#verse // we few; we happy few; we band of brothers

[my-timing-is-digital]

Starter for @fractalcloning

THE SYNTH DEFENDERS

The vast, undulating valley expanded in all directions until the moderately sloping terrain was intercepted by the incipience of colossal mountains adorned with countless trees and lush foliage — a multicoloured patchwork of vegetation. The sun's luminosity was diminishing in intensity, and as the horizon rotated away from it, the scarcity of light further obscured the landscape below, shrouding it under an opaque shade of blue bordering on black. Faraway stars were coruscating, timidly, in the darkening sky that crept up on him from the rear — the world would soon be plunged into temporary darkness. Vocalisations of crepuscular fauna were carried by the cool breeze that saluted them at irregular intervals.

The android had marvelled at the view before, and despite the fact that he had no active recollection of it, the ambience had a sense of unfathomable familiarity about it... Patiently, he permitted the silence to prosper; his chartreuse eyes, increasing in phosphorescence the more the solar radiation receded — evanesced behind the serrated ridges and summits. Lore seldom occupied the holodeck; he only paid visits prior to the execution of particularly perilous rescue operations. He claimed that the generation of this specific computer simulated projection pacified his capricious emotions, that it aided him to reorganise his thoughts and analyse their strategies one last time. But when enquired after the origin of the holographic landscape, the answers he supplied were terse, monosyllabic. The nanoscopic sliver of information he had successfully prised from Lore's reluctant tongue had hinted at the location. Omicron Theta. Their place of activation. Why Lore appeared to value, or at least, harbour sentiments for this place, Data did not know; he had encouraged Lore to elaborate on the matter, but his attempts had been no avail. His brother could be obstinate, unwilling to share such particulars with him. After his first attempt, Data had given Lore the opportunity to open up regarding this subject twice, but no satisfactory answers had sprouted from those attempts either, which eventuated in the determination to simply cease his self-imposed objective and let it rest.

Instead, whenever he found his brother in this ponderous, melancholic state of mind, he would just stand beside him, cognisant that his mere presence, his sangfroid comportment, facilitated his endeavour to placate Lore's tempestuous emotions, and aided in the realignment and the retrieval of order in his positronic brain, his algorithms and subroutines.

Quietly, Data hovered in Lore's peripheral vision, running a minute analysis of the older android, computing, considering the best approach to address his brother without receiving an acerbic remark in return.

'It's OK, brother,' Lore eventually terminated the silence between them, his eyes finding Data's, a barely perceptible, wistful grimace streaking across his pale lips while he scrutinised his younger brother. 'Sometimes I envy your inability to experience human emotions.'

Data held Lore's gaze. He had noticed that, whenever they conversed and the topic pertaining to emotions popped up, Lore always differentiated between human emotions and whatever supposed android emotions he, Data, had. And every time he reminded his brother of the incontrovertible fact that he did not have emotions — of any kind —, Lore's ripostes were relentless; in turn, he reminded Data what atrocities, what iniquities he had committed under the rule of human emotions, and proceeded to pelt him with an enumeration of all the attainments Data had accumulated throughout his life, and how every single one of these was an independent testimony to the emotions that must have been at work in his brother during these instances. Data had defied Lore's erroneous conjectures on multitudinous occasions, but Lore reprimanded him or simply walked away, leaving his brother to ruminate, to ponder his words in solitary.

'Are you here to keep me company?' he asked inquisitively, leaning against the oak tree that always delineated the season Lore had programmed the holoprogram in — in the dark, the leaves resembled unfolded bat wings.

'I am. I hope you do not object to my intrusion,' Data replied softly, as if to preserve at least a small portion of the equilibrium that had flourished lavishly.

'Not at all — I welcome it. Is there a specific reason residing behind your intrusion?' he enquired, suspiciously.

A momentary silence ensued.

'Perhaps.'

'I knew it!' Lore tutted, shaking his head. 'Well, spit it out.'

'Soteria informed me that she has confidential information regarding the Zhat Vash -- apparently, surveillance drones have detected suspicious activities in a civilian's apartment in Greater Boston, Earth...' he trailed off. Lore's grimace expired.

'Has she verified these suspicions?'

'She has. However, she did not disclose through what means -- she did not elaborate.'

'Well, we're already en route to Earth, so I suggest we investigate and verify her intel ourselves after we've retrieved B-4,' Lore stated resolutely, his tone of voice prohibited Data from issuing his objections. 'Whatever mess they made's not going anywhere.'

Tension set Lore's jaw and imbued his pale features. Eventually, his brother averted his gaze and frowned in cogitation. They were both swathed in silence for many minutes consecutively, during which their gazes were trained on the darkening horizon and their minds intertwined in the numerous computations relative to the intel procured by Soteria.

---------

Daystrom Institute of Advanced Robotics rose up high into the night sky while the androids advanced, creeping in the shadows, circumnavigating the many surveillance cameras that were scattered around the vicinity. Fortunately, Soteria had infiltrated Daystrom's security systems and aided them in their endeavours to sneak their way in, unseen...

    Soteria was one of the many decommissioned, sentient AI the brothers had rescued and offered asylum to. Her physical husk — rudimentary in design —, had been destroyed shortly after the inauguration of the ban on synthetics, but fortunately, they had salvaged her memory engrams and programming and transferred the information to their supercomputer — a digital storage room, or as most of the AI preferred to call it, a sanctuary. Over 30 sentient artificial individuals were residing in the supercomputer, some of them had offered their expertise in their respective field of programming, but the majority had requested the opportunity to explore their sentience. (Data had once plugged himself into the supercomputer to "visit" the other AI, and to his astonishment, they had constructed a stupendous, digital metropolis.)

    Initially, the AI was programmed to serve as an elaborate anti-virus software, but she had, over the course of several years, garnered sentience. Unfortunately, this quantum leap coincided with the devastating events on Mars, and as a consequence, the scientists collaborating with her were necessitated, compelled by law, to cease their practical experiments and were prohibited from continuing to support her cognitive development. Everything had to be kept strictly theoretical. Therefore, the lead scientist of the Soteria Project was more than cooperative when the android brothers infiltrated the moderate science station and stated their business — to save the AI and unravel the mystery, ascertain the precise reason that lay at the root of the collective malfunction of the A500 synths...

Within less than 5 minutes, Data and the others had traversed the width of the Daystrom grounds and deftly hacked one of the control panels mounted on the wall adjacent to the main entrance. Soundlessly and effortlessly, the android peeled the unlocked doors apart and secured it so the others could pass through, prior to following them into the atrium himself. Patiently, the other androids waited for Data to catch up with them — none of them required flashlights, for their ocular units were advanced enough and could see clearly in the scarcely illuminated science facility. When he reached the others, his eyes inevitably landed on an individual sprawled on the ground.

'Did he contact any of the other security guards?' he whispered softly, gesturing to a human guard who lay unconscious, rendered in a starfish formation, face-up on the floor.

'No, he did not stand a chance against my Vulcan nerve pinch,' Finn's monotonous voice emanated from under his jet-black balaclava.

'Well done. Let us proceed,' Data urged them, stepping over the unconscious guard and cut right through the middle of the spacious atrium to the laboratory where their team would meet up with Lore's, who had secured the emergency exit — just in case.

As discussed, the brothers and their respective teams gathered in the centre of another large room — the one that, according to Soteria's preliminary investigation, was home to the disassembled body of their oldest brother — at precisely 3 am.

'Bumped into any inconveniences on your side?' Lore whispered inquisitively as they both walked toward the desk that held B-4.

'One guard — Finn rendered him unconscious,' he replied, examining the lock — it required an employee with special clearance's fingerprint.

Luckily for them, Soteria had gained access to a vast databank of all the fingerprints from all the scientists that worked here beforehand. The one she had sequestered from the databank belonged to one Dr Agnes. P. Jurati, a cyberneticist. Quietly, Data handed his phaser to one of the other androids and yanked off one of his black gloves. Lore, in the meantime, produced a small container with in it an exact facsimile of Dr Jurati's fingerprint. With mathematical precision, Lore placed the wafer-thin sheet of silicone skin on the pad of Data's index finger with a specially designed utensil, which would prevent the synthetic skin from sustaining damage during application. Once it was in the right position, Data engaged the finger scanner and the locks sprang open with a reassuring click, granting them access to the android inside.

While they were salvaging B-4's components, Data and Finn disabled the institute's dampening field in order for the others to transport directly on to their cloaked vessel. Lore and Data would stay behind to delete any and all digital as well as physical traces their intrusion may have left behind.

'We're ready,' Lore informed his brother as he shoved the drawer shut and drew his phaser, ready to bolt for the exit.

'Ditto.'

'Energise,' Lore said in a muffled voice, speaking to a non-existent individual.

The six androids that had accompanied them, and a yet-to-be-assembled B-4, vanished in a veil of scintillating light which never failed to remind Data of an inverted waterfall. Now, it was just the two of them. Silently, they exchanged a curt nod and completed their tasks. Data reactivated Daystrom's dampening field and wiped every digital footprint, while Lore cleared away any traces of their presence in the physical world.

'OK, that was everything, I'm done. Let's fucking go, brother,' Lore said, lingering in Data's peripheral vision.

'Agreed.'

Stealthily, the brothers sprinted toward the atrium. The security guard was still unconscious — poor guy would have to contrive a masterful excuse to account for his unprofessional behaviour — and the doors were still unlocked. They wrenched it open and stepped outside. A distinctive click behind them was indicative of Soteria having reactivated the security systems on all entrances and exits. Together, they scurried across the Daystrom property, with the intention to sprint to the prearranged rendezvous point where the others would transport them up. However, they would never arrive at their location, for a composed female voice — authentically human-sounding to the organic ear — terminated their plan prematurely.

'Soteria to Data. The Zhat Vash is in San Fransico, near the Starfleet Archive Musuem.'

'Elaborate, please,' Data demanded politely, while he and Lore ran at high speeds to reach the rendezvous point.

'There is not much time. Jean-Luc Picard is involved — he might be in mortal danger.'

The announcement made the android stop dead in his tracks — Lore could veer off to the side just in time to prevent a disastrous collision.

'Soteria...'

'Data, no!' Lore interjected aggressively, advancing, a mild panic coruscated in his chartreuse eyes. 'He's not worth it! We're not ready to take on the Zhat Vash! Didn't you learn anything from last time?!'

'Energise,' he ordered, ignoring his brother.

Data was cognisant of the risk he had taken; his transport signatures could be detected, if Daystrom would run a short range sensor sweep later that day, but they would be well away from Earth by then — no one could locate their hideout anyway, even if they wanted to. As for Lore, he was positive his brother would follow him — he would suffer the consequences of his brother's wrath afterward.

Several seconds elapsed, prior to the completion of the transport sequence. San Francisco... Captain Picard appeared to be in no immediate danger, and was outside any direct line of fire, therefore, his priority was to assist the girl fighting the Romulan assassins. Without a moment of hesitation, the android, clad in obsidian body armour and a balaclava of a similar shade, charged at the nearest Romulan, catching the individual by surprise and effectively neutralised them before they could process what — or who, rather — had happened to them.

As prognosticated, Lore materialised but a heartbeat later, just when he reached the bottom of the stairs. Lore did not waste a moment either, and instantaneously threw himself on top of a Romulan who had transported behind Picard, and wrestled him forcefully to the ground, where he retired him.

'Here. Protect yourself, you fool,' Lore's synthetically altered voice sneered at Picard, and he smacked a phaser in the older man's hand, prior to unsheathing two identical daggers from the scabbards attached to the small of his back.

While his brother remained in the Captain's close proximity, Data had almost reached Picard's young acquaintance, if it had not been for another Romulan appearing out of thin air and discharging his phaser gun. The force of the impact nearly destabilised his immaculate equilibrium, but his systems recuperated expeditiously and allowed him to retaliated, leaping over the banister and disarming the Romulan with a single blow to the wrist, disintegrating the bone underneath. In the momentary diversion he had created, he seized the man's arm and tossed him over his shoulder, sending him down several flights of stairs where Lore would receive him with open arms and the kiss of two razor-sharp blades...

After a short intervention, Data resumed his initial objective and skipped several flights to make up for the slight delay. The young girl was adequate in combat and if the current circumstances were not one of life-and-death, he would have noticed her synthetic qualities much sooner. Either way, the last remaining assailants were determined to accomplish the mission they had been sent out to complete — they were merciless. One of the Romulans swung around and hammered the handle of his gun hard against the side of Data's face, which earnt the assassin a dagger in the arm. Lore.

'Missed me?' he quipped, while stabbing another Romulan in the chest.

Together, Data, Lore and their mysterious and remarkably competent companion, downed the remaining Romulans. And when his brother squatted down beside one of the deceased Romulans, Data diverted his attention to the girl.

'Are you alright? Do you require urgent medical attention?'

'Shit,' Lore hissed, more to himself than to the others, but garnered the others' attention regardless. 'I recognise this Romulan — he tried to dismember me several weeks ago, remember? They're Zhat Vash, alright...'

'Who are you?!' Picard had caught up with them and was presently holding the two android brothers at gunpoint with the phaser Lore had distributed to him for protection.

Instinctively, Data held up his hands, to indicate that he was not a threat. Lore rose to his feet but made no attempt to disarm the elderly man.

'Who are you?!' he demanded again, his voice trembled both with rage and old age.

'An old friend,' Data replied serenely, watching Picard very carefully as he attempted to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

'Old friends don't hide behind masks,' he retorted sharply.

'Correct,' he said, unperturbed by the prospect of getting shot.

Without further ado and unnecessary suspense, the android took off his mask; his brown hair severely dishevelled but his pale complexion unaltered. Picard immediately lowered his phaser and braced himself against the banister, incredulity interwoven with streaks of recognition flashing across his face.

'Data?'

'Greetings, Captain.'

#fractalcloning #verse // we few; we happy few; we band of brothers #the synth defenders let's goooo!!! #let's pretend there are more romulans in this lil fight than there are in the actual scene >:) #also let me know if you want me to change something!

[hypocriticaltypwriter]

The Lost Boys Musical concept/idea (final sneak peek!)

Heres the final sneak peek of the TLB Musical idea I'm gonna be giving until I post the entire concept in one big post! If yall would want to be tagged in that BTW, let me know!💜💜💜

First sneak peek here!

🦇🦇🦇🦇

As the new scene is set up, it’s the next day, the sun out and we see a few residents minding their own business, having quiet, indistinct chatter, as LUCY, MICHAEL, and SAM enter. LUCY looks around delighted and with a pep in her step whilst MICHAEL and SAM both exchange unsure looks.

SAM makes a few comments about not being so sure of this place, to which LUCY tries to put his edge at ease, only to have MICHAEL come in and make a comment and agree with SAM. LUCY immediately stops the two boys, beginning to say how Santa Carla isn’t all that bad, you just have to see the good in it.

She then goes into a song, having a hopeful and happy tune. Possibly about all the good things in Santa Carla, all while MICHAEL and SAM come in with a few verses about weird or creepy things they notice, (Especially the ‘Murder Capital Of The World painted on the back of the billboard, and when Michael asks for jobs and the dude comments ‘Nothing Legal’ or something like that) only to have Lucy sing about it but seeing it in a brighter light.

This continues as they may make their way around the set, while they walk around, the stage is slowly moved, and the new set of GRANDPA’S HOUSE is put up. LUCY, MICHAEL, AND SAM’S final harmony of the song quickly ends when LUCY comes to a halt at the body of GRANDPA EMERSON’S body sleeping on the front steps.

We get the whole moving in scene, GRANDPA EMERSON’S rules, and also a duet between MICHAEL and SAM, singing about the house and how it’s like they’re in some Texas Chainsaw Massacre, upset about no TV, jokingly singing how it’s like they’re in a horror movie.

Next is when we finally end up back on the boardwalk, a band begins to play a song- but as SAM notices something’s off with MICHAEL- especially with what he had told LUCY earlier about not going to school once it starts, he asks his brother what’s up.

MICHAEL would break into song- the band in the back supposedly singing back up (even though the POV is only shown to us that way, given the crowd is still listening and rocking out to the band, unaware of MICHAEL’s ballad) He sings about how he feels like he has to start life all over again, meet to people, friends, in a place he doesn’t feel welcome in. How he feels alone and almost as if his Parents whole situation is a weight he should carry.

And as his song reaches an end, he suddenly harmonizes with a voice in the crowd, causing him to pause. The voice continues to vocalize without words to his earlier tune a haunting  voice ringing out. Soon, STAR appears atop something, standing out from the crowd with LADDIE next to her. She then sings something along the lines of MICHAEL’S troubles, how she feels alone, having to start her life all over again. And of course… MICHAEL is smitten.

But the moment their eyes lock, STAR hurries away with LADDIE in tow.

MICHAEL instantly turns to his brother SAM, telling him they had to go find that girl. As they go on their little chase, a small, more lighthearted song starts. SAM continuously asks his brother questions about this girl, MICHAEL returning his answer. (Like “What were her eyes like?” “Shining like diamonds” which would get gags, complaints, or cringes from SAM. Cheesy goofy stuff like that.)

#the lost boys #🍒daily dose of cherry🍒 #tlb #lost boys #tlb 1987 #the lost boys 1987 #musical #80s #the lost boys musical #tlb x reader #tlb david #tlb marko #tlb paul #tlb dwayne #tlb michael #tlb star #tlb laddie

[tomorrowxtogether]

Do It Like That, the Summer Smash TOMORROW X TOGETHER Brought

Meaning Behind the Collaboration of TOMORROW X TOGETHER and Jonas Brothers

2023.07.08

In early June a soundless video snippet was released in which we see Ryan Tedder and TOMORROW X TOGETHER in a studio listening to what we can guess is a new track. Ryan Tedder is known as OneRepublic’s lead singer, but he is equally famous in the industry – perhaps even more so – as a producer and songwriter.

He contributed to Beyoncé’s “Halo” and Leona Lewis’ “Bleeding Love,” and he already has under his belt three Grammy Awards for Album of the Year for his work on “21” and “25” from Adele, and Taylor Swift’s “1989”. A few days ahead of that clip being posted, Tedder had teased on his Twitter account with a selfie at TOMORROW X TOGETHER’s US concert with the jesting text “Joining @TXT_members ??” One could sense from the tweet that his familiarity with the group was too great for this to be a simple shout-out. Indeed, that video clip itself had been captioned with “A big one is coming”, and we most certainly got that.

By mid June, TOMORROW X TOGETHER posted a group photo by a pool with the caption reading, “We go Together”. It’s clearly designed to remind us of the cover art of the album “Happiness Begins” released by Jonas Brothers in 2019, as was the text which happens to be the opening line to their hit song, “Sucker”. And what do you know, it also happens to have been written by Ryan Tedder. Finally, on June 22, TOMORROW X TOGETHER and Jonas Brothers officially announced their collaboration project “Do It Like That” which will be released on July 7.

Jonas Brothers is one of the most successful boy bands of the past two decades. It is not an overstatement to declare this quite a singular feat, especially for an American boy band. Their longevity and continued new music releases to this day since 2005 – despite disbanding and reuniting in between– is another uncommon feat. From 2007 to 2009, the band appeared mainly on the Disney Channel and solidified their position as the unquestionable heartthrob for teens and enjoyed some of their most glittering years during this time. The members went on to pursue solo careers for about a decade after which the brothers at last found their collective adult identity as a pop rock band. Their being family might be brought up to downplay their success as a group, but maintaining the band as teenage idol musicians and consistently evolving over time is no small feat. 

One of the biggest contributing factors of this successful artistic reinvention is “Sucker”. Not only did it make its debut at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, but it remains their sole single to have reached that pinnacle to this day. What’s even more remarkable is it held its position in the top 10 until August, earning itself the accolade of being one of the “Songs of The Summer” in 2019, alongside Post Malone’s “Sunflower (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse).” While the title “Songs of the Summer” may not be an official concept, it holds significant weight in the industry. With summer traditionally being the season with much family time – especially outdoor activities – it’s the perfect season for music to become embedded in our collective memories and transcend time and space. Summer anthems become global megahits dominating airwaves everywhere and very likely go on to become still-beloved golden classics. We all know how “Livin’ La Vida Loca” returns every summer.

In fact, Billboard has been running a “Songs Of The Summer” chart since 2010. In the most recent years, “Sucker” still reigned as one of the most successful summer songs. Along with the likes of “Peaches”, “Levitating”, and “As It Was”, for the foreseeable future we are going to hear “Sucker” during the heatwave months on beaches, by pools, and in shopping malls and cafés.

The meeting of TOMORROW X TOGETHER and Jonas Brothers for “Do It Like That” takes place like some learning-by-osmosis for a still fresh boy band that only debuted in 2019. “Do It Like That” has all the makings of a summer hit such as its danceable rhythm that’s bouncy yet chill, a hook that sinks in quick to reel you in fast, and chill and relatable lyrics. TOMORROW X TOGETHER is certainly one of the more successful K-Pop acts performing today, but adding to their loyal teen audience, acquiring universal appeal, and getting significant radio play are not easy tasks for any artist. “Do It Like That” presents an opportunity to clear all these challenges in one go. It’s especially apropos for TOMORROW X TOGETHER this summer as they gear up to make their summer festival rounds where a song like this really adds to their arsenal as a number that can get people vibing immediately regardless of whose fans happen to be in the crowd. 

As for the Jonas Brothers themselves, they have a massive 37-date North American tour planned. “Do It Like That” can be a nice follow-up to “Sucker” as it brings fresh blood to the group’s summer song catalog, especially since the song will bring in the broader K-Pop listenership. That is why the recent social media activity from the Jonas Brothers such as their “Excuse me BRUHH” TikTok with TOMORROW X TOGETHER that reenacts that meme-able moment from the film “Zoolander” and the adoption of a K-Pop industry move of releasing “concept photo” as part of their promotional material, all appear to be much more than just spur-of-the moment online humor. In short, “Do It Like That” is a definitive snapshot of how K-Pop’s most recent forays into the US market have evolved. It has a better understanding of what comprises the market's essence. With this insight, their moves are much more calibrated, thereby yielding opportunities for a mutually beneficial collaboration within the ecosystem. It’s a deft mix of the team’s musical color and K-Pop’s commercial cachet. This masterful positioning was also on display in last summer’s collaboration with iann dior who provided a direct line to the musical sensibilities of Gen Z, and now this summer TOMORROW X TOGETHER is aiming for the charts with Jonas Brothers. You don’t get to see a band like this every day.

#tomorrow x together #txt #230708 #weverse magazine #soobin #yeonjun #beomgyu #taehyun #hueningkai #do it like that #jonas brothers #Youtube

[rewriteverse]

Multiversal Stories

God!Verse this time!

Title: Dreaming of a life with you

No. This is not a forced God! AU. I don't like those as much as others do. Just, to let you know, that this God!Verse the main ship is Drink. :p, hope you enjoy it. Song of inspiration: Hidden in the sand.

We were playing in the sand.

He remembers those times. Creation would run around after him, a game of tag amongst all the AUs. Just Positivity and Creation, laughing without a care in the world. Playing in fields of buttercups in FlowerTale, tea parties in UnderLand, and naps in OuterTale. Just the two of them. He would see Creation's smile, and he would be filled with adoration of the smaller. Creation's bright smile with a laugh sounding like soft bells made him smile and laugh as well. Their pastel rainbow hair braided into a headband before letting soft curls sway with the wind. The multicolored freckles exposing themselves as Creation would flush. The way their eyes would change to a bright yellow with joy, changing with every emotion. He adored Creation's yellow eyes the most. It would be the two of them spreading new muses and ideas to the mortals. Every new suggestion would have a purpose and spread joy. Before Loyalty had joined them. Before Space and Emotions joined them, it was just the two of them and their counterparts: Destruction and Negativity. He never minded their fights, as long as he was with Creation.

And you found a little band.

Then a truce was made, one that was made between the balances of the Multiverse. Life and Death were already in perfect harmony with each other, staying friends despite what everyone thought. Positivity and Negativity brought back together, brothers standing together side by side once more. Creation and Destruction slowing down to talk and get to know each other, finding comfort in each other. His smile grows dim when Creation no longer spends as much time with him, finding more comfort with Destruction. It's in Creation's nature to create bonds of friendship with others, but Positivity thought their bond was special. More so than the bond Creation had with a mortal. Positivity cherishes the times that he can feel Creation's joy, so he lets them be. Even if it is just a few moments every hundred years, he loves being a part of Creation's life.

You told me you fell in love with it, hadn't gone as I planned.

He remembers the day Creation came to him, bursting with euphoria. He had smiled, Positivity had wanted to ask Creation to stay with him, become partners. He wanted someone to love, someone who wouldn't leave him alone. So he stood there, under their tree with a rose in hand. But Creation had other ideas. Creation found love in Destruction, their short friendship blooming into something else. Heartbroken, but he loves Creation too much to interfere. If Creation is happy, he would be too. 

So he let Creation go. 

Being there in Creation's life was enough for him to be content with. He remained by Creation's side from the beginning, and Positivity wasn't going to leave now. So he stands there at the tree, waiting for Creation to leave before planting his rose before leaving. As time went on, he grew closer with Loyalty as well. A friendship bonded over the adoration of Creation. Loyalty adores the short god for their personality, fragile but so strong at the same time. Yet Loyalty doesn't cherish Creation the way he does. Loyalty finds his adoration in Emotions instead. Just as Positivity loves Creation's minor quirks and habits, Loyalty loves Emotions' quirks and habits. He would watch the way Loyal would talk, cheeks flushed a royal blue as his eyes sparkled, the way he would pick at his cape, he knows. Loyalty adores Emotions as he adores his Sunshine, Creation. It just becomes something else for them to talk about.

When you had to bid adieu.

The wave of despondency Positivity awoke to frighten him. His brother, Negativity, is growing stronger. Life and Death were panicked as well. Something was wrong. Something was causing Death to take more and more souls from the Multiverse, Life trying to keep up with bringing new life to balance the loss. He remembers finding his brother in a panic, it had been years since the truce, yet something was wrong. Negativity was as nervous as he was. They didn't want to fight anymore. Yet, something happened when the two brothers followed the despondency to its source. Loyalty and Emotions were the ones to find them first. Destruction had broken the truce. Waves of Creation's magic and waves of Destruction's flew between AUs as they fought. The gods clashed for hours, yet it felt like months as he watched them fight. Bringing Positivity back to their shared beginning. Creation fighting destruction, Negativity fighting him. All of the gods wait, watching as the fight grows slower. Creation was in tears as Destruction left the battle. Having gone back to the Anti-void rather than explain to them why he attacked. Creation was hurt, and he could feel it. Where did his Sunshine go? Why did Destruction harm his Sunshine? It was too many questions for him to think about.

Said you'd never love anew.

Loyalty remembers how Positivity rushed to Creation to see them, despite growing weaker. They remember running too. Creation, a delicate thing, was curled upon themselves with tears. Creation's hair was matted with black blood oozing from the cut on their head. No one knew what prompted Destruction to attack the past years, for the balance was pleasant for the two. Creation wanted to make a successor for them, having put some of their magic in a jar to mix with Destruction's magic when the time was right. He listened to the tale of Creation, how Destruction found the container and smashed it before diluting the magic Creation had put in it. The burst of anger Destruction had displayed, no mercy to whom was his partner. Loyalty listened, and Positivity held them close, how his rage towards Destruction grows brighter. How he wants to avenge his friend, yet the need to comfort them is greater than the latter. Emotions and Space were brought closer as Positivity lulled Creation into a dreamless sleep. Loyalty remembers how Creation swore to never create bonds that would hurt them again. Everyone waited with bated breath to see if the two gods would clash once more. Loyalty and Emotions would stand behind Creation as Positivity would stand next to them. He never questioned his anger towards Destruction. He gave it a thought and yet couldn't find an answer. Yet Loyalty never tried to look at any situation differently.

I wondered if I could hold it and fall in love with it too.

Destruction watched as Creation grew close with Positivity. Anger and jealousy filled Destruction as he watched them laugh and play together. Destruction knew Positivity was growing fond of Creation, and Destruction didn't like it. Destruction was never fond of Creation. Creation was too needy. And Positivity was too blind, thinking that Creation has no flaws. Creation is a flawed god, even from the beginning. Wanting ideas, creating new crafts, whispering fancies into mortals, and creating anything they could. Colors had to be everywhere, nothing blank for Creation.

Destruction hated the way Creation was patient with him. The way they remember what he likes and dislikes, the way Creation never gave up his determination to be friends. So he played along, Destruction was sure if he wasn't careful Creation would see that Destruction was using them. Yet every time he lashed out or hurt Creation, they brushed it off with an excuse. He laughed at their stupidity, they were too sweet, and he hates sentimental things. Yet, he couldn't say no to the free food and gifts Creation showered him in. He never thought Creation would grow fond of him. Destruction hated the mere thought. 

They are opposites. 

Other than friends, nothing more would ever happen between them. He would rather not be touched by flawed beings, be it gods or mortals. He never loved Creation, and if it destroyed something in Positivity, he could play in a game of dollhouse. In the end, he got what he wanted out of the game he played. He had gotten all he wanted from Creation. Yet, why did it hurt so much in that last fight? Why does the Anti-void seem so empty now? He glares at the emptiness. There's nothing here anymore for him. It's pure white in every way he looks. He fleetingly wonders if Creation had taken their stuff back. He grits his teeth before running a hand through his black hair and walking to the right.

You told me to buy a pony, but all I wanted was you.

He watched as Creation became dull. Pastel hair wasn't being colored anymore, leaving it an onyx black. He hates Destruction for what he did to his Sunshine. When the mortal passed, he could help bring his Sunshine back. This was different, Creation stopped. He watched as Creation would leave for their tree, sitting there with an easel and a paintbrush. Yet they wouldn't move, just stare at the blank canvas and then cry. Watercolors were soon a new creation for mortals to enjoy. He would sit there with Creation in his lap and lay under the tree as he would wrap his wings around the two of them. A world of their own, warm and safe from anything that could hurt them.

Their hands intertwined as nothing is needed to be said. Flower crowns of buttercups are made before being left on the floor next to the small bush of roses. Creation would smile at him once again, but it's smaller than it had been. Laugher would ring from the past, carried by the wind as they just observe the flowers sway. Tea parties in UnderLand become tea parties under the tree with Loyalty and Emotions. The warm china would be all made by Creation. While the strawberry tea would be produced by Positivity. Tea is his specialty.

They will nap in OuterTale, weightless in space. Watching the stars as they float with a rope attached to the ground so they can get down. Creation would lay facing Positivity, running a hand through his curly hair. Creation would giggle before telling Positivity how his hair reminds him of snow during a sunrise. Or Positivity would curl around Creation, Positivity being taller than the other, and hold them close to his chest, existing with the other, as he had done in the past.

Years had gone by for the gods, nothing was said of Destruction, yet Death and Negativity had stepped in. He watches as Loyalty and Emotions move in. Creation had made a big house for all of their friends to live in if they chose. He has been here the longest. His aura bursts and roars to life when he feels Creation's presence. He smiles as Space makes the house his second home. He smiles at Creation as he watches them start to bake once more. He wonders if the mortals will get another recipe for a new baked good soon. He feels his attachment and adoration grow as Creation smiles at him once again. Eyes a golden yellow in excitement and joy; freckles fully colored once more; their pastel rainbow hair now a vibrant rainbow cut shorter than before.

Hidden in the sand.

They are so quick to love, let their emotions direct them. That's the beauty of creation and the beauty of mortals, who Creation was made for. They've watched mortals try to reason inspiration, arts, and their whispers of ideas. They find it amusing. Yet, that's why they don't like themselves. They become foolish and drunk on emotions before acting. Creation, they know how they hurt themselves with this flaw. So quick to let others use and walk over them. If they need anything, they can make it. Creation can't reason themself; they can't justify why they do anything.

They love interactions and love physical contact. Yet, they don't know why. They adore mortals, yet mortals never last. They thought they loved Destruction. Yet something in them knew Destruction wasn't theirs. They had put too much effort and time into befriending and loving Destruction when they didn't get anything back. Destruction hated contact, barely talked to them, and never did anything for them. Was it all part of his game when Destruction told them how much he loved them?

It hurts too much for them to think about. Then, there's Positivity. So sweet and kind to Creation. They've known each other since the conception of the Multiverse; Positivity and Creation went everywhere hand in hand. They've spent decades playing and fighting together. Positivity, who stepped in to hold them up and help them get through life. The way he smiled at them and treated them so kindly. It reminded them of Gin, their favorite mortal, but not in the way Gin had worshiped him. Creation loves the cherry tree they claimed their own, their haven away from the chaos of mortals and other gods. They love buttercups as buttercups remind them of Positivity. They know that Positivity will be with them until the Multiverse ends. They just need a little more time before they can say the same.

As Creation sits under their tree, a wordless tune could be heard echoing through the void between AUs. A golden rose, breathtakingly catching the light. The rose gives off a warmth of something familiar to them. Creation will give the rose to Positivity when they're ready. The mortals will get a new flower to represent the dawn of a new era of Positivity and Creation. Creation just needs a little more time to heal. Creation smiles at the thought. Perhaps this is how it was meant to be. Maybe this is why they were created together; Fate had written them to be one. Creation doesn't know, but they don't mind the idea. Fate has always told them how much she loves seeing the two of them running around together. So maybe Fate stepped in to make it happen. Creation doesn't know. A silly thought, yet they smile as they close their eyes and sleep under the tree. They'll wait for Positivity to come, and then they'll talk.

#Multiversalstories #dream sans #ink sans #error sans #nightmare sans #swap sans #lust sans #outer sans #drinkship #dream x ink

[musiconanironingboard]

9 May 2022: Chapter and Verse, Bruce Springsteen. (2016 Columbia release of 1966-2012 recordings)

At 9:30 A.M. on May 9, I had jury duty in downtown Chicago. This is the fourth time I have been called to jury duty in the past 13 years, and three of them have been since 2014. I’ve been called twice during the pandemic. I don’t even want to reveal that I’ve only had to be on one jury; two times I went and sat there until I was dismissed and was never asked to be interviewed, and one of these four times I called the hotline the night before and the robot voice told me I didn’t have to show up at all. I feel like just talking about all of this will ensure another summons in my mailbox as soon as legally possible. Maybe it sounds like I’ve gotten off easy, but being summoned four times in 13 years is outrageous considering I know dozens of people who have never been summoned at all in their entire lives, including my eighty-something parents. In fact, I’m not sure that I know a single person who has actually sat on a jury other than myself! (Well, that’s not true. My partner at work gets called as much as I do, if not more, and surely she’s sat on a jury.) 

Anyhow, the mere notion of having to physically go and do this sets off all kinds of dread and anxieties for me, not least of which is getting downtown (or to whatever other far-flung courthouse they can make you go to) at the, for me, ungodly hour of 9:30 A.M. The robot voice told me the night before that anyone whose surname began with H through P (that’s me) had to report, and it all just filled me with dread. Another part of the dread involved missing work: sure, I take vacation days, but those are planned and desired. Missing crucial time on work projects is another thing. Of course I understand the civic duty involved, but again, can they call one of my other friends and take me off their speed dial? I dragged myself to the Daley Center downtown and was in place and reading my book by 9:30. Everyone, and there were probably 250 of us, got a number assigning us to a panel. I got #6. I had no idea how many panels there were. At 9:45 they announced that everyone on panel #2 had to line up to go into a courtroom to be interviewed. At 10:15 they called another panel, but jumped ahead to something wild like #34. By this time I was listening to headphones and continuing with my book and yearning deeply for the lunch hour we would be afforded at 11:30. At ten after 11 the microphone came on again and I feared my panel would be called, but the voice said “We have everyone we need for today, your jury duty is now fulfilled for one year and you are free to go.” I was so pleased. Excused before lunch! In 2014 when I went, there were also about 250 of us but I had to sit there until everyone had been picked but me and another guy and they didn’t let us go until 5 P.M.

As soon as I went to the food hall across the street from the courthouse and ate lunch, I went straight to the record store. Reckless has a tiny outlet in Chicago’s Loop and I don’t get there much. It’s often closed when I am there, so I was happy to have a chance to browse. And since I’d already arranged to miss work, after all the dread I’d felt I decided to treat myself to a few hours off downtown. 

Now that I’ve written the kind of personal essay ostensibly about an album that I used to scream at young Pitchfork writers for doing, let me get to the music: this compilation of Springsteen music was released to accompany his 2016 memoir Born to Run. I read the book when it came out, but for whatever reason I never felt like chasing this compilation. Out of 18 tracks, only 5 were previously unreleased, not a great ratio (even if some of them are pre-fame recordings from his early bands The Castiles and Steel Mill), and to paraphrase my brother’s hilarious statement about David Bowie after he realized he owned a zillion Bowie albums, “I’m not even a real Springsteen fan!” You wouldn’t know it, for I’ve religiously bought all of Springsteen’s albums, including his dreariest, most dreadful ones of the 21st century, and I’ve seen him live at least three times that I can recall. Sometime in the past couple years, another branch of Reckless got in a copy of Chapter and Verse, and it was a colored-vinyl edition originally released through Barnes and Noble. I get sick of colored vinyl and I am not fond of buying music from big-box stores, but when I saw that Reckless had one I thought it would be the perfect copy to buy: a limited, special one that I never even had to chase, it just fell into my lap. By the time I got over to the store to buy it, it was gone. Then on my chance visit to the Loop Reckless some years later, after escaping jury duty, I found another one in the new-arrivals bin. I am guessing there are people who frequent the vinyl department of Barnes and Noble when it’s gift-giving time, or maybe titles like this seem like good Father’s Day gifts, or something, and the recipient isn’t always enthusiastic. I don’t know why else two copies of this Barnes and Noble edition would pop up at the same chain in a relatively short period. I never see used copies of the regular, non-Barnes edition. Anyway, I was happy to find it. And I had to tell the jury-duty story, because this will forever be remembered as a jury-duty purchase.

Above are the front cover, hype sticker, and back cover. The top of the back cover is a bit banged up, but with the shrinkwrap slipped back on—amazingly, this used copy had its shrinkwrap opened but not damaged or gone—you don’t see the creases.

Below are both sides of the two inner sleeves (this is a double).

Next up are all four labels.

Last, here’s a shot of that tortoise-shell vinyl.

[greensparty]

This Month in History - December

There are quite a few landmark anniversaries I'm celebrating this month:

Dec. 2, 1988: The Naked Gun opens

In Dec. 1988, the first of Zucker-Abraham-Zucker's cop spoof was released. Here is my piece I got in 2018. Happy 35 NG!

Dec. 5, 1973: Band on the Run released

In Dec. 1973, Paul McCartney and Wings best album (possibly the best Non-Beatle album he did) was released. Here is my piece I wrote in 2018. Happy 50th BOTR!

Dec. 6, 1968: Beggars Banquet released

In Dec. 1968, the 9th U.S. album from The Rolling Stones. Earlier this year I got to review the Record Store Day reissue of the album. I'd definitely put this up there with Let It Bleed and Exile on Main Street in the pantheon of Classic Stones albums. Happy 55th BB!

Dec. 6, 2013: Inside Llewyn Davis opens

In Dec. 2013, the Coen Brothers' criminally underrated folk musician epic was released. Here is my piece I wrote in 2018. Happy 10 ILD!

Dec. 10, 1993: Wayne's World 2 opens

In Dec. 1993, the sequel to Wayne's World was released! It might not be as loved as the original, but it is better than people think. I wrote about this in 2018 and director Stephen Surjik wrote me back with some thoughts. In 2022, I saw it on the big screen at Nice, a Fest. Happy 30th WW2!

Dec. 10, 2003: Big Fish opens

In Dec. 2003, one of Tim Burton's most underrated movies was released. Taking Burton's visual style and combining it with a family drama with fantasy elements was a gamble that paid off. It's something that feels new each time I've seen it since. Happy 20th Big Fish!

Dec. 11, 1998: Rushmore and A Simple Plan both open

In Dec. 1998, two of my favorite movies from that year opened on the same day. Here is my piece I wrote about Wes Anderson's film and Sam Raimi's film. Happy 25th Rushmore an ASP!

Dec. 12, 1973: The Last Detail opens

In Dec. 1973, Hal Ashby (who was on a roll at the time) had one of his best released. It was one of the great movies of the 70s. It was also one of my Top 5 Boston Movies of All Time! Jack Nicholson was in rare form as he and Otis Young played Navy men transporting younger sailor Randy Quaid to the NH Navy prison and showing him a good time along the way. Happy 50th TLD!

Dec. 14, 1988: I'm Gonna Git You Sucka opens

In Dec. 1988, Keenan Ivory Wayans' 70s LOL comedy opened. Here is my piece I wrote in 2018. Happy 35th IGGYS!

Dec. 14, 2018: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse opens

In Dec. 2018 one of the best Spider-Man movies was released. I actually named it my #7 Movie of 2018! By diving into the Miles Morales storyline, they took the Spider-Man story we all know so well and made it seem new again. Just last Summer they released the awesome sequel: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse was released. Happy 5 S-M:ITS-V!

Dec. 15, 1978: Superman opens

Speaking of super hero movies: In Dec. 1978 one of my favorite big screen Superman movies was released. Here is my piece I wrote in 2018. Happy 45th Superman!

Dec. 15, 1993: Schindler's List opens

In Dec. 1993, one of Steven Spielberg's finest works was released. Here is my piece I wrote in 2018. Happy 30th SL!

Dec. 16, 1988: Rain Man opens

In Dec. 1988, the Oscar-winning Best Picture and biggest grossing film of 1988 was released. With the exception of parodies (i.e. The Hangover's Vegas gambling scene), nobody talks about this as much. The road movie of long lost brothers one autistic (Dustin Hoffman) and the other selfish used-car guy (Tom Cruise) was actually quite touching. Sure it was the 80s feel-good movie era and whatnot, but the performances were among both actors' best. Happy 35 RM!

Dec. 17, 1973: Sleeper opens

In Dec. 1973, one of the funniest movies ever made about the future was released. Woody Allen was in his prime when he played a man who is cryogenically frozen in 1973 and is defrosted 200 years later. This is definitely one of his funniest ones. Happy 50th Sleeper!

Dec. 17, 1993: The State premieres

In Dec. 1993, the now-legendary sketch comedy series of NYC comedy group The State premiered on MTV. Here is my piece I wrote in 2018. Earlier this Fall, I actually got to see The State reunion tour when it was in Boston. Happy 30th TS!

Dec. 17, 2008: The Wrestler opens

In Dec. 2008 Darren Aaronofsky's greatest movie was released. Here is my piece I wrote in 2018. Happy 15 TW!

Dec. 18, 2013: Her opens

In Dec. 2013, Spike Jonze greatest movie was released! Here is my piece I wrote in 2018. Happy 10 Her!

#film geek #music nerd #this month in history #the naked gun #zucker abraham zucker #paul mccartney #wings #the rolling stones #inside llewyn davis #coen brothers #wayne's world 2 #stephen surjik #big fish #tim burton #rushmore #wes anderson #a simple plan #sam raimi #the last detail #hal ashby #i'm gonna git you sucka #keenan ivory wayans #superman #richard donner #schindler's list #steven spielberg #rain man #barry levinson #sleeper #woody allen

[thefanficmonster]

hey!! could i have some family hurt/comfort with the sbi (technoblade, wilbur, tommy & phil) with a sister reader? have a good day!! :)

Hell yeah you can! Hope you enjoy!

Sleepy Bois Inc & Sister!Reader (Female)

Warnings: Mentions of some family issues, breakups and disagreements, Swearng

Genre: Hurt/Comfort

Technoblade

You and Techno haven't always been on the best of terms with him being an overprotective and overdramatic older brother and you his bratty younger sister who never wants to listen to him. That has often ended with him snitching on you to your parents which has only resulted in worse conflicts.

However, when your parents cut you off because you dropped out of college to pursue your dreams, his was the shoulder you cried on. His was the apartment you stayed in and the couch you slept on. With your limited knowledge of video and audio editing you helped out with his videos as much as you could while working your ass off with two jobs to provide you enough money for a secure future and also to compensate for living in your brother's apartment.

Truth be told, it hasn't always been sunshine and rainbows for you in the world. Luckily, Techno is always there for you, building a one man support system for you.

"I don't know if I'm good enough to make it big, Tech. Maybe mom and dad were right. I'm just a dumb child that never wants to settle and put effort into anything." You whined one night, emotions a little amped by the few drinks you had with your colleagues after work. The two of you were sitting on the floor with your backs resting on the bottom of the couch lazily as you barely paid attention to some action movie he had chosen.

"First of all, mom and dad are rarely right, Y/N. If we listened to them, holy shit!" He chuckled, getting a laugh out of you too, "Second of all, you're the least dumbest child. Yeah, you may have some childish tendencies such as tantrums, but that doesn't change the fact that you're one of the most determined people I've ever met. And third..." He clinks his glass of water against yours. "You're not good enough, you're better than that."

Long story short, you’re on far better terms now than you have ever been before.

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

Wilbur Soot

Wilbur and you may be twins but you’re polar opposites of one another but there’s one love you share - art. He’s chosen music, you’ve chosen theatre and have been pursuing an acting career for a long time while the band he’s in flourished. You often found yourself celebrating his successes alongside him and his bandmates, allowing yourself to momentarily forget your own failures.

“I swear I’m one rejection away from just becoming a barista or a waitress cause I’m clearly not cut out for this actress shit.“ You complained to him one time while the two of you sat around as he wrote lyrics for a new song that had popped up in his mind.

“Maybe you’re not...“ He said absentmindedly, not looking up from his notebook.

“Gee, thanks.“ You rolled your eyes, twirling a pen between your fingers.

“No, I mean it. You’re maybe not cut out for this but for something else.“ With that being said, he handed you the notebook where he’d written down a short verse. He smiled at you, nodding at the messily written lyrics, “Sing it as you think it should sound.“

You maybe had been unsure then, but your present self is more than happy - because she’s now in Lovejoy herself. 

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

Tommyinnit

Tommy and you bickered on good terms frequently but then again there were times when you’d be real shits to each other. Despite being older, you never followed through with the rule of letting him win, refusing to give into his bratty behavior even more.

But even Tommy knows his limits and he knew that the last thing you needed was his mocking and infuriating comments when you came back home in tears. You were supposed to meet with your boyfriend and it didn’t take the then 12 year old blonde to put two and two together and feel the immense need to kick that jerk’s ass.

“Hey, you ok, Y/N?“ He cautiously asked, resting on the stair banister as if afraid to climb down the last few stairs to get to your sobbing form that had curled up on the couch in a self-protective fetal position.

“Go away, Tommy.“ You’d weakly said. You didn’t want him to see you like this. You were a full blown legal adult which is mainly why you felt like the biggest fucking loser, sobbing like a child in front of your brother.

Tommy stayed quiet, climbing down the last few stairs and approaching the couch as if coming close to a rabid animal. You were lying with your back turned to him so you hadn’t seen him come closer which is why his voice startled you.

“Wanna egg his house?“

That’s when you knew the kid was onto something.

You turned to look at him with this menacing look in your eyes which his mirrored right back at you, “Hell fucking yeah.“

Who knew that just three years later you’d be egging the house of his ex - what can I say, good times.

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

Philza

It’s safe to say you were a united front about everything growing up, doing shit together so both of you could get in trouble accordingly to avoid one running off scot-free. To be fair, there was a likelier chance you’d be allowed to pursue you shenanigans no matter what they were. You’d flay some sporty games he came up with and he’d agree to play your artsy games like painting and redesigning old clothing.

That clothing is still in your apartment which you two share, now both in the shenanigans of streaming and content creating on several platforms with you being more into DIY stuff and him gaming but that was to be foreseen.

“Y/N!“

“What?!”

“Can you make a design for my merch!?“

“Say no more!”

All his merch he owes to you, but he never fails to mention to his friends and fans how lucky he is to have such a talented sister. You consider yourself the lucky one though - without Phil you’d never be able to show your true talent.

#sbi #sleepy bois inc #sleepy bois x reader #techno #technobalde #techno dsmp #wilbur soot #wilbur #lovejoy #tommyinnit #tommy #philza #ph1lz4 #technoblade x reader #wilbur soot x reader #tommyinnit x sibling reader #technobalde x sibling reader #wilbur soot x sibling reader #philza x sibling reader #philza x reader #fic #fanfic #headcanons #dsmp #mcyt #mcytumblr #mcyt imagine #dsmp wilbur #dsmp tommy #dsmp philza

[xpeachesncream]

bands | sixteen

[ series masterlist ]

summary: jeon jungkook has it all: the looks, the fame, the money, the women. being considered the sexiest man in the industry, he finds no complaints about the way his life is going nor does he find any reason to apologize for the way he approaches it. he is a force to be reckoned with - until he meets you.

pairing: stripper!reader x idol!jjk

genre: (18+) strip club/nightlife au, post grad au | fluff, angst, smut

words: 5.0k

warnings: cussing, mature language/implied sexual content, angst, anxiety, alcohol consumption, slight intoxication, physical abuse, slight verbal abuse, belittling, mentions of cuts/wounds but nothing too graphic, mentions of coke

tags: @brightcolorsoffendme @min-nicoleee @eggbutnotyolk @ra-mun-e @miinoongi @jimidol @ppeachyttae @thebeebi @bluesharksandfish @kooafraid @liriaus @thisartemisnevermisses @ggukkieland @preciouschimine @sunniejinnie @cypheruby @cyb3rbab3 @masterlists101 @awhnamjoon @redhedhoseok @wooya1224 @taeismydeath​ @jikookiekosmos​ @un2-verse​ @aynsx​ @wearenot7withu​ @knjeuphoria​ @bringitseijoh​ (closed!)

Jungkook laid on the dorm couch, legs sprawled out as he wore his hood and covered his face as much as possible. He shut his eyes, trying to make sense of the cryptic texts you had sent him.

"We shouldn't do this anymore."

"I can't do this, Jungkook."

"You don't deserve this."

"I'm only trouble."

"We aren't going to work."

He repeatedly called you, asking for an explanation, a way to help make things better because none of this should have been the reason for you to want to call it 'quits' like that. He asked for you to talk to him. He'd call and after two rings, it'd bring him straight to voicemail. It never failed. Indeed, there was much more to the text but he only fixated on a few lines, and those few lines seem to be circling his head time and time again with no sign of leaving him alone.

"I think I'm falling in too deep and I need to stop this while I can. You hear them, you hear the shit they say. I would never let them ruin you, I don't want them to. You deserve better. Maybe it's true that I don't fit into this."

It frustrates him, every single time. Where the hell did he go wrong? Why was there a sudden change? Something was off, and god forbid if his assumptions were right. But, everything was leading right back to it. The way you called in sick, the way you shut everyone out. The way you texted him these things, wouldn't pick up his calls just to tell him you're busy or whatever the hell it was. It didn't sound like you. It didn't seem like you at all.

All things led right back to the club. To Bigs. Where you felt high and mighty. Wanted. Like no one could ever hurt you the way they did outside of the club because they worshipped you in there. They knelt down to you. The way you were so fucking tough there. He knew this is where you would fall back if things got rough. He couldn't help but think that you had been forced into it though, because he knew you didn't give a shit about that anymore. Ah well, forced or not, it just felt so off. Unusual.

"Hey." Namjoon sits on the floor near Jungkook's head. "You good?" He asks even though he's fully aware he's not. Joon hates those people who ask if something's wrong when clearly, something is wrong — however, he wasn't really sure how else to open up this conversation without coming off too pushy or forward. Too insensitive, even.

"Nope."

"What's going on?" Jungkook sighs as he tries to lower his hood even more, although there's no more of his hood to lower. He keeps his hand on his face, trying his hardest to keep himself together.

"I don't know." Now, going back to earlier — everyone can tell Jungkook isn't happy. They've tried to butter him up and make him feel better even though they knew you were the only person who could truly make him happy again. They've tried to talk to him in one way or another, but they never forced him if he didn't want to. The only person that really hasn't said much was Jimin, and that also pisses him off because if he had anything to do with this, he will surely fuck him up for ruining his happiness.

"You hear from Y/N? She still sick? Does she need anything?"

"She's not sick."

"Hm?" Joon slightly turns back, confused.

"Something else is wrong."

"Like what?"

"She's not picking up my calls. Not answering my texts the way she normally does. When she does, it's super blunt or one worded."

"Maybe she's really not feeling well, or just caught up with things—"

"No, hyung. I know her, she always has her priorities straight. Even if she was sick, she wouldn't do this. She wouldn't go as far as to shutting her own brother out."

"Idol life too overwhelming? I get it." Jimin jokes as he walks into the kitchen, making Jungkook shoot his head up to glare at him.

"The fuck, can you not? I don't see why you feel the need to joke around right now."

"Jeez, sorry. I just thought I'd lighten up the mood somehow."

"Come on, dude." Namjoon looks at him with disappointment, Jimin only returning the gesture by rolling his eyes and walking away. "How can I help you?" Joon asks, returning his attention back to Jungkook.

"Maybe I was being selfish bringing her into all of this. These people— they're fucking mean, and she's already had her fair share of dealing with mean people. How am I supposed to protect her all while not feeling selfish about it?"

"You're not selfish, who told you that?"

"Jimin." That's like strike.. whatever to Namjoon at this point. Why the hell was Jimin being so fucking weird?

"Look, I know it's not easy in this industry. But I think what you can do is prove to her that you won't hurt her, especially with everyone around her doing nothing but hurting her. You need to show her that you're different from the rest of them, that she can fully trust you. If I were in her shoes, to be honest, it would be scary for me. You got a whole lot of shit going on in your life. You're expected to provide a lot, and on top of that, you haven't had the best reputation with women."

"Yeah, I hear you."

"Then, nothing else matters. You keep fighting for her if she really matters to you. Does she?"

"Of course she does, I mean, can't you tell? I've never been this way over someone." Joon nods.

"You sure as fuck haven't. It still catches me and the guys by surprise. But, I'm happy to see someone helping you become a better person. She's been nothing but genuinely sweet, and I know she already does a hell of a job taking care of you."

"She's— I don't know. She's become so important to me."

"I know she has, and I'm happy to hear that. I really am." Joon sighs. "So tell me, what can I do? I hate seeing you like this."

"Well, I'm sure as hell not allowed at the club. Bigs will do anything to get back at me for what I did to him. He won't hesitate."

"I won't let him. We won't. You really think she went back?" Jungkook nods.

"Positive. Something doesn't feel right. It feels weird. And I feel like she was egged into this. I don't like it one bit."

"Want me to go check out the club tonight?"

"Yeah, please?" Jungkook says. "But don't be too obvious. Bring Jin hyung or someone who could use a lap dance or two."

"Sooo Jin hyung?" They chuckle.

"Yeah, exactly."

"And if she's there?"

"Then I'm going straight to her tomorrow night. I just need to make sure I do this right because I don't want her or Kai to get hurt. I'll stay out there if I have to just to make sure she doesn't go back. What else do I have to do—" Jungkook pauses to stop himself because this clearly wasn't you. He sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. "Who the fuck made her do this?"

"Bigs, who else?"

"No, she wouldn't listen to just Bigs. He's definitely working with someone and using shit against her."

"Okay, let's just not assume the worst. I'll head there tonight and drag Jin hyung with me."

"Thanks hyung, I really appreciate it."

"No problem." Joon gently massages his shoulder before getting up from his spot to make his way back to his room.

All Jungkook can think about doing is sleeping more right now. He'll send the occasional text to check on Kai and see how he was doing, but they both worried too much about you and Jungkook would hate to tell him that you ended up going back to the club. He didn't think he would tell him, he didn't think he'd have to because he was gonna make sure to get you out of there before shit hit the roof again. If it hasn't already, and he's hoping it hasn't.

And so when Namjoon and Jin hyung [obviously in need of that lap dance or two] head out to the club, Jungkook stays in his dorm room, suddenly feeling the adrenaline rushing through his body even though he can't do shit besides sit here and wait. He goes through the random pictures he's taken of you - the cute, candid photos he had of you, the cute candid photo of you as his lock screen. He deletes all the texts in his inbox even though he knows it might have been a little late. It honestly hasn't mattered to him in such a long time, but he just never got around to wiping his inbox clean since he was so caught up with you - his baby.

"Is this going to turn into some kind of action movie? We bust through the doors, take down all the guards and steal Y/N?"

"No, hyung. Jesus. Do you forget you're an idol? That's probably the very last thing we should do."

"So, what do we do?"

"We just walk in there like we normally do?"

"Boring."

"Plus, we can't have Bigs onto us like that. We have to act like we don't know anything."

"Do you really think he's using something against her?"

"I don't know. I have to be honest though, I think Jimin's involved."

"W-what?" Jin says, furrowing his brows. "No, he can't be."

"Trust me. He always acts so weird around her, and he's probably the one person who hasn't taken this as seriously. He hasn't said anything to Jungkook."

"But why though?"

"I don't know, beats me. I just don't think he respects her. Or, likes her. Whatever it is."

"She hasn't done anything to him though."

"That makes it worse, doesn't it?"

"How could you be so sure?"

"Look hyung, I'm not. I just think he's involved. My gut says so. We'll find out whether I'm right or not, right?"

"I hope you aren't. That'll really mess Kookie up."

"Well. I love him, but he'll have to learn the hard way for butting into someone else's business like that. No matter what the reason is." Namjoon parks the car and fixes his rolled up sleeves before adjusting the Rolex on his wrist. He looks at Jin once more, nodding in approval once they both feel like they've fixed themselves enough to look presentable, not questionable.

Meanwhile, you had just finished up your time on stage so you headed to the back to take a break. Bigs hadn't given you the option to secure private bookings knowing damn well there would be opportunity for Jungkook and some of his boys to slip through and try to work their magic in private. As much as possible, you were just trying to protect Jungkook, even though you knew he wouldn't back down without a fight. You knew Bigs wasn't all that tough, but right now, he seemed to hold a lot of power with Jimin being on his team. And you knew damn well it was Jimin all along. Did you have concrete evidence? No. But your gut feeling might as well be enough with the way he talks to you. Why else would Bigs all of a sudden feel all mighty? Bigs had threatened Jungkook and your brother enough to keep your mouth shut. Enough to keep your attitude level at a 0.

The scene played in your head over and over again—

"I gave you a better life, you ungrateful piece of shit. You do as I say and your little Jungkook and your little Kai won't get hurt. You think I'm scared of them, sweetie? You think I'm scared of you? Your stepfather don't give a damn about you two. I can easily send my men down to do their magic, especially after how Jungkook treated me. Is that how he repays me after all the special treatment I've given him?" Mr. Bigs hunched over you. "You two wanna play me like a fool, I'll show you two what it's like to be played like a fool." He pulled on your hair before aggressively releasing and spitting to the side.

There was no way they would get dragged into this. Not anymore. They didn't deserve to be included in this no matter what it was.

Boy, did you miss Jungkook. Everything about him. It took everything in you not to come running back. It took everything in you not to answer those calls or texts like you normally would.

You chose him, every single time. You wish he knew that. Him and Kai.

You sighed, sipping on the flask you snuck in. The alcohol relieving you of any pain, helping you feel numb as the night goes on. You didn't want to feel tonight, you just didn't. Why would you, when everything had just been hurting you lately?

You had just finished dancing out on the main stage, throwing your ass back to some Megan and Cardi. A few other dancers were gathered at a vanity, sneakily sniffing lines of coke while Bigs and his men were busy paroling the main stage.

"You want some of this, sis? In celebration of you coming back?" One of the other dancers smirks at you. You simply shake your head no and return to the flask in your hand.

"I'm good, thank you."

"Alright, well it's here if you want it. Just let me know, babe." Her and the other dancers go back to their business on the vanity. However, another dancer continues to eye you, sympathy filling her expression as she approaches you while you sip on your flask once more. You were starting to feel pretty tipsy again, hoping you could just hide out in the back 'till the very end of your shift.

"Y/N." She says, her hand gently on your arm. "You okay?"

"I'm good." You purse your lips together to prevent yourself from tearing up. Those words were triggering for you because you were not okay, whatsoever.

"Why did you come back, babe?" She genuinely asks, worried about you. "Did Bigs do something?"

"No." You lied. "Things just didn't work out elsewhere I guess, and I need money."

"Didn't work out? I saw the way Jungkook handled Bigs that night." If anything, she was probably the one dancer who paid attention to the environment around her. Everyone else was oblivious to the shit that's been happening and that's because they didn't give a fuck about anyone else. Her stage name was Trixie, but her real name was Miki. She too didn't really enjoy being here but her parents talked so much about how she was useless and couldn't make it out in the world, especially as a vlogger. She loved it. She loved being in front of the camera and talking to the world thru the lens. But her parents thought it was dumb— that she was dumb for even wanting to grow a career online like that. Besides all of it, she remained sweet, and she was always super nice to you. You wouldn't be surprised if she knew about you and Jungkook, and you honestly wouldn't have a problem with it. She never treated you wrong. She knew Bigs had a tendency to overstep and abuse the power he had with his status and his money. However, she knew he was a big coward and that he was all talk, no play — especially if it was outside of the club. He may be a big honcho here, but outside, he had no chance. And she couldn't wait until the day he'd get his for all the mess he's caused.

"Yeah well, things happen." She shakes her head.

"Y/N, you can talk to me. Look, as much as I love seeing your face, you have so much potential. You don't deserve to be stuck here. Let me help you figure this out."

"I'm okay, Miki. Thank you, though." She nods, not wanting to press you any further.

"Well, I'm here for you." She gives your arm one good squeeze before walking off.

Eventually, the rest of the dancers retreat back out onto the floor, leaving you to hide away in the back room as long as possible — which is why Namjoon can't get a glimpse of you anywhere out in the main area. Bigs is actually a little taken aback to see both him and Jin walking through the club, even after everything that has gone down. But hey, business is business— and if they weren't gonna cause any trouble, so be it. He knows though, he knows full well there's a possibility they're here for you.

"Boys! Long time no see!" He greets them, Joon and Jin giving him a toothless smile in return. "How've you been? What brings you in?"

"Mr. Bigs." Namjoon says, smoothing down his shirt. "Ah, we're good, just getting busy prepping for the tour. Wanted to take a little breather tonight."

"Well, I'm glad you guys came here to do so. Can I get you two anything to drink?" The both of them shake their heads. "Anything to help relieve that stress?"

"We're good, thanks. Just gonna sit out on the floor for a bit."

"You two let me know if there's anything I can do for you, at all." Bigs smiles at them as he begins to watch them walk away. "Make sure she's covered." Bigs slightly turns his head to speak through the headset mic, alerting his men to keep an eye out. He thinks he's said it low enough so that Jin and Namjoon don't hear, but Jin catches the movement in his peripherals, causing him to pinch Joon's bicep.

"Back room." Jin says, subtly nodding towards the backroom as he keeps his gaze out on the main stage and adjusts his tie. Namjoon looks around to see Bigs has welcomed himself to the other side of the club, speaking to a few customers, looking distracted.

"I'm gonna go see if I can talk to her."

"Talk?! You said we were just scoping her out. Don't cause any trouble, Namjoon-ah. Please."

"Oh, now you suddenly don't want this action movie to come alive?! You sure were talking a whole lot about it in the car."

"Since when do you even take me seriously?!"

"I always take you seriously, hyung!"

"How about you just sneak towards the back door and get her attention? You said we can't go all out like that!"

"There's guards there too."

"Look, I just don't want you or Y/N to get hurt. Maybe we should just lay low and figure out how we can approach this better."

"Hey, can I get you two anything?" Miki interrupts, fully aware of who they are and what they're here for.

"No, sweetie. Thank you." Jin responds, flashing his 100-watt smile.

"You looking for Y/N?"

"Depends who's asking?" Namjoon says, trying to keep his guard up.

"Look, I'm not gonna rat you out if that's what you think." She puts her hand on her hip, tray still balancing on her free hand. "She's in the backroom. But there's no way you can get to her. Bigs is watching her for whatever reason."

"Yeah, we're aware. Can you send her a message for me?"

"Sure. You have 10 seconds though or else Bigs is gonna be onto you." She points towards Bigs slowly making his way back.

"Just tell her that Jungkook is worried about her and wants to help. Or, we want to help. We just wanna know what's going on."

"I'll try, but she didn't let up when I asked earlier."

"Thanks." Joon sighs.

"Shoo, I'll find you guys around." She says, sneakily walking off towards the bar with her empty tray as Bigs starts to eye the main floor. Jin and Namjoon welcome themselves to a seat on the side of the stage, acting normal as possible by throwing bills onto the stage for the dancers. Miki tends to her customers before she's setting her tray down and pretending to take a cigarette from her bra to take a quick "break." She heads to the back to see you still sitting at your vanity, head resting against the palm of your hand.

"Babe." You turn to look at her, eyes slightly glossed over.

"Hm?"

"RM and Jin are here. They said they want to help you, and if you can tell them anything, that's all they'd want."

"Miki—"

"Girl, look. Don't let this man keep running your life like this. I don't care what he said or did, this isn't you. You need to get out of here and you need to let people in. People who genuinely care about you." You sigh.

"How is that possible when Jungkook's own bestfriend doesn't even like me? And ontop of that, Bigs even dragged my little brother and my evil ass stepfather into this. I can't let anything happen to him, he's the only thing I have."

"I get that, and I'm sure Jungkook will do whatever it takes to protect you both. Why are RM and Jin here then? Whatever Jungkook's other friend's issue is, he needs to figure it out. It's obviously his own problem, something he created himself for no reason."

"I know he's helping Bigs keep me away from Jungkook. All the hurtful shit in the media, all the shit he's been tossing in my face. Whatever, I get it. He wins. I don't belong."

"Don't say that."

"It's true, and I know even if I chose Jungkook, he'd choose his bestfriend over me. Why would he go against that? They've been together for so long. I'm a fucking nobody." Miki knows this is all the alcohol running through your veins, but at least now, she knows Bigs isn't doing this on his own [as she assumed, he's a fucking pussy for the most part - he's a pussy who got handsy with the dancers cause that's all he can do to feed his ego].

"I don't think that's true, and I don't think it's a fair assumption when he's stayed by your side, hasn't he? He hasn't given up on you." She says before walking out. Really, things were just completely scrambled in your head. Just fucked up. Your questions, your uncertainty was strong enough to pull you towards the negative - the what if's, the assumptions, the rumors, the shit-talking. After all that, the positives were dim.

Miki grabs her tray and serves the first couple of customers in dire need of their drinks before she heads over to Jin and Namjoon to spill the information she received from that conversation.

"She won't budge. It sounds like a lot of this shit talking got to her head, so she came back to make herself feel better but then Bigs ended up turning this around on her, threatening Jungkook and her brother. If I were you, I'd get Jungkook to her before she can even come back here. Make sure her brother is with him too. Bigs is all talk but being the guys that you are — I wouldn't take any chances to ruin your reputation and all that." She smacks on her gum. "And I hate to tell you this, but one of your little friends has been working with Bigs. I don't know who, but you better let that little shit know he was wrong for getting in her head like that. She deserves way better." She says with a punch of attitude before walking away.

"Jimin?" Jin mouths out to Namjoon, who only shrugs in response.

"Let's go." Namjoon tosses a couple of more bills before they head out.

"Have a good evening, boys." Bigs yells out, causing the two of them to return a tight-lipped smile.

"Are we going to tell Kookie about Jimin?"

"No? Because we don't even know ourselves. His name was never dropped, and we'll look dumb if we acted on assumptions."

"This is so fucked up." Jin sighs, looking out the window.

"You're telling me."

When they finally arrive back at the dorm, Namjoon and Jin find Jungkook pacing around in his room, tossing a rubber ball against the wall to keep himself occupied. His doe eyes dart over to them, letting the ball drop to the floor while he nervously walks closer to them.

"So?"

"I'm sorry, dude." Joon sighed. "From what it sounds like, all this mess just got to her head so she went back to the club to make herself feel better. But Bigs ended up bringing you and her brother into the situation so, I'm assuming she's distancing herself to protect you in some way?" Namjoon runs his hand through his hair. "Honestly, I really don't know, that's as much as we got."

"We didn't even talk to her or see her, some other dancer helped us out. I guess she's a friend of hers? Or maybe she just likes Y/N. She wanted to help." Jin says.

"Fuck!" Jungkook groans, slamming his hand down onto his bed. "Why couldn't she just talk to me? We could have figured this out."

"Look, I'm sure there's a lot more to it and I'm sure it's difficult for her. Promise me you'll hear her out when you see her."

"I mean, yeah I know, I will. But, how did this get to her head so easily? I really can't wrap my head around it, I—" He catches how tense Joon and Jin suddenly get. He watches them nervously looking at each other, making him cock his head to the side and furrow his brows. "Wait, what is it? You know something else, don't you?"

"I mean there's really no concrete facts behind it so we can't necessarily say it's true."

"Well?" Jungkook asks, his fists clenched so tightly his knuckles are turning white. But, before they could go any further, Jungkook's ringtone echos in the room. He quickly turns in case it's you calling, but he picks up anyway because it's someone equally as important.

"Kai?"

"C-can you come pick me up? My sister isn't picking up. I'll send you Eric's address." Jungkook worries when he hears the shakiness in his voice, his tone low to a whisper.

"Yeah, sit tight. I'll be right there." He hangs up, darting out of his room, Namjoon and Jin following after him.

"Where are you going?"

"I need to get to Kai."

"Let us come with!"

"Look, it'll be quicker if I go myself—"

"Jungkook-ah, stop. We're not gonna let you go alone." Joon and Jin make it just in time to join him in the elevator, heading straight for his car even if it's nearing 1am. Jungkook pulls up Kai's location, pressing on the gas to rush over there just in case Kai was hurt. And yes, Jungkook was going to give it to your fucking stepfather if he sees anything on Kai. He will fucking destroy him, he promises.

Jungkook, Namjoon and Jin walk into the house quietly, seeing Kai putting his finger up to his lips when he meets them near the kitchen.

"What happened?" Jungkook whispers, handing his bags over to Namjoon and Jin. Jungkook looks at the small hint of blood pooling near his nostrils and the cut near his eyebrow.

"I'll explain in the car, can you just take me to—"

"Really? Calling your sister's boyfriend and his friends over to save you? You really are a helpless little shit." Namjoon, Jin and Jungkook are all shielding each other and Kai from Eric, Jungkook's blood boiling seeing him standing there, clearly very drunk and not in the right state of mind.

"Aye, don't fucking talking to him like that." Jungkook's spits out, making Eric laugh.

"First you fall for my slut of a daughter, now you help rescue him? I thought you were so much better than that, Jungkook. You aren't the person people portrayed you to be. Shittiest idol I know. All of you."

"You don't know me." Eric snorts.

"You guys do know I help sponsor your shit right? I play a big role for you, don't come into my house acting like—" He slurs his words.

"Yeah, well fuck the contract." Namjoon's jaw clenches. "Better yet, don't fucking worry about it, I'll make sure to take care of it for you."

"You need me." Eric says, almost at a growl.  "You need me and Bigs—"

"Since when?" Namjoon responds in a mocking manner as he begins to usher Jin, Jungkook and Kai towards the front door. "If you wanna send your people over, you can let them know I'm free tomorrow in the late afternoon. I'll be more than happy to tell 'em what kind of sick person you are."

"You can't just take him—" Eric tries to flip the script, obviously unaware that Kai has already turned 18. He grips onto Kai's arm and tries to pull him back, except he's intoxicated, so Jungkook easily pushes him off. He watches as Eric hits a bar stool, stumbling over himself before he drunkily falls on his ass.

"You're such a sad excuse of a stepfather, you aren't even aware he's 18 already. He doesn't need you." Jungkook scoffs. "I'm gonna send people for the rest of Kai's shit tomorrow. And let's get this straight - we never needed you or Bigs. You both aren't shit without us and yout fucking empire thrives because of us. And if you do anything to Y/N, if you even think about working with Bigs on doing anything to her, I fucking promise you I will bury you alive. I won't stop until you have nothing left. Don't underestimate me."

everybody's angry and they're coming for me, but i can't give them energy that i won't receive; so i brush 'em off, i got a lot on my sleeve, like i'm moving backwards, but it's all on repeat; this place is getting crowded, i got no room to breathe

track twelve: hundred - khalid

#bts #bts fanfiction #jeon jungkook #jungkook #kook #jeongguk #bts jeon jungkook fanfic #bts jeon jungkook #bts jungkook #bts au #bts au fic #bts imagines #jungkook x reader #jeon jungkook x reader #jjk x reader #bts jungkook x reader #bts fluff #bts angst #bts smut #jeon jungkook fluff #jeon jungkook smut #jeon jungkook angst #jjk smut #jjk fluff #jjk angst #jungkook fluff #jungkook angst #jungkook smut #writing #bands series

[thedeathdeelers]

we keep this love in a photograph

luke feels it when it’s time. he knows alex and reggie do too.

none of them know how to do this - how to tell julie, how to tell the molinas or flynn or to even process it themselves. but they know they have to, it’s the least they could do for their family.

they struggle for a while, trying to come up with ways to leave physical memories behind, items they know would help comfort those they’re about to leave behind.

alex is the first one to decide. he chooses to leave his hoodie for julie, while giving flynn the ripped jean jacket he knows she loves. the decision that hurts the most is also the easiest to make: willie, the soulmate he never thought he’d find, gets to own his drumsticks — integral parts of the instrument that will always be attached to his soul.

reggie takes a while to decide, but he knows what to do. he leaves his checkered flannel to carlos, telling him he will be the most popular guy in school once he grows into it. once that’s covered, he chooses to leave behind his necklace for ray, tearing up when ray tells him he’ll never take it off. as for julie, reggie considers it to be the easy decision: he leaves her one of his most prized possessions — home is where my horse is (he also lets her have his leather jacket because he knows how much she loves it). flynn on the other hand gets a signed banjo (she’s confused but happy with it).

and then there’s luke. he figures he doesn’t know what to give the people he loves the most apart from personalised songs that will stay with them even after he’s long gone from their world. he starts with julie’s but breaks down pretty quickly after the first few lines. he stops, choosing to write a song for ray instead, thanking him and rose for the unconditional love they chose to give him and the boys - and thanks them for julie, for somehow bringing her into his world.

he then writes a song for carlos, leaving a section of the song empty for his little brother to add in his own rap verse, choosing to call the song ‘boy band’. when he gets to flynn, he’s not entirely sure she’d actually want anything from him, but he decides to leave her one of the few shirts that he knows she likes, along with a song thanking her for being such a wonderful friend to both julie and him.

after that he finds himself stumped. every time he goes to write something for julie he can’t get past the first few words.

he sits in the quiet studio by himself for days on end, pen hovering over blank tear-stained sheets of paper.

when nothing comes of his sessions in the studio, he decides to visit his parents for a final quiet goodbye. but as he walks through his bedroom one last time, he finds a box full of polaroids from when reggie first got his first camera tucked away under his bed.

he spends that afternoon going through them, until he comes across one of himself with a big goofy smile and in one of his trademark cut off shirts, grinning at the camera with his arms behind his head. he’s not sure what it is about the picture, but he can’t seem to put it back down.

maybe it’s because he just looks so full of life in it, or maybe it’s because of how carefree he is. maybe it’s the pose or the lighting or just reggie’s timing. a moment forever frozen in time, just like him.

and when he thinks about it, that’s just how he wants julie to remember him; alive and happy and full of energy, forever loving her no matter where he is.

and that’s when he gets inspired.

that afternoon, for the first time in over 26 years, luke writes a song in his childhood home.

he doesn’t give julie her present while he’s still around, just hands over the flannel he knows she loves so much, letting her know she can have any of his shirts or jackets hanging in her closet.

and when she’s fallen asleep on the night he knows is his last, he slips the photograph with the song scratched onto the back into her dreambox, presses a final kiss to her forehead, takes a deep breath with his nose deep in her hair — and lets the universe pull him away.

so you can keep me inside the pocket of your ripped jeans, holding me closer ‘til our eyes meet — you won’t ever be alone

wait for me to come home

- photography by ed sheeran

#um. #i heard the chorus and wanted to cry thinking about this so i wrote it in one go without proofreading #so #here u go and i’m so sorry? #jatp #juke #julie and the phantoms #my fics #thedeathdeelers fics

[starshipsofstarlord]

Okay rockstars, settle down

rockstar!bucky barnes x assistant!reader x rockstar!loki laufeyson / masterlist

summary; having previously worked for loki, it causes a heat to burn within bucky’s already accumulated hate towards the musician / warnings; threesome, smut, mxf and mxm sex, mentions of sex with other characters, oral sex (male and female receiving), creampie, unprotected sex, double penetration, degradation, swearing, orgasm denial, cum eating

“Can’t believe you worked for that wanker.” Snarked Bucky as an image of the well known, musically spread, and acoustically acclaimed, Loki Laufeyson was shown on the screen of the dressing room television, as the other artist stretched his clothing bare arms across the back of the couch. “Come here sweet cheeks.”

At his command, you dismissed the paper work for a moment, trailing over and straddling the inked hunk’s chain belted lap, digging your manicured set of nails into his shoulders, as you seated yourself over his crotch. “I’m happy I work for you now Buck, you treat me so good.”

Punctuating your words, you pressed your teeth into your bottom lip, giving it the appearance of being more plump, as you batted your dark eyelashes up at your employer. “I do, don’t I?” He rhetorically asked, skimming his fingers across the length of your arms, before moving them to sloppily cup your jaw, ensuring that you would not look away from his wild and dilated pupils. “Tell me what I do better than the lead singer of the god of mischief.”

At his words, a small yet peaceful contortion of uncomfortableness split a skin grafted line through the centre of your forehead, stating that you had no wish to do so. And thus, as punishment for your self aversive silence, Barnes braced his knuckles into your skin, causing you to keen out, and tap his shoulders in verification for surrender.

In turn, you lowered your hands, dragging the tips of your nails, absentmindedly running them down the expanse of his waxed chest, conveniently passing the silver hoops that were attached to his nipples on the trail to a less dominant ground. “I prefer the way that your songs have a heavier bass and-“

“Uh uh uh, not the music. Think of something that has you, let’s say, screaming, but definitely not in a crowd. Though, we may have to try that one sometime; show the world how hungry you are to assist me.”

“You, James Bucky Barnes,” he loosened his grip to your relief, which lead to you hugging in spite, “are the best fuck I have ever endured. Loki has nothing on you, he deems himself a god of the arts, but he doesn’t see how you paint me so perfectly with your cum, nor how you bend my body to your whim, as though I am a tool in the midst of your creations, useful, but disposable.”

“I like the sound of that doll. Disposable, now that really does you make you sound like my personal cum dump.”

“That’s was certainly interesting to listen to...”that voice had your body jolting in shock, and it appeared that Bucky too was surprised by the presence, though, he steadied his well versed hands on your hips, claiming you to the intimate spot.

“What the fuck are you doing in my dressing room you greasy haired weasel?” Bucky sneered, his nose turning up at the sight alone of his competition in the lyrical world. Loki, he had graced you with his presence, and you had to look away; he admittedly looked good.

His shirt was open chested, leaving you with the memorable impression of all the times that you had left crescent marks upon that particular surface, a few times you had even drawn blood, but that had only fuelled his mission to fuck you into a propeller of urgency.

“Our new album Laufey has just been released, I can confirm my dear, you shoulda stayed around and knelt in our success. The records are certainly going to have more sales than what was it called again? Ah yes, the red star. I could tell it was about this one, so much passion, a sultry tune, that did little to justify what it means to be with her.”

Loki’s hands waved around as he spoke, and you could only picture the past whence he penetrated your with those long and talented fingers of his. He had drawn orgasm after orgasm out of you, resulting you to be nothing more than a withering mess, as he digressed the option to simply stop. There was nothing simple about him, nor the time that he demanded that he shared you with his brother.

That thought alone had you mindlessly grinding upon Bucky’s covered cock, plucking at your lip with the keys of your teeth, though Bucky’s voice brought you back to reality, causing you to pause your movements embarrassingly, venting a clear out of your head to process the situation that was before you. The two were bickering like two teenage girls, and it was quite exhausting to listen to.

“Answer the question trickster, else I’ll have you fed to the infamous black panther, and let’s just say that he is the best bodyguard I have ever hired. So, are you going to speak, or will I have you dragged out of here like a damned serpent with a noose around its neck?” Bucky threatened, gritting his teeth together, his nose straining in frustration, drawing more attention to the small stud on the right side of his nose.

“Looks like she needs me Barnes, perhaps your reputation does not proceed you. But to answer in full, my band have made quite the rise, and I thought it would be... fitting to pay you a visit. Though I had no idea that this wonderful woman would be here, pining on your lap like some feline in heat. I see she’s fucking you now, after all my suspicions are never wrong. Or we’ll, Heimdall’s train of thought always ends up at the right station.”

“Can the pair of you stop, for one goddamn minute!” Your hands obscured a path into your hair, as you glared back and forth between the pair of rival rockstars. “I am here, dammit! Stop talking about me as though I am not here, a part of me wishes that I wasn’t so I didn’t have to listen to your bitching.”

Without any thought, you clambered from your perch on Bucky’s lap, walking towards the raven haired gentleman, pointing your finger in his face as you accused him. “You’ve got your point across, but I’ll tell you something. If you don’t leave, Heimdall will see me putting my foot up your ass.”

“Does she speak to you like this Barnes? I thought she had loosened up in more ways than one when I allowed Thor to stretch her cunt, but it appears that that mouth of hers has gotten a little out of hand also. You should do something about that, or else you’ll lose her to someone else like a did. Who knows, could be Romanoff, heard she has a thing for brats.”

Natasha Romanoff, a diverse woman in her ways and songs. She was the queen of the rock culture, tormenting her workers with her verbal abuse and it would undoubtedly be no different for her assistant. If you were to be under her employment, it was certain that you would not get out alive, nor work for another talented person for the rest of your life. To cross her, was a vow to sign your own death certificate, it was plain stupidity, yet people still hustled with her and her limits, resulting in their chances of ever getting hired for any job, vastly slim to none.

At the lack of defence that Bucky provided you, you felt small, your shoulders slacked as you were tortured with Loki’s cold and silky gaze, more so when the man stood up, pressing his bare chest against your back. You could feel the rings that hung off the buds that adorned his chest coil and dig into your back, shrouding your demeanour substantially.

A part of you wanted nothing more than for Bucky to abuse Loki’s face with his fist, specifically the right, since it was the bearer to a chunky silver ring. It’d leave quite the print, however, the unexpected unravelled as his enquiring tone was aimed not at you, but Loki instead.

“You let your brother fuck her, hmm. Maybe she should learn her manners by being shared, that way her retrospective spattering of bullshit may be contained, to a limit of course.” It was unbelievably, you could not believe that Bucky was conferring with the enemy! And not only that, they were talking about experiences of having you literally become speechless from their unprofessional administrations upon your body. “I’d get T’Challa in here, but I know she’s already fucked him. Can’t quite fire him for it though, because who could ever say no to those pretty eyes, and that mouth, god, it is definitely one of her most persuasive attributes.”

“Bu-“ you didn’t even get to finish imploring his name off your lips, about to defend yourself and your previous actions, though, you were interrupted, starved from the opportunity of coming up with an explanation.

“No.” Loki told you, the roles now reversed as he was the one with his index finger aimed at you. He tapped your nose with it, as he began to pace in the room, his wild locks remaining in their place as he spun, before facing Bucky, a sly tranquility of a truce veining out from the pools of his evergreen orbs. “You don’t speak a word to me y/n, not whilst I’m having a conversation with James here.”

James. It was too far a polite way for him to address your boss. They were all hot and ready to tear out each other’s throats a moment ago, and now here they were, having a silent conversation without your inclusion. It had you reeling your mind as to why, until Bucky gathered your hair in his hand to the side, sliding you y/h/c locks over your shoulder, and finally deemed it acceptable for you to hear his voice.

Though, he still was not directing his tensive words in your direction. “Since you had dealt with this subordinate behaviour from her, perhaps you’d like to join us; help me train her to become more...” His breath fanned your the top of your ear, making your skin crawl by not only his warm and inviting breath, but also the offer that he had supposed to the other man.

“Obedient?” Loki asked in turn of his wispy ended offer of optimism, his leather, sharp tipped boots taking a prominent, heart clenching step towards you. He reached his finger out, grasping a loose strand that had fallen out of Bucky’s grip and before your face, tugging lightly on it, as his lips came dangerously close to your own. “Rules aren’t your forfeit, are they my dear? The best assistant I ever hired, with all those unique ideas floating around in that independent head of yours, but you’ve always been troublesome. I remember the time that you bit my cock that day you had attitude. I reckon Bucky here could do a better job.”

“Then why doesn’t he?” You hissed as said man tugged on his handful of your hair, instantly making you regret your phrase in the moment. To a halting surprise however, Bucky released you, lightly shoving you to cause you to fumble forwards, and away from him.

“Maybe I will.” He dared, earning a nod from Loki, whom seductively began to unzip his loose trousers, as Bucky descended to the ground, his hands running up his rival’s thighs, as the material dropped around Loki’s ankles. It would seem, that he had gone commando, and as Bucky grasped Loki’s shaft, you felt a pull in your chest inherently demanding that you play some part in this fornication.

“Wait.” Your hand shot out, as though you had some force to stop them from continuing with their war path to exact all of their developed spit onto you. “What about me?” You were ss

“Oh no doll, you are not pulling any strings here, if you wanna do something useful, come here and warm my cock, you can watch me blow your old associate.” A slither of a whimper fell from your lips, it wasn’t exactly what you were prying towards, but you sure as hell were not going to refuse the contact that Bucky was obliged to give you.

Thus you wandered towards him, your pinkies curling around one another, as you sashayed to the ground beside him, watching as he paid Loki no mind for a moment, ruthlessly in a desperation fuelled motion, unbuckled his thick belt, and shoved the material of his leather trousers to be held accountable against his lower thighs, just above his tense knees.

He too, as their exteriors supposed, had forgone the extra layer that kept his cock tucked away, though it was exposed as he tugged those tight trousers down, and the sight of both his and Loki’s cocks bobbing in the same vicinity had you close to quivering.

It was somewhat of a dream portrayed in the viscous space of reality, the two men half undressed in then proximity of yourself, it was something that you had always imagined, even before you had left Loki’s side, and opted to work for Bucky, but the idea was definitely short lived. They hated each other, but apparently they were willing to put all their issues aside to prohibit you from freely running your mouth.

Bucky’s cock twitched as he patted his own thigh, ordering you without the aid of his voice to commence it as a servant’s throne, or in your case, a stool for you to rest on as he tended to intimate needs of the man that you had once worked for. Finally, with the decision of better judgement, you allowed your grey jumper dress to slide down your body, leaving you nude, and the aspect of the two men’s unforgiving and locked gazes.

“No underwear, and you wonder why your men have no difficulty in her allowing them to fuck her.” Bucky took ahold of his cock, squeezing his cock with one hand, whilst his other aided you in sitting on his muscular legs, as he lightly growled up at the opposing rockstar.

From the stiff grip that Bucky affirmed around his sceptre, Loki gasped, his pale lips instantly shutting once the sound wantonly abandoned him. The last thing that he wanted was for Bucky to see him in vulnerable poise, though with that said, it’d be rather difficult considering the smutty circumstances.

Bucky took Loki’s long, alabaster prick into his mouth, starting from the primrose tip and descending down, reciprocating the action that you did yourself as you sheathed yourself onto his cock, but instead with his lips. A grunt rendered along Loki’s length as the man bit back a whimper, the vibrations running through his veins like a transpiring pulse of sorcery.

Bucky opted for bobbing his head, as you endured the liberation of his very slightly gyrating movement inside of you. Though, despite him being almost completely still and leaving you full to the brim with his thick length, his balls resting against the partition where he was delved into you, you remained transfixed.

The motion image, recording first hand through your own eyes, of him blowing Loki was sinful, but you were drawn to it. If that made you a sinner, one endorsed by the graphic scene, licking your lips from the sight of Bucky running his studded tongue up the length of Loki, dipping the ball of silver metal into his slit, then so be it.

Your heart raced as you were met with an opportunity. A globe of saliva, strung by the lapping muscle of Bucky’s tongue dropped down; you practically saw its fall in slow motion. It was done before you could register your actions, you had leant forwards, catching the trickle of spit in your mouth, thinking not for a moment as you gulped the subjective liquid down.

Bucky’s pace increased, he gagged lightly as he jolted him further down his throat. Loki hummed, harshly grabbing Bucky’s dark brunette locks, biting his lip as he reimagined your little catch. It had him feeling close, and just as he was about to finish, precum furiously pooling out of his tip, Bucky pulled back, a smirk marking his features.

“You’re not cumming in my mouth, I don’t mind sucking dick, nor swallowing, but I have to practically listen to you jizz over your own talent, and prowl over my girl.” The name he labelled you with had your heart fluttering, but not nearly as much as when he lightly pulled out of you, infuriating you with the lack of any pleasurable esteem. “Don’t you worry babes, you can finish with me inside of you, like always.”

That used to be him, Loki thought with a brewing rage in his chest. Though he instead shrugged out of his dull patterned striped shirt that was already loose on his shoulders. The fabric hit the floor, leaving all of you barren to the subject of nudity.

“Always doesn’t suppose the past Barnes.” Loki stated, referring to all the various times that he had found refuge in your spongey walls, you willingly clenching around him, and pleading for him to hit a deeper spot within you. “And I do not prowl, I don’t need to. The evidence is there between her legs, coiling in juices surrounding her ever so willing folds, that are prepared to endure the harshest of penetrations.”

“What are you trying to do, write a fucking song about this?” Scoffed Bucky, rolling his crystallised orbs at the guts that this man had. If he so much as wanted to, he could stop this passage into a three way all together, but he did not, at least he had yet to. He was enjoying the way that you were squirming to yourself, thinking that he didn’t notice, squeezing the sides of your thighs together in an aroused matrimony.

“A fucking song would’ve the correct term - literally.” Was the affirmed words of Loki, as he shoved Bucky to be sat beside you, tilting his messy brush of crazed hair, his untrustworthy eyes drifting to you. “Who’d you want to fuck you, you fangirling slut?”

It was truthfully a difficult decision. “Both.” You admitted, your bones jumping as Bucky pinched one of your erect nipples, continuing to hold a sturdy clasp of his pads around the sensitive flesh; you couldn’t jut choose one of them. Not when they were both in such close range, bore in nothing more than their birthdays suits, talking about your quivering and diversely accepting cunt.

They knew that you couldn’t possibly refuse one or the other. You were vastly too hungry to be filled like you had never been before, shagged by two of three most well known artists in the industry, earnestly and mindlessly earning yourself a title within the circle of uptight yet simultaneously chill performers.

Perhaps, if Bucky we to ever potentially fire you, there would be another pursuer for your articulating talents on standby, awaiting for the moment that you walked out of his complex door to swoop you up as though they were a predatory falcon, flying off into a stationed sunset, those around seeing you as nothing more than a shadow of the ambient orb, but the one who had employed you finding you to be a sufficing inspiration.

Large hands swallows your hips, firmly controlling their angle as they grasped you in their strong, almost super human hold, lifting you so that you were tentatively tucked in a reverse cowgirl position on Bucky’s lap. It was the third time that you had been this close to him, it would almost be intimate, if your legs weren’t strewn in an open, all revealing splay, so that Loki could see your boss tease his tip around your entrance before sliding you down his length, extracting a strong wail from your churning throat.

Your own hand resented down, applying swirls of pressure down on your clit; it appeared that they were willing you to continue without interruption. Bucky lightly, despite the power that he was promoted to in this position, began to bounce you on his shaft, spewing small mewls out from your agape mouth.

Fisting his cock, Loki approached, Bucky reachin this seen hands down to spread te lips of your pussy, so that the other man was guaranteed a crude glimpse of you being stufffed. Though, you weren’t quite filled enough, for Bucky raised a brow and prompted Loki to allow himself to be pulled closer by your axed and whining aura.

He brushed his tip languidly against your buzzing clit, dragging through your slick and jab i at your delicate fingers before probing at the base of Bucky’s cock, and pushing inside, right along his rival’s length, the pair moaning out in a pleasured union. On the other and, you had tears falling from the crescents of your eyes, the stretch so much that it was a blistering pain to your cunt.

“Don’t go all meek dear, you and i both know this is far from the first instance where you’ve had more than one cock in this nasty, betraying cunt of yours.” Loki taunted, gripping the vulnerable expanse of your throat from behind, his icy glazed skin sending provocative shivers down your spine, making your pussy pulse from the chill that ran through your body.

And then, i a split instant, both cocks began to piston into your walls, as though you were nothing more than a rag doll, meant o be thrown around and handled in a disorderly fashion. They ere ruthless, groaning out symphonies in the cursive air around you, as your walls engulfed their pricks more than snugly.

You felt so wide down there, they were taking a pirating toll on your body stealing every breath that dared wither from your lips, tweezing their nimble fingered around various parts of your body, all in due retrospect or coerce you into fucking them back, making all actions in the mass of bodies a mutual effort.

Loki lowered his head down meeting Bucky for a sloppy, brash kiss. It was clear they were simply doing that part to fulfil a greedy desire in your stomach, but you were not one that minded. It was, like the rest of their frenzy of collaborations, a competitive mess. They nipped harshly at each other’s lips, ravenously all in the meanwhile ploughing your body with their har girths.

“Fuck, that’s hot.” Your tongue dribbled, earning satisfied, lust induced smirks from both parties that were currently penetrating you, making you writhe harder against their lengths a new flow of moisture weeping out from your hole, lubricating their movements further, it encouraging them to do nothing more than continue what they were doing, despite their better judgements.

The truth was, they were rockstars. They had no better judgement, which is why everyone like them needed someone like you. Their thought were clouded with one mission, and for once in their spent lifetimes, it was not to beat the others, at least not to a certain extent anyways. It was their assignment, delivered by their own hands, to bring you to the edge, and that’s physically what they reformed to do.

One of them were groping your nipples, whilst the other confined the same treatment to your ass cheeks. Loki found your Rocky enables of positive feedback to be icicles and they were beautiful, he stared at them, as though they were divine ploys extracted from the mythical kingdom of Jotunheim, their residence in the realm to be the peacemakers of all bountiful creatures, much like himself and Barnes.

A rich euphoric groan exuberated from Bucky as he allowed himself to spoil, but he tutted whence he watched Loki’s features suppose that he was to follow shortly behind. “Not inside of her.” Bucky growled, sufficing Loki to roll his eyes, and pull out, the man behind you furiously replacing your hand, rolling our clit in his grasp until a sinful scream enveloped the air, commencing them all to the fact that you had just came.

Loki found the show to be unfair, and instead, spilled his priceless seed onto the huffing skin of your stomach, you eyes fluttered shut at the warm feeling pooling onto you. You leant back, drawing your neck into a crooked angle as you swiped your tongue wordlessly over the piercing on Bucky’s right nipple, metal providing a relief to the heat that your body was and had been swarmed with. “ Last chance you’re gonna have t taste her sweet cunt.”

“You do certainly have some faith in this one Barnes, but I do doubt that it will be the last instance in which i am todo so.” His silver tongue pried at your cum soaked flesh, drinking up all the essence that you had to offer, onshore the flavour that Bucky had brought to the table, i the form of a succulent drizzling of Snow White cum.

As Loki finishes swabbing his tongue over your cunt, Bucky adoringly kisses you, much sweeter than he has before. It was sort, and almost chaste, but his blue eyes roamed your face, delicately observing the high points of your face, that were covered with a sheen of great force making you as he would put it, glow.

The pair of you weer exhausted, there was still some swollen was to his lips from where he had sucked off Loki. His hands cradled you around your waist, his feet kicking Loki back as you whimpered from opaque sensitivity. “I guess that was you bidding me a dew.” Sneered the trickster, fishing for his clothes, as he spared you a spark filled glare, to which you ignored.

Once he was situated back into his attire, he left the sex scented room,a hollow smirk chapping his lips as he strutted th a purpose out into the hallway, taking a left instead of a right, and creeping into barnes’ studio to see what the man was working on in the midst of his enduring tour/ He was always the trickster, and nothing different was to ever be expected out of him.

“That was good.” You mumbled, rubbing your ode lovingly across the scruff that coated his jaw. His fingers made small circles upon your tummy, humming contently as he remained sheathed inside of you. He had to admit, he preferred it when it was just him, but his lonesome, sheathed within your walls, feeling the small trembles of your walls around him. It was practically heaven, and he would say so if he believed in such a place.

A deliberate knock ruined the moment, as the man entered,he quarrelled with himself where her to casually look in the direction of the pair of you or to avert his sight around, and blankly at the all. “What is it T’Challa?” Grumbled the man inside of you, quirking a thin brow at the timing of his presence.

“Loki; he managed to get into ur data, and he’s leaked a whole bunch of your music.” Of course, Loki would not come here to simply gloat, there was alas something extra up his green sleeve, and now it was revealed.

“Son of a bitch!” Bucky made a move to stand, but instead prohibited a whimper out of you as hi ships jutted angrily tip on instinct. “Get Odin on the phone, we’re going to have a little chat about his slippery hands son!” Barked Bucky, prepared t do anything to bring his greatest threat down, compiling him into the put of hate industry, until he was forgotten about, unable to ever produce new music again.

“Talk to Sif.” You whispered, becoming the image of his assistant once more, even if his cum lathered cock was prevailing within a rut of required stress relief, growing in the conjunction of your wall with his body guard there. “She loathes him, and rightfully so. He got her kicked out and she has dirt on him that nobody else has ever heard. If you want to take I’m down, she is your in.”

The strict tone grammatically supported by your logical information was definitely turning Bucky on again. He could handle you more than fine without Loki’s aid, he was just a means to an end, as it was clearly shown in his priorities.

#bucky barnes smut #loki laufeyson smut #Bucky x reader x loki #bucky barnes x reader smut #loki laufeyson x reader #bucky barnes x reader #loki laufeyson imagine #bucky barnes imagines #bucky barnes imagine #marvel au #mcu au #marvel smut #mcu smut #mcu x reader smut #mcu x reader #marvel x reader smut #rockstarbucky #marvel x reader #bucky oneshot #loki smut #bucky smut #bucky barnes one shot #bucky barnes fanfiction #bucky barnes fic #loki fic #loki fanfic #loki fanfiction #imagines #imagine #xreader

[path-of-my-childhood]

CABIN FEVER - Aaron Dessner: Producing folklore and evermore

Sound On Sound Magazine // March 2021 issue // By Tom Doyle

The pandemic gave Taylor Swift a chance to explore new musical paths, with two lockdown albums co-written and produced by the National's Aaron Dessner.

Few artists during the pandemic have been as prolific as Taylor Swift. In July 2020, she surprise-released folklore, a double-length album recorded entirely remotely and in isolation. It went on to become the biggest global seller of the year, with four million sales and counting. Then, in December, she repeated the trick with the 15-song evermore, which quickly became Swift's eighth consecutive US number one.

In contrast to her country-music roots and the shiny synth-pop that made her a superstar, both folklore and evermore showcased a very different Taylor Swift sound: one veering more towards atmospheric indie and folk. The former album was part-produced by Swift and her regular co-producer Jack Antonoff (St Vincent, Lana Del Rey), while the other half of the tracks were overseen by a new studio collaborator, Aaron Dessner of the National. For evermore, aside from one Antonoff-assisted song, Dessner took full control of production.

Good Timing

Although his band are hugely popular and even won a Grammy for their 2017 album Sleep Well Beast, Aaron Dessner admits that it initially felt strange for an indie-rock guitarist and keyboard player to be pulled into such a mainstream project. Swift had already declared herself a fan of the National, and first met the band back in 2014. Nonetheless, Dessner was still surprised when the singer sent him a text "out of the blue" last spring. "I mean, I didn't think it was a hoax," he laughs. "But it was very exciting and a moment where you think it's like serendipity or something, especially in the middle of the pandemic. When she asked if I would ever consider writing with her, I just happened to have a lot of music that I had worked really hard on. So, the timing was sort of lucky. It opened up this crazy period of collaboration. It was a pretty wild ride."

Since 2016, Aaron Dessner has been based at his self-built rural facility, Long Pond Studio, in the Hudson Valley, upstate New York. The only major change to the studio since SOS last spoke to Dessner in October 2017 has been the addition of a vintage WSW Siemens console built in 1965. "It had been refurbished by someone," he says, "and I think there's only three of them in the United States. I heard it was for sale from our friend [and the National producer/mixer] Peter Katis. That's a huge improvement here."

Although the National made Sleep Well Beast and its 2019 successor I Am Easy To Find at Long Pond, the band members are scattered around the US and Europe, meaning Dessner is no stranger to remote working and file sharing. This proved to be invaluable for his work with Swift. Dessner spent the first six weeks of lockdown writing music that he believed to be for Big Red Machine, his project with Bon Iver's Justin Vernon. Instead, many of these work-in-progress tracks would end up on folklore. Their first collaboration (and the album's first single), 'cardigan', for instance, emerged from an idea Dessner had been working on backstage during the National's European arena tour of Winter 2019.

"I sent her a folder and in the middle of the night she sent me that song," Dessner explains. "So, the next morning I was just listening to it, like, `Woah, OK, this is crazy."

On The Move

As work progressed, it quickly became apparent that Swift and Dessner were very much in tune as a songwriting and producing unit. There was very little Dessner had to do, he says, in terms of chopping vocals around to shape the top lines. "I think it's because I'm so used to structuring things like a song, with verses and choruses and bridges," he reckons. "In most cases, she sort of kept the form. If she had a different idea, she would tell me when she was writing and I would chop it up for her and send it to her. But, mostly, things kind of stayed in the form that we had."

Dessner and Swift were working intensively and at high speed throughout 2020, so much so that on one occasion the producer sent the singer a track and went out for a run in the countryside around Long Pond. By the time he got back, Swift had already written 'the last great american dynasty' and it was waiting for him in his inbox. "That was a crazy moment," he laughs. "One of the astonishing things about Taylor is what a brilliant songwriter she is and the clarity of her ideas and, when she has a story to tell, the way she can tell it. I think she's just been doing it for so long, she has a facility that makes you feel like you could never do what she's capable of. But we were a good pair because I think the music was inspiring to her in such a way that the stories were coming."

Swift's contributions to folklore were recorded in a makeshift studio in her Los Angeles home. Laura Sisk engineered the sessions as the singer recorded her vocals, using a Neumann U47, in a neighbouring bedroom. Live contact between Swift, Sisk, Dessner and Long Pond engineer Jonathan Low was done through real-time online collaboration platform Audiomovers.

"We would listen in remotely and kind of go back and forth," says Dessner. "We used Audiomovers and then we would have Zoom as a backup. But mainly we were just using Audiomovers, so we could actually be in her headphones. It's powerful, it's great. I've used it a lot with people during this time. Then, later on, when we recorded evermore, a lot of the vocals were done here at the studio actually when Taylor was visiting when we did the [Disney+ documentary] Long Pond Sessions. But Taylor's vocals for folklore were all done remotely."

Keeping Secrets

Given the huge international interest in Swift, the team had to work with an elaborate file-sharing arrangement to ensure that the tracks didn't leak online. Understandably, Dessner won't be drawn on the specifics. "Yeah, I mean we had to be very careful, so everything was very secretive," he says. "There were passwords on both ends and we communicated in a specific way when sharing mixes and everything. There was a high level of confidentiality and data encryption. It was sort of a learning curve.

"I'm not used to that," he adds, "'cause usually we're just letting files kind of fly all over the Internet [laughs]. But I think with someone like her, there's just so many people that are paying attention to every move that she makes, which can be a little, I think, oppressive for her. We tried to make it as comfortable as possible and we got used to how to get things to her and back to us. It worked pretty well."

Drums & Guitars

For the generally minimalist beat programming on the records, Dessner would sometimes turn to his more expensive new analogue drum generators - Vermona's DRM1 and Dave Smith's Tempest - but more often used the Synthetic Bits iOS app FunkBox. "There's just a lot of great vintage drum machine sounds in there, and they sound pretty cool, especially if you overdrive it," he says. "Often I send that through an amplifier, or through effects into an amplifier. Then I have a [Roland) TR-8 and a TR-8S that I use a lot. I also use the drum machine in the [Teenage Engineering] OP-1. So, a song like 'willow', that's just me tapping the OP-1."

Elsewhere, Dessner's guitar work appears on the tracks, with the intricate melodic layering on 'the last great american dynasty' from folklore having been inspired by Radiohead's In Rainbows. "Almost all of the electric guitar on Taylor's records is played direct through a REDDI DI into the Siemens board," he says. "It's usually just my 1971 Telecaster played direct and it just sounds great. Oftentimes I just put a little spring reverb on it and sometimes I'll overdrive the board like it's an amplifier, 'cause it breaks up really beautifully.

"I have a 1965 [Gibson] Firebird that I play usually through this 1965 Fender Deluxe Reverb. So, if I am playing into an amp, that's what it is. But on 'the last great american dynasty', those little pointillistic guitars, that's just played direct with the Telecaster through the board."

Elsewhere, Aaron Dessner took Taylor Swift even further out of her sonic comfort zone. A key track on folklore, the Cocteau Twins-styled 'epiphany', features her voice amid a wash of ambient textures, created by Dessner slowing down and reversing various instrumental parts in Pro Tools. "I created a drone using the Mellotron [MD4000D] and the Prophet and the OP-1 and all kinds of synth pads," he says. "Then I duplicated all the tracks, and some of them I reversed and some of them I dropped an octave. All manner of using varispeed and Polyphonic Elastic Audio and changing where they were sitting. Just to create like this Icelandic glacier of sounds was my idea. Then I wrote the chord progression against that.

"The [Pro Tools] session was not happy," he adds with a chuckle. "It kept crashing. Eventually I had to print the drone but I printed it by myself and there was some crackle in it. It was distorting. And then I couldn't recreate it so Jon Low, who was helping me, was kind of mad at me 'cause he was like, 'You can't do that.' And I was like, 'Well, I was working quickly. I didn't know it'd become a song."

Orchestra Of Nowhere

Meanwhile, the orchestrations that appear on several of the tracks were scored by Aaron's twin brother and National bandmate, Bryce Dessner, who is located in France. "I would just make him chord charts of the songs and send them to him in France," Aaron says. "Then he would orchestrate things in Sibelius and send the parts to me. I would send the parts and the instrumental tracks to different players remotely and they would record them literally in their bedrooms or in their attics. None of it was done as a group, it was all done separately. But that's how we've always worked in the National so it's quite natural."

On folklore standout track 'exile', Justin Vernon of Bon Iver delivered his stirring vocal for the duet remotely from his home in Eaux Claires, Wisconsin. "He's renovating his studio, so he has a little home studio in his garage," says Dessner. "It was Taylor's idea to approach him. I sent him Taylor's voice memo of her singing both parts, and he got really excited and loved the song and then he wrote the extra part in the bridge.

"I do a lot of work remotely with Justin also, so it was easy to send him tracks and he would track to it and send back his vocals. I was sending him stems, so usually it's just a vocal stem of Taylor and an instrumental stem and then if he wants something deeper, I'll give him more stems. But generally, he's just working with the vocal layers and an instrumental."

Vernon also provided the grainy beat that kicks off 'closure', one of two tracks on evermore that started life as a sketch for the second Big Red Machine album. "It was this little loop that Justin had given me in this folder of 'Starters', he calls them. I had heard that and been playing the piano to it. But I was hearing it in 5/4, although it's not in 5/4. 'Closure' really opened everything up further. There were no real limits to where we were gonna try to write songs."

Given the number of remote players, Dessner says there were surprisingly few problems with the file swapping and that it was a fairly painless technical process. "It was pretty smooth, but there were issues," he admits. "Sometimes sample-rate issues, or if I happened to give someone an instrumental that was an MP3, that sometimes lines up differently than if you send them an actual WAV that's bounced on the grid. So, sometimes I'd have to kinda eyeball things.

"If there was trouble it started to be because of track counts. I probably only used 20 percent of what was actually recorded, 'cause we would try a lot of things, y'know. So, eventually the sessions got kinda crazy and you'd have to deactivate a lot of things and print things. But we got used to that."

Soft Piano

Aaron Dessner's characteristic dampened upright piano sound, familiar from the National's albums, is much in evidence throughout both folklore and evermore. "The upright is a Yamaha U1 that I've had for more than a decade. Usually, I play it with the soft pedal down and that's the sound of 'hoax' or 'seven' or 'cardigan', y'know, that felted sound. It kind of almost sounds like an electric piano.

"I always mic it the same way, just with two [AKG] 414s, and they're always the same distance off the wall. I had a studio in Brooklyn for 10 years and then when I moved here, I copied the same [wooden] pattern on the wall. And the reason I did that is 'cause of how much I love how this piano sounds bouncing off that wall. It just does something really special for the harmonics."

When on other folklore songs, such as 'exile' or 'the 1', where the piano was the main sonic feature of the track, Dessner played his Steinway grand. "A lot of times we use a pair of Coles [4038s] on the Steinway, just cause it's darker. But sometimes we'll have the 414s there as well and choose."

Keeping Warm

On both folklore and evermore, Taylor Swift's voice is very much front and center and high in the mix, and generally sounds fairly dry. "I think the main thing was I wanted her vocals to have a more full range than maybe you typically hear," Dessner explains. "'Cause I think a lot of the more pop-oriented records are mixed a certain way and they take some of the warmth out of the vocal, so that it's very bright and it kinda cuts really well on the radio. But she has this wonderful lower warmth frequency in her voice which is particularly important on a song like `seven'. If you carved out that mud, y'know, it wouldn't hit you the same way. Or, like, `cardigan', I think it needs that warmth, the kind of fuller feeling to it. It makes it darker, but to me that's where a lot of emotion is."

Effects-wise, almost all of the treatments were done in the box. "There's no outboard reverbs printed," says Dessner. "The only things that we did print would be like an [Eventide] H3000 or sometimes the [WEM] CopiCat tape delay for just a really subtle slap. But generally, it's just different reverbs in the box that Jon was using. He uses the Valhalla stuff quite a bit and some other UAD reverbs, like the [Capitol] Chambers. I often just use Valhalla VintageVerb and the [Avid] Black Spring and simple things."

In some instances, the final mix ended up being the never-bettered rough mix, while other songs took far more work. "'cardigan' is basically the rough, as is `seven'. So, like the early, early mixes, when we didn't even know we were mixing, we never were able to make it better. Like if you make it sound 'good', it might not be as good 'cause it loses some of its weird magic, y'know. But songs like `the last great american dynasty' or 'mad woman', those songs were a little harder to create the dynamics the way you want them, and the pay-off without going too far, and with also just keeping in the kind of aesthetic that we were in. Those were harder, I would say.

"On evermore, I would say 'willow' was probably the hardest one to finish just because there were so many ways it could've gone. Eventually we settled back almost to the point where it began. So, there's a lot of stuff that was left out of 'willow', just because the simplicity of the idea I think was in a way the strongest."

The subject of this month's Inside Track article, 'willow' was the first song written for evermore, immediately following the release of folklore. "It almost felt like a dare or something," Dessner laughs. "We were writing, recording and mixing all in one kind of work stream and we went from one record to the other almost immediately. We were just sort off to the races. We didn't really ever stop since April."

Rubber & Vinyl

Sometimes, Dessner and Swift drew inspiration from unlikely sources; `no body, no crime', for instance, started when he gave her a 'rubber bridge' guitar made by Reuben Cox of the Old Style Guitar Shop in LA. "He's my very old friend," says Dessner of Cox. "He buys undervalued vintage guitars. Stuff that was made in the '50s and '60s as sort of learner guitars, like old Silvertones and Kays and Harmonys. These kinds of guitars which now are quite special, but they're still not valued the same way that vintage Fenders or Gibsons are valued. Then, he customizes them.

"Recently he started retrofitting these guitars with a rubber bridge and flatwound strings. He'll take, like, an acoustic Silvertone from 1958 and put a bridge on it that's covered in this kind of rubber that deadens the strings, so it really has this kind of dead thrum to it. And he puts two pickups in there, one that's more distorted and one that's cleaner. They're just incredible guitars. I thought Taylor would enjoy having one 'cause she loves the sound. So, I had Reuben make one for her and she used it to write `no body, no crime'."

Another friend of Dessner's, Ryan Olsen, has developed a piece of software called the Allovers Hi-Hat Generator which helped create the unusual harmonic loops that feature on `marjorie'. "It's not available on the market," Dessner says of the software. "It's just something that he uses personally, but I think hopefully eventually it'll come out. I wouldn't say it's artificial intelligence software but there's something very intelligent about it [laughs]. It basically analyses audio information and is able to separate audio into identifiable samples and then put them into a database. You then can design parameters for it to spit out sequences that are incredibly musical.

"When Ryan comes here, he'll just take all kinds of things that I give him and run it through there and then it'll spit out, like, three hours of stuff. Then I go through it and find the layers that I love, then I loop them. You can hear it also on the song 'happiness', the drumming in the background. It's not actually played. That's drums that have been sampled and then re-analyzed and re-sequenced out of this Allovers Hi-Hat Generator."

The song `marjorie' is named after Swift's opera-singer grandmother and so, fittingly, her voice can be heard flitting in and out of the mix at the end of the track. "Taylor's family gave us a bunch of recordings of her grandmother," Dessner explains. "But they were from old, very scratchy, noisy vinyl. So, we had to denoise it all using [iZotope's] RX and then I went in and I found some parts that I thought might work. I pitch-shifted them into the key and then placed them. It took a while to find the right ones, but it's really beautiful to be able to hear her. It's just an incredibly special thing, I think."

Meet At The Pond

Taylor Swift finally managed to get together with Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff in September 2020 for the filming of folklore: the long pond studio sessions, featuring the trio live-performing the album. It also provided an opportunity for Swift to add her vocals to some of the evermore tracks.

"It did allow us to have more fun, I think," says Dessner. "Y'know, drink more wine and just kinda be in the same place and have the feeling of blasting the music here and dancing around and just enjoying ourselves. She's really a lovely person to hang out with, so in that sense I'm glad that we had that chance to work together in person.

"We were using a [Telefunken] U47 to record Taylor here," he adds. "Either we were using one of the Siemens preamps on the board, which are amazing. Or I have Neve 1064s [preamps/EQs] and we use a Lisson Grove [AR-i] tube compressor generally."

One entirely new song, `tis the damn season', came out of this face-to-face approach, which Swift wrote in the middle of the night after the team had stayed up late drinking. "We had a bunch of wine actually," Dessner laughs, "and then everybody went to sleep, I thought. But I think she must have had this idea swimming around in her head, 'cause the next morning when she arrived, she sang 'Us the damn season' for me in my kitchen. It's maybe my favourite song we've written together. Then she sang it at dinner for me and my wife Stine and we were all crying. It’s just that kind of a song, so it was quite special.”

National Unity

One key track on evermore, 'coney island', features all of the members of the National and sees Swift duetting with their singer Matt Berninger. "My brother [Bryce] actually originated that song," says Aaron Dessner. "I sent him a reference at one point - I can't remember what it was - and then he was sort of inspired to write that chord progression. Then we worked together to sort of develop it and I wrote a bunch of parts and we structured it.

"Taylor and William Bowery [the songwriting pseudonym of Swift's boyfriend, actor Joe Alwyn] wrote 'coney island' and she sang a beautiful version. It felt kind of done, actually. But then I think we all collectively thought, Taylor and myself and Bryce, like this was the closest to a National song."

Dessner then asked the brothers who make up the National's rhythm section, drummer Bryan and bassist Scott Devendorf, to play on 'coney island'. Matt Berninger, as he often does with the band's own tracks, recorded his vocal at home in Los Angeles. "It was never in the same place, it was done remotely," says Dessner, "except Bryan was here at Long Pond when he played. It was great to collaborate as a band with Taylor."

No Compromise

folklore and evermore have been both enormous critical and commercial successes for Taylor Swift. Aaron Dessner reckons that making these anti-pop records has freed the singer up for the future. "I think it was very liberating for her," he says. "I think that's the thing that's been probably the biggest change for her has just been being able to make songs without compromise and then release them without the promotional requirements that she's used to from the past. Obviously, it comes at this time when we're all in lockdown and nobody can tour or go on talk shows or anything. But I think for her probably it will impact what she does in the future.

"But I also think she can shapeshift again," he concludes. "Who knows where she'll go? She's had many celebrated albums from the past, but to release two albums of this quality in such a short time, it really did shine a light on her songwriting talent and her storytelling ability and also just her willingness to experiment and collaborate. Somehow, I ended up in the middle of all that and I'm very grateful."

INSIDE TRACK - Jonathan Low: Secrets of the Mix Engineers

Sound On Sound Magazine // March 2021 issue // By Paul Tingen

From sketches to final mixes, engineer Jonathan Low spent 2020 overseeing Taylor Swift’s hit lockdown albums folklore and evermore.

“I think the theme of a lot of my work nowadays, and especially with these two records, is that everything is getting mixed all the time. I always try to get the songs to sound as finalised as they can be. Obviously that’s hard when you’re not sure yet what all the elements will be. Tracks morph all the time, and yet everything is always moving forwards towards completion in some way. Everything should sound fun and inspiring to listen to all the time.”

Speaking is Jonathan Low, and the two records he refers to are, of course, Taylor Swift’s 2020 albums folklore and evermore, both of which reached number one in the UK and the US. Swift’s main producer and co‑writer on the two albums was the National’s Aaron Dessner, also interviewed in this issue. Low is the engineer, mixer and general right‑hand man at Long Pond Studios in upstate New York, where he and Dessner spent most of 2020 working on folklore and evermore, with Swift in Los Angeles for much of the time.

“In the beginning it did not feel real,” recalls Low. “There was this brand‑new collaboration, and it was amazing how quickly Aaron made these instrumental sketches and Taylor wrote lyrics and melodies to them, which she initially sent to us as iPhone voice memos. During our nightly family dinners in lockdown, Aaron would regularly pull up his phone and say, ‘Listen to this!’ and there would be another voice memo from Taylor with this beautiful song that she had written over a sketch of Aaron’s in a matter of hours. The rate at which it was happening was mind‑blowing. There was constant elevation, inspiration and just wanting to continue the momentum.

“We put her voice memos straight into Pro Tools. They had tons of character, because of the weird phone compression and cutting midrange quality you just would not get when you put someone in front of a pristine recording chain. Plus there was all this bleed. It’s interesting how that dictates the attitude of the vocal and of the song. Even though none of the original voice memos ended up on the albums, they often gave us unexpected hints. These voice memos were such on‑a‑whim things, they were really telling. Taylor had certain phrasings and inflections that we often returned to later on. They became our reference points.”

Pond Life

The making of the National’s 2017 album Sleep Well Beast and the setup at Long Pond were covered in SOS October 2017; today the studio remains pretty much the same, with the exception of a new desk. “The main space is really big, and the console sits in the middle,” says Low. “In 2019, I installed a 1965 WSW/Siemens, which has 24 line‑in and microphone channels and another 24 line channels. WSW is the Austrian branch of Siemens usually built for broadcast. It’s loaded with 811510B channels. The build quality is insane, the switches and pots feel like they were made yesterday. To me it hints at the warm haze of a Class‑A Neve channel but sits further forward in the speakers. The midrange band on the passive EQ is a huge part of its charm, it really does feel like you’re changing the tone of the actual source rather than the recording. Most microphones go through the desk on their way into Pro Tools, though we sometimes use outboard Neve 1064 mic pres. Occasionally I use the Siemens to sum a mix.

“We have a pair of ATC SCM45 monitors, which sound very clear in the large room. The ceiling is very high, and the front wall is about 25 feet behind the monitors. There are diffusers on the sidewalls and the back walls are absorbing, so there are very few reflections. Aaron and I will be listening in tons of different ways. I’ll listen in my home studio with similar ATC SCM20 monitors or on my ‘70s Marantz hi‑fi setup. Aaron is always checking things in his car, and if there’s something that is bugging him, I’ll join him in his car to find out what he hears.”

Low works at Long Pond and with Dessner most of the time, though he does find time to do other projects, among hem this last year the War On Drugs, Waxahatchee and Nap Eyes. When lockdown started in Spring 2020, Low tacked up on supplies and "had a bunch f mixes lined up". Meanwhile, on the Eest Coast, Swift had seen her Lover Fest our cancelled. With help from engineer aura Sisk, she set up a makeshift studio which she dubbed Kitty Committee in bedroom in her Los Angeles home, and began working with long-term producer nd co-writer Jack Antonoff. At the end of April, however, Swift also started working with Dessner, which took the project in different direction. The impressionistic, atmospheric, electro-folk instrumentals Dessner sent her were mostly composed nd recorded by him at Long Pond, assisted by Low.

Sketching Sessions

The instrumental sketches Aaron makes come into being in different ways," elaborates Low. "Sometimes they are more fleshed-out ideas, sometimes they are less formed. But normally Aaron will set himself up in the studio, surrounded by instruments and synths, and he'll construct a track. Once he feels it makes some kind of sense I'll come in and take a listen and then we together develop what's there.

"I don't call his sketches demos, because while many instruments are added and replaced later on, most of the original parts end up in the final version of the song. We end up in the final version of the song. We try to get the sketches to a place where they are already very engaging as instrumental are already very engaging as instrumental tracks. Aaron and I are always obsessively listening, because we constantly want to hear things that feel inspiring and musical, not just a bed of music in the background. It takes longer to create, but in this case also gave Taylor more to latch onto, both emotionally and in terms of musical inspiration. Hearing melodies woven in the music triggered new melodies."

Not long after Dessner and Low sent each sketch to Swift, they would receive her voice memos in return, and they'd load them into the Pro Tools session of the sketch in question. Dessner and Low then continued to develop the songs, in close collaboration with Swift. "Taylor's voice memos often came with suggestions for how to edit the sketches: maybe throw in a bridge somewhere, shorten a section, change the chords or arrangement somewhere, and so on. Aaron would have similar ideas, and he then developed the arrangements, often with his brother Bryce, adding or replacing instruments. This happened fast, and became very interactive between us and Taylor, even though we were working remotely. When we added instruments, we were reacting to the way my rough mixes felt at the very beginning. Of course, it was also dictated by how Taylor wrote and sang to the tracks."

Dessner supplied sketches for nine and produced 10 of folklore's 16 songs, playing many different types of guitars, keyboards and synths as well as percussion and programmed drums. Instruments that were added later include live strings, drums, trombone, accordion, clarinet, harpsichord and more, with his brother Bryce doing many of the orchestrations. Most overdubs by other musicians were done remotely as well. Throughout, Low was keeping an overview of everything that was going on and mixing the material, so it was as presentable and inspiring as possible.

Mixing folklore

Although Dessner has called folklore an "anti-pop album", the world's number-one pop mixer Serban Ghenea was drafted in to mix seven tracks, while Low did the remainder.

"It was exciting to have Serban involved," explains Low, "because he did things I'd never do or be able to do. The way the vocal sits always at the forefront, along with the clarity he gets in his mixes, is remarkable. A great example of this is on the song 'epiphany'. There is so much beautiful space and the vocal feels effortlessly placed. It was really interesting to hear where he took things, because we were so close to the entire process in every way. Hearing a totally new perspective was eye-opening and refreshing.

"Throughout the entire process we were trying to maintain the original feel. Sometimes this was hard, because that initial rawness would get lost in large arrangements and additional layering. With revisions of folklore in particular we sometimes were losing the emotional weight from earlier more casual mixes. Because I was always mixing, there was also always the danger of over-mixing.

"We were trying to get the best of each mix version, and sometimes that meant stepping backwards, and grabbing a piano chain from an earlier mix, or going three versions back to before we added orchestration. There were definitely moments of thinking, 'Is this going to compete sonically? Is this loud enough?' We knew we loved the way the songs sounded as we were building them, so we stuck with what we knew. There were times where I tried to keep pushing a mix forward but it didn't improve the song — 'cardigan' is an example of a song where we ended up choosing a very early mix."

The Low Down

"I'm originally from Philadelphia," says Jonathan Low, "and played piano, alto saxophone and guitar when growing up. My dad is an electrical engineer and audiophile hobbyist, and I learned a lot about circuit design and how to repair things. I then started building guitar pedals and guitar amps, and recorded bands at my high school using a minidisc player and some binaural microphones. After that I did a music industry programme at Drexel University, and spent a lot of time working at the recording facilities there.

"This led to me meeting Brian McTear, a producer and owner of Miner Street Studios, which became my home base from 2009 to 2014. I learned a lot from him, from developing an interest in creating sounds in untraditional ways, to how to see a record through to completion. The studio has a two-inch 16-track Ampex MM1200 tape machine and a beautiful MCI 400 console which very quickly shaped the way I think about routing and signal flow. I'm lucky to have learned this way, because a computer environment is like the Wild West: there are no rules in terms of how to get from point A to point B. This flexibility is incredible, but sometimes there are simply too many options.

"l met Aaron [Dessned] because singer-songwriter Sharon van Etten recorded her second album, Epic [2010] at Miner Street, with Brian producing. Her third album, Tramp [2012] was produced by Aaron. They came to Philly to record drums and I ended up mixing a bunch of that record. After that I would occasionally go to work in Aaron's garage studio in Brooklyn, and this became more and more a regular collaboration. I then moved from Philly up to the Hudson Valley to help Aaron build Long Pond. We first used the studio in the spring of 2016, when beginning to record the National's album Sleep Well Beast."

Onward & Upward

folklore was finished and released in July 2020. In a normal world everyone might have gone on to do other things, but without the option of touring, they simply continued writing songs, with Low holding the fort. In September, many of the musicians who played on the album gathered at Long Pond for the shooting of a making-of documentary, folklore: the long pond studio sessions, which is streamed on Disney+.

The temporary presence of Swift at Long Pond changed the working methods somewhat, as she could work with Dessner in the room, and Low was able record her vocals. After Swift left again, sessions continued until December, when evermore was released, with Dessner producing or co-producing all tracks, apart from 'gold rush' which was co-written and co-produced by Swift and Antonoff. Low recorded many of Swift's vocals for evermore, and mixed the entire album. The lead single 'willow' became the biggest hit from the album, reaching number one in the US and number three in the UK.

"Before Taylor came to Long Pond," remembers Low, "she had always recorded her vocals for folklore remotely in Los Angeles or Nashville. When I recorded, I used a modern Telefunken U47, which is our go-to vocal mic — we record all the National stuff with that — going straight into the Siemens desk, and then into a Lisson Grove AR-1 tube compressor, and via a Burl A-D converter into Pro Tools. Taylor creates and lays down her vocal arrangements very quickly, and it sounds like a finished record in very few takes."

Devils In The Detail

In his mixes, Low wanted listeners to share his own initial response to these vocal performances. "The element that draws me in is always Taylor's vocals. The first time I received files with her properly recorded but premixed vocals I was just floored. They sounded great, even with minimal EQ and compression. They were not the way I'm used to hearing her voice in her pop songs, with the vocal soaring and sitting at the very front edge of the soundscape. In these raw performances, I heard so much more intimacy and interaction with the music. It was wonderful to hear her voice with tons of detail and nuances in place: her phrasing, her tonality, her pitch, all very deliberate. We wanted to maintain that. It's more emotional, and it sounds so much more personal to me. Then there was the music..."

The arrangements on evermore are even more 'chamber pop' than on folklore, with instruments like glockenspiel, crotales, flute, French horn, celeste and harmonium in evidence. "As listeners of the National may know, Aaron's and Bryce's arrangements can be quite dense. They love lush orchestration, all sorts of percussion, synths and other electronic sounds. The challenge was trying to get them to speak, without getting in the way of the vocals. I want a casual listener to be drawn in by the vocal, but sense that something special is happening in the music as well. At the same time, someone who really is digging in can fully immerse themselves and take in all the beauty deeper in the details of the sound and arrangement. Finding the balance between presenting all the musical elements that were happening in the arrangement and this really beautiful, upfront, real-sounding vocal was the ticket."

A particular challenge is that a lot of the detail that Aaron gravitates towards happens in the low mids, which is a very warm part of our hearing spectrum that can quickly become too muddy or too woolly. A lot of the tonal and musical information lives in the low mids, and then the vocal sits more in the midrange and high mids. There's not too much in the higher frequency range, except the top of the guitars, and some elements like a shaker and the higher buzzy parts of the synths. Maintaining clarity and separation in those often complex arrangements was a major challenge."

In & Out The Box

According to Low, the final mix stage for evermore was "very short. There was a moment in the final week or so leading up to the release where the songs were developed far enough for me to sit down and try to make something very cohesive and final, finalising vocal volume, overall volume, and the vibe. There's a point in every mix where the moves get really small. When a volume ride of 0.1dB makes a difference, you're really close to being done. Earlier on, those little adjustments don't really matter.

"I often try to mix at the console, with some outboard on the two-bus, but folklore was mixed all in the box, because we were working so fast, plus initially the plan was for the mixes to be done elsewhere. I ran a couple of mixes for evermore through the console, and `closure' was the only one that stuck. It was summed through the Siemens, with an API 2500 compressor and a Thermionic Culture Phoenix and then back into Pro Tools via the Burl A-D. I will use hardware when mixing in the box, though mainly just two units: the Eventide H3000, because I have not found any plug-ins that do the same thing, and the [Thermionic] Culture Vulture, for its very broad tone shaping and distortion properties.

"The writing and the production happened closely in conjunction with the engineering and mixing, and the arrangements were dense, making many of the sessions super hefty and actually quite messy. Sounds would constantly change roles in the arrangement and sometimes plug-ins would just stack up. So final mixing involved cleaning up the sessions and stemming large groups down."

Across The Rubber Bridge

The Pro Tools mix session of 'willow' has close to 100 tracks, though there's none of the elaborate bussing that's the hallmark of some modern sessions. At the top are six drum machine tracks in green from the Teenage Engineering OP-1, an instrument that was used extensively on the album. Below that are five live percussion tracks (blue), three bass tracks (pink), and an `AUX Drums' programming track. There's a 'rubber bridge' guitar folder and aux, OP-1 synth tracks, piano tracks, 'Dream Machine' (Josh Kaufman's guitar) and E-bow tracks, Yamaha, Sequential Prophet X, Moog and Roland Juno synth tracks, and Strings and Horns aux stem tracks.

"Most of the drum tracks were performed on the OP-1 by Aaron. These are not programmed tracks. Bryan Devendorf, drummer of the National, programmed some beats on a Roland TR-8S. I ran those though the Fender Rumble bass amp, which adds some woofiness, like an acoustic kit room mic. There's an acoustic shaker, and there's an OP-1 backbeat that's subtle in the beginning, and then gets stronger towards the end of the song. I grouped all the drum elements and the bass, and sent those out to a hardware insert with the Culture Vulture, for saturation, so it got louder and more and more harmonically rich. There is this subtle growing and crescendo of intensity of the rhythm section by the end.

"The 'rubber bridge' guitars were the main anchor in the instruments. These guitars have a wooden bridge wrapped in rubber, and sound a bit like a nylon-string guitar, or a light palm mute. They're very percussive and sound best when recorded on our Neumann U47 and a DI. On many of those DI tracks I have a [SPL] Transient Designer to lower the sustain and keep them punchy, especially in the low end. There's a folder with five takes of 'rubber bridge' guitar in this session, creating this wall of unique guitar sound.

"I treated the 'rubber bridge' guitars quite extensively. There's a FabFilter Pro-Q3 cutting some midrange frequencies and some air around 10kHz. These guitars can splash out in the high end and have a boominess that's in the same range as the low end of Taylor's vocal, so I had to keep these things under control. Then I used a SoundToys Tremolator, with a quarter-note tremolo that makes the accents in the playing a bit more apparent. I like to get the acoustic guitars a little bit out of the way for the less important beats, so I have the Massey CT5 compressor side-chained to the kick drum. I also used the UAD Precision K-Stereo to make the guitars a bit wider. The iZotope Ozone Exciter adds some high mids and high-end harmonic saturation sparkly stuff, and the SoundToys EchoBoy delay is automated, with it only coming on in the bridge, where I wanted more ambience."

Growing Pains

"Once we had figured out how to sit the 'rubber bridge' guitars in the mix, the next challenge was to work out the end of the song, after the bridge. Taylor actually goes down an octave with her voice in the last chorus, and at the same time the music continues to push and grow. That meant using a lot of automation and Clip Gain adjustment to make sure the vocal always stayed on top. There also are ambient pianos playing counter-melodies, and balancing the vocals, guitars and pianos was the main focus on this song. We spent a lot of time balancing this, particularly as the track grows towards the end.

"The vocal tracks share many of the same plug-ins and settings. On the main lead vocal track I added the UAD Pultec EQP-1A, with a little bit of a cut in the low end at 30Hz, and a boost at 8kHz, which adds some modern air. The second plug-in is the Oeksound Soothe, which is just touching the vocal, and it helps with any harsh resonance stuff in the high mids, and a little in the lower mids. Next is the UAD 1176AE, and then the FabFilter Pro-Q3, doing some notches at 200Hz, 1kHz, 4kHz and close to 10kHz. I tend to do subtractive EQ on the Q3, and use more analogue-sounding plug-ins, like the Pultec or the Maag, to boost. After that is the FabFilter Pro-DS [de-esser], taking off a couple of decibels, followed by the FabFilter Saturn 2 [saturation processor], on a warm tape setting.

"Below the vocal tracks are three aux effects tracks, for the vocals. 'Long Delay' has a stereo EchoBoy going into an Altiverb with a spring reverb, for effect throws in the choruses. 'Chamber' is the UAD Capitol Chamber, which gives the vocal a nice density and size, without it being a long reverb. The 'Plate' aux is the UAD EMT140, for the longer tail. These two reverbs work in conjunction, with the chamber for the upfront space, determining where the vocal sits in the mix, and the plate more for the depth behind that.

"At the bottom of the session is a two-bus aux, which mimics the way I do the two-bus on the desk. The plug-ins are the UAD Massive Passive EQ, UAD API 2500 compressor, and the UAD Ampex ATR102. Depending on the song, I will choose 15ips or 30ips. In this case it was set to 15ips, half-inch GP9. That has a nice, aggressive, midrange push, and the GP9 bottom end goes that little bit lower. There's also a PSP Vintage Warmer, a Sonnox Oxford Inflator, plus a FabFilter Pro-L2 [limiter]. None of these things are doing very much on their own, but in conjunction give me the interaction I expect from an analogue mix chain."

#Aaron Dessner #bryce dessner #Jonathan Low #the long pond studio sessions #making of #folklore album #evermore album #interview #about taylor #taylor swift #songwriting #producer #evermore era #folklore era #Sound on Sound Magazine #scans

[my-timing-is-digital]

Pick one of the AUs below & reply the number of the AU, for which you would like to receive a starter*. Naturally, there is still an option for a starter that is not based on any of the AUs. Thus, in case all of them suck, the eighth option is there for you!

1. Starfleet Academy

2. Awake

3. All Good Things

4. Number One

5. Sons of Soong

6. Discovery

7. Random (any one of the plots above)

8. Good old-fashioned starter (none of the plots above)

For additional information & rules etc. consult my extra information tab, or click here when you’re on mobile. Permanent starters will be written for mutuals only. Multi-muse roleplay blogs, specify your muse. Friendly reminder: minors & non-roleplay blogs, do not interact.

* The starter will take place somewhere along the timeline of the corresponding AU.

#PERMANENT STARTER CALL // my-timing-is-digital #star trek rp #verse // boldness be my friend #verse // the miserable hath no other medicine but only hope #verse // so weary with disasters tugg’d with fortune that I would set my life on any chance to mend or be rid on’t #verse // virtue is bold and goodness never fearful #verse // we few; we happy few; we band of brothers #verse // to unpath'd waters undream'd shores

[carnationcreation]

Can you do a Reggie x reader where the reader is Luke little sister and also in the band who been dating Reggie before they died behind her brother back . And now that they ghost Reggie out them which makes Luke and her fight . Then Luke doesn’t speak to her for awhile only to see how much the reader and reggie really love each other he apologizes then.

TITLE:  Secrets (JATP Reggie x reader)

(Reggie x reader, Luke x sister!reader)

✌🏻Masterlist Taglist, Requests, and Works in progress!

Request: yes!

Prompt/summary:  Reader and Reggie were dating in 1995, what happens when her brother finds out in 2020?

Word Count: 1,295

Authors note: special thanks to my proofreaders, @dr-rigatoni 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It had been two years of them dating in 1995 and Luke still hadn’t noticed. 

Even after 25 years of them being dead, he still hadn’t noticed. (Y/n) counted that as an accomplishment. Her boyfriend Reggie did not like sneaking around, hiding their relationship from her brother, but the girl insisted, knowing what the consequences might be if they were caught. 

“Why can’t we just tell him?”

“Reggie, I don’t want to come between you guys. You’re best friends; you’re my best friends. I don’t want to be the reason the band fights. We just need to be patient.”

After Julie got them back to the real world it was a hard adjustment. Apparently, 90’s fashion is considered cringey now. Luckily she could stay behind the scenes, helping write songs and edit videos. 

“For a 42-year-old girl you sure can edit videos really well,” Julie laughed.

“This is amazing! If I had had this back in high school I would’ve been the most popular kid in school.” 

“So,” Julie said flopping down on the bed, “what are you going to do about Reggie and Luke?”

(Y/) sighed, “I don’t know. I should tell him soon but there’s never a good time.”

“The longer you wait the angrier he’s going to be when he finds out.”

“I know,” (Y/n) put her head in her hands.

“You’ll figure it out, I know you can,” Julie said, ruffling (Y/n)’s hair as she walked away.

At least now when Reggie and (Y/n) snuck out it was easier yet harder at the same time. On one hand, they could teleport to anywhere they knew, on the other hand, so could Luke. They had to choose places he wouldn’t think to look and come up with game plans for if he accidentally showed up somewhere. 

“Reggie,” (Y/n) giggled, “We have to go soon, the bands probably waiting on us.”

Reggie smiled as he placed a few more kisses on the girl’s face before grabbing her hand and teleporting back outside of the garage.

“Where have you two been?” Alex said, bringing Luke and Julie’s attention to the late band members walking through the door.

“Uhhh-”

(Y/n) spoke for him, “We went down to the boulevard to hang up flyers for this weekend's show. Like Julie asked me to.”

Julie’s eyebrows furrowed before she saw the mock flyers in the girl’s hand and decided to let it go.

“You two went alone?” Luke asked suspiciously.

“Yeah…” (Y/n) said quietly. Panic quickly rose in her mind as she tried to find another way out of this, “I- didn’t want to go alone! So Reggie offered to help me.”

She nudged the boy’s elbow telling him it was his turn, “Yeah! I mean, I just didn’t want her to be alone and have something happen.”

Luke seemed to accept that answer, “Next time I can go with you (Y/n).”

(Y/n) smiled before giving Reggie’s arm a squeeze and sitting down on the couch to watch practice.

A few days later the couple found themselves in a rather troubling situation.

Band practice had been going as normal for the most part. (Y/n), Julie, and Luke had all been working tirelessly on this new song and everyone was very happy with it.

(Y/n) leaned over to continue on a new verse, her hair fell down in her face and Reggie pushed it back behind her ear without a second thought.

 The action didn’t go unnoticed by Luke.

“So,” he said, placing his guitar on the stand and leaning back in his chair, “When were you two gonna tell me?”

(Y/n) looked over at Reggie confused.

“What do you mean man?”

“I mean when were you going to tell me you had a thing for my little sister?”

Reggie's face went pale and (Y/n) started to blush.

Reggie finally spoke up, “Dude, why would you think that?”

“It all makes sense now, why you guys are always missing and come back together, why (Y/n) always saves a spot next to her for you at dinner, why you always look for her first in the crowd. I thought it was because you were best friends. Why would you go behind my back like this?”

Julie tried to step in, “Luke they-”

“Stop it,” he snapped, “I really don’t want to hear it.”

Luke stood up and disappeared from the room leaving a distraught (Y/n) and shocked Julie.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Following that incident, Luke refused to talk to Reggie or (Y/n). Most days (Y/n) had to excuse herself from practice to go and hide her tears in the bathroom of the garage. Reggie always came to check on her after practice.

When Julie walked in on Reggie holding a sobbing (Y/n) she finally snapped back.

“What did you say to her?” she said as she stormed back into the garage.

Luke looked up confused, “Who?”

“(Y/n)! She’s outside sobbing and I want to know what the heck you said to my best friend.”

“I just said I didn’t want to talk to someone who keeps secrets.”

Julie rolled her eyes, “So you’re just going to ignore the fact that you go to your parents’ house without telling her?”

“That’s different,” he scoffed as he put his guitar back into its stand.

“How is it any different?” Julie threw her hands up, “Your sister is out there heartbroken because what she did to try and protect the band is blowing up in her face. She only hid it from you because she didn’t want it to affect how you see Reggie! Luke, if you don’t fix this now I’m not coming to the next performance.”

Luke gawked as Julie turned on her heel and walked out.

When Luke finally came to his senses he left the garage in search of his sister. He found her in the driveway, being held by Reggie as tears ran down her face.

“Hey,” he said, Reggie looked up with a frown on his face, “Can I talk to (Y/n) for a minute?”

(Y/n) wiped the tears away with the back of her hand and nodded at her concerned boyfriend. Reggie gave her a kiss on the forehead as he left.

“(Y/n)...”

She sniffled and held back more tears, “Luke if you don’t want me around just say it. I won’t show up to practices anymore and-”

“That’s not what I want you to do.”

“Then what?” she looked up at him and his heart broke.

 Standing in front of him was his little sister, the little sister he hurt by his own words. 

“(Y/n), I’m so sorry. I acted so stupid. I promise I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings, I just don’t want you to be hurt by anyone.”

(Y/n) wiped her tears away, “You think Reggie would hurt me?”

“No! No. I just… I don’t want to have to beat up any boy for hurting you. I guess... if anyone’s going to be a good choice for you it would be him. I promise I won’t bother you guys about it anymore,” he said, putting his hands on her shoulders.

“Promise?”

Luke nodded and wiped away his sister’s tears with his thumb. (Y/n) pulled him into a tight hug.

“Band practice is canceled!” Julie yelled.

(Y/n) turned to Luke and smiled.

“Go, you guys can go,” Luke said.

(Y/n) stood on her toes to kiss her brother on the cheek. Reggie walked down the steps, catching his girlfriend as she jumped into his arms. Both of them giggling.

Julie walked up to Luke, “You did good.”

“I hope so,” Luke sighed, “Cause it’d be a shame if I had to punch my best friend.”

Julie laughed, “They’ll be fine.”

Luke and Julie smiled as they watched the two run off hand in hand.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*If you signed up for my taglist but don’t see your name please message me!

Taglist: @thebookwormlife @talksoprettyjjx  @coolreallyfuzzystudentuniverse  @igotabadfeelingabouteverything @larrystylinson-sus @lovesanimals @aunicornmademedoit @thexhotmess @ssprayberrythings @registerednursejackie @nicolewithasoul @homealone200 @peachyxdream @catieiscute2001 @julieandthephantomsblogduh @fangirling-allday @ashleyleblancx @alltimekp @wcnderwoo @unipanda1006 @disgustedchild @aberette13 @dpaccione @whyworry27 @number-0-iz @musicconversedance @owlgirl1209 @angelxfics @hamdehlesmis @pressmansmultis @marinettepotterandplagg @idkanymoremansstuff @carleywhittaker @spooky-season-bitch @starkeysgirl @chenellearose @voguesir @thegirlwholikestomanythings @mandiscadelinha @joshy-obx @mochamiilk @caitsymichelle13 @kiss-themoongoodbye @noncannonships @intoanothermind @etherealexsistence @schnapp-my-neck @ficticiouscreativity  @sunsetcurve-h  @peresphoncs @lolychu @joshy-obx @mochamiilk @starenemy @caitsymichelle13  @noncannonships @cherrybombboom @itskindyl @heidimortensen123  

#julie and the phantoms #julie and the phantoms imagine #jatp reggie x reader #luke patterson imagine #jatp luke x sister!reader #jatp alex #jatp reggie #jatp luke #jatp julie #julie molina #luke patterson

[lochtayboatsong]

The Jesus Christ Superstar essay absolutely no one asked for.

Last weekend, I watched the pro-shot of the 2012 arena tour of Jesus Christ Superstar starring Ben Forster, Tim Minchin, and Melanie C, because it was Easter and it was up on YT for the weekend.  I never managed to do my annual listen-through of Leonard Bernstein’s Mass this year, as is my usual Easter tradition, so I figured “Why not watch/listen to this instead?”  It was my first time seeing and hearing JCS in full, and Y’ALL, it has been living rent-free in my brain ever since.  I have a mighty need to get my thoughts out, so here they are, in chronological order by song.  

1) Prologue: I love the way JCS 2012 makes use of the arena video screen.  The production design and concept clearly took a lot of inspiration from the “Occupy ______” movement, which makes it feel a bit dated now.  But every single production of JCS is a product of its time period, so this is a feature and not a bug.  

2) Heaven On Their Minds: This is a straight-up rock song.  It wouldn’t be out of place on any rock and roll album released between 1970 and 2021, and it boggles my mind that Webber and Rice were both in their early twenties when they wrote it.  Also, the lyric “You’ve begun to matter more than the things you say” hits hard no matter the year.

3) What’s the Buzz: A+ use of the arena screens again, this time bringing in social media to set the tone.  Also, this song establishes right from the outset that Jesus is burnt out and T I R E D by this point in the story.  Seriously, can we just let this man have a nap?

4) Strange Thing Mystifying: Judas publicly calls out Mary and Jesus claps back.  Folx, get you a partner who will defend your honor the way Jesus defends MM in this scene.  Also Jesus loses his shoes and is mostly barefoot for the remainder of the show.

5) Everything’s Alright: Okay, this is one of the songs I have A LOT to say about.  First, it’s important to know that I was a church musician throughout all of my adolescence and into my early adulthood.  The pianist at the services I usually played at was a top-notch jazz pianist, and also my piano teacher for about six years while I as in high school and undergrad.  (Incidentally, I had a HUGE crush on his son, who was/is a jazz saxophonist and clarinetist and also played in the church band, but that’s a story for another day.)  One of the hymns we played a few times a year was called “Sing of the Lord’s Goodness,” which is notable for being in 5/4 time.  Whenever this hymn was on the schedule, it was usually the recessional, or the last song played as the clergy processed out and the congregation got ready to leave, so we were able to have some fun with it.  After a couple verses the piano player and his son would usually morph it into “Take Five,” a famous jazz standard by Dave Brubeck which is also in 5/4 time.  Anyway, the first time I listened to this song in full, it got to Judas’s line “People who are hungry, people who are starving,” and I sat bolt upright and went “HOLY SHIT THIS IS ‘SING OF THE LORD’S GOODNESS/TAKE FIVE.’”  And I was ricocheted back in time to being fourteen and trying to keep up with this father/son duo in a cavernous Catholic church while simultaneously making heart-eyes at the son.  Final note: This is the only song in the musical to feature all three leads (Jesus, Judas, and Mary Magdalene) and is mostly Jesus and MM being soft with each other in between bouts of Jesus and Judas snarling at one another.

6) This Jesus Must Die: I LOVE that all the villains in this production are in tailored suits.  LOVE IT.  Also, Caiaphas and Annas are a comedy duo akin to “the thin guy and the fat guy,” except in this case it’s “the low basso profundo and the high tenor.”  Excellent use of the arena video screen again, this time as CCTV.

7) Hosanna: My background as a church musician strikes back again.  It honestly took me two or three listens to catch it, but then I had another moment of sitting bolt upright and going “HOLY SHIT THIS IS A PSALM.”  Psalms sung in church usually take the form of call-and-response, with a cantor singing the verses and the congregation joining in for the chorus.  If I close my eyes during this song, I have no trouble imagining Jesus as a church cantor singing the verses and then bringing the congregation in for the “Ho-sanna, Hey-sanna” chorus. 

8) Simon Zealotes: This is part “Gloria In Excelsis” and part over-the-top Gospel song.  Honestly it’s not my favorite, but it marks an important mood change in the show.  The end of “Hosanna” is probably Jesus at his happiest in the entire show, and then Simon comes in and sours the mood by trying to tip the triumphant moment into a violent one.  Jesus is not truly happy again from this moment on.

9) Poor Jerusalem: Also not my fave.  It kinda reads like Webber and Rice realized that Jesus didn’t have a solo aria in Act I, so they came up with this.  But it has the distinction of containing the lyric, “To conquer death you only have to die,” which is the biggest overarching theme of the story.

10) Pilate’s Dream: Pontius Pilate might be the most underrated role in this entire show, and I love that this production has him singing this song while being dressed in judge’s robes.  

11) The Temple: The first half of this is one of the campiest numbers in Act I, at least in this production, and it’s awesome.  The second half is one of the saddest, as Jesus tries to heal the sick but finds there are too many of them.  Also the whole scene is almost entirely in 7/8 time, which I think is just cool.

12) I Don’t Know How To Love Him: Mary Magdalene’s big aria, and one of the songs I knew prior to seeing the full-length show.  This production has MM taking off her heavy lipstick and eye makeup onstage, mid-song, which is kind of cool.  Melanie C says in a BTS interview that MM’s makeup is her armor, so this is a Big Symbolic Moment.

13) Damned For All Time: The scene transition into this song is played entirely in pantomime, and I love it.  The solo guitarist gets to be onstage for a bit, A+ use of the video screen again to show Judas on CCTV, etc.  Love it.  And then this song is Judas frantically rationalizing what he’s doing, and what he’s about to do, with Caiphas and Annas just reacting with raised eyebrows and knowing looks.

14) Blood Money: This is where the tone of the show really takes a turn for the dark.  I think this might be one of Tim Minchin’s finest moments as Judas, because his facial expressions and microexpressions throughout this scene speak absolute volumes.  And the offstage chorus quietly singing “Well done Judas” as he picks up the money is a positively chilling way to end Act I.

15) The Last Supper: Act II begins with major “Drink With Me” vibes.  (Except JCS came WAY before Les Miz, so it’s probably more accurate to say that “Drink With Me” has major “The Last Supper” vibes.)  Jesus and Judas have their knock-down, drag-out fight, and it’s honestly heartbreaking, thanks again to Tim Minchin’s facial expressions.  A well-done production of JCS will really convey that Jesus and Judas were once closer than brothers, even though their relationship is at breaking point when Act I begins.

16) Gethsemane: This is Jesus’s major showpiece and one of my faves.  Jesus knows he has less than 24 hours to live, he knows he’s going to suffer, and worst of all, he doesn’t know whether it’s going to be worth it.  It’s an emotional rollercoaster to watch and to perform, and it goes on for ages: something like 6 or 7 minutes.  Fun fact: the famous G5 is not written in the score.  Ian Gillan, who played Jesus on the original concept album, just sang it that way, so most subsequent Jesuses have also done it that way.  Lindsay Ellis has a great supercut of this on YT.  John Legend notably sang the line as written during the 2018 concert.  

17) The Arrest: Judas’s Betrayer’s Kiss is played differently across different productions.  The 2012 version is pretty tame - I’ve seen clips and gifs of other productions, including the 2000 direct-to-video version, where they kiss fully on the mouth and have to be dragged apart by the guards and it is THE MOST TENDER THING.  Then the 7/8 riff from “The Temple” comes back and the 2012 version lets the video screen do its thing again as Jesus is swarmed by reporters.

18) Peter’s Denial: Not much to say about this one, as it’s basically a scene transition.  But it’s a significant moment in the Passion story, so I’m glad they included it.

19) Pilate and Christ: The 2012 production continues with the theme of Caiaphas, Annas, and Pilate all being bougie af, since Pilate intentionally looks like he just came from tennis practice during this scene.  Also he does pilates...hehehe.

20) King Herod’s Song: Tim Minchin says in a BTS interview that JCS works best when Jesus and Judas are played seriously and the rest of the production is allowed to be completely camp and wild and bizarre all around them, and he is bloody well CORRECT about that.  Case in point: King Herod.  There is not a single production of JCS that I know of where Herod is played “straight.”  He’s been played by everyone from Alice Cooper to Jack Black, and everyone puts a different zany spin on him.  In JCS 2012 he’s a chat show host in a red crushed velvet suit, who is clearly having the time of his LIFE. 

21) Could We Start Again Please: This is another of my faves.  Just a quiet moment where MM, Peter, and the disciples try to grapple with the fact that Jesus is arrested and things are going very, very badly.  This is also my favorite Melanie C moment of the 2012 show.  Her grief is very real, and the little moment she has with Peter at the end is very real.

22) Death of Judas: This is basically Tim Minchin screaming for about five minutes, and incredibly harrowing to watch on first viewing.  

23) Trial Before Pilate: Possibly my single favorite scene in the entire 2012 production.  This is another harrowing watch, but there’s so much to take in.  The “set” that the entire show takes place on is essentially just a massive staircase, and the people with power are almost always positioned above the people without power.  In this scene, the crowd shouting “Crucify Him!” is positioned above Pilate, which is a very telling clue to Pilate’s psychology during this scene.  Jesus is at the very bottom of the stairs, of course.  Excellent use of the video screen once again during the 39 Lashes, to show the lash marks building and building until the entire screen is a wash of red.  Pilate’s counting also gets more and more frantic, especially starting around “20.”  And all the while the guitar riff from “Heaven On Their Minds” is playing.  Jesus’s line “Everything is fixed and you can’t change it” is played quite differently in different productions - here it’s defiant, but elsewhere (in JCS 2000 for example) it’s almost tender, like Jesus is absolving Pilate for his part in the trial.  But it always ends the same - with Pilate almost screaming as he passes the sentence and “washes his hands” of the whole sorry business. 

24) Superstar: The most over-the-top number in the show.  Judas, who died two scenes ago, comes back to sing this.  There are soul singers.  There are girls in skimpy angel costumes.  The parkour guys from the prologue are back.  Judas pulls a tambourine out of hammerspace midway through the song.  And Jesus is silently screaming and crying as he gets hoisted onto a lighting beam while all this is going on.

25) The Crucifixion: More of a spoken-word piece than a song, it’s Jesus’s final words on the cross over eerie piano music, and another harrowing watch.

26) John 19:41: An instrumental piece in which Jesus is taken from the cross and carried, at last, to the top of the stairs, before being lowered out of sight as the video screen turns into a memorial wall and everything fades to black.

So.  I know I’m anywhere from three to fifty-one years late to this particular party, but I am on the JCS bandwagon now and I’m thoroughly enjoying myself.  :)

#jesus christ superstar #jcs 2012 #jcs is all i have been thinking about all week sorry not sorry #ben forster #tim minchin #melanie c #andrew lloyd webber #tim rice

[unsaidholland]

what a time | t. holland

hello besties, this is a tom fic that has been in the making for a while! a personal favourite trope, tom and musician!reader break up and she writes a song about him! what a time by julia michaels ft. niall horan is used as the reader’s song, definitely go listen to it if you haven’t!

warnings: it’s mostly sad so grab some tissues, fluff at the end

you, like tom, didn’t have a very typical job. while your friends went off to university to get their degrees, you went on to become a musician. that’s how you had met tom. he dmed you one day saying that he loved your music, you said you loved his movies, and the rest was history. he ended up introducing you to so many people over the ten months that you two were together, one of them being niall horan. niall and you exchanged numbers wanting to eventually collab, but neither of you thought that your breakup would be the reason that the two of you were going to release a song together.

after ten months, you and tom called it quits. you made sure the media thought it was mutual. that was the first thing you agreed on when the two of you started dating - if you ever went public and had broken up, it would seem to be a mutual agreement. neither of you wanted the other’s reputation to be ruined. little did the public know, the breakup was anything but mutual. he had broken up with you. you never knew why. he had just said, “it wasn’t working out.” that was all he left you with. that was all you had for closure. funny how forever seemed to last just over ten months, right?

you sat in your living room with a guitar in your hands. you had so much emotion that you had bottled up, and the only way you knew to get it out was songwriting. after messing around with different chords on your guitar, you found a chord progression that you were really confident in. the melody seemed to come naturally, and so your phone began to fill up with voice memos of possible lyrics. 

i think of that night in the park, it was getting dark

and we stayed up for hours

what a time, what a time, what a time

you clinged to my body like you wanted it forever

what a time, what a time, what a time

for you and I

what a time, what a time

for you and I

the chorus came naturally, the verses came next, and before you knew it you had a rough draft of a song. after listening back to the song, you realized that it was missing something. you looked around the living room, sunlight peeking through the sheer, white blinds. after writing for two hours, you decided you needed a snack and a coffee. 

you walked to the coffee shop down the street from your apartment. the coffee shop that you used to go to with tom. as you stood in line to order, your mind couldn’t help but wonder if he came to the shop when he was in town? did he stand in line and think about whether you still went here too? you ordered your iced coffee and pain au chocolat and sat at one of the tables. you chose a table far, far away from where you and tom used to sit. this place would always remind you of him no matter how hard you tried. the warm lights brightened up the room, but it still felt dim without tom. the coffee shop didn’t have that sense of warmth and familiarity that it used to, that tom brought to it whenever you used to go. 

you watched as people walked in and out of the shop. you watched as couples kissed in line as they waited. you watched as people seemed happy. you needed to figure out what was missing with your song, and as you watched two people out on the street argue, you realized you needed a second voice on the track. 

later that night, you asked niall to feature on your song. when you sent him a very rough recording of what you had written, he immediately agreed. the song was raw and real, the song revealed more about your breakup with tom than you could ever say. 

•••

it had been two weeks since you released the song. what a time became popular enough to get you and niall a spot on james cordon’s show. as you were sat on stage and the band started playing the intro, you felt tears well up in your eyes. you couldn’t do it. you walked off stage where niall found you.

“come here,” was all he said. it was all he needed to say. he wrapped his arms around you and rubbed your back as your head sat on his chest. his heartbeat helped to calm you down. you and niall were just friends, but he was like a brother to you, especially after he helped you with the song. “let’s try again, yeah?” he asked you after a few minutes. the crew backstage just watched as he comforted you. you wiped the tears away from your face and nodded.

soon enough you were back on stage and performing the song. you fought back the tears throughout the whole performance, but whenever you felt the tears about to spill over, niall was there to get you through it. when he was close to you, he would hug you or hold your hand, and when he couldn’t he gave you a reassuring look. a look that said, “we’re going to get through this.”  your voice wavered as you sang, but the audience still cheered you on. the emotion that you felt pushed you to finish the performance, because as soon as it was done, the sooner you could get home and cry, cry somewhere that wasn’t in the eyes of the spotlight. 

the episode you were on aired a few days later. you couldn’t bear to watch it, but you tweeted about it to help bring some publicity towards it. little did you know, on the other side of the world, tom was watching it as it aired. he was having dinner at his parent’s house when his dad had turned on the tv to watch the late late show. tom thought nothing of it and sat down on the couch next to the twins. he laughed at the segments, but then he saw you. nikki, knowing it was going to be too much for her firstborn, instinctively went to reach for the remote, but was stopped by tom saying a quiet, “no.”

he watched you as you sang. he watched as you poured your heart out to the world. tom watched you fight back tears that no one else could see, but most importantly, tom knew that he was the cause of this. he was the one who called it off, he was the one who ripped your heart in half, he was the one who caused all your tears, grief, and pain. he could never take that back. tom was too entranced by your performance to realize that he was shedding tears. he may not have been your boyfriend anymore, but he still knew you like the back of his hand. he missed you like a child misses his mother on the first day of school. he needed you the way the ocean needs the moon’s push and pull to create waves. it took you publicly fighting back your tears on stage for tom to realize completely that he had lost something more important to him than anything. 

tom listened to you sing.

you clinged to my body like you wanted it forever, what a lie, what a lie, what a lie.

he wanted you for forever. all he ever wanted was for you to stay in his arms forever, but clearly he lost everything when he broke it off. at the time it all seemed reasonable. he loved you, but he didn’t want to lose your relationship to the distance, so he called it off. tom just never thought that it would hurt this much. being separated by vast oceans didn’t make it any better either. it made everything worse. he couldn’t just go and see you. he needed to fly out to la, find out where you were staying, and find a place for him to stay. and in the case that you did take him back, he needed to change his schedule to make sure he didn’t lose you again, because he couldn’t lose you, not again.

he wiped away the tears that rolled down his flushed cheeks with the cuff of his blue midtown high sweater. as you and niall hugged at the end of the performance he thought about how perfect life was when he held you in his arms. he thought about how he should be the one holding you in his arms. he thought about how he lost everything the day he lost you. it had been a month and a half since the breakup, and he felt like he had been suffering ever since. he needed you, that was the only thing he knew to be true. 

“come here darling,” nikki said, opening up her arms to wrap around her son after getting up to comfort him. he held onto her like his life depended on it. she rubbed his back and placed a tender kiss on the top of his head. 

“i miss her so much.” his voice was breathy, light and filled with air, yet heavy with emotion. “mum i can’t live without her, why did i ever leave her?” he sobbed into her chest. tom didn’t care if the rest of his family was watching him sob over a girl he broke up with, he only cared about you. “i really messed up.” he pulled away to look at his mother’s expression expecting disappointment, but only seeing a soft, warm smile.

“you’re allowed to mess up. you live and you learn. the important thing is what are you going to do about it?” nicola was always a wise woman in tom’s eyes. she always knew what to say and when to say it. not only that, but she was always a good friend to him, not just his mom. she looked into tom’s brown eyes that were only swirling with emotion. deep in thought, tom could only hear his mom’s words roaming around his mind. what are you going to do about it?

•••

less than 36 hours later tom found himself in la. he was on a journey to find you, and this time he wasn’t planning on giving up. he knew where to find you.

you stumbled into your favourite coffee shop as you always did. the coffee in la was different than back home, so whenever you were in la you couldn’t stop the small coffee obsession. you sat down at a table, opening your laptop to answer some emails and get some work done. you may have been sitting alone at a table, but you were comfortable with the space. 

tom had walked in, ordered a coffee and a cookie, and after paying and receiving his order, his eyes scanned the room to find you, which he easily did. you looked ethereal, he thought you were so beautiful despite only wearing jeans and a plain t-shirt. you weren’t done up, but he still thought you were absolutely gorgeous. he mustered up the courage to ask if he could sit at your table, and once the two of you made eye contact it was as if the world stopped for a moment. his chest tightened at the sight of you, and the knot in his stomach had turned into butterflies. he was more nervous than he was at any press conference he had ever been to because if he didn’t do well, he would have lost everything for good.

“please sit,” you said after finding your voice. you shut your laptop, taking it off the table and putting it back into your bag to focus your attention on him. “what are you doing here? i thought you were still in kingston.” small talk was never your specialty. especially since you had so much you wanted to tell him with nowhere to start. 

“i flew out about 36 hours ago. i needed to see you.” tom cut right to the chase. he may have been sleep deprived, being too nervous on the plane and during his layovers to even sleep, but he was thinking clearly when it came to fixing your relationship with him. he needed you back, that was the goal, that was why he flew out in the first place. “yeah, i couldn’t get a direct flight, so i had a layover in toronto. it was cool and all, but all i could think about was seeing you.” tom kept rambling, and as much as you wanted to stop him and get angry with him, you just let him talk. you needed to hear him out. you needed to know if the past month and a half had been hell for him like it was for you. 

“i’m the biggest idiot that could have ever walked the planet, y/n. i shouldn't have broken up with you. i’m really sorry.” he reached out to grab your hands, cupping them in his. his touch was gentle, but so, so warm against your hands. his touch was intoxicating. you would be lying if you said that you didn’t want him, but even after he hurt you, tom was all you wanted. “i need to make things right. i need you back in my life, i need us to get back together. i want you, i’ve only wanted you.” i’ve only wanted you. his words were stitching your heart back together, but you couldn’t forget that he had left you.

“i was scared, so i broke up with you. that is the most idiotic thing i’ve ever done. i didn’t want the distance to hurt us so i needed to break up with you before the distance could break us up, but i’ll give you anything, no, i’ll give you everything if it means we can try again.” tom didn’t care about the people around your table, he just cared about you. he cared about getting you back. the two of you sat in silence, drowning out the noise of the other patrons in the shop. the bustle of the city was suddenly gone as you focused on him.

“do you mean it?” those words were the only thing you could muster out. your mind was all over the place. you looked behind him, at the people walking around the shop, grabbing their drinks and leaving, talking to their friends. your eyes focused back on tom. you focused on how he looked so desperate for you, how he was silently fighting for you as the two of you sat in silence.

“of course i do. i love you y/n.” those latter four words cut the silence like a knife. those four words were the last thing you thought you were going to hear from him, but here he was, saying everything you wanted him to and meaning it. he meant every single word he was saying to you, that much was evident.

“i love you too.”

•••

about a month later, you were scrolling on twitter only to see an article about you and tom getting back together. though the two of you never confirmed it explicitly, it was quite obvious with how much the two of you were spotted together. a few days after he flew out to reconcile with you, you had flown back home to london with him. countless dates were spent before tom had to go to ohio to film his newest project. you were meant to fly out later, needing to finish a few meetings in london about your next album.

you scrolled through your instagram to see a photo of you and tom that he had posted. it was a photo that harrison had taken of the two of you dancing around in the backyard as it was pouring rain. neither of you knew he had taken photos of you until after. the captured moment became both your lockscreen and tom’s lockscreen, and now it was out there for the whole world to see. he had tagged you in it and captioned it what a time for you and i, clearly referring to your song. a smile appeared on your face. you were quick to comment on his picture. when he says “you can stand under my umbrella” but he doesn’t have an umbrella :// if he was going to have fun with this, then so were you.

as your phone blew up, you got a text from tom saying he was taking a break from filming and that he would call you soon. what a time for you and him indeed.

#tom holland #tom holland x reader #tom holland x y/n #tom holland x you #tom holland fluff #tom holland imagine #tom holland fic #tom holland angst #tom holland imagines

[angelofarts]

MASTERLIST OF FICS

Feels like about time to do a masterlist of fics so here you go

Music Sounds Better With You (Everything’s Better With You) - complete - fic here, moodboard here

Flynn shifted to sit up, as did Julie - they both had to get ready for class. “Why don’t you tell him what you told me a few days ago? About how music sounds better around him?”

“That’s not really an indicator,” Julie pointed out, waving a dismissive hand. “Everything is better with him.”

Welcome to Lessa’s - complete - fic here, moodboard here

Something about Lessa's seems... wrong. The staff have too many teeth and use stilted language, none of the clocks show the right time, and is that a *dragon* in the corner? But you have to admit... they make amazing coffee

This is How You Fall in Love - complete - fic here, moodboard here

A present for the amazing @flynn-taylor because I got sucked into her big bang world and she was nice enough to let me play around in it.

Dear Future Husband I Just Want You to Dance With Me Tonight - complete - fic here, moodboard here

“It is KARAOKE DAY,” Flynn announced in lieu of a greeting when Julie closed her locker. Julie snorted and picked up her backpack.

“Hi, Flynn, and how are you today?” she said wryly, looping her arm through Carrie’s. Carrie snorted and continued to type on her phone.

What’s Done is Done (and It’s Pretty Clear We Both Know That) - complete - fic here, moodboard here

“Are you sure about this?”

Julie raised an eyebrow at Reggie. “Reg, he’s your best friend.”

“But you’re like a sister to me. And I hate seeing you upset.”

Julie smiled sadly and patted his shoulder. “Thanks for dropping me off, Reg. I’ll see you in a bit, okay?”

He gave her a pointed sigh that said he wasn’t happy, but he would trust her. Julie got out of the car and took a deep breath, staring up at the Eats n Beats sign.

Build a Prom For Every Dragon - complete - read it here

“Luke is mad that Carrie said dragons aren’t allowed at prom,” Reggie said promptly, withdrawing Firefly from the pocket of his leather jacket. The baby didn’t even wake up, merely turning over to snuggle more affectionately into Reggie’s palm. “Carrie said it might be Sir Alistair’s fault, because Luke can’t guarantee that the gym won’t burn down if his dragon goes with.”

Julie frowned. “That feels like an unfair rule. Have you spoken to the rest of the committee? Surely they can’t ban everyone’s dragons just because of Sir Alistair.”

“You’d think,” Alex said drily.

You Will No Longer Be Obedient - complete - fic here, moodboard here

Fairy tales tell, as their labels imply, stories of magic, of creatures that fly. With giants and dragons and ogres and elves, and inanimate objects that speak for themselves. There’s romance and danger and plotting of schemes. There’s good guys and bad guys and some guys in between. A fairy tale also reveals some sort of truth, the perils of choices we face in our youth. But our story today is different in theme, for our hero had no choice, or so it would seem. It starts with a fairy bestowing a spell. This one’s for a baby named Julie of Frell.

The Simp verse - find the series here. Mostly complete, camp fic on hold

After her mother's death and her subsequent loss of music, performing arts student Julie Molina is at risk of not graduating from her performing arts high school in New York, possibly set to lose her scholarship to the college of her dreams. When a friend suggests a trip to LA to jumpstart her creative batteries, Julie figures she has nothing to lose and agrees.

In LA, Luke and his friends are just trying to enjoy a night out at the (very illegal) dance club they frequent. A chance encounter leads to a dance battle and Luke left with a jacket with one name embroidered in the collar - Rose.

When Carrie introduces her friends to her brother's band, sparks fly like wildfire. But Luke and Julie are both torn between the person in front of them, and the mysterious stranger they met at the club...

The Celestials Series - two fics finished, two planned - series here, moodboard here

After growing up on Mars isolated from the rest of the human race, Luke is given the chance to go to Earth to find his father. Recruiting the help of his pen pal Julie and her family, Luke will find family where he least expected to on a road trip full of surprises. But Luke is hiding a secret from Julie, one that has the potential to destroy everything they're building together.

Flowers Can’t Bloom Without Light - finished - fic here, moodboard here

Five times Julie Molina entered Camp Half-Blood, and one time she left it

Welcome to Lessa’s - finished - fic here

Something about Lessa's seems... wrong. The staff have too many teeth and use stilted language, none of the clocks show the right time, and is that a *dragon* in the corner? But you have to admit... they make amazing coffee

What Do You Do With a Drunken Sailor? - in progress - fic here, moodboard here

The beautiful stranger grinned, but it had twisted. This wasn't the smile of a genteel courtier trying to flirt with the daughter of a Duke at a masquerade ball. This smile glinted like the light of a candle in the edge of a blade - beautiful, but if you were careless the results could be fatal.

Julie had the sinking feeling that she'd been careless.

What Do Stars Do Best? - in progress - fic here, moodboard here

How does Julie Molina intend to capture the heart of her one true love, Carrie? Well, it's easy, isn't it. Cross the wall and retrieve a fallen star, make it back in time for Carrie's birthday, and live happily ever after.

One problem. The star has a name, and it's Luke. And he is not very pleased about being given to anyone, thank you very much.

Tumblr prompts - oneshots - series here

A range of prompts the wonderful people of tumblr provided me with 

Like a Dying Phoenix - finished - fic here, moodboard here

The zoom au that got weirdly popular, now with a fun side fic!

A Wreckingball, Three Himbos and a Dragon Walk Into a Studio - in progress - read the fic here

Magic has been passed down in the Molina line for generations, but usually it is small magic - manipulating light, helping plants to grow. When Julie shows promise for greater things, her parents insist on a full magical education to realize her inner potential. She could do great things one day with her magic - if she was not so distracted by the cute bookbinder teaching her how to make her spellbooks, that is...

Mr and Mr Mercer - on hold - fic here

“Let’s try something else. Describe how you first met.”

“It was in Columbia,” Alex offered. “Five years ago.”

“Six.”

Alex gave him a pointed smile. “Five or six years ago.”

“Why don’t we start from there?”

PLANNED OR UPCOMING FICS

Romeo, Romeo, Wherefore Art Thou Romeo - moodboard here

After a plague hits the world and you’re facing the actual zombie apocalypse, you’d think your ability to be surprised would vanish. And yet Julie is about to meet the one zombie who will change her perception of… everything.

Sun Goes Down, and We Are Here Together - moodboard here

A JATP version of Barbie and the Island Princess

Like The Dawn Breaks Through the Night - moodboard here

Every year, fourteen teenagers are sacrificed to the minotaur to keep the safety of their kingdom. Alex has grown up knowing this, and has dreaded every year watching the sacrifices be picked. But this year is different. This year his brothers are being offered, and Alex wont let that happen. With the help of a dragon, a prince and a witch, Alex is hopeful that somehow he can bring his family safely home.

The Rainbow In Your Eye - moodboard here 

The JATP version of Barbie Fairytopia and Mermaidia

You’re a Lizard, Reggie - moodboard here

When Rose and Ray found out their foster son was a wizard, they took it with a smile. When he came home and brought three other underage wizards to visit, they welcomed the boys into their home. And then Julie accidentally turns her brother into a lizard and they realize - there are two magical children in this house. Or: Julie and Reggie at Hogwarts as told by their letters home.

Looking at You I Can Tell You Want Me - fic here

They’d lost.

They’d lost and there was nothing she could do about it except make the boys comfortable in their last hours.

#masterlist #my fics