#the band’s songs are pretty high usually so she always secretly finds it funny when fans try to sing along and are off key or something lol | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

woodrokiro · 3 years

Text

Do It For the Band, Part Four

Fandom: Bleach

Pairing: IchiRuki

Summary: When Tatsuki said she wanted their sophomore album to be the next Rumours, this is NOT what she meant. Band AU. Read Part One, Two, and Three.

Rukia’s sure they’re not crossing any lines.

… Pretty sure.

She’s never been in a band like this before--or, well. A band, period. And from the movies she’s watched, the musician biographies she’s read and the behind-the-album documentaries she’s seen she imagines her group’s closeness is normal. Grabbing a tea and writing in a coffee shop with Chad, meeting up with Tatsuki at bars and picking out cute girls the drummer might like--these sort of things are normal. They’re her friends, after all.

And she doesn’t do much different with Ichigo. It just… Feels different.

Especially when they start spending time together after recording sessions.

They don’t even do anything, really. Mostly just put on a record at Ichigo’s place and talk about their favorite albums. Sometimes they’ll watch a movie together: Rukia on one far end of his tattered, second-hand couch, curled into the arm while Ichigo tries to scrounge something up for dinner in the kitchen behind her.

And… Okay, she’s fallen asleep there. A couple times. But in a completely platonic way. She’ll wake up on his couch with a blanket over her, and Ichigo will walk in and nag at her for sinking the cushions of his couch and she’ll groggily snap back that maybe he should get a new couch then--

She’s stayed late there so often that Ichigo bought her a toothbrush to keep in the bathroom (“I can smell your morning breath all the way from the bedroom”), but it’s fine because it is! So! Platonic!!!

They’re friends. They’re friends.

She’s (pretty) sure of it.

It’s the end of the recording sessions when they go to her place because she had forgotten the champagne she meant to bring for celebrating their last day. The recording studio happened to be only a few blocks away, but he insisted on walking back with her to grab them.

(“Shut up and let me be a gentleman” he had grumbled, and Rukia tries to ignore Tatsuki’s stare piercing them both).

They had just finished climbing the six stories in her apartment building when she spies the roses at her door.

He scoffs. “Who are those from? Yourself?”

She rolls her eyes, picking up the flowers to read the card attached. “Good one, idiot. No. My brother.”

“Byakuya? What the hell does he want?”

She’s surprised he remembers his name; then again, she supposes she’s mentioned him in passing enough times.

It’s funny: the little details they know about each other by now.

“Don’t talk about him so crudely. I told him about the album awhile ago.”

“Yeah, and you said he never responded.” He waits respectfully in the hallway as she unlocks her door. She immediately starts shuffling through her studio in an attempt to find a vase. “I don’t get why you still talk to him. The guy kicks you out of the house, takes away your allowance you depend on--just because he doesn’t want you to do music? The thing he arranged for you to have lessons for in the first place?”

“You’re oversimplifying it.” She rummages through her cupboards. “He wanted me to go to college for a career--I told him I didn’t want to. I said I wanted to be a musician. He said that was fine, I was a young woman who could make her own decisions… And as such, I’d need to do it on my own. I agreed. I don’t want anybody’s money, and he’s helped me enough as it is.”

“... He should still support you--”

“He does. In his own way.” Her eyes light up at what she’s been looking for: the glass beaker for a French press that broke on her a couple weeks ago. She lifts it with one hand and the roses in the other, a silent question toward him. At Ichigo’s shrug/nod combo, she starts filling the beaker with tap water. “Maybe he doesn’t vocally support it. The creative life is scary. You know that. Technically you wouldn’t want your sisters as starving musicians either, right? But a couple months before I met up with you guys, I was behind on my rent. One day, right before I was sure I was going to get kicked out: my landlord says it was all paid for. Just like that. And I’ve sworn every day, up and down, that my brother’s never going to need to do that for me ever again.”

“He should want to do that for you.”

“I think he does. But I want to make my own way, and he knows that. These flowers are more than kind.” She steps back and assesses her flower arrangement in the beaker, nodding once. Good enough.

He’s uncharacteristically quiet as she grabs the two bottles from her fridge and returns back to the hallway. She’s attempting to lock her front door with the bottles in one arm and keys in the other when he snorts, tapping her wine-carrying arm.

“Here, I’ll take ‘em.” Begrudgingly, she hands them over. “You try to do too much by yourself.”

“Yes, because I have to.” She focuses her attention back on the lock (the door could be rather tricky) when she feels him nudge her arm again.

“No. You really don’t.” She looks back and up at him and suddenly for the first time they feel very, very close. “Look I don’t--the fact that your brother doesn’t know what a fucking phenominal talent you have astounds me. But you have people now. You have me.”

Time completely stops as they stare at each other. Rukia feels frozen in place--but Ichigo is… Well. He looks like he’s only sort of embarrassed at own sentiment, judging from the faint blush on his cheeks--but mostly he seems sure of himself, confident and fearless and golden.

That is Ichigo, she realizes. She’s really never met anyone like him.

She’ll never know what either of them were about to do when suddenly her neighbor’s door swings open behind him.

The sound jolts them both, and her elderly neighbor smiles apologetically. She waves, and when she looks back at him Ichigo is looking down at his shoes, clearing his throat.

“Hurry up ‘n lock the door. The others are waiting for us--especially Tatsuki. You know how stoked she was when you told her about the champagne.”

Rukia nods and tries to shake the odd feeling that an opportunity was just missed.

---

They’re getting a tour.

Tatsuki is in euphorics. They’re getting a fucking tour.

Urahara says they’re starting small--mostly because the label wants to test the waters on them. Just four cities, fronting for a rock band called Espada. They’re all kind of douchey assholes but it doesn’t even matter. She knows her band is better, and in just a few years they’ll be begging to front for Karakura Soul Society.

Still, even though it’s a small tour Tatsuki manages to sweet talk Urahara into hiring her good friend as their stage manager. “We need somebody to keep us organized back there. Help us sound check and everything, you know? And frankly, Urahara… You’re a mess.”

… It becomes clear to the team within the first ten minutes of her employment that Orihime Inoue is also, as it happens, a disaster--but she’s bubbly and ambitious and works hard and Tatsuki may be not-so-secretly in love with her so of course everyone loves her immediately, too.

Once they’re on the road, the whole tour itself is kind of a blur. Their first city is… Decent. They sound great, but there’s some tech issues that Orihime apologizes profusely for. Grimmjow, the lead singer of Espada says something snide about “fucking yuppies” and Ichigo and Tatsuki both have to be held back from absolutely pulvarizing the cocky motherfucker--but yeah it’s decent.

At least, Urahara points out, it adds a bit of a competitive edge between the two bands.

He’s right. The next couple cities they absolutely kill it.

With Chad’s shredding it on his base and Tatsuki feeling like a God at her drums--the two of them alone would be something to contend with.

But combined with Ichigo and Rukia…

Tatsuki doesn’t know what’s going on between them, and frankly: she doesn’t care anymore. She’s decided it’s none of her business whether her best friend is getting his brains screwed out or if they really are “just friends,” as Rukia insists.

What matters is what’s going right here, right in the performance.

As usual, they are so in sync with each other it’s scary--but now, there’s emotion too. There’s an electric energy when they sing the chorus to Fullbringer, a deep melancholy when they harmonize on Masaki. The band is only able to perform about five of their songs, but they’ve arranged the order so the audience gets to go through a journey--and it all ends on Sun and Moon.

It’s easily their best crowd pleaser, and for good reason.

It sounds cheesy, but there is such an upbeat joy to the song that even scowl-loving Ichigo grins during its entirety, and Rukia--always so poised--bounces at her keyboard, bopping her head to the beat. The bridge is absolutely wild, and the whole thing moves so fast that Tatsuki is going harder at her drums than she ever has. It was a bitch to practice, but man. Man does it it fucking end a show.

At the end of Espada’s last show, the crowd demands an encore… From their front band.

“Eat shit,” Grimmjow hisses as they unexpectedly make their way back to the stage, and Tatsuki knows for an asshole like him to be this pissed: it’s a compliment.

---

They’re feeling so pumped about the whole tour that at the end of that encore, even Chad agrees to go out to a nearby pub to celebrate.

The group is on Cloud 9 as they float into the semi-crowded bar, and Tatsuki feels even more of a high when some of the patrons--fresh from the show--cheer as they enter. A guy orders the band shots, and from that point on things get… Uh. Kind of blurry.

Chad does manage to escape early, but not before she challenges him to a game of who can drink a pint faster. Orihime glows next to her as she sips her own fruity cocktail, cheering Tatsuki on in a way that makes her feel powerful even when she loses. Occasionally she catches her friend glancing over at Ichigo with a soft smile that Tatsuki… Doesn’t really want to notice right now. She’s having such a good time, so for what?

Urahara floats, chuckling behind his fan about this and that--leading to a brief debate between Ichigo and Tatsuki whether he’s high, drunk, or both. Rukia pops up out of nowhere, offering a convincing argument of: neither. Urahara is just fucking batshit.

Ichigo and Tatsuki stare at the unexpected profanity.

“What?” Rukia’s face is flushed, and she tries (unsuccessfully) to look like she has the decency to be embarrassed. Suddenly, she grins toothily, grabbing Ichigo’s hand and dragging him to the bar corner’s jukebox. “C’mon, idiot. You’re helping me pick out a song.”

Tatsuki doesn’t pay much more attention to the two after that--she’s too busy getting another drink, getting Orihime another drink, seeing if she can get Urahara to confess he’s committed at least one felony in his lifetime, and if so which one--but she happens to overhear their conversation at one point when they’re getting drinks.

“... Swift is a stellar songwriter, Kurosaki. I’m telling you--”

“Come oooooon--”

“No, you--you come on, Ichigo. Ichigo Kurosaki.” Rukia pokes her finger at Ichigo’s chest, and Tatsuki sees him failing to hide a smile. “She had a… Taylor has iffy periods, of course she does. But have you… Have you even listened to the lyrics of Blank Space?

“Whassat?”

“You’ve heard that song, don’t you--don’t you even start--”

Tatsuki rolls her eyes and takes her leave. Listening to drunk straight people flirt is excruciating.

Still: whether it’s from the warm buzz of alcohol or the general high of the good night or her just loving her friends… She’s happy for them.

When she leaves, Blank Space is blaring from the jukebox. She looks back to see Rukia and Ichigo intimately close. Rukia is beaming up at him, shouting over the music that she can only imagine is the song lyrics. Ichigo’s body is curved toward her, watching and bobbing his head with a soft smile.

Good for them, Tatsuki thinks dreamily before immediately finding a dumpster to throw up in.

#ichiruki #bleach #ichigo kurosaki #rukia kuchiki #my stuff #do it for the band

22 notes · View notes

emilyjunk · 6 years

Note

Prompt: Beca and Emily go on their first date without really realizing its their first date because both are too nervous to ask

this ended up only kind of being what you were asking but it got a little longer so i hope that makes up for the fact that it’s only like... slightly what you meant.

Stacie Conrad and Chloe Beale are often lumped together in the Bellas for several reasons. They’re gorgeous, first. They’re flirty, second. They love to party, third.

They’re also both hopeless romantics, fourth, and want their best friends to be as happy as they deserve to be, fifth.

Now those last two aren’t really reasons that the other Bellas lump them together, but they know, and they have often conspired together to be matchmakers when they’re out on the town and a little bit drunk.

They’ve never had the opportunity to act on these conspiratorial plans, per se, but they dream about it often.

Then, finally, one day, the opportunity arrives in the form of a lanky and enthusiastic girl.

Enter one Emily Junk.

When Chloe Beale first met Beca Mitchell, she knew they were going to be best friends. She has a keen sense for things like this, and her friendship with Beca Mitchell was practically written in the stars.

Now, Chloe isn’t a meddler. She likes people to forge their own paths. So when Beca started dating Jesse, and Chloe thought it was weird, she didn’t say anything. If her friend was happy, then she was happy.

(She was way happier for Beca when they broke up, because those two just did not make sense to Chloe, but she didn’t say that. No, sir, she did not. But she did think it. Secretly.)

No, Chloe is not a meddler.

But then Chloe met Emily Junk. Or more specifically, Chloe watched Beca Mitchell meet Emily Junk.

She watched as Beca softened every time Emily spoke, and she watched as Emily lit up whenever Beca walked into a room, and she watched them sing together, and write music together, and grow as people together.

And the hopeless romantic in her mixed with the bit of her that wants her best friends to be as happy as they deserve to be.

That’s when Chloe Beale became a meddler.

Stacie Conrad has been said to have a very nonspecific taste in boys and boyfriends. This is honestly true.

She does, however, have a very specific taste in friends.

And her taste in friends looks exactly like Emily Junk.

Eager, genuine, and lively, Emily caught Stacie’s eye immediately. She was just the type of person Stacie likes to take under her wing, groom to be their best self, and help set free from the chain of their own expectations.

Emily Junk is the very type of person that Stacie develops an inescapable fondness for, and Stacie is an extremely loyal person, the definition of ride or die, and when Stacie meets Emily, that’s exactly what she becomes.

So when it’s suddenly clear to her that Emily has a crush on one of the other people Stacie would ride or die for, she decides she has a new mission in life.

Stacie Conrad is going to set Emily Junk up with Beca Mitchell.

“Force them under the mistletoe at Christmas?”

“No, too awkward and Beca would just run away. Double date and then we ditch?”

“Hm, that could work, but it’s pretty obvious and they might reject the idea if we’re not subtle about it.”

Stacie huffs. “Ugh, we’ve thought of about 50 ways to set them up and none of them are good. Why can’t my brain think of something? It’s usually so smart.”

Chloe laughs. “Well, we’ve had like 6 drinks, Stace.”

“Only because we’ve been sitting here so long rejecting ideas! It’s going to be Valentine’s Day by the time we think of something.”

And then, through her drunken haze, Stacie has an idea. A wonderful idea. A genius idea.

A wonderfully genius idea.

Chloe calls it Galentine’s Day after one of the best episodes of TV in existence and her personal favorite holiday.

The idea is that they celebrate their Bella friendships by going on a friendship date with another Bella for Valentine’s Day. Half the Bellas will randomly pick the other half out of a hat, along with a random fun date activity, and they’ll enjoy a random lovely time together.

That’s the idea anyway. It’s just that Stacie and Chloe totally rig it so it’s not random at all.

GENIUS!

“Do we really have to do this?” Beca grumbles, her hand hovering over the hat. She’s not really in to Valentine’s Day.

“It’ll be fun, Bec!” Chloe beams, bouncing on her toes and her eyes gleaming with just a little too much excitement.

Beca doesn’t trust it one bit. She’s sure there are terrifying activities in that hat just waiting for her to pick one and embarrass herself at.

“Yeah, come on, Beca, we’re all going to pick one!” Stacie shoots her a wink from her spot next to Chloe where she’s holding the hat with the activities. “Live a little.”

Beca sighs. “Fine, but I’d like it to be known that I’m not happy about this at all.”

“Okay,” Stacie says. “Noted.”

“Noted? So I don’t have to do it?”

“No, you still have to do it, but I’m just making a note that you’re not happy about it. In my brain.”

Beca rolls her eyes. “Great.”

And she sticks her hand in the hat.

Chloe holds the hat high enough that Beca has to reach up to grab a slip of paper from inside it. It’s a good thing Beca is so short.

Otherwise she might see that all the slips have Emily Junk written on them.

“Emily,” Beca calls out, and the girl snaps her head up from where she’s looking down at her notebook.

“What?”

“You’re my… Galentine.”

Emily’s eyes widen before she breaks out in a wide smile. “Oh cool! What are we doing?”

“You get to pick,” Stacie says, innocently holding out her hat with the designated activities.

Which all say the same totally not random thing.

(Next to her, Chloe is very subtly and inconspicuously exchanging all the Emily Junk slips for ones with the other Bella’s names on them.)

Emily reaches into the hat and pulls out the chosen activity. “Concert in the park. Ooh, a concert! That’ll be fun!” She grins over at Beca, who smiles reluctantly.

“Yeah, I guess it could be worse. Live music is good, at least.”

Beca shrugs. Emily nods in excitement. Stacie and Chloe share a look.

What those two don’t know is that the concert, on Valentine’s Day, is actually a romantic couples concert where the band will solely do covers of the most iconic love songs in history.

When Emily gets to the Bella house on Valentine’s Day, Beca is already downstairs and waiting for her.

Emily’s kind of apprehensive because she knows Beca doesn’t really want to do this, and she knows it has nothing to do with her, Beca just doesn’t like this kind of thing, but she still feels a little uncertain. She thinks Beca is really cool, and super funny, and extremely beautiful and talented, and Emily wants Beca to like her and she wants them to have a fun time together.

So, yeah, she’s kind of a nervous person in general, but now she’s just like, extra nervous.

“You ready?” Beca asks, swinging her car keys around her finger and grabbing her bag.

“Yep. Mhmm. Totally. Let’s do this. Off we go!” She cringes when Beca shoots her a funny look. Why is she so awkward? Darn her nervous and naturally enthusiastic disposition.

They get in Beca’s car and Emily tries not to pat her knees anxiously as they start driving. She doesn’t know what to say? There’s like a billion things in her brain that she could say, but none of them really seem like things she should say. Or like things Beca would care about.

Thankfully she’s saved when Beca hands her the AUX cord. “You wanna play your music?”

Well, she’s saved from talking. But now she has to pick the music and oh my god what if Beca hates her music?!

“...Uh. Okay,” she says reluctantly, plugging the cord into her phone. She doesn’t know what to play so she just picks her random songs playlist where she puts new songs she hears that she kind of likes until she gets sick of them and takes them off.

It’s mostly just new songs by artists she hasn’t really heard of before, ones with lame lyrics but a good beat. Nothing too emotional, but super fun to dance to.

She thinks it’s okay because Beca nods her head along to the beat as she drives and turns the volume up, so Emily breathes a little easier.

“Do you know what band we’re seeing?” Emily asks as they pull up to their destination and find a place to park.

“Nope,” Beca shakes her head. “Chloe just said it’s some cover band and,” she does air quotes, “it’s not about the band, it’s about spending time together.”

Emily nods. “Well, that’s nice I guess. But I mean, it always is a little bit about the band, don’t you think? Hard to have a good time if they’re really bad.”

Beca grins over at her. “I think it’s always mostly about the band. But at least if they’re bad we can make fun of them together.”

“Deal,” Emily laughs, and Beca joins in, and suddenly Emily isn’t really nervous at all.

She suddenly feels like they’re going to have a really good time.

“Do you see them?”

“No.”

“How did we lose them? Beca drives like a grandma.”

Chloe suddenly aggressively points out the windshield. “There! They’re getting out of the car.”

Stacie follows Chloe’s finger and slowly parks her car a little ways away from Beca’s in the parking lot, swatting at Chloe when she sticks her head out of the window to see better. “Don’t let them see you, Chlo.”

“I’m not! They’re walking away. Quick, get out or we’ll lose them!”

They both scramble to get out of the car and follow Beca and Emily at a safe distance. They have a close call when Emily abruptly stops and runs back to Beca’s car for something she must have forgotten. Chloe and Stacie duck behind the nearest vehicle to hide.

“Did she see us?”

Stacie peeks her head out. “Hm. Nah, no way. You know how she is.”

Chloe nods. “It’s going to completely ruin this plan if we get caught stalking them, you know.”

“Not to mention Emily has pepper spray and might attack you if she mistakes you for a creep.”

At that moment, there’s a coughing noise beside them and they realize the car they hid behind is still occupied and the couple inside has their windows open and is staring at them.

Stacie shoots them a look. “What? You’ve never set your best friends up on a date and then spied on them before?”

Chloe giggles and grabs Stacie’s hand. “Come on, they’re getting away.”

Stacie narrows her eyes at the couple in the car again before letting Chloe pull her after their friends.

Beca has a bad vibe about this concert.

Something isn’t right about it.

She just can’t put her finger on what it is.

Everything looks normal. There’s a stage set up in the park, lots of standing room in the grass. There’s a beer tent. People milling about. Relatively good sound equipment.

It all seems fine.

So why is she getting such a weird vibe?

The sun is just starting to set and people are crowding the stage. “Come on, let’s get closer,” Beca says, and tugs on Emily’s jacket. She hates being short at standing room only concerts; she can never see.

They manage to get a relatively close spot, one not right behind any tall people, just as the band comes on stage. Emily lets Beca stand in front of her so she can see better.

“I can just see over your head,” Emily grins, her eyes crinkling at the corners as she teases Beca.

Beca resists the urge to stick out her tongue. “Bite me, Legacy.”

“HELLO ATLANTA!” The lead singer of the band says into the microphone. He looks like he’s in his forties and too old for the Vans he currently has on his feet. Beca snorts. “How y’all doing tonight?!”

There’s some pretty lame clapping, like barely any really, and the drummer bangs a little on the drums.

“Now we wanna thank all you guys and gals for coming to our annual Valentine’s Date in the Park. Stay bundled up out there by grabbing your honey and dancing along.”

The band jumps into their first song, Love Shack, which Beca lowkey doesn’t hate, so. Whatever. She bops her head along. She guesses it’s a classic and it is Valentine’s Day. She doesn’t know what she was expecting.

The band’s next song is I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing by Aerosmith. Another classic, but the lead singer definitely doesn’t sound as good as Steven Tyler. After that comes some Beatles songs, God Only Knows by The Beach Boys, and You Make Loving Fun by Fleetwood Mac.

Now, Beca totally doesn’t really hate any of these songs. They’re, you know, classics, or whatever, and sure the band doesn’t sound that great but they’re still good songs.

It’s just that at this time she suddenly realizes what’s happening here.

Literally every person around them is middle-aged and part of a couple. There are middle-aged couples dancing together, singing to each other, looking lovingly at each other.

And kissing.

Oh God there’s so much kissing.

It suddenly hits her that this is totally a concert for older couples. On Valentine’s Day.

How could she have not seen this coming?

She feels Emily at her back and looks over her shoulder. Emily’s nodding along to the song, something by Poison, and looking mildly uninterested, but not completely bored.

“Em?” Beca screams just over the music.

Emily leans down so she can hear better. “Yeah?”

“Um, I just realized there’s like, nobody under forty in this crowd and they’re all like, making out.”

Emily’s head snaps back and she looks around them, her nose scrunching cutely. “Oh. Oh ew. That lady looks like my mom.”

“Can we get out of here? The band is kind of lame anyway.”

“Yeah, for sure.” Emily grins and starts to push her way through the crowd of couples. It’s not super thick, but Beca grabs the back of her jacket to keep from getting separated anyway.

They walk away from the stage a little and as they get further from the speakers, Beca feels like there suddenly is a lot more space around her and like, in her head.

She takes a big gulp of air.

“So. That was weird?” She says as they walk. “Do you think they did that on purpose or Chloe just didn’t realize it was for old people?”

“Beats me,” Emily shrugs. “I knew like, two of those songs, though.”

Beca grins at her. “Really? Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I dunno, I was just dancing. They weren’t the worst band ever.” She looks over at Beca. “Do you think they’ll yell at us if we go back from the concert early?”

“I mean, yell is a strong word,” but then she thinks about it. “But actually they probably will be insufferable about it. Maybe we should kill some more time.”

Emily nods. “Yeah, okay. You wanna walk around a bit? I think there’s this little ice cream place across the street from the other entrance of the park, if I remember correctly. Chloe took me there once.”

“Sounds good.”

The park isn’t that big, so it only takes them a few minutes to get to the other entrance and across the street to the ice cream place.

Beca gets mint chocolate chip immediately because it’s what she always gets, but Emily takes about five minutes trying to decide on a flavor. Finally she chooses this bright blue flavor that’s supposedly cotton candy.

“Really?” Beca smirks. “After all that deciding, you go with cotton candy?”

Emily shrugs happily. “It looks yummy.”

The teenager worker raises his eyebrows as he hands her the cone. “Yeah, we don’t get many people over twelve years old getting that flavor.”

Beca feels herself frowning a bit, unsure why.

The guy continues. “Makes your tongue blue. Just what every adult wants, right? Personally, never even tried it myself.”

Emily licks at the cone, unaffected, but Beca eyes the guy as she hands over her debit card. “Guess people just stop having fun when they get older,” she says. “Become boring like you.”

The guy just stares at her. “Sure. You together or separate?”

“Together,” Beca says at the same time as Emily says “Separate.”

The guy looks between them, then shrugs and charges Beca for them both.

“You didn’t have to do that,” Emily says when they’re walking out of the shop. “I have money.”

“I know,” Beca assures her. “I just wanted to. It’s fine.”

She doesn’t say that the worker rubbed her the wrong way for lowkey judging Emily’s flavor, because whatever. Emily doesn’t seem to care, so why should she?

They walk back through the park, licking their cones and talking about the Bellas and music. Beca shivers a little. It’s February and they’re eating ice cream and she didn’t exactly dress the warmest in her leather jacket, jeans, and Chucks.

Emily doesn’t seem to mind the brisk air and Beca thinks maybe she should’ve taken a cue from Emily’s wardrobe, a peacoat over dark skinny jeans and boots. And she’s wearing a plain black beanie, pulled over her wavy hair.

Emily catches her as she’s looking and Beca’s stomach flips when Emily smiles at her.

“What?” Emily asks, her hand coming up to her face. “Do I have ice cream on my face? That always happens.”

“No,” Beca says, uncertain if she should mention that Emily just looks unreally beautiful in the moonlight, little patches of lights shining golden on the ends of her hair every time they pass under a lit tree.

She just seems so… happy and carefree.

And Beca feels… weird. And it takes her a second to know why she’s feeling weird, but when she does, it causes her to shiver again.

She just realized that this moment is really… romantic.

“Why do you look like a Wrackspurt flew in your ears?”

Beca blinks, smiling over at Emily. “What? Is that that one thing from Harry Potter.”

Emily beams. “Yeah. Luna says they fly in your ears and make you all confused.”

“Kay dork.” She nudges Emily as they walk and their hands brush and they’ve made their way far enough back in the park that they’re coming up to the stage again.

And the song playing is Faithfully by Journey and Beca wonders for the first time…

Are they on a date?

Well sure, they’re on a friendship date, but like…

Why does this feel like a real date?

“If you think positive thoughts you can get rid of them,” Emily says and it takes Beca a moment to remember they were talking about Harry Potter.

“I am,” Beca murmurs because she is.

She’s thinking about how cute Emily is and how her lips look really soft and how she totally wants this to be a real date.

She’s so screwed.

“I can’t see them anymore.”

“Me neither. Crap, what if they left?”

Stacie scours the crowd for her two friends, but doesn’t see them among all the dancing couples. “Maybe they didn’t like the music?”

Chloe scrunches her nose. “Beca secretly loves all these songs. They’re on her classics playlist.”

“Maybe they realized we set them up to go to a couple’s concert.” Stacie sighs. “We should’ve had a backup plan.”

“Well, come on,” Chloe starts to push out of the crowd. “Let’s head back to the parking lot and see if they’re there. If Beca’s car is still there, we’ll just wait for them to come back.”

Suddenly Stacie tugs roughly on her jacket. “Oh my God, there!”

She pulls on Chloe’s arm and they duck behind a tree. It’s not a very good hiding place, but Beca and Emily don’t seem to notice them.

No, Stacie thinks. They’re too preoccupied staring at each other.

“Where’d they get those ice creams?” Chloe whispers, but Stacie shushes her.

“Look, they’re so cute. You can see Beca’s heart eyes from here!”

Chloe hums, peeking her head around Stacie’s shoulder. “Does it look like Emily keeps trying to hold her hand?”

“No, she does that when she walks next to you. She’s always bumping me with her elbow.”

They watch as their two friends walk down the path back toward the parking lot, Emily gesturing excitedly in that way she does when she talks, and Beca listening intently.

Stacie feels her heart flutter with happiness. “They are so cute.”

“I know, that’s why we tried to set them up,” Chloe laughs. “Should we follow them?”

“Yeah, but let’s wait a few minutes. They’re probably just going back to the Bella house.”

So they linger behind the tree, watching as Beca and Emily grow to be just specks in the darkness, and then they creep after them.

Emily’s never really sure about most things. She tries to be, but there are just so many variables.

That’s why she hates math.

She knows she can figure things out, but sometimes she’s just not sure which equation to use.

Right now with Beca kind of feels like that, too.

Emily’s feeling a lot of things and she’s just not sure which feeling is going to win out. It kind of depends on the situation, and how Beca feels, and why she paid for Emily’s ice cream and looked at her like Emily has answers to the whole freaking universe.

There’s a lot of variables here, but the most confusing one is Beca, and Emily’s not sure which equation she needs to follow through on to figure out if this is a date.

Like. A real date. Not this Galentine’s thing they’re supposed to be doing.

It’s just that Beca is like, so cool and so pretty and when she laughs, Emily feels like she did something right for once.

Also, it’s Valentine’s Day and she knows that doesn’t mean anything in this situation, but everything feels really soft and pretty and perfect.

And she was really nervous before starting this evening, but the longer she hangs out with Beca, the easier it is to talk to her. Beca is a super good listener, and she never interrupts or judges Emily for getting too excited. She asks questions like she’s actually interested and Emily doesn’t feel awkward.

She feels, like, right.

Like this is easy, and good, and… special.

And for the first time since the evening began, she once again doesn’t know if she should say what’s in her brain. Because she wants to ask Beca if this is a date, and why Beca keeps smiling at her like that while Emily sings along to Beca’s music in the car.

She holds it inside her the whole drive back until Beca’s parking on the street outside the Bella house and turning off the car and throwing them into silence.

And then she can’t hold it in anymore because she’s confused and eager and so, so uncertain.

“Was this a date?” She blurts out as they walk up the front steps.

Beca pauses in her movement to pull her keys out of her bag. She turns to look at Emily, an unreadable expression on her face. And oh God why did she say that?

She totally did the wrong equation and got all the variables confused and came to a very messed up conclusion.

“I mean, never mind. It’s just that it’s Valentine’s Day and you paid for my ice cream and I had a really good time with you and probably just read the vibes wrong. I do that sometimes. I’m kind of bad at reading social situations. It’s just that - ”

“Em.” Beca tugs on the collar of Emily’s jacket a little and she snaps her mouth shut. “Chill, please.”

“Sorry,” Emily murmurs, kind of wishing she could like, crawl under a rock and die or something.

Beca’s face softens and she smiles the tiniest smile, this fond and tender thing that Emily wants to memorize forever. “Do you want it to be a date?” Beca asks, staring at Emily curiously.

Emily opens her mouth, then shuts it, wrestling with herself, trying to decide what to say, but she can’t. So she just nods. “I think so.”

It seems to take 20 years for Beca to answer, or least for the longest breath Emily’s ever held in her life. “Yeah,” she says eventually. “Me too.”

“Really?” Emily kind of can’t believe it. Because Beca is so… Beca. And Emily is so… well, Emily.

“I had like, a really good time with you. Even if that concert was for lame old people” Beca shrugs, her cheeks turning red. “And I was thinking earlier that you look really pretty.”

Happiness basically explodes in Emily’s chest. “You think I’m pretty?”

Beca gives her an incredulous look. “Yeah dude? You’re all,” she waves her hand in front of Emily’s face as if that’s supposed to explain it. “Glowy.”

Beca practically cringes in embarrassment, but Emily thinks it’s probably the cutest thing she’s ever experienced.

“Like that glowy kid from Sky High?”

Beca snorts. “Sure. Something like that.”

Emily bounces on her toes happily. “Cool. So. You wanna go on another date with me?”

Beca looks away, trying to hide her smile. Emily feels on top of the world. “Yeah, alright.”

“Awesome.” She can’t stop smiling. “Well then I’m gonna go back to my dorm while I’m ahead here.” Beca shakes her head like she can’t believe Emily is real. Emily can relate. This doesn’t feel real at all. “Happy Valentine’s Day, Beca.”

Beca tilts her head to the side, takes a breath as if to brace herself, and then leans forward on her tiptoes.

Emily’s senses are suddenly overwhelmed when Beca’s lips connect with hers. She closes her eyes, her breath catching in her throat, her heart hammering madly in her chest.

It’s the softest most amazing first kiss she’s ever had in her life.

She might pass out.

Beca pulls back and Emily can feel her smiling against her lips before she even opens her eyes. She almost doesn’t want to in case Beca vanishes into thin air and she wakes up from some amazing dream.

Magically, unbelievably, when she finally does blink them open, Beca is still there, smirking at her and cheeks flushed. She shakes her head and finally pulls her keys out of her bag. She unlocks the door, and starts to step inside.

“Goodnight, Legacy,” she calls, laughter in her voice, and Emily just watches as Beca disappears inside the Bella house, the door closing behind her.

Emily is usually not that great at math, but after all the solved variables she was just given, she kind of thinks that she + Beca totally = the heart emoji.

“Stace, we suck at this sleuthing thing,” Chloe says as they pull up to the Bella house and see Beca’s car already parked in its usual spot. “We barely saw what they did all night!”

“Well, they didn’t follow the unofficial plan that we had for them,” Stacie frowns. “That’s rude of them.”

But then Chloe gasps. “Wait there’s Emily!”

Stacie glances out the window, and indeed, there is Emily, walking away from the Bella house and toward campus.

They jump out of the car and hurry down the sidewalk.

“You know, I’m never meddling again,” Chloe huffs as they just about catch up to her.

It’s probably for the best, she thinks, when they call out Emily’s name and only barely avoid getting pepper sprayed in the face because Emily clumsily drops her pepper spray in fright.

They went to all this trouble to set up this date and it clearly didn’t even work! Otherwise Beca and Emily would probably be kissing on the Bella porch or something else equally romantic!

No, Chloe thinks. She’s never meddling again.

Her friends will have to find out that they totes like each other all on their own!

#inquiries #bemily #beca mitchell #emily junk #chacie #chloe beale #stacie conrad #pp fic #my writing #minifics #i mean if you consider almost 5k words a minific #lol #okay thanks here you go!!!!#Anonymous

64 notes · View notes

purplesurveys · 4 years

Text

703

What was the brand of your first ever cell phone? It was a Nokia. What are your 3 favorite internet sites? Mmm at the moment it would be Twitter, YouTube... and Twitter? Hahaha I don’t typically go on a bunch of sites these days.

Do you have a favorite pair of blue jeans? Describe them. Yeah my current favorite are my mom jeans. They’re high-waisted, fit but not skinny, they’re basically really comfy to wear and they go well with every top. What profession do you respect? All jobs are worthy of respect but at the moment I particularly admire the frontliners from doctors and nurses to grocery clerks to janitors. All fucking badass in their own ways. Have you ever been the recipient of a practical joke? Minor ones in the past. Was never a fan.

Have you ever ate something you've dropped on the floor, if so what? Yep. I always eat food I drop on the floor/ground but the one time it ended up being nasty for me was when I dropped a couple of siomai, picked them up and ate them, and they turned out to have a bit of gravel already D: Would you consider being an Uber driver if you needed to make extra money? Yeah why not? The job sounds pretty cool honestly. I’d love to earn money just by driving and still helping people in the process. How do you know when you're in love, what's the main sign? I stare. I do it secretly, but I still stare. That or I act increasingly aloof around them. Have you ever gotten anything autographed, if so by who & what was it? I didn’t watch them put an autograph on it but I’ve bought something that was personally signed at some point. I got a signed AJ Lee poster that was being sold on WWE Shop. Do you prefer Walmart or Target? I wouldn’t know which one is better or has more stuff. What do you long for? Restaurant food. Window shopping. Taking strolls at the mall. DRIVING. If you could be a personal assistant to anyone, who would it be? I wanna say Beyoncé but I feel like I’d just be intimidated by her? Lmao so I’d go with Chrissy Teigen. I want someone who’s gonna be as clumsy as I am. What is the most important thing you can do to improve yourself? Go to a therapist or psychiatrist, for a start. What makes it hard for you to keep your focus? Usually it’s social media. When I’m working I always have to have Twitter and/or Facebook either open in existing tabs, or I open tabs to quickly check them every ten minutes or so and then close them. Do you think society has become too PC (politically correct)? Yeah but I honestly don’t mind it because it at least means people are taking steps in becoming more sensitive. What tragic love story do you relate to? I dunno, I haven’t had a tragic relationship experience myself. If anything though the plot of Hello Love Goodbye hits home quite hard. Has your intuition or "gut" served you well? Ugh, quite often. And it’s always my gut feeling for worst case scenarios that turn out to be true, which sucks even more. What's the longest you've ever waited in line for something and what was it? Driver’s license. Took seven hours lining up for the damn thing. Who is your favorite model? HAHAHAHAHAHA I always stay quiet about this cos she’s such an unpopular choice, but I really have a bias for Kendall Jenner byeeeeeeeeee. But Kiko Mizuhara is beautiful, too. What have you done that is out of character for you? Take up an externals VP position. I’ve never been the type, but I took on the job because no one else would take it and I didn’t want my org to die. Would you rather get a gift card or a gift that someone bought for you? Honestly it’s the thought that counts. If they believed I’d love a gift card to somewhere I like like a bookstore, I’d love it. If they bought me something they remembered me in, I’d love it just as much. Who is the most visionary person in your life & how do they inspire you? Gabie. She’s just so hardworking, so ambitious, she takes no shit and it’s all I want to see in people. How do you handle a betrayal? Cutting ties. What do you feel strong enough to protest about? The current administration in general, anything that aims to glorify the piece of shit that was Ferdinand Marcos, media censorship or journalist killings, any anti-poor policy. What's the biggest blooper you've never lived down? The one time we were playing Heads Up and instead of saying puto bumbong I said puto bimbing. It’s ALLLLLLLWAYS brought up to me at family reunions, and honestly it’s pretty damn funny so I laugh along with my relatives hahaha. I’m trying to think of an equivalent in English so you can understand how ridiculous it sounds in Filipino and it’s pretty much on the same tier as that viral post that talks about how they said “Are you fucking sorry?!” when they wanted to say “Are you okay?” but also “I’m fucking sorry” at the same time HAHAHAH If you owned a restaurant what kind of food do you want to serve? Probably Mexican or Tex-Mex comfort food. It seems to be a hit in Filipino markets and it has similar ingredients to our own food. What will we find if we look in the bottom of your closet today? A buuuunch of old books that were assigned readings to me in grade school and high school, children’s encyclopedias, some book series I’ve had since I was a kid, other lesser-known short novels. So books, basically. What kind of car did you learn how to drive on? In driving school I was taught in a sedan, but when I was done with the classes I practiced some more in my current car, a hatchback. What is the best thing you have done just because you were told you can't? Cutting class. Have you ever had to go to court or testify and if so what for? Nope. Do you believe in karma? Sure. Not in a religious way, but the idea that people who do shitty stuff have their ass handed back to them at some point in the future is a comforting thought. Are you more worried about doing things right, or doing the right thing? Doing the right thing, as someone who’s afraid of punishment or getting caught lmao. Do you believe in the term "Mother knows best?” Not always. My mom can be pretty tone-deaf about a number of stuff. Who is your favorite movie action hero? Not a fan of action and not a fan of superheroes. What is one thing you can get in your hometown you can't get elsewhere? My city always makes me feel nostalgic and getting to the top is always magical. I’ve never felt the same anywhere else. How important are looks in someone you're in a relationship with? Pretty important but it’s not everything. I had a crush on Gabie mainly because of her looks but I also considered dating Mike even though I didn’t find him good-looking, so it varies. What freedom do you feel is not really free anymore? LMAO going to the fucking washroom. I dunno the situation anywhere else but some high-end malls in Manila will CHARGE you ₱5 or ₱10 for going to their washrooms. Like what the fuck?????? It’s so ridiculously pretentious that I completely avoid those malls out of sheer annoyance. What are you most thankful for? It’s gonna sound so privileged but at this point I’m grateful I have a roof under my head, parents who can afford to feed us as many times in a day as we’d like, and a comfortable home. You have to understand how my country is very behind in terms of living conditions, so anyone living in a legit house who can eat 2-3 times a day and doesn’t even think about receiving relief goods is already insanely lucky. Do you have any favorite talk shows or talk radio programs without music? Not really. I do have a favorite radio show but they still play music in between. What was the last book you read? Fast Food Nation - had to read it for a class. What's your favorite online store? I think I’ve gotten most of my purchases from Lazada. What band would you love to tour with or be a roadie for? Paramore. What's your favorite non-alcoholic drink? Depends. I’m ok with water most days but when I wanna treat myself I go for a crazy sweet milkshake. How do you feel about thrift shops or flea markets? Cool! There are plenty hidden gems in those. What do you like to put gravy on? Rustic fried chicken. Have you ever gone canoeing/kayaking? Yeah, we canoed in Palawan. It was one of the most calming experiences ever and I’m really itching to do it again.

What one thing in particular makes you feel good about yourself? Right now it’s how great I look with bangs hahahahaha. I can’t believe I didn’t get these sooner. What is priceless to you? My 12 year old dog relearning how to go down the stairs. What do you wait for discount sales to buy? I don’t really pay attention to discounts. What is one thing you know about your family history you're proud of? How inclined most of my ancestors were towards history. The phrase “runs in the blood” has never felt truer.

What 3 songs will always be found at the top of your playlist? Pool by Paramore, From Eden by Hozier, and I Saw You In A Dream by The Japanese House. What is the craziest thing you've ever done for someone? Drive through punishing Metro Manila traffic to surprise my girlfriend for all of five minutes, then head to school for my class. Do you keep a budget? Nah. With my weekly allowance I just try to save as much as I can every week. If you could cast a spell on someone what spell would you cast and on who? Nothing evil. I just want my girlfriend to be appear beside me because I haven’t seen her in a month now. What makes you feel rested and refreshed? A nap? Because isn’t that what naps do? Lmao What is the funniest joke you have ever heard about? I’ve encountered funny ones but I can’t seem to think of any right now. Who depends on you the most? Idk, my parents probably. Could you ever be someone's bodyguard? Nah. Has one of your biggest fears come true? I don’t really have a fear that’s a scenario, so no. Is there anything about the opposite sex you just don't understand? Why they get so fragile when someone criticizes what’s wrong with some men. Have you ever let your mom or significant other fight a battle for you? I haven’t let Gabie do it for me but I’ve always considered the idea just in case something I’m involved with blows up too much. Did you create a checklist for your ideal spouse? Nah, it’s so unrealistic. If so, what were two things you wanted? Have you ever ridden on a subway or train and what did you like about it? I’ve ridden a train once. And it wasn’t even during rush hour so I didn’t get the authentic experience haha. It was cold in the train, not a lot of people in it, and I felt like a tourist the whole time. What song on your playlist gets played the most? I have multiple playlists and each have their most-played songs. Have you ever received a harsher punishment than you deserved? Hate punishments and always try to do the right thing to avoid them, so I can’t remember the last time I actually got punished. Do you prefer sporty or academic members of the opposite sex? Lmaoooo the usage of ‘members’ here is hilarious, like being a woman is being part of an organization sksk. I don’t mind what they’re into, as long as it’s not disturbing. Do you have to experience something to fully understand it? That’s what I prefer, personally. Has anyone in your family ever served in the military? Yeah my great-grandfather was a World War II general. What embarrasses you instantly? Slipping, falling, or tripping. Do you think you could be a firefighter, why/why not? It’s what I wanted to be growing up but nah I’m not fit for it. You have to have incredible strength to be a firefighter and I can barely lift anything heavy. I also have a low tolerance for pain/discomfort, so there’s that. Oh and the fact that I’m afraid of FIRE. Do you often read your horoscope? I never read about my horoscope. What current event are you tired of hearing about? I’m tired of our president calling for a stupid state of the nation address almost every fucking night at 10 PM that’s always filled with empty words and absolutely no concrete plans to address the virus. I can’t stress this enough - Y’ALL ARE INSANELY!!! LUCKY!!! WITH YOUR GOVERNMENTS!!!!!!!!! Are you a daredevil? Far from it. I prefer being a goody two shoes. What common pitfalls do you find yourself dealing with in your work life? Don’t have work yet. Are you related to anyone famous or historical, if so who? Yes for historical. I’ve already listed them down and what they did in old surveys; I don’t really wanna get into it again right now. Would you ever donate a kidney to anyone, and who? Yep. For best friends, close friends, and friends in desperate cases. How do you encourage yourself when you go through hard times? I think about how far I’ve come or how I’ve never failed anything I’ve had to face or come across. Have you ever fired a gun? Never. I really want to though! I’d love to go to a shooting range after the shitstorm that is this quarantine. How are you different from most people? I dunno. But don’t we have our own ways of being different? What is the main quality you think makes a great parent? Apologizing to your kids if you’re the one who’s wrong. What creature do you admire for its ability to adapt? Cockroaches, even though I think they’re pieces of shit and are ugly. Have you ever stayed up for an entire 24 hours, why? No, I wouldn’t dare. I get very cranky when I lack sleep, so I don’t wanna test my limits by going 24 hours without it. Who is a female role model in your life? Don’t really believe in role models but the closest thing I have as an inspiration is AJ Lee/April Mendez. What childhood dreams have you neglected? This sounds so tragic lmao but there are a couple I’ve had to come to terms with that they’re just not realistic, like being an astronaut or a vet. How often do you reevaluate your life? Not a lot; I don’t really focus on that because it would only make me anxious. What's your favorite place just to hang out? Skywalk, my org’s common area. What gives you a zest for life? Idk, good news? What three things do you think of most of each day? What I have to do for the day, making sure all the bullets in my to-do list are met, going home to my dog at the end of the day. Would you travel to space if possible? For sure. Name a famous person you wouldn't mind for a business partner. Jay-Z.

#survey #surveys

0 notes

weliveourdream · 5 years

Text

Hola everyone.

And welcome back to another Friday, to my blog and, believe it or not, the end of August. Can you believe it’s really nearly September? Because I can’t. I mean, today was my last day at work and in three weeks I’ll already be on my way to London. How crazy is that? I can’t believe it’s all happening so fast. But on the other hand, I’m also very very very excited. I’ve dreamed about living in London for over eight years and now it’s really finally happening. To say that I’m almost bursting of happiness would be an understatement. Which also goes for how I’m feeling right now and regarding what I want to tell you guys all about today. Because today, we’re proudly continuing the Sziget festival series and I couldn’t be any happier about it. I hope so far you’ve also enjoyed reading about my time at the festival and that you’re just as much looking forward to hearing all about day 6 as I am to sharing it all with you. It was a phenomenal day. Please enjoy.

Day 6

It all started off with me waking up and immediately planning my outfit. It had to be a good one, a fairy-tale-like one, because it would be the day we’d finally be seeing the angel Florence Welsh, aka Florence + The Machine, who is the ultimate fairy, let’s be honest. So, the outfit had to be good. And practical, because it would also be a day of actually sprinting from one gig to another. It was the most packed day of the whole week, I think in total we went to seven different shows. Yes, you read that right. SEVEN. In one single day. You can probably imagine now in what kind of stress we were on that day. I mean, it was the best stress you can think of, but it was still stress. Stress from excitement. I don’t know.

Despite the heat though, I was extremely looking forward to all of the shows, especially to Florence and to Tom Odell and Catfish and The Bottlemen and probably most of all Boy Pablo. I actually found him, or let’s rather say the band, because of the lineup, while I was checking all of the acts out. I fell in love immediately. The music they make is exactly what I usually like to listen to. It just fits perfectly. And little did I know that that gig would be one of the funniest ones I’ve ever been to.

But before I get into this, let’s first start right at the beginning. Not to be dramatic or anything, but I think that Monday was actually the hottest day of the whole week. And after already having gone through five days of music and the sun trying to burn us all alive, you could definitely feel how we all were dreaming about a few clouds popping up here and there. Do you know these pictures of the Sahara where all the wild animals, Zebras, Lions and so on, are all lying under the trees, hiding in the few spots of shade they could find? That’s exactly how the island looked when we got there. Everyone was lying under a tree, either asleep or listening to the band playing on the stage in front of them. And here comes another aspect of why I love Sziget so much – the actual island is freaking beautiful. It’s literally the perfect place for a festival. A huge park that has everything you need and that’s located in the middle of Budapest, but that can still be closed off from the rest of the city. Honestly, it’s absolutely perfect. And definitely much better than just that plain field you usually get with most festivals.

And as it was so hot and we were one of those people who were going into their sixth day, we did just the same as them and sat down underneath a tree and just listened to a band playing in front of us. And shortly after that, it was already time for us to head to the main stage to see Tom Odell. That show was especially cool for me, because I had already seen him back in 2016 when I was still living in Berlin and because he actually also went to BIMM. A guy, who had also gone to my university, was playing on the main stage at my favourite festival. You can’t even dream up stuff like this, I swear. Obviously, he was absolutely amazing. I don’t know how he does it, but whenever I hear his voice live, I immediately get goosebumps everywhere. The power he has.

Unfortunately, we had to leave midway through his set, because Boy Pablo were just about to start playing and they were my number one priority on that day. And boy, they did not let me down. I can’t really think of a gig where I laughed that much in the space of one hour. I’m not even kidding, I really cried tears from laughing, that’s how weird and funny these guys were. I can’t really pinpoint one specific thing that made the whole gig so funny, but I can tell you who the definite highlight was – Erik, their pianist and background singer, who, funnily enough, did much more than that on that day. He played the triangle, the tambourine, the bongos, heck, he even played some maracas-like-shaker. This guy did everything. And on top of that he literally had the most fun on stage and danced and jumped around like crazy. At one point, he literally put on some freaky sunglasses and put his towel on his head and into a turban. That’s how he played one song. I almost fell over from laughing. I also have to mention that all of these guys are all around my age and just getting started as a band and you could actually see how much they were enjoying themselves. They even had a dance-off on stage, during their actual set. How crazy is that? Honestly, I absolutely adored their set. And taking in all that happiness in that tent made me love them even more and want to see them again as soon as possible. After over two weeks, their concert is still one of the highlights of the whole week. I’ll definitely never forget that set. Never ever.

But of course, the fun didn’t just end there. After that went over to another stage to see Bosse, a german band I’ve been wanting to see for quite some time now, and then Catfish and The Bottlemen, who were absolutely fantastic as well. I remember standing there, watching their set and finally realizing that they were exactly what had still been missing from the lineup – good, old indie rock. That’s what I had been secretly craving the whole week and they gave me exactly what I needed.

In total, these are all the amazing acts we got to see on that day:

I Love You Honey Bunny

Big Thief

Tom Odell

Boy Pablo

Bosse

Catfish and The Bottlemen

Florence + The Machine

Obviously, Florence was the ultimate highlight, right after Boy Pablo. God, she was absolutely breathtaking. Thankfully, mum and I managed to get ourselves a good spot to watch the show, right at the second barrier, and it was just so lovely. I felt like I was in my own safe space as soon as she got on stage. The whole crowd became one big family, with Florence as our queen. I loved the energy she brought and how she interacted with us. I felt so included like I was part of the show, part of the magic. And it might not be that relevant, but I absolutely adored the dress she was wearing. Just like I said at the beginning of the post – she’s a fairy. She doesn’t just sound and look like a fairy, she really is one. And her voice is the most magical thing of them all. The concert wasn’t just a gig like any other. It was an experience. An inclusive experience, full of love and freedom and magic. I loved every second of it. And I need to thank Florence and her phenomenal band for turning this Monday into such a fairytale-like day.

And that pretty much was the whole day 6. Besides the concert, mum and I also got to screenprint our own shirts, which was super cool as well. I’ve actually been proudly wearing the shirt every few days and the whole thing also got me into the idea of cutting all my shirts I’m not so keen on wearing, but would definitely wear if they just looked a bit different, even if they were just a bit cropped. So, thanks for giving me that idea, Sziget.

Just like all the previous days, I absolutely loved spending time on this island, surrounded by happiness and love and music and people just like me. No wonder I got addicted to concerts and festivals. Why leave heaven? And while we were walking back home, away from the very same island, the very same heaven, I knew that the last day would be the one last high I had been waiting for this whole time. The day I’d finally be seeing Twenty One Pilots, my boys, Ty and Josh, again. The excitement was through the roof. And, without exaggeration, it was also is right now, because I can’t wait to tell you all about that day. It was ah-mazing. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to post anything on Monday, as I’ll be away from home, but you can already prepare yourself for next Friday. And until then, I hope you enjoyed reading all about day 6 of Sziget. As always, please don’t hesitate to leave your thoughts and comments down below and I wish you all a lovely week. And, of course, thanks for reading. x

Sziget Festival – Day 6 Hola everyone. And welcome back to another Friday, to my blog and, believe it or not, the end of August.

0 notes

njawaidofficial · 6 years

Text

Kacey Musgraves Is The Queer Fan’s Country Music Queen

https://styleveryday.com/2018/03/29/kacey-musgraves-is-the-queer-fans-country-music-queen/

Kacey Musgraves Is The Queer Fan’s Country Music Queen

Kacey Musgraves performs at the Country to Country festival on March 10, 2018, in London.

Burak Cingi / Redferns

Growing up queer in flyover country, much of the world around me felt alien and unsafe. I spent the first two decades of my life in Minnesota, “Land of 10,000 Lakes,” each one teeming with fish I never felt heterosexual enough to catch. During adolescence I mowed farm grass on a John Deere and rode down flat highways on my mom’s Harley Davidson, and one of the first guys I dated took me out for a theoretically romantic evening on the back of an ATV — but I so often felt like I was playing someone else’s role. By the time I was out as queer in high school, I had to spend weekends in rural Wisconsin, just down the road from a dusty speedway. Any time I heard the yeehaw-ed exclamations from one its rousing drag races echo out into the silent countryside, I tensed up.

Country music usually accompanied those races, and it exemplified the parts of Midwestern culture that I had the hardest time connecting with. That music was always part of the soundtrack to my childhood — Faith Hill and Toby Keith on the radio as my mom drove me around, playing during school and sporting events, advertised on the roadside billboards that towered over cornfields. But like those billboards, it felt out of my reach. As a queer kid, it wasn’t for me. In fact, like so much of the culture around me, the genre’s conservative politics and gender norms — which you could hear in songs like Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue”(“‘Cause we’ll put a boot in your ass / It’s the American way”) or Trace Adkins’ “Rough & Ready”(“Gun rack, ball cap, don’t take no crap / Ain’t a pretty boy-toy”) — have made it seem openly hostile.

But Kacey Musgraves, whose new album Golden Hour arrives on March 30, is a horse of a different color. And listening to her music — which is indisputably country, whether country DJs play her singles or not — I feel as if she’s finally inviting me to a party I’ve stood at the margins of for so long. This is truer than ever on Golden Hour, her most fully realized record yet, and easily her most boundary-defying. It proves that Musgraves is here to stay, and that she’s not going to stop being weird and welcoming.

The cover artwork for Golden Hour, Musgraves’ fourth studio album.

MCA Nashville

Musgraves grew up in Texas and launched her career from Nashville in 2013, with her major-label debut Same Trailer Different Park, which won a Grammy for Best Country Album. It also featured the single “Follow Your Arrow,” which made it clear from the beginning that Musgraves wasn’t trying to sneak her embrace of queerness in the back door of subtext; she placed it front and center. That frankness is the leading explanation for why she has never been (and may never be) a darling of country music’s radio gatekeepers. But she is one of the most popular and critically acclaimed country artists in the wider pop music universe right now, and notable for being one of the few who’s vocally supportive of queer people in both her public statements and her music.

Musgraves has never identified as queer herself, but has spoken often about the importance of being an ally. Writing a letter to the LGBT community for Billboard in 2017, Musgraves explained that she “wasn’t always so open-minded,” but after people close to her came out, things shifted: “It started to enrage me that I’d had some previous misunderstanding about a group of people that I now love so much and have so much in common with.”

Last week Musgraves joked on Twitter, “I want a gay, collective ‘you’re doing amazing sweetie’” — and in the lead-up to her new album, she’s already getting it: Fader’s Myles Tanzer reflected on her “vocal queer fanbase” in a glowing profile, and BuzzFeed’s Matt Stopera proclaimed her “the best thing to happen to music since Britney Spears.”

Part of what sets Musgraves apart in the world of country and endears her to queer fans is her playfulness and tongue-in-cheek flamboyance, exemplified in songs like “Biscuits,” a single from her second album Pageant Material (2015), for which she’s dolled up like a beauty queen on the cover. She gleefully sends up visual trademarks of her genre — her hair is huge in the “Biscuits” video, which opens with her in a bonnet, churning butter.

Musgraves plays guitar with a bedazzled band in the music video for “Biscuits” (2015).

Mercury Records / Via youtube.com

But it’s more than camp; after all, queer people are accustomed to engaging in the aesthetic when we do not find ourselves in the explicit. More than anything, it’s Musgraves’s direct approach to celebrating nonconformity — rather than romanticizing tradition.

“Say what you feel / love who you love,” Musgraves sings on the CMA-winning song “Follow Your Arrow,” which she cowrote with queer musicians Brandy Clarke and Shane McAnally. “Kiss lots of boys / or kiss lots of girls, if that’s what you’re into.”

This simultaneously radical and casual embrace of queerness is part of how Musgraves makes the old seem new again. In her music, it’s the values of country that have been given the update, not just the sound. Her themes draw deep from Americana, trailer parks, and small towns — familiar country music imagery — and yet the lyrics take the genre somewhere necessary and new. As the New York Times’ Jon Caramanica wrote in 2016, she is “both the keeper of the genre’s old rules and also its leading internal dissenter.”

Much of mainstream country music signals or valorizes the virtues of rigid gender roles; Brad Paisley’s late-2000s country smash “I’m Still A Guy” is one of the more ridiculous examples — “Yeah, with all of these men lining up to get neutered / It’s hip now to be feminized / But I don’t highlight my hair / I’ve still got a pair / Yeah, honey, I’m still a guy” — but even recent hits like Blake Shelton’s country radio chart-topper “I’ll Name The Dogs” include lines like “you be the pretty and I’ll be the funny.” Musgraves, on the other hand, makes it amply clear she is not here to tell other people how to live their lives.

While she’s more overt than just about anyone who has come before her, Musgraves joins a lineage of country artists who have offered estranged queer people a channel back into the genre. Most have been heterosexual women, whose music is less likely to employ chest-beating masculine tropes — singers like Wynonna Judd, Reba McEntire, Martina McBride, and of course Dolly Parton (whom Musgraves called “a huge icon for me” in a recent GQ interview, noting Parton’s affection for her own drag imitators and her experiments with musical genre crossover).

From left: Kacey Musgraves, Reba McEntire, Jennifer Nettles, and Dolly Parton at the 50th annual CMA Awards, honoring Parton with the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award, on Nov. 2, 2016, in Nashville.

Taylor Hill / Getty Images

Musgraves’s friend Willie Nelson has also been outspoken, and by releasing a cover of a relatively unknown song called “Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other” in 2006, he effectively offered the first explicitly LGBT-affirming song by a major country artist. Some of Musgraves’ peers in the realm of more experimental or pop-friendly contemporary country, like Sturgill Simpson and Maren Morris, have also been vocal about supporting gay rights.

Of course, in addition to allies, there have long been important queer figures in the genre. All the way back in 1973, Patrick Haggerty, a gay man, released Lavender Country, which has since come to be regarded as the first gay country album. It barely sold 1,000 copies at the time, but in 2014 it was reissued, and he continues to tour. In 2010, Chely Wright became one of the first openly LGBT country stars when she came out in an interview with People magazine. And today country is perhaps queerer than it’s ever been, with artists like Trixie Mattel — a popular drag queen, whom Musgraves adores — offering earnest submissions to the genre. Meanwhile, queerly beloved pop stars like Lady Gaga, Kylie Minogue, and Kesha are drawing on the sounds and style of country music, often as a way to reinvent themselves and adopt a more “authentic” approach to their music. Among queer people and many of our favorite musicians, country is hot right now.

Album artwork for Trixie Mattel’s Two Birds (2017).

Trixie Mattel

But up until the past several years, moments that made country fandom feel more accessible to me were few and far between. One of the most memorable was the public political awakening of the Dixie Chicks in 2003. While introducing their song “Travelin’ Soldier” during a concert in London, lead singer Natalie Maines said, “Just so you know, we’re ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas.” The backlash from country radio and fans was instantaneous and intense, inspiring CD-destroying parties and death threats. The week the controversy broke, “Travelin’ Soldier” was the No. 1 song on country radio; two weeks later it had dropped off the chart completely. Despite going on to win numerous Grammys, including Song and Record of the Year, with later releases, the Dixie Chicks haven’t had a top 20 song on country radio since. They paid a huge price, but their willingness to defy country music’s deeply ingrained nationalism and tradition gave me hope that the genre’s norms might someday be more widely subverted.

Their blacklisting still speaks to the reactionary, narrow-minded tendencies that have made so many queer people, people of color, and women feel unwelcome in the world of country. The genre needs explicitly queer-affirming artists because it has been explicitly anti-queer in the recent past, and much of it continues to be anti-queer today. And that’s why Musgraves plays such an unusual and necessary role as an entry point and advocate for the kinds of people who have often felt unwelcome in country fandom, differently from anyone who came before her.

Kacey Musgraves and her nana pose backstage with Joey Taranto (center), star of the Broadway musical Kinky Boots, on Feb. 25, 2018, in New York City.

Bruce Glikas / Bruce Glikas / FilmMagic

0 notes