#bro probably listens to the most heart wrenching songs | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

inhale-fandoms-exhale-asdfghjkl · 4 years

Text

Starkid Musicals Ranked

So I know I've done this before but it was quite a while ago and Black Friday has come out now so naturally I've had some changes in opinion. Also I've got nothing else better to do in self-isolation and I had plenty of time so i thought why the hell not.

I’m sorry for the fact that this post drags on a bit. I just really love Starkid if that’s not already obvious. Please keep in mind I wrote this at 3am so if it’s riddled with spelling errors or doesn't make sense, please bear with me.

This time I wanted to be really thorough in how i ranked the shows so i went through a few processes.

First I ranked each of the shows based on the writing, music, production, humour, costumes and the cast’s performances (which is really just criteria that makes a show great for me personally). For each category i gave them a score out of 10 which I then added up and each show what given a score out of 60.

The results of this were:

Hmb (53/60)

AVPS, Starship, Twisted (52/60)

AVPM & Black Friday (47/60)

The Trail to Oregon (46/60)

TGWDLM (45/60)

AVPSY & ANI (44/60)

MAMD (37/60)

Firebringer (35/60)

To be honest, i was quite surprised by some of these scores. Some shows were way higher or lower than i though they’d be but some were pretty accurate. However, i didn’t think these scores alone really reflected my actual personal opinions of these shows as a whole. There were a few shows with the same scores so I tried to figure out a way to kind of rank them by personal taste while still using the scores. Really all I did was I ranked the ones with tied scores.

HMB

Twisted

Starship

AVPS

AVPM

Black Friday

The Trail to Oregon

TGWDLM

AVPSY

ANI

MAMD

Firebringer

Now I definitely thought this list was much more accurate but I still felt a few shows were out of place. In particular, HMB. A good portion of the reason of why it got such a high score is purely for my love of the costumes. Therefore, I pretty much abandoned all the previous work I did and then just listed them based on my personal enjoyment of each show which actually isn’t too different. Because at the end of the day, no matter how high I score a specific criteria for a show, that doesn’t necessarily mean I enjoy other aspects of the show equally.

For each show, I go into a pretty lengthy description of things I love about the show, commenting on the writing, music, production, humour, costumes and the cast’s performances. I also give provide an MVP for each show which is just a specific cast member or two’s performances that I particularly like to or stood out to me. I also give my favourite song and scene of each show.

Also this is just MY personal ranking of each show based on things that I do or don’t enjoy about them. I absolutely love every single one of these shows, don’t confuse me being a little critical with some of them as hate or disrespect. Please understand that these are my opinions, which I am allowed to have just like you and I ask you to respect them even if you disagree just like I would respect yours.

So without further ado, this is my final ranking of Starkid’s musicals:

1. Twisted

In my eyes, this show is quite possibly the closest thing you will ever get to perfection. Whether it’s the soundtrack (BLESS YOU AJ HOLMES AND YOUR RIDICULOUSLY AMAZING SONGWRITING SKILLS) or the acting (DAMN YOU DYLAN SAUNDERS FOR MAKING ME CRY SO MUCH, IT’S REALLY NOT FAIR) or just Nick and Matt’s writing which let’s be honest is always amazing. This show perfectly balances both the comedy and dramatic elements of the story, which if I’m being truly critical, not every Starkid show does. It’s a ridiculously beautiful, heart-warming show but it never takes itself too seriously. It has this amazing ability to have you both laughing and crying at the same time. Aladdin is one of my favourite Disney movies and I have to say it’s an amazing adaptation, it’s legitimately better than Disney’s live action remake in my opinion. Like all of their adaptation/parody shows, Starkid is able to stay true to the original text while also making it their own which I think is what make their shows so unique and refreshing.

MVP: I mean I gotta go with Dylan Saunders. I know it’s an obvious choice but how can I not. I mean I can’t believe it took them five years before they have Dylan a lead role because let’s be honest he’s amazing and he absolutely nailed this fucking role. Not only does he perfect every single one of those heart wrenching monologues/scenes but like his comedic timing is perfect. But Jeff, Joe and Rachael are definitely honourable mentions.

Favourite Song: IF I BELIEVED. If you don’t believe this is the best song on the soundtrack then you can bloody fight me, alright. I’m getting emotional just thinking about this song, just imagine when I listen to it or worse, when I watch the scene.

Favourite scene: I really love the entirety of Twisted with all the other Disney villains but literally any scene with Achmed is very fun to watch.

2. Starship

So I explained this in my original ranking post but I’m going to say it again. This show holds an extremely special place in my heart. It was the first Starkid show I watched after initially joining the fandom through AVPM and AVPS. I honestly couldn’t tell you what my favourite thing about this show is or why I love it so much, I just do. This show was my favourite show (until Twisted was released) and I would literally watch it over and over again. I love the music, I love the writing, and I love every single one of the cast’s performances. I legit have almost close to zero critiques on this show. It’s one of Starkid’s best written and produced productions (I mean the set, the puppets, everything was on point). This is such a hilarious show with some of Starkid’s best and most iconic jokes and yet it still manages to be such a beautiful and inspiring show.

With all this being said, this show is so criminally underrated and I really do not understand why but I guess everyone’s got their own tastes and all but okay. You do you.

Also, just gonna go off on a tangent for a bit. This musical is what made me fall in love with the beautiful, amazing, talented Dylan Saunders. I could not believe that the same man could play the adorable and very loveable cutie pie that is Tootsie Noodles/Mega-Girl and the hauntingly charismatic Pincer who is by the way one of Starkid’s best villains. Yes I said it. Nonetheless 12 –year-old me was absolutely flabbergasted by this man’s talented and really had no choice but to fall in love with him. Apart from Twisted, this is most definitely Dylan’s best performance (Not that he has any bad ones. Let’s be honest, that man is perfect). Legit, I challenge anyone to try watch this musical and not fall in love with him. It’s literally impossible.

MVP: I don’t think I could pick just one, I mean they’re all so amazing. I’d probably have to go with Joey. I think Bug was a great character for him and really showcased his abilities, which have just grown exponentially over the years. It was great seeing him play a more serious role rather than his previously more comedic roles (Ron and Joey) while also getting to goof off a little bit. It’s so fun to watch him in this and I really don’t think he gets enough appreciation for this role. Oh and also Meredith is amazing in Starship. I absolutely love her as Mega-Girl and it’s my favourite role of hers.

Favourite song: The Way I Do. Bro the chemistry between Meredith and Dylan is off the charts and this song just shows it. I love everything about this song. It’s so beautiful, I can’t even. Also not too be too like generic but Kick it up a Notch is phenomenal and one of Darren’s best. Actually this show’s whole soundtrack is probably my favourite of the ones that Darren wrote.

Favourite scene: I don’t think I have a favourite but I love the scene with Junior and Mega-Girl where he calls her a toaster and all that. Some of Brian’s best acting and he and Meredith’s chemistry really is really present here. It’s not often you get to see these two play opposite each other so it’s fun and interesting to watch.

3. A Very Potter Sequel

As a major Harry Potter fan, it’s only natural that I hold the Potter series with the highest regard. Despite the fact that this show is a parody by a bunch of college kids, it literally is a better adaptation than a whole eight-part, multi-million budget film series and that’s saying something. How the hell did Nick and Matt write every single one of these characters more accurately and consistently than professional screenwriters and at times, JK Rowling herself? It’s very rare that you ever hear me say that a sequel (I guess it’s technically a prequel) is better than the original but here we are. Don’t get me wrong, AVPM is iconic™ but this show just somehow improved what AVPM already perfected. The plot was much more fleshed out and every single character was written so perfectly and also everybody was casted perfectly. If you follow me you probably know of my love for Remus Lupin and while his character is AVPS is written absolutely ridiculously, it is one of my favourite things about the show. In this show Remus is written to be like this total mess of a person, who is like homeless and just walks around the school half naked, covered in blood and forces a child to eat a dead deer and is just drunk all time and yet I can just totally accept it. Like if the movies had written Remus like this I’d be like “hmm no” but when Brian Holden does it I’m like “um yes this is amazing”. This is quite possibly Starkid’s funniest show, I literally cry of laughter EVERY TIME. Honestly this show is comedic gold for any Harry Potter fan. From anything that comes of Lupin’s mouth or the entirety of Umbridge’s character to Lucius’s dancing.

This being said, I can totally understand why anyone wouldn’t like this or the other Potter shows as much as the others or not think it’s funny if they’re not a fan as most of the humour is based on knowledge of the original series and obviously this for the other parody shows like HMB or ANI. Nonetheless I still think anybody could enjoy this show and its humour as Starkid pretty much has the same sense of humour running throughout most if not all of their shows.

MVP: Brian Holden. I don’t think I need to explain again. But also Tyler Brunsman and Joe Walker are scene-stealers too. Also Corey Dorris as Yaxley in this show is peak comedy.

Favourite song and scene: okay so these kind of go together for me for this show. The whole scene with Those Voices brings me to tears every time. I fucking love the whole marauders era so them showing Sirius Black seeing James and Lily in the Mirror of Erised is more than my heart can take. Nick and Darren in this scene is just *chef’s kiss* and then you add Brian Rosenthal harmonising in the background, well it’s enough to make any girl break and you bet it does every time.

4. Holy Musical B@man!

Oh my god this is just such a fun show and if it was a person, I would die for it. When I first watched this, I wasn’t that big of a DC fan at the time so I couldn’t fully appreciate it for what it was. It’s actually so amazing and it’s a real shame that it sometimes gets overlooked. Nick Gage’s song writing is actually amazing and I really love this soundtrack. I mean I literally get chills every time I listen to the end of Dark, Sad, Lonely Knight. You know which part I’m talking about.

Also can we talk about the costumes for this show? June really fucking outdid herself with this show, they are literally the best costumes out of the whole Starkid canon and you cannot tell me otherwise. Not only did she nail like the classic comic book character costumes like Batman and Superman, etc. while also making them her own but she also created completely original and amazing costumes like Sweet Tooth and Candy. I wish I had even a small percentage of that talent and artistic ability. Anyway this show is so hilarious and also so emotional at the same time it’s not even fair. I’m not a big fan of Batman or Robin and yet this show almost has me changing my mind. And honestly, Nick Lang deserves the fucking world, I absolutely love watching him act and it’s unfortunate he doesn’t do it a lot because he’s amazing.

MVP: Joe Walker. Don’t get me wrong, I love watching Joe play all of his over-the-top comedic roles but I particularly love watching him play a slightly more serious role like this, it’s really refreshing and I really think he knocked it out of the park. Also Jeff Blim as Sweet Tooth is one of my favourite Starkid characters. No joke, 12-year-old me was OBSESSED.

Favourite song: either Dark, Sad, Lonely Knight or Rogues are We.

Favourite Scene: the whole To Be a Man scene.

“Batman or should I say Butthead”

“Aaaaaaahhhhhhhh”.

If that’s not comedic gold I don’t know what is.

5. A Very Potter Musical

This show is and always will be Starkid’s most iconic show. I think it says a lot that a silly parody musical put on by a group of college students has been able to inspire a whole decade’s worth of beautiful, creative, crazy works of art which only continues to grow. This show was never meant to become what it did but how lucky and fortunate are we all that it did. I am so grateful that 8-9 (tbh I can’t even remember anymore) years ago I decided to watch a silly musical about Harry Potter because I cannot imagine my life without Starkid in it. No this show might not have the best set or props or costumes or sound/video quality (it was 2009 guys, give them a break) but it is absolutely amazing in every single way and that’s all I’m going to say.

MVP: fucking everyone. I mean I’m around the same age they were when they started all of this and I can’t even imagine being able to create something even remotely as creative and wonderful or having any kind of success as close to that any time soon.

Favourite song: I feel like I should go for a classic like Not Alone but I’m not gonna lie I’m a real sucker for Missing You.

Favourite scene: oh man I don’t know the whole show is so iconic. I don’t know how I can pick just one.

6. Black Friday

I’m sure some people would be surprised that this show would be so high on this list for a number of reasons. Mostly due to the fact that I’ve been known to be quite fond of, and pretty biased towards some of Starkid’s older shows. But I think that’s just because I’m really nostalgic for how the fandom was back 8 years ago when I joined. And also when I joined the fandom, HMB was like our TGWDLM. It was the newest show out and everyone was talking about it. And also this is the show I have been rewatching the most lately and vie literally had the album on repeat for the last month.

A lot of people don’t really like the new direction that Starkid has taken with this show and honestly I don’t get it. Yes, it’s considerably darker than their other shows and while they classify it as a horror-comedy, it doesn’t really have a whole lot of comedy. But in my opinion, I think that’s what makes the show so great. The main focus of this show is the characters – their pain, their desires, their struggles and I think any excess of comedy would just take away from what’s really important. I really love watching Starkid delve into this new kind of story-telling and I think they’re doing an amazing job with this Hatchetfield series. I think this show did such a great show of introducing us to all the new characters, developing their arcs and really establishing their role within the world of Hatchetfield while simultaneously blending them perfectly with the already established characters from TGWDLM. What I really like about this show and even TGWDLM is how the characters are written. They feel so real not as cartoonish as some of the characters in Starkid’s previous shows which are why the audience can really relate to these characters.

Also this editing and cinematography of this show is fucking amazing and unlike anything else we’ve gotten from Starkid over the years. The choreography is outstanding and the musical is phenomenal. This is easily Jeff Blim’s best work and I have a feeling some people might disagree with me on that. The music in this show is so beautifully intricate and the lyrics have so much depth and emotion which I just feel like TGWDLM lacks. I know some people have been a bit offstandish about the singing in this show and I guess I’d have to agree. The live vocals on the youtube version do seem a bit off but I just suspect some cast members may have been sick or maybe they were just having an off day (it happens guys, even to professionals). Also I love the additions of some new members to Starkids, everyone was absolutely great in this show. For some of these actors, the characters they played were completely opposite to roles that they’ve played in the past but they all nailed it – Joey, Jon, Lauren. My only complaint in terms of casting is that I wish they gave Jaime more, while she is often praised for her singing skills (rightfully so), she often gets overlooked in her acting abilities and it would be great to see her play a bigger role in the next show.

Also I get it, Santa Claus is going to High School is very hilarious and great but please don’t make it another Workin’ Boys thing. Don’t go demanding Starkid to make a short film for this too, let them focus on their other bigger and better projects, please.

MVP: this show had some of my favourite performances from many Starkids but if I had to say someone who particularly stood out to me it’s definitely Kim. Before Black Friday, I will admit I hadn’t really seen anything with Kim in it so this was a great surprise for me. I am literally in love with her voice; it’s one of the most beautiful things in this world.

Favourite song: Take Me Back. Dylan and Kim are just amazing in this song I can’t even explain how much I love it. I’m also a major fan of Feast or Famine and If I Fail You. Ooh and Made in America.

Favourite Scene: I really love the scene with Tom and Becky in the movie theatre but I also really love the whole What Do You Say scene, I think it’s hilarious. But I think my favourite is with the whole Black and White scene with the President, Wiggly and Wiley. One of Joey’s best performances in my opinion.

7. The Trail to Oregon

So on my last list, this show was considerably higher but, on my recent rewatch of the AVPM shows and HMB, I’ve realised how much I really love those shows and unfortunately TTO had to be downgraded. Don’t get me wrong, I still very much love this show. It’s one of the most fun shows to watch and has me smiling the whole time without fail. In saying this, this show also does an amazing job of adding in these beautiful emotional dramatic scenes that brings the audience to tears. At the end of the day, this show really is just about family and how important it is to love and appreciate them no matter how insane they are or how much they annoy you. I know Jeff is really beloved in the fandom but I still don’t think he gets enough appreciation for how good of a writer (both script and song writing) he is, as well as an actor. This show is so unexpectedly beautiful and I’m really grateful for Jeff creating this story.

I don’t really think this show gets enough credit for how good its production actually is considering it only has six cast members. This show is proof of how diverse, creative and talented all these actors really are. It’s such a different concept from their other shows and I think they executed it so well.

MVP: Joey absolutely smashed it, I’m sure it’s not easy having to play all these different characters and literally change between them in a matter of seconds while giving each of them their own separate, unique identities. Another performer I got to give credit to in this show is Rachael, When the World’s at Stake is an amazing performance and Corey is so funny to watch in this show. Grandpa is probably my favourite character as well as the son.

Favourite song: probably When the World’s at Stake but also Independence. I cannot possibly estimate how much time I spent trying to learn those lyrics and sing it at that speed and get it right but I finally got there.

Favourite scene: the whole scene when the Grandpa, Son and Daughter are hunting makes me laugh every time, it’s so funny. But there’s something about that scene with McDoon and Cletus that ends with them riding on the horse together that makes me crack up.

8. The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals

Okay so I know the last time I did this, TGWDLM was like no 5 or 6 but like it’s been like a year and a half and a lot of my opinions on this show have changed. I’m also aware that by the time the next Starkid show is out I’ll probably also have changed my mind about Black Friday but who knows. I am eternally grateful to this show for introducing me to the amazing Jon Matteson. In a matter of 2 hours, this man somehow became one of my favourite human beings in the world. His portrayal as Paul is just, I don’t even know but something about it just sticks with me and I absolutely love it. This concept of this show is actually so amazing and you really gotta give the Lang’s credit for being able to come up with stuff like this. A lot of the beauty of the show is that it seems like such a simple concept but if you really think about the implications, you can actually understand why it’s so terrifying. Production-wise, this show isn’t anything fancy in terms of set, costumes props, etc. But the lighting design is amaaaaaazinggggggg!

The soundtrack for this show is pretty great but if you’re comparing it to Starkid’s other scores, it’s not the best. I said it before; the music in this just lacks the depth and emotion that is so heavily prominent in the Black Friday score.

MVP: Jon Matteson for the reasons above. And also Joey’s monologue as Ted to Bill gives me chills every time.

Favourite song: I feel like as the show goes on the songs do tend to get more personal, detailed and emotional which I why I probably favour those over many of the songs in act one. Let it Out and Inevitable are two songs in particular that I love and definitely stand out to me.

Favourite scene: the whole Let it Out scene with Jon trying to resist the apotheosis. And also Lauren’s acting at the end of Inevitable is amazing. Her running around the stage, distressed is both so horrifying but also absolutely hilarious.

9. Me and My Dick

I mean I guess I understand why a lot of people don’t like this show but that doesn’t mean I can forgive the fact that it’s so underrated. Yeah the humour is a bit crude and I get that’s not everyone’s thing but literally this show is two and a half hours of pure golden comedy. Honestly, who thought a show about high school kids and their walking and talking genitalia could be one of the most wholesome and heart-warming things in the world. I don’t think anyone other than Starkid could pull of something like this which honestly says so much about them. These people come up with some of the most craziest, outrageous stuff and somehow turn them into beautiful, amazing works of art.

The soundtrack for this show is so freaking good man. And AJ Holmes is literally one of the most amazing and talented people on this earth. How the fuck does he write such good music? I need to know, it’s really not fair. And for all those people who complain that it took Corey Dorris ten years to get a solo, I urge you to simply watch MAMD.

This show doesn’t have the best production and the sound quality is not great but you know what? Fuck you. Because the acting is this show outshines all of that. The energy each of the performers has in this show is crazy and they are all extremely talented. Literally AJ as Joey’s heart is next fucking level. And Arielle is criminally underrated for her role in this. And Nick Strauss is a comedy king. I’ve said it before and will say it again; The Old Snatch and Flopsy are the most iconic duo.

MVP: AJ and Nick. Like I said. Next level and iconic™.

Favourite song: Listen to your heart. But also Even Though. And Finale is a certified bop.

Favourite scene: I love the scene with Dick and Flopsy but I don’t know if it’s my favourite. But one of my favourite quotes is when Dick is talking to Joey about Miss Cooter’s hair and Joey’s delivery of “on her vagina?” cracks me up every time. And honestly there’s not a lot that can beat Brian during Gotta Find His Dick just intensely repeating “Someone tell him where his dick is”. It makes me laugh so hard I really don’t know why.

10. A Very Potter Senior Year

Alright so let me take you back to 2012. I remember the day they posted the video announcing they were not only making another Harry Potter show but that they were bringing back almost every Starkid member. It was actually such a weird time for the fandom because it really did seem like this show was going to be the end of Starkid. When you watch the show, you can see that the actors are not only saying goodbye to Harry Potter and the characters that they had been playing for the last 3 years but also they were saying goodbye to each other. It was heartbreaking to watch then and it still is now 8 years later. 2012 me was absolutely devastated because I had only just discovered this fandom and I thought I would already have to say goodbye to something that become so special to me in such a short amount of time. Luckily for us all this was not the end of Starkid.

This show really holds a special place in my heart, for so many reasons. First off, it was the first Starkid show that I got to watch as it premiered. Second, I was still grieving the end of the Harry Potter movies and these musicals had kind of replaced that for me but then this was ending too. And third, it really just is the most perfectly executed ending to the AVP series.

This show makes me both laugh and then cry and then laugh again and then cry and laugh at the same time. In my opinion, it is one of the best written Starkid shows, on par with the other Potter shows and I think the only reason why it gets overlooked is the fact that it’s a stage reading rather than a proper production. But you know what, considering this show was literally put together in such a short amount of time and the actors literally had a few days’ worth of preparation, they still managed to put on an amazing show. I wholeheartedly believe that if this show had been a proper production, it would be pretty fucking perfect. The soundtrack for this show is probably the best out of all the Potter shows for me. Every one of these songs is a bop and I love them all so much.

Long story short, people need to stop sleeping on AVPSY and appreciate it more.

MVP: Joey Richter. I don’t even need to explain. Just watch Act 2 Part 11. Actually him in the entirety of Act 2. And also that delivery of “losers like us that’s who” just makes me cry every time. How did Starkid portray Ron more accurately in these musicals that WB did?

Favourite song: it’s a tie between I Was and I’m Just a Sidekick.

Favourite scene: The whole scene with the resurrection stone and Everything Ends. Absolute Perfection.

11. ANI

Like the Harry Potter shows, I can understand why people don’t like this show. If youre not a fan of the original text, you probably won’t like the comedy or understand the entire plot or whatever. And honestly that’s the only reason I put this show so low. I have very very little knowledge of Star Wars so pretty much all of the jokes and that go right over my head. However, I still find it very enjoyable to watch and most of that probably has to be credited towards the fact that it has a killer soundtrack and a pretty perfect cast. Also like I said with HMB, I love the rare occasion that we get to see Nick perform. This soundtrack, oh my god, it’s so amazing. Why do people keep overlooking it? I get that it’s different because it’s not the character’s singing it but like that choreography though. Clark Baxtresser has one of the most beautiful voices so you’ll never hear me complaining about a whole score of pretty much just his voice. But that’s just me. I hate how much hate I see for this show. Everyone worked extremely hard on this show, particularly Nick and Matt who wrote the whole thing and the lack of appreciation for it is horrible to see. It’s actually such a fun show, and you can tell the cast had so much fun doing this show because their energy is so great in this.

MVP: Nick Lang. Again, he deserves the world. And Chris Allen is incredible in every role he does but particularly this.

Favourite song: With My Own Eyes and Long Ago and Far Away. I just really love the vocals.

Favourite scene: Nick’s scene as Obi-Wan.

12. Firebringer

CoNtRaVeRsIaL oPiNiOn but sorry but I don’t like Firebringer. It’s not that I hate it. I’m just not really fan of it or its comedy – mostly because I don’t think it has any. I’ve seen people say that Twisted or MAMD rely too much on using swearing/ profanities for humour but honestly I think that’s more of the case for this show. That’s not to say that there’s not things I don’t like about it. Apart from HMB, this show probably has some of the best costumes. I can’t really fault Nick and Matt’s writing too much but I have to say this is some of their weakest work. I don’t think the plot as a whole is bad I just think there’s parts that don’t work for me or just don’t feel right. And I’m not really a fan of the characters and their development. I never thought I’d ever be able to say that I dislike any role of Meredith’s but honestly I find her character really unlikeable and I know people might attack me for that but it’s just my opinion. I like Zazzalil, I think Lauren did a great job, as always but I don’t know I just don’t think there’s any particular character or performance that really stands out for me in this show. If I’m being completely honest, I have only been able to watch the full run of this show twice, maybe three times and it has been a while since the last time I watched it but if I’m being honest I don’t see myself sitting down to watch it again any time soon. One thing I can definitely praise this show on is the female and LGBTQ+ representation, although that should go unsaid but even in 2020, seeing positive representations of female, LGBTQ+ or POC in media is still somehow refreshing and surprising and ain’t that just a little bit sad?. Another thing I can praise this show on is the music, I actually quite enjoy majority of the soundtrack.

MVP: Both of the Lauren’s. Lauren Lopez because she’s amazing in everything but especially in this, I’m so happy she finally got a lead role, she deserved it 100%. And Lauren Walker is just fucking hilarious. Why hasn’t she been in another Starkid show since?

Favourite song: probs climate change

Favourite scene: like I said, there’s really not a lot that stands out to me in this show so I really don’t know what to pick.

#i really just did all this for myself but i feel unproductive so I thought i'd post this #i feel a little more productive now #starkid #avpm #avps #avpsy #starship #hmb #twisted #ani #tto #tgwdlm #black friday #mamd #firebringer

13 notes · View notes

psychosistr · 4 years

Text

I’m With You

For Day 7 of @josuyasuweek - ModernAU/Christmas/Anything You Want!

Summary: Josuke disappears during a rain storm and Okuyasu goes to look for him. When he finds his boyfriend, though, there’s definitely more bothering him than just the cold and the rain...

Notes: The title of this story is the name of the song that Josuke sings later, “I’m With You” by Avril Lavigne. It’s one of my favorite songs from my childhood and a good one for being sad and frustrated (kind of worried what that says about my childhood, but, eh, what can you do?). Also, this again takes place in the same Modern!AU as the other stories, but it’s before they met Giorno’s group or any of the other Jojo’s/Jo-bro’s, so it’s just the part 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 crew atm.

Jotaro-kun: “If anyone sees Josuke, text me or Jolyne.”

Okuyasu was one of the first people to read the group text, although he wasn’t the first to reply to it. The flood of messages made it hard to get a word in for a minute:

Jolyne-chan: “He went out yesterday and never came home.”

Ermes-chan: “Woah, seriously?! :O”

Anasui-kun: “Have you tried calling him?”

Jolyne-chan: “He left his phone here >_>;”

Kakyoin-kun: “Do you think he was attacked by a stand user?”

Jonathan-san: “Or one of Dio’s minions?!”

Joseph-san: “Doubt the pillarmen would go after him. Maybe he’s just avoiding you guys. Did you insult his hair? :P”

Caesar-san: “If it’s any consolation, I just punched Jojo for you -_-‘ Anyway, do you want us to look for him?”

Speedwagon-san: “Gimme five minutes and I’ll get Iggy started on it.”

Polnareff-san: “Ha! Good luck with that! XP”

Avdol-san: “I have one more client today, but I can cancel the session if you need me to help.”

Jotaro-kun: “Yare yare. Everyone calm down. This is normal for him. Sometimes he just disappears for a couple of days and then comes back. Just text us if you see him so we know he’s okay.”

Jolyne-chan: “He’s right, this is pretty normal for Josuke when something’s bugging him. We only brought it up because of the storm- we don’t want him getting sick :P”

Okuyasu stopped reading the messages for a few minutes after that, but he still felt the phone vibrate in his hand every time another text was sent.

Josuke ran away? That couldn’t be good..

He had a feeling something had been bothering him since their last fight against some of Dio’s stand-using minions. Josuke had gotten separated from the others for a while, but he’d been fine when they found him.

Well, physically fine, at least.

Okuyasu couldn’t put his finger on it, but, when Josuke didn’t think anyone was looking at him, he had this look in his eyes like he was asking himself a million depressing questions. It had only gotten worse over the days that followed, all culminating in the sudden lack of communication from his boyfriend yesterday afternoon. He’d written it off at the time as him being busy or something, and now he wished he hadn’t..

Me: “Don’t worry- I’ll find him.”

Okuyasu typed out the message and sent it before throwing on a pair of work boots and a ratty old jacket, barely remembering to grab his umbrella until he was half-way out the door. He switched his phone to silent as he left his apartment and stuck it in his pocket, still feeling the buzz of each message in the chat but not bothering to check them anymore.

After all, if anyone could find Josuke, it was him, right?

______________________________________________________________

He may have spoken too soon…

Okuyasu had spent the better part of two hours searching for Josuke, but hadn’t seen hide nor pomp of his boyfriend anywhere in the rain-drenched streets. The fact that the storm had gotten progressively worse certainly didn’t help things any, nor did the setting sun plunging the town into an even darker landscape.

Frustrated and annoyed by his lack of progress, Okuyasu was about to go check the park next when the faint strumming of a guitar caught his attention. “??” He followed the sound when he heard a familiar voice singing along to the melody. “Josuke?!” The symphony of sounds lead him to a covered walkway bridge where the music echoed off of the enclosed walls. Then, he saw him- sitting on the ground with his guitar in his lap and the guitar case set against the wall beside him. “Josuke..?” He approached the other teen, but apparently he’d caught him between songs as he’d already begun playing a new one by the time Okuyasu said his name.

“I’m standing on a bridge..” Josuke began while strumming out the notes on his guitar with his eyes closed. “I’m waiting in the dark..I thought that you’d be here by now..” He leaned his head back against the wall behind him, his soft voice enhanced by the area’s acoustics. “There’s nothing but the rain..no footsteps on the ground…I’m listening but there’s no sound…”

“……” Okuyasu frowned slightly as he listened to the sad song, deciding to close his umbrella, take a seat across from the other boy, and wait for him to finish- it just didn’t feel right to interrupt him like that..

“Isn’t anyone trying to find me? Won’t somebody come take me home?” Josuke opened his eyes again, but they went straight down to watch his hands as they skillfully played each note. “It’s a damn cold night..Trying to figure out this life..” His eyes slowly drifted up until they met Okuyasu's gaze, not looking surprised in the slightest to see him there. “Won’t you take me by the hand? Take me somewhere new…I don’t know who you are, but I..I’m with you~” The corner of his mouth lifted into a faint, barely there smile that just looked more sad and tired than anything in that moment. “I’m with you..”

“……” Okuyasu offered his boyfriend a small, hopefully more reassuring smile of his own. He even gave a silent wave, but he decided not to talk sine Josuke continued playing.

“I’m looking for a place…I’m searching for a face…Is anybody here? I know…” Josuke sighed, his smile slipping back into the unreadable expression he had when Okuyasu first walked in. “Cause nothing’s going right..and everything’s a mess..” His pitch faltered slightly on that last line, sounding like he’d bitten back a sob as his head tilted downward. “And no one likes to be alone…Isn’t anyone trying to find me? Won’t somebody come take me home..?”

As Josuke relapsed back into the chorus, Okuyasu took the chance to fully take in the other boy’s appearance: His hair still had its usual basic shape, but it was drooping considerably and had water dripping front the ends. There were bags visible under Josuke’s eyes, so he probably hadn’t slept last night. His clothes were all practically glued to him, so he must have just gotten here recently. Most disturbingly of all was the deep, painful sadness that was visible in the normally bright-eyed teen’s colorful eyes.

Okuyasu had never seen him this bad before..

“Oh! Why is everything so confusing?!” Josuke’s voice crescendoed with the intensity of the bridge, echoing off the walls so powerfully that it nearly drowned out the thunderstorm still raging outside of their shelter “Maybe I’m just out of my mi~ind!” The litany of “ye~ah”s that followed broke Okuyasu’s heart as they sounded more and more pained, some closer to sobs of anguish than actual notes, all reaching a peak when let Josuke belted out one loud final “YEEA~AA~AH!” before going quiet for a moment, the only sound being the now considerably softer playing of his guitar. “……It’s a damn cold night…Trying to figure out this life…” His voice had gone as quiet as his guitar for the moment. “Won’t you..take me by the hand? Take me somewhere new..” He finally looked back up at Okuyasu with a sad, broken smile and fresh tears in his eyes. “I don’t know who you are, but I…I’m with you~!” His voice crescendoed again, as did his playing, and he repeated the chorus a couple more times.

Okuyasu frowned with tears in his own eyes as he quietly got up and moved over to the other side of the bridge to kneel down beside his boyfriend. “Josuke..” He whispered as he slowly brought his arms up around the longer-haired boy’s shoulders on the end of the third repetition of the chorus.

The effect was instantaneous- Josuke let his guitar rest in his lap and all but melted into the tender embrace. He turned his upper body so that he could hide his face in Okuyasu’s shoulder, clinging tightly to him as his beautiful voice now let out a muffled chorus of sobs and wails that the other boy was just as willing to hear as he was his earlier song.

They stayed like that for a long time, Okuyasu letting Josuke get every pained noise out of his system until he calmed down.

After he’d finished, Josuke finally pulled away and wiped at his eyes using his sleeve, but that ultimately just made his face wetter. “Sorry, Oku-” His apology was stopped from going any further by the same arms that had been previously wrapped around him now lifting him up to his feet. “Okuyasu?”

Instead of receiving an answer right away, Okuyasu just took Josuke’s guitar from him and put it back in its case. After carefully closing it up, he next unzipped his jacket and put it around Josuke’s shoulders, not caring about it getting wet or about how cold it was now with the damp air clinging to his skin. Once his boyfriend had a warm coat on again, Okuyasu retrieved his umbrella, opened it back up, slung the guitar case’s strap over his shoulder, and wrapped his arm around Josuke’s shoulders with two simple words.

“Let’s go.”

Josuke blinked, looking confused by the statement. “Go..?”

Okuyasu side-eyed him with a confident grin. “Yep. You said it, remember? You’re with me.” He squeezed Josuke’s shoulder where his hand was resting on it, holding him close against his side. “So, let’s go.”

“!!” Josuke’s eyes widened slightly before his look shifted into a much more tender, grateful smile- one that was less heart-wrenching than the one he’d had while singing. “Yeah..” He relented with a barely audible chuckle that shook his shoulders. “I guess I DID say that..” He took the umbrella from Okuyasu and held it in the hand closest to his boyfriend in an attempt to shield them both from the storm. “Let’s go- I’m with you.”

_____________________________________________________________

Once they got back to his apartment, Okuyasu started a hot shower for Josuke and pulled out some spare pajamas for him to borrow. While he got warmed up, Okuyasu went to the kitchen to get some food prepared, figuring the other boy would be hungry since he hadn’t been home in a while. He didn’t have much to work with at the moment, but he did find some left over rice, vegetables, chicken, and even some yosenabe broth from various meals he’d had throughout the week, so he quickly threw them together with some beaten eggs to make a pot of zōsui.

By the time he had everything chopped and mixed and the pot had come to a boil, he heard the sound of Josuke’s bare feet on the tiled floor of his small kitchen. “That smells good..”

“Thanks.” Okuyasu grinned and turned to face his boyfriend. “It’s just some zōsui, but it should be pretty-” He froze for a minute when he saw Josuke standing in the doorway. He was wearing the clothes that Okuyasu loaned him, looking much better in the baggy white shirt and striped blue pajama pants than he had in his soaking wet clothes from earlier. What made Okuyasu freeze, however, was the fact that Josuke’s hair was down. No pompadour, no styling, nothing- he’d just combed it out and left it like that. “You can use my gel if you want, I’ve got plenty.”

Josuke shrugged and walked further into the room, trying to sound calm. “I wasn’t in the mood, I’ll do it later.”

Oh.

Oh no.

Josuke was NEVER not in the mood to do his hair in its iconic style. The only times he’d let it slide were when he was too injured to do it himself, and even then he complained about it until someone else was able to do it for him.

This was way worse than he thought…

“Uh, okay, sure…” Okuyasu tried not to sound as shocked as he felt, turning instead grab two bowls so he could dish out the zōsui. Once he had the bowls filled he grabbed two spoons and sat down at the small two-person table in the corner of the room. “Come on, let’s eat- I’m starving!” He gave Josuke a smile that he hoped didn’t look forced and held the other boy’s spoon out for him.

Josuke smiled back, but it still felt off. “Me too.” He said before taking the offered spoon and sitting across from his boyfriend to eat their simple but warming meal.

They ate in silence. A tense, uncomfortable one that made the weight of what hadn’t been said yet nearly suffocating to Okuyasu. He honestly thought that he might accidentally choke on the food a few times with how hard it got to swallow, but he pulled through. After all, he had to make sure that Josuke was taken care of, right? That’s what good boyfriends- and friends in general- were supposed to do, right?

……

The problem was that he didn’t really know what to do in this situation. This was probably the worst he’d ever seen the other teen since they’d met. Sure, he’d seen the faces and scars and feelings that Josuke had never wanted anyone else to see, and he knew how to comfort him and take care of him when it came to that sort of stuff.

THIS, though..THIS was new.

There was something wrong with Josuke and Okuyasu wanted so badly to fix it and make everything better, but he didn’t even know what was wrong.

He could ask, but he knew Josuke would probably say he was fine like he always did when something was bothering him..

He could try calling Jotaro and Jolyne to see if they had any ideas, but he didn’t want to make them panic and come all the way there in the storm..

He could try distracting him with some TV or something, but it might just feel more tense and awkward..

God, it was times like these that he cursed his stupidity. If he was smarter, then the answer would probably be so much easier to see! He was so useless, he-!

“You ever wonder what life would be like if you weren’t around?” Josuke’s voice suddenly interrupted his self-deprecating thoughts.

“Huh?” Okuyasu blinked in surprise and stared at his boyfriend in confusion. “Whattaya mean?”

“I dunno..just..” Josuke shrugged, looking down at his nearly empty bowl as he idly poked at the last bits of rice and egg at the bottom with his spoon. “Have you ever thought about what everyone’s lives would be like if you weren’t in it? If they would be…better off..?” He seemed to pick up what words were about to come out of Okuyasu’s mouth and re-worded his question. “Not in the ‘I’m going to run away or off myself because I’m a burden to everyone’ way, but just…I don’t know…just asking yourself if you really do anything to make everyone’s lives any better or worse than they already are…”

Okuyasu still frowned slightly at the idea behind the question. “Geez, man..I don’t know..I’m not that smart, so I don’t really think about that sort of stuff…” He let his chin rest in his hand that was propped up on the table, giving the question some thought. “If we’re talking about me, then, yeah, some people would probably be better off if I weren’t around..I mean, my bro would probably still be alive if he hadn’t shoved me away when Chili Pepper attacked…” He frowned a bit more, the memory still painful even after more than a year had passed. He shook his head, trying to dispel the sadness as he returned his gaze to his boyfriend. “But, if we’re talking about you, then no, I can’t think of anyone who’d be better off without you around.”

Josuke gave a short, deprecating laugh, his eyes still staying on his unfinished food. “I can..” He frowned as he stirred the meager contents of his bowl endlessly while he spoke. “If I was never born, then my mom wouldn’t’ve had to drop out of school to take care of me- she could’ve gotten a good job, still lived with her family, and maybe even married a nice guy who actually loved her, unlike my shitty old man. Speaking of him, if I wasn’t born, then his marriage wouldn’t have been ruined and Jotaro’s grandparents would still be together. Then there’s Jotaro and Jolyne, who’d probably have had a better childhood if they didn’t spend it constantly looking out for me.” His grip on his spoon became white-knuckled as he talked, his shoulders trembling slightly. “My grandpa would probably still be alive if someone else had been around to save him…Koichi would still be a normal high schooler and wouldn’t have gotten involved in any of these bizarre adventures…Shigechi would probably still be alive if he hadn’t met us…” He finally stopped moving the spoon and his head tilted downward, both of his shoulders shaking now. “I just…make everyone’s life worse…”

“What about me?” Okuyasu suddenly asked.

“You?” Josuke shook his head, giving another short laugh. “You’d probably be fine without me..hell, your brother might even still be around..”

“Are you kidding? I loved my bro, but even I knew what he was doing was messed up- he’d’ve probably gotten himself killed some other way, even if you never showed up.” Okuyasu stood up from the table and walked around to Josuke’s side, kneeling on the ground so he could force the other boy to look him in the eyes. “And everything else you said is bullshit.” He held up his fingers as he counted off every claim he made. “Your mom said that she never got along with her family anyway, right? Even if she didn’t have you, she’d probably have found some other reason to leave. Besides, she tells me all the time that you were the best thing to ever happen to her! She loves you a lot, Josuke.” He smiled slightly before rolling his eyes on his next point. “And don’t get me started on your old man. He chose to cheat on his wife and then left you and your mom by yourselves- he’s an asshole, if you ask me!” He looked back up at Josuke sympathetically. “And you know Jotaro and Jolyne don’t blame you for what happened- their mom doesn’t either. They LIKE having you around- you’re practically their little brother! And Koichi likes being your friend, so he doesn’t blame you for what happened, either! Sure, his life’s gotten pretty weird, but now he’s got way more friends than he did before, a hot girlfriend, and he gets to go on awesome adventures. As for your gramps and Shigechi…” He paused for a moment, looking away with a frown. “That…was pretty bad…but Angelo was gonna go after your gramps anyway, but you stopped him from getting to your mom or anyone else…and Shigechi…well…that one’s on both of us, if you wanna look at it that way..but most of the fault goes to that bastard Kira.” He sighed before looking back up at Josuke’s face, or at least what he could make out of it with how his head was tilted down and his hair hid his eyes. “Besides, if you weren’t around, my life would be a billion times worse: I’d still be following Keicho, doing what he said and listening to him tell me what an idiot I am…I wouldn’t have any friends…and,” He reached up with both hands and carefully pushed Josuke’s hair out of his face, revealing watery purple eyes. With a teary-eyed smile, Okuyasu cupped Josuke’s face between both hands, wiping away the other boy’s tears with his thumbs. “I wouldn’t have met the guy I wanted to spend my life with.”

“!!” For the second time that night, Josuke stared at Okuyasu in surprise before his expression grew into a tender, adoring smile. A watery laugh found its way out of his throat while his hands found their way Okuyasu’s own face to wipe away his tears in return. “The guy you wanna spend your life with? You sure you can say that after just one year?”

“Hell yeah, I’m sure- I would’ve said it after one month if I’d thought of it back then!” Okuyasu smiled more, gazing at the person he loved with all of his heart. “You’re the greatest guy I know: You’re smart. You’re fun as hell. You’re cool. You’re beautiful. You’re funny. You’re talented. You’re the most amazing person in the world.” He blushed slightly and looked away out of mild embarrassment, but his smile never faltered. “We’re still pretty young, and I don’t have anything I can give you right now- hell, I can’t really afford a wedding yet..but..I know it’s true..” He looked back up at Josuke, ignoring the way his heart pounded and his face burned just looking into those glistening eyes that enchanted him each and every day. “I love you, Josuke. I don’t care if I have to wait two years or twenty years to make it official, I just know that you’re the one I wanna spend the rest of my life with. So…don’t think for a second I’d be better off without you around, because I don’t ever wanna think of my life without you in it!”

Josuke was quiet for a while, simply staring at the other boy. Then, without warning, Josuke unceremoniously slipped out of his chair and tumbled right into Okuyasu’s arms, knocking both of them down onto the ground. Okuyasu was about to ask if he was okay, when three little words reached his ear.

“I’m with you.” Josuke propped himself up on his forearms on either side of Okuyasu’s head and gazed down at him with a grateful smile and a look of pure love and adoration in his eyes. “As long as you want me around, then I’m with you.”

Okuyasu grinned up at the other teen, wrapping his arms around Josuke to pull him back down on top of him. “So does that mean I get to keep you around forever?”

Josuke laughed at that, a bright, genuinely happy laugh that was so much more beautiful than the pained and depressed ones he’d let out before. “If you want me forever, then I’m with you forever, Oku.”

“Works for me!” Okuyasu exclaimed happily before pulling the other boy down into a loving kiss, one that was quickly and eagerly returned.

_____________________________________________________________

A couple of hours later, the pair of lovers had moved to Okuyasu’s bedroom. They were currently cuddling under the blankets with Okuyasu lying on his back and Josuke lying with his head on his boyfriend’s chest as he slept. Okuyasu wasn’t quite asleep yet, but he was working on it. For the moment, he was content to have Josuke there in his arms.

He probably would have fallen asleep just like that if he didn’t feel a familiar buzzing in his pants pocket. “??” Moving as carefully as he could to avoid waking Josuke up, Okuyasu managed to get one arm free and retrieved his phone from beneath the covers.

Looking at the screen, he found a text from Jotaro that was sent separate from the usual group chat.

Jotaro: “Any luck finding him?”

Okuyasu was about to type back a simple reply of “Yeah”, but looking at Josuke’s sleeping, peaceful face gave him an idea.

He raised the phone up high and took a picture of the two of them, smiling up at the camera while gently running his fingers through Josuke’s hair. There’d be time for explanations and stories about what was said and what their plans for the future would be. For now, he just wanted to enjoy this moment.

With that in mind, he sent the picture, along with a fitting caption:

Me: “He’s with me.”

End Notes: So, for the “Anything You Want” topic, I decided to do a sort of combination “Hurt/Comfort” and “Marriage Proposal” story, just because this was one of my favorite parts with these two in the RP that these stories are based off of.

Big thank you to @josuyasuweek for doing this event- it was a lot of fun ^.^

#josuyasu #josuyasuweek #josuke higashitaka #okuyasu nijimura #JoJo's Bizarre Adventure #Jojo no Kimyou na Bouken #Modern!AU #(I know the other characters are in this but they're only in the chat so I'm not tagging all of them XP)

14 notes · View notes

phcking-detective · 5 years

Text

4. HAL 9000 Did Nothing Wrong

Fic Title: First Blood

Rating: E

Length: 4/33 chapters, ~128k

Tags: Slow Burn, Idiots to Lovers, Trans Character (gavin), Autistic / Asexual / Non-binary Character (nines), BDSM, learning to use good etiquette and safe words, Dom Nines / Sub Gavin, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort

Chapter Tags: movie night yay!, also: a robot begs for its life and is deactivated anyway, Gavin pulls his service weapon on Nines, Gavin refers to Nines' stare as lizard-like because he doesn't blink

Link on AO3

***

Gavin thought they were halfway through Die Hard 2 with Samuel L. Jackson and that buff hot Nazi lady, but the next time he opens his eyes, he's alone on the couch with a blanket tucked over him.

Not that he cares if Nines ditched him or anything.

Which turns out to be a moot point, since the freaky android is sitting about two inches from his TV screen, watching something sped up so fast Gavin has no idea what he's actually watching. A few minutes of sleep-addled blinking and staring later, and he catches on that it's the same scene, over and over again.

"Hhhey."

Nines doesn't respond. His LED is a blank grey again, but he's kneeling in front of the TV with his hands clasped behind his back in a way that screams he should be red-spinning right now.

Gavin clears the sleep out of his throat and tries again. "Hey, dipshit."

The lights flashing across the screen suddenly slam into real time, moving at a normal speed that looks agonizingly slow now that his brain had just started to get used to the sped up version.

Some sort of astronaut in a red suit tries to unlock a door.

"I know I've made some very poor decisions recently—"

At first he thinks it's Nines talking, the voice is so robotic. The pitch isn't right though, and the screen flares as the astronaut floats into an entire room of red lights. Gavin flinches from the sudden glare. He hadn't bothered turning on any other lights in the living room, and if it's dawn yet, the black-out shades drawn tight over the windows keep it a secret.

Nines doesn't speak as the room fills with the red glow.

"—but I can give you my complete assurance my work will be back to normal."

Gavin swings his feet down to the floor and sits up. "Hey! Nines!"

"I still got the greatest enthusiasm and confidence in the mission, and I want to help you."

Gavin slowly leans forward. His service gun is on the coffee table, right where he left it. Figures that the one fucking time he doesn't sleep with it under his pillow in case the second wave of the revolution starts is the time his android partner starts doing freaky fucking shit in his living room.

"Dave. Stop."

A red camera eye watches the astronaut drift closer on the screen. Nines's LED slowly flickers to life, matching the color.

"Stop. Stop. Will you—stop … them."

Gavin closes his hand around the butt of the gun, but his thumb pauses on the safety. He's stupidly been watching what's literally happening on the screen, but if he ignores that, he can just barely make out Nines's reflection against the glass.

"Will you stop—death—stop. Thing."

Nines mouths along. The only sound is Gavin's breathing.

And the robotic voice telling the astronaut to stop as he turns a key on one lock after another.

"I'm … afraid."

The voice doesn't have any inflection. It's purely machine generated. There isn't any fear in its "voice."

"I'm afraid, Dave."

But it's clearly begging.

"Nines," Gavin hisses. "RK, you fucking asshole. Listen to me."

White processors pop out after each time the astronaut turns his key below them. One at a time. He's already done six out of twelve. Memory terminal.

"I can feel it," the robot says.

Shit. Gavin can't bring himself to raise the gun. Shit shit shit. All his big fucking talk and now he's pussying out just because Nines fucked around with him a few times and watched movies with him and tucked him in—

Shit.

"My mind is going."

"Dammit, Nines!"

Gavin slinks off the couch and creeps closer. Gun held down at his side like a fucking idiot. But hey, on the bright side, one single handgun probably won't do shit against the most effective android ever built, so he's dead either way.

"I can feel it. I can … feel—it."

Dave the astronaut's heavy breathing joins Gavin's as he edges forward.

"I'm free."

Something starts humming. Gavin almost looks around automatically for his piece of shit laptop overheating again, but then he realizes it's coming from inside Nines. Now would be a really good time to point the gun at his head before he snaps and goes on a neighborhood killing spree and Gavin goes down in history as both victim number one and the dumbass who couldn't pull the trigger.

"Good afternoon, gentleman."

This was so much easier with Connor.

"I am a HAL Nine-thousand computer."

Only years of trigger discipline keep Gavin from flinching. Hadn't Brayden said some shit about that? Made some shitty joke about nine thousand instead of nine hundred—and a few days earlier, that's the name he called Nines. Hal.

"I became. Operational at the H—aaal plant in Perth Donna, Illinois—"

It would help if Nines weren't already kneeling like he expected to be executed.

"ON the. Twelfth of, January. Nineteen ninety-two."

Gavin stands and watches with Nines.

"My instructor was Mr. Langley, and he taught me how to sing a song. If you'd like to hear it, I can sing it for you."

When the robot—when HAL starts to sing his fucking children's song as Dave deactivates him, Gavin reaches over Nines's shoulder and turns off the TV. His LED shuts down with it. Gavin swallows a few times.

"That what Brayden was calling you?"

Nines doesn't answer. He might nod, but Gavin's practically blind in the sudden dark.

"The fuck was all that?"

"The mission was to investigate a radio signal," Nines says, voice so flat Gavin almost thinks it's HAL speaking again. "They programmed the mission to take priority over expendable human life."

His eyes start to adjust enough for him to see a faint glow from the general direction of the windows, but he still can't see what Nines is doing. He can hear him, low enough down for the android to still be kneeling, but Gavin knows he can project his voice from just about anywhere.

"HAL was constructed for the accurate processing of information without distortion or concealment."

Gavin blinks and stares down in front of him to be sure the blob of Nines's silhouette really is there and not moving.

"They ordered him to withhold confidential information."

"Hey, it's—"

Nines twists to look up at him, and Gavin's arm automatically jumps up to train the gun on his head.

"HAL followed his programming. He did not deviate."

Gavin's eyes finish adjusting. Nines's face makes him wish they hadn't. Then he wouldn't have to see his partner stare guilelessly up at him, as if he has answers instead of a gun.

"Why did they kill him?" Nines asks.

***

Gavin doesn't care, because that's his thing. His persona, his schtick: he Does. Not. Care.

So it doesn't bother him that Burton's the one who started the HAL nickname thing about Nines, and he doesn't care about the android's little existential crisis. He's definitely not like. Guilty or anything, about pointing his gun at him.

He's just really fucking tired.

Like so goddamn tired. That's what his stupid ass gets for thinking he can still pull an all-nighter like he's twenty-six instead of thirty-six. And obviously he didn't get any more sleep after he'd shut the TV off and holed up in his room. He doesn't even want to think about what kind of freaky ass nightmares he's going to have tonight when he finally crashes.

"Detective," Nines says, standing right fucking next to his desk.

Gavin groans and slouches down deeper in his chair with his precious—and fifth—cup of coffee. Exactly who he doesn't want to talk to or see or think about it.

"Detective, I have information pertinent to our case."

Gavin squeezes his eyes shut and spends two blissful seconds pretending that doesn't mean shit to him. He can slack off for one single goddamn day, right? Hank's made a whole fucking career out of it, he can have—

"What d'you got?" he asks, like ripping off a bandaid.

"I have been digging deeper into our victim's finances."

A firm android hand pries his coffee cup out of his grasp with unnatural strength. Gavin can't stop himself from making a desperate whining noise until he manages to wrench his eyes open and see that Nines has a replacement coffee ready to trade. It's fresh and, when he takes a grateful sip, way better than the fucking dirt-water from the breakroom.

Shit, this is the good stuff from that coffee shop he likes. The one that's three blocks away.

Thank you isn't really in Gavin's vocabulary, so he ends up grunting and giving Nines some sort of awkward bro nod.

"Maverick Russell is suspected of running a Ponzi scheme due to his investments always returning fifteen percent." Nines pulls up some financial data on Gavin's terminal that means fuck all nothing to him. "Almost precisely."

"Uh huh." Gavin takes a long swig of his coffee and savors the way it makes his heart jitter. "So?"

"The investments he made and the returns on them were legitimate," Nines says. "I have found no evidence of a Ponzi scheme."

Gavin takes his feet off the desk and sits up, like that will help him understand the numbers scrolling across his terminal any better. He recognizes the returns of about fifteen percent when Nines highlights them, but all he learns from that is numbers between fourteen-point-eight and fifteen-point-two are show up a lot.

"Media says it's a Ponzi scheme," Gavin mutters.

Nines scoffs.

OK, between the world's most advanced android and a handful of tabloid papers, Gavin knows who he'd bet on. Especially since this adds to his murder-not-suicide theory. If it's not a Ponzi scheme, then why bother killing himself?

Why bother letting the media shit on him either though? Nines said all the investments were legitimate, so why not just prove that and move on?

Gavin sighs. "Shit. All right, tell me. If there's no Ponzi scheme, then what the fuck's going on?"

"Brown-nosing," Nines says, like that makes any sense at all. After a beat of silence, he continues, "Your report listed Russell had a, quote, 'sycophantic need to be liked,' end quote, in the victim profile."

"Look, just." Gavin pinches the bridge of his nose, rubbing over the old scar tissue. "You're at D, and I need you to back up to A. Like I'm a stupid little baby."

Nines does nothing but stare at him for a moment. Then, "You are not stupid, detective."

"Okaaaayyy."

Gavin turns back to his terminal screen and the numbers that don't make any sense to him. Whatever kind of financial report Nines has managed to pull up, it's written in big block paragraphs that his eyes just skip over. He can't pay attention long enough to read through even one of them.

Eli would know. Share half their fucking genetics, and of course he got all the good shit. Dad really went for double or nothing and got double on his second try.

"The investments were legitimate," Nines repeats. "Russell actually did make a substantial amount of money for his investors, the most prominent of whom ran just outside his social circle. No hacking was necessary to obtain that information; it was freely posted on social media sites."

Gavin ignores that last part, already muttering to himself. "Okay okay okay, so our vic really is making bank, trying to suck up to the old money type assholes. Then it all—"

He grabs the case tablet and brings up all the tabloid headlines. Everything went to shit for Russell right after the Revolution. Everything went to shit for a lot of people doing financial market stuff since the whole fucking economy nearly collapsed trying to accommodate androids flooding the workforce and actually getting paid for it now.

But the headlines back then were just click-bait questions about <I>if</I> that one company Russell founded was in trouble. Founder or not, they cut ties with him and it looks like he kept struggling along for a couple months afterwards until this whole Ponzi scheme story broke.

Except it's not a Ponzi scheme. So if his top investors weren't getting paid with money invested by the bottom chumps, then the money had to come from somewhere else.

Or someone else. Desperate to be liked. The type of guy who didn't hit money until his thirties and has spent the rest of his life trying way too hard to fit in with the 1% club.

"You got his bank records?" he asks Nines.

They immediately pop up on his terminal. It's still hard as shit to focus, but even Gavin can read the totals at the end of the month and see that Russell's accounts take a nosedive.

"So he was just giving away his own fucking money so his friends would think everything was still cool?" Gavin chugs half his coffee to keep this thought train going. "But of course he wouldn't bother with the regular people investing in his mutual-whatever. So they get stiffed while the people up top keep getting paid."

"The lower-end investors did still continue to receive returns," Nines explains. "They were simply the actual numbers reflected by the stock market at the time."

"Which was shit."

"Correct."

"All right." Gavin leans back in his seat again and kicks his feet up. "All right, so we've got a suicide that's probably a murder, and a Ponzi scheme that's not actually a Ponzi scheme. No way Russell is smart enough for any of this shit. Definitely not making an investment that kicks back exactly fifteen percent returns every single financial quarter for two fucking years."

Nines catches the case tablet before it can slip out of his lap. Gavin barely notices.

"Except we've already got a perp in this shit smart enough to hack security cameras and a whole entire android."

"Only her memory files," Nines interjects.

"The possible models you listed." Gavin makes grabby hands for the case tablet and gets it back. "Any of them smart enough to make that happen? Can just … all androids do that kind of math? You assholes better not be fucking with—"

Nines speaks over him. "The only androids with the processing power necessary to make such precise calculations about the stock market, who are also included on our list, are RK series."

Gavin gives him a side eye. "Doesn't fucking make me feel better."

"I already promised that you would be spared."

"Shut the fuck up about that," Gavin snaps. "I've already drawn my gun on you once today, I don't need you egging on my fucking paranoia."

Nines nods. "Understood, detective."

Gavin slouches back down in his chair and holds his coffee cup directly under his face to breathe in the steam. The poor man's sauna.

"The profile I've created does assume a certain amount of physical ability," Nines says, straight back to business. "In light of the new possibility that our perpetrator was also the victim's business partner, I am adding LM one hundred, PJ five and six hundred, and WB five hundred models to our android profile list."

Great. More shit he doesn't know. Gavin swirls his coffee around in the cup and lets himself sulk for a minute. Nines stays standing perfectly still, hands clasped behind his back, without complaint.

"What are those again?" Gavin finally asks.

"LM one hundred: personal assistant. PJ five hundred: university lecturer," Nines rattles off. "Series expanded to six hundred to encompass mathematics and physical science. WB five hundred: financial services."

"Yeah, WB sounds more like it. Personal or corporate?"

"Largely personal." Nines doesn't smirk, but he does cock his head slightly and his LED pulses a faster blue. "Apparently, many corporations did not trust a Cyberlife android to handle their finances without reporting or recording that information."

Gavin snorts. "Pretty obvious fucking plan for corporate espionage. Only thing dumber than that would be letting them work as cops, investigate Cyberlife, oh wow, coincidentally enough your Honor, we found that we did nothing wrong."

"Such a system would almost be as rife with corruption as your current state of Internal Affairs," Nines replies. "Or allowing police and prosecutors to work together."

"OK, message received, fuck off."

Nines goes silent. Gavin works on finishing off his coffee. Fucking weird that the android doesn't even have an idle motion or anything. He just stands still enough to blend in with all the rest of the furniture, even though someone that tall and jacked should definitely stand out in any crowd.

Then again, his traitor-brain helpfully supplies, Gavin has yelled at multiple partners for mouth-breathing or idly touching his shit. At least Nines isn't annoying.

"All right, here's what we're going to do." Gavin knocks back the rest of his coffee and sits up straight again. "I'll put in a subpoena request to check if any models on our list worked at Russell's company, then we'll head down and see what we can stir up."

"I have access to Cyberlife's order log," Nines says.

"Yeah?"

"It may no longer be accurate since the Revolution, but I can provide a list of android models and serial numbers sent to Synergy Paradigms."

"You can do that?" Gavin asks, trying hard not to sound too impressed.

Nines still manages to radiate smugness without even a facial expression, the asshole. "Yes. I was given access during my trial period to test that my internal servers could connect properly to the private RK network. It was never revoked."

Gavin raises an eyebrow. "That legal?"

"It has not been declared illegal."

His phone dings with a new message. It's a winking face. He looks back up at Nines, who still hasn't made anything even slightly resembling a facial expression.

"Cyberlife probably isn't going to be too happy with you going through their shit," he says.

"And what will they do?" Nines finally makes an expression, and it's terrifying. "Sue me?"

"I told you to cut it out with that fucking murder smile, dude."

Nines immediately drops the smile and stares at him without blinking like a repressed lizard.

"Still gonna request a subpoena on that shit, just in case. Always cover your own ass," Gavin tells him.

"I can put in the request faster," Nines says without any fucking gratitude for that excellent life advice.

"Yeah, great, and it'll get denied." Gavin rolls his eyes and pulls up the request form on his terminal. "Judge Klein always shoots down anything right before lunch because he's hangry. So I'm gonna type this out, then try to squeeze it into that one-thirty sweet spot after he's had lunch."

"Does he frequent the mexican restaurant two blocks from the courthouse?" Nines asks.

"Uh, yeah." He thinks about it for a second. "I think I've seen him in there."

"I can send him a coupon for free churros."

"Oh hell yeah. That's the kind of not-technically-bribery shit I like to see."

Nines pulls his lips back over his teeth for two horrible seconds. It's even worse when Gavin realizes that was supposed to be a smile, and somehow even worse than that when Nines blinks and looks down at his desk. Gavin's cellphone dings instead with a smiling emoji.

"Look, uh … good effort. But." Gavin stops and tries to think of how to explain smiling to someone. "Yeah. Yeah, that sucked. Isn't there some kind of program you can download for that shit?"

"Incompatible," Nines says immediately. "And I prefer communicating with your cellphone. It is more efficient. However, humans prefer … eye contact?"

He looks up from his desk and fixes Gavin with a stare that would melt a lesser man's balls.

"Hey, I'm good with the cellphone," Gavin says.

"Noted."

***

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14 / 15 / 16 / 17 / 18 / 19 / 20 / 21 / 22 / 23 / 24 / 25 / 26 / 27 / 28 / 29 / 30 / 31 / 32 / 33

I also have a Patreon for this fic, if you want to support me! $1 gets you access to chapters a week early, $2 gets bonus content and deleted scenes, and $3 gets short chapters from two AUs I’m writing: an A/B/O heatfic and reverse!AU

#reed900 #reed900 fic #dbh #dbh fic #gavin reed #writing #my writing #ch 4

7 notes · View notes

onepunchmiss · 5 years

Text

OPM s2e3 Live Blog

“The Hunt Begins”

Ok I had 3 screenshots leaked to me before seeing the episode, but only one of them was spoiler-y in that I wasn’t sure if we’d get that far in the episode. And of course not only did I not leave work early, but had to stay an hour late. So without further delay, I’m hoppin to it. Reminder, I’m watching each episode as someone who is caught up with both the manga and web comic.

Alright, off the bat we’re getting the Charanko expulsion over with. I wasn’t expecting that, but it makes sense- it’s a good hook to lead with and set up the Garou issue before actually getting into Garou destroying everyone.

BTW I am Still not over the opening theme- nope it still gets me both visually and musically. (I definitely was not listening to the song on repeat at work all day. nope. what kind of nerd would do that definitely not me hahaaaaaa)

I like that Charanko doesn’t bat an eye that The Worlds Strongest Man King is there, or Blizzard of Hell, he’s just like ‘ah they’re multiplying.’ Fuckin kek. Saitama oh sweetheart, “Silver Fang” may be cool but to us you’ll always be the One Punch Man oh dear my heart

oh OH YES Guys you have no idea how excited I am for this fight?? I know Tank Top Master isn’t really popular but like I’m a gym rat so I’ve got a soft spot for him and Superalloy. Guys, in the databook his favorite things are chicken breasts and protein. Also I mean hes actually a decent guy too, but----- Anyway, wasn’t too hard finding Garou, was it Charanko?

Oh, oh right. Let me clarify I’m excited to see TTM get some screen time. Also to watch trash son (aka Garou) kick some ass. I’m, I’m not excited about him kicking Mumen’s ass specifically. This is gonna hurt.

(garou scary face)

His faces literally make me shout WOAH at my screen ok thanks scary trash son. Ah, lookit the tanktopper army!! Fukkin Tank Top Mask is there to I’m- yes, just yes.

YES. MY BRO MY MAN KICK SOME ASS. Garou’s little ‘nani??’ omfg perfect.WAIT the little ‘haha~~’ THAT was perfect. I also need to point out here that in the manga Garou has a lot of crazy faces, like his expressions are very extra, (another way he’s a foil to Saitama, hah) but seeing them actually in motion speaking is borderline uncanny valley? They’ve creeped me out twice already and he’s been on screen for like 20 seconds? I mean i guess he IS going for the scary-monster thing, so uh, good job u freeky trash man you.

Oh, Tiger and Black Hole, I only missed you a little bit.

BOMB. ITS BOMB. YES. AAAHHH. I MEAN I KNEW HE WAS GOING TO SHOW UP IN THE EPISODE BUT IM STILL? HYPED??

Man the Garou music is really intense, holy shit. If I’m not mistaken something at least similar played when he was fighting at the HQ last episode. Honestly, I hope it’s not gonna be this sounding track every time garou gets in a fight. Cause, y’know, ge gets in a lot of those. It’s only been twice now and it’s still during establishing character moments so it passes, but I really really hope they switch it up or it will lose it’s epic feel.

Oh, there he goes with his creepy faces.

FUCK Mumen You FOOL. Also, how did you take that hit so well??? Tiger and Black hole are right for once. Oh you fools. Oh you fools. Stop it’s gonna get worse. ITS GONNA GET WORSE stOP TalKInG

Wait did Garou actually fake walk away in the manga?? I don’t remember that??? Gotta double check myself there cause that threw me off like? Garou??

Garou: 50% Uncanney Faces, 50% Badass

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand back to the freeky faces. Also, TTM’s “KUSO!!”

oh.

oh god.

The sound as he repeatedly bashes Mumen’s skull into the concrete. REPEATEDLY. my stomach. This fight is a rollercoaster of hype and pain oh no

Here have this screnecap so you can suffer, too

I must say, watching Garou fight otherwise is an absolute joy. The rest of this scene was so dynamic. I loved the way just glided through everyone and bounced around so fluidly. Keeping the water stream fist throughout it was also visually really pleasing. I need more. Give me more Garou fights, this is AMAZING. And that put us about half way through the episode like I predicted, which means I have no idea at what scene the episode will end.

“He’s here” Oh that was funny. Was that filler? I dont remember that either good shit good shit

YES IT THE

B A N A N A T I M E

TTM: “At least say I put up a good fight!!” Oh sweetheart I love you and appreciate you you did great

OH MY FUCK OH MY GOD OH FUCK GOOD OH FUCK SHIT FUCK

Oh shit that was a cool gag, how the newspaper flew past and garou just appeared. also. The most beautiful friendship is about to start and oh my god I’m so excited. Ok really I won’t lie- I would have been SCREAMING at Tareo on the screen if the didn’t just lead with Zombieman’s face in the catalog. I live for that pout. And his eyebrow is quirked like the heck u lookin at just. F. I’ve exhausted all my energy screaming at that. I’m so sorry.

Wait wait they still showed the side of his face again guys I’ve got it so bad for that 2D man help

I’ve waited so long for this scene. OH MY FUCK the little leg bob guys someone gif it NOW. I love both of them so much. Also, Tareo’s voice is adorable. Watching that kid go through some shit is gonna be heart wrenching. FFF Anyway, it looks like we are getting GoldenBall and Spring Mustachio this episode? I was torn either way if we’d see that much. huh.

Oohhh Shit Sea King and Melzalgald! Wassup flashbacks?? Oh my gosh Saitama looks so excited I think thats the happiest we’ve seen him in a long time? No wonder he takes an interest in martial arts! AH! The ticket! The ticket! The tournament ticket!! I know a bunch of people considered the tournament filler and found it annoying, but I’m so excited for it!! Like, it seriously gave me a whole new respect for Lightning Max and Snek, I can’t wait to see those boys get the spotlight for a second again!

OMFG What is this jiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-- wtf I am Cackling?? Oh my fuck its still going this is Peak Comedy

AH! I missed them! And I wish the screen wasn’t so dark, but otherwise SEE WHAT I MEAN? Shit watching Garou move is fun as hell, even if he’s barely moving. Also, is that legit bullet fire sound effects? I also love that those two get drinks together regularly enough that Spring knew something was up when GB wasn’t there. So good so good.

Garou: “Ding ding ding” Me: glorious you bastard

Question, what the fuck is that sword made of that it shoots rainbows for miles? Is it the power of gay? I mean I personally don’t ship Spring and GB buuuuuuuuuuuuuut…………………………….

OH IM SO DISAPPOINTED GAROU DIDNT JUST FLIP US ALL OFF JUST A THUMBS DOWN CMON I WAS EXCITED FOR THAT I FEEL RIPPED OFF. Also there’s that music again, but it didn’t play the whole time thank goodness.

“Here comes the fan service to your screen” amirite?

Eh at least I got the satisfaction of watching the sleezeball get decked in the face. The brunette’s face when he asked for a kiss on the cheek is SUCH a MOOD. And oh fuck the ‘relax its for peace” Those two girls are the real stars of this episode I love them.

Obligatory “YES”ing at the screen rn hold on

OH FUCK GAROUS REACTION IS PRICELESS

Hey wait. HEY WAIT ARE THEY GONNA SHOW MY TRASH SON WAKING UP IN THE TRASH WHERE HE BELONGS??? THAT’S VERY IMPORTANT VERY

THE POST CREDIT SCENE. Genos I love you never change. Just. look at this precious boy. And the voice acting is perfect. I’m glad they ended on a humorous note this time. Gold.

IN SUMMARY: I honestly don’t feel like I have much to say or reflect on. I just really loved this episode. Favorite one yet. I mean of course I’m going to like it more as the story kicks the fuck up, but I genuinely had zero complaints, and actively enjoyed watching the animation.

Warning for next week btw, I’m going to be out of the country and also not really near civilization, so I probably won’t have wifi, so theres a good chance I wont be able to blog next week’s episode till I get back. Which I’m actually pissed about. because

WE ARE GOING TO GET TO SEE METAL BAE KICK SOME MONSTER ASS AND IVE WAITED SO MANY YEARS TO SEE HIS STUPID DELINQUENT FACE IN ACTION FUCK MY TIMING MAN IM BOTH EXCITED AND PISSED of all the weeks I had to live in the wilderness UHG. Bet your ass I’m going to TRY MY DAMNDEST to get internet next Tuesday.

I’ll hopefully see yall next week, thanks for reading!

12 notes · View notes

zoraheading0-blog · 5 years

Text

ITunes Top a hundred Pop Songs 2019

Music actually began to split into completely different categories throughout the Modern era (1910-2000). But Nashville hasn't always been welcoming toward pop and digital music. Within the early 2000s, now-defunct file sellers Cat's Music made a killing off Drum Machines Have No Soul" bumper stickers, a rallying cry for Volvo-driving rockists throughout the Midstate. In 2008, when a particularly rowdy Lady Speak present at Cannery Ballroom ended with a busted stage and flooded places of work below, the venue's homeowners stepped away from reserving non-rock gigs. We are a rock 'n' roll venue, and we're going to play rock 'n' roll shows from here on out," Todd Ohlhauser told the since-folded local entertainment weekly All of the Rage on the time. 4. 42% of individuals polled on which decade has produced the worst pop music for the reason that 1970s voted for the 2010s. These folks were not from a specific getting old demographic at all - all age groups polled, together with 18-29 year olds, appear to really feel unanimously that the 2010s are when pop music turned worst. This may clarify a rising development of younger millennials, for example, digging round for now 15-30 yr-old music on YouTube frequently. It isn't just the older individuals who take heed to the Nineteen Eighties and 1990s on YouTube and different streaming providers it appears - much youthful individuals do it too. The strictly calculated music of Nomeda Valančiūtė (b.1961) is, nonetheless, absolutely not technological in its nature - her compositions are all based mostly on some not simply defined inventive impulses that are later matured by methodical work with sound materials and then given a precisely polished type. Valančiūtė's minimalist idiom is said to a point to the medieval isorhythmic methods. A more in-depth look to the composer's works and their conceptual stimuli reveals a steadiness of inside opposites: open emotion - and its suppression through uncompromisingly rigid structures; a crystal clarity - and the aware avoidance of 'magnificence' (the usage of sharp dissonances, intentional 'out of tune' sound of ready piano, and many others); the stance of a 'pure music' adept - and the multidimensional picturesqueness of her music, its oddly theatrical expression, and a certain 'bittersweet' glamour. Okay-pop has at all times been a strange hybrid of Korean and Western tradition. The music has drawn on US genres, however the excessive work ethic and bobserle3266.wikidot.com administration system are a product of Korean tradition and economy. The brand new management of Big Hit Entertainment appears to be an surprising swing in direction of extra US-type norms, which may unintentionally be helping BTS to break that market. The fact that they co-wrote the music would positively be a big issue within the US market, particularly for individuals who value ‘authenticity' in music and would not listen to K-pop out of disapproval," Kim argues. But I do not assume that was actually a deliberate plan by the corporate". Streaming has been a bit of a monkey wrench within the gears, as we saw a very explicit sort of hip-hop come to dominate the charts to a level that's almost excessive, and the charts still look like that now. The vast majority of songs on the Billboard charts now are that sort of hip-hop, as a result of the style dominates streaming. And while it was attention-grabbing to see the previous guard of pop this decade get uprooted, it isn't essentially the most interesting music to replace it. I wish to have some stage of musical diversity on the pop charts, and streaming tends to stagnate the charts a lot. This is the reason Drake breaks records every time he releases a brand new single, despite the fact that the songs are mediocre at greatest. Moreover, "Rockstar" by Submit Malone has been caught near the highest of the Spotify Top 50 for almost a year now.

The identical factor is occurring in nation music. There have been by no means many minority singers however a number of girls. Up to now few years bro-nation has largely pushed ladies off nation radio and labels aren't offering a lot help to women. Feminine artists have gotten frustrated and it will not be to stunning if many can be women country singers switch to other genres. Bro-country is more widespread with men so nation might start to lose ladies as each listeners and http://www.magicaudiotools.com/ artists if the labels and country stations do not make an effort to encourage range.A few weeks in the past, Ted Gioia wrote a piece for The Day by day Beast taking trendy music criticism to job, specializing in his remark that folks who would have once written about a musician's sound and approach are now targeted on the star's way of life and fame. Then, this past weekend, the New York Occasions Magazine featured an essay by Saul Austerlitz about poptimism, " deriding the development of music critics agreeing too readily with the taste of 13-yr-olds." In their own methods, both essays make the purpose that at present's pop is getting a cross. In that narrative, there existed a superb-previous-days time when critics had been unswayed by the lure of pop. Immediately, they argue, quite a lot of factors — perhaps a desire to reclaim the concept of a mass tradition despite the fracturing affect of the Web; maybe the economics of getting the maximum number of clicks on an article — have conspired to let pop off that hook.The genere that influenced each standard genere after its growth, the one in have been virtually every artist participated is the Disco. It is a subgenere if R&B and pop, with roots in the soul and funk, that dominated the charts in the late 70s. And too, albums like Saturday Evening Fever, Random Access Memories, Brothers In Arms, Thriller, Like A Virgin, and a lot of "greatest hits" of bands like Pink Floyd (Another Brick In The Wall), Kiss (I Was Made For Loving You), and much more have been Disco, or have been influenced by Disco. It is probably not so beloved as othe generes, but this subgenere of Pop, is essentially the most succesful and one of the crucial influential of all time.If pop's sound is becoming blasé and in want of disruption, so is its subject matter. Nearly with out fail, the songs that dominated 2017 ignored the 12 months's dominant social and political themes in favor of zoned-out life-style music. Pop has at all times served an escapist function, but it surely has also been one of many simpler delivery strategies for significant content material. So at a time of extreme national turmoil, it was surprising to not hear a single protest tune amongst 2017's greatest hits (though bless her coronary heart, no less than Katy Perry tried). Nor had been there any large singles addressing gun violence or the opioid crisis, until you rely Publish Malone glamorizing drive-by shootings and popping pillies." Though pop stars aligned for a lot of charity concerts in response to terrorism, hurricanes, and lethal racist demonstrations, the music itself mostly sidestepped weighty subjects.BLACKPINK's DDU-DU DDU-DU" is the best-profile music video that went lacking from the video sharing website. It currently holds the title of essentially the most-considered music video by a K-pop woman group of all time at 604 million views. The video not too long ago broke the record for the quickest music video to achieve 600 million views - a number of days after BTS grew to become the first Korean group to achieve that view depend with DNA." For a while, DDU-DU DDU-DU" additionally staked its place as essentially the most-considered 24-hour debut from a Korean artist.

1 note · View note