#Friday night homebodies' club

[unexpectedyarns]

Three birds with one stone

Feet-up Friday

Friday Night Homebodies' Club

and Friday Five:

I had the day off from the tattoo shop today because of:

I got up early this morning to cook for the wedding tomorrow. The woman I love best in the world is getting married.

I made copious amounts of cole slaw, antipasto (and gluten free antipasto), a pumpkin cream cheese Bundt cake, and several dozen Apple Oatmeal and Banana Chocolate Chip muffins for Sunday morning breakfast. And I have 4 huge slabs of ribs to put in a slow oven in the morning.

We babysat Di's cat today. She's the mom of our two cats, but she (the cat) spent all day growling and hissing at them.

Wolf's dad died today. It's been a long time coming, and it's a relief, but of course there are conflicted feelings.

[mfred]

Friday night homebody club! Pumpkin is yelling at me to pet her while I lounge in bed with my book.

[ink-flavored]

#OCKiss2024 Day 1: Almost

Homebody Part of the @ockissweek event from Feb. 12-18th, featuring the titular couple from Pride & Justice. Tips are appreciated!

It was dark in the kitchen, but Pride didn’t need a light. Sitting on the floor with his back against the counter, he scooped another spoonful of dry cereal into his mouth. The crunch in his ears was so fucking loud. It was annoying, yet it fascinated him every time. Did humans live like this? Hearing all their weird little mouth noises constantly? No wonder so many of them went insane.

Pride swallowed, sighed, and put his head back against the cabinets. What the fuck was he doing?

A silhouette moved against the dark, too close. Something kicked his leg and they both yelped. Pride scrunched his knees into his chest, light clicking on a second later. He squinted into the sudden sting of fluorescents, and Justice stared back.

“Why are you on the floor?” he asked.

“Bored,” Pride answered. He put his bowl down, and Justice gawked at that next.

“Are you eating cereal in the dark because you’re bored, too?”

“Are you interrogating me because you’re bored?”

Justice backed off, literally, taking a step farther into the kitchen. Pride glowered as he went, but his heart wasn’t in it. This was too dumb an argument, even for him. His false anger melted away when he saw what Justice was wearing—shoes, and his shoulder bag.

“Where are you going this late?” Pride asked, shocked that he would dare leave past nine.

“To a movie,” Justice replied, cheerily missing the implication as he retrieved a glass of water. “Emelia and some other book club members and I are seeing a midnight showing, but we’re going to get something to eat first.”

“Oh.” The fake irritation started to become a little real.

“What about you?”

“What about me what?”

“You usually have something planned.”

“Not tonight.” Pride slouched against the counter, picking up his bowl. The little wheat circles held no charm for him anymore. He sulked into them.

“Why… not?”

It was an annoying, tentative question, as grating at the chewing sound. “Everyone’s busy.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, whatever.”

Pride didn’t choose to sit on the floor with a bowl of cereal in the dark, alone, because it was what he wanted to be doing on a Friday night. But Ollie had the late shift, Dante was behind on school work, and Sofía was visiting family. There was nothing for Pride to do when his friends weren’t around. Going out by himself wasn’t as fun. Even generating hordes of new sinners sounded like a chore tonight. So he did nothing.

Justice sat down and startled him. In his brooding silence, Pride assumed he had slipped away to go have his fun with his friends. Instead, he crossed his legs right next to Pride, wearing a bright and encouraging smile.

“You can come with us, if you want,” Justice offered.

Pride blinked owlishly. “What?”

“I’m sure nobody would mind. And you like movies, right?”

It was a… normal suggestion. A very Justice thing to do. A weird pit clenched in Pride’s stomach when he thought about going, tagging along at his side. He leaned away slightly.

“I don’t think so,” he said.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, it would be too awkward. Nobody knows me and I don’t even like books.”

“We’re seeing a movie.”

“But you’re gonna talk about books.”

“Not during the movie.”

He waved his spoon around. “Good point, I love talking during movies.”

“You can just eat with us and go home.”

“But that’s when you’ll talk about books.” He waggled the spoon in his face.

Justice rolled his eyes. “Pride, we talk about other things. This isn’t an official club meeting.”

“They wouldn’t like me anyway! Your friends are—”

“That’s not true.” Justice scooted closer, face determined. “You don’t have to be identical to my friends for them to like you.”

Pride gesticulated with his spoon in even wider motions. “Look, you’re all a bunch of book nerds, and my favorite thing to do is laugh at nerds so—”

“Can you stop with this thing?” Justice grabbed for his spoon mid-gesture. He caught Pride’s wrist instead. The rest of his sentence died in his throat, but Justice pushed on. “I wouldn’t invite you if I thought they would hate you automatically.” Gently, he lowered Pride’s arm to the floor, palm resting over his fist. “I wouldn’t invite you if I didn’t want you to come.”

It suddenly occurred to Pride how close they were. More than anything Justice said, that simple fact struck him like a bolt of lightning. And his palm was warm, folded over his hand that he gripped the spoon in, so tight it could have warped the metal. Because they were close enough to breathe on each other. Close enough that Pride wondered…

Justice came to his same conclusion a second later, realization blooming in his eyes. He reeled back like he’d been shocked. “But you don’t have to,” he sputtered, eyes spinning all over the room. “I-I mean, it would be okay if you didn’t, but if you do want to—”

“I’m staying home,” Pride said, waving him off with the spoon. “Go be a nerd somewhere else.”

He pursed his lips, but didn’t retort. Justice stood up, wished him a goodnight, and hurried out the door. Pride slouched against the counter when he was gone, staring at the kitchen tile next to him. He didn’t want to go to the movie, not really, but Justice… did want him there. His stomach clenched again.

Shoving the thoughts out of his mind, he dug in for another scoop of cereal. The crunch was almost loud enough to drown out the feeling of Justice’s hand over his.

[jnnul]

lowkey

gif credit: @chwerity

genre: FLUFF, action if you count the amount of running they do 😭, jaemin being stupid <3

word count: 0.8k

type: drabble

a/n: hehe welcome to my first official post! i guess the other two were just timestamps to kinda get a feel for tumblr lol. let me know what you guys think! the comments/reblog tags are so cute and i keep rereading them <3

+++

you had never expected that you would spend your friday night running away from daily mail.

quite frankly, you didn’t expect that you would be running at all on a friday night, much less from tabloids. you prided yourself on how lowkey you lived your life. you made few, but diehard, friends. you had no enemies. you had a well-paying, stable job and you were working towards buying your own apartment soon. but for all of your attempts to stay absolutely average, your superstar boyfriend had to go become famous and propel you to stardom with him.

“oh my god, jaemin, if i have to work out every time we go on a date, i’m literally never seeing you in person again,” you gasp as your boyfriend tugs on your arm to make you run faster - as if that would mean that you would lose your paparazzi trail.

you still don’t know how you ended up like this in the first place. pulling na jaemin, the center of nct dream, was a small miracle in itself. but regardless, you were well seasoned veterans of the dating scheme now. after dating for three years, the two of you were really good at hiding from the public about your relationship.

it definitely helped that you were a run of the mill citizen (as opposed to, say, a world renowned singer) and the fact that jaemin was a homebody until he died so being in this situation was a little foreign to you. you weren’t sure if you had gotten into a scare like this since the first two months that you and jaemin were dating.

“i thought we would be safe in fucking london!” jaemin hisses back as the two of you weave in and out of the stumbling bodies exiting suspicious looking clubs. “it’s two in the morning and people still recognized me wearing a sweatshirt, mask, and sunglasses.”

you stop in your tracks at that, gaping at jaemin’s ‘foolproof’ disguise. the sweatshirt he mentioned? neon green. you mentally face-palm as the two of you start running again, hearing the incoming mob of people.

they definitely had done this before, you think. you were way too tired and they looked like keep tailing the two of you for another couple hours for sure.

“you cannot tell me that the sweatshirt the color of a traffic suit was your way of escaping paparazzi,” you deadpan. looking back on it, the last couple years worth of dates were done where you were both wearing clothes that were almost at the level of national espionage.

you and jaemin would always wear varying shades of black and the two of you would always choose the most hole in the wall places you could find - or some of the industry safe places, such as the locations in itaewon, where you could easily blend with the foreigners. even some of the veterans of the industry were known for letting idols into their establishments in discrete ways so that everyone could act normally for a few hours.

the two of you had gotten careless this time. thinking you would be safe due to the far away location, as well as the late timing, you had grown lax and comfortable due to the lack of scandals for the past few years. rookie mistake.

“this way! if we get off of peter street, we should be able to dodge the tabloids,” you stage whisper, tugging your boyfriend so that he would be by your side as the two of you dash into the nearest adjacent street that you can.

you’re affectively pressed up against jaemin’s chest as you rest your head against the crook of his neck, trying to conceal both of your faces so that you look like any other drunk and enamored couple. you would tell jaemin to take off that stupid neon green sweatshirt but the space to move is a luxury you haven’t been awarded. 

you and jaemin hold your breaths, hoping that the less noise you make, the less the gods are compelled to send the tabloids your way. it seems your vehement prayers (and perhaps the fact that the alleyway was so dark, it muted jaemin’s sweatshirt color) have paid off because the mob that was following you run right past the alleyway you’re hiding in in a cacophony of “this way!” and “we’re gonna make front page!” that lets you know that you’ve successfully escape them. 

the two of you shimmy out of the alley when you’re positive there’s no one left and breathe in the air that was much too hard to breath in the cramped alleyway.

you look at jaemin, who’s already looking at you with a stupid grin on his face as he presses a kiss against your cheek.

“so much for lowkey, huh?”

“na jaemin, i swear to fucking god, if you don’t throw out that sweatshirt right now, i’m breaking up with you!”

“but...but it’s the nct dream sweatshirt.”

“...i’m gonna kill jeno.”

[gremlins-stuff]

Chapter 1 🟢

Sabrina Jones is known for being the life of the party. Any given Friday night you can find her at any one of the local clubs or bars in Melbourne, but this story isnt about Sabrina.

This Story is about an introverted homebody, Zoe Burns to be exact. Zoe works hard to come home and sleep hard. She's happy with her Calm waters. She had the Power to make waves, but thats not her style. Even When others had something to Say, She didnt Care. Its her life, she Should do as she pleases right?

Zoe first met Sabrina when they were 19 and freshman in College. When Zoe Walked into her first lecture, it was Packed. There were very few seats open, indicating Musicology is a very popular course. Her eyes scanned the room, there were very few Open seats. One next to 3 boys slouched into their chairs, seeming to clutch their small fanny packs over their chests. Weird. They all looked like douchebaggy soccer players.

"Hell no " Zoe Whispers to herself. As she wandered further into the lecture hall, another seat became visible. Next to the empty seat there were 4 girls talking about Choreography and lyrics. Feeling confident, Zoe introduces herself and asked to sit down. All of their heads whipped around, their eyes scraping over Zoe head to toe.

"we're good.”

Said one of the girls before they all turned back to whatever they were doing. Zoe not comptetely sure of what just happened, turns and continues looking for a seat, She knew there was a reason for being early.

Just as Zoe was ready to admit defeat and just sit on the floor for the rest of the semester, a small girl with dark hair popped up from her seat, frantically waving Zoe over. The girl was stunning! She had hazel eyes and Small freckles littered all over her round Cheeks and the brightest smile Zoe had ever seen.

"Over here!" She Called. Zoe was caught off gaurd by the girts excitment. After the last interaction she had with her class mates Zoe didn’t expect much from the strangers in her class. Regardless, She squeezed past a few People to Claim her seat. As Zoe sits down the girl introduces herself as Sabrina Jones. Zoe returns the Sabrina’s kindness and introduced herself to Sabrina. That was the beginning of an unbreakable bond.

The girls never spent much time apart after becoming friends. After graduating from RMIT together, they moved into an apartment in Sabrina's hometown, Melvern. Felix, Sabrina's boyfriend moved in a few months after the girls had settled in. Sabrina met Felix at Some Club in Melbourne and says they “Zinged”.

Zoe only had 1 boyfriend throughout College. She didnt See that going very far so she broke it off. All he ever did was play video games and cheat off other students come exam time. The cheaters always disgusted Zoe…

Boys and dating were never her strong suit. She tried but always found herself more interested in her kdrama or book. When they would text it would be hours before there would be a reply. Zoe knew she sucked at dating so she just never really put effort into it. She was happy with herself.

Although working and watching TV doesn’t apeal to all, it apeals to her. After Coming home from a long day as a vocal coach for local Chair groups and organizations. She’ll immediately B line to the bathroom so she can relax in a hot bath with all of her favorite body oils and scents, Or she’ll be wrapped up in her warm comfy bed with her teddy bear David, a hot cup of coffee and a couple candles burning. Her career isn’t exactly what she wants but she’s happy to lend a hand when it’s needed. It also pays really well.

Zoe's little life pleases her. She loves her people and take pride in the fact that they are genine. They way she sees it her life is perfect as is.

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Authors Notes:

AHHHHH!!! I hope you guys like it. The 2nd chapter is already in the making and this is just the top of the iceberg. Let me know what you think!! I love you all very much 😭🫶🏻

Taglist:

@straykeedz @imastraykidsfan

(If you would like to be tagged in new chapters and progress updates please let me know in the notes)

[a-silent-symphony]

Nightwish's Floor Jansen: "Life is short. Time is not endless"

Floor Jansen opens up on her battle with breast cancer, going solo and what we can expect from the next Nightwish album

It’s Friday April 22, 2022 at Nokia Arena in Tampere, Finland. Fifteen thousand Nightwish fans await a much-delayed live taste of their heroes’ ninth album, Human. :II: Nature., released as the world shut down in 2020. Anticipation is high. The stage will soon be engulfed in enough fire to obliterate a small village. Aside from a handful of dates in Finland in 2021, this is Nightwish’s first full-scale show in more than three years.

Backstage, Floor Jansen feels like death. In her stage armour she looks fearsome – a tattooed Boudica for the modern age. Such a gig wouldn’t normally faze her. Floor, 41,has been fronting metal bands since she was 16. But just now she’s come down with a virulent stomach flu at the worst possible time, and she’s wondering how the hell she’ll get through the next two hours onstage.

“It was unlike anything I’ve ever done,” she says of the stomach flu that almost derailed that post-Covid comeback. “I mean, you get sick now and then, but this was brutal. I don’t know what kind of virus I picked up, but it was a very violent one. I was up all night, and then I still had to travel from Berlin to Tampere. It was horrible.” She shrugs. “But yeah, what can you do?”

It’s not hard to see why Floor gets called a ‘powerhouse’. Part opera singer, several parts rock star – with the dynamism of both – she exudes indestructibility. If Bruce Dickinson had a daughter with Xena: Warrior Princess, it would have been Floor. But there are other sides to her: different personas that reveal a more complex, interesting picture of a ‘powerhouse’ lead singer.

There’s the animal-loving homebody. The thrillseeker. The proud vegetarian. The whiskey drinker. The metal icon with a solo pop album on the way. The Highly Sensitive Person, whose hyper-stimulated sense of the world shines through her performances. The person who, just three weeks before headlining Wembley Arena with Nightwish, underwent surgery for breast cancer.

“I’m always myself,” she summarises, simply. “So whether I run around in jeans fixing a fence, or ride my horse, or go onstage in warrior outfits… it’s all the same. It’s just a different side, as you can see.”

We meet Floor over Zoom in December, as she wrestles with dodgy wi-fi backstage in Milan. “Is it noisy for you, in the background?” she asks in perturbed Dutch tones. “It’s basically one big open box here…��� Dark-eyed and slightly frazzled in a grey hoodie, Floor has a business-like streak that softens as talk turns to things like her solo music, her bandmates and the cigars she enjoys with her husband, Sabaton drummer Hannes Van Dahl.

On another day she might have come in from feeding the horses at her rural property on Sweden’s west coast. You wouldn’t fuck with her, but you’d gladly go for a drink with her. Out on the road with Nightwish, there’s a decent amount of the latter. The band “wobble” around Christmas markets drinking glühwein. They rate vegetarian food in Indian restaurants as part of a longstanding curry club. The shows themselves have been jubilant affairs.

“Last night we were surprised with some bottles of champagne,” she grins, “which we then drank, and became very happy…”

It’s all so far removed from lingering notions of Nightwish as some sort of dictatorship or soap opera, with singers driven away by its founder’s maniacal demands. They seem like friends – as in, actual friends.

“It’s absolute genuine fun,” she nods. “We’ve always had that. And there are always ups and downs; it’s like a big marriage. But we’ve been longing for this tour a lot. Especially after the pandemic, we don’t take it for granted at all.”

For Floor, the isolation of lockdown reinforced her ties to the band, but it also kickstarted her solo work. She’d begun to think of it in 2019, following an appearance on Dutch TV show Beste Zangers (‘Best Singers’), but she was still very much a band person, with a new Nightwish album cycle around the corner. Come March 2020, for the first time in her career, she found herself separated from that group mentality.

She spent time with her husband and daughter, now five. She grew vegetables and looked after her horses, cats and enormous Irish wolfhound. She worked on her online profile, communicating with her fans on a regular, down-to-earth level. At the same time, she began working with collaborators on solo material. An alternative, poppier sound started to brew.

In spring 2022 she appeared on Germany’s Beste Zangers equivalent, Sing Meinen Song, for which she sang in German (one of the four languages she speaks in addition to Dutch, English and Swedish). Gradually, a standalone Floor Jansen was evolving.

“My desire from the get-go was to find a sound that fits with me, not something created around me. But how do you do that? So I used up a large part of the pandemic in a trial-and-error search for this sound.”

It wasn’t easy. Ten years of bringing Tuomas Holopainen’s visions to life had left her with phenomenal vocal skills, but limited songwriting practice. Her first ideas, she says, “weren’t that great”.

“I’ve done it [songwriting], but I haven’t been doing much in the last 10 years,” she admits. “Plus I’m in a band with someone like Tuomas. It makes me feel very small, like, ‘What do I have to add to a world full of music?’ So from that insecurity I had to find my way and accept that I am more limited, and that I have different ideas.”

Teaming up with Dutch producer Gordon Groothedde (Snoop Dogg; Katie Melua; Floor’s previous band, After Forever) was a turning point. The first song they wrote together was Fire. A darkly atmospheric, orchestral swirl of intelligent modern pop, with the grandeur of Florence & The Machine’s cover of 1986 dance hit You’ve Got The Love, it ignited Floor’s confidence as a creator in her own right.

“I have a really hard time with love songs,” she says. “I know the majority of pop music is about love songs, and that’s also why I find it boring to listen to. So I wanted to create something that still has a message.”

Accordingly, her solo album, Paragon, shuns frothy clichés in favour of meatier subjects. Fire is about returning to life after lockdown. One song, Invincible, was written for the injured war veterans at Prince Harry’s Invictus Games – originally planned to take place in 2020 in the Hague until the pandemic got in the way.

“It’s inspired by the idea of being physically or mentally wounded, after you’ve just given everything you have,” she explains, “and something that’s left of you has to pick up life, and recover from something that you never really wanted to recover from. I want to raise awareness of the fact that this happens so incredibly often, but also to empower them. Like, ‘You already went through Hell, now you’re on your way back, you are invincible.’”

It’s hard to hear this story now without thinking of Floor’s recent health issues. Diagnosed in October 2022 at a routine mammogram screening, her breast cancer came as a total shock – two weeks before Nightwish were due to fly to South America.

“They [the doctors] said, ‘We want you to come back.’ And the thing I thought, in my naïve brain, was, ‘Oh, they fucked up something with the pictures.’ Never, ‘Oh, they found something.’” She shakes her head. “Not a single moment. Until I was there.”

Surgery was planned for the day after they came home. Until then, she says, the intense business of touring Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Mexico proved a good distraction. The pace of it all was brutal but helpful, and reading similar stories from her fans made her feel less alone – “But at the same time, it’s an overwhelming awareness of how many people actually got this fucking disease."

“I put my emotions into the music,” she reasons, “and also had really wonderful conversations within the band, crew, management, everyone has really been there for me. It’s very tough to do it all that fast, but at the same time it helped because I didn’t have to walk around with thoughts of it too long. Because as soon as you know you have a tumour in your body, the only thing you can think of is ‘get it out’. The whole mental aspect of a cancer diagnosis is shit.”

Back at home, she had three weeks after her operation before heading out in Europe and the UK. Scarred, bruised and exhausted, she was grateful for the support of her family.

“Jesus, how I underestimated it,” she half-laughs, of the recovery process. “I was jet-lagged, I barely slept for nights after the surgery because my system was completely upside-down, you get morphine… So everyone’s been really having my back in this.”

Just a couple of days before the Wembley gig, she learned that the operation was successful. It was both a relief and a wake-up call. In Sweden, mammogram screenings start for women at the age of 40. In the Netherlands, her birthplace –and in the UK – it’s 50. Now looked up to by many, as a public figure as well as a musician, she’s determined to persuade more women to go for their scans.

“On a purely personal level it’s a bit weird, because I’m just me,” she says, of her role-model status. “But from this position, I have the power to make a difference every now and then. I wanted to make sure it has this function by saying, ‘Go and get your mammogram done.’ If I had stayed in the Netherlands, this entire thing would have gone undetected. It was so small when they took it out, but it was growing, you know? I’m very lucky.”

Cancer casts a pervasive shadow, even when it’s caught quickly. For Floor, who (when we speak to her) still has three weeks of radiation therapy to complete, it’s realigned her priorities. “It’s not like I think ‘I’m gonna die’ all the time,” she explains, “but I realise how life is short. Time is not endless. We have it now.”

To that end, Floor is making the most of 2023. After her radiotherapy is finally over, she’ll join Nightwish for 70000Tons Of Metal in the Bahamas. Festival shows will follow. In the summer the band will head to the Röskö campsite in Kitee, Finland, to record the next Nightwish album (which will be released at some point in 2024).

Part three of a trilogy that began with Endless Forms Most Beautiful and continued through Human. :II: Nature., the new album will return to themes concerning our planet and our mortality. Sonically, Floor suggests, we can expect aheavy palette.

“I would say it’s a pretty heavy album,” she muses, “but once again, it’s the multicolour diversity that is Nightwish. It’s all there. It’s going to once again take you by the hand through beautiful stories – whether they are stories from this Earth or stories about this Earth. They’re beautiful.”

Creatively, Nightwish is still Tuomas’s brainchild, though there’s a sense of collaboration around this record. Armed with his demos, the band have been working up different parts and exchanging ideas on tour – in hotel rooms and dressing rooms across the world. For Floor, this has been a happy arrangement.

“I think Tuomas has a unique view on the world and has a unique way of putting that into words,” she says, “and I think he’s outdone himself on that end once again. And also visually, the ideas that are bubbling are going to be of a next level. So yeah, there’s lots to look forward to.”

Meanwhile, along with the release of Paragon, she has solo gigs planned in Europe. “And of course it would be wonderful to go to the UK,” she adds, “we are working on that as well.”

If all goes to plan, Floor Jansen could be a name that reaches well beyond metal circles – paving the way for a new kind of pop star with a darker heart. Once again the ‘powerhouse’ label feels apt, with all the truths and misconceptions that come with it.

“Power is often connected to, especially women…” she searches for the words, “…it’s like, ‘powerful women are bitches’, you know? Maybe that’s the misconception of the century. But a powerful woman is also a woman who is intouch withher emotions, and one who can have absolute soft sides and embrace them. The idea that high sensitivity would be a weakness? That is actually the absolute misperception.

“And that goes for men, too: for men to be in touch with their feelings and to be able to communicate them… that is a bigger strength than [makes growling, macho noise]. That’s going to bring us a whole lot further.”

Between travels, Floor will recharge at home in the Swedish countryside. On cold evenings, she and Hannes sometimes retreat to their grillhouse, light the fire and relax over single malts and a cigar – things that bonded them when they first met on tour with Iced Earth. Small connections between worlds.

“I can say that my happiest place is home, but that’s not true because after half a year I’ll claw up the walls,” she laughs. “I can say it’s on tour, but after a month I really want to go home. I can say it’s onstage, but then putting my daughter to bed is equally amazing at times. The ultimate thing is to have the luxury of both.”

[spatheandspadix]

Posting about sobriety/drinking/metal health again so read with caution if these are difficult topics. I'm not sober because I'm wholesome, well-adjusted, happy, or functional. None of these terms apply to me (except maybe functional by punk standards). I'm sober to protect myself from being a completely self-destructive sad drunk. It's cost me a lot. If you're already too weird, don't really fit anywhere, and have trouble integrating into social groups, adding another thing that will set you apart (not drinking) doesn't exactly do you any favors. I'm not a homebody or introvert and like to stay out all night, drink fancy cocktails, and go to the club. I used to shut down Happy Hour at the Stamen and Pistil every Friday and I've been on more Court Street Shuffles than some of my friends who drink. But it can be hard when everything is totally alcohol-centric and people don't always want or know how to include a random non-drinker. All my communities are very boozy. I'm thankful for those who have been willing to hang out with me anyway but it can be hard not to feel like I'm alienating myself.

[foxboyclit]

3, 16, 39!

beloved mutual <3 ty for the ask!

let's be normal about men together

3: netflix or clubbing on a friday night?

netflix all the way,im a spoonie homebody who just wants a pint of ice cream and a good show to curl up and watch

16: whats your favorite cologne smell?

i dont have a specific brand but i love anything with an herbal musk and some floral notes, anything with sandalwood and sage is an instant fave. i also just really appreciate clean smelling colognes, if that makes any sense.

and i 39 answered here!

[black-arcana]

Nightwish's Floor Jansen: "Life is short. Time is not endless"

By Polly Glass ( Metal Hammer )

Floor Jansen opens up on her battle with breast cancer, going solo and what we can expect from the next Nightwish album.

(Image credit: Laura Zalenga)

It’s Friday April 22, 2022 at Nokia Arena in Tampere, Finland. Fifteen thousand Nightwish fans await a much-delayed live taste of their heroes’ ninth album, Human. :II: Nature., released as the world shut down in 2020. Anticipation is high. The stage will soon be engulfed in enough fire to obliterate a small village. Aside from a handful of dates in Finland in 2021, this is Nightwish’s first full-scale show in more than three years. 

Backstage, Floor Jansen feels like death. In her stage armour she looks fearsome – a tattooed Boudica for the modern age. Such a gig wouldn’t normally faze her. Floor, 41,has been fronting metal bands since she was 16. But just now she’s come down with a virulent stomach flu at the worst possible time, and she’s wondering how the hell she’ll get through the next two hours onstage. 

“It was unlike anything I’ve ever done,” she says of the stomach flu that almost derailed that post-Covid comeback. “I mean, you get sick now and then, but this was brutal. I don’t know what kind of virus I picked up, but it was a very violent one. I was up all night, and then I still had to travel from Berlin to Tampere. It was horrible.” She shrugs. “But yeah, what can you do?” 

It’s not hard to see why Floor gets called a ‘powerhouse’. Part opera singer, several parts rock star – with the dynamism of both – she exudes indestructibility. If Bruce Dickinson had a daughter with Xena: Warrior Princess, it would have been Floor. But there are other sides to her: different personas that reveal a more complex, interesting picture of a ‘powerhouse’ lead singer. 

There’s the animal-loving homebody. The thrillseeker. The proud vegetarian. The whiskey drinker. The metal icon with a solo pop album on the way. The Highly Sensitive Person, whose hyper-stimulated sense of the world shines through her performances. The person who, just three weeks before headlining Wembley Arena with Nightwish, underwent surgery for breast cancer. 

“I’m always myself,” she summarises, simply. “So whether I run around in jeans fixing a fence, or ride my horse, or go onstage in warrior outfits… it’s all the same. It’s just a different side, as you can see.” 

We meet Floor over Zoom in December, as she wrestles with dodgy wi-fi backstage in Milan. “Is it noisy for you, in the background?” she asks in perturbed Dutch tones. “It’s basically one big open box here…” Dark-eyed and slightly frazzled in a grey hoodie, Floor has a business-like streak that softens as talk turns to things like her solo music, her bandmates and the cigars she enjoys with her husband, Sabaton drummer Hannes Van Dahl. 

On another day she might have come in from feeding the horses at her rural property on Sweden’s west coast. You wouldn’t fuck with her, but you’d gladly go for a drink with her. Out on the road with Nightwish, there’s a decent amount of the latter. The band “wobble” around Christmas markets drinking glühwein. They rate vegetarian food in Indian restaurants as part of a longstanding curry club. The shows themselves have been jubilant affairs.

“Last night we were surprised with some bottles of champagne,” she grins, “which we then drank, and became very happy…” 

It’s all so far removed from lingering notions of Nightwish as some sort of dictatorship or soap opera, with singers driven away by its founder’s maniacal demands. They seem like friends – as in, actual friends. 

“It’s absolute genuine fun,” she nods. “We’ve always had that. And there are always ups and downs; it’s like a big marriage. But we’ve been longing for this tour a lot. Especially after the pandemic, we don’t take it for granted at all.” 

For Floor, the isolation of lockdown reinforced her ties to the band, but it also kickstarted her solo work. She’d begun to think of it in 2019, following an appearance on Dutch TV show Beste Zangers (‘Best Singers’), but she was still very much a band person, with a new Nightwish album cycle around the corner. Come March 2020, for the first time in her career, she found herself separated from that group mentality.

She spent time with her husband and daughter, now five. She grew vegetables and looked after her horses, cats and enormous Irish wolfhound. She worked on her online profile, communicating with her fans on a regular, down-to-earth level. At the same time, she began working with collaborators on solo material. An alternative, poppier sound started to brew. 

In spring 2022 she appeared on Germany’s Beste Zangers equivalent, Sing Meinen Song, for which she sang in German (one of the four languages she speaks in addition to Dutch, English and Swedish). Gradually, a standalone Floor Jansen was evolving. 

“My desire from the get-go was to find a sound that fits with me, not something created around me. But how do you do that? So I used up a large part of the pandemic in a trial-and-error search for this sound.” 

It wasn’t easy. Ten years of bringing Tuomas Holopainen’s visions to life had left her with phenomenal vocal skills, but limited songwriting practice. Her first ideas, she says, “weren’t that great”. 

“I’ve done it [songwriting], but I haven’t been doing much in the last 10 years,” she admits. “Plus I’m in a band with someone like Tuomas. It makes me feel very small, like, ‘What do I have to add to a world full of music?’ So from that insecurity I had to find my way and accept that I am more limited, and that I have different ideas.”

Teaming up with Dutch producer Gordon Groothedde (Snoop Dogg; Katie Melua; Floor’s previous band, After Forever) was a turning point. The first song they wrote together was Fire. A darkly atmospheric, orchestral swirl of intelligent modern pop, with the grandeur of Florence & The Machine’s cover of 1986 dance hit You’ve Got The Love, it ignited Floor’s confidence as a creator in her own right. 

“I have a really hard time with love songs,” she says. “I know the majority of pop music is about love songs, and that’s also why I find it boring to listen to. So I wanted to create something that still has a message.” 

Accordingly, her solo album, Paragon, shuns frothy clichés in favour of meatier subjects. Fire is about returning to life after lockdown. One song, Invincible, was written for the injured war veterans at Prince Harry’s Invictus Games – originally planned to take place in 2020 in the Hague until the pandemic got in the way. 

“It’s inspired by the idea of being physically or mentally wounded, after you’ve just given everything you have,” she explains, “and something that’s left of you has to pick up life, and recover from something that you never really wanted to recover from. I want to raise awareness of the fact that this happens so incredibly often, but also to empower them. Like, ‘You already went through Hell, now you’re on your way back, you are invincible.’”

It’s hard to hear this story now without thinking of Floor’s recent health issues. Diagnosed in October 2022 at a routine mammogram screening, her breast cancer came as a total shock – two weeks before Nightwish were due to fly to South America. 

“They [the doctors] said, ‘We want you to come back.’ And the thing I thought, in my naïve brain, was, ‘Oh, they fucked up something with the pictures.’ Never, ‘Oh, they found something.’” She shakes her head. “Not a single moment. Until I was there.”

Surgery was planned for the day after they came home. Until then, she says, the intense business of touring Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Mexico proved a good distraction. The pace of it all was brutal but helpful, and reading similar stories from her fans made her feel less alone – “But at the same time, it’s an overwhelming awareness of how many people actually got this fucking disease." 

“I put my emotions into the music,” she reasons, “and also had really wonderful conversations within the band, crew, management, everyone has really been there for me. It’s very tough to do it all that fast, but at the same time it helped because I didn’t have to walk around with thoughts of it too long. Because as soon as you know you have a tumour in your body, the only thing you can think of is ‘get it out’. The whole mental aspect of a cancer diagnosis is shit.” 

Back at home, she had three weeks after her operation before heading out in Europe and the UK. Scarred, bruised and exhausted, she was grateful for the support of her family. 

“Jesus, how I underestimated it,” she half-laughs, of the recovery process. “I was jet-lagged, I barely slept for nights after the surgery because my system was completely upside-down, you get morphine… So everyone’s been really having my back in this.”

Just a couple of days before the Wembley gig, she learned that the operation was successful. It was both a relief and a wake-up call. In Sweden, mammogram screenings start for women at the age of 40. In the Netherlands, her birthplace –and in the UK – it’s 50. Now looked up to by many, as a public figure as well as a musician, she’s determined to persuade more women to go for their scans. 

“On a purely personal level it’s a bit weird, because I’m just me,” she says, of her role-model status. “But from this position, I have the power to make a difference every now and then. I wanted to make sure it has this function by saying, ‘Go and get your mammogram done.’ If I had stayed in the Netherlands, this entire thing would have gone undetected. It was so small when they took it out, but it was growing, you know? I’m very lucky.” 

Cancer casts a pervasive shadow, even when it’s caught quickly. For Floor, who (when we speak to her) still has three weeks of radiation therapy to complete, it’s realigned her priorities. “It’s not like I think ‘I’m gonna die’ all the time,” she explains, “but I realise how life is short. Time is not endless. We have it now.” 

To that end, Floor is making the most of 2023. After her radiotherapy is finally over, she’ll join Nightwish for 70000Tons Of Metal in the Bahamas. Festival shows will follow. In the summer the band will head to the Röskö campsite in Kitee, Finland, to record the next Nightwish album (which will be released at some point in 2024). 

Part three of a trilogy that began with Endless Forms Most Beautiful and continued through Human. :II: Nature., the new album will return to themes concerning our planet and our mortality. Sonically, Floor suggests, we can expect aheavy palette. 

“I would say it’s a pretty heavy album,” she muses, “but once again, it’s the multicolour diversity that is Nightwish. It’s all there. It’s going to once again take you by the hand through beautiful stories – whether they are stories from this Earth or stories about this Earth. They’re beautiful.” 

Creatively, Nightwish is still Tuomas’s brainchild, though there’s a sense of collaboration around this record. Armed with his demos, the band have been working up different parts and exchanging ideas on tour – in hotel rooms and dressing rooms across the world. For Floor, this has been a happy arrangement. 

“I think Tuomas has a unique view on the world and has a unique way of putting that into words,” she says, “and I think he’s outdone himself on that end once again. And also visually, the ideas that are bubbling are going to be of a next level. So yeah, there’s lots to look forward to.” 

Meanwhile, along with the release of Paragon, she has solo gigs planned in Europe. “And of course it would be wonderful to go to the UK,” she adds, “we are working on that as well.” 

If all goes to plan, Floor Jansen could be a name that reaches well beyond metal circles – paving the way for a new kind of pop star with a darker heart. Once again the ‘powerhouse’ label feels apt, with all the truths and misconceptions that come with it. 

“Power is often connected to, especially women…” she searches for the words, “…it’s like, ‘powerful women are bitches’, you know? Maybe that’s the misconception of the century. But a powerful woman is also a woman who is intouch withher emotions, and one who can have absolute soft sides and embrace them. The idea that high sensitivity would be a weakness? That is actually the absolute misperception. 

“And that goes for men, too: for men to be in touch with their feelings and to be able to communicate them… that is a bigger strength than [makes growling, macho noise]. That’s going to bring us a whole lot further.” 

Between travels, Floor will recharge at home in the Swedish countryside. On cold evenings, she and Hannes sometimes retreat to their grillhouse, light the fire and relax over single malts and a cigar – things that bonded them when they first met on tour with Iced Earth. Small connections between worlds. 

“I can say that my happiest place is home, but that’s not true because after half a year I’ll claw up the walls,” she laughs. “I can say it’s on tour, but after a month I really want to go home. I can say it’s onstage, but then putting my daughter to bed is equally amazing at times. The ultimate thing is to have the luxury of both.”

Floor Jansen's solo debut Paragon is due for release March 24.

[unexpectedyarns]

You forgot

Tackle-it Tuesday

Wet beast Wednesday

Feet-up Friday and Friday Night Homebodies' club

Caturday

Sundog

nothing compares to the calendar on this site. flat fuck friday. the halloween post that always shows up mid july. you see four anime girls and immediately know what day of the week it is. on the ides of march we all wake up and clown on some guy who got stabbed two thousand years ago. last week we celebrated down with cis day. I can’t wait for ever given and nov 5th anniversary memes. anyways have a lovely neil banging out the tunes day

[unexpectedyarns]

Feet-up Friday

-and-

Friday Night Homebodies' Club

Featuring Ernest

[owlrageousjones]

for the mlm asks, 3, 5, 22, & 38!

3. Netflix or clubbing on a Friday night? Netflix, easily. I'm a homebody, although I don't mind going to a bar or something like that. Clubs are usually a bit much for me though.

5. What’s your favorite thing about boys? Tough call! Usually their faces. I'm a sucker for a cute or handsome face - easily the most important part about physical attraction for me.

22. Do you like sitting in a boys lap, or do you prefer when a boy sits in yours? I'm not exactly light so it's usually the latter, but I like either!

38. Have you ever asked a boy out? ... You know, I don't think so. Unless you count dating apps.

[allthingsfook]

Hi!! could I have a ship pls :)

i’m 5’5 with auburn hair & blue eyes

I am a bit of a home body. I enjoy spending time with friends, but doing simple things. im not into going to bars/ clubs. I more enjoy using quality time to watch movies/ thrifting/ get a quiet dinner/ go shopping/ drive around. I really enjoy being outdoors whether that’s at a beach or in the woods. I really love live music.

Going to concerts has always been a huge part of my life and I plan to do it as much as I can. it’s just as important to me as the idea of traveling. i’ve done a lot of traveling so far and plan to see as much places as possible in the future! I’m not huge into tourist locations, I enjoy the more quiet and unknown parts of the world.

I am a very passionate person. I take my relationships and interests very seriously. if anyone I love has been hurt I try to be there to help and defend them. same goes for things I enjoy. I will defend it against anyone that tries to tear it down. I could go on and on about things that mean a lot to me.

thank you in advance <3

Heyyyyy! I’m finally getting to your ship on this fine Friday evening while I’m at my sister-in-laws bachelorette party 😂😂

I ship you with….

Josh

I think Josh is the homebody of the boys, even with how bubbly he is. He often retreats from the camera, which makes me believe he lives in the moment. Documenting his every movement is extremely shallow in his eyes, and he’d rather spend all his time doting after you 💕 Due to the nature of touring and —well— just being a musician, Josh values his time at home. And that means staying home! I know he recently said that he doesn’t spend a lot of time in his home and it’s rather a pit stop on his way to somewhere new. After strengthening your relationship, Josh would quickly learn that home is a feeling, not a place. If he feels that with you, which he so would, he’d go wherever you wanted him to; something tells me that is just spending time together at home. And I don’t believe for a second that he fears domestication…. I think he’s longing for it. Be his home ❤️

On the other hand, traveling for leisure is something Josh would love. He’s so obsessed with learning about the world, so I could easily see you guys flying all over for weeks on end; learning new languages, trying new food, meeting great people, and most of all— spending time together. Although you are not one for going out, I think you’d be game for going to a small, local place to catch an up and coming artist perform. Josh and the boys would keep their ears open for just the opportunities. You’d all share laughs and enjoy the music, but don’t think you’ll escape into the night without some fans coming to awe over the boys. True that’s something you’d have to deal with, but Josh would be the most supportive and reassuring partner. He’d give you sweet praises and attention after the fact. After so long, it wouldn’t even bother you.

Your generosity, kindness, and compassion are huge things Josh would fall for. Much like you, Josh is so thoughtful and loving toward his intimate circle. I’m sure you’ve seen all the thoughtful and caring gifts he’s given to his vocal coach, the special bonds he shares with his parents, and most notably the love he has for Daniel. If that’s how he treats his family, imagine how sweet he would be with you! He might not always physically be at your side or there to buy you flowers in Valentine’s Day, but the cosmic bond that the two of you would share would overthrow all of that. From across the country or globe, his love would be felt.

I hope you enjoyed the heartfelt ship. Josh is such a special person and it’s an honor to witness and be part of GVFs prime. All of them are insanely beautiful inside and out!!!

[spooky-cowfish]

People stating that autism prevents them from enjoying the club don't realize that autism works for certain clubs too! There may be times loud music gives you sensory overload but what about the times you blast your headphones and flail around alone at home as a way of stimming?

I'm autistic too and I LOVE going to my local goth club. Going to the club actually help me gain self confidence and build a community. The truth is Nobody knows how to dance and your stim flailing to a beat counts as long as it makes you feel good! If you go to a rave or loud music venue, you HAVE to use ear protection (yes neurotypicals too) which lets you listen to the sound but also get close to the speaker and FEEL the bass. PLUS it's dark so nobody really notices your dance moves. Plenty of clubs have outside areas that provide a more quiet space to relax between dance sessions, or just to hang without missing out on the vibe.

It also helped me get in touch with my local queer community and find new connections to local events and artist. I have eating issues, and bar food so happens consist of beige safe food because they so happen to also help with alcohol regulation. Going to the club every Friday night helps get me put of the house and establish a social routine that me and plenty of other autistic people in my local club thrive off of.

A friend didn't introduce me to the club scene, I sought it out. Therefore I went and experienced multiple clubs to see what suited me best. I do agree clubbing is not for everyone, but don't let being a homebody prevent you from trying new things!

the "i've never been to a nightclub" sweep on that poll genuinely makes me sad...... never??? you don't like the club? untz untz???

[thedailycourtney]

Friday Night Homebody

Watching the SEC basketball tournament, laying on the couch with my dog, eating cheese popcorn, drinking nothing but water, about 10 minutes from bed.

[whatyouwanted-whatyougot]

Friday Night Homebody Club

Leftover chinese food and undecorating the tree. K is in Chicago for work, so it's just me and the boys, doing some chores and then doing some loafing.