#i do this as a tradition at this point from...maybe WINGS album

[paladin-of-nerd-fandom65]

For the headcanons about au's post:

Batkids and Superkids Young age au

Okay, heads up that if there’s select characters that you wished to see which are excluded for the Headcanons I have in mind at the moment, I offer my apologies in advance.

That being said,

First, for at least two of the Robins;

Dick (10 years old) and Tim(my) (3-4 years old)

- Often times, whenever little Timmy ends up getting nightmares or just can’t sleep in his bed for whatever reason, he goes to Dick’s bed, sneaks into his big brother’s arms and listens to his heartbeat to be lulled back to sleep. Dick can’t help but smile in his sleep when Timmy comes to him

- One of Dick’s favorite things to do with Timmy is laying on his back on the carpeted floor and gently lift his baby brother in the up air with his two feet. Timmy feels like Superman when Dick does that for him

- Timmy’s favorite show to watch every Saturday morning is the Crocky Show. Dick and everyone else can always expect Timmy in the living room clad in footie pjs and holding a plushie no doubt Crocky themed for the occasion. It’s something of a tradition by this point

- Some nights, especially on weekends, Dick and Timmy would no doubt build pillow forts and play as Batman and Robin respectively

- During a class project in Timmy’s class in which they write a small paper on who’s their favorite real life superhero, Timmy picked Dick but kept it as a surprise until he read it (despite his stage fright) to said class and their parents and siblings. After he was done, Dick came up to him. Timmy asked “Did you like it?” Dick, with some happy tears forming in his eyes and a big smile on his face replies “I loved it. And I love you too, Little Wing” the two then hug 

And now for two of the Kent kids;

Chris (6 years old) and Jon (4 years old)*

- Chris first arrived to Earth from the Phantom Zone in an experimental pod that crash landed in the heart of Metropolis, with Superman catching it to soften said landing. After some STAR Labs testing that indeed confirm his Kryptonian nature and Government related shenanigans which Clark had to first free him and then clear all it up with them (with no doubt help from Oracle), Chris arrives into the Lane-Kent home, almost immediately meeting with their firstborn yet technically now younger son Jon.

- Little Jon took to an almost instant liking to his newfound Big brother though Chris, while liking him and feeling welcome, was a bit shy to decide Jon being a little brother outright, due to still feeling like an outsider to this newfound family and felling like he can get sent away at any moment. Not helping of course are his memories of his time in the Phantom Zone under the iron fist and tough parenting of his birth father General Zod starting to reform once again in his head, in particular in the forms of nightmares he gets

- While he might not fully understand and grasp what make Chris sad in his sleep just yet, Jon sometimes wakes up overhearing Chris’ fearful shaking and cries in his sleep, guessing correctly that his dreams are scaring him. Little Jon would then sneak some cookies and milk for the both of them for the night, something to help making Chris comfy enough to go back to sleep

- Over the course of the next few weeks and months, the two bond ever so closer. Even though little Jon at the moment doesn’t have superpowers in contrast to Chris, he’s not jealous about it. While he says superpowers are awesome, little Jon would be more of a ‘maybe when I’m a big boy than I can fly around like Daddy and Chris do, so I can wait’ type

- Chris is given the second slice of the cake at Jon’s 5th birthday because Jon insisted that he does since, in his words ‘he’s my big brother and I love him forever’. Chris almost immediately hugged little Jon as a result before finally taking his cake slice. Lois and Martha got photos of that moment still saved in their family photo albums

* For these headcanons, they are very likely how events transpire in my ideal version of DCU continuity, in particular for The Superman books

@spider-jaysart

#dick grayson #tim drake #chris kent #jonathan samuel kent #headcanon #au

[scotianostra]

Where hae ye been sae braw, lad? Whare hae ye been sae brankie, O? Whare hae ye been sae braw, lad? Cam ye by Killiecrankie, O?

Battle of Killiecrankie was fought on July 27th 1689.

The lines are from the Robert Burns poem, and most of us know it from The Corries version, although there are a few cracking versions kicking around on Youtube.

Things came to head when the government sent north an army to deal with Viscount Dundee and his newly formed Jacobite army in its Atholl heartland. However, at Killiecrankie the Jacobites delivered a crushing blow to the government troops under General Mackay. This was commonly known as Dundee’s Rising and the battle was the first major engagement in the Jacobite rebellions.

Blair Castle, was a fortress of considerable strategic value a point not lost on either side. Both sides wanted to control the castle. McKay harried his men to get to the castle whilst Dundee ordered the Marquis of Atholl’s factor a known Jacobite sympathiser to raise the Athollmen and seize the castle. It was Dundee who got there first with a force of 2,500 Highlanders.

McKay marched his force of some 4,000 men out of Dunkeld, up through the dangerous pass of Killiecrankie and was met by a detachment of Jacobites that Dundee had sent down the River Garry to stop the Williamite army. MacKay occupied Urrard House which is situated on the first area of open ground after the pass of Killiecrankie on the way to Blair Castle. MacKay made Urrard house his headquarters as he deployed his battalions in anticipation of the Jacobite attack.

On the high ground behind Urrard House Dundee’s Highlanders appeared with their pipes skirling, in their Highland garb they must have been a formidable site for MacKay’s army who immediately wheeled round to face them and moved up to occupy the land either side of Urrard House. MacKay realised his troops were in a bad position with the enemy above them commanding the high ground and the river Garry to their backs.

At 8pm with the sun behind him Dundee gave the order for the Highland Charge, within minutes the government forces left wing was routed with a torrent of fugitives fleeing the merciless Jacobite blades. They were spared many more dead, because the Highlanders came across the Williamite baggage train, which they looted buying MacKay’s fleeing remnants much needed time to make their escape.

MacKay lost about half his force of 4,000 men at Killiecrankie. Dundee lost some 600 men, the battle was all but over in about 20 minutes but the decisive factor was that James Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee had been mortally wounded. He was later buried at St Brides Kirk in Old Blair just beside Blair Castle.

Many Scots are unaware of the Jacobites fighting, other than Culloden, and maybe a few that have heard snippets about the ‘15 uprising, I would say that they only know about Killiecrankie due to the Robert Burns song a century later 1789. There are however four distinct folk songs called The Braes o' Killiecrankie. Although thought to have been sung earlier, the Burns version, a satiric account of the fight pours scorn on the leaders of the government forces.

The song I started the post with is addressed to a soldier, asked why he's all kitted out and where he's been. Pitcur, who fell in a furr, was Haliburton of Pitcur [a fine old Pictish place-name], fighting on Dundee's side, who fell in a drainage ditch. The speaker is evidently on the other side, that of Mackay. This song, to a great traditional tune of maybe the same date as the battle, is not completely the work of our Bard, it was certainly fiddled with by Burns. It's in a similar vein to "Cam Ye Oer Frae France?" and "Johnnie Cope" which sardonically commemorate and satirise undeniably serious, even grim, events.

It's a very Scottish thing to do...

If you look out for their version from 1975 which has a great video of the duo marching through the Pass. Jean Redpath sang it on her album The Songs of Robert Burns, Volumes 5 & 6. There is also a rousing rendition by Big Country on their covers album Undercover, which of course is more guitar orientated. Of course, there are also many versions by Pipe Bands to be found.

#scotland #scottish #history #battle #jacobites #civil war

[bearballing]

End of the year Asks exept they’re not asks and done like a livejournal/myspace answer thing

1) Song of the year? Rare Ould Mountain Dew - The Irish Rovers i actually discovered in on xmas eve last year, rare old mountain dew was mentioned in Fairytale of New York so I decided to look it up and this was the first version i found and then i fell down a rabbit hole of traditional irish music. lol. anyway this is still the best recorded version of mountain dew there is

runner up is Hell’s Comin’ With Me - Poor Man’s Poison it just so happened to be the perfect song for saints row 2022 AND for thaddeus. whomst i played as

notable mention is any version ever of The Rattlin Bog/Bog Down In The Valley-o. i found a youtube version of some irish wedding where the guests were drunkenly singing it at like 3am and even that slapped

2) Album of the year?

Not released in 2022 - The Irish Rovers 50 Years

Released in 2022 - Bronco, Orville Peck. and i had apparently forgotten to put the album on my phone until THE OTHER DAY???

3) Favorite musical artist / group you started listening to this year?

The Irish Rovers. Other notables are The Dubliners, Flogging Molly, Dropkick Murphys, Strugill Simpson, The Protomen

4) Movie of the year?

Nope. like enoguh for me to Physically own it when it came out on bluray.

5) TV show of the year?

we watched Parasyte and Ghost In The Shell, first time I saw both of them and i love when shows make me like obsess over the lore lmao.

OH AND UH THE UK COMING /SECOND/ IN EUROVISION.

6) Episode of tv or webisode that defined the year for you?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯  i dont think there was a specific episode of anything.

7) Favorite actor of the year?

jim byrnes, every time we find out something about him it makes our heads explode lol. we still have to actually watch half the stuff he’s been in

8) Game of the year?

joint Saints Row and Pokemon Legends Arceus. 95% of the complaints about saints row are stupid i loved it. i still want to try to 100% it (I’M CLOSE) at some point

9) Best month for you this year?

january/february maybe

10) Something that made you cry this year?

hurricane ian. also the death of 2 cats

11) Something you want to do again next year?

go to maine lol. we May be able to

12) Talk about a new friend you made this year

well i gained several mutuals on here.....

13) How was your birthday this year?

it was nice!!! i got to do shit that i wanted and just chill. and i’m finally not in my 20s anymore

14) Favorite book you read this year?

i don’t think i read anything new, only re-read things

15) What’s a bad habit you picked up this year?

fuck i dunno. procrastinating on vacuuming the house.

16) Post a picture from the beginning of the year

17) Post a picture from the end of the year

18) A memorable meal this year?

we had dinner at belle’s castle at disney world. IN THE WEST WING.

19) What’re you excited about for next year?

visiting my family in the uk. which i’m also nervous about ngl

20) What’s something you learned this year?

that gamefreak can truly get away with anything regardless of quality

21) What’s something new about your place of residence (room, home, or general location) now vs the start of the year?

WE OWN A HOUSE WE OWN A HOUSE WE OWN A HOUSE WE OWN A HOUSE

22) Favorite place you visited this year?

didney wurl trip was gr9, really liked getting to go to new england again even though the circumstances sucked.

23) If you could send a message to yourself back on the first day of the year, what would it be?

house happens on the 31st don’t worry about it

24) Did you keep any New Year’s Resolutions?

got a house lol

25) Did you create any characters (in games, art, or writing) this year? Describe one

no new ones but this was definitely the year of our lord Thaddeus2022. i played as him in saints row And in pokemon violet and accidentally created so much new lore for him. boxy also accidentally dreamed up yet another AU where he is the main character too lmao

[osamuniichann]

Map of the Soul: 7

After a ~315 day drought without new music and a comeback from the legends, we are finally back with MOTS: 7! It been a hot minute since ive done a album review (solely for myself LMAO) so lets get back into it bc this album is a home run

Interlude: Shadow. Here we have the extended version of the interlude. can i just say that the lyrics to this masterpiece are so real and true. its not suga speaking nor is it agust d, this is min yoongi speaking of his internal conflict with the celebrity life, which is heartbreaking. on another note, the visuals of the mv are stunning and the ending--dont u just wanna go apeshit??? truly a great addition to the album!

Black Swan. sister black swan has been with us for a month-ish now? it still bumps. HARD. i blasted this to and from my drive to work to the point where i was scared if id get sick of the song but that didnt happen. the way how its hard to pinpoint when and where a member would sing/rap because they INTENTIONALLY wanted the voices to blend as if they were one body. this is the group’s narrative on how no matter how passionate one is on a certain craft, when they lose that drive, its like a death. and it is up to themselves to spark that love and interest once again. a very relatable story across various media, talents, skills, etc.

Filter. When I first heard that this was a jimin solo showcasing the many sides of Jimin, i thought that it was going to be a sad ballad to kind of follow the theme mots: 7 seemed to give off; thought that it would talk about how he has to force personas onto himself to appeal to the masses, but it is the complete opposite. Jimin is all the faces he puts on, he can be cute, sweet, and caring Jimin but he is also a sexy, flirty young man that can attract any living being. how he switches from falsettos to a lower register voice is beyond me, what a versatile one he is! <3

My Time. Moving onto jungkook’s solo, I knew the lyrics were going to be sad especially when it seems to compare himself to others his age. How he speaks about how fast time runs for him, how his childhood and current life is not of the average 22 year old (LIKE UM HERE I AM, SAME AGE AS JUNGKOOK AND IM NORMAL AF while he’s out here breaking records?? WOW). but the life of jungoo can be a bit overwhelming, completely understandable. I just want our boi JK to know that he can be himself and live freely despite such different circumstances. On another note, the groove of this track is so GOOD. it reminds me of Ari and ugh i LIVE for this jam

Louder Than Bombs. When the track started, I could totally tell Troye Sivan helped produce it, it has such a unique sound that only Troye would use. It sounds like this song would totally be on a movie soundtrack IDK WHY. like, i can picture it during an apocalypse movie sldkjg im not completely sure what the meaning is to the song (bc im big stupid) but i feel like its a track saying that no matter the struggles, they will continue to sing confidently, strongly, and wholly to us endlessly. beautiful, just beautiful.

ON. Moving on to the title track of MOTS: 7! I’m very picky about strong anthem-type songs but ON is actually p addicting HAHA There’s a background sound that repeats in the back that sounds like Sans from Undertale, aint that wild LMAO but anyways, the Manifesto Film was crazy good. The drums, the band, the breakdown of it all? UNBELIEVABLE. Also, JK’s vocals during the bridge? H O W. That breakdown tho...oof, that was amazing. They still dance with the thirst that rookie bts would and i think thats why ppl are so drawn to them no matter how many years pass. Fun fact: the choreographer of ON as well as Dionysus actually is from my city in Hawaii and we went to the same high school THATS WILD. the talent she holds!

UGH! Rap line ATE this shit, are we KIDDING. An ode to all the hate comments that we receive, u can see how fed up they are. They made POINTS and we all agree, its the damn law. The way how they opened up with a gunshot, we knew it was coming. Everyone joked about how we bout to hear some gunshots on this album, well they threw ALL of it on this track. Can i just say that Hobi’s verse tho? it hits different, it really do. When they went “ahem, ahem. ahem, ahem-ahem, YOUR AHEM. AHEM-AHEM--” OOOOOUGH i felt that shit!! god, imagine this in concert...the building aint ready!

0:00 (Zero O’ clock). Now we have the vocal line track, we knew they were bout to present some vocals. Great sound, slow and reflecting. Not the first track I’d listen to but it is a great listen. The lyrics tho get to me. The way how they comfort us and say that life can be rough but you can be happy. no matter what happens, with the turning of the clock to 0:00, its a brand new day and we can make the day better. what a powerful message that all of us need to hear once in a while. we will be happy guys, we deserve to be.

Inner Child. Tae’s solo which is a message to his young self. I expected a slow ballad filled with his warm vocals reminiscent of Winter Bear, 4 o’ clock, and Scenery but boi was I wrong. He has this sunset glow voice that wraps u so warmly and the sound is just so happy, pure, and innocent. Its a hopeful message to his younger self on how we will change and be the amazing person we want to or will be. I was sobbing at this song, I tell u. It was 2:00 am in the morning and I was sobbing into my pillow. Imagine comforting your past self that everything will be okay and to take ur hand, it will be all worth it in the end. When he sang “ur my boy, my boy, my boy, my boy!” Ugh...the tears!

Friends. When I heard this was a vmin duet expressing their friendship with each other, I knew it was going to be so emotional! I didn’t expect such a fun, poppy sound tho. They truly are soulmates, the love they have for each other is so wholesome and real, it truly exhibits the love I have for my friends--they’ve been with me through thick and thin, during happy and sad times; the amounts of serotonin they give me is just HHHH. The way how Tae and Jimin have been friends since high school until now is just ugh...we love it. Towards the end when they started singing “you are my soulmate!” towards each other, i started sobbing so hard because WOW. the shivers i felt, this song made me so happy and full! 

Moon. Next we have Jin’s solo which is an ode to us army’s. And on another perspective, this is a song from the moon (jin) to the Earth (army)--i have tears in my eyes. The lyrics especially got me in a chokehold and made me sob, the way how he says that he will always be by our side no matter what, the same way how we are there for him...god. The chorus really gets to me, it feels so happy and thankful and I just want to tell Jin that I will forever follow him and the boys. They’ve been with me for years now and I will continue to support, love, and listen to them. Ily to the moon and back, our moon.

Respect. I didn’t expect a Namgi duet but HERE WE ARE. Goddd when i heard that i was SO EXCITE. They’ve known each other for +10 years now and they never miss the chance to tell everyone that they’ve been friends for that long. Not @ how they disliked each other at first but grew to be so mf close, to the point where their family. Ughhh, im so uwu rn. Im so happy, so so happy that Nams started it with AYO SUGA; i SCREAMED. Also, i heard that they recorded it in one take and i could see how much fun they had--especially considering that their rap styles are completely different. Even tho in the song they joke about not knowing what the word Respect means, we know...we just KNOW the high amounts of respect they have for each other. As they mentioned before, Yoon’s respects towards Nams’ leadership and care towards everyone and Nams’ respect towards Yoon’s love and passion for music and producing. Peak comedy is Yoongs overloading on autotune during his parts to the point where its intentional. Bless Namgi.

We are Bulletproof: The Eternal. I felt like a CLOWN when this track started. Like everyone, i thought we were going to have a third installment similar to that of the strong, hip-hop, gunshot-filled part 1 and 2 of we are bulletproof, but we were met with soft vocals and rap. The lyrics tho get to me. This truly was a song about their entire journey and i felt like I experienced all years with them. They’ve been through so much and the way how they sang “we are we are together/forever bulletproof!” They are proud of where they came from and it has stuck with them till now. They are such real people...i cry. ALSO the “We were only seven, but we have you all now.” Whenever i see pictures of their debut fanmeets/concerts vs now its just crazy. imagine singing as an entire being during concerts when they start “OOOOH OH OHH” im so immensely proud of the feats they’ve reached and im excited on what they do next! <3

Outro: Ego. The way how he started it with the fitness gram pacer test just like in previous albums, ugh what a throwback! this song is such a Hobi track, its fun, dance-inducing and its just so FEEL GOOD. the way how he switches flows and is capable of doing so is *chef’s kiss* the way how he speaks about the path he takes is difficult but he doesnt regret it...SOBS also the mv??? UGH SO CUTE. the flashbacks too;; i cry

ON (feat. Sia). With this track, there’s not much extra I can say, all my opinions still stand with the original track wit ot7. I jokingly told my friend that if Sia is gonna be on the track “hey nanana’ing” the same why Halsey was only “oh my my my’ing” i will ctfu. and...welp, that was what happened. I do love Sia tho so props to her!

Overall: I initially thought that MOTS: 7 was going to be a dark, ballad-filled album but it was anything but. It had so much fun songs, the lyrics are again, so deep and meaningful--it pulls at your heartstrings. It felt so raw, personal, emotional, and i love it in all its being. The boys will continue to amaze me no matter what they put out and i forever and endlessly will support and love them the same way they do for us. MOTS: 7 is a masterpiece and im in love

#trish speaks #map of the soul #7 #seven #mots #mots 7 #map of the soul 7 #bts #i do this as a tradition at this point from...maybe WINGS album #so idc if its just me rambling and being mf cringey i just needed a place to rant about good music and cool ppl lol #yall can ignore this dis just a thing for me to let out my emotions lmao #anyway imma go back to drawing haikyuu pretty setters

[floreleine]

~ Library Holiday Cheer ~

A Gunpowder Milkshake X-mas photo story

Madeleine: I know we never really celebrate any holidays, but we should do something for little Samantha! Scarlet said Sam and her father used to celebrate Christmas together, with gifts and decorations and baking cookies and all, we should help her keep the tradition alive!

Florence: well, maybe... But we can't really celebrate all together for too long, someone has to man the library

Anna May: and what if it just reminds her that her dad's dead? We don't need a crying kid on our hands

Florence: just a few gifts then? Or something a bit different from what they used to do, but still Christmas-y?

Madeleine: both! We'll all give her some nice gifts, and we do something together! You could take out your camera, Anna, and Florence you have some nice pictures in your room for a background, and of course I still have a lot of pretty things we can use for a proper photo booth...

Florence & Anna May: *instant regret*

Florence: ...I guess as long as you don't burn down the building trying to bake cookies we should be grateful, huh?

~

Samantha: mommy what's going on? Why does Auntie Florence look like she has a toothache?

Scarlet: *trying not to laugh* Florence is excited for your surprise is all, she can't wait to show you!

Madeleine (of course already wearing the biggest and brightest props, though she'd hand them over to Sam in a heartbeat): Happy Christmas!!!

Madeleine: we made a photo booth for you! Anna can't stay very long as she needs to go back downstairs to the library, but the rest of us can take pictures of you for as long as you like!

Samantha: *is shy* umm can I have this one? If mommy is wearing the other?

Scarlet: sure, come here let's take a picture for your photo albums

Samantha: I need pictures of everyone else too for a page in the album.

Scarlet: yeah, come on Florence, Anna May, be festive!

Madeleine: *hands out a halo and a santa hat*

Florence: *snatches up the bonnet as the lesser evil*

Madeleine: alright say cheese!

Samantha: you've got to really smile!!!

Florence: *carefully doesn't mention that Sam, who doesn't like to show her braces, isn't exactly grinning in her picture either*

Madeleine: wonderful! This will make a great page in your album, Samantha!

Madeleine: oh, and Anna May, if you're wearing the halo, here are also wings, come on, put them on, let me take a picture before you have to go! ...Aww, you really look cute in it!

Florence: *instantly jealous* I could wear the wings too...

Madeleine: *sees through her immediately* your santa bonnet is also very cute, Flo *kisses her cheek* don't worry.

Florence: *stops pouting and preens* *won't take off the santa hat all day now*

Samantha: *giggles* you guys are silly!

Florence: careful there, we haven't given you your presents yet!

Samantha: *turns to Scarlet* you'd get my presents for me mommy if Auntie Flo is being a meanie, right?

Scarlet: *winks* definitely, baby girl. Definitely.

~

Manips by my-gaydar-is-on-point, used with permission!

My GM tag list - lmk if you want on/off it: @verbumproxen @my-gaydar-is-on-point @geek-goth-gay @forestcircle @scissoringsappho @badwolfkaily @queencalanthes @nightwhite13 @sapphic-stress @change-the-rules @sarah-fiers @songbookff @phoenixhalliwell @noelevangilinecarson

Happy holidays to you all! <3

I have more Milippa and Andromaquynh photostories over on @lilolilyr, but this is my first in this fandom :)

#gunpowder milkshake #floreleine #scarletmay #gm sam #gm samantha #gm photo story #lilo makes photo stories #lilo creates #mine #mgdiop #tag list #gunpowdermilkshake #michelle yeoh #lena headey #freya allan #angela bassett #carla gugino #long post

[rebelwrites]

Day 1 - Christmas Tree

Sons of Anarchy x Reader

Prompt: “This tree’s bigger than my future”

Join The TagList Here 💜 // Count Down To Christmas 🎄 Masterlist

You were never the type of person to get hyped up over Christmas, but that all changed when you found your true family. It all started when you went for a job and from day one Gemma took you under her wing, calling you the daughter she never had.

So what once was a season of gloom for you, it was replaced with love and laughter.

“You are up early kiddo” Jax’s voice appeared behind you, as he joined you on the porch for the morning smoke.

Ever since you joined the Samcro family you moved in with Jax and Opie. Even though you were only a couple of years younger than the boys they seemed to like calling you kiddo. It was cute so you didn’t mind.

“Well it is the first of December” you smiled at him as you took a drag of your cigarette.

“You know I remember when you hated Christmas” he smirked, nudging your shoulder.

“Yeah well I never really had anyone to spend it with before and let’s face it mom is a bit obsessed with Christmas” you laughed.

“Yeah you got that one right” Jax nodded as Opie wandered outside.

“Apparently you should see the size of the tree she’s got this year” Opie laughed.

“The bigger the better I say” You said sticking your tongue out at the boys as you dropped your smoke into the ashtray “I’m gonna go get ready and head over and help her”

It had become a tradition that on the first of December, there was no club business. It was a family day, where you would all help decorate the clubhouse and Gemma would cook for everyone. It was something you looked forward to just as much as Christmas itself.

Everyone was now gathered around the tree that had just been delivered. This was the biggest tree Samcro had.

“Holy shit mom” you said looking up at the tree “this tree is bigger than my fucking future”

This had everyone in fits of laughter.

“Please don’t make me laugh so hard he might kill me off lass” Chibs said with tears streaming down his cheeks clutching his chest.

“Maybe that was the plan” you said emotionless shrugging your shoulders.

“Watch it you” he smirked pointing at you “or a won’t share me whiskey with you this year”

“Oh chibsy” you smirked wrapping your arms around his neck “you know I would just steal it if you”

Once everyone had caught their breath you were trying to work out how the fuck you were going to decorate the mammoth tree.

“Urm I vote for the kiddo to basically go bungee jumping off the roof” Tig winked.

“I will stab you with an icicle” you growled holding the decoration up at him.

“No one is stabbing anyone with the decorations” Gemma smirked taking it off you “let’s keep you away from sharp decorations today yeah”

“In all seriousness we don’t have enough decorations to put on the tree” You said as you somehow managed to get yourself tangled up in the fairy lights.

“Why is it every year you get yourself tangled in the lights” Juice laughed as he started to help get you out of the lights.

“It just happens okay and you lot let me do the lights so it’s all your fault” you pouted as you saw Jax taking a photo of you.

“Just another one to add to the album” he winked making you stick your middle finger up at him.

“I swear to god you are all children” Gemma laughed “but it’s what makes Christmas”

SOA TAGLIST

@chibsytelford @talicat713 @corebore123 @nothingeverdies @teapartydreams @mrspeacem1nusone @khyharah @itmejado @beth-winchester21 @rocketqueen @auroraariza @trulysuccubus @haynsey @witching-hour @destynelseclipsa @edonaspanca @abbiesthings @enamouravecleslivresetlechocolat @jadesamhart @lady-pswrld @ly--canthrope @hennessyauntie @gemini0410 @i-love-scott-mccall @est11 @mystic-shadows42 @sugary-x-sweet @starrynite7114 @skyofficialxx @terminallygenius @lauraashley93 @leaalfred @angelreyesgirl89 @sheeshgivemeabreak @marquelapage @meteora-fc @penny4yourthot @justahopelessssromantic @ilikechocolatemilkh @mayans-sauce @xbreezymeadowsx @ben-c-group-therapy @-im-fantastic- @bigcreatorwombatdreamer @milaxmariex @cubblycie @little-diable @hotdamnhunnam @behindmyeyes-insidemyhead

#rebels count down to christmas #sons of anarchy #sons of anarchy x reader #sons of anarchy imagine #sons of anarchy one shot

[trekkiedean]

hello i would like to hear more about your Bruce Springsteen destiel song theory pls 👀 springsteennatural compels me

okay, so. first of all I want some credit for having deleted multiple unhinged paragraphs about how weird it is that spn never features springsteen and how I believe that is in fact connected to destiel, because if iasip could afford him in 2010 then spn absolutely could have at some point.

with that said, bruce’s latest album, letter to you, contains a song entitled “burnin’ train”. there is precisely one annotation for this song on genius.com, noting that it is about a “profound and passionate relationship” and speculating that maybe it’s about his wife. okay, sure, maybe. bruce is absolutely a wife guy (and who can blame him? patti is rad as hell), it’s possible. bruce’s songs about his wife, however, do not generally have the same tone as this one. more importantly, the language in them is generally not gender-neutral, as it is in this one. letter to you consists of a combination of songs written in the last couple of years and songs he wrote back in the 70’s. “burnin’ train” is one of the new compositions and was apparently written sometime between january and march of 2020, so after the divorce arc and “the trap”, because (I believe) he was, like the rest of us, overwhelmed by emotions and had to do something with them.

here are the lyrics from the song (with alt text included):

hm

hmmm okay next verse

“well ok if I’m being honest with myself, so far this song is very normal,” I say to myself, “I just have the brainworms, that’s all. it’s very sad for me but realistically it’s just a song that will be good on a mix. anyway let me just take a big sip of this beer and see what comes next”

oh word?

oh word????

okay well let’s wait and get all the way through the song. I’m sure it has a very normal bridge and ending

hmm sexy and kinda holy/unearthly imagery, sure. also also note the use of “breast”, referring to the chest area, rather than the much more feminine “breasts”. this is not an accident; the lyrics on springsteen’s official website show the same. it is, I believe, deliberately gender-neutral language, in the tradition of “backstreets” and “bobby jean” (which were both about dudes.)

“hmmm” you may be saying, “okay but apart from the wings thing. all right and the gender-neutrality. well and the whole ‘we’ve fought so hard and we’ve meant so much to each other and we deserve some time to just lose ourselves in each other’ vibe. and fine also the fact that it was written sometime during the last season this isn’t necessarily conclusive”

sure okay that’s intense but it doesn’t necessarily prove anything. let me just take another big sip of my beer here and

never mind, bruce frederick joseph springsteen I am kissing you on the mouth.

everyone stream burnin’ train and if you want to fill the comments with calls for bruce to admit that it’s about destiel I won’t stop you

#springsteennatural #also his superbowl commercial is self-insert fix-it fic where his oc helps rescue cas from the empty #just in case you were wondering #ask #peggyfrickencarter #jules.txt

[hyunsracha]

now or never — bang chan

word count: 4.5k

summary: liquid courage lets you jump at your last chance to tell him how you feel.

one.

Han Jisung might just be your least favorite person on the planet. You think this when he leans over your shoulder, your thumbs paused above your phone’s keyboard. Your phone was open to Instagram as you struggled to think of a caption for this particular post. It wasn’t anything special, just a picture of you and Chan at the annual fair over the weekend. The two of you had gone together every year since you were little kids. It was one of your favorite traditions.

“I have an idea.” Jisung took the phone from your hands, his fingers quickly getting to work as you yelled protests at him, “Relax! It’s nothing bad.”

Oh, but it was.

“We look like a couple here?! Jisung, are you serious?” You cried out, yanking the phone back from him and editing the post before anyone (hopefully) saw. The boy next to you cackled. 

“It’s not like anyone would be surprised. Everyone already thinks you’re together.” He nonchalantly shoved fries into his mouth as he spoke. Jisung ate like a pig, but you didn’t complain about it anymore. Last time you did that, he got all up in your ear and started chewing with his mouth open. Disgusting.

“Shut up, Han.”

“Yeah, shut up, Han.” You don’t even flinch when Chan and Changbin take their seats across from you. You could practically sense when one of the three boys was going to appear. Changbin said it was because your friendship was so strong, but in reality, they all wore such strong cologne, you’d be an idiot not to sense them. 

“I literally did nothing and you’re attacking me.” Jisung whined, kicking Chan’s shin under the table. Chan gasped, kicking him back with more force. They would do this for hours if you didn’t stop them.

“Guys-” You started, but you stopped yourself. Jisung deserved to be kicked. 

The four of you were hardly quiet when you were together, so you ate your lunches and talked about your day. Jisung got the chance to tell Chan and Changbin about him spilling folic acid all over his crush in chemistry, which he told you about on the way to your shared history class.

“It was mortifying! He’s never going to want to talk to me again!” He cried, hiding his face behind his hands, “I was even planning on asking him to prom! Now what am I gonna do?” 

Suddenly, everyone’s attention was on Jisung. 

“Prom?” Changbin yelled, his eyes wide.

“Yes?”

“We were supposed to go to that together, you dick!”

“It’s my senior year! I wanted to shoot my shot!”

“Yeah! Senior year! That’s why we were going together!” Changbin shook his head, false disappointment evident on his face.

“Well, since we’re asking people to prom now,” Chan started, folding his hands on the table. He bit his lip, darting his eyes around the room, “Y/N...do you maybe...wanna go to prom with me?”

You felt your heart drop to your stomach. Your fingers twisted themselves around each other as you pulled your lip between your teeth, willing yourself not to smile like a lovestruck idiot. This was your best friend, asking you to prom as his best friend. You pulled yourself together, heaving a sigh before you replied,

“Yeah, totally. It’s a date.”

“IT’S A DATE? Have I lost my fucking mind?” You fell back onto your bed, staring at your ceiling in disbelief. Jisung cackled from his seat at your desk, obviously very pleased by your choice of words at lunch. He invited himself over to your house, wanting to discuss prom plans with you, but you two were getting nowhere. As soon as you got home, you ran to your room to wallow in your own peril. You remembered how Chan had smiled at you when you accepted his proposal, his eyes managing to sparkle even under the shitty fluorescent lights the cafeteria provided.

“I’ve only been waiting four years for one of you to slip up. I’m glad it was you so we can talk about it. That asshole Chan still hasn’t confessed his undying love for you to me. But I bet he told Changbin. Fucking traitor.” He started to ramble, his eyes drifting across the paintings on the wall, “Hey,” he pointed to one in the corner, “this one is new.”

You nodded, gazing at the painting yourself. You had only hung it up a few days prior. You smiled, remembering the night you painted it. Chris was at your house, taking up all the space on your desk with his laptop, portable keyboard, and hard drive. He was working on a 3RACHA song, like he usually was. You always found those days with Chan so relaxing. The two of you didn’t need words to communicate with each other, you had your art. He would make music and you would paint, and your art would always end up reflecting the other’s. The song he was working on that night, Alchemistry, showed itself in your painting, swirling clouds of grey in a fading sky of purple and black. 

“Since we’re not going as a group anymore, I need to find a way to ask Hyunjin to prom.” Jisung sulked, opening up one of his one thousand notebooks. Jisung was a notebook kinda guy. He wrote every little thought down, just in case something could be used in a future song of his. And if he wanted to find something specific? Get ready for notebooks being tossed at your head as he sifts through every single one because he doesn’t label or organize anything. 

“Write him a song.” You suggested, gaze still trapped in that painting. Now that you were thinking about it, most of the paintings on that wall had something to do with Chan. It was like he had seeped into every corner of your life, including the darkest and most personal ones. 

“That’s your answer for everything I do.”

“Because your songs are good?” Not that you were lying. Your three best friends made up the rap trio 3RACHA. Were you a little bit jealous that they didn’t even ask if you wanted to be part of it? Yes, but you designed their album covers, so you forgive them.

Jisung was silent for a second, pondering your idea. Then he nodded, flipping to an empty page in the neon green notebook. He started scribbling, and you can’t really tell if it’s lyrics or drawings. But you looked away, letting Jisung do his thing. Pulling yourself up from the bed, you made your way to your closet, flinging the doors open with a huff. You scanned the rows of clothing before deciding that you definitely needed to go prom shopping. 

“I need something new, something that screams-”

“Please date me?”

You scoffed, “Han Jisung, you’re going to be the death of me.”

two.

Your room was an absolute disaster. Clothes were strewn everywhere, makeup and hair products settling on every surface. You hardly noticed the mess, you were so...excited? Anxious? You didn’t really know.

It was the big day.

Changbin was laying on your bed, no doubt texting Chan about how dramatic you and Jisung were being. Jisung was three inches away from your mirror, sucking in a breath as he applied a line of dark brown eyeliner. You were on the other side of the room, running your hands through your hair as you decided what to do with it.

“Just leave it how it is, Y/N, who cares that much?”

“I care that much, Changbin!” You huffed, deciding to leave it how it was anyway. 

The only reason Chan wasn’t with you guys is because he was now your date. Jisung had banished him and Hyunjin from the room as soon as you started getting ready, claiming that he wanted your looks to be a surprise.

“I’m giving you guys ten minutes before we leave, alright? I’m getting a fucking drink.”

“Your favorite juice is on the bottom shelf.” You called out as Changbin was leaving the room.

“I know where the juice is!” He shut the door firmly, leaving you and Jisung alone.

“Y/N,” he sighed heavily, having just finished his wing, “I think I’m going to piss myself.”

“That’s a rented tux-”

“I didn’t mean it literally! I’m just...really nervous.”

You nodded, moving from your spot to go comfort the boy, “If it’s any consolation, you look super hot. And I’ll make out with you if Hyunjin doesn’t.”

He laughed, and you could feel the nervous energy around him dissipate a little bit.

Once the two of you were ready, Jisung opened your bedroom door, calling out to the boys below. He linked arms with you before walking out the door and down the stairs slowly.

Chan turned around when he heard movement on the stairs, his eyes nearly popping out of his head. His face turned bright pink as he adjusted his tie. He cleared his throat, extending a hand for you to take, “You look...um...really...n-nice, bunny.”

You breathed out a nervous laugh, feeling your stomach churn at Chan’s nickname for you since you were children, “Thank you. You look...nice, too.”

Jisung unhooked your arms and wandered over to Hyunjin, and you could hear them mumbling soft compliments to each other, both of their faces tinged pink.

The car ride to the school seemed to be the most normal feeling part of the night. You all talked to each other, awkwardness temporarily thrown out the window. You laughed at Jisung’s impressions, trying to avoid the weight of Chan’s hand in yours. It felt nice; right, even. His grip was tight, but in a comforting way. Every once in a while, his thumb would gently graze over your skin, causing goosebumps to appear on your arms.

Once you got inside the gym, it all changed again. Now, Chan wasn’t just your best friend. He was your date, and you got all dressed up for each other, and everybody was looking at you two. He sent a charming smile your way, half bowing and extending yet another hand for you, “May I have this dance?”

And it was okay again, for a little while. The two of you danced, all worries about keeping face and feelings out of your mind. Your friends joined you for some of the songs, and you finally got to see Hyunjin dance. For months, Jisung would rave about how amazing he was. And you agreed; he certainly deserved his spot as co-president of the dance team. 

An hour or so into the dance, a slightly sweaty Chan pulled you away from the dance floor and over to the refreshments. Confused, you asked, “What’s up?”

“Oh, nothing. I just want some punch.”

“And you had to take me away with you. Felix was just about to throw it back!” You whined, feigning disappointment. In reality, you were kinda glad to be out of the dance circle. High school kids really didn’t understand the concept of personal space when it came to these things. And besides, you wouldn’t mind some alone time with Chan.

“Let’s go outside,” You suggested to him, “we’re both sweaty. We could use some air.”

He nodded, taking your hand again. Pushing open the gymnasium doors, the two of you were met with a cool spring breeze. You sighed, letting your eyes shut for just a moment. In that one moment, Chan’s eyes were trained on you, fondness practically seeping from his pores. He took you to his favorite spot on campus, the music hallway. It was his favorite place to study, and the acoustics were dope, just in case he felt like bursting into song. Jisung did that sometimes.

The two of you sat on the cold cement floor, giggling at each other like little kids. You weren’t worried about what your friends inside the gym would think. You were just thinking about Chan. Chan and his dimpled smile and his sparkly eyes and his calloused but still gentle hands and how he was getting closer and why he was getting closer and - oh, his lips tasted like peach. You always liked peaches. So you kissed him back, because he tasted like peach. Not because you’ve been head over heels for him since the 7th grade. Absolutely not. Although, to be fair, 7th grade you would be absolutely geeked at how good of a kisser Chan was. How those calloused hands still managed to hold your face like it was made of porcelain while he sucked on your bottom lip like he would die without it.

He pulled away first, the popping sound of your lips disconnecting making you blush.

“That was - I - I’m sorry-”

“Sorry for what?”

“I just kissed you!”

“I don’t mind.”

“Oh,” He gaped, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck, “it’s just that, yanno, I dunno. The prom...energy...got to me...haha.”

You stared at him, running your tongue over your bottom lip, trying to push the feeling of his lips out of your mind. You forced a smile, “Totally! And we...don’t have to mention this to anybody if you don’t want to.”

“Yeah...that would be best...let’s go back to the gym.” He stood and pulled you up with him. How he can stand to still hold your hand after crushing your heart like that, you couldn’t understand. But you let him.

You would always let him.

three.

It only takes two weeks for you to tell someone about the kiss. Granted, you’re drunk. And it’s Jisung. And he’s offended it took so long.

“I said I wouldn’t tell anyone!”

“I’m not just anyone, Y/N! Let’s not forget, I told you about my first kiss with Hyunjin when it happened!” He was practically yelling.

“You guys are dating! Chan and I are not dating!” You cried out, your grip on the plastic cup in your hand tightening. You weren’t really sure what was in the cup. Changbin had brought you one of his concoctions, promising to get you fucked up. And you just graduated high school, you deserved it! Thank whatever higher power that Choi Lia’s parents were on route to Canada right now. 

“You guys still aren’t together? That’s so embarrassing.” Jisung hiccuped. He had the lowest alcohol tolerance you had ever seen, and you knew Lee Felix. You smacked his arm, apparently harder than you thought, because he yelped in pain. Or maybe he was just being dramatic. You pouted, staring at the neon green liquid in your cup. Sighing, you downed the rest of it, your face contorting at the awful taste. You figured you needed to be wasted to deal with Jisung’s bitching for the rest of the night. You loved the boy to pieces, but he sure had a mouth on him. 

Seemingly out of thin air, Hyunjin appeared next to Jisung, immediately slinking an arm around the shorter’s waist. Jisung giggled, “Hey, handsome.”

“Don’t do this in front of me.” 

They couldn’t hear you, “I’ve been looking for you all night, babylove. Should’ve guessed I’d find you with Y/N.”

“Was the glittery silver blazer not enough for you to spot him? He looks like New Year’s Eve in May.”

Still ignoring you, Jisung poked Hyunjin’s chest teasingly, “Sounds like you missed me.” He bit down on his lip, and that was the last straw for you. You huffed, making your way to where Changbin was in the kitchen.

“Hey, Y/N! How was the drink?”

“Absolutely horrible. Make me another one.” 

Changbin took the cup from your hands, pouring random amounts of various liquids into it. He handed it to you with a sly smirk, warning you to drink slowly. Not that you ever listened to Changbin. You pulled yourself onto the kitchen counter, sipping on the horrible substance while making conversation. You ignored the dark cloud seeping into your mind while he spoke about college. Chan, Changbin, and Jisung had all made it into the same university, as they had submitted 3RACHA songs with their applications. You weren’t a musician, so you were going to a different university that focused more on your kind of art. It was only two hours away, but that was two hours farther than you had been from them in years. 

“Hey,” You interrupted his tangent, your voice barely above a whisper, “You guys aren’t gonna...forget about me, right?”

His smile dropped, “Of course not. We’re still gonna be best friends, aren’t we? And we’re gonna see each other every weekend, and when we come home for holidays, we’ll be together all the time.” He closed the gap between you two, wrapping his arms around your waist and resting his chin on your shoulder. It was awkward positioning, but Changbin’s hugs always made you feel secure. You swallowed your tears, mumbling a shaky, “thank you,” into his ear. 

When he let you go, you quickly finished the rest of the drink and tossed the cup into a nearby trash can. Your last drink was starting to hit you, big time. A sudden determination filled your veins, “Hey, Binnie?”

“Mhm.”

“Have you seen Chan lately?”

“He’s probably with Seungmin somewhere.”

You nodded, jumping off the counter and starting your pursuit. It shouldn’t be that hard. How many guys did you know with fried blond hair?

After a few minutes of searching, you found him sitting on the couch with Seungmin like Changbin had said. Seungmin made a joke, and Chan threw his head back as he laughed. God, he was so...stunning. A gasp escaped your lips as you watched him. You felt your determination wither for a second, but you pushed through. This is your last chance, Y/N, you thought to yourself. It’s now or never.

“Can I talk to you?”

A look of alarm crossed Chan’s features as he nodded. He sounded unsure as he spoke, “Yeah, totally. What’s up?”

“I mean,” You glanced at the boy sitting next to him, “alone.”

A soft oh left Chan’s lips as he stood. He nodded to Seungmin before gripping your hand like he’s done so many times before. You could just barely hear Seungmin’s laughing as Chan pulled you away. Wait, you were the one who asked him to talk, why was he dragging you around?

To be honest, Chan didn’t know either. For him, taking your hand and leading you to secret places just seemed...natural to him. He led you up the stairs and into the first room he found. Lia’s room. Lia wouldn’t mind; she was a good friend. He closed the door behind you two, locking it just to be sure. 

“What’s up, bunny?” 

Your heart began to pound in your chest as you sat down on the bed. You sucked in a breath, making eye contact with Chan as you folded your hands, “I’m in love with you.”

He just stared at you, not even blinking. You watched his chest rise and fall with his breaths. An excruciating minute passed, which felt like hours to you, before he made his way across the room and next to you on the bed.

“Y/N…” He had hardly finished saying your name before your heart shattered, “we’re going to different schools next year. You’ll be focusing on your painting and I’ll be producing probably non-stop. I...wouldn’t be a good boyfriend to you.” 

You tried to hold in the tears, you really did, but you were drunk and the boy you’ve been in love with for like 5 years just rejected you and you’re cold. So you couldn’t really help the choked sob that comes from your throat, and you had to restrain yourself from throwing yourself at him for comfort. He started to stutter, “N-No that’s not what I meant! I mean, it is, but don’t cry!” He clasped your shoulders and pulled you to him, allowing your tears to flow freely on his nice black shirt, “Y/N, you know I have feelings for you. I just...won’t be able to be there for you like you need me to. I want to be with you, I really do. It would just end in heartbreak. I would rather still be your best friend and only that than have you hate me as a boyfriend, okay?” 

“I’ll wait for you.” You barely managed to get those words out through your cries.

“No, you won’t. Please don’t. Please move on, bunny.” You removed yourself from his hold, scrunching your nose up to sniffle the tears away.

“Can we just...go to bed?” 

The smile that he gave you in that moment broke your heart again; so sad and sincere.

“Of course.” He laid you down, holding you close enough to hear his heartbeat. He was so warm. 

God, how you wished you could stay like that forever.

four.

Chan couldn’t tell if he was more excited or nervous to see you. Your group hadn’t seen each other as much as you had hoped. At the beginning of the semester, you met up every weekend, excitedly chatting about your new classes and the new people in your lives. But as life continued, it got in the way. You hadn’t seen each other face to face since October, opting for texts and FaceTime sessions instead. And he missed you terribly. Distance makes the heart grow fonder, right?

He found himself thinking of you often. Even during songwriting sessions with Jisung and Changbin. They laughed at him when his lyrics became sappy, threatening to pull their phones out and text you Chan’s adoration. He regretted what he told you back in May; that he wouldn’t be good to you. 

He sat in the living room of his childhood home, fidgeting in his seat. Changbin was scrolling through channels on the TV, a bored expression on his features. Jisung and Hyunjin were in the kitchen, making hot chocolate for the third time that night.

He couldn’t focus. You were going to knock on that door any moment, your parents in tow, and he didn’t know what he was going to do. Cry? Run into your arms? Fuck, try and kiss you? He stood abruptly, scaring the boy next to him. 

“I-I’ll be right back.” He excused himself, hurrying to lock himself in his bedroom to breathe.

Changbin opened the front door, his eyes lighting up at the sight of one of his best friends, “Y/N!” 

“Is Y/N here?” Jisung yelled from the kitchen, the pitter patter of his feet telling you that he was running your way. Two pairs of arms wrapped around you. They walked you through the door, with Changbin yelling something to your parents about where the other parents were. You felt your mother’s hand on your back, a way for her to tell you that they were going. When the boys finally released you, they noticed one other figure in the room.

“Oh…” Jisung gasped. Changbin just stared, his eyebrows furrowed.

“Um-” You coughed, trying to relive some of the tension, “where’s Chan?”

“In his room.”

You nodded before heading that way, lightly tapping on the door three times, “Channie? It’s Y/N.”

The door swung open, a breath-taking smile on the boy’s face. He wrapped you up in his embrace, swinging you around as he yelled your name.

“How have you been? How are you? Wow, you look so pretty!” His hands cupped your face, lightly dragging his thumbs over your cheekbones. You placed your hands over his, a dull heartbeat in your chest as you watched him speak. 

Chan’s heart was pounding in his chest. He thought you could hear it, and that’s why you were looking at him so...analytically. They’re right here, he thought. You lost your chance last time, but maybe it’s not too late. Now or never, Chan.

“Listen, Y/N…” He sighed, “about what I said after graduation, at that party-”

“No, don’t-”

“Please just let me say this.”

You nodded, allowing him to continue, “I was wrong, okay? I shouldn’t have rejected you like that. I should’ve just...given us a shot. I can’t stop thinking about you, Y/N. You can ask the guys, all my lyrics have been about you, and they’re ridiculously cheesy. I know I told you to move on but...maybe I still have a place in your heart? And...maybe we can...try this?”

You couldn’t breathe. You shook your head, pulling away from him, “Chan, I-” 

Seven months ago, you would’ve jumped for joy at his confession. Taken him into your arms and kissed him until you were dizzy. But now…

“Baby! How long were you gonna wait until you introduced me?”

Chan froze. Baby? Who the hell was calling you baby?

You took a few steps back, glancing over at the boy next to you, “Channie...this is my boyfriend, Minho.”

Boyfriend. You had a...boyfriend. You went and did exactly what he told you to do, but his heart still shattered. But he plastered a smile on his face anyway, shaking Minho’s hand, “I’m Bang Chan. One of Y/N’s best friends. Welcome to her second home.”

And the night continued like that. Your best friends focused their attention entirely on you and Minho. They asked him an endless amount of questions, from where he grew up to his favorite kind of bean. Sometimes, you would notice Jisung or Changbin giving Chan a sympathetic glance, but you ignored it. Minho was a good boyfriend, and you were genuinely happy with him. You didn’t expect your feelings for Chan to leave you so quickly, but distance doesn’t always make the heart grow fonder.

The five of you spent most of your winter break together. The only day you didn’t see each other was Christmas, which was spent with your families. The next day, you had your own Christmas, like you did every year. 

The hardest day for Chan was New Year’s Eve. You had a party at Changbin’s house, with as many kids from your graduating class as possible. It reminded him of that night after graduation. Jisung still wore that ugly silver blazer, drunk and attached to his boyfriend all night. Changbin still made horrible, hangover inducing nightmare drinks that he persuaded poor college students into drinking. You were drunk again, too. But instead of crying into Chan’s chest like before, you were giggling up a storm with your new boyfriend. Chan watched from afar, jealousy pumping through his veins at the way you draped yourself across his lap, and how he looked at you like you hung the stars in the sky. That should’ve been him.

10 seconds before midnight, he felt sick. Everyone around him was so giddy, so excited for a new start. He couldn’t peel his eyes away from you two. Your hands were locked together, staring into each other’s eyes as you counted down the seconds. The TV at the front of the room screamed, “Happy New Year,” as he watched Minho’s lips crash against yours, a smile evident on both of your faces. He stalked out of the living room, making a beeline for the bar. 

He had to get over you, the way you had so easily gotten over him. And he had to get over you now or never.

#chan #bang chan #chris bang #stray kids #skz #chan scenarios #bang chan scenarios #chris bang scenarios #stray kids scenarios #skz scenarios #chan imagines #bang chan imagines #chris bang imagines #stray kids imagines #skz imagines #stray kids chan #skz chan #stray kids chris #skz chris #chan x reader #bang chan x reader #chris bang x reader #stray kids x reader #skz x reader

[vgckwb]

ML: Isolation Chapter 19: Half-Truths

It was Saturday. As had become tradition, Adrien met up with Marinette on her day out. “Hey” he said, approaching her.

Marinette smiled, but averted her eyes. “Ummmmmmmmm.”

Adrien sensed her concern. “What’s wrong?”

“Well, um,” Marinette said. “I’m just a little concerned is all. I mean, you’re you. Sooner or later somebody’s bound to notice you doing this. And they’ll find me...”

“Oh” Adrien said. “Well, if you’re that worried, I guess we can stop.”

“NO!” Marinette yelled. “I mean, well, ugh…”

Adrien smiled. “It’s OK. Take your time.”

Marinette had to think a bit. “I… I don’t want this to stop. But I’m just worried about what would happen if this gets found out.” She sat down.

Adrien met her. “Are you worried people will find out you're Ladybug?”

Marinette shook her head. “Well, maybe a little. I’m more worried about people finding out that you’re hanging out with me. What with me still being a pariah and all…”

Adrien smiled. “Don’t be,” he said. Marinette looked up. “I mean, if that were to happen, I might lose a bit of my social standing, sure. But I don’t think any of what we have would change. We’d still fight to expose the truth. I’d still be the ever elusive Cat Noir. And we’d still have Kagami and Chloe in our corner. Sure, it might be more of an uphill battle, but the most important thing to remember is that you’re not alone. We’re in this together.”

Marinette smiled at Adrien’s kind words. “Thanks. You always seem to know just what to say.”

“Don’t mention it” Adrien replied. “So, what are you thinking of today? For designs, I mean.”

“Oh, well, I was thinking,” Marinette began, “I want to see what the sky has to offer.”

“The sky?” Adrien question.

Marinette nodded. “The sky's the ultimate bastion of freedom. On an especially sunny day like this, it makes me feel more free than ever. I want to see what I can glean from it, and capture that essence, so that others can experience the freedom you’ve been gifting me.”

Adrien giggled. “That sounds amazing.” The two of them laid down on the grass and started staring at the sky.

Meanwhile, Chloe was working on an important job. She peaked into her dad’s office to see that he was working on a few things. She went back around the corner and took a deep breath. “OK Chloe, you can do this. You’ve asked him to do all sorts of things before. Besides, this is all to get back at that stupid Rossi girl. COME ON!” She grew determined. She stormed into the Mayor’s office. “DADDY!”

“Gah!” Mayor Bourgeois exclaimed. “Oh Chloekins, you startled me.”

“Oh… sorry…” Chloe apologized. “Wait, no, I’m here for something!”

“What is it pumpkin?” the Mayor asked. Chloe had to remain determined. The entirety of the plan hinged on her getting the security information. If she didn’t get it, she couldn’t guarantee safe passage for Kagami, which means there would be no guarantee that she would find what she was looking for.

She slammed her hand on his desk. “What’s security going to be like at the charity auction?!”

“Charity auction?” Mayor Bourgeois inquired.

“Uh, yeah!” Chole responded with vigor. “If I’m going to this thing, I want to know that we have the best possible security for the event.” Mayor Bourgeois was a bit stunned. “Well?!”

“Ah, pardon me,” the Mayor said. “It’s just, you haven’t told me you were going.”

“Huh?” Chloe said, getting caught off guard. She remembered she was lukewarm on the event until this whole crazy plan came together. “Oh, right… Well, I’ve decided that I’m going, and I want to know what security is like!”

“Of course. Anything for you, Princess,” the Mayor said. He picked up his phone. “Hello, Roger? Yes, I am calling to ask to review the security for next Friday’s charity auction. … Why, my daughter’s going! I want to make sure it’s up to snuff. I can’t have anything bad happen to her. … Thank you Roger. See you soon.” He hung up.

20-30 minutes later, Roger and Sabrina were in the Mayor’s office. Together with the Mayor and Chloe, they were reviewing the security plans. “As you can see, Mr. Mayor, our security is state of the art. We’re leaving nothing to chance.”

“Magnificent Roger!” the Mayor congratulated. “Is that great Chloe?”

Chloe was taking detailed notes. “Yeah!’ she answered enthusiastically. “This is perfect!’

“If my daughter likes it, then I know it’s perfect!” the Mayor said. “You’ve done a splendid job.”

“Thank you,” Roger replied.

Sabrina was staring at Chloe. “Um, is that everything?” she asked.

“Of course sweetheart” Roger answered.

“Then, um, if it’s alright with you, would you mind if Chloe and I hung out the rest of the day?” Sabrina asked.

“I don’t see why not,” Roger said.

“I concur,” the Mayor added. “Now that you know you’re perfectly safe, why not relax a little Chloe?”

Chloe finished jotting her notes down. “You’re right. Thanks for doing this daddy.”

“Anytime pumpkin” Mayor Bourgeois said. Roger left while the Mayor got back to work.

The two girls started walking out. “Oh MAN Sabrina, you really know me” Chloe said. “After all of that, I could use a nice break. How ‘bout a spa date? Just the two of us.”

“Chloe…” Sabrina said seriously.

“Uh oh” Chloe said. “What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

Sabrina looked at Chloe intently. “Last week, you told me you probably weren’t going to attend this event. Now today, you were intently listening and taking notes on the security detail.”

Chloe was surprised by Sabrina’s diligence. “Well, I decided to go, and I want to make sure I’m safe.”

Sabrina shook her head. “Chloe. I’m your best friend. I know something is going on.” Chloe looked away. “Is there something you’re not telling me?” Chloe continued looking away. Sabrina picked up her head and met her gaze. “Be honest. We’re best friends after all.”

Chloe was between a rock and a hard place. She didn’t want to give away Adrien’s whole secret, and by extension Marinette’s. Nor did she want to let it slip that she was doing this to out Lila as a liar and manipulator extraordinaire because Sabrina still liked Lila. But at the same time, Sabrina was asking this as her best friend. Chloe wanted to keep this relationship because it was important to her. She’d hate to see Sabrina disappointed in her.

She didn’t want to lie outright. That would make her no better than Lila. She settled on something she knew was risky, but given the nature of this plan, and this whole operation, it was her only option.

Chloe sighed. “Ugh, fine. Just promise you won’t tell anyone.”

“I promise,” Sabrina said. “Now what’s up?”

Chloe hesitated for a second. “The truth is, Cat Noir is making an appearance to help somebody with something. And he asked me to be there to make sure everything goes smoothly.”

Sabrina was a little shocked. “I didn’t see anything like this on Noir Notes.”

“Yes, well…” Chloe stumbled, “Cat Noir’s reach is greater than just Noir Notes, you know.”

“Huh” Sabrina thought. “You were really asked by Cat Noir himself?”

“Of course” Chloe said. “Cat Noir is second to none. As such, anyone who helps him also has to be second to none.”

“Wow Chloe!” Sabrina said. “I can’t believe it! My best friend is working with Cat Noir!”

“Shhhhhh!” Chloe shushed. “Remember, not a word to anyone.”

“Oh, right, right,” Sabrina said. She smiled. “Now, how about that spa date?”

Chloe smiled. “I’d like that.” The two of them continued off to the spa.

Meanwhile, Marinette and Adrien were looking at the sky together. Marinette was drawing all sorts of things. She noticed a cloud. “Hey, doesn't that look like that one sheep?”

Adrien looked at her. “Um, clouds tend to look like sheep Marinette. Big, white fluffy.”

Marinette chuckled. “I mean a specific sheep, silly. The one on that Fall Out Boy album. You know, with the wings?”

“Oh, Franklyn. On the Infinity on High album. Yeah, I guess it does” Adrien said. Marinette looked at him. ”You learn a lot when you’re bored at home with nothing to do.”

“I guess I haven’t learned as much as you have...” Marinette said.

Adrien giggled. “Well it’s because you haven’t been doing nothing.” Marinette was more confused now. “You’ve been working diligently as Ladybug to bring smiles to people's faces with your designs.”

Marinette blushed. “Thanks Adrien.” She started laughing. Adrien joined in as well.

“Adrien?” said a voice. Adrien sat up and turned towards the voice. Marinette sat up as well and turned away from it.

Adrien looked. “Kim? What are you doing here?” She stood up.

Kim, who was with Ondine, walked up to meet him. “I’m just on a date with my new girlfriend. This is Ondine.”

“Hi” she said, waiving gently.

“What are you doing here?” Kim asked.

“Um, well…” Adrien began.

“Who’s that?” Ondine asked, pointing at Marinette.

Adrien started to panic. Marinette was just worrying about this. I can’t let her down. Think Adrien, think! Suddenly, something came to him. “Um, promise you won’t tell anyone about this, but that girl over there? She’s Ladybug.

WHAT?! Marinette panicked in her own head.

“Huh, really?” Kim asked.

Adrien nodded. “To be honest, I kind of figured her out by accident, and we’ve been meeting in secret.”

“But why?” Ondine asked.

“Well, because she wants to remain reclusive and mysterious,” Adrien said. “She wouldn’t be able to be Paris’s number one designer if people found out she was going out with Paris’s top model.” Marinette tensed up.

“Wait, you’re going out?!” Ondine said, in shock.

Adrien nodded. “But we’ve only been doing these little excursions for now. So please don’t tell anyone. I don’t want to ruin this.”

Kim nodded. “It’s OK. I understand. Love is worth protecting. Well, see ya!”

“It was nice meeting you,” Ondine said. The two of them walked off.

Adrien sat back down next to Marinette again. “Whew, that was a close call. I think I handled that pretty well.”

“Did you just say we were dating?!” Marinette asked.

“Yeah” Adrien answered. It then hit him. “Wait, did I just say we were dating?!”

“YES!” Marinette shrieked quietly so as not to draw attention.

“Oh” Adrien said, befuddled about what just came out of his mouth. “Huh.” Marinette groaned. “That… That was an accident…” Marientte groaned some more. “But on the plus side, they probably aren’t going to tell anyone.” Marinette continued groaning. Adrien sighed. “I’m sorry Marinette. I’ll do whatever it takes to make it up to you.”

Marinette took a deep breath and calmed down a little. “No. It’s fine. For now. They did promise, and I know Kim is very serious when it comes to love. BUT, the way you can make it up to me is to get the truth about Lila out there.”

Adrien smiled. “Well, that’s the plan isn’t it?” They both giggled again. They continued looking at the sky for a little while longer.

After they got back home, they found a message from Chloe.

Chloe: I screwed up.

Chloe: I had to tell Sabrina I was working with Cat Noir.

Chloe: She picked up on me gathering the intel and confronted me about it.

Chloe: But I didn’t say WHO Cat Noir is or why he’s doing anything.

Chloe: And I did make her promise not to say anything.

Chloe: Still… I’m sorry.

Kagami: First off, Cat Noir is no longer just a “he”.

She posted a picture of herself in the same sweatshirt as the Cat Noir one.

Kagami: I think I look good in this.

Kagami: Once I get the mask, I’ll look even better.

Kagami: But second, I think you did a good job.

Chloe: Really?

Kagami: Yeah.

Kagami: You didn’t say anything too revealing while remaining honest.

Kagami: I find that admirable.

Chloe: ...Thanks.

Adrien: Sorry. Just got back.

Adrien: But yeah, you did good.

Adrien: Better than what happened with me and Marinette today.

Chloe: ??

Kagami: What happened?

Adrien: Well, it’s kind of embarrassing…

Chloe: Spill it!

Adrien: Well, um, Kim and Ondine came by and Kim recognized me…

Adrien: So to get out of it, I told them that Marinette was Ladybug, but they didn’t know it was Marinette. So that’s good.

Marinette: You forgot to tell them the other thing.

Kagami: What other thing?

Adrien: Well, I may have accidentally said that Marinette and I were dating.

Chloe: WHAT?!

Adrien: It just slipped out of my mouth. I didn’t even realize I said it until Marinette pointed it out.

Chloe: Ugh, honestly Agreste, sometimes you’re just too much to handle.

Marinette: It’s fine. Kim said he wouldn’t tell anyone.

Marinette: And I have to agree Kagami, you look really good.

Kagami: Thanks.

Kagami: So Chloe, did you get the information?

Chloe: Ugh, of course. I have it all written down.

Adrien: If only you were that diligent in class.

Chloe: I don’t need a lecture on smarts from someone who just did something so incredibly stupid.

Adrien: You’re right. I’m sorry.

Chloe: Apology accepted.

Marinette: Well, it sounds like we’ve all had eventful days.

Marinette: But we’re also this much closer to getting that piece and returning it to Alix.

Marinette: Which means one step closer to Lila’s exposure.

Chloe: You’re right. We need to keep our eyes on the prize.

Chloe: Let’s hope Adrien can keep his eyes off of you for long enough to make that happen.

Adrien: It was an accident.

Chloe: Don’t care. This is gonna be fun.

Adrien: Very well.

Adrien: Well, have a good evening everyone.

Kagami: Seeya!

Chloe: Later.

Marinette: Talk to you soon.

Marinette turned away from her computer. She placed her head in her palms and sighed. “He said it was just an accident. Of course it was. He couldn’t possibly like me for real, right?” She sighed again. “He’s just helping me out. Like a friend would. That’s all.” Tears started to stream from her eyes. She wiped them and got back to work.

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous ladybug fanfic #no kwami #NICE GABRIEL #adrien #Marinette #Chloé #mayor bourgeois #Roger #sabrina #kagami #Kim #ondine

[tiesandtea]

Suede fell out of bed into Britpop and Britpop controversy about Blur and bisexuality and who was doing what to who in what direction, but between episodes of public drama was glammy rock ‘n’ roll in the most classic English tradition. After years off duty, Suede is substantially re-united (without Bernard) and active and playing their first stateside gig at Coachella. 

An interview with Brett Anderson by Chris Ziegler. L.A. Record, 15 April 2011.

How did Suede and Metallica ever get together for all-night rock sessions? Brett Anderson: Our press agent sorta said, ‘Hey, Kirk Hammett is a big fan— should we get you together?’ So we went out to San Francisco to Kirk’s place and spent a lot of time being a bit naughty and playing songs in his basement. He had a studio—a little bit of a jamming room. I remember running through ‘Metal Mickey,’ we did a bit of T. Rex—we were off our faces, anyway. He’s a nice chap!

Kirk said he was struck by how normal you were and how you didn’t spank your buttocks once. I should have spanked my buttocks. He was probably very disappointed. ‘This can’t be the real Brett Anderson. He’s not spanking his buttocks.’

What Crass lyric is so close to the front of your mind at all times that you can sing it to me right this second? ‘Do they owe us a living? Of course they fucking do!’ I love Crass. Feeding of the 5,000 was one of my favorite records growing up. I love that record. I love all the artwork. Talking about bands that draw you into a world—Crass really created their world, and it was a really confrontational, intelligent, political world. I really responded to it as a young teenager.

What part of the Crass ethos do you hold most dear? I don’t live on a commune in Essex. But it opened my eyes—if it’s done right—how powerful political music can be. I never wrote overtly political music, but I did write music that dealt with not like party politics, but themes of poverty and alienation and I used that in songs—that was possibly inspired by Crass.

How was Suede a political band? Dealing with the politics of life. Setting our songs in a real social context. I never wanted to be a writer who waved flags for a political party, but listening to the songs you can tell I was brought up as a member of the working-class, and you can tell the songs have a very strong left-wing bias.

You said you felt there hasn’t been a definitive genre of music invented in the U.K. in the last decade, and that you feel music is meant more to placate than provoke now. Why? I do very much feel that’s the state of things. I can’t see that the last decade has created its own genre, which is a terrible shame for that generation. Not to say there hasn’t been great music. There’s amazing music! I love discovering new bands and there’s a great wave of new bands. But the biggest cultural development of the last like ten years was computer technology. It wasn’t anything to do with art and music, and that’s a shame. Even in the 90s, we had dance music—definitely a 90s genre. Maybe people have become too knowing. There’s too much of a structured sense of what’s cool and what isn’t, and that comes from magazines constantly publishing lists which contain the same five Beatles albums and this kind of thing. There’s this constant pressure to comply with this very sort of rigid set of accepted rock albums. So bands are too afraid to go outside those reference points. I sense this real fear in the music industry. A lot of it is because the industry has become a lot more corporate. People won’t take risks anymore. In the early 90s—that’s the only time I can talk about because that’s when I started—magazines were putting unusual bands on the cover. Magazines put Suede on covers before anyone had ever heard of us. Commercially, that was very ill-advised—but at least it suggested they had a sense of purpose. Now I get the sense people only back who they think are gonna win, regardless of if they actually think it’s any good or not. They will back who they think are the winners, and they will write good reviews for the bands they think are gonna sell lots of records whether they like them or not, and I think that’s a fucking terrible way to be. People are too afraid of not being cool? Or getting it wrong? No one’s willing to get it wrong. No one’s willing to stick their neck out and become a hated figure. No one’s got that kind of confidence. Everyone’s too willing to comply. It’s a terrible thing. But things go in cycles, don’t they? Maybe it’ll move into another period where people are taking chances.

When is the last time you suffered Stendhal syndrome? At the Musee d’Orsay in Paris. I was looking at the Toulouse-Lautrecs, which were absolutely amazing. I’ve never been a huge fan of Toulouse-Lautrec before, but seeing the paintings in the flesh—as it were—is just so amazingly powerful. They’re so beautifully observed. I’m not sure if I actually experienced Stendhal syndrome, but I’ve read about it and it’s an extreme reaction to beauty—that’s the closest I can imagine it to be.

What’s it actually feel like? Like drinking too much coffee. Slightly restless euphoria. Or maybe I’m getting it confused with actually drinking too much coffee. I’m a huge fan of art . I spend a lot of time in galleries and that’s my favorite period of art as well—the post-Impressionists. Paul Gauguin and those artists. I love all the medieval painters as well. People like Bruegel and Cranach and Holbein. There’s something incredibly primitive about it—Bruegel’s ‘Return of the Hunters’ is so atmospheric. What I really like about Holbein is he’s such an amazing draftsman and a great observer of human features. He could completely capture a person. You’re looking at someone who lived 500 years ago but it could be someone passing you on the street. They’re so real. I love that about Holbein’s paintings.

Did you want to try and observe things that carefully in Suede songs? It’s difficult in the framework of pop music. It isn’t a very subtle medium. It doesn’t have as much as fiction or fine art. You’re in a very rigid structure—melody and rhyme and rhythm and those things are constricting you. I don’t think pop writers can ever take it to that depth of observation. But what pop writers can do is engage at an emotional level that other artists can’t do. The pop song, when done right, is incredibly powerful. That’s partly to do with the simplicity as well. Truth in music is incredibly important, but artifice can be incred- ibly important as well—that’s something I’ve done quite consciously. Lots of the songs I’ve written for Suede have been deliberately superficial but perversely enough there’s a kind of truth in that. A sketch is powerful because you fill in the missing pieces. You fill in the framework yourself. If it’s too full, there’s no space for you to interpret it.

Francis Bacon said, ‘The job of the artist is to deepen the mystery.’ Absolutely. One of the most important quotes ever about creativity. Something I’ve learned through mistakes over the years is it shouldn’t be too clear what you’re doing. Sometimes the sketch is so powerful because of the room for interpretation. As soon as you know what something is about, it somehow kills the mystery. And mystery is so important in music. That allows the song to have life beyond what it was intended for. When a writer’s writing, they have a very specific thing in mind, but they don’t know about the life of the listener. The listener applies his life to the music and there’s a new interpretation. That’s why a good song has so much power. It reaches into people’s lives. But to do that, there needs to be a sense of mystery. I’ve always tried to do that with detail. There’s this whole thing with great songwriters saying songs should be universal, but I actually think songs should be opposite—strangely specific and set in a place to make them real. I mean, still allow space for interpretation.

You said once that Suede writes about the used condom, not the beautiful bed. That kind of detail? That’s not my favorite quote I ever said—but it keeps coming back. It must resonate with people’s vision of what the band is about. It’s quite a crass way of saying it, but I suppose it’s got some sort of truth. I always wanted to document the sort of grubby side of life. I didn’t want to talk in rock cliché. ‘Baby, I love you!’ clichés. I wanted to sing about the world I saw around me, and the world I saw around me was the used condom. It was the dusty street, the flickering TV. It was that use of detail and the fact I was born in the U.K. that made me write about the U.K. in detail, and it became distorted into the cliché of what became Britpop later—but it was never this nationalistic, jingoistic intention. It was just a desire to write about the world I saw around me.

Did you have to feel like you were living a Suede song to write a Suede song? I don’t feel I deliberately changed my lifestyle. But I didn’t rein myself in. I felt justified in writing what I was writing—the right thing to do for my artistic vision was live the lifestyle I was singing about, but it’s kind of a chicken-and-egg thing. I was living that, obviously. But you can’t live that lifestyle forever and wanna remain alive. Things have to change. I championed—well, I documented it, and then you realize that what you’re documenting is quite harmful.

Did you think you were going to end up on a prison ship like Dan Treacy? Well, toward the end of the 90s, things started getting quite dark. Life was definitely changing. I thought, ‘Well, maybe we need to veer away from something.’ I always feel I’m slightly on dodgy ground when people talk about this whole concept of the artist as a damaged character—it’s such a powerful cliché that people really wanna believe in, and I think there’s so much great art made through clarity and sobriety. The damaged artist casts a huge shadow people sometimes can’t see beyond. Me personally, as an artist now I feel much more in control of my art. Much more driven. Certainly more than I did ten years ago. But people need to believe in that sort of figure.

Jason Pierce said he started Spacemen 3 because of people like Roky Erickson and Alex Chilton—that he felt he could do what they did because they were flawed and not professional and perfect. It’s the ultimate DIY ethic, isn’t it? The ultimate punk thing? Saying it doesn’t matter how incapable or damaged or all these pejorative adjectives you wanna apply—not you can still create art, but it almost makes your art more interesting or valid or gives it an edge you wouldn’t have if you weren’t damaged? Someone like Ian Dury—the ‘cripple as artist.’ It gives the audience a fascination, I think.

You said you were making music to find community in a fucked-up world. Did you ever find that community? It’s always a search for some sort of community, isn’t it? There’s a line from one of the old songs, ‘New Generation.’ ‘We take the pills to find each other.’ A search for human … ownership or whatever. I don’t know. It’s strange to say because I’ve always conducted my career and Suede’s career almost as outsiders. I’ve never felt accepted by the music industry. I still don’t. I’ve never felt part of any sort of gang, and I never really wanted to be part of any gang. The only gang I’m part of is this weird disparate group of non-members—the ‘others’—and I’m quite happy in that role as well. I don’t jealously look at other people’s lives and wish I could be like that. I don’t have that search for community I used to have— maybe I realized the reality of things.

Does that mean it’s not out there? That it was never there? Can bands create these communities anymore? That’s the definition of a decent band. They create a community. When I answered your question, it was in a personal sense. Whether I’ve found a community. But hopefully Suede as a band created a community. That was one of our real intentions—I loved bands like the Smiths who had this world you went into, with the sleeves and the reference points. You very much immersed yourself. I wanted Suede to have that sense as well. Almost a strong Suede way of being. The Suede army, as someone once said.

If you didn’t find community, what did you find? It made my life. It gave me all those things we were talking about earlier. It gave me everything. Gave me purpose in life. I wouldn’t ever advise anyone to do what I did! I’ve been incredibly lucky in my career. 99 percent of people who go into music won’t be as lucky. It is a lot to do with luck! The fact I’ve met Bernard Butler—little things! I might never have met him, and we never would have written those songs and Suede would have been a very different band. I never just say, ‘This is what you should do!’ I was just confident and stupid enough to do what I did, and it just sort of worked! But some of the decisions I made—they were pretty rash!

Is it necessary to commit totally to being creative to be good at being creative? To jump in with no safety net? Absolutely. You’ve gotta let yourself out there. I didn’t even have an instrument to fall back on! ‘I believe I got enough of a voice to say something interesting, and I’m gonna do it.’ Confidence verging on stupidity that happened to pay off!

Does pop music defend the brave and stupid? I think so. You have to push it as far as it’ll go. Part of the reason the public loves pop music so much is the drama of the story. You have people who have no idea about the drama and just wanna listen to Phil Collins records and that’s fine, but there’s a whole other group of people that love the back story—how it’s made and why people fall out and fall in love. It’s almost treating the world of music like you’re watching a soap opera and people love that.

Why do people fall in love? Probably some sort of chemical function. I don’t wanna be unromantic about it but it fulfills a necessary function for the human race.

#brett anderson #suede

[trackmag]

Turtle Doves And Pigeon Shit

Romanticism And James Blake`s Can`t Believe The Way We Flow

Romanticism could be argued to be outdated, but once we look beyond the clichés and grasp the ideas behind it, we become aware of its relevance today; In how we live, in what we believe in and argue about. 

James Blake released the album Assume Form in 2019. He so far has released 5 Music Videos alongside it, one of which is the video for “Can`t Believe The Way We Flow” directed by none other than Frank Lebon. Frank`s approach to his videos and work so far has been a lush and somewhat wild mixture of techniques and media, leaving him with a massive pot of footage and tools for the hours he spends editing. To some degree even this approach of mixed media is in a sense very true to the fashion, believe and tradition of romanticism. This and many other aspects of the video, is what I hope to discuss and further investigate in the following TRCKMG entry. 

Still 01, Can`t Believe The Way We Flow, 2019.

A Short Introduction To Romanticism

Romanticism. I am not referring to roses, boxes of chocolates and the numerous red silk bows we see on valentine`s day. I hereby am referring to an epoch also known as the romantic period. Speaking roughly of romanticism we think of a time between the end of the 18th towards the end of the 19th century. This slice of our history is marked by many very major political and cultural events across Europe and the globe. Some worth mentioning here would be the French revolution (which is often believed to be a starting point of the French romanticist movement) and the industrialization, marked by heavy machinery, steam engines, factories and therefore factory labour. We do, however, believe that the origin of romanticism as a term and way of thinking lies in Germany. Friedrich Schlegel, a German philosopher, author and poet first used the term “romantisch” believed to be in reference to the word “Roman” which is German for novel. Romantic therefore being “novel-like”.

From there on romanticism spread fast across Europe supported by the events described earlier. More than just a fashion moment, romanticism describes a different way of thinking in direct contrast (and perhaps in protest) to the inhumane labour happening in factories caused by the industrial revolution. People needed to believe in something, in more relevant things, in nature, in purity, in emotion and in beauty. So not surprisingly romanticism manoeuvred like a wave, spreading across fine art, literature, poetry and even medicine. What we can see in many paintings of that time, are vast and lush landscapes. Nature at its most triumphant, often alongside a tiny human figurine, humbled by mother nature, reminding the human of his place and scale in this world. This emphasized by the Lyrics in the song: “I`m finding I`m a smaller piece than I thought. Oh no I really am”. Even back then, the immediate threat facing the natural world was carefully depicted in William Wordsworth`s poetry with the arrival of factory buildings and nearby compounds of living quarters for the workers. 

Painting by Hans Gude, “Fra Hardanger”, 1847.

With this surface level introduction to romanticism, we now can take a closer look at the actual Music Video for “Can`t Believe The Way We Flow”:

Act One: Red Lit Couples

Still 02, Can`t Believe The Way We Flow, 2019.

The Video starts off with a zoom into a mirror. The reflective image reveals James sitting on a bench. The continuation of the zoom is made with invisible cuts while dark silhouettes pass by, covering James for a mere flash of a blacked out frame. He appears closer and closer after each such black-out. Meanwhile you can hear the pigeons take flight, signalling a start to the song and video - take off. And with the first pigeon shit landing on James` cheek, it`s clear the video with its main plot now begins and the subjects appear. 

The 2nd time we hear Can`t Believe The Way We Flow in the Lyrics, the lips of the red lit couples meet. The images flashing by are fragments of their lives in relationships. We aren`t meant to immediately understand who they are, where they`re coming from and maybe more importantly what exactly they`re up to. We only see aspects that should be familiar to anyone who`s ever been in a relationship. For instance, being the most intimate during breakfast where spontaneous conversations can leave you happy as ever or absolutely gutted and devastated, maybe also depending on what occured the night before. 

Another place where we find a kind of intimacy where the shared space really gets noticeable to us as lovers, is the bathroom. Apart from the hints of breakfast scattered throughout the video there`s also the toilet. Waste. The toilet which stereotypically always seems to spark arguments. Flush the damn thing, put the seat down, put it up and then down. But it`s also the same space in which we share our toothpaste, standing in front of the mirror before bed. Leading conversations whilst getting ready to go out together. The point being, these images are highly familiar and highly emotional to us. The small window in which Frank lets these images flash across our screens is enough for us to recognize and connect. These are couples in their banalities. We aren`t meant to understand how they got there and where they`re going. We`re supposed to draw from our own experiences, our own relationships when seeing these fragments and glimpses into their lives. It`s a reflection. We still are looking into that same mirror from the first shot of the video, remember? 

Still 03, Can`t Believe The Way We Flow, 2019.

Cut between the kisses is a 2D animated kiss, in the same style as the quick drawing we saw flash by on a table earlier. It might be a glimpse into the Storyboard for the video, adding another layer and texture to the visuals. This approach alone can also be read as a nod to romanticism as there was a high exchange between different media and artists. Poets and painters, novelists and sculptor. All echoing and responding to eachother`s work. 

Throughout all of this we see James remain seated on that same bench, from the very first frame of the video. An observer. In romanticism, as a response to the capitalist mentality, the flâneur describes a person seen wandering around with nowhere to be or go. Observant, most likely unemployed, playful and sensitive to his surroundings. James is very likely maintaining this role in the video. The careful bystander, observing the beauty around him. Beauty that lies hidden for most others in their hectic lives. 

Act Two: Pigeons, Cupid and a Gun

Still 04, Can`t Believe The Way We Flow, 2019.

A culmination of shots of pigeons (and some seagulls) in flight. Close-up of a pigeon`s face, slowly revealed to be sitting on someone`s head. This someone is Frank Lebon`s dad, photographer Mark Lebon. Here he`s also cupid. A cupid who has aged and traded his bow and arrow off for a knotted sniper gun. 

Cupid is often described as a winged, nude, young boy armed with bow and arrow. He`s usually depicted as somewhat cruel and mischievous, very aware of what emotional turmoil he can cause in people. Cupid as a figure derives from roman mythology and is considered to be the god of love, or rather the god of being in love. The roman cupid is also understood to be somewhat based on the Greek god Eros, who some believe was a son to the goddess Venus. Eros and Cupid can`t be defeated, any- and everyone falls victim to them and their power. In the following painting, artist Julius Kronberg captured Cupid in his full demeanour in 1885, so towards the end of classic romanticism:

Painting by Julius Kronberg, Cupid, 1885.

Now in comparison to Frank`s take on Cupid we immediately notice the age difference. The world in many ways has become what romanticists had feared; Industrial, concrete, consumerist. Perhaps Cupid had to adjust to survive? Lose his wings and grow up. Wrapped in what seems to be a pvc jacket, not unlike the medical protective suits we currently see a lot. His outfit also contains sketches and scribbles of genitalia. Colours white and red, famously used in the medical field, also symbolizing purity, lust, sin and romance. He`s also wearing red earrings and cufflinks decorated with a more traditional depiction of cupid. 

The gun on the other hand, knotted, could also be a nod to the Non-Violance sculpture by Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd, which is in New York. Perhaps a rather twisted musical reference, as that sculpture was made in remembrance of John Lennon. The seemingly unusable gun however, does hold a heart shaped scope through which the absent minded and complacent looking Cupid is aiming to find his next victims. 

Enrolling the pigeons to take over the flying and firing arrows part, they soon after take flight once again and a montage of numerous pigeon shit landings are shown, including another drawn Animation of the pigeons` droppings turning into a falling human figurine. Perhaps falling, as in falling in Love, falling for you. Cupid bringing or rather dropping this person into your life. This sequence is concluded by acts of violence followed by tenderness. A slap, a hit, like when love “hits” you. Shortly followed by a gentle caress of the cheek, as though nothing ever happened. So in love that you`re not aware of the violence and force it potentially holds. Another short Animation, single flower turns into a tree, which transforms into a couple in love, a heart in the middle. 

Act Three:

Cut to seagulls instead of doves above James. Perhaps accentuating him to be different from all others around him, once again emphasizing his role as flâneur? Or maybe it`s just a subtle teaser for his following music video for I`ll Come Too, which was the next release, featuring a penguin and an albatross.

The couples, still lit in red are holding hands, and then facing the camera. Every individual on their own, staring into the lens, or at their partner. Keeping the mirror in mind from the beginning, this is another very common way for cinema, film and video to become reflexive (film with self-awareness) challenging the viewer in their passiveness and voyeurism. 

Still 05, Can`t Believe The Way We Flow, 2019.

The doves once again present by appearing as illustrations on the cushions of one couple. All the people involved appear in lettering over the faces of the couples, including a cameo by the director. Another beautifully added layer to this multimedia approach that lends it`s charm and texture to the entire complex romantic experience. 

There`s so much more to see and discover in the video than what I have tried to contain in this analysis. I do hope you`ll go on a search yourselves. The video for James Blake`s song Cant Believe The Way We Flow is linked below: 

#james blake #frank lebon #romantic #romanticism #romanticist painting #music analysis #music video #trckmg #taylor joe #editing #doves #pigeon #cupid #assume form #pitchfork #nme magazine #flaneur #cant believe the way we flow #retrograde #travis scott #rosalia #wilhelm screa #you're too precious #valentines day #valentine #roses #chocolate #long reads #music blog #musicvideo

[scotianostra]

27th July 1689 saw the Battle of Killiecrankie.

The battle occurred when the government sent north an army to deal with Viscount Dundee and his newly formed Jacobite army in its Atholl heartland. However, at Killiecrankie the Jacobites delivered a crushing blow to the government troops under General Mackay. This was commonly known as Dundee’s Rising and the battle was the first major engagement in the Jacobite rebellions.

Blair Castle, was a fortress of considerable strategic value a point not lost on either side. Both sides wanted to control the castle. McKay harried his men to get to the castle whilst Dundee ordered the Marquis of Atholl’s factor a known Jacobite sympathiser to raise the Athollmen and seize the castle. It was Dundee who got there first with a force of 2,500 Highlanders.

McKay marched his force of some 4,000 men out of Dunkeld, up through the dangerous pass of Killiecrankie and was met by a detachment of Jacobites that Dundee had sent down the River Garry to stop the Williamite army. MacKay occupied Urrard House which is situated on the first area of open ground after the pass of Killiecrankie on the way to Blair Castle. MacKay made Urrard house his headquarters as he deployed his battalions in anticipation of the Jacobite attack.

On the high ground behind Urrard House Dundee’s Highlanders appeared with their pipes skirling,  in their Highland garb they must have been a formidable site for MacKay’s army who immediately wheeled round to face them and moved up to occupy the land either side of Urrard House. MacKay realised his troops were in a bad position with the enemy above them commanding the high ground and the river Garry to their backs.

At 8pm with the sun behind him Dundee gave the order for the Highland Charge, within minutes the government forces left wing was routed with a torrent of fugitives fleeing the merciless Jacobite blades. They were spared many more dead, because the Highlanders came across the Williamite baggage train, which they looted buying MacKay’s fleeing remnants much needed time to make their escape.

MacKay lost about half his force of 4,000 men at Killiecrankie. Dundee lost some 600 men, the battle was all but over in about 20 minutes but the decisive factor was that James Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee had been mortally wounded. He was later buried at St Brides Kirk in Old Blair just beside Blair Castle.

Many Scots are unaware of the Jacobites fighting, other than Culloden, and maybe a few that have heard snippets about the ‘15 uprising, I would say that they  only know about Killiecrankie due to  the Robert Burns song a century later 1789. There are however  four distinct folk songs called The Braes o' Killiecrankie.  Although thought to have been sung earlier, the Burns version,  a satiric account of the fight pours scorn on the leaders of the government forces.

The song is addressed to a soldier, asked why he's all kitted out and where he's been. Pitcur, who fell in a furr, was Haliburton of Pitcur [a fine old Pictish place-name], fighting on Dundee's side, who fell in a drainage ditch. The speaker is evidently on the other side, that of Mackay. This song, to a great traditional tune of maybe the same date as the battle, is not completely folk, because it was certainly fiddled with by Burns.

The song is in a similar vein to "Cam Ye Oer Frae France?" and "Johnnie Cope" which sardonically commemorate and satirise undeniably serious, even grim, events. It's a very Scottish thing to do...

It has been recorded many times over the years, most famously by The Corries, look out for their version from 1975 which has a great video of the duo marching through the Pass. Jean Redpath sang it on her album The Songs of Robert Burns, Volumes 5 & 6. There is also a rousing rendition by Big Country on their covers album Undercover, which of course is more guitar orientated.

Whaur hae ye been sae braw, lad? Whaur hae ye been sae brankie-o? Whaur hae ye been sae braw, lad? Come ‘ye by Killiecrankie-o? An’ ye had been whaur I hae been Ye wadna been sae cantie-o An’ ye had seen what I hae seen On the braes o’ Killiecrankie-o I fought at land, I fought at sea At hame I fought my auntie-o But I met the Devil and Dundee On the braes o’ Killiecrankie-o The bauld pit cur fell in a furr And Clavers gat a crankie-o Or I had fed an Athol gled On the braes o’ Killiecrankie-o Oh fie, MacKay, What gart ye lie I’ the brush ayont the brankie-o? Ye’d better kiss’d King Willie’s lofe Than come tae Killiecrankie-o It’s nae shame, it’s nae shame It’s nae shame to shank ye-o There’s sour slaes on Athol braes And the de'ils at Killiecrankie-o

Meaning of unusual words: braw=excellent, brave cantie=cheerful braes=hillsides furr=furrow gled=buzzardbrankie=violence lofe=honour shank=walk slaes=blackthorns

#Scotland #scottish #jacobites #Battle #bonnie dundee #bluidy clvers #history

[nb-and-nd]

Lil’ drabble I whipped up last night

you can read below the cut, if you’re curious.

Dec 29, 20XX; 4:59 pm

I pack up the last of my things after shutting down my station, watching in careful silence as the little red hand ticks its way to twelve. Five...four...three...two...! Shift’s over, I’m outta here. I grab everything and head out to the back lot; five cars to the left from the doors sits a little blue four-door Fiat. I love blue. I press the button once to unlock the door to the driver’s seat, hop in, reach into the glovebox and pull out Map Of The Soul: Persona. In goes the CD as I start the car and pull out. 

Homebound. 

I make a right into my complex as Home comes to an end. I pull in to the spot closest to my door, put the car in park, and step out with my bag. I stop to lock the car and take out my key before heading toward the sign that reads 1308. 

I step inside, lock the front door, and put the bag down next to my shoes. I grab a bag of chips from the cupboard, then chill on the couch with my phone. Around 5:23, my phone starts playing the beginning of Pied Piper, my chosen ringtone. The caller ID flashes at the top of my screen. Oh, it’s Myra. So, I pick up the call.

“Hey, Myra.”

“Hey, what’s up?”

“Just got home from work maybe an hour or so ago. You?”

“Just fine. I was wondering if you’d like to come over for a bit, maybe hang out with some others. You down?”

“Yeah, sure! I’ll bring some games, if that’s alright?”

“Go for it! See you soon, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Beep. 

I get up, head for my room and grab a small backpack. I decide on taking some Uno cards, some playing cards, my headphones and my Switch. Then I take the backpack, sit down on the couch and set it next to me. I pick up my phone again, this time to text my boyfriend. I open the app and tap on our conversation.

[me] Hi, how’s it going?

A few minutes pass before the ellipses pop up. 

[love of my life] Almost done with practice, should be home soon 

[love of my life] How are you?

[me] just got off work an hour ago. my friend invited me over to her place, so i'll come back home between 7 and 8

[love of my life] ok, have fun

[me] see you soon

And with that, I put on my Pumas, the backpack, and my headphones and stand at the door. I search up the Wings album on my phone, press play and get walking.

Her dorm is within walking distance, so I made the trip in less than 10 minutes. I cross the street and walk up the stairwell to the sign that reads 1354. I don’t have to knock more than twice, she calls from inside that the door’s already open. I grab the knob and twist, and what do you know? I step inside and put my shoes on the rack in her doorway. I notice I wasn’t the only one invited, as two other pairs of eyes meet mine from the dining room. I barely have time to sit down before the greetings start.

“So glad you could make it. Everyone, this is Lori. We’ve been friends for a while, and she’s been the best friend I could’ve asked for.” 

There came a collective ‘aww’ throughout the room, and I smiled gratefully at such praise. She then introduces me to everyone else. 

“I know you’re likely very confused as to who these people are, Lori, so allow me to introduce them. This is Mack,” she gestures to a short girl with a wavy brunette ponytail and red glasses, sitting at the table with a glass of milk, “and this is Jewel.” she points to the girl next to the first, around my height, with raven black hair and a red beanie. I grin and wave politely, which they acknowledge with a nod and a wave, respectively.

“Good to meet you both, and Myra, good to see you again. I brought some Uno cards; who’s up for a game?” 

Jewel sits upright and her eyes light up with a competitive flame. “Oh, I love Uno! Nobody’s beaten me yet.” 

I let out a chuckle as I pull the pack from my bag. “A champion, are we?” 

“For sure. Would you like to challenge me for the crown??”

I sit at the table and begin to shuffle the deck. “I mean, what have I to lose?”

“Heh...Everything.”

“Oh, you cocky little--It’s on.”

And the game begins; we lose twice to Jewel in an hour, but Myra and I beat her the next. The next round Jewel and Myra teamed up against me and Mack, the next was me and Myra against Jewel and Mack, and the next was me and Jewel against Mack and Myra. Then I pull out my playing cards to play two rounds of Slap Jack. I win twice, to Jewel and Myra respectively.

An hour or so comes and goes, and everyone’s on the sofa with a glass of wine (and a non-alcoholic drink of choice, because I don’t drink) debating which movies don’t deserve the hate they get. 

Myra rolls her eyes with a mock-derisive laugh. “Come on, Coraline’s for kids!”

Jewel tilts her head. “But is it really?”

“Yeah, I still have unpleasant memories.” Mack agrees.

I speak up, “I have to agree; it might be for kids, but that doesn’t make it any less terrifying.”

Jewel gives a pointed nod. “Exactly. It’s a scary movie no matter your age, case closed.”

We later get to sharing some speeches about what we’ve been through this year and what we plan to do next. 

“This year hasn’t been one of my best, honestly. I don’t like a lot of the memories I made, but life isn’t always roses and sunshine, and that’s something I’m okay with.” she looks around at all of us and goes on, “At least I can forward to another year with the people I’m closest to.”

Jewel nods. “Agreed. I can’t wait to go skiing with my cousin again. It’s a family tradition, and I wouldn’t change it for anything.”

I turn to face her. “There’s a lot I wouldn’t change either. But you have to remember that eventually, change will come. It won’t always be what you want it to be, but remember that good and evil cannot exist without one another. We should always look to the future, because that’s where some of the best promises lie.”

“True that.”

“I’d say that’s pretty solid advice.” Mack states as she raises a glass. “To a new year.”

“To a new year.”

“May the best be yet to come.”

As we’re all finishing our drinks, I suddenly remember my boyfriend, and grab my phone for a time check. 7:48. He should be home by now.

“Ah, hey guys, I hate to ruin the mood, but I gotta head home. It’s getting a little late.” 

Jewel and Myra are the first to respond. “Aw, alright. Come again sometime, yeah?”

“Yeah, I wanna see you again. You’re cool.”

I smile at the compliment as I grab my bag and head for the door. “I’ll see. It’s been fun, guys. You go on without me, alright?”

“Have a good night!”

“See you later!”

“Bye!”

I close the door behind me, and head on my way. I look around before crossing the street, then search for my number. 1306...07...here it is. I knock three times, and the door opens to reveal my only love. 

“I missed you.”

“I missed you too. I can’t wait to be in your arms.”

“Well, come on in then, so you can be.” He extends a hand, and I take it. He closes the door behind us, and I take off my shoes. 

“I wanna spend some time with you tonight. Why don’t you go put on something comfortable?” 

“You’re not planning what I think you are..?”

It takes him a second, then he laughs. “No, no. Well, not unless you want to.” 

“Oh, no, I’m good. I’ll be back.” 

“I’ll be waiting.”

I head to my room to dress down, and he goes to his. I decide on a pair of pale gray sweats, and tie my hair up in a lazy bun. I hear him leave his room and come into the living room, and go out to meet him. He’s sitting on the couch with a blanket over him, and the TV is on. He turns to look at me fondly.

“There’s the woman I love.”

“You know I love cuddle dates.”

“That I do. Come, join me.” He pats the spot next to him, and I happily take a seat and snuggle up. He opens up YouTube and pulls up my comfort album; just as he does so, it begins to rain. What a funny coincidence. My beloved seems to read my mind, because he smiles too, and pulls me in for a peck on the cheek. The music starts, and we spend the rest of that evening cuddled up listening to each other’s heartbeat. I sigh in contentment.

There’s no place I’d rather be.

#drabble #might make a part 2 #don't know yet #bts albums and tracks were mentioned #so i guess that makes this bts related #bts #yes it's a love story #i'm a sucker for romance #sue me #i would call this an x reader #but no names were dropped so... #it's whatever i guess

[sasuhinasno1fan]

Lavender Adage- Luktober Day 5

I was thinking of what to do and for some reason my mind went to lavender pointe shoes and I remember on the lukadrien discord I’m in, it was brought up as a headcannon that Adrien did ballet and pointe to and how he scared Luka when he was softening his shoes by banging them on a wall or the floor, don’t remember. Anyway, please enjoy. Lavender

Luka looked up at the ballet school. Miraculous Dance Academy. His sister had almost attempted to audition but she was more comfortable with the make up aspect of it. Besides, her ballerina girlfriend danced with her more than enough times that she’d seem to regret the decision. He was called by the flower shop he made deliveries for to drop off a few long-steamed flowers for the students for a performance coming up. Juleka kept mentioning it, it was one of the few variations they showed where the switched the genders of the dancers. He’d asked about the lifts and she said that they actual a good number of girls who could lift boys with no problem. He needed to see it to believe it.

“Lu!” he noticed his sister was at the front door, poking her head out and keeping the door open. “Come on, you’re just in time.”

“How did you know it would be me anyway?” he asked, climbing the steps and letting his sister take one of the large bouquets from his hand.

“Who do you think suggested that flower shop anyway? Come on, I don’t want to miss this.”

Luka raised an eyebrow. “Is Rose in this?”

“No, she’s one of the fairy’s attendants. Our Aurora finally got his pointe shoes in and we’re deciding on the colour.”

“His?”

“Well of course. The performance is to showcase our male pointe dancers. We have some of most male pointe dancers in the area. And not just for character roles. Now, come on.”

Still feeling a bit sceptical, he followed his sister to a dance studio, seeing three guys and two girls along with the red-haired teacher he’d seen his sister talking to a few times.

“I thought you said the roles were switched.”

“Well, Adrien’s actually a lot heavier than he looks, thanks the muscle of picking up other girls, so we decided since we’re only doing one variation from Sleeping Beauty, it’s alright if we kept some of the traditional roles. Alix however, has no issue picking him up and is doing the English Prince, Aurora’s main partner in this.”

“That’s mostly completely gibberish to me.”

Juleka rolled her eyes. “Mme. Bustier, the flowers are here.”

“Oh, excellent. This must be your brother as well. Welcome and thank you so much for delivering this so quickly.”

“Of course. I’m a bit confused though. From my understanding, this is the Rose Adage. Why aren’t you using roses?”

“The rose props we have were unfortunately broken in an incident.” Mme Bustier said as she gave a small glare to two boys sitting at the side-lines, who looked guilty. “We used real roses but after our director watched a practise, he decided that the roses leaned more towards the traditional variation and wanted something that would fit this one.”

“Ok, well, I guess your Aurora should choose.”

“Of course. Adrien.” He then noticed one of the guys had pale coloured point shoes, effortlessly stretching his leg behind his head. Luka had to pull his eyes away from the dancer, who’s easy grace was captivating. “This is Juleka’s brother. He works at the flower shop that we’ll but the prop flowers from.”

“Hi, I’m Adrien.” God, those green eyes made it hard to look away.

“Luka. So, which do you want to start with?”

“How about the lilies?”

Alix turned out to be a girl who was shorter than Adrien but she seemed to have no problem guiding Adrien. She was rather loud with her complaints though, which seeing as how she was the main partner for Adrien and kept getting slapped with the flowers during every pirouette, maybe she had a good reason. The height difference was making things difficult.

“Oh sorry!” Adrien apologized as their newest flower, tulips, hit Alix. He was stopped with a hand in the air.

“Just drop it. On the floor, right now.” Adrien threw the two flowers he had on the floor as Alix turned to Luka, who’s taken a seat with his sister with how long this was taking. “Please tell me there’s a flower with not so long petals. I can take getting hit in the face with the flower, it’s the long petals that are driving me insane.”

“Um,” Luka looked over at the dwindling bundle of flowers he had. He pulled out ones he forgot he was given. “French lavender?”

“I’ll take anything at this point.”

The smaller delicate flowers worked. Barely hit Alix as Adrien pirouetted, they were still able to be seen and the pale colour was a near match to his pointe shoes. When practise was over, he spotted Adrien with his nose in his bundle that he’d have by the time the dance was over. The content look on his face as he breathed in the scent made the long journey to choosing them worth it.

                                                ________________

Luka came 2 days later with a new bundle of lavender for practise. The others were starting to drop petals and the school didn’t want to use basic silk flowers, not like the old handmade ones they had, so they put in an order for 8 French lavender flowers to be delivered every 2 days and then 16 the day of the performance. Sitting outside the dance studio was Adrien, picking up a large hardcover textbook and slamming it on his pointe shoes, the sound making Luka jump. He knew that’s what dancers did to help soften his shoes but still, it was terrifying to watch. Adrien noticed Luka and pulled off his headphones, a smile growing on his face.

“Luka! You’re early.”

“No other deliveries for today so I came to drop these off.”

“You’re not staying?” was it him, or did Adrien actually look a bit upset at the statement.

“Well, I’ve been meaning to work on this song and I don’t have any homework waiting for me.”

“Oh, I didn’t know you were a musician.”

Luka shrugged, “Not classical.”

“Please, when you’re a dancer, you tend to be more than tired of classical by the end of your first year. Though, my father would kill me if he found out I listened to Jagged Stone.”

Luka took a seat next to Adrien, face even brighter. “I love Jagged Stone! I’ve been following his music since his self-made album. It’s really good.”

“Lucky. It’s almost impossible to find now.” Adrien said, pressing the top of the pointe shoe between his hands and pressing until a crack was heard.

“You must need those pretty soft.”

“Cause of my foot shape, I have to reconstruct the top of it anyway. Don’t worry, I sew and glue fast.”

Luka then took a closer look at them as Adrien checked to see how they were so far. “They’re lavender.”

“Yeah! We decided to match it to the flowers. My outfit’s more of a faded purple, to kinda match the Purple Fairy who gives Aurora a fighting chance. I love it when we get to have more fun with the outfits when we just do variations and not the whole production.”

“How did you get into pointe anyway? Guys rarely do it.”

“My mom. She used to do it and when I’d go to her practises, I would watch her just rise up on her toes and look so graceful. I know our feet don’t look the greatest,” Adrien said, sticking up one leg with perfect straightness – Luka was trying not to stare, “But just watching dancers glide with ease on them, even when in pain from it, it beautiful. So, I asked my private teacher if I could, and I continued practising. I was lucky I was encouraged to continue when I came here.”

“Well, it’s paying off. You’re going to make an amazing Aroura, even if it’s only for a variation.”

The smile and blush on Adrien’s face was doing things to him. “Thanks.”

Whenever Luka would come over the next 2 weeks, he’d usually find Adrien, either working on shoes, or stretching and just waiting for practise to start. Sometimes he’d be with his friends but he’d easily find a place with them. he liked it the most when it was just him and Adrien though. They got closer and it was worth the teasing his sister would give him. He was sad the day of the performance, due to a mix up in the schedule, he wouldn’t be the one delivering the flowers. It did mean something else though.

He stood with his sister in the wings, watching Adrien move gracefully dance across the stage, accepting the flowers of his suitors. At the end of the dance, as the bowed and the curtain dropped to allow for a change of dancers, Adrien found Luka.

“You came! I wasn’t sure if you would when someone came to drop off the flowers.”

“Yeah. Here, I had a feeling you might be tired of lavender for a while.” He handed Adrien a small bouquet of lavender dancing lady orchids.

“They’re so pretty. Thank you!”

“So, I was wondering. From what Juleka tells me, you don’t have classes after a performance, so did you wanna come over and maybe listen to some Jagged Stone CDs with me?”

“Like a date?” Adrien asked, looking hopeful.

“Yeah, like a date. If that’s ok?”

“Sounds perfect.”

#lcamluktober #luktober #luktoberlavender

[doctorjeremyxvandamme]

“Yesterday, upon the stair, / I met a man who wasn't t h e r e! / He wasn't there again today. / Oh how I wish he'd go away!”

Below the cut, you can find Jeremy’s basic info, key story points, full bio, and a handful of possible connections, although I am open to most plots! Triggers include death mentions, blood mentions, and a handful of horror elements. Please do feel free to reach out if I can provide context without mention of those topics.

basics

Name: Dr. Jeremy van Damme

Gender/Pronouns: Cismale | He/Him

Date of Birth: January 22, 1981

Age: 39

Hometown: Jersey City, NJ

Length of time in Crescent Harbor: 5 Years

Neighborhood: Hemlock Docks

Occupation: Professor of Anthropology at Crescent College

Faceclaim: Matthias Schoenaerts

key points

An only child, the son of a Belgian-born painter of some renown, but primarily among art types with an interest in niche work 

Has a doctorate in anthropology from New York University and now teaches the discipline at Crescent College. Completed his undergrad education in Washington

Devotes most of his research to modern folklore, urban legends, and what he calls ritualistic play: games like Bloody Mary or Charlie Charlie, the latest variation of Juego de la Lapicera, meant to summon something, communicate with something, or achieve specific ends through strict adherence to pre-determined rules or conditions

A history buff. Knows much about the origins of Crescent Harbor and is now actively involved in historical preservation efforts. His interests encompass the periods both prior to and following the actual founding of the town.

Something of a pack-rat. Collects oddities and antiques and allows visitors to poke around his overcrowded house. 

full bio (tw: death, blood, horror elements)

If he angled his neck just right, face pressed against the glass, held there by tiny, marker-covered hands, he could just barely see the monster from his bedroom window. The gangling, wide-eyed thing, all teeth and blackened pupils, was caught in an eternal snarl by the glint of the corner street lamp (which had been broken for some time and blinked erratically every few minutes). The light has stay on because the light keeps it there, he would think. So long as the light stays on, it has to stay there and cannot come here. For as long as the boy could remember, though, this massive graffiti creature, the handiwork of some unknown artist or another, had been spray-painted there, overseeing its domain from the red brick facade of an already defunct paper packaging warehouse. And it certainly had not escaped yet. But this particular piece of street art had long frightened the young Jeremy van Damme, who would spend his nights watching it from the safety of his heightened perch.

At that time, he lived with his father (a native of Flanders and painter of some niche surrealist renown) and mother (a full-time college dean and part-time muse to her artiste husband) in a tall brown apartment building that swayed with the wind. The groaning of the foundation, the creaking of the pipes, and the unpleasant damp sweetness, an almost bloody smell, that occasionally wafted out an uncovered vent after a storm, instilled in the boy an early sense of fantastic terror. More often than not, Jeremy van Damme was afraid. At the age of six, he discovered in a forgotten photo album a picture of himself he could not recall taking. And there, he abruptly decided some other Jeremy, a doppelganger or double or mimic, not only existed, but was waiting for the opportunity to strike and swallow him whole. At the age of seven, he got it into his head that a family of venomous lizards had taken up residence in the basement washing machine; he could hear them hissing if he listened closely. And at the age of eight, the death of the elderly woman down the hall gave birth to a new series of existential horrors, of the terrible uncertainty of the afterlife, of restless ghosts, and of white-haired specters that stalked hallways by night in search of little boys to do whatever it is ghosts do.

Nevertheless, the apartment was not vacant for long, and in the weeks that followed, Jeremy struck up a new friendship with a girl his age who had moved into the building with her family. And with how cheery they had painted the place, one could almost forget what happened to poor old Mrs. Hansen there. It was through this new companion, however, that Jeremy himself, albeit wide-eyed and screaming, was introduced to the sort of ritualistic play that would eventually guide his career. With nothing but a pack of stolen matches and the misguided goal of “putting the spirit to rest,” the pair of them locked themselves in her bathroom to chant into the mirror, spin in circles, and search for faces in the glass. And while they never found them, these games did instill in the young Jeremy a new sense of bravery and morbid curiosity. After all, if a ghost could be banished away by something as simple as blowing out a match, maybe they were not so frightening after all.

Still, he had always been curious. His mother was, after all, a career academic, and to that end, Jeremy had little hope of genuinely shirking his homework. He did well in school and read often. Small and eager to be helpful, he was even, in some ways, a natural teacher’s pet, eager to spend more time among the adults than the playground bullies. Eventually, Jeremy attended a nearby “all boys” Catholic high school, and while the AV Club was already dying by that time, he and a few friends began borrowing their camera equipment to “record psychic phenomena,” which largely consisted of them trying to unsuccessfully move rubber balls with their minds.

At sixteen, however, one of the boys got his own car, and the unlikely group was able to finally take part in a bit of local legend that involved circling an abandoned house several times, honking one’s horn, and then flashing one’s headlights. The result was the ghost of “Clarice” appearing in an upper story window to chase the intruders away. Every time they did this ritual, someone in the vehicle would shout that they had seen her (although it was never more than one person at a time). Following one such excursion, one boy disappeared from school with the flu for a week, and there was, at least, a successful rumor he had been spirited away. That was sort of fun.

Upon graduating, near but not quite at the top of his class, Jeremy ultimately attended the University of Washington, eager to spread his wings to the West Coast although Stanford had rejected him. While he began his higher education as a History major, he eventually shifted his focus to cultural anthropology, in which he earned his Bachelor’s degree. Graduate School, a Master’s degree, and a Doctorate from New York University eventually followed, and Jeremy began focusing his field of study more specifically on the role of folklore and legend in the modern world. His first and only full-length book, a small academic piece, entitled Creating Clarice: An Anthropological Case Study on the Invention of a Ghost, sprung to life when he, upon digging through an academic database, discovered the phantom woman he had tried so vehemently to conjure as a teenager had never actually existed.

Combining local interviews, in-depth real estate research, historical records, and a dive into the roots of ritualistic children’s games themselves, he tried, with varying levels of success, to trace the story to its source and frame it in the context of the community that had created it. This research, while mostly published for classroom use, did eventually earn him a position at Crescent College, where he still teaches today.

In his five years in town, Jeremy has since become something of an undisputed expert in local history, collecting trivia in the same way others might collect stamps. That said, Jeremy remains, to this day, a collector in the most traditional sense. His small home, an old building near the docks, has its charms and is known to be full of oddities, antiques, and other things that have caught the owner’s fancy. Most are of local interest, and Jeremy has rather seriously involved himself in town preservation efforts.

possible connections

The Student - Jeremy is a professor at Crescent College and teaches a variety of anthropology courses for all skill levels. This person is either a former or current student. Perhaps Jeremy mentors them, or perhaps they were an eternal thorn in his side.

The Curious - Jeremy collects all sorts of odd objects he finds. From 19th century tea sets, to old letters and photographs, to “haunted” mirrors and dolls, he welcomes this person regularly to poke around the antiques and maybe even goes shopping with them.

The Adventurous - Jeremy’s primary areas of expertise are modern folklore and ritualistic play. He and this person team up to test out the latest spooky games and legends, from trying to summon up a mirror ghost or see if they can get someone from beyond the grave talk with them through a disconnected telephone.

The Historian - Jeremy is well-versed in the history of the town and its founding families. Perhaps this person wants or needs to learn more about some obscure local topic, and the professor is here to help.

#crescent:intro #intro #about #bio #tw: death #tw: blood

[happymetalgirl]

May 2020

Umbra Vitae - Shadow of Life

Converge frontman Jacob Bannon is so impressively artistically prolific, sometimes to his own detriment, that I am hardly surprised by the arrival of and results of Shadow of Life, a more death metal-oriented project that still has Converge’s DNA all over it. Still teeming with wild hardcore energy, Shadow of Life is really not all too different in approach from any of Converge’s most direct work, Bannon pulling from a different elemental this time. The project’s brevity works in its favor, but despite being so short, it feels quickly exhausted of its creativity. Converge is made great largely by the dynamic of the band’s direct metalcore aggression and the variety of curveballs they throw in, but Umbra Vitae reduces that to the raw aggression that sure hits hard, but becomes easy to predict after not too long.

6/10

Havok - V

So it’s not as good as Conformicide, but Havok still deliver the goods on their unfortunately unimaginatively named fifth LP. The band’s Megadeth-esque brand of politicallly charged thrash shredding certainly comes at a particularly apt time and the riffs they deliver indeed sound inspired and the performances ripe with frustrating at the various systems that got us to this seminal moment in history. David Sanchez’ piercing, throat-grating screams are as fierce and fiery as ever and impressive in how quickly he’s able to rattle some of his lines off, and the rest of the band remain tight and cohesive across the album’s eleven experience-crafted thrash tunes. Compositionally I feel like there aren’t as many individual high points within songs that made so many tracks on Conformicide such ferocious bangers, but the band certainly still show themselves to be a good few leagues above average when it comes to writing potent thrash. Where I wish the album went harder was the lyrics. Granted this came out right at the beginning of May, before the killing of George Floyd, and was probably recorded and written before if not early on in the pandemic, but it still feels like it could have gone for more than just the usual targets. I appreciate the band’s tackling of the crisis of credibility of modern media on “Post-Truth Era”, their explicit condemnation of the United States’ unhinged military bullying overseas on “Merchants of Death”, and their acknowledgement of the bias/lies of retelling of history by the powerful and how the lies get bigger over time, but I wish the band were this precise and cutting most of the time on this album because so much of its lyricism is super vague, sometimes in a kind of non-comittal way. The song “Fear Campaign” points out the various ingredients in a fascistic rise to authoritarianism happening right now, but it never moves beyond the usual thrash tropes of distrust of government and corporate media. Meanwhile songs like “Don’t Do It” speak just a bit too generally of social despair to pack much of a lyrical punch, while the lyrics to the track “Phantom Force”, whole not particularly offensive, just repetitive paranoid gibberish. It’s not directly related to the music, but it doesn’t help that the band, who have built their identity so heavily on musical political commentary have been rather quiet in the wake of George Floyd’s death and the sharp heightening of the volatility of the political climate. You could argue it shouldn’t impact their music, but it does suggest that they’re intentionally trying to maintain a level of ambiguity in their railing against the system that will allow anyone to read their own ideology into certain crevices, an approach to artistic sociopolitical critique that isn’t really right for this time. Despite that criticism, I still quite enjoy this album for its continuation of the hypercharged thrash the band has been doing so well.

8/10

Green Carnation - Leaves of Yesteryear

Joining the ranks of recently reawakened bands, Green Carnation returns from their fourteen-year slumber with a five-track slab of their trusty slightly gothic/doomy prog and for the most part it goes pretty well. The band’s performances are solid and it sounds like they never even left. The album likes to sway between melancholic (but not entirely hopeless) forms of gothic sorrow and slower classic heavy metal forms of inspiring melody much like Khemmis, Spirit Adrift, or even Pallbearer. I’d say the opening title track is the example most rife with sweet guitar melody that hits this spot well, and while the rest of the album isn’t a drastic drop in quality, the band definitely hit with their best shot first, and overall make a pretty worthwhile comeback.

6/10

Vader - Solitude in Madness

The Polish death metal icons are on their twelfth album now and at this point for them it’s just a matter of proving to themselves that they’re worthy of their status as aforementioned icons of the genre. At this point their solid and consistent discography speaks for itself and justifies the band’s similarly consistent approach. While never being one for overly lengthy projects, Vader’s twelfth is one of their shortest projects to date, not even breaking the half-hour mark, but making great use of its brief runtime nonetheless with vibrant, pummeling performances and just enough compositional dynamic to bring out the quality in everyone’s performances. Sure it’s kind of predictably direct, but that has been Vader’s MO for decades and it continues to deliver ripe, juicy organic death metal, so I’m fine with them not changing their style up with how well they can consistently conjure a half hour or so of sufficiently exciting and potent death metal. What they decline in stylistic evolution they continue to make up for in raw, experienced, and expressive performances, and Solitude in Madness is just another example of it.

7/10

Chaos over Cosmos - II

Dazzling with proggy guitar technicality again on this quick response to last year’s EP, Chaos over Cosmos take another diversion on the vocal front, with the vocals on this album being both much less present and more predominantly unclean. The third track “One Hundred” is probably the standout cut of the four tracks here, layering on the synths and the whispered passages between space-traversing guitar leads. I still think the band could work on making the production a little more crisp and the compositions maybe a little more frequently injected with flair, but I definitely think they’re on the right foot going forward.

6/10

Witchcraft - Black Metal

Going the route of Thou on Inconsolable, Swedish doom occultists Witchcraft bust out an entirely acoustic album quite fit in its ultra depressing tone for these ultra depressing (or enraging) times. Taking such a minimalist approach does pose a bit of a gamble for any band used to a more bulky instrumental arsenal on the make-up-less appeal of the performances at the core of their ethos. Thou absolutely nailed it, and I’d say that Witchcraft are pretty successful here as well, for just how committed to potent acoustic depression Black Metal is. It’s a bit heavy handed at some moments, but for the most part it’s a well-measured half hour of candid sorrow at a rather fitting time for it.

7/10

Tortuga - Deities

I feel like at this point, I’ll give any band points for playing stoner doom and only half sounding like a Black Sabbath rip-off, and Tortuga definitely earn those points. This album actually released on the first day of the new year, but I didn’t hear about it until now, and I figure it’s worth propping up. Deities is the Polish outfit’s sophomore full-length after their eponymous debut in 2017 (which I also missed of course), and it is definitely a breath of fresh air for the genre it represents. Relying not on monotonous Iommi-imitation to carry otherwise thin compositions, Tortuga follow their own uniquely ambient approach to the genre that focuses more on building a dense atmosphere and mood with the thick, hazy guitars and rumbling bass lines than on numbed, bong-worshipping psychedelia. We get a few of the other staple elements of the genre: wild effects-pedal psychedelia, lyrics about mythical Lovecraftian monsters, and audio samples of old-timey Christian fundamentalist preachers fear-mingering about drugs; but none of it sounds contrived or unoriginal. Deities sounds like if Dopethrone-era Electric Wizard had a little more atmospheric dynamic and less on-the-nose Sabbath worship. Granted the vocals on Deities aren’t as fuzzed the fuck out and the bulk of the album is not dedicated to pissed-off, drugged-out, gargantuan heaviness, but it sure is a solid album in the path it walks for itself.

8/10

...and Oceans - Cosmic World Mother

Despite checking all the productional and stylistic boxes for a modern death metal record, Cosmic World Mother offers not very much in the way of anything compositionally or aesthetically unique or exciting. It feels almost like it’s just embodiment of the Emperor/Behemoth-inspired wing of the genre as a hive mind just on autopilot. The band crank out a few brief highlight motifs here and there, the occasional epic pairing of synthetic strings and tremolo-picked guitars, but most of the album is (while competent, no doubt) pretty one-note and predictable in a way that really only becons repeated listens to make sure you’re really sure you’re not missing anything from the homogeneous blend of songs together you remember from your last attempt to stay attentive through it.

6/10

ACxDC - Satan Is King

After a long road to their debut album back in 2014, grindcore stalwarts ACxDC finally follow up with a worthy sophomore effort this year, during which time Full of Hell have happily risen to the occasion on at least two stellar modern grindcore full-length (as loaded of a term as that is for grindcore) releases. But the L.A. quartet is back and quite fired up in the midst of the sociopolitical turmoil that we’ve all been submerged in. While more traditional in its instrumentation, not as laced with industrial noise elements as Full of Hell’s music tends to be, ACxDC captures a similarly powerviolence-adjacent thrashing intensity and the band do not take their foot off the gas at all throughout the 23-minute affair. The guitars blare with a shout all their own and chug with the kind of mechanically smashing crunch found in modern death metal, the drums and the bass lines are never over-the-top in terms of speed or technicality with the band opting more often for synchronized hardcore punches than grinding through blast beats, which probably puts this album deeper into powerviolence territory than I initially let on. And Sergio Amalfitano’s vocals shift from intense death howls and growls to fast-paced blackened hardcore shrieking with respectable fruidity, probably not as erratically as Dylan from Full of Hell, but certainly quite capably. I’ve been turning to a lot of intensely aggressive and violent metal in these infuriating times, particularly grindcore, and Satan Is King has been a solid addition to that alongside the new WVRM and Caustic Wound albums.

8/10

Old Man Gloom - Seminar VIII: Light of Meaning

The prequel to the band’s previously released full-length this year (Seminar IX: Darkness of Being) finds them in an even more esoteric vein than what they were in back in March. Oscillating between Sumac-esque sludge (which Aaron Turner’s vocals make those parts of the album featuring them all the more uncannily similar to) with subtle experimental flair and more modern-Mastodon/Isis-esque sludgy post-metal to full-on noise music experimentation, the band’s “eighth” “seminar” at the very least makes for a dynamic and interesting listen. Some of the band’s exhibitions in certain styles don’t really do much convincing for their branching off into those directions; some of the noise passages feel kind of like waiting at a traffic meter for a more invigorating portion of the album to kick in, as do some of the less-imaginative sludgy sections. But for what the collective do with their array of experiences, influences, and artistic instincts they come through with more hits than misses, I’d say. The longest track on the album, “Final Defeat” is impressively cohesive in its amalgamation of so many sonic elements. though the subsequent and similarly lengthy “Calling You Home” is an example of the other side of that coin, dragging and uneventful. It’s worth at least a cursory listen for its eccentricity alone, it may vibe with you even more than me, if not, at least it’s an interesting meeting of various creative minds in the post-metal sphere.

7/10

Xibalba - Años en Infierno

Offering an especially weighty slab of sludgy/doomy death metal with some tasteful streaks of hardcore and sludge metal mixed in to the dense swirl, Xibalba bring slow-churning, bulky death metal to the conversation of the various injustices and catastrophes of this year, and the band’s hardcore energy and knack for pummeling rhythms in that vein are exactly the kind of pissed off that such an album as Años en Infierno needs. And that hardcore compositional approach and/or mindset means that Años en Infierno is no homogeneously sluggish record; Xibalba pick up the tempo for rapid-fire hits of deathly hardcore punches and slow down to wind up for devastating finishing blows all with magnificent smoothness. Whether trudging through thick, filthy riff sludge like a massive beast stomping its way through a knee-deep muddy battlefield on slow burners like “La Injusticia” and the doom-laden “El Abismo, Pt. 1” or like that same muscular hulk sprinting on dry land on songs like “Santa Muerte” and “En la Oscuridad”, Xibalba are an organic, brutish force in all the ways I like my death metal and hardcore to be, at the same time.

8/10

Behemoth - A Forest

Named after the cover of The Cure’s “A Forest”, Behemoth’s EP-sized mark on 2020 is ultimately a mild one. Intended clearly to show a more eccentric side of the band with the theatrically tortured guest vocals from Niklas Kvarforth of Shining, the band’s cover of the titular track is really not all that wild for a band who came up from raw shitty black metal roots and traversed their way through blackened death metal to the biblical glory of The Satanist; the band have already shown their vast capacity for branching out from and expanding death metal and black metal, and this cover of The Cure happens to be just a more clumsy, rather than illuminating, display of that ambition. It’s not a terrible cover or a poor representation of Behemoth’s ambition, but I don’t think it’s quite the grand statement the band is making it out to be. The same can be said of the redundant inclusion of the live cut of the cover song. As for the other two tracks on here, “Shadows ov Ea Cast upon Golgotha” (which kind of drags and meanders with no real direction) and the more fast-paced “Evoe” (which is at least a lot more fastinstrumentally vibrant), both are solid enough cuts that sound very well like they could have come from the I Loved You at Your Darkest sessions, though not surprisingly notably below par for that course, much less the high bar of The Satanist, which ultimately makes this kind of a benign addiction to Behemoth’s catalogue.

6/10

Helfró - Helfró

This actually came out in April, but I’m late as it is so what the hell, hailing from the small, but mythic black metal scene of Iceland, Reykyavík’s Helfró make quite the standout statement with their self-titled debut record here. At a modest thirty-seven minutes, Helfró is a stinging and searing, but also impressively aggressively balanced display of black metal and blackened death venom. The guitar riffs are sharp and cutting when they need to be and also quite full-bodied while able to keep up with the high-flying tempo set by the double-bass-blast-beat drumming to capture the delirious hysteria of . The band takes their attack from the icy piercing of mountaintop blizzards of speed and distorted dissonance to fiery rumbles of hellishly low guitars and demonic bellows of damnation, and all with such control and gracefullness; I am all for it! This is a hell of a debut record and I will certainly be looking for more from Helfró to come.

8/10

Asking Alexandria - Like a House on Fire

After being completely put off by the band’s self-titled album a couple years ago, I have not returned to Asking Alexandria at all since then, until now with Like a House on Fire. Honestly, I was kind of expecting some sort of response from the band after such a light and messy album to prove to people like me that they can excel with heavy music still, and I mean the only way to go was up after the catastrophe that was the band’s self-titled album, right? Well I was wrong in the kind of response the band came through with; doubling down instead on their departure from metalcore, Asking Alexandria go all in on pop rock and arena rock in a way that I suppose constitutes a mild improvement, but not a justification for their doubling down. The band bit off way more than they could stylistically chew as they clumsily try to chameleon their way into several styles of pop rock. The class consciousness anthem “They Don’t Want What We Want (And They Don’t Care)” and the alternative metal power ballad “In My Blood” offer a brief glimmer of hope for some vital, conscious arena rock for the album, but the shitty motifs and writing decisions don’t take long to follow. With its gratingly annoying vocal riff, “Down to Hell” sounds like a rejected 2000’s Shinedown song (or a 2010’s Shinedown song). “I Don’t Need You” is a glam rock ballad brough to the 21st century with a knock-off-Halsey feature before “Take Some Time” comes through with more annoying vocal wooing. If not outright awful, Like a House on Fire is most often just aggravatingly wash-rinse-repeat boring and banking on current pop rock trends that Asking Alexandria don’t even have a great handle on. Danny Warsnop’s clean vocals and uncomfortable attempts at coming across sultry are especially hard to listen to, as are the completely out of place and unmeshed EDM elements that pop in and out of various tracks. I wasn’t the biggest fan of Bring Me the Horizon’s last album’s blatant pop campaigning, but holy shit at least they were competent and showed they could handle the variety of styles they implemented. Asking Alexandria are clearly trying a similar angle here but they’re not capable of mimicking Shinedown and Imagine Dragons better than either of those bands, and that’s saying something.

2/10

Revenge - Strike.Smother.Dehumanize

Coming up among all the great new grindcore I’ve been finding these past few months, Revenge bring a distinct blackened edge to the brutish force of grindcore and powerviolence. While a pretty effectively churning grind of manic drumming, chaotic bass lines, and jagged guitar galloping, Strike.Smother.Dehumanize is one of the more homogeneous grindcore records I’ve heard this year, spiced up mostly by the artificially low-rumbling toilet bowl growls (that do lose their novelty before the album’s finish) and the consistent individual flair brought by each members’ performances. But compositionally, the band doesn’t really abide by much more than the usual grindcore mantra of constant intensity, but at that it sure is successful.

7/10

Bleed from Within - Fracture

The fifth album from Glasgow’s Bleed from Within brings such a pedestrian and unambitious of a forty-two-minute offering of melodic metalcore as seemingly possible. It’s just like the definition of a baseline, C-grade performance with passable performances of predictable resortings to of metalcore’s most trodden out tropes; like I saw the opening track’s title, “The End of All We Know”, and I knew exactly how that chorus was gonna go before I even heard it. For its few sick breakdowns like those on “Pathfinder” and “Utopia”, there’s just so much more filler generic metalcore (and some completely unsatisfying breakdowns too) to get through. I’ll give Ali Richardson credit for coming through with some impressive double-bass syncopation that sometimes breaks from the metalcore mold to give the music som brief flashes of being more than ignorable metalcore, and I’ll acknowledge the considerable gusto of Scott Kennedy’s vocal performance across the album as its most consistent positive feature, but it’s not enough to make me eager to return to Fracture as a whole or even throw any tracks into my workout playlist.

5/10

Okkultokrati - La Ilden Lyse

In their prolific first decade or so of action, Okkultokrati have done a decent job injecting grimy hardcore crust punk and a head-turning variety of other styles into the kvlt black metal of their Oslo hometown. After nearly four years of crafting since their most aesthetically ambitious effort to date, Raspberry Dawn, La Ilden Lyse is a bit of a regressive and stylistically reductive letdown after its lush and fascinating predecessor. The production of the black metal elements is much cleaner now, but the trade-off isn’t worth it, especially given that the fuzzier production of the previous albums kind of partially contributed to the unique aesthetic the band cultivated. I don’t know what the point was of going more traditional/typical this time around, but the band certainly aren’t making a stronger case for themselves by blending in MORE with their contemporaries. I hope this is just a one-off and the band get back to making more interesting black metal again soon.

5/10

Alestorm - Curse of the Crystal Coconut

I said in my review of Alestorm’s previous album that I am continuously amazed at how the pirate metal masters are able to keep finding material in their super specific vein, especially with how fresh 2017’s No Grave But the Sea sounded while returning to the more “traditional” sound that characterized the band’s debut album. Somewhat unsurprisingly, Curse of the Crystal Coconut finds the band playing around with their sound a bit in a similar way to what they did on Sunset on the Golden Age, and I would say this year’s effort to grow their sound went a good bit better than it did on that aforementioned preceding album. The band are as irreverent in their wacky sea shanty storytelling as ever (and I wouldn’t have it any other way), though they bring a few “futuristic” (for pirates’ times) elements to the table here, which a folk metal purist could certainly argue are blasphemously out of place on a record about pirate life, but if you’re a purist like that I doubt you’re listening to a sixth Alestorm LP to begin with. I actually think the band did well to make these new elements a part constructive to the overall campy aesthetic of their sound. Opening the canon hatches is “Treasure Chest Party Quest” with a hedonistic schlock rock mission statement that sounds like if Kansas were a bunch of Viner douchebags, but moving into the melodic shanty “Fannybaws” right out of the gate reaffirms the band’s folk metal chops. But it’s the introduction of hip hop elements on “Tortuga” that shows Alestorm is here to sail pirate metal to the farthest corners of the seven seas as they can; the band’s foray into trap territory under the influence of this lighthearted and loveable ambition with Captain Yarrface on this track is honestly impressive. And the band’s experimentation doesn’t end there, with “Zombies Ate My Pirate Ship” also featuring the unexpectedly beautiful vocal feature from Patty Gurdy. All these modern music elements made me ponder the possibility of a modern, internet-pirate-themed Alestorm record; perhaps someday... Beyond just the introduction of electronic elements, the thrashy folk bangers like “Chomp Chomp” and “Pirate’s Scorn” are welcome shots of liquor to jolt the album into pirate eager mode while melodic folk metalcore bangers like he nonsensically gorgeous “Zombies Are My Pirate Ship” are surprisingly invigorating. The quick metaphoric jab at the band’s imitators (or detractors) on “Shit Boat (No Fans)” is a good bit of fighting pirate spirit breaking the fourth wall creatively. There’s also the ridiculously overly epic sequel to the fast-chanting nonsense track, “Wooden Leg”, from Sunset on the Golden Age, whose conclusion is so beautifully stupid *chef’s kiss*. Honestly, I needed this album so badly this year, and I’m glad Alestorm came through with such a fun expansion pack of pirate metal tunes.

8/10

Sorcerer - Lamenting of the Innocent

I don’t know what happened. I loved this album the first time I heard it, but my enjoyment with every subsequent listen since then has been significantly diminished. Perhaps I was just appreciative of the dose of classic heavy metal with tasteful modern production updates to liven up my repertoire of new albums to listen to. As grand, nostalgic, and even 2000’s-Maiden-esque as Sorcerer’s sixth album is, I can’t help but feel at least somewhat distracted by how heavily derivative it is of the NWOBHM, even as it takes some cues from Candlemass and Dream Theater to elevate its grandiosity through proggy, epic doom metal. Now all those influences do combine into a generally effective and exciting aesthetic, and I do think the core sound the band have tapped into is potent and worth chasing, as evidenced by songs like “Institoris” and “Dance with the Devil”, but that sound at its best doesn’t show up in full enough on this album. Lamenting of the Innocent is hampered so heavily by its length and the proportion of that length that is comprised of filler balladry like “Deliverance” or the just slightly too dragged out “Where Spirits Die” and unnecessary repetition that draws out even the better parts of the album like the title track. For all this nit-picking, I feel like I should at least emphasize that I do still quite like this album for its solid performances, especially Anders Engberg’s tactful operatic vocals and the distinctly NWOBHM-style duel-guitar soloing from Kristian Niemann and Peter Hallgren. I do hope that Sorcerer do continue to distill their sound down to its best elements because I could see them being a shining beacon for the continued reverence for the era of heavy metal they so heavily emulate.

7/10