#if it's not clear she's part country part funk and part rock

[zivazivc]

A proper look at Brook, my weirdest weirdo, and the offspring of a very unusual throuple. She's a Blues-Rock Troll, mostly inspired by bands like Delta Rae and Larkin Poe.

#she is so weird but so fun to draw #trolls #dreamworks trolls #if it's not clear she's part country part funk and part rock #the rock part isn't very obvious. it mainly shows in the black hair and pointy ears #(though i realize pointy ears aren't exclusive to rock trolls) #my art #ex bandmates #trolls floyd #trolls oc #brook #les #hed #hed is so happy for his bro 😭😭 (he's half the reason they even started talking bc les is an idiot) #trying to make sense of the trolls genres in combination with the history of music genres is pointless #let's just pretend a funk and country combo could create blues even though blues predates both #tw smoking

[tantei-chan01]

Yeah, one thing I always wondered in actual Canon shorts and animated series is why there was never an episode where Branch had to deal with the drawbacks of his silence for 20 years. True, it's a cartoon, and cartoon logic exists, and it'd probably be a bad idea for the main lead to be portrayed with a scratchy, rusty voice (especially since his VA is Justin Timberlake) or dealing with being unable to sing for long periods of time or losing his voice... but it'd be a cool idea to explore worldbuilding purposes and stuff. Like, how do the different tribes deal with that sort of burnout? Trolls seem to have evolved in a way that music is such a huge part of their lives and cultures, loaing yiur voice or burnout like that is probably more common amongst younger trolls who aren't used to singing as much and seeing it into adulthood is probably rare if not unheard of.

There have been days where Branch's throat gets very irritated as his vocal cords aren't used to being used. He usually uses the honey cough drops or chews on mint leaves to soothe it. But when it gets pretty bad, Poppy forces him to relax at her pod and uses an old routine designed for trollings.

She uses a humidifier and puts in a few drops of eucalyptus, peppermint, rosemary, and a bit of cinnamon. Then, she prepares lemon tea with honey to soothe the throat. There is no singing or talking for the rest of the day, and it works like a charm.

It isn't until after Band Together that it really got bad. When the pop troll trick didn't work, she asked the other tribes for advice.

Techno trolls gargle warmed salt water and swallow a syrup made from agar.

Classical trolls have a special rub made from a minty herb that grows in the mountains. It was originally invented by their cousins, the opera trolls.

Country also uses a syrup made from a special cactus that's also used in making liquor, but it's also mixed with desert flowers that have healing properties and a special cactus fruit that is quite similar to lemon.

Funk trolls also use cough drops, but these have a medicated liquid center that brings instant relief to the throat, and a little hot water with mint goes a long way.

Rock trolls have special hot springs that not only relax their muscles, but by breathing in the steam, it can help heal any sort of throat ailment.

JD also has a trick he learned in the wild. There's a special root that if you break it apart, the smell can instantly clear the nose, and by diluting it into a tea, it warms not only the throat, it also warms the body.

#trolls #trolls branch #mute!branch #au #dreamworks trolls #trolls band together #branch #trolls the beat goes on #trolls world tour #trolls trollstopia #classical trolls #techno trolls #country trolls #trolls poppy #funk trolls #rock trolls #world building

[historia-vitae-magistras]

Hey, sorry to bother, but you mentioned on an ask about writing jack with a ww1 soldier and an immigrant and i have a vague memory of reading the first? I was wondering if you could add a link to where it is since i cant seem to find it. Thanks :)

I don't currently have the WW1 up because it got flagged on my old blog for some reason but the second one is below or here on ao3.

Australia, 1920s.

At the end of the street where Jack had lived in Melbourne after the war, there was a Greek cafe and bakery. Among all the red-brown brick, he could always pick it out as soon as he turned down off the Paris end of Collins Street and left the gardened residential buildings of the well-to-do behind. The whitewashed brick always looked fresh under the billowing green and white striped awning. Above the door, art nouveau stained glass grapevines climbed an invisible trellis, always fat and purple and ready for harvest no matter what time of the season.

The menu above the counter said they served only English food and baked only English tea treats. Generous servings of fish and chips, meat pies, sausage rolls, and pasties heaped onto plates. Or the neat presentations of biscuits, scones, and rock cakes under glass domes and slabs of Victoria sponge. There were also his own things, the piles of stone fruit and ripe mangos. Whatever was in season.

But if it was rainy and his hands were bloodless with cold even at fifteen degrees, he could clear his throat and try the bit of Greek he had picked up in the Agean when the Turks actually had flung him back into the sea. The jolly baker would wince a bit at him, as everyone always did at his attempts at a second language. But Greek food appeared nonetheless. The tiropitakia and spanakopita came out. Layers of spinach and feta tucked under thin crispy sheets of phyllo. He usually finished up a portion of each with baklava served with thick yoghurt and figs drizzled with honey and sprinkled chopped halva because plentiful food still had the haze of a daydream after so long at war and he couldn't help himself.

When the baker's well-built son, who was perpetually tucking a dark spiral of curl behind his ear, served him up another slice of warm baklava on the house just because and teased him for being so cold on such a mild day, Jack's cheeks would burn. Even his ears might go red if the handsome Greek lad served him up a mug that was the best bloody cup of coffee he'd ever had and sat down to chat too. It was the best coffee in Melbourne, and Jack said so every time he wrapped his cold hands around it and took a sip.

The baker's son himself was almost always behind the counter. He was usually whistling. Some songs Jack didn't know, some he did. But sometimes the lad, elbow-deep in the dough as flour and water came together or he kneaded and portioned out loaves of what would be golden, crusty country loaves, he whistled Song of Australia and no matter the rain, Jack would warm to his core. He tried to blame it on a sense of patriotism second-generation immigrants felt for him, maybe a sense of comradery between two men who knew the other had been a khaki digger himself. The man could whistle anything, though, and Jack would feel the sun on the baked clay of his outback.

It was two years of coffee before the handsome lad invited him upstairs and then two years of a cubbyhole of a bed for the nearly two meters of Jack and the broad-shouldered Greek before they parted ways as friends. Only another year after, his pretty Greek lad married a prettier Greek lass and, in a blink, had a whole circus of even prettier Australian kids running around that same bakery. It was another twenty years and another world war before Zee lit a cigarette in a funk hole in Egypt and told him that his Greek boy hadn't even dreamed about ratting them out to the police over the buggery even when threatened. She was impressed and he was loved. He'd always been loved.

#hws australia #the ask box || probis pateo #Ideas || i should write this someday #jack || a land of summer skies #my writing || cacoethes scribendi

[gerogerigaogaigar]

Curtis Mayfield - Curtis

The sprawling funk/soul explorations of Curtis Mayfield display a masterful talent for bombastic arrangements and biting political commentary. The calls for unity are par for the course when it comes to 70s funk, but rather than the both sides-ism of Sly And The Family Stone, Mayfield would like to remind us that we're all gonna fucking die if we don't work together. As for the music, the lush horns, frenetic percussion, frequent harp parts, and aspects of psychedelia make for an incredibly unique album, especially for it's time.

The Byrds - Sweetheart Of The Rodeo

Gram Parsons wanted country rock to be a thing so bad. He was willing to completely overhaul half the personnel of his band and tank their careers just so he could have his country album. Sweetheart Of The Rodeo has been severely vindicated by history considering how big of a genre country rock wound up being in the 70s and all the conservatives who got mad that long haired hippies were ruining their music can suck it. The album consists almost entirely of covers including artists like The Louvin Brothers, Merle Haggard, and Woody Guthrie. It feels very authentic. Acoustic guitar, fiddle, pedal steel, and honky tonk piano abound as Parsons croons over some decidedly non hippie country songs. It's clear they're being a little cheeky when they do The Louvin Brothers' song The Christian Life after all.

Gang Of Four - Entertainment!

What's better than angular, funky, post punk? Angular, funk, Communist post punk obviously! Frustrations about commodity fetishism make up like half of this albums lyrical content. But beyond just the politics the music is also revolutionary. The jittery guitars are matched by punchy drums and staccato singing. It's disorienting, it's angry, it's hugely influential. Come join the proletariat dance party.

Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat

This album is completely feral. Half the songs are about people dying horrifically and there's a seventeen minute jam describing an orgy. No joke for real content warning ⚠️ this album features a very stark and realistic portrayal of how trans people were treated back in the 60s. We have to talk about Lady Godiva's Operation. It's a song about a transgender woman dying in the operating table due to a botched lobotomy. It's brutal and has always been one of the only songs that really scares me. The song's attitude is intensely sympathetic to it's subject, the only hint of Lady Godiva's trans status is one line were a doctor misgenders her and the fact that she was going in for a lobotomy at all (by the 60s they were mainly reserved for gay men and trans women). The humanity of the character in the first half of the song versus the indifference of the doctors in the latter half is an incredibly succinct condemnation of how society treated queer people at the time. ⚠️ Ok content warning over y'all can open your eyes again. Putting the subject matter aside White Light/White Heat is musically unhinged. The guitars are so scrungy and fuzzed out that it can be hard to understand what's going on. Songs like Here She Comes Now and the title track are basically 50s rock and roll with the most fucked up guitars imaginable. The Gift, Lady Godiva's Operation, and Sister Ray are weird droning things with mostly spoken word lyrics. And the guitar solos on Sister Ray are beyond punk and more like noise rock or even just noise. This album is not for everyone, hell it might not be for anyone, but I really like it. I have a soft spot for weird anomalies.

Mary J. Blige - What's The 411?

I'm usually pretty harsh on lengthy 90s R&B fuck jams, but this album is really good at being that thing. 92 was probably the exact time for a funky Hip hop influenced R&B album to be really good by my standards specifically. The beats, produced by Puff Daddy, are very reminiscent of late 80s style hip hop and the vocals are spaced out, very echoey. They combine nicely to create an effect where the vocals encompass you while the beats hit you in the face. A lot of the songs structure are more focused on layering vocals to create a sound more similar to P-Funk than soul, it stops the longer tracks from being boring since they need the four to five minutes length to explore those layers.

Kacey Musgraves - The Golden Hour

Unbelievably boring. I don't care at all about this album. Did you know that Weird Al also has a song called Velvet Elvis? It's basically the exact same song but it's a joke and it came out in the 80s.

#500 album gauntlet #curtis mayfield #the byrds #gang of four #velvet underground #mary j blige #kacey musgraves

[gingeralepdf]

Walk On By - Part 2

A/N: yay!!!!!! another installment in the shroomrry cinematic universe is here!! i want to say a huge thank you to el ( @harrytheehottie​ ) and brailey ( @daydreamsofh​ ) for being excellent beta readers and supporters. <3 <3

and thank you to everyone who has shown my writing love. i truly appreciate it so much. i hope you like this part just as much as the first one. :-)

if you haven’t read part 1, catch up here!!

🍄✨🌈✨🍄✨🌈✨🍄✨🌈✨🍄

****CONTENT WARNING**** alcohol consumption, mentions of drug use

You’re simply buying magic mushrooms from Harry. However, if you keep running into each other, is it going to stay that simple?

word count: just under 5k

**September 15th, 1977, Los Angeles, California**

The brakes on your car squeal as you pull into the last empty spot along the curb and shift into park. The music from your radio comes to an abrupt stop when you turn the key back to shut the engine off. Your head hits the headrest behind you before you empty your lungs into the silence.

Cars drive past on the street to your left. It’s just past five thirty, so all of the after work traffic is in full swing.

You’ve been avoiding this errand for two weeks now. There’s a record that you’ve been wanting to get your hands on ever since one of your coworkers played it at a work function. After looking through shelf after shelf in all of your favorite shops in L.A., and even making some calls to shops in surrounding areas, they’ve all come up short.

This seems to be your very last resort. Right across the street, sandwiched between a donut shop and a hair salon, is Jupiter House Records. From what you remember, this shop has a really good selection and variety, but the handful of unpleasant interactions you’ve had with the owner have been enough to make you look somewhere else. You’ve been stubbornly avoiding this place for years. Now you have a whole other reason for not wanting to spend hours in this store digging through to find your favorites or discover new ones.

Harry works here.

You haven’t seen him since he showed up on your doorstep to return your address book. The conversation you had with Jenny when she came home from work that evening plays through your mind again.

Both of you plop down on opposite sides of the couch in your living room. You sigh and take a big sip from your glass of wine before explaining the whole interaction to her, starting from the moment you opened the door to the moment you saw him drive away in his car.

Jenny grins. The only sound in the room comes from the ticking of the clock on the wall as you wait for her response. “I think he likes you.”

You squint. “That’s what you’re taking away from all of that?”

Her eyes widen and she springs forward, almost sloshing the wine out of her glass when she sets it on the coffee table. “Oh, so you’re telling me he saw the ‘If lost please return to..’ in your address book and decided to make a trip to our house to return it to you in person, when he could have just sent it in the mail?”

You can feel a crease forming between your eyebrows and you take in a sharp breath, fully prepared to counter her point, but she barrels through.

“And he wanted to ‘make sure you were okay’. Out of all the dealers that we’ve met, how many have just shown up at our houses to check up on us? Zero.”

You press your lips together. You can’t argue the fact that this alone sets Harry apart. However, this doesn’t mean he likes you. Maybe it just means that he’s the kind of person that goes the extra mile for the people he does business with. He could have easily left you and Jen sitting on the sidewalk after the concert, but he decided to help, to do what any other good-natured person would do.

“And let’s not forget how he threw the paper on the doorstep so you wouldn’t have to walk all the way down the driveway.” Jenny clutches her chest and swoons.

Scoffing at the way she’s adding dramatics, you challenge, “How do you know he didn’t show up here to see you?”

“He didn’t ask about me, did he?”

“No,” you begrudgingly mumble into your glass.

She grabs her glass from the coffee table and gives you a knowing look. She’s made her point, and the more it lingers like the aftertaste of wine, the more conflicted you become.

You’ve spent more idle moments than you’d like to admit since then thinking about the night you were sitting outside of the Forum. Thinking about what possessed you to lean in and study his face so closely. Was it solely the effects of the drugs? If that’s the case, then why do you want to go back to that moment so badly? And why didn’t Harry pull away? Did he really blush when you were staring at him? Was his heart really racing when you gave him a hug, or was that just your wild imagination?

The honking of a car brings you out of your thoughts. You take a deep breath and trill your lips. There’s a slight break in traffic. If you don’t get out of your car and cross the street now, you fear you’ll stay here stuck in your thoughts all evening.

With a huff, you rip your keys from the ignition and push your door open. You cross the street, walking with a purpose, and make it to the sidewalk.

The full strength of your nerves doesn’t hit you until you’re just in front of the store and the glass door swings out with a simultaneous chime of a bell. Your heart drops from your chest to your stomach and you freeze on the sidewalk to avoid colliding with the man exiting the shop.

When he stops to hold the door open for you, it takes you a moment to gather yourself. You mutter a ‘thank you’ as your hand firmly grips the cool metal of the door handle. Almost like you’re using it as a crutch to get you through the threshold.

Your shoes meet the shaggy mustard yellow carpet, matted down by years of customer traffic.

A woman that looks about your age greets you from behind a counter to your right. You return her half smile and she goes back to flipping through the magazine on the counter in front of her. The nametag on her floral shirt reads ‘Nora’. Behind her is a door with a red ‘EMPLOYEES ONLY’ sign taped to it.

Underneath the counter that she’s leaning on is a glass case holding records and cassette tapes, all marked ‘deluxe’ or ‘limited edition’. Spread out next to them are a few t-shirts, buttons, and stickers with the store logo printed on them.

You weren’t expecting it to be so quiet. Right now it seems like you and Nora are the only people in the store. The coast is clear. You can relax a bit. The adrenaline rush you were feeling on the other side of the door has now been replaced by the whirring of the air vents and David Bowie’s “Queen Bitch” playing over the speakers.

You turn to your left to take in the rest of the store, meandering into the first row of record shelves.

The large window taking up the entire front wall lets in plenty of evening sun that warms your skin through your shirt. More shelves, each one three tiers deep, line the rest of the walls and create aisles in the middle of the room.

Signs hanging from the ceiling above each section indicate the genre. The one you’re standing next to is labeled ‘new releases’ with a smaller font that reads ‘alpha by artist’. Other sections are labeled country, rock, disco, classical. Your eyes land on the back corner of the store where the funk, soul, and jazz sections are.

You make your way over while pulling your sleeves up to your elbows.

Unsure of which specific section the record you’re looking for will be in, you decide to start on one end of the corner and search all the way through to the other in hopes of finding it.

You fall into a familiar routine of searching through the first tier, then the second, leaning over to search through the top tier, and then taking a step over to start the whole process again.

Once you’re about halfway through the soul section, the bell on the door chimes again. You can’t be bothered to look, not wanting to lose your place.

“Hey, sorry I’m late.”

Goddamnit. Your hands freeze their movements and your heart begins to race all over again. You know exactly who just walked through that door.

“Harry,” Nora admonishes, “I finally have a date after two months and you’re gonna make me late.”

Harry’s mumbled response is drowned out by the loud creak of the door behind the counter, but judging by Nora’s gasp and the unmistakable thwack of a magazine, maybe it’s better left between the two of them.

You begin to slowly file through records again, this time not paying much attention to what you’re doing. More-so to give your hands something to do and appear busy while trying to hear the rest of their conversation.

Nora sighs, “It’s been really slow today. Hopefully it’s a slow night for you.” All you hear is some shuffling before she adds, “Oh, boss wanted me to remind you not to play the music too loud.”

“Did he? Dunno what he’s talking about,” Harry says, feigning innocence.

Nora laughs, “Whatever.”

The next thing you hear is the jingling of keys and footsteps across the carpet.

Harry raises his voice from the back room, “Are you gonna punch out?”

“Will you do it for me? I’ve gotta go.”

“Sure.”

The bell on the door rings and Nora yells from the doorway, “I left three boxes in the back for you to restock!”

“Oh thanks,” Harry yells back with sarcastic enthusiasm.

“Bye,” she sings as she walks out.

The door slams behind her. The bell’s high pitched ringing seems to hang in the air.

Silence falls on the room when the song playing over the speakers stops suddenly, making the room quiet enough to hear the traffic outside. You hear a needle drop and after a few seconds, the opening guitar notes of “Can You Get to That” by Funkadelic begin to play. The corners of your mouth turn down to fight a smile when the volume is promptly turned up much louder than what it was when you walked in.

You take a sharp breath in, realizing that you’re going to have to turn around at some point. Surely you can’t just stay in this corner and keep your back turned to him until the place closes. You don’t know what you’re going to say to him. Will he even recognize you after not seeing you for weeks?

There’s not much time to decide what to do when the sound of footsteps approaching on the carpet is getting closer to you.

Your heart leaps into your throat when you hear his voice.

“Finding everything alright?”

You turn your head to the left.

Harry is standing a few shelves apart from you with a box propped between the shelf and his hip. The sunlight from the window shines through the ends of his hair and the sleeves of his white t-shirt when he grabs a record from the box and reaches out to carefully wedge it back into the right place. You scan down to where his shirt is tucked into a pair of dark brown corduroy pants, and further down to see a pair of dirty white sneakers peeking out from the ends of the flares. When he turns his head to the box again, you notice that his mustache is significantly thinner from the last time you saw each other.

Heat rushes up your neck and onto your face when he glances up at you.

His hand pauses in the air and his eyebrows raise slightly before the corners of his mouth do the same, revealing just a hint of his dimples. His head tilts back and he blinks in surprise. “Oh… hi.”

You let out a breath that you didn’t know you were holding when he addresses you by name. Mirroring his smile and turning your shoulders to face him, you reply, “Hi. I… didn’t know you worked here.”

A flat out lie, but thankfully he doesn’t seem too suspect about it.

He frowns and looks down at his shirt, pulling it out in front of him to reveal his nametag. “Hm. M’ afraid I do,” he says flatly.

A breathy chuckle leaves you, amused at the way he’s effortlessly making sarcastic remarks like this with you and his coworker. Quite different from the stiffly awkward interactions you’ve had with him. It’s like you’re seeing him in his natural environment. Him being at ease is having the same effect on you.

“Do you need help finding anything?” he asks, continuing his previous actions, this time with a soft smile.

“Actually, yes,” you clear your throat, “I’m looking for this specific record. I’ve looked all over for it by now. I’m pretty sure it should be in one of these sections if you have it, but...” you trail off as you cast a glance over your shoulder to the shelves you have yet to go through.

“I can take a look in our inventory. Save you some time?”

Of course. Why didn’t you just ask about that when you first walked in? “Sure. That would be great.”

Harry hoists the box into the crook of his arm with a faint grunt and you follow him over to the counter. After setting the box at the end of the countertop, he walks to the other end and reaches underneath the register, pulling out a large beat up binder with ‘inventory’ written on the spine.

It lands on the counter with a plop, probably due to the huge stack of paper inside, separated by multicolored tabs.

“What’s the artist’s name?” he asks after opening the binder to the first page.

“The Equatics.”

He pulls on the ‘A’ tab and folds it over.

“Oh, sorry, it’s Equatics with an ‘E’.”

He tuts and shakes his head before tracing his finger down and pulling on the ‘E’ tab. “Equatics with an ‘E’,” he mumbles.

You fold your lips between your teeth.

Now you’re thankful for the loud music filling the room as you’re standing wordlessly in front of the counter watching him flip through the pages of the inventory binder. Hair hangs in front of his face as his head is tilted down to scan over the pages, all filled with scribbles, arrows, and notes in the margins written in blue, black, and red ink. It all means nothing to you, especially looking at it upside down. You can only imagine how tedious it must be to keep up with.

With his left hand pressed flat against the counter, the expanse of his arm is right in front of you. Hopefully he can’t feel your eyes surveying his tattoos, at least the ones you can see from this angle. A small cross on his hand, an anchor on his wrist, the tail of a mermaid, a delicate rose near his elbow, a heart just beneath the hem of his t-shirt.

He inhales sharply and clears his throat into his fist, “Looks like we do have it. It’s actually in our as-is section.” As he’s speaking, he spins the binder in your direction and slides his finger almost to the bottom of the page to point out where it lists the artist, album title, and the section it’s in.

Despite the relief that comes with finally finding something you’ve been searching for, your face falls a bit. You know that ‘as-is’ is often just a nice way of saying that something is heavily used. “Does that mean it’s… damaged?”

Harry hums and tilts his head to the side, not meeting your eyes until he responds.

“Not always. Honestly we’re pretty much required to put stuff in that section even if it’s just the sleeve that’s messed up. Sometimes the record itself is still in great condition. You can still find some good stuff in there.”

“Okay. Where’s the as-is section?” You don’t remember seeing a sign for it when you walked in, unless you just overlooked it.

“Right. It's, uh, down this hallway here. Kind of hidden.”

Harry rounds the end of the counter and you follow him over to a doorway covered with a ruby red beaded curtain. Harry pulls it to the side and steps through first, pausing to hold the curtain back for you. You mutter a ‘thanks’ and step into a long hallway that extends to your right.

He releases the curtain, letting the beads crash together, before starting down the hallway.

Both walls are lined with floor to ceiling shelves full of cassette tapes, with each row of shelving just tall enough to fit their size. There’s so much packed in this long stretch of narrow space, like a condensed, fluorescent-lit cornucopia.

“I had no idea all of this was back here,” you comment, slightly dumbfounded that you probably would have overlooked this hallway entirely if it hadn’t been pointed out to you.

“Yeah, lots of people think it’s off limits because of the curtain. I need to put some signs up or something.”

As you’re walking behind Harry, you realize you were too distracted before to see print on the back of his shirt, let alone make out what it said. Bold purple font reads ‘MY MIND IS UP ON THE MOUNTAINS’ with a smaller font at the bottom that reads ‘(and i didn’t even have to climb)’. The words are surrounded by a sun, a few flowers, a picture of a mountain, and two mushrooms on the bottom.

A smirk creeps onto the corner of your mouth at how incredibly on the nose it seems for him. It makes you wonder if anyone here knows about his other job, or if he’s hiding in plain sight.

Once you’re both about a third of the way down the hallway, there’s a gap in the shelves on the right filled by a nondescript doorway.

“Here we are.” Harry stops and reaches on the other side of the doorway to flip the light switch before stepping back and gesturing for you to walk in first.

You step into a small room. It only contains two long folding tables pushed against opposite walls. Rather than fancy, neat shelves, the records here are stored in milk crates and cardboard boxes lined up on the tops of the tables. It almost looks like you’ve come across a garage sale.

You furrow your eyebrows and purse your lips to the side as you walk up to the first box at the end of the table closest to the door. When you reach in, Harry speaks up.

“I could help you look for a bit, if you want.”

Harry’s now leaning against the doorframe, running a hand against his jaw. Do you see a slight tinge of pink creeping onto his cheeks as well?

“I don’t really have anything better to do. Plus this section... isn’t really organized,” he continues.

You bring your attention back to the box in front of you, a sharp breath escaping your nose when you turn the Johnny Cash record back to reveal a Mozart one behind it. “I can see that.”

“But if you want to look around by yourself I understand, I can leave you to it,” he says, already slightly backing up into the hallway.

“No, I wouldn’t mind the company. You could take that table and I’ll take this one?” Your own words surprise you as you’re speaking them. Moments ago you had been dreading crossing paths with him again, but now that you’re having a moment that feels comfortable, you find yourself wanting him to stick around longer.

A curiosity is growing in your mind, wondering if Harry is feeling the same way, if that’s why he offered to help, if that’s why he slowly joins you in the room and mirrors your position at the table behind you so you’re not standing back to back.

You both search through the crates without a word, only the faint sound of the music from the front room coming down the hallway. Meanwhile, your thoughts are going back and forth between Jenny insisting that this man likes you and talking yourself out of that idea, insisting that he’s simply being nice, doing his job.

“How have you been?”

The question catches you off guard, taking a moment to realize that he’s actually said it out loud. “Um. I’ve been good. Nothing exciting going on, just working a lot. You?”

“I’m alright, thanks. I’ve been working a lot too. Where do you work? Don’t think I’ve asked you.”

“Do you ever listen to KIIS-FM?”

“Yes?” He responds, possibly thinking that you’re trying to shift the subject.

You smile to yourself, “You’re welcome. I’m a sound engineer there.”

“Oh shit,” he says enthusiastically. “That’s really cool. Do you like it?”

Briefly turning to look at him, your smile grows wider when you read the interest and excitement on his face. An expression you’re seeing for the first time in him, and it's because of something about you. Your heart flutters and you turn back to your table.

“Most days, I do. It can be a real dick fest sometimes though. Not in a good way.”

Despite mumbling the last sentence, Harry seems to still pick it up.

He barks out a laugh. You turn, eyes wide, to see his shoulders shaking and him covering his mouth with his hand.

When he turns back to you, clearly making a lot of effort to compose himself, he places his hand over his heart. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Oh yeah, the way you laughed really convinced me,” you lightheartedly roll your eyes.

“No it’s just… the way you said it was really funny,” he says, chuckling through his words. He continues, “So you studied engineering at UCLA then?”

Your eyebrows crease as his words hang in the air. You guess it’s not wild to assume that people who live in L.A. have attended UCLA. However, since you’ve never mentioned any kind of schooling to Harry, you can only gather that he’s making that assumption from the UCLA t-shirt you were wearing when he showed up at your house.

“I thought I remembered Jenny mentioning that you both went there.” His tone is cautious now, hesitant even. Like he’s picked up on his own blunder.

You decide to brush over it and simply nod, “Yeah, that’s how we met, actually.”

You return to looking through the crate in front of you. You gasp when you see the familiar red cover of the album you’re looking for.

You feel Harry turn around behind you. “Find it?”

You pull it from the crate. The bold red cover with a blue-grey circle in the middle, running your finger over the lines and arrows creating rings around it with a few stars placed here and there. You turn to smile at Harry, holding up the record in place of an answer, too excited to form words. The paper dust liner crinkles as you slide the plastic disc from the sleeve. Holding it by the edges, you tilt it to the left, to the right, and hold it up closer to the light to inspect it. Your shoulders visibly fall when you spot a long scratch running from the middle to the edge.

“Oh no,” you whisper, bringing the record closer to your face. You lightly run your finger over the scratch. It doesn’t feel rough, you actually can’t feel it at all. A fraction of hope is restored knowing that the scratch isn’t too deep into the grooves. However, there’s no way to know if it’s unplayable unless you actually try to play it.

Harry seems to read your mind. “You could test it out on the player up front if you want.”

“Really?” You spin around, seeming to shock him judging by the way his upper body slightly jerks back. “I mean-- I would appreciate that. If it’s not too much--”

He shakes his head, “It’s not a problem.” He walks toward the door where he waits for you to gather everything up.

The front of the store quiet once you both emerge from the other side of the curtain.

“I liked your choice of work music, by the way,” you say once you’ve both made it back to the counter, hugging your record to your chest.

“Oh yeah, Maggot Brain. S’ a fun album.”

You lean forward to rest your forearms against the smooth wood of the counter, waiting while he takes the record off the player to make room for yours. “Do you listen to a lot of funk music?”

“I do. I’ve never really understood why some people aren’t into it. What’s not to love, right?”

“Exactly! My coworker showed me this album and I think it’s one of my favorites now. It was recorded by this group of high school students in seventy two. They won some studio time in a contest or something and they really made the most of it.”

“Hm. M’ excited to listen to it now.” He stretches his hand out, “I’ll take that.”

You hand over the album. “Could you start it on track two? I think that’s my favorite one.”

“Sure.” He places the record on the player and carefully moves the needle in place.

A warm feeling washes over you when you hear the familiar soft guitar and drum beat at the beginning of the song. You both stand in place as the bass line comes in and all of the instruments’ parts crescendo.

Once the beat drops and the main guitar comes in, Harry turns to you with raised eyebrows and an impressed smile.

“Amazing, right?” you ask through a chuckle.

“It’s really good.”

“I know! And I don’t notice the scratch at all. It sounds perfect.”

“S’ exciting. I’m glad you found it.”

He walks over to where you are and starts to inspect the sleeve, turning it over to read the back. He adopts a similar position as you, forearms resting on the counter as he taps his fingers on his bicep to the beat of the song.

“That guitar part is amazing.”

He’s leaning close enough now that you can see a hint of stubble along his jawline and his upper lip. His cologne, a swirl of vanilla and something else you can’t quite put your finger on. He looks up when you don’t respond and you avert your eyes immediately.

“I think so too,” you mumble.

“I find it crazy how something really amazing can be right in front of you for so long and you never notice it or you just keep missing it.” A pause. “This has been in the back room for… I don’t even know how long, and I probably never would have listened to it if you hadn’t been looking for it.” Another brief pause as he scratches at his chin, seeming to be in deep thought. He shakes his head, “I don’t know. Maybe that’s weird, but I think about that kind of thing a lot.”

“I don’t think it’s weird. That can happen with… so many things, too.”

“Like people.”

His eyes quickly dance over your face. You swear they linger on your lips for a second  before returning to meet your eyes.

“Like people,” you repeat. “And I think it is good to think about that stuff from time to time but… it can get overwhelming. Sometimes it could even distract you from the things you’re enjoying now.”

Your eyes do the same motions, glancing all over his face, lingering on his lips, and then back to his eyes. This feels extremely reminiscent of the night you were sitting outside of the Forum, when you were practically nose to nose after you had taken a whiff of his hair. You had been telling yourself that the gravitational pull you felt that night was solely induced by the shrooms. However, you seem to be feeling it again now as your eyes trace over the plane of his cheek, the tip of his nose, the arch of his lip.

A slight crease between his eyebrows slightly contradicts the almost tender look in his eyes. He opens his mouth like he’s about to speak.

Unfortunately he’s interrupted by the shrill ringing of the phone on the wall behind him.

You flinch at the sudden noise and Harry huffs in annoyance before clearing his throat into his fist.

He walks over to the player to turn the music down before answering the phone with a simple, clipped “Jupiter House.”

He covers the receiver with his hand and mouths ‘sorry’ to you before holding up a finger and going into the back room, closing the door until it's just cracked behind him.

You release a heavy sigh and rub your temples.

After a short conversation, Harry comes back and hangs up the phone.

“Sorry about that,” he mumbles, untangling the cord from his fingers. “Are you happy with this, then?” He asks, pointing to the record player.

“Uh- yes. Yes. I am.”

You go through the transaction in silence, watching the way Harry slides your record into a brown paper bag and the way he makes your change. At this moment, you’re wishing Harry came with a cartoon thought bubble over his head so you could know what he’s thinking right now. What exactly did he mean when he said ‘like people’? What was he about to say before he was interrupted?

He carefully folds and creases the paper, but instead of handing it over, he pauses, hands poised on the top of the bag.

“Sorry, I forgot something.” He opens the bag again and crouches down behind the counter.

“What--”

Before you can get your question out, his hand reaches into the glass case between you, hovering over the merchandise that you noticed when you first walked in. He picks out a button and a sticker. You hear them drop into the bag before he pops up from behind the counter.

“You didn’t have to--”

“I know.”

His smile and his voice are reassuring, absolving your confusion in a matter of seconds. 

“Thanks for your help. It was nice running into you,” you smile, taking the bag and holding the record to your chest once again.

“Take care. I’ll see you around.” He smiles.

You back away from the counter and push open the door. The bell rings in your ears one last time.

*********************************************

thank you so much for reading!!

if you enjoyed part 2, please remember that reblogs and/or nice messages mean the world to fic writers. <3

you can find my masterlist here and my inbox here

-> STAY TUNED FOR PART 3 <-

#shroomrry #my writing #harry styles #harry styles fanfiction #harry styles x you #harry styles reader insert #harry styles x reader #harry styles fic #drugs tw #alcohol tw

[cherryblossomflowers]

An Old Life Meets A New (Pt2)

Pairing: Jensen x Daughter, Danneel x Stepdaughter

Warnings: Slight Cussing, Angst, Fluff, Death Mentioned, Car Accident Mentioned, Anxiety/Depression

Summary: After the recent death of her mother, Harper must adjust to her new life in the Ackles home, this includes a new stepmother, half-siblings, and reconnecting with her father.

A/N: I’ve had many requests to post part 2, so here we go!

*ASK OPEN*

**MAKE SURE TO COMMENT TO BE TAGGED**

Part 1

Chapter 2

While on the highway towards his home, Jensen thought now would be a good time to try and get to know his teenage daughter. He leaned over and tapped her shoulder. Harper jumped a bit and pulled off her headphones.

Jensen smiled and spoke, "Sorry, I didn't realize you were that jumpy. I don't remember you being like that."

Harper shrugged and sat up, figuring Jensen wanted to have a conversation.

Jensen continued, "So I thought we could play a game. It's still about 15 minutes until we get to the house. Maybe this will help us pass the time."

Harper nodded but refused to look towards Jensen.

"So the game is this: I ask any question and you answer, then you ask me a question and I'll answer. Sound good?"

Another nod from Harper.

Jensen smiled, "Okay now, let me think." He looked around before a light bulb went off in his head, "Music. What do you listen to now?"

Harper shrugged and quietly spoke, "Pretty much anything. Rock, Country, Pop, Funk. I don't really like Rap though."

Jensen chuckled, "Yeah Rap isn't my first choice either. I'm shocked you still listen to Country considering you haven't been a country girl in 5 years."

"7. It's been 7 years, Dad," Harper whispered.

Jensen’s eyes widened and he sighed, "I didn't realize it's been that long. Sorry," he cleared his throat, "Your turn. Ask me a question."

Harper looked out the passenger window, "When did you get the truck? Last time I was here you had a Jeep."

"Oh, I got rid of the Jeep. It cost more to fix than to get a new vehicle. And I thought having a truck would be something different," Jensen said while turning off the highway to an exit.

Harper saw the exit and suddenly sat up, "Wait you live like 10 miles from here. Why get off at this exit?"

"Oh, I guess I forgot to tell you that I moved," replied Jensen.

Harper looked over at Jensen, "It's, um, it's your turn by the way."

Jensen nodded, "Hmm. Oh, how about dance? Do you still do ballet?"

Harper rolled her eyes and looked out the window, "I haven't danced since I was a kid. I gave it up about 3 months after not hearing from you anymore."

Jensen looked at Harper, "Don't tell me you quit because of me."

Harper shrugged at him.

Jensen leaned back, "That's such a shame. You were such a beautiful dancer."

"Well, people change. They grow up and find new hobbies and activities I guess."

Jensen sighed, "I'm sorry, Harper."

Harper sighed and shrugged, "My turn. How's Supernatural?"

"Well, it's funny that you mention that. We just wrapped up filming for season 15, the final season."

Harper whipped her head to him, "Wow, I didn't realize you finished it. I thought you would be on the show for years."

Jensen laughed, "Well, we all agreed 15 seasons is a good stopping point."

Harper sat back, "I didn't realize you've been on the show for as long as I've been alive."

"Crazy isn't it? That's how I met your mom you know," replied Jensen with a grin.

Harper smiled, "I know. That was my favorite story she told. You were filming the first episode. She was a make-up artist fresh out of college."

"She added way too much foundation to my face on the first day."

"And she felt so bad because you looked like an Oompa Loompa on camera."

"So I told her I would take her to dinner as a forgiveness."

"And the rest was history," both Jensen and Harper said at the same time.

The looked at each other and started laughing. Tears were running down their faces from how hard they laughed.

Harper chuckled a bit and looked back at Jensen after wiping her eyes, "I haven't laughed that hard in a while."

Jensen smiled at Harper, "You probably won't really like hearing this right now, but you even laugh like her."

The smile immediately fell from Harper's face. She looked out the window again and sighed.

Jensen's smile fell too. He sighed, leaning back into his seat, "I shouldn't have said that, I'm sorry."

Harper shook her head, "It's fine. I've just been hearing nothing but that stuff for a week. How I look like her, sound like her, act like her. It kind of hurts now that she's gone."

Jensen laid a hand on Harper's shoulder, "I won't do it anymore. And if I do by accident, you can call me out on it."

Harper turned to Jensen, "Thanks, Dad."

Jensen put his hand back on the wheel and turned into a neighborhood. Harper's jaw hit the ground at the size of the houses.

They were huge! They were at least 3 story homes with a guest house, a pool, and a huge backyard.

The last time Harper was in Austin, Jensen's house was a 2 bedroom, 1 bath small home in the middle of nowhere.

Now he lived in a mansion home!

Jensen pulled into the driveway of one of the homes. The first observation Harper had was the second car in the driveway.

Jensen must've read her mind, "That's Danneel's car."

Harper replied, "Right, I forgot you got married like 10 years ago."

Jensen chuckled, "I'm surprised you forgot considering you were there."

Harper was 5 years old. Jensen had his wedding in New York, and had Harper as his flower girl. Her mom was invited, but she felt weird about going and didn't show up. Danneel welcomed Harper as her stepdaughter, and at the time Harper was happy about the idea.

That was the first and only time Harper had seen Danneel.

With how things are now, Harper didn't feel comfortable being around Danneel. Though she is her stepmother, Harper knows Danneel cannot replace her biological mother.

Jensen put the car in park and shut off the engine, "Before you ask, Danneel is with Genevieve getting their hair and nails done. She won't be home for a few more hours."

Harper nodded, unbuckled her seat belt, and opened the car door. Once she stepped outside, she grabbed her backpack from the floor and shut her door. Jensen got out of the truck and walked to the back of the car.

He reached for Harper's duffel, but Harper beat him to it, grabbing it herself, "I got it."

Jensen nodded to her and walked towards his front door. Harper trailed behind, looking around at the house.

Jensen unlocked the front door and opened it for Harper. She walked inside and again her jaw hit the ground.

She thought the outside was big, but the inside? Holy shit!

Her eyes immediately fell to the open living room. The entire back wall was a window with a back porch and a beautiful view. The bright, royal blue sectional caught her eyes right off the bat. There were small pillows on the ground with two chairs next to 3 acoustic guitars. There also were glass ball lights hanging from the ceiling, and the ceiling had the rafters exposed, which was gorgeous. The artwork on the wall looked locally bought as well.

Jensen walked inside and shut the door behind him. He walked over and saw Harper's jaw on the floor. He laughed and closed her mouth, "You'll catch flies with your mouth open like that."

Harper shook her head and blinked, "Your house is so...big."

Jensen laughed again, "This is just the living room. Come on, let me show you your bedroom."

Harper followed Jensen past the kitchen area and the small bar, up the small set of stairs to a dining table and a fireplace. Past that was another couch with a large flat screen TV mounted on the wall.

A small hallway was to the left of this room. Jensen walked in front of her and opened the door at the end of the hallway. He turned to Harper and nodded his head towards the room.

She walked inside and looked around. Jensen walked in behind her and leaned against the wall. Harper walked up to the bed and dropped her duffel and backpack.

Jensen cleared his throat, "It used to be our guest room, hence the no decorations and the plain bedding. But if you'd like, tomorrow we can go shopping. Maybe even get you some new clothes-"

"I like my clothes," said Harper interrupting him.

Jensen was stunned a bit, "Oh, um. Alright. Well, why don't you unpack and I can make lunch? Are you hungry?"

Harper shook her head, "Not really."

Jensen nodded, "Okay then. Go ahead and unpack, rest up a bit. I'll uh, I'll let you be," and with that, Jensen left.

Harper looked around her new room again and sat down on the bed. Tears filled her eyes almost instantly. She reached into her backpack and pulled out a picture frame wrapped in a scarf, her mother's scarf.

Unwrapping the frame, she set the scarf aside and looked at the photo. It was a picture Harper took of her mother swinging on a rope swing from a tree. The smile on her face, her hair from the wind. She could still hear her mother's laughter.

A single tear fell on the framed picture.

She stared at the photo for a bit. A moment frozen in time. Too bad there weren't more of those.

Harper hugged the picture close to her chest then set it on the nightstand next to her bed. She took a deep breath and sighed. She looked at her bags on the bed and set them on the ground. She took off her combat boots and her jacket from her waist. Afterwards she took her phone from her back pocket and set it on the nightstand as well as her headphones.

She then laid down on the bed and curled into herself, sobbing quietly into the pillow.

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

Masterlist

My Cherry Blossoms

@mlovesstories​ @chessurkait​ @adorable-minibot​ @desiredposion​ @idksupernatural​ @thevelvetseries​ @spnfamily-j2​ @let-me-luve-you​

#SPN #spn rpf #supernatural #Supernatural RPF #Jensen Ackles #jensen #jensen ackles x daughter #jensen and danneel #danneel harris #danneel ackles #Jared Padalecki #jared and jensen #jared x gen #jared x niece #spn oc #OC #jared #jj ackles #zeppelin ackles #arrow ackles

[thelazycat220]

The Fight Female Reader x Cooper x Prince Darnell

Everyday in your life was always the same thing: waking up every morning to eat breakfast, go over your daily schedule in life, and wind down to go to sleep. It was the same things over and over. Trolls in your life were always so happy about their everyday lives that you wondered if they ever grew tired of the same thing.

So today, you decided to do something different. Ripping up your glitter-covered paper, you that huffed to yourself saying that it was time for change, you were the boss of your own life, and a flimsy piece of paper can't control it. You got to your room and got out your berry-picking basket and your hat, rushing out the door without even caring if your door was closed or not.

The sun was pretty bright, almost being a bit of a blind sight to look at. Walking into the forest were shade was constant year-round was a lovely choice. Wild strawberries were at its reddest and biggest. Your mother once told you that a juicy strawberry was a good strawberry. And you believed that once you picked a strawberry. Licking your lips with hunger, you reached out for a strawberry when you saw a glimpse of something. Turning to the left side of your body, you saw one of the strawberry bush leaves being a stain of red.

Kneeling, you examined it a bit more, realizing that it wasn't strawberry juice, since it was pink. No, this red stain was a maroon, and it smelled metallic. You swiped the leave with your finger and before you knew it, it was blood.

A shiver was sent down your spine. Was there a chance that a troll was wondering in the woods and he or she got hurt? What if they were attacked by a creature? Or a Bergen? Dropping your basket, you looked around to see if their was anymore blood in sight, walking to North. Indeed there was, in blood-red footprints, smears on trees' trunks, not to mention a few skinny branches dripping some. Queasiness started to settle in your body, growing more and more fearsome. Everywhere you looked was like the inside of a murder house, or horror movie for that matter.

You walked some more, before the sole of your foot rested on something soft and fuzzy, like one of your knitting projects. Looking down, you saw a green scarf, dirtied by small amounts of blood, swipes of dirt and leaves clinging to your fabric. Taking your foot away from the scarf, you picked it up and realized that it was a Christmas present you made for Cooper. Oh, God, Cooper! What if he was the one injured?

Panicking with fright, your troll ears perked up to listen to something. It sounded like echoing shouts and screams of frustration. But you didn't know where they were coming from. You stayed quiet and listened, the sounds were coming from the West side, just beyond the thorn bushes that bloomed poisonous Nightshade berries. You knew that once a troll ate a Nightshade berry, they would die in brutal ways that would even traumatize a baby. The first incident you heard from Nightshade berry-related deaths were just straight-up horrific: a Pop troll ate one and puke blood; two Rock trolls ate a handful and died from overdose of it; a family of Country trolls were found dead with their parts hacked off and hanging from trees, the dad survived only cause the he was the one who ate the Nightshade berries, giving him hallucinations that resulted into murdering his family.

And the last incident was a small little Classical girl that ate a couple by accident, her belly swollen painfully before the skin bursted and her organs fell out.

You shuddered, whatever was behind those bushes were the only way of saving Cooper. Slowly, you crept up to the bushes the sounds more clear to what sounded like Cooper and...someone else? Being careful with your fingers, you pulled apart the thorny bushes, gasping from what you saw that shocked you from the core.

You watched in horror as you saw the royal Funk troll brother--Cooper and Darnell. You figured out everything--the blood, Cooper's scarf, even the screams. They all belonged to the brothers. They were standing in a circle of dirt, already splattered with large amounts of red blood that seemed enough for a troll to bleed out. Cooper and Darnell were circling each other, growling at one another with eyes of anger and bloodlust.

They both looked horrible. Cooper had a gash on his forehead that drenched his face with his own blood; his front left leg had a deep bleeding wound that had a large stick stuck out, which had him limping a bit; he had inch-deep lashes on his back, his once pink fur now dyed with red; his hind legs wrapped in the Nightshade berries' bush thorns, covered in scrapes and scratches along with a couple thorns digging into the skin; his long neck covered in bruises.

Darnell had sustained more damaged than his twin: he had a blackeye with a bloodshot eye, no trace of white was replaced by red; all four of his legs appeared to be stabbed terribly, gushes of blood pouring out; his ear had no piercing, it had been torn off; twigs and leaves clung to his fur, a vine of Nightshade thorns pierced his skin that was wrapped around his body; and his neck was covered in bites, bleeding out, Cooper must've done that, which were proven by Cooper's teeth being stained with a dark pink. And his feet were covered in lacerations.

Both of them succumb heavy breathing, then, charged at each other with screaming out their lungs. Attacking each other with all their power. You watched in horror as they continued to fight each other to death. You knew that you had to stop from killing each other, but were afraid about what might happen if you stood yourself between the two.

Cooper then punched Darnell in the face, striking him down to the earthly soil, his knuckle dyed with Darnell's blood. Alas, due to the damage Darnell had, he was weak and fell back down on the dirt. Cooper smiled as he walked up to his brother, kneeling with something in his hand. Darnell's head was a bit up, until you heard something sizzle that was mixed with Darnell's scream of pain. Cooper had a thick birch branch that had its end glowing red hot, burning Darnell's cheek when the tip touched his face.

Spitting out blood, Darnell growled out to Cooper, "You bitch...(Y/N) is mine and will always will be..." A tingling sensation flowed through your body, hearing your name through the weak Funk prince almost made you fell in love.

Cooper scoffed, looking amused. "Oh no, twin bro, she's MINE. You're just going to be wolf meat, and when the wolves can't finish you off, the maggots will come and eat away what's left. And then, all that's left of you will be rotten bones covered in mold; no one's going to miss you."

You gasped, immediately coming out of the bushes and started to shout: "STOP IT! Both of you--just stop!" Both twins looked up to see you terrified. Cooper dropped the fired-up branch and smiled nervously at you.

"Heeeey, (Y/N)! S-Sorry you had to see this, we were just, uh, playing a game!" Cooper smiled, but you frowned.

"Playing a game that involves both of you to fight to the death? That doesn't even sound fun!" You then gasped once more, kneeling down the weak Darnell, who groaned in pain. "And look what you two are doing to each other! Do King Quincy and Queen Essence know about this?! Imagine what would happen if they found that their own sons tried to kill each other?"

Both of them had a moment of reality, the two looking guilty that they tried to commit an act of murder to each other. Darnell tried to sit up, but the pain overflowed his body and he fell down once more. New trickles of blood began to stain your hands and the cuffs of your sweater. "Oh no, Darnell! You're bleeding! We have to get you help before it gets worse." You wrapped one of his arms around your neck, grunting to realize that he was heavy. "Cooper, help me."

Taking his other arm to help you out, both of you began to exit out of the forest, then Cooper said apologetically: "I'm...sorry about the fight. We were just...well..."

You sighed, then smiling at the Funk twin. "It's alright Coop. You don't have to fight over me. I love you both." You grunted once more. "C'mon, let's get your brother to my pod, I have some medicine stuff for him."

(Written by LGBTQLover on FanFiction.Net)

#trolls cooper #x reader #trolls prince d

[geekgirles]

Una rosa es una rosa

In all honesty, this one-shot is an excuse to describe an outfit I came up with for Poppy, but hey, it got me to write something, didn’t it? XD

Special thanks to my lovelies @foxlanaeshrek and @tipolover22. You guys rock! And because you do, this one-shot is set on the Rock!Branch AU.

Read on AO3

With the Skulls and Roses Ball fast approaching, Branch asks Poppy to go with him as his date. However, an unfortunate comment sets Poppy out to prove to her boyfriend she can be the last thing she expected she'd want to emulate: a Rock troll.

Ever since the different tribes of trolls had been reunited and agreed to coexist once again, many changes were made to Troll Village. It had been decided the home of the Pop trolls would take in the rest of the kingdoms, because it was the one that held the most chances for other trolls to make a home of their own, adapting the landscape to their particular needs. And it had the sweetest acoustics by far, too.

Now that all tribes lived together, the leaders had agreed on creating spaces where all trolls could enjoy each other’s company at the same time as any individual kingdom could gather to speak about issues that concerned their kind specifically.

One of such places being a grand pod, known as the Conference-pod, that was built the closest to the centre of the village as possible. It was of every hue that was once represented by the six strings that used to hold each realm’s music. The top was electric blue, representing the techno string; its bottom was a golden yellow, that of the classical string; rotating around the spacious place were purple swirls and warm orange rope-like shapes, symbolising the funk and country strings, respectively; and finally, in the very middle of the pod, where the entrance was, zig-zagged blood red shapes intertwined themselves with bright pink hearts and flowers, a reflection of the rock and pop strings.

Said pod served as a ballroom and an assembly room. In there the trolls would celebrate any party in need of an indoor space, as well as the leaders meet to discuss different ways of ensuring a better collaboration and coexistence between their people. Even so, the place served another purpose, any king or queen (mayor and conductor in the Country and Classical trolls’ case) could request to use the pod in order to hold a party or meeting exclusively for their kind.

Being that last purpose the reason why it was currently being occupied by the Rock trolls, Queen Barb currently addressing her subjects, “As you know, our annual Skulls and Roses Ball is in two days’ time. I doubt I need to remind you it’s our most, if not only, formal event.” She said as she looked at her people. “I’ve already asked Queen Poppy if we can use the pod for it and she gave me the green light, so dudes”, she leaned in closer from the podium she was standing, “we’ve got a lot to do!”

After a minute or two she gestured for her trolls to calm down after the uproar that came when she shared the news, “Captain Branch here will read you the memo. They’re all yours, Branch.”

“Thank you, your rockness,” he thanked her as he took the place she’d previously been in, “As the queen just explained, the Skulls and Roses Ball is a formal event. That means the requirements for it are: we must all look our best, we must bring plus ones with us ‒if somebody can’t bring a plus one, either because they’re in a poly or just can’t find anyone to go with; we must be informed ahead of time‒, and absolutely, under no circumstances must we trash the place. Did I make myself clear?”

He narrowed his eyes at the lack of response from his comrades and repeated himself, louder, “I said, are we clear?!” Immediately, a chorus of agreements and clapping hands came, satisfying him. “That will be all. Dismissed; we have much to do.”

As the Rock trolls retreated, Branch stayed behind to clean up the pod. In doing so, he was approached by the queen of rock, a knowing smirk placed on her lips, “So…,” she began playfully, “are you bringing Poppy as your date, Branch?”

“That is correct, my Queen,” he turned back to face her, then his expression became worried. “Why, is there a problem with my decision, your Rolling Highness?” Branch feared not being able to have Poppy accompany him to the ball. He was well aware his relationship with the pink queen ‒the pink queen of Pop, to be precise‒ was something unheard of, even from back when the trolls still lived together the first time. But he simply couldn’t take anybody else as his date to the event; she was his one and only and he would not accept anyone but her.

“No, no. It’s cool, dude”, the redhead replied, motioning with her hand to ease his concerns, “Popcorn is pretty hard-core once you get to know her.” She smirked at him, which he answered with a smirk of his own. It was true, Poppy could be a force to be reckoned with if pushed too far; outright terrifying. He loved her so much. “But,” that made him worried, “you should really let her know she can’t come in her usual pop fashion.” Barb was now looking at him, her expression serious. “This is a rock formal event, Branch, she must look the part.”

The Captain nodded, “I will make sure she knows, your rockness.”

After the Rock Queen took her leave Branch was sure to follow, he had to find Poppy.

..........................................................................................................................

Poppy could barely contain her excitement the moment her charming boyfriend handed her an invitation ‒scrapbooked by him, might I add‒ to invite her to an upcoming rock event as his date. That would be their first appearance as an official couple! She really wanted to sing as loudly as she could to express her excitement right now. But, figuring there were still things they had to talk about, she did the next best thing; she tackled Branch to the ground in a hug.

“Oh, yes, yes, yes!” She practically yelled, “Yes, Branch! Of course I’ll be your date!”

After allowing himself to relish the attention his beautiful ladylove was giving him, he reluctantly broke the hug, “Poppy, angel, there’s something I should tell you.”

She looked at him with a furrowed brow. Seriousness wasn’t really the mood she’d thought he’d be in after inviting her to a party. “Okay…,” she said, feeling a little uneasy, “What’s up?”

Branch took a deep breath, “You see, the Skulls and Roses Ball is a huge deal for us Rock trolls. It is literally the only day of the year where we are expected to behave and follow certain rules.” His nervous gaze found her confused one, her nodding head encouraging him to continue. “This is the first time ever a troll that worships a different type of music will be attending, so I need you to be in your best behaviour.”

Wording his thoughts like that had been a mistake, he could tell from the queen’s narrowing eyes. “What do you mean by ‘my best behaviour’?” she air-quoted.

“I need you to look and act like a poised, elegant rock troll.” He explained, hoping he didn’t screw up. “I know it’ll probably be difficult-“

“Why would it be difficult?” She cut him off, crossing her arms. She had a feeling she knew where he was going, and she didn’t like it one bit.

“W-well… Y-you k-know… Be-because…”, Ugh, how did she manage to make him lose his usual level head?! In twenty years nobody had ever managed to make him lose his level head!

Then again, he had never met anyone as unique, inspiring, and incredible as Poppy… Oh, Rock. He really did have it bad.

“No, Branch, I’m afraid I do not know. Please, enlighten me…” she challenged.

“W-well, because…” he averted his eyes from her as he uttered the words that were sure to cause him several nights away from his pink, sweetly scented Eden, “…you’re a Pop troll.”

At the confirmation of her suspicions, something stirred inside Poppy. The same kind of resolve that only awakened when her people had truly needed it. But this time it was mixed, once again, with the desire to prove herself… And a hint of smugness.

And so, with a new purpose, she slowly got closer to her tattooed beau, a fire in her pink irises that, hadn’t it been for the fact that he was now slightly disturbed by the heat of its fury, under any other circumstances the Captain of the Rock trolls would have found insanely hot. Without a warning, she quickly pecked him on the lips before whispering, “Challenge accepted.”

As the retreating form of the Pop Queen was finally far enough, Branch let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

“…What was that about?”

..........................................................................................................................

Poppy had been pacing and ranting inside the Fashionistas’ pod-shop for twenty minutes. Any troll from another land would be at a loss at what to do with the agitated ball of pink fury, but the twins, having been close friends with the queen since childhood, knew just exactly what was troubling her.

“So Branch invited you to Rock troll party-“, Satin started.

“-But he doesn’t actually think you can pull it off?” Chenille finished.

“Yes!” Poppy threw her arms at her sides, exasperated with her boyfriend. “I can’t believe him! We’ve been together for months and he still doesn’t trust me when it comes to his people and their customs! Like, what gives?!”

The twins exchanged a look. As siblings that were literally bound to each other, they knew of unsaid things, hidden behind bickering, better than anyone. “Poppy, hon.” Satin called her as Chenille put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

When their friend was finally looking at them, the blue sister began to explain, “We don’t think Branch doesn’t trust you.”

“Really?” Poppy asked, incredulous.

“Really.” The pink twin assured her with a soft smile.

“Then why doesn’t he think I can actually behave like a ‘poised, elegant Rock troll’?” She rolled her eyes as she did a half-hearted impression of her boyfriend’s voice.

“It’s probably not that he doesn’t think you can’t behave like one of his kind-,” Chenille tried to reason.

“-But more like he’s trying to protect you from them.” Satin added.

“What?”

“You know how we trolls can be, Poppy”, Satin shrugged, “We get very defensive of the things we care about.”

“So Branch probably fears his people will give you a hard time if you don’t act like them on such a special occasion.” Chenille smiled at her, reassuringly.

The royal troll’s eyes widened. It all made so much more sense now! Of course her romantic, thoughtful, and caring boyfriend would never think anything but highly of her! He just had a hard time delivering harsh things gently due to his upbringing. Sometimes even to her. He’d explained himself before.

“I want to make things right.” She spoke up. “I want to make Branch see I can handle myself so he doesn’t worry to death for my sake.” Poppy suddenly felt very small under the amused smirks and knowing eyes of the twins. She knew they saw right through her… “And… I also want… to… make his jaw… drop… when he sees me.” She admitted quietly, a blush spreading over her already pink cheeks.

The Fashion Twins simply giggled. Those two were adorable!

“Luckily for you-,“ Satin began to speak.

“-We happen to have the perfect idea in mind for your outfit.” Chenille completed the sentence as she showed Poppy a very peculiar flower. A flower Poppy knew all too well but had never given much thought. After all, it wasn’t the kind of flower a Pop troll would have a soft spot for.

“A-are you sure?”

“Positive.” They answered in sync. “Besides, it sure is perfect if what you’re aiming for is something that helps you erase your pop vibes temporarily. It does symbolise death, hatred, farewells, and tragic romance… It’s sure to grant you the darker side that is so characteristic of Rock trolls, since it’s a stark contrast to your usual, well, you.”

Poppy didn’t know which twin had said it, but she didn’t care. She had the perfect chance to become a poised, elegant rock troll and she sure as Hair was going to use it.

.............................................................................................................................

Branch had been waiting anxiously at the entrance of the Conference-pod for the last ten minutes. Despite their disagreement, Poppy had sent him a card saying she’d be there at 7:00PM. And yet, it was already 7:10PM and she was nowhere in sight.

He couldn’t help but think back on their “argument”. Ugh, if only he’d been better at choosing his words! How he was simultaneously able to smooth talk his girlfriend until he swept her off her feet and speak to her with his foot in his mouth was beyond him! But alas, it was a power he had been both blessed and cursed with, apparently.

He was also feeling very curious regarding her outfit of choice. Even if he knew for a fact Pop trolls had their own formal events, a part of him still worried about his queen’s (the one by choice, not the one he’d sworn to serve because he was her Captain) choice.

He, himself, never really lost sleep when it came to his own clothing. He was dressed smartly; wearing a buttoned-up white shirt, a black tuxedo and a navy blue tie and waistband to match his dark hair, which was carefully combed back, giving him a refined presence. Even if his attire was appropriate for the occasion, his mind was still going back to Poppy’s.

Just what would she be wearing?

“Branch, over here!”

As he turned his head to the sound of his name, he could feel his eyes widening like saucers, his rocker heart skipping a beat, his jaw hanging right open... And he was pretty sure he’d stopped breathing, too.

It was so strange. The female in front of him looked so much like Poppy. Her skin was the same pink he’d compared to the sunset’s hue dozens of times. Her magenta eyes still sparkled with the same sense of wonder and excitement Poppy’s always reflected. Her glittery freckles shimmered when the light hit them just right… And yet, the troll before him looked nothing like his sweet, happy angel of morning.

The pink troll before him had a certain feeling of mystery and danger to her. Her beauty screamed enchantress, siren, goddess of the night! …Of course it was Poppy, Poppy always looked like a goddess! He couldn’t take his eyes off of her.

Her magenta hair was reminiscent of a bud that was yet to bloom, with both the strands at the top of her mane and framing her face shaped after two perfectly round spirals. But what really caught his eye, though, wasn’t the extra softness it seemed to radiate, but the single black streak that went across his mate’s silky locks. A black highlight he’d only ever seen once before; when she was (seemingly) turned into a Rock troll.

Glinting in the night almost as much as her rosy gaze, three silver earrings gave the pink troll a bit of a wilder look. Two of them adorning her right ear, and one on her left. The smoky eyeshadow she wore made her eyes resemble two magenta lights in a fog of mystery. A spiked choker covered her neck, forcing his mind to daydream with the thought of marking it with a love bite.

The masterpiece she was using as dress was black and strapless, it hugged her body perfectly; the bodice accentuating her curves in such a manner that it reminded him of a corset. And the skirt, the long, filmy skirt, had a cut on both sides of it; teasing Branch with the sight of Poppy’s long, perfect legs. From closer inspection, the unusually smooth texture of the dress reminded him of a flower’s petals, rather than fabric. And yet, its rose-like velvety feel gave it a quality no other silk could amount to achieve. It was almost as if Poppy had picked rose petals and woven them together to create such garment.

That’s when it clicked. The dress was inspired after a black rose.

What really sold the look, however, were the twin armlets she wore, alongside her headband. The bracelets, made out of obsidian, were crafted in the form of vines with thorns. And, in contrast to the Pop Queen’s usual style, the headband followed a simple design; a halo of silver decorated by three black roses.

He gulped.

From the corner of his eyes he could see Riff arriving with his own date. At the sight of his Captain, he subtly motioned to the corner of his mouth. Following the movement with his own hand he realised what the drummer was referring to, he discreetly wiped the drool falling out of his open mouth.

A triumphant grin made its way to Poppy’s lips. Judging by the look on her boyfriend’s face ‒and his jaw, which was barely avoiding touching the floor‒, she’d succeeded. She looked like a classy Rock troll. Still, even if it was just to tease him, she asked, “So? How do I look?”

Breaking out of his stupor, Branch lightly shook his head before speaking up, “Poppy you… Rock, I don’t know what to say!”

She giggled, “Tell me, do I look like the perfect Rock troll now?” She wanted to sound confident, but a part of her still feared not meeting her boyfriend’s expectations, making her direct her eyes to the floor, only looking up at Branch ever so slightly.

His heart sunk at the insecurity hidden behind her melodic voice, “Poppy,” gently grabbing her chin, he directed her eyes to his before continuing, “you’ll always be perfect for me.”

A soft smile appeared on her lips at the clever reference of the beautiful ballad Branch once serenaded her with to express the depth of his feelings for her. He truly had the soul of a poet.

He then offered her his arm, “Shall we, my lady?”

“Branch, before we go in, I wanted to tell you something.” She watched as he turned, fully facing her now with his icy blue peepers. She had his full attention. “I’m sorry.”

His eyebrows knotted in confusion, “You’re sorry? What are you sorry for, Pops? I’m the one who doubted you!”

“No, you didn’t.” She said with finality. “I now know you weren’t doubting my blending in with your people, you were worried they wouldn’t be pleased with my ensemble and give me a hard time for it.” She sighed. “You were just trying to protect me.”

She really did get it. Sometimes he wondered if this selfless creature could read him like an open book. As a matter of fact, that didn’t sound so bad. “Yes, you’re right. That’s what got me worried, but still, Poppy, I should’ve voiced it differently.” He let out a humourless chuckle, “Looking back, no wonder you thought I was underestimating you for being a Pop troll. So,” he shrugged after holding her hands, “I’m sorry too.”

After a minute of silence, he asked, “Does this mean the gates to Heaven won’t be closing on me?”

Poppy snorted at that, “No, they won’t. ‘Sides, it’s not like you don’t have the key to them anyways…” She replied in a sultry voice.

Smiling widely at each other, no more words needed to be said. So, instead, they just closed the distance with a soft kiss before settling in an embrace.

Poppy was the first to break the silence, “Branch, I love you. And it means so much to me that you worry about my wellbeing so much, really, it does; but I don’t want you to have a heart attack every single time I find myself in a difficult situation. I swear, I can take care of myself; I did save my people from the bergens, after all.” She winked at him.

The blue troll chuckled, “Yes, you do.” He then offered her his arm again, “Now, shall we join the others, my rose?”

She took it, “Well of course! But tell me, Branch, do you really think I’ll be fine at the ball?”

He gently kissed her nose, a stark contrast to the roughness he treated almost everyone else with, “Believe me, they’re fools if they can’t see you’re the most tender flower in the rose bush.”

#Trolls #trolls world tour #twt #twt spoilers #trolls au #trolls fanfiction #Rock! Branch AU #Poppy #Branch #broppy #queen barb #riff #satin and chenille #rock trolls

[esabri]

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[fangirlingweirdo]

TWT analysis - spoiler alert!

First of all, I just wanna start off by saying that this is heavily based on my opinions and just my personal review about the movie. I’ll try categorize them into different parts and make it brief as possible.

Story

I’m just go out and say I freakin LOVE Trolls World Tour. The concept of the movie where each tribes of trolls is a combination of different genres of music was very uniquely established and it feels so clever. The amount of energy in this film is more fun and exciting than the first film as it kinda introduces different types of trolls and their types of music and culture, showing that there’s more than just pop trolls in the troll kingdom. The underlying themes where dreamworks introduces the ideas about cultural appropriation, colonialism and musical criticism has never been more relevant and more applicable in society’s issues. The message behind the movie is very clear and they executed that perfectly to the viewers, especially to the younger audiences teaching about diversity and that it’s okay to be different and that differences matters. Although I do noticed some inconsistencies in the movie like they have been given a very little time to introduce the different types of trolls and the rushed subplots of the film, Like Cooper having his own story arc where he found out he’s actually a funk troll, (a pop and funk troll) Though I hope they left all those details on Trollstopia.

Animation

I could just let the movie speak for the animation itself and not give a review about it, but I just have to. The animation is a 10/10! periodt. from the visuals to the color to the character designs, you will never be disappointed. Dreamworks animation has a reputation for its good animation, and Trolls is definitely a game changer and the team outdid themselves with this one. Not only with the vibrant colors that stayed since the first film, but also the follow up included new visuals to overall enhance the look of the story, like with pop trolls and their combination of vibrant hues of colors and glitters, and with rock and their angsty mood and redish hues, and the other tribes of trolls that correlates with their type of genre.

Characters

I feel like this is gonna be longer than my other reviews for I do have a lotta bone to pick with this one. So WARNING, this ought to be long. You can skip and scroll it down if you want.

let’s start off with Poppy. Little Queen Poppy. She now became the Queen of the pop trolls and it’s up to her how she’s gonna rule the trolls. (obviously) Then she found out that there’s this whole other world of trolls and she now.. suddenly wants to reunite all trolls and their music. She also got a side plot where she tries to be this epitome of a “good queen” that is kinda her motivation throughout film. At first you’ll think, what’s wrong with Poppy? Like she IS the main protagonist in the movie, so creators must’ve made her like the ‘hero’ in the film. Well... 👀 hmm I— I dunno bout that. let’s see.

I get that the film wants to give her an arc where she has to understand the differences between them (pop trolls) and these other kinds of trolls. And then in addition to her optimistic, bubbly personality, she wants to unite all trolls against the viewed villain in film Queen Barb who wants to destroy all music and make em under rock. Everything could’ve ended greatly if Poppy will just listen. (i get it. whole point of the film is poppy not listening) Her tunnel vision kinda made her annoying at this time around. Her overall ideology about pop being the superior music has made it hard for her to accept all the other types of trolls and their genres of music. In a scene in Lonesome Flats, she kinda just.. disregarded the whole idea of “music can be also sad cause life is sad sometimes” she thinks that music is suppose to make you happy, which is true in a sense but not disparaging the fact that music can also be about sadness and other things in life.

Throughout the whole film, she’s only too focused on one thing and refuses to listen to any advice, especially given by Branch, Biggie, even from her own father. It just felt a bit out of character for me. I guess she might’ve thought her positive, optimistic ways that led the bergens to be their friends kinda checked out and saved the trolls so might as well do the same on this one, when clearly that’s NOT the case.

There was also that one scene where she kinda gets down on Branch for being a bad friend when he gave her constructive criticism and advice (in the raft), completely taking his words out of context assuming he doesn’t think of her as a good queen. (At this point, I wish he could’ve just said yes cuz honestly, it’s getting annoying lmao.) Which is.. why exactly? He’s with her throughout, supporting her despite all the warnings.. but anyways.

I guess the only thing I like about her is she did get the arc that she needed. I mean I thought her not listening has been her whole thing in the franchise like in the first film and Trolls Holiday. I kinda wanted her to realize the stubbornness she acted upon throughout the whole film and somehow it was executed quite nicely..? I sure wish this is the last time she won’t listen and that she learned from all these things. Overall, her character.. didn’t really work out for me this time unlike in the first film though her growth and development is enough. Hopefully they’ll work out on her character more in the future.

Now, Let’s go to Branch. Personally, I love him. He’s my favorite throughout the whole franchise. I’m just gonna say it now, but i’ll try not to look biased here. lol

I love how branch is the sensible one this time. I get that he became like the voice of reason for Poppy and her consort. And let me just say the character development of Branch, from being reclusive, withdrawn type of troll now becoming more open and congenial, the personality growth has made his character so much fitting and I’m so glad to see that. His vulnerability made it easier for him to connect with other trolls, especially to Poppy. There was that one scene where he opened himself to Hickory about his feelings towards Poppy. Just minutes before that scene, he didn’t trust him. But then moments later, he became honest to him, showing a huge amount of growth in his character.

All those aspects really built Branch’s character more stronger. However, I couldn’t help but wish there’s more like an arc to him as well. I mean there has been a lot of injustices for his character. Like basically since the first film, no one’s ever listened to him, even with his warnings about the bergens returning to get them, which turns out he’s actually right by the way and yet no one acknowledges it and still same thing happened in the second film. It’s like a running gag now at this point, where no one listens to Branch and Poppy and the other trolls downplays Branch’s excessive preparedness for danger, then at the end he was actually right about his assumptions. I’m not saying that Branch is always right and that Poppy is wrong. I’m saying they could’ve at least find a balance between that, where Poppy would listen more to Branch and Branch would at least dial down the paranoia and acknowledge the positivity Poppy tries to show. (but then I realized if that happens, the show wouldn’t be as interesting anymore lol)

His range of emotions and awareness is definitely not like other pop trolls. I saw this observation in where he claimed he liked the music of country trolls, sad and a bit gloomy not like the kind of music they are used to sing. And then I realized, he was actually the first troll to ever like a different genre of music. His flexibility and openness to different ideas and genres of other trolls has made him more unique from Poppy or any other pop troll, even blending in with the kpop and reggaton trolls. I just wished they didn’t just reduced his character as being the typical “love interest” of the main character, but making like an arc storyline for him as well (hopefully in future) in my opinion.

Now I bleed Broppy. I definitely love the subplot of the movie where Branch tries to confess his love for Poppy, which at first I thought “didn’t we already do this in the first film though?” but then I guess it wasn’t really official. Basically the story kinda revolves around them and how they teamed up to discover all these new types of music and trolls. It’s almost like a nostalgic feeling for the older viewers when they first headed out to an adventure in the first film. Only difference is Branch is harboring strong romantic feelings for Poppy, whom may also feel the same but totally oblivious to it. The subtle interactions between the two of them brings different energies in the movie, and those interactions are just what we need. Like with affirmations they give each other, and the cheeky smile exchanges. You can really feel the romantic tension between the two, which really vibes with the atmosphere of the show, especially given the chemistry between them in the first film.

The third act breakup of Branch and Poppy was definitely relevant to the story and their different personalities having to give them space for a re-evaluation of their friendship. Honestly that was totally necessary for their relationship, considering how different they are together, especially with Branch who wants to take their relationship in the next level (and that applies for Poppy as well whom I’m sure also feels the same way) So it’s reasonable they had to split for a while, not to ultimately close the chance of them being friends again because of being different but the fact that despite their differences, their love and care for each other will always be stronger, and that will help them find a way to make up again, which is what the message of the main plot tries to exhibit. I do wished they put like a moment for them where they just apologize for their actions (talking to you poppy. ahem)

Overall Branch’s character has left me half satisfied and somehow craving for more development and revelations about his background. The overall growth of his character since the first film is definitely something worth treasuring.

Now with Queen Barb. Well, She’s something else huh? 😆 With the movie running low on time to introduce these whole new characters, they definitely put enough time for us to get to know Barb. Her character as villain was introduced quite nicely. Although rock genre being shown as the villain, isn’t that a little overdone now at this point? But anyways..

Her plan was to unite all strings and make all trolls from different genres become a rock troll or rock zombie. Basically she just despises other genres of music so she forcefully took all different strings to destroy all music except rock. Kinda like what Poppy wants..? Now here me out. It’s like when Barb said she and Poppy are the same. Both of them wants to unite all trolls. Only difference is their mindsets about music. Barb thinks all other genres music are awful except for rock, and Poppy thinks pop music is the right music. There is one who thinks that other music are distasteful and one who thinks their music is the superior. If anything, Barb has a more reasonable point in trying to dominate the troll kingdom. Barb acknowledges the differences between them and the other trolls, and it may not be the right way to do it, she just wants to unite all trolls because she thinks music is what divides them. While Poppy wants to unite all trolls despite their differences, it’s almost like forcing them to give up their own music to follow what Poppy thinks is the right music. Either way, their interpretation of music isn’t really helping with what they want to achieve.

The only hole in her story I guess is that as she tries to dominate the troll kingdom, she didn’t seem to realize that her motives to destroy all music is almost the same as what the ancestors of pop trolls did, making her look like a hypocrite even though totally despising the pop trolls after what their ancestors did in the past.

Overall her character is very well executed as the villain of the film. Although you can easily sympathize with her. Unlike with the Chef in the first film, I can’t show any sympathizing emotions towards her. All throughout you’ll only be feeling mad toward the Chef. While with Barb, I honestly even had a hard time picturing her as an antagonist. For me she’s just a queen, who wants to unite all trolls. I guess her twisted ideologies made her look like the bad guy, but despite that, she’s doesn’t really look like the villain in the film. Now she had a change of heart, I am very excited to see more of her in the future.

Others

Like I said, with a short amount of time given in the film, there’s really not enough space for the creators to introduce these other trolls and their background like the Classical, Techno, Funk, and Country trolls. Though I had a little problem with TWT. I am such a fan of classical music, and I think they had the most brief screen time throughout the film. I was excited to see them in the trailer tho, and they had shortest amount of time in the film. lol but that ain’t important. I’m just saying, there’s a lot more to see and learn about these new introduced trolls. Now i’m not gonna lie though, as adorable as it looks, there are those characters that are only made for merchandise. (*ahem* tiny diamond *ahem*)

The musical numbers are definitely a feast in the eyes. Although very much consuming all the time in the movie and didn’t leave enough space for character development, I still love the music. I feel like the TWT soundtrack is so underrated though. For the whole week since I’ve first watched the film, I cannot stop bopping along with Don’t Slack. 😆

The new casts are adorable! Anderson Paak was there, Sam Rockwell was there, Heck Ozzy Osbourne was even there! I cannot stop watching the behind the scenes of the movie. They are all great!

Conclusion

Overall, the whole theme of the movie and all the underlying messages behind it was definitely well executed in the movie. The line that pretty much sums up the whole movie would be “denying our differences is denying who we are” has a powerful impact, and the message behind it is very relevant till this day. It also teaches the viewers about having to respect one’s preferences of their taste in music. From the storyline to animation to character developments, although there’s still a lot of inconsistencies in the film, they still managed to make the movie worth watching and worth recommending.

I’ve been thinking about these things now and I just feel like I need to let it out here lol. If you guys have any thoughts, feel free to tell me! 😄

#trolls #trolls world tour #trolls world tour review #branch #poppy #broppy #ttbgo #dreamworks #dreamworks review

[carriagelamp]

November Book Review - Freedom at last!

In a lot of ways I had more time to read this past month -- or at least more time to read without feeling guilty -- so I had a lot of fun with the various books I read this month. In particular, I really enjoyed the Canadian lit I was able to dig up; I never really gave enough attention to the writing my own country was producing and honestly we’re rocking this!

A Royal Guide To Monster Slaying

The novel I just finished, and the first Canadian novel I’ll mention here. This was an adorable take on fantasy monster slaying! This is a world were the various tribes of the land historically united under the leadership of a single clan, Clan Dacre, who were famous monster slayers. In exchange for leadership of the kingdom, Clan Dacre guaranteed that they would always have trained monster slayers available to protect to people, lead by the second born child of the royal family. The problem for Rowan though is that she is the eldest twin and destined to be queen while her brother becomes the royal slayer... despite the fact that they’re both better suited for the other role.

What really sets this book apart for me, was the compassionate approach the “slayers” had towards the monsters -- they were much more like monster conservationists who focused on learning about monsters, and trying to relocate or rehabilitate them so that the monsters could return to their rightful home rather than terrorize villages and have to be put down. They use a very scientific lens to view this high fantasy setting and it’s delightfully refreshing!

Of Fire And Stars

Also a fantasy medieval setting, though not Canadian this time. Instead, very queer! Princess Dennaleia has known since she was a child that while her older sister ruled their own kingdom, she was to be betrothed to the crown prince of the neighbouring kingdom. She has prepared for this her entire life. However now that she’s there, things keep going wrong - everything from her dangerous and illegal magic that she must keep hidden, to a sudden murder, to the complicated relationship she’s developing with the prince’s unruly and wild sister. While this book isn’t necessarily bringing anything particularly new to the table, it’s fun to see familiar beats and tropes done with a sapphic twist.

Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me

An absolutely stunning graphic novel about the tumultuous relationship between two girls, Freddy and Laura, as well as the complications that relationship brings to the other relationships in Freddy’s life. This isn’t necessarily a “feel-good” story, but it is an incredibly cathartic one. The message, symbolism, and art is all stunning and I would definitely recommend it.

Underground To Canada

Swinging back towards some of the Can Lit I’ve read this month! This is a classic Canadian children’s novel, I remember being completely blown away by it when I read it as a class study in elementary school. It’s about two young slave girls forced to work on a Southern cotton plantation, and their eventual escape and desperate flee via The Underground Railroad towards Canada and the promise of freedom. I know that there’s definitely controversy surrounding this book, especially in the depiction of the underground railroad and the glorification of it -- as a white person in Canada I’m not really best suited to have an opinion on this, though I read some articles along side the book itself. In my experience, reading it as a child was an eye-opening introduction to the topic itself, though obviously as a children’s novel, much like previous books I reviewed (like Fatty Legs), it never goes into all the dark depths it could.

A Bear In War (and its sequel Bear on the Homefront)

A Canadian picture book I read for Remembrance Day, depicting the true story of one girl’s experience of her family living through WWI in Canada, and her father needing to go to the Europe to fight. The story is, charmingly, told through the point of view of her teddy bear, and it was heartbreaking enough to make some second graders cry.

Poppy & Sam books

Swinging back to the lighter side of Can Lit are these two absolutely adorable graphic novel / picture book hybrids. They’re simple, beautifully illustrated little adventures of the titular Poppy and Sam as they wander around their garden home and help their friends. So worth the read, whether it’s with a young early reader who would appreciate the simple speech bubbles and clear pictures, or if you’re older like me and just want something wholesome.

Jak and the Magic Nano-Beans

No longer Canadian, but still a great little graphic novel for emergent readers. Seriously this book was buckwild. Jak, a cyberpunk badass, and her robot COW12 have a wild adventure based off the classic Jack and the Beanstalk. I really don’t know where to begin or end about this, it was bizarre but the art style was very cool.

Dream Jumpers: Nightmare Escape

With all the cool, innovative, beautiful graphic novels out there, it makes you wonder how this happened. Absolute garbage. Miserable protagonist, shitty misogyny, an incredibly basic plot premise, and ugly ugly art. 0/10.

Yakari Chez Les Castors

Belgian comics can just be so damn gorgeous, and this is clearly not the exception. These Yakari comics seem to be simple stories, but the art is wonderful (I love this style) and it’s all quite charming. Again... cannot comment on the potential racism inherent in it because as carefully as I try to judge, I am white and not educated well enough in these issues. For the most part it seems harmless to me, besides for some probable pan-indianism at play, but I’m mildly distrustful of any story told about First Nations people that isn’t also written by them until I hear otherwise.

Ghosthunters and the Totally Moldy Baroness

I love Cornelia Funke as an author. This wasn’t one of her best works, but it was also for a younger audience than most of the novels I’ve read by her. For a chapter book, it was as quirky and fun as I would normally expect!

Jem and the Holograms: Infinite

Look, I know next to nothing about Jem and the Holograms, besides the little bit I picked up when the failed move reboot came out. But even then, this was just a fun romp. The art was pretty, the ladies were badasses who all had very distinct personalities, and it had lesbians. What more can I ask for in my graphic novels?

The Adventures of Reddy Fox

Last book I’ll mention, because for a while it was also the last book I saw before falling asleep. I started this back in October when things were still pretty stressful, and it was a very zen book to use as a bedtime story for myself. I remember my mom reading it to me and my brother when we were little. They very much fable-style animal tales, these ones all focusing around the rather cocky and foolish Reddy Fox, though there were tales about many of the different characters that lived in these woods. Simple, cute, classic. A lovely story to wind down with.

#book reviews #november book review #queer lit #canadian lit #cancon #laura dean keeps breaking up with me #a royal guide to monster slaying #kelley armstrong #of fire and stars #jem and the holograms #cornelia funke #ghosthunters #yakari #graphic novels #comics #chatter #book review

[completeandrandomshit]

Credit: Midnight Special

Far Out Staff

Stevie Nicks’ 10 greatest songs of all time

There are few superlatives to sum up the mercurial talent of Stevie Nicks. As one of the most prominent songwriters of her generation, she remains the only female double Rock and Roll Hall of Famer in history.

That’s because below we’ve collated 10 of the singer-songwriter’s best songs from across her career, starting with work with Buckingham and following Nicks through her time as the frontwoman of Fleetwood Mac and on to her shining solo career.

The list of amazing Stevie Nicks-helmed songs could go on for a very long time. Nicks has always possesed the unique ability to not only write and record songs that are smart, impassioned and honest but also entirely ubiquitous and attainable. Nicks has perfected the ability to share herself and connect with her fans.

Below find Stevie Nicks’ 10 greatest songs of all time and expect to hear some of the most impressive vocals along with it.

Stevie Nicks’ 10 best songs

‘Crying in the Night’

The first song from Buckingham Nicks’ self-titled debut album was destined to be a chart-topper but never reached its potential. It did, however, catch the attention of Mick Fleetwood who would soon seek out the duo for his own band.

It instantly marked Stevie Nicks out as an aggressively honest writer as she warns of the dangers of obsessive love all wrapped up in some power-pop glory.

‘Blue Denim’

Street Angel may well be one of Nicks’ least-loved albums, having been written in the middle of leaving Fleetwood Mac and her prescription drug addiction, but it did hold one beautiful moment, the gorgeous ‘Blue Denim’.

 “It’s a song about this guy who came into my life, but left just as quick,” she told WDVE, referring to her on and off-stage partner Buckingham. “And his eyes were that intense.” The track is equally beguiling.

‘After The Glitter Fades’

Perhaps Nicks’ most pertinent vocal performances came on her 1981 solo album Bella Donna and ‘After The Glitter Fades’.

It perfectly encapsulates Nicks’ ability to transcend the terrestrial and make her way to the heavens without so much as a look back over her shoulder. The song’s vulnerable moments are perfectly held up by Nicks as she allows her audience another look into her soul.

The track may be relatively forgotten by some but it stuck with us and country legend Glen Campbell who picked it up for a charming cover. For our money, the original is on another level though.

‘The Chain’

A patchwork song built out of several different pieces from different members of Fleetwood Mac, the track remains one of the most unifying moments on the album. Moving effortlessly across the seventies spectrum the group show their mettle on this one and announce themselves as patrons of music in every form.

The track may well have been created by the band as a whole but it is Nicks’ lyrics and voice that remain with us after listening. It’s a testament to the singer’s ability to command not only a room but the airwaves too.

‘Rooms on Fire’

Taken from Nicks’ fourth solo studio album, 1989’s The Other Side of the Mirror, the track once again proved Nicks was a fantastic songwriter above all else.

Apparently inspired by her relationship with Rupert Hine, Nicks said of the song: “Rooms on Fire is about a girl who goes through a life like I have gone through, where she finally accepts the idea that there never will be those other things in her life. She will never be married, she will never have children, she will never do those [that] part of life.”

The track was a mainstay of Nicks’ live shows up until 1999 and hasn’t been played since. We hope that the song will get another outing soon enough.

‘Stand Back’

Taken from 1983 effort The Wild Heart, the single ‘Stand Back’ has a more curious composition story than you might imagine. Having married her friend’s widower following her death, Nicks and Kim Anderson were driving to their honeymoon when Nicks heard Prince’s ‘Little Red Corvette’ on the radio. She was taken aback.

Nicks began humming a tne inspired by the song and made Anderson stop the car so they could grab a tape recorder and, by process of humming the tune, laid down the bare bones of the song.

To this day, it remains a part of Nicks’ performances and was yet another reminder that even without a backing band she was a force to be reckoned wiht creatively.

‘Dreams’

During the recording of Fleetwood Mac’s seminal record Rumours, songbird Stevie Nicks would often escape the intensity of the studio to take a break in the King of Funk, Sly Stone’s room, as it was just down the hall in the same rehearsal space. It was there that Nicks would write one of the most beloved songs.

“It wasn’t my room, so it could be fabulous,” she recalled in the 1997 Classic Albums documentary on Rumours. “I knew when I wrote it that it was really special. I was really not self-conscious or insecure about showing it to the rest of the band.” The recording process was a scene that was worthy of escaping.

‘Dreams’ is a product of that highly-charged situation and sees Nicks firmly take aim at her now-ex-boyfriend Lindsey Buckingham with unnerving ferocity and marksmanship.

‘Edge of Seventeen’

The solo career of Stevie Nicks would be a pathway for so many other artists to follow. She went out on her own, away from some famous bands and arguably did it better than ever before. ‘Edge of Seventeen’ was Nicks’ all-powerful introduction to her solo career.

Nicks the Queen of Rock was born when Jimmy Iovine moved away from working with Tom Petty to take on her 1981 album Bella Donna. “It was Jimmy that said, ‘I will produce your record and we’ll make you a Tom Petty record, expect it’ll be a girl Tom Petty record,’” Nicks recalled. “I found that very exciting and I was jumping off the walls. That’s how it all started.”

The song wasn’t the first release from Nicks under her new guise away from Fleetwood Mac and Lindsey Buckingham but, there was something different to ‘Edge of Seventeen’ from the first two singles ‘Stop Draggin My Heart Around’ and ‘Leather and Lace’. Those two releases both featured Nicks singing as part of a duet.

While the ‘Rhiannon’ singer was naturally excited to have the great Tom Petty and Don Henley provide ample vocal support on the two previous releases, ‘Edge of Seventeen’ suddenly meant more knowing that Nicks was finally out on her own. It saw her shine as a solo star and promised that Nicks was a talent beyond any band.

‘Rhiannon’

The track ‘Rhiannon’ remains a clear fan favourite and still features in much of the band’s ‘best of’ sets. Written for their seminal self-titled album in 1975, shortly after Nicks and her then-boyfriend Lindsey Buckingham joined the band, it has to be one of the greatest pop songs ever written, the most perfect pop song, written about a witch.

Nicks was known to preface the song’s performance at their live dates with the words: “This song’s about an old Welsh witch” and she’s true to her word. Nicks discovered the folkloric Rhiannon in the seventies through a novel called Triad by Mary Bartlet Leader. The novel revolves around a woman named Branwen who is possessed by another wild woman named Rhiannon.

It marked Nicks out as not only a writer capable of drawing from her own experiences but of using the mythical to tell her story.

‘Landslide’

The track features on the band’s self-titled 1975 album, which along with Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham’s introduction, looked to truly kick start the success of Fleetwood Mac. This beautifully rich and luxurious song is one of the mainstays of that success. It stands among the most performed Fleetwood Mac songs and is a pivotal moment of their live show.

The song’s emotive language and Stevie Nicks’ undeniably pure and vulnerable vocal allows the mind to wander towards this track being a love song but, in truth, the track is located in more vocational areas of the soul.

It centres on a moment when Nicks, having lost her contract with Buckingham and Nicks, was truly worried that she may never achieve her dream. It is this longing that lands the song as one of Nicks’ finest.

The track is so ubiquitous with Nicks’ gorgeous and yet touchingly subtle vocal that it feels inextricable from her and her romantic past that it can feel too easily placed within the “love song” arena. The truth is that it most likely is a love song, but not as we would hope to define it.

This is an ode to Nicks’ only one true love; music.

THANKS TO FAR OUT MAGAZINE.CO.UK FOR THE ARTICLE

#STEVIE NICKS #FAR OUT MAGAZINE #OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR STEVIE NICKS #OUR LORD SAVIOR STEVIE NICKS #NICKSMAS #REAL MUSIC #CLASSIC ROCK #FLEETWOOD MAC #YOUTUBE.COM

[oskea93]

Think of You: Part Four

-A/N: Hey guys! So sorry it took so long to get this to you all. It’s been a bit rough since I got back from vacation. I broke a bone and I got sick. And, my internet kept messing up. I’m back now and hopefully there won’t be any long gaps in the updates. I also want to apologize for any grammar mistakes that are in this update. I’ll try to go back later on and fix those. Secondly, this update may seem a little boring but the story is gonna pick up in pace and start moving forward in time. All of that will happen in the 5th update and beyond. I just want to thank all of those that have read my story and are enjoying it! It really means a lot to me :)  PS: If you want to be added to the tagged list, let me know! 

“What do you mean you turned him down?”

I removed the phone away from my ear as Mac yelled into the receiver. “He fucking wants you, Caroline! He’s actually interested and you’re turning him down?” She questioned. “Don’t get mad or anything, but are you fucking stupid?” I let out a sigh. I was growing very tired of being yelled at for my dating choices. I’m sorry that I wasn’t like her and jumped into bed with every guy that looked my way. I was not raised to be some floosy on the Sunset Strip, pining for the attention of some wannabe rock star. “You have to give him a chance, Caroline. You need to see where it goes and break out of this funk you’re in.”

“I’m not in a funk.” I whispered. “I just don’t feel like being in a relationship right now.” I could hear Mac mutter a string of curse words on the other line. “I’m not like you, Mac. I can’t just go out there and expose myself for the world to see. I don’t have that type of attitude and I never will.” I sounded pathetic.

“First of all-”Mac started, clearing her throat. “I don’t expose myself to the world. You’re making me sound like some kind of whore on the Strip.” She expressed. “Secondly, you do have that type of attitude. Every girl has it in them somewhere, it’s just up to you to find it and set it free.” Her voice was now soft. “You know I would never push you into something if I didn’t think it would be worthwhile. Yeah, Nikki may be rough around the edges but he’s really into you. Tommy even told me that Nikki’s crazy for you, and he doesn’t even know you!”

My heart was telling me to trust her but my brain was on guard duty. Nikki Sixx was very handsome in his own way but he was too dangerous. He reeked of sex, drugs, and rock n roll. He was everything that my parents warned me about. They would have a heart attack if I were to bring him home for Easter Dinner or any occasion for that matter. I would no doubt be booted from the family, and I’m an only child! “Caroline!”

I snapped out of my thoughts, “I can’t.” I quickly stated. “ I can’t be with someone like him. I don’t care how good of a guy you think he is or if he’s the leader in the church choir, he’s just not for me.” I rambled.  My brain was back in charge, pushing my poor heart into the shredder.

“Dammit, Caroline!” Mac seethed through the phone. I knew she was going to be mad but it was my life, not hers. I have to think about what’s best for me and me only. “I hate to say this but you need to grow the fuck up, Caroline.” I was a little taken back by her statement. I was the most mature out of the two of us. “You need to get your head out of your ass and actually live your fucking life. You’re twenty-fucking-one years old but you’re acting as if your five and still afraid of catching cooties on the playground. Grow the fuck up, suck some dick, and live a little!”

I stayed silent, not sure if she was done yelling at me or not. “This isn’t fucking Georgia. Your mom and dad aren’t here to reprimand your every move anymore. You’re a grown ass woman who has the world at her feet. You’re a grown ass woman who not only has brains but the looks of a fucking Hollywood starlet. You’re fucking beautiful, Caroline and a very sexy rock star wants you for you. He wants you because you’re real and that’s hard to find in this town.” I picked at my nails as her words seemed into my head. “Yeah, he may not be the young, outstanding man your parents want you to be with but he may just be what you needed in your life to get you out of this slump.”

I tried my best to take Mac’s suggestions to heart but I was still holding back. My heart was pleading with my mind, trying to convince it that Mac was right on every level. Nikki probably was a nice guy but his whole world was everything I disagreed with. I guess you could blame my parents for my ways of thinking. From a young age, they drilled into my head that I needed to meet and marry a boy with good Christian values. He needed to be a hard-working guy with a good head on his shoulders. God needed to come first in his life and then of course me. Basically, he needed to be just like my father and nothing less. The only problem with that was I had met a guy like that in the past. My very first boyfriend was similar to my father. He was a church going guy and your typical country boy. He loved the Lord first and those he surrounded himself around second. The only thing was that it was all an act. He played a role on Sundays and Wednesdays. He would act one way in front of the congregation and then turn into a different person on the other five days. He was a real piece of work!

My parents wanted me to marry him but I decided to pursue my dreams instead. To say they were disappointed would be an understatement but I didn’t want to be tied down like my mother was. When I was little, I would ask my mom what her dreams were when she was my age. She would tell me how she wanted to be a librarian since she loved to read. She would tell me different stories that she had memorized, acting them out as if we were right in the pages. The way her imagination worked was incredible. The only thing was that her imagination only came out when it was just her and I. Her love if fiction and books in general never showed up when my father was involved. My mom was your typical housewife. She was my very own June Cleaver. She committed herself to her husband and child, never taking time for herself. Now that I’m an adult, it’s very sad to think of my mother in that way. She deserved so much more…

“Earth to Caroline!”

“What?” I blurted out.

Mac let out an annoyed sigh, “Just get your ass dressed and meet me at the Rainbow.” Before I could interject, Mac ended the phone call. “Fabulous.” I muttered as I hung up the phone. I looked over at the clock and saw that it was far too late to be going to the Rainbow. Not only would it take me an hour to get ready but then it would take even longer to get there. It was Saturday night and everybody in Los Angeles would be on the Strip. Mac didn’t even like the Rainbow, so didn’t understand why she wanted to go there.

I sat in the same spot for another 10 minutes before I dragged myself to the bathroom to get ready. It was hotter than blazes outside today and the heat was still there as nighttime was nearing. I decided on a simple skater dress with flowers and a pair of strappy sandals. I pulled my hair off my neck and into a high ponytail and kept my makeup light. The last thing I needed was my makeup running down my face due to the heat. I grabbed my keys and purse and made my way out the door.

“Why the fuck am I even friends with her!” I yelled out loud as I sat in LA traffic. The drive was going okay for the first 15 minutes but as I delved deeper into the city, the cars were bumper-to-bumper. People were walking in between the cars to get to the other side of the street and people were laying on their car horns as if they were playing musical horns. The heat was not helping the situation either. I looked down at my watch and saw that it was 20 till nine. I had left my apartment at 7:55! I had been in traffic for almost an hour and for what reason I have no idea. If Mac isn’t there when I arrive, I might just kill her…

She wasn’t here.

At first I thought that she could have been caught in the same traffic jam as I was but I soon realized that it was all a setup when I saw Nikki Sixx walk through the door. As soon as I saw him, I placed my menu in front of my face, trying my best to hide as I watched him try to find who he was looking for. Unfortunately for me, I was the person he was looking for. A giant smile appeared on his face when he spotted me. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes as I laid the menu back onto the table. “Well, well, well-“ He smiled. “I figured it would just be Mac, Tommy, and I but I’m so happy you showed up.” I looked up at him unamused.

He slowly removed his leather jacket and took the seat in front of me. “What are you doing here?” I asked. A smirk appeared across his lips as he leaned forward. “I was invited.” He whispered. I rolled my eyes again. “You keep doing that, your eyes are gonna get stuck in the back of your head.” I narrowed my eyes at him as the waitress made her way over. I watched as she spoke to Nikki first. It was clear that she was flirting with him but he wasn’t paying her any mind. “I’ll have a Jack and Coke.” He simply told her. I was a bit shocked to say the least. I think the girl was even shocked. She didn’t seem to take it too well, especially when it was my turn to tell her what I wanted. She basically rushed me throughout my order and I would be surprised if I receive what I wanted.

“She digs me.” Nikki smiled as soon as the girl walked away. “Too bad the feeling isn’t mutual.” I couldn’t help but smile slightly as I leaned back into the booth. The girl quickly made her way back and dropped off our drinks, making sure to give Nikki a look before walking away. “She’s not really my type anyway.” Nikki spoke as he mixed the liquids together.

“Why’s that?” I questioned. He smirked as he continued to stir his drink. I don’t even know why I asked, I’m sure it was something superficial.

“She’s not you.” I could have sworn my heart stopped for a second. I may have also gone deaf during those seconds. I just stared at him. Was he being serious? “What?” I chocked. My mouth was suddenly dry as well.

He looked up from his drink, his expression suddenly serious. “She’s not you.” He spoke again. “In case you haven’t noticed, I really like you. Hell, I’ve liked you the moment I saw you walk out of our show.” His voice was softer, more intimate. “You intrigue me, Caroline.

I looked down at the table, unsure of what to say or do. I never had someone tell me that I “intrigued them.” He could have any girl he wanted. I’m sure there were girls all over the Strip that would do anything to get his attention, even the waitress was trying. “Why me?” I blurted out. “Why pick me?” My brain was in overdrive. “You could be with any girl on the Sunset Strip but you’re picking me. Why? I’m a second-grade teacher who goes to bed at eight o’ clock at night and spends her weekend either doing laundry or watching The Facts of Life. I don’t listen to the music you play or like. The only time I go to parties is when Mac drags me there and I usually end up leaving five minutes after I arrive. I’m a very boring person!” I rambled. “I don’t enjoy parties or hanging out with people I don’t know. I enjoy going to the grocery store or even the library. I don’t dress sexy or even own anything considered sexy. According to Mac, I dress like I’m a 50-year-old widow. I’m not like the other girls on the Strip or California for that matter.” I was talking so fast that I was out of breath.

Nikki had a giant smile spread across his face. “Why are you smiling like that?” I asked. He leaned forward in his seat, “You’re right-“ He began. “I could have any girl on the Strip but every girl on the Strip is exactly the same. Teased out hair, tight clothes, too much makeup, and a career that involves taking their clothes off. You may think that’s what I want but I want normalcy. I want boring. I want grocery shopping, library card owning, Facts of Life watching normalcy.”  

I didn’t know what to say. Was he being serious? He didn’t strike me as the type that would sit around on a Saturday night and watch sitcoms. “I’ve rendered you speechless.” He chuckled. “I don’t know whether that’s a good thing or not.” Before I could respond, the waitress came back with our food. Nikki thanked her with a smile, causing her ego to grow even more. I couldn’t help but just stare at my food. I was suddenly not hungry anymore This guy was into me, at least that’s what he was leading me to believe. “Why aren’t you eating?”

I looked up at Nikki, a piece of spaghetti hanging out of his mouth. I couldn’t help giggle at the sight. “It’s really good, you know.” He smiled. He truly was an idiot, but he was a pretty cute idiot….

“So- Does this mean you’ll go out with me again?”

I rolled my eyes, a smirk also making its way across my lips. We had just finished a nice dinner and here he was asking the “important” question as he liked to call it. “You gonna answer me?” He placed his arm beside my body, partially trapping me against the car. I looked at his arm and then to his face. “I don’t know.” I stated. “Why should I?” It looked as if his eyes were going to bulge out of his skull. I usually wasn’t the type of girl to lead a guy on. If I was into him and he was into me, then I would totally agree on a second date. There was something different when it came to Nikki. I found it funny to lead him on and keep him wondering. It was almost like a game for me and I wanted to see how long it would take to win or even lose. In all honesty, I enjoyed our dinner together. He was not only devilishly handsome but also witty and smart. He may have the rock star looks but there was so much more.  I liked it and I liked him.

“Tell you what-”He began. “If you want to see me again, Motley is playing our first huge gig on Friday. It’s our first mega show as a band and I would love to see you front row.” He expressed. “Hopefully this time you stay the whole show and don’t walk out.” His signature smirk danced across his face as he stared down at me.

I gave him a small smile, “Have a good night, Nikki.”

I slowly turned toward my car door and stepped into the driver’s seat. I looked at him once more before starting the engine and making my way out of the parking lot. I couldn’t help but look back in the rear-view mirror. He was just standing there but that damn smirk was still plastered on his face.

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#nikki sixx x oc #nikki sixx #nikki sixx fanfiction #The Dirt #Douglas Booth #Holland Roden #mgk #Vince Neil #Daniel Webber #Tommy Lee #Mick Mars #iwan rheon

[gingeralepdf]

Walk On By - Part 2 (sneak peek)

✨🍄🌈✨🍄🌈✨🍄🌈✨🍄🌈✨🍄🌈

Right across the street, sandwiched between a donut shop and a hair salon, is Jupiter House Records. From what you remember, this shop has a really good selection and variety, but the handful of unpleasant interactions you’ve had with the owner have been enough to make you look somewhere else. You’ve been stubbornly avoiding this place for years. Now you have a whole other reason for not wanting to spend hours in this store digging through to find your favorites or discover new ones.

Harry works here.

You haven’t seen him since he showed up on your doorstep to return your address book.

You’ve spent more idle moments than you’d like to admit since then thinking about the night you were sitting outside of the Forum. Thinking about what possessed you to lean in and study his face so closely. Was it solely the effects of the drugs? If that’s the case, then why do you want to go back to that moment so badly? And why didn’t Harry pull away? Did he really blush when you were staring at him? Was his heart really racing when you gave him a hug, or was that just your wild imagination?

The honking of a car brings you out of your thoughts. You take a deep breath and trill your lips. There’s a slight break in traffic. If you don’t get out of your car and cross the street now, you fear you’ll stay here stuck in your thoughts all evening.

With a huff, you rip your keys from the ignition and push your door open. You cross the street, walking with a purpose, and make it to the sidewalk.

The full strength of your nerves doesn’t hit you until you’re just in front of the store and the glass door swings out with a simultaneous chime of a bell. Your heart drops from your chest to your stomach and you freeze on the sidewalk to avoid colliding with the man exiting the shop.

When he stops to hold the door open for you, it takes you a moment to gather yourself. You mutter a ‘thank you’ as your hand firmly grips the cool metal of the door handle. Almost like you’re using it as a crutch to get you through the threshold.

Your shoes meet the shaggy mustard yellow carpet, matted down by years of customer traffic.

A woman that looks about your age greets you from behind a counter to your right. You return her half smile and she goes back to flipping through the magazine on the counter in front of her. The nametag on her floral shirt reads ‘Nora’. Behind her is a door with a red ‘EMPLOYEES ONLY’ sign taped to it.

Underneath the counter that she’s leaning on is a glass case holding records and cassette tapes, all marked ‘deluxe’ or ‘limited edition’. Spread out next to them are a few t-shirts, buttons, and stickers with the store logo printed on them.

You weren’t expecting it to be so quiet. Right now it seems like you and Nora are the only people in the store. The coast is clear. You can relax a bit. The adrenaline rush you were feeling on the other side of the door has now been replaced by the whirring of the air vents and David Bowie’s “Queen Bitch” playing over the speakers.

You turn to your left to take in the rest of the store, meandering into the first row of record shelves.

The large window taking up the entire front wall lets in plenty of evening sun that warms your skin through your shirt. More shelves, each one three tiers deep, line the rest of the walls and create aisles in the middle of the room.

Signs hanging from the ceiling above each section indicate the genre. The one you’re standing next to is labeled ‘new releases’ with a smaller font that reads ‘alpha by artist’. Other sections are labeled country, rock, disco, classical. Your eyes land on the back corner of the store where the funk, soul, and jazz sections are.

Signs above each section indicate the genre. The one you’re standing next to is labeled ‘new releases’ with a smaller font that reads ‘alpha by artist’. Other sections are labeled country, rock, disco, classical. Your eyes land on the back corner of the store where the funk, soul, and jazz sections are.

You make your way over while pulling the sleeves of your shirt up to your elbows.

Unsure of which specific section the record you’re looking for will be in, you decide to start on one end of the corner and search all the way through to the other in hopes of finding it.

You fall into a familiar routine of searching through the first tier, then the second, leaning over to search through the top tier, and then taking a step over to start the whole process again.

Once you’re about halfway through the soul section, the bell on the door chimes again. You can’t be bothered to look, not wanting to lose your place.

“Hey, sorry I’m late.”

Goddamnit. Your hands freeze their movements and your heart begins to race all over again. You know exactly who just walked through that door.

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

catch up on part 1 here!

yay!! part 2 coming soon!!!!!! i’d love to hear your thoughts! thank you so much for reading :-)

#my writing #okay yay im gonna go take a shower and eat #it has been..... a Day #shroomrry #harry styles #harry styles blurb #harry styles writing #harry styles reader insert #harry styles fic #harry styles fanfic

[kandiwhitlock87-blog]

Upload Your Music Right here

Huge Room Home is the ‘pop music' of our technology. We'll touch on Modernism because it girds modern classical composition. The interval of Modernism in classical music started within the Nineties, a time of serious artistic innovation, which mirrored the know-how advances being made on the time. This era has a spread of various compositional types of its own, audio-transcoder.com but will be loosely categorized as types deliberately breaking with the classical composition framework of the past to explore wider ideas of what constituted music. One of many nice breaks from tradition was growing atonal or polytonal fashions that appeared designed to problem whether good composition required a pleasing aesthetic. Composer Arnold Schoenberg and leonafabian3.wikidot.com his 12-tone method (also referred to as 12-tone serialism") typify this angle. Schoenberg was each extremely influential on other composers and extremely criticized as effectively. 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Before we look at the findings, it's necessary to notice that the way that such info is gathered influences the outcome. The type of songs in style on streaming sites like Spotify aren't necessarily the forms of songs common on the radio. To get essentially the most broadly representative outcomes, we'll be looking at each the highest genres when it comes to live performances and the most well-liked musicians in keeping with Pandora 2017 streaming numbers Lastly, to provide you a style of the music every state has individually produced we'll have a look at the most popular bands that have come from every state A handful of artists from main metropolitan areas may dominate the highest of the charts at any given moment, however that doesn't imply that each and every state hasn't contributed their very own unique artists to America's musical tapestry.

"There are Afro-bashment and quinton20r323995.hatenadiary.com drill artists that are being referred to as grime artists," he says, referencing articles that have labelled people like J Hus and Yxng Bane as grime musicians. Be a part of ResearchGate to find and keep up-to-date with the most recent analysis from leading experts in Standard Music and lots of different scientific subjects. Amy Winehouse could have had the blues, however she just obtained jazz, soul and hip-hop. Her best triumph, 2006's Back To Black, channeled The Shangri-Las, Billie Vacation, ska and blue-beat via a devastating prism of younger heartbreak and obsession. Amy's greatest songs are magical mixtures of the unflappably powerful and dangerously vulnerable and her music stays a touchstone for any artist who intends to mine pop's past to conjure a sound they can call their own. Funk is a distinct style of music originated by African-Americans, e.g., James Brown and his band members (especially Maceo and Melvin Parker), and groups like The Meters. Funk best might be recognized by its syncopated three towards four rhythms; thick bass line (typically based on an "on the one" beat); razor-sharp rhythm guitars; chanted or hollered vocals (as that of Marva Whitney or the Bar-Kays); sturdy, rhythm-oriented horn sections; distinguished percussion; an upbeat angle; African tones; danceability; and robust jazz influences (e.g., as within the music of Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, George Duke, Eddie Harris, and others). Outdated music was played utilizing actual devices. The devices used included: cello, viola, tuba, French horn, bassoon, trombone, trumpet and plenty of others. Throughout the early days of recording, the musicians needed to play the actual instruments. Because of this, the outdated musicians needed to first study to play the devices nicely earlier than recording the music. That is now not the case with sure fashionable music. Some types of contemporary music rely closely on laptop packages. Using these applications, you can enter the sound of any music instrument with out having the instrument at your disposal and even realizing learn how to play it. This has given rise to hundreds of thousands of music superstars who even don't know probably the most basic music devices.

[sinceileftyoublog]

Pitchfork Music Festival Preview: 10 Can’t Miss Non-Headliner Acts

Raphael Saadiq; Photo by Mel D. Cole

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Tame Impala haven’t released a new album since the last time we saw them three years ago. Fleet Foxes headlined Pitchfork in 2011. Ms. Lauryn Hill already played her best songs two years ago at--wait for it--Ravinia. What gives?

Okay, I’m still very excited to see all three of these headliners. But sort of like in 2016, for this year’s Pitchfork, the gems are earlier in the day. Here are 10 reasons to show up early throughout the weekend.

FRIDAY

Lucy Dacus: 2:30, Green Stage

And we thought she was good after releasing her debut! After a label bidding war, singer-songwriter Lucy Dacus has exceeded expectations with her second album Historian, released earlier this year. The songs are more lyrically and instrumentally complex and ambitious, headlined by opening album anthem “Night Shift”. Remember and shout along to this line: “In five years I hope the songs feel like covers / Dedicated to new lovers.”

Open Mike Eagle: 4:00, Blue Stage

The Chicago rapper’s latest album Brick Body Kids Still Daydream is a concept record about the Robert Taylor Holmes public housing project. Any local voice showing public housing in a positive light to the rest of the world is welcome--let alone portraying Chicago as something other than what the media illustrates. That Open Mike Eagle has serious lyrical chops and charm is just an added bonus. 

Mike also plays an after-show tonight at Lincoln Hall. Fess Grandiose opens.

Syd: 6:15, Green Stage

We’ve seen Syd play with her band The Internet, who release a new album today. But this set will be largely comprised of solo material from the singer’s debut Fin, released last year to much acclaim. It combines 90′s R&B and neo soul with contemporary beats and production styles.

The Internet hosts an album release party for their new record Hive Mind tonight at East Room.

Mount Kimbie: 7:45, Blue Stage

Grey with splashes of color--that’s how I might describe Mount Kimbie’s most recent album Love What Survives. It’ll be perfect for a rainy day on the Blue Stage. The band combines live instrumentation with electronic music to create songs that vary between ambient, pop, and krautrock. While they might not have King Krule on the bill to come out for career highlight “Blue Train Lines” (surprise appearance, please?) or the other prominent vocalists they’ve collaborated with to come out for their respective songs, the band’s controlled chaos should suffice.

SATURDAY

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith: 2:45, Blue Stage

One of the headier artists on the bill this year is Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, whose Buchla synthesizer-addled songs envelop your mind more than they make your body move. Last year’s The Kid followed up Smith’s great 2016 effort Ears and a collaborative album with synth master Suzanne Ciani, and that one wasn’t too bad either. A concept album about four stages of life whose context isn’t necessary to enjoy or appreciate the music, The Kid is ultimately a showcase for Smith’s ability to weave multiple synths together and combine it with her voice to make shimmering tunes.

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith plays an after-show Sunday night at Constellation. Cool Maritime opens.

Moses Sumney; Photo by Eric Gyamfi

Moses Sumney: 4:15, Blue Stage

Moses Sumney is a once-in-a-lifetime singer. Not because he can shatter glasses or anything--though he probably could--but because he can take abstract concepts like capitalism and the hetero-normative nature of romantic love and make you feel like you’ve experienced them on a concrete level even if you haven’t, all through the sheer beauty of his voice and strumming of his guitar. The potential for quietest, most heartbreaking moment of the festival will come when he sings “Doomed” off of last year’s Aromanticism: “Am I vital / If my heart is idle? / Am I doomed?”

Raphael Saadiq: 5:15, Red Stage

The most surprising, yet welcome booking at this year’s festival is R&B master Raphael Saadiq. Pitchfork has reviewed one of his albums and has given him minimal coverage over the years despite the excellence of his 2011 album Stone Rollin’. Perhaps it was his production work on Solange’s 2016 record A Seat At The Table that landed him a spot on the bill, but I shouldn’t really ask any questions. I’ll just appreciate his unique mix of soul, funk, R&B, blues, and rock.

Kelela: 7:45, Blue Stage

After breaking out with her 2013 mixtape Cut 4 Me, Kelela finally released the brilliant, fully formed statement we’ve all waited for from her. Take Me Apart is an album about ending one relationship and going into another--territory that’s not original for an album but important because it’s immensely personal, celebratory of queer black self-love on songs like “LMK” and “Altadena”. She somehow makes dubstep and trap beats sound subdued and sexy, her ethereal voice the perfect complement to bubbling synth and bass.

SUNDAY

Japanese Breakfast: 4:00, Blue Stage

Michelle Zauner stole the show from Mitski two years ago. Now, she’s got an even better set of tunes in her repertoire. She released her second album of dream pop and spacious synth-laden shoegaze, Soft Sounds from Another Planet, last year. From epic opener “Diving Woman” to jams “Road Head” and “Boyish”, there will be plenty to love during her set. Doesn’t hurt that Zauner is funny as hell, either.

Japanese Breakfast plays an after-show tomorrow night at Thalia Hall. Mothers and Varsity open.

Noname: 5:15, Red Stage

Noname is one of the best live rappers in the world, let alone Chicago. Ever since catching her set at the inaugural House of Vans show last year, I’ve been floored by her ability to make her poetic words about growing up sound intimate and powerful and clear even in a live setting. Her debut mixtape Telefone was released two years ago, so hopefully she’s got some new songs for us at Pitchfork. She’s also collaborated with other artists on the lineup like Saba, Smino, and Ravyn Lenae, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see them join her during the set.

(Sandy) Alex G: 6:15, Blue Stage

While we loved (Sandy) Alex G’s performance at the Bottom Lounge a couple years ago (before he adopted (Sandy) as part of his moniker), it was last year’s Rocket that made this writer a believer. One of the best indie-rock albums of the decade is a little bit country, a little bit...hardcore? Okay, the latter refers to the rap-rock of one track, “Brick”, but it speaks to the diversity of his songwriting. You can hear the influences of his work with Frank Ocean in 2016 on melancholy, auto-tuned ditties like “Sportstar”, while “Poison Root” and “Bobby” swell with Americana strings and banjo. Not to mention the classic rock bounce of “Proud”. 

#pitchfork music festival #pitchfork music festival 2018 #raphael saadiq #mel d. cole #tame impala #fleet foxes #ms. lauryn hill #lucy dacus #open mike eagle #syd #mount kimbie #kaitlyn aurelia smith #moses sumney #kelela #japanese breakfast #noname #(sandy) alex g #historian #brick body kids still daydream #fin #love what survives #the kid #aromanticism #stone rollin' #take me apart #soft sounds from another planet #telefone #rocket #michelle zauner #Eric Gyamfi