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shrekgogurt · 1 year ago

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This is a sappy creative talking about being creative post. You have been warned. I did not proofread because I am nothing if not consistent in my personality.

I just got done watching Season 2 episodes 3&4 of the FX’s The Bear and I’m constantly inspired by their storytelling. The two episodes I watched really leaned into the creative process in a way that made me very reflective. I am terrible in a kitchen. However, I really saw similar patterns in my own pursuits.

I have a dear friend who studied brains in university and when I was at my lowest a few months ago she was telling me about how life is just skills. Things like IQ are bullshit. Everybody can do anything if they put the time in. It’s about just choosing skills and developing them. I get mad that I can’t draw. I get mad that I can’t play guitar well. Those are skills I’ve never worked on because the process doesn’t bring me joy, even though they are skills I wished I had. Meanwhile things like science or sports are areas I’ve never had much interest in cultivating anyway so the lack of skill doesn’t bother me as much.

I think about my skillset now a lot more. I think about how learning piano—while I’m frustrated by my lack of expertise—doesn’t make me literally cry while I’m learning. I embrace the challenge unlike something like drawing where I get so upset with myself it’s not fun anymore. This past fall while my confidence was totally shot (for a lot of reasons) I looked at my ability to sit at a keyboard and just play the same riffs from Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights over and over and over and over until I could do them. I learned I could do hard things. That maybe I’m not a total lazy piece of shit who gives up at the first sign of trouble.

And the beautiful thing is? That wasn’t always the case with piano. I’ve dabbled here and there throughout my life but when I first took piano lessons as a kid I HATED them. I didn’t enjoy putting in the work. But I do now because people change. And so maybe one day I will learn to draw but not right now. And that’s okay.

And then I start thinking about singing. There’s this sentiment that people are just naturally gifted, especially at singing. But at least for me that’s not the case. I’m good at singing because as a kid I loved it. I gravitated toward it. I sung all the time to the radio, mimicking the voices I heard. And I listened to SO MUCH music—partially because of my parents but also because I chose to always have the radio or a CD or my trusty mp3 player going. When I was playing with my dolls. When I was riding my bike. When I was in the shower. When I was at dance class. When I was dragged along to my siblings' sports games, I would build worlds while tuned into the nearest iHeartRadio station. (Airplanes feat. Hayley Williams. I loved it. I loved the storytelling. Pt. 1 but oh when the oh so rare Pt. 2 came through over the FM waves it was the best day of my life.)

Eventually, my parents put me into voice lessons. I learned how to sing rather than mimic. (Not that the latter is bad.) But I learned how to use it as an instrument. And I sang and I sang and I sang. In lessons. In choir. In church. That’s why I’m good at singing. It took me forever to learn how to harmonize. I was a soprano—it was always melody. But I’m learning that too as my voice changes. I can’t sing as high as I used to. I haven’t practiced notes off the staff since high school. Life is just skills. I was focusing on different ones. Like film (but we’ll get to that.)

There was something else always there. I don’t know how many people knew it—the extent. You had to live with me to see it…but I loved nothing more than I loved reading.

I always had my nose in a book. Like a lot of kids who consumed books non-stop it was definitely escapism. But I read and I read and I read. The classic question in my family was “where is Mary?” And the answer was always “in her room.” And if I wasn’t reading a story I was creating one. With my dolls yes, but eventually with my tiny little acer computer and with my thumbs in the notes app on my iPod Touch. (I still maintain that the notes app is where the best art happens.)

It was May in my eighth grade pre-Algebra class when my friend told me what FanFiction was and about how she had an account on good ole fanfiction.net. I made one too. I joined a Divergent roleplaying forum that lasted two months. I started writing a long-abandoned backstory for my character—Antoine, named at intermission of the high school production of West Side Story I was watching. It was bad. But I didn’t know it at the time. I thought I was doing something important and I guess I was.

The Divergent forum didn’t last long but a few months later I would create my own. Welcome to Camp Half Blood! Join in! Make an OC! I brought my friends over from the old forum and even as Admin my authority was immediately usurped. We built worlds. And then we rebuilt them. And then our worlds had baby worlds. Generation 1, Gen 1.5 (you suggest a teen pregnancy plot line as a joke one time while on a choir trip in Yorkshire ONE TIME and then you wake up and uh oh two characters are actually teen pregnant), Gen 2, on and on and on. There’s a whole Google Sheets document. It’s deeply comprehensive and filled with all our faceclaims and timelines and playlists.

We rarely wrote action in our roleplay. We mainly talked. Dialogue and dialogue and dialogue for years. I get compliments now on my dialogue in fics. It didn’t come from nowhere. It came from cringe-y exchanges with my friends as we fell in love with each other’s self inserts over and over and over again. I stayed up on school nights until 2am quietly wheezing only to fall asleep in Algebra 1 over my scribbled cursive poetry on the graph paper. Life is skills. I was choosing which ones to build.

It was never math.

It was stories.

In the singing. In the dance (competition team—burned me out. I was never the best athlete. I was always the most expressive. I was telling the story.) In the theatre. And in the little fan videos I would make with my friends for our OCs over on fanfiction.net.

So my dumbass went to film school. And like with singing I learned about stories. How to craft them. And I wrote bad scripts. And we made bad low budget films. And I was so scared of cameras but I learned how to use them. And I directed and I got good at that especially with documentaries. Looking at all the information and chasing down the story. Telling people who were faster editors than me where to cut. Telling people who could make the camera capture what I saw in my eye what to film. God I fucking loved it. And I miss it.

Because my dumbass went to seminary. Why? Because there were these ancient stories that were really important to me that were being used to harm others. And I wanted to learn them. And I wanted to be able to show that there was a different way than the one that spews hatred. And as Phoebe Bridgers sings I “went looking for a creation myth ended up with a pair of cracked lips.” And I’m figuring all that out still. What to do with these stories that mean so much to me. How to tell them. How to Robin Hood theology.

And as my life and my faith were falling apart. I looked at my tiny little shithole apartment. And how I used to hide in my room where I felt safe. And I made that apartment feel safe. It was my room now. And I walked out to my bookshelf and I saw a book I had bought and opened it up. And on the inside of the cover there was a map just like there was in all the best books from my childhood. So I stayed up until 3am reading it. And then the next night. And the next night. And then I bought the sequel and I read about a boy who thought he was going to be something and then he wasn’t that anymore. And he was lost and angry and self-destructive just like me. But then in the last part of the trilogy he decided at the last second to try to figure it all out. And I’m still trying to do that too.

I had been writing all along—non-fiction. Papers. Essays. (Metas—really.) And I learned how to approach a text. How to analyze it in one million different ways. And I think I took those skills I learned from the Bible and I stuck them on some YA trilogy. And I thought and I thought and I had something to say.

And I wrote. And I keep getting better. Because life is just skills.

So I was watching The Bear and Will Poulter as a baker talks about how he used to see some other baker as competition. Until he decided he wasn’t and instead he just tried to keep up. And I want to keep up. And I watch these television shows and I read your fics and I get so fucking inspired.

And I look at this stupid fucking soccer fic I love with my whole chest and I think about how life is just skills and they all have led me to be able to write it. And I know that in ten years when I’m 34 I’ll probably think it’s cringey just like I think that what I wrote when I was 14 is cringey. But GOD I’m so proud of it. And I think I always will be.

Because life is just skills and I’m really glad I chose these ones.

TL;DR I’ve never been the best “athlete” (had the best skills in a particular medium) but goddamn if I’m not a good fucking storyteller.

#personal #writing #kind of ikabikam

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ericdeggans · 3 months ago

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From Voyage Band to Soul Mafia: Celebrating a lifetime of drumming and playing music

Even though I abandoned any ideas of working as a professional musician a long time ago, I still feel a big part of my identity is wrapped up in being a musician. Particularly being a drummer.

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It’s lasted from my early days in middle school, when I tried a lot of different instruments – guitar, piano, trumpet – before I sat behind a drumkit and felt like I had finally come home. I spent years as a younger player, with an inexplicably tolerant mom, practicing with deafening intensity while learning the intricacies of Stewart Copeland’s hi hat work in The Police and Simon Phillips’ odd time grooves with Jeff Beck and Pete Townshend.

One of my proudest moments in a life studded with amazing experiences was co-founding a group in college, The Voyage Band, which went on to earn a recording contract with Motown Records.

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I have tried to stay active as a musician even as my journalism career unfolded, playing with awesome blues artists like Bob Beach and Barbara Blue in Pittsburgh, rocking out with bands like Cats on a Smooth Surface in New Jersey and backing singer songwriters like Fran Snyder and Shana “Banana” Smith in Florida.

Now I’m playing regularly with the first funk band I’ve been a member of since the Voyage days, a wonderful group of musicians in Florida called Soul Mafia.

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It’s tough to pull together a real band in the Tampa Bay area; there aren’t loads of venues where a group larger than four pieces can play comfortably. And sometimes it feels like the pay rates haven’t progressed much since the days when I first came to Florida and made about $100 a gig backing folks who needed a drummer quickly.

But the folks in Soul Mafia are wonderful people -- great players who are fun to spend time with and have a deep love for the songs we’re doing, covering tunes by Chaka Khan, Bruno Mars, Dua Lipa, Prince and much more. We have a great time onstage and just want to help everybody in the audience dance and have a good time along with us.

If you’re interested in learning more about the band – especially booking us for clubs, events or private functions – please visit www.soulmafiaband.com, or contact me through this website. Below is a look at three tunes we performed for WUSF-FM’s digital music series Soul Sessions, which was so much fun!

Hope to see you at the next gig!

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#youtube #pop culture #music #funk #jazz #rock #drums #bands #Tampa Bay

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fluffy-critter · 2 months ago

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#crosspost #busybee

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writingspacetrash · 2 years ago

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The Cosmos Boys - Part 2

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“A C-Major hello to all listeners, and a good time of the day, wherever you are listening from! Welcome back to Sound of Creation, the show where I, Cygnus Vulcan, talk about everything musical going on in our Galaxy. Thank you for tuning in on this very special day. Yes listeners, it is special indeed: The galaxy’s favourite band is celebrating their five-year anniversary!

If you didn’t already know, on this exact date, five years ago, the Cosmos Boys played their first ever gig. Despite controversies and hateful voices from relentless, well, haters, the Quintet are one, if not the most successful band the Wheel of Fortune has ever seen. They have just brought out their third album and are touring the galaxy right now! This month I wanted to dedicate the show to reflect on the Cosmos Boys’ history, to reminisce about the good old times and be excited about our future.

It was one fateful night, more than five years ago, when only seventy-year-old Palean student Kriz Gaozzo had an idea. An idea that would change the galactic music industry forever. He had just learned about the popular boy groups of Cessia 4’s twenty-first century and became obsessed immediately. He convinced fellow student Florian Miadove from Traxa to join his multispecies band, which at the time just included himself. The two dedicated students of Modern Music at the University of Wranlamin hung up adverts all over their solar system, and soon Unit XVRC, a supersized insecdroid also known as Xevric, joined their little group as back-up vocalist with a built-in synthesiser. The fourth member of the group, whose real name is still unknown, but has been called Nebby by pretty much everyone who knows him, showed up to a rehearsal one day and started harmonising with the group.

‘A terrifying way to audition, really,’ stated Gaozzo in a later interview, ‘but a really cool guy all in all.’

Fifth member of the band was to be a human called Greg Wallace, who left only a week before their first gig – what an asshole! But, luckily they found their actual fifth member at the very bar they were to perform in. Zoe Ganov was having a drink at the now famous Once, located in the Craicarro System, when Kriz Gaozzo and his boys convinced her to join – despite having no real skills or interests relating to music.

‘They were a couple of funny guys,’ said Ganov in a previous interview with Wheel of Fortune FM, ‘so I figured, eh, I don’t have anything better to do.’

And so the Cosmos Boys were together in their final lineup. Their first ever gig at the Once was small, but a success. Only three months later they signed with Gravitational Waves Records and started playing all over the Craicarro system. Six months into their local success, they came out with their first album: Party Planet shaped their image as a fun, up-beat Pop band with hits like Big Bang, Boys’ Night Out and Matter Or Time. They expanded that image into a slightly more personal, romantic direction with their second album GEX. To this day, no one knows what the title stands for – my favourite theory is ‘Gay Extraterrestial Xenophiles’ though. It has a ring to it.

However, what the album stood for musically is very clear. Experimental synth mixed with strong vocals from Gaozzo and lyric genius from Miadove really propelled the Cosmos Boys onto a galactic level. They changed labels and were now signed with Singularity. But, with great success comes great controversy, as I am sure someone has said at some point.

The biggest was probably around the Not-A-Real-Boy allegations, claiming that member Zoe Ganov was a woman and therefore not allowed in a boy band. These allegations kicked off a huge discussion about gender, sexism and boy bands in general.

‘Not allowing a woman to be in a boy band is simply sexist!” said womens’ rights activists.

‘But it’s a BOY band,’ said others.

Lead man Kriz Gaozzo helped to quiet down the discourse by releasing a statement via this very radio station.

‘Just because Zoe is a woman doesn’t mean she can’t be a boy! What is a “boy” anyway? Get out with your ancient categories to hold up your ancient societies. This is music! We don’t give a flying f#ck.’

I personally think he was really cool for that.

After the public’s failed attempt to bully Zoe Ganov out of the band, a different member brought the famous five to sway. A video of Xevric after the SUNBIRTH tour two years ago went viral. He seemed to be drunk, or in his case, his nerves stunned by one overall harmless virus download too many.

‘Idiotsss, all of them,’ he could be heard screeching. ‘Talentlesss, unimaginative, pretentiousss idiotssss! Krizzz Gaozzzo you arrogant f#ck! Party Planet wasss a terrible title! What doessss GEX even mean? What doess it MEAN?’

Fans speculated that there was more going on underneath, that Xevric was either the mastermind behind the Cosmos Boys or just an annoying little critter trying to bring down frontman Kriz Gaozzo. These rumours were again killed by Gaozzo, saying that ‘It was a rough night, and things hadn’t been going great. But we’re still together, you guys. We are still together.’ Xevric did not release a statement, but stayed in the band, so we can safely assume that he agreed.

To cover more recent news, there were some – and that is a wild understatement – some rumours about two band members dating. Now, if you haven’t been living under a rock for the past year, you should know who I’m talking about. But even if that is the case, the claims that Florian Miadove and Nebby were in fact a couple should’ve reached you at this point. It would have to be a really big rock for you not to know about this.

Little looks across the stage, a slight pink glowing whenever they were together, dubious romantic lyrics, all these signs have been collected as evidence for Florian’s and Nebby’s supposed relationship.

‘We’re not dating, okay?’ stated Miadove in an interview, to which Nebby hummed, and Miadove giggled. Gaozzo and Ganov could be seen grinning and trying to hold in a laugh respectively.

But arising from those turbulent years, the Cosmos Boys have just brought out their third album Twin Suns, in which each of the members reflect on their years before fame, coming back to their roots, while maintaining an up-beat mood and their fun synth sound. Ganov seems to have brought a harmonica with her, to be heard on some of the new songs. No one knows where it comes from. But it sure does sound great! Especially in their latest single, Brother, where it underscores Gaozzo’s vocals beautifully. To finish today’s episode, I would like to put this wonderful single on. Get tickets for their Tour Of Fortune now, everywhere you can buy tickets. This was Cygnus Vulcan with Sound of Creation, I’ll be back next month. Enjoy Brother!”

Two platinum albums, one Zichurus award and official recognition by the Wranlamin Culture Committee and still they couldn’t get separate hotel rooms.

Zoe could hear all the other guys’ breathing. Well, Florian’s and Kriz’ – Xevric hummed quietly as he recharged, and Nebby made no sound at all. She’d never been the biggest fan of sleepovers, but the tours had really put a strain on her. She missed quiet nights in her Tonner, blackness and stars above her whenever she opened her eyes. And silence. She’d never realised how much she appreciated silence until she’d joined a band. Maybe no one really could. She turned in her bed as silently as she could, when the bed above her creaked.

“Zoe?” whispered Kriz. She sighed innerly.

“Kriz?”

“Are you awake?”

“No, I’m just pretending.”

“I can’t sleep. I’m so nervous.” Zoe frowned. Stages were the last thing Kriz was afraid of. “Why?” There was some rustling. She thought about Xevric, and Florian and Nebby. Maybe she knew why.

“I’m scared they’ll mess up the show.” She had been right. Withholding a sigh, she turned to face the bottom of the bed above her, trying to stare hard enough so Kriz would notice.

“You know Xevric can dance with three broken legs. Remember that gig in Kryx? He could do the entire choreo at once if he wanted.” Something like a scoff sounded from above.

“Yeah, if he wanted.”

“He’s always like that, Kriz.” She sighed. “He’ll do the show and then come around and sneer at us. What’re you gonna do? You can’t throw him out. He’s too good.” A short silence.

“I don’t know if it’ll be like that tomorrow… he’s been saying some shit. You know he loves the attention. He would totally pull something off on stage.” You would too, thought Zoe.

“He won’t.” Kriz didn’t seem to listen.

“And then there’s Flo and Neb. Syrinx, I can’t stand to be in a room with them. They make everything so awkward.”

“Not on stage though.”

“Absolutely on stage. Haven’t you noticed? Nebby sometimes just doesn’t harmonise on Flo’s parts. And Flo just keeps crossing Neb’s path, trying to make him evaporate. They’re behaving like fucking children!” Zoe covered her face with her hands. These kinds of talks weren’t unusual, but Kriz had never been so stubborn.

“No one else has noticed so far.”

“But they will, Zoe. They will.”

“Aren’t you taking this a bit too seriously?” Zoe could hear Kriz shifting in his bed, and then saw his head sticking over the edge. His three eyes glowed faintly in the dark, widened in offence.

“I’m taking this too seriously? Zoe, this is my job! Our job!”

“Okay, okay,” whispered Zoe, “don’t wake the others.” Kriz’ eyelids drooped and he sighed. He looked tired.

“Zoe, this is my dream. I’ve wanted to be a singer since I was six years old. My parents sent me to a piano teacher when I was eight. I love the stage, the music vibrating through my bones, being a part of the art itself. I feel like… The universe is unfolding inside me when I sing, Zoe. This is my life. I don’t have anything but this.” Zoe wished she could’ve seen his expression, or that he could’ve seen hers. She smiled sympathetically nonetheless.

“We’ll be fine. We always have been. We’re going to rock that show tomorrow, okay?”

Kriz’ head disappeared and she heard the bed creaking as he lay down again.

“Okay.”

The dressing room was much bigger than any they’d ever been in, and still they’d managed to make a complete mess. A third of Xevric’s costume, discarded last minute, hung over one of the chairs, a second was covered in empty make-up containers, Zoe was occupying the third. She tried to concentrate on her eyeliner as Xevric and Florian bustled around the room, learning steps, yelling at the air and each other, Nebby evaporating an rematerialising every second, changing colours. She was trying to draw a wing with shaky fingers as Xevric bumped into her chair.

“Fuck!” There was a purple smudge under her eye. “Watch out!” she called while trying to remove it, which only made it bigger. She looked like she’d been in a serious fight. She pulled a grimace. Five years should’ve really improved her make-up skills by now.

“Flo? I have a little crisis on my hands. Well, on my face.” She saw Flo turn around in the mirror, stress mixing with resignation on his face. Some of his scales had started to fade in colour. She’d caught him repainting them a few weeks ago. As he came over and tried to fix her face, his expression softened.

“You idiot,” he said.

“Thanks.” Flo finished her make-up and looked around the room.

“Have you seen Kriz?” Zoe shook her head.

“I could go check on him. Probably in the bathroom, you know…” Florian nodded. He knew.

The bathroom was just down the corridor. She saw the light was on through the little gap between door and floor. It was flickering. She knocked gently.

“Hey, Kriz, you in there? Can I come in?” No answer. “I’m coming in, ok?” She tried the handle. It was locked. She tried it a second time. She wouldn’t be Zoe Ganov if a simple bathroom door wouldn’t succumb to her will. The lock clicked and she pushed open the door only slightly. She peered inside, and her eyes widened. The lamps were out, the flickering light coming from seven candles placed in a triangle on the floor. They were connected by lines of white powder. Inside the triangle, Kriz sat, wearing a red robe glistening in the candlelight. His eyes were closed and he was half humming, half mumbling in a language Zoe didn’t understand.

“Uh, Kriz?” she said softly. Kriz ignored her. Or he couldn’t hear her. She had expected to find him crying, or panicking, and she could’ve dealt with that. Not this. What even was this?

Kriz raised his voice, his words becoming more articulate. Zoe didn’t understand their exact meaning, but she got the feeling that these words weren’t meant to be understood by anyone but gods and beings older than the universe itself, lurking below the floorboards of the perceivable world. The words infused her with a certain horror, which crept into her flesh and made her bones tremble and glued her tongue to the roof of her mouth. She tried to move. She couldn’t.

As she was trying to gain back control over her body, a black cloud appeared in the bathroom just above Kriz. A red glow pulsated in its centre and it grew bigger slowly, steadily. Tendrils of darkness shot out and brushed over the candle flames, touching Kriz. He didn’t flinch.

A hum now drowned out his chanting, a deep and bone-trembling hum, making Zoe’s hand shake on the door handle and her teeth vibrate in her mouth. And when the cloud started speaking, she was plunged into the very darkness of whatever there had been before the Big Bang, before anything had existed, the very same darkness that would return after the last thing had ceased to exist. The deafening silence of nothing yet created, of everything dead at last. She was shivering in the darkness, of fear, of hatred, of all-enclosing cold.

In that darkness, she saw Kriz, naked, sleeping. A bright light was birthed from his chest. It floated up into the darkness. Kriz’ body grew grey and thin, skin stretching over his sharp bones. She wanted to close her eyes but found she had no control over them. Maybe she didn’t even have eyes. She wanted to run to Kriz, but felt herself floating away from him, away and up, towards a different light…

Zoe ripped her hand away from the doorknob and started back to the dressing room. The others paid her no attention.

“I think Kriz just sold his soul to the devil!” Three heads jerked in her direction. Nebby turned red. Florian’s expression fell. Xevric’s legs started twitching.

“What do you mean?” he asked. Zoe was still trembling, supporting herself on the nearest chair.

“I mean there was a candle-triangle and a glowing, black cloud, and I think I saw hell.” The door swung open once more and an ashen-faced Kriz stood in the frame. His eyes were widened in horror.

“Everything’s fine,” he said. The other four watched aghast as he hurried through the room, putting together his outfit.

“What have you done, Kriz?” asked Florian. Kriz was now standing in front of the mirror, doing his make-up.

“Saved our asses.” Zoe and Florian shared a concerned look.

“What was that cloud? What the fuck did I just see?” Kriz spun around.

“Nothing! You saw nothing, Zoe! That’s what we’ll all be!” She realised his eyes weren’t widened in horror, but in madness.

“Kriz…”

“Show’s in two! Get going!” Zoe looked at Florian, then Nebby, who was struggling to keep his humanoid form. Xevric was the first to follow Kriz out on stage. When Zoe heard the crowd cheering, and felt the lights blind her, she couldn’t shake off the memory of that deep darkness, and the silence before the beginning and at the end of all things.

The show went flawlessly. Florian didn’t cross Nebby’s path, Nebby sang all his parts and Xevric didn’t sabotage the band on stage. Maybe it was because they all watched Kriz in various stages of confusion and fear. But he was dancing and singing and spinning around, back to his old glamorous self, relishing the spotlight. He refused to talk about what had happened.

As the year passed, Kriz grew quieter. His yellow eyes turned glassy. He danced without passion, sung his songs without soul. He’d lost it, Zoe was sure. Florian started doing most of the work. Not that he hated it. Xevric grew more annoyed than he already was. No one was there to motivate Nebby, his relationship with Florian still icy.

Zoe caught Kriz staring at his reflection in shuttle windows, staying for hours upon hours in the bathroom. In the beginning he cried. She woke up to sobbing in the middle of the night, soothed him before shows when he wouldn’t leave the bathroom. One night he seemed out of his mind by fear. “What have I done, Zoe?” He sobbed. “I can’t hear the music! I can’t hear it!”

But eventually she had to watch him turn into a stranger. It was like he carried that silence she’d heard in the bathroom with him at all times. She tried talking to him then, but he rarely responded. Sometimes she just sat backstage with him in silence, laying a hand on his knee. She thought she saw the ghost of a smile on his lips sometimes. Sometimes, his eyes still sparked when they sang together.

Xevric was pacing the studio. It made a metallic clacking noise Zoe had never quite gotten used to. It was starting to irritate her.

“We’re boring, that’ss what we are!” Florian sighed deeply. Nebby flowed vaguely where his chair was, lights flickering erratically inside him.

“Three albumss, the exact ssame ssound! Lyrical depth, none! And you want to do another one like that?!” It wasn’t the first of these arguments, and Zoe knew it wouldn’t be the last. The past year had taken a great toll on them all. Not that they weren’t successful – if anything their fame had grown exponentially. They had played shows outside of the Wheel of Fortune and won a second Zichurus award. But Xevric was constantly nagging at them, Nebby participating randomly whenever he felt like it, Florian having to do all the work. Zoe tried her best to help, but as much as she loved music, she just wasn’t an artist. And there was no one who could compensate for the… absence of Kriz.

“It works, Xevric,” said Florian, a sigh in his voice. “Your experimental deep space sounds aren’t made for boy bands.” Xevric stopped pacing and stood upright, red eyes glaring.

“That’ss the problem! Boy bandss are a shit idea!” He looked ostentatiously at Kriz, who was sitting in an armchair away from them all, staring at his feet.

“You abssolute…” murmured Xevric and slid over to him. Kriz slowly lifted his head and looked Xevric in the eyes, expression blank.

“You do nothing. Absolutely nothing. I don’t care what happened in that bathroom you usselesss piece of meat!” He spun around, looking with wild red eyes at them all. To be fair, his eyes were always wild red. “Our music hass gone to shit! Our shows are soullesss! I’m doing everything I can to save this trainwreck of a band but you… You-” he looked at Florian, “are a fucking bootlicker. Oh, yess, Krizz, good idea! It workss, Xevric. The indusstry likess it that way. Fuck the damn indusstry, have a bit of imagination man!” He turned to Nebby. “And what even are you? Where did you come from? Hass anyone ever talked to you?” Nebby turned green, tendrils bursting out of his shape. “And Zzoe, what the fuck do you even contribute?” Zoe was more surprised than offended. She knew what Xevric thought about her, of course, but she’d never guessed he would say it some day, in front of everyone. Florian sat up in his chair, eyebrows raised, mouth agape. This was the most unnerved Zoe had ever seen him.

“What the fuck, Xevric? You are fucking annoying! You are just constantly trying to do your own thing with your weird ideas and apparently you think you’re the only fucking guy in this band! And Zoe is our friend, asshole! You’re the most arrogant person I’ve ever known!” Xevric scoffed and shrugged with a thousand clicks.

“Whatever. I’m better off on my own anyway. You are the most talentless, pretentious group of people I’ve ever met. I’m happy to finally be rid of you. Good riddance.” He dropped his body down on the floor and slithered out of the door, never to be seen again. Kriz’ dead eyes lingered on the gap through which he had left.

Nebby, now in the shape of a man again, was turning a deep blue.

“It’s okay, Nebby,” said Florian and slumped back into his chair. He sounded tired. “Go if you want to.” He did.

Florian now turned to Kriz, the two sitting almost on opposite sides of the studio. He sighed again. All his scales had turned grey this year.

“You were cool, Kriz,” he said. He stood up, slowly. He walked over to his former friend and fellow student. “Just sometimes a bit too much.” He remained in an awkward stance for a moment, and Zoe thought he would say something else. But he didn’t. He threw Zoe a look and jerked his head to the door. Zoe nodded. She got up, and Kriz turned his head to her. Did she catch a glimmer of despair in his eyes? She tried to speak, but there was something in her throat. She swallowed.

“Bye,” she just said. She tried to think of something else. What do you say to a stranger so familiar? “It was pretty cool. Sorry.” As she left with Florian, she felt Kriz’ dead stare bore into her back.

Zoe swished the caramel contents of her glass and took a sip. It tasted slightly more bitter than the usual Inthek Whiskey, and she pulled a grimace. There were downsides to developing a taste for drinks.

The soft synth music was drowned out by the many conversations filling the bar. A digital screen covered the window to the twin suns, showing the latest celebrity news. The twin suns shimmered with a green tinge through it. The Once had become somewhat of a tourist attraction in Wranlamin, the bar where the greatest band of the galaxy had begun their success story.

She tried to focus on a very specific pair of voices, emanating from the bar’s radio.

“Would you say that you are happy with your career?” asked the tinny voice of Cygnus Vulcan.

“That’s a tough one. I would definitely say I’m happy with where I’m at right now, I mean my team is amazing and I really get to realise my ideas… But the way here was certainly not always the best, or the happiest.” Florian’s voice was deeper than she remembered.

“Would you have wanted to stay with the Cosmos Boys, if that would’ve been possible?” There was a humming silence from the radio.

“No, I think. I think it was only a temporary project from the very start. Well, for everyone but Kriz, anyway.”

Zoe let the rest of the interview fade into the background. She had heard enough of them over the years. Florian and her had stayed in touch for a while, meeting up in bars all over the Wheel. She had seen him grow happier with each month, the Cosmos Boys’ fame propelling his solo projects into success. He really was a brilliant artist.

Xevric was having a less successful solo career, as far as she knew. He had struggled to find a label or even supporting musicians, but now he seemed to be a more or less happy part of a big fast food company’s marketing team. “Wow! This really oils my joints!” could be heard on every radio station for three months. Zoe had turned off her Tonner’s radio after the second ad.

She had very little knowledge of what Nebby was up to. There had been a headline of an unidentified sentient nebula being arrested for smuggling sanctioned goods, but she couldn’t be sure it was him. Maybe he had merged back into the nebula of his origin.

As for her, she’d pretty much returned to her usual life. She had made a few trips during her time with the Cosmos Boys even, so it wasn’t a big change. But there had been something, just below her heart, something sitting there and pressing down on her stomach. Martyn once asked about the break-up, but Zoe refused to talk. He let the topic drop. After she had stopped keeping in touch with Florian, the only reminder of her boy band days was the horrendous rhinestone belt she kept her gun in. She’d come to like it.

Tonight, it was glittering in the dimmed lights of the Once. She didn’t know why she kept coming. The quiet anonymity of the place had long since faded, and she felt truly alone here like in so many other places.

She threw a glance to the stage where a microphone and some loudspeakers were set up. She hadn’t caught the name of the performer, hadn’t really cared to read the posters outside anyway. One of the staff-members put an acoustic guitar next to the mic. Zoe closed her eyes and sighed internally. She really couldn’t stand a singer-songwriter tonight.

The rest of her bitter whiskey trickled down her throat as reserved applause rose up among the crowd. She looked to the stage again and almost choked on her drink.

Walking up the mic was none other than Kriz Gaozzo. Zoe waited for a reaction from the crowd; after all, most of the customers came because of its history. But they either didn’t recognise him or, like her, were unable to concentrate on a singular thought to express. She followed his every movement with her eyes.

His back was bent as he adjusted the microphone stand, then reached for the guitar and slung it over his shoulder. Every motion was accurate, minute, almost robotic. Kriz cleared his throat and looked up, his face illuminated by the dimmed spotlights. The light blue of his skin had faded to grey; his once yellow eyes were almost translucent, colourless. The one on his forehead was closed. Not clasped shut against the light, not like in sleep, but its lid entirely lifeless, drooping over the eye.

“Hello,” he said, and looked down again. There was no emotion in his clear voice, no life. He plucked a few chords on his guitar. He stopped for a moment, hesitating. Zoe didn’t know why. She wanted to know why.

“This is Divinity,” said Kriz and started singing. The song was an enigma. Zoe felt like she was on the cusp of understanding it with every line, but she could never quite grasp the lyrics. When she gave up on trying to comprehend his singing and just let the music flow into her ears, she began to truly understand. Emptiness. Infinity. The insignificance of the individual when faced with primordial powers. Immortality. Hell. As Kriz sang, she felt a cold creep back into her bones, a cold not too unfamiliar. She saw a darkness, and heard a silence between Kriz’ lines, a silence that preceded all sound and would outlast it.

She could not stop staring at his glassy eyes. Once they had been filled with so much life and passion. His voice, once full and emotional, now dead. He was more than a stranger; he was a ghost. Kriz’ eyes wandered through the room. Zoe knew you couldn’t see much against the spotlight, but she didn’t know if the laws of biology still applied to her former friend.

The notes of the song faded out, and Kriz locked eyes with her. Zoe’s heart skipped a beat. After a moment of paralysation, she tried to put all of the emotions she felt rioting inside her into her gaze. All of the remorse, anger, grief and regret she had never really addressed over the last few years, floating across the room to the ghost of a person she once knew. Her gaze was met with utter apathy. Her feelings fell into the deep well of Kriz’ glassy eyes, were swallowed by the soulless void of his dilated pupils.

Kriz’ eyes slid off her and he began singing a second song. Zoe felt empty.

She didn’t listen to his next song. She got up halfway through it, walked trance-like out of the bar and to her Tonner. She turned around one more time and looked at the neon sign atop the entrance. Once was glowing in a deep purple light. She supposed one thing had stayed true about this place.

You never met the same person twice.

#oh boy this is a long one #i girlbossed a bit too close to the sun with the length im sorry #anyway i REALLY like this #sorry for any emotional damage. you will not be compensated #my own writing #original writing #oc #scifi #creative writing #writblr #beginner writer #4

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no-idea-for-a-cool-name · 1 year ago

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I'm dismissing it because the line doesn't really scream 'Arya would like a permanent position' - it's a kid saying 'do I have the same freedom you're affording my brother?' It doesn't suggest any interest in those roles or permanent roles, just a freedom to do as she likes. There's no link here saying 'Arya would like to govern'. It doesn't say she wouldn't like to either, and it doesn't say she'd like to travel instead - it just says she doesn't want to be some lord's lady.

But I never argued that Arya's life goal it to have one of those roles, you just mentioned that she wouldn't have any interest in those roles and I'm just showing a quote where she does show interest. That's all. Whether you want to acknowledge it or dismiss it, it doesn't change the fact that it is there in the text.

Because 1, she doesn't explicitly say it.

She explicitly asked if she can be any of those things. Why would she do that if she had no interest? What more is needed? Again, I am not saying that becoming those thing is her life goal but I don't understand why you refuse to awknowledge something that is in the text.

If Ned had said 'you could be a traffic warden or a baker or an adventurer' and Arya had parroted that right back, I wouldn't use that as evidence for my argument because again, it's not about Arya wanting specifically what Ned mentioned but the freedom that Bran has to choose.

And yet you use as "evidence" the assumption that Arya would choose a life of adventure, which in my opinion, has an extremely weak basis. Arya asking if she could be a councillor or a high septon or build castles might not be strong evidence, but an assumption about something that she never even mentioned is no evidence at all.

But I can infer that Arya loves nature, loves seeing new things, loves learning new languages, loves meeting new people,

She doesn't actually love learning lenguages though:

Even sewing was more fun than tongues, she told herself, after a night when she had forgotten half the words she thought she knew, and pronounced the other half so badly that the waif had laughed at her. My sentences are as crooked as my stitches used to be. If the girl had not been so small and starved, Arya would have smashed her stupid face. Instead she gnawed her lip. Too stupid to learn and too stupid to give up.

And meeting new people is something she can easily do without traveling around. she was perfectly happy meeting the people that traveled through Winterfell. Whats more, those quotes I put in my previous reply show that what she loves is not really going to different places to meet new people, what she likes is to have stability and be in a place where she can make friends she won't have to abandon. That's why she was sad to leave "Cat" behind. And as I showed with another quote, even liking the role of Can she still prioritized returning to her family. So considering the characterization Arya has in the books, it would actually be out of character for her to leave the place where the people she loves are.

comparably seems to have no particular political arc (whereas Sansa, comparably, does) or indeed a desire to have one.

It is true that Sansa has a more political arc but first, politics are not a sinonym of ruling, they're an aspect of it, an important aspect, but far from the only one or even the most important one. A political arc is not the same as a leadership/rulership arc. And second, we have to take into account, what is Sansa actually learning? To read people, to be more calculative and analytical, to obtain valuable information, to manipulate others, to use her cunning, etc. And what is Arya learning with the FM? Basically the same actually. People see the Stark sisters as opposites when in reality, while they are very different, they're learning pretty much the same things. While Arya's training is not directed specifically at politics it would adapt perfectly for that, and while Sansa might surpass her in that regard or other things like diplomacy Arya has other aspects of leadership that Sansa lacks like for example being able to make harsh choices, being more decisive or caring about the smallfolkk. So it's not that Sansa has a rulership arc and Arya doesn't, they're both learning things that would be useful for ruling but also lack some other skills.

she'll pursue what she enjoys - again, I really feel that that freedom's a big theme for Arya, and that that's what her conversation with Ned is really about, too.

Just saying that Arya choosing to travel is your personal assumption, not something that is backed by the text.

I've never really seen Arya as a solo-backpacker who says goodbye to Winterfell and departs indefinitely? I don't see travelling on her own terms as an inherent unstable and solitary life. She's always preferred travelling in a group and quickly makes close bonds. Ultimately the Starks aren't going to be living together at Winterfell post-series (I assume - I imagine Bran and Jon at minimum will end up more permanently elsewhere [though I know you disagree on Bran] and I can't see her choosing to spend the rest of her life living alongside Sansa), so Arya having a group she can travel with (which I think would include Gendry) whilst still visiting her family inbetween - makes sense to me.

I know some would call me stupid for believing this but I still think Bran is meant to be the Stark at Winterfell by the end, even if he has to rule all of Westeros from there. Could I be wrong? Absolutely, but until future books come out and confirm how wrong I am it's what I think makes the most sense. I'm not saying all the Starks will live together in Winterfell but I also don't see why that's impossible. You were right before when you said that Arya or Sansa as councillors would be ridiculous but considering GRRM himself has said he plans to write the child characters as if the age gap had happened, I think we'll have to get used to the idea that the child characters' arcs and endgames are going to be wildly unrealistic.

So that's what I'm doing with Sansa and Arya. I'm thinking 'what do their arcs seem to gesture to, what does closure look like for them, what best aligns with the skills we've watched them learn', etc. You're welcome to disagree but Arya having the greatest flexibility possible to go where she likes and do what she will is what rings true for me above all else, and yes, it would be important that she's not alone in that.

The thing is tht your interpretations of their arc seems to rely entirely on picking and choosing what is a leadership arc based on the preconceived idea that Sansa has one and Arya doesn't. So if Sansa does something it's a leadership arc but if Arya does the same is not. You're also free to disagree but I'm just trying to point out what's actually in the books.

Just that I can see Arya preferring freedom to explore on her own terms and pursue practical skills,

Which again, is an assumption with basically no basis.

because as you seem to agree, she seems to prefer them even whilst she's adept at maths and languages.

I also put quotes that show that Arya has a strong sense of responsibility and the discipline to do things she doesn't like if she thinks it's a necessity.

Arya's great with people. Sansa is also good with people - she's certainly more prepared for dealings with other nobles and court, whereas I think Arya's comparably stronger in her openness with smallfolk and her firsthand experience of what it's like to live without. That's quite a unique thing about Arya as a highborn character - make of it what you will I guess?

This another double standard that is very common in the fandom. Both Arya and Sansa are good with people, with different but equally important groups of people. But people seem to count only one as important, apparently only dealing with nobles is an indicative of leadership despite the books beating us over the head with how important the smallfolk are.

But Arya's skillset is diverse as hell and hugely adaptable, what do you mean what would be the point if she weren't specifically in a governing role? Sansa's arc otoh is about politics and power - she was always being set up for a role at court, but was under-educated because it was assumed that her power would ultimately derive from her husband's and her role within his household. In actuality, it's about finding that she's a player too, and reclaiming her agency. Again, GRRM hasn't told me that Sansa will be LoW, but that seems to me a satisfying end to her story.

I never said Arya has to be a ruler, I repeated that multiple times, but yes, I do think it would be a waste if she didn't end up in some position of power. I do think it would be a waste if a character who craved power to protect herself and others throughout the whole story ended up powerless. I do think it would be a waste is a character who is developing skills that would be extremely useful for someone in power like manipulation, information gathering, lenguages, etc ended up using none of that. I do think it would be a waste that a character who seem to have a natural (if underdeveloped) predisposition for leadership did't end up developing that talent. I do think it would be a waste if one of the very few characters who actually cared about the smallfolk had no power to advocate for them. I would consider it a waste if a character that was modelled after feminists and seems designed to challenge sexist gender norms and the status quo didn't challenged anything by the end. I would find any of that extremely unsatifying.

okay! I guess I just predict plot points in a different way to how you do.

Fair enough, I'm simply explaining why I disagree, I just think some of your interpretation go against whats in the books. At least from my perspective.

If the kingdoms at the end go all independent. Who ends up king in the north? I assume Sansa is queen in the vale with Harold hardying but is bran really ok for king in the north? Will it go to Rickon?

talked about this a little before but basically I don't really see the seven kingdoms each becoming independent: I think whatever becomes of the Targaryen legacy, Aegon's ice & fire dream (or whatever it was called lol) was clear that there was strength in unity and I think that echoes throughout asoiaf generally.

I think it's likely Sansa will govern the North (I agree that her arc in preparing her for that role is incomplete, but at least she has that arc where compared to Rickon). Arya's a charismatic character and a strong leader besides, you could certainly say she'd be as good at governing as Sansa. but I just don't really feel like a governing role resonates in her story regardless, so that does leave Sansa (who I personally really doubt will just marry Harold Hardyng and settle down in the Vale for all of time)

and I fully buy into the Bran as a fisher king theory - I don't think he'll govern exactly but will become a figurehead of westeros, uniting the people and the land. doubt he'll be based in King's Landing as that's likely to be a pile of ash and in any case was always very much part of the political plot, divorced from the supernatural and the struggles of the rest of Westeros. you constantly get a sense of KL as a corrupted seat where the monarchs and their court are entirely removed from the smallfolk on their very doorstep, so I don't see it having a place in Bran's reign, whatever that ends up looking like

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more-than-monoglot · 2 years ago

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Fun things to do for immersion in your target language

Some things you can do in your target language that are fun and make you care more than when reading a textbook:

Cook a traditional recipe

Find a video in your target language on how to cook something you like from somewhere that speaks your target language. The motivation here is obvious- if you don't understand the recipe you won't be able to make the dish. Watch it once to find out what the ingredients are, and again when making the dish. Use your dictionary of choice to help out if needed.

2. Play a video game

I prefer turn-based games with RPG elements as I get a mix of dialogue and utility words like save, menu, attack, etc. Right now, I'm playing Dicey Dungeons in Chinese and Pokemon SoulSilver in Japanese (hiragana only). The consequence here is obvious, if you can't navigate menus or choose the wrong attack, the game will be harder.

Hard mode: Find a server with voice chat in your target language where teamwork or communication is important. Any MOBA or MMORPG comes to mind. You'll learn to communicate on the fly, and you'll learn a plethora of the foulest swear words imaginable.

3. Share your personal interests with others

Learn to talk about things that you do that are unique to you. Standard language courses teach you words that tend to be generally used: eat, sleep, drink, etc. What about things that are of special interest to you? Chances are, you will use this vocabulary more often than the average person, and you will be more passionate about the subject- this leads to higher motivation to retain this specialized vocabulary.

Then post it wherever you want, or in a diary, or talk about it to a native speaker.

4. Learn to tell a joke

Recite and rehearse jokes you find funny. Jokes in other languages reveal so much about the underlying culture that can't easily be translated. By understanding how to tell a joke in another language, you will gain more appreciation for the language itself. The upshot here is that telling a joke comes with social risk, so you will have to build the confidence before delivering the joke.

Bonus: Foreign language puns are hilarious.

5. Listen to a local radio station

Local radio stations have it all- interviews, ads, music, traffic updates, and more. Many of these are available online, so no need to move to the city and pull out your FM receiver! What's especially nice about this option is that radio hosts tend to enunciate and use proper language. Even if you don't understand every word, the grammar and structure of the language will slowly ingrain itself.

This is the most passive of the immersion techniques I use, but I've found many songs I enjoy through local radio stations. Then, I take a deep dive into the song lyrics and learn them, which is much more active. The goal is to learn the lyrics and rehearse them until I can sing along with the music.

#it's a list #langblr #language learning

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arvandus · 3 years ago

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So hopefully I got in on time! Btw, I’ve been absolutely loving your HC’s, the stutter one was friggin adorable! I love soft Dabi, there’s not much of him out there in stories 😢

Anyway! I was wondering if you could do HC’s with Dabi for someone who may be deaf or just hard of hearing? Ifff your comfortable, I would love to see what he would do for a male s/o (or platonic friend/league member, etc, whichever you choose!) If you don’t want to do this it’s completely fine and you can switch it to ambiguous/female (I don’t know if you have ever done men before haha!)

Hello! I’m so flattered for this ask because you’re trusting me to portray something that’s personal to you and outside of my own experience. I can absolutely do this with a Male Reader (my first one!).

I’m not sure what type or level of hearing loss you had in mind, so I did my best with this and went with an acquired hearing loss that’s moderate-to-severe. Also, I wrote Reader as someone who wears hearing aids. I hope that’s all right, since that’s typically the case for those with more severe hearing loss (otherwise communication is really difficult to do, since I don’t suspect Dabi would know sign language). Also, I got a couple of cute ideas that I really wanted to fit into this that follow more of a friends-to-lovers sort of vibe rather than established relationship. Anyway, I hope you enjoy! 

Headcanons for Dabi x M!Reader who’s Deaf/Hard of Hearing (HOH)

Warnings: None.

Word Count: 1240

💙 When you first join the LOV, Dabi will be skeptical at first, as he is with all things. How could someone with a hearing loss really be of any value to the league? He can’t help but wonder what skills you’re bringing to the table to that convinced Shigaraki to allow you to join.

💙 Dabi doesn’t interact with you right away... he prefers to observe. Part of it is that he doesn’t care for attachments, even amongst his comrades. Another is that he doesn’t expect you to last very long in the League. If he does interact, it’ll be through snarky quips and insults. After all, he loves getting under other people’s skin... it makes him feel like has an advantage.

💙 So, it goes without saying that Dabi will be a hard nut to crack at first. He’ll definitely have some crappy preconceived notions about people with hearing loss that he’ll get to face as he’s forced to get to know you.

💙 For example, he learns super fast that your hearing has little to do with your intelligence. You’re fucking smart and more than capable of handling yourself, much to his surprise. You quickly become an important member of the team, and even Dabi can’t really argue your value. It only makes his interest in you grow, his skepticism giving way to curiosity.

💙 Another thing he learns about you... you value your independence and hate when others coddle or dote on you due to your hearing loss. The first time Toga had tried to treat you as something fragile (granted she was trying to be nice), you’d quickly put her in her place. Dabi couldn’t help but grin at that exchange...

💙 The great thing about Dabi sitting back and observing everyone else most of the time is that he gets to learn by proxy how to interact with you.

💙 Don’t mumble or talk too fast. Don’t look away when talking to you. Talk more clearly, and slower, but for God’s sake, don’t treat you like you’re dumb. You’re hard of hearing, not stupid.

💙 Even with all of that taken into consideration though, he’ll notice that while you seem to do fine in one-on-one exchanges in quiet environment, you’ll withdraw more in group gatherings. Is the chattering of multiple voices too much? Is the noise overwhelming? Even he can’t always tolerate the prattling of the social butterflies of the group, so he wouldn’t blame you if it got under your skin too.

💙 His interest will finally be piqued when he watches you retreat during a rather boisterously loud game night amongst the League. He’ll follow quietly behind you, watching as you pass your own room in favor of the stairwell leading up to the rooftop.

💙 You don’t notice he’s followed you until he sits next to you. Your eyes betray your surprised at his presence.

💙 “What are you doing here?” you demand.

💙 He’ll give you a grin and a cock of his head. “You didn’t seem like you were havin’ much fun back there. Got anything to do with these?” he’ll tap your hearing aid playfully.

💙 You huff at him. “If you want me to hear you better, you’ll need to sit on my other side. My hearing aid battery died.”

💙 “You don’t have a backup?” he asks as he adjusts his position.

💙 You shake your head.

💙 “Doesn’t sound too bad.” He’ll tease. “I wish I could turn off my ears, especially when Toga laughs.”

💙 You give him a glare at his insensitive comment. “You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”

💙 He raises an eyebrow at you and think for a moment, before looking back out over the cityscape. “Why don’tcha tell me about it then.”

💙 You give him a skeptical look but he waits silently for you to continue. His smirk is gone as his sharp eyes glance back at you. He's serious.

💙 You’ll finally open up to him, explaining how hard it can be sometimes. How noisy environments can make your hearing aids nearly useless when the noise is too much, when everyone is talking at once. How frustrating it is to not be able to follow a conversation let alone participate, and how it can sometimes make people assume things about you. At best, they’ll assume you can hear fine with your hearing aids and therefore assume you’re being aloof or don’t want to interact. At worst, they’ll think your slow or stupid, and look at you with pity.

💙 Dabi will listen, but he won’t offer much up except sarcastic remarks about the others in an attempt to make you feel better. After all, sympathy isn’t his strong suit. But you’ll find yourself feeling better by the end, just grateful to be able to vent to someone.

💙 When you smile at him and tell him thanks for listening, it’ll take him by surprise. Not because of your reaction – he expected that, at least. What’ll surprise him is his reaction to it – a strange sense of satisfaction will wash over him, filling him with an unfamiliar warmth. He realizes - a moment too late, before he can bring down his barriers - that he likes seeing you smile, especially when it’s at him.

💙 You’ll feel slightly closer after that, finding more opportunities to hang out on the quiet rooftop and chat.

💙 He’ll surprise you on your next visit with a brand-new pack of hearing aid batteries. You’ll give him a suspicious look, asking where he got them and how he knew what kind to get you, but he’ll give you a wicked grin and brush off your question with an evasive comment.

💙 It won’t take long for you to start developing a crush on him, and against your better judgment, you find yourself staring at him a lot more and finding ways to be around him more. Hanging out at the bar, going on missions together, sitting next to him during the LOV discussions… you try to brush it off as ‘becoming friends,’ but deep down you know better.

💙 It doesn’t take long for Dabi to take notice and begin to suspect that maybe… just maybe… all of your secret glances and increased attention aren’t strictly platonic.

💙 What a wonderful turn of events. He wasn’t sure if you were interested in men, but now he’s 99% sure you are... or at the very least, interested in him.

💙 It leaves his skin feeling hotter than usual, his heart pounding in his chest with excitement. He wonders if you know... or even suspect... that he watches you too in mutual attraction.

💙 He’ll start testing the waters, just to make sure, of course. Hit you with a few flirty nicknames to see how you react. As soon as he sees you fluster and flounder in obvious embarrassment, he’ll know he’s got you, and it makes your exchanges only that much more entertaining.

💙 The more he learns about you, the more interested he becomes. He’ll start to do research on ways to support you with your hearing loss. It’ll be purely out of curiosity, of course... it’s not like he’s gonna go out of his way or anything. But he ends up finding himself down the rabbit hole of hearing aid supports, and learns about Bluetooth capabilities, FM systems, infrared systems... ways to send targeted noise – like speech for instance – straight to your hearing aids, bypassing any pesky background noise.

💙 It won’t take long for him to get an idea – two birds with one stone, so to speak...

💙 You’ll be on the rooftop together, when he says, “I gotta surprise for ya.”

💙 He pulls out a box that’s labelled ‘Dynamic FM System.’

💙 If you try to reach for it though, he’ll hold it out of your reach. “ah ah ah... we gotta find the right place to try it out.”

💙 He’ll lead you downstairs and you’ll think he’s heading to the common space where the others are, but instead he takes you outside of the hideout, leading you down the street.

💙 “Where are we going?”

💙 “You’ll see.”

💙 The two of you will end up outside of a bar. Not just any bar, though… the line of patrons is already a huge hint of what you’ll find inside.

💙 “Wait isn’t this….?” You’ll start.

💙 Dabi will only smirk at you though, before he grabs your hand and leads you in.

💙 Inside will be loud. So loud you have to turn down the volume on your hearing aids, and too loud for you to hear anything of value. But as you look around, your suspicions are confirmed - instead of the usual opposite sexes pairing up like you find at most bars, this one is different. Men are pairing up with men, women are pairing up with women. Your heart is beating like a drum in your chest, your pulse racing with excitement. Of all the places for Dabi to bring you…

💙 You keep close to Dabi, holding onto his arm. He loves that, loves that you’re looking to him for protection. And protect you he does, his eyes threatening violence to anyone who stares too long at you.

💙 He’ll sit you down at the bar with him in the center of the noise while drunken gay couples flirt over their drinks and a group of girls laugh in the corner. He’ll say something to the bartender, and a minute later, two fresh drinks are place before the two of you.

💙 He won’t try to talk to you yet as he opens the box and begins taking out all of the pieces. He’ll plug in the small, cylinder-like component into your hearing aid - the receiver. He’ll be completely up in your space when he does it too, grinning at you with his ocean blue eyes. In his hand he holds the transmitter that contains a button with a microphone on it.

💙 Once everything is hooked up properly, he’ll speak into the mic, his finger on the button.

💙 “Hey there.” He says. His voice comes through crystal clear.

💙 “Hey.” You smile.

💙 Once Dabi knows you can hear him, his devilish grin will widen and he’ll lean casually against the bar counter as he stares at you, his eyes drinking you in. “Have I ever told you how hot you are?”

💙 That’s when it finally clicks… Dabi is actually interested in you. And he’s taken you out on a date.

💙 BONUS: If the bar scene ends up being too much for you, he’ll be more than happy to spend the rest of your date on your favorite rooftop spot with some take-out. 10/10 will kiss you by the end of the date.

#Arv's 750 Followers Event #dabi #dabi hcs #dabi x male reader #dabi x m!reader #dabi x reader #deaf #hard of hearing

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roversrovers · 3 years ago

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Where do you get space news and scientific articles to read? I don't know where to begin searching to stay up to date.

Hi there, thanks so much for the question!

I wanna say before anything that I just do all this for fun so I maybe don't have the best methods and sources, this is simply what works well for me personally.

If anyone wants to share their own methods and sources feel free to rb and share!

One of my major sources of news is my space and science twitter list. Anytime I follow an account that's related to science I add it to the list. You can see that I have all sorts of accounts on there, from big institutions over news outlets to individuals working in a certain field. I get a lot of news and reliable sources through this list because I can see rightaway if multiple renowned scientists and institutions share the same thing.*

I also just use Google News(stand). You can choose topics that interest you so you can just browse for example Science & Technology and find publications that match your interests and provide the news you are looking for.*

There's also certain podcasts that I like to get some news from or learn about something interesting. (I'm not the most avid podcast listener so this isn't the best list out there and probably my least used method)

And a lot is also just me browsing. If a topic interests me I'll just scour the internet for articles, papers and even books on the topic and it takes me to all sorts of different places online.*

Overall I recommend starting by following institutions like NASA or CERN or whatever it is that interests you on whichever social media you use (twitter, Instagram, YouTube...) and go from there. Pay attention to people, universities, research facilities etc that they post about or follow and follow those as well and you'll quickly build a list of accounts that provide you with all that you want to know that's personalised to your interests.*

*DISCLAIMER: The internet is full of misinformation and disinformation that can become quite dangerous. These methods I use can lead you down the opposite path than you may intend to go if you're not familiar with the basics of media literacy. If you're not 100% sure you really can tell a legitimate, reliable account, publication or website from one that intends to share misleading or false information or you have no idea what I mean by media literacy, I recommend having a look at this before you do anything else.

#ask #anonymous #science #space #research #my post #scienceblr

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hellativity · 3 years ago

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finally got the final ounce of motivation/confidence needed to improve my audio setup!! Long post bc it's all I'm thinking about rn

my current turntable is one of those cutesy built-in speaker ones that can damage your records, so I ordered a used pro-ject debut iii as recommended by an online pal

this of course means I need a receiver or amp so I found an old receiver on fb marketplace. I did a quick google and the first thing that came up was an old forum post saying "why does this receiver sound so good??" so I'm really excited about that one too. Also looking forward to having fm radio access in my home

I also found some old out of production speakers on fb marketplace which, after a quick google, also have rave reviews on niche forum posts. I don't have the space for huge bookshelf speakers or a sub or anything but I think these will work really well!

I am also ordering new stands for them & planning to do a gay little crochet project to give them some personality lol.

Then I just need wires/cables! I have a newer TV so I'll need some kind of adapter to get it's audio into the receiver but I know they exist

And because I don't have much space I also am thinking of building a little stand to place the turntable over the receiver. I don't know much about woodworking but I own a drill and want to paint something! I also think I could incorporate a little stand behind the turntable so I can prop up the record sleeve while I'm playing something :)

I'm so excited about how many things I'm able to get secondhand and I'm excited to learn about the setup & do a few little DIY aspects as well!!! This will be so fun to put together and allow me to enjoy my records without worrying about them, and enjoy my Spotify on better speakers than a Google mini. And between the tech and the sound and the crafting it's a great intersection of my interests

#sound system blogging

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somedayonbroadway · 4 years ago

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So about that Radio Rebel AU... 👀

I’m oddly excited about this one. I love the concept of this movie, it’s so interesting.

Radio Rebel AU

Characters

Racetrack Higgins — Tara Adams

Rafaela — Stacy DeBane

Spot Conlon — Gavin

Albert DaSilva — Audrey Sharma

Obadiah Weisel — Principal Moreno

Jack Kelly — DJ Cami Q

Coffee Bean — Kim

Hot Shot — Gabe

JoJo De La Guerra — Larry

Buttons — Barry

Alright so…

Antonio Higgins never claimed to be outgoing. He never wanted to be popular or even really put himself out there. What he knew he was, was shy. Well, if having severe social anxiety meant being shy, then, yeah… that’s what he was. People terrified him and the mere thought of talking to some of them could send him into a full blown anxiety attack.

Therapy had helped once. But he didn’t go anymore. High school kept him pretty busy. Not to mention his ride had gotten busy with someone else. Walking was just too much. He just didn’t care enough. He would shut himself in his room for the rest of his life and never come out.

That is, until he found out he’d be getting a new stepdad. And that came with a new stepbrother.

Everything happened so fast and Race couldn’t keep up. His step brother was some radio host who loved attention and parties. Race knew he’d been the popular kid in school who played sports and got any date he wanted.

Jack was so open with people.

Race wasn’t.

When Jack starts coming around more, Race finds himself getting jealous of how easily Jack connects with people. Jack puts himself out there in everything he does. He’s a radio host, he’s got a lot of friends. He’s a singer and a songwriter and he plays guitar and he plays sports and everybody loves him. Even Race’s own mother who seems to like having Jack around more than him.

Eventually, when Race and Jack are forced to hang out a bit, Jack tells Race that he didn’t always used to be so outgoing, that he had to work up to it. He hadn’t had the easiest childhood. He tells Race a bit about it, being the more talkative one of the two of them. He admits that his father hadn’t always necessarily been the most loving, affectionate guy. He admits to Race that his dad was a drunk and that he used to get so out of it that he’d beat him. With the bruises and the scars, Jack never wanted anyone to notice. But after his dad got help, straightened himself out and took himself and his son to therapy and worked hard for years and years and still tried to make it up to him, Jack found himself wanting to allow himself to let more people into his life.

He wanted to finally be heard when he struggled through forgiving his dad.

So he started his own mini radio show. He was in high school when it all started.

Without any prompting, Jack pulls out a laptop and shows Race how he did it. He shows him how cool it is to put on his own show and then he stops because he knows he’s rambling. He tells Race that the show really did help him grow, though and make friends and be a part of society.

Eventually, Jack’s dad went back to work at a radio station that he’d run before and he brought Jack on as a host. His radio host name is Jay K and his show focuses a lot on how to stay positive even when bad things are going on in the world or in people’s lives specifically.

Race listened to his show every day that it’s on. But he doesn’t tell Jack that. Jack’s a cool college guy. He’s just his awkward step brother who has trouble getting out two words to someone and whose mother has to order food for him whenever they go out to eat.

But something about Jack’s show makes him want his own.

So he makes one. And he calls it Radio Rebel.

He locks himself in his room and puts on some headphones and just… starts talking.

And people listen.

They like his taste in music and what he has to say about the world they live in, the awful truths of high school and he asks why it has to be that way, why kids are supposed to respect adults who talk down to them and don’t care what’s going on in their lives. He challenges the rules that they’re being told and the things they’re being taught and the biases that people have and how teachers play favorites.

And the best part of all of it? No one knows it’s him.

Radio Rebel is a mystery.

He has one friend at school. Albert DaSilva. Albert broke into his shell and is the only person Race ever talks to really. Albert is constantly trying to help Race overcome his fears of talking to people. Eventually, he even tricks Race into taking drama with him.

The first day of classes, Race knows he made a mistake, if it’s not the participation grade that’s introduced to him it’s the fact that the guy he’s had a crush on since the sixth grade is in that class for his art credit and the girl who’s been making everyone’s life hell since forever is also there with her ever present sidekick.

The first day of class, the first day, and Race gets picked on by the teacher to write down a scene suggestion. He freezes in front of the class, his hand shaking as he tries to function like a normal person.

See, when he was young, his father died. His father had been the person he looked up to above all else. He was so happy all the time, even when he got sick. After that, it was like a little part of Race died with him and he just never knew how to communicate his feelings anymore. He didn’t know how to function in society because he spent most of his time as a child at his dying father’s bedside instead of out with children his own age.

At least, that’s what he thinks.

Even as he’s clearly terrified, Rafaela, a walking nightmare, decides that this is the perfect time to make fun of him. So Race, still trembling, tries to go back to his seat, knocking down the popular girl’s books and then he tries to pick them up, only hitting his head beneath her desk.

He looked up to find Spot staring at him. Spot Conlon, the hottest boy Race had ever known, was staring at him like he was some kind of freak. So Race ran, hiding in the bathroom completely humiliated.

He tries to calm himself down with some music. Though he still won’t admit it, his step brother’s music really does help him relax. He listens to it when he feels alone.

But in the hallway on his way to his next class, his principal, the ever irritating Mr. Wiesel, or, as Race likes to silently call him, Weasel, confiscates his third pair of headphones this semester, leaving Race to muddle through until he can go home and anonymously let his frustrations out with a microphone, some music and a voice scrambler. He plays one of Jack’s songs on the radio that day.

In the middle of his show, Race is jamming out to his song choice while he’s waiting to go back on when a knock comes at his door.

It’s his stepdad.

Race doesn’t hate the guy, he just barely knows him. They’re practically strangers living under the same roof. But, wanting to form a bond with his new step son, the man asks Race is he’d ever heard of someone called Radio Rebel, stating that the kid was some kind of local sensation and suggesting they listen to him together. Race tries to get rid of him, but doesn’t wanna be rude so he ends up giving in and continuing his show with the man in the room.

He’s terrified of what’s going to happen. His stepdad, however, offers him a job. He doesn’t wait for an answer before telling Race that he’s hired. That’s when Race is even more terrified.

It’s announced the next day that Radio Rebel is going to be on WORLD FM (i don’t know what it stands for). Race is horrified. And it doesn’t help that he has to blow off Albert in order to keep his identity a secret. His best friend is starting to get frustrated and Race knows it won’t be long before he’s had enough.

A couple days later, Race finds out that he will have to perform a Shakespeare scene in front of his whole class with two partners. Rafaela and Spot. Because of course it would be them

On Race’s first day at the studio, his step dad tries to give him a tour of the place only to lose him. Race runs off and tries to find an empty room to have a panic attack in. He only ends up finding Jack in the kitchen. Jack immediately greets him and tells him how happy he is that he tried to put himself out there and he’d tell Race how much he liked his show and how it encouraged so many people to just be themselves and have fun. But Jack turns around for one second to finish pouring himself some coffee, only to turn around and have the room be seemingly empty.

Having been on the verge of a breakdown for days, Race is hiding between the wall and the refrigerator, unable to barely breathe. When Jack finally finds him, he starts rambling, not knowing what to do or say. He tells Jack how scared he is and how different it is to go from pretending no one’s listening to knowing that everyone is.

Eventually, Jack coaxes him out of his hiding spot and gives him a soda, sitting him down and telling him that everybody gets nervous. Even him. He tells Race that it doesn’t help to feed into it and continue telling himself how scared he is, but instead use the adrenaline to hype himself up.

Race actually benefits from the talk and thanks Jack. Jack just tells him that’s what brothers are for before going to show him the ropes. He gives Race a small tour of his live room and explains to him how everything works and lets Race get in a practice run. It doesn’t go extremely well. But Jack just tells him he’ll be great, just like he was when he was alone, and then he’d tell Race that he had fifteen second before he was live and he’d go into the next room to watch and listen and help if Race needed it. Race shuts himself in the room, trying to pretend he’s alone before his show starts up.

He falls back into an easy rhythm.

His show is an immediate hit.

At the end of his show, he talks about the hierarchy of high school and how it’s all a bunch of crap. How differences shouldn’t be outlined as a bad thing and everyone should just learn how to accept each other. Then he asks every listener to wear red the next day, just to show that they were all equal.

He shows up to find a sea of red at school the next day. People were listening.

Albert is still mad at him.

Race tries to just continue on but after having to rehearse his scene with Spot and Rafaela, he just feels overwhelmed and practically begs Albert to talk to him again. When Albert still tries to refuse, he pulls him into an empty hallway and finally tells his best friend that he’s the guy everybody loves so much. Albert almost doesn’t believe him but eventually just kind of hugs him and tells him how proud of him he is.

After school, Race agrees to rehearse the scene with Spot and Rafaela and after being berated a bit by Rafaela, Spot encourages Race to stand up for himself and push back against Rafe, who’s acting as their director.

Race finally admits that in this scene of Romeo and Juliet, the audience would only get real emotion from them if they were closer. Spot is Mercutio and Race is Romeo.

Race has adored Spot for so long. He was always just so genuine and yeah, he was a tough guy, originally from Brooklyn, who plays sports and works out, but he was also in a band. He played guitar.

And after this particular rehearsal, he accidentally leaves behind a demo of his band. And Race picks it up.

Race uses it on his show later as he encourages everybody who’s listening to just get up and dance at eight o’clock tomorrow and just go crazy. Jack and Race dance to it in the studio and Race’s stepdad gets a small video of it, loving how well his boys are getting along now. This is the most of the real Race either of them have ever truly seen.

The next morning, when a full on dance part breaks out, Race gets to dance with Spot for a split second before Rafaela joins in with her weird, jerky movements just to get on his nerves. It’s only moments later that Radio Rebel is threatened by the principal to turn himself in now.

The principal is not happy with the encouragement from this mystery person to disobey school policy and dance instead of focus on classes and work. He then states that anyone caught listening to Radio Rebel during school hours will be expelled.

But that only gives Race an idea.

He runs to Jack who he feels more comfortable with now than he’s sure he’d ever felt with anyone before and asks him for a favor.

The next day at lunch, Jack shows up with a WORLD FM van and gives the kids a special lunchtime dance party, making sure he’s right on the border of city property as a recording of Race tells everybody that they were taking lunchtime back and making it theirs again.

Weasel is not happy and gets it in his head that the minute he finds out who Radio Rebel is, he will be expelling them.

Later that night, after Jack’s show, Race stays to watch Jack record a new song he’d written with a small team of people. Race is a little nervous still, but feels comfortable enough with Jack there. Jack is singing and playing guitar for this new track (Burnout. A song Jeremy Jordan did in fact write) that Race sort of inspired him to write after opening up to him and telling him about his crush and how he doesn’t know how to talk to him. But while trying to record, something just sounds wrong and Race offhandedly points out that he needs a bottom harmony. So Jack tells him to get into the booth and grab a microphone.

And they record a song together.

The next night, Jack lets him play it on his show.

Jack can see Race starting to open up and gain confidence and just be himself. And he’s so happy for him.

A couple days later, Albert pulls Race into the janitor’s closet to tell him the news. Radio Rebels was nominated for Prom King. Race is immediately terrified and starts having a panic attack as he says he has to stop doing the show because no one can know who he is. Albert calms him down and drives him to the studio where they park three blocks away and wear hoodies and sunglasses to try and hide their faces.

Race finally shows Albert where the magic happens and introduces him to another one of his favorite radio hosts, Jay K.

Just before his show starts, Race’s stepdad makes an appearance, telling him that they have to cancel the show. Outraged by this sudden turn of events, Race asks the man why and he explains that Principal Wiesel just called and that if he finds out who Radio Rebel is, he’ll be expelled and that he’s Race’s stepdad first.

Race just says no. He says that he didn’t come this far to get shut down and he didn’t bend the rules just to be cornered by some lonely, bored old man (Weasel). And his stepdad says that’s the most he’d ever heard Race speak, not Radio Rebel, and that he’s on in fifteen.

He turns back to Jack who gives him a thumbs up and a grin.

That night, Race asks people to share their fears, to stop being afraid of admitting they’re afraid. He gets calls immediately.

The last call he takes is from Spot. He tells Race that he’s afraid to do his own thing. See, his band used to be made up of his best friends but they only want to make loud, superficial music while Spot wants to make something real. Race admits he was terrified to do his own thing too. He looks at Jack as he said he had somebody who believed in him and told him that if he wanted to, he could make a real difference. And then he’d tell Spot that he believed in him and could do the same.

When Race gets home that night, his mother is waiting up for him, waiting to tell him how proud she is of him and how he inspires people to be themselves and that she knows he’s teaching himself some things along the way too.

The next day, however, the school gets some disastrous news. Weasel is cancelling the prom until Radio Rebel reveals themselves.

Race is devastated. He knows people are gonna destroy him for this.

Sure enough, he’s greeted with an angry mob on his way to the studio. He tried to blend in. Jack meets him at the front doors, trying to figure out a way to get him inside without anyone noticing. So, he pulls a hood over his head and starts running to draw away the crowd while Race and Albert sneak inside.

Eventually, once Jack gets back in the show starts. And it’s brutal.

Race gets through several calls of people yelling at him and calling him names and telling him how much they hate him and Jack can see Race start to shake. So the second they take a music break, Jack goes in and hugs him. It’s the first time in a long time Race can remember being held like this. He cries a bit and tells Jack he’s gonna come clean and Jack discourages that, telling his little brother how backwards this all was.

And that gives Race an idea.

On his way out of the building, the mob is still there, so they ask some guy dressed as a sandwich to distract the crowd while they get away. And he does.

The next morning, WORLD FM hijacks the high schools PA system and announces that WORLD FM will be throwing the school a Morp instead of a Prom. Race recorded himself saying that a Morp was a celebration and encouraged people to come as they are. No limos, no hundred dollar dresses or suits, just a party that celebrates them.

And everyone loves it.

Except for Rafaela, of course. Race teasingly encourages her to call in and tell Radio Rebel her frustrations about the prom court. Later that night, on Race’s show, he talks about prom court, giving Rafe the suspicion that it’s been him all along. So Rafaela decides to find a way to prove it and get Race expelled.

She invites the whole school to a party at her house during Radio Rebels broadcast. Whoever doesn’t show up is the person they’re looking for.

Only… Race shows up.

At the studio, Jack and Race’s mom are going crazy trying to figure out the recordings they made of Race and are trying to navigate a call with Rafaela who calls in only screwing up a line and trying to push her off the phone. Race then finally calls in and tells Jack to patch him into the show. Jack does and Race has to run around Rafaela’s house to hide from her while he takes her phone call.

Race finds her room and remembers that when they were young, Rafe used to dress up in dresses and tiaras at school. Race used to be so jealous of how comfortable she was just being herself. Race tells her that when she walks in before he runs out to find Albert.

A few minutes later, Rafaela sends out her best friend Coffee Bean to “deliver a pizza” to WORLD FM. To end this once and for all. Coffee Bean ends up recording Jack and Race’s mom talking about how far Race had come and how proud they were of him. She also gets a bit of Jack talking about his own past. She feels bad, knowing that Jay K had such a traumatic past. He always kept it a mystery to his listeners. But that’s not as important as finally busting Race.

A few days later is the day of their drama scene presentation. Rafaela tricks Race into following her into the janitor's closet before she locks him in there. He knows Spot will hate him if he misses their scene and he also knows that he hates small spaces.

He calls Jack to beg for help and Jack literally runs to him and gets him out while people are still in class. He calms Race down enough for Race to try and get through the day.

But Rafaela finds Race right after school. She plays the recording, telling him that she knows who he is. Race tries to explain that that doesn’t prove anything but Rafe threatens to forward it to the whole school. Race can’t have that happened, not only to keep his identity safe but also to protect the secrets of his step brother and his step dad from getting out. If people found out the guy who ran WORLD FM was a former alcoholic who used to beat his son, that wouldn’t be good. Race knew that. So he does what Rafaela tells him to do and tells the whole school to vote Rafaela for Morp Queen.

Albert however, after talking to Race and finding out what happened, tells Spot the story of him getting locked in the closet.

Spot confronts Rafaela who he was supposed to be going to morp with and immediately breaks it off, telling her that he’ll be going alone.

The next night is morp. Jack is DJing and Spot’s band has a small time slot. But that’s not what has everyone hyped.

No, what has everyone hyped is that they know who’s gonna be crowned prom king.

Jack announces it. It’s Radio Rebel.

Race panics for a moment before he realizes that he can’t keep hiding. He finds a mic backstage and starts talking, telling everyone how scared he was and how this was all even scarier. He reveals that he didn’t know he could feel so much like himself until now. Then he walks out onstage and reveals himself.

Weasel laughs from the crowd as people cheer. He grabs the mic and tells Race that he’s expelled in front of the whole school and Jack stands protectively in front of him, ready to give Weasel a piece of his mind before Albert shouts out that he’s Radio Rebel. Spot follows suit. And suddenly, the whole crowd is admitting to being Radio Rebel.

So Weasel backs down.

And then Spot gets up on stage to sing a song dedicated to a boy that isn’t afraid to ask a dancing sandwich for help. After this, he reveals to Race that he’s always been afraid to be himself and asks Race to help him do just that, asking him to dance and kissing him in front of the crowd.

And Race thinks just maybe he’s not afraid anymore.

For more Mood Boards and AUs, click here!

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quasieli · 4 years ago

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top six: fictional characters that give you gender envy, flowers, little things that make you happy and d&d moments :D

Ooh lotsa questions!

Gender Envy:

1) Bow from She-Ra (2018). Something about buff athletic dude who wears crop tops and is soft as hell is very Gender to me.

2) Vax from Critical Role. Pretty boy, kinda goth rogue? That’s sexy as hell and I wish that was me.

3) In a wildly different idea of gender envy, I’ve been thinking about it lately and @quantum-lesbian’s character in the Frostmaiden game I’m in with them, Ambrose, is Big Gender. Beautiful non-binary drow with a starry and kinda witchy aesthetic that dresses super grandly and ostentatiously no matter the occasion? Yes please.

4) Pete from The Unsleeping City, specifically season two. I adore season one Pete but season two Pete that works in a queer bookshop and has a teapot arcane focus, is artsy and is unapologetically a trans man who doesn’t give a shit about gender roles? Sign me the fuck up.

5) Beau from Critical Role. Buff GNC lesbian mixed with academia, but like academia from the prospective of a grad student with ADHD trying to learn everything about their special interests? A+, I love her and I’m jealous.

6) I’m gonna cheat a lil bit for this last one. I know the prompt is fictional characters, but Julia Lepetit and Jacob Andrews in their Hitman streams? Simultaneously both of them were Gender for me. Jacob esp felt like that for me, which is weird cause dresses can make me dysphoric, but I am also slightly envious of the Dude in a Dress type of gender presentation.

Can you tell that I’m a confused trans masc enby

Gonna put it under the cut from here cause oof, there’s still a lot more.

Flowers:

1) Big slut for Sunflowers, always have been, always will be.

2) Fun fact, my dad’s family used to own a flower shop (in like the 70s, so I never got to see it :(), and one of their big things was hydrangeas. My dad has always loved them and now I love the snowballs too!

3) A recent favorite, the Baker’s Globe Mallow. It’s a type of flower that only grows from the soils of forests that have been affected by wildfires. It’s a simple little flower but I love the idea of something beautiful rising from the ashes after tragedy. A little dramatic, but I’m queer, ofc I’m dramatic.

4) Roses are another important flower to my family (Rose was a family name for a couple generations), and ya know, they’re a classic.

5) There’s this beautiful magnolia tree in front of my house that blooms with the most beautiful white and pink flowers every spring, and it’s one of my favorite things to see every year.

6) There’s so many different types of Lillies and they’re all very pretty, but the Purple Stargazer is prob my favorite.

Little Things That Make Me Happy:

1) My cat, Maddie. She may be a cranky girl at times, but she is also very sweet and will always be my baby (even though she is 12).

2) Not a little thing really, but my best friend. Just getting a sweet/silly text from her or the two of us chilling in a room, sitting in a comfortable silence because we just like being together, nothing better.

3) Baking, esp if I’m doing it for others. I’m not much of a sweets person myself, a little treat every once in a while type person, but I love baking. It’s a very relaxing process for me, even when it can sometimes get stressful, but seeing people enjoying something I made, especially something that brought me great joy to make, is simply the best.

4) In the same sorta vein, crafting and other art, but that’s a bit more personal. I love making things for others, but art, particularly drawing, is something I do more for me. It’s such a great feeling when you can get into a really good art mood and just sink yourself into a project. I love it.

5) My plush toys. Yes, I am a 23 year old, no I will not stop loving my plushies. I just got a few new friends, which I made a post about recently, and they such good cuddle buddies. However, there is one king amongst them all. I have this old, beat up christmas puppy beanie baby, on his tag named Jingle Pup, but I just call him Jingle. I had one version of him since I was like 6, but he currently lives on a shelf cause he is very beaten up and fragile, but his “brother”, who I got when I was 8, is still in kinda good shape and is currently chilling on my chest as I type this lol.

6) Again, not a little thing, but it’s important to mention; D&D. The game itself is such a joy, but truly the best part of it is the people. I love creating stories and memories with people through this weird little game. Truly one of my favorite things to do.

D&D Moments:

These are all gonna be personal moments, rather than anything from actual play shows/podcasts. RC is Reforged Campaign, where I play Saube, and FM is Frostmaiden, where I play Sparks.

1) RC - Meeting Mahety, Saube’s girlfriend. We met her way back in session 12 and we are now up to like session 73. Saube saw her and was immediately big heart eyes at her but also felt a bit awkward and shy. So, being a game a dice, I decided to roll. 10 or higher, Saube would talk to her, 9 or lower, she’d stay put. I rolled a 17, 17 is now a lucky number for me. I love Mahety and I’d die for her.

2) FM - This was an insane fight that should not have been so crazy, but in a fairly early session, my group went up against an angry druid and her awakened animals. So much batshit stuff happened in that fight, and we unfortunately lost our bread loving bard (RIP Agneyis), but one of my favorite combat turns happened in this fight. Our artificer, Omaren, has a robe of useful items and one of the patches on it creates a large pit. Thinking quickly, Omaren tore off the patch, slid it under one of the dire wolves we were fighting and created a looney tunes style pit under it, allowing us to take it out easily via pot shots. Such a clutch move and such a funny visual, especially because the dire wolf kept failing the checks to get out of the pit.

3) RC - Saube’s Zebrith (I will never remember how this actually spelled RIP). So, for context, Saube ended up with a death curse (long story) that mechanically meant they had disadvantage on any death saving throws. Scary as hell, need to get that fixed! So, Saube and their party had to be smuggled into another country to talk with some religious leaders of a goddess known as The First, the goddess of death. They were told that Saube would have to go through the aforementioned ritual, which included her soul leaving her body for a short period of time. During this ritual, her friends had to call back to her, to say things that would bring her back to her body and I still cry thinking about that game. That ritual was not only important for Saube bodily, but spiritually as well. After that ritual, Saube officially became a cleric of The First!

4) A real sappy one, RC - Saube meeting all of her friends. Anyone who follows along with the rantings on my blog probably knows how important this game is to me. I met this random group of strangers on tumblr and formed a D&D party with them and now, a year and a half later, I honestly think it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I know that sounds silly and dramatic but not only has this game brought me so much joy and comfort, but I also gained a group of really amazing friends who have been nothing but amazing since day one. As much as Saube knows she can depend on SICL, I know I can depend on my group of weirdos lol. We both love our friends very much and even though we’ve all been through some crazy shit, we wouldn’t change it for the world.

5) RC - Just playing Saube in general. I really didn’t intend for it to be this way, but Saube is very much a reflection of myself. She is the first long term character I have ever played and so much of me is in her. I try not to treat D&D like therapy, because that’s unfair to my DM and fellow party members, but playing Saube has allowed me to work through some of my own problems, especially social anxiety, in a lot safer of an environment. It isn’t so much that I’m asking this game to help me fix my life, but playing out these scenarios that, in the real world, would make me anxious or make me freak out, I can stop, take a moment to breathe and work out these issues in a way that makes sense to me. Playing her has led me to understanding myself a bit better, as well, and that’s truly such a wonderfully unexpected gift from this whole experience.

6) Lastly, a silly one: RC - Getting a crit 6. The last session of this game got real interesting. Saube’s party ended up in the ethereal plane and magic got real fucky there. So, any time any of us tried to cast a spell, we’d roll a d20, not look at the result, and then try to guess what number rolled. The closer to the number, the better the result. A few times, a few people managed to get within like 3 or 4 of their roll, but oh the power I felt when I rolled a 6 (on Saube’s die!) and guessed it correctly! So, not only did the spell (Bless) work, but it worked super well. So instead of getting +1d4 to attack rolls and saving throws, Saube and two other party members got +2d4 to attacks, saving throws and skill checks. So powerful I broke the rules of D&D lmao.

#asks #ask games #floralprintshark #D&D #Flowers #Saube #Sauhety #SICL #Sparks #long post #thanks <3 <3

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castleofclouds · 4 years ago

Text

7 Days A Week.

Genre ; Fluff, Slice of Life, Humor

Warning ; I'm writing this in the middle of midnight and I'm trying my best to used my last brain cells.

Summary ; A Story About you (fm reader), and your 7 dorks!

Part 1 ; Nostalgia.

Today is a normal day, nothing too different than the yesterday, except the way you started isn't by cliche way in which another character would wake up at exactly 7 AM in the morning to go to class.

Nope, you weren't doing that!

In fact, you are on your bed lying down, actually not really on top of your bed, kinda like a tent that was make with a blanket and pillows build just for the eight of you.

Yup! It's a slumber party! Surprise! How is it? Isn't it great to start it with a slumber party?

Anyway that...

"Can you stop talking?" Jeno said, currently getting irritated by how the narrator never stop telling things.

"Yeah! Like we don't need to hear it just get the spotlight down here!" Renjun remarks.

Those bastard! Anyway since the narrator felt attack I will leave it to you, take care of it.

"This is much more better!" Haechan exclaimed, feeling relief after the narrator leave.

The story telling was just too much for him.

"Anyway, how's you guys been doing?" You asked trying to change the topic.

"We been doing things that you do, except we are doing it our own way." Jisung said, being sarcastic as he should, Jaemin gasped.

"Did this baby just insulted someone?!" He overreacted, trying to tease Jisung.

"Can we stop with the baby joke? It's becoming to boring." Jisung said, even though he doesn't want that to stop, he love getting attention.

Tsundere.

"Shut it!" He shouted to the narrator at the corner of the room.

"We've been playing things like jenga and even that penguin escape." Renjun explains showing all the jenga and the penguin escape game being left alone in the corner of the tent.

"We should play something to take care of our boredom.." Mark sighed, he gets bored sometimes, but sometimes he doesn't understand how he is already 20 still love to make a tent and playing a card game, pretty sure he's just childish.

Seeing his child, Jaemin come up with a solution, it's sound like there's a lamp effect going around on top of his head.

"Aha! I got an idea!" He chirped happily, the 7 pair of eyes are lit by it.

"What is it?" You ask excitement going around your eye, you can't help it.

"Yeah yeah what is it?" Chenle said as excited as you, he hold your hands the both of you waiting for the great idea that Jaemin has.

"How about we talk about our high school life?" He said, thinking that it was the best idea he ever had.

Renjun sparkling eyes losses it's spark, now he's ready to throw some hands.

Poor boy was so happy, and either Chenle, he just want some fun, what should he hope for? It's Jaemin, Jeno best friend pretty sure Jeno teach him how to be a boomer like him.

"Seriously?! Are you being serious now?" Renjun said, getting annoyed.

Jaemin tilted his head, he thought it was a great idea, sadly not much people in here understand his efforts.

"Fine! Then come up with something nice!" He exclaimed, then Haechan start to act as if he's Sherlock from Sherlock's Holmes books series.

"Hmm... How about we talked about embarrassment that we had back in high school!" He shouted, giving his almost the same kinda idea that Jaemin just gave.

Jaemin was ready to complain how his idea sounds just like him but then he heard a lot of agreement going around.

"Not you to Jeno!" He said disbelieved how Jeno was quick to betray him.

He should have thought much before he make a deal with all of this dumbass.

"I'm sorry Jaemin, but Haechan Idea seems very interesting!" Jeno said, Jaemin felt the urge to choked his friend but he try to calm.

He isn't Renjun who are always thirst by blood and will always be the one who ready to pick a fight, he had an image and he need to keep doing it, because it's his Ninja Way! As in Naruto.

"Jaemin everyone can hear you thoughts." Renjun said, which made the boy flustered.

"Sorry, my bad." He said, excusing himself to the toilet feel ashamed.

"You don't need to go, we just start the story." You said, didn't want Jaemin to miss any of the great story that are waiting to unfold.

Jaemin who found out that you cared a lot about him, move pass Haechan who previously sit next to you.

"Hmm.. YN finally give me the attention that I deserved!" He exclaimed exclusively, while cling onto your arm like there's no tomorrow.

You pushed his head a little bit, you don't really like skinship, you are fine with some of them, but sometimes Jaemin way of affection is too much, let alone Jisung who had to endure it everytime he met Jaemin.

"How is it feel?" Jisung asked you, more like a whisper.

"Not fun, thank you." You stated calmly, while still trying to get away from Jaemin, the boy tightens his hold to your arm, his other arm are already at your waist.

Well, you gave up in the end.

"You can't get out mwaahaha!" He shouted while laughing evilly.

"Anyway let me start!" You said, taking all of the attention you get inside the room, even the narrator going closer.

What could be the interesting story you has?

"So.. I knew how all of you were very sensitive about this topic, well not really if you aren't Jaemin." You explained, Jaemin ears perked hearing his name.

"Oohhh.. What is it?" Haechan who heard the summary of your story is very excited.

"Remember how, back when we were an elementary students there are a new substitute teacher for our class?" You continue, everyone nodded their head.

But then by the power of Mark brain cell, he discovered it way faster than the other, when it comes to elementary school there's a lot of embarrassment going around the 8 of you.

And that thing is one them.

"Don't tell me.." He mumble.

"Yup! How can I forgot Miss Kang? That one teacher who made Mark, Jeno and Haechan going berserk, or you can say first love?" You smiling evilly seeing how the three mentioned boy getting shy, their ears turn to red.

"Miss Kang? Ohh yeah yeah! I remember!" Chenle chirped happily, of course he remembered.

"Yeah I knew.." Jisung whispered.

"Wait I forgot how Jisung falling for Miss Kang, it's very cute I swear!" This time you went overboard.

How back in the day, Jisung would always smiling everytime Miss Kang give him a compliment, even Mark who hated math learn it just to get noticed by Miss Kang.

Haechan would always try to point his hand toward the air, just to asked a question, and acting like he doesn't know anything when he's always the first one who knows how to finish math homework, Jeno the typical nerd he is always try to be the best students, just so he can see how Miss Kang proudly talking about him in front of the class.

And Renjun, the one who are being oblivious, that guy would always prepared an apple just for Miss Kang exclusively from his uncle farm.

Chenle in the other hand, doesn't understand a thing back in the day, he just follow everything that his friends doing, pretending like he do have a crush to while in fact he wasn't.

"Omg! Really? they did that?!" Jaemin gasped, and while getting second hand embarrassment when he heard about the story.

"Yeah, sadly you have can't join us to see how cute and naive they were, Jisung is the cutest one, poor boy was so happy because he got 97 in Math Exam to impress Miss Kang, but doesn't know that she's already married at that time." You said, ruffled Jisung hair who looked very gloomy.

"It's not my fault, I don't know that, Mark didn't tell me about it." He protests, Mark eyes turn big.

"What?! It's not my fault, Miss Kang was so beautiful I can't help to fell for her." He said taken aback.

"Anyway that was pretty fun, seeing how naive you guys were." You said finishing your story.

"Wait wait, you guys remember how Jisung literally almost burned down the laboratory?

"Omg yes!" Haechan shout happily, he remember every part of it.

"Yeah, we almost burned it if it weren't because of Jaemin smartass we would already getting sued."

That time, in a chemistry class, Jisung, Renjun, You and Jaemin were partnered to do some experiments but because of Jisung clumsy hands.

The laboratory almost burned to the ground, thankfully Jaemin who are fortunately know how to stop the fire before it become out of hands.

"Yeah yeah, I remember how literally Renjun just watching it while shouting about how he's afraid of the fire, Jisung already crying and Yn is the only one who help Jisung calmed down." Jaemin explains about the situation.

Probably that's why the 8 of you always labeled as the trouble maker back when you were still in elementary school, you know how basically every teacher hope the 8 of you ever getting transferred to another school.

Even how Mr. Ben always try to make you guys got expelled because the man are too tired to babysit, how Mark always chewed a gum on his class, even Jeno who are very obedient sometimes get out of his comfort zone because of how the 7 of you always whispering evil plan to his ears.

Anyway there's still a lot of story being told that night, you stayed up late as always other than Jisung who already falling asleep on top of Jeno shoulder.

"Well I guess we should be sleeping at this hour, Jisung seems very tired." Jeno said, while looking at his left side of shoulder.

"Yeah we should, I want to sleep next to YN jinx!" Chenle exclaimed, you nodded your head, he bopping his head excited.

Not even an hour later, the eight of you are already falling asleep, being in the most comfortable position ever.

Good night!

The narrator leave the room.

Previous / Next.

A/N ;

Okey I found this being one of the cutest thing I ever wrote, anyway, it's already morning.. Actually afternoon but you don't hear it from me, I always love this type of story actually.

Btw this story has a concept of like how the tv series showed? Like episode 1 might not be the same like how episode 2 will be so yeah, there's a whole new story everytime, and I take request.

This has something to do with NTC story, the difference is based on how this is basically a spin off, how they are best friend with you and that's is the main focus of the story.

Prepare for more fluff and humor I try my best to include it, but yeah anyway not everyday is a happy story.

See you next time! 😃 ps. I probably will upload more of 7DAW than NTC because of how I got a little bit confused on NTC.

Tag ;

#haechan #mark lee #nct dream #lee jeno #jaemin #nct #nct fanfic #zhong chenle #park jisung #renjun #request #nct fluff

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