to stop being so fucking expensive. what you need is for the housing bubble to explode into dust. what you need is for billionaires to choke on their wealth. what you need is actual help. what you will get is more economic advice from people who are older-and-wiser.
and above you, almost in a glimmer, you can see the wedged smile of your debt getting toothier, wider.
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PLEASE DON'T HOLD BACK I WANT THE COWBOY AU INSIDE OF THE COWBOY AU!!!!!!! PLEASE IM ON MY HANDS AND KNEES!!!
(also can I be 🐇anon if it's not taken???)
You hear the shots before you can stop the duel. You’re just in time to see the dust settle on two bodies as you grip the handle of your kit. Two dead, what a waste. The mortician is already measuring one for a coffin. You sigh and push your hair back, start making your way to help before movement catches your eye. You whip to face the apparently alive deputy, and watch him push himself up to sit, gripping his bloody arm. That you can fix.
You hurry over to him, dropping to your knees to start pulling the needed supplies from your bag. “Almost had me worried, Price,” You tell him, cutting his shirtsleeve at the shoulder seam to yank it down. He hisses, grips his elbow to keep from flinching as you work.
“Can’t even spare me a ‘Deputy’?” He asks, watching you prod at the wound.
“Deputy is for winners,” You dip back into your bag and whistle at the saloon patrons for a stiff one.
“Only you would consider this a loss,” He sighs, reaching for the glass the barkeep brings out. You grab it before he can and dunk your instruments in it. He grimaces, no longer interested in the drink. You hand him a strap of leather to bite as you shake the whiskey off your tweezers.
“You got shot didn’t you?” You tilt your head for a better look at the bullet lodged in his shoulder. Bullets lead to infections. You click your tweezers a few times to warn him before pushing them into the wound. You always hope the pain will be enough to deter any more duels in the future, but Price hardly does more than grunt. He’s got an iron will you suppose.
You pull the bullet free and drop it in his waiting hand, a souvenir. Your fingers feel around the entry point, checking for any bone chips or loose lead. Price lets out a long breath through his nose, exhaling the pain. Seems shallow enough, and you don’t feel anything but the oozing of blood around your fingers. You grab the whiskey glass and tip it over the wound.
“Mmmmmmfuck.” He groans, and you can’t say you blame him, but you need to get some of the blood off. The alcohol works just as well as clean water at washing blood away. Even if the sting of it makes Price’s muscles tense, his breath shaky. You do your best to ignore it while you grab bandages from your bag. “Fuckin’ sawbones.” He grumbles.
“If you don’t want me to hurt you stop getting shot,” You give him a quick raise of your brows. You’re quick with the bandages, it’s better to be quick before the wound bleeds too much.
“Then how’d I see you?” He smiles, and you try not to smile too much in return.
“You could come to the clinic for once,” You tell him, tying off the bandage. His hand moves to rest on your knee, a comfortable weight you know well. He better watch that hand, you still need to get a sling on him.
“God I’d be good to ya’,” Price sighs.
“Yeah?” You tuck your supplies back into your bag and stand, offering a hand to help him up. He grasps your forearm with his uninjured arm and grunts as you haul him to his feet. “How’d you be good to me, when you can barely be good to yourself?” You twist to duck under his arm and wrap it around your shoulder. You think the way he leans against you may be slightly exaggerated as you help him towards your family’s clinic.
“I’d be good to ya’!” Price laughs, “Build ya’ a nice house and all the furniture in it, keep ya’ well stocked with patients.”
“You’d let me keep workin’?” You aren’t going to comment on how happy that makes you. Most men would be more insistent on their partner staying home, popping out kids, you like your work too much to give it up. Probably why you’re still single.
“Can’t deprive the town of their best doctor,” Price huffs out a heavy breath as you sit him down in the front room of the clinic.
“I thought you said I was a sawbones,” You set your bag down and go to dig through the clean clothes for a sling.
“And I’ll let you hold that against me the rest of my life, God I’d be good to ya’,” The way he says it, the explosive admission of it, makes you shake your head fondly. You focus on bending his arm into the sling, trying to keep the pain to a minimum. He grabs you and pulls you down onto his lap when you finish, both of you careful not to bump his arm.
“I think the heat’s gettin’ to ya’ deputy,” You tell him, making yourself comfortable on his lap.
“When’re you gonna say ‘yes’ to me?” He asks, and you wonder if most engagements happen like this. You don’t think so, Price is one of a kind.
“When you win a duel without a new hole to show for it,” You reach to brush some of the dust from outside off his beard, he kisses your fingers as they move over his lips.
“Might take a while then,” he relents, though you know he’s lying. You know better than anyone he’s never this careless when you aren’t on duty. It really is his best excuse to see you. You’re the only one he lets patch him up, and that’s just fine with you.
“Gives you plenty of time to build me a house.” God, you’d be good to him, you already are.
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Hey, it's me, the All We Do anon!
If you really enjoyed All We Do, I recommend you check out Sleeping At Last. Also makes some great music (like "Sun," "North," "Taste," "Saturn," and so much more). SAL's music also gives off a vibe very similar to your posts.
Also, you have a playlist for the series?! Would you be willing to share it?
OH MY GOSH I LOVE SLEEPING AT LAST, THERE'S A LOT OF THEIR MUSIC THAT DIRECTLY INSPIRED A BUNCH OF MY FICS. To be clear, "Nine" by Sleeping At Last is a c!Ranboo song and nothing will change my mind, and also if you listen to that song and then read anything I've written that has Ranboo in it you'll get a good understanding of my exact interpretation of that character. "Seven" by Sleeping At Last is a c!Tommy song - from the music to the lyrics, it's so painfully him, and it makes my heart hurt badly each time I listen to that song, both from thinking about the character and just from the song itself, because it resonates deep in my soul.
Anyway.
SAL is some of my favorite music to sing - it's really nice melodies that are fairly simply in most places and let you do a lot with embellishments as well as just focus on holding a really good note from start to finish. Singing a lot of SAL's songs reminds me a lot of playing the flute - it's not about being fancy with lots of quick notes that sound impressive but are mostly just touch-and-let-go-of-them, it's about playing the slower, longer notes in ways that lets you really be dynamic and interesting with them and show off your control and elegance. It's neat. I'm very honored that my posts give off a SAL vibe <3 I must be doing something right, at least.
You can find the da capo playlist here! Tell me what you think of it, if you give it a listen-through. I would love to hear your thoughts! I still haven't gotten around to adding a bunch more songs to it that I need to lol.
I've also got a playlist for the Feral Bastards AU, which is officially the "hold me softly (kill me softer)" series I'm working on. I need to make a playlist for my Schrodinger's Ghost series too, but I haven't gotten around to that yet. If you've read either of those series and have suggestions for songs for those playlists, hit me up! It brings me a lot of joy to get to check out new music or gush about music I already know with someone <3
I hope you have a wonderful week this week. Take care!
-Nana Graye
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